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Since this isn't fates exclusive (it supports FE4, FE13, and FE14) I thought posting here is more appropriate than in the Fates subforum. ANYWAY I'll just paste what I have from my Tumblr post: FIRE EMBLEM PAIRINGS OPTIMIZER tumblr post here tl;dr have a weekend project because some nerd (cough) wanted to implement some search algos with FE and this happened praise github I'm thinking of adding randomized pairings and customized sets at some point

I mean, if we're all hanging out on this board still that means that there has to be SOMETHING you're looking forward to in this game, right? 1. I'm looking forward to playing the game while actually understanding things! I mean, yeah, playing the Japanese version helped improve my non-existent Japanese skills, but it was still a slow slow process.

Bit different this week, couldn't do a poll, so choosing the most popular male character, the Avatar's little brother, Leon. Quite busy so I will put up the stats later, but discuss in the meantime.

I realised that there has not been a proper marriage poll yet, so I decided to make one. Whom did you marry your MU to? Which route(s)? Why did you pick that character? Which marriage was your favourite (if you married more than one character)?

Right, here we go, Week 4, Ophelia, daughter of Odin, which ties her to the Ylissean royal house. C'mon, pumped for the discussion, LET'S DO THIS! CLASS OPTIONS: Base: Dark Mage > Sorcerer /OR/ Dark Knight Parallel Seal: Samurai > Trueblade /OR/ Weapons Master *MOTHER'S CLASS* Marriage Seal: Deere/Foleo- Rod Knight > Maid /OR/ Strategist Shigure- Pegasus Warrior > Falcon Warrior /OR/ Golden-Kite Warrior Lutz- Wyvern Rider > Wyvern Lord /OR/ Revenant Knight Ignis- Knight > General /OR/ Great Knight Siegbert- Cavalier > Paladin /OR/ Great Knight Buddy Seal: Midoriko- Herb Merchant > Great Merchant /OR/ Puppeteer Soleil- Mercnenary > Brave Hero /OR/ Bow Knight Skill Lists for these classes: http://serenesforest...s/class-skills/ http://serenesforest...s/class-skills/ Personal Skill- Blossoming Mind- When Ophelia is carrying 3 + tomes, crit rate + 10 BASE GROWTH RATES: Mother's Base Growth Rates + Ophelia's Base Growth Rates / 2 = Ophelia's Final Base Growth Rates BASE CAP MODIFIERS: Mother's Base Cap Mods + Odin's Base Cap Mods + Ophelia's Base Cap Mods / 3 = Ophelia's Final Base Cap Mods *Support Options are all people she can Marriage or Buddy Seal with, feel free to post about any of her supports and discuss them.*

Yay!!! I'm not dead! I'm soooo sorry guys about the week's delay, this week has just been so hectic for me, from 2 exams during the week, to my computer giving up on me, it's been an absolute disaster, hopefully this doesn't happen again... Anyway, seems like everything is good again, so this week's character is finally Hinata, thank god Stephen can now get his write up posted! CLASS OPTIONS: Base: Samurai > Trueblade /OR/ Weapons Master Parallel Seal: Oni > Shura /OR/ Blacksmith Marriage Seal: Azura/Hinoka- Pegasus Warrior > Falcon Warrior /OR/ Golden Kite Warrior Felicia- Rod Knight > Butler /OR/ Strategist Rinkah- Oni > Shura /OR/ Blacksmith Sakura/Kazahana- Priest > Mountain Priest /OR/ Exorcist Mage Orochi- Spellcaster > Exorcist Mage /OR/ Basara Mozune/Setsuna- Bowman > Holy Bowman /OR/ Golden Kite Warrior Oboro- Lancer > Holy Lancer /OR/ Basara Kagerou- Ninja > Elite Ninja /OR/ Puppeteer *Touma Route ONLY* Luna- Mercenary > Brave Hero /OR/ Bow Knight Pieri- Cavalier > Paladin /OR/ Great Knight Buddy Seal: Tsubaki- Pegasus Warrior > Falcon Warrior /OR/ Golden Kite Warrior Takumi- Bowman > Holy Bowman /OR/ Golden Kite Warrior\ Nishiki- Spellcaster > Exorcist Mage /OR/ Basara *Touma Route ONLY* Odin- Dark Mage > Sorcerer /OR/ Dark Knight Skill Lists for these classes: http://serenesforest...s/class-skills/ http://serenesforest...s/class-skills/ Personal Skill: Desperate Struggle- When user is under half HP, half the damage received by Swords, Lances or Axes is also dealt to the enemy BASE GROWTH RATES: HP- 55% Strength- 35% Magic- 0% Skill- 25% Speed- 15% Luck- 45% Defence- 45% Resistance- 15% BASE CAP MODIFIERS: Strength- 1 Magic- / Skill- -1 Speed- -2 Luck- -/ Defence- 2 Resistance- / *Support Options are all people he can Marriage or Buddy Seal with, feel free to post about any of his supports and discuss them.*

[ONGOING] I've seen lots of reference compilations for stuff like data and supports, but none for class refs. I've come across quite a few, so I figured why not. If a class is in Italics it is a unique model or pallete. I want to clarify that I DO NOT take credit for any of these pictures, I'm just compiling them into a single document for easy access. Now to see if I can figure out spoiler tags. Anna: Azura: Asama: Ashura: Belka: Benoit: Camilla: Charlotte: Crimson: Cyrus: Deere: Effie: Elise: Eponine: Felicia: Flannel: Flora: Foleo: Fuuga: Grey: Gunther: Harold: Hinata: Hinoka: Hisame: Ignis: Izana: Joker: Kagerou: Kamui: Feel free to post any refs that I dont have on this list so I can add it to the OP.

