Kyokko

I own both of the Japanese artbooks that have been mentioned in the discussion about Kyza. Here's the Japanese. 20th Anniversary キサ 体は男、心は女？ 普段は模範的な兵士なのだが、興奮するとなぜかオカマ口調になる。リィレとは、隊長であるライを巡ってライバル関係にある（もちろんライにその気はない）。 Radiant Dawn キサ ガリア王国、カイネギスに仕える獣牙族／虎（ビーストトライブ／タイガー）の戦士。ライは直属の上官、同隊のリィレは部下である。国王カイネギスの方針に従い、ラグズ連合軍の1人としてデイン王国軍と対峙する。 礼儀正しく誰に対しても丁寧な口調と態度で臨む紳士然とした人物。だが、その姿は公の場にあわせた「よそゆき」の姿で、親しい者の前では本来の性格（？）である女性のような口調と仕草に戻る。 上官であるライに対して特に好意を抱いており、リィレとはライを巡ってことあるごとに小競り合いを繰り広げている。 「あきらめなさい、リィレ。ライ隊長の愛はあたしのものよ！」 The 20th Anniversary description says that they speak like an okama when excited. Yikes. To answer ARMADS!!!!, it says that their "body is a man's, heart is a woman's (?)." The Radiant Dawn artbook's paragraph two basically says to me that their formal and polite manner is a facade they present in public, but with people they are close to their true nature (?) shows through, returning to more feminine speech and behavior. It seems to suggest that they are hiding their naturally more feminine self. My takeaway: The 20th Anniversary artbook is dated and unfortunate. The Radiant Dawn artbook is probably indicative of how IntSys wants to portray Kyza moving forward. Kyza's descriptions in Japanese feel like an AMAB trans person to me. However, Japanese is not my first language and I may be missing something.

I don't normally post, but I thought I'd share the feedback I sent to the Heroes team after today's banner reveal as well. My main game is in Japanese, so this is a translation of the feedback I sent them in Japanese. ~~Notes: The Princess Cup was/is an official Fire Emblem Cipher ladies-only tournament with a tea party afterwards. The Osaka one was yesterday (Sunday) and the Tokyo one will be on Saturday. For these official Cipher party events, every participant is asked what their favorite FE title is, and to name one character in particular that they like. At the event, you are given a blank bingo sheet and asked to talk to other participants and fill out the bingo sheet with the characters that they picked. At the end of the event, everyone uses those sheets to play bingo for Cipher merchandise. Young is an IS employee currently on the Cipher team who moderates the live broadcasts and such. And yes, the lady who used Eldigan as their favorite character actually called him Elt-niisama instead of his name.~~ My feedback: "About Summoning More Special Heroes from Fates? Yesterday, I attended the Osaka Princess Cup and asked everyone there who their favorite characters are for the tea party's bingo game. Rather than seeing the same characters repeated over and over again, I'd like to see some of the characters I wrote down on that bingo sheet, like Heath, Julian, and Mitama. I might be biased, but the Genealogy characters seemed fairly popular. I saw Sigurd, Finn, Elt-niisama, Ishtar, and Ayra (myself). Could we get some Genealogy Special Heroes? I also talked with Young a bit about how Ike is extremely popular overseas. Could we also get some Radiant Special Heroes? In particular, I'd be thrilled to see a few more male Special Heroes. Thank you!" Hopefully they read it. It's a BIT frustrating seeing this banner only a day after an Intelligent Systems employee walked up to me to start a conversation about why Ike is so popular with foreigners! I know the Cipher team, at the very least, has data on who is popular where, so please, please use it! Some random observations: In order to attend the afternoon tea party, you had to either do a lesson/trial tournament for Cipher or participate in the official tournament in the morning, so all of the ladies at the tea party were rather serious fans. At my table, more than half had started the series with Genealogy of the Holy War, one had played since Mystery of the Emblem, one since Binding Blade, and only one started with Awakening. Since a good deal of us are at least semi-serious Cipher players, we clearly aren't adverse to spending a little bit of money, either. I just realized that I forgot Olwen in my list of Jugdral characters that were on the bingo sheet. She was the character that got me a bingo, too! The only favorite Fates characters I saw at the tea party were a Corrin F, a Takumi, and the lady with the aforementioned Mitama. Fates characters have really declined since I first started attending Cipher events. I used to see ladies with Ryouma, Xander, Leo, Jakob, and Azura as well.

