NekoKnight

At first I thought the thread title was "Relate Fates to your life" and thought "A disappointing story!" I think it's important to keep in mind that while the setting, factions, names and designs take inspiration from real world cultures, they are not intended to be exactly the same or from a single source. It won't fit neatly in any place or time period. Another thing too is that Fates does a poor job at world building most of the connections we try to make will simply be headcanon. You make some good analytical points, however. I don't see any Ryukuan influence but it's possible that the Fire Tribe takes some cues from the Ainu ("wild" people living in the far north). The weather of the continent is a curious thing, but for a place as desolate as Nohr being so close to a verdant place like Hoshido, I can only offer the explanation of "magic".

The artwork is really hit and miss. I know it's a lot of work to be done but they could really use some quality control. Some of them (especially Pieri's) look great but a lot of others have bizarre proportions. Speaking as a teacher in Japan, most students seem to be taught to romanize words with the literal transcription of Japanese characters (such as シュ = 'syu') but I don't really care for it. It makes sense from a linguistic point of view but in practice you get all sorts of oddities like Tsubaki being written as Tubaki, which doesn't say much for the correct pronunciation. For アシュラ, I think either Ashura or Asura is fine (although I'm only okay with the latter because I've seen and heard it elsewhere to know the pronunciation). I think ultimately, it comes down to the individual for what system they use, however. It's a real mess.

How do people feel about swearing in a Fire Emblem game/fanfiction? I know the games proper are generally pretty PG as far as language goes but at times I feel swear words could be used to better emphasize a characters lines. I mean, I don't think it should be as gritty and modern sounding as the language in Game of Thrones but something more mature than "Moldy onions!" Would "bitch", "bastard", "shit" sound out of place? What is the most extreme language that has been used in the games? Some more questions. In the the Japanese script, they will refer to Femui as "Kamui-sama" which could be translated as "Lady Kamui". On the other hand, she's also sometimes referred to as "Princess Kamui". Is there any rhyme or reason to why someone who refer to her as a lady or a princess? Should male soldiers be called "Sir" and females soldiers "Lady", or would those titles only apply if they are anointed knights/nobility? Even if we are to call the leaders of the Hoshidan government "shoguns", is there really much to distinguish them from kings and queens? If Ryoma is the son of the shogun, should he be referred to as Prince Ryoma, or is the title non-applicable? Related to the above, would Kazahana be "Lady Kazahana" considering she's from a higher ranked samurai family?

A family that shoots together, stays together. Bowshido stronk

Elise isn't much younger than him, so it's not too farfetched. I chose Yuugiri because Takumi's insecurities make it seem like he'd pair up well with a maternal figure. Bonus points for Yuugiri being Mikoto's former subordinate. Freud would have something to say about this.

3 non-Kamui options for their respective routes and a 4th for IK. Kamui: Everyone (minus royal siblings with the exception of Camilla) Aqua: Flannel, Nishiki, Joker, Suzekaze Silas: Elise, Sakura, Felicia, Mozume Joker: Flora, Rinka, Aqua, Felicia Felicia: Gunter, Asama, Joker, Asura Suzukaze: Belka, Kagerou, Aqua, Mozume Mozume: Flannel, Tsukuyomi, Suzukaze, Silas Ryoma: Kagerou, Crimson, Orochi, Camilla Hinoka: Asama, Tsubaki, Saizo, Marx Takumi: Oboro, Setsuna, Yuugiri, Elise Sakura: Tsubaki, Tsukuyomi, Silas, Leon Marx: Pieri, Charlotte, Elfie, Hinoka Camilla: Luna, Belka, Harold, Ryoma Leon: Nyx, Charlotte, Belka, Sakura Elise: Harold, Zero, Silas, Takumi

If you could change the bad personal skills to be good or at least usable, what would you do? Here's a few ideas. Crimson - Victory Conviction: Critical hit +15 when your health percentage is lower than the enemy's. Kazahana - Blade Storm: When user triggers the battle and defeats an enemy, enemies within 2 tiles of the user have their HP reduced by 10%. Saizo - Explosive Flame: +4 damage when the user triggers the battle but the user loses 10% of his health. Deere - Butlers feat: When user is the support unit in Guard Stance, shield gauge gain +1 (Doesn't stack with Guard Stance+). Joker - Absolute Protection: If a royal character is the lead unit, that character's Avoid +15, damage received -3 Felicia - Absolute Support: If a royal character is the lead unit, that character's damage +2, damage received -2 Gunter - Absolute Offense: If a royal character is the lead unit, that character's Hit rate +15, damage +3 Charlotte - Woman's Nature: -3 damage taken when the enemy is a male. +6 damage when the enemy is a female. Luna - Competitive: When user is the support unit, the user's dual strikes have +20 critical hit Maybe this changes at higher difficulties or in IK but from my experience on the Hoshido route, very few enemies use guard stance.

