ty_taurus

If I could design a Fire Emblem game, I'd go all Undertale on the system... though this would probably only work for 1 title... Fire Emblem has ultimately moved in a direction where players don't want to lose characters. I'm the same. I don't necessarily have the time to just start a new play through if I want to use a certain character. I want all my files to be perfect that way I'm not missing anything that I might need to experience in an all-new play through. So creating in-game systems that make it easy for players to reset is realistically an important quality of life improvement for the players that would otherwise just be hard reseting the console anyway. It saves us time. But there's a way to use that to your advantage... Every time a unit dies, a hidden value is saved regardless of whether or not you chose to reset and will persist through game overs, or game resets as well. The game will know when you're cheating a character's death, but it won't tell you so until a point in the end of the game where the player will be forced to confront that in some way. Perhaps the Big Bad's selection of units is comprised of all your units that have died at some point in the play through where you prevented their deaths with turnwheel/retreat/game overs/resets. They are manipulated like puppets to fight you but retain their consciousness so they are fully aware of them attacking you, and will be fully aware when you're forced to defeat them... But it gets worse, because any character who died multiple times will be immediately revived by the big bad and you'll be forced to kill them again and again, them fully aware of what's happening, until you've exhausted all the times you've had to reset to save them in the past. So if you really want that happiest ending where everyone lives, you need to start a new game every single time any unit dies in combat.

1. I would love to see a silent protagonist done right. Byleth was an awful example of this, so I'd like to see basically the opposite of Byleth. This silent protagonist is literally mute, so their inability to speak isn't just an awkward game choice, it's a legitimate disability. To compensate, this protagonist is extremely expressive with everything they do. Their happiness isn't a smile and a nod, it's them jumping up and down dancing. Their anger isn't a frown and a head shake, it's their entire body physically shaking in rage. Their sorrow isn't a frown and hanging their head, it's them falling to the ground and crying hysterically so hard you can hear them wheezing. 2. A support system that makes everyone happy. S-ranking, dating sim-esque support options can return, but they can be optional. How would they be optional? In the settings, you can choose between having S rank as an option or A+ rank instead. If you have S ranking enabled, you'll get the confession scene followed by marriage a la Awakening/Fates. If you have it disabled, you can simple A+ Rank any character instead. No romantic scenes play out, nor do those units have an ending together, but you get the same gameplay benefits as S rank. Additionally, all characters will be able to S rank or A+ rank any character they can support with regardless of gender unless some other reason exists (Such as parent/child characters). If this would really be a big deal for players, then you can also have Same-Sex S ranking as a setting you can turn off for anyone sensitive enough to be bothered by the mere thought it being possible. At the end of the day, S ranking is just one big fan service feature, so it really shouldn't matter who wants to marry which characters. Just let the whole thing be optional. 3. A more in-depth hub environment. The Monastery was a really great space that helped make Three Houses feel a bit more active. It's nice to have different things you can do in-between chapters, like having lunch with your characters, or tea, or whatever, but I felt there was a lot of untapped potential that could've been explored. Imagine if you could choose to study or read in the library with students, not only building support but also increasing Reason proficiency. Perhaps on special days, you can do this to have you and the student you study with gain +1 Magic. Same could be said for taking a student to the Archery range, caring for the horses together, going into town and locate bargains on rare items and weapons... Maybe you could even schedule different lectures throughout the week. For the next Fire Emblem, we probably won't be a teacher again, but we could include at lot of these same features, just with different scenarios. 4. "Hoshido" classes should return. I don't mean to imply that literally Hoshido should return as a place in the story, but Swordmaster has always been a somewhat eastern-inspired class choice in past titles, and we had the Mortal Savant in Three Houses as quite blatantly eastern-themed. It's not so much that the setting itself will always be in an eastern-themed nation, but I always interpreted things like Mortal Savant to just be roles from a foreign land we don't explore in the story. I'd like to see these stylistically different classes become a staple in new Fire Emblems moving forward. They don't have to be literally the same every time of course, just like the standard Fire Emblem classes shift at times. But maybe making the difference between swords/katanas, axes/clubs, spears/naginata, tomes/scrolls, etc. be a staple instead. Additionally, I think these other styled classes don't always need to stay Eastern either. You could potentially have Fire Emblems where instead of eastern, you have maybe norse-inspired classes like Viking and Valkyrie, or perhaps ancient Mayan influences or something. You could have the standard Fire Emblem classes always around while different styles shift in and out of future titles. Also, let's just go back to having a 2-tier system of base class and promotion instead of Commoner/Nobile -> Beginner -> Intermediate -> Advanced -> Master. Three Houses may technically have 50 different classes, but over half of them are weaker unpromoted classes, and the options felt very limiting by the end. 5. The ability to choose between a class outfit and the character's default outfit. Not everyone cares about this, but a big thing for me is I like each character looking unique with their own outfits and color schemes, so for me it's a bit of a struggle when I'd like a character like Flayn to retain her unique design but would then be forced to keep her as an intermediate class if I really wanted to do that. I hate having to choose between the character's looking the way I want them to, and being in a class suited for them. Maybe this could even open up the gate to include alternate outfits as well. Three Houses offered the choice between the young or older versions of the students in NG+, having the option to keep them in their Commoner/Noble clothes, or their unique clothes after the split would've been really cool, especially with how bland all the default outfits are.