NekoKnight

I think I could forgive Kamui for forgetting about the sword. He just saw his mentor/father figure be "killed", find out Garon ordered a hit on him (perhaps less surprising), got saved by his maid who's actually a dimension-hopping pixie dragon, captured by Hoshidans and find out he is actually a Hoshidan prince and was kidnapped as a child. As far as Garon's brilliant plan goes, you could say that he hoped Kamui would get captured and then recognized by the Hoshidan royals. His clothing would probably give him away as a high-born, although I don't know why Rinka let him keep the sword.

Apart from his insecurities, which many people can relate to, I find that Takumi comes off as the only sane man in the plot. In a game where everyone feels like they are being warped to agree with the Avatar at every turn, Takumi is there to lay down some much needed opposition.

Thane, mah boi, peace on Serenes is what all true posters strive for! We should all keep in mind this is a thread about which side we'd personally choose and why, not how big a dummy Azura is. On topic, even though I would have preferred the plot go in the direction of "reform from within", I don't think that is a practical option that any of us could take. It's by sheer luck (or dumb writing) that Garon changed his mind from "kill Kamui" to "send him on a suicide mission and if my kids disobey me and aid him, meh, I guess I'll let him live".

The reason why Zelda somewhat works as being interconnected is they share a lot of lore. Link, Zelda and Ganon (although this may be more a case of him never dying) are destined to be reincarnated, over and over again into new eras. The Triforce and the origin of the world is also a consistant element. The Zelda timeline is hazy but there is implied continuity. This is different than Fire Emblem than has a new take on the Fire Emblem, dragons and even deities between different games. Fire Emblem should only have continuity between settings that have a confirmed connection, ie shared lore. Less connections between games gives them more creative freedom when choosing their lore.

It's going to be pretty subjective because what one likes in a story might differ from what is structurally the best story. My personal favorite is Blazing Sword because I like the characters, the political intrigue and how personal the tale is. Path of Radiance is also a well put together story with a lot of world building and a solid character arc for the protagonist.

Nohrian, although that speaks more to my play style than my actual feelings on which side is better.

Choosing Nohr or neither doesn't really work for all the reasons BrightBow pointed out. I think it is the natural inclination for one to stick with what they know, and leaving your family and jumping into a completely foreign culture is no minor feat. The tipping point, however, is that Garon is actively trying to murder you (two attempts so far, 3 if you count the time you refused to kill the Hoshidan prisoners). Returning to Nohr is a literal death sentence, so that's out. You could choose neither the Nohrians or Hoshidans but where would you go? You have no allies, and know nothing about the world. That leaves the Hoshidans, who are offering you safety, comfort and affection. Hoshido is the only choice, just by process of elimination. Even from a perspective of wanting to protect your Nohrian siblings, you have a chance in Hoshido. You won't have a chance if you die, as you likely would for choosing Nohr or neither. Wait, I thought they only find out about the need for the legendary weapons after visiting the Rainbow Sage? If Azura knew all along, then that is even more reason for why she should be proactively trying to get the royals of both sides to Valla pronto.

YAS, that's me too. I'm too old to be the shota mage anyway.

I'd be the Avatar, loved by all. Probably an early recruited mage. I like learning new things but wouldn't want to be directly involved in combat. I should get out and do something with my life while my growth rates are still good.

I like Scars of the Scouring better. There are many divine weapons throughout Fire Emblem, so I can't say the Sealed Sword or Durandal are particularly noteworthy. The Scouring, however, is unique to Elibe and factors heavily in the plot.

In Femui x Soleil (JP) Femui comes off as very judgemental of Soleil's behavior and maybe even slightly homophobic. The differences between Mamui and Femui might be more pronounced in the Japanese version.

The only problem I have with hybrids is how the game choose growths and class bases. Most characters are designed to be either physically or magically oriented so when it gets to promoting to the hybrid, that character is still going to be using predominately their original weapon type. Orochi as a Basara is always going to be a mage, and Oboro as a Basara is always going to be a lancer. Characters who have hybrid classes as promotion options should have reasonable growths in BOTH attack stats. Another problem (as it was in Fates at least) is hybrid classes don't factor in the original weapon type when deciding weapon rank caps. To use Basara as an example again, the weapon caps are Lance A and Tome B, which favors lancers more.

