NekoKnight

Marx < Ryoma. Marx is way too stubborn and loyal to Garon. Plus the things he does in Hoshido. Camilla > Hinoka. Less that Camilla is a stellar character and more than Hinoka isn't given much character. Leon = Takumi. Their characterization seems to run parallel with them being super jelly of Kamui. Elise = Sakura. Cute little sisters. Although I'm tempted to say Elise is better because she actually does stuff in Hoshido. Kamui = Aqua. Between "muh peaceful solution" and "muh secrecy" I can't say I like either one.

No dialogue options but some named characters who show up in missions aren't required to be defeated in order to win. That's the extent of your personal choices after the route split, which is to say almost nothing. The only roleplaying that can be done in the game is choosing to not kill all enemies.

For Nohr, War Priestess all the way because you'll have an additional bow user and you can get the magic bow. Renewal is an amazing skill and dramatically increases the unit's survivability. For Hoshido? Probably War Priestess! You already have 7 characters who can use Hidden Weapons as their default weapon and two of those characters are Maids/Butlers themselves. If you want to get the Maid/Butler skills, you can get them via a buddy seal with Felicia in either route. The only way to get War Priestess skills in Nohr is to choose the class yourself.

I'd be happy to see all the Rally skills gone. Not all skills are going to be equal but everyone should get something interesting for their first promoted skill. Compare Rally Skill to Sol or Rally Defense to Deadly Breath. The latter skills' worth is immediately recognizable and makes you look forward to unlocking them. I've never been excited about getting a Rally skill.

I just threw on some personalities because everyone else was doing it. In the actual game, Kamui has a set personality (naive, doesn't want to kill anyone, Mr. Charisma) and you can't do much to alter his decisions beyond sparing a few individuals so it's basically just a "if I was telling the story, this is what Kamui would be like" thing.

Have you used Substitute? Lancers are supposed to be front line fighters in general so if you need to use the ability, you must have fugged something up. I think I used the ability twice in my Hoshido run. The least they could have done is let you attack after using Substitute. Shove on the other hand has a plethora of uses ranging from moving injured units out of harms way to giving a unit an extra push towards its intended target. I don't like the Herb Merchant abilities in general because it's healing that is 1. reliant on money and 2 it takes valuable item slots. The money problem is somewhat alleviated by the Easy Life skill Great Merchants get but that money could be used for other things. This is compared to a skill like Sol that doesn't cost money and doesn't take items slots. If your units are getting enough damage that they need healing items, then your healers aren't doing their job. I mentioned the convoy because you will need it if you don't want to waste more than one slot on vulnaries and concoctions.

The sisters defnitely need some unique gear but unlimited staves would be too much. Maybe something like "30% chance to not lose durability on a staff" or "status staves have 100% accuracy" or "staves have +1 range". Some of the brothers' weapons need to be nerfed as well. Wind God Bow is what Takumi will be using 90% of the time.

Looking at the total makes it sound nice but it doesn't mean much if you aren't really using that stat (magic users vs physical fighters). You deal one more damage, you take one less damage, you have very slightly higher hit, avoid and critical evade and you are a smidgeon faster. Kind of underwhelming by itself. I'd rather have Seal skills. You don't even need to hit or be hit for them to activate (and it doesn't need to be melee range) and you could be lowering crucial attributes like speed, defense (lancers skills) or resistance (shura).

Mirror Strike and Counter of examples of skills that don't work very well on the units that get them. Falcon Warriors have the highest resistance in the game and Shura have the 3rd highest defense meaning they won't do much counter damage.

Mind you, I'm thinking about mostly single player balance. If they want to make viable PVP and single player, these should be balanced separately (they won't be, but I'm just saying). Stealth is a bit different than Pass. Stealth is a command so it takes a turn to activate and the 'Pass' effect is only for the duration of the ability so it won't be active if you are visible. Only Great Knights, Knights and Generals have armor so I think Pierce is fair. Great Knights have axes and higher HP/Str/Def caps so they aren't without uses compared to Paladins.

Oh, I didn't mean that rallies would have the same potency they do now, maybe something like +2 to all units in a 3 tile radius. I find activating rally skills (particularly ones that don't have an immediate calculable benefit like Rally Skill and Rally Luck) to be a waste of your turn and encourages silly things like making Rallybots. A lot of skills already have aura effects (Devilish Wind, Demoiselle, Battle Command etc) so these would be right at home. I think Shove is pretty good. There are definitely times when that extra one movement to another unit can make all the difference for positioning. Strike Through doesn't seem very useful for the player because maintaining careful unit positioning is far more important for the player than the enemy (seriously, fuck those Strike Through ninja in the the Awakening DLC). Counter is another skill I don't think is very useful for the player, except for maybe PVP, but I don't think a primarily single player game should balance itself around that.

I feel a little bad for derailing the thread. While battle panties are worth complaining about, it's unrelated to my central point, that adding a hypercasual mode invites a playerbase that encourages the inclusion of side features which I don't think are good for the series. You might think things like shipping are totally optional and don't affect your game, but they actually do. Characters are reduced to fetishes and gimmicks, all male/female supports of non-sibling, non-parents/children must now end in awkward romance and there is a large increase in player worship. Most games didn't have grinding so I don't see why we need grinding or phoenix mode now to let the game be fun.

