Special Heroes: Summer's Dream

[Ice Dragon]

Freyja's Freyr floatie is adorable, and Freyr's beast form sprite itself looks amazing. He's got horns that pierce the heavens.

Freyr looks like he's going to be a red beast version of Duessel, which is pretty cool. Now we just need a green Duessel.

I have the same issue with Caeda and Plumeria's art as I have with Naesala's art. The art itself is fine (though it is admittedly lower quality than the art on his Pixiv), but it just doesn't look like the characters it's supposed to be.

 

I might try to merge up Freyja a bit. She's cute and her floatie is cute.

 

8 minutes ago, Mercakete said:

But her being Oliva 2 ("I'll wear attention-grabbing lack-of-garb, but don't look at me!") is kind of annoying.

I mean, she's trying to get a certain someone's attention. She just doesn't want the attention from the mortal lowlifes that also happen to be around.

And unlike Olivia, Freyja doesn't appear to at all be embarrassed with her situation. She just wants the riffraff to bugger off.

[SockPuppet]

1 hour ago, Tybrosion said:

So as it turned out, there was a Japanese VA from the Fallen banner that ended up being on this banner. It was just Jurota Kosugi (he was Orson) as Ogma instead of Yoshimasa Hosoya (M!Morgan) as Yashiro. Between that and their choice of Harmonic (Caeda with someone who isn't Tsubasa), IS was all about subverting expectations here.

Also, it's very telling that IS would rather give Norne an alt before Mirabilis. Perhaps even they have realized that Mirabilis was entirely pointless and want to forget that they made her.

Yeah in retrospect I am surprised no one called out that Ogma’s VA voiced Orson. Maybe because no one really cares for Ogma unlike the entire fan base quickly noting that M Byleth, Mercie and Ashe’s VAs booked a NEW character lol. 
 

I also think with the JP VA thing, it’s important to note that Orson didn’t have a voice before. So when they casted him, it was probably easy for them to just tell Ogma’s VA to do it because they were gonna book him for the summer alt in the studio that day anyway. Knock 2 birds out. With M Morgan, though, the VA has voiced him since the beginning. Regardless of what the future held, if IS wanted to do a M Morgan alt, they HAD to call his VA in, even if he didn’t provide his voice to Yashiro. There’s a commitment there to the voice that someone like Orson didn’t have, which made it possible to just double dip with VAs. 

[Interdimensional Observer]

13 minutes ago, Mercakete said:

The difference here is that Ogma has accepted that Caeda doesn't love him (he's better off without her, honestly)

I don't think it is love, I'd say it's selfless devotion apart from that. She saved his life when he was a gladiator, he returns the favor by protecting her.

[Mercakete]

@Ice Dragon

Good points. I feel better about it now. Thanks. 🙂

@Interdimensional Observer

Yeah, could be Caeda was wrong about his feelings in Shadow Dragon where she just sort of started off a conversation with him with "I know you're in love with me but I don't love you." and didn't really give him the chance to say anything at all.

[Interdimensional Observer]

2 minutes ago, Mercakete said:

Yeah, could be Caeda was wrong about his feelings in Shadow Dragon where she just sort of started off a conversation with him with "I know you're in love with me but I don't love you." and didn't really give him the chance to say anything at all.

There are very few conversations in Shadow Dragon. You may be misremembering this conversation, which I think is the only one they have.:

Spoiler

Shiida:
“Ogma!”

Ogma:
“Princess…”

Shiida:
“I never got to thank you for coming along with us. There’s no swordsman I trust more. I’ve seen your strength.”

Ogma:
“You don’t need to thank me, Princess. I’m just doing my job. Speaking of which, your father would flay me if you came to any harm. Do me a favor, and leave the dangerous fighting to me and my men.”

Shiida:
“I don’t need protecting, Ogma. …I’ve got another job for you. Protect Marth for me.”

Ogma:
“But, Princess…”

Shiida:
“He’s very important to me. And the world… But mostly to me. So do as I ask, Ogma. Keep him safe. That’s my first and last request.”

Ogma:
“Very well. How could I say no to you?”

Shiida:
“Thank you, Ogma. I knew you’d understand. All right, I have to go. But I hope we get to talk like this more. You’re a good listener.”

Ogma:
“…Princess.”

Shiida:
“Yes?”

Ogma:
“You keep yourself safe, too. Marth would grieve if anything befell you.”

Shiida:
“Fair enough. Thank you, Ogma. You’re very kind.”

