Magenta Fantasies

Right now I’m playing through The Blazing Blade and funnily enough I recruited Wil the day before this banner launched. So far he seems like the Stahl of The Blazing Blade cast, the remarkably unremarkable straight man who brings out the quirks in every character he converses with. The biggest difference is that Wil is the norm among his cast, whereas Stahl is almost abnormal because of his normalcy. With a few exceptions (Serra, Farina, Karel, Hawkeye, Jaffar, Bartre, maybe Florina), the Blazing Blade cast is more down-to earth than the Awakening cast.

I’m so happy to see this mode return! I was truly beginning to worry it had been discontinued. So far it has been excellent to me. My Rickard, Ascended Elincia and Pirate Tibarn hugely benefited from the last round’s “fliers can warp within two spaces of each other” effects, and this current round creates perfect conditions for my +7 Jakob. With Wings of Mercy 4, he can move almost anywhere on the map and the special cooldown bonus helps him trigger Lethality every other turn. My Karel can trigger Astra every turn and sometimes more than once! How has it been treating everyone else?

I’m pretty confident this month’s banner and the next will be a combination of Fates, Awakening or Blazing Blade, in order of likeliness. While it would be baffling to have a year without an Awakening or Fates banner, Awakening had two banners in Book 6 and also has far less remaining characters than Fates, so I see it being the more likely game to be skipped. Blazing Blade hasn’t had a banner in nearly a year and a half, so I imagine that is also forthcoming in the next few months.

I like Sheena, and I’m quite happy to see her at least get a Resplendent. Next is Fir wearing the second Nifl outfit in the last month or so. I somewhat like her, but unfortunately she will be added the same day my FEH pass renews, and I was planning to cancel it after this month. 🙁 Seeing her reminds me that I forgot to add Karel to my list of most-wanted Resplendents. I use him relatively often and giving him a third merge and a stat boost would be excellent. Ideally I’d want him wearing a Muspell outfit, but I’d be fine with Jotunheimr, Hel or even Embla.

I have a feeling November will be either Fates or Blazing Blade: Blazing Blade because it has been almost a year and a half since the last banner for it, and Fates because I can’t fathom FEH going an entire year without a Fates banner and there still are a good number of at least modestly popular playable characters left to add. If there is going to be a third Engage banner this year (which I hope not,) I could see it kicking off Book 8 in December.

When I first saw this topic, the Let’s Play you mentioned was the first thing that came to mind. Fates lends itself very well to this type of playthrough, because of the relative ease of making everyone viable through stat boosters, reclassing, skill inheritance, and (with DLC) level grinding.

No one in my top 25 for this year has made it into Heroes yet, but at least a couple runner-ups like Felix and now Mycen have been added, and at least Kellam and Ashe received alts. On top of that, only two of my most wanted Resplendent candidates were added, female Corrin and very recently Shigure. I forgot to add her to my list, but I’m really hoping Marisha will be on the next New Heroes banner. Unfortunately, she would most likely be another staff infantry unit (and a demote at that), but she’s one of my favorite Archanean characters and it helps her chances that she’s a girl and cute. I’m also keeping my fingers crossed for Rickard, since it boosts his chances that he’s the only potential dagger unit left for Archanea and one of fairly few non-seasonal potential dagger options who hasn’t already been added.

So far, I like the idea of Attuned Heroes. Having an extra skill slot will make it easier to build older units, much like S-skills. Also, I like seeing another consecutive banner where everyone has great art. Mycen is a welcome addition who I thought would never make it into Heroes by virtue of being an old man and (mostly) an NPC. I’m looking forward to his Forging Bonds.

Strange, it looks like we're not getting a Tempest Trials character this month. Yay! Kellam is in Heroes at last! I'm excited for Even Tempest as a Sacred Seal. I recall Odd Tempest was one of the Sacred Seals available in a Tempest Trials roughly a year ago, but I missed it.

I like the art all around this time, and I may go for Flayn depending on what game the next New Heroes banner features and how well I do on the Legendary Elincia banner. I may also go for the Annas, since I really like them and I always thought it would fun to have an Anna+Anna Harmonic. While I’m pleased that the focus shifted away from dragons, given the merchant banner name, this would have been a perfect opportunity to introduce Nasir. I’m also pretty excited to see Kellam finally appear in Heroes, and as a Tempest Trial unit, although this means he almost certainly won’t be on the next Awakening New Heroes banner.

Next will be Resplendent Shigure! He looks stunning! ❤️ Now I can check another character off my most-wanted Resplendent list. I’m up to two so far (Female Corrin was the first at the beginning of this year.) That means two Resplendents I want (but no New Heroes) have been added so far this year.

