Valmese Soldier

I was watching Lord of the Rings: Return of the King recently, and this idea came to me; despite not being true domestic animals, War Elephants were a very powerful force to reckon with in ancient and medieval warfare. With me being a FE fan, I thought that maybe if it could work, a War Elephant would be a very interesting unit-they would effectively be mobile fortresses. Here's how I think they would work: because they are so massive, War Elephants would take up 4 spaces, and on their back they would have a unit wielding a lance, an archer unit, and a unit that throws Spears. I think it would be very disappointing and a missed opportunity if the Elephant itself wasn't used as an enemy, so it would use it's tusks that are attached with swords as a move which is either sword-type or lance type (since they are long like Lances), but I would say sword-type because I think a long pole weapon would be the best kind of melee weapon if you were faced against one of these. The War Elephant's stats would be very high HP, Atk, and Def, decent luck (maybe a high luck stat if Elephants are considered good luck in some cultures), okay resistance, good skill, but low speed. It would move either 5-7 spaces. If you take the Elephant down, you could also take its riders down with it, but this should be very hard to do because of how much help they give it. The War Elephant would also function as a movable high ground, which gives all projectile enemies on top of it at least 1 additional space that their projectile would cover; this means that an enemy with a Spear would cover up to at least 3 spaces, and an enemy unit with a Longbow (because they would have to appear in late-game anyway) would cover up to at least 4 spaces. The Lance wielder would always dual-attack with the War Elephant (another reason why I think that a War Elephant's attack should function as sword-type). If you try to hit it from a distance, you'd also have to deal with the Spear-thrower and Sniper who are highly likely to dual-attack you. I am thinking that because of how powerful they are meant to be, War Elephants should be enemy-only units. The first War Elephant you'd meet would probably be only one as a boss or with the boss riding it, but very late in the game the enemy army could have many War Elephants supported by infantry. In ancient and medieval warfare, the sight of War Elephants was enough to terrify an enemy army and lower morale, they could take on a whole bunch of an enemies soldiers at the same time, so I'd like War Elephants in FE to give the player that feeling of a very intimidating giant walking fortress that they'd really have to strategize in order to take down. However, since Elephants are intelligent animals, they could work where you might be able to recruit an Elephant rider and have the Elephant as a character with some personality (esp. in the supports with their rider), and plus, wouldn't it just be totally satisfying to rampage on your enemy with a gigantic beast and have a mobile fortress of your own?

Mounted physically offensive units seem "okay" to me, so I think there should be a weapon out there to make them better or at least stand out more. Intelligent Systems, if you're listening, I hope you're able to add Cavalry Sabres as a special type of sword in a future installment of Fire Emblem. My idea for them is basically, when used by a non-mounted unit with the ability to wield swords, they're slightly weaker swords comparable to other swords for their level, but when used by a horse-mounted unit with the ability to wield swords, they give bonuses, such as higher physical offense, skill, speed, crit chance, etc. I'm betting this is much more likely to happen then my firearms idea. They'd be a pretty interesting mechanic I think. Plus, Cavalry Sabres are really beautiful swords :)

So gameplay-wise Fates is wonderful. The only flaws I really notice with that is that Birthright and Revelations don't have that epic challenge feel that Conquest does, but other than that, it is fantastic for FE. However, while I liked many of the characters, the story of them felt a bit... weak to me, but I felt like there was promise to be had here. How would you improve the story of Fates in general? What are some missed out opportunities for pre-battle dialog between one of Corrin's units and a special unit in the field, and what would they say in such pre-battle dialog? How would you make some characters done better, such as character arcs?

Yeah, I guess she isn't "main character" material but by her bloodline, she does have some importance and could be a good starting off character. However, I think that if Owain was able to abandon his preferred fighting method, swordplay, for something he's not used to, magic, I imagine his daughter could do inversely the same thing.

Ophelia isn’t “just” another one of the children characters in Fates. She is one of Marth’s descendants, meaning that she’d be able to wield the Falchion, and at the end of it, she went back to her world anyway. So should she be a main character in another Fire Emblem game? She's an adventurous lady, so I can see her building up a new team with comrades along with Soleil (since the ending said she'd return to her world as well).

But true. Without a military, a country would shortly be conquered, and the populace all the other institutions would be subject to the will of the conquerers. We don't truly even live in peace right now, we're in a many decades-old Mexican standoff. There's a reason why our military budget is where most of the US taxpayer money goes to... If someone can not only survive but remain cohesive on the battlefield, that person has the temperament to even be the President. A relevant degree is all I think someone should really need to do very well.

