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.

It's ultimately one or the other and we'll find out in 6 hours, but keep in mind: The silhouette has the finger up to the character's chin, which is common for Anna. L'Arachel's Heroes art you're referring to has her twirling her hair. You can see a teddy bear ornament in the silhouette (on the right side of the bow), which is present in the art for most versions of Awakening Anna.

The left one's hair is a pretty good match for Flavia. Compare to her Awakening art: The one on the right has Anna's ponytail and signature finger pose, so it's practically 100% her.

OH MY GOD IS THAT BRIDAL ANNA Ahem...Interesting. I await the full reveal.

Availability is overrated. That's both a response to this and potentially my "unpopular opinion" for the thread. I consider it much less than I used to, and probably less than many people online to this day do. For the record, I played Echoes only once, when it released, on hard/classic, and haven't been involved in any discussion of it since then. I just remember, from both my own playthrough and anecdotal discussion I saw at the time, that they had different statistical strengths at first which led to mostly similar performance overall, but after promotion, due to how promotion works in the game, Mathilda catches up in everything she was behind Clive in while Clive doesn't receive the same treatment.

Well, that is at least, to my memory, an unpopular opinion.

I happen to think she was left.

While I can agree that Speed in many games is really powerful, I don't think making doubling be skill-exclusive would be a good idea. You can just nerf the stat itself, maybe like Heroes and have Speed be doubling alone. Avoid can be calculated in other ways, maybe with Dex and Luck.

I don't think this is unpopular.

Agreed with others that 50% as a minimum is bad and would effectively kill dodge tanking altogether, which I wouldn't like. Any good strategy deserves counterplay, including dodge tanking, and we've seen some come into play in recent games, so even if you don't like dodge tanking, I feel like the problem has already been solved. I wouldn't be opposed to a minimum hit of 5-10%, though. It's low enough that dodge tanking is still viable, but prevents anyone from being unkillable.

It is a trait of those classes, at least that's how I see it. Every Hero is a backup, every Archer is a covert. This I agree with. "Unit type" has been used since before reclassing was a thing, so it effectively was tied to the unit, and it stuck even when it no longer made as much sense.

I don't get this criticism. Yeah, I guess they function like skills, but if you're gonna get picky, any attribute a unit has could be a skill. Emblem Micaiah even has a skill that straight up gives units a new weapon type. And later you suggest having unit types be tied to the units themselves, which is much closer to skills as that would function exactly like personal skills do. Like shared personal skills. I think making them uniform was the whole point and there's no issue with that. They're meant as class attributes. Fliers fly, cavalry have a horse; these have always been part of FE. Now the other unit types, which previously were basically just "not flying/cavalry," have something similar that makes them what they are. And they didn't even settle for just one "infantry" unit type, we got five separate ones, and armor actually gets a true, distinct advantage out of being armored. I guess we could have seen something like a Covert with swords or a Qi Adept that doesn't use arts, but the formula is good as-is imo. Tying unit types to the characters like you suggest is not something I'm necessarily against, but at that point I don't think it would even be "unit types" anymore.

Curious about Anankos' JP voice since I know one of them (the one who voiced the dragon iirc) died. Can anyone who knows Japanese assess the situation?

I wouldn't go into some spiraling rage, but I wouldn't like it since I know it wouldn't be my preferred pairings. For Fire Emblem specifically it probably wouldn't prevent me from buying a game because I enjoy the series enough, but in another series I'm not as attached to I might skip an entry if it canonized a pairing I didn't care for, so I can see how someone who feels that way about FE might skip an entry for such a reason. It also depends on the way in which it gets "canonized." Canonizing a pairing in a Fire Emblem manga spin-off (if that would even be "canon") is much less of a deal to me than doing so in a mainline game entry, for example. As far as the poll, none of the options fit for me. There is definite potential for me to care, but I would not be "deeply upset," most likely.

I said she was plot-important. I just don't consider her a "lead," but this might come down to how you use the word. I guess you can say Veyle fills the role of "prominent female character," but I don't see what's so special about that or why a specific comparison needs to be drawn to past characters. I can see a comparison to Azura, but the other three feel pretty different to me.

Agreed with others that this question seems flawed from the very premise. Veyle's only similarity to those characters is being female and, sure, plot-important. I would never call her a "lead" since she's clearly not in any kind of protagonist position, unlike Celica and Edelgard. I don't think she's "supposed to be" anything except...Veyle, and she should only be judged on the character she is, not the way she fits into some weird mold.

While not implemented quite to my liking, my favorite in concept would be how Three Houses did it: weight + repairable weapons. I think an economy of weapon usage is overall a good thing, and repairs are there so you don't have to worry about running out of a particular weapon that you want to keep.

I see merits in how Engage does weapon levels, but I don't like it overall. It's a shame that you can't do something like having a Bow-based Warrior, since Warriors will always have C rank Bows (Or B, for a specific few characters). I never had an issue (conceptually, at least) with needing to work for your weapon levels in battle; it's another cost/benefit choice the player has to make. I also find it just makes sense that you get better at using a weapon by actually using it. For those who do prefer how Engage does it, is there any middle ground you think would be good? A way to avoid having weapon rank progression feel grindy, but also not have it static? I see some ideas in here already, just wondering if anyone has anything else.

