New weapon types?

[Wintails]

What new weapon types you'd like to see get introduced in future games?

Personally I'd like to see muskets that deal damage based on the skill stat; they also be high powered but occasionally need a turn for reloads. Also boomerangs, which could be used to damage multiple enemies.

[Benice]

Muskets or other similar firearms would be a neat inclusion, I agree! Crossbows, though in a similar vein, could be nice as well. Giving shields a more interesting role (Such as in Berwick Saga) would also be lovely. Getting more stuff like Glaives and Scythes could be neat too, but they wouldn't really need to be new types.

Additionally, unarmed combat being explored beyond just attacking with a brave effect could potentially be neat, but maybe that's just the Yakuza fan in me speaking.

[whase]

I'm actually not a fan of more weapon types, I like the simplicity of less weapon types (though somehow still like the idea of a magic triangle).

What I would like to see more of is shields, and maybe they can experiment with dual wielding. And maybe even make armor and mounts equipables, but that might go a bit too far for a Fire Emblem game. 

[lenticular]

I definitely wouldn't want to see new weapons added just for the sake of adding new weapons. Making the existing ones be distinct but balanced would be my main priority. That said, I think that both shuriken in Fates and gauntlets in Three Houses were well-designed and interesting, so there definitely is space to add new stuff. If they do keep experimenting with other weapon types, then I'd like to see slings and/or war fans. I've no clue how either would work mechanically, but I like their aesthetics.

2 hours ago, whase said:

And maybe even make armor and mounts equipables, but that might go a bit too far for a Fire Emblem game. 

If they carry on with Three Houses style free reclassing, this could help solve the "oops, all wyverns" problem. It wouldn't be as big a deal that Wyvern Lords are overpowered if wyverns were a limited resource. (cf. RD Haar.)

6 hours ago, Wintails said:

Personally I'd like to see muskets that deal damage based on the skill stat; they also be high powered but occasionally need a turn for reloads. 

I'm not inherently opposed to guns in Fire Emblem, but having their damage be tied to the Skill stat seems weird to me. A big part of the attraction of early firearms was that they required considerably less skill to use than a bow. Something more along the lines of Radiant Dawn crossbows would make more thematic sense, maybe? But then, I never really found them very fun to use, so maybe that would be a terrible idea. (For anyone who never played Radiant Dawn, crossbows did damage purely based on their own might stat, completely ignoring the stats of their wielder.)

[DaveCozy]

If we're talking straight out of Three Houses to the next future game, I'd prefer to see weapons balanced myself as well. Swords in particular were mostly bad in that game, with only a few exceptions worth using in that game.

I'd like to see the grounded lance classes actually charge with their lance too giving them a way to initiate combat with a 1-range weapon from distance. Something to distinguish them from their mounted counterparts, which are plentiful and usually better thanks to their movement.

I did like Knives/Shurikens from Fates and Gauntlets from FE3H though. Former with low mt but debuffs and the latter with low mt but with brave effects on all of them to compensate made them distinct and fun to build units with.

Edited July 5, 2022 by DaveCozy

[Jotari]

There was a thread like this not to long ago. And I'll say here what I said there, I don't think new wepaons should just be added only for the sake of having them. They need to have a defined niche in the gameplay system that makes their inclusion actually meaningful. To that extent I would kind of like to see Crossbos make a return. As I do find the idea of high mt weapons that don't take strength into account an interesting one, though not implemented in a way that made them particularly effective in Radiant Dawn. Some method of scaling their damage so they remain useful throughout the game is required, which I think Wepaon Rank could fill the roll of.

And if Crossbows aren't considered cool enough, guns could fill the same niche.

And here are some gmaplay niche ideas that could work for other wepaons

*Boomerangs: Class independent weapons (no weapon ranks): This isn't a commentary on how easy boomerangs are to use compared to other weapons, but more on the difficulty it would actually be to implement them into Fire Emblem's class system. They are a weapon of indigenous Austronesian tribal people. What class are you going to give them to? Tribal Savage? Hughjackman Knight? Hero of Time? Trying to fit them into Fire Emblem would be completely random at best and highly contrived at worst. As for their stats, having them be a 1-2 phycial option for everyone with low might but high durability would work well.

*Whips: Low damage, but set damage: Whips hurt you (a lot), but they're not likely to kill you. I think that could be implemented by making them reliable set damage. The Bulkwark deals 5 damage to all enemies, the Elysian Whip deals 10 damage. You know exactly how much chip damage you're doing. This is actually something Fire Emblem has done before with tomes Shadow Dragon (NES). And honestly...it actually worked surprisingly well there. This could be a good option to throw on support units that might struggle to deal damage at all. Might as well toss on beast effectiveness too so they have a specific counter like bows are to flying units. I also think you could make armoured units immune to whips to buff them as that just makes sense (and armoured units need buffs).

*Daggers: Windsweep Effect: Okay, so daggers are already a staple of Fire Emblem appearing in quite a few games...only when they do appear they're kind of just swords, but worse (or just visually completely the same as swords). Except in Fates where they were debuffers, but that made more sense for Shurkens and if Shurikens come back they could coexist with this idea, which is to make Daggers weapons you can't counter attack. This, to me, is the perfect way to implement thief units as an actual combat class. Thief units in Fire Emblem have always had combat capabilities, and there's always some expectation to actually use them in combat since they don't get exp from doing theifing things. But in most games the thieves are just way too weak to be viable to put them in combat even for most training purposes. In the other games thieves are so good at combat they kind of overshadow their actual utility role. By giving them a weapon that can't be counter attacked you let them engage in combat to deal moderate damage to enemies, while also letting them avoid counter attacks and thus keeping them alive. It's not only a valuable niche for combat (Windsweep is considered a pretty great skill, at least by me), but it's one that suits them functionally and narratively.

Edited July 6, 2022 by Jotari