More Unpopular Fire Emblem Opinions

[Magical Glace]

Tbh I don't see much complaint about children as a game mechanic, only as a plot one in FE13 and regarding the unfortunate implications of Fates' justification, because aside from FE4 the justification tends to be kinda... annoying at times.

There's also the way a vocal minority of fans used to act toward the system, but that time has largely passed, even though it is still somewhat present.

[Byte2222]

The mechanic of children isn't bad. I don't honestly think anyone would argue that. The insipid supports that come from the children mechanic as well as making a janky set of "Gaiden/Paralogue" chapters (they can't design the chapters as well when you can have so little as 6 units on a paralogue or a full fleshed out team). However, the unit customization is a nice feature, but I'd honestly rather them expand on the whole A+ rank system instead. In Awakening children were impractical to use in a standard game and in Fates, the scaling is so bizarre that in most cases it's better to drop a unit for a child instead. I believe they'd actually nail the design down pat in a third game that uses this system, but I'm not sure I want to see it again back to back.

Yeah, this is the crux of the argument. So many paralogues ruin the game's pacing and mess up lategame recruitment, the marriage supports (and romantic swerve from A rank) are poor and it forces the first gen cast (at 90% of them) to all be single 16-26 year olds. The 'anyone can marry anyone' idea also gets my goat - some people are just not compatible. Basically, the children weaken the game around them

[RidellCrimea]

I've been keeping an eye on Fates, so I like to think I have a firm grasp on what people consider popular/unpopular and my post here will be mostly Fates stuff:

I don't have many problems with the story in the Fates games. Except maybe Revelation since I haven't finished it yet.

For the Royals... Xander is my favorite as well as being one of my favs in the series overall. Camilla is easy to make fun of bc "bewbs" and "muh corn" but other than that she's pretty decent. Bonus point for being a kickass unit. I find Leo enjoyable in small doses but overall I can't bring myself to like him. Elise has her moments but most of the time she feels like she's heavily engine'd to be "OH SO LIKABLE AND CUTE" and it ends up having the opposite impact on me.

I actually think Ryoma is pretty cool though the way he's written is so... inoffensive. Not a bad thing of course, but there's little to absolutely love or hate about him. Same case with Hinoka, though unlike Ryoma she has almost zero story presence and ends up being the most forgettable royal, though I'm pretty sure it's not an unpopular thing to say so. Takumi is a pretty nice character, nothing to say much here. My main issue with him is the way he's written in the My Castle dialogues vs the way he's written in his Corrin supports + the main game is a bit inconsistent. Sakura is the only royal I have a 180 on, I couldn't care less about her prior to the game, but now she possibly ranks at 2nd/3rd place among the royals.

Ranking: Xander > Sakura/Camilla > Takumi > Ryoma/Leo > Elise > Hinoka. Though as families, Nohr > Hoshido (Not sure how unpopular this is considering this site often prefers Hoshido).

Saizo >>> Kaze.

I don't hate Corrin or Azura. I actually find the latter to be quite realistic, her withdrawn nature and afraid of opening up to people are traits that I definitely have experienced. She still doesn't have enough stuff to make me put her in the top tier, but I appreciate her character (and understand why people would love or hate her).

FE Akaneia: I think the costume designs for the DS games are second only to Tellius. It deserves more recognition. Same goes for the OST. It doesn't come close to beating Fates' OST (but then again it's hard to beat Fates in that regard) but I think it's at least as good as Tellius.

FE Tellius: I like Canto. Ike x Soren is eww though I still like them as a platonic pair.

FE GBA: Lyn and Eirika aren't bad units. I gave them no statboosters and they still managed to wreck a lot of shit.

Series wide: Swordmasters are a bit overrated. I don't like reclassing.

-SD is actually pretty great

-FE stories are pretty entertaining, except FE7's

-Classic and Modern FE are equal

-'Waifuism' is a retarded thing to say about Awakening/Fates. Should the Avatar have limited support options? Why??

^ These too.