I'm not there so I can't say for sure, but I think that the stock reserved for each day is different, with Day 1 getting the largest allotment. If anyone wants to get the more popular items that have sold out on previous days on Day 2 or 3, I suggest they line up very early to get into Comiket. For example, last year I lined up for Comiket at 8:30am on Day 2 and went straight to the Cipher booth, but random, green, and black can badges had already sold out before I could make a purchase.

You're right. Yesterday, the Tiki mat sold out relatively quickly. They later reduced the number of boxes that you could buy in each purchase to two of each. Then the paper badges sold out in the afternoon. Today, the Tiki mat has sold out again in less than an hour. There will be some more stock tomorrow, but the Tiki mat is very popular and likely to sell out quickly. FuziChoco is a great artist.

I can't answer for everyone in Japan, but the group I play with is mixed. There are a few who are longtime fans of the series, like myself, a few who have only played since Awakening or Fates, and a few who didn't play the video games before the card game and were either intrigued by it or dragged in by friends who were series fans. I think that series fans significantly outnumber people who are only card game players, but quite a few of those fans were already card game players before Cipher was released. All of the big Cipher events are designed so that people who do not play the card game, but are Fire Emblem fans, can also enjoy themselves - mini concerts, Cipher teaching areas, last year's Cipher Sai had a 100 Poems karuta game area and artist signing events, etc. I haven't attended a general Cipher koryukai party event, but I have attended two of the ladies-only luncheon ones. Both of them were also set up in a way that was inclusive of people who are Fire Emblem fans, even if they haven't played Cipher. We played a game of bingo using the names of the favorite Fire Emblem characters of people we mingled with, etc. I'd say that about half of the card shops in Den Den Town in Osaka carry Cipher cards. It's not quite on the level of the major TCGs, but it's not terribly obscure. When I first started playing Cipher instead of just collecting cards during Series 2, there were usually 8-12 people at the local weekly Cipher card shop tournament. I think that only two of them have quit playing Cipher entirely. While the weekly attendance numbers have gone down a bit, everyone still tries to make it when they can. There were five of us who went to the card shop the night before Series 7 came out to break the street date and open our boxes together. One of the interesting things about Cipher is the large amount of female players. In Osaka, I think there are four or five ladies-only tournaments a month, with the biggest card shops in the city each holding one a month. The one I used to attend usually had 16-20 ladies attend it each month. This is why Cipher sometimes hosts ladies-only events and usually has ladies-only Cipher areas at their large events. The sentiment among the group I play with is that Cipher is well run and Producer Kawade is very respectful of the players. Like you mentioned, each pack has a foil card and all of the cards are characters. In addition, the actual cards themselves are thicker and higher quality than some other TCG cards, such as MtG and Pokemon. Someone once mentioned to me that they really appreciated the way that many artists have card illustrations of all rarities. The example he used was the Series 4 Yumina cards. Apparently, that artist is so well-known that the illustrations that they do for other TCGs always have a high rarity. I also believe that Cipher decisions are largely gameplay-oriented. Sure, lots of characters on cards are determined by general fan popularity, but all of the skills they have are created in a way to keep the game fairly balanced. The most expensive non-promo cards are actually the ones that are the most valuable in a deck. For example, Nino is the most expensive Series 7 SR not because she is popular waifu bait, but because she returns a copy of your main character to your hand for no bond cost each turn she's out. Did Nino get an SR because she's a popular character? Probably. Is Nino's card valuable BECAUSE Nino's a popular character? No. She's one of the best support units currently in the game. Are Deidre and Lilina valuable because they're popular? No, they're valuable because they're designed to be anti-Nowi cards, since Nowi was so useful in the game that most decks included her up to that point. In essence, it's not the collectors who drive the market for Cipher cards here, but the players. I think that's part of what Jariu is trying to say. In short, Cipher in Japan: brittle - No likely to be discontinued - Not at this point in time. I think there is a decent overlap between Fire Emblem fans and TCG fans. While there are people who simply collect, Cipher is very accommodating and goes out of its way to try to make it easy to get into. For each series, there are a series of beginner lesson events set up by Cipher staff in several major cities, in addition to the card shops that are set up by Cipher with materials so that shop employees can also teach newcomers when there aren't official Cipher lessons. Ladies-only tournaments exist in several major cities for women who feel uncomfortable attending regular tournaments. Producer Kawade has expressed an intent to cover every game in the series, provided that interest in Cipher remains. On topic: Guidebook 7 has a page in the back with sample artwork and a bit of information from Series 8. None of the artwork is new, but it says that there will be a holographic marker card in addition to the Series 9 promo and the sleeves in each Series 8 box.

