Jump to content

What are your thoughts on Alear?


PostZordem
 Share

Recommended Posts

So Alear's going to be the avatar character of Fire Emblem Engage. Compared to past avatar characters like Robin, Corrin and Byleth, Alear certainly stands out the most among the lot. That's most likely due to Alear's dual hair colors and heterochromia, which I think looks good together. It certainly looks unique if anything, and goes quite well with Alear's cool-looking outfit. It may have resulted in a plethora of Pepsi-Kun and Colgate-Chan memes, but it is a small price to pay for a character that's not just your average blue or red-haired lord.

It appears that Alear's going to be voiced for both the in-game cutscenes and the more cinematic ones (like Shez in Three Hopes), which I hope is going to be the case considering that a certain Ashen Demon hardly ever spoke up throughout the entirety of Three Houses. Also, it seems that we'll be able to customize the attires of the Engage cast, kind of like how the Three Houses characters could wear different outfits, avatar included. Hopefully this means I'll be able to put M! Alear in a dapper red/blue suit akin to what Vander's wearing in that one Engage screenshot.

Then there's the whole thing where Alear's a divine dragon that has been guarded for about a century. This sounds pretty neat, but I hope that there's more to the whole protagonist being part-dragon thing than just mentioning it once to introduce a new gameplay element and forgetting about it shortly afterwards. I also hope that Alear has a solid personality like Shez, though I may be asking for too much in this regard.

So what are your thoughts on Alear in regards to their design and character? Do you like the mix of red and blue paired up with those beautiful white threads or do you dislike the Pepsi/Colgate drip? Are avatar characters in Fire Emblem still a sight to behold or would you have preferred something else? And last, but not least: What are your hopes for Alear's character in Engage?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 123
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

It's far, far too soon to say anything about Alear's character. Being a divine dragon that's been guarded for a century is giving me bad "chosen one" vibes, but we'll see how it plays out. All I can fairly judge is Alear's design, and on that front, I think Alear is one of the most stupid-looking Fire Emblem characters I've ever laid eyes on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's too early for me to judge Alear as a character but as far as design goes I think they're better designed than Shez and Byelth with male!Alear's design being better than male!Corrin and male!Robin in particular. Moreso Corrin than Robin though. Female!Alear is about on par with female!Corrin and female!Robin though.

As for Alear being asleep for 1000 years and the implication that they're a chosen one I don't mind it. Nothing wrong with the player character being the chosen one. So long as they're an actual character like Corrin rather than a blank slate like Byleth I'm good.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not a fan of Alear's design.  The two-tone hair works slightly better for the male avatar.  As for personality/gameplay, don't have much info on those.  I hope Alear is more than Yet Another Sword Lord.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, design-wise, I hate it. No matter how much I try to rationalize it, he just looks hideous to me. The only thing I can rate positively is that at least Female Alear doesn't have any weird armor cuts or explicit fanservice like Female Corrin and Female Byleth.

As for character, obviously we know little right now. It seems they might be continuing something similar to Shez, with them having a full personality and no customization besides gender. I do hope they take some notes from Shez and have more to them than just being a "good person" like Corrin. If they can prove to actually be a fun and witty character, that would be nice.

Really, at this point, I'll settle for any Avatar who doesn't ruin their game's plot.

 

Edited by Sentinel07
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Alear being a divine dragon worshiped as a deity is concerning. The fact that we might have several dialogue scripts and entire supports of people going "Alear-sama, ur so divine and awesome and the best and-" worries me a lot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, CyberZord said:

It appears that Alear's going to be voiced for both the in-game cutscenes and the more cinematic ones (like Shez in Three Hopes), which I hope is going to be the case considering that a certain Ashen Demon hardly ever spoke up throughout the entirety of Three Houses. Also, it seems that we'll be able to customize the attires of the Engage cast, kind of like how the Three Houses characters could wear different outfits, avatar included. Hopefully this means I'll be able to put M! Alear in a dapper red/blue suit akin to what Vander's wearing in that one Engage screenshot.

