Original Alear

It seems like crests can be bestowed through some kind of process. We know Jeralt got his from Rhea, and the crest of flames in Byleth was also done through Rhea/Sitri stuff. But Edelgard was bestowed her crest of flames not by lineage (though her Hresvelg crest was from lineage I think), nor by draconic intervention, but by experimentation of TWSITD. So you don't even need draconic blessing every time to bestow a crest. Maybe the crests were ultimately only available through dragon lineage/blessing, but Edelgard at the very least got her second crest seemingly without direct draconic involvement at all. That also means it is possible that the 10 elites were bestowed with crests through slaying and experimenting with dragons, rather than being blessed by the dragons, especially considering that we know they made the crest weapons with bones from dragons (all Sothis?). I don't think the game ever truly clarifies if the 10 elites were ever really on the side of the Nabateans, but it's also possible that they obtained their crests prior to the conflict between those two factions arose.

I loved Final Fantasy Tactics (not the advance games, those are only OK). I think I prefer Fire Emblem for the most part, though sometimes the player phase/enemy phase feels less interesting than having units move individually based on turn speed. Advance Wars is also great, and though it's not an SRPG, I think it can definitely be called tactics. The xcom games are also fun, though I dislike that it can be a little difficult to determine how much range a unit has (and thus how good a shot it has if you move it somewhere). I haven't played the older ones, just enemy unknown and 2, as well as chimera squad. The banner saga games are somewhat fun. Though honestly, I feel like my characters are just redundantly hacking, and I don't really get the strategy of these games very much. It's kind of odd that the system kinda punishes you for knocking down low health enemies because until there is 1 unit left on a given side, the game always alternates between the player and enemy team. (so if there are 2 enemy units and 5 player units, it will go player unit 1, enemy 1, player unit 2, enemy 2, player unit 3, enemy unit 1, player unit 4, enemy unit 2).

Are u my enemy? Cute dogs tho

I'm not sure I agree...IIRC tempest blades, there were only 1-2 available for most of the game? While silver blades can be bought/forged in late part 3 and part 4. TBH, considering you can repair weapons in 3 Houses, even the rarest ones, they already seem to have provided that option to the extent they deemed necessary.

I think reason for no golden route was...an allusion. To other games made by Omega Force, let alone those games' source materials. They tried to make it obvious by making 3 Hopes a Warriors game. You can draw some lines of comparison between 3 Kingdoms and 3 Houses/Hopes, not just that there happen to be 3 in all of those. Of course, there are some elements in 3 Houses/Hopes that make a few references to Suikoden III, another 3 protagonist game that had a shared, positive, non fatal ending for nearly all the stars but Luc and Sarah. Edelgard perhaps most obviously has similarities to Chris from Suiko 3. But as the Flame Emperor she also has similarities to bandit leader Clant from Suikogaiden (specifically mask), who I don't think survived his game (maybe he did though), let alone made common cause with other major characters. Nemesis's backstory bears some similarities to the original Flame Champion, though of course Nemesis was not exactly portrayed particularly sympathetically. And Rhea and Byleth is probably most easily compared to Hikusaak and Luc/Sarasai/other clones, and seems to be a potentially more villainous personality in later Suikos than Rhea (though the Suikoden series never directly addressed this). All in all, I think the devs made hints to the player in terms of comparisons to earlier works that there would be some permanent divisions over the course of the game that the characters would get swept up in and would find themselves unable to mend. I don't see ANYTHING about Jeralt in either Suikoden III or Dynasty Warriors/Three Kingdoms lore though, except that he looks very slightly like Mua, a "free knight" from Suikoden III who got almost no development in that game. It's true you could say that no golden route was because of a content size issue. But IMO, they specifically wanted there to be no golden route as opposed to having one - otherwise having conjoined routes or just one route with three lords like in FE7 would've prevailed. Also: for some reason, I was convinced that there was a Ferdinand ending where he loses his rights to his territories. I guess I imagined it, cuz I can't find it anywhere.

Is Garath still in it? I miss when Garath was still named [CENSORED], among other thing.

I speculate that the true good place in the good place is actually limbo in dante's inferno prior to the death door. Though I can't know whether you have a good fate when you go through the death door or just another chance or some sort of strange experience or what.

Oh, I found another one. Astral Throne. It's releasing in Q4 2024 on steam. Apparently it has roguelike mechanics but its battle system seems similar to Fire Emblem.

Flayn is a true lady of distinction and sophistication.

Possibly that in 3 Houses, if you rush to complete the story quest where Flayn gets kidnapped ASAP rather than waiting til the end of the month to do it, you'll get an accessory (some kind of scarf?) when you complete it. It's not a very good one IIRC, it adds 1 charm or something like that. I think Seteth probably gives it to you. It's not THAT obscure though.

