How Might New Characters be Added?

[Crimean Archivist]

Long story short, I got a message in my inbox earlier today asking whether or not Shadows of Valentia should or should not have marriage and kids (and my answer was a resounding no).  I put forward a couple of ideas, which you can read if you're curious, but I thought it might be fun to reach out and see what everybody else thinks.  A handful of relevant questions:

How many new characters should there be?
Who should they be (personality, ethnicity, nationality, class)?
How are they recruited?

This is more intended to be a fun way to tap into other people's creativity over say, a heated discussion over whether or not one method or another is better.

[King Marth 64]

Since we have the new Village girl got added and that Rigelian soldier that we saw from the artwork and opening from the trailer looks more like a new antagonist are added.

But, I do like to see if they can give a new characters that wanted to be added as playable that are Cavaliers (and a new Cain and Abel duo archetype since Gaiden doesn't have that archetype also) in Celica's army since Alm has 4 Cavalier lines in his army, someone who is a Brigand and a couple of new Axe users from another class that uses Axes since Gaiden doesn't have any playable axe users, a playable Sorceror, Exorcist, or an another Dark Mage, female Mercenary as a start (and give Alm's army a mercenary unit also), add Anna in the game (maybe add her as a cameo or put her in the Paralogues), someone from Shadow Dragon and/or New Mystery of the Emblem came to Valentia since the Whitewings and Camus are in the original Gaiden plot, and an another Third Tier unit for Celica's Army.

Edited February 21, 2017 by King Marth 64

[Dandy Druid]

11 hours ago, King Marth 64 said:

Since we have the new Village girl got added and that Rigelian soldier that we saw from the artwork and opening from the trailer looks more like a new antagonist are added.

But, I do like to see if they can give a new characters that wanted to be added as playable that are Cavaliers (and a new Cain and Abel duo archetype since Gaiden doesn't have that archetype also) in Celica's army since Alm has 4 Cavalier lines in his army, someone who is a Brigand and a couple of new Axe users from another class that uses Axes since Gaiden doesn't have any playable axe users, a playable Sorceror, Exorcist, or an another Dark Mage, female Mercenary as a start (and give Alm's army a mercenary unit also), add Anna in the game (maybe add her as a cameo or put her in the Paralogues), someone from Shadow Dragon and/or New Mystery of the Emblem came to Valentia since the Whitewings and Camus are in the original Gaiden plot, and an another Third Tier unit for Celica's Army.

I nominate Athena. She did have a peculiar accent that may explain her origins. She's not a mercenary, but she could also fulfill that sword-bearing role. Plus she's obscure enough to be revamped by the magical fingers of Hidari.

[De Geso]

16 hours ago, King Marth 64 said:

add Anna in the game (maybe add her as a cameo or put her in the Paralogues)

It'd be cool if she was the trader.

[RiverRed]

I'm expecting Gerome and 2 other kid from awakening

[vanguard333]

This game takes place around 2,000 years before the Awakening kids came from the future, so it would be really strange to see them.

Edited February 22, 2017 by vanguard333

[KliffIsTheOG]

I think that they should add units that convert to your side after speaking to them. Gaiden (i think) is the only game that does not have any recruitments like that (Sonya and Deen are recruited out of battle and you have to kill one so I don't count them)

[RiverRed]

3 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

This game takes place around 2,000 years before the Awakening kids came from the future, so it would be really strange to see them.

Fates seem to take place before Awakening too ( Explain in before awakening DLC), but still Inigo, Owain and Severa end up in fates and got seperated with other kids. In fates, those convers between them are my favorites, thats why i hope other kids from awakening will return . And if any of them show up in Echoes, it should be Gerome, because his mother is from Valm ( Valentia in the future) may be he will meet his great great great grampa

[Hoshidokoala]

1 hour ago, RiverRed said:

Fates seem to take place before Awakening too ( Explain in before awakening DLC), but still Inigo, Owain and Severa end up in fates and got seperated with other kids. In fates, those convers between them are my favorites, thats why i hope other kids from awakening will return . And if any of them show up in Echoes, it should be Gerome, because his mother is from Valm ( Valentia in the future) may be he will meet his great great great grampa

Actually Fates occurs after Awakening so that makes more sense for them to pop up in there.

 

Personally, as someone who hasn't played the games but has watched them, I feel like compared to fates there are a lot less units, so I think that there should be more magic users inserted into Alm's path and more physical attack-based units into Celica's path. As well as this, although I would not want so many new units that it would feel like a different game all-together, it would be nice to see a few more female, particularly physical attack-based units in both paths (especially Alm's), and an inclusion of Anna would be nice. Although I don't mind children characters I would feel that they would not be a good way of adding new characters into Echoes, as it would just have the Fates treatment again.

[AlexArtsHere]

I don't think anyone would disagree with me saying that Fire Emblem needs more ethnic diversity. As far as I'm aware, there have only been two straight-up black characters in the entire series, and they look almost identical. Not even the Avatar from Awakening and Fates could be non-white, and I think a change is long-overdue. I'm very happy that Fates was progressive in adding homosexual marriage, and I think this should be the very next thing on the agenda.

Stepping down off of the soap box, I would love to see Anna as a non-DLC playable character with her own Paralogue. Personally, I'd like her to be a magic using character, but so long as she's playable, I'll be happy. And for the love of Duma, can Karen Strassman please go back to her Awakening voice direction? The voice she uses in Fates and Heroes isn't the worst thing in the world, but it's too harsh and almost childish for my tastes. Awakening Anna had a voice which didn't make her sound 15, but was still rather youthful and I guess kind of...sensual? I'm not sure if that's the word I'm looking for, but there is a quality to Anna's Awakening voice which just isn't there in Fates and Heroes.

As for completely new characters, I'm happy for anything that's new and interesting, though axe users especially would be nice, since I often hear that Gaiden didn't have many.

[Iridium]

It would be wasteful to introduce Effie, and thus a number of unique female models and potentially unique class promotions (especially if they keep the Mage split, hopefully they don't), and not use those models for anyone else (except Matilda.) To that end I fully expect a few more physical females, and possibly another villager (maybe a bit later on Celica's side, like Atlas's sister or girlfriend or grandma or something.)

I'd prefer to avoid introducing even more legacy characters, but I'd actually be totally alright with someone like Athena coming in from the remakes since they need all the help they can get. Don't overdose on them, of course. Please don't bring in anyone from Fates/Awakening, either; if we really need to go the route of referencing Awakening, do it by explaining why a substantial part of Valentia suddenly becomes Japanese, not by throwing in more reject children.

A Brigand would be nice too.