That's all I have atm. Will add if I could think of more.

Edited October 2, 2016 by RidellCrimea

[Etrurian emperor]

Elise has her moments but most of the time she feels like she's heavily engine'd to be "OH SO LIKABLE AND CUTE" and it ends up having the opposite impact on me.

That's my feeling on the girl too. She's endearing enough but I spot something a bit cynical about her, something I didn't with Lisa who Elise seems to be based on.

With all the criticism the story of Conquest gets I think its safe to say preferring it over that of Birthright is an unpopular opinion. Birthright may not have as much to criticize but that's because it really doesn't have much to begin with. Its got no meat on its bones. Its just a trip from Hoshido up to Garon's castle with a fight happening at every mayor stop. Only when reaching Garon's castle do I have the feeling the plot is finally picking up the phase. Okay...to be fair, there's that traitor subplot but I don't think that's enough when everything else is so dull.

And I don't buy an explanation that the story of Birthright is the simple tried and true Fire emblem formula that plays it safe but doesn't make any mistakes, while Conquest is to convoluted and falls apart because of that. That's a description more suited for the Tellius games. It are the plots of Blazing sword and Por that play it safe and barely make big mistakes because of it, yet those games come with their added bells and whistles to give the plot at least something more. Birthright doesn't have bells and whistles and that is its great mistake. There's nothing in the plot to catch my interest and the world building isn't good enough to distract me from that.

[Punished Dayni]

Not sure if I'm about to make some inaccurately unpopular opinions but here goes:

FE6 is for me overhyped, characters are poor, the soundtrack is weak (Seriously, Roy's Journey can be axed forever and I'd be a bit happier for it) and weapons are hilariously unbalanced (e.g. lol axe accuracy). And yet, I still really get into it, and I think that's because regular units are still more difficult vs. FE7 or 8. Relishing the challenge or something. Doesn't help FE6 was the last of the GBA titles I played.

Definitely consider FE3 worse than FE11/12 so far, though it is certainly a faster game. Doesn't help 3's RNG for levels is a mess, and I've not gotten to Book 2 yet to see how star shards break that.

I actually really like quite a bit of the humour of Awakening's script (I know, shoot me).

The Big Event in G1 of Geneology is completely dented by Gen 2 and Thracia and honestly it hurts that such a great moment loses a lot of its punch.

Gaiden is a nightmare to put myself through as it really is a product of its time in terms of gameplay speed, and that's why I haven't gone past Part 1.

Got nothing on FE1/Fates/Telius as I haven't played any of them.

[Gradivus.]

Definitely consider FE3 worse than FE11/12 so far, though it is certainly a faster game. Doesn't help 3's RNG for levels is a mess, and I've not gotten to Book 2 yet to see how star shards break that.

FE3 is like, way slower than the remakes.

Edited October 2, 2016 by Gradivus.

[Punished Dayni]

FE3 is like, way slower than the remakes.

My fault for not playing the DS games in a while, and speeding up the SNES title.

[Thane]

Gaiden is a nightmare to put myself through as it really is a product of its time in terms of gameplay speed, and that's why I haven't gone past Part 1.

I played through the first Fire Emblem and rather enjoyed it, aside from the time spent managing inventories, which was most likely around 40% of the gameplay, to be honest.

Gaiden, however, I stopped playing at the fourth chapter where I realized it became less of a strategy game and far more luck based than it had already been. Some units survive only due to the whim of the AI, since Witches can teleport and show up wherever they want on the map and could theoretically gang up on a unit and kill it before you even have a chance to make contact with the enemy, yet mostly refrain from doing so. Then there's the whole being attacked by zombie dragons in a swamp and they can reach your healer in the first turn thing, which I didn't care for at all.

Too bad, I loved some of the ideas in that game, but damn if it didn't get frustrating. And that's not even talking about how the accuracy in that game is messed up.

[Refa]

Tbh I don't see much complaint about children as a game mechanic, only as a plot one in FE13 and regarding the unfortunate implications of Fates' justification, because aside from FE4 the justification tends to be kinda... annoying at times.

