Fire Emblem : Awakening is probably going to be my favorite RPG of the year. The level of complexity and personalization in this game is just out of this world. It's the Fire Emblem I've always wanted, and I've been playing the games for the better part of a decade.
You get to create your own character, set their gender and base stats, and they then serve as one of the heroes in the game, completely integrated into the story. You can marry any two characters of opposite gender and there will be subsequent chapter where their kid can join your army in the game's Paralogue - a massive series of geo-locked side quests that, as you can imagine, can't all be experienced in a single play through.
The game can be played in classic mode (units die permanently) or casual mode (dead units return at the next battle) on any difficulty, which I've been enjoying the shit out of because I like to see how well I can do late in the battle with a really small party.
The combat animations are the best of any Fire Emblem game and remind me of later installments in the Tales series, with fluid movements and flashy spells that would make the folks at Camelot sweat.
There's an item that lets you change the base class of your character at level 10. This is awesome for either gameplay mode because if you lose all your ax-wielding units (happens to me all the time, they usually have shit for defense) you can change a knight or other high-def character to a warrior or a fighter - or you can send the unit back to level one if they got the shit end of the stick on stat development. There are some really fresh advanced classes that Intelligent worked out and you can end up with an incredibly diverse team as the game progresses.
Intelligent also bulit on the "rescue" feature of previous Fire Emblem games by allowing you to pair units. if two of your units are standing next to each other, there's a chance that they can assist each other in battle, block attacks, and boost stats (improves if they have a relationship). You can also merge them into a single space, with one primary unit taking damage and receiving most of the experience, and the secondary unit assisting in battle for less xp - both receive generous stat boosts when merged.
This game has been a massive time sink for me this in the past week or so.