What is your unpopular Fire Emblem opinion?

[Alastor15243]

32 minutes ago, twilitfalchion said:

Playing without pair-up is the best and most balanced way to play Awakening. Pair-up unquestionably makes even mediocre units OP and trivializes what would normally be more challenging maps and enemies. Not using it makes the player more thoughtful about unit placement (as much as possible given Awakening's decision to mostly use open field maps). It's still a fairly easy game, but it helps even things out instead of pretty much curbstomping the entire game with a broken mechanic.

Does this include banning ever being adjacent to another unit?

[null]

6 minutes ago, lightcosmo said:

While I can agree with this statement, i'm not so sure it's unpopular.

I only presented it as unpopular because I’m sure the majority of people who played FE13 used pair-up extensively, but you’re probably right.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Does this include banning ever being adjacent to another unit?

No, because placing units next to each other and getting attack and defense bonuses has been part of FE since FE4 IIRC. That’s a natural part of playing FE, IMO. The player just shouldn’t rely on that to give OP benefits all the time.

Edited July 11, 2020 by twilitfalchion

[Lightcosmo]

1 minute ago, twilitfalchion said:

I only presented it as unpopular because I’m sure the majority of people who played FE13 used pair-up extensively, but you’re probably right.

That's a pretty good point, when you put it that way. Nevermind me, then!

[Samz707]

3 hours ago, twilitfalchion said:

Playing without pair-up is the best and most balanced way to play Awakening. Pair-up unquestionably makes even mediocre units OP and trivializes what would normally be more challenging maps and enemies. Not using it makes the player more thoughtful about unit placement (as much as possible given Awakening's decision to mostly use open field maps). It's still a fairly easy game, but it helps even things out instead of pretty much curbstomping the entire game with a broken mechanic.

For me it's a sorta "damned if you do, Damned if you don't" situation.

On one hand, it feels like alot of units (Such as Vaike and Sully) have crippled stats to force you to pair them up as they're kinda absolutely terrible at the start, on the other hand, then you can't use Healers because 3-4 paired up units can't reliably protect healers and Lissa/Maribelle die if someone so much as breathes in their general direction.

Also you can sometimes get a free attack with the pair-up partner, which is always kinda needed in my experience. (I think it's effected by the partner's speed?)

Edited July 11, 2020 by Samz707

[starburst]

14 hours ago, lenticular said:

There's no contingency plan for this, nothing you can do to mitigate the bad luck if it happens, no interesting decisions. The only available options are to never attack anything that has even a 1% chance of a lethal crit on a unit you're unable or unwilling to lose, or to go ahead and do it anyway and be willing to reset if things go wrong. The former leads to very cautious gameplay that relies on using the same overpowered units or strategies repeaetedly, while the latter just comes down to luck. I find neither option fun or interesting.

But we take our chances every second, we simply do not see the numbers displayed. 👻

What was the possibility of a plane’s crashing? 1 in 20 million? It does not really matter, it is a number. Do we still get on the plane? Sure. There will eventually be an accident, we just hope that it is not our flight.

Ever read that hundreds of millions of spermatozoa are released at once? Yet, it is possible for a healthy couple not to conceive at all. When life does happen, it is one possibility in a hundreds of millions. We take our chances that it will eventually happen, and hope that it will be the healthiest spermatozoon in the lot.

Unlikely events happen every second. We just pay attention to those that affect us and label them according to our perception.

You should not fixate on the success of a critical hit against you, specially when an extremely high number of not-guaranteed hits in succession is necessary to complete every single map. Have you ever calculated the chance of delivering every single one of your non-100 % hits per map? Yet you complete substantially many more maps than you reset.

Just do the maths for a couple of hits. Let us say, the possibility of success of these six hits in a single turn: 87 %, 79%, 91 %, 96 %, 83%, 77%. They all seem fair, do they not? Do the maths. It seems to me that it will surprise you.
If they all connected, were you lucky or a master strategist?

Now, I would understand if you told me that you play games as a distraction and you do not want to think about missing. But a game whose mechanics use probabilities has never been such a game.