They're pretty poorly implemented gameplay wise as well, in all fairness. FE14 did children much better in that regard.

[Vaikanfu]

FE11 was a great game.

Camilla is the best Fates Waifu.

Fates was better than Awakening.

Kris is a good character.

[Thane]

Fates was better than Awakening.

I don't think this is an impopular opinion at all. Most of the complaints surrounding Fates have to do with the horrible writing and on occasion the shady business practice behind it and the boring gameplay of Revelation, but almost everone is in agreement that the overall gameplay improvements made in that game are fantastic and that Conquest's map design is baller.

[MCProductions]

Kris is a good character.

Despite all my bitching about Kris, I do think he would be the best Avatar the series has had so far if it wasn't for the fact him existing ruins Marth's steller character development in FE3 and ESPECIALLY SD. Like, if we got an Avatar the way Kris was handled, but the game in question NOT be a remake, he'd be my favorite avatar. As it stands, Corrin is my favorite because manakete privilege, my liking of Corrin's Conquest personality even if I hate how every character treats him, and heart seals allowing him access to the player's class of choice the second the route split hits which due to Branch of Fate existing, is damn near instantaneously.

I would prefer Robin, but due to Second Seals mandating reaching level 10 first, he SUCKS when it comes to me making him my avatar of choice.

[Rapier]

I don't think this is an impopular opinion at all. Most of the complaints surrounding Fates have to do with the horrible writing and on occasion the shady business practice behind it and the boring gameplay of Revelation, but almost everone is in agreement that the overall gameplay improvements made in that game are fantastic and that Conquest's map design is baller.

I don't think Conquest's map design is that good.

Sure, on some maps it is great, especially on the starting chapters (CH10 and 13 in particular), but as they become longer and more gimmicky with Dragon Vein uses, they become a pain to play through (I'd rate the chapters up to the ship with Asyura good, with the rest as frustrating/annoying). I could stand Kotaro and the kitsunes' chapter, but as I got to the wind chapter I just wanted to quit. Hinoka's chapter is also a pain because her fliers get 10+ mov and your units are stuck with 3, which means it's very hard to protect healers/squishy units in general and makes the chapter slow to complete. Ryoma's chapter is full with ninjas dishing out cumulative stat debuffs, which is a pain.

There's making hard chapters, and then there is making frustrating, gimmicky chapters and pretending that is a proper way to handle difficulty.

[Chroi]

-Nergal is my favorite antagonist in the series

-Snipers have always been one of my favorite classes

[Troykv]

I don't think Conquest's map design is that good.

Sure, on some maps it is great, especially on the starting chapters (CH10 and 13 in particular), but as they become longer and more gimmicky with Dragon Vein uses, they become a pain to play through (I'd rate the chapters up to the ship with Asyura good, with the rest as frustrating/annoying). I could stand Kotaro and the kitsunes' chapter, but as I got to the wind chapter I just wanted to quit. Hinoka's chapter is also a pain because her fliers get 10+ mov and your units are stuck with 3, which means it's very hard to protect healers/squishy units in general and makes the chapter slow to complete. Ryoma's chapter is full with ninjas dishing out cumulative stat debuffs, which is a pain.

There's making hard chapters, and then there is making frustrating, gimmicky chapters and pretending that is a proper way to handle difficulty.

It's impossible to Conquest be Top Quality in Map Design when we have games like FE3/12, FE5 and FE6.

Edited October 3, 2016 by Troykv

[MCProductions]

It's impossible to Conquest be Top Quality in Map Design when we have games like FE3/12, FE5 and FE6.

