Special Heroes - Bridal Dreams

[Fire Emblem Fan]

The Special Heroes for this May is indeed the Bride/Groom theme. And this year, we're getting Anna (Awakening), Say'ri, Flavia, and Tiki + Young Tiki as the Harmonic, and Male Robin as the TT reward.

Edited May 18, 2023 by Fire Emblem Fan

[Sunwoo]

I'm so glad m!Robin is the freebie.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

I feel like I should be flabbergasted that they just put Tiki with Tiki...but I'm not. This is so par for the course for them.

[Florete]

Super excited for Anna.

Super disappointed about male Robin. Nothing against him but that should've been someone like Basilio or Yen'fay. We just got legendary M Robin and this whole harem concept is super discomforting.

[Ether]

MRobin really shouldn't have been here, given he just got Leg and is getting Brave in a few months. FRobin could have had her big gay wedding after her alt version was galivanting with Chrom in the flower fields. Ah well, as long as he has nothing resembling Grand Strategy on this version I can just ignore him.

[Xenomata]

Wow, they somehow made a Harmonic Hero worse than Myrrh/Nah for Harmonized Battles!

Anna's been future-proofed for when she's allowed to go up to +10 dragonflowers. That's almost funny if it didn't mean she'll be able to get a +15 bonus to all stats for basically free, before anything her other skills give...

Say'ri isn't doing anything all that exciting with her weapon, just a bunch of effects that make her fast and resist some incoming damage, but hey we finally have an ACTUAL upgrade to Rein skills in Rein Snap. Shame dancers don't get the Movement +1 effect (actually a good thing, imagine the hellish meta that would open up...)

I know Distant Counter (D) exists, but that's really no excuse to give us a Far Save unit who doesn't have a way to actually counterattack ranged attacks. Tikis would only serve to completely wall ranged attacks rather than do anything about their continued existence unlike most other Far Save units with just her base kit...

And then Flavia and Boy Robin exist. Both on horses, Flavia with a sword Robin with a Red Tome.

[Tybrosion]

*An actual new A!Tiki alt that IS chose to make themselves*

Fuck me, why. I wanted to skip this banner but now I guess I'll have to settle for skipping three fourths of it because I literally don't care about anyone else here (especially Anna).

Also, what the hell is wrong with Y!Tiki's face?

9 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

I'm so glad m!Robin is the freebie.

Are you sure about that one? We already saw how IS treated the other male CYL7 winner as a TT unit.

I'd like to be proven wrong, but they aren't gonna have the balls to give Part of the Plan to Groom M!Robin.

5 minutes ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

I feel like I should be flabbergasted that they just put Tiki with Tiki...but I'm not. This is so par for the course for them.

Hey, they at least let A!Tiki be the lead......but probably only because Y!Tiki already had a turn being the lead in a Harmonic.

[Sunwoo]

I feel like the "best" option here would've been to just not have either Robin associated with this banner, and m!Robin could've been Basilio. Dude deserves more respect than to be a demote 4-star with crappy skills and no prf when base Flavia is a 5-star with a prf, and now she gets this bride alt.

That said, I get why m!Robin is getting the alt over f!Robin. Apparently with this alt the male and female versions of Robin are balanced in terms of alts. And while the upcoming Brave unit will unbalance them in m!Robin's favor, it's not wholly impossible for f!Robin to get one of her own.

Really, my biggest gripe with all the bride banners is that so many of them are on mounts. Like, I get that it's good for "meta" or "unit variety", but really who the fuck thinks it's a good idea to ride a horse or a wyvern or a pegasus or whatever wearing a long fluffy dress? You can't even see the dress in all its glory in sprites with the mount in the way.

3 minutes ago, Tybrosion said:

Are you sure about that one? We already saw how IS treated the other male CYL7 winner as a TT unit.

I'd like to be proven wrong, but they aren't gonna have the balls to give Part of the Plan to Groom M!Robin.

I don't think he's going to be a meta unit with cool prfs, which kinda sucks, but at least I can get him and not spend orbs.

Edited May 18, 2023 by Sunwoo

[Acacia Sgt]

Oh, so there was indeed a Robin after all.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

It's only just hitting me that we're getting Male Legendary Robin, Groom Robin, and Male CYL Robin all in the same year. I guess after multiple years of asking IS for more not-possessed Male Robin content, they're really delivering it. Can't complain now, I guess.

It's ALSO only just hitting me that this is indeed every possible non-SpotPass Robin-only bride for Robin in Awakening. They really did reuse the "Roy's potenial brides" theme from last year, only retooled as "Robin's potential brides." Huh. So...who will it be next year, if it keeps up?