[Eltosian Kadath]

21 hours ago, lenticular said:

 

 There's no contingency plan for this, nothing you can do to mitigate the bad luck if it happens, no interesting decisions. The only available options are to never attack anything that has even a 1% chance of a lethal crit on a unit you're unable or unwilling to lose, or to go ahead and do it anyway and be willing to reset if things go wrong. The former leads to very cautious gameplay that relies on using the same overpowered units or strategies repeaetedly, while the latter just comes down to luck. I find neither option fun or interesting.

Most games in the series give some means of mitigating or preventing crit rates that you can use to work around them, and now to name a lot of examples from FE4-15. For mitigating crit rates you have things like support bonuses (FE5 staticc supports, FE6/7/8 except purely Fire and Light affinity supports, FE9/10 bond supports, FE11/12 A rank "supports", FE13 supports, many FE14 and FE15 supports), or supportive skills (like the FE7 Tactician stars, FE9/10 Daunt, FE13 Solidarity, and Demoiselle, and FE14 Fortunate Son) or items that reduce it (FE14 Bronze weapons among others weapons from that game),  or finding some way of increasing luck (FE12 Luck Bonds and shards, FE13/14 Luck tonics and rallies, FE15 Angel Ring, Keepsake ring, or Mila Statue). Now for some means of preventing them entirely, you have skills that prevent them (FE4 Nihil, FE9/10 Fortune), or items that prevent them (like FE5 crusader scrolls, or FE7/8 Iron Rune, or FE9 Ragnell).

 

8 hours ago, twilitfalchion said:

I only presented it as unpopular because I’m sure the majority of people who played FE13 used pair-up extensively, but you’re probably right.

This reminds me I should get back to the Lunatic Awakening screenshot LP I was doing that explicitly doesn't use pair-up to attack or defend.

[ElricBros.]

I don't know how unpopular this is, but Geoffrey is a little underrated.

Birthright is better than Conquest.

Lysithea is far from the best character in Three Houses.

[Ottservia]

3 minutes ago, ElricBros. said:

Birthright is better than Conquest.

I’d argue Rev is better than both of them at least story wise

[starburst]

11 hours ago, ElricBros. said:

Lysithea is far from the best character in Three Houses.

I thought that many considered her to be an overpowered unit, not a great character.

 

11 hours ago, ElricBros. said:

Birthright is better than Conquest.

It may be better, but it is not strategic. It plays like a turn-based RPG.

I keep replaying Conquest because its map design is interesting and the game is challenging.

Edited July 12, 2020 by starburst
Clarity.

[Samven]

On 7/10/2020 at 9:03 PM, Acacia Sgt said:

If I recall correctly, there's such a disparity between both nations when it comes to things like the weather, living conditions, crop-suitability, and other stuff, it actually makes the existence of the barrier even worse. So most of Nohr struggles while Hoshido seems to sit idly, as it seems the hostilities between both nations are in part that Norh wants some of the bountiful share Hoshido has, but the latter refuses, or something like that. The whole Garon-Sumeragi meeting in Cheve was supposedly to finally reach a negotiation on the matter... but we know how that ended out. So the barriers give Hoshido a way lopsided position to bargain with.

Which also quite tells how Garon needed to pull that stunt to kidnap Corrin, while Hodisho could simply send someone to Nohr to kidnap Azura in retaliation. Which is also a bit terrifying. Just imagine, Hoshido could easily kidnap Nohrians, and then any rescue attempt would fail or be extremely hard due to the barrier as the would be rescuers couldn't resort to violence. Same for the kidnapped as that's also not an option if attempting to escape. Which is telling about Corrin's stay in Hoshido and what it took for Nohr to be able to do something about it. Now make the kidnapped children, easily capable of being swayed and indoctrinated, and...

All in all... yeah, I totally agree on the... implications about the barrier... *shudder*

Yeah, I think Ryoma gets told that in Birthright when Silas is explaining Nohr's backstory and the prince is all, "Oh wow that sucks if only we'd known we would have shared our bounty."

Which means by implication, ie: Corrin's B support in Conquest, that Ryoma's ninja spy network is fully capable of infiltrating the Avatar's castle, which exists in an entirely separate dimension of reality in space, but somehow the ability to look up why the neighbouring country is trying to invade was completely beyond them.