Honestly I don't really know if this should go here or the actual Fates board. w/e But yeah I was browsing the blog of someone who sometimes does translations to see if there's any new translated stuff aaaaand http://jokerthebutler.tumblr.com/post/131814026478/so-i-may-be-super-late-to-this-but-just-now-a turns out Ryoumaebi is the name of an actual breed of lobster The antennae bangs aren't a coincidence, then

OK, Week 2 has come, and with it, another character to discuss in great detail. You may have noticed that from now on, the following week's character will be decided via a poll, and it will stay that way from now on. Anyway, this week we will coincidentally be analysing Sakura-sama's other subordinate, the tomboyish Samurai, Kazahana(or Hana). Kazahana is the first Samurai you are given on the Hoshido route, and she is the loyal subordinate of your little sister Sakura, being childhood friends with her, while Kazahana and Tsubaki(her partner) often bicker about small matters, such as who is the most loyal guard to Sakura. OK, enough talk, let's get to gameplay... CLASS OPTIONS: Base: Samurai > Trueblade /OR/ Weapons Master Parallel Seal: Priestess > War Priestess /OR/ Exorcist Mage Marriage Seal: Jakob- Rod Knight > Maid /OR/ Strategist Kaze/Saizou- Ninja > Elite Ninja /OR/ Puppeteer Tsubaki/Ryouma- Pegasus Warrior > Falcon Warrior /OR/ Golden Kite Warrior Silas- Cavalier > Paladin /OR/ Great Knight Asama- Herb Merchant > Great Merchant /OR/ Puppeteer Tsukuyomi/Nishiki- Spellcaster > Exorcist Mage /OR/ Basara Hinata- Oni > Blacksmith /OR/ Shura Takumi- Bowman > Holy Bowman /OR/ Golden Kite Warrior *Touma Route ONLY* Lazward- Mercenary > Brave Hero /OR/ Bow Knight Flannel- Fighter > Berserker /OR/ Brave Hero Buddy Seal: Felicia- Rod Knight > Maid /OR/ Strategist Sakura- Pegasus Warrior > Falcon Warrior /OR/ Golden Kite Warrior Setsuna- Bowman > Holy Bowman /OR/ Golden Kite Warrior *Touma Route ONLY* Effie- Knight > General /OR/ Great Knight Skill Lists for these classes: http://serenesforest.net/fire-emblem-fates/hoshidan-classes/class-skills/ http://serenesforest.net/fire-emblem-fates/nohrian-classes/class-skills/ Personal Skill: Tomboy: When user triggers the battle and defeats an enemy, enemies adjacent to the user have their HP reduced by 20% BASE GROWTH RATES: HP- 25% Strength- 55% Magic- 10% Skill- 45% Speed- 55% Luck- 25% Defence- 20% Resistance- 30% BASE CAP MODIFIERS: Strength- 1 Magic- / Skill- 1 Speed- 2 Luck- -1 Defence- -3 Resistance- 1 *Support Options are all people he can Marriage or Buddy Seal with, feel free to post about any of his supports and discuss them.*

In this weekly thread post, we will be discussing everything possible about a certain character in the latest Fire Emblem game, If or Fates. In these posts, everything from backstory to gameplay optimisation can be discussed here, as long as this rule is in place... NO STORY SPOILERS, as I want to know everything about the characters, but not anything that is to do with the main plot, such as main plot encounters with the character as an enemy. This week, I'll be covering the Fire Emblem series' first ever male Pegasus rider, Tsubaki of the Kingdom of Hoshido. CLASS OPTIONS: Base : Pegasus Warrior > Falcon Warrior /OR/ Golden Kite Warrior Parallel Seal : Samurai > Trueblade /OR/ Weapons Master Marriage Seal: Azura/Felicia- Rod Knight > Butler /OR/ Strategist Rinkah- Oni > Shura /OR/ Blacksmith Sakura- Priest > Mountain Priest /OR/ Exorcist Mage Orochi- Spellcaster > Exorcist Mage /OR/ Basara Setsuna/Mozume- Bowman > Holy Bowman /OR/ Golden Kite Warrior Hinoka & Oboro- Lancer > Holy Lancer /OR/ Basara Kagerou- Ninja > Elite Ninja /OR/ Puppeteer *Touma Route ONLY* Nyx- Dark Mage > Sorcerer /OR/ Dark Knight Luna- Mercenary > Hero /OR/ Bow Knight Buddy Seal: Saizou- Ninja > Elite Ninja /OR/ Puppeteer Asama- Priest > Mountain Priest /OR/ Exorcist Mage Hinata- Samurai > Trueblade /OR/ Weapons Master *Touma Route ONLY* Zero- Thief > Adventurer /OR/ Bow Knight Skills Lists for these classes: http://serenesforest.net/fire-emblem-fates/hoshidan-classes/class-skills/ http://serenesforest.net/fire-emblem-fates/nohrian-classes/class-skills/ BASE GROWTH RATES: HP- 55% Attack- 30% Magic- 20% Skill- 50% Speed- 20% Luck- 25% Defence- 45% Resistance- 5% BASE CAP MODIFIERS: Attack- -1 Magic- / Skill- 2 Speed- -2 Luck- -1 Defence- 3 Resistance- -1 *Support Options are all people he can Marriage or Buddy Seal with, feel free to post about any of his supports and discuss them.

