Is this game really that good?

[Faye]

I'd say it's the art style that makes it feel "un-FE-like", at least to me. D8 The outfits are so whacky, the ratio of normal-ish outfits to insane outfits is pretty uneven. Look at the knight/cavalier classes, as well as wyvern-riders. Mages have those gigantic hats, and dark mages of both genders dress fairly skimpily. Past FE games had some weird outfit designs, but this game, it's utterly insane.

[Constable Reggie]

L'Arachel is super hammy. Granted, she has a moment where shes not all up in your face and acts like a good friend to Eirika/Ephraim. (after the Stone of Renais is taken and destroyed.) But thats just one moment. Shes just as much of a caricature as say, most of the cast of Awakening. Marcia is hardly realistic. Do you know anyone who would shout "OH CRACKERS" in the middle of war?

I dont understand why so many people think that Awakening has more anime style tropes with its characters than any other FE game. Truth is, all the games seem to have large doses of anime tropes with its characters. Maybe this game is more noticeable due to the abundance of supports and its art style?

She acts like that for a reason, though. She acts all justicey and righteous because she believes that's the way heroes act due to her sheltered life. She's misguided. She doesn't do that just because she needed a trait. And having humorous lines doesn't suddenly make them cartoonish. Does "Father of Sothe's children" suddenly turn Micaiah from a three-dimensional character into a cartoon?

Edited February 26, 2013 by Constable Reggie

[Loki Laufeyson]

and dark mages of both genders dress fairly skimpily.

Well at least its equal opportunity scantily cladness. I was actually miffed as hell when i saw Tharja's costume concepts. Until i saw all the male dark mages/sorcerers. :B

And having humorous lines doesn't suddenly make them cartoonish. Does "Father of Sothe's children" suddenly turn Micaiah from a three-dimensional character into a cartoon?

Chrom says some pretty hilarious shit too but hes not one-dimensional either. Im not sure what you are trying to say here, mate.

[Faye]

Well at least its equal opportunity scantily cladness. I was actually miffed as hell when i saw Tharja's costume concepts. Until i saw all the male dark mages/sorcerers. :B

Same here. 8D; I became more forgiving as well when I saw both genders are skimpy.

[Constable Reggie]

Chrom says some pretty hilarious shit too but hes not one-dimensional either. Im not sure what you are trying to say here, mate.

I'm saying Marcia is a much better characterized character than most people in Awakening, and her having humorous lines does not suddenly discount that. It should probably be expected that Chrom be well characterized, since he's one of the main characters and all.

[Loki Laufeyson]

It should probably be expected that Chrom be well characterized, since he's one of the main characters and all.

The same could be said of Micaiah. :/

Anyway, i think we need to agree to disagree here, mang. Cuz im just not ever gonna agree that everyone in Awakening is horribly written. Only Severa wins that title.

[Constable Reggie]

Micaiah's a much, much more well characterized character than Chrom, though.

Again, they're not badly written or anything, they just feel less dimensional than previous Fe casts. It makes for some really fun and well written dialogues, it just loses that sense of realism.

[Gone2Ground]

What's with all the Severa hate? I get that she's traditional Tsundere and all that, but she has got her moments in some of the supports. Severa/Kjelle comes off as particularly funny. I dunno, maybe I've just had a fascination with the Tsundere mindset, and Severa's past is pretty effed up, although not to the scale of Noire.

[Loki Laufeyson]

I see.

I kinda like the lack of realism and the hilarious dialogue. Makes for a fun time. I even actually got over the ridiculous character designs.

Micaiah's a much, much more well characterized character than Chrom, though.

Maybe. Sadly, i always felt Micaiah's story to be riddled with plot holes that makes her toe the line of Sue territory. Despite her being more fleshed out, her story has problems.

Chrom, at least in my opinion, while he isnt super fleshed out, hes just more fun to play as and see his story. And it seemed like the story for Awakening wasnt giving that much of a fuck in terms of being super solid. (unlike Radiant Dawn's.)

[Pervio]

I dont understand why so many people think that Awakening has more anime style tropes with its characters than any other FE game. Truth is, all the games seem to have large doses of anime tropes with its characters. Maybe this game is more noticeable due to the abundance of supports and its art style?