7 minutes ago, Tybrosion said:

Hey, they at least let A!Tiki be the lead......but probably only because Y!Tiki already had a turn being the lead in a Harmonic.

True, at least Awakening Tiki is getting the bulk of things here, even if it's for a reason like that.

Edited May 18, 2023 by Fire Emblem Fan

[Some Jerk]

Quote

(That turn only; does not stack; effect triggers only if unit has no Sing or Dance skill.)

What is this prejudice against my people.

[EricaofRenais]

Ok so I was wrong on my guesses, but I normally am.  Looks like I picked the right time to start skipping harmonics, while I like A!Tiki this version isn't good for RB because they are an armor.  My orbs are safe and I can save up for Elphin if he gets in this year.

[Lemmy]

4 minutes ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

It's ALSO only just hitting me that this is indeed every possible non-SpotPass Robin-only bride for Robin in Awakening. They really did reuse the "Roy's potenial brides" theme from last year, only retooled as "Robin's potential brides." Huh. So...who will it be next year, if it keeps up?

Chrom's choices have all been saved; if unnamed maiden gets to be a tempest trial unit, I'm +10ing her easy

[Tybrosion]

Oh yeah, this was something I said in the general thread:

On 5/16/2023 at 12:19 PM, Tybrosion said:

Ah yeah, bride Nowi here we come.

I’m only half joking here because we saw both of her VAs (Resplendent Aversa for JP, Kid Rebecca for EN) last month.

This exact thing ended up being wrong, but we still got a dragon loli in a wedding dress anyways.

13 minutes ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

Huh. So...who will it be next year, if it keeps up?

M!Byleth with Edelgard, Rhea (she can be the Harmonic with like Lumera or something), Sothis and F!Shez. I don't see what could possibly go wrong with a group like that.

I apologize in advance to everyone if IS actually makes this happen.

[Ice Dragon]

Wonderful. Time to see how much this game hates me when pulling for Tiki. I'll probably wait until after the next Legendary banner is announced to pull, though, so I know how much I can spare here, but with the new Arena scoring mechanics, there's been very little reason for me to pull more than a few copies of any new Legendary Hero.

A bit disappointing that Tiki comes with A/R Far Save, though, since D/R Far Save is still generally better.

 

Armored Floe is nice to have. I'm glad I didn't start handing out Armored Beacon yet. But this also means I'll need to use one of my copies of Tiki to give Robin Armored Floe for duplication.

Rein Snap looks pretty cool. Based on how it works, I'm going to guess that it's probably restricted to melee fliers.

It's also nice to see one of the novel Canto variants returning.

[Acacia Sgt]

22 minutes ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

It's ALSO only just hitting me that this is indeed every possible non-SpotPass Robin-only bride for Robin in Awakening. They really did reuse the "Roy's potenial brides" theme from last year, only retooled as "Robin's potential brides." Huh. So...who will it be next year, if it keeps up?

Fates banner with the Corrinsexuals, probably.

[KMT4ever]

On the one hand I'm not at all excited by Tiki and Tiki, but on the other hand this means there's now actually a nonzero chance of IS giving us a Duo Hero of Morgan and Morgan. I figured the issue of having two characters with the same name would mean they wouldn't bother, but if they are willing to go that route...

As for the rest of the banner, a huge "Meh" from me. I've stopped caring about whatever mishmash of bonuses weapons and skills give nowadays, and none of the characters here particularly appeal to me. Anna is marginally tempting, but I need to focus my orbs on Tiki and Tiki.

[GrandeRampel]

24 minutes ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

It's ALSO only just hitting me that this is indeed every possible non-SpotPass Robin-only bride for Robin in Awakening. They really did reuse the "Roy's potenial brides" theme from last year, only retooled as "Robin's potential brides."

Yeah they did, and I'm gonna spend a few words on why that is a DUMB thing to do.

It's one thing to do canonical couples (Marth + Caeda, Pent + Louise), but doing a character + potential love interests for that character only makes sense if they have a limited pool of options to choose from. Like how Nino and Serra can only marry a couple guys, or Ephraim/Eirika also have limited options. If you really loved to ship Roy/Eliwood with one particular bride there is a low chance you won't be able to redo the wedding in Heroes (only Sue and Fiora fans had bad luck).

But Awakening and Fates let you marry so many characters to so many other characters that with the exception of Chrom doing such a theme is useless because you will inevitably disappoint some fans. (seriously if they just did Chrom TT + Maribelle + Sully + Sumia + Olivia Harmonic everyone would have been happy and we wouldn't have this problem right now)

Robin, for example, can marry everyone! So unless you married Tharja, Cordelia, Tiki, Say'ri, Flavia or Anna, a.k.a. less than half the options (not even counting 2nd generation) this does NOTHING for you. Having a small pool of characters only Robin can marry isn't the same as Robin only being able to marry a small pool of characters. Most people will not gravitate to marrying Robin to the 4 ladies here just because they will otherwise end up alone, they'll just marry who they want.

