Did this route seem unfinished? *Spoilers*

[Dalquist]

Edelgard's route leaves a few story threads like Twsitd and her Uncle unresolved (the epilogue tells you they eventually get dealt with but in other paths you actually fight them).  In the Church path Hubert knows where to find Twsitd so it's reasonable to assume he would also know in Edelgard's path.  Combine this with the fact that the path is a few chapters shorter than the others and it seems like they didn't have time to finish.

[De Geso]

I think that is the case - they had to choose between releasing in July or delaying again. It's possible the story DLC coming next year will be a continuation of this route, but I don't know.

[timon]

Yes, and it's very weird, because it's the path that most people wil find themselves in, you'd think it would be the most polished.

Let's look at facts:

- Black Eagles / Edelgard has undeniably been pushed in prerelease and advertising
- Edelgard IS a waifu wheter we like it or not
- If someone picks up the game at random he's probably gonna end up in BE, even the first chapter pushes Edel (in the cutscene you're saving her after all, and she has more dialogue IIRC)
- To not get C+ with her by ch11 you'd have to actively work against it
- Someone on a first playthrough is probably going to talk to at least his units every month, you can't miss her incoronation
- Since Edelgard is said "waifu" and she's your main character, there's no way you're saying "I must stay here"
- For the same reason as above, and because the game works to make the Church as suspicious as possible, there's no way anyone picks "Kill Edelgard", unless they hate her

Now, i'm not saying Crimson Flower gives off a bad impression of the game, I still think it makes for a beautiful path, and yet if they really wanted to push it so much they could've worked a lot harder to pull in new players into the series. Add in more animated cutscenes, give more space for emotional showdown with Claude/Dimitri. If this is the most common route you have to try and use it as a way to pick up new players for your next games. it's the route most reviewers are going to play, flash it out!

idk, it sounds like marketing was doing one thing and development another. Maybe it was supposed to be completed but they had to release and so wrote off the war with TWSITD in the epilogue, even then, if you're pushing this route logic says to develop it first.

DLC? I doubt it, would be weird for DLC to be route exclusive. I'm expecting something more on Rhea's or Jeralt's past, something that can work for every path. I'm also pretty sure those "additional characters" will be Rhea/Jeralt/Sothis, since they already have everything programmed into the game.

[Florete]

This might sound weird, but while I do think it feels unfinished, I also don't feel like they meant for it to be any more than it is. I felt like this is how they intended it to be, because even though it seems like there are some plot threads left hanging, there's no particular place in the story that would feel appropriate to tie them up.

[Dalquist]

16 minutes ago, timon said:

- For the same reason as above, and because the game works to make the Church as suspicious as possible, there's no way anyone picks "Kill Edelgard", unless they hate her

Agree with your post although in my first playthrough I actually chose "Kill Edelgard".  I really liked her and I was completely on board with helping her build the future she described but "I am the Flame Emperor" and "Kill anyone who gets in your way" which included me and the other students really changed things.  Plus, although you get the sense that she doesn't like Twsitd she's still allied with them even after they killed Jeralt and tried to trap Byleth in some dark dimension.  That made it really hard to blindly follow her.  I spent the second half of that playthrough (Church path, obviously) wishing Byleth could sit down with her and Rhea and talk things out but it was just war war war...

In my second playthrough I did her route and things came more into perspective but still...

Edited August 15, 2019 by Dalquist

[Tharne]

10 minutes ago, timon said:

Yes, and it's very weird, because it's the path that most people wil find themselves in, you'd think it would be the most polished.

Let's look at facts:

- Black Eagles / Edelgard has undeniably been pushed in prerelease and advertising
- Edelgard IS a waifu wheter we like it or not
- If someone picks up the game at random he's probably gonna end up in BE, even the first chapter pushes Edel (in the cutscene you're saving her after all, and she has more dialogue IIRC)
- To not get C+ with her by ch11 you'd have to actively work against it
- Someone on a first playthrough is probably going to talk to at least his units every month, you can't miss her incoronation
- Since Edelgard is said "waifu" and she's your main character, there's no way you're saying "I must stay here"
- For the same reason as above, and because the game works to make the Church as suspicious as possible, there's no way anyone picks "Kill Edelgard", unless they hate her

Now, i'm not saying Crimson Flower gives off a bad impression of the game, I still think it makes for a beautiful path, and yet if they really wanted to push it so much they could've worked a lot harder to pull in new players into the series. Add in more animated cutscenes, give more space for emotional showdown with Claude/Dimitri. If this is the most common route you have to try and use it as a way to pick up new players for your next games. it's the route most reviewers are going to play, flash it out!

idk, it sounds like marketing was doing one thing and development another. Maybe it was supposed to be completed but they had to release and so wrote off the war with TWSITD in the epilogue, even then, if you're pushing this route logic says to develop it first.

