YotsuMaboroshi

If Caeda uses a sword, it wouldn't be as a reference to Heroes. In the original, Pegasus Knights could use Swords and Lances, and she started with a Sword (though since there was no weapon proficiency, you could give her Jagen's Silver Lance instead). SD pegasi could only use lances, though they got swords on promotion to Falcoknights. KT can differentiate between multiple flying lances, so Caeda can still be in with the Wing Lance, but SD pegasi are pretty much the only way we can get flying swords (referencing promotion/FE1/FE3).

If you're going to reduce things that far, a howling gale is a 'strong air current that makes an eerie noise', not a 'raging storm'. A gale is any strong wind, not a storm (though storms often have gales, you can have a gale without a storm), and gales are generally associated with howling. Going with your 'breeze' would match better than anything with 'gale' for this, at least if you're trying for something 'wimpy'. Maybe 'Invigorating Breeze'? The main issue with 'wind' based speed specials is that IS already matched 'wind' to Iceberg/Glacies. Something with 'snow' (piling snow or melting snow) might fit an 'ice' theme better, and then chilling wind could be used with the speed based specials. I do agree on the elemental distinctions (especially given the Boost skills), but that's not what we have to work with, and as I mentioned, they probably aren't going to make a new special that does exactly the same thing as another one (unless they make it staff only).

'Howling Gale' would probably sound better for the weakest skill. Wind can chill and embers can glow, but gales don't generally boost anything. I think for earth, it would be more interesting to have that deal damage based on your current HP (basically the opposite of Retribution/Reprisal/Vengeance, deal a % of your remaining HP as additional damage), since they're less likely to have multiple specials that function off the same stat.

He's referring to the fact that Chrom apparently regularly destroys things during his training. Marth's style is more speed and technique than Strength.

The quote is probably meant in a 'its fun to watch how you fight' way (which does fit Robin's character, IMO), rather than a sadistic 'its fun to see you kill so many enemies'. Granted, since these lines are generic, he could end up saying that to someone who genuinely enjoys slaughtering their enemies, but I don't think sadist Robin is the intent of the quote.

Lissa's axe grappling seems like it might be intended. There's a unique noise when Frederick breaks out of the first grapple, sort of like a guard break. Also, Lissa seems to have a imbue meter like Fi from HW. It's charged by her C1 most likely (which seems to be her shaking her axe over her head), but I'm not sure what it does. The constant pauses should be able to be turned off in the full game, as per E3 interviews. The only obnoxious sound I heard was when Lissa was low on health, which probably means its a low health warning similar to how Zelda warns you about low hearts.

Nicknames, titles, or just omitting the name from the spoken dialogue works for most games. It does make it impersonal, but full VA isn't compatible with full character customization.

Personally, I don't think SK is a musou. It has extremely similar gameplay, in that you beat up hordes of enemies and charge a super meter, but SK doesn't have any strategic elements. They're really a lot closer to the old-school beat-em-ups like Double Dragon, because there's only ever one objective. Most games I consider musou games (like HW, WO3, or Fate/Extella) have strategic game play across the map, while games like SK focus solely on your character and killing what's in front of you. HW used a similar approach for some of the adventure maps, but that was largely to provide variation in gameplay. For you specifically, if you had difficulty focusing on HW due to map length, you probably would have the same issue with FEW.

First war that Marth fought in is the War of Shadows, second one (caused by Hardin) is the War of Heroes.

Anri died 68 years before the war of Shadows, at least according to the FE wiki. FE4 takes place 'hundreds of years' before the War of Shadows, when Archanea was in a barely civilized state (again, according to the FE wiki). Since that's the only 'event' we have from that time period, it's the easiest to assume she was referring to someone there (especially given that Awakening was trying to tie all the games together). It is possible that this is some nameless ancestor, not Sigurd or Seliph, as Jugdral is a separate continent on the same world, but there's a lot of empty space in there that we can't account for where someone descended from Sigurd moved to Archanea and was an ancestor of Anri.

