What is your unpopular Fire Emblem opinion?

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

now that

damn these hentai steel bars

 

Anyway, of the many ideas that have or have not been had, doubling requiring a corresponding skill is a good one, because speed in its classic implementation is too good.

Ceterum censeo, if we have a base we should have a Merc camp to recruit Mercenaries from, make Mercenary an exclusive class to these recruits (with Myrmidon taking the generic player swordie role) but randomize its stats and ranks with minimum scaling depending on campaign progress but above average to make it worth in the first place. In exchange they cost money every map they are in your squad, irrespective of whether they are deployed or not. Promotion is them coming around because you are just such a nice person and boom -> Hero.

[Saint Rubenio]

26 minutes ago, Imuabicus said:

damn these hentai steel bars

Honestly, she didn't even draw the shortest stick. They may've made a mockery of her with the hentai bars, but Celica got hit with Conrad. Poor, poor Celica.

...Is it an unpopular opinion to say that I hate Conrad? Because I really hate Conrad. There are characters I like more or less throughout the series, but I don't think there's another character whose removal would've been such a massive improvement for their game quite so much as Conrad. Seriously, people are always talking about FE12, but at least there they didn't feel the need to force Marth into the damsel-in-distress role three times over in the dumbest ways imaginable just so Kris has things to do.

26 minutes ago, Imuabicus said:

Anyway, of the many ideas that have or have not been had, doubling requiring a corresponding skill is a good one, because speed in its classic implementation is too good.

The way Genealogy does it is even worse, in my opinion. The only control you have over Pursuit is who gets the corresponding ring. Otherwise, pursuit basically only serves to cripple anybody who doesn't have it, which is even more arbitrary than the classic threshold.

Now, if the ring had been the only way to get Pursuit (perhaps make it easier to get, or have multiple copies available), that would've been more interesting. Because then you'd have a choice of who should carry this extremely game-changing ability at any given time that's not mired by the five or six units who already have it and thus are way better than everyone else for no reason. And with Genealogy's trading system, once you gave it to someone, you couldn't change your mind until the next castle. There's some food for thought there.

26 minutes ago, Imuabicus said:

Ceterum censeo, if we have a base we should have a Merc camp to recruit Mercenaries from [...] In exchange they cost money every map they are in your squad, irrespective of whether they are deployed or not. Promotion is them coming around because you are just such a nice person

So, Berwick Saga.

[Florete]

1 hour ago, Imuabicus said:

Anyway, of the many ideas that have or have not been had, doubling requiring a corresponding skill is a good one, because speed in its classic implementation is too good.

While I can agree that Speed in many games is really powerful, I don't think making doubling be skill-exclusive would be a good idea. You can just nerf the stat itself, maybe like Heroes and have Speed be doubling alone. Avoid can be calculated in other ways, maybe with Dex and Luck.

[Metal Flash]

12 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

...Is it an unpopular opinion to say that I hate Conrad?

Back when Echoes first released? Yeah, definitely. Nowadays? Not really. There has been a rise in people who despise Conrad for taking away Celica`s agency in moments she was fine originally, like the rockslide that separates Alm and Celica for the rest of the game.

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

12 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Honestly, she didn't even draw the shortest stick. They may've made a mockery of her with the hentai bars, but Celica got hit with Conrad. Poor, poor Celica.

Certified Conrad Moment

all I remember is that Celica learns Ragnarok and Conrad doesn´t and Conrad is just another horseboy who joins after Matilda destroys Clive so...... magic C>>>>>>>> kebap C

12 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

So, Berwick Saga.

that´s not a real game, because I can´t play it Kaga just gaslit you into dreaming of good games.

with a steel chair

11 hours ago, Florete said:

While I can agree that Speed in many games is really powerful, I don't think making doubling be skill-exclusive would be a good idea. You can just nerf the stat itself, maybe like Heroes and have Speed be doubling alone. Avoid can be calculated in other ways, maybe with Dex and Luck.

I´m more so concerned with the fact that it serves both an offensive and a defensive purpose - imagine if Berserkers suddenly used their HP in addition to STR or Generals their DEF as SPD or some other dumb stuff. Hawkeye getting a casual +50 dmg. Which would be fun in it´s own way.

Just make doubling available via skill (scrolls) and, I dunno, some classes like Myrms because they don´t have good 1-2 range they get to doubleattack or something. Also brave weapons.