I agree with you about this path being the first one for a majority. And it is (imo) precisely why it is shorter with lots of things left unanswered, because they wanted people to play the other routes.

I also don't find it to be a problem that it is shorter and not dealing with TWSITD, on the contrary I found it quite fitting. But that's probably because I view Edelgard's route as the bad ending (like a Visual Novel).

[Dalquist]

5 minutes ago, Florete said:

This might sound weird, but while I do think it feels unfinished, I also don't feel like they meant for it to be any more than it is. I felt like this is how they intended it to be, because even though it seems like there are some plot threads left hanging, there's no particular place in the story that would feel appropriate to tie them up.

One of the problems is that in the Church route you specifically deal with Twsitd and it's Hubert who tells you were to find them so it's tough to understand why they didn't do this in Edelgard's route also.

[Tharne]

3 minutes ago, Dalquist said:

One of the problems is that in the Church route you specifically deal with Twsitd and it's Hubert who tells you were to find them so it's tough to understand why they didn't do this in Edelgard's route also.

Talked about it in another thread : 

"In GD/Church Hubert isn't anywhere near the battlefield and since the Death Knight lures you out it's clear that they knew about their intentions to launch the Nukes, making it easier to locate them (and I suppose he has some kind of lab to pinpoint them) , during BE he was just on the battlefield and didn't know it would happen so he has nothing to go on to find their base."

[Nébulya]

It felt rushed, didn't expect to be a few chapters shorter. And there were some possibilities for more chapters ; some that were present in other paths ; or even dealing with her uncle and co. 

I felt like some characters could have been playable, like Randolph, Flèche or Ladislava. Same as Rhea, Jeralt or even Kronya (who felt like Gangrel in the scene for myself ; don't know why though as she's just a bitch) 

A lot of peoples saw this path has a bad ending ; while I'm seeing it as the true ending. Byleth goes free from the goddess, preventing his eventual transformation into Sothis. Seiros, who became crazy ; finally dies and the world is freed of the church. 

I admit though that Edelgard without the teacher, is totally lost and is doing a lot of bad choices. It's funny how Dimitri is only living through worst shit while playing with him. And the opposite if we're fighting him. Like they're totally opposite! Funny touch.

Anyway, we can say it's a good game. Not perfect, but every path feels like the right one when we're in it. I didn't do Golden Deer and Church path yet though. 

Edited August 15, 2019 by Metakirby

[Etrurian emperor]

I think the path might be a little rushed but I don't think the lack of TWSID is the biggest problem. I can get why they wouldn't want to do yet another final battle with them. Its probably pretty hard to top fighting Rhea in a burning city anyway. I think its more the Dimitri and Claude arc that are rushed. The fight against them only lasts two chapters. Just the bridge and Derdriu for claude and just Arianrod and the battle on the plains for Dimitri. I'd gladly trade the TWSID for more chapters involving Edelgard's rivals. 

[Moonlit Knight]

6 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I think the path might be a little rushed but I don't think the lack of TWSID is the biggest problem. I can get why they wouldn't want to do yet another final battle with them. Its probably pretty hard to top fighting Rhea in a burning city anyway. I think its more the Dimitri and Claude arc that are rushed. The fight against them only lasts two chapters. Just the bridge and Derdriu for claude and just Arianrod and the battle on the plains for Dimitri. I'd gladly trade the TWSID for more chapters involving Edelgard's rivals. 

Agreed. More chapters in the middle would be better so that sudden difficulty spike at the end isn’t so jarring. Also, taking down Rhea is clearly the climax of Edelgard’s story: I wouldn’t really want to play anything after that.

Also, why is Edelgard’s special paralogue a complete copy of Hilda’s?

[warchiefwilliams]

2 hours ago, Moonlit Knight said:

Agreed. More chapters in the middle would be better so that sudden difficulty spike at the end isn’t so jarring. Also, taking down Rhea is clearly the climax of Edelgard’s story: I wouldn’t really want to play anything after that.

Also, why is Edelgard’s special paralogue a complete copy of Hilda’s?

Agreed to one, but not so much the other.