Regarding Pair-Up, I... I honestly really like it.  Considering that Awakening is like a goofy fantasy rom-com, I think it makes sense to literally make the Power of Friendship an integral game mechanics.  Sure, it's massively overpowered but it makes sense for the themes of that story.

Edited July 12, 2020 by Samven
Adding to the Pair-Up discussion.

[Alastor15243]

Not sure if this is unpopular so much as outrageously petty, but:

The colors associated with the weapon triangle feel off. I think swords should have been blue, lances should have been green, and axes should have been red. Those colors just feel like they match the attributes of the weapons way better. And also it would mean that the Askr trio would nearly match hair colors with their weapon colors.

[null]

3 hours ago, Samven said:

Considering that Awakening is like a goofy fantasy rom-com

You didn't present this as an opinion, but I agree that Awakening, to me at least, seems far more like a rom-com anime than it does a serious conflict between nations. The serious tone that it tries to convey is largely undermined by the abundance of comedic moments and supports, in my opinion. It honestly feels like there's two writers trying to set a tone and both often cancel each other out.

[Benice]

On 7/10/2020 at 12:11 AM, Jotari said:

I'm not assessing his usefulness as a unit overall. I'm assessing the usefulness of his promotion, which given how late it is, can only be discussed in the context of how it helps him fair in the final few maps.

Ah. Apologies for misinterpreting your point, then!

Another Benice-tier Hot take!

I think that axes being inaccurate in FE6 is a smaller problem than it's made out to be and doesn't make FE6 less balanced weapon-wise than FE7 or 8.

First off, axes still do have merit. They have higher might than swords and have WTA against enemy Wyvern Lords/Knights, which is super helpful in the latter half of the game when your squishies will be OHKO'd by them. Iron axes are axeurate enough and overall the shaky hitrates can be mitigated via supports and the weapon triangle. Not to mention Berserkers having 30 crit and warriors getting huge promotion bonuses.

Second off, Swords do as advertised-Low might, high accuracy. They don't have equivalent might to lances or axes. They're just accurate. That's the whole point of swords. Their 1-2 range option sucks as much as javelins and hand axes do.

Third off, I'd argue that FE6 weapons are MORE balanced than FE7 or 8's-You aren't shooting yourself in the foot by using an axe in FE6, but swords are completely useless in FE7 and 8. Axes are far from unusable whereas swords are quite debilitating in FE7 and 8.

[Ottservia]

52 minutes ago, twilitfalchion said:

You didn't present this as an opinion, but I agree that Awakening, to me at least, seems far more like a rom-com anime than it does a serious conflict between nations. The serious tone that it tries to convey is largely undermined by the abundance of comedic moments and supports, in my opinion. It honestly feels like there's two writers trying to set a tone and both often cancel each other out.

And that’s the very thing Tonal balance is meant to do. The story can’t be serious all the time. You need that levity every once in a while

[Samz707]

2 hours ago, twilitfalchion said:

You didn't present this as an opinion, but I agree that Awakening, to me at least, seems far more like a rom-com anime than it does a serious conflict between nations. The serious tone that it tries to convey is largely undermined by the abundance of comedic moments and supports, in my opinion. It honestly feels like there's two writers trying to set a tone and both often cancel each other out.

Didn't Awakening have 6 writers? that's honestly probably what happened. 

 

1 hour ago, Ottservia said:

And that’s the very thing Tonal balance is meant to do. The story can’t be serious all the time. You need that levity every once in a while

It's still possible for the levity to be too wacky or inappropriately timed, sometimes even feeling like they're not even from the same work of fiction.

Edited July 12, 2020 by Samz707

[null]

15 minutes ago, Samz707 said:

Didn't Awakening have 6 writers? that's honestly probably what happened. 

I don't know if that's true or not, but if it is, then it would explain the overall inconsistency in Awakening's writing. Some supports are great, some are awful, jokes where jokes don't belong, etc. I have nothing against levity to mix things up, but there are times where it just doesn't belong.

