What would you change?

[Revan97]

-Remove character death, we all complain about secondary characters not being interesting but until they cannot die they will continue to be, as it is necessary for the story. We can't have Libra do something important in chapter 20 if he can die before that point. Without interaction in the main story characters will always fell flat because they will only have a few hundred lines from supports where as a lord gets thousands. Let's face it very few people who play on classic will continue a run if their favorite character dies, they will reset, and do the chapter again. Insert some kind of permanent stat penalty 'injury' instead so there will still be enough incentive to be careful while being able to maintain a canon as far as life and deaths go. In other words it's a bit of a pointless system that hinders the story of secondary characters.

-Avatar as less of a mary sue, I really like the idea of an avatar but they need to put more work into it for it to come across as anything more than self-insert fanfiction.

-No reclassing it just turns the game into a grind.

-Feet, nuf said.

[Airship Canon]

-No reclassing it just turns the game into a grind.

I'm going to disagree on certain grounds.

Reclassing/infinite levels helps stave off RNG screwage, and helps improve some balance, as even bad characters can wind up good as a result. And quite honestly it's one of the main reasons Awakening is so damn replayable.

However, it does cause some issues where grinding is the end-all.

Reclassing itself needs to stay if they ever do the generation system again- this much is certain-- we don't want any more Valkyrie Staff Arthurs (and dear lord, Owain would be complete garbage were it not for Reclassing)

However, a point to it, also, is that Reclassing in SD/NM was way too simple, where Awakening's only works with Awakening's system.

I'd say for a later, more linear game, keep Second Seals, but they no longer roll back a character's level. This way, you can't see that map made of Ballistae, wait, Lemme reclass all my fliers to Paladins now, unless you got plenty of seconds to burn. There's commitment to your class, but you can reclass.

Of course, beyond that, I'd say bigger post game is really something that should be considered if the next game works like Awakening. I'd reckon Apo could be harder (I'd say a global enemy buff of anywhere between 10 and 15 points would land it in the realm of "beatable" but hard as damn hell (No LB attempts would strictly fail at that point, and optimization would be required)). Or, maps with Apo enemies as baseline, but function like Future Past. (Now that'd be fun.) Hell, more Apo-class maps in general would be a massive improvement (like, wait, what was expected of FP/Challenge when S2 got announced. (No, really, part of S2's first taste was showing off some of Secret Apo's enemies (Dark Flier miniboss, Helswath 'zerker)... and the belief was that FP was gonna be where those enemies were. Sadly we were wrong, but it would've been amazing.)

[Revan97]

I'm going to disagree on certain grounds.

Reclassing/infinite levels helps stave off RNG screwage, and helps improve some balance, as even bad characters can wind up good as a result. And quite honestly it's one of the main reasons Awakening is so damn replayable.

However, it does cause some issues where grinding is the end-all.

Reclassing itself needs to stay if they ever do the generation system again- this much is certain-- we don't want any more Valkyrie Staff Arthurs (and dear lord, Owain would be complete garbage were it not for Reclassing)

However, a point to it, also, is that Reclassing in SD/NM was way too simple, where Awakening's only works with Awakening's system.

I'd say for a later, more linear game, keep Second Seals, but they no longer roll back a character's level. This way, you can't see that map made of Ballistae, wait, Lemme reclass all my fliers to Paladins now, unless you got plenty of seconds to burn. There's commitment to your class, but you can reclass.

Of course, beyond that, I'd say bigger post game is really something that should be considered if the next game works like Awakening. I'd reckon Apo could be harder (I'd say a global enemy buff of anywhere between 10 and 15 points would land it in the realm of "beatable" but hard as damn hell (No LB attempts would strictly fail at that point, and optimization would be required)). Or, maps with Apo enemies as baseline, but function like Future Past. (Now that'd be fun.) Hell, more Apo-class maps in general would be a massive improvement (like, wait, what was expected of FP/Challenge when S2 got announced. (No, really, part of S2's first taste was showing off some of Secret Apo's enemies (Dark Flier miniboss, Helswath 'zerker)... and the belief was that FP was gonna be where those enemies were. Sadly we were wrong, but it would've been amazing.)

If they were to keep reclassing into the game with the main purpose to be helping against bad RNG it should be made into a far rarer thing than it currently is. They should treat it more like a stat boost item who's original purpose was to mitigate RNG anyway. As it is now I feel it is simply too good of a thing that's too easy to do. I mean from chapter 12 onward you pretty much can max out characters for X amount of time where X is how long it takes you to get a barbarian with a high luck stat to plunder and then get unlimited money so you can random battle and level up, seal, then second seal until maxed (at least on hard and normal) and no one want's to do that. At the end of the day I'm not entirely against reclassing but the current system need a rework IMO.

