Fire Emblem is having an identity crisis.

[Landmaster]

The incest is a bit much, but I'm fine with the marriage and the kids~ I enjoy shipping my units together as much as I like the regular strategical element of the gameplay, as I enjoyed Heroes of Light and Shadow which doesn't have any shipping (like Awakening and Fates), so as long as I have that, I'm fine~

I'm fine with gender-locked classes as long as they make sense. For example, why Grandmasters can't be both genders is beyond me (especially since males now have one more DLC class over females), but I don't really have an issue with any others~ I've never really desired males to ride a Pegasus (or Tenma) or females to be Berserkers, but I guess its nice for people that want to put Galeforce on the guys and...have female Berserkers~ I will admit, female Dread Fighters are cool, though~ :3

[Ryo]

I don't even like FE4's way of handling the marriage/children mechanic. I'm not a fan of replacing an entire army for a second generation of units that I don't even care about. Either removing the children completely, or replace them with something that makes more sense in the storyline (like new recruits trained by a specific character who would inherit that character's classes and skill etc.)

[iavasechui]

The incest is a bit much, but I'm fine with the marriage and the kids~ I enjoy shipping my units together as much as I like the regular strategical element of the gameplay, as I enjoyed Heroes of Light and Shadow which doesn't have any shipping (like Awakening and Fates), so as long as I have that, I'm fine~

I'm fine with gender-locked classes as long as they make sense. For example, why Grandmasters can't be both genders is beyond me (especially since males now have one more DLC class over females), but I don't really have an issue with any others~ I've never really desired males to ride a Pegasus (or Tenma) or females to be Berserkers, but I guess its nice for people that want to put Galeforce on the guys and...have female Berserkers~ I will admit, female Dread Fighters are cool, though~ :3

Well maybe I want to name my avatar Bellerophon and have his secondary class be pegasus warrior.

Edited October 6, 2015 by iavasechui

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

on the subject of male pegasus knights, didn't tsubaki end up pretty bad?

either that or he's just outclassed by hinoka? i dunno i haven't played it yet

[Ryo]

But the point is you can still reclass other males into that class, so you can still have good male pegs. Shigure (Aqua's son) can also be a good canon male pegasus warrior depending on the father.

[Zachmac]

I think you're correct that we're witnessing a breakthrough in how Fire Emblem does Fire Emblem. My hope is that IS will be able to merge these two goals, and it's my (perhaps optimistic) opinion that Fates is a step in the right direction for this. Characters can have gimmicks AND interesting character arcs, and a story can be fun AND emotionally complex, and it looks like Fates is managing this unification better than Awakening did. It's pretty understandable that they would feel obligated to stick to FEA's format, however, seeing how it literally pulled the series out of the jaws of death and all.

I hope so. I'm far more tolerant of features I don't like if they don't compete with or contradict the features I do like.

The incest is a bit much, but I'm fine with the marriage and the kids~ I enjoy shipping my units together as much as I like the regular strategical element of the gameplay, as I enjoyed Heroes of Light and Shadow which doesn't have any shipping (like Awakening and Fates), so as long as I have that, I'm fine~

I'm fine with gender-locked classes as long as they make sense. For example, why Grandmasters can't be both genders is beyond me (especially since males now have one more DLC class over females), but I don't really have an issue with any others~ I've never really desired males to ride a Pegasus (or Tenma) or females to be Berserkers, but I guess its nice for people that want to put Galeforce on the guys and...have female Berserkers~ I will admit, female Dread Fighters are cool, though~ :3

Grandmaster was probably originally meant to be exclusive to the Robin amiibo, so they only ported one model or whatever I guess. I still don't like unnecessary genderlocks, though.

...In actuality, I don't really care much for Tsubaki, Shigure, Foleo or Charlotte. I just like that Pegasi aren't needlessly hate men anymore.

Azura's DEF growth is worse than her HP growth

But how can I be cool and hip if I don't complain about the same stat everyone else does?