Hey guys, I was hoping that the Fates community here might be able to help me come to a decision regarding Kanna. I would like my M!Kanna (Manna) to be able to use the dragonstone regularly since his personal skill relies on it and since the dragonstone depends on magic I thought that it would only be logical to make a Manna who is more magically inclined for offence and who has really good defence to balance out the perks/penalties issued from the dragonstones. To do this I was hoping to marry: Femui +MAG/-LCK: -1/3/0/2/-3/0/2 To Rinkah!Ignis ... Rinkah!Ignis: 0/1/-1/-1/1/6/2 To get a Manna with these mods... Ignis!Manna: 0/5/0/2/1/7/4 Does this look ok for a Manna that will utilise the dragonstone more? Upon saying this, I have other questions... Would this waste my Femui's potential? Seeing that magic (and dragonstone) has been nerfed in this game and taking into account how amazing Yato is, would my Femui be wasted? Of course, upon saying this, I can still use Yato with my Dark Blood Femui, however with this set up she will have a magic bias and would not be as effective with it. Would it be better to give up on the dragon Manna and go for a more physical Ignis!Manna? Ignis Manna with +STR/-LCK mother: 4/1/2/0/-1/9/3 For those who have played the game ... How does a physical Kanna perform compared to a magical or dragonstone based Kanna? Is magical/dragonstone Kanna really worth it???

If Zero get's an A+ support with Odin does he get the samurai class line? I just wanted to double check because I've got my Zero character break down pretty much done apart from the buddy seal.

So, I don't have a clue how forging works in this incarnation of Fire Emblem. All I know is that copies of the same weapon are needed and materials. What kinds of materials are needed for certain weapons? How can one buff his or her weapons? What stats can be altered? Can some of the weapon penalties be remedied?

I mean there's no reason for him not to, especially all the Hoshido royals eventually join. Not even if you level up a puppet building to Lv.3?

Please limit your choices to 3 PER QUESTION To be honest, I'm pretty disappointed that same-sex options are only available for Zero and Shara... [i want Nishiki x Flannel]

Did anyone consider the fact that we have no actual Fire Emblem in this game? Does anyone have any speculation on what it might be, or speculation at all?

Picture, here: http://i.imgur.com/uYZhLi9.jpg Found on reddit, which was found on GFAQ's, so all credit here: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/114533-fire-emblem-if-black-kingdom/71878051 Relevant information paraphrased: Cyrus (Cavalier) - both verisons Elfie (Female Knight) - Nohr Harold (Gaston/Fighter) - Nohr Hinata (Myrmidon) - Hoshido Oboro (Lance Fighter) - Hoshido Rinka (Oni) - Hoshido Tsukuyomi (Red Hair) - Hoshido Felicia can reclass(promote?) to a Brave Hero, a Bow Knight and a Strategist Multiple promotion options seem more likely. EDIT Report on the main site EDIT2: Digital issue is now out. Only new piece of info I can find is that Harold can promote from a Fighter(?) to a Berserker. [spoiler=???]http://serenesforest.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/famitsu2805-1.jpg http://serenesforest.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/famitsu2805-2.jpg http://serenesforest.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/famitsu2805-3.jpg http://serenesforest.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/famitsu2805-4.jpg

HYPE STILL LIVES Just one month for the release!

I could be looking into this too much but... Could Aqua be the daughter of the previous king of Nohr? The previous king is Garon's brother and he had him assassinated. Garon disposed of Aqua by giving her to Hoshido. I'd like to think this is why she has a mask when you side with Nohr lol I thought about this when I read Aqua's quote: "I am Aqua. I'm Nohr Kingdom's princess... or was, rather." Isn't it weird that she refer to her royal status as "was"? If she was in the same place as Kamui, her royalty status is not going to be gone by just being raised in Hoshido. She also looks vastly different from the current royal siblings. well Kamui is too but i believe in the theory that Kamui isn't actually Hoshido royalty. The only downside to this is that Aqua must be pretty young to remember when his dad was killed. But idk maybe Garon reminds her everytime she's not a royalty anymore when she was still in Nohr. Also the previous king totally gave Aqua the fire emblem w/o Garon knowing.