First, I do think that having 8 swords shown so far means that we have more than 24-26 characters, mostly because they've asked us to be patient with the fact that mostly swords were upload. 'Nothing can truly change the roster's overwhelming weakness to lances' except, you know, including more axes (and bows if they get thrown in with axes like fates). The fact that they've put emphasis on the weapon triangle in interviews, but have still revealed 8 swords, is the main reason I think 24-26 would be too conservative. Second, KT is aware of the hubbub surrounding their decision and 'too many swords'. As per interviews, this happened internally as well, before it was announced. While I don't doubt the roster will be weighted towards swords (FE as a whole is weighted towards swords, just look at FEH), I will give them the benefit of the doubt, and assume that the PR speak wasn't just lip service. If it isn't lip service, that means they made an effort to balance the available weapons. If we assume Tome/Bow/Dstone are neutral, the roster could be roughly split into 4 weapon types with those three falling in the fourth category. They have used weapon choice as an example of strategic decision making in the game. You send a sword to fight axes because he's good at fighting axes. Having a map where almost a third of the roster is disadvantaged but only an eighth of the roster is advantaged is bad design. If they want the weapon triangle to be a core mechanic for FEW that separates it from other Warriors titles, they need to balance the weapon diversity. Otherwise, the game will get bad press ('too many swords lol'), might not sell as well as it could have, and then they won't be able to make the sequel they want to that would bring in other games of the series. Third, on Subaki specifically, what if KT wants to have a male and female rep for as many classes as possible (they did say they were looking for representatives for classes)? Subaki, Severa/Selena, and Jakob's chances increase significantly in that specific instance because they are the opposite gender that their class normally is. Jakob is a promoted Troubadour and Subaki is a male Pegasus rider, which were female only classes up until Fates (though Jakob as a Troubadour rep is stretching a bit). Severa is the second female Mercenary in the series, and Malice doesn't seem to be in consideration due to coming from FE3 (FE12 she was a Myrmidon). We don't know the actual criteria they used to pick the playables, just vague talk from interviews. Fourth, on Rowan and Lianna using swords: The twins being designed to use swords doesn't mean they didn't try to balance the roster and there are design reasons why they might want the protagonists of this story to use swords. Swords are traditionally heroic, and for FE specifically, sword and board fighting was originally used by Marth (and later by Chrom in Awakening as a nod to this) by using the Falchion alongside the Fire Emblem as a shield.Their design is probably a throwback to this, since Marth is a fencer in this game, and Chrom and Lucina use a shield-less style. Also, their swords from the cover art look more like real world falchions than the Falchion does, which might be a subtle nod to the Falchion.

Subaki happens to be the only male Pegasus rider, which could be enough to get him a spot. The Whitewings have the triangle attack, which is unique to them among the rep'd games. Virion is somehow notable enough to have made it to TMS and be the first summon ever in FEH. Jeorge has Parthia (probably). Gordin is the first archer of the series. I don't doubt that they can make all the movesets relatively unique (in fact, I brought up how their movesets could be made unique). Potential for a moveset isn't the issue here, weapon diversity is. Robin will have the coverage on the weapon triangle as Leo, with the main difference being movement type (they've mentioned horse-mounted characters would be generally more mobile). Like I said, I'd prefer they balance the available weapon choices, even if they have to pass over some main characters to do so, because that is the reason they gave for not spanning the series. I want them to actually stick to what they gave as a reason, even if it means some of the characters I'd like to play from the games they chose don't make it. ----- Using your example, we'd have: - 3 Axes (Camilla, Lissa, Frederick) - 5 Tomes (Linde/Merric, Robin, Tharja, Elise, Leo) - 5 - 6 Lances (Camus, Cordelia, Hinoka, Azura, Hardin and maybe Caeda if they don't give her swords) - 1 Dragonstone (Tiki, maybe Grima!Robin falls here?) - 8 - 9 Swords (Marth, Chrom, Lucina, Ryoma, Xander, Corrin, Lianna, Rowan, Gangrel, and maybe Caeda if they don't give her lances) - 2 Bows (Sakura, Takumi) Say there's a map where all enemies are Lances. Almost a third of the cast is then weak to the entire map, while only 3 out of the 25-ish characters are strong against that map (assuming Tome, Dragonstone, and Bow are neutral). They could force the issue by putting Tomes in with Axes, Dragonstones in with Swords, and Bows in with Lances, but that doesn't match up with any FE game I know of. Fates had Tomes with Swords, and Bows with Axes, but that makes a full 13 characters minimum (almost half the roster) weak to this hypothetical Lance map, and only 5 strong against it. That's not good if they want the weapon triangle to be a consideration for what characters you pick for a map. This also gives us all of one possible armored unit, Hardin, and only if he's from FE3/FE12, which is not one of the games they mentioned pulling from. He was a Cavalier in FE1/FE11. Guess armorslayers, heavy lances and hammers don't have much of a special effect anymore.

