Complaints about Edelgard's Route are Overhyped

[CyberNinja]

Well, having finally started on Golden Deer part 2, I can say that complaints of Edelgard/black eagles getting undue favoritism are not only completely unfounded, it's more the opposite. Seriously I was happy to get a few CGs and a cutscene for the end, Golden Deer ends part 1 with a cutscene and opens part 2 with another, as well as the fact that Blue lions and Golden Deer get far more maps to begin with, and a proper warm up map, ect...

 

What the fuck mate, what were you guys complaining about exactly?

Edited August 13, 2019 by Captain Karnage
Language dude

[Nobody]

My only complaint about Edelgard's route is that it's 4 chapter shorter than the others

[CyberNinja]

I quite enjoyed it for what it was, just don't seem to see why everyone was complaining about it having unfair amounts of content when it seems comparatively lacking. Maybe there's more with the church route but it seems that much of the content is scavenged from other routes, would rather have simply automated the choice and given the route more love. I mean you roll over the alliance in two chapters, might be realistic since you're the dark empire, but come on give us something.

[Wuzzy]

The complaints don't focus BE-E Route Gameplay at all, they mostly focus on how much IS pushed Edelgard/Black Eagles compared to the other houses. 

From what I've noticed

• Edelgard is the only bi lord even though Dimitri/Claude show around the same amount of affection for Byleth (I seriously doubt that IS changed the conversations between the lords and Byleth depending on the gender of Byleth)
• Edelgard's VA voiced the announcement trailer and I guess was the first to interact with Byleth in the regard, Edelgard has more screentime than Dimitri/Claude in trailers and generally has more appearances in promotion compared to these 2 (also adding that Black Eagles was the first house to be revealed, followed by the other 2 houses), and the main theme of the game is titled "The Maiden of Hresvelg"
• Black Eagles have 2 endings (though it makes sense why they would have 2 separate endings compared to other routes) so there's going to be doubled usage of Black Eagles students 
• The game uses Black Eagles screenshots as the tutorial/filler images in the loading screen (honestly it isn't a big of a deal to me since I usually ignore those but, it is a detail)

So if your favorite house was BL/GD, I can understand why people who like those houses would be a disappointed/frustrated at how the promotion and other more cosmetic aspects of the game were handled. Also based on what I've personally seen on comments on Twitter/YouTube there's a lot of people that started with Black Eagles like to shit on the other houses for whatever reason (especially on Dimitri/Rhea specifically, I've seen comments asking players who went BL why they would side with a psychopath and proceeded to go off on that tangent), and obviously that will rile people up). Also, a lot of reviewers tend to start with Black Eagles as well which expands the influence of the Black Eagles (obviously IS can't do anything about it) to people who want to know whether the game is worth or nah.

The VAs like to fool around with other VAs from other houses (in regards to house/character popularity) on social media but, the general public seems to take it seriously or to heart which will lead to people also getting riled up.

Also spoiler alert for BL/GD/Church Route

 

All of Edelgard's deaths are on screen, whereas Dimitri's deaths are implied and off-screen (except in BE-E route)

I found her route to be the most rushed overall, wished they actually showed us what happens next with TWSiTD instead of flat out telling us the problem gets magically resolved. Though I don't really have a negative opinion of any of the students (except like Cyril ig but he's not a student), so I don't really have a house I'm attached to 100%.

Edited August 13, 2019 by Lunarly

[Spectrum]

2 hours ago, Nobody said:

My only complaint about Edelgard's route is that it's 4 chapter shorter than the others

True. Honestly, if we had more chapters I would have said it was the best route

Spoiler

specifically if we had chapters against TWSITD. It would be far more compelling to the story. I don't understand why it's 4 chapters less than the other routes when Hubert and El were planning to take on TWISTD. 

 

 

[wissenschaft]

For black eagles you can just make a save and play both endings back to back. So the Black Eagles have the most content. And considering you can just recruit most people to your house, the main reason to pick between the houses is which Lord you want to be interacting with doing the first half of the game. And a lot of people pick Edelgard because she is maximum waifu bait. It sure worked on me. I love the character. Heck, I both love and hate her. An amazing achievement lol. Shes up there with characters like Darth Vader, a part of you hates the monster and the other half loves how awesome the character is. lol

I'm now wishing for a Fire Emblem warriors 2 featuring Three Houses so I can run around with Edelgard and crush waves of minions.

Edited August 13, 2019 by wissenschaft

[Troykv]

I wonder what was the impression of the people that picked Edelgard for "maximum waifu bait" reasons and ended up forgetting to activate Edelgard's route split.

It would really be a very weird moment... but one that it would make sense in hindsight; Edelgard it's actually promoted a lot more in her anti-villain status in the trailers; in fact, the only Cutscene where Edelgard it's the hero (well, anti-hero) it's the only one that wasn't show (not even partially, like with the Church's cutscenes with zero context) in promotional material as far as I remember.

