Topaz Light

The thing is that what kind of balance is "good" is sort of an inherently-subjective question in a lot of ways. Even seemingly-simple questions like how you want player character strength to compare to that of enemies, and how you want that to change (or not!) over the course of the game, can be its own whole discussion. If your intention really is just to add a new character to an existing game without changing much else about that game, I'd compare your new unit's bases, growth rates, etc. to those of other units that join at around the same level and/or point in the game. You might actually want to approach it by looking at characters' average stats at various levels, and using that to "reverse-engineer" what a good set of growth rates for a unit would be based on their base stats. If you want to do this, average values for each stat are generally calculated as... base stat value + ((growth rate / 100) x (current level - base level)) ...for each stat, though you also need to factor in promotion bonuses and stuff, too, if and when they're applicable. Obviously, this gets even more complex when you factor in things like base weapon ranks, what gear a unit joins with, any skills they may have access to should the engine facilitate that... And join time, too! Gwendolyn and Fir join one chapter apart in FE6, and they both come at level 1 with base stats to match. They're also both plopped into your party right at the onset of a bunch of axe-wielding enemies, which has the effect of making Gwendolyn much harder to train and Fir much easier, since Gwendolyn has an active disadvantage against a large portion of enemies directly following her recruitment while Fir is in the opposite situation. There's a lot to consider, and there really isn't any simple, surefire "guide" on how to balance units well. Just a whole bunch of things to remember to think about, really.

I wanted something with a sort of "Light-elemental" sound to it, and ended up deriving the name from the Carbuncle's "Ruby Light" ability in the Final Fantasy series. Interestingly-enough, there is now a canon "Topaz Light" ability used by a topaz-themed variant of the Carbuncle in World of Final Fantasy! I had nothing at all to do with that, I just think it's neat.

Honestly in my case it's just because coming up with a specific Power value would require a lot more checking prospective numbers against official moves' than I really felt like doing for a post in a thread like this one. Astra, specifically, I would probably assign 25 Power to match the other higher-end multi-hit moves. I might also decrease its max PP down to just 5 since it's guaranteed to get the full 5 hits and isn't chance-based like other similar moves.

I don't suppose I could just count "basically everyone from Gaiden" here, could I? Considering FE15 took the vast majority of them from being essentially colorful base stat + growth rate pack labels to being actual characters. In particular, Mae really grew on me a lot to the point that I'd say she counts, anyway. I think FE15 made her dynamic with Boey seem like they were genuinely friends under the jabs at each other, and just in general, she seems like a really upbeat, positive person. Saber and Sonya, too, actually. I really like Saber's voice acting, and I appreciate that Sonya's basically a magic Navarre archetype, complete with the long hair, dark backstory, and Killer weapon (Excalibur is basically "Killer Black Magic" in Gaiden, let's be honest). Plus, she's as "recruited from the enemy side" as anybody really is in Fire Emblem Gaiden and Echoes. I just think she's really cool, and it would've been neat if she had more plot presence. I understand why she doesn't, since she's part of an Arran/Samson duo so she's at higher risk than most characters of just not being recruited at all, but it's still a bit of a bummer to think of the squandered potential there. Cain and Hardin also count. In Cain's case, I recall somebody actually made a thread here a while back talking about him as a character, which sort of opened my eyes to how he has a surprising amount of depth for a non-main character in Shadow Dragon. Still not a huge amount, but some. Hardin, I think I initially thought was boring, but I've come to really appreciate the fact that he's basically another character in a very similar position to Marth, who could well be a Lord in his own right. He even has his own little "starting posse", complete with his own pair of Cavaliers! Y'know what, Alfonse from Fire Emblem Heroes might be the best example for me, actually. I had originally written him off as just a bland, generic protagonist for the sake of Fire Emblem Heroes getting its own Blue-Haired Swordboy Lord, but over time, I feel he's been elaborated on as a character in a way that definitely gives him much more of his own identity and personality. Alfonse looking his story's equivalent to Death in the face and daring her to come kill him is still a standout moment in... really the whole series for me. Is it cheesy? Sure. Is it also cool and badass as hell? Absolutely.