Edited October 6, 2015 by Zachmac

[Radiant head]

I'll shamelessly admit I like shipping characters, but I kind of prefer it to be more like the GBA supports/ending, and less like the current games. Awakening is fine for what it is, since it's sort of like Terminator meets Jugdral, but it's not something that needs to be the whole future of the franchise.

[-Cynthia-]

I don't really care as much about the shipping itself as the hamfisted nature of the children. There's an alternate dimension where the parents had their children, so the children age but the parents don't? That's just stupid. And some of the children are clones of Awakening characters because fanservice or something. It is an optional feature, but couldn't those resources be put to better use?

[Ebony]

Well maybe I want to name my avatar Bellerophon and have his secondary class be pegasus warrior.

Its alright laddies. You can have your cute pega-ponies and we girls can get your murder axes.

[gayserbeam]

I have no problem with children, or marriage, or face-rubbing minigames and I am a Fire Emblem "veteran". I'm always of the stance that taking a series in a different direction is never a bad thing if the product is still enjoyable. If Fire Emblem 15 is a space marine cover shooter with rythym game elements, it doesn't eliminate the other games from existence.

Of course, Fire Emblem fans who like Fire Emblem for a particular gameplay style or atmosphere want more of that, and that's alright, but personally I've never felt that change in and of itself is ever bad; there can be good or bad or neutral or complicated design decisions but change itself is never the problem.

Now, I will complain about two things: Fire Emblem Fates shoehorned in children for the sole sake of bringing back the mechanic and made no narrative effort to explain it. I don't want every game to have eugenics for the sake of eugenics, as that, while technically offering more possibilities, forces the developers to frame the game around that mechanic, and we get situations where everyone can marry everyone or first-generation units become outclassed.

I also dislike the focus on online connectivity features and how they break the game flow. With rank bonuses, skill purchasing, My Castle shop visits and logbook units, all of the thoughtful consideration of marriage, A+ supports and item management basically flies out the window. I would perfer if these things were limited to a New Game +, so the game experience was more consistent.

TL;DR: I don't mind the "new direction" overall but there are issues with game balance because of the new online mechanics and IS needs to learn how to deal with that.

[iavasechui]

Its alright laddies. You can have your cute pega-ponies and we girls can get your murder axes.

XD I'm a girl, I just get super annoyed about fe constantly acting like pegasi are the same as unicorns. Pegasus was ridden by a guy. Unicorns can only be approached by virgin maidens. Getting the myths mixed up is a pet peeve of mine.

[Time the Crestfallen]

TL;DR: I don't mind the "new direction" overall but there are issues with game balance because of the new online mechanics and IS needs to learn how to deal with that.

To be fair, online mechanics (especially PVP) are rarely ever balanced. I think IS did a good job for a first attempt, but getting rekt by crit-based team is not something I'm looking forward to.

Edited October 6, 2015 by Phillius

[Landmaster]

Well maybe I want to name my avatar Bellerophon and have his secondary class be pegasus warrior.

You go be the best Bellerophon you can be. You go Glen Coco.

Grandmaster was probably originally meant to be exclusive to the Robin amiibo, so they only ported one model or whatever I guess. I still don't like unnecessary genderlocks, though.

...In actuality, I don't really care much for Tsubaki, Shigure, Foleo or Charlotte. I just like that Pegasi aren't needlessly hate men anymore.

Maybe, but I still wanted my Ignis. 3:

But didn't Luna's support with Subaki say that it's actually a Tenma? Thereby making Pegasi still hate men?

[Time the Crestfallen]

But didn't Luna's support with Subaki say that it's actually a Tenma? Thereby making Pegasi still hate men?

Luna: And they say he doesn't get excited much! (? not sure about this) I mean, why is a man like you rides a pegasus? Pegasi are only for the pure maidens!

Tsubaki: Pegasus? Ah, you are talking about a sacred beast from another country. Pegasus and Tenma are different.

Luna: Eh? Really?

Tsubaki: Yes. Sure, they look alike, but they're totally different species. Byakuya's tenma and Anya's falcons don't hate men and because they aren't limited to women, they can carry both. That's what is supposed to be written in new strategy books.