[Magenta Fantasies]

On 5/7/2023 at 11:31 AM, Alastor15243 said:

On a related note, I think Yarne and his obsession with avoiding extinction becomes a lot more sympathetic when you think about rabbits and realize that there is no conceivable earthly way that Yarne was the only child Panne gave birth to.

Rabbits produce a lot of kits, but the kits also have very high mortality rates. I’ve handled and raised rabbit kits before, and know other people who have had the same experience. Even with the best care you can provide, you’re lucky if three quarters of a litter survives the first month. Fish are even worse when it comes to “quantity over quality” reproduction.

On 5/9/2023 at 5:59 PM, Jotari said:

I wouldn't say anything of the precludes being a strong character. Might be sexist to keep doing it, but just because somethings sexist doesn't make it actually bad writing. Eyvel, for example, I think would be a strong female character from the Kaga era despite being stoned for most of the game.

Caeda is formidable in her own right (I’d argue she’s one of the best units in Shadow Dragon along with the Whitewings) and Minerva is one of the most badass non-lord women in the series. Honestly I don’t have issues with most of the female characters from that era. I think it’s just a few examples (mostly from Gaiden/SoV) that leave a bad taste in people’s mouths.

I’d be curious to see how this plays out in his newer games. While I haven’t played them, I’ve heard nothing but good things about the games Kaga has created since leaving IS. I have met several Fire Emblem fans who count Berwick Saga as their favorite “FE” game.

[Alastor15243]

18 minutes ago, Magenta Fantasies said:

Rabbits produce a lot of kits, but the kits also have very high mortality rates. I’ve handled and raised rabbit kits before, and know other people who have had the same experience. Even with the best care you can provide, you’re lucky if three quarters of a litter survives the first month. Fish are even worse when it comes to “quantity over quality” reproduction

Yep, exactly. Yarne being a paranoid cowardly survivalist makes a lot more sense when you realize he probably had a ton of brothers and sisters he had to watch die, either like that or in the zombie apocalypse.

[Jotari]

I dislike Berkut a lot more than Conrad for being a superfluous addition. Conrad is very much ehhhh. I don't think he bails Celica out that significantly. The focus of his scenes isn't about how helpless Celica is, but about how mysterious he is. His main savior moment you even get to play as both him and Celica, so he's less saving her and more providing back up. And he does give Halcyon more relevance which is cool. But overall he's a bit of a limp plot point as they don't ultimately do anything with him (they don't even acknowledge that he's a potential claimant for the throne, arguably a better claimant than Celica).

I think  I'd like him a lot more if he were a better unit. I think they wanted to hold off until you'd done the worst swamp maps before they give you him, but in doing so he comes so late as to be useless. At least with the mid tier stats they decided to give him. Why is he a Paladin and not a Gold Knights You probably have more chapters to use Zeke than Conrad yet Zeke is way better. I understand why they wanted to make him a cavalry class, since Celica doesn't get one (aside from Atlas potentially, Kliff if you're crazy), but there's a reason Celica doesn't get cavalry, her maps are not designed for them. Should have made him a bow knight or something, then at least he'd be useful for his join time even if his stats suck. Or have him join at the end of Part 3 when Celica is being crowned but give him a personal skill that let's him ignore the terrain movement penalties (Shadows of Valentia didn't have personal skills, but maybe it should have). That would have made people love him as he'd be easing up the obnoxiousness of the swamp maps.

On the subject of Conrad and his saving of Celica at the end of Part 2, I really wish they'd made the group that attacked her there lead by Jamil, the boss you fight at Duma's Gate near the end of the game. Not only did they do little to make him actually any more memorable than his NES counterpart,  but he actually has earthquake powers, and that segment was justifying the earthquake as a plot point. It's a round peg round hole situation yet instead of giving the job to an actual boss that's primed for it, they just tossed it on a generic enemy.

[Etrurian emperor]

On 5/9/2023 at 1:37 PM, NotYourKindOfPeople said:

I agree with this. Kaga was instrumental not just for the creation of Fire Emblem but the SRPG genre as a whole. However, he was never capable of writing strong female characters and would reduce them to be mind-controlled, kidnapped or even implied to be victim of abuse. 