Hi, Kagehoshi here again - you might remember me as the one who ranted on a different topic about the release date gap. Anywho, I'm not here to rant, I just wish to talk about something I picked up on after having watched the trailers/screenshot a lot, and I want to hear everyone's thoughts. My apologies for the lengthy post. Screenshots I'm mentioning can be found on this site under "Images and Videos." Something I would like to point out (and I'm most likely not the first to think of it) is that there might not be any gender-locked classes in FE:if, but rather, faction-locked; Amongst Hoshido's forces (seen in screenshots etc.) we see mymidons and swordmasters, based on their battle stance (same as Awakening) which fits with how someone would wield a katana. We also see assassins on the Hoshido side, as they share the same sprites from Awakening again, but we don't see any cavaliers at all. Ryoma himself looks like a swordmaster, same stance and all. On the Nohr side, however (screenshots, again) we see that there are no assassins/swordmasters/myrmidons around - only knights and cavaliers. My theory/speculation is that the myrmidons/assassins/swordmasters will be for Hoshido only since they're more reminiscent to samurais and ninjas, which goes with the "feudal Japan" feel on Hoshido, while cavaliers, knights, great knights, and paladins will be exclusive to Nohr as they traditionally look more western/european in appearance, which goes with the western influence of Nohr. We don't see any of these classes on the opposite sides at all so far - so if certain classes are faction-locked, it could explain why we might see male pegasus knights and female warriors (Rinka, the horned-masked girl seen in trailers, screenshots, and next toRyoma as he tells Kamui about being his brother, appears to be a warrior with a kanabo - the eastern version of an axe - her attack animation is just like warriors/berserkers in Awakening); it would still give your forces more class options despite that some are exlcusive to the opposite faction. It does makes sense, in the way that a knight, with it's western-inspired armour, would look outlandish on Hoshido's side, while a ninja/assassin (Saizou being an example, appearance wise) would look strange in the Nohr army. Again, before people bash me, remember that we don't see any of these classes in the opposite faction; all screenshots show these classes fighting the other side, such as knights and cavaliers agains myrmidons/swordmasters, and the only assassin sprites are shown with other Hoshido characters. Hell, maybe even Dark Knights will only be for Nohr as well? We know that Leon is a Dark Knight, and we've seen (appearance wise, at least) Dark Knights being the enemy in screenshot and the first trailer, at least. Your thoughts? EDIT: Someone pointed out that perhaps it was just showcased to look like there were faction-locked classes, but in the second trailer (speficially, when both your families beckons you to their side) you can see Hoshido's and Nohr's armies in the background - Nohr has soldiers similar to Awakening with their western style, complese with lances, while Hoshido show katana-wielding myrmidons as their main force, further supporting my theory. However, there's a possibility that you can recruit units from the opposite faction, as seen on these screenshots: http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/fireemblem/images/7/70/Saizou_sprite.png/revision/latest?cb=20150410071751 http://serenesforest.net/wp-content/gallery/january-2015-nintendo-direct/Jan_006.jpg Notice how the sprite is the same - first, a Nohrian marked as red, the standard colour of enemies in the series, and in the next, blue - he's with you. It's not a stretch to say that the only way you could get your faction's missing classes is by recruiting them from the opposite side?

Do you think FE:If's launch will be as disastrous as Awakening's? Regardless of your opinion on Awakening (we already have 20+ pages on that), I don't think many can deny that Awakening's launch was a mess. Be it its early launch in Canada, the shortages of retail copies, Those who pre-ordered dependent on location had troubles getting the art book, and it was an all around mess. I personally had to rely on downloading the game and it took up most of my SD when DLC was factored in. A part of me has hope that If won't be so bad, but I'm not holding my breath. In my city, STEAM was sold out at most locations, but low sales kept it on some shelves. FE sells significantly better than STEAM. This is before we factor in the messes that are the Special Edition New 3DS's, The Gamecube Controller Adapters and the holy grail of rare merch, amiibo. I personally collect those and they can be nightmare inducing. I have hopes that Nintendo will do the right thing, but I'm not holding my breath. Something tells me that one version of the game will be under stocked should the multiple editions make their way to FE. I think the likely candidates are the Special Edition and Black Kingdom, but I'm not sure. I'm not hoping, but I'm preparing my F5 button. What about you, do you think it will be another launch disaster of Nintendo style proportions?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoCc_MAI87M So after my first video, I decided to make a follow up to address new information discovered! Again, I'm looking for critique as well thoughts on the video, as well as starting discussion :) Enjoy.

I (and of course, others) have noticed since the original trailer that there are new weapon "types," corresponding to a sort of East vs. West duality that we now know is realized in Hoshido vs. Nohr: 剣 (tsurugi/ken, sword) vs. 刀 (katana) 槍 (yari, spear) vs. 薙刀 (naginata, glaive) 斧 (ono, axe) vs. 金棒 (kanabo, metal club) We've also seen: magical tomes, used by the Nohrian mage party member magical fans, used by Orochi and an enemy of hers an odd winged knife, used by a heretofore unnamed green-haired assassin the standard 弓 (yumi, bow) used by the now bow-wielding Thieves fought by Kazahana glowy-glowy swords used by Marx, Ryouma, and Full-of-Arrows-man an odd staff seen in Sakura's map icon and cover art that makes her appear different from "normal clerics" (that is, the two maids) the dragonstone (竜石) a unique sword in Kamui's possession that I've taken to calling the Nohr Godsword (夜刀神) What other weapon varieties do you guys expect to see in the future of FEif? Do you think ballistae will ever return? Offensive staves? Either of the trinities of magic? Will my desire for symmetry of variety between weapon classes ever be satisfied, or will swords remain the most numerous forever?