I guess IS and co. really wanted people to accidently enter the Church's route and cry.

Edited August 13, 2019 by Troykv

[wissenschaft]

15 minutes ago, Troykv said:

I wonder what was the impression of the people that picked Edelgard for "maximum waifu bait" reasons and ended up forgetting to activate Edelgard's route split.

It would really be a very weird moment... but one that it would make sense in hindsight; Edelgard it's actually promoted a lot more in her anti-villain status in the trailers; in fact, the only Cutscene where Edelgard it's the hero (well, anti-hero) it's the only one that wasn't show (not even partially, like with the Church's cutscenes with zero context) in promotional material as far as I remember.

I guess IS and co. really wanted people to accidently enter the Church's route and cry.

It leads me to suspect that joining Edelgard was added latter in the game as a secret bonus route. Because thats what it is and its certainly possible to miss on first playthrough. Theres people that miss the C support with their lord past the point where they should have gotten it.

[Troykv]

2 minutes ago, wissenschaft said:

It leads me to suspect that joining Edelgard was added latter in the game as a secret bonus route. Because thats what it is and its certainly possible to miss on first playthrough. Theres people that miss the C support with their lord past the point where they should have gotten it.

I think giving Edelgard a route was always intented (I mean, it would be very weird to promote your main waifu as pretty much the most important character of the narrative since the very beginning, and ended up making her 100% guaranted to die regardless of what you do); but the game definitely wanted to promote the narrative of "Edelgard, the fallen hero"; specially with the Complete version of her theme being very sad and tragic.

Of course the whole nature of Edelgard's route (specially the lack of cutscenes) suggest it was indeed the last one to be developed.

 

[Tharne]

I see a lot of people here and there talking about Edelgard's route being the "secret" one or it was developed last because it has less chapters etc...

If I develop a game where a fairly big portion of the game is about talking to your students/exploring the monastery, I intend for people to at least talk to each student every month and build a basic relationship with them, especially the Lord of their House.

Missing Edelgard's route tells me more about the players (i.e. Rush mentality) than if the devs intended the route to be a "secret". Which I don't think they did at all, I even have the impression that the smaller number of chapters is a way to make the players ask themselves : "Wait, is that it ? Did I maybe choose the wrong side ?" For them to play the other routes.

Also the fact that she was the most pushed Lord commercially doesn't make sense if you develop her route last, it's beyond stupid. They wanted people to invest in her more and side with her.

(and realized that : Yes, you chose the wrong side.)

Edited August 13, 2019 by Tharne

[Troykv]

17 minutes ago, Tharne said:

I see a lot of people here and there talking about Edelgard's route being the "secret" one or it was developed last because it has less chapters etc...

If I develop a game where a fairly big portion of the game is about talking to your students/exploring the monastery, I intend for people to at least talk to each student every month and build a basic relationship with them, especially the Lord of their House.

Missing Edelgard's route tells me more about the players (i.e. Rush mentality) than if the devs intended the route to be a "secret". Which I don't think they did at all, I even have the impression that the smaller number of chapters is a way to make the players ask themselves : "Wait, is that it ? Did I maybe choose the wrong side ?" For them to play the other routes.

Also the fact that she was the most pushed Lord commercially doesn't make sense if you develop her route last, it's beyond stupid. They wanted people to invest in her more and side with her.

(and realized that : Yes, you chose the wrong side.)

I think it's mostly the fact her route lacks cutscenes that makes it look like it was the one with the less priority in the development cycle.

But I don't think the route was simply added willy-nilly, I'm sure it definitly was planned to exists since the very beginning; specially because it's existence it one of the most interesting parts of playing Three Houses; joining with the antagonist of the first part of the game it's such a weird change of pace; and it gives us a lot of new perspectives (include how this path change several endings in the game) in many stuff; specially in Edelgard's ideals and how she was misguided more that anything else.

Also technically all the routes are wrong because at least one of the protagonists dies, and the main villians aren't completely destroyed.

Edited August 13, 2019 by Troykv

[Tharne]

1 minute ago, Troykv said:

 

Also technically all the routes are wrong because at least one of the protagonists dies, and the main villians aren't completely destroyed.

Spoiler

You kill everything in GD though, TWSITD and even Nemesis. (who remains dormant in other routes...spooky)

 

[Crysta]

I mean, I kind of liked that they put emphasis on the female lord in the promotional content? AND they made her the more morally gray of the three. I thought it was pretty ballsy lol.

