henrymidfields

I'd prefer that. Maybe battle between law-abiding citizen trainers would be no Trainer's items. You don't see this in trainer battles in the anime, manga, or the semi-real-life VGC, so maybe this is official International League mandated rules. Items should still be fair game against wild Pokemon (just to spare the extra gameplay hassle if you're trying to catch that Pokemon) or Evil Team members (who are lawbreakers and would themselves would probably cheat anyway). Trainer matches could be made more difficult, with the above and maybe a limit to the number of Pokemon. I'd also wouldn't mind having the option to continue your journey onwards after a loss to a Trainer on a Pokemon route, provided there's some form of penalty alongside having to pay up, and an opportunity to re-challenge. I'm still in the middle of Balloonlea in SwSh. I'm looking forward to test out some of the Double-Battle moves and sets once I get clearance to Raihan's Gym, and tbh, I wish Double Battles were an option for more Gym battles, or even more trainers outside of Battle facilities.

Fuck, this is one of the biggest reasons why I hesitate to start playing the Tellius games - well, apart from the PAL versions of the games being in short supply and costing an arm and a leg. Granted, I haven't played the game in its entirety, so maybe we do need Ike in all of the chapters he appears. Nevertheless, what's been mentioned by the more informed people here in regards to Elincia, Micaiah et al being shafted really don't give me a good impression. Especially after playing as Edelgard (and Female Byleth) in Three Houses. I'm Japanese, and I'm ashamed at just how stubborn some people (including myself and my own family at times) are in regards to gender roles, and more generally just how reactionary the country in general has become, even amongst the pressures from the international community. This is also the big reason why I want to see a possibly remake. And it's even worse considering Ike in Smash failed to save the series, and as some people previously mentioned, Ike didn't seem to have the same level of character as Elincia (or any other major character) when the setting/worldbuilding clearly called for it. At least I would have liked to have seen him having to come to grasps with the complicated politics or something. Also mind-boggling is when the same publisher haven't had a problem with Samus kicking ass.

Out of all of the Fates characters, Arthur is one of the few characters I like. He's one of the few butt monkeys who I can both laugh at his misfortune, yet also feel really bad at the same time. He's also one of the few not-'Murican characters in FE, which is...actually refreshing, considering how Old-World-oriented FE is. He is one of the few Fates characters I decided to incorporate in a Pokemon XY x Binding Blade (x Atlus) crossover fanfic (which reinterprets the Binding Blade story as a Not-Neo-Nazi-Germany's reattempt at a Neo-WW2) I am drafting. I do have my bias, but everyone in general in Three Houses are great. A good majority of their backstories and characteristics contributes to the worldbuilding of Fodlan and written with bigger depth and detail than most other entries. I can only think of a few who outright detracts from the story. I also like how the Lords are grayer than the protagonists and antagonists in past entries - there've all got their politics that are more based on history, something that I've increasingly realised as I play through Three Houses. It's gone to the point where, in the above fanfic draft, I've decided to add the Three Houses cast and an equivalent of Garreg Mach as the European-equivalent guest cast. Honorary Mentions: Istuki (TMSFE): True to Persona fashion, and in contrast to how the majority of FE Lords are depicted, Itsuki is one of the few protagonists that backs off every now and then to make way for other characters' stories. And I like this. It shows how many things in life you actually have to rely on others and teamwork with them. Even superheros like Batman (at least him in the 90s Animated Series) needs help from others to save the day. Unfortunately, his rather awkward characterization that neither committs fully to either a fully-charactered protagonist (Claude, Dimitri, or Edelgard in Three Houses) or a vanilla one (like Yu or Minako from the Persona series) compared to the others would be what keeps him in HM.

Proposal 1: See my original post from AS's link. Proposal 2 - Since everyone has been mentionning Tellius:

Fallen Edelgard and myself prefers Pokemon Masters EX over FE Heroes.

Definitely would have like to have seen exploration of Enbarr, Fhirdiad, Derdriu for each of the classes: Aftermath in Gronder Field and Enbarr outskirts would have been cool for the two of the (near-)final Chapters in AM and VW. Enbarr main office for CF right before Chapter 12, and Fhirdiad Outskirts right before the final chapter.