[Ottservia]

33 minutes ago, Samz707 said:

1 hour ago, Ottservia said:

 

It's still possible for the levity to be too wacky or inappropriately timed, sometimes even feeling like they're not even from the same work of fiction

Not saying that doesn’t happen cause it does and it does occur in awakening a couple of times but only in chapter 1 and 6 and maybe a couple paralogues but not really anywhere else at least not the point where any of it’s serious moments are undermined if you ask me.

[null]

I think that fanservice (in the sense of objectifying or sexualizing characters, male or female) has no place in a serious-toned tactical RPG series about bloody wars between countries and large-scale battles against supernatural forces. It does nothing positive for FE, in my opinion. In some cases, it is downright offensive (Nowi).

Edited July 12, 2020 by twilitfalchion

[Samz707]

1 hour ago, twilitfalchion said:

I think that fanservice (in the sense of objectifying or sexualizing characters, male or female) has no place in a serious-toned tactical RPG series about bloody wars between countries and large-scale battles against supernatural forces. It does nothing positive for FE, in my opinion. In some cases, it is downright offensive (Nowi).

Yeah I don't really like it either. (Also because some of the fan-servicy designs, especially in Awakening/Fates kinda look awful to me, if it's someone ment to be flirty who isn't even a class that should be relying on armor like Sonya it doesn't bother me too much but Awakening's Skirt-Knights and Camilla's entire outfit is just bad, Hell Sonya is the flirty character of Echoes and she is practically overdressed compared to say Charlotte, I kinda dislike the character designs in general but when the crappy design is done to just show off a character's "assets" it's especially bad and for me it's actually ironically kinda off-putting.)

Also not a fan of other stuff that feels slimey to me, like S-rank art for the Avatar where it's in first person so it's like the character is confessing to the player instead of the Avatar.

Honestly one of my worries for an FE6 Remake is that we're getting a S-rankable Fae, I really wish we'd go back to FE7 where the Romancable dragon didn't look like a child.

 

Edited July 12, 2020 by Samz707

[NaotoUzumaki]

Personally it’s the avatar period.they started very good with Mark then Chris WAS and STILL IS a mistake then Robin was Another step in right direction then another wrong turn with Corrin and Byleth was an too Extreme good with its sharp bad ones. I think Japan think an Avatar is a MC a la Persona when Overseas its more like D&D and I’m sick of the Avatar being the cheesy chosen one. Mark was a Nobody rando on the plains. Robin was à normal dude with a psycho cult and dad after him. Chris was a spotlight hog and Corrin story depends on her existence kill her fates DOESNT exists. Byleth has story reason to Not be a Avatar and they make one. Intis need Better ideas management right now 

[Ottservia]

2 hours ago, twilitfalchion said:

I think that fanservice (in the sense of objectifying or sexualizing characters, male or female) has no place in a serious-toned tactical RPG series about bloody wars between countries and large-scale battles against supernatural forces. It does nothing positive for FE, in my opinion. In some cases, it is downright offensive (Nowi).

Ah yes because we all know that fanservice is the root of all evil and that any character showing even the slightest amount of skin or cleavage should cover up immediately. How dare the developers want to make visually attractive character designs for their audience that has nothing to do with the overall quality of the writing. I apologize for the blunt sarcasm but I am so tired of hearing this argument. 
 

I honest to god see nothing wrong with fanservice so long as it’s implemented diageticallu and isn’t too intrusive. What’s wrong with sexy character design? What’s wrong with characters going to the beach as an excuse to show them off in sexy swimsuits? I honestly don’t see anything wrong with it. I mean fair if you don’t like it but I hate when people say it “doesn’t belong in a serious story”. Frankly, I find that way of criticizing story telling a little narrow minded. There are plenty of dark and serious stories that have plenty of fanservice like the fate franchise, The Persona series, one piece, death parade, and code geass just to name a few. So what if these stories know how to have a little fun and give the audience something to gawk at every once in a while. That doesn’t make these stories any less well written or any less serious than they are. Persona 5 centers on themes on reforming the worst society has to offer from a sexually abusive teacher to a corrupt and murderous politician and it still has enough room for multiple beach scenes and none of them at all take away from the severity and weight of the situations the characters find themselves in. 