Actually wait I have more. ...Keep in mind though that I don't really actively hate any of these characters except Gheb; mostly just don't really care for them. Xander and Ryoma I wouldn't say I hate but they're really... overexposed, I think is a good term? They're more or less just two different instances of the same really common Fire Emblem character type, and I don't find either of them terribly interesting. It doesn't help that their designs don't really do much of anything for me; Xander in particular just feels like a bootleg Camus to me in that respect. Peri's really commonly-disliked, but I think she really is just a profoundly poorly-executed and incorporated character. There are lots of ways they could've gone about fixing it, but the way her behavior and backstory interacts with the world and cast around her as it is in the final game is just a mess. On the topic of Cavaliers... Abel, actually, is one I've come to not like so much. I don't know if he has a canon age, but he seems to be in his early twenties or like, 18~19 at the youngest. Either way, hooking up with a teenager is still a really creepy thing to do. I understand that yeah, it's a medieval era-type setting and there were (and are) cultures that overtly allowed that sort of thing, but it's still scummy IMO. Cain is fine, though. He's done nothing wrong, ever, in his life, and I love him. There's also Michalis, mainly for his ending in FE12. "Just kidding about the whole redemption arc stuff he learned nothing at all in the end and is still an unrepentant fascist!" Cool, don't know why I bothered recruiting him Gheb might actually be my most hated Fire Emblem character purely because he became a fandom Funny Meme Man for a while... except all the jokes around him were just profoundly tasteless and unfunny.

A return to having recruitable characters come from all manner of different backgrounds and be met periodically over the course of the game, rather than frontloading the vast majority of recruitments and generally including only young characters who were already actively affiliated with the main character's side before joining your team. EDIT: Also this

Others have said this already, but it's all about connections. In that way, it's actually very true to real life. Erk being Pent's ward and protégé puts him on Etruria's radar in a way none of the other magic-users your recruit are, save obviously for Pent himself. "It's not what you know, but who you know," as they say.

Hmmm... Here's a few: Astra (Fighting, Physical, 15PP): The user attacks with a quick flurry of strikes. Multi-hit move that always strikes five times. Nosferatu (Psychic, Special, 15PP): The user siphons vitality from a foe using a magical power. Basically Psychic-type Giga Drain. Excalibur (Flying, Special, 10PP): The user attacks with razor-sharp wind currents. This move has an increased critical hit rate, and will hit targets using Fly, Bounce, or Sky Drop for double damage. Bane (Dark, Physical, 5PP): The user ruthlessly attacks the target's weak points, reducing its HP to one. Fails against targets with higher levels than the user. Book of Naga (Dragon, Special, 5PP): The user invokes the spirit of an ancient dragon to attack the target. After using this move, the user's Defense and Special Defense sharply increase. Ward (Psychic, Status, 10PP): The user shrouds itself in a protective veil, sharply raising Special Defense.

it's good

Hmmm... Make Lilina and Guinivere proper Lords. Make ambush spawns exclusive to harder difficulties. Move Roy's auto-promotion from just prior to Chapter 22 to the end chapter cutscene of Chapter 16. The Binding Blade's acquisition circumstances do not need to be altered, however. Give character stats and growth rates, as well as weapon stats, some touch-ups. Not so much as to erase any character or weapon type's identity or anything, but good axe-users should be less of a rarity than they are, for example. Make Fimbulvetr and Fenrir available to the player before postgame, and add the Shine, Aura, and Luna tomes present in Blazing Blade for the sake of consistency (and not having Light magic as a weapon type consist of just four weapons). Luna's weapon stats should probably be closer to those of its nerfed FE8 iteration, though. It would be cool to add a playable Monk so you get a tier 1 Light-user, but it's not necessary and a playable Guinivere could also play that role just fine. I don't know how necessary it is to give her a story role (I'm sure it could be done just fine), but at least add Lyn as a Trial Map bonus character to round out the FE7 Lord trio. As well, I'd change their Trial Map versions to be in their promoted Lord classes from Blazing Blade rather than generic second-tier classes, or at least move Eliwood's S rank from Lances to Swords and give Hector one in Axes to match. Make Merlinus work how he does in FE7. No deployment slot required to field him and he levels up automatically for surviving a chapter.

Might be better to link the thread about the editor directly rather than just somebody quoting the OP of that thread, but yeah, this is how you'd do it.

To be honest, I think Budding Talent-based alts would've been my personal ideal direction for these four to have gone in. Sword Lysithea with some sort of "magic damage" property to reflect Soulblade, Axe Claude, and Tome Edelgard would all be super cool and fun alts! The only problem, I guess, is Dimitri's budding talent is in Riding, and his initial variant kinda... already is a horseback unit. I guess they could give him Daggers as his weapon type and have him wield the gift dagger he gives Edelgard? That could be rather poignant assuming they kept the concept of these alts being from after the endings of each character's respective "home route".