The Alliance and Kingdom biting it so quickly definitely felt rushed, especially since El and the rest of the Eagles spent over five years beating their heads against both factions with minuscule gains only to steamroll both factions once Byleth woke up from their cosmic power nap. I get that in pseudo-late medieval/early modern warfare (only saying that because the ship models all have cannons, so there has to be gunpowder somewhere) the slightest shift in momentum in a war can be enough to push a faction to capitulation, but still, it feels way too quick compared to how long it takes to topple the Empire in the other routes.

For the other point, I disagree. While I do concede that the battle in the ruins of the capitol definitely does capture the image and feel of “the final battle”, my thought process upon striking down that dragon was as follows: “Success! Dragon is dead and My character’s humanity has been restored. Now to give the Bear of Varley this ring and time to go deal with a faction that seems to have nukes. Let’s do it.... wait what?” They did a bit too good of a job setting up the Shadow War only to end it offscreen and it kinda leaves a sour taste in my mouth. 

As for the paralouge copy, I interpreted it as such: Almyra is invading, House Goneril is having trouble holding them back, they didn’t official support Claude and they have reason to be upset with their new overlords 

Spoiler

Since their daughter was slain by Adrestrian forces because she didn’t follow the retreat plan.

Plus, by defending the Throat, El can use that win to help bolster support across Fódlan by showing her commitment to defend the entire continent, not just her interests.

(though it could just be the devs being lazy and copy/pasting the chapter)

[Humanoid]

I wonder how much fallout there'd be if the story DLC they're releasing revolves solely around this route since the other ones are "complete".

[Eryon]

7 hours ago, Metakirby said:

the world is freed of the church.

You'd need to demonstrate that humans behave better absent the dragon designed system for that to be the case (the actions of Nemesis and his handlers point otherwise, note how it is repeatedly only humans in legit control of themselves who resort to genocide when dealing with other species in FE). I don't recall the church forcing the nobility to act the way they do. Mass butchers like the Soviets and French Revolutionaries have a habit of blaming one obvious scapegoat for all they hate in society and denying or excusing their own sins.

Anyway, it's obvious that the routes were knowingly designed so that you never get the complete picture unless you play them all.

 

 

Edited August 16, 2019 by Eryon

[Nihilem]

I also have the feeling that Edelgards route had the lowest amount of cutscenes (just one I can remember). Therefore I wished that the church route and edelgards route would been swapped. Meening that that Edelgards route is the longer one, focussing more on the war, while church route highlights the problem with the TWSITD.

[timon]

5 hours ago, Eryon said:

You'd need to demonstrate that humans behave better absent the dragon designed system for that to be the case (the actions of Nemesis and his handlers point otherwise, note how it is repeatedly only humans in legit control of themselves who resort to genocide when dealing with other species in FE). I don't recall the church forcing the nobility to act the way they do. 

Well the whole point of founding the Church was to control and limit human technological advancement, so to avoid humans from overstepping and have a "second Zanado".

And I'd argue that having the chance of taking bad decisions is better than being forced into "good" decisions.

[Tharne]

4 minutes ago, timon said:

Well the whole point of founding the Church was to control and limit human technological advancement, so to avoid humans from overstepping and have a "second Zanado".

And I'd argue that having the chance of taking bad decisions is better than being forced into "good" decisions.

Not really, the technological advancement was thanks to the Children of the Goddess sharing their knowledge to begin with. Rhea didn't need the Church to limit that.

Edited August 16, 2019 by Tharne

[Timlugia]

4 hours ago, timon said:

Well the whole point of founding the Church was to control and limit human technological advancement, so to avoid humans from overstepping and have a "second Zanado".

And I'd argue that having the chance of taking bad decisions is better than being forced into "good" decisions.

Sorry, but where does limiting technology part came from? Consider Sothis was the one teaching them technology in the first place.

[eclipse]

Yeah, a lot of loose ends.  Story/support spoilers below.

Spoiler

- Claude either disappears or dies.  If he does the former, he's. . .never heard from again?  What did he do, exile himself to another land?
- Cornelia is introduced and swiftly killed.  She had "evil" written all over her, but it would've been nice for her to be a bit more than a throwaway villain.
- Arundel is just sort-of there, like a bad guy that we don't really know much about.
- Hubert/Hanneman hints that Hubert's dad had a reason for doing what he did.
- Catherine's sword drops in the final mission. . .for whatever reason.
- We are missing a faculty member.  I don't remember hearing what happened to him after Flayn disappeared.
- What the hell did Dimitri hear about Edelgard?
- It's mentioned that Rhea goes crazy, but doesn't go much beyond that, until you give her a proper butt-kicking.  And burning down the city while they're still in it?  Really?

I went with the "screw the church" route BTW.