Topaz Light

Yeah, double posts/double threads just kinda happen from time to time. I'm not exactly sure what causes it (something to do with the form getting sent twice, I'd imagine), but it's a known glitch. It's nothin' to worry about! And hey, welcome! I hope you enjoy your time here! There are many different subforums and even more discussions, so I'm sure you'll be able to find ones you'd be interested in participating in~ And hey, have a great day~

Alm, Celica, Gray, Tobin, Kliff, and Faye should've all had supports with all of the other five. I realize that Celica's B and A conversations with Alm would necessarily have to happen post-game, so use that as the basis for what they talk about. In a similar vein, Celica, Mae, Boey, Genny, and Nomah should've all had supports with all of the other four. Each of the Cipher DLC characters should've had supports with all of the other three, not just the one other one they come packaged with. They also should've gotten more than one base conversation apiece. Atlas should've been able to support with the Whitewings, since they have that shared experience of dealing with having younger siblings kidnapped and held hostage by Grieth… or being one of said younger siblings, in Est's case. Kamui and Jesse should've had supports. Those two really ought to have interacted considering Kamui's decision to join Jesse's mercenary kingdom in his ending. Also, Kamui should've had supports with Valbar, to round out that trio all having supports with one another. Mycen should've at least had supports with Celica and Nomah, too, if not a few of the other Ram village kids. Giving Mycen supports with Zeke, Tatiana, and/or Conrad might also be interesting. He and Zeke in particular could have some cool conversations elaborating more on Rudolf as a character. Additionally, giving Mycen supports with Clive and Lukas centered around his refusal to join the Deliverance would be nice, too. Tobin should've had supports with Clair to sell the idea that he was also interested in her. Silque should've had actual support conversations with Jesse due to their past meeting, as well as supports with at least Celica out of the Novis clergy members due to her having apparently worked there and known Celica in the past. Also she should've joined Celica if you left her unrecruited on Alm's route and then spoke to her with Celica, but that's another topic. Yuzu and Shade could potentially have some interesting supports with Tatiana and Sonya, since the four of them have that shared experience of having their lives negatively-impacted by the Duma Faithful in various ways. Emma and Delthea supports might've been fun, since they're both 13-year-old kids fighting in a war. I feel like Randal and Saber might have some interesting things to talk about, since they're both around the same age and have similar "wandering roguish vagabond" kinda lifestyles. The Whitewings with Zeke would be interesting, and could touch on his connection to Archanea more. It'd also be neat to see a Silque and Tatiana support conversation, with them talking about the differences between the Mila and Duma Faithful. Valbar and Genny supports could be really nice, since Valbar has lost his family, including his kids, and Genny never really knew her parents. There could be a really sweet sorta found-family dynamic there. I'm sure there are more but these are what immediately spring to mind for missed-potential support pairs.

I don't mind them as much as DLC as I would if they were just part of the game normally, since generally-speaking I'm not really big on needless power escalation. Even Gaiden/Echoes', and Radiant Dawn's third-tiers are kinda pushing it for me. I'm also not a fan of how the Overclasses don't retain character-specific outfit colorations or victory animations. It makes everyone of the same class end up looking and being animated pretty samey. Additionally, spellcasters being reverted back to their tier 2 level 1 spell lists and having to relearn everything after that is really silly. Plus, this might just be me, but I think Mages reclassed to Harriers should've been able to learn all their Black Magic spells that they would've learned as Mages/Priestesses while in that class, but that's mainly just my love for consistency talking.

Atlas. I just like him, really. I'm not completely sure what they'd do with him; if Gray and Tobin are any indication, it'd just be "leave him a Villager" but still. He's pretty cool. Roshea. Similar reasons to Atlas, but it'd be neat if they were able to carry over his weird HP/Strength/Skill-focused stats from FE1/11 somehow and make it work. Reina. Not because I especially care about her as a character, but because having a flying bow-user would be really unique. Aversa and/or Nichol. Realistically, if we were to get one, it'd be Aversa, and she'd be a Grand Hero Battle, but it'd be really nice to have a "regular" flying tome-user available, and either Aversa or Nichol could round out the set as a red one to go with Spring Camilla's green and Summer Corrin's blue. Wolf, Sedgar, Midir, Lester, Deimne, Robert, Selfina, Roberto, Sue, Sin, Dayan, Rath, Hayden, Astrid, Geoffrey, Beck, Gazelle, Mueller, Andre, Monke, Thoril, Kudoka, Kabul, Sealen, Uhai, Beran, Mackoya, Sergei, Ezra, or Awakening!Bovis, or pre-promoted Castor, Python, Warren, Neimi, Noire, or Nina. I listed all of these characters to highlight just how many horseback bow-users there are in the series; they even already exist as generic enemies in FEH! You can't hide from the mounted bow-users forever IntSys just give us at least one already

