Rakath

We've added a new mode to Super Smash Brothers Brawl. It's a special mode where all items are turned off. And the only accessible stage is Final Destination. Also you can only play Fox. There's not much creativity in your strategy, it's all the same. The characters might as well all be the same if you do that too. Even FE11 and 12 had better creativity in their online... well, before hackers happened.

Yes and No. I think that given the mechanics of 13 they could have made a very nice Vs. mode, and while the 3DS is hackproof there wouldn't be the issues FE11 and FE12 had when people had 99 move, infinite turn ones, and maxed out everything tomes. The Statgrind runs would still be there, but those were hardly an issue. I mean, I managed to pull a team together that way pretty well without too much level tweaking. With the cast options, class options, ability options you could have seen some interesting tactics for online battles. But I'm not going to miss it too much that it isn't there.

I meant Peg Knights, Troubadors, Fighters, and Barbarians. Which are all gender exclusive (the first two to ladies, the latter pair to gents). As they won't show up in Reclass for Second Generation characters or My Unit based on Gender.

Yeah, when I tried to figure out how to make a balanced Black Knight for Brawl (before full roster) he was heavy, slow moving, and relied on Warp Powder (Theorized Up+B) to get anywhere. But he took reduced damage at ranged and had reach (sword beams on certain attacks, like a 1-2 range sword does) and power to offset. He'd probably be in the same weight class as Charizard, and just as bad at Jumps. His weight and size can't be factors to discredit him as a fighter, but would probably leave him low tier because he'd lack mobility. I'm not really keen on him being a member of the Smash 4 roster, but he's a possible. He still doesn't feel... unique or iconic enough for the role.

Maybe change the colors of the arrows to denote Gender exclusive classes? Or denote them in some other way?

So... I'm confused. Do you want Nintendo to announce games only when they have a locked in launch date (what they seem to be doing with Fire Emblem and its international release)? Or do you want Nintendo to announce games HECKA early and then while they get tied up in development hell push the release date back by three months? Cause you can only pick one to be annoyed at. I'm fine waiting on an announce date till Nintendo is ready to release. As opposed to Squeenix's announcing Agito SIX YEARS before the game came out, due to its announcement being well before the game was near release ready. I'm also hoping with Nintendo's renewed interest in Digital releases we might see FE12 on the 3DS as an e-shop title. Another thing Nintendo could be considering before they finalize plans. So, to sum up. Chillax folks, this game isn't Dark Dragon so it'll do well in international markets.

It really depends on what aspects of the huge crit the Brawl players gave Sakurai and co listen to. Roster was a big one, so seeing more characters is a definite. How many is dependent on timetable. Sakurai and co are probably already on Smash 4 because Kid Icarus is done. How long they get to play on gameplay is probably going to determine roster. And if they add to the roster in updates... that's for Nintendo to pick. Uniqueness was another big one, so seeing less Shotaclones is on the agenda (points against Roy, Doc Mario, Star Animals, Current gameplay Ganondorf). Balance was called on (Meta Knights God Tier Status will probably get played down, more tweaking to the two Emblemers they got already). Importance (Fire Emblem gets hurt here, but this is more aimed at R.O.B. than anything else). The rest of it is on game mechanics like Trip and how Finals work, but if they focus on those issues then the above get less time, thus the chances of more FE cast get less work. If they focus on bigger roster without worrying about Shotaclones, then giving Emblem more cast is likely, with tweaked levels of uniqueness. Comparatively speaking, if we got Masked Marth as a Falco to Marth's Fox, that would be more acceptable than the Ganondorf > Falcon relationship of movepools. As canon dictates a reason for the connection. Since Nobody complained about Mario and Luigi because Luigi plays very differently, yet is very similar to his original. As opposed to Ganondorf who isn't even the same verse as Falcon, and Pichu + Doc Mario who nobody cares about and wonder why they got in. We could also get back Roy (Heavily tweaked movepool, but Burning Blade helped since it had no similar mechanics to Dancing Blade but motions), Krom, and any other character. If they focus on uniqueness, then Fire Emblem will probably get 2-3 characters. One will be Marth style speedster, one will be Ike styled heavy, and the third will have to be a non-blade user of one kind or another that is clearly nothing to do with the former two (Shiida or Ephraim as a Lancer, Innes or... Someone, I guess, as a Bowmaster, Micaiah, Lilina, or some villain as a Mage). But overall the roster would be smaller, and priority would be given to stronger franchises (Zelda getting a new character, Mario getting new updates, More Pokemon, etc). If they focus on Balance we get characters that are 'safe' and won't threaten to be a new Metaknight. Roy instantly makes the cut (he was less dangerous than Roy), and whoever we get as 'new' would play closer to Ike than they would Marth. No way to predict what happens because this isn't a roster based issue exactly. Similarly mechanics wouldn't allow for much prediction, just that change will happen. Given the early strong sales from 13, Fire Emblem is safe for having reps, no clue how safe it is for getting a strong rep pool unless Smash 4 is some sorta huuuuuge game along the lines of MvC2 (but with a lot of clones) or UMvC3 (With Nintendo not selling a Beta of the game before the real game comes out).

