Fire Emblem Awakening, is well... AMAZING! It is very impressive the amount of customization one can do in this game which is one of its endearing traits. But to be completely honest it can be a little overwhelming too. If you want to find out more about this game without spoilers read ahead.
This handheld to me is the love child of final fantasy tactics advanced,a mmo, and sims. All are great and have many things to offer new gamers and old gamers alike. Fire Emblem Awakening has taken all of there great things about these and has melded them together. The upgrade choices, equipment choices, graphics, and gameplay remind me of tactics advanced, but then throw in a whole lot of choices... I mean like the all the choices. And choices are kinda like cheese, its really hard to use too much of it IMHO. At the beginning equipment is variable, and attacking next to or in pairs gives a lot of bonuses, and often the supporting character will attack to. But you will notice after each encounter a little heart above both there heads (remember that because its important later on). In skirmishes you can chose if you want to save the npc or just keep your characters a live, but choices are paramount in game and will offer different paths for each choice. If you play classically, which was most enjoyable to me, characters that die don't come back, and some loses make have a game over. Remember what I said earlier about the little hearts characters can become in love and eventually marry. The more they battle together, the sooner they will get married. So keeping characters a live is important, because you get to know each one and they fall in with each other, unless you are a sadist and kill them to make other characters suffer... Once married, just like your mommy and daddy listening to you shook me all night long an accident happens and poof they have kids. To keep the game more interesting keep the characters alive and pair up who you want.
leveling is pretty straight forward, you get xp you get stronger, you level up. But once you hit level ten you can use a master shield or second shield to change class or reach a master class. Secondary shields allow you to change, like mage to cleric, or to a knight, or whatever. This is great for trying out all of the classes and there are so so many. I recommend leveling up to level 20(max lvl) twice by use of secondary seal before going master shield. One is very powerful with a master class, but leveling up is like watching paint dry, it will do it but it is a long long process... I would recommend playing through on at least normal difficulty, it was to easy for me so I reset my game at around chapter 10 and bumped up the difficulty all the way.
If you want a great gaming experience on the go, like making choices, like a challenge, get this game! It is my second favorite only to Ocarina of Time on 3ds and you will not be disappointed.