I'm really confused by the presence of what appears to be the Italian Mouth of Truth in the trailer in the form of a rock monster. (http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/50/98/4e/boca-della-verita.jpg) I think this could be some kind of antagonist boss monster, like Grima/Formortiis/etc. Alternatively, it's presence could could mean a link between the world of fire emblem and the real world. There's already a clear divide of East vs West, and this could go into the real world as well. I don't particulary want this to be true though. Another possible is it as a symbol. I think what my friend PliskinIroquois posted on reddit is an excellent theory, so I'll post that here. " The thing that stuck out to me the most were the the Mouth of Truth, and three characters: the dancer lady (who oddly looks quite similar to Lucina; same hair style, just longer/lighter blue, and same face shape with different eyes; but that's probably just due to having Awakening's artist on board), the blonde hair guy, and the brown-hair dude in red armor the blonde hair guy was fighting near the end. The blonde hair dude reminds me of Camus (so we'll call him that for this example) and I think this is where the Mouth of Truth relates. The Mouth is known as a lie detector; rather, a symbol of untruthfulness. So this plot is most likely going to be concerning itself with deception and secrets. The three characters we see at the end (dancer, Camus, red-armor dude with brown hair): I think there may be a love triangle involved between these three. As we see the two men about to fight, we see images of the dancer frantically dancing back and forth, pretty much her actions telling me "I don't know what to do, I'm running out of time". She obviously knows something important that could irrevocably change the future of these two men, and maybe even something else on a much grander scale. We all know the Camus archetypes to be of "men behind masks", changing alliances, fighting for other causes, etc., and that's how I think he relates to the Mouth of Truth. The dancer relates to the Mouth of Truth as well because she either knows something vital, or she may be forced into a plot of deception and can't figure her way out of it. The part at 1:30 symbolizes this because we see her drowning underwater and being choked by some spirit (so this is most likely a visual representation of how she feels, not actually happening); the spirit, I think, is herself, because it's herself that's stopping her from developing her character further until she's able to do the right thing, (whatever that is)." It's strange for Fire Emblem to contain things from real life. I don't think it's happened before (with the exception of names) What do you all think? Whatever the outcome, I NEED this game.