A Poliwrath I can expect if you've already played RBY. Point taken about Steelix. As for Morty, and lack of Dark types that's the shortcoming of Gen 2; they've didn't showcase the new Dark (and Steel) type as much as they should - and essentially repeated the similar problem with Sabrina, though perhaps not as bad. Heck, they didn't showcase Johto Pokemon as much as they should have! Clair I can accept as she's the final gym leader and it's just one Pokemon out of her four. That's the point. As the Generations gets later, you have less idea what to expect. The thing that was keeping the real difficulty back overall was that things in general (barring some exceptions like Sabrina) back then were generally more predictable in earlier generations to compensate for your limitations. Also the affection mechanic is mostly optional unless you're playing BDSP - it's only raised by Amie or Camping as far as I am aware (not sure the equivalent for Gen 7). Looking back, BW2 I found one of the closest to being optimal in that regard. The Gym Leaders were hardly pushovers, and some like Elesa had great coverage, but at the same time, you had a lot of different Pokemon (more than BW1 anyway) you could use to address them. The segment of the first two gym leaders of XY was close to this. So many Pokemon I could catch, yet Viola and Grant somehow managed to throw a curveball at me. And in case you're wondering, I didn't use Amie outside of evolving Sylveon (at least until much later), and even when I started doing that, I spread both Amie and the EXP share thin across the entire 30 Pokemon Box as my rotation so there are that too.

Apples and Oranges. FE's actually pretty basic in addressing strengths and weaknesses. You've got a handful of classes and weapons you can use, and positioning in the battle map is also a thing, so barring occasional cases like Henning in FE6, there's always one way or another against enemies. Most importantly, you actually have info of the enemy, so you actually can prepare for tgem. Pokemon nowadays, you just cannot predict what the gym leaders have in terms of their Pokemon's abilities, movepools, and double-typings anymore. There are over 800 Pokemon now and dozens of possible movepools they could use, and unless if you have Bulbapedia open, you're just not going to know what you're up against. Your case and others mentioning your experience of the early gamed illustrates the point. Everything was basically predictable back then. Now, not so much. I'd very much prefer the available variety of Pokemon similar to ShSw, and just straight up make gym battles actually more strategic to make up the game's difficulty.

Yes, thanks for reminding me about the specifics of Lance's Dragonite. Just goes to show how much you can break that game. What would stop you from just outright buying the coins at the Game Corners and get yourself the TM? I did this once with Ice Punch in GSC, and never regretted it. (Ah, I also remember Ice Punch was also a thing.) On the other hand, I wonder if the wild Sandiles constantly demolishing my Pokemon in Route 4 was an unsubtle hint that he was recommended against Elesa and onwards? Admittedly that is true. They could have at least raised his level to be 65 and raise all the trainers prior to him accordingly. It'll also smooth over the post-game area's trainers'/wild Pokemon's levels which are around that to 70+ IIRC. Forgot that there was also the special split with Calm Mind. Either way, Psychic was too busted back then. Almost forgot about that one. So even GF devs themselves thought it was too limiting in GSC... I've been doing this in Gym Battles since XY (though I accidentally failed this with Alistair in SwSh). Makes you think of your movepools and the like. Maybe higher difficulties for Gym Battles should be similar to standard VGC rules.