Even if we were to accept that Kamui is selfish and lethally short-sighted, there is still a problem with his choice. I'll quote myself. When Kamui sides with Hoshido, he is still looking out for his Nohrian siblings and the Nohrian people. Siding with Hoshido means accomplishing almost everything he wanted to when siding with Nohr, minus all the other horrible consequences. The only reason [spoiler=Nohr plot death]Marx and Elise die in the Hoshido route is because of Marx's stubbornness. Had they written Kamui in Nohr as a person who willfully made selfish, but understandable choices at the expense of others (like Joel in The Last of Us), they could have had a compelling character. Instead we have a character that indirectly causes a lot of innocent people to die because he didn't think his choice through. Maybe it's just a matter of preference but I don't like having the protagonist make such disastrous, short-minded decisions when there are much more rational choices available (Hoshido route).

The less situational a skill, the better it will be. -Azura's Healing Voice is helpful for healing scratch damage to your units. -Yuugiri's Victors Delight is useful for self healing. -Rinka's Flame Blood, Oboro's Nohr Hater, Matoi's Prodigy, Hinoka's Encouragement, Effie's Super Strength, Leon's Cold Blooded, Marx's Way of the Knight are easy conditions to get bonus damage. -Harold's Unlucky Soul, Odin's Blood Tingling and Ophelia's Blossoming mind are pretty much automatic bonuses to your crit rating. -Midoriko's Lucky Charm, +20% activation to Smithy Skill, Miracle and Easy Life. For the bad skills you have: -Saizo's, Crimson's and Hinata's skills that only activate when they are close to death. -Luna's, Kinu's, Hana's and Charlotte's (single player only) skill almost never activate.

I forgot to add, they advertised the game as uniting an unruly kingdom within when that's not what the campaign is about at all. There is no rule that one game must have a mediocre story to balance out its good game-play. They could both have good gameplay and a good story. They shouldn't make such a big project if they don't want to put in the effort to make two good games. Yes, that is the one reason for siding with Nohr. Here's all the reasons you shouldn't: -You find out your real family is in a different country, that your father was murdered and that you were kidnapped -As far as you are aware, Garon tried to have you killed twice, and in his attempts, he killed your mentor/father figure and your real mother. -Nohr is literally Mordor and Hoshido is Eden. -Hoshido is peaceful and Nohr is trying to invade them. -Siding with Nohr means destroying Hoshido. Siding with Hoshido means saving Hoshido and Nohr. -Kamui wants to end the war but if he sides with Nohr, he doesn't actually have a plan for how to do it. One might assume that Nohr is intended to be the wrong choice for how inept and foolish it makes Kamui.

This topic is your friend. The gist of the problems are: -There is practically no reason to side with Nohr -The villains are underdeveloped and are just evil for the sake of being evil -Nohr!Kamui doesn't do much to stop his evil bosses from doing evil things. -Kamui regrets not siding with Hoshido if you side with Nohr -Plot contrivances like the Crystal Ball and Magic Throne -Aqua could have avoided the problems in Nohr had she bothered to communicate some critical information to Kamui and the other royal siblings.

Tell me about it. Everyone bemoans Rinka's stat gains but she had pretty decent strength on my playthrough and great defense.

Are Brave weapons that good anymore? I don't know about PVP but the defensive penalties they have plus the low might and only double attacking on the player phase make them look bad for single player.

Sorry, I worded my response poorly. I was agreeing with you. I was suggesting that with the limitations on Nohr's ability to continue a long war/maintain a large active army, you don't need "Hoshido has the best elite troops for some reason" (although I do like them having a superior navy). That's an option, but I'd prefer the main government not being completely blameless (ie, the governent is saintly but extremists ruined their goodwill efforts). For my possible Hoshido story, Ryoma may have offered food to Nohr under different circumstances but ever since his father was murdered, he's held a strong grudge.

So he would go from low-ranked prince to middle-ranked prince. It's not like Kamui's going to have a bad life either way (well, besides Nohrdor being a shitty place). To reiterate, Kamui would abandon his family and culture for a country he knows nothing of, because someone suggested he'd get a pay raise. Even if Garon had no intention of giving Kamui anything of value, after he dies, Marx will be king and he can give Kamui whatever he feels he is due.

Switching to a completely foreign culture to get a minor promotion doesn't strike me as a logical move. Not to mention it would mean betraying his/her family for personal gain. Not a very smart or sympathetic protagonist.

Malnourished doesn't mean dead or dying (although it could lead to that, hence what I said about being susceptible to illnesses). It just means that while they may be numerous and well armed, they aren't in peak form, unlike Hoshidans. That would only be part of the problem (mostly a concern of the poorer soldiers) as Hoshido will never run out of food but Nohr will eventually collapse on itself if all its hard workers are at war. You mentioned most of the army being in reserves, but what that means is that Nohr has the option of mustering a lot of soldiers and winning quickly (not possible because of the Chasm) or mustering only a fraction of their soldiers and not having enough to break the Hoshidan lines. It's a lose-lose situation for them. I like the idea of these problems compounding by espionage work of ninjas. One idea I had about how Nohr gets the advantage over Hoshido and gets past the Chasm is the development of Warp staves. Nohr already has superior magic research (hence all the classes that use magic and stronger healing magic) so it makes sense they would have tools Hoshidans have never encountered. It would let platoons of Nohrian soldiers pass into Hoshido and attack the Chasm defenses from both sides, cutting them off from reinforcements and supplies.