Then there's the whole thing where Alear's a divine dragon that has been guarded for about a century. This sounds pretty neat, but I hope that there's more to the whole protagonist being part-dragon thing than just mentioning it once to introduce a new gameplay element and forgetting about it shortly afterwards. I also hope that Alear has a solid personality like Shez, though I may be asking for too much in this regard.

if only not for the hair color, then i would say female alear looks very nice in the box art. I always have a soft spot for long-haired female protagonist. But the heterochromia is distracting, because it uses the same trick to differentiate male/female version of MC: by making female character eye bigger now it catches my attention too hard. first byleth now this. i know drawing face is hard, but past FE dont have this problem, because they werent forced to make one character with two gender.

the attire changes is nice. altho imo alear outfit is already good for a Lord. except maybe the strap-thingy that run across his jacket (?) to kneepad. dunno what to make of that. but at least the upper body looks great. while female alear strap thingy connected to her skirt which makes more sense i think. 

i hope alear is more of Tiki than byleth/corrin. i mean, i hope their dragon connection to the story is more prominent and relevant than just background story to hype things. also dragon transformation that looks cool hopefully.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nothing but red flags. That are painted blue on one side for some reason. I'm thinking this time around I'll just skip all the MC supports rather than give them their air time. I have never once witnessed a single 6 out of 10 or better support chain involving an avatar, so it seems like a fair bet I'll be saving some time and getting back to the gameplay quicker with that strategy. I don't like the faux-isekai angle of having a character wake up in a future they don't know and not treat that as the tragedy it is. Alear being able to speak is promising, but he has no connection to this world. Probably won't mention a single event or person he knew in his previous life. The word "Amnesia" is likely to be spoken in the game's first hour. There's a non zero chance Alear will be totally inoffensive - that none of these fears will be realized, but at this juncture I've got no hopes pinned on the game's narrative. We are God with a capital G, the enemy is literally zombies, this is turn your brain off/power fantasy time. From that lens, Alear may be a low key great design.

Edited by Zapp Branniglenn
Link to comment
Share on other sites

When Robin first dropped, I hated getting a self-insert that was more than a background character. The design didn't bother me much, but I wasn't the biggest fan. After playing the game I didn't mind Robin as much, his personality was pretty fitting for a player self-insert into a stratgey game. His design I got used to very easily. Only thing I still disliked was him being a "chosen one", which I don't really like for a main character in a game.

Then there came Corrin, Yet another chosen one self insert, this time with an even more ridiculous outfit. Getting this design made me appreciate Robin so much more. Playing the game I found out both the characters and the story were terrible, but the gameplay I liked and I decided to solely focus on that. It was fine after shifting my focus.

After a great SoV we went back to chosen one self insert hell with the first trailers for Three Houses. Again I hated the self insert design with Byleth, but I really liked the rest of the character designs so I gave it a chance. It is now one of my favorite games. Byleth being a silent protagonist really helps pushing the rest of the cast forward, and I got used to the design fairly easily.

And now, first trailer for Engage, I'm not certain Alear is a self insert (did we get that confirmed? Or is he just our lord?) but he certainly is a chosen one. And I find the design even more ridiculous than the previous 3 combined. We haven't seen anything on his personality yet so I can't speak for that, but the design is so cringe. I've heard someone say it looks like a 12 year old's fanfic OC on Deviantart, and that's exactly how it feels for me. (Not that there's anything wrong with fanfic OCs from 12 year olds on dA, but it is wrong when they appear as main character in a mainline FE game.)

But it seems like some people actually do like him, so I guess I'll let it slide. It seems like there actually are other characters I might like, which is more than I can say for Fates, and the gameplay looks good. No use dwelling on the main character's design when there's seemingly better stuff to focus on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There still isn't enough information about them to really have many thoughts though I do have a few.

I find there design endearing? I don't know if that's the right word but I think seeing that the leaked design was real, I found it so funny that I started to like their design lol.  M!Alear definitely looks better imo, but I'm sure F!Alear will grow on me, I just find the extremely long red/blue hair is a bit much. Aside from the hair colour, I do think their design is rather solid however, on par with Robin who has one of my favourite designs in terms of avatars/customisable MCs. I do wish we would go back to when the male and female versions had the same or near enough the same outfits though.

