Axie

happy birthday! shame about the 2% crit, and i agree the game design isn't at fault for this. if that's any consolation, which it probably isn't.

technically sword-locked characters are also great in gaiden/echoes, but that's to be expected when axes are not playable and the only characters to wield two different types of attack are promoted alm and priestesses. swordmasters are also not bad in fates since it's a game with actual ranged swords (you can get a kodachi in conquest, right?). speaking of midori, it's not really a wrong belief i have/had because i always knew she is kaze's daughter, but whenever i read her name i immediately think "oh, mozu's daughter", and i don't even know why. i didn't even pair kaze and mozu in my first fates playthrough or anything. i only did it in a later playthrough after i realized i kept thinking of midori as mozu's daughter anyway.

i think kris was competently added to the storyline and that marth is a better character for having kris with him in NM. tears? the supports are mostly boring and pointless though.

since that didn't happen, i actually wouldn't mind if they replaced the replacement characters with thracia people (karin over femina, etc). even if they are gameplay bad compared to the kids, it would add a lot of replayability because people would want to check them out eventually.

this thread could have ended on this stellar post also all these attempts at comparing fire emblem to anime all the time are getting old. it's not the same media, you guys.

you didn't play, so it's only logical you don't know, but this game works way differently from fates and awakening to NOT have replacements, though. you eventually lose all of your characters and need the new ones to function, while the children in fates and awakening are entirely optional. you can miss pairings in gen 1, and you need the replacements if you do. also, how would the children even work in gameplay if you are saying they show up even if the mother is unpaired? how would their bases and growths be calculated? i don't see a genealogy remake removing the replacement dynamic, and i don't think they should. you'd just have to live with never having all the available characters, i suppose. speaking of replacements, i wouldn't mind if they were a bit better. not that better that you'd rather have them over pairing the mother, but some replacements are just so lame. i guess removing pursuit as a skill concept fixes a lot of that, though. DOUBLING FOR EVERYONE.

YESSSSSSSS i wouldn't put gaiden here because it honestly tried to be something for a 1990 NES game but YESSSSSS drag fates writing to FILTH. so happy that birthright brought this realization. it's every bit as bad as conquest and revelation. with that said, i think birthright is being a bit undersold on difficulty here. it seems appropriate to rank it with radiant dawn - a game that, in its hard mode, is harder than birthright when it's not GM chapters - but blazing blade is definitely easier when it's not doing fog of war or kishuna shenaningans for example. maybe +2 and -2 tiers for difficulty would be good if you want to value it more, even if you keep birthright at 0 - it seems 0 and -4 are a bit crowded right now.

kris in second even with a "none" option (which i expected to lead)? VICTORY

i don't know why they decided to make the endgame of birthright 1-turnable when conquest and revelation aren't (sure, chapter 27 in revelation is 1-turnable, but endgame isn't). that makes it underwhelming. and chapter 27 is pretty fun too! kind of weird. congratulations on finishing birthright!

every recurring anna from now on should be dating a recurring jake, the anna extended fire emblem universe needs more lore

sigurd/deirdre AND eliwood/ninian are anemic pairings that bring their storylines down (and BlaBla's storyline is already almost in the mariana trench lol) and micaiah/sothe have a much better dynamic for the storyline of their game than both of those two. the best main lord pairing the games actively suggest is ike/soren. tears?

i think elise's death scene is jaw-droppingly stupid and the crowning jewel of birthright's "this IS as bad as conquest and revelation" storyline. everything about it is sooooo pointless. it only isn't as bad as flora setting herself on fire because that wasn't a cutscene and therefore looked ridiculous.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE avatars seem to have gotten progressively worse in my opinion. at least in the games i have played. is byleth worse than corrin? is it possible to be worse than corrin??

my first in-depth exposure to anything three houses (i only know broad strokes of the storyline, and a bit more of how the gameplay works) will be your evisceration of it. i have high expectations and i don't even care about being spoiled. i am so excited.