I like this set of characters and Forging Bonds conversations. Patty is so cute, and I like both her appearance and her personality. As a lover of men with long dark hair (Soren, Ryoma, Navarre, Karel, Galle, what could have been Jakob, and to a lesser degree Felix and Kagetsu), I can definitely see where she's coming from with Shannan. On that subject, I've also become very fond of Arion. Not only do I like his art/design, but he seems like an interesting character and his weapon is amazing. He's one of my favorite GHB characters in a long time.

I’ve read the Fates and Awakening 4koma manga, and while I somewhat enjoyed them, they’re hit or miss in both art and writing. I’ve also read The Crown of Nibelung, a Fates manga that stars Leo. It took me a long time to find it, and it was a forgettable letdown. Both the art and the writing were underwhelming. I really like Leo, but his perspective doesn’t add much insight to the story. I would’ve rather read a manga about Conquest’s storyline from his perspective than Revelation’s. Also, I was incredibly disappointed with how almost everyone else in the cast is ignored and only has a few appearances. Elise gets the worst treatment; I hated seeing her de-aged and how she became useless in the story. I forget if Felicia, Flora, Lilith and Jakob even appeared for more than a cameo. Even Corrin doesn’t feel that important to her own story. Most of the interesting events happen off-page and Leo hears about them in passing. There are some interesting bits of worldbuilding scattered throughout (e.g. Nohr is going through a famine, and sorcerors are trying different spells to make the ground more fertile,) but it doesn’t make up for the overall blandness of this manga. I didn’t know there was a Shadow Dragon manga until very recently (and that it was hosted on Serenes Forest, no less!) I’m currently on Volume 3 and I’m really enjoying it. I always liked the Archanea cast, so it’s satisfying to see them get their own character arcs and side scenes. I particularly liked Merric’s arc and the side scenes with Julian and Rickard. I’m not sure why those two were de-aged, but unlike with Elise, it weirdly doesn’t bother me. Julian and Rickard becoming younger doesn’t detract from what I like them. They’re still a great comic relief duo.

Pokemon that flee have been a game mechanic since Generation 1. Abra always uses Teleport to escape, so you have to catch it on your first move. Chansey immediately flees as well, though that was changed in the later games because I remember Chansey taking forever to battle and catch in Moon. Also, multi-Pokemon battles have been around since Generation 3, though their execution varies from game to game. I really like how Sun and Moon handled it with these battles popping up in the wild. Anyways, a Pokemon/Fire Emblem hybrid could definitely work. In a sense, that’s sort of like the game I’m developing right now (I've even described it as "Fire Emblem meets Pokemon meets Redwall") and I feel a decent number of my game’s mechanics could be expanded and improved in a official Pokemon/Fire Emblem crossover. From a gameplay/mechanics standpoint, my game Outcasts of the Rift (which started as a Fire Emblem fangame, then morphed from there) of is a blend of both series as well as having its own unique mechanics. I haven’t posted a ton of screenshots of gameplay at this point, and some are a little dated, but I’ll describe the general gameplay flow. There are two types of maps: battle maps and exploration maps. Battle maps function like those we see in Fire Emblem, but with some gameplay changes like a stamina system, a gauge to power up ultra-potent attacks unique to each character and larger movement and attack ranges. Each character has multiple skills they can use, much like moves in Pokemon. These aren’t strictly for attacking, and can be used to buff, debuff, heal the user and inflict status effects like poison and sleep. Also, the weapon triangle is expanded into a larger system of advantageous and disadvantageous match-ups like types in Pokemon. Class determines weapon usage, some skills, growth rates and, to some degree, stats. Species determines movement and some skills and stats, thus two characters of the same class but different species can play very differently. Exploration maps are styled like the overworld maps in Pokémon, top-down maps where players can explore, rest, learn about the world, talk with NPCs, find items, shop and solve the occasional puzzle to proceed. I just recently implemented a game mechanic like in Shadows of Valentia where players can sporadically encounter enemies on the overworld map and fight mini-SRPG battles. I would definitely want a Fire Emblem/Pokemon hybrid to have an extensive exploration system. My favorite part of Pokemon has always exploring different areas, and being rewarded for my efforts by finding hidden items, secrets and rare Pokemon. A Fire Emblem/Pokemon hybrid that didn't have this would just feel hollow. The ideas I mentioned above are some ways that the game mechanics of both combat systems could be combined. Admittedly, I have to agree with Hrothgar777 that I'm not sure how you would mix the lore of both or create a world where both would work. Maybe instead of having armored knights, mages, etc. only Pokemon would be used for battles?

I like the Wind Tribe, so I’m happy with the theme of this banner. In general I like the banners that focus on different cultures in the Fire Emblem world. However, I’m not sure whether I’m happy or disappointed that Fuga is on this banner and Hayato isn’t. Hayato is one of my favorite Hoshidan characters and I’m about as indifferent as possible about Fuga, but this could hint that Hayato will be on the next Fates New Heroes banner, whereas I highly doubt Fuga will appear on a Fates New Heroes banner anytime soon.