EdeaCreamer

Initially, I used Nightmare to edit the third-tier trainees's movement pointers so that they all used 'flier' movement while keeping ground-type terrain bonus pointers. This works fine mechanically, but when the sprites step on the ground/etc. in battle animations, the sounds produced are much heavier than they were in the previous tiers (like a Fighter stomping around), even when the battle occurs on a tile infantry units can cross normally. I suspected the 'flier' pointers simply didn't have references to the appropriate sound bytes (in fact I initially thought the step sound being used was a Wyvern Lord/Knight landing after an attack), so I changed the pointer used by the tier 3 trainees to 'civilian' and then used Nightmare to make the terrain crossing costs for that pointer set match what a flier gets. However, upon testing the third-tier trainees sounded exactly the same as before when taking a step, far too heavy (again on a tile that infantry can normally cross). Now, listening to these little kid sprites thudding around like giants when they move is highly amusing and doesn't have any mechanical detriment, so it's not the end of the world if I can't fix it, but I would definitely like to know where the sound associations for movement relative to battle animations are located as the class terrain type editor itself doesn't seem to change it (I'm hoping it's an obvious oversight on my part); it'd be nice to give them their previous light/gentle step sounds. If additional information is needed please let me know; thanks in advance for any insights.

Most of the male designs aren't so bad (there are still some stinkers). But God damn, every last women in this game is a runway disaster. Lady Gaga would quirk a brow at some of these looks. Also Alear is still just as awful as when I first saw them. Ugh.

So like, is this just using in-game resources? Because that's fine; it looks like it just costs SP that you're earning from actions in-game (like winning battles) to unlock pieces of character art/minor boosts to your Emblem Rings. What would raise my hackles is there being a system in place to purchase unlimited additional SP packages for real-world currency.

Where is this 'gacha' business coming from?

Reminds me a bit of SaGa Frontier, as well, one of the scenarios in that game follows a monster collecting all set of legendary rings to save his homeland from destruction.

Vander and Louis are my favorites at the moment. (Opinion): Every single woman in this game is a design nightmare, so far. All of them. It's like the devs loaded all of these girls into a giant cannon naked and shot them through a series of clotheslines filled with brassieres, halloween costumes and life-sized Barbie-doll accessories. Not a one of them I'm able to take seriously. Now, FE has never been the peak of 'realistic outfit design', there's been some crazy shit in the past (still remember Jakob spending most of the game wearing a chef's hat on his head and a Hoshidan medicine cabinet on his back), but this? This is a whole new level...and apparently we're going to play dress-up with them even more.

Despite their crazy design elements, both versions of Alear feel very "safe." Pretty much all of the Avatar stand-bys are here: their base personality is best described as 'milquetoast', there's something sinister about them they don't remember (hi Robin), they have a background that's super-special-amazing-dragon-god-awesome-tier, which in turn leads to a lot of these characters being a bit too enamored with them (hi Corrin), they're a sword-wielder and have a Prf-Sword (once again my desire to have MyUnit use a weapon type I'm actually interested in at base is dashed, haven't been able to do that since Kris), and they can still be re-named/re-sexed despite the game absolutely being worse for that (hi Byleth). Now, this is an 'anniversary celebration' game, so having call-backs is to be expected...but having that be the sole excuse for what would otherwise be considered blatant pandering/laziness rings...hollow, I guess? I am glad, at least, that the possibility of this title being a gacha like Heroes is rapidly dwindling to zero (we'd have gotten more blatant hints, by now). Also, what I've seen of the gameplay so far (the most important part for me) interests me, so I'm betting I'll be able to overlook this stuff (like I did with Corrin...).

...man, this did not do it for me. But, this wasn't a gameplay trailer, and the gameplay elements we've seen so far for Engage have been quite interest-piquing, so I still have high hopes.

Still love the gameplay, still find the characters entertaining if not exactly deep, and still take umbrage with the plot (though by this point it's mixed with a healthy dose of indifference).