I don't detect any love on either's part here. Nor in their New Mystery conversations reviewing those. Their relationship is more "elderly knight and his young princess", fondness, but neither is attracted to the other, it'd just be wrong age-wise (although Ogma shouldn't be that old).

[Mercakete]

3 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

There are very few conversations in Shadow Dragon. You may be misremembering this conversation, which I think is the only one they have.:

  Reveal hidden contents

Shiida:
“Ogma!”

Ogma:
“Princess…”

Shiida:
“I never got to thank you for coming along with us. There’s no swordsman I trust more. I’ve seen your strength.”

Ogma:
“You don’t need to thank me, Princess. I’m just doing my job. Speaking of which, your father would flay me if you came to any harm. Do me a favor, and leave the dangerous fighting to me and my men.”

Shiida:
“I don’t need protecting, Ogma. …I’ve got another job for you. Protect Marth for me.”

Ogma:
“But, Princess…”

Shiida:
“He’s very important to me. And the world… But mostly to me. So do as I ask, Ogma. Keep him safe. That’s my first and last request.”

Ogma:
“Very well. How could I say no to you?”

Shiida:
“Thank you, Ogma. I knew you’d understand. All right, I have to go. But I hope we get to talk like this more. You’re a good listener.”

Ogma:
“…Princess.”

Shiida:
“Yes?”

Ogma:
“You keep yourself safe, too. Marth would grieve if anything befell you.”

Shiida:
“Fair enough. Thank you, Ogma. You’re very kind.”

I don't detect any love on either's part here. Nor in their New Mystery conversations reviewing those. Their relationship is more "elderly knight and his young princess", fondness, but neither is attracted to the other, it'd just be wrong age-wise (although Ogma shouldn't be that old).

I remember the conversation I described very clearly (I was pretty shocked at it), so it's odd that you couldn't find a record of it. It was when Ogma was recruited, or around then. But indeed, there wasn't much writing in Shadow Dragon. I'd have to boot up my copy and review it again to find the discrepancy here from my end; could be I'm forgetting stuff. It's weird that I remember it so clearly, though, especially with as much impact as it had on me.

[Tybrosion]

34 minutes ago, SockPuppet said:

Yeah in retrospect I am surprised no one called out that Ogma’s VA voiced Orson. Maybe because no one really cares for Ogma unlike the entire fan base quickly noting that M Byleth, Mercie and Ashe’s VAs booked a NEW character lol. 

I never brought it up because I thought that it wouldn't become relevant....only for it to become relevant now. Once again, shows how little I know.

That said, Ogma actually is on the more popular end as far as Archanean characters go. He got 128th in CYL5, while Navarre (who got an alt before Ogma) was 156th and our next Resplendent Merric was just 258th.

34 minutes ago, SockPuppet said:

I also think with the JP VA thing, it’s important to note that Orson didn’t have a voice before. So when they casted him, it was probably easy for them to just tell Ogma’s VA to do it because they were gonna book him for the summer alt in the studio that day anyway. Knock 2 birds out. With M Morgan, though, the VA has voiced him since the beginning. Regardless of what the future held, if IS wanted to do a M Morgan alt, they HAD to call his VA in, even if he didn’t provide his voice to Yashiro. There’s a commitment there to the voice that someone like Orson didn’t have, which made it possible to just double dip with VAs. 

Yeah, and Orson wasn't the only recent example. Some others are:

Sonia: voiced by Hitomi Nabatame, who is also both L'Arachel and Catria
Veld: voiced by Shinya Fukumatsu, who is also Solon
Sara: voiced by Yuko Ono, who is also Flayn
Asbel: voiced by a woman like almost every other shota in this game Rie Kugimiya, who is also Laevatein
Duessel: voiced by Naomi Kusumi, who is also Nemesis (and Walhart)
Natasha: voiced by Yui Ogura, who is also Thrasir
Knoll: voiced by Ryuichi Kijima, who is also Inigo
Caellach: voiced by Takaki Otomari, who is also Raphael

Meanwhile on the English side, most of the above characters (including Orson) got their own voice actor (Natasha, Sara and Veld being the exceptions).

[FailWood]

Caeda's caught the fanservice disease.  Definitely more busty then normal.

[♠Soul♠]

Hopefully Norne will distract me from Freyja's rack.

44 minutes ago, FailWood said:

Caeda's caught the fanservice disease.  Definitely more busty then normal.

yeah they always do this shit

Edited July 5, 2021 by the actual real soul

[King Marth 64]

1 hour ago, FailWood said:

Definitely more busty then normal.

