Do You Like The Kids? / Your Thoughts on Them

[Thor Odinson]

I don't like the bullshit excuse they pulled to get them here and I'd rather them pull timetravel twice (as much as I don't like that either, the first time is fine and within Awakening's story but it wouldn't work that well in fates--but at least it wouldn't turn all the parents into deadbeats)

And I think a significant number of the kids have personalities that are very flat and gimmicky and it makes it even harder for me to care about them--I do admit some of them can be pretty useful--Nina in particular since she can pretty easily get both Shurikenbreaker and Pass on herself as a rescue staffer for endgame and anti-ninja just in time for Conquest 25 if you play your cards right

I like Shiro though, and in a no kids system I'd like to see him show up as lobster man's shitty little cousin or something

Edited March 15, 2016 by Thor Odinson

[Etrurian emperor]

Individually I love quite a lot of the kids but taken as a whole I despise them. The feature itself was desperate, out of place and nothing short of pathetic. That I do like so many of the kids makes it even harder to swallow. Something has gone terribly wrong when great characters such as Forrest, Kiragi, Shiro and Percy have the most dignity left if you consider them non canon.

The children mechanic is actually something I do want to see return. Pairing characters is fun, you can do a lot of interesting things with multiple generations and being a parent does bring in another side of a character. Have the feature but do something interesting with it! I want the feature to belong in the game rather then as an afterthought with no other ambition then to ape the Awakening lightning strike.

[Phoenix_Kensai]

I make a personal exeption for Velouria (Velour) / Selkie (Kinu) for.........reasons

D... do I know you? Did you include this option because you knew I'd demand it if you didn't?

*coughs* Um. Anyway.

I'm not familiar with all of them, but some of the kids seem like they might be decent characters. I just... do not like how they were implemented. At all. I thought Awakening's time travel was a cheap excuse to include a second generation, but after seeing how Fates handled it, I think I'd much prefer it if they had just done that again. At least the children in that game had a connection to the story.

I really don't want Intelligent Systems to bring back children in the next game, but at the same time... I wouldn't mind seeing another Genealogy of the Holy War style game. So I voted for that, even if I'm more worried that future games will keep trying to mimic Awakening and Fates without thinking about how to make it work.

[Dark Holy Elf]

I like some of the kids as characters (especially Percy, Nina), though generally my favourites are in the first gen, because, well, the kids feel non-canon to be honest. I feel this way about the non-Lucina Awakening kids too.

The plot reason for their implementation is so garbage I'm not even mad, it's hilarious. "Let's raise our kids in an alternate dimension where we'll miss almost all of their development. Oh and I guess pregnancy isn't a thing in this world, babies just get delivered by a stork."

I would rather kids did not return because I don't really like what they do to the game, buuuut I know there are some people who just love the mechanic, so it probably will. That's unambiguously why it's back in Fates, after all, a game whose plot has no reason for them to exist. But you know what? If it truly would risk sales to remove them, they can stay. I'm happy to put up with some contrived explanations if that's the price I need to pay to get FE to continue to sell into the millions and guarantee a healthy series for years to come, especially if they can make more gameplay experiences as amazing as Conquest.

So I'm mixed.

Also, ideas:

-If the kids do come back, I'd love to see something more like FE4, without the whole "first generation dies" thing because repeating that would be tacky (and to be honest the first time was tacky enough for me, though I know some disagree). I think it would be so cool to have the first gen return in their 30's/40's/50's in the second half of the game, I could play as an army of older badasses and their kids. As I myself get older in years this is increasingly appealing.

-Seriously IntSys, if you can grow babies in an alternate dimension and pretend pregnancy isn't a thing, you can let gay characters have kids. Hopefully next time!

Edited March 15, 2016 by Dark Holy Elf

[maybe]

The plot reason for their implementation is so garbage I'm not even mad, it's hilarious. "Let's raise our kids in an alternate dimension where we'll miss almost all of their development. Oh and I guess pregnancy isn't a thing in this world, babies just get delivered by a stork."

i will actually be 100% okay with the stupid alternate dimension bullshit in the next game if they also add the stork

[SageOfAnys]

I think my opinion echos the majority in this thread: As characters, I love a lot of them, but their implementation with the Babyrealm is absolutely terrible.

I really do enjoy a lot of the children as characters like Shigure, Shiro, Midori, and Kiragi, but the fact that they are children have nothing to do with why I love them. They would've been just fine had they not been children, and they might have actually been better if they didn't have the defining characteristic of "children" tied to them since they actually would've had access to fitting supports that might've developed their character more like Forrest x Oboro.

But at the same time, we have children like Nina and Kana created which were some of the blandest characters in the game. Heck, a majority of the really "bland" ones are children.

At this point, I might have enjoyed children in a future game, but Fates left such a bad taste in my mouth regarding this mechanic that I'd rather not see them for the next 5 games or so.