The point is that those aren't May's shop markers, though. May's markers are Tiki, Marth, Minerva, and Hardin. I can confirm that personally. I'm assuming the ones in the guidebook are actually June's markers, a blue set to match the red set being given out in May. Every series except for Series 1 has had two sets of shop markers. Series 2 - male Fates royals in Nov., female Fates royals in Dec. Series 3 - PoR cards in Feb., Revelation cards in Mar. Series 4 has red cards in May; the blue cards are likely June's. (Each Series' shop tournament gifts tend to follow this pattern to keep players coming to shop tournaments: first full month in a new series - new shop promo boosters, month 2 - new markers and the promo boosters, month 3 - different markers and the promo boosters.) I can't confirm anything for sure; this is speculation on my part based on how previous series have been handled. The text in the guidebook just says that new marker cards will be available from May (true), that the four pictured below will be the first set (false), and that the only things you can use as a marker card in tournaments are the official special markers or the markers included in the ST decks (depends on how strict the shop running the tournament is - I've seen fanart, cards from the old FE TCG, and point cards being used as well).

+1 wobblinghood Thank you for the trade!

I live in Japan and play in local shop tournaments; I value cards based on the Japanese market prices. For trade/sale: SR B03-053 Hoshido Azura x1 B04-001 Oribe Tsubasa x1 B04-044 Hardin x1 R+ B03-032 Nephenee x1 I have some R cards, as well as most HN and all N cards, but they aren't valuable enough to trade on their own. If you want to know if I have something to add to an order, please ask. Promotional Cards P01-005 Chrom x2 (but there's an upcoming re-release of this card in Series 5) P01-010 Tharja x4 (1 Hold) P02-003 Bantu x7 (1 Hold) P02-004 Panne x3 (1 Hold) P02-005 Hinoka x5 (1 Hold) P02-007 Corrin (F) x4 (1 Hold) P02-008 Nohr Azura x5 (1 Hold) P03-003 Oliver x6 (1 Hold) P03-004 Black Knight x9 (1 Hold) P03-005 Ike x2 (1 Hold) P03-006 Camilla x6 (1 Hold) P03-007 Elise x4 (1 Hold) P03-008 Felicia x6 (1 Hold) P03-010 C89 Camilla x5 (1 Hold) P04-003 Mathis x1 (Pending) P04-006 Catria x2 (1 Pending) (1 Hold) P04-008 Severa x1 (Pending) Marker Cards Sakura (12/2015) x1 Elise (12/2015) x1 Ike (2/2016) x1 Soren (2/2016) x1 Mia (2/2016) x1 Nephenee (2/2016) x1 Kaze (3/2016) x1 Selkie (3/2016) x1 Nina (3/2016) x1 Felicia (Sai/Kiramekihai) x1 (Pending) Jakob (Sai/Kiramekihai) x1 (Pending) One set of 5/2016 shop markers are reserved; I don't know if I'll get more for trade. (Progress: 0/4, personal set completed) Likewise, one set of the probable 6/2016 shop markers (Itsuki, Lucina, Cynthia, Severa) are reserved. Album Books (Side-story booklets illustrated by cards) What's in the package given to you by the card shop: https://flic.kr/p/CbhLJ4 The middle page of the Path of Radiance one: https://flic.kr/p/BdMoLJ Vol. 01 - Path of Radiance x4 You'll need these cards: B03-003 Ike, 037 Jill, 028 Lethe, 009 Titania, 024 Ilyana, 043 Tibarn Vol. 02 - Hoshido x3 You'll need these cards: B02-004 Azura, 007 Ryoma, 013 Sakura, 009 Hinoka, 011 Takumi, 002 Corrin (M) Vol. 03 - Nohr x1 You'll need these cards: B02-054 Azura, 063 Elise, 059 Camilla, 061 Leo, 057 Xander, 052 Corrin (F) Comiket C89 / Cipher Sai Awakening/Fates Can Badges Tharja x1 Olivia x2 Kaze x2 Jakob x1 Saizou x1 Felicia x1 #FE Premium Live Can Badges Tiki x2 Eleonora x1 Touma's Hero Sticker x1 These are the SR cards I'm interested in, in roughly the order I want them: Desired SR Cards Soren (1) S4 Cordelia (2) Robin M (1) (Under Discussion) Some of these cards are quite valuable and I may not be able to offer a fair trade for them; they're listed for completeness. I'm not currently interested in buying cards. Thank you for looking!