I gotta disagree with this, and considering how much I LOVE FE3 and 6, that's saying something. Conquest has top tier maps, because with the exception of Endgame, I never once called Bullshit or got bored. FE3, as much as I love it, has that God awful Desert map and the stage you recruit Matthis, and FE6 has Chapter 13, my least favorite stage in FE and the second coming of the God forsaken Water temple a few maps after that. The two Conquest maps I dislike are the Ninja cave, which I don't dislike for poor design as much I just dislike the brutality of the map and the stairway map, which is either hell incarnate or a complete joke depending on if you use Camilla to utterly break it or not. FE5, oh boy when it comes to the map design of FE5, I've got things to talk about, like how EVERY FOW map in this game is bad by default from an visual standpoint due to how fog is implemented, the pure bullshit that is Manster, and how Chapter 3 exists only to waste the player's time if they want some very important goodies including a recruitable. I like FE5 a lot too, but I can't call it's map design good unfortunately. It feels more like Kaizo FE than actual FE at points, which is a damn shame since I love the mechanics of it so much.

[CatManThree]

I actually ENJOYED FE11.

Don't get me wrong, I still don't the game was very good at all but if you give it a chance it is actually pretty fun to mess around with! For example the growth rates of units like Wolf and Barst being absolutely stupid high means you can send them around destroying EVERYTHING! Another thing about it was the music, the music in that game ( to me at lest ) was probably the most memorable in the franchise. The artwork of the portraits and what-not was pretty amazing too!

[Augestein]

I actually ENJOYED FE11.

Don't get me wrong, I still don't the game was very good at all but if you give it a chance it is actually pretty fun to mess around with! For example the growth rates of units like Wolf and Barst being absolutely stupid high means you can send them around destroying EVERYTHING! Another thing about it was the music, the music in that game ( to me at lest ) was probably the most memorable in the franchise. The artwork of the portraits and what-not was pretty amazing too!

I think the issue is that Shadow Dragon's good aspects are subtle. Like... Fusing weapons subtle. And yes, the music IS good. I still remember the deployment theme.

[Rezzy]

I actually ENJOYED FE11.

Don't get me wrong, I still don't the game was very good at all but if you give it a chance it is actually pretty fun to mess around with! For example the growth rates of units like Wolf and Barst being absolutely stupid high means you can send them around destroying EVERYTHING! Another thing about it was the music, the music in that game ( to me at lest ) was probably the most memorable in the franchise. The artwork of the portraits and what-not was pretty amazing too!

I also enjoyed FE11. I've enjoyed every FE I've played, but it's more a scale of decent to great, rather than bad to great like most other series I've played.

[MCProductions]

FE11 is nice. It has great writing, easy to pick up mechanics, easily customisible difficulty, and the best waifu. I consider FE3 Book1 better, but that doesn't make FE11 bad by any means. My only problems are the Gaiden requirements and the prolouge only being skippible if played on a difficulty higher than normal.

[Dengres]

and the prolouge only being skippible if played on a difficulty higher than normal.

I'm the opposite really. I would have liked an option to play the prolouge on higher difficulties. If I want to use Norne or Frey I have to play normal and that's fine, but normal gets a bit boring after a while.

[DragonFlames]

Here's some more from me. I'm not sure how many of these are especially unpopular, but here goes:

- I don't see the 'development' Severa has gone through in Fates. If anything, she is signifcantly more b*tchy and selfish here (see her My Room quotes if you're married to her vs. her married convo with Robin in Hot Spring Scramble).

- I don't see the supposed 'Corrin worship' everyone seems so quick to address, neither do I see Corrin as a Mary Sue/Gary Stu, save for that one moment in Revelation. There's significantly more Royal Siblings and Azura worship going on. If anyone wants to enlighten me on this, feel free to do so.

- Conquest's map themes suck, save for A Dark Fall, which I like even better than Alight. (not sure if this is unpopular or not)

- I give Xander a lot of flag for his cowardice and stupidity, but Ryoma isn't much better. Blackmailing Corrin to come back to Hoshido or let his foster sister die is just plain cruel.

- I don't find Azura attractive at all. Her eyes especially are weirding me out, mostly apparent on her portrait.

- I wish Lillith was a regular playable character rather than an extra for My Castle.

