Sethera

Yeah I know it would work but I'm just not sure how likely it is that the game designers will use another Merlinus character is all. It'd be cool if they did though.

True, that's a distinct possibility. I'm curious to see what the game will end up revealing. There could be an added dimension with the maids too. For instance, if the lord is Eastern and they end up joining the conflict (which I think they do, from the analysis) they'd be choosing between their lord and their homeland. Though I'm not really sure on whether Kamui himself is Eastern or not. I'd much prefer if he were half Western, half Eastern myself. I'm really hoping that the Dancer and Kamui's relationship has more dimension than Romeo and Juliet's, honestly. I wouldn't be averse to something more Avatar-esque.

I think that would be cool. :) Not sure how likely it is that that would happen but yeah.

Thanks guys! Ffft, it's not something I need to prove, since it's a part of who I am. Though I might be a bigger dork than nerd, not sure.

I found a shiny Lotad, shiny Tentacool, and shiny Pelipper in three different files in my original Sapphire game. I erased all three files though... Recently I've found a shiny Plusle in AS and, using the Masuda method, I also found a shiny Feebas, though I accidentally fainted the first shiny Feebas so I spent forever trying to get the second one. I find it strange that I've only ever found a shiny in Sapphire and Alpha Sapphire...

I tend to use references in my nicknaming...usually to mythology, books, anime/manga, games, shows, movies, etc. But there are some random names that I keep repeating because I got attached to using them for said Pokémon. Examples: Constantine the Arcanine Celery the Meganium Tropicana the Tropius

I've honestly never been a fan of "Main Lord magically being a convoy boy." I rather liked the idea of an actual merchant handling the convoy. For instance, I think it would have made more sense if Awakening had used Anna as the convoy person. Though I guess it's part mechanical where Chrom is required for nearly every map so it's convenient to just use him as the convoy. I've hardly ever used the convoy in-battle mainly because I'm a fan of planning ahead and stocking characters with all the weapons they could need for the map. Unlimited items is nice, though I never noticed a problem with the maximum items in prior games. Merchant characters are cool, and if there were a merchant character that worked like Merlinus in the new game I would have zero problems with that (though I do wonder...if the choosing sides is a thing, would there be a different merchant depending on the side you choose?).

At first I was pretty "meh" about Griffon Riders but the Azz01's suggestion of them rounding out the weapon triangle is making me reconsider. I'm a big fan of balance and stuff so it sounds like it could work out that way. I think that could be really cool.

Funnily enough, my main is NOT one of the Fire Emblem characters, but Kirby (yes, you heard that right). Of the Fire Emblem characters, I have to say my favorite to use is Ike. Robin's not bad either, but it can be difficult to time the Levin Sword's appearances. ...Mafia? *reads info thread* Ooh, that sounds...intriguing.

Oh I see...well that works too I guess.

Czar_Yoshi covered most of it. I'm just adding the stuff I think about. For pairings, I think another thing to keep in mind is inheriting skills that you might not get otherwise. For instance, if a parent can reclass into Wyvern Rider, but their child cannot, it might be best to pass down something from the Wyvern Rider tree. However, if it's a skill the child doesn't really need (Counter being a good example for some) then it might not be necessary. Galeforce is recommended for quite a lot of children, and if you're going for optimization, try to pass it down or at least have the father pass down the Pegasus Rider tree. But imo the usefulness of Galeforce mainly depends on the child's role. If they're going to be working support more then Galeforce might not be necessary. Another big thing is balance, however. There can be some children that have a "best father" but that might not be the way to go if you want to have a balanced team. Giving one child their "best father" might be a big way to screw over another child who really needed that father so you kind of have to think about the children as a group. Also mainly, I find it best to just try and use as many different classes as possible. For instance, assassin is a really good class and a lot of people use it. If I went for pure optimization, probably a good percentage of my units would be assassins, but I tend to prefer variety. It might not be the most optimized, but imo it's more fun so yeah. Btw, Apotheosis is a LONG way away for you, as it's basically the pinnacle of DLC. I wouldn't really worry about it yet.

Just gotta say, this has been a joy to read. It's pretty cool seeing somebody go through this for the first time, and I agree with most everybody here in that just doing what you want and ignoring the DLC is probably the best way to go for a first playthrough. If you really want to do DLC, I recommend doing it after you beat the game. Personally, I always feel the need to rescue all the villagers every playthrough because I'm a perfectionist, but if I recall correctly, you can get by with rescuing only one because the others only give you a Ladle and a Log. As for your question, Awakening's not like FE9 or 10 where certain magic is effective against certain units. The only exception is Wind as you mentioned, which makes up for it being the weakest magic in the game.

Yeah, I'd definitely say Kamui sounds Eastern as opposed to Western. But the maids' names are Western, so hmm...the whole Theon Greyjoy situation could be a thing here... Or maybe he's Marx's brother/half brother and Kamui's mother was Eastern and came up with the name? I honestly have no clue...there could be any number of reasons why somebody with an Eastern name has Western-named maids. Also the background in the trailer when it shows the two maids looks like it has the Roman arch thing going on... As for the Outrealms thing...that moment in the trailer when they show floating islands that are upside-down and sideways makes me wonder if there's not some sort of time/space crap going on here. If the designers handle it well, then that could turn out pretty sweet. Perhaps that could explain why these Italians/Romans suddenly are battling Japanese, since I've never heard of any big feuds between Italy and Japan. And I know that the Roman Empire was mainly centered around the Mediterranean. Not that a video game has to abide by history, but dimensional craziness could be a way of explaining things.

For waifu material, I'm looking at Kazahana. But there will probably be quite a few cool characters revealed when we get more stuff on this game.

Hey thanks! And yeah, I've heard good things about 4. Been meaning to play that sometime, probably through the Virtual Console since I don't have a SNES anymore.