 

Edited August 13, 2019 by Crysta

[Troykv]

1 minute ago, Tharne said:

  Reveal hidden contents

You kill everything in GD though, TWSITD and even Nemesis. (who remains dormant in other routes...spooky)

 

I guess so; I need to have a confirmation of absolute anhilation

 

1 minute ago, Crysta said:

I mean, I kind of liked that they put emphasis on the female lord in the promotional content? AND they made her the more morally gray of the three. I thought it was pretty ballsy lol.

 

Oh yeah, that was very incredible; it goes against so many things one would expect from a Fire Emblem Main Character without making them outright evil. Even more with the fact she is a female, and the female it's usually the secondary lord in overall value to the narrative, or even the third... Expecting to the arrive of Edelgard's story was such a wild ride.

[timon]

tbh her route has by far the least content. There are a lot of questions left hanging, the last animated cutscene I've seen is before the timeskip and it's 4 chapter shorter (actually 5 months shorter since the last 2 chapters are consecutive). Also the difficulty curve is stupid, you go from murdering Dimitri in the easiest fight of your life to basically hell (I cannot imagine how that last map will be on Lunatic).

But yeah, the thing that bothers me the most is that there is a lot of meat to make 3 or 4 chapters with all that is left unexplained (mostly TWSITD).

All of this makes me think that it's "supposed" to be played last, or at least after another route, to use it as "play this to understand Edelgard's doings in other routes", they forgot that if you play Edelgard's route first you may need an explanation on literally everything else. Sure, now I know her motives, nice, let me just replay the game because I still don't understand half the story.

[CyberNinja]

We at the very least got an end game cutscene and such, decent one too but I'd certain not appreciate a patch to bring the route up to the others. It's a unique enough alt to the standard fe fare and the extra effort to get in means I have a special appreciation for it. Just wish it didn't feel so comparatively sparse.

[ck425]

I'm also bummed about the lack of TWSITD content. I genuinely think a DLC to extend it should be made.

What are the two endings this BE? I only saw one.

[CyberNinja]

29 minutes ago, ck425 said:

I'm also bummed about the lack of TWSITD content. I genuinely think a DLC to extend it should be made.

What are the two endings this BE? I only saw one.

There isn't there's just a split off if you go with the church.

[Timlugia]

To me it’s more like a “hidden” route, “what if?”

 

because logical wise, Byleth is very unlikely to join Edelgard. She never explain her plan nor defend her action UNTIL after you joined her. To Byleth at Holy Tomb, she’s the one that murdered his father and planned to kill him and Sothis (since TWISTD hasn’t been properly introduced yet either)

The route was there for players who are curious what if Byleth joined Edelgard, from a hindsight perspective.

 

[CyberNinja]

7 minutes ago, Timlugia said:

To me it’s more like a “hidden” route, “what if?”

 

because logical wise, Byleth is very unlikely to join Edelgard. She never explain her plan nor defend her action UNTIL after you joined her. To Byleth at Holy Tomb, she’s the one that murdered his father and planned to kill him and Sothis (since TWISTD hasn’t been properly introduced yet either)

The route was there for players who are curious what if Byleth joined Edelgard, from a hindsight perspective.

 

Hard to say, the choices if made up to that point hadn't created a lot of love with rhea (Jerald didn't trust so I kept being evasive, I also stumbled through some of her affairs mitt down choices) I also kept high relations with Edelgard, did attempt an alliance with the Phoenix emperor and Byleth always shows a certain devotion to his students. Could go either way, depending on wether Edelgard or Rhea comes off as the bigger threat to your students.

[Timlugia]

Jeralt actually recant his opinion after Remire village, saying there was no reason to leave at the first place.

 

and when Edelgard revealed herself at Holy Tomb, she simply order you comply or die, then start robbing the grave. Looking back it sounds like a bank robbery in a movie. Even Petra called out Edelgard as traitor. When I first played this part I was thinking about “How dare you threatening me after you just killed Jeralt and almost killed me”

 

Rhea might looks suspcious till this point, but Edelgard ordered her soliders to kill you just now.

Edited August 13, 2019 by Timlugia

[DragonFlames]

I personally loved Edelgard's route, because I find myself agreeing with a lot of things she says and wants to do:

• get rid of the church (Rhea creeped me out the moment I saw her)
• abolish the caste system
• abolish the system where people with crests are only revered because of their crests and not because of their qualities, and people without crests are treated worse than trash, especially if they're noble - a system that was deliberately created by the church from the looks of it
• appoint people to positions not due to their social standing or bloodline, but due to their ability for that position (a.k.a. a meritocracy)

Sure, her methods of getting there might be questionable, but it's not like "the ends justify the means" has never been employed by the so-called "good guys" before (especially in real life). Sure, that doesn't make it better, but still.
This is the first Fire Emblem game I have played that doesn't have a clear-cut black vs. white morality. This is about as grey as it gets. Though you might make the argument that the major players in the plot lie more on the darker side of the spectrum (which, when you look at human history, is scarily realistic), while it is the minor characters that bring a bit of light to the entire thing.