[SPRITES FEATURED IN THIS GALLERY ARE -NOT- AVAILABLE FOR PUBLIC USE UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED] So I've been getting back into FE spriting, and I figured I'd show off some of the sprites I've been working on lately! These are all splices and none of them are really "done", per se; I'm always open to making touch-ups where they're necessary, and I'd be interested to hear whatever feedback people have! These are all specific characters I'm planning to use in a hack project, so none of the sprites are available for public use. Sorry! The three sprites I've been working on recently are... Aruna, a Knight! These first two character sprites came about as a result of me thinking "I want to do something with this sprite/design element (that I don't see people use often)". In Aruna's case, it was Zagan's face shape. This isn't intentional, but they ended up basically having the same hairstyle as Larcei. Phantom, a Brigand! In her case, I wanted to sprite a playable character with buck teeth, since Abel, Dolph, Macellan, and Kliff all had noticeably-imperfect teeth in their original NES appearances, but since then, the deliberately-ugly Gonzalez is really the only playable character who's had that sort of trait. As well, I decided to make the character a girl, since women in fiction tend to have their designs kept conventionally-attractive a lot more than men, and that feels a little samey after a while. Also, while she does have albinism, Phantom is an ordinary human and doesn't have black sclerae or anything; that's her irises shining out from under the shadow cast by her armored headband, Final Fantasy Black Mage-style! Wilbur, a Priest! He actually came about when I was thinking about interesting directions to go in with character designs based on FE1's battle sprites. Specifically, he's designed to be a male character who would use the "female" FE1 Cleric sprite! His sprite is almost definitely going to end up getting cropped on the bottom, since he's not supposed to be as tall or as built as he looks right now; I just wanted to show off the "full" uncropped version here (and also I haven't done the comparisons I need to to decide just how much I wanna shorten him yet). And, yes, I know he's Very Blue; he's supposed to be, haha

Here are the lines describing Bauker, for reference: VILLAGE VISIT TEXT (CIVILIAN MAN): “Ah, you there! You’re Caelin knights, aren’t you? Marquess Laus’s man, the one called Bauker… He seems like a gentle man, but his skill is near legendary. Do you carry weapons suited to battling knights? Take this if you please.” CHAPTER CLEAR (ELIWOOD): “Command Bauker… He was a fierce enemy.” BAUKER STATUS SCREEN HELP TEXT: "Commander of the Imperial Guard of Laus." So, he is described as a "fierce enemy" of "near legendary" skill, and this guy does say he "seems like a gentle man"... It's kind of strange lore to give to a character who's otherwise no different from the generic one-off bosses in any other chapters or Fire Emblem games. I myself actually can't help but wonder what's going on there, translation-wise, since while the description the villager gives isn't nonsensical in itself, it doesn't seem to match the character it's attributed to very well at all.

So, I've been playing through FE1 lately (made it up to Chapter 20 as of this writing), and, while I know it logically couldn't have been intended to have any particular relationship with future games as of its creation, I've actually found the game to be retroactively quite different and refreshing in a number of ways. Tomes serving as Pokémon-style "fixed-damage attacks" (a la Sonic Boom or Dragon Rage) is actually a pretty interesting role for them! The combination of the lower stat cap of 20 across the board (save for HP, which caps at 52) actually does a pretty good job of keeping units from becoming so overpowered as to become invincible. As well, promotion bonuses work in the manner most fans probably associated with Shadows of Valentia; raising stats up to the promoted class's base stats if they're lower rather than giving fixed bonuses. This actually works really well with the lower stat caps to create a dynamic around promotion where it's very much about who's most direly in need of the boost, and less about holding off for as long as possible with everyone. I suppose I wouldn't really classify... really any of this as better so much as just different, but I certainly do find it an interesting change of pace from how the setup from how I personally am inclined to play the installments with Thracia 776-style promotion mechanics. It's also sort of interesting to me that, due to the way Weapon Level works, Julian, Rickard, and Xane actually need the singular Arms Scroll in the game to use anything above Iron, Steel, and Devil Swords. It lends that Arms Scroll a special sort of value, and that unique relationship between it and the three aforementioned units is something to which no parallel really exists in other installments, to my knowledge. I do feel like they could've stood to go a little higher with certain Weapon Level requirements, though, considering the highest requirement in the game (Gradivus) is a whole six points below the cap. It's just been really fun! It's been really cool seeing all the little touches even modern Fire Emblem games don't really retain; Ballisticians have unique combat animations for each of their five weapons, for example, or bow-using classes having separate animations for standard bows and crossbows (with every class but Sniper also having "big crossbow" sprites)... Then Marth has at least three different attacking animations just dedicated to different weapons, plus at least two unique critical hit animations. I've actually found myself rather disappointed that neither of the two remakes of FE1 are really quite true to it, whether because of cuts or because of massive overhauls to the mechanics to bring it more in line with later installments. The games does rather want for quality-of-life features, as NES games tend to, but I think that there's a lot more value in a lot of FE1's now-idiosyncratic design and presentation elements than it gets credit for! I'd be curious to hear others' thoughts on the game, since I don't really know hardly anything about the general consensus on it besides the completely uninteresting, if perhaps understandable, "it's a NES game that aged poorly so play one of its remakes instead" takes.