So I recently got Roderick, a character I've been wanting for a while for his cool Firesweep Lance... but he's +Def/-Atk, which sucks, and kinda runs directly counter to the whole niche of the Firesweep Lance as a weapon as I understand it. So, I'm plotting to pass the weapon down to somebody. I was going through my lance-users and I noticed I had a +Atk/-HP Catria, who seems like a great candidate for the deadly hit-and-runner I wanted to use the Firesweep Lance for. My thoughts for a skill build are still incomplete, but thus far my plan is... Firesweep Lance+ Life and Death 3 Knock Back (I wanted Hit and Run but that's Clair-exclusive, so eh) Savage Blow 3 This brings the aforementioned +Atk/-HP Catria up to 54 Attack and 39 Speed at level 40 5★ when all is said and done, plus a skill that forces enemies away from her after she attacks and does her uncounterattackable thing in order to keep herself safe, as well as Savage Blow 3 to pile some extra pain onto any enemies unfortunate enough to be near to Catria's target. What I'm curious about is how this stacks up, and what kind of support she's going to want from her team members. It strikes me that somebody with Swap, Drag Back, Shove, or Smite might be helpful to ensure her being out of harm's way during enemy phase, but there might be other, better options. Some way of further boosting her Attack and/or Speed as necessary might also be appreciated. Also, what might be some good Assist and Special skill options for her? I don't suppose her Assist skill is of a huge degree of consequence, and for Special it might just be the standard "give her Moonbow" but I'm still interested in hearing any ideas!

Not as unique, but don't forget Amid, the only playable Wind Mage in the game!

Use Fates' version of the Pair-Up mechanic. I know people say this a lot, but add multiple objective types and restructure the maps and their enemy layouts around these new objectives where necessary. I think that, if done correctly, differing map objectives can actually contribute and be more than just "fluff". Make the non-Lucina kids more plot-relevant, or at least have them show up in the main plot. My idea for how to do this is... Kids show up as recruitable units in various main-story chapters if their attached parent is married as of entering that chapter. If said parents are not married by then, but marry afterward, the children can be recruited from their respective paralogues instead. Paralogue unlock conditions would be child's main story recruitment chapter cleared plus their parents being married. If you already have the child characters, the paralogues would just function as bonus maps for goodies and extra worldbuilding/plot elaboration. Alternatively, just handle not having the parents married in time with Genealogy-style substitute characters replacing the respective kids. Take Gangrel's and Walhart's motivations expressed in their support conversations and make those actually relevant to the main plot. Gangrel's in particular would be a perfect segue into the Valm arc, so it's really baffling to me that they delegated it to just postgame support chains. Walhart and Gangrel can also be made recruitable through similar arc segues if desired. That's really sorta take it or leave it. Make Yen'fay recruitable in the main story. I don't even especially care about him as a character, but it's absolutely idiotic of him to keep serving Valm when Say'ri is already working with a group that's successfully taking on Valm's military while putting her in danger anyway. For Yen'fay's part, it would make more sense to just join up with Chrom's army alongside Say'ri and aid them in routing Valm's now-off-balance military. Also, if he must just be fought and killed instead, do the Alm vs. Rudolf thing and make him not counterattack Say'ri, or at least rig the RNG of battles between them to prevent the outcome from ever being fatal for either sibling or at least for Say'ri. Or alternatively be an asshole and just give them each special death quotes when killed by the other in which said other participates. They may actually already have this but still. If you're gonna have that conflict, go all in. Give Grima and Validar existent motivations and non-cardboard personalities. Give the game actual worldbuilding, fix the inconsistencies with previous Archanean-Valentian-Jugdrali lore, and make the continuity a little more relevant. Not too much in ways that require prior knowledge of that particular FE setting to really understand, but make it the sort of deal where you'll have a richer and more nuanced experience and understanding of the plot if you are familiar with the previous games set in that world, sort of like playing EarthBound or Mother 3 after having played the previous game(s). I could probably think of way more but that's it for now.