I definitely noticed that Caeda's bust looked more grown since we did saw her wedding outfit in Heroes and even Warriors wasn't the exact same size as from her Summer Outfit. I don't know if this could have been happened in some time skip during in Mystery of the Emblem or it could have been the artist's mistake. I definitely saw this did happened in Mae's art when it wasn't the exact the same as from Echoes: Shadows of Valentia.

I definitely might pull up Freyr, Caeda and Plumia, and Ogma from the Banner.

Edited July 5, 2021 by King Marth 64

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, King Marth 64 said:

I don't know if this could have been happened in some time skip during in Mystery of the Emblem or it could have been the artist's mistake.

It's pretty normal for artists to exaggerate features, and I typically wouldn't consider it a "mistake" to do so. Art, even official art, doesn't need to be always be exactly on-model, especially when the game uses a mash-up of different artists.

For all the attention they were getting, I don't remember anyone saying Ferry's thighs and hips were a "mistake" despite her Heroes art making her significantly thiccer than her official art.

[Mercakete]

3 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

It's pretty normal for artists to exaggerate features, and I typically wouldn't consider it a "mistake" to do so. Art, even official art, doesn't need to be always be exactly on-model, especially when the game uses a mash-up of different artists.

For all the attention they were getting, I don't remember anyone saying Ferry's thighs and hips were a "mistake" despite her Heroes art making her significantly thiccer than her official art.

Even if most art could be considered up to interpretation, that isn't the case in the field of likenesses for the purpose of representing someone's actual appearance. This is why there are such things as reference pictures drawn specifically to keep proportions and small details accurate across images. Personally, I think that it's more likely that the artists are used to drawing busty women when it comes to scanty clothing and aren't sure how to both downsize their usual to the character's actual size, and that they aren't sure how to make smaller-chested ladies look good in a swimsuit. Drawing is a skill, after all, and everyone's at a different place in their developing of that skill, even if they're professionals. In a way, it may also be less awkward for the artist to draw exaggerated features, since then they're not looking at the character's actual undressed body. That, too, however, is showing room to grow in the field, since you need to know how to draw body types of various sorts, not just the one you're most used to.

[DefyingFates]

14 hours ago, LoneStar said:

Unfortunate news about the landslide over in Japan.

True, but yesterday was also Sunday; I don't think IS releases FEH trailers then either.

11 hours ago, Mercakete said:

"I'll wear attention-grabbing lack-of-garb, but don't look at me!"

Yeah, that's pretty dumb. At least the special quote was kinda funny?

But as Ice Dragon said, I can see it being a case of "she wants to wear something fancy but hates the attention she gets from random onlookers" too.

11 hours ago, Mercakete said:

Also, called Freyr getting in as a seasonal.

Cool! Congrats! I also hate that having a Y-chromosome cost him a good kit though 😕

And I'm also confused why they gave Plumeria a second alt instead of giving one to Mirabilis; it's Plegian Dorothea all over again!

I'm curious what Norne's stats will end up being. I'd love to merge her up if she turns out to be "blue N!Hana", or even just has 180 BST. Her lance giving Def makes me wonder if she'll be as fast though.

[Othin]

Freyr's kit isn't the most exciting, especially due to its lack of C skill, but I don't think it's bad.

I love his art and sprites.

Edited July 5, 2021 by Othin

[Xenomata]

Well I've given it enough thought to know that this banner... eh. Nothing feels necessary to grab here. Even the inheritable weapon feels weak compared to past seasonal inheritable lances (which it seems we get a lot of, so kinda weird they think we wanted EVEN MORE seasonal inheritable lances). Freya, Freyr, and Caeda might be annoying to fight, but not impossible to fight like it feels some recent units.

14 hours ago, LoneStar said:

I'm guessing she'll get an Atk/Spd variant of the weapon.

Well that woulda been better than what it turned out to actually be (A version where the stat boost is given to Def)

[EricaofRenais]

Well I really like Freyr so I hope he comes home and I do hope he gets a mythic at some point.  Too bad the harmonic is a repeat of games I was really hoping for a TMS or FE5 one.

[kradeelav]

Yawn.  Both of the summer seasonal banners are easy skips, but the orbs will be welcome to refresh my supply from pulling extra Jills off the recent power banner.  Time to hit 1500 orbs?

[Mercakete]

2 hours ago, Othin said:

Freyr's kit isn't the most exciting, especially due to its lack of C skill, but I don't think it's bad.