Well, if you remember from way back when, I had a little thread were I threw out some FE ideas I had. Well, that was a while ago. Those ideas have gone though many, many drafts and revisions, and I'm still settled on very little. So, this thread is a place for to ramble on about my random thoughts second only to get input on them. What can I say, I'm a crowd pleaser. So, this thread will, for me, be more about concepts for characters and gameplay than plot. The reason there will be inconsistencies is not because I may dream it differently, but because I'm indecisive and will change my mind. This is likely the exact opposite of what actually developers of the games do, but who cares, let's get started! NOTE: From here down is a 'log' of all my ideas, for the convenience of those who would like to read all the ideas at once. [spoiler=Unit set 1] [spoiler=Phern] -Class: Mercenary (retooled) -Affinity: Anima -Age at the start- 18 -Stats: Ladies and gentlemen, the 'lord' of this game! Looking at his stat's, it's obvious he's statistically quite different from most other lords, with his ludicrous focus on skill and high strength, defense and resistance, making him quite tanky (akin to a light general in a way). His speed isn't as high as most lords but is still passable, while his magic and luck are garbage. Personality wise, he's also different. Like Ike, Phern is a mercenary leader. Unlike Ike, Phern's group of mercenaries is small, inexperienced, riddled with internal conflict, and largely self interested. This is no doubt due to Phern himself, affectionately calling his group the Phern's Mercenaries (a group of childhood friends seeking glory and fortune), one of many points of contention. Phern has an unnatural resolve and obsession with money, one time as a child having spent an entire night stabbing a trade ship with a bronze lance until it sunk for a bet, rewarding him with a small pouch of coins. Unlike other lords, Phern's father is alive and well, a retired soldier who tried to train Phern to be a swordsman but instead the child pursued spear play. The two have never gotten along, and their strained relationship is yet another contention point among the mercenaries. Phern's very ambitious, dedicated to whatever lines his pockets, impatient and apathetic. However, he was always a talented spearman, in the end loyal to his friends despite their arguments and he does have an internal concern for allies and tries to be helpful, in his own short tempered way. He even admits to his own flaws and mistakes, and tries to get better, but usually only when it will help him make money. Appearance: Phern is a clean faced individual with muddy red hair and green eyes. His armor is of a similar mahogany and is meant to look thrown together. The vambraces, greaves, poleyn and cuirass are stylistically meant to look distinct and are covered with scratches and paint with a slight drip, like he took some old hand-me-downs and painted them to colors he wanted and then wore them out some more. His upper arms are guarded by two oddly shaped metal plates (kind of like a cul-de-sac road) attached to them and his feet are covered by a pair of brown boots, which are the only things he's wearing that look new. Aside from his brown boots and black doublet and pants, his whole suit is a dark muddy red. [spoiler=Isaac] -Class: Cavalier -Affinity: Earth -Age at start: 20 -Stats: Isaac is the first cavalier in the game, and fulfills something of a more balanced glass canon roll. He has decent skill and HP, above average speed and strength, rather average defense and for a physical unit impressive magic, allowing him to use magic weapons rather well. However, his luck, while better than Phern's, is still poor, and his resistance isn't great either. Personality wise, he is the most noble of the three mercenaries. Isaac was the son of a retired soldier (no relation to Phern's father), and while Isaac had many excellent qualities for a knight he ultimately did not become one because his parents and him agreed he was not suited for a knights life. Isaac and his parents have a stark contrast to Phern and his, as the former's encouraged him to follow his own goals and his father taught him sword play because he wanted to learn it. When the three friends who would later become the Phern's Mercenaries were children, Isaac was the one who proposed the idea of becoming traveling mercenaries. Isaac is chipper and carefree individual, optimistic and often daydreaming. In a parallel to Lowen and Oscar, Isaac has all the knowledge needed to be a good cook, but unlike them lacks skill at it, which had lead to the (often joked about) matter of him tending to burn his culinary pursuits. However, that has never deterred him, and he keeps trying. He is generally relaxed and his dreaming nature leads to him making many introspective quotes. He's certainly the most down to earth member of the mercenaries despite that and is often the one to quell the arguments. However, Isaac is also a stickler. He is constantly getting on the case of the other two mercenaries to be cleaner, kinder, and less barbaric in general, and is the member of the three who consistently demands Phern write an annual letter to his father under threat of him leaving the group. Isaac attempts to be a friendly and caring person to most everyone but his stern belief in doing the right thing (other than annoying his comrades) has lead to him tending to explode under certain circumstances about traits such as disloyalty, prejudice and harming the innocent, often following with an immediate apology. He is the one of the group who Phern most considers a friend, and will often be the one drawing out the latter's softer side. Appearance: Isaac has slightly kept black hair and brown eyes. Unlike other early game cavaliers, Isaac is neither green nor red. Rather, his armor is shade of tan and his horse is a dark brown stallion. Cavalier armor in this game is mostly like that of FE7, with Isaac's lacking any distinctive traits other than it's brown color, the gorget being slightly larger and the fact that below it is mail instead of a shirt (slightly ironic Phern has higher defense despite not having visible mail, except it is stated that Phern wears chainmail under his clothes). [spoiler=Gall] -Class: Horse Archer -Affinity: Dark -Age at start: 17 -Stats: Making up for Phern and Isaac's poor luck, Gall has luck that shoots through the roof. Making up for his rather low strength is his insane speed. He can double Phern (if barely) from base and his growths insure he will not be left behind in that stat ever. His skill, while higher that Isaac's, is not as high as Phern's and overall would be considered average, but given his luck and accurate weapon type hitting shouldn't be a problem. He is not suited for direct combat at the start, and his defense and HP are rather poor, though his resistance is surprisingly good, and he is a natural dodging machine. His magic is better than Phern's, but still poor. Gall is a rather shrewd person and causes much of the strife within the Phern's Mercenaries. This is somewhat understandable though, as he is both an orphan and a runaway who ran from his homeland as a boy, but was taken in by an elder general who took care of him for a short time before allowing him to leave. A street rat with more of a tooth for money than Phern, the two actually met after being caught trying to steal the same loaf of bread. He is a compulsive gambler, and will often make bets on the outcomes of events and will incorporate elements of luck such as coin flips into his daily life. He has developed a sense of honor of sorts with gambling, and insists that it be done fairly, which isn't to harmful given how his high luck stat translates into his character, as he is an incredibly lucky person in the now. Gall is also notable for being very cold, smug and sarcastic. His inflated ego leads to him often remarking that he should be the leader of the Phern's Mercenaries and his rude, sometimes demeaning remarks often spark outbursts from Isaac and Phern. He is quick tempered and will join in these arguments in a heartbeat, and is a fan on strife in general. Even is his 'angered' states Gall is still largely in control of himself and will continue his snark mannerism regardless of the situation or tone of his voice. He will answer most questions or demands with some dismissive remark and is in a way introverted, spending most free time practicing or gambling over talking with his allies (this is mostly with future units, as he, Phern and Isaac still retain their childhood friendship). He has a