well, that's just fates being badly written, isn't it? i think it could be pulled off. she could even still be a songstress (better at surviving hits though, i guess). speaking of writing, i just finished new mystery again and it's definitely my second favourite FE AND i really enjoy the writing, specially of the avatar and katarina, in it. i think i am nearly alone in this opinion with how unpopular it is, but i don't care. people call this game's main story a lot of lore dumping, but i don't think that does it justice, and that's only really true in chapters 11 to 14, which are the game's low point in gameplay too (not a fan of the sudden difficulty spike - and then chapter 15 is immediately easier lol).

shadow dragon not so much (it took the first remake at least), but i absolutely consider original gaiden a better story than awakening, fates or even blazing blade lol. rudolf's plan being a bit of a WHAT doesn't take away that much from an ambitious attempt in an 8 bit console. oh, i mean, you are bound to stumble upon the my castle recruits if you keep up with the castle stuff. at least i always made sure to have everything as upgraded as possible even in my first playthrough lol. i actually got izana after yukimura because the puppets seemed more important, but still i did get izana and he ended up being useful in endgame.

it wouldn't hurt it that much if it's not that likely that people are going to die to begin with, would it? also fates does offer a couple of prepromotes in the second half of the game that don't need paralogues at least

oh sweet alastor thinking fates EVER cared about its backstory. maskless people care more about covid19 spreading than fates cared about its backstory in all three games. i still think you should put it below the NES games in the story ranking, as funny as it can be to see how bad it gets. garon is probably the worst fire emblem main villain ever, and one of the main villains of the franchise is fucking veld, he of the "i have like four lines total in the game i am the main villain of" fame. also, i was catching up and was totally ready to argue birthright not deserving to be the same as revelation in ironmanability just because of the ice tribe village chapter when revelation has a bit more of bullshit, but then i got to the asugi escape. lmao but also OOF. not sure child paralogues should count for the ranking since they are entirely optional, but that was reee-ough.

as with most things gameplay, fates did it the best: 20/20 with each level being 100 exp, the exp curve being so that you quickly start gaining very little exp if you are overleveled, and the game assigns internal levels to promoted units so it's actually not that bad to give experience to the prepromotes or early promotes. eternal seals were stupid though. that unused item from FESS that rolled back your level was a lot better because then your max level would still be 20. no jakob/felicia shenanigans in such a game though (and that was weird anyway).

fates might be badly written but nothing comes CLOSE to how terrible inigo/nah is. nah isn't even good in other supports to be honest. worst character in awakening? probably. still better than a handful of fates miscreants, though. but yeah, that hana support is absurd. who typed those lines and thought with a straight face that was a good or even funny source of conflict? fates pls. also i know this chapter can be actually fought, but also nah. i get the treasure and SPLIT IT. i think i do it in two turns? love it when fire emblem gives me even half a chance to not actually fight, which is why i hate the stealth chapter in revelation so much - you put up a reward for not fighting and then make it so unbearably annoying to not fight that you make even me want to just fight? fuck you, revelation. also i will still remain behind my guy subaki. yes hinoka outclasses him, but also duh, she is a royal. camilla also outclasses beruka and i always use beruka in conquest anyway. more fliers are always useful imo.

i always turn combat animations off lol. i don't even think i've seen the puppet animations to be honest. might have to youtube that.

i have always been around for the gameplay first, so whatever, but awakening and specially fates really tried me with their characterisation at points. the anime tropes really are not for me. strangely, i have yet to play but three houses hasn't appealed to me either despite having stepped away from that. it just feels like a different form of trend-chasing and doesn't feel organic to the franchise either.

chapter 10 and you are already starting to realize birthright is an absolute writing disaster ❤️ it gets worse! i cannot wait! even that would be insufficient because kaze is a dude and dudes are the ones who gets kids in fates. the fact you can lock yourself out of getting midori in birthright... yikes

i know that, and that's the point! even in those conditions, starting at E for new weapons annoys me! imagine in previous games! i don't think you could make any point that could convince me secondary weapons starting at E is NOT a chore. i basically train them out of spite most of the time lol. also, it doesn't help that from BlaBla to PoR, effectiveness was 2x, undermining even the bows-for-warriors point. a better point in BinBla but then i don't wanna use any warriors in it 😞

oooh, i wouldn't count glitches and debuging modes as "exploiting the mechanics" of the game. it's not meant to used to begin with. i was definitely thinking of things that are possible in the intended way of playing.