Really ? I haven't been too impressed with them because of the badly aged turn based combat and the quirky art style. I don't think I've ever looked back on WRPG's > JRPG's and the game that tipped that was fallout 3. If you ask me there were alot of below average JRPG's. 

Your problem is I couldn't give a rats ass about metacritic. The game looks average to me despite it's metascore and this applies to almost every other JRPG out there. 

Actually there are alot of turn based RPGs, well JRPG's specifically. Handhelds are known as a heaven for turn based JRPG's.

WRPG's are a different story altogether.

They've declined because the developers are obviously going out of business faster than I can say bankrupt.

Whatever you want. 

Soriku knows the words "ass" and "shit" :O

I never played a FE game, and it doesn't sound like I'll start off with this one. "mindless" SRPG is quite pointless. How do some other FE games compare, whatever the platform is?

User Requested removal

Rather different. Awakening has greater similarities to FFT with its much broader emphasis on customization, and the ability to grind (which exists in most notable non-Fire Emblem SRPGs and RPGs in general). Awakening also has a "Casual" mode which disables permadeath. By comparison, the UI of previous FE games definitely doesn't compare, but they are more linear and focused on delivering a hefty challenge.

In any case, I think Awakening gets a good deal of praise (and criticism) because the player has a large level of control over how challenging the game is. It can be a "mindless" SRPG, but I could say the same for others (again, FFT). But it doesn't have to be. As far as I'm concerned, what you get out of Awakening depends on what you put into it. I put over 200 hours in and beat it five times, because I'm hooked on trying out different class/skill combos (like an FFT fan might). The effort required doesn't phase me, because I like my results.

I came looking for a score. I left disappointed.

That's good that you don't treat Metacritic as a tell-all sign of how good a game is, but you shouldn't treat one fan's review as law either. Considering that this game received near unanimous praise from reviewers and fans alike, and is selling better than every other game in the franchise, it seems safe to think that Soriku's opinion might be in the minority.

@Xen: I'll post a more in-depth response when I get home from work, but Awakening is quite a bit different than past games. Personally, though, I didn't really share his "mindless" complaint, outside of bonus missions tailored towards players that want to grind. FE:A is probably my GOTY 2013, honestly.