On topic:
I don't get why people are upset about the Black Eagles getting "favoritism". I mean, the main plot is pretty much Adrestian Empire vs. Church of Seiros, anyway, so it makes sense that characters closest to those two would see the most focus. And it's not like the other houses get shafted, either, though the Blue Lions story after the time skip has almost nothing to do with the overarching main storyline, which is a bit of a shame.
To me, it's very clear that the main characters of Three Houses are Byleth and Edelgard; the plot mainly revolves around these two. If we break it down into traditional story-telling terms, we can say that Byleth is meant to be the protagonist and Edelgard the antagonist (many have pointed out how similar she is to the likes of Walhart and Rudolf, while I myself compare her more to Cao Cao and Nobunaga Oda (specifically their Warriors counterparts) due to their similar motives and similarly ruthless way of attaining them). In a "normal" Fire Emblem game, this would have been the end of that, but since this game is based heavily around choice, it makes total sense for there to be a possibility to join up with the antagonist, thus giving the Black Eagles two stories: one where you side with Edelgard, one where Edelgard becomes your enemy. That, to me, has nothing to do with "favoritism".

[Timlugia]

44 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

I personally loved Edelgard's route, because I find myself agreeing with a lot of things she says and wants to do:

• get rid of the church (Rhea creeped me out the moment I saw her)
• abolish the caste system
• abolish the system where people with crests are only revered because of their crests and not because of their qualities, and people without crests are treated worse than trash, especially if they're noble - a system that was deliberately created by the church from the looks of it
• appoint people to positions not due to their social standing or bloodline, but due to their ability for that position (a.k.a. a meritocracy)

Ironically, not only Church didn't create the Crest, Church also treat people fairly equally regardless crest status.

Spoiler

Crests were actually created by TWSITD, by cutting beating hearts from dragons as they murdered Sothis and siblings of Rhea. They then give them to Nemesis and his ten generals.

After defeating Nemesis, Empire somehow convinced Rhea to spare ten generals and together they rewrote history to make ten elites as heroes rather than murderes.

In fact, Seteth made it clear in some of his supports that they don't support Crests nor understands why humans were so obsess with them. Crest system is actually a threat to dragons since human wanted their blood for power now (thus he and Flayn had to hid their identity)

 

Many church key members have no crests, such as Shamir, Cyril, Alois, or Jeralt when he first worked for Rhea. They also accepts students regardless their status (but respective nations indeed discriminate based on their own criterias) Ironically, church is also the most ethinically diversed insitution in the game. One loading screen about Saint Serios' day showing like 1/4 believers are dark skinned or oriental minorities.

 

[CyberNinja]

51 minutes ago, Timlugia said:

Jeralt actually recant his opinion after Remire village, saying there was no reason to leave at the first place.

 

and when Edelgard revealed herself at Holy Tomb, she simply order you comply or die, then start robbing the grave. Looking back it sounds like a bank robbery in a movie. Even Petra called out Edelgard as traitor. When I first played this part I was thinking about “How dare you threatening me after you just killed Jeralt and almost killed me”

 

Rhea might looks suspcious till this point, but Edelgard ordered her soliders to kill you just now.

Well by gameplay, yes. By story you'd be fine theoretically if you stepped aside. For myself personally I was convinced I was fucked if Rhea figured out I may have maybe killed her god. I actually thought that was going to end up the context for the battle.

 

as it was most of my units sans Byleth and Ferdinand were underleveled and under skilled because I misunderstood how to properly get professor levels and thus could barely do battles so even in gameplay it was basically only Byleth that was going against her. Warp stride right up to her get a nice bit of dialogue showing she's got some regret.. (honestly what tipped the scale for me)

 

i was predisposed towards Edelgard, had max support rank for timeline, goddess tower, etc. I REALLY wasn't in the mood for killing her and meanwhile rhea did some science on my body and might execute me for deicide. Since my loyalty was to my students first and foremost, I chose the answer that had me save all of them. Of course I was a. If dummy and didn't pay enough attention to flayns supports so I lost my dancer right around the same time I realized why I thought her eyes were so damn creepy and that she was probably a dragon too.

 

so I was really feeling like the bad guy when I started burning down the monastery and punted flaunt through a wall but at least I could console myself that rhea turned into a massive dragon and was probably evil.

 

ill neaten this out later and make it slightly less rambling, I'm on my phone for the best 5 hours or so. Suffice to say I stumbled through possibly the smoothest possible entry into her route.

[dragonlordsd]

1 hour ago, DragonFlames said:

I personally loved Edelgard's route, because I find myself agreeing with a lot of things she says and wants to do:

Please do not enact these feelings in real life. 😉