Oh, right, the Disgaea series is now (mostly?) on PC. I only played the first one. I think in terms of gameplay it's pretty inferior to Fire Emblem, a little all over the place, but I think the story is a pretty kind hearted tale.

"We're sorry, but we have chosen another candidate for this position?"

Oh ya. And I bet you've heard of it already, but if you like Wargroove, you should check out Advance Wars. It's by intelligent systems! Not an RPG but a grid based game.

I don't strongly recommend it, but there's a game called Dark Deity which plays kinda like Fire Emblem. Check it out on steam if you want. There's also a game that should come out this year called Gales of Nayeli - I haven't looked at the details that much, so it could be bad or it could be good. Langrisser 1 and 2 look pretty similar to Fire Emblem also. I haven't played those. If you liked XCom you could try Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children. Again, look into it, because I haven't played more than a couple chapters.

I'm also playing Trails Through Daybreak. And I've made decent progress in Banner Saga 2 and The House in Fata Morgana, the latter of which I am replaying.

I don't think beast tribe laguz and gallia citizen are strongly blurred - I mean, I don't think they're incredibly distinct either, I just think there isn't a lot of material on the subject and it's just fully established. Begnion apparently has a fair number of laguz slaves who I don't think have any firsthand experience with Gallians for the most part, not to mention feral ones. It's true that the Gallians might welcome them with open arms if they did try and repatriate, but there are still differences (see Muarim/Lethe support FE9).

Do you mean to use canon promotions for everyone, or just the ones who can be mages in either promotion path? Because Dwyer, for example, I think is canon butler - see the heirs of fate DLC.

That is true, I wanted to say that, I forgot to, and thank you for saying it. But I will also say that Sothe's comment seems representative mostly of himself. None of the other Dawn Brigade members seem to particularly show it. I don't know about the overall level of discourse (I wouldn't know how to quantify it easily), but I do think a lot of other FE protags actually get a lot of discussion. Ike, Hector, Lyn, Alm, Celica as well. I feel like Dimitri and Corrin get more interesting/far ranging views, especially Corrin Conquest because so many people probably had issues playing a game where the hero can feel kind of ineffectual given they're fighting on the more unsympathetic side. It's true Tibarn is never an antagonist or enemy unit, and the only hawks we fight are feral ones. But in Tibarn we do get a very aggressive guy who might have tried to kill you or take your money prior to Reyson making peace with Begnion in Change of Scenery. I mean, it's been really long and I don't remember any of his specific lines, but I'm pretty sure Phoenicis was practicing piracy on ships like Kilvas and that means Tibarn was probably killing or at least robbing Beorc in revenge for Serenes Forest.

Does the script actually say this? Sorry for not knowing. I know Begnion is very large, but I didn't know that there was evidence there were any recently occupied countries besides Daien and, I guess, Serenes Forest (which isn't really occupied so much as destitute w/ its people in diaspora prior to FE9).

I think this is the first time I read an idea where a character thinks he has no eye when he actually does...but I'm pretty sure I have seen at least two fictional characters who wear an eyepatch over a working eye. I know one of them is Zaraki Kenpachi from Bleach, who technically is wearing it as some kind of power limiter...and I think there's at least one more, though I can't remember right now. There's also two characters from Xenogears who both lost one eyes and have a strong affiliation (Bart and Sigurd).

He lost his eye to an arrow while pursuing Lu Bu. Search your heart, you know it to be true.

If you're gonna send a notification of the game's progress to ppl or do anything organized like that, include me in the list (please). I'm not likely to purchase it early access on steam but if I like the look of it I very well might buy it if you release it commercially, or d/l it if not.

Speaking of Legend of Dragoon, I hope they port Lost Odyssey someday. Not a particular thrill to play from what I was able to but again, art and music.

No! That game looks awesome! Maybe a bit derivative of Zelda, esp the gameboy ones, but I'm not complaining about more of that yet! If there was some kind of rep system here I would totally rep you for this post.

Well, I actually think FF9 has great art (particularly the backgrounds) and decent music. The first time I played this game, over a decade ago, I got up to the final dungeon. I saved at the first save point after the dragon you fight. Then I deleted my save a short while after because I really didn't like the game much. A few months or years ago I beat the game for the first time on steam. I turned on level 99, skill auto learn, etc around Olivert (the true fabulously Olivier) on my second playthrough. When I was a kid I loved chocobo hot and cold for some reason. I agree that logically speaking it's intensely boring, but the first time I played the music somehow inspired me to just play until I got all the chocographs. I wonder if Metroid Prime 2 was inspired by this game's whole thing with Terra and Gaia. I also wonder if this game was superficially inspired by Scientology.