I'm not sure that its a really a Kaga thing. The game right after he left arguably treated woman the most poorly. And while Gaiden is the runner up in that department its worth noting that the Celica without Kaga turned out less competent than the one with Kaga. 

Also Caeda probably counts as a strong female. She's a veteran of two wars and needs no man to rescue her unless you're watching the ova. 

[Acacia Sgt]

I'd say Kaga was more or less crabwalking on the subject, at least at the beginning of FE. Though there was a significant regress during Mystery.

[Jotari]

A lot of the brainwashing and rescuing is gameplay motivated,.and that's not a bad thing. Does it happen more frequently to women? Maybe a bit, certainly in Gaiden, and maybe there's some latent sexism there too, but it's not like it's an overwhelming imbalance. Going off the top of my head, in Shadow Dragon you have to rescue Nyna and the Aurelians, Maria, the Archanea resistance, Elice and Tiki. Possibly Xane too? Not sure about him, he's I'm a jail cell but there are enemies in there with him. Of those characters most of the Aurelians and Archaneans are men.

I'm old mystery you obviously rescue the four Maidens, but Merric is damseled in his intro chapter (which originally punished you for killing the unarmed female clerics...so categorize that where you will). Est is also rescued so Abel won't fight you. Midia gets it again in the same map as her debut. Ogma and the Grust twins, one of which is a boy are also rescued.

I'm running out of time and need to catch a train, but to quickly summarize Jugdral, Hannibal and his kid is the biggest bitch to rescue though Deirdre and Julia also exist and I guess you rescue Briggid (but not her sister whom Dew rescues along with himself). And Thracia is all about rescuing the children.

In other words yeah, women do pop up a bit more frequently, but plenty of men are rescued too and for both of them there's almost always a gameplay motivation for it. Deirdre's the only character I can think of who is put in distress purely for narrative reasons.

Edited May 11, 2023 by Jotari

[Acacia Sgt]

10 minutes ago, Jotari said:

A lot of the brainwashing and rescuing is gameplay motivated,.and that's not a bad thing. Does it happen more frequently to women? Maybe a bit, certainly in Gaiden, and maybe there's some latent sexism there too, but it's not like it's an overwhelming imbalance. Going off the top of my head, in Shadow Dragon you have to rescue Nyna and the Aurelians, Maria, the Archanea resistance, Elice and Tiki. Possibly Xane too? Not sure about him, he's I'm a jail cell but there are enemies in there with him. Of those characters most of the Aurelians and Archaneans are men.

Xane does talk he was a prisoner, from what I recall, so he definitely counts.

There's also Rickard whom you have to get out of a jail cell as well.

Linde also needs to be rescued from the slavers, and if I recall they only had young boys (hence why Linde was there since she was in disguise).

Speaking of, would King Mostyn count? He's not playable, but he's another guy you have to rescue. And it contrasts with Caeda since she avoids that fate and even helps in the rescue of her own father.

10 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I'm old mystery you obviously rescue the four Maidens, but Merric is damseled in his intro chapter (which originally punished you for killing the unarmed female clerics...so categorize that where you will). Est is also rescued so Abel won't fight you. Midia gets it again in the same map as her debut. Ogma and the Grust twins, one of which is a boy are also rescued.

Something curious about old Mystery is that Book 1 moves Wendell to share the same cell as Rickard, so now you had to rescue him too.

10 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I'm running out of time and need to catch a train, but to quickly summarize Jugdral, Hannibal and his kid is the biggest bitch to rescue though Deirdre and Julia also exist and I guess you rescue Briggid (but not her sister whom Dew rescues along with himself). And Thracia is all about rescuing the children.

Not playable yet, but you also rescue Shannan in Gen 1.

[Jotari]

2 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Xane does talk he was a prisoner, from what I recall, so he definitely counts.

There's also Rickard whom you have to get out of a jail cell as well.

Linde also needs to be rescued from the slavers, and if I recall they only had young boys (hence why Linde was there since she was in disguise).

Speaking of, would King Mostyn count? He's not playable, but he's another guy you have to rescue. And it contrasts with Caeda since she avoids that fate and even helps in the rescue of her own father.

Something curious about old Mystery is that Book 1 moves Wendell to share the same cell as Rickard, so now you had to rescue him too.

Not playable yet, but you also rescue Shannan in Gen 1.