So even attempting to do a Robin Harem is pointless because you don't have enough slots to please everyone (or the majority like with Eli and Roy).

Unless... they are dumb as bricks and will give us Awakening Brides three years in a row just so they can please about half the Robin shippers and retroactively justify the effort while pissing off everyone that wants more game variety. I sincerely hope they don't do this.

 

*sigh*

In a vacuum I don't even mind any of the characters picked (except Robin) since they all had zero alts OR are popular enough to justify another alt, but the framing of "Robin and his Harem" is so stupid that it makes me mad. I would have zero problems if they picked a random dude (Stahl, Donnel, Frederick, it doesn't matter) instead of Robin.

Having no theme at all other than "characters from Awakening at the Bridal Festival" would have been better than this pathetic excuse for a theme.

Anyway, I will pull Green because Anna, but otherwise this banner is a disappointment.

1 minute ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Fates banner with the Corrinsexuals, probably.

Wow, I wasn't expecting that this would be the way we finally get Reina and Scarlet in the game, but you know what? I will take it.

[Ice Dragon]

And the usual translation notes:

 

The name of the banner, "Bridal Dreams", is "二人の花嫁の願い" (futari no hanayome no negai), "The Two Brides' Wishes".

Anna's epithet, "Secret Charmer", is "秘密多き花嫁" (himitsu-ōki hanayome), "Bride With Many Secrets".

Heartbroker Bow is "射止める花嫁の花弓" (itomeru hanayome no kakyū), "Flower Bow of the Heart-Winning Bride". "射止める" (itomeru) here means "to win someone or something" or "to make someone or something one's own". There is no direct object here because Japanese allows you to drop anything that is known through context, and the context says that the object should be someone's heart. But this is Anna, so it could very well just be someone's money. Or it could be the more literal translation and mean "to shoot someone or something dead" (literally "to shoot and end [someone or something's life]").

Say'ri's epithet, "Righteous Bride", is "高潔なる花嫁" (kōketsu-naru hanayome), "Virtuous Bride".

Chon'sin Sprig is "ソンシンの花嫁の槍" (sonshin no hanayome no yari), "Lance of the Chon'sin Bride".

S/D Rein Snap is "速守牽制・運び手" (sokushu kensei: hakobi-te), "Spd/Def Restraint: Carrier". "牽制" (kensei), "restraint", is the name of the Rein skill series. Like with the recent Distant A/S Solo, this skill uses single-character abbreviations for stat names, shortening "速さ" (hayasa), "Spd", to "速" (soku) and "守備" (shubi), "Def", to "守" (shu).

Flavia's epithet, "Bold Bride", is "猛烈女傑の花嫁" (mōretsu joketsu no hanayome), "Fierce Brave Bride". "女傑" (joketsu) translates a bit more accurately as "brave woman", but "woman" is somewhat redundant with the immediately following "bride".

Bridal Blade is "花嫁の剣" (hanayome no ken), "Bride's Sword". Still allergic to the word "sword".

Tiki's epithet, "Bridal Reflections", is "追憶の花嫁" (tsuioku no hanayome), "Reminiscing Brides".

Twin Divinestone is "神竜王女二人の竜石" (shinryū ōjo futari no ryūseki), "Dragonstone of the Two Divine Dragon Princesses".

Armored Floe is "重装の聖氷" (jūsō no seihyō), "Sacred Ice of Armor". Compare with Armored Beacon, which is "重装の聖炎" (jūsō no seien), "Sacred Flame of Armor".

Robin's epithet, "Keen Groom", is "機略縦横の花婿" (kiryaku jūō no hanamuko), "Resourceful Bridegroom". "機略縦横" (kiryaku jūō), more accurately translates as "being able to quickly adapt to your circumstances" and literally translates as "[knowing your] resources front and back" (or, even more literally, "vertically and horizontally").

 

EDIT: Translation notes for Heartbroker Bow.

Edited May 18, 2023 by Ice Dragon

[King Marth 64]

It's nice to see a non-Hero version of Anna gets a Seasonal Banner Version this time. Also, I notice that the trailer that Karen Strassman still voices Adult Anna since we knew that Child Anna in Engage was voiced by Monica Rial. It looks like Karen Strassman wasn't been recast for Anna after all since she did still voices Hana few months ago. (It looks like they had decided to give Monica Rial to voice for child version of Anna or it have been possible that Karen Strassman was been busy with Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Arc Anime when recording stuff for Fire Emblem Engage back then?)

