E. Wendall

I'm worried I won't be able to recruit all the units I want in one route, and about the characters--their designs are kind of boring to me and don't give off much personality just by looking at them.

Maybe Dmitri, maybe Ashe, maybe the purple haired bangs boy, or blue-haired sword wielder. I'm not sure really. Unrelated, can I ask why so many people are referencing Claude when it comes to LGBT representation? We have almost no information about him, and it feels like a whole lotta stereotypes.

Love: Dmitri, that purple-haired boy in Golden Golden Deer, Annette, Ashe, Bernadetta, orange eyeshadow instructor, both the Byleths, and the goth man in Black Eagles, Sothis (I just hope she isn't sexualized) Like: Claude, that glasses kid, the old male instructor(?), Linnhardt, blue-haired sword wielded in Blue Lions, Leonie, Hilda, Mercedes, Petra Dislike: Edelgard, Raphael, Dorothea, Sylvain, the rest of the unnamed Blue Lions, Caspar Hate: FERDINAND (don't like him and want to punch his face)

Honestly, her non-FE work all looks leagues better than the portraits she has done for FE, to me.

So, GameStop is doing in-store preorders? Or are they not? I've been hearing a lot of different things.

I wouldn't worry about it too much yet. Might just be what they're calling the special edition. I think they probably would have said by now if there were multiple games.

On Best Buy. That was pretty fast. The subtitle makes it look like there could potentially be other versions that only contain one path, a la Fates, but I guess that's just speculation really.

I'm not feeling it too much. Reminds me of Harry Potter and I don't like the multiple paths thing too much. I was really hoping to be able to recruit every unit in one go, and this seemed kind of like we might not be able to. But I suppose it's too early to say.

I'm so excited to see everyone analyzing and overanalyzing whatever other information we get. I'm so hyped, I'll never doubt King Zel again.

Agreed, and I don't think FE suffers too much from lack of online multiplayer anyway. It's fine as just a personal experience. (somewhat) On that note and something I forgot on my initial reply, I'd like to see a bit more of the world TH takes place in! Maps and terrains and the like. It would be cool if this game's continent was more developed and had a distinct culture.

I saw something about the German playlist a couple days ago, I wonder if that's really what it is. Either the videos are out of order, or it doesn't have the most recent TH trailer, right?

*I want to see a customized Byleth, if he is truly an avatar, and (if he is) a fem!Byleth too. It's also important to me whether or not he's a silent protag, which seems kinda possible (?), which I have mixed feelings about--mostly in regards to how supports will work. I'm super curious to see more. *I'm looking forward to seeing more of the cast! None of the revealed characters catch my eye too much yet, and I'm a little iffy on the art direction, but I want to see more before I cast my judgements. *I want to hear some more English voices, hopefully in a way that can give insight as to whether the game is fully voices of not. *I'd like to see characters interacting in the castle/base, building supports and whatnot. I want to know how the support systems work and if S-ranks are a thing. *Seeing some cool new classes would be really nice!

Strange. It's a good catch, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

I think the lack of information has made us overanalyze.

I expect it to drop in NA probably early spring 2020, it'll likely release in JP somewhere between May and July this year. I'll be pushing that guess further away if we don't receive any news this month though.

Too early to speculate like that, really. We have almost nothing to go on.

Looks like most people aren't too sure how to feel about all this so far.

Edelgard: Mixed feelings. She seems serious and intelligent, and I'm a little bored of that archetype, but I don't know enough about her to say for sure. Her design is kind of eck to me. I love that she has pants, but that black and white on deep red with greenish white hair and lilac accents is a little much for me. Dmitri: He's grown on me, but the blue of his uniform is way too saturated for my tastes, and it's distracting. He strikes me as humorless and dignified and maybe a little grumpy. Probably proud of his heritage and very by-the-books. Claude: My favorite of the main three without a doubt, but kinda bothers me how similar their uniforms are? All bright primary colors with a dull black base. I wish they had been more subtle about this trio all being represented by a different primary color. Most likely a fun-loving, laid-back character, maybe a flirt or a jokester. Byleth: I like his a lot, I just hope the haircolor is customizable because the blue-green looks kind of bad with his blue eyes and the blue and pink on his black uniform. But if he is a player avatar, he's my favorite one yet, design-wise. He comes off as cold and intimidating, maybe an edgy mute protag. Mercedes: All I can see when I look at her is anime mom here, so I peg her as motherly and mature, but it's probably all wrong. Her design is kind of boring to me. Hilda: Bright and colorful and I like it. I can't really get a read on her, but I'd imagine she's spoiled and childish. Robin and Henry's Lovechild: He comes off as cute and mischievous to me, maybe cunning but outwardly innocent. I like him too. Aging Mall Goth: The deepset eyes and dark hair are my aesthetic, and he's probably one of my favorites. I hope he's not an enemy. Cool Old Man: cool old man Goddess: She's pretty, I doubt she will serve a very big role though. Probably a Naga. Seiros: I'm lukewarm about her design but not disappointed. I hope she's the big bad, her remaining emotionless throughout the trailer was cool, and I'm hoping she'll be a charismatic and seemingly warm figure who's secretly conniving and maybe even sadistic. Whoa, a Little Dragon Girl, Never had One of Those Before: She's cute, wish she had more clothes. I don't think she's Tiki, but she's probably reminiscent of her personality-wise.