Regardless of where you stand on politics, the current POTUS right now has very little political experience prior to sitting in the highest office in the most powerful country in the world, if any, at least compared to his predecessors; whether you think that's a good thing or a bad thing is for you to decide. So I say we should start a new movement: America should allow persons as young as 18 years to run for political office. Barring the rare cases of prodigies (which honestly I could see as the kind of young people running for office) there aren't any rules stating that a [relevant] degree is required, it's just that they would likely help a lot with getting votes. If you think a type of person wouldn't win any elections anyway, why prohibit them from at least making attempts? Young people running an entire nation is by no means a new thing. In history, there have were kings who had to take charge of entire kingdoms/empires while they would still be in their teens, and unlike today, since they were absolute kings instead of democratically elected officials, they had a lot more weight on their shoulders compared to the majority of world leaders today, so really, an elected 19 year old would in actuality have an easier job than a very long time ago because other people could impede on their decisions, as America is not an absolutely ruled. People of this age group are allowed to vote, which is where the majority of the power for the US lies in, so in a way, people that young already can impact what happens in this country anyway, they vote because they can make good decisions for the country. There are also 18 year olds in the most vital part of any society, the military. If we can trust people that age to be in the most stressful and life threatening task that takes a lot of disciple, cooperation, bravery, and coherency in stressful situations, then they can definitely take working in a public office. I think, should this become law, what we'd actually see is people in their 20s and 30s running for office, I don't think old people should have a monopoly. Mental health isn't even checked when an American runs for office, even the highest one; why not just let the best candidate win and become a mayor, govenor, senator, president, etc? It should be the people's choice.

Rating wise, I see no reason why the addition of firearms would affect the rating of Fire Emblem than it already is. Just because Nintendo's most well known IPs are family friendly doesn't mean all of its series are "children's games." Fire Emblem is one of those Nintendo IPs that clearly had an older audience than their most well-known series in mind. So you're telling me that it's all nice to get shot by arrows, have your body pierced by a spear, burned alive by fire magic, stabbed with daggers or mutilated by an axe (the latter two something more contemporary and common in our present world) but once a small piece of metal pierces through someone's body, all hell breaks loose? That's funny, because most people consider getting shot at more humane than being stabbed or cut up. I'm talking about a game that features executions, incest, a whole village of people slaughtered, seppuku and other suicides, homosexuality, patricide, bloodthirsty murder-happy psychos (looking at you Perry!), fanservice, support conversations that only adults will understand, kidnapping, politics, and people explicitly dying and not coming back (unlike Pokemon), and this is only coming from Fates! I'm sure firearms would be the least of problems for a kid who wants to play Fire Emblem! Many gamers have nostalgia of playing games like Goldeneye 64, Halo, or Contra when they were kids, it's not like the concept of firearms in games would be a new thing for children who would want to play FE. Even if they're "kid's games," then you should also be aware that some classic Disney movies, like Tarzan, Bambi, and Up, also feature guns. If a parent won't let their kid get a FE game, then one of the factors on that list I made will come first way before firearms. Zelda also featured Link using explosives as weapons, sometimes on Ganondorf, in his human form. Worry not @Vaximillian, firearms can exist in a setting with bows, swords, and magic! Gunpowder existed in LOTR, and in history, swords, spears, bows, and battle axes still existed at the same time as firearms. In fact, it was only until relatively recently actually that swords were reserved only for ceremonial roles, spears can still be said to be used even today in the form of bayonets, and some modern countries like China still use crossbows to this day(I may be getting off topic here)! In a fantasy setting , you can do what you want, and my idea of this hypothetical class was to make it good yet nerf it so it wouldn't be too OP. The most the addition of firearms would do to a FE game is that it may take place in a Renaissance or Oriental (like Hoshido) type setting. I believe that I heard that in legends, a dragon's scales were said to be immune to bullets, so when the final boss Dragon arrives, a musketeer or Rifleman's primary weapon wouldn't be that helpful against the actual final boss, but would instead be useful against the minions that the final boss uses to kill our protagonist and their allies.

