NekoKnight

I was definitely excited when I saw the words Fire Emblem on the screen but something didn't sit well with me. At first I thought it was apprehension of another Fates-like game but after more thought, it's because the characters and aesthetic look very generic and not very Fire Emblem-y to me. None of the characters stood out and the art style reminds me more of an Atlas game than FE. Maybe it's the colors, but nothing really pops out or gets me excited (ironically) like the Fates trailer. I don't see any red flag character designs like Camilla or Nowi, but nothing I particularly loved either. Maybe I expected Tellius (modest clothing, medieval fantasy flair) but this felt like every JRPG character designs ever. For gameplay, the addition of "squads" of generics supporting you is an interesting effect. It's a little distracting seeing so many people running around, but it does lend itself to a feeling of a grander scope, not just 12 of your best vs 36 enemies. Writing quality is the biggest unknown. A player avatar exists, which is concerning but not necessarily damning. We're given some hints about what is presumably a corrupt church as well as a goddess who doesn't seem happy with the conflicts going on. I was hoping for a game with a lot of political intrigue, but time will tell if there is more or that or more of "teenagers punching God in the face". It would be a shame for IS to buck its pandering tropes just to dive headlong into a generic JRPG story. I'm less excited than I thought I'd be, but I'll be cautiously optimistic.

I hope he is there just as a player avatar, guiding and assisting the characters but not being the driving force behind the plot. As many people are now aware, IS doesn't have a good track record with player self-inserts, but I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt for now. I hope they can't S support either. One person being compatible with the entire cast either makes the protagonist unfailingly pleasant and inoffensive (ie bland) or just ridiculously worshiped (hello Corrin).

I don't understand why they would do this. It's just a completely pointless manipulation of a story structure. The story goes: 1. Heroes encounter invulnerable enemy, they search for someone who can help. 2. The person they seek is killed but tells them how to defeat the invulnerable enemy. 3. The heroes acquire the means to defeat the enemy. Step 4 should be "The invulnerable enemy is defeated to conclude the story arc" but instead it cycles back to step 1. What really gets me, is that there is no reason for this plot twist. If they want to draw the story out, they don't need to immediately show up at Surtr's doorstep. They can join forces with Hrid, fight some new Muspell lieutenant, hell, they can get trapped in a illusion by Loki, if they really want to halfass the progress being put on hold. But what they did instead was say "everything that happened in the story up to this point was just a waste of time, because the solution you sought it now useless." Before I might have said that they're dragging it out to sell us more OCs for legendary heroes but considering literally any fairly significant character in the series can become a legendary hero, it's not like they need to be OCs. It's really quite perplexing.

Alfonse is going to visit a giant turtle to learn Energy Bending so he can seal Firelord Surtr's elemental magic.

Cool, Kaze in the summon pool. No matter how unlikely, I hope this is a indication other free units will eventually be added. Need more Lyon merges. Story spoilers

I thought the pricing was very fair. $40 + 20 for each additional campaign is a good deal for the content added (I'd call it greedy if the other campaigns were full priced, because of all the shared assets). I do 100% agree with you on the matter of the game quality. Fates suffered heavily from development time being split. The story feels like the scaffolding of a proper story that they never actually got around to completing.

I thought the pricing was very fair. $40 + 20 for each additional campaign is a good deal for the content added (I'd call it greedy if the other campaigns were full priced, because of all the shared assets). I do 100% agree with you on the matter of the game quality. Fates suffered heavily from development time being split. The story feels like the scaffolding of a proper story that they never actually got around to completing.

Want to say: -Oh, cool new classes and weapon types! -I really dig this art style/the characters look well designed. -The story looks promising Don't want to say: -That's the new Camilla, isn't it. -TMS 2, really? -Full body skinship and avatar characters? Pls stop this. What I expect: -Some of this looks questionable but I'm hoping they learned from their mistakes after Fates. All aboard the speculation train!

Nah, not really. I think his plan in SoV was pretty bonkers, so I wouldn't really be invested in his journey up to that point.

Wasn't Sharena leading most of the round?

Ah, the dream dies. We were so close to having a VG of all upset victories. Fairwell, the would-be Upset King.

It's possible that the coming chapter will just be the start of the battle that leads to Surtr dying. Gustav dying would be the most ridiculous plot development. A guy who we've never even seen just shows up in Muspell to die? Do we need to kill every member of Fjorm's family to get her to emote? Loki seems like a greater scope villain, so I don't think she'll die in Book II. I suspect that Surtr will die soon and there will be foreshadowing of some larger scheme that Loki is cooking up before the end of the book. It could take a lot of chapters though, what with the pacing of Hero's story. Honestly, I think Loki will win CYL3. There are a few things going for her. 1. She's has a busty figure and a revealing outfit. Awakening had Tharja, Fates had Camilla and Hero's has the latest flavor in Heroes. 2. People like recruiting villains. 3. Like Veronica and unlike most of the other OCs, she has been given character development and persistent story presence. I usually don't like the gratuitous fanservice characters but I begrudgingly admit that she's better written than most of the Heroes cast. ----- As for what I expect, I think Loki will be the greater scope villain who wants to create a war that will consume all worlds. Something like causing Ragnarok to happen. I don't know how she'll accomplish this beyond sending more enslaved Heroes your way but it would be interesting if she actually manipulated powers to reach her goals. There are still 7 worlds left to explore from the Norse mythology this game borrows so heavily from, so we might get OCs from another world next. Most of the writing seems like it's made month by month with no real long term goals. Book II is better than Book 1 but all of the characters are extremely underutilized. Anna is their generic commander (+comic relief in paralogues), Sharena is there to talk about friendship and positive vibes, and Fjorm and Gunnthra barely have/had personalities. Alfonse is really the only character with much character depth or involvement in the plot. For villains and antagonists, we have Bruno who fell off the face of the earth, Veronica who is very slowly being retconned developing into a better person, Laev, Laeg and Helbindi who are interesting but treated more as a flavor of the week, Surtr who is a complete joke and Loki, who is shaping up to be important. There is also that small child, who I believe has the personality and story relevance of a small child. We need more thought out story and character arcs for everyone and actual world-building so we care about anything that is happening. It seems unlikely though.

