Do you think future Fire Emblems will continue to have self inserts and children?

[Shadow Knight]

The Avatar will most likely remain. It's a popular feature and is a draw for new people. Children I think will be dropped in the next game only because it seemed like the developers rushed them into Fates. They don't really fit in with the story like Awakening's children did, they're just sort of there.

[angienessyo]

I'm sure MU, marriage, and kids are here to stay. I'm cool with avatars and romance, but I would rather children not be a thing unless there's an actual good reason for them to exist in the story.

[Topaz Light]

Self inserts definitely (they're already predefined chars that the players has no real input on their choices asides from Chapter 6 and choice of spouse). It allows both women and men to play a MC as their own gender.

This is actually my main gripe with the whole concept of the Avatar/My Unit as they're incorporated into Fire Emblem; for all narrative intents and purposes, they're a fixed, predefined character, and they're not even a good one. They're often called self-inserts, but the truth is that they're not; they're just as fixed and defined as any other character, except that you get to make a number of purely cosmetic decisions about them- along with, admittedly, a few decisions of actual gameplay consequence, like Asset, Flaw, Talent, and to a lesser extent, gender- that, while kinda nice, don't actually do anything to fix the fact that the character themself is not you, and oftentimes the notion that they represent you is kind of insulting considering how they act in certain situations. Being able to choose who MU supports and marries doesn't even really count at all, since that's barely more than you're able to do for any other character, and even then, the "barely" just refers to MU being able to support literally every other unit instead of just characters from a pre-chosen pool.

I would actually be very interested in seeing a truly player-created protagonist in a Fire Emblem game if they actually committed to it and gave the player frequent dialogue options, as well as choices about how to proceed that actually went through and weren't just miraculously derailed back onto the fixed plot progression to avoid having to write a branching story. Unfortunately, I think the odds of Intelligent Systems actually doing this are very slim. Kris, Robin, and Corrin have all been "good enough" for most Fire Emblem fans so far in the customization/self-insert department with far less effort required to implement them, so any future Avatars/My Units we get are almost certainly going to be along those lines.

As far as child characters go, I think it's likely that the series will continue to have them, considering their popularity. However, I can only hope that they'll start finding some sensible way to actually work them into the main plot instead of just shoehorning them in. In Genealogy of the Holy War, they worked well mainly because their existence, both as a mechanic and as a plot point, was a huge component of the game on a conceptual level, as can even be seen in the title. The game was built around them, at least to an extent, so they were very interesting there. Awakening gave the children a serviceable reason to be in the plot, even if they weren't nearly as crucial as in Genealogy. Fates, unfortunately, shoves any semblance of plot relevance child characters may have had out the window completely, and it's blatantly obvious that the only reason they're even in the game at all is in order to cash in on the popularity of the mechanic. I honestly don't mind child characters as a concept; the mechanic is actually really cool, and I love having a set of characters I can sorta customize indirectly via another really fun mechanic and narrative element, that being Support conversations. However, I am firmly of the stance that child characters should either be in the game because they have a good (or at least decent) reason to be present in the plot, or they shouldn't be in the game at all.

...I would rather children not be a thing unless there's an actual good reason for them to exist in the story.

This basically.

Edited February 26, 2016 by Topaz Light

[tailto]

Yes. If it's brought them this much success, then they're not going to be dropping self inserts and children characters anytime soon.

[Jedi]

I'd rather the second generation make sense, but I don't see it going away anytime soon. I like that they aren't afraid to change the gameplay forumla from Awakening at least (I really love Fates mechanically so I hope they keep changing things up & improving on whats there etc).

Edited February 29, 2016 by Jedi

[MCProductions]

Pretty sure Avatars are a mainstay at this point. In fact, I swear I read somewhere that the developers of Fates considered Avatars a mainstay of the series after 13's success

Children, idk tbh, I like them in Fates and Awakening gameplay wise, but that comes at the cost of story. If they stay awesome, if they don't also awesome imo.

[Mark the Tactician]

Candidly speaking, I think "Avatars" are here to stay now.... which I actually don't mind.

As for "2nd Generations", I'm not sure. I mean... I wouldn't mind if they were brought in, but at least have them make sense. FE4 and FE13 got it right in my opinion..... but Fates' reasons for having them in seems pretty weak.