As for their potential personality/plot, I am worried for typical 'Omg Alear-sama, you're so amazing'. Since we'll probably have a war, I do hope Alear gets criticised for being out for 1000 years while a war rages or smth like that. I just hope they aren't like Corrin in terms of being praised 24/7 for everything. Though, considering how they have been set up, I wont get too annoyed if they are treated as such since the fact they are the divine dragon, its setting up for that. I hope their personality makes up for it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't mind the design. I like M!Alear's outfit and F!Alear's outfit is alright. As for the hair, it's growing on me, but I think it could've been better; I've seen characters pull off having two hair colours and manage to look cool, so I do think Alear's hair could've worked, but it really doesn't. I do agree with @Azz that, if FE's going to continue having avatar protagonists, they should go back to having the male and female versions wear essentially the same outfits.

As for the character, I really like the idea that Alear is a divine dragon that's been asleep for 1,000 years. Fates teased a similar idea of a dragon protagonist with Corrin being half-dragon, but Corrin being half-dragon was relevant for all of one chapter before being pretty much completely forgotten by the game. I really hope this isn't the case with Alear; I really hope that Alear being a dragon is completely vital to the plot and is present throughout the game. This is FE's second attempt at a dragon protagonist; I really hope that they properly develop and explore the idea this time.

Alear having voice acting this time around is a good idea. With Byleth, I once argued that Byleth isn't really a custom character; they're a fixed character that the player is essentially guiding through dialogue and story decisions, not unlike Geralt from the Witcher games or Link from Breath of the Wild, and those kinds of characters generally need to have personality to work; something Byleth lacked for most of the game. Alear having voice acting is, hopefully, an indicator that they will be given a real personality this time around.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"You had 99 options for two tone hair, and they honestly start looking iffy around option 23. Why did you go with #637 and a half?! We literally had to invent hundreds of new options just to illustrate how much of a fashion hate crime you are presently committing!

 

Game looks fine though. 7/10."

 

 

Put that on the back of the box, please.

Edited by Fabulously Olivier
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like it. It doesn't bother me now that I've seen more of the world and aesthetic the game is going for. I may have been happier overall with a more standardish design, but that's a nitpick at most. I'm also pretty easy to please. And yes, the design may be weird for Fire Emblem as a whole, but it's fine for Fire Emblem Engage, and that's far more important IMO. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looking at the art and character design first. Enough has been written about the hair that I don't feel I have anything to add to the conversation, so I'll just say that I'm not really a fan and leave it at that. I don't mind the eyes, though. I have a friend with heterochromia, so I mostly just think of it as the way that some humans are. And sure, it stands out more when you've got huge anime eyes in anime colours, but I don't mind it. There's a lot of variation among actual humans, and I don't have a problem with showing a bit of that. The outfits, overall, I quite like. They're not my absolute favourites ever, but I think that they're solid, and have hit the aesthetic that they're going for. Other than the hair, the only bit that I really don't care for is female Alear's breasts. They just look... I don't know. Weird. Like the blouse that she's wearing has been moulded around them, I guess. I'm hoping that they look better in the game with an animated character than they do in the static images that I've seen.

In terms of story and characterisation, it's honestly too soon for me to judge. I'd be lying if I said I didn't have any concerns, but I'm going to wait to see more before I jump to too many conclusions. One thing that I will say, though, is that it does seem as if Alear is going to be a hybrid Avatar/Lord in the same vein as Corrin. Robin had Chrom and Lucina. Byleth had Claude, Dimitri or Edelgard. But from what we've seen so far, it doesn't seem as if there's any co-lord to stand besides Alear. This is not, in and of itself, an inherently good or bad thing, but it would mean that there's a lot more riding on Alear's characterisation than there might otherwise have been. So hopefully they do get things right. Fingers crossed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Personally, I'd rather wait for another trailer to drop. So far, it's an amnesiac hero who gets an sacred weapon right out of the gate. Everything looks good and all, but they're kind of playing it safe by having another sword user instead of just doing something absurd with it (like the Sword of the Creator, setting the Yato on fire, having TWO Falchions). But with the way that the trailer was going, I won't be surprised if Alear will transform into an dragon somewhere down the line. But the heterochromia is certainly going overboard

 

2 hours ago, lenticular said:

bit that I really don't care for is female Alear's breasts. They just look... I don't know. Weird. Like the blouse that she's wearing has been moulded around them

Isn't that kind of normal for the industry? I mean, it's been done with the last two or three Fire Emblem games.

Edited by Armchair General
Link to comment
Share on other sites

32 minutes ago, Armchair General said:

Isn't that kind of normal for the industry? I mean, it's been done with the last two or three Fire Emblem games.

