blinkingbrave

Since Lucina's already got the amiibo, it'd probably be more confusing than anything (both story and gameplay-wise) if she showed up as another playable character. Not to mention she and Chrom are both main characters in Awakening, and if either had appeared properly, people would've likely expected them to be plot drivers, instead of side characters.

Tacked some spoiler tags on there. Sorry 'bout that. Sounds like we just have different interpretations of some stuff. I don't have much to say that I haven't already at least kinda touched on before, so I'll just leave it at that. Just figured I should acknowledge ya though as I was posting already about the spoiler tags (sorry again!).

The rabid fanbase people are going to be the ones more likely to buy DLC and merchandise, so maybe that's why you get multiple votes? I feel like it's kinda just going to end up separating the most popular characters who have a decently shared fanbase (so Leon and Takumi) anyways, while making sure everyone's likely to get some votes from the people who don't feel passionately one way or the other. The placement (at least at the top, where it's most relevant) is likely going to be the same set of people no matter how the voting is done... It is a lil disappointing anyways though. I mean... I get that it's still going to tell us who the most popular character is, but it doesn't really tell you who's liked by the most people with this system...

I always thought Persona 4 really dragged in the first few hours particularly, though, for that reason. Fates is definitely a lil light on world building-y stuff, but the way P4 dumps it on you in the beginning (and how much it limits your interaction while doing that)... I dunno if that's the way to go either. Persona 3... might've had the same pacing issue (it's been a lil while since I played though), but I feel like it got better as the story progressed. I just remember that the way Persona 4 slowed down the main plot to kinda spoon feed you information got pretty tedious pretty fast, imo.

Whooops. I'm reading a transcription, not watching a playthrough, so I guess I just forgot about her since she just had the battle quotes.

Maybe a child unit from one of the parents who don't join you on all three routes for the girls, just because you won't see them as much and they'd be easier to forget about. Which one though... I dunno. Alternatively, I'm almost done with the story on the Nohr route and Yuugiri hasn't even appeared yet iirc, so maybe her? I've been told she fills a good gameplay role on Hoshido, but lack of supports and lack of story exposure could still hurt her popularity in the long run. The other female Kamuisexuals all get appearances on both routes (or a chapter for Anna) so they've got more going for them there. Guys... Ignis seems pretty forgotten about, so I'm guessing him.

I know for me personally, the FE13/14 system removes a lot of the need for me to feel like I need to replay the game to get all the support content with the S-support. Although it's a support rank I can't get every time, I feel less compelled to get them all because it's kinda like extra content. The characters' support arcs end at A rank, and the S rank feels to me more like a bonus, a lil unrelated to and not really hinted at in the C-A arc. Usually it tells me nothing new about the character (or if it does, it's often the same info I get in all the s-supports), so I don't feel like I need to get them all to understand a character. And since the parent-child conversations are generic, I don't feel like I'm missing anything not getting them all, either. The issue I have with the older system is that the support arcs still end at A, and it feels like getting less than that leaves the support arc incomplete so if I want to get all the info myself, that's usually a minimum of 6-ish playthroughs. Which, as someone who prefers playing this series for the story/characters, is kinda tedious, particularly since getting the support ranks in the older games is tedious in and of itself. I can see how it's more time-consuming now if you're a completionist player looking to fill out the support log, but for me as a casual player, the new system (among many other additions) is easier to operate within and encourages me to actually experiment with supports.

I imagine they won't get DLC pictures. It'll probably be like Robin where they made figures (or was it just the amiibos?) with the default appearance. I've tossed a vote or two f!Kamui's way in the hopes that if she ends up more popular than m!Kamui she'll be the one to get all the merchandise this time...

Didn't they actually kinda fix that in Fates though, with the seals and everything?

I don't think Charlotte's terribly popular in Japan though, and she's got stiff competition within the Nohr ladies from Camilla and Elise. Though, it's also worth noting that there's just less content of the ladies in general. Even Oboro, who ranked on the Famitsu poll, I've seen little for. She may well be somewhat popular after all? My votes have been going to Marx and a mix of Camilla, Nyx, and Shara. Though... if Shara and/or Zero got DLC content, I wonder how they'd handle that without it being imbalanced...

I don't have too much of an issue with the current direction (and it feels a lot like they're testing things out with Fates, anyways), but it'd be nice to see different paired ending relationships (so beyond marriage) come back. Also, the return of the old magic triangle would be lovely. Magic classes are always my favorite, but the pool to pick from (at least of pure magic) is a lil slim at the moment.

Whatever the intent, being easily identifiable still strikes me as a plus.