It’s less that it’s inherently racist towards any specific group and more that the idea of an entire race of people that’s just intrinsically malignant and often less intelligent by nature lines up with a lot of racist rhetoric. This is a broader topic, though, that I don’t really feel fully qualified to explain in-depth, and that’s not really the subject of discussion in this thread.

This is really specific, but one trope I really, really dislike is when writers kill off characters essentially because they don't want to have to figure out what that character's life would be like after the story concludes. Most frequently this happens with villains who are either recently-redeemed or set onto a redemptive trajectory, as well as "last of their kind" and artificial life-form characters... basically anybody who doesn't have any place in the setting's mainstream society they could comfortably slot back into once the events of the story are over. It just seems really lazy and in some cases even outright cruel to me. Another that really bothers me is like... this may be a bit involved to describe, but essentially, when a character is given a Designated Love Interest™ whose entire relationship with them pretty much consists solely of being their love interest, and this love interest takes priority over everyone who actually has an interesting and fleshed-out dynamic with that character. This is sort of inherently subjective, since different people have different interest levels in different sorts of character dynamics, and I can't necessarily think of any examples off the top of my head, but this happens pretty frequently and it always just kills my interest in the couples to which it applies. It's extra annoying when a lot of focus is given to developing the relationship between two characters and setting up a really intense arc and some level of emotional intimacy between the two... and then one or both of them get paired off with other characters they have way less compelling or developed relationships with. Like, if you're gonna have romance, I wanna see those first two get together! On a way simpler note, "Always Chaotic Evil" is a really lazy worldbuilding element with transparently-racist implications and it's boring as all hell, besides. I can say without even a shred of reservation that if you have to rely on it to create conflict in your story, you are a phenomenally lousy and unimaginative writer.

No, I wouldn't say so. FE3 Book 1 basically axes the five least important chapters (as decided upon by the developers) from FE1/11, but no plot details or important characters are missing at all. There are a few minor recruitable characters who got cut, though: Wrys, Darros, Roger, Jake, Beck, and Gotoh. This means that the Pirate and Ballistician classes are enemy-exclusive in FE3's version of FE1's story, but your team should be more than diverse enough without them. As well, Gotoh does still appear in the story, he just no longer joins your party at any point. I don't know that I'd call FE3 Book 1 the definitive way to experience the story of FE1—I would say Shadow Dragon is the definitive version in terms of plot—but it's definitely perfectly serviceable in that regard and you won't be missing anything major by playing that version. Incidentally, if you would like to give Shadow Dragon another go, I'd definitely look into Cirosan's "Full Content" patch! This patch removes the unlock requirements for sidequest chapters and Norne's recruitment, makes the four Prologue chapters accessible regardless of difficulty, and integrates the online shop-exclusive items (Brave weapons, Elysian Whips) into the main game. There's pretty much no reason to play the vanilla game anymore if you're able to play it with this patch.

This is probably such a common "first anime" as to border on not "counting", but the first anime I ever saw was the Pokémon anime, waaaaay back when North America hadn't even made it to the second season yet. I later got into Naruto, Bleach, and Fullmetal Alchemist '03 around my early teens. I always kinda liked the stylistic trappings of anime more than those of most Western animation I watched at the time... at the very least, I felt they lent themselves better to telling stories with meaningful continuity and emotional resonance. The thing is, I don't actually know that I'd consider myself specifically an anime fan so much as a person who watches specific anime if they catch my interest. I don't especially enjoy anime for its own sake, I guess is what I mean, but I do find it a perfectly good medium in which to partake of good stories.

