Metal Flash

Not enough of one to talk to his family evidently.

Gilbert from Three Houses. Him staying close enough for Annette to notice him, only to pull away the second she tries to talk to him aggravates me to no end. Either talk to your daughter (and wife) and ease her worries or leave and never see her again.

Started with Marth, now we have Ike. Guess we`re getting Emblem heroes in a random order then. Good God he has two screen length skill descriptions. Laguz Friend... I have no idea what this skill is meant to do.

I think Jake could make a fun returning character, he could take the Balistician class with him, but even just a NPC cameo would work. Seeing a character like Myrrh or Fae get the Awakening Tiki treatment could be neat.

Basic bi*** opinion incoming Sacred Stones has my personal favourite character designs. They just look so nice and clean, with the bright colors making characters pop. Armor looks nice too. Elibe designs are a close second. It`s a close tie between pre-timeskip Three Houses and Engage for my least favourite. While post-timeskip TH chars get unique designs, their academy looks are a tad too same-y for my liking. Meanwhile, Engage suffers from many designs being overly busy with too much going on and overly bright colors. Dishonorable mention to Awakening and Fates for having some really dumb class outfits (Awakening Armor Knights and Fates female Cavalier/Paladin/Great Knight/Dark Knight)

If future games are gonna include Avatars, I believe they should go all the way. Let us determine their appearance, class, stats, personality, gender etc. Make them actually feel like "MY unit" instead of "unit you can somewhat alter". If they insist on continuing with the current style, at least go back to them being side characters like Kris and Robin.

I agree with this, the attempt at putting each country on the same level fails. Having some variance in the amount of units from each region would help make each country feel more unique.

I agree with this, While having some build up to the romantic relationship would be nice, I`d rather not have characters semi-flirting with nearly everyone they support with (unless that is part of their character, like Sylvain or Inigo). A more gradual change from "just friends" to "feelings are developing" would be better imo. Three Houses and Engage have both moved away from the "everyone supports everyone" situation of the 3Ds games, which leans nicely into having fewer romance options. As an aside, I would also like to see future games have more platonic opposite-sex pairs and some romantic same-sex pairs for non-Avatar characters. Engage touched on the former with AlfredxEtie and FogadoxHortensia. The former pair cannot see each other as anything more than friends, while the latter never goes into romantic territory. Even as someone who enjoys romantic paired endings, I think some non-romantic ones would be nice to have.

Fair point, I just don`t wanna have to look up weather a character I like has a romantic S-support or not again

Because that way, we avoid the complaint people had with Engage where people had no idea which supports were romantic and which were platonic. Then people can more easily choose which type of ending they want. I just suggested the romantic rank still be S cause that is the letter that has been associated with romantic final supports for Avatars in recent games. But the symbols idea Eltosian suggested could also work just as well.

Honestly, I find myself agreeing with this. I actually don`t mind Avatars having platonic final supports. Not all their endings need to be romantic. However, they should not both be labeled as S-supports. Have the romantic ones still be S-rank, while the platonic final support is A+-rank.

- I tend to do the opposite, pair a weak unit up with a strong partner to give them kills - Usually, I pair units up based on supports I wanna unlock, or to train up weaker units by giving them a strong backup unit. I almost always use guard stance and nearly never use attack stance - I pair units up almost all the time in Awakening, in Fates I use guard stance pretty often - The latter, enhancing existing strengths - I usually find guard stance more useful, especially on Conquest. Less in Fates

I didn`t think of that, but that is a good point. If the avatar is meant to be "my unit", then I should be able to decide what kind of unit they are.

While it sounds like a cool concept, I worry how it would effect unit identity/individuality. I agree FE restricts classes arbitrarily, which is stupid. Letting players really build whatever units they want is a great way to let players craft their own experience. This would also increase replayability of the game. The different types of armor, mount and weapon combinations could also lead to some fun challenge run ideas. On the flipside, if anyone can be anything, it will make each unit feel less distinct (a problem I had with Three Houses and late game Echoes). Balancing would also be tricky, since the developers can`t know exactly what units players will bring to later chapters. This premise, while far from rare in modern stories, does offer some interesting opportunities. Letting the player switch factions midway through could offer some intense confrontations later in the game. I could see a potential problem if the factions were not created equal (like what happened with Fates), but that is just a possibility. As for it being better or worse than what FE currently has, that depends on execution. A simple premise executed well tends to be better received than a unique premise handled horribly.

Never thought of this, but you make a good point. It gets hard to reference other characters when they could be dead/not recruited. Of those options, I like alternate support scenarios the most, but know it would be time consuming to write. A smaller cast might alleviate this a little.

I`ve read the Mitsuki Osawaa FE4 manga, the Awakening 4koma manga and the Fates 4koma manga. The Osawaa manga is a mixed bag. Some of the changes are neat, like having Deirdre, Ayra and Aideen deal with Macbeth, but it also demonized Eldigan`s wife in favor of having him love his half-sister. I mostly enjoy it, but find some parts rather weird. Meanwhile, the 4koma comics are hilarious, with some great art to boot. Enjoyed both immensely.

That could work too.

Yeah While I could see that working, I would prefer FE move away from Avatars as main characters and go back to having the Lord(s) be in charge. That sounds like a really cool idea, it could deconstruct the archetype in a interesting way.

I agree with a smaller scale story, heck, this could be a good opportunity to make more playable characters relevant to the plot. But even if that isn`t the case, it would still be nice to see a FE story focus more on a single country. Elevation would be neat to see again. with the addition of units being able to be knocked off a ledge, like in Triangle Strategy. While unlikely to happen, given the prominence of Avatars, I would like to see more arranged marriages in future titles. I have already mentioned wanting one for the Lords of a future title, but I could also work as a mechanic. Like, say, a powerful noble will only provide your cause with money and troops if you agree to have the prince marry his daughter. Or a lady in the army needs to marry so she can secure her territory from rivals, so you have to choose a viable candidate. Another scenario for a future game I would like to see is a decoy protagonist. Basically, you have Lord A who is your standard Marth type. Then you have Lord B, a female who appears to be a side character and is more unique in character. As the story goes on, Lord A starts to being giving in to his worst impulses, encouraged by his allies. Finally, in chapter 10, a split happens in the army between those who support the now radical Lord A and those who side with the more measured Lord B. Lord A becomes a reoccurring antagonist afterwards. TLDR: a Marth type male Lord is replaced with a more unique female Lord after Lord A pulls a Dimitri, just without the redemption arc.

That is pretty funny

While I`m not a fan of her design, I ended up liking Hortensia much more than anticipated. Her supports with Ivy and Lindon showed a much more mature side to her.

Because if they weren`t, you wouldn`t be able to fail in Casual Mode. As I haven`t played any FE games with these advisor characters save FE4, I have no strong feelings towards this type of character returning.

On paper, I like the idea of Anima mages specialzing in different elements. In practice, like you said, they tend to end up very same-y as units. There seems to have been made some effort to distinguish the three types in recent games. Wind is effective against flyers, Thunder has extra range but cannot double and Fire has the highest might. Maybe if characters were made to compliment these, like Thunder Mages have better accuracy or Wind Mages are made true "anti-flyer" units, the splitting of Anime Magic could be made worth it.

I felt Three Houses/Hopes were closer to having a ensemble cast, but this is a fair point.

All this talk of how permadeath limits how many characters can actively participate in the plot makes me even more curious to see how a FE game with a true ensemble cast would be received. A core unchanging group of characters all tied to the story. No variable of characters potentially not being recruited and no worry of characters not being present. There would be less units, but each would have a part in the story, big or small. I dunno, just a thought.