I think that my one post was much less disruptive to the thread than whatever this conversation is.

A little bit. I'm optimistic, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned at all. I'm mostly afraid of multiple versions (and so is my wallet), but that doesn't seem likely at this point.

Thread said "mechanics and such."

General 1. Three or four difficulty settings with Classic or Casual Mode available. I don't care if Phoenix Mode returns or not, I don't think it's very necessary. 2. A post-game with more to explore or even just New Game+ with some kind of bonus content that isn't just DLC. I'm interested in how My Castle will be implemented (if it will), and how actually walking around outside of maps and exploring things will work. 3. ONE GAME. ONE GOOD GAME. I don't want any of that split path nonsense. My wallet and my heart can't handle it. I'd be willing to shell out up to $80 on this as long as it is one good, complete game, in which I can recruit all the characters. I don't mind if 4. I'm a little iffy on the art direction right now. The trailer looked pretty but all the three mains look a little off to me, and the color palette doesn't sit right with me. I hope that it's better once we see more. 5. Full voice-acting? Supports and Characters 1. I want supports to be strictly quality > quantity. The characters should have interesting, meaningful, or at least funny things to talk about, and unique dynamics between one another. In Fates, there were a lot of supports but I barely bothered unlocking any of them. A fair amount of gems, but they don't really hold a candle to previous installments, and most of the characters' relationships were either siblings, lord/retainer, or why-are-these-two-even-talking-to-begin-with, and it got old really fast for me. 2. I want the marriage mechanic to return. Ideally, S-supports should be romantic in nature, or at the very least imply a romantic relationship between the characters in the future, and lead to paired endings (granted both characters survive). I don't want them all to end in "let's get married right here, right now, this instant." Maybe there could be some kind of SS-support or DLC with that sort of thing that's presumed to be sometime in the future? Just seeing more interaction between characters who are in romantic relationships would be nice. 3. No child units, or if they do exist, make them post-game and don't give me some weird time traveling Pocket Dimension asspull for them. Maybe an apprentice/trainee system, or even adoption. Also, if they do exist, maybe some characters have twins, some have none at all, etc. I do know that if the Avatar has kids, I want to be able to choose my child's gender. No funny business where if I want my Avatar to marry a character, I lock myself out of getting all the children. 4. I want interesting characters who aren't overly tropey. I liked Awakening's cast, but I felt like they leaned too heavily on their quirks sometimes, and most of Fates' cast were like cardboard to me. 5. At least two "bi options" of each gender for the avatar, maybe more depending on the cast size. Maybe some gay characters who can marry each other rather than only the avatar, even if it's second gen. Gameplay 1. Third-tier classes? Discounting? 2. I'm not too crazy about CON, and I don't know that I want to see it return. 3. I want varied map objectives, and I want the maps to be fun and challenging in unique and creative ways. I don't like gimmicky stuff--I wasn't crazy about "Dragon's Vein" or whatever, and I don't like maps full of ice or walls to break. 4. It would be nice if it was clearer how to recruit all the units I can recruit. I'm dumb so I usually need a guide or end up missing one or two. 5. I have kind of mixed feelings about the units having their own little group of soldiers as shown in the trailer, and I don't really know what I hope to see out of it--but I need to see more of how it world for it to win me over. Plot 1. I don't really care if it's "morally gray" or whatever, but I want it to at the very least be coherent and entertaining. If it's going to be a straightforward "kill the evil dragon god" story, I'm fine with that, as long as it doesn't pretend to be any more than that and doesn't need to infodump on me about plot points that never amount to much. I want the dialogue throughout to be enough to keep my interest. 2. If Byleth really is the avatar, I want him/her to serve more of a Robin role than a Corrin one, and not take over the story at the end. I like the idea of a customizable avatar, but I realize this weakens their ability to stand on their own as a character (here's hoping Byleth is like the strong, silent type, maybe an edgier, less social Robin lol), so I don't think an avatar character would have the narrative convictions to really carry the plot on their own or to have the necessary deep personal connections to it. 3. I don't want second gen bto be a major plot point. 4. Ideally, no plot points will boil down to "because Outrealms--"things like Pocket Dimensions and all of that existing are fine, but I think they detract from the story and can be kind of a copout. 5. No shock value, unnecessary character deaths coming out of nowhere.

I'd be fine with Amiibo/DLC characters, hopefully not with supports or anything, and maybe Anna, but if I have to put up with anything along the lines of Oswald the philandering merc, Serene the tsundere, and Omen the otaku on a mission from the Outrealms that only convolutes the story, I might not even buy.