[NaotoUzumaki]

Exactly fan service isnt bad at all. Fan service doesn’t remove tension in story. But an Avatar where almost every recent support conversation are just sucking the avatar is bad. In my crimson Flower route I’ve recruited all others students that I could and when they died at the immaculate one like ingrid I didn’t feel sad or bad cause they were following me because teacher said it was best. In storytelling an avatar destroys the story like Corrin because kill Corrin before the story no Fire emblem Fates and Same with Byleth if Byleth can THEORETICALLY SAID I AINT TEACHING THE STUDENT OR WORKING FOR THE CHURCH then there is NO STORY and world because one person said no. Its like the AVGN Rambo review “John the movie can’t continue until you say yess” If your story heavy consequence heavy RPG act like the AVGN quote it isn’t a story or world cause people life would still continue IRL

Edited July 13, 2020 by NaotoUzumaki
Misspelled

[Jotari]

8 hours ago, Benice said:

Ah. Apologies for misinterpreting your point, then!

Another Benice-tier Hot take!

I think that axes being inaccurate in FE6 is a smaller problem than it's made out to be and doesn't make FE6 less balanced weapon-wise than FE7 or 8.

First off, axes still do have merit. They have higher might than swords and have WTA against enemy Wyvern Lords/Knights, which is super helpful in the latter half of the game when your squishies will be OHKO'd by them. Iron axes are axeurate enough and overall the shaky hitrates can be mitigated via supports and the weapon triangle. Not to mention Berserkers having 30 crit and warriors getting huge promotion bonuses.

Second off, Swords do as advertised-Low might, high accuracy. They don't have equivalent might to lances or axes. They're just accurate. That's the whole point of swords. Their 1-2 range option sucks as much as javelins and hand axes do.

Third off, I'd argue that FE6 weapons are MORE balanced than FE7 or 8's-You aren't shooting yourself in the foot by using an axe in FE6, but swords are completely useless in FE7 and 8. Axes are far from unusable whereas swords are quite debilitating in FE7 and 8.

Axes are great on paladins for the niche situations in which they're needed, but mono single tier axes users suffer very heavily in FE6 for being very unreliable. They might be great when they promote, but getting them to promotion involves a lot of babying and uncertainty. To that extent I agree with you that axes aren't too bad, but individual axe users need better bases to not suck as much.

[null]

2 hours ago, Ottservia said:

Ah yes because we all know that fanservice is the root of all evil and that any character showing even the slightest amount of skin or cleavage should cover up immediately. How dare the developers want to make visually attractive character designs for their audience that has nothing to do with the overall quality of the writing. I apologize for the blunt sarcasm but I am so tired of hearing this argument. 
 

I honest to god see nothing wrong with fanservice so long as it’s implemented diageticallu and isn’t too intrusive. What’s wrong with sexy character design? What’s wrong with characters going to the beach as an excuse to show them off in sexy swimsuits? I honestly don’t see anything wrong with it. I mean fair if you don’t like it but I hate when people say it “doesn’t belong in a serious story”. Frankly, I find that way of criticizing story telling a little narrow minded. There are plenty of dark and serious stories that have plenty of fanservice like the fate franchise, The Persona series, one piece, death parade, and code geass just to name a few. So what if these stories know how to have a little fun and give the audience something to gawk at every once in a while. That doesn’t make these stories any less well written or any less serious than they are. Persona 5 centers on themes on reforming the worst society has to offer from a sexually abusive teacher to a corrupt and murderous politician and it still has enough room for multiple beach scenes and none of them at all take away from the severity and weight of the situations the characters find themselves in. 

You know what? That's why threads like this exist. To offer different, even unpopular opinions. You obviously have a different opinion and that's perfectly fine. Good on you for thinking independently. I simply disagree.

[ElricBros.]

On 7/11/2020 at 7:36 PM, Ottservia said:

I’d argue Rev is better than both of them at least story wise

Oh for sure!

On 7/11/2020 at 8:02 PM, starburst said:

It may be better, but it is not strategic. It plays like a turn-based RPG.

Eh, I dunno about that one. I thought it was strategic enough.