While I can't speak on Tellius, I thought Awakening (and IF improved on that, but it's not localized, so I dunno how relevant you want to count it) did do a better job characterizing its playable units overall than the GBA games and FE4. While the GBA supports covered backstory, did a lil subplot, whatever, it could be hard to tell exactly what the opinions/feelings of the characters in that support were. The supports were often a lot more about what was happening action-wise or simply relaying information than conveying anything about the characters' emotional state. How to explain... A lot of the supports I read, at least, fell into this weird... emotional middle-ground. The characters didn't seem to have lows or highs or much strong personal input into what they were saying. Perhaps it was realistic, but in a game where characterization is optional and limited to five conversations tops, it seems to me like it should be important to clearly convey in the smallest amount of words 'who these people are, as people' so you know if you want to spread your support points, which in the older games are a limited pool, to explore that character further. Which is something Awakening manages to achieve in the recruitment dialogue, while the GBA games often spend that time to layout relative social status, a generic moral statement, or another odd 'middle-ground' type comment, not quite strong enough to leave an impression. There are, of course, exceptions to this and there were some characters I knew and loved, but in my experience, the GBA games don't achieve clear, prevalent characterization terribly well overall. It's just a more... Lord of the Rings writing style. All 'this happened, then this happened, then...', etc. Very action-focused, not very character/emotion focused. I'd imagine that's why the backstory for a good deal of characters is more memorable than their personalities. The plots are written the same way. Awakening, though heavy-handed at times, clearly conveyed what its characters' personalities were in their recruitment scene/dialogue, supports, plot dialogue, etc, and still conveyed backstory. I knew which characters I wanted to use, which I didn't, and had opinions on everyone. Compared to the GBA games, where I could (and did several times) complete entire support lines without getting a grasp of the personalities or even an opinion on the characters I supported, Awakening got the job done and got it done faster, in my experience. Perhaps there was no GBA character I truly disliked, but the majority I barely grasped the personalities of to begin with. Though Awakening had characters I disliked or even hated, I had an opinion on every single member of the cast, they were all unique, and I could tell you who they all were, given a name or face. It's definitely an opinion thing, but I find Awakening's support system overall better. The GBA system certainly had its pluses, but for me, the negatives weigh a lil too much.

I think perhaps you'd run into an issue with the royals frequently being split (and thus your army) pretty consistently. The side Kamui's on wouldn't have this issue because Kamui unites them, but the opposite side very rarely has a point where they're all in one place at the same time. There's also just some narrative stuff on Nohr and Hoshido that would pose an issue, not to mention Kamui's position as a protagonist, instead of Kamui, Marx, and Ryouma being whatever the three person variant of that is (and even that would cause an imbalance on Nohr/Hoshido routes). Perhaps if FE14 were just IK, you bumped Marx and Ryouma up to protag status, and somehow write their armies to unify instead of splinter into Kamui's? I think it's interesting in theory, but it would require a major overhaul of the preexisting narrative. And since everyone's frequently fighting against each other... I think it could pose some problems...

In my experience, the most common issue I've seen people have (I dunno if these are vets or whoever else) is with shippers and the prevalence of romance in the supports as a whole. While kids may not be a thing in many games, likely because of the issues inherent in a generational gap, games with romance-y sideplots where you pick between several options for your main character are definitely a thing. I mean... you've got Persona, certain Final Fantasy games, Bioware games, Rune Factory (the more relevant Harvest Moon fantasy-action spin-off), Witcher, the list goes on and I'm a big sucker for fantasy games with romance sideplots, so I could definitely name more. And these would just be the games where you can pick. Which is kinda optional where shipping is concerned. The 'rift' people have describing feels far more to me like it springs from the popularity of shipping among a certain part of the fanbase (and a lack of interest in tactics) and perhaps... backlash or disapproval from another part. I'm not so sure it's over implementation of children because I've seen critiques of that from both parties.

Yeah, I got the vibe that a good number of them had grown beyond children, too, but I liked where it was taken in the supports and gaidens that I read, where it kinda felt like their parents... didn't know them. Or kinda knew them, but had just missed all these moments in their now near adult child's life. Or the no-longer-a-child was just aching for their attention or approval. Some were just as awkward for me as you described though, so I'm not sure if I've just read more of the 'right' ones or something. Either way, I get where you're coming from there. Only the really young ones feel like kids. The Awakening children definitely feel a lot younger to me.