Many people say that newer Pokemon games lack the challenge of the older games. But do they really? The more I had a look back at RBY and GSC, the more I believe that the difficulties there are for the wrong reasons, the wrong kind that is essentially a rigged game again st the player. And this is coming from a veteran that played Pokemon since the 90s. It's not like Gen 1-2 Gym Leaders are fricking beasts. Their movepools are pathetically predictable (Falker's Pidgeotto is one exception), and their AI is just as bad. What other game would have the E4 spam Extreme Speed over and over while your Pokemon is chipping their HP away? Sabrina was only difficult because of Ghost and Bug being awful counters. Other Gym Leaders like Whitney are only difficult because of a lack of variety in viable Pokemon choices available to you in general - and maybe some lack of reusable and good TMs back then, and levelling up being a pain in the ass in general. Lance outright cheated with his Aerodactyl learning Barrier, and bringing in multiple Dragonites that can all be 1/2-shotted by Ice Beam. Of all the Gym Leaders I faced when I was 12, only Falkner and Misty in GSC had some semblance of good trainership with actual strategy, and even then, there was the issue of Mareep being still inaccessible by the time you challenge the former, and the latter still had three Pokemon weak to Electric types (and her Rain Dance could even backfire to one of them). Heck, you arguably still have examples of (albeit isolated) of artificial difficulty as late as BW1. With Elesa, Ice Beam isn't an available option against her Emolga, or any pre-Championship opponent unlike past games. (And I remember reading that Emolga has a higher BST than many other Pokemon available.) With Cilan, you can't access Route 3 and thus the Pidove line before facing him. And don't get me started on Ghetsis's underlevelled Hydreigon (and Hydreigon in general evolving unusually late). Not to mention the lack of Fire Types plauging Flint... BW2 and Platinum alleviated this with the availability of past gen Pokemon. XY got rid of the artificial difficulty entirely by making various Pokemon available from the get-go, although it admittedly also got rid of the legit difficulty - particularly Korrina. Even with that, though, Viola and Grant threw some curveballs with dual-typings to address at least one of their common weaknesses. The latter also had strong attack moves made borderline busted by both abilities and STAB, and brought in a Dragon type much at a much earlier stage than you'd expect in a Pokemon game. It's a massive shame they didn't continue with that with later Pokemon (I was fully expecting Korrina's Pokemon with Dark-type moves shutting down my Ghost-types), and even then I had Clemont's Emolga switching over to his Heliolisk and Grass-knotting my unsuspecting Ground Type. If you still think older games had the challenge you needed, then well, I can't say anything more. But I think it is time to stop pretending that older games were the gold standard in difficulty. They're not. To varying extents, the older games have relied on artificial ways of raising difficulties. Them being gone in the newer games are actually a good thing. The real problem? Actually making a difficulty option (and not just toggling Exp Share on or off) and make Gym Leaders there actually able to counter their common weaknesses consistently. And that's what's been lacking.

I don't know if this is entirely correct, but Link's Awakening feels more like a reskin /re-port. Apart from some graphic upgrades and maybe some QoL, it's hardly any different from the original.

Can we maybe have a Lord that goes through negative character development? Maybe a Lord that is so set in his or her ways that struggles with societal changes and ends up being completely left out of touch even by his/her own people, and becomes a poster child for reactionism. And s/he gets dumped at the sometime after the war ends like Churchill's 1945 General Election. Even 3H is too sanitised with its endings, and I'd like to see a lord that doesn't leave a 100% positive legacy for once.

Right. That would be something I'll change if I ever do an AM LP fanfic similar to Fates, and something I'd happy to see changed in a remake. Make Edelgard actually rule parts of Faerghus, and rule it well. Since 3H's conflict is much less black and white unlike other FE games, I'd like to see this pushed further in a hypothetical remake or retelling (like what's done in for example Pokemon Ultra SM as opposed to original SM). That should also be something that should be further brought up if there's ever a remake or an update. That's indeed my point. BL reminds me of unpleasant toxic conservatism and honor-based culture in Japan that has difficulty in actually improving society and instead continues with its obsession of honour. And I'd like to see this more explored in a remake. See, I think that conversation between Dimi vs Edie was botched. I would have Edie bring out the question of crests, and I'll even bring out her manifesto, not only in CF but also in AM. And alongside how she grivances she does have of the church. And I would add further dialogue between Rhea and Dimi/Byleth afterwards and reflect how she also (unintentionally) had a hand in causing the conflict in the first place, and decides to entrust Byleth who at least have more interactions with people across Fodlan. TLDR, as with above, I'd rewrite this entirely and add extra dialogue, so that Dimi and Rhea realises their shortcomings - and this goes back to how BL is emotionally unhealthy as you pointed out. And how they need to change if they and their society wants to survive.