I love his art and sprites.

I think it's more that it's supposed to be comparable to Freyja's, canonically, but "for some reason" they made him a lot weaker than her instead. If you ask me, she should have been just as nerf'd as him, with the harmonic being the banner star.

[kurito]

I so happy! Ogma x Shiida is a adorable and pure couple.

I think that Ogma loves Shiida, but he know that he is not correct for her...

 

In new mystery... Kris/Ogma: 

Chris:
Indeed... I thought so at first, too. That your strength lay in the fact you've fought your way through gladiatorial... lawless battles. But, having watched you long and well in hopes of stealing your techniques, I finally understood the truth. That you possess the same heart as us knights.

Ogma:
The same heart, you say?

Chris:
Yes. There is somebody inside your heart... And you fight for that person. Am I right?

Ogma:
...

Chris:
I don't know if it's loyalty or some other feeling... But you're offering your body and soul for that person. Much like a holy knight. And that's your true strength.

Ogma:
...

 

Ogma can't say his feeling for the princess... F for him.

But Now is Shiida and Plumeria, I want see them more close. <3

[Tybrosion]

I just realized that (unless if the two part TT means we're getting a third summer banner) the streak of summer blue tome fliers ends here. It was a good run:

2017: F!Corrin
2018: Camilla
2019: Laegjarn
2020: Lute

Also, this is the first summer with no dagger units at all (and the first since 2018 with no dagger cav). Apparently, IS really wants to see how long they can keep Merlinus as the latest dagger unit added before people (other than me) start noticing.

[Naoshi]

Legendary Dagger Micaiah here we go! 

In all seriousness we had been getting too many staffs and times units lately and alot less sword infantry.

Edited July 5, 2021 by Naoshi

[Tybrosion]

21 minutes ago, Naoshi said:

Legendary Dagger Micaiah here we go! 

Nah, I got a better meme than that: Legendary Sothe before Legendary Micaiah. If IS wants to really subvert expectations, then that would be the ultimate flex.

21 minutes ago, Naoshi said:

In all seriousness we had been getting too many staffs and times units lately and alot less sword infantry.

It's not even just infantry swords. Book V has only added six sword units up to this point, while Book IV had added eleven infantry swords (eighteen swords total) by this point last year.

If you want to know where those numbers went, they went to red tomes as Book V is up to thirteen of those as of Summer Mercedes and the amount of red tome cavs has doubled (from four to eight). Book IV, in its entirety, added nine red tomes.

[Sil/phire]

Not really much in this one for me, I think i'll go for a Freyja copy and may be Ogma because I actually like his kit, it think it's fairly solid for a demote unit and if you are F2P i think it's a pretty good grab, Atk/Spd Solo 3 is only +1/+1 lower than it's level 4 upgrade and if his lance is inheritable i think he's good pretty good fodder if you need any of that.

The art for Caeda is childish/cutesie which i guess combined with her weapon is directly pointing to her child alt, so i'm thinking of this Caeda more as a teen alt than her adult regular version. Plumeria being in there is pretty random, but then this entire banner is completely random. I would have prefer a Tellius or TMS banner but i guess that isn't happening.

[Sunwoo]

In retrospect, I'm not too surprised that Thracia wasn't on this banner. Jugdral has only ever been on two seasonal alts: soiree/ballroom dancing refresher banners, and Brigid the actual pirate in the pirate banner. Maybe summer is too focused on being "fun" and "sexy" for the craptastic world that is Jugdral.

But TMS not making it onto the banner in any way is just confusing. They even put Caeda on this banner. So Tsubasa and Caeda Harmonic would've not only made sense, but it would've given TMS a Harmonic at least. Also ... need I say it, another Harmonic with two girls.

[Othin]

1 hour ago, Sunwoo said:

In retrospect, I'm not too surprised that Thracia wasn't on this banner. Jugdral has only ever been on two seasonal alts: soiree/ballroom dancing refresher banners, and Brigid the actual pirate in the pirate banner. Maybe summer is too focused on being "fun" and "sexy" for the craptastic world that is Jugdral.

But TMS not making it onto the banner in any way is just confusing. They even put Caeda on this banner. So Tsubasa and Caeda Harmonic would've not only made sense, but it would've given TMS a Harmonic at least. Also ... need I say it, another Harmonic with two girls.

I think they could justify Jugdral summer units, but FE5 is an even steeper ask than FE4.

The next Harmonic expected is the dancer banner, so maybe that's where they're planning to introduce a TMS Harmonic?