This sounds like a great idea. Firearms can be quite OP, so it'd make sense to be enemy-only and for the antagonistic Kingdom (or Empire, rather) when starting to lose, unleashes it's secret weapon. They would surprise the protagonists in the cutscene where they are introduced, and would make for a good challenge for people who enjoy strategy, like Conquest Lunatic. If they were just one late-game class, I'd say they'd be Musketeers and when in melee range would use rapiers. Now that I think about it, it makes perfect sense for gunners to be the antithesis to heavily armored classes, especially Knights, in the same way that Archers are the antithesis to Pegasus Knights. Even though a gunner class should lack skill, Knight classes have abysmal speed, which means they'd be quite likely for a Musketeer to hit. You'd have to rely on very speedy dodgy units and hope you're lucky or the most defensive non-heavily armored unit.

This idea came to me when I was playing Awakening. I wanted to use my archer, but I didn't like how even though being on the offensive with him wouldn't allow the enemy to retaliate because once it was the enemies phase, he'd be a sitting duck and wouldn't even be that much help if it's just one enemy, he'd just be there. I wished that my archer could just somehow defend himself against the enemies that go into close quarters (single square) space, and that's when I thought of this; ironically, it wasn't firing bullets, but bayonet usage that made me think of maybe using a gunman as a class in Fire Emblem. Specifically, I think a Musketeer would be the name for the base class, and Rifleman could be the name for the advanced class. Some of you may think this may not work too well in a fantasy setting, but that's not true; in some "Sword & Sorcery" worlds, gunpowder weaponry exists along with swords, bows, magic, etc. A great example of this is Legend of Zelda. Anyway, here's how I think a Musketeer class would be: their design would be a round hat with a feather, puffy renaissance/late medievalish sleeves, and a big/long shirt with a nation's crest on it, sort of like this:

I'm doing a second run of Fates, on Lunatic this time, but since I'm doing Conquest Lunatic right now (it's a hell of a challenge) I'm interested if anyone knows of any good self-imposed challenges in Fire Emblem, specifically for Revelations, because Revelations will seem too easy to me after beating Conquest on Lunatic (if I beat it that its).

This may be a small detail to some, but I think it would please some people such as myself if Intelligent Systems added the Wilhelm Scream into the sound effects for whenever an enemy unit is defeated in battle. I think it would add for a neat Easter Egg and a Fire Emblem game is perfect for it. Until then, maybe someone can make a mod for some already released Fire Emblem titles to have some enemies make the scream.

@Gustavos Thank you, I'm glad you found my theory stimulating. It was an epiphany.