Source: http://pastebin.com/9b5md60s

Edited October 6, 2015 by Phillius

[Alazen]

That's what you call a cheap handwave. They could have just retconned the retcon that pegasi are ridden by women.

[Zachmac]

Its alright laddies. You can have your cute pega-ponies and we girls can get your murder axes.

See, people? This girl gets it.

XD I'm a girl, I just get super annoyed about fe constantly acting like pegasi are the same as unicorns. Pegasus was ridden by a guy. Unicorns can only be approached by virgin maidens. Getting the myths mixed up is a pet peeve of mine.

Well then, screw unicorns and their unfair gender-based double standards. This is 2015, dang it.

Tsubaki: Yes. Sure, they look alike, but they're totally different species. Byakuya's tenma and Anya's falcons don't hate men and because they aren't limited to women, they can carry both. That's what is supposed to be written in new strategy books.

Source: http://pastebin.com/9b5md60s

Which is a horrible excuse. I'm supposed to buy that these creators are a "totally different species" despite being exactly the same in litterally everyway except for gender discrimination? It also fails to explain why the Nohrian Dark Flier isn't genderlocked.

If anything, this just shows how poorly coordinated that staff is.

[Time the Crestfallen]

Well I never said that it wasn't cheap. It honestly would've been best if they just hadn't drawn attention to it.

Edited October 6, 2015 by Phillius

[Ryo]

They didn't even need to explain anything in the first place because this is simply a different world with different rules.

[Alazen]

The Archanea games established that men can ride pegasi. It wasn't until Thracia 776 that you saw a Pegasus Knight note that pegasi have an issue with men riding them.

Edited October 6, 2015 by Alazen

[Sunwoo]

Which is a horrible excuse. I'm supposed to buy that these creators are a "totally different species" despite being exactly the same in litterally everyway except for gender discrimination? It also fails to explain why the Nohrian Dark Flier isn't genderlocked.

Tsubaki: Yes. Sure, they look alike, but they're totally different species. Byakuya's tenma and Anya's falcons don't hate men and because they aren't limited to women, they can carry both. That's what is supposed to be written in new strategy books.

Source: http://pastebin.com/9b5md60s

I think the dark flier is a "falcon", the one Tsubaki references.

[kingddd]

I personally don't think it is.

The problem I see most people are doing are judging the games and FE series by the story, the character designs and of course the character interactions.

Yes there are gameplay changes here, some design changes, features added and removed and various presentation differences with each sequel but overall, majority of the gameplay has been pretty much the same. A tile based strategy tactics game with RPG elements where you control units to victory and battles.

If anything, a game having an identity crisis would be Chibi Robo as it keeps completely changing its gameplay formula that it has no idea what kind of game the series should be. We went from a 3D cleaning house simulator to random spin offs that has nothing to do with the original game and now a 2D action puzzle platformer.

Edited October 6, 2015 by kingddd

[Landmaster]

I don't have an issue with it. I'm fine with them apparently being Tenma so they can have males be Pegasus Warriors. As far as I'm concerned, it's a fine means of continuing the canon, as long as it gives the guys the class (coming from me who couldn't really care either way if males could be Pegasus Knights).

Though, I still don't know why the Dark Falcon's chill with the dudes. I can only guess that it's because, technically, the Dark Flier and Dark Falcon are different creatures.

[Alazen]

What ''canon'' needed to be ''continued''?

Edited October 6, 2015 by Alazen

[gayserbeam]

Pegasi and their gender bias has always been a bit shaky. Pegasi have always been able to carry men, as Pegasus Knights could always Rescue. This is even shown clearly in a cutscene in Awakening.

We could say that maybe they just don't let men command them, but the games always refer to it as "fears men", "hates men" or "won't carry men."

The even harder thing to justify is why women couldn't wield axes unless they are on a mount or wearing 400lb of heavy armor

Edited October 6, 2015 by gayserbeam

[Time the Crestfallen]

To be honest, I've always thought that genderlocked classes just wasn't a good idea in general.