If it were up to me, I would change a lot of the skills, either buffing them, altering them (such as making Rally skills passive auras) or inventing all new ones but for the sake of this thread, I'd like to come up with a list of skills I find lacking and the replacements. I've written next to the skills why I think they should be changed as well as what I'd replace them with. These changes are mostly with Single Player in mind. Substitute: Being unable to use in conjunction with other actions makes it far too situational. Replacement: Pierce - +10 damage against armored targets Fortune: Doesn't activate consistently enough to be useful and pointless when grinding is an option Replacement: Charge - +5 damage on this unit's next attack after selecting [Wait]. Lethality: Too low of a chance to activate when most proc skills mean death for the enemy anyway. Replacement: Stealth - Command. Renders the unit invisible and able to pass through enemy units until taking an action. +30 critical on next attack Puppet Breaker: Only effective against a few types of rarely encountered enemies. Replacement: Control Puppet - Take control of an allied or enemy unit in range for the rest of the turn. Household cure: Unless you have access to the convoy, you probably won't be making much use of this. Replacement: Bad Medicine - Expend one use of an expendable item to inflict the inverse effect on an enemy. Confined Defense: Seems like you'd be fighting on neutral tiles more often than not. Replacement: Phalanx - +1 Def and Res for each adjacent ally. Defender: Kind of underwhelming for a promoted skill. Replacement: Canto - Unit can use the remainder of it's movement after taking an action. What skills would you change?

I wish the battle panties were easier to ignore. I like zettai ryouiki as much as the next person but... please let my female soldiers wear pants.

Isn't Crimson (a Nohrian) a Hoshido exclusive? That would be an example of a character with consistent writing in regards for what they stand for. They definitely dropped the ball on Suzukaze's reasons for joining Nohr, but I suppose that could be said for Kamui as well. The writing for Conquest makes it sound like he should have chosen Birthright and only stuck with Nohr because of his siblings.

Name: Illya Route: Nohr/Invisable Sub-class: Wyvern Rider Spouse: Flannel Asset/Flaw: Mag/Def Bio: A lack of social conditioning has made her taciturn around most individuals. Devoted to mastering spellcraft and swordplay, she gets along with her elder sister the most. She someday dreams of traveling to a far away country. Most relaxed when listening to the rain. Name: Ren Route: Hoshido/Invisable Sub-class: Mercenary Spouse: Oboro Assets/Flaw: Str/Skl Bio: A cautiously optimistic prince that looks for the solution with the least amount of bloodshed. Although merciful when the situation allows it, he won't fail to eliminate threats to his friends or family. He regrets having to turn on his adoptive family. Most concerned with the state of his hair in the army. Mai means dance tho...

I'm going to vote bad. I can stand behind casual as a less punishing version of classic. New players less adept at strategy or perhaps just people who want a less focused experience can enjoy casual and learn how the game is played. There is no learning in phoenix mode and you aren't encouraged to put in the effort to engage in the genre. It reaches the point where you aren't playing the game. There aren't even any special rewards for playing higher difficulties. So what is the point if not gameplay? Here's where my argument becomes controversial. Some people will praise the feature as widening the audience but I don't think that's necessarily a good thing. When you take away the gameplay what you are left with is the story and side features. Story is a fine subject to discuss (granted, we haven't had a good story in a long time) so I'll leave that aside. The side features, that have become an increasingly large part of the draw since Awakening is where I put my foot down. Fan service, shipping, gimmicky characters and player worship are okay in moderation but Fates doesn't know the meaning of the word. They're going for mass appeal (further facilitated by Phoenix mode) and this is something that affects everybody. When an alarming number of fans are playing the game primarily for these side features, the priorities of the developers changes to accommodate them. People can say "Fire Emblem is all about shipping and fanservice!" and their opinion will be just as valid as someone who says it's about strategy. Mind you, the gameplay in Fates is still solid but I'm still embarrassed to recommend the game because of its other "features".

Wouldn't that be more the problem with Nohrs writing, rather than Suzukaze, if his devotion is quite understandable in IK and BR? It seems like most of Conquest was a flop for writing. Poor Kamui-sexuals not getting any love. I guess it's their fault for joining late and not having many supports.

Depends on your idea of good, but I'd say "good enough". [spoiler=details] It simply boils down to Hoshido not being led by Garon. Garon apparently tried to have you killed twice before you even hit chapter 6 and your mother died because of him.

Rather than the naive, do-gooder Kamui we got, it would have been nice to have a clever and ruthless Kamui for Nohr (albeit good intentioned). For example, they could kill one evil Nohrian general and then frame his rival to kill two birds with one stone. Or they could Uriah Gambit a corrupt Nohrian and allow Hoshido forces to kill them. Kamui could knock off people who are a threat to him and inspire the honorable Nohrians to gain the support of the army when it finally turns into open rebellion. Of course, we can't have Kamui out-witting Garon at every turn but let them take advantage of opportunities to make it seem like Kamui is in charge of their own destiny instead of being a pawn.

Wat...? Shouldn't you be telling us where you heard this information?

At least the Grandmaster and Witch have the style you'd expect from a magic user. Dat DLC tho...

The consensus of what I've heard is that she's a yaoi fan girl.

I've noticed that a lot of classes that don't start with tomes have a garbage animation. Shura and Basara don't have any flair when casting spells.

I didn't say "universally panned", I said that the story was heavily panned, so much that that even the developers acknowledged it. Awakening is popular because it panders to a larger demographic than previous titles. What I doubt is Awakening having lasting popularity like FF7 because, while popular, it doesn't have a cast, story or game mechanics that will make it stand out. Awakening marks the start of a new direction for the series (ie Waifu Emblem) but it doesn't have the merits to be considered iconic or a classic. Although getting into Smash might having a longer lasting effect than the game itself. But that's like, just my opinion, man. Feel free to disagree.