I disagree. I'm interested to see why you think this, because compared to Awakening's almost one-hundred percent cast of stereotypical characters, I don't find this problem in... let's say Fire Emblem 7 at all. Either way, being stereotypical is not the problem, it's that the stereotypes ride their entire personality. Ninian may be the stereotypical quiet and nice girl, but her character goes beyond that. You can't simply describe her as nice and quiet, her relationship with her brother and her personal views of her own species put her beyond simply the nice and quiet girl.

Anyway, from the top of my head for the females, Sonia as a femme fetale, Florina as demure/quiet girl and Serra being the quirky and loud-mouthed girl who's rude are the only stereotypes I can think of (don't get me wrong, I'm sure if I bother to check, there's more) from the top of my head. This could be notable as in previous Fire Emblem, characters lacked personality albeit. Anyway as I said holding a stereotype and being only a stereotype are completely different things and the latter just shows, well really... poor thought. Since you're basically taking an extremely well-known stereotype and applying it to a character.

I should give credit where it's due, I haven't read into Gangrel too much but his story sounds extremely interesting. I'm expecting good from him, Aversa and Walhart.

Edited February 26, 2013 by Pervio

[Sublime Manic]

I disagree. I'm interested to see why you think this, because compared to Awakening's almost one-hundred percent cast of stereotypical characters, I don't find this problem in... let's say Fire Emblem 7 at all. Either way, being stereotypical is not the problem, it's that the stereotypes ride their entire personality. Ninian may be the stereotypical quiet and nice girl, but her character goes beyond that. You can't simply describe her as nice and quiet, her relationship with her brother and her personal views of her own species put her beyond simply the nice and quiet girl.

Anyway, from the top of my head for the females, Sonia as a femme fetale, Florina as demure/quiet girl and Serra being the quirky and loud-mouthed girl who's rude are the only stereotypes I can think of (don't get me wrong, I'm sure if I bother to check, there's more) from the top of my head. This could be notable as in previous Fire Emblem, characters lacked personality albeit. Anyway as I said holding a stereotype and being only a stereotype are completely different things and the latter just shows, well really... poor thought. Since you're basically taking an extremely well-known stereotype and applying it to a character.

I should give credit where it's due, I haven't read into Gangrel too much but his story sounds extremely interesting. I'm expecting good from him, Aversa and Walhart.

Is it really fair to say the majority of Awakening's cast is completely defined by the stereotypes they exemplify when the game hasn't even been out in the US for a month? This game has a ton of supports to go through which contribute to the characterization of all these characters you're claiming are defined by their stereotypes and nothing else. Maybe you've already read most of them and I'm wrong on this, but so far, it's been my experience that the supports I've read definitely make characters that might appear one note at first more than that.

[Paperblade]

Most of the supports are documented online and I shouldn't have to sift through a dozen to find one where a character is acting like a real person instead of a bland stereotype.

[Agro]

Sure, Misaka Mikoto from Toaru is a tsundere, just like Severa, but because of the in depth explanation on her character, history, development and simply evolving as a character, Misaka can be seen as a great character, not stuck as an archetype to explain her entire personality. Severa on the other hand is just downright tsundere. That's it, not further explanation on her character needed.

I don't even know what a "sun deer" is so your point is lost on me

Edited February 26, 2013 by Agro

[Pervio]

Is it really fair to say the majority of Awakening's cast is completely defined by the stereotypes they exemplify when the game hasn't even been out in the US for a month? This game has a ton of supports to go through which contribute to the characterization of all these characters you're claiming are defined by their stereotypes and nothing else. Maybe you've already read most of them and I'm wrong on this, but so far, it's been my experience that the supports I've read definitely make characters that might appear one note at first more than that.