Tricky... if they were I would have called it in Brawl with Black Knight. Most FE villains aren't human enough to really... 'fit' the way Smash Bros handles things. There is no long standing villain role in FE that could be given a spot. Not like Bowser (every game), Dedede (every game), Ganondorf (every game), who are instrumental in their own verses. Same reason I'd never put a call for a Pkmn villain, there's no uniform answer. K. Rool and Ridley are probably the best choices for villain spots right now, possibly a KI/U villain due to how new the title is.

Wow this thing blew up while I was busy doing other things. Anyway, because of Spoiler from 13 I'm going to put all of my little speech about who could and couldn't be included in SSB4 in a spoiler box (And the full spoiler in its own spoiler box): Might notice I skipped FE2-5. Never played them, have no idea where to start on those. Save givin Leaf ALL THE WEAPONS. Personal bias is I want Mia from 9 in, but I know that won't happen. But I can dream, more grounded dreams are Masked Marth on the table for this.

Honestly, I'd rather the SSB4 cast from FE be Marth, Ike, and Masked Marth using MM's real name (which I'm not using here because of spoilers). With Masked having a movepool mixing from the previous two lords. Ike's popular enough on his own to make the cut, I doubt they need to keep shifting second Lords like they do Latest Mons (which will probably be Lucario's fate when SSB4 hits the world). As to the topic, the changes to the FE franchise are a mix of an added western audience and Smash being exceedingly popular on it's own. Most of the moves to revitalize the game can be pointed at trying to open up a bigger audience (Causal Mode, My Unit) but to say that that is specifically due to "Smash Fans" is taking it a bit far.

The Colosseum cutscene that was mentioned showed Masked with the Falchion, and Krom had his own Falchion. Meaning that that scene had to happen after the zombie scene, since Krom reacted to Masked carrying the sacred sealed Blade of light exactly like his own.

Masked being revealed in the heat of battle makes more sense, and Masked coming in to rescue Liz in the heat of battle is a better shock from a known antagonist. Also if I remember right Krom reacted to Falchion during the zombie fight, meaning that had to be the initial encounter. Even if Masked is a mentor, its more likely under the guise of an antagonist than as a straight up helpful person. Otherwise the mask doesn't make sense and the reveals don't make sense. And if he's a helpful mentor in a mask, he'd explain the mask thus being as un-dramatic as you get. Doesn't work storywise, especially with how FE loves its masked semi-antagonists. Doesn't explain the new art by a new artist. Also the DLC page made it pretty clear Masked and Hero King aren't the same bloke.

I leave out Game Ending units because they never follow any sets of 'rules' due to their plot importance. I was incredibly shocked MY in 12 followed the Class Change limits at all, for instance. When it comes to villager it really depends on how many Villagers we get. If Donny is the only one, then the FE2 theory is viable. If we have more than 3 (Rak pulls an arbitrary number out of the air) it makes less sense as it makes the Magikarp characters impossibly useful if each has access to more than a few classes. The Trainees in FE8 were 'useful' but each branched in a different area, and usually only got 1 extra Class choice by the end (not counting Super Trainees and Ewan's access to four different mostly-the-same magic classes). So far (ignoring MU and Krom) even one of the Special classes has only access to 3 class sets (which leads to 5 class endpoints for Nono). If we use the five FE2 class options (replacing Soldier with Armor) as an example for how that might get out of hand for 3 villagers. We have Armor, Cav, Merc, Mage, and Archer. That gives us General, Great Knight, Pally, Hero, Bow Knight, Sniper, Sage, and Dark Knight. Having that much variety and (assuming) a +20 to growths from being a Trainee, and being able to Change Proof around? More than Donny would get a bit out of hand. And those classes at least (save the Mage tree) share enough points to limit endpoints. If we had Myrm over Merc, and Dragonknight over... something, let's say Cav, we lose Hero and Pally for Swordmaster, Assassin, Dragon Master, and Griff. That'd step on MU being special. (I do realize that Donny has Merc and Pally as options, but otherwise I would have to swap out Armor and Archer for Dragonknight/Barbarian/Thief (pick 2), and for the point being made it worked. Barbarian Donny would be silly.) If we get three Trainees in 3 different class set options, they'll probably be customized to the character and fit into the standard 5-6 endpoint model. Which is more than plenty.