Very true. Nice addendums. Though for Shannan you could also say Arya is rescued at the same time if you consider a Minerva situation as rescuing both parties. The larger point overall though is that it happens to both genders and it's not motivated by a baseless narrative reasons. Gameplay is the main factor. I don't think Kaga even had any of these sexist comments levied at him until Shadows of Valentia came out and it just so happened that literally every playable female  character in the game is rescued at some point (if you count rescuing Celica's whole army for the likes of Mae and Genny, course there's plenty of men in Celica's army too).

[Acacia Sgt]

12 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I don't think Kaga even had any of these sexist comments levied at him until Shadows of Valentia came out and it just so happened that literally every playable female  character in the game is rescued at some point (if you count rescuing Celica's whole army for the likes of Mae and Genny, course there's plenty of men in Celica's army too).

I wonder if it's a combination of a lot of those people having missed out on the Archanea remakes, and then not having the full picture of what wasn't there in Gaiden but SoV added.

Context is important, and this is what I meant about the crabwalking. Gaiden doesn't really have that much, if any, more women in distress than Shadow Dragon has. What it had was less men in distress. But then Celica was basically a fusion of Caeda+Nyna role-wise so it was a huge step forward. Problem is, SoV botched that.

[Etrurian emperor]

On 5/10/2023 at 10:11 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

...Is it an unpopular opinion to say that I hate Conrad? Because I really hate Conrad.

I'm a bit conflicted. The ''imposing'' man with a mask being a gigantic dork without the mask is something I like, and the timid little brother hiding behind his sisters skirt protecting her when he's older is good development. In a vaccuum he'd be fine, but he so clearly enters the plot at Celica's detriment each time he appears to bail her out. It makes her seem less competent. 

[Venger_06]

I like evil cults.

On 5/11/2023 at 5:51 AM, Imuabicus said:

all I remember is that Celica learns Ragnarok and Conrad doesn´t and Conrad is just another horseboy who joins after Matilda destroys Clive so...... magic C>>>>>>>> kebap C

Clive is a better unit than Matilda

[Shadow Mir]

Here's 2 more:

Soren is overrated.

Pandreo is overrated, and also one of the most aggravating characters in all of video games.

[Jotari]

30 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Here's 2 more:

Soren is overrated.

Pandreo is overrated, and also one of the most aggravating characters in all of video games.

I don't know what people say about Soren in general but I found him very useful in the Fell Xenologue. Mainly because of Rexcalibur. It's not a special weapon, but it it is strong enough to allow Ivy to one hit kill enemy wyverns even if they double her, and thanks to Flare she can heal back all the damage they deal to her letting her basically tank the lot of them until one gets a lucky 5% crit.

Bolting is probably what people like about Soren and a reason to call him overrated if one doesn't find it useful. It's hit issues can be mitigated with Divine Pulse, but it's real weakness is just lacking significant enough power to really make a huge difference. Still good to just throw out there if your not close enough to any enemies to use another tome, especially if you have Canter and no other way to activate it. I'd say bolting is actually a fun strategy to use with a back up unit as it would expand your range to do backup attacks to virtually any enemy any unit is attacking. Unfortunately there are no magical back up units so you're sacrificing Soren's other qualities. Still, maybe you could reclass a mage late game, when most growth is done, into a swordmaster with a levin sword and depend on Soren's own tomes.

Cataclysm feels useless because its damage is so low. The intent, I expect, is to combine with anima focus so you're really dealing mov-2 hit-20 and def-2 on a group of enemies. Which is good, but not that great. If you're close enough to be using it then move-2 is not going to protect many character, hit-20 means you're gambling on the enemy missing and def-3 isn't usually big enough a debuff to secure a kill you otherwise wouldn't unless the enemy is very bulky. And someone with Corrin can do all that with just draconic hex anyway, and reduce movement down to 0 (which is phenomenally better than move-2) if they're engaged. Cataclysm just generally doesn't debuff enough to really be a game changer, which an emblem skill should be. You'd usually rather a skill that just straight up kills the enemy. Still if I were to buff it I'd increase its range of splash damage more than increasing its power so it can work as intended on a larger group of enemies.

