Slumber

*coughcough* The Kingdom Under Fire games(Namely The Crusaders and Heroes) are basically how I envision every hero or unit-based strategy game actually playing out, and it's a shame that this style of game only really existed for like, two games. The Burnout(Takedown and Revenge mostly) and Road Rash(Mostly 64) series are two of the most fun arcade racing series that really capture how adrenaline fueled and aggressive that genre is... and are again, dead and buried. Under EA.

I mostly agree. Fire Emblem is one of my favorite game franchises, but it's pretty much because Fire Emblem is pretty consistent. From FE4 to FETH, it's pretty much a string of 9s at best to 6s at worst(Though I'm pretty sure I rate each Fire Emblem differently relative to one another). FETH is like an 8.5 to me. Really good, but it didn't blow my pants off. I do think FETH is the best FE of the decade, but imo it's been a pretty weak decade for Fire Emblem, despite its exploding popularity. That said, I still think it's way better than Xenoblade. My opinion of that game is not very high.

Discord is a popular chatting app, and it's got an option to stream somebody's screen with their friends in calls. You can privately talk and watch the movie at the same time.

I feel like it's pretty clear we weren't really talking about the gameplay design, and more about aesthetics, tone, writing, setting, etc.

True, but I just chalked that up to Fire Emblem's tendency to take a previous entry's mechanics and tweak them.

I know, I just thought it was odd to directly compare it to Fates, since you were saying that it seemed like FETH was designed to deliberately be an answer to Fates. I just see it as FETH being designed as another entry in the series, and wasn't directed to take aim at Fates at all. The only FE we know had a direct impact on the design philosophy of FETH was Genealogy. EDIT: Maybe I'm just tired and didn't realize I was repeating some of the stuff you already said in my first post.

I think you're looking at it the wrong way. When you look at the design philosophies over every other FE, Fates is the one that looks/feels different. Three Houses doesn't seem as different when compared to Radiant Dawn.

The cynical side of me says commercial product. The romantic side of me says art form. I'm feeling far more cynical these days, but I'll be fair and say "both".

Ephraim, for being everything people say Ike is, only with less personality.

Okay, so I was kinda on the right track. Arvis knowing for certain before that moment changes a lot in my mind.

Honestly I always chalked up him flaunting her in front of Sigurd to be a plot contrivance. In a "LOOK AT MY HOT WIFE BEFORE YOU DIE" kind of way. But I guess it would also make sense if he knew and taunted Sigurd with it. I don't know why I never put that together. And I always remembered Manfroy talking very cryptically about Deirdre in front of Arvis, but I could be misremembering or playing on an old translation patch.

It would probably be for the worse, mainly because Arvis is generally well received as an anti-villain who tried to make things better, but fucked up royally. Making him aware of Deirdre's brainwashing changes too much about his character. He'd be fully aware that he's taking Sigurd's wife. As much as Arvis is willing to destroy Sigurd in order to make himself look good, that's probably a step too far for him. Arvis wants a genuine romantic relationship with Deirdre, and him being okay with the above bullet point seems to contrast that pretty heavily. He'd have to either be aware of who she is, or constantly wonder why Manfroy brainwiped her. One makes his role in birthing the anti-Christ much more direct, while the other makes him way more reckless and carefree than he is.

Yes, but Street Fighter 2 is also not exactly what I think of when I think of Fire Emblem. Maybe I should have used a word different than "niche", since I said I loved one of her OSTs that isn't a JRPG, but I couldn't think of another word to describe it.

Me, because I don't really think it fits the series. Yoko's a great composer, but I don't think Fire Emblem is her niche. And this is completely unfair to her, and even though I love the Parasite Eve OST, since not every song from KH is like this or necessarily like this on its own... but ever since Kingdom Hearts, I can't think of her music without thinking of unbelievably overbearing melodrama. EDIT: Though listening to some of those Legend of Mana songs, it might not be too out of place.