Couldn't you just have something like "Hoshidan soldiers are well fed and healthy compared to Nohrians who often become malnourished and more likely to contract illnesses"? When it comes to war, disease can kill even more than the fighting so it could just be that Hoshido always has fresh batches of healthy soldiers vs Nohr who really has to struggle to support a sizable fighting force. In other words, Nohr can blitzkrieg the hell out of it's neighbors when there aren't serious natural obstacles between them but in a war of attrition with a well defended and well stocked Hoshido, it will always lose. I think addressing simple matters of logistics is easier than adding dubious cultural differences that require more suspension of disbelief. As long as you don't write yourself into a corner with him being a physical god. I recall the manga Bleach pumping up its Big Bad so much, that there wasn't even the remotest chance of anyone in the universe beating him... and then he just chooses not to use his powers and the protagonist one shots him with a convenient, single use, never-to-be-used-again power-up. I think there is something charming about the final bosses in FE titles that AREN'T world-devouring cosmic-entities that can end existence by blinking. Like defeating a Fire Dragon at the end of Rekka was badass but it's not the same as punching out Cthulhu. I guess "defeating the undefeatable by the power of teamwork" becomes tired after a while.

I think the weapon ranks are just a gameplay function to make mono-weapon users not outclassed by multi-weapon users. The idea that Hoshidans suddenly become super badasses just because they train with a single weapon type (so do most units, before they promote) is a little.. eh. As far as the "trained to be warriors from childhood vs teenage years" I think any nation with active need for soldiers is going to train their kids from as early as they can. And again, Nohr does a lot more fighting than Hoshido, so there is even more reason for them to not waste time. So Muse has a bunch of badass soldiers hidden away? Huh... wouldn't have thought it. Considering Garon just does whatever he wants there (like killing the dancers), you'd think they were all under his thumb. But don't let me rain on your parade. It's your story after all. @Those boss stats, Yikes. Easy on the Lunatic++++, Phillius.

I'd prefer not to dump more money into the game when I already spent over $60 on it. I'm not buying DLC unless it's something I really wanted. The witch outfit does look pretty nice. Cool skills too (besides Shadowgift, lol)

Sumia and Chrom both have 5 spouse options. Considering most characters in other FE games got at most 3 paired endings, even 5 pairs is being generous. I think the problem with the system they made for Awakening and Fates is that they tied marriage (something that should exist for characterization) to gameplay customization. If I patched the game, I'd just remove marriages between incompatible people and add in a new method for class sharing (ala Buddy Seals).

-I don't see a reason to have neutral territory. If a territory contains resources worth harvesting (or can be farmed) there is no reason not to take it. Everyone coming to a mutual agreement that useful territory should remain neutral sounds about as farfetched as "Hoshido is only full of good people". It's just human nature to take as much as they can. The same might be said for the jungle. I don't exactly buy "super dense trees that can't be cut". I'm sure Hoshidans like lumber just as much as anyone. -I guess I'll have to see how your story pans out before I can say much else on the Chasm. The setting seems to suggest a lot of conflict going on between Nohr and Hoshido and yet, it's nearly impossible getting across the Chasm so... where and how are these battles happening? -Isn't there a logical inconsistency with Hoshido having the best elite soldiers and them being a generally peaceful people? If Nohr is constantly fighting/conquering, I'm sure they're going to have more combat experience, ie better soldiers and more experienced generals. I feel like Hoshido is the Nights Watch and the Chasm is the Wall. The Chasm is really the only thing stopping them from getting steamrolled. -Maybe you mentioned this in an earlier post, but is there a reason Nohr hasn't annexed Muse and Nortudea? Is there nothing worth taking from them? The reason I chose was Hoshido refusing to directly trade with Nohr, so Nohr allows the western duchies their autonomy in exchange for trade deals (they invade Muse and Nortudea after Hoshido is conquered).

I think I'll get the canon guy over the witch for the gift. I'm still hoping that the full witch DLC will have additional dark tomes. Is it wrong to believe?

For Anna's Gift, you can only get one seal for one save file, right? It means only one character can change their class?

Sounds good so far. I had a chuckle at the desert and frozen wastes not being the worst places to be. Some comments: -I feel like too much of the eastern half of the continent is neutral. If the jungle has no crops to harvest, and the crossroads are neutral, how much of that area even supports extensive agriculture? Hoshido proper doesn't seem large enough by itself to match off against Nohr (although, that could be the point). - (going by the playable map) The pathway between Nohr and Hoshido seems... too impractical for large armies to pass through. How would any invasion begin unless it was naval? How did Marx and his soldiers get past the Hoshidan soldiers at the border if it's so well fortified? This should definitely be explored. Looking at Phillius' map, there could be some special significance to the fire tribe being between Hoshido and the holy lands.