Sure, and I disliked it in a lot of those cases too. I'm not going to start liking it just because it's common any more than I'm going to start liking avatar worship, for instance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, joevar said:

i hope alear is more of Tiki than byleth/corrin. i mean, i hope their dragon connection to the story is more prominent and relevant than just background story to hype things. also dragon transformation that looks cool hopefully.

If them turning into a dragon is a thing, then yeah hopefully it's actually a major thing.

It always mind-boggled me how much of a non-factor Corrin turning into a dragon was. It literally never comes up outside of Chapter 5 outside of Kana's Paralogue. Heck, they never even bother showing things like whether the Hoshido and Nohrian siblings knew about it before hand or if Corrin knew (since they're not too surprised by it) among many other questions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

People need to stop pre-judging them just because "they're an avatar." They're not even an Avatar. The only customization is their gender and possibly name and they actually talk. We've literally only had one trailer. Maybe we should give them a chance. Would anyone being this upset over them being a divine dragon if they weren't "an avatar?" So the main character of a JRPG is a super special chosen one. Whoop-d-doo. That's almost every JRPG protagonist.

No one whines about other non-"avatar" lords being worshipped by the rest of the army.

Edited by Troublesome Knight
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Armchair General said:

Personally, I'd rather wait for another trailer to drop. So far, it's an amnesiac hero who gets an sacred weapon right out of the gate. Everything looks good and all, but they're kind of playing it safe by having another sword user instead of just doing something absurd with it (like the Sword of the Creator, setting the Yato on fire, having TWO Falchions). But with the way that the

Awakening totally should have done that. Whalhart wielding Alm's Falchion and when Chrom kills him he takes it and dual wields. That would have been great XD A tad silly given the shape of the swords, but still great.

1 hour ago, Sentinel07 said:

If them turning into a dragon is a thing, then yeah hopefully it's actually a major thing.

It always mind-boggled me how much of a non-factor Corrin turning into a dragon was. It literally never comes up outside of Chapter 5 outside of Kana's Paralogue. Heck, they never even bother showing things like whether the Hoshido and Nohrian siblings knew about it before hand or if Corrin knew (since they're not too surprised by it) among many other questions.

It does influence the plot in one more way, but it's so underplayed you're likely to forget it's important until the game outright tells you. I'm talking about when Garon transforms into a dragon at the end of Birthright. When I first played I was like "What the hell? He's turned into a dragon. That came out of nowhere." But then he points out Corrin can transform into a dragon so why not Garon and I had to revise my thought process to "Wow that came distinctly not out of nowhere,  so much so it was unexpected." XD Does make one wonder what Xander and Ryoma and the rest would look like as dragons, Anankos obviously played a part in Garon being able to do it but the potential should be there for all of them (maybe the Nohr siblings would look just like Garon as blight dragons but the Hoshido do as could look like anything).

Course Garon being a dragon has very little to no direct impact on the story and is just done to make a more climactic final boss. So it could be removed from the story without missing a beat. In other words, yeah, Corrin bro g a dragon is hugely irrelevant. 

Edited by Jotari
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Jotari said:

It dies influence the plot in one more way,

Does it tho? I mean not necessarily them turning into a dragon but more so the person responsible for them being able to do so, he who cannot be named aka the Silent Dragon. It’s not Corrin who influences the story but the fact he’s their father. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

52 minutes ago, Troublesome Knight said:

People need to stop pre-judging them just because "they're an avatar." They're not even an Avatar. The only customization is their gender and possibly name and they actually talk. We've literally only had one trailer. Maybe we should give them a chance. Would anyone being this upset over them being a divine dragon if they weren't "an avatar?" So the main character of a JRPG is a super special chosen one. Whoop-d-doo. That's almost every JRPG protagonist.

No one whines about other non-"avatar" lords being worshipped by the rest of the army.

Because my past experiences with FE avatar is that Byleth is an literal NPC, the point of being an avatar is moot with Corrin, and both Shez and Robin are capable of pulling off the self-insert routine without being too weird about it.

So far, it's essentially an coin toss on how good the writing is for them. As it is, all four of these were shoved into an ongoing conflict; but it's only an question of just how well they interact with the rest of the cast. With Alear, the writing might be good; with being the local dragon god and all. But it can easily spiral into mindless hero worship for doing something mundane

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...