I have been playing Fire Emblem Heroes for almost a month now and one of the features of the mobile game that not alot of people mention is the chibi artwork for the sprites. I find this choice of art style to be very fitting for the mobile game as it makes the game look lighthearted, engaging for new or younger players and it's kind of a breath of fresh air since the last time we had 2D battle sprites was in Sacred Stones almost 13 years ago. As much as I praise this art style, I don't see it as the "go to" art style for mainstream Fire Emblem titles. Can you imagine if FE15 had a darker story, mature characters but had a cutesy chibi like characters designs? Not saying it couldn't work (I've seen some RPG with chibi character models) , but its a huge step.
So I thought if we can't get a main Fire Emblem title with this art style, why not a spin off? That's when I thought of a Paper Mario and Fire Emblem crossover. I may not be a true spin off since Intelligent Systems has worked on both of these franchises, but this is a kind of spin off I would like to see. The Paper Mario games (at least the first 3) were lighthearted, beginner friendly and also challenging at the same time. I would love to see some FE Legends in paper form. Mario can be an axe user with his hammer and recruit new or former partners from the older Paper Mario Titles, supports between FE and PM characters and even classic villains arriving.
Feel free to post your thoughts or your ideas of this potential or ludicrous cross over.