well hidden sense of honor, never taking something he doesn't earn (although he has a skewed definition of earn) and sticks around with the Phern's Mercenaries through thick and thin because of his belief in loyalty stemming from his past, and has a genuine care for young people for the same reason. Appearance: Gall has short, very dark black hair often covered with a red headband and grey-blue eyes. The outfit of a horse archer is a doublet under a shirt reminiscent of Sacean wear but without the cultural details, which is red in Gall's case, and pants which for Gall are dark green, and his horse is light brown. So, as you can see if you read that, there are a few gameplay changes noticeable right off the bat. The main lord class line is called Mercenary-Hero. As such, the traditional Mercenary-Hero line has been renamed to Swordsman-Vanguard. Nomads sort of return in the form of Horse Archers. And finally, affinities have returned! And another thing, these are the first units in the game you get. So already we have no Jeigan, no Marth, no Cain and Abel, etcetera. GAMEPLAY UPDATE 1: So, here I'm going to mention things which I thought would be good gameplay mechanics to have and explain either how they work or how they'd be different from previous mechanics. Starting off we have: [spoiler=Class System]There isn't a lot new to say about the class system here, it very similar to Awakening, which in own right was very similar to just about every other game in the series, barring the second seals. In this game, every character joins as a certain class and has 2 more they reclass into, which applies to the whole first generation, except for Phern, who has special lord privileges which give him 3 other classes. Another notable notable difference is how classes give skills. In this game, there are no skills learned at level one. Tier 1 classes grant a skill a at level 10, Tier 2 classes grant skills at level 5 and 15 for two total, and special classes (one's with a level cap of 30 and no promotion) give 3 skills, one at level 10, another at level 20, and another at level 30. Promotion and reclassing are much the same as well. At level 10 or higher, a Master Seal can be used to promote any character in a tier once class to a tier two class. At level 10 or higher of a tier one class, a second seal let's you reclass a character to any tier one class the character can access, while at level 10 or higher of a tier two class a second seal can reclass a character to any class they can access. In a special class, you can reclass to a tier once class once you hit level 10 and to any class once you hit level 20. The split promotion system returns, with every tier one class having 2 tier 2 classes to promote into. It should be noted that resources are far more limited for the main game here than in Awakening. Master Seals are not commonly available for several chapters, and by the time you get them it's still a fair amount of time before second seals become available at all. Neither are in limitless supply until the post game, the objective being to simulate to higher but more balanced challenge that Awakening lost transitioning from older games in the series. [spoiler=Mercenary System]Since Phern and his group are mercenaries, you can perform some good old fashioned mercenary work. Face it, in Awakening and Sacred Stones, it's very tempting to grind, but it's boring by a certain point and is there largely nothing besides EXP. Not that EXP isn't great, but the Mercenary System, in essence, is meant to make side missions more interesting. First thing is Reputability. Renown in Awakening was earned in certain ways and unlocked powerful items, but Reputability reflects the overall performance of your merry band. The more Reputability you have, the higher level jobs you can take on. Reputability is earned by either clearing chapters in the main game or by clearing other mercenary jobs, with better performances granting more Reputability. Every job requires a certain amount of Reputability to take on. Every side mission from here, and I mean EVERY ONE, has multiple requirements which are used to judge your performance. For example, at one point in the game is a mission to protect 6 merchants in a pass from bandits, keeping them from getting killed as they cross. The more merchants you save, the greater your reward at the end. For example, save 0 merchants, and you straight up fail, game over. Save every merchant, and enjoy 6 stat boosters. Similarly, the side objective is to defeat X/Y/Z bandits. Doing this will net you greater rewards as well. Either one, or both preferably, increase your Reputability gain depending on what level you complete the requirement to. The Mercenary System cannot be abused though. Each mission can only be completed once for an actual affect. While they can be replayed, this will not actually have any permanent effect. Levels are not kept and rewards are not given. In the after game however, these rules are broken. Levels gained from replaying missions are kept, and reaching requirements once failed nets the reward for them. These missions should not be confused for paralogues, though they are executed similarly. Rather than have a world map, the game offers lists (which take the form of old scrolls), one for paralogues, new paralogues being added to the list as they are unlocked and one's you complete being marked with a check. The other list is for the Mercenary System, and while you can only read the names of missions you've either completed or can try, you can see how much Reputability is required to play each mission. Gaiden chapters in the style of FE7 also return, which are executed the same. Completing certain requirements grants the ability to play these chapters, but they, like normal chapters, can only be played once. [spoiler=Other Systems]One notable thing is the changes to stat boosters. Rather than being one and done, stat boosters can be equipped and shuffled. Every tier one class can equip 3 boosters, and every tier 2/special class can equip 5. However, you cannot equip more than 2 of the same booster, and there is a limited number of equippable boosters throughout the game. For example, I can give 2 Seraph Robes to a unit and increase their max HP by 10. I can give boosts to a unit to grant them 2 more move, and then switch that to another unit when I want/need it. Capping stats can still be reached without a lot of luck and grinding though. A character get's a minimum of one stat every level unless all their stats are capped. In addition, BEXP is returned. Like Reputability, better performances grant more of it. BEXP gives at least 3 stat points unless the character it to close to their caps for that. What this means is that if a character has all but one stat capped, they get +3 in that one stat, unless that would put them over their cap. [spoiler=Visuals]Not exactly a gameplay thing, but more the aesthetic angle I have in mind. Character designs here lend themselves more to Tellius than other sagas, though FE7 and Magvel influences are far from absent. Portraits in this game are more styled like FE10, though with a higher polygon count since this would be on a more powerful system (the Wii U being what I have in mind). The character designs are meant to be realistic in proportion, and have feet. Battle's take their angle from FE10 over the rather...disappointing fight presentation in FE13. For one, the camera angles and the perspective the player gets are based off of FE10. Skills and other activations are notified and kept track of in the same little list in the corner as was used in FE10, and classes have separate animations for normal attacks, skill activation, and critical hits. Some notable things are that skills which happen to be critical hits don't get a special animation, it's just the skill animation with another pause to indicate the critical is happening. Also, Adept is represented by the striking twice animation like when using a Brave Weapon (Adept on a brave just runs the striking twice animation to start and then restarts the attack animation cycle, so to speak), and tier one classes simply attack 5 times in a row for Astra. HOWEVER. Every single promoted and special class has it's own, special, personal animation for Astra. Every class has a different motion and design for using the attack, from Phern's Hero class to Great Knights. GAMEPLAY UPDATE 2: This update, we will be talking about WEAPONS! Types: The 8 types from the GBA games return, described in the list below. [spoiler=Physical]The weapon triangle is the standard lances best swords best axes best lances, and