I... don't know if I can actually answer this so well, because there aren't a whole lot of series I like that I also want specific future games in and that are extremely unlikely to have sequels made at this point period, but I do have a few things where I'd want sequels to them that are different from what the series is currently doing and are therefore similarly unlikely to happen. I want a new Final Fantasy game in the vein of I~VII or Chrono Trigger or something. And not just a smaller title that you can tell existed primarily to cash in on fans who want that, like The 4 Heroes of Light (as charming as that game is). I'm talking, like, an actual, big-budget, high-effort game that could be given the title "Final Fantasy XVI" (or whatever the next mainline number would be as of its release) and nobody would find it an underwhelming choice for that. A sequel to Paper Marioes 1~Super, rather than the garbage we've been getting recently. Paper Mario's aesthetic is distinct and appealing but it alone cranked up to eleven does not a good Paper Mario game make, dammit! Gonna second wanting a new Golden Sun game, too. Golden Suns 1 and 2 were such good, solid RPGs, and quite impressive in both scope and presentation for the GBA! Dark Dawn was okay, but ultimately still left me wanting. Maybe controversial opinion here, but I actually don't particularly want a fourth official MOTHER game. Not that I didn't like the series; I loved it, actually. I just feel that its overarching narrative has reached a point where additions to it would be unlikely to really be all that additive to the collective work that is the existing MOTHER trilogy, and I'd rather it have the grace to end where it makes sense for it to than to continue on and just become a cash cow series or something. Of course, were Itoi to choose to make a fourth, I would support him in doing so and I'd check out the game; I just don't think the series would especially benefit from being added to at this point in time. Fan games are a bit different to me, because their status as fan projects kind of makes the events of their plots inherently hypothetical, in a sense, compared to the series' core canon.

I'm actually not really so big on content that's strictly New Game+-exclusive, because the restriction is almost never something that makes sense in-universe and mostly just ends up being really annoying if the content locked behind a New Game+ is something that's actually meaningful and substantial. As for a real "post-game", I'd say it depends on how much sense it makes. I'd be all for stuff that actually makes sense and ties into the story or at least can be tied into it in functional ways, but for other stuff I could kinda take it or leave it, honestly.

I definitely agree with this; I think the charm of Fire Emblem's writing lies more in the characters and their individual stories and personalities than in the overarching plots of the games. Although, it is important to remember that "complicated" is not synonymous with "good" when discussing plots; you can have a plot that's simple, but very solid and effective, or a plot that's complicated, but handles its complexity ineptly and ends up just being a big mess more than anything else. Honestly I think most of the series' stories are decent, at least in the sense of being perfectly serviceable, but I do agree that the characters and gameplay are the main draw.

Here's a question: Is a +Res/-Def Sheena viable, or could I make her viable? I've already given her Iceberg to take advantage of her high Resistance stat, but I don't know if she'd be workable or if that was a very good idea. Her Defense looks like it's still gonna be a pretty respectable 33 at the end of the day, but that's still 6 less than it could potentially be and 3 less than even what it is by default. And for another, broader question; are mixed Cavalry+Non-Cavalry teams even a thing that would be good at all? I have some potentially-pretty-good horseback units (Reinhardt, Ursula, Camus, Xander, Cain, etc.) but I also have a lot of infantry units I like, too, and limited hero feathers... well, compared to the 20,000-feather cost of raising someone up to 5★, anyway.