The only actually important royals are the brothers due to their connection to the Yato. Two of the brothers of which have been confirmed, and one of the other two has been hinted at. Takumi's the only one missing completely so far, but I think he's pretty likely, given that the Fujin Yumi is a lightsaber bow. Also, keep in mind that they are 'competing' against units from other games as well, not just Fates. KT has also stated that they wanted the weapon triangle to be a factor in the gameplay, which means they probably want some balance in the weapon types available. - Camilla and Azura have very little competition as an Axe Flier and infantry lancer, respectively. They're the most likely of the remaining royals. Azura is more plot relevant, is a dancer, and her only competition as an infantry lancer is Oboro. Camilla is more popular, but competes with Minerva, Michalis, and Cherche (Beruka, Percy, and Gerome are probably unlikely). - Hinoka is a lance flier. I think Caeda is very likely as one of the SD characters, and SD gave her the Wing Spear (since you couldn't give her Jagen's Silver Lance like in the original). There's also the Whitewings, Sumia, Cordelia, and Subaki. The SD fliers could be sword fliers (in fact they're really the only options for that), but Cordelia has a notable popularity lead on Hinoka. Hinoka and Takumi are the only notable royal sources for a flying Archer, though Takumi is far more associated with Sniper, since Fujin Yumi lets him ignore terrain movement penalties already. - Elise's only troubadour competition is Maribelle, since SD doesn't have troubadours, but staves aren't a weapon in this game so far. However, Elise's 'main' promotion is Strategist, which is a mounted Tome user like Leo. She can be differentiated by using staves alongside the tomes like Lissa uses staves and axes, since Leo is known for fire and gravity magics. Maid Elise seems unlikely as she loses her horse, and would compete with Felicia, Flora, and Jakob, as well as potentially any ninjas or thieves (depending on the weapon type). I'd put her more likely than Hinoka, less likely than Camilla/Azura. Also depends on how tomes fall into the weapon triangle. - Sakura is an infantry healer like Lissa was. If they move her towards Priestess, she overlaps some with Takumi due to infantry bow, though like Elise, she could use staves alongside the bows for some variety. This also overlaps with Gordin, Virion, Jeorge, Tomas, Norne, and Setsuna (Noire and Kiragi are unlikely due to being second gen), for similar reasons as Takumi. If they move her towards Onmyoji, she starts overlapping with the SD cleric promotions, and possibly with SD and Awakening mage promotions, though she would have some distinct visual differences (assuming they depict her 'tomes' as Hoshidan scrolls). I'd rate her chances pretty close behind Elise, giving Elise the edge since she's slightly more plot relevant than Sakura and has less competition. - There have been statements that some characters will show up (presumably in the story) but will not be playable. Of the royals, Hinoka is the most likely to be hit by this, since she has the least plot relevance in Fates and the most competition in her weapon and movement class. Elise and Sakura are also potential casualties, as Elise is an NPC for her most notable story scene, and Sakura has about as much plot relevance as Hinoka. Camilla's got similar plot relevance, but she's got a massive amount of popularity backing her inclusion as playable, and Azura is as plot relevant as the brothers. There's a chance Leo and Takumi could get hit with this, but i think it's unlikely. I would like for them all to be playable (though I only really care about Elise personally), and I think they have the better chances to make it in compared to most of the other characters in Fates. But since they've stated that they want the weapon triangle to be a core gameplay element, I personally would rather they focus on weapon diversity than exclude literally everyone but the royals from Fates. It is the reason FEW isn't Lord-fest 2017, after all. ...That reply ended up a lot longer than I expected.

KT has stated an interest in remaking notable scenes from the games. They don't have to have the exact same context as they originally did, but they can still use the scenes for each story without picking a side. Admittedly, they can also play with the characters in each scene; using my previous example instead of Elise and her retainers, they could have Elise and one of the twins show up while you're playing the other twin. Maybe the monsters in the scene are from the dragon that attacked Aytolis, rather than being Faceless. Though we do know that Xander, and some others, will start out as enemies because of stuff said during the E3 segments for the game. We're probably going to end up fighting through parts of both Conquest and Birthright (and maybe Revelations) during the plot (it'd be odd not to have some maps based on maps from each of the games anyways). If they do use any retainers, it'll probably be no more than one per royal. I just don't feel that they're going to limit Fates to the royals (or any of the games to just story relevant characters), though that could be baseless hype based off of the PR talk we keep getting about the roster size and picking characters from a fan's perspective.

Not actually true. You see a lot of the retainers in the dream sequence in the prologue. Also, the crossover is stated to happen around the split doesn't mean that they won't do later scenes from each route. For example, say there's a map against an overwhelming amount of monsters in the Fates world. Elise could show up as reinforcements some time after the map starts, and then sometime after that Arthur or Effie could show up, just like like they did in Conquest Ch 7. It's not like the retainers stop existing just because the story hasn't introduced them yet.

Never mind the fact that Lucina and Chrom fight similarly, since Chrom taught Lucina. Not saying that they didn't rush Lucina's moveset, but at least fighting similarly to Chrom makes sense, unlike, say, copying Marth.

All of Sheik's moves do Lightning damage last I checked. The 'elemental' finishers inflict the appropriate elemental status (Fire's knockup, Water's dot, etc) but still did Lightning damage. Same with Twili Midna (all damage was Darkness), Ravio (all damage was Darkness) and Great Fairy (all damage was Water). Showing the other elements inflicted the appropriate status effect, but didn't actually change the damage type of the attack.