Neono, Newno

Technically Shigure from the Wings of Fate banner is an alt, but many don't see it that way. My point is, there has been an instance where we got a permanent character banner that was mostly (if not entirely, depending on your point of view) alternative characters.

Nino is as cute as a button but... FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. LLOYD NEEDED THAT ALT MORE THAN SHE DID. As much as I like the Black Fang, the 3 we have are underwhelming performance-wise and not the best art. Linus is my least favorite member too. Ah well. Nino reporting in for a wholesome Green Mage Flier.

It's not as unlikely as you think. Fallen Heroes (if you want to include Possessed!Takumi as part of the set) was 3 alts (4 if we eventually get normal Hardin).

So is this going to be a VG where every match ends in an upset? Let's go Alfonse!

Well done, Alfonse. A shame, Anna vs Gunnthra might have been a fun match. I'm still on Team Feathers so Anna's spirit lives on.

Ah man, I was hoping this was CYL. I saved up the most orbs I've ever had, lol. Flying Nino, eh? I'll go for her if she is a green tome. I don't much care for the other green tome fliers.

So does The Fonse look like he's taking this home? Before it seemed it took 2 hours to turn the tables. I hope so, I want to see Anna in the finals.

Throw me in for mixed feelings. Undoubtedly, Fire Emblem is the most popular and profitable it has ever been. What this brings is more attention and funding to the series which is for the best...in theory. On the gameplay front, we have generally been moving forward. New but unpolished gameplay elements introduced in Awakening were largely refined for the release of Fates and map design (for Conquest at least) was improved. Heroes is also a lot of fun with its unique gameplay mechanics, and while I don't think it will or should represent the direction of the core series, I'm glad it exists. SoV is a remake so I will partially pardon its archaic gameplay. Writing and presentation is where things start to go downhill. Awakening wasn't overtly offensive but the story was by-the-numbers and disjointed. The Fates story was a disaster of conflicting priorities that undermined its themes and is so absorbed in its player worship, it practically becomes a parody of itself. Heroes barely has a story and SoV's story is quite problematic despite their best efforts. The real damning thing of modern FE titles is the lack of self-respect they have. All the shallow, base pandering leads to a very uncomfortable product. Just off the top of my head, the series now has children getting married and procreating, fetishised sibling incest, serial killers written off because they're cute and SO MUCH GOD DAMN FANSERVICE. This is a series that, for no other reason than to titillate the player, has the player avatar's sister introduced by focusing on her tits and ass. You can't even make this stuff up. I want the series to do well, but game after game selling out to a broader "anime fan" audience, makes me teeter between cautious optimism and pessimism.

Fury is just very versatile. -basically free stats for self healers such as Falchion users and Arvis. -Synergizes with low health skills like Wrath and Desperation. Can also enable a WoM dancer to warp to them. -Improves Ploy skills It's pretty much a viable skill for any character with serviceable spd (or even middling if you just want to avoid doubles).

These are all really dubious assertions. Yes, these are games are made so that children may enjoy them, but to say that we enjoy them in spite of not being the target demographic is misguided. If the series were just for kids, then the only thing keeping veterans hooked would be nostalgia. Series vets would only play games with the pokemon they enjoyed as children (I guess I only like Kanto Pokemon then) instead of enjoying, well, every single new thing that comes out. You really underestimate people if you think adults can't and don't get hooked on the series. Pokemon was explosively popular when I was in college, you know, where everyone is an adult. It was explosively popular when Pokemon Go came out and older people can enjoy that too. I won't begrudge the writing for being softer so the games are rated E for everyone, but you are wrong to tell people "Stop complaining, it's a kids game" as if every adult here is some weird deviant. Most fans started as kids, and most vets stick with the series because it continues to give them reason to be interested.

Eh, it looks okay, but I feel a bit indifferent. My wife might like it more as she's very into Pokemon Go, but then again she (and I) are mostly doing it to make exercise a bit more fun. Wait, what constitutes a game "for us"? Why are certain core games "for us" but not other ones?

I'm pretty bummed about the theme, to be honest. An all out bride war would have been so much fun. A literal waifu war. Think of the memes, the fanart! They are even running both bridal banners right now. There would be some fierce battles with people like Tharja and Bride Sanaki in the running. And so much salt.