Oh, I agree to an extent. I have read quite a few of the supports and haven't seen a case of which they portray anything unique or interesting for their character that sets them away from their stereotypical behaviour, however I haven't read all the supports, so there could very well possibly be cases of what you're saying. But come on, confessing in sweets?! Sorry Gaius, you're cool and all, but no man. Just no. :P

I mean, looking at Fire Emblem 12. Norne the classical "childhood friend" stereotype. She's clumsy, cute and kind. Sure, she's still a stereotype, but we at least see her motivation, her role and really, her character. Seeing her reasoning and motivation made her seem much more enjoyable than any gimmicky character. It was also somewhat unique for a childhood friend role as though they made an impact on each other, they actually had forgotten each others looks, despite it being Norne's drive to join the army. Gaius's conversation with per say Libra could have added extra depth to his character, it was a conversation that finally acknowledges they're killing a lot of other people in Fire Emblem but rather than being deep and meaningful, I saw it as a gimmick. I'm not saying I expect even one deep or meaningful conversation, but come on sweets in this type of support? :/

[Sublime Manic]

Most of the supports are documented online and I shouldn't have to sift through a dozen to find one where a character is acting like a real person instead of a bland stereotype.

Then don't.

Oh, I agree to an extent. I have read quite a few of the supports and haven't seen a case of which they portray anything unique or interesting for their character that sets them away from their stereotypical behaviour, however I haven't read all the supports, so there could very well possibly be cases of what you're saying. But come on, confessing in sweets?! Sorry Gaius, you're cool and all, but no man. Just no. :P

I mean, looking at Fire Emblem 12. Norne the classical "childhood friend" stereotype. She's clumsy, cute and kind. Sure, she's still a stereotype, but we at least see her motivation, her role and really, her character. Seeing her reasoning and motivation made her seem much more enjoyable than any gimmicky character. It was also somewhat unique for a childhood friend role as though they made an impact on each other, they actually had forgotten each others looks, despite it being Norne's drive to join the army. Gaius's conversation with per say Libra could have added extra depth to his character, it was a conversation that finally acknowledges they're killing a lot of other people in Fire Emblem but rather than being deep and meaningful, I saw it as a gimmick. I'm not saying I expect even one deep or meaningful conversation, but come on sweets in this type of support? :/

Funnily enough, the supports I've unlocked with Gaius so far have NOT mentioned sweets. At all. Granted, I've only bothered with Chrom and Sully for his supports (not terribly fond of Gaius) but there wasn't one mention of sweets in the seven support conversations between those two.

[Paperblade]

Don't complain about people calling the characters shitty if your response is "Well don't read the supports"

[Sublime Manic]

Or don't complain about characters being so shitty if reading the texts that actually characterize the cast is too great an inconvenience for you.

[Loki Laufeyson]

Severa on the other hand is just downright tsundere. That's it, not further explanation on her character needed.

Well, Severa is the one i have a serious problem with, but people have stated that shes got some depth to her in supports. I dont know if thats true but it probably is. However, Severa is probably the worst one out of the bunch in terms of stereotyping.

Personally, i just dont see the problem if im having a really good time with these characters and its game.

[Crystal Shards]

I often hear people say "Oh, but everything has stereotypes/archtypes" or "it's impossible to be unique", but honestly, I can name only a few series I've seen in my entire life where the entire cast is a stereotype.

That's because it's true. Pretty much every story ever has a crapload of stereotypes and tropes. Pretty much any anime, most video games... A lot of it references old myths and legends and stories we've heard 100 times over. The problem isn't "is this character a trope" but rather "is this character worth having in the game" (in most cases, that answer is yes for this game). The point of having archetypes is that they're familiar. While I would have enjoyed them breaking some of those archetypes in interesting ways, it's also a Fire Emblem game, so my hopes weren't really that high there. And honestly because I got so many supports during my playthrough I got to see my characters in more depth than I expected to.

I guess I don't really care so long as they aren't annoyingly stereotypical. Yes, a lot of the characters are terribly trope-y, but it doesn't really take away from the game for me. To each his/her own.

Edited February 27, 2013 by Crystal Shards

[Lanko]

The only character i found terribly stereotipyzed ( is that how you say it ? lol ) is Miriel....Jesus Christ, how can someone talk like that all the damn time ? One of other momment is funny, others you can really consider her as a very logical and racional person ( like her recruitment of Laurent), but most of the time i found it annoying, like a robot, at least from what i saw of her.

Even Lute and Soren, the most intelligent people in their games, didn't looked like robots.

And someone said FE7 wasn't as bad as characer stereotypes or animey....really ? We can start with the main character Hector, typical anime character for middle-schoolers who just go angry and wants to fight for his friends without any thinking, Lyn who says ''What?'' in almost all her lines. Then Serra, Raven, Geitz, Florina, Farina, Guy, etc...