I'm answering in a "no specific context" sort of way. Basically, what would be the first choice before any other considerations. I like what Engage chose, but they clearly wanted a gender balance and maybe made some concessions for it. I'm not worrying about that here...though only one of my choices ended up different. Echoes: Celica. I think she would have made more sense as the main protagonist to be begin with, as I think she represents its themes better and has a better character arc than Alm does. Genealogy: Sigurd, though really, it's a tough choice, and there's not much specific reasoning behind it. Blazing Blade: Eliwood. This one kind of hurts for me, because I really love Lyn, but it is Eliwood's story, as much as I think people tend to unfairly downplay Lyn's involvement. No way it would be Hector, though. Hector is a great supporting character, but even in "Hector mode" he doesn't qualify as a protagonist. Sacred Stones: Eirika. She does end up treated somewhat poorly in the narrative, but she has the strongest ties to the relevant characters and plot beats in the game. Lead Eirika with supporting Ephraim just makes more sense than lead Ephraim with supporting Eirika. Awakening: Lucina. Awakening actually does a pretty good job of balancing its three, imo (and the poll results reflect this), but Lucina is the one who really allows everything to happen. It's the one option here where I think the best representative isn't necessarily the one I see as the best protagonist.

You don't need amazing S rank weapons (though they are certainly not a bad idea), you can make other advantages for higher weapon ranks. Multiple past FEs have had various bonuses for higher weapon ranks. Some ideas off the top of my head are stat boosts or lowered weight penalties. For the specific weapon type, of course.

What I think we'll see (and wouldn't mind seeing myself): More Mario, Donkey Kong, maybe Zelda. What I want: Metroid.

Personally, Three Houses letting everyone use everything is one of my biggest gripes with it, but this actually sounds like a neat idea. I don't know what else to say about it. I don't think this would happen, either by the game with this feature not having fist weapons, or by mounted classes still not having access to them and if a unit has proficiency in it...too bad.

I like her when she's being gay.

I hate to say it, but I'm actually more worried than ever before for this game now. I get not wanting to spoil things, but I feel like they're keeping details way too close to the chest, almost to the degree that it makes me think there just isn't actually much at all. What's making this worth $70, 6 years, a pre-made engine, and occasional re-used assets? Some parts looked like Link had companions helping, which is...neat, I guess. The story seems to be the most generic Zelda story ever, and I honestly got kind of sick of how much hero worship Link got in just 2 minutes. Fusion is...something, but also looks like it might become tedious. Teba seems to have been replaced. Ganondorf exists. Woohoo. And of course, the Vah Naboris in the room is Zelda herself. I get that they weren't obligated to make Zelda playable in any capacity, and technically we don't know for sure if she is or not yet so I could be wrong (and I'll be happy if this paragraph ages poorly), but they've known for years that people want to see Zelda in a stronger capacity, easily in time for this game, so what the hell are they doing with her? I don't know. I just don't know.

Sounds fun. Gaiden/Echoes: I'm going to go a bit out there and choose Mycen. I think it makes sense to pick someone from the other side of the story, and I don't want to go with Alm for...reasons. Mycen still has a nice connection to Celica and an important role in the story overall. His map can be the prologue of Echoes. Genealogy: I think Julia would be interesting to have. Seliph or Deirdre seem the most natural to go alongside Sigurd, but in a way that's kind of exactly why I'd rather have Julia. It's not what you'd expect, but it could still work in a nice way. Her map can be some portion of the final chapter. Thracia: I honestly don't know enough about Thracia to make a good choice, but Nanna or Eyvel both feel like good options. If I had to pick one...Eyvel, for the potential interaction with Sigurd. I don't know what the map would be. Binding Blade: Hear me out - Eliwood. Yes, old Eliwood. It's a bit of cheating to get all three FE7 lords in and it'd be funny to see Lyn's and Hector's reactions. Idunn would also be pretty hype, though. His map can be Valorous Roland. Hey, Lyn's map is from Binding Blade, so Eliwood's can be from Blazing even if he's representing Binding in this case. Sacred Stones: While Lyon is tempting, I'd instead choose L'Arachel. Mainly because she's a personal favorite, but she does work thematically. Her map can be based on Last Hope, Rausten Court. Radiant Dawn: Sothe. Probably doesn't need explaining, but I guess I will anyway; Micaiah's closest ally, knows and reveres Ike, would bring a knife using Emblem in. I honestly don't know what a fitting map would be, though. Maybe RD 3-6 since it's the start of him fighting against former allies and the fog is thematic for him as a rogue. And it's a pretty notorious map in general. And for fun, if I were to add another Archanean Emblem, I'd go with the Whitewings, Minerva + Palla/Catria/Est. Yeah, all four of them would be there, with Minerva as the primary. The sister trio could even have a special interaction with Celica.