triumphantly each of those 3 weapon types sees the return of reaver weapons to it's arsenal! Swords: These weapons have the lowest power of physical weapons, but have the highest accuracy of them as well. Looking at conventional weapons (bronze, iron, steel, and silver), swords have 2 less might but 10 more hit than lances. Lances: The weapon of the main lord Phern, lances are balanced between power and accuracy, and have the most available 1-2 range options, making them some of the most versatile weapons in the game. Axes: Heavy hitting weapons, they have the highest might but lowest hit of any physical weapons, but rather affordable 1-2 range weapons. Conventional axes have 2 more might but 10 less hit than than their lance counterparts. Bows: As many player will tell you, bows are not the greatest weapons, but this game aims to make them far more useful. Conventional bows get 1 more might and 5 more hit over lances, making them statistically superior despite their general lack of 1-range abilities. Another thing is that now bows get a weapon triangle advantage at 2+ range, but a weapon triangle disadvantage at 1 range. [spoiler=Magical]Radiant Dawn's trinity of magic system returns, with anima besting light besting dark besting anima and inside anima there being another loop, but it's a bit...different, as I will cover later. Light: Typically light has not been seen as a very useful magic type, but as with bows I wanted to change this. So while light magic is still easily the weakest weapon type in terms of might, including swords, it features some pretty crazy critical hit. For example, the basic light tome has 2 might but 15 crit, and that's the basic variety. They also have higher accuracy than even swords. Anima: Introduced alongside wind, fire, and thunder is a new sub-category (all sub-categories are of the same weapon rank, and some anima isn't a part of one) of anima, Water. Inside anima is a 'magic square,' where thunder beats water, water beats fire, fire beats wind and wind beats thunder. Each type also has different effectivenesses and statistics. Wind is effective against pegasi and is statistically similar to swords. Fire has no effectivenesses normally and is between swords and lances in term of hit and might, but there are many fire tomes with unique effects. Water is statistically similar to lances. Thunder is between lances and axes in terms of might, but features hit more like axes in exchange for having critical and effectiveness against wyverns. Anima is not only the middle ground of magic, but anima tomes have the widest range of effects of all magic types, doing things that previously only physical weapons did. Dark: Dark has to forms. One form is like axes. The other specializes in unique effects compared to anima's physical-inspired ones. As an example, nosferatu and luna both return, as well as several other new dark tomes having original effects. Staves: Status staves do not return. While staves are largely just for healing, there are a few rare staves that allow the user to perform very weak magical attacks for self-defense, but cannot be used to attack. Unless one of these staves is equipped or the only weapon available, a staff user will default to whatever other options they have. Finally, here is just one little thing: [spoiler=S-ranks]S-rank weapons return, but because training units to fit a multitude of roles and reclassing is available, how do you make them something not frustrating? Well, in this game, once someone reaches enough experience to have an S-rank in a weapon, but already has an S-rank in a different weapon type, they will be given the option to switch there S-rank to whichever S-rank they have which matches a weapon type their class has. What weapon the S-rank is can be switched freely outside of battle at the base. Having an S-rank in a weapon gives a bonus of 1 to final attack (so a minimum of 1 damage is dealt), and 5 to final crit and hit (so a minimum critical and hit rate of 5) GAMEPLAY UPDATE 3 [spoiler=Non-Human Classes]Since the very first Fire Emblem game on the NES, there have been groups with the ability to change from a human-like form into that of a dragon, and fight with incredible power for a short time. In Path of Radiance, they established the tradition of a group with more bestial transformations, which returned in the sequel and Awakening. But after Radiant Dawn, the group with a bird transformations disappeared from the series. So, with that, I have long had the thought that if I were to direct a Fire Emblem game, I would return a bird-transforming class. Heck, I even dug around to find a name for it. So with that completed, I present to you the three non-human classes I planned to have: [spoiler=Manakete]The Manakete are able to use a magical stone called a DragonStone to transform into a dragon. As a dragon they have a constant 1-2 range weapon in Dragon Breath, and statistically are closest to generals of all human classes. They do not have an armor weakness, like Generals, but have the weaknesses of a dragon to thunder magic and wyrm-slaying weapons. They can exceed Generals in both defense and resistance, and have higher raw attack. However, they can be even slower than generals in certain circumstances, and their lack of ability to use various weapons means that they might not deal as much damage or have as many options. Manaketes do have the most options of their beast and bird counterparts though. Awakening offered a meager 2 dragonstones, while here Manaketes have 6 to chose from. Each of the six (Dragon Stone, Fire Stone, Thunder Stone, Ice Stone, Wind Stone, Dragon Stone+) have advantages and disadvantages. For example, the wind stone counts as Wind anima in the weapon cycle and has the highest speed boost, thunder stone deals the most damage and counts as thunder anima, ice stone counts as water anima and boosts attack/defense the most, and fire stone counts as fire anima with the most skill and luck, so overall is the most accurate. Even the dragon stone+ doesn't beat the elemental stones in their strongest category, instead being a generally useful stone (if less accurate and shorter lasting than a regular dragonstone) [spoiler=Taguel]Users of the beast stones, taguel can only attack at one range most of the time, and are the most balanced beast class. They have more mobility and speed than a Manakete but not as high as the bird tribe, and are middle of the road in attack and defenses as well, minus low resistance. They only have 3 stones (Beast Stone, Fang Stone, Beast Stone+), with one (Fang Stone) being a killer weapon. Their advantage over other non-humans is similar to that of vanguards, they do everything well enough to be reliable and then some, and unlike birds and dragons don't have very many weaknesses, simply one to beast killing weapons. [spoiler=Vulceo]Vulceo are this games bird tribe, so to speak, and they can use bird stones to turn into giant birds like Hawk and Raven Laguz. They are statistically like thieves or swordmasters, trading a bit of power for mobility and speed. Being fliers they can cross any terrain but are weak to arrows and wind magic. They feature an impressive 4 stones (Bird Stone, Talon Stone, Hawkeye Stone, Bird Stone+). A bird stone is the basic variety, a talon stone is a brave weapon with more attack but less defense or resistance, a Hawkeye Stone which makes them weaker but more accurate and evasive along with granting a 2-range counter, and Bird Stone+ which is a short lived but all around good weapon. Now, all this would come with another change as to how stones would work. When a Manakete, Taguel or Vulceo has an appropriate stone, they have an option to use it with the 'Transform' command. Once selected you merely choose the stone they have you want them to use (reminiscent of selecting a weapon) and they will change into their animal form, with the boosts and combat stats of the stone being used. This is all very similar to a normal unit using a weapon except for one major thing: Stones work by turn count, not uses. If a stone has a 17 uses, that means it's good for 17 turns, not 17 attacks. But if a stone users stone runs out they revert back to their weak human form, and will not transform again unless they have another stone and you have them use it. It also means that if they see no combat that turn, the stone wastes a use. Stone uses can be saved by selecting 'Untransform' when ordering a transformed unit, where they revert to their human form. So there you have it! Just some random ideas I had for a potential FE game! So, please do tell me what you think, and all input is welcome.