*Sigh* Okay, first, coloring between Masked and Marth is partly different by artist, and party different because Masked is lit from outside center, and Hero King is lit directly. If you look at the shading. The only noteable not-explained-by-different-artists detail is Masked is notably smaller in every proportional aspect. Waistline, legs, shoulders, all of it is to give a much smaller appearance. Which could mean younger, female, not eating right (you're so skinny, eat this sandwich) we don't know. Second, Masked and Hero King are not the same Marth, but the qualifiers on why they are different doesn't exclude Masked being from another Dimension or a the Past, just not the same other Dimension Hero King is from. All possible theories (except it being Roy with hair dye) fit with the criteria on hand for the character in the plot as presented. We don't know why Masked is an antagonist, and we won't know for another week. Masked could be an antagonist like Camus, or an antagonist like Black Knight. Personally, I'm still favoring female faker as the best theory, but that doesn't exclude zombie/time travel/etc. Just I think it fits the information we have better.

Given every unit has 3 Class sets to work from (their default, and the two options from Change Proofs), and they are running Villager like a T0 Trainee from 8, it would track not to list promotion choices given there's no pattern to the rest of the cast's change proof options, just that they HAVE options. The Specialty Classes (ones without standard promotions) probably can't be Change Proof'd into, for either story or gameplay reasons. Having double dancers could be a problem. And once you've used the bonus leveling a Villager carries, no point stepping back into villager, probably can only Change Proof into their other options.

Enemy, one. And it looks like Anna.

It helps that we have plenty of storyline viable explanations for a return of Marth. Time travel, dimensional travel, mythology, imposter all work to explain Masked and their presence. So while someone earlier pointed out it doesn't follow any storytelling rules to have a Masked person claiming to be X be X, we have plenty of ways to twist that trope in this story, so that revealing Masked Marth as the real Marth stays a surprise. It helps that we're all old and distrusting and half of us won't believe it's really Marth. The having their own Falchion also helps to both play up, and play away, the explanations for Marth. FE11 (and 12, I think) had multiple copies of the sword. Thus it's possible here to have multiple copies of the sword, meaning the sword does nothing absolute in the validity of Masked's claims. And the explanation in 11 was that the second sword came from a second reality nearby to the main one. The storywriting, at least from what we know, has a lot to work with and is using it all very well.

This might sound a bit out there but... they could promote to Dark Pegasi? Under the idea that there needs to be some large loss to have such a stat boost, having double E ranks (or D/E rank, either or) after promotion and losing your primary weapon level is pretty much unheard of. The only thing like that is Ewan's promotion in Sacred Stones to Dark Magics. This undercuts your concerns about Trou->Falco promotes, maintains use of the magic stat which a Trou would be primarily working on, and adds another step to make a Trou->Falco change happen (Change Seals). And that's under the assumption any Troubador has a Change Seal class in the Pegasus->Falco sets.

I'm still suggesting Masked is a regular human. Sorta along the lines of DCAU's Batgirl introduction. Barbara Gordon dressed as Batman to act as a symbol of support for an event. The act of Batman being thought to be there was enough to act as a rally. Someone pretending to be Marth would also work as a rally point in this world (where Marth is not just a man, but a legend). The fallacy in this idea is that Marth's heroics were due to his drive to do what is right, and nothing to do with a heroic birthrite (like being Anri's descendant). He was a fallen prince who wanted his home back, his people safe, and for evil to SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP. Which got him the army he needed to do it. Incidentally we have Krom, not Masked, as our hero. Meaning Krom is the kid, with a sword, leading the band of misfits to tell evil to sit down and drink its tea. Masked and their role in the story isn't clear cut yet, but it isn't of the protagonist.

Symbol of hope? Marth, Hero King from the time of Legends, exiled prince who defeated a Dark Dragon with a holy sword, leading an army of misfits on a grand crusade etched in history. Nope, no reason that his return might be an attempt to unite the people against this threat. Or be a pretender leading the people to tragedy. Either or. There are plenty of reasons to pretend to be someone whose long dead.

I think the issue with the attack animations is they only showed us the non-fatal ones. As I recall 9 and 10 had separate animations for finishing blows. And from looking at the commercials in the other thread, finishing strikes are allowed to put the attacker on the opposite side of the target. Allowing for a smoother animation.

Sorta, the proper (as close to proper as Old Norse gets) is valkyrja. Which is Valkyrie in English, Valkyrian being a word form of Valkyrie. Etc. It isn't wrong in any use, it just isn't the same.

Nintendo isn't EA.

Most of the Marth art that exists doesn't meet enough qualifiers to be really mistaken for female. The exception would be the manga but EVERYONE looked girly in that. It was just the art style of the series. He's always drawn with a more heart-shaped face which is usually saved for females (exception: FE11, his face is blockier) and in FE12's art he has a slight waist-hip ratio due to the tight belts on him, but he isn't at the level of waist-hip that Luci or Eztel has. So mostly its a holdover from stupid Melee players who assumed since it wasn't Link, and wasn't the pinnacle of manly Captain Falcon, it must be a girl.