NekoKnight

We need more Duessel and less Camus. “Your Majesty, you know that I will gladly lay down my life for an honorable cause! But these orders- and all of our recent actions- they are not just! If I saw any way in which this invasion protected Grado, I would hold my tongue. But now, Renais is left ungoverned to drown in chaos, and we gain nothing! Why do you wage this war? What is it you hope to achieve? You've sent our men to fight and die for nothing! This isn't war- it's murder!” -Duessel How I wish Xander had said this. Instead we had him being willfully ignorant until Garon screamed at him "I'm evil! Take a hint!" Does Mustafa count though? I thought you had to be on the bad guy side willingly, but Mustafa (like Eagler from FE7) were only fighting because their families were threatened.

For best dad, I'm going with Lord Elbert. He's dadding so hard, Ninian and Nils get a parental figure while in confinement. Worst dad is King Desmond. A world war is triggered because he's so bad at being a dad.

They could have just made them all first gen characters, and then maybe we would have been spared the marriage BS as well. You'd think that after Awakening they'd understand it's possible to tie such features into the story, rather than have it further damn an already weak narrative.

Nomads, Shaman/Druid, Monk/Bishop, Warrior, and Halberdiers (Lance Fighters are cool too tho).

While I would agree that "Humans are flawed. Fantasy races are unified" is a common theme in stories, I wouldn't go as far to say that the other races in PoR, or LotR elves were perfect. We know that Dragons are indifferent to the outside world and that the Raven tribe often preys on human ships. The beasts and hawks don't seem particularly malicious but they also show animosity to Beorc. You'd be correct on Herons being practical angels but that's their unique thing among all races. Elves in LotR mithos are often shown as arrogant, xenophobic, and in the case of the Hobbit, just as greedy as everyone else. During the events of Lord of the Rings, they basically tell the rest of the world "Yeah, you guys are fucked. Good luck with that Sauron thing." Also, as mentioned above, they weren't immune to the One Ring's corruption. If I had to guess WHY this is a common trope in media, I'd say it's because people find conflict and vice more relatable than perfect, harmonious societies. Just taking a look at how some reacted to the Hoshido/Nohr split. Some wanted to fight Hoshido because they are so obnoxiously perfect.

Now I really wish we had a chariot class in the game. Maybe Lance/Bow? Anywho, how about a Fate/Zero!Berserker? Dark Berserker A maddened warrior that leaves a swathe of destruction on his way to meet a chosen foe. Mad Enhancement:Strength/Speed +2, Skill -2 Cursed Blade: +4 Damage but lose 10% health after combat. Weapon Mastery: Can equip any D rank or lower Axe, Lance, Bow or Hidden Weapon. Relentless: After combat, Strength/Speed +1 and Skill -1. Stat changes remain until this unit misses an attack. There isn't really a way to translate "uses up way too much mana" so I thought losing health was the best way to convey his burst damage play style. Stats are probably similar to classic Berserker but with higher endurance to compensate the Armored trait. I am so GAR for Berserker,

NEW RECORD!!! Don't let her skinny arms fool you, she's packing muscle.

I forgot to mention that there are even some uncle/niece, aunt/nephew pairings possible in Awakening and Fates. "Close relatives"

Xander Also, RD keeps Micaiah pretty morally ambiguous.

People here are unusually squeamish about incest. It's part of human history and could be used as interesting characterization or world building, provided it isn't just around for fetishizing as it was in Fates. As for the people saying FE4 has the only real incest in Fire Emblem, y'all are forgetting about all the cousin incest in Awakening and Fates, including The attitude that IS "shouldn't include X in the next Fire Emblem because they always muck everything up" really grinds my gears.

[spoiler=Rejoice, you are among friends.] I'd make a few adjustments. Origin Bullet is appropriate for the character but overkill with Mage Slayer. Mage Slayer: Deal effective damage against enemies equipped with Tomes/Spells. Avalon: After combat, recover 10% HP. Stat reductions recover twice as fast. Time Alter: Select "Time Alter" to double the number of available attacks. After combat, Strength/Skill -1 for every attack. Pragmatic Fighting: Deal +5 damage when the enemy cannot counterattack. And now for a Kirei inspired class: Executor Battle hardened warriors of the clergy that crush the unholy. Melee Master: When equipped with a dagger and fighting at melee range, damage +4. Body Conditioning: Take 30% less damage from ranged attacks. Command Spell: Select "Command Spell" to raise Strength/Defense +5 until your next turn. Dark Blessing: Once per chapter, if this unit takes lethal damage, revive next turn. Blah, blah, blah, stat caps. Probably high in speed and strength. Fairly good defense as well.

Complete pros? You lose access to a unit when you use guard stance. Making your remaining unit WEAKER would make the mechanic almost pointless.

The promoted Tome + Staff classes are Bishop, Sage, Necromancer and Holy Knight. The others are physical/magic hybrids, Mage Knight (Sword/Tome), Dark Drake (Axe/Tome), Seraph Knight (Lance/Tome), plus the Scholar that uses Anima + Dark. Considering my idea of Dark Mages has them promoting either to Necromancer or Dark Drake, a zombie dragon seems appropriate enough. Or it could be a mage dragon. You would need some powerful checks on that class if they were good at both Defense and Resistance. Generals are only good at one and they got the Armor trait to give them a weakness. It's a neat idea, however. I wonder what the class would be called.

What if they had both a My Castle and a mobile camp? The My Castle would be for multiplayer and the mobile camp would change according to where you were in the story, kind of like the PoR bases but with the option to move/look around.

