Florete

I'm saying that awkwardness comes with the territory. S rank is romantic for almost everyone in Three Houses. I think it's just Alois and Gilbert who aren't. Even Hanneman, Rhea, and Sothis S ranks are clearly romantic. Maybe you're right about Alois, but this is about more than just him (and there are other issues with that one, anyway).

I'm pretty sure that's not a thing. I mean, it's not that I necessarily disagree with all of this, but it's not always clear what's strictly platonic and what could turn romantic. A conversation that you see as platonic, someone else might see as romantic, or at least having romantic undertones, and vice versa. Fire Emblem letting the player choose their own partner and often also play matchmaker for others is always going to result in some level of awkwardness, whether it be support chains going from seemingly platonic to romantic instantly, or everyone seeming to want to smooch everyone else at the same time. This specifically, though: I do disagree with. Players have been conditioned to understand that S rank is romance, regardless of what happens before then. Suddenly pulling the rug out from beneath them with no warning is bad form, imo.

User reviews have their issues, but I definitely take them more seriously than critic reviews. The only game "critics" I take seriously are specific individuals that I've come to trust, who are usually not considered critics to begin with. Companies like IGN and Polygon are a joke to me. Review bombing (and the less common review boosting) is an issue for sure, but some sites have systems in place to counteract that.

I do like the idea of certain pairs being platonic. I Pact Ring'd Veyle in my maddening run knowing it was going to be a super-best-sisters ending and not some awkward, forced, Fates-esque romance. But as others have noted, it should be made more obvious to the player. This mechanic is pure wish-fulfillment, and getting hit with a platonic ending you thought/hoped would be romantic runs counter to that. Disagree, I think we absolutely should heed those complaints. Like it or not, this is a pretty important part of the enjoyment for a substantial portion of players and it's important to not bait-and-switch them. Children and the avatar's sister being playable are another big reason why such a thing would be helpful to have.

If I'm not missing anything, I believe Eleonora is the only non-Staff in the game with a full sweep effect that has no drawbacks or conditions.

Really wish they would stop sucking Alfonse's dick. I was also hoping the book freebie would not be a mythic this time, but IS is predictable as always. At least Anna finally got her cutscene debut.

I just assume every new nuke nukes harder than the last one, and every new tank tanks harder than the last one.

This just goes back to what I said before: differences invite comparisons, comparisons result in preferences. And that wasn't your original point. Your original point, and I quote, was: I could agree with the idea that, to a casual player, they have similar gameplay value to most players, as Dark Holy Elf stated above, because which one someone prefers is just someone's personal feelings on the matter. But that's not what you've been saying, at least as far as I've understood it. They are not indistinguishable, as people will notice differences. If your intended point is that the idea that Engage is specifically better in gameplay than Three Houses is a hardcore opinion that won't always be shared by others, I don't think there's anything wrong with that and I probably wouldn't have responded to you in the first place.

There is really no comparison to the calendar in Three Houses here. Most of what you get out of the Emblems is from equipping them, so there's nothing to make sure you do before they're taken. There are skills you can inherit from them, but unless you're playing on maddening and/or really know what you're doing this just isn't important, especially since most of the game's best units come after that point anyway. Somniel is not as bad as monastery but still kinda blows.

I think they'll remember a few more things, like: That Three Houses puts a much greater emphasis on things that happen out of combat. That Three Houses makes a big deal out of building your characters up, vs Engage encouraging you to swap out old units for newer ones. That anyone can use virtually any weapon in Three Houses, vs units being stuck to specific weapons in Engage. That Break pushed them to think about what weapon they had equipped, even if they didn't take much advantage of it on their own turn. They'll definitely remember Engaging with Emblems and getting super attacks in Engage, combat arts being the closest equivalent in TH but noticeably different. If they used said combat arts, they'll likely remember how durability impacted things in TH, vs not existing in Engage. If they played the same difficulty on both games, they likely found Engage harder. If they jumped into Engage hard mode because they played TH on normal and thought that meant they were prepared, they likely found Engage a lot harder. You don't have to go into the nitty-gritty of what stat boosts each Emblem gives, or the best skill builds, or how monster mechanics work to notice obvious differences in the games and how they play. Maybe if you're talking about 12-year-olds they'll have more difficulty remembering differences, but this isn't Pokemon. I definitely noticed stark gameplay differences the first time I played Engage, on hard mode.

I didn't play normal, but I strongly disagree with the assertion that Engage's gameplay differences are irrelevant on hard mode. I also really don't understand how they can simultaneously not play the same and neither be better than the other. There are fundamental differences in their gameplay that will be noticed by players regardless of the difficulty they play on, which will then cause players to draw comparisons and inevitably leads to a preference of one over the other. If they play different, people will feel different about them.

Your shpiel about sales here feels pretty unnecessary. As someone who played both Three Houses and Engage on hard mode and enjoyed the latter way more, I don't know how you can unironically believe that first sentence. The two games are wildly different, regardless of difficulty. I'd be interested in your explanation for that instead of a rant on sales and why maddening doesn't matter.

I don't necessarily mind the idea of some "special" treasure being desert items, because I think secrets like that in games can make for good engagement. Boots? That's fine, +2 move probably isn't such a big deal for the kind of player who won't know about this. Silver Card? Eh...Dubious.

Agreed overall, but the one caveat I'll add is with regards to the treasure: basic treasures are fine, but something important like the Ocean Seal isn't. Imagine playing FE7 blind, liking Dart and deciding to use him, but then playing through the whole game never being able to promote him and later discovering it was because you didn't find an item by putting a unit in the bottom right corner of the map.

If you have to "propose" a new archetype, it's probably not an archetype. They're a thing because people naturally notice them, not because someone decided it would be that way. Personally, I prefer not to forcefully compartmentalize different characters (and even events?) under the same umbrella unless the callback is clear. I'm still trying to get people to stop considering "Oifey" its own archetype.

Wil truly is unequaled...in how awful he is.

Corsair Cleaver lookin' pretty nutty, wow.

Octopath Traveler 2 is my personal goty, and it's not nominated for anything. For a variety of reasons I don't care much for the actual awards, but it still kinda feels bad. As for the actual goty candidates, I've only played TotK and RE4R, and the latter would get my vote. I do want to play Baldur's Gate 3 eventually, though.

Last month's Echoes banner also lacked a demote. Only 1 of the units on that banner even remained in the standard summoning pool (Mycen). The lack of demotes and consistent new units who can't be summoned off-focus is very concerning to me.

I doubt there are any that do just this specifically, but it's super easy to do in FEBuilder yourself. In fact I can just put the instructions here if you go and download FEBuilder first.

While I don't know the quote itself, it's been mentioned in the past and is on the FE wiki that there was a line removed from her dialog in localization with her stating she joined the Crimean army to "meet all the pretty girls."

Sanaki be all: "Right. Rogue Sothe, 'hero' of the Daein Liberation, leader(ish) of the Dawn Brigade, and father of Micaiah's children..." Then Micaiah goes: "*Gasp,* how did you know? We haven't told anyone yet." I thought of this cursed interaction and now everyone who reads this post must bear witness to it.

It actually gets even better: his weapon has the "At start of combat, if foe's HP ≥ 75%" condition, but he comes with an AoE special that will lower his foe's HP before combat. This might be the most non-synergistic base kit ever.

Do we even have an age for Heather? At a glance I'd say she looks older than Sharena, but not by much. Certainly not a decade.

Saizo can warp adjacent to an ally...and has a solo skill...