Where to even begin, honestly. Axe Qualified Immunity completely, for one thing, and eradicate the validity of all legal defenses that essentially amount to "but, Your Honor, I found the victim to be gross, see, and that's why I murdered them / let them die when I had the power to save them". Like, that's not a defense, that's a confession. This is not even the half of it.

Ahhh right, yeah! I suppose I was thinking of their appearance in Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light as their introduction because it's pretty clearly the same or a similar concept for a class in-universe (projectile-based siege weaponry manned by a single person), though you're correct in that Shadow Dragon is the first time the class as it's now known became playable. The modern, "long-range potshot" version of the Ballistician class actually debuted in Mystery of the Emblem, though! I have to say, though, I do really like how Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light has totally different animations for each of the five Ballistician weapons in the game. That's a neat touch, and kinda makes me wanna use one in my core team just for how cool it is

I mean, I'd say there's "merit" to it in as much as Ballistician is a cool class conceptually and I'd love to see more done with it, especially since it was pretty much abandoned as a playable class basically immediately following Shadow Dragon (though its functionality did survive in the form of Ballistae as tools you can find have your Archers and use on maps), and only made a brief reappearance in Fates as a DLC class (as well as, of course, returning in Shadow Dragon since it was in the game SD's a remake of). Balance is definitely a concern, but I'm sure it can be done! Ballisticians already have poor mobility, shaky accuracy, and an inability to make follow-up attacks as counterweights to their tremendous range, so I wouldn't go so far as to say they're broken as they are in FE11, either; just very useful.

Actually... I just made Starlight a Blue Tome because it seems like it'd be a Light spell if it existed in a game with the Trinity of Magic, plus I wanted it to have WTA against Gharnef. I considered making it a Colorless Tome as well, actually, although it having WTA against the majority of units who naturally have Close Call/Repel/Spurn is a nice little benefit to it!

Starlight (Non-inheritable Blue Tome Weapon): 8 Might. Inflicts Res-3 on foe and neutralizes foe's bonuses to Res (from skills like Fortify, Rally, etc.) during combat. Disables opponent's "Guard" and "reduction of incoming damage by X%". *Skills like Deflect Magic, Close Call, Urvan, Aegis, etc. will not reduce damage taken from a unit wielding Starlight. However, other effects of those skills, such as Close Call causing its user to move one space back after combat they initiated, are not affected. Alternatively, or perhaps additionally but for a different unit... Lightsphere (Non-inheritable B skill): Inflicts Def/Res-3 on foe and neutralizes foe's bonuses to Def/Res (from skills like Fortify, Rally, etc.) during combat. Disables opponent's "Guard" and "reduction of incoming damage by X%".* *Skills like Deflect Magic, Close Call, Urvan, Aegis, etc. will not reduce damage taken from a unit equipped with this skill. However, other effects of those skills, such as Close Call causing its user to move one space back after combat they initiated, are not affected. Foul Play (Non-Staff Assist skill): It's just Swap but with Physic range. Anew (Non-inheritable Staff Assist skill): Restores HP = 50% of Atk -10. Grants another action to target ally. (Minimum of 7 HP restored. Allies with Sing or Dance will not be granted another action. This skill is treated as Sing or Dance.) Guard 4 (B skill): Inflicts Special cooldown charge -1 on foe per attack. (Only highest value applied. Does not stack.) (Basically just removes the HP requirement since there are other skills with no HP requirements that grant the same effects as Guard while also doing other things.) That's all I got for now.

He should come with a unique C skill that grants Obstruct 3 to all Staff allies within 2 spaces of him For myself, I will admit... I do think they should include Gazzak and Batta. First Fire Emblem boss period and the first Fire Emblem boss whose home game was released worldwide. Even if only as subpar GHB characters. Actually especially as subpar GHB characters Cimbaeth and Munnir would both be neat to see, since they kinda go with Jamke... I realize these are all axe-users, oops Including... really any Ambiguously-Gay Bandit Duo as a Duo Hero would be fun I think! Oh, and Georg and Kaim would be legitimately really interesting! I'd love to see them get, like, any characterization at all besides "whacking intruders with this Tomahawk is the entire reason for my existence". Oh... those are all still axe users. For some non-axe users... Really, any of the capturable bosses from Fates would be cool to see, plus Omozu! In particular, I'd love to Candace, Nichol, Kumagera, or Zhara ...I say, and then proceed to include two more axe-users in my list of wanted characters