TheArchsage

Yeah, I mean, look at my profile picture (Athos from FE4). You can't honestly sit there and tell me it's always been the way it's being portrayed now. The overall aesthetic of the games have been changing lately, but with this one it seems to have gone too far in that direction.

Thoughts: Overall the Direct was lackluster. Why have like 3 or 4 farmings sims? Pikmin 4 did not excite at all. I mean, not like Pikmin 3 was exciting at all. Or 2. Not even sure why they're making a Pikmin 4? I want Prime 4, not Pikmin 4!!!! lol. Bayonetta is ok, if you like those sorts of games. Octopath 2 looks phenomenal. And BOTW2/Tears of the Kingdom? What was the point of that trailer? It's even less intriguing then the previous BOTW2 trailer (with that dried up, skeletal Ganondorf coming to life). Not a good way to end the direct, I don't think. And on to Fire Emblem: I said this in another thread, but... I hate the art direction of the game. Wayyyyyyy too much "anime". Like my avatar, Archsage Athos, wouldn't fit at all in the style and direction that this new FE is going. It's too childish. The female characters all have increasingly annoying and high-pitched voices. They look weak and are too girly. The main character looks kind of like a clown, with such a generic "woke up from a coma with amnesia" backstory. Which leads me to the story. Fell Dragon? Really? Coming from 3 Houses which was such a step in the right direction with complex political intrigue, to some obviously even gray-skinned dragon demon guy. Yeah. Ok. I dunno, I was let down. And I had no expectations.

Hmm. I'm not liking what I'm seeing so far. Too anime-ish. Too childish. Getting more and more annoyed with the female characters and how weak and girly and high pitched they seem. Main character looks a bit over the top with the 2-colored hair and the starting point seems so cliche with the "oh I woke up from a coma with amnesia". The gameplay isn't off-putting, so there's hope there. But the world and story seems more like "been there, done that".

Black. People. Seriously. And I don't mean some tanned skin person with bright blue eyes, or some dull greyed out skinned villain. I mean an actual Fire Emblem representation of black people as characters in the game.

I suppose the political context of the situation at hand is on aspect of it. But ultimately it's the social narrative that's really the key thing here. In one sense, we can look at the facts, examine the charges and see if the verdicts are fair given the charge of the alleged crime. And if everything checks out, and the verdict was correct, then there's really nothing else to speak on. But the social narrative is what is truly at play. Is law enforcement a racist institution keenly structured to destroy the lives of Black Americans? Is that true statistically, or only in sentimentality? Or is there merely some racists who still exist, and therefore corrupt an otherwise normal system? Is there a way to create an incorruptible (or at least less corruptible system)? What are the proposals? etc, etc. There are so many questions and concerns revolving the issue, and unfortunately the political climate is much too polarized (and is getting increasingly polarized) that actual discussion and debate on navigating and solving the issues seems impossible. Not to mention the current political power is ruthlessly partisan in many respects, and that nearly all major institutions of power (presidency, congress, the press/media, hollywood, academia) are all on trend towards a polarized side. I wonder what, if any good can truly come out of this climate in the future...

Exactly! People on here saying that we shouldn't have a "Golden Route" (don't like the term golden route, seems too bias towards Claude, lol) are either plain unimaginative or want everyone in the world to not enjoy something that literally wouldn't affect them simply because of their own personal tastes. I say have that option. Have it so that, if you play your supports right and make certain choices, albeit difficult, you could persuade members to actually tolerate or even get along well with one another. Why is there no support options between Edelgard and Dimitri, EVER? Not even pre-timeskip? Why? It's ridiculous.

Exactly. This is why I'm saying, they should do away with manually chosen classes altogether, and rather have the classes arise dynamically, and the mounts, armor, etc. be determined basically by giving them items. Let their skill level determine how good they are in them, and their skills and stats in conjunction with their level determine what class they are. Then we wouldn't have to deal with this male only/female only nonsense. Because it makes no sense. If I train some male up in magic and flying, and they are really good at it, why couldn't they be a Dark Flier? What's the difference? If they want to just name it differently for the sake of enforcing some gender roles, than find go ahead, have two classes that literally are the same thing. But to have no class whatsoever just because you're male/female? It doesn't make sense.

Technically they didn't declare war on the god, especially if Byeleth joins the cause. They just declare war on the pope, as it were. Basically a violent protestant reformation

I mentioned this briefly in another thread but (and this goes beyond a mere DLC but more into future installments in the Fire Emblem series) I would love to see them kind of get rid of classes altogether. The mechanic 3 houses brought about, of teaching/training your units over time, would really lend itself to a "classless" structure in future games. Each individual character can be trained in different skills, and depending on the armor, weapons and mounts (horses, wyverns, pegasi, etc. would have to be treated more like items) you give them would dynamically change their class. The more proficient and skilled they are in their skills alongside their overall level would dynamically determine what class they would be for each given fight. Yes, each individual would have their own "boons and banes" like there are now -- certain skills that they are good at, and others that they aren't good at, including hidden talents and such. That would really make each of our games have the potential to be totally unique from one another, and we wouldn't be worried about these issues that we have with useless master classes and such.

Byeleth annoys me. They stand in a weird limbo between full fledged Lord in their own right, and a mere "nothing" character to allow the player to feel inside the game itself. I'd rather them be one of the two, not what they are in between. If they were just another character, and not the "player character", it would afford them the ability to have more of a character arc. The whole aspect of them being emotionless and then coming into their emotions as the story progressed would've had more of an impact if they weren't tethered to being a conduit for us between the real world and the game's world. On the other hand, if they were truly just an avatar, then let the character be fully customizable. Let the dialog choices actually be dialog choices that we can choose to represent whatever kind of personality that we would want to represent in the game. Let me change how I look and emote myself with the characters. Let the player truly represent themselves in the game.

Not only is it annoying that it's gender locked but there aren't even equivalent classes to balance things out. Like, the whole Dark Fliers thing was so out of balance and unequal with power that I barely used my male units. If that's what they want to do this time around, well all power to them it's their game and I'll play it anyway but... I was getting happy with the path this game seemed to be going on, where anyone can basically be anything based on their skills, not necessarily based on classes. I suppose one can only hope that future installments will take even more steps to abolishing (or obscuring) set "classes" altogether, and rather have classes be dynamically assigned based on skill and level.

There's a pretty obvious difference between dark and light skin. Just because you aren't pale doesn't mean that you're dark skinned. I'm sure I don't have to explain this.

People here are eager for a bi option and talking about ratios, while I'm just here disappointed that there's still no dark skinned character. Oh well, maybe next game 🙃 If this is a side story, I'm wondering on how you would access it. Like when would it take place? before the time skip? After? Or would it be a separate menu option altogether?

You are 100% right about the need for a part 3 campaign. Really focusing on getting rid of TWSITD. That's probably my main gripe with the Crimson path

I absolutely love the direction the series is taking with this installment. The fact that you can have such starkly different parts -- that who you define as the enemy is up to your choice? That's honestly amazing, and how they did that with the crimson route was great to me. The more the merrier. I wanted to get more stark paths as well, not just in crimson. I do see what you mean, about not having complete perspectives by game's end. I'll not sure how they could remedy that...