Edited May 15, 2023 by Jotari

[Shadow Mir]

16 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I don't know what people say about Soren in general but I found him very useful in the Fell Xenologue. Mainly because of Rexcalibur. It's not a special weapon, but it it is strong enough to allow Ivy to one hit kill enemy wyverns even if they double her, and thanks to Flare she can heal back all the damage they deal to her letting her basically tank the lot of them until one gets a lucky 5% crit.

Bolting is probably what people like about Soren and a reason to call him overrated if one doesn't find it useful. It's hit issues can be mitigated with Divine Pulse, but it's real weakness is just lacking significant enough power to really make a huge difference. Still good to just throw out there if your not close enough to any enemies to use another tome, especially if you have Canter and no other way to activate it. I'd say bolting is actually a fun strategy to use with a back up unit as it would expand your range to do backup attacks to virtually any enemy any unit is attacking. Unfortunately there are no magical back up units so you're sacrificing Soren's other qualities. Still, maybe you could reclass a mage late game, when most growth is done, into a swordmaster with a levin sword and depend on Soren's own tomes.

Cataclysm feels useless because its damage is so low. The intent, I expect, is to combine with anima focus so you're really dealing mov-2 hit-20 and def-2 on a group of enemies. Which is good, but not that great. If you're close enough to be using it then move-2 is not going to protect many character, hit-20 means you're gambling on the enemy missing and def-3 isn't usually big enough a debuff to secure a kill you otherwise wouldn't unless the enemy is very bulky. And someone with Corrin can do all that with just draconic hex anyway, and reduce movement down to 0 (which is phenomenally better than move-2) if they're engaged. Cataclysm just generally doesn't debuff enough to really be a game changer, which an emblem skill should be. You'd usually rather a skill that just straight up kills the enemy. Still if I were to buff it I'd increase its range of splash damage more than increasing its power so it can work as intended on a larger group of enemies.

Sorry for not making it clear, but I meant in PoR and RD. I don't have the DLC, so I can't attest to how useful his kit is in Engage.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Shadow Mir said:

Sorry for not making it clear, but I meant in PoR and RD. I don't have the DLC, so I can't attest to how useful his kit is in Engage.

Ah right. My mind was fixed on Engage. For his actual games I can't say much beyond "He's a mage."

[Florete]

On 5/13/2023 at 11:23 AM, Newtype06 said:

Clive is a better unit than Matilda

Well, that is at least, to my memory, an unpopular opinion.

[Venger_06]

9 hours ago, Florete said:

Well, that is at least, to my memory, an unpopular opinion.

It's a lot more popular these days. Clive has better bulk and availability than her, and he can make most of the Ridersbane. He's probably the 7th best character in Alm's route behind Kliff, Silque, Alm, Faye, Tobin, and Python.

[Jotari]

Mathilda has Res, which is very rare among the cast...but also deceptively useless, as being able to tank a few magic hits isn't all that useful compared to just killing mages before they have a chance to attack (and then Dread Fighters come along).

[Shadow Mir]

1 hour ago, Newtype06 said:

It's a lot more popular these days. Clive has better bulk and availability than her, and he can make most of the Ridersbane. He's probably the 7th best character in Alm's route behind Kliff, Silque, Alm, Faye, Tobin, and Python.

When did Clive's star rise in terms of unit appraisals? 

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

Mathilda has Res, which is very rare among the cast...but also deceptively useless, as being able to tank a few magic hits isn't all that useful compared to just killing mages before they have a chance to attack (and then Dread Fighters come along).

Works well enough for witches, as they are textbook squishy wizards, but Arcanists are bulky mofos. Doesn't help that they often have 3 range magic (sure, witches do too, but Thunder ain't as threatening as Mire, let alone Death; also, you see more Arcanists with one of the latter than witches with Thunder iirc).

Edited May 15, 2023 by Shadow Mir

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

3 hours ago, Newtype06 said:

It's a lot more popular these days. Clive has better bulk and availability than her, and he can make most of the Ridersbane. He's probably the 7th best character in Alm's route behind Kliff, Silque, Alm, Faye, Tobin, and Python.

Clive depends, in a big way, on getting him a full level in the final map of Act I. That lets him promote to Paladin before Act III starts. Sure, you can have him skirmish in the Deliverance HQ... but then you're spending turns you wouldn't otherwise. And you can't "backtrack" once Act III begins, because Desaix keeps sending reinforcements your way. If he stays in Cavalier, his Act III performance is dreadful.