Here are some basics! A lot of this stuff, other people have already covered, but: In games that have it, use the weapon triangle! Swords beat Axes beat Lances beat Swords. While your units' odds will naturally be at their most favorable when pitted against an enemy whose weapon type theirs has the advantage against, it's usually pretty safe to pit same against same, too, i.e. sword vs. sword, lance vs. lance, etc. While it can still work to send, say, lance-users against axe-users, pitting a unit against an enemy whose weapon has the edge against theirs is a risky business, so be very cautious about doing so! The only Fire Emblem games which do not feature the weapon triangle are as follows; all installments not listed here do have it! [FE1] Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (NES) [FE2] Fire Emblem Gaiden (NES) [FE3] Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem (SNES) [FE15] Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia (3DS) [FE16] Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Switch) Keep an eye on the enemy's range, and don't move your units carelessly! It's generally a good idea to use hardier units such as Knights and particularly sturdy Cavaliers or Wyvern Riders to bait out enemies. For magical foes, you'd want to use a unit with high Resistance, instead, which usually means Clerics, Pegasus Knights, or Mages, which leads me into another point... Know your units' stats, and always check out the enemies' stats! If a unit has very low Defense, for example, you're going to want to be more careful when sending them into battle against physical enemies. Slower Mages might want to keep out of the way of fast or hard-hitting physical units such as Mercenaries, Myrmidons, Fighters, etc. These are just a few examples! Also keep in mind that very often, although not always, Strength/Defense and Magic/Resistance kinda correlate with each other, in that units are usually specialized more in one of those two pairs of stats than in the other. This is kind of a double-edged sword in ways; magic users often deal less damage to other magic users, but take less in return, for example. Targeting the enemy's weaker defensive stat can be very effective, but know that, depending on the enemy's class and weapon, doing so may put your attacker at risk if you're not careful! Watch the combat forecast closely! It shows how much damage each combatant will deal per attack, what the odds of each unit's attack connecting are, and each unit's chance of striking a critical hit (damage x 3), plus it also shows if either combatant will attack twice. Watch out for enemy units being able to get in two attacks! 6 damage may not look like too much, but when it's coming at your level 1 Villager with 18 max HP twice in one round of combat, that's suddenly a lot scarier. The good news is, of course, that double attacks can also work in your favor when it's your units pulling them off! Keep an eye on enemies' equipment and skills! Bows dealing extra damage to airborne units is pretty basic and is often taught pretty explicitly in most Fire Emblem games, but there are other weapons to look out for, too; Wyrmslayers deal extra damage to draconic units, Armorslayers deal extra damage to heavily-armored units like Knights, etc. It's generally best to keep units out of the way of weapons that will deal extra damage to them like this. There are other matchups to look out for, too; magic often rips right through Knights' defenses, for example, and can really put them in a bad place, so keep your low-Resistance units out of range of spellcasters, when you can! There's rarely any reason to have units attack from where they can be counterattacked when it's possible to have them attack from where they won't be. For example, there's no real reason to send a Mage to face a Knight in melee combat when they could attack from a distance and deal the same damage while keeping themselves perfectly safe from counterattack. Use terrain wisely! Terrain can grant bonuses not only to evasion chance, but also to Defense and Resistance, and can even allow units currently standing on it to recover HP based on a percentage (usually 10% or 20%) of their max every time that unit's Phase rolls around; Player Phase for your units, Enemy Phase for enemies, etc. It's usually good to have your units act from advantageous terrain when you can, and to try to keep enemies off of it to the best of your ability. It can make a bigger difference than you might think! The properties of the terrain on a particular tile can be viewed in a little box in the corner of the screen while the cursor is hovered over that tile! Train a diverse team! Many Fire Emblem games will send a variety of different enemies and challenges at you over the course of their stories, and it's always good to have a varied array of party members with different classes and specialties, so you're never totally left out to dry when something new and surprising is sent your way. There's more to it than this, of course, but these are some good basics to keep in mind!