Okay, let me dispute this one by one. Bear with me as there's a lot to cover. Yes, Edie didn't start her reforms in CF, but I think that was because she was more behind in her conquering compared to other routes. I think it is worth pointing out that AM, CF etc are all alternate histories with the point of divergence being when Byleth chooses the house. Hasn't she already conquered the majority of the Kingdom in AM thanks to Cornelia? Admittedly, I'm a bit hazy with how much the Alliance is conquered, but I think she's in much better position by AM's Chapter 13 with Rhea caught, Dimitri missing, and the Kingdom annexed compared to CF's Chapter 13 which she hasn't had anything yet. Even if she can't push all of her reforms, I wouldn't be surprised if she can reform the military at least (and maybe a couple of other stuff) to recruit talented commoners to rise up through the ranks. She needs all of the help she can get. Point taken about Sylvain's needing the Crests to protect their territory from Sreng. It still doesn't negate his own problems with how the crests negatively affected his parents' (resultant) attitude towards the kids, or how Sylvain was seen as a trophy while Miklan was neglected. This shows up in his supports with Blyeth (B), Mercedes (B and A) and Dorothea (A) - though I noticed it didn't show up in the main story for some reason. And when I checked the former two conversations, Sylvain acts resentful too. And here's one between Sylvain and Mercedes: Surprisingly, I couldn't find the similar things with either Sylvain x Ingrid/Dimitri. (Or could it be in the main story and I've just missed it?) You know, two people who should actually know about Sylvain better than Byleth or Mercedes. Now, I know this could mean a whole lot of things, but it raises a couple of yellow flags with me that the people who are supposed to be close friends don't actually discuss then proverbial elephant inside Sylvain's emotional room. At the very least Dimitri could have more explicitly acknowledge Sylvain's (and Mercedes's) situation and more explicitly realise the negative side of crests on society. (Again, maybe this was in a conversation that I missed.) And this includes him trying to understand why Edelgard acted the way she did, even if he cannot completely forgive her. Now that I think about it, it was a step too far. But even if this isn't possible, I would have liked to have seen Dimitri realize that things aren't black and white, things don't happen in a vaccuum, and he's not completely the hero either. I mean, Dimi's story is still fairly close to a typical FE story, and this actually comes after 15+ games of the typical hero saves the continent story. I would totally not mind having the typical FE lord having to learn why things happened as they are, and that he has to admit his society's own shortcomings being a factor in setting off the events as they are, and that he cannot maintain the status quo. And the ending should show that there are way more stuff Dimi needs to sort out before he can finally rule with stability, and that the Kingdom had to contend with a lot of changes in its rule, ironically fulfilling Edelgard's wish to some degree. And if this sounds antithetical to what people think of AM, I would like to point out that my idea has some historical precedence. Napoleon may have failed as Emperor, but his ideas ended up setting up revolutions later down the track such as 1849 in Austria. The Sepoy rebellion in India failed, but did lead to a change in how India was governed. Communism eventually failed, but it did prompt western governments adopt social programs and civil rights - if nothing more than pragmatism to ironically keep people away from Communism. (See the end of this article from the Atlantic, quoted below.) I'll have to continue this on some other day as I am in the middle of work.

Now that I think about it, what would you improve for Azure Moon? I wouldn't mind if they also modify AM's story. Say Dimitri's reconquest of his Kingdom isn't going as well and is a constant uphill battle, trying to quell rebellions on the southern half. Turns out, those people were actually kind of content with the Empire's rule thanks to Edelgard's egalitarian policies. And turns out, Edelgard was kinda right about Rhea not having the best interests of the Fodlanese people. And suddenly Dimitri's leadership is called into question when the whole Blue Lions teams finds out. Some like Felix gets all high and mighty about it, revealing that he knew that Dimi was not doing his homework in governance all along. Some like Sylvain and Mercedes lashes out at Dimi for being constantly self-absorbed for the majority of the War Phase, disappointed that Dimi has no plans for what to do with the constant crest-based injustice the two faced. Others like Ingrid refuses to believe any of Edie's claims and yells at the others for not knowing which side the students are on. In the end, I would make it explicit that Edie ended up having the last laugh in her grave. Either Dimi gets forced into a figurehead, or he ends up passing a less extreme version of Edelgard's reforms. Rhea and Seteth ends up being forced to fess up under Byleth's coercion, and steps down. And while everyone eventually makes amends, I'd make it so that that too had been an uphill struggle.