Also, it makes me wondered what Heroes Anna sees one of her sisters wearing a wedding dress and gets a reaction since her first Wedding Bouquet capture didn't sold off her sales due to wedding stuff.

Also, it's surprising to see this week's duo heroes were both adult and child form of Tiki. (I don't think had happen before) It makes me wondered if the future Seasonal Banner might have Adult and Child Annas as future Duo Heroes since Double Tiki Duo Heroes happens right now?

Edited May 18, 2023 by King Marth 64

[Alexmender]

Tiki^2 was inevitable and Y!Tiki was already used for Dragonween, although it's still surprising to see the double Tiki on the bridal banner. Tiki is the most interesting for me but I'm not sure if I'd go out of my way to pull her here. I'll probably wait for a Double Special banner to try my luck because Summer is coming and then CYL. 

Anyways, let's check the prfs:

• Anna gets Slaying, Spectrum+5 (up to +10 if you give her 5 DF), Spd based true dmg and the Flow effect. Green bow cav isn't in high demand but she should be fine.
• Say'ri has Slaying, Spectrum+5, reduces foe's Spd/Def based on their Atk (doesn't do anything for low Atk enemies and gives -10 max for high Atk foes) and special acceleration. Her kit screams Galeforcer. 
• Flavia brings Atk/Def Clash 3 to have an easier time foddering R!Lif. 
• Tiki^2 get B!Tiki's exclusive skill, which is just a (as long as you don't get too hurt) better Dragon Wall 3. Armored Floe is the Iceberg to Armored Beacon's Bonfire. The prf has Slaying, effective vs Dragons, Spectrum+5, guaranteed follow-up, Dragon Wall, and B!Tiki's De-charge+Charge. Harmo button is buff neutralization for foes and Debuff negation for allies from Mystery/Awakening. Being a colorless armor Brave Tiki makes Bride Tiki a very enticing character but one can live without her easily. 

 

[XRay]

I was wondering where Distant Counter was on Tiki: Bridal Reflections, and then I realized the devs were probably expecting us to use the Sacred Seal. She got Slaying, after combat healing, omnibreaker, two stacks of damage reduction, Special count +1 on foe before combat, and Special count -1 on unit before combat from her exclusive skills.

Anna: Secret Charmer got Canto, Slaying, true damage, and Flow. The warping Canto seems fun, and I wish they showed it off in the video, because I had to look it up to see how that Canto worked.

Say'ri: Righteous Bride for Slaying, damage reduction, and charge +1. Life and Death is fine since she got damage reduction, but I think it would have been better if she got one of the other skills instead that did not compromise her bulk, and even better if it complimented her bulk, like Surge Sparrow.

48 minutes ago, Some Jerk said:

What is this prejudice against my people.

You cannot have a full team of Dancers/Singers anyways, or else they will have no one to Dance/Sing to, so just put Rein Snap on the nuke, and all the melee infantry Dancers/Singers will have extra movement as long as they are close by.

[Ice Dragon]

24 minutes ago, XRay said:

The warping Canto seems fun, and I wish they showed it off in the video, because I had to look it up to see how that Canto worked.

One of the conveniences of the Japanese skill descriptions is that most named skill effects have extremely literal, descriptive names so you don't have to see it being shown off in the video or see the effect description to know exactly what it does (which is probably why they didn't show it off in the video).

In this case, Canto (Ally 2) is the not-so-simply called "再移動（周囲２マスの味方隣）" (sai-idō (shūi 2-masu no mikata tonari)), "Move Again (adjacent to an ally within 2 spaces)".

Edited May 18, 2023 by Ice Dragon

[Xenomata]

1 hour ago, XRay said:

You cannot have a full team of Dancers/Singers anyways, or else they will have no one to Dance/Sing to, so just put Rein Snap on the nuke, and all the melee infantry Dancers/Singers will have extra movement as long as they are close by.

Have you seen this guy clear Abyssal Hero Battles? Dude will pull Rearmed Heroes for as many dancers as he has who needs Arcane weapons.

Dancers are his whole thing.

[Ice Dragon]

8 minutes ago, Xenomata said:

Have you seen this guy clear Abyssal Hero Battles? Dude will pull Rearmed Heroes for as many dancers as he has who needs Arcane weapons.

Dancers are his whole thing.

I would assume that they de-equip Sing/Dance from at least one unit during those runs, as running the entire team with Sing/Dance equipped functionally makes the entire team have no Assist skill equipped.

Rein Snap grants its full effect even on a dancer as long as it doesn't have the Sing/Dance skill equipped.