[vanguard333]

Children in Awakening were ok I guess because they were plot relevant, but at the same time that meant I felt obligated to go through the trouble of pairing units and going through the extra chapters. In Fates, I really did not like the child units (apart from the extra chapters they provide, which help in Conquest), and I thought that in this game, as they weren't plot relevant in any way, that I wouldn't feel obligated to get them. Except there are treasure chests in some of the bonus chapters, and there were some cool map gimmicks (Such as the water in Kanna's chapter and the ships in Shigure's chapter), so I still felt somewhat obligated, which I shouldn't, because in Fates the children were completely unnecessary. The worst part is that the effort that went into creating the children characters could have instead been put towards adding actual quality to certain plot-relevant characters (cough- Garon, Iago and Hans- cough).

If they add child units to another Fire Emblem game, I don't think it should be like Genealogy, because that would remove some of the uniqueness of Genealogy (though given that that game is Japan-only, that might not be a bad thing), but it is hard to think of any other way it could work without time-travel (which is almost always a bad idea). Whatever way they would make it work, it better make sense, be plot-relevant, and not be simply an unnecessary add-on. It especially should not be in the next game unless it is really, really well done.

Edited March 15, 2016 by vanguard333

[1% critted]

Gameplay wise, this is the best implementation of kids so far.

In FE4, if you paired the right people, you would get kids so OP that the game would play itself. But if you didn't, you would have castle benchwarmers. And the substitutes are there to clean the castle.

In FE13, they are alright, but mostly superior to their parents when grinded. But on no grind, if your name wasn't Lucina, Morgan, or another early/easy to get kid, you were pretty screwed. Since they all join at level 10, and the later their parents appear, the harder their paralogue (Nah,Gerome,Inigo), and the harder they are to train, and they end up pretty much useless. When grinded however, they are better than their parents by far, and you have an army of children destroying merchants from another dimension, and supersoldiers with insane stats.

In FE14, from a Conquest PoV, the children are a huge help because they unlock extra chapters which hold great goods, and a lot of EXP. Children bases are less affected by their parents bases, so you don't have to grind the parents first either. Children scale, so they aren't stupidly broken or useless, and they don't completely outclass their parents either so you have a reason to use either or both. This system also pushes pairing up husbands as a side objective in every map, which means if you want all the paralogues, you must pair every one. And it brings up a dilemma, do I complete this paralogue early to have an easier time with it but obtain a worse unit, or later on when it's really tough but I get an excellent unit? I love the system in this game, but can't say much about the Birthright kids, because didn't get as invested in them.

Also, hyperbolic time chamber sucks, I still don't get it.

[Medeus]

Can't say I'm a fan of it. The reason that they were added in was complete bullshit and it's very apparent how shoehorned in it is. Additionally, most of the kids fall into the issue of being very gimmicky or just boring with a few exceptions, so I don't feel anything towards them and I tend to ignore them. Gameplay-wise, they're implemented OK (though there are still a few kinks for me personally) and I would be lying if I said I didn't see the point in using them, but ultimately I've been finding that I'm just going to the paralogues for Exp., money, and items, not the units.

Edited March 15, 2016 by Medeus

[Darros]

I hate the children mechanic. It was amazing in FE4 since the entire game centered around that one event in Chapter 5 that everybody knows I'm talking about. Even in Awakening ((which was supposed to be a best-of game)) it wasn't really implemented well. Here mechanically they're a bit better but still serve no real purpose other than "This was popular in FE13!" I would say FE4 or bust, but I'm anti-FE4 remake so just don't bring them back. Then again I'd like the avatar and marriage scrapped while I'm at it, but these functions are what's making the game popular. I'm still enjoying FE14 a lot, so at the end of the day I suppose this stuff is a series of small annoyances I'll have to put up with. It's standard material now :/

[DarkDestr0yer61]

I like the characters themselves, but I don't like the way the are implemented.

[Kujja]

I like the kids as a game play mechanic kinda like "Breed your favorite classes and char together" even tho i kinda enjoy the Fathers/Mothers quite a lot the thing for this game "Fates" the my castle feature allows us to buy the skills and that is a little bit underwhelming for the breed :/
if i had a huge chunk of my team in awakening with vantage then in this game ill have em all xD

[..-. --.-]

I really like the gameplay elements, i enjoy trying to create the best child by pairing up 2 parents.

[Emerson]

I like having the idea of children, but like most people, I feel like the story implications make, like, no sense. I was fine with them in Awakening (both story wise and gameplay wise), and of course its good in Genealogy (again, both ways), but Fates' way of doing it is just kind of boring and just trying to capitalize on Awakening's success. I'm fine with them gameplay wise, although I feel like it could have been done better (gameplay-wise)(especially since it means you can't marry whoever you want from the first generation as male Avatar, I am really, REALLY salty about that for some reason) but overall, its fine. I'm glad that they don't force you to marry someone at least...

[Delfino]

The mechanic is extremely fun to play around with (What kind of stats for the kid will this pairing yield? What kind of skills and classes do I want?), but the execution plot-wise was balls. I'm with Dark Holy Elf in that I'm not even mad, though. It's just completely laughable.

I would hate to see the kids go because they add a huge chunk of gameplay hours for me, but it'd be great if IS chose to rework their integration into the story for future games, as well as not come up with the most hilariously stupid reason for their existence. That seems to be the main gripe people have with them, anyway.