Hana is an unfortunate victim of Fates' dodge-tanking scam. The intent, IMO, is that she never gets hit, so you're supposed to be entertained by her dodging everything thrown at her that would otherwise kill her instantly. Of course, Fates's sub-50% hit calculations do not work this way, and she regularly gets her butt handed to her on higher difficulties (especially if she has WTD). PEMN, but I've had Hanas that at level 20/20 possessed Res in the mid 20s and Def that barely got into double-digits (the worst one had a Def of EIGHT. I'm not sure she ever proc'd it). So yeah, if you're going to use her I also either recommend getting her into a class that uses Hidden Weapons or Bows, or if keeping her in the Samurai tree relegate her to Tag Teaming/swapping her around in a Guard Pair-Up to lure enemy Green units. Honestly Hana's one of Takumi's better partners (both he and Kiragi like Astra and Line of Death, at minimum).

It's difficult to develop her through the intended 'Villager -> Villager Promotion -> Branch Out' method unless you're playing at a low enough difficulty where she's able to cause damage to the Faceless in her recruitment chapter. In most cases you'll either want to use a Heart Seal to get her into Archer as soon as possible, or use her as a 'platform' for a DLC class like Dread Fighter or Great Lord. If you like her and want to use her (optimal or not), then she will serve nicely as a Bow unit, especially on Conquest. However, her primary value if you're not too keen on her is as a mother to an offensively-inclined 2nd Gen unit, especially one that doesn't have a particularly noteworthy father (as both he and Mozu can promptly be benched once you get the kid). Villager is crappy -for Mozu-; it's not crappy for her kids, as they never have to deal with the unpromoted base class and can just go into its promotions to harvest Spendthrift and Line of Death, two of the nastiest offensive skills in the game (and on Conquest are otherwise practically unavailable to everyone other than very select units). Mozu also always has the perfect skill to pass down to said kid (Aptitude), so she doesn't even have to take any kill XP to do this.

Out of the Conquest-recruitable cast, I would probably go with Charlotte (her status as inevitable Xander-statstick aside). Charlotte's primary problem as a unit is her absolutely garbage defensive stats; a stiff breeze will knock her over even with her strong HP growth. The 15% (20% compared to Berserker) growth bonus to Def from Knight-tree classes is nice, but not the primary reason said tree would help her; it's the skills. Defense +2, Natural Cover, Armored Blow and Pavise are all options for dramatically improving her ability to handle attacks from physical opponents, and both promotions for Knight are capable of wielding Axes, so training/maintaining effectiveness during the re-class period would be a non-issue for her (as opposed to Troubadour, which...I am uncertain what the devs were thinking, there, other than fanservice).

Could key the skill to only trigger after the unit selects the Wait command, or perhaps to only function while the unit isn't in Guard Stance, or only if the unit is above/below a certain HP threshold (probably above, much like with Three Houses' Quick Riposte ability). I think its best uses for the player are 1) when wanting to hold a chokepoint with the unit in a Tag Team formation, and 2) when the unit is wielding a weapon that can't make follow-up attacks anyway (such as Javelins/Hand Axes, your Avatar's Dragonstone, the Nosferatu tome, etc.). For the most part it's an enemy tool intended to make Generals a massive pain in the butt to deal with (and it succeeds at this). Anyone in Guard Stance is actively hindered by this ability for already-stated reasons.

Removing the gender-locks sounds amazing. I don't mind barring certain units from certain classes for diversification purposes, but gender is not one of the metrics they should be using going forward. Fates pre-DLC has the best re-class system I've seen in the FE series thus far (the DLC goes back to being somewhat regressive, with the excuse being your unit's gender needs to match the amiibo being scanned, but meh...).

Mostly just bugged that I miss capturing a castle like that. I'm also not sure what effect it has on the start-of-Chapter 'paychecks'.