[Airship Canon]

If they were to keep reclassing into the game with the main purpose to be helping against bad RNG it should be made into a far rarer thing than it currently is. They should treat it more like a stat boost item who's original purpose was to mitigate RNG anyway. As it is now I feel it is simply too good of a thing that's too easy to do. I mean from chapter 12 onward you pretty much can max out characters for X amount of time where X is how long it takes you to get a barbarian with a high luck stat to plunder and then get unlimited money so you can random battle and level up, seal, then second seal until maxed (at least on hard and normal) and no one want's to do that. At the end of the day I'm not entirely against reclassing but the current system need a rework IMO.

I dunno, it's still an optional thing. There's no point in the game where you -have- to grind, save for Apo, but that's designed under the assumption that you -will- grind. Lunatic's options do a good job at staving off excessive grinding as-is, and really, it's still optional. (It's like the Easy Mode thing, should there be an easy mode if the normal and hard (harder than hard?) modes are the same? Yes, and it's quite asinine to think otherwise.)

And really, a lot of Awakening's charm comes from Reclassing and the Skill System. The "Elite Tweak" factor. Take away the reclassing, and a huge amount of Awakening's replay value goes with it. It might be a bit broken as it stands, but the bigger issue comes from the act of grinding itself, but that's just an option. I could spend hours at the arena in older FEs. Would that break the game? Yes, yes it would. Do I need to? No. But the option is there.

Does it help units that got RNG screwed? Yes. But here's the thing, it helps units that got RNG screwed in a way that's better than the stat boosters (which, usually go on units that are already doing good)-- as it merely gives them more levels. I max my levels in the Arena, I'm going to wind up boosting up the best, and then using my top units to the detriment of anyone who the RNG frowned upon. Everyone hits their caps? I'mma use anyone I feel like, and they'll all do great. The former may arguably have more strategy (not really), but the latter is better balanced character wise.

(The bigger issue with Awakening's wonky difficulty is other methods to breaking the game (Vantage Gales, Nosferatu) and low-manning (which, that, needs to be stopped somehow. (Honestly, I'd add minimum deployments (like in FE5) (and more stuff like Future Past (which forced use of the Parent Characters or the kids were really weak and died too easily)) to curb Low-manning.) as well of the lack of a solid curve of difficulty selections (Normal and Hard+ would be a great thing, honestly. (Normal or Hard stats, Lunatic+ Skills. Gogogo) (Also, Maniac mode (Between Hard and Lunatic))

[Vapo]

Nah, I'd definitely disagree with the minimum units thing. It's pointless, a burden, and not a fun challenge. Why force the player to use an inferior style just for difficulty balance? It makes Lunatic and Lunatic+ more annoying than they already are, unless you practically commit homicide by killing off all your units, and that doesn't work on Casual, so it's just a plain annoyance.

And no way in HELL should the Valm Arc be removed, seeing as it's imo the best one (Plegia arc is repetitive, Grima arc is stupid and plays MU off as a Mary Sue). It has great map designs in comparison to plain fields (Plegia) and dark buildings (Grima).

And please, no FE4 repeats, seeing as with the DLC it screws up everything.

[Timely Rain]

I would change the story. The first part was good, but the second... it wasn't that good. Also, how is possible that Emmeryn, Walhart, Aversa and Gangrel are alive? Sorry, but I think "I died but mi live refuses leave my body" is not a good reason. At least Yen' fay has its explanation... I'd also change the design of spotpass characters to make them look like the original character. Ah, and also feet.

[Jotari]

I think the Future Despair DLC would have been better formatted as a kind of campaign. More than three chapters (because I wonder what happened to Validar and Aversa in that timeline) that you must complete in order instead of just buying the last one and playing the last one. It is a continuing story and should be treated as such gameplay wise. Also have some kind of negative effects of letting the kids all die. As it is now you don't even get a game over. Of course it should still be playable an infinite amount of times being DLC but I'd just rather it was sold as a single pack and to get to the later chapters you need to beat the earlier ones.

[Pilcrow]

Story is typical Fire Emblem so I wasn't expecting very much there.

The main thing that sticks out for me is poor map design -- the terrain is boring and lacks variation, especially when compared to older FE games.