Post moved

+1 Chuy +2 Sokloeum

2 support skill base class cards and some promoted cards with support skills are the gimmick for Binding Blade. Radiant Dawn will have some sort of promotion gimmick to resemble the third tier classes. That Elincia was a Queen.

About Dieck's other art - it sounds like the + cards in Series 5 will have alternate art. Kawade didn't say which of the two was the normal card's art, and which was the +'s.

+1 yunjaelove

+1 LucinaofYlisse I'm glad your artbook arrived safely!

+1 wobblinghood Thank you so much for the trade!

I think that Merric is a normal S4 card, but I'm not entirely sure. Ragnell and Ike's cape were made for the cosplay photo area at Cipher Sai, so I suppose the the answer is yes?

Tsutomu Kitanishi, Outrealm Businessman (The other guy from IntSys who started the Cipher project with Kawade) Yes, Mr. Kitanishi asked Ike's VA to read lines off of Ike's cards, and also wrote some of Midoriko's lines from Fates on scrap paper and handed it to her to read. Yes, the boxart from Mystery of the Emblem and Awakening will be on the sleeves handed out in Series 4's booster boxes. The stickers are the bonus for the #FE ST deck. Of note here, Clarine is illustrated by Kurosawa Tetsu, and Sothe is by Kita Senri. Also, they mentioned that Sanaki was PoR-aged, not RD-aged, implying that there will be an older, promoted Sanaki as well. Kitanishi prodded Kawade to confirm promoted Sanaki, but Kawade refused. The Merric card was there specifically to point out that Kawade is a cheater. At both West and East, there was a live match between Kawade and Nishiki/Foleo's VA. The VA won at West, so Kawade put Series 4 cards in his deck for the rematch at East, or something like that. I wasn't paying attention to the Kawade matches at either West or East, but they made a brief mention of it at the closing ceremony at East. The cards they read were haiku written by visitors to Cipher Sai that the staff really liked. At the end of that, the viewers were asked to vote for their favorite haiku. The one about Nohr Ch. 10 won. The old artwork (Owain, Reyson, etc.) was all artwork for Cipher drawn by Suzuki Rika. She was chosen to do the key art for Series 6, since she had some involvement with Seisen no Keifu, if I understood everything correctly. Michalis is also hers.