Except in the Tellius games, and in Awakening/Fates where I can make them someone's backpack for the early chapters, I always bench Jagens. Immediately. I have nothing against them as characters and I acknowledge that they're, like, objectively very useful and all that, I just find them to be subjectively very boring as units. Plus, unless you're going for low turn counts and/or playing Lunatic mode or something, you honestly do not actually need to use Jagens at any point in any of the Fire Emblem games I've played in order to clear a given chapter within a reasonable amount of time and effort. All this also applies to pseudo-Jagens/secondary Jagens like Wendell and Zelot. One sort-of exception to the above is I'll sometimes use Frederick in Awakening, because everybody has access to indefinite level-ups in that game so I'm less picky with who I do and don't use or give EXP to. I know this is absolutely the opposite of how a lot of "pro" FE players play the game, but I honestly tend to really enjoy growth units and find them much more fun and satisfying to use compared to units primarily focused on having good bases. Like other people have mentioned, I only care about getting low turn counts when there's a meaningful in-game reward for achieving them, and even simply falling within the parameters to qualify for the reward is good enough for me. Dunno how popular or unpopular this is, but even in games like the original Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, I play 100% recruitment + 100% survival runs exclusively, the only exception being in vanilla Shadow Dragon when I wanna play the sidequests. Thank goodness for the patch that removes those stupid requirements. This also applies to my first run through any given FE game. You'd better believe I'm gonna look up how to get everyone to make sure I don't miss anybody. I don't really care that much about picking good stat builds for my MUs. My first FE12 MU was literally entirely randomly-generated, for example, and I gave my Awakening MU, Turks, +Res/-HP for no other reason than that that stat spread fit the design I'd come up with for him. I tend to choose variable parents for child characters based on criteria that's usually more arbitrary than effective, gameplay-wise: In Genealogy of the Holy War, I make a point to have Luna, Sol, Forseti, and the Valkyrie staff all be passed down, no matter what. In Awakening, I make sure that every child character gets max reclass set size—the exception being Lucina and Inigo who are usually siblings and thus each only have five class options—and that I pass down all the unique or Wacky Anime Hair Colors™ to child characters who aren't Yarne, since he only gets the one patch of it. This means Virion, Stahl, Donnel, Gaius, and Henry all my characters other than Panne, and Chrom is never left to marry the Maiden. I'm a bit inconsistent about whether or not my MU adheres to this, though. I haven't actually played Fates enough to really have a pattern for it yet, but from what little I have done I either pair characters based on just how much I like them as a couple, or with the intention of making some fun weird build for their kid, like pairing Silas and Orochi to make a mixed physical/magical Sophie who I planned to use as a Basara. I do also try to avoid having the kid end up with just two class options, but since that's rarely an issue it's not that big a concern for me. As in Awakening, hair color inheritance is kind of a concern here, but it's mainly just making sure the kids don't end up with horrible ugly hair colors that clash with the rest of their design, since pairings are laid out such that no more than one variable parent—and thus inheritable hair color—can be left out if all children are to be recruited. I try to use a variety of classes in most Fire Emblem games and don't really like loading up on a bunch of the same class too much, no matter how good that class may be. I don't really like using the Awakening and Fates MUs in their base classes and always make a point to have some other class as their "main" class. In Fates, though, I do usually try to pick a main class that still has access to Swords, so my MU can still wield Yato.

Gonna be honest, I actually never found Fire Emblem as a series to be that exceptionally bad story-wise. A lot of people here seem to act like the series' stories are always bad, but I don't necessarily think that's the case. They're rarely exceptional, sure, but I don't think that makes them actively bad.

I can honestly say that there is not one remix in FE15 that I would consider to be worse than its Gaiden counterpart. Maybe equal for some of them, but not worse. The new compositions are all pretty good, although for a number of them there's a subtle difference in style that tips you off to them having been made for Echoes specifically. Overall, I think the soundtrack is really good and I like it a lot! I can't say I necessarily think the distribution of where each song plays in the game is perfect or how I would've done it—some divergence from Gaiden for the sake of making certain maps more atmospheric would not have been out of line, I feel—but I really can't find any significant flaws with any of the individual remixes.

Altina doesn't have character data in the Tellius games; she's just a backstory character. Cheat codes can only work with data that's already in the game; you'd need to get into straight-up hacking if you wanted to have Altina as a playable character.

Thank you to whoever brought up Maribelle for reminding me that she is also one of my favorite Awakening characters, too! Sure, she does have some moments of classism, but she's always a well-meaning individual, I feel. Besides, Fernand retroactively makes Maribelle look like a saint in regards to the whole classism thing I don't know how people actually feel about her but Meg is extremely adorable and I'm gonna baby and favoritism her up to endgame viability when I inevitably play through Radiant Dawn. Fiona, too, since she's got the coolest design of any Cavalier or Cavalier-adjacent unit in the series, IMO.

@SatsumaFSoysoy Oh, that's absolutely the case. I'm just stating that, while I acknowledge people largely don't really have a whole lot of direct control over what they end up liking and disliking, I find that to be a really shoddy reason for disliking a character. Seeing people hate on characters for that reason kinda makes me gravitate towards them more because of my own extreme distaste towards that basis for dislike.

