like a star, like a firefly

Looking back through my liveblogging of the game on Tumblr, I have a lot of praise for Fates's gameplay, at least for Conquest. The maps are a lot of fun and very satisfying to clear, and I think the fact that everything's been rebalanced and the enemy AI is much smarter than in Awakening helps a bunch; it makes my victories feel more earned than when baddies in Awakening pretty much kill themselves on my units. >>; My Castle is pretty charming, too.

My favourite ships are still male!Corrin/Niles* and Niles/Leo, to the point where I own a bunch of doujinshi about those pairings. I also really like Niles/Azura, which I think I've mentioned to Maria before. (Wow, my favourite character is so obvious at this point...) Effie/Elise is good stuff as well, and while I'm not sure yet if I'd ship it romantically, Selena/Beruka had a great C-support. Oh yeah, and Laslow/Peri was very promising from what I saw of it, though I never used the former past chapter 12 and didn't get that much more mileage out of the latter before dropping her. I need to get more support conversations so I can get more of a feel for lots of other ships...

*I feel like it might be more accurate to call it Kamui/Zero, given my feelings about the localisation's handling of Niles's character in general and his dynamic with Corrin in particular, but I won't bother you with my whining on the matter.

As for AA6, I had a hard time getting into it at first for some reason. I don't really know why; maybe the new setting took a little while to grow on me, or the first case just didn't get of to a very interesting start for me. Whatever the problem was, I did get more into it around the time you figure out the victim's true nature, and I was a lot more invested in the second case. (C'mon, how can anyone not care about a case where you have to defend Trucy?) I'm fond of Nahyuta as a prosecutor so far; apart from him being pretty, I like how he seems so gentle yet can say some incredibly scathing things. I also liked Bonny and Betty, especially in how they subvert expectations one might have based on the previous games. (Aw, Bonny's so cute, I don't think I can trust her! Oh wait, she's actually an asshole, just as I expec-- OH WAIT, that's her twin sister, the real Bonny really is a cinnamon roll! OH WAIT, Betty wasn't a villain after all! OH WAIT, Betty was secretly tsundere for Trucy the whole time?! Thanks for adding that much more enjoyment to the case, ladies!)

Right now I'm stuck on the third case (at a point where I'm fairly sure what arguement I want to make, but I don't know what part of the vision I should click on at what point) and have been playing other games in the meantime. I did like the reunion with Maya, though; it really did feel as if I was catching up with an old friend. :3