At Cipher Sai 2016, there was an area dedicated to "Quest Battles," card game matches where each person plays the match with a special rule or limitation that they announce before the match. The two players did not have to choose the same rule. I thought some players here might be interested in trying these alternate rules as well, so here is my rough translation of the different Quest Battle rules used at Cipher Sai 2016: Wounded Knight Prepare only three Orbs at the start of the match. Misplaced Items Prepare only four cards for your hand at the start of the match. Unyielding Encumbrance All of your units are unable to evade attacks via discarding a card with the same unit name. A Hero’s Bonds Deploy two Main Characters at the start of the match. Both Main Characters are to be treated as the Main Character for the entire match. If either is destroyed, instead of removing them from the field, take an Orb. If either is destroyed once you have run out of Orbs, you lose the match. Both Main Characters must begin on the front lines. In the Neighborhood of the Front Lines All characters placed on the field must be deployed on the front lines (not the rear guard). Proper Names You must add the word “cute” before every unit name you say while playing the match. Ex. “I’ll attack Cute Wrys using Cute Marth.” If you fail to use “cute” before a unit name, you must choose and discard one card from your hand. Disappearing Remuneration When your unit changes class, you do not get the Class Change Bonus of drawing one card. One Who Knows the Future From the beginning of preparation for the match to the end of the match, you must keep your deck face up. You may not check the cards under the top card. (Not on the rule sheet, but everyone I played with using this rule played with every single card visible at all times. Since your deck is face up from preparation, your Orbs and hand are face up, and so on. My favorite of the Quest Battle rules.) Blessing of the Goddess When your unit changes class, you draw five cards instead of one as your Class Change Bonus. If any of the rules are unclear or I used the wrong English terms, let me know so I can edit it to be easier to understand. Thanks!

Trade list moved: http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=55020&p=4336933

I did, but each paper was personalized. The voucher you took to the signing had a box for you to write a name in. The name in the box was then written on a pre-signed paper and given out. Even if somebody had one to sell, it would have the wrong name on it unless you arranged for somebody to get it for you in advance. For me, the best part about it was meeting the artists. Kozaki laughed when I jokingly told him I was looking forward to his Ganz card, and Senri Kita told me she thought my name was pretty.My spare Aquas from East have found a home.

Camilla/Hinoka mat sold out. Random badges sold out. No Camilla mats orders fulfilled. Only 5/17 randoms. Edit: Pixel mat and green badges gone.

Some areas had a no-picture request. Everything with the artist signings was no-picture. I didn't take any pictures because I had other things to do almost the entire time. Also, I'm waiting in the lobby of the convention center with like 250 people. 1:30 until it opens.

With Fire Emblem's track record, it will be as hard to get one of the play mats from an online shop as it was to get the Japanese Awkening 3DS. That was a nightmare. Nintendo's servers were constantly crashing, they only released small batches of them on Thursdays and Saturdays for a month after the game came out. The first Saturday I tried, I got it in my cart, but it sold out before I could get the page to enter my address to load...

Update from my end! I've bought boxes, but haven't had time to get anyone's order packaged and estimated for shipping. The reason for that is that a kind poster on the forum has offered to help cover the cost of me taking a night bus to Tokyo for East. I've reserved the bus tickets and done a basic compilation of my outstanding mat orders, the order of the person who has offered to help me get to East, and luyairis' orders. Any items in luyairis' orders that are likely to sell out before luyairis arrives at East I will attempt to purchase, then hand over to luyairis when he arrives. I won't have my surprise support group like I did at West so results probably won't be as good, but I'll try. Everyone who placed an order with a play mat: your order is on hold and will not be shipped until after East as things currently stand. Also, please message me to confirm if you still want the mat. If you don't or have gotten it from an auction, I can take your name off of the list. Everyone who placed an order with no play mat: I'll try to get shipping estimates out to you before East, but no promises. Aqua promos: I'll get a set from East. It'll be auctioned among the people who made West orders with me or have a pending Cipher trade/sale with me from the Cipher sale thread. Proceeds are to help cover the cost of the trip to Tokyo. Illustrator Signatures: I'm not accepting requests from anyone. There are six artists between the two events, and six sessions where you can only receive one signature. New orders: Only if you're going to help pay for the cost of the trip to Tokyo and don't want play mats. I think I might have trouble completing extra can badge orders as well, depending on what sets and how many randoms you want. Sokloeum: Do you still want the Felicia/Joker markers from Cipher Sai? I might be able to get a pair to trade if you do. Thanks!

There's an American that frequents my local shop tournament. He had a custom Cipher mat made. The serious card game guys were shocked by it. I don't think custom mats are a thing here, to be honest.