Reading more of this thread reminded me of some additional ones, so... More characters I like that most people don't seem to: Ricken, Hayato, and their general type of character. A lot of people seem to find them really annoying, but I... honestly don't? They're nowhere near my favorite characters or anything, but I don't remotely hold any animosity towards them. A lot of people seem to not really care about Wrys, but I like him. He seems like just a chill, kindhearted old guy who just wants to help others, and I can definitely respect that. Eliwood is admittedly not exceptional as a character or a unit, but I think he definitely gets more crap than he deserves. Part of it definitely comes from people deriding male characters for showing vulnerability or expressing negative emotions in non-destructive ways, which is a trend I honestly really despise, so I'm at least partly inclined to push back against the hate for him just for that alone. Aside from that, he's just generally a decent human being and a sweet guy who I've never found anything to dislike about. He's not one of my favorite characters in the series, but I do still like him and think that he doesn't deserve the hate he gets. Arthur (FE14) is almost never really talked about, but he's honestly one of my favorite characters in Fates. They could really easily have made him the sort of gag character who acts like a hotshot hero but is really a selfish coward when things get right down to it, and I'm very glad they didn't. Even though he's definitely a more comedic instance of it, I have a lot of respect for characters (and people!) who always strive to be a force for good, even in the face of adversity. For this, Arthur has my respect and support. I can relate to Takumi's deep-seated insecurities and dislike of Corrin, plus I really like his design. Dunno if this counts but I'm very much on Team "Faye Was Definitely Kinda Lackluster and a Missed Opportunity but Honestly Not That Bad". Roger is another character who I honestly... really just don't hear about at all as opposed to actually hearing negative things about him, but he's always my Knight of choice in the Archanea Fire Emblem games. Far as I can tell, he comes perfectly usable and is very good at what Knights are supposed to do. He also has incredible Luck growth, for some reason. I don't know how much that actually helps him, but it's a thing. Shame what FE12 did with his character, though. Both Panne and Yarne seem to get panned (teehee) a lot for their aversion to humans and extreme timidity, respectively. I don't mind either of them. I think that, after the literal genocide of her species at the hands of humans, Panne is more than justified in being wary of them, even if, yes, Not All Humans are horrifically racist against Taguel. As far as Yarne goes, I honestly think him being the last of his species/among the last two or three of them is only really part of why he's so skittish and anxious. Consider the sort of world he grew up in; it's a wonder more of the kids don't have similar neuroses, honestly. Another character I don't like so much that a lot of people seem to like: Nah is a big one. So many of her supports are just her being a domineering, overcontrolling jerk to the person she's supporting with, sometimes even to the point of threatening them with death if they don't obey her. Okay, maybe that last one was just Inigo, but still. It's probably partially because this is a trait I find to be really, really insufferable in real life, but Nah is one of the few Fire Emblem characters I can say I actually do dislike to some degree because of it.