Edited February 27, 2013 by Lanko

[Pervio]

Funnily enough, the supports I've unlocked with Gaius so far have NOT mentioned sweets. At all. Granted, I've only bothered with Chrom and Sully for his supports (not terribly fond of Gaius) but there wasn't one mention of sweets in the seven support conversations between those two.

Definitely glad to know, thanks for the heads up.

That's because it's true. Pretty much every story ever has a crapload of stereotypes and tropes. Pretty much any anime, most video games... A lot of it references old myths and legends and stories we've heard 100 times over. The problem isn't "is this character a trope" but rather "is this character worth having in the game" (in most cases, that answer is yes for this game). The point of having archetypes is that they're familiar. While I would have enjoyed them breaking some of those archetypes in interesting ways, it's also a Fire Emblem game, so my hopes weren't really that high there. And honestly because I got so many supports during my playthrough I got to see my characters in more depth than I expected to.

I guess I don't really care so long as they aren't annoyingly stereotypical. Yes, a lot of the characters are terribly trope-y, but it doesn't really take away from the game for me. To each his/her own.

Appreciate the thought, but did you read all my posts? :P A crap load of stereotypes and all stereotypes aren't the same. As I said, I basically can't name a story of which has more than 30 characters where all characters are stereotypes or based on a stereotype. Also in my opinion neither "Oh, but everything has stereotypes/archtypes" or "it's impossible to be unique" are excuses for bad writing - being true shouldn't excuse the fact it's down right awful. Whether a majority of stories have 100% unoriginal cast we've seen before or not, they should just get just as much criticism towards its unoriginal and generally bad writing in which most cases, they do. Fire Emblem Awakening makes up for the game in so many different ways, a lot of improvements in a lot of different regards and clearly a lot of thought put into it, I just think characters went downhill in writing and design.

I'm not asking for a character that I've never seen before, I'm not asking for great in depth writing, I am not asking for no stereotypes. What I want is the minimum, to not use a stereotype that describes the character in its entirety. I mean you said as long as it's not annoyingly stereotypical, but I mean, what else can it do to be even more stereotypical? It's breaking boundaries I've never seen or expected! :P But I digress I haven't read all the supports, so I won't say that they don't develop in general as the ones I've read could be the off ones, aka. gimmicks. I should note however, I was very impressed with Fire Emblem 12's supports, for even characters such as Wrys.

And someone said FE7 wasn't as bad as characer stereotypes or animey....really ? We can start with the main character Hector, typical anime character for middle-schoolers who just go angry and wants to fight for his friends without any thinking, Lyn who says ''What?'' in almost all her lines. Then Serra, Raven, Geitz, Florina, Farina, Guy, etc...

The only ones from your list I can actually say are fully stereotypes are Hector, Serra and Florina. I think it'd be more reasonable to list Eliwood given his boring personality lead role. Also Lyn saying what all the time doesn't make her a stereotype. Interesting to note you compared Farina as a stereotype. Funny enough, let's compare Farina and Anna. Now, I may make inaccurate statements here, so please correct me if I make any mistakes, anyone that is. It's hard to debate against Fire Emblem 13's characters since there's so many conversations I haven't seen and just because I read one of which supports anything I say doesn't make it true for all. Anyway, why does Anna want money? Because she's a trickster? From what I know, there's no stated reason for her motivation, making it a gimmick. Now the money obsessed girl is indeed a stereotype and in a sense, could apply to Farina as she talks about money out of the blue, namely with Karla, Hector and Dart, however there's a big difference. A stereotype applying to a character and a character being a walking stereotype aren't the same thing; Farina's character isn't defined by her love for money, on the other hand with Anna, well other than being a gag Nurse Joy, her addiction to money is clearly there for the sake of a stereotype; again inform me if there's a support conversation that tackles this as I may simply be misinformed. Farina's "addiction" to money is a result of being raised in a poor family with her sisters and actually meaningful towards her character, living in a country where women worked for the gold. She cares for money as it is what people need to actually get help, she doesn't collect it simply for the sake of collecting it. She even gives away some for Dorcas after hearing his story about Natalie.

Edited February 28, 2013 by Pervio