Fire Emblem Fates is a game that takes place in a fantasy world, but not in a fantasy like we'd expect it to: The three “paths” Corrin can choose from are meaningless, for every one of those alleged “paths” are just merely illusions-they’ve never happened; post-chapter 2, every new character you met, every battle, every victory, every fond memories with other characters, and every relationship or marriage doesn’t exist outside of Corrin’s tragically damaged mind; however, this theory posits that they all “took place” in the same timeline. What do we really know about Corrin? Corrin is a person who is part of the Norian Royal Family who was isolated from everyone, even their own siblings, Corrin’s family. Corrin receives little to no attention or affection from other human beings at all. In fact during chapter 2, as further proof of Corrin's not only lack of affection, but domestic abuse, Corrin's big brother, Xander, even strikes Corrin with the Siegfried when Corrin refuses to carry out Garon's orders to execute some criminals. More on this later. Any human being, even those who are naturally sane, who are isolated for long periods of time have a tendency to eventually go mad. Combine this with the fact that Corrin was isolated from their Royal Siblings, which suggests that despite their healthy physical body, there was something about Corrin which was “defective” to King Garon that wasn’t do to with any their physical body’s ability: it was Corrin's mind that was defective; to be specific, schizophrenia. The player is later told that Corrin was actually born in Hoshido to Queen Mikoto, and was kidnapped as a child by King Garon, and that Corrin has dreams of their “previous siblings.” However these “dreams” are nothing more than the product of a troubled schizophrenic mind trying to escape reality. In chapter 2, King Garon tries to give his mentally defective child a chance to be like their siblings by giving Corrin a simple task to execute some troublemakers, 2 of which includes Kaze and Rinka. For all we know, they could indeed be cruel savage criminals and they rightfully deserve their executions; however, since we are playing from Corrin’s perspective, we see through Corrin’s point of view, where Kaze and Rinkah are innocent people; Corrin felt like a prisoner their whole life, so maybe felt a little of their own self in them. Kaze only said he knew Corrin because Kaze is a very intelligent and professional con man who has a lot of experience in taking advantage over others before, and he could tell by Corrin's body language that Corrin was a mentally/emotionally weak person, and tried taking them as a way for self-preservation. The last true thing to occur in Fates was Corrin’s failure to execute the prisoners. However, this is when the fantasy begins: while we see Leo step in and “save” Kaze and Rinkah, that incident was, in actuality, a shield put up by Corrin’s mentally ill mind; in truth, Leo executed both of them. What actually happened at that moment was that Corrin had a nervous breakdown and was finally isolated for good in a secure room in the Nohrian Castle. During/After this breakdown, the rest of “Fates” occurs. Now, about Corrin’s “retainers.” Throughout Fates, we are told that the role of retainers was to protect their master with their life. Every Royal is assigned two retainers. However, for apparently no reason given, Corrin is given 4 retainers. Not only that, but they were people who were not ideal for combat: an old man far past his prime, a butler, and some maids (one of which could also be a hallucination), instead of typical warriors or bodyguards. In Fates, Maids and Butlers are not just people who help clean and cook meals, but they are also healers, thus they also take the role as nurses. Retainers are again, assigned with protecting their master’s life: now consider this: what if the job of Corrin’s retainers wasn’t protecting Corrin from outside threats, but rather from Corrin's own self, such as mental breakdowns and mad episodes? Now, try to remember the first cutscene after the prologue after one of Corrin’s dreams: Corrin wakes in a bed surrounded by people taking the role of nurses; if that doesn’t say mental illness, then I don’t know what does. Back in a dark room in a castle tower where Corrin is kept for the rest of their life, Corrin descends into madness and imagines the rest of Fates. The battles Corrin wins, the people Corrin meets, the relationships Corrin and their compatriots forge, everything is just in Corrin's mind as a way to keep their own sanity and as a coping mechanism. Corrin's schizophrenic mind came up with the idea that they weren’t born in Nohr stemming from their desire that they wish they were born to their father's enemies as a resentment from being isolated their whole life. The memory of being kidnapped was created out of Corrin’s hatred for their father. Every character besides those Corrin previously met before the end of chapter two don’t exist and were made in Corrin’s mind as parts of Corrin's own self. Corrin’s emotional turmoil is so great that Corrin actually feels as if they turn into a dragon when they have a mental/emotional breakdown. Valla does not exist, it is another fantasy created in Corrin’s mind to appease their fantasy family with Corrin’s real Nohrian family. The kindness that Corrin's siblings showed Corrin stemmed from Corrin's inner desire to be loved by their own siblings. Every battle Corrin fought in was an inner battle, a battle with their inner pain. Every character, hero, villain, and anything in between met post chapter 2 represents a separate part of Corrin’s mind. Every heroic moment and triumph was meant for Corrin to give themselves a sense of self-importance and heroism instead of their stark reality of not being a "chosen one," but the opposite; being born mentally impaired. Outside of Corrin’s damaged, mentally ill mad delusions, Corrin is all alone in a dark room with no social interactions at all aside from being fed bread and water a couple times every day. Unless you count the occasional rats that comes to eat some of the crumbs from Corrin's bread, Corrin has made no friends whatsoever. What comes after Corrin's Revelations delusion, you may ask? Quite simply, more delusions for Corrin's coping mechanism: should that fail, then without any help or any social interactions besides rats, Corrin may terminate their self from a self-inflicted injury or injuries. In short, Fire Emblem Fates (insert path here) has a profound storyline which explores the delusional world of an emotionally and mentally abused socially isolated schizophrenic who was lucky enough to be born into royalty but not lucky enough to be born into a civilization with a better understanding and treatment of mental illnesses.

Hello. I have just made my 10 person army and I want my friend to fight it, but even though his showed up (unintentionally if I may add) in the map in my game, I can't get mine to show up in his game. We each have our own 3DS but we share the same card of Awakening, which is why I'm surprised that his army showed up on my map in the first place if he didn't have the game card in his 3DS. I tried to replicate this by having both our 3DS on and having them near each other and each putting in the game card to our respective file, but my character just won't show up on his. We even closed our 3DS to see if that would make StreetPass activate. This is my first Fire Emblem game and I don't really know much about how StreetPass works. Is there a way to make StreetPass activate on his 3DS so my avatar shows up on his map?