Characters I like that other people seem to dislike: Inigo is... Okay, I actually don't think he's that hated or anything, but I hear him mentioned as annoying by people from time to time when he's honestly probably my favorite of Awakening's child characters. Arden. Kind of. I'm deliberately using him and getting him married, even though he's widely and probably rightly considered to suck, just to be contrary. Well, and also because I feel kinda bad for the guy. Kellam seems to be often cited as a character who's totally devoured by his gimmick, which to be fair, he sometimes is. When he's not being played as a one-note joke, however, I actually really like him as a character. I kinda get the impression that Celica is maligned due to making some foolish decisions, which, admittedly, she does do, but I honestly found her to be the more interesting and compelling of the two Valentian protagonists, and she's actually one of my favorite Lords in the series. She feels a bit more human to me overall than Alm does; I just wish she didn't get so shafted near the end. Plus, she's the first member of one of my favorite classes in the series, so that's also a plus. I honestly don't get what about Lyn is supposedly so boring. I mean, yeah, her tutorial maps are kind of a chore, especially before unlocking Hard Mode when you can't turn off tutorials, but as a character I didn't find her to be particularly less interesting than Eliwood or Hector. She does admittedly get shafted after her tale concludes, unfortunately. She also seems to get a lot of hate as a unit, which is something I've never really experienced either, although admittedly that may be partially because I always play through her maps and get her those extra levels whenever I'm playing FE7. She's essentially a Myrmidon who needs a Heaven Seal to promote in exchange for getting Bows out of it. Okay, so, I don't actually have that good an idea of what the general consensus on Gangrel is, but given that a lot of people talk about how Awakening's villains are so boring and bland and never really make a point to exempt him from that statement, I can only assume those criticisms apply to Gangrel, too. To be honest, I actually find him to be one of my favorite villains in the series. Maybe it's just how I read his dialogue and motivations, but there seems to be a lot of subtle depth to him, or at least potential for depth. I also appreciate how he breaks away from the series' gameplay conventions for central antagonists, being neither a dark spellcaster nor a tin tyrant. Characters I dislike that other people seem to like: (Note that, unless otherwise stated, I actually don't actively dislike any of these characters; I just don't particularly care about them or see what The Big Deal™ is.) Xander and Ryoma. They're going together here because it's sorta the same deal for both of them. I really just find them both to be kinda boring for similar reasons. I don't think I need to mention that they both have fairly large fanbases, haha~ Most Jagens, honestly, though more as units than as characters. People talk about how amazing they are as units and seem to consider not using them to be an absolutely ridiculous proposal. For my part, I think a character who's just already amazing in combat without requiring any investment or displaying any growth at all is super boring and I've always done just fine in Fire Emblem games benching the Jagen from the very moment they become available. Besides, I think it's more fun and challenging to play through chapters without them. Ephraim was just okay. I guess I can see what people see in him, but he comes across as very distant and difficult to empathize with for me.

Well, even if you could find it, those sprites wouldn't just be free for you to use. They were made by other people, and you'd need to get those people's permission if you wanted to use them in a project. That said, I do remember there was a big Fire Emblem 4 Advance project going on some years back, but I don't know who was working on the project or how to get in touch with them. Sorry I can't be of any real help.

Once you've completed Celica's half of Act 4 and she's removed from the world map, there is no way to take control of her or her team again until the final battle, which she will join along with the nine allies you brought with her into Duma's Tower, and subsequent postgame. So, if you've already fully completed her half of Act 4 and saved afterward, there is no way to train her or her team up before finishing the main storyline. You'll either have to restart or just move on and tough it out, I'm afraid.

Nobody in the whole Fire Emblem series has a canonical spouse except the (few relative to the series' cumulative cast) people who either come pre-paired together or whose endings unavoidably place them together. It's not a failure to define something that "needs" to be defined, it's deliberate. Video games are an interactive, nonlinear medium and often do not work like other artistic mediums do in regards to canon. Whoever you wanna ship is fine, but there doesn't need to be a "canon" pairing for any given MU or character at all whose love interest is variable. There doesn't need to be one "right" answer, and a lot of times, there not being one is a deliberate, conscious choice. These are four such instances.

I think they both have varying amounts of sway with me depending upon the specific situation, although I'll much more often lean towards favoritism. For example, I'll almost always just instantly bench the Jagen from turn 1 of the very first map just because Jagens are simply not enjoyable for me personally to use, and no amount of them being good will change that. But then, I also have no problems with using characters like Dieck or Ogma, most Christmas Retainers, etc. who are generally considered to be pretty good from what I can tell. For me, it's simply more fun to use characters who grow and progress in terms of strength over the course of the game, even if they join outright bad. Characters who come already strong are frankly really boring to me and honestly using them too much feels to me a bit unsporting. On the other hand, if there's a character I really like who's just a huge pain to get going, I will sometimes forego using them depending on the game and the difficulty, or if I wanted to try out using another redundant character instead. There are also some characters who I honestly feel pretty neutral about as characters who I'll still use because they're good units. If I for whatever reason actively dislike a character, though (very rare), then I hope they like benches, 'cause that's where they're ending up, even if they're the single best unit in the entire game.

Sagittae's animation is super satisfying when it connects. Even if I had a gif, it wouldn't do it justice, since the sound effects are a really big part of it, too. I can safely say that the GBA Warrior has the coolest Hand Axe animations in the game, at least in my opinion. The Hero attacking animation is also really fun to watch, and I've always found Snipers really cool, too. As an aside, and I realize how morbid it is to say this, I really like a lot of Echoes' death animations for various classes, especially armor classes. They have a lot more weight and I guess... character...? to them than just having every class fly backwards when killed.