Different strokes for different folks, I guess. As for Fates, I only meant building up as the whole progression of 'when a man and woman love each other very much...' as an explanation that doesn't need explaining for where the children came from and why they weren't there pre-S-support. I feel like we've already established the hyperbolic time chamber half of the explanation as silly. For the bond between parent and child, I haven't looked into too many of them, but I thought some of them were pulled off quite well. Shigure and Siegbert's gaidens stick out as two I quite liked. I dunno if they're so much going for the familial bond this time like they did in Awakening. Parent-child interactions feel more bittersweet and missed opportunity/understanding type stuff springing from this unfortunately distant familial bond (with a positive resolution). I feel like they even touch on it in Shigure's 4-koma, which is unofficial, sure, but not ooc. As eye roll-y as the hyperbolic time chamber is, I think it at least led to some good stuff in the parent-child supports. Though I will admit I've only read a handful of gaidens and parent-child supports, so perhaps reading more will change my mind.

I don't mean in regards to late joining story recruits, because those are usually scaled up to where they should be (or Ests, but those aren't a thing anymore). I'm only speaking in regards to all the base class units close together early game that serve interchangeable roles. How much of a thing that is kinda seems to be dependent on how large the cast is. FE6 was particularly bad, FE8 was so small there were hardly duplicate units at all. What I'm talking about are situations where you have Sain, Kent, and Lowen, for example, or your myrmidons and mercenaries. Typically, you level one or two and not the others (assuming you're not grinding), so if something happens to them, you're either stuck, you have to baby your back up unit, and/or rework your strategy. Something like FE14's child system seems like a lil more flexible and forgiving way to handle extra base class units.

Yeah, I agree with this. I'm pretty neutral on the whole child thing in general and was in Awakening, too. I wouldn't mind if they decided to take it in a world building route instead. Buuuut I still think there's a distinct advantage in introducing extra characters in gaiden chapters accessible via world map on scaling levels and since that mechanic is tied in with the child units atm, for the purpose of extra story units vs. child units, I count it as a plus for child units. If they were to introduce non-child replacement units but kept it a similar gaiden chapter, scaled growth system, I'd probably be just as happy. We just don't know if that system would be applied to units other than children, if children weren't there. Trainees, I think, would be a lil odd, though. Mostly because it would either have to come out of nowhere without build up, or the build up would have to be shoe-horned in to supports, chapter dialogue pre-Gaiden, something. The kids, at least, are a product of the natural progression of a romantic relationship so they don't need to be talked about before hand. There's also a lot less 'awww' factor in training a recruit together, which is a lot of why the children are popular in the first place. I know I, at least, would kinda find the recruit a lil awkward at best, alienating at worse.

While I don't particularly care for the way the child mechanic was implemented this time around in story, when you put that aside, I think everything else about them is an improvement over the typical replacement units you usually get. They've got a chapter devoted to them to help you get attached to them despite joining later than your by now standard team, and that chapter is a gaiden, so if you don't want to clog your team with units you aren't using, you don't have to. And since they scale up alongside your team, you don't run into that situation where your replacement unit is ridiculously underleveled should your primary die, get RNG screwed, whatever. Being able to control when you get them is incredibly convenient. So yeah, the 'how' behind them from a story standpoint is rather silly, but from a gameplay standpoint, the child mechanic, just as a mechanic, is pretty nice. Though I wish they could've come up with a better reason for their existence, other than that, I think this sort is as good as or better implemented than story replacement units in most other regards. Edit: As for them getting votes, yeah, I'm totally tossing one in for Shara because representation. But really, though, some of the kids are pretty well-written. The royal brothers' sons also enjoy a decent amount of popularity on pixiv, so I wouldn't be terribly surprised to see some number of them up there.

I think... perhaps to an extent that's true though? A large part of the enjoyment me and my friends got from Awakening was from the open support system and the avatar. I went back and played some of the older ones because I enjoyed strategy games, but they didn't and never felt compelled to. Even now, Awakening is the only one I replay. Awakening and what it incorporated (or popularized, for those things FE12, was it? introduced) really does make it a different experience from the older games, and it kinda opened the series to more than just the SRPG fan. If the character stuff were to be limited and locked away a la GBA FE (never even mind the reintroduction of other older mechanics), I'm not quite sure the others I know who picked up Awakening would enjoy this new game or purchase the one following it if were a series trend. I dunno if I'd be compelled to pay full price for it either, honestly, depending on exactly what changes were made.

Yeah, it's no wonder the royals almost all appeared up there, and I'd have been surprised if Kamui outranked the ones that made the list. The only reason I'd suspect Kamui wasn't truly counted is that retainers made it on the list. Not that Oboro and Odin aren't well-written (Well, Oboro is. I'm still meh on Odin), but it's still curious Kamui didn't at least make it on plot relevance alone (which is where a good deal of Aqua's popularity seems to come from). Perhaps m!Kamui and f!Kamui were counted as two different characters or something? Personally, I actually like Kamui, but I also found his/her personality and interaction with the royals endearing and found the circumstances surrounding the Nohr route interesting, instead of frustrating. A lil bland on Hoshido, but overall, inoffensive. So the personality may just be hit or miss, too.