[GenericHero]

I'm kinda mixed. While I'm not gonna say no to more characters, I have to agree the deus ex machina used to stick them in the story is stupid. I'll still use the ones I like but to be honest quite a few of their designs seem a bit bland to me. And the Awakening characters… I don't mind them but I wish they were different.

[Byleth]

I love the child mechanics in Awakening, and now Fates also has it with better features(?), so I'll still love it.

[Sentacotus]

I'm mixed on them. As characters in themselves and their designs they are all pretty damn good. Aside from that they have no relevance and importance on the story what so ever. I really liked the mechanic in Awakening and in Fates it still makes sense with all the skills and stat boosters etc. What doesn't make sense and is a bit of a deal breaker for me is that they make no sense story wise. Even in Awakening it made sense since it was all time travel based (ala History of Trunks DBZ). If they do it again I don't mind as long as there is an actual gap or they hold some sort of critical importance on the story.

[Noma9]

Typically speaking, I dislike them. I like a few of their personalities and designs, but I'm not in love. And I don't think they add more than they hurt. Word to Velour for helping me out in Conquest, though!

I'd really like to see the "new" IS team do a game without eugenics and see how well they do.

[scrub_Lord]

Character wise I don't like many of the childrem *compared* to awakening.

Gameplay wise everything checks out.

I wouldn't mind if the children become a main stay.

[saisymbolic]

Eh, I agree with the majority. I loved the kids—particularly Forrest, Percy, Shiro and Ophelia—but the way they were included was absolutely terrible. It's obvious that the children were included because of their ties with the newer support mechanic but, at least in Awakening, there was a semblance of justification to them being in existence. It kind of irks me; it feels like a slap to the face as to how they were included. Yes, I know that the support system and S-ranks were a part of the reason as to why the series was revived and, yes, I understand that you want to keep the fanbase you've gathered as well as bring in more—but could you have toned it down? Just a little bit?

In a way, my problem with the children is generally related to the Avatar system, how the support system has evolved and how IS really needs to go back to how supports worked in Path of Radiance or in Blazing Sword—or, at the very least, limit the number of supports each character can have. That's a different rant, however.

[rinshiiya]

prepare for salt

hate it. hate it hate it hate it. stupidest idea to bring it back. they serve no purpose in the plot & they're a complete [selena voice] waste of time. this mechanic needs to go. ...unless of course, like what the poll suggested, there's a Genealogy thing going on. or an FE7 to FE6 thing going on.

having children in the game for the sake of having children is so idiotic & has made me the saltiest salmon.

[NeonZ]

I'm actually for their inclusion, unless IS can actually replace them (and their ties to the support system) with something else that works just as well from both a gameplay and story perspective. I don't mean in the sense of fitting within the main story, they clearly don't in Fates - I mean in the sense the children are both a gameplay mechanic, but also a story development based on player input, since the player is the one that chooses which S ranking will happen in their game - anything that replaces them needs to be able to take both roles.

I really don't want to see the series randomly dropping features for no reason like what happened in the past, with Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn and Shadow Dragon.

[Time the Crestfallen]

I'm actually for their inclusion, unless IS can actually replace them (and their ties to the support system) with something else that works just as well from both a gameplay and story perspective. I don't mean in the sense of fitting within the main story, they clearly don't in Fates - I mean in the sense the children are both a gameplay mechanic, but also a story development based on player input, since the player is the one that chooses which S ranking will happen in their game - anything that replaces them needs to be able to take both roles.

I really don't want to see the series randomly dropping features for no reason like what happened in the past, with Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn and Shadow Dragon.

There's an idea that I think NekoKnight (if not someone else) mentioned about how the kids could be the apprentice of a character, with both of the 'parents' contributing to their training or something.

[Tolvir]

I liked them in Awakening because it was so unique and like nothing I have seen a game do before, but in Fates it felt so tacked on and unneeded. It felt like trying to find a result for the S-Supports, instead of coming up with a new one. I would rather they didnt show up in the next one unless we are literally going with a holy war situation, then maybe, just maybe. If they had to find something as a reward for S-Supports, why couldnt they of just thrown some fun stuff in the Appearance shop, or you know, actually flesh out the paired endings and interactions between the spouses? I was hoping for a funny line from Rinkah when I gave her the bath towel as a gift when we were married, but all I got was the generic line. It would of been fun to see an entire host of new lines of interaction between them for the various ways of interacting, but its all generic. And dont get me started on what happened to the paired endings.

Overall, if they are back in 15, which I actually highly doubt it based off of the combined feedback from both US and Japan, I hope they are explained and dealt with better, and can we get some non-generic supports for whoever the child isnt connected to?

EDIT:@Phillius I actually brought up the concept of Platonic supports, if children are brought back, resulting in something like an apprentice, underling, or squire which could be fun (and I am not saying Neko didnt, I am just saying I know I said something similar too). but the idea of that being the result of any support could be cool too, especially since there are some relationships where children didnt make any sense, like Nyx and anyone. I highly doubt she would want children when the very likely situation for her is that she would have to watch both her husband and her child whither away and die of old age while she still looked young and lived for who knows how much longer.

Edited March 16, 2016 by Tolvir