[henrymidfields]

For the Avatar: While I haven't played neither New Mystery nor Fates, I thoroughly enjoyed having Robin as one of the only sane people was funny as heck. Given how some of the units I supported in Awakening seemed had weirdo antics to varying degrees, I felt like I was saying "WTF?!" to many of the support conversations like Robin did.

[Water Mage]

What was the japanese reaction to children in Fates?

I know someone here said it was bad, but how exactly the were recieved?

[KawaiiPersona]

would be cool if they made a main character, then have your avatar as some recrutiable character with background/personality and

recruit location based on your second class: thief, mercenary, priest etc... As for children i don't hate them, i'm all for more

units

[BeMine96]

I think so. A lot of people like it I guess. Personally, I love the children system but I honestly wouldn't mind it gone. If they're gonna add it in the future games, I just hope that they enhance the children system and give them an important role in the main story. Also, I would love it if characters actually aged and had their kids, that'd be interesting.

Edited March 2, 2016 by BeMine96

[Mangs]

It seems like they have kinda trapped themselves by doing this. If a future Fire Emblem game doesn't have marriage and children, I think it will be very negatively received by the public unless they manage to nail it in every other area.

What they could do is to borrow the concept of two generations from Fe4. I would very much like to see marriage and children without time space mumbo jumbo.

[sunshineYON]

I was actually blown away by Awakening's implementation of the children. FE4 did it the "normal" way with the 15 years later thing, but Awakening really made a believable implementation where parents and children can fight a long side each other. Not to mention how it was a vital part of the story, i.e. Lucina,

Grima going back in time

, etc.

But yeah, now their just shoehorning and it's kind of disappointing.

Edited March 3, 2016 by sunshinesan

[sirmola]

I like avatars because they are customizable, and additional customizability is always nice

I dislike how the story handles children, as they are kind of shoehorned in. Additionally, it results in a situation where large amounts of content (the children's paralogs for parrents you are not using.) require grinding to unlock, which i really don't like.

Edited March 3, 2016 by sirmola

[Djing]

I want a break from self inserts. Never could take them seriously. As for kids, I'd like there to be an actual time skip instead of time travel/deeprealm nonsense.

[Lyn]

I mostly like the avatar character. The children didn't seem to fit in the story very well.

Edited March 6, 2016 by Lyn

[Thane]

I've got no doubt about an avatar coming back; like Sunwoo said, Intelligent Systems seem to be of the opinion that self-inserts sell them games, and for a lot of people it helps them connect to the world.

On the other hand though, given how lukewarm the reception for children in Fates were, as well as their placements in the poll, I think they will think twice about including them again. If they do include a second generation, however, I believe it will be done differently.

[shadowofchaos]

I was actually blown away by Awakening's implementation of the children. FE4 did it the "normal" way with the 15 years later thing, but Awakening really made a believable implementation where parents and children can fight a long side each other. Not to mention how it was a vital part of the story, i.e. Lucina,

Grima going back in time

, etc.

But yeah, now their just shoehorning and it's kind of disappointing.

Yeah, I'll agree with this.

I didn't see it coming how both children and parents fighting alongside each other was possible and actually believable despite the time travel stuff.

For FE14, I can hardly believe that they had that much time for the MU and their spouse can have a baby in the middle of all that crap.

Hey Aqua/Felicia/Sibling you're/I'm preggo!

9 months later...

(How even is this possible)

Let's throw our baby into another dimension to keep them safe!

[MCProductions]

Yeah, I'll agree with this.

I didn't see it coming how both children and parents fighting alongside each other was possible and actually believable despite the time travel stuff.

For FE14, I can hardly believe that they had that much time for the MU and their spouse can have a baby in the middle of all that crap.

Hey Aqua/Felicia/Sibling you're/I'm preggo!

9 months later...

(How even is this possible)

Let's throw our baby into another dimension to keep them safe!

I handwave it by saying the pregnant wife went into the time chamber, had the kid, then leaves the kid in the deeprealm

[Jedi]

I think the avatar will remain, but like I think we need a bit more of a believable way to get kids.

Despite the fact I like some of Fate's kids it just feels... tacted on.