Probably because red enemies make more sense for a video game ('danger here'), and they needed something in the NES palette that contrasted that for allied units. After that, it probably stuck because of the FE association of 'blue = ally, red = dead' established by the first few games.

The OCs probably wield swords because the sword is the traditionally heroic weapon, especially in Japan. It's pretty much the same reason most FE Lords wield swords, and probably the reason why swords are red in FEH (red is the primary 'heroic' color for Japan). It might also be an intentional design similarity to Marth, who originally used the Fire Emblem as a shield alongside of the Falchion. Given that in this game Marth appears to use a fencing style with no shield, they may have wanted the protagonists to use sword and board as a nod back to that. It does appear hypocritical to give too many swords as the reason and then have sword using OCs. However, we don't actually know the order of events here. They may have had the OC concepts already solidified by the time they decided to limit the roster to three games. I doubt we'll ever actually know the full development timetable for the game though, so it's never going to be more than a guess. I think Darius really should have had something other than a sword though.

Not sure if this should go here, but the Brynhildr connection mentioned refers to the tome in this image: https://www.gamecity.ne.jp/fe/img/character/ss/chara08_02.jpg Which is a different tome than the image you used on the article when talking about those posts. You used this one: https://www.gamecity.ne.jp/fe/img/character/ss/chara08_03.jpg

He doesn't dual wield all the time, only for certain attacks. In his pair-up musou finisher (check around 11:03) he uses both Raijinto and a sword made of lightning that disappears immediately afterwards.

I'd like to see seige magic or ballistas as battlefield objectives. They're unlikely to be directly part of any playable character's moveset (since getting hit by something with no warning is unfair for this type of game), but since they were battlefield objectives in Fates (like Conquest 10), I think they have a decent chance to show up on some maps, like the Groosenator did in HW (hopefully with more significance than one story battle though). Edit: Terrain effects could be implemented as auras in keeps or around outposts, similar to fairy barriers or magic barriers in HW. X effect for the controlling side while in the keep or near the outpost. Probably unlikely though.

He doesn't use swords and magic at the same time in gameplay, though. His 'iconic' weapon is magic, which is why both base Robins are mages in FEH (alternate Robins so far have all been physical), why he came with a tome as an amiibo character in Fates (he could still equip swords there, just didn't have a unique sword), and why his first moveset that we get to see for this game is magic. Like I said in the post you quoted, he may still be able to equip swords in FEW, and have a different moveset then. Given that they've said they're using FE mechanics as the base, it makes perfect sense for the tome moveset to not use swords as they are separate weapons that aren't equipped at the same time. The only instances of a character using a weapon from outside the moveset so far are musou attacks: Chrom throws a lance during his Falchion musou (I think) and according to this thread Robin uses a Levin Sword for his tome musou. I don't think we know enough to state 'Robin doesn't have swords' at this time. Edit: FWIW, I consider Robin as a mage that can use swords, not a magic swordsman nor a swordsman that uses magic. His primary weapon is the magic, and the sword is a backup. Depictions outside of Awakening that focus on magic (usually due to design constraints) make sense to me, and don't diminish the character, because the characterization was primarily focused on the mage side of the class, not the swordsman side.

I disagree that it's a disservice, because there's no actual characterization for physical use. It's like claiming Xander's depiction is a disservice because he doesn't use a lance in addition to Seigfried, or Leo with just Brynnhildr would be a disservice because of lack of sword use. It's the weapon they're most associated with, so their main set is going to use it. Setting that aside, devs have said weapon switching is in, so it make sense for the tome moveset to entirely use magic. We don't actually know if Robin can equip swords yet (I think). Corrin partially transforming doesn't mean Robin should have used physical swords in his magic set, as Corrin partially transforms for Dragon Fang procs while using a sword in Fates.

That doesn't change the fact that the coat is closer to mage robes than physical gear by FE standards, and heavily resembles Soren's design from FE9 like Chrom resembles Ike. There's also the potraits you can choose that carry tomes, while there are none with swords. More concept art in the art book shows Robin with a tome than a sword. There's only one piece that has a sword in it, and that also has the tome present. The armor for the Grandmaster outfit is explicitly designed to resemble a Sniper's armor, which is also a ranged class. They very heavily pushed Robin as a mage before Smash 4 was a thing. You are just overlooking that in favor of gameplay (which is fine, but doesn't apply to promotional material, which is what gets used as the basis for stuff like this). Attempting to move back to the topic: Healing staves might apply to others more than yourself. They might take the place of the rescue mechanic, which would only affect your A ranks due to time taken (based off of HW ranking).