I think Byleth is as close as I'd like for Avatars, but for the love of God, IS, stop making them uber-special savior types. If Byleth was JUST a quiet, but talented child of a respected knight and his equally respected wife, I think they'd be a fine Avatar. With more physical customizations. The last 3 Avatars have been: The living body of the most physically powerful dragon in possibly the whole series The child of a space/time warping dragon that's revered as a god The child of The interplay of the main lords of FETH(And Fates, to be honest) is much more interesting than another messiah/savior story, and it really feels like shoehorning in a "You're special, you're the reason everything works out" message just kneecaps the potential of the stories. If Chris didn't have the massive ego-stroking, I feel like that would have been fine, too.

If Fire Emblem keeps going in this direction where it gets more focused on RPG mechanics, then I feel like sidequests to get the materials to make a legendary weapon definitely feels appropriate in one of the next games.

I get the philosophy behind Shadow Dragon's permadeath, but its execution is TERRIBLE. Oh hey, you get replacement units if too many die! Oh, they're actual fully fledged characters that you won't ever get access to if you play too well or don't deliberately kill off your other characters.

Hand Axes are overall the best weapon in the series.

The opening of Radiant Dawn is the only part of those games that really covers how war affects normal people. And even then, that's after the war is finished, and seeing Daein struggle to bounce back under Begnion occupation, not really showing the people struggling during a war. Once Daein enters another war, that stops being a focus again. Jugdral and Three Houses do a lot more to show how desperate people get during a war, and how fucked up it is for them. Thracia 776 especially.

I don't think anyone's gonna dump on you for this. They're the only games where the horror of war goes hand in hand with the hero's journey. Most games obviously focus on war and ultimately tell an anti-war story, but most have different focuses than the war that's being fought. Like Tellius touches on it with the states of places like Daein, and how both war-dependent and war-torn that country is, but ultimately Tellius is more concerned with race and class. Fates kinda is about war just sucking in general and tears people apart, but it tackles dark subjects with all of the grace of a trashy 90s comic book.

Who would have thought that a virus killing old people would be what causes America to move forward in terms of social/economic issues and butt hygiene?

Burrito Supreme

I'm a dude. I've had long hair. More hair =/= more styling options. I'd actually argue the opposite. Obviously as a guy I didn't exactly have the same options, but those options I would have had as a girl weren't massively different. After about your shoulders, there's not much you can do with your hair before it just becomes so heavy and unwieldy that any normal measures of styling just stop being an option. At that point, unless you want to either perm/crimp into an 80s nightmare haircut, or straighten your hair, all you can really do is change where it parts and how it sits on your head, and then alter how "messy" it looks with some hair spray. Both things you can also do with short hair. You can braid your hair more easily, but I haven't seen many girls braiding their hair much these days. Undercuts are more common these days and you can do it with long hair, but again, it's much more common and manageable with short hair. With short hair, there are way more variables that actually add to style. For one, using mousses and gels are waaaaay more noticeable, and allow your to move your hair more. Asymmetrical haircuts don't look like somebody strung out on heroin got tired of cutting your hair halfway through, which just adds a whole new dimension to cuts. The variability of length on the sides, back and front actually matter when it's short. Going from long hair to short hair is like going from simple arithmetic to algebra with the extra variables. Though if you're crazy about 80s mom hair, then more power to you.

Short hair is the superior choice. Upsides: Pragmatic, practical, and the woman has more options on how to style it. All around just nicer to look at most of the time. Downsides: Karens.

I'm not even talking about her policies, I'm talking about her as a person. Between her bad attempts to connect with the youth(Her "Pokemon GO to the polls!" line) and her pulling out hot sauce on The Breakfast Club was uh... it was pretty uncomfortable. There's a level of fakeness people tolerate in politicians when it comes to their public personas, and Hillary crossed it more times than not. At a certain point, you just come across as desperate and unlikable. Pete Buttigieg got raked across the coals for his fakeness in this election, and his path forward after New Hampshire was pretty dire, even though policy wise he wasn't too far off from the current frontrunner.