- I think it was a stupid idea to restrict some people to only be able to romance/support Corrin, same goes for the Robinsexuals in Awakening.

- I hate, hate, HATE philanderer archetype characters. Sain, Inigo/Laslow, Virion, Soleil, it doesn't matter. Hate 'em all.

- I also don't like the Camus archetype (although Camus himself looks badass in his Einherjar portrait in Awakening). Blind loyalty is always stupid, no matter the circumstance or world.

- I find Sophie's Avel-fetish to be really disturbing. The rest of her character is fine, though.

- Takumi has a derpy face when he crits. It makes him look goofy and thus I fail to take his moments of anger, whenever he makes that face, seriously.

- Male Morgan's face is derpy in general. His character's still awesome, though.

- Male Kana's voice is annoying.

- I find Female Kana's Nohr Princess attire more appealing than Female Corrin's (non-fanservice skirt/dress with tights will always beat crotch window in my book). I wish they kept that style for their promotions also.

- I don't see why people dislike Hinoka, Sakura and Elise so much.

[NekoKnight]

- I don't see the supposed 'Corrin worship' everyone seems so quick to address, neither do I see Corrin as a Mary Sue/Gary Stu, save for that one moment in Revelation. There's significantly more Royal Siblings and Azura worship going on. If anyone wants to enlighten me on this, feel free to do so.

Several characters entire character revolves around being extremely devoted to the Avatar. The Avatar becomes the de facto leader of the army despite being the least qualified person to do so.There are other scene specific things (such as being praised for his naivete in Revelation) but I'm too sleepy to get into it. As for Mary Sue traits, he's royalty to THREE kingdoms, has the exclusive ability to transform into a dragon, gets a powerful unique sword, can defeat entire armies without killing a single person and he's literally the chosen one. He's charismatic and talented despite a life of isolation. Even villains who have no reason to be particularly interested in him make him the object of all their attention.

- I wish Lillith was a regular playable character rather than an extra for My Castle.

- I think it was a stupid idea to restrict some people to only be able to romance/support Corrin, same goes for the Robinsexuals in Awakening.

- I also don't like the Camus archetype (although Camus himself looks badass in his Einherjar portrait in Awakening). Blind loyalty is always stupid, no matter the circumstance or world.

- I find Sophie's Avel-fetish to be really disturbing. The rest of her character is fine, though.

These aren't unpopular opinions.

- I give Xander a lot of flag for his cowardice and stupidity, but Ryoma isn't much better. Blackmailing Corrin to come back to Hoshido or let his foster sister die is just plain cruel.

This has been talked to death already (like all things Fates) but the short version is that Ryoma didn't owe Kamui nor Elise anything. He gave Kamui the option to end the fight peacefully and give Elise the medical treatment she needed. Kamui chose to fight instead.

- I don't see why people dislike Hinoka, Sakura and Elise so much.

I wouldn't say any of those characters are widely disliked, but for their detractors, the frequently stated reasons are:

-Hinoka is almost non-existent in all three routes, story-wise.

-Sakura and Elise fall into really common 'imouto' tropes. The wallflower and genki girl, respectively.

Edited October 11, 2016 by NekoKnight

[OliKad]

-Nergal is my favorite antagonist in the series

-Snipers have always been one of my favorite classes

I actually agree! ^^ Okay, I lied. Arvis is still a better vilain, but whatever

Anyway:

- Every FE game has its good and bad points, and thus, I think that they are all worth playing (and this includes FE1, FE2 and FE11)

- Sakura is my favorite in Fates as a unit, because she can be great in any, ANY class.

- The only royal I hate is Camilla. I even managed to appreciate Elise and Xander almost immediatly!

- FE7 had a great and pretty tough final chapter

- Archers were good in the GBA era, especially Rebecca

- Seth > Ryoma unit-wise

[EricaofRenais]

My personal opinion is that Lyn married Kent and that Rutger is their kid because it make sense stat and class wise. Yes when I first played 7 I shipped Lyn and Rath but after playing 6 this has become my personal cannon.