Some proposed name changes: Ragnarok > Wildfire Armageddon > Pyroclasm Calamity > Maelstrom (yay a water tome) Purgatory > Extinction About Dark Mages vs Light Mages, I'm thinking Dark Mages would have defensive growths more akin to Fates' Dark Knights (15 Defense, 5 Resistance), whereas Light mages would have the opposite. In other words, Dark Mages would be a more like physical classes and could afford (more often) to fight close to the enemy (making use of their Heartseeker skill to offset their poor accuracy). I do like the idea of Light Mages having high speed, which when paired up with the Avoid bonus on the Light tomes could make them like the magic equivalent to Myrmidons. About Siege tomes, originally I had thought to make Purge/Eclipse/Meteor siege tomes (3-10 range like in earlier games) but they would need a heavier drawback. Maybe "Unable to use tomes next turn" or something.

To be fair, Ragnarok is already an "anima" tome in Fates (represented by a fiery explosion). I thought Armageddon gave the sense of fiery destruction, and I didn't want to name a tome "Holocaust". A lot of FE tomes are named after mythological figures/events without there being a direct correlation to the spell's element. The dark tome "Fenrir" is named after a big wolf in Norse mythology, to give one example. Thanks for the naming suggestions. I stuck with wind/thunder/fire for the anima elements based on past games but anima could be expanded into earth or water as well. In regards to the Shock tome, and other spells with special effects (ex Strangle, Corruption), I gave them the might of an iron weapon in the same way that an Armorslayer or Wyrmslayer has the same might as an Iron Sword when they don't deal effective damage. Why use Thunder/Flux/Shine at all if you have the special effect tome, you may ask? My balancing worked under the assumption that the better tomes would be rarer/more expensive so it would be easier to create forged versions of the weaker tomes. Another balancing option is to limit the range on the special effect so it's threatening but not impossible to charge in and counter it. My idea was to go back to a GBA style of magic classes (but with a shared tome rank), ie each class can only use one school of magic unless they are are special. There would also be skill scrolls (think Shadowgift) that let you use a non-native magic school. I counted all the unique spells effects in Fates (about 8 types) and added that to the basic E-S rank spells for a total of 14 spells for each. That might not seem like a lot but most games actually had very few tomes. In my imagined class system, it would be Anima: Mage, Sage, Mage Knight, Pupil, Scholar (Mage and Pupil share Mage Knight as a promote) Light: Light Mage, Bishop, Seraph Knight (Dark flier), Holy Knight (Sacred Stones era Valkyrie) Dark: Dark Mage, Necromancer (Druid), Dark Drake (Malig Knight) and Scholar (the only class with natural access to two magic types).

This is exactly the sort of survey we need (although I'd merge 'personality' with 'character interactions' and add in 'plot involvement') to get an accurate reading of what people like. I don't know how many would answer all the questions but I'd like to see the data.

All we know is that people like/dislike things for reasons. Some people's reasons might be nuanced and wholistic, and others may be superficial and bigoted. if you had a separate poll for each category, for example support quality, unit usefulness, appearance, we could learn how the community ranks and appreciates characters (at least better than this poll does). How can we say "We need more or less of that" if no one needs to specify why they like a character? Camilla is popular, so does that mean it would be good to have more strong wyvern riders? More incestuous yandere sisters? More T&A fanservice? What do people really want? "I like a thing", without further explanation, is a statement of little value.

I'd call it an even toss up between a story that bores me and a story that makes me angry. I rate Conquest equal to Revelation for this reason.

I don't find these polls very informative, to be honest. People can like or dislike characters for any number of reasons, including appearance, voice, personality, plot involvement or usefulness as a unit. I clicked "Like" for Velouria because of her appearance and class but she's a very gimmicky (furry pandering) character (sorry Thane). I clicked "Dislike" for Xander because of his plot involvement but he looks cool and functions well. The results don't generally surprise me besides Soleil being popular.

I got the Birthright hardcopy but it was mostly for the aesthetics (and I was going to play both versions). I like classes and characters from both sides but Conquest has way better level design. He doesn't agree with morally ambiguous principles, he's just deluded himself into thinking he's doing the right thing by doing everything wrong.

[spoiler=Revelation stuff] Or have Mikoto do it.

Although Elincia stepping up to battle and leadership sooner (make her playable and significant for at least the chapters where you are back in Crimea) would be cool, I think Elincia's trouble managing the country during relative peace-time is more interesting. Fighting an evil tyrant as an exiled royalty is something that could be handled by any competent military commander. In Radiant Dawn, Elincia is fighting against her own people, and their lack of faith in her. She's essentially battling her own weakness.Her conviction in defeating Ludvek shows more character strength than simply fighting soldiers of an enemy nation. Ike's personal story is relevant no matter where he is because he's trying to prove to himself and his mercenary crew that he is worthy of the mantle of leadership. Hardly anyone even knows that Elincia exists and she spends the majority of the story away from her people, fighting enemies on foreign soil. Who does she command? Why do they follow her? What is she doing in Begnion that demonstrates her leadership ability other than being a good soldier? I have to wonder if it's even reasonable to think Elincia could even become a capable leader in such a short time. You mentioned earlier that you were unhappy with her characterization in PoR because she relied too much on others and was just the plot excuse for Ike to get involved with Daein. But Elincia was exactly the sort of person you'd expect her to be considering she lived her whole life in isolation, removed from military command and even court affairs. It strained belief that Kamui was Mr. Charisma and immediately put in charge of a section of the army, despite knowing nothing of the world. Even if the protagonist wasn't Ike, I don't think it could realistically have been Elincia. tl;dr Elincia is an interesting character because she starts off weak and uncertain. Putting her in Ike's role wouldn't suit her and would be a less believable character arc.

Just out of curiosity, how exactly would you structure the plot had Elincia been the main character? Would the Greil mercenaries be in the game or would Elincia be protected by her own retainers? How would her journey and development differ from Ike's journey?

You could give the computer a unique Purge that doesn't have the second ability.