Buttocksinator

Reasonable conjecture. Garon is invading Hoshida and his country is described as "glory seeking". Taking over a country on the grounds of gaining more power and influence isn't exactly morally wholesome. Now it could be that there is another reason for the invasion, but we don't know that as of yet.

That parallels with the point i'm making, neither side is being characterized as "the bad side", Garon may be, but he is one character. Most of the other Nohrians seem like alight folks from what i've seen. Most video games try to do that and it ends up taking me out of the experience a bit. The decision to support Nohr/Hoshida is made more meaningful by the moral ambiguity.

I think it's an interesting theory, but not something I'd want in the game. This would make the choice between the nations obvious to only the players with the thickest of skulls. Do I join the family that raised me, or the one that intentionally sent me off to die when I was a helpless infant? Garon may have only spared you because he wanted your power, but he still spared you, that would earn more loyalty with me than my own mothers decision to kill me. I still stand by my original statement, neither nation as a whole has the moral high ground here. Every nation has assholes, Nohr happens to have one sitting on a throne. A lot of non asshole people are still going to die when the two nations clash, so I don't think you can claim any moral superiority by choosing one or the other.

Very much this, the Grimleal would have made much more interesting baddies if their religion made any sense whatsoever. Worship the fell dragon so that your soul can be devoured by it just like everyone else? What is the point? I could understand a handful of children being conditioned from birth to find some twisted strand of logic there but an entire nation? No, that's absurd.

I can respect a mentality without agreeing with it. Pacificism is great in theory, but there are people in the world far to ignorant to just leave each other alone, sometimes using force is the justified solution. Like if a kid is getting bullied and you beat his ass. Usually a good ass-whooping is the only cure for ignorance. You won't get anything from a bully by telling him you don't appreciate being shoved in a locker or verbally abused, but if you shove your foot in his ass he will get the message and hopefully even wake up and stop being such an asshole. She did do one thing right I guess, she got the people of Ylisse to stop hating the government, just like Hitler. But then she got a lot of her own people killed, just like Hitler. Just replace "concentration camps" with "Plegian bandits that Emmeryn doesn't think are serious enough of a problem to really do anything about". Seriously, if she gave a damn about homeland security Plegia wouldn't have such an easy time getting far enough into Ylisse to start burning down villages. I don't see the connection you're making with jesus either, were not talking about when Emmeryn killed herself, were talking about her refusal to take action against the country that is actively attacking her people. That's not messianic, that's cowardly. The statement I made in my original post was meant to be a joke, not to completely derail this thread, so sorry about that.

Neither side has the moral high ground here, Hoshido being "peace loving" doesn't change the fact that it's leader is still willing to throw away the lives of countless young people in the defense of the country (which is better than what Emmeryn would do, which is probably sit on her ass doing nothing while her villages are burned and citizens crucified). Politics and motivations are irrelevant on that point. The bottom line is whichever side you choose, a lot of people will die and you can't use the "they started it" argument as justification when you're standing on a pile of corpses. Like any real war there is no good or evil, only a winner and loser. That's why I'm liking the premise of this game, it's significantly more gray morally than Awakening, which pitted you against a country of bat shit crazy religious zealots hell bent on the destroying the world. Based on what I've seen so far, when it comes to the Hoshido/Nohr debate I really only see one moral quandary that isn't based on assumptions or speculation; do you join with your biological family that you were stolen from and never knew, or the one you were raised by? At this point I am leaning more towards the Nohr myself, i'd be much more likely to stay loyal to the people I grew up with as opposed to the group of people I never knew but were biologically related to me. Of course, maybe this won't matter so much when half way through the game "Malgogalactus the chaos dragon" appears and the only way to save the world is for the two nations to band together and discover the true meaning of friendship and generally not being an asshole along the way, but now i'm speculating.

I don't like gryphons. I don't like the way they look, how they are some weird eagle/lion hybrid, their stats, or the fact that their axe-locked. I think their should be more flyers to choose from period. We've got pegasi, wyverns, and.....Nothing else. If we're going to go giant birds i'd like to see a Roc or something, but not gryphons.

As far as internet arguments go, I'll take the point at which someone stops trying to defend their point and starts trying to discredit mine with petty insults the closest thing i'll get to an admission of defeat. I countered every single point you made and then restated (for the fourth? time) a simple question, one that your entire argument (grinding being a design flaw) is based on. This question is central to your argument and not being able to answer it is lethal to your point. Since you deflected it by calling me a "peasant" instead of actually answering it, I can only assume that, as I suspected, you have no way to give it a proper answer. I've made my point very clear, i'm done here.

I have but one question for you that I posed already at least twice now, if you can give me a suitable answer then I will concede. How is the inclusion of grinding in Fire Emblem Awakening detrimental to the game as a whole and how does it ruin the experience for people who choose not to partake in it? And please don't say "I can't buy shit because the risen is blocking the way." I just got off work, I've dealt with enough idiocy today.

The ability to grind units is not bad design, most role playing games allow you to grind your characters for XP. Difficulty settings and reeking boxes exist for a reason, some people enjoy the thrill of steamrolling over the game with overpowered units, others like the satisfaction they get from completing a challenging battle using the limited resources available. If the end result is fun, does the end not justify the means? If the answer is no, then you are what I refer to as an "elitist". It is not bad design to include a completely optional mode or activity in a game if its usefullness is a matter of personal preference. In regards to your Skyrim example. Stealth kill your own summoned creatures, sit in the middle of a giants camp and let them slap your heavy armor while you heal yourslef with restoration magic, spam iron daggars at forges and then go enchant them, buy and then sell back every item in a shops inventory for speech experience. Grinding is everywhere, none of it required to enjoy or succeed in the game, is that also bad design? Here is the kicker though, I never in my previous post said anything for or against grinding, what I said was that taking advantage of the avatars wide skill pool pretty much requires it unless you're funneling every xp point into him/her and that I wanted to play as a big-ass earth dragon or something of the like, because breathing spikes is badass.

There is a difference between a character with a bland personality and a character that is bland due to their lack of characterization. For example, Stahl. He's boring because he's written as just some average bro, but he's also funny, socially akward but observant and good at reading people and their feelings. Robin is boring because he never shares anything interesting about himself, he has no hobbies, interests, or ambititions, save "I want to be a great tactician". Yeah, I already knew that. Having no memory is no excuse either, Morgan blows a hole in that argument. My point is, i'd rather my avatar have a personality that clashes with mine rather than one who has little to no personality at all. I can roleplay as someone other than myself, it's much more difficult to roleplay as a carboard cutout of a guy in a purple swag jacket with a smile drawn on it's face.

I have to disagree here, part of the fun of playing an RPG is the feeling of power you get as the protagonist. I don't think the avatar needs to be overpowered, but he/she should definitely be the most powerful. I'd also like to point out that if you have leveled up enough to take advantage of all the reclass options you have probably already grinded to the point where the game is broken anyway. -If the tactician (or something similar) returns i'd like it to be the only dual mag/physical class in the game, and also increase its max stats because i'm quite vain. other dual classes steal my thunder (literally and figuratively). -I want my avatar to have a personality, i'd love to be able to have a customizeable backstory or some kind of generic personality selection. Even if I can't chose what that personality is it will still be preferable to Robin. I'd rather play as a protagonist whose perspective differs from mine over one who has no personality whatsoever. -deeper aesthetic customization options. I'd also like access to some kind of awesome class after post game. Like Robin being able to use the "Grima" class after you have cleared the last level.