Everyone looks pretty glum. I wonder what the tone of the manga will be. Internet sarcasm, motherfucker, do you speak it!?

Huh... I always knew that the afterlife scenes were for the sake of pandering but I hadn't thought about how specific they were to each route. You don't see Mikoto in Birthright because presumably she is happy that you sided with her country, whereas in Conquest, she has to be there to absolve Kamui of his guilt. The fact that we have a afterlife scene in BOTH of the main routes (and the dead parents parade in Revelation) shows just how dedicated they were ensuring that absolutely no one besides the villains must hate the Avatar by the end of the game. We often speak of Fates as having shoddy writing, but it's not that they had a good vision and wrote it incompetently. They knew exactly what they were doing when they decided to make Kamui blameless regardless of his actions, what they didn't recognize or care about is how badly it would affect every other story element.

Well spotted, I must have had fighting in Hoshido = Birthright, fighting in Nohr = Conquest stuck in my mind.

"Whoever I damn well please. I run this shit!" - The spouses or any of the royals, I suppose. Yukimura seems like he'd fit the role.

Where can people see the lead characters in the poll?

Besides "Hoshido is the obvious moral side" I feel like Leo and Camilla have a lot greater cause to be forgiving than Hinoka or Sakura. In Conquest, Kamui enables the invasion and is directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of Mikoto, Takumi and Ryoma. Kamui's return to Hoshido brought them nothing but woe and the only consolation the Hoshidans get is that Garon is dead. In Birthright, you basically make a bee-line for the capital and kill the evil Nohrian leadership. Elise is killed by Xander and Xander is... also killed by Xander (his stubborn loyalty). That sure makes a lot more sense for "We're hurt but we know you had good intentions" than "I'm sure Takumi and Ryoma don't mind that you killed them." Not much time before Echoes, you needn't worry. I joke about Serenes' Law but I haven't actually seen it happen that much of late (that is to say, thread derails caused by Fates story discussion). I don't think it's anyone's business to say people can't talk about what they want to in relevant threads.

Our most hallowed of laws. Hopefully we'll be able to abandon it after FE15 come out.

Part of bad writing can be how the story treats them. Shinon can be abrasive but the other characters don't just shrug their shoulders and accept that. Azama is just an asshole that people keep around and potentially fall in love with for some reason. I think IS just likes their contrasting tropes. Pieri is cute and childish but a psycho, Reina is a caring, motherly type, but a sadist on the battlefield.

The best thing about the writing for Micaiah is that the game doesn't feel the need to TELL you she is right or wrong. We know she has good intentions but it's up to the player to decide if her actions were appropriate (and we have multiple perspectives to comment on this). Fates writing constantly beats you over the head with how righteous our hero is, to the point that people forgive him for his villainy, contrary to all common sense. I'd be more okay with the protagonist being a villain if the plot acknowledged this. To quote Blackadder "It's the lying I find so hurtful." Personally, I don't think player worship is a direct consequence of characters being a self-insert, that's just how IS has chosen to write them. How could people not know why Fates writing is shit? We only talk about it every thread.

Sacred Stones has True, I just wanted to point out that a straight apocalypse would be boring. Sacred Stones was interesting because of Lyon, not the Demon King. Your idea here actually sounds pretty similar to a Fire Emblem x Dark Souls crossover I was thinking about. The undead in Dark Souls are sentient (until their souls burn out) so I think an interesting a story would be the conflict between and within human societies where undead, sentient and otherwise, are on the rise. The key factor here is that sentient beings are driving the plot.

Of that I'd agree. Different class stat arrangements, diversified magic schools etc. I don't know if OP wants class skills or not, but here are some ideas: Battle Mage: Anima tomes Class skill - Mana Shield: 3/4 of this unit's Magic stat is added to its Defense. Saint: Light tomes Class skill - Holy Light: Recover 30% of damage dealt with Light tomes. Necromancer: Dark tomes Class skill - Curse of Undeath: When this unit initiates combat and defeats an enemy, a copy of that unit is returned to the battlefield under your control. Revived units can't be healed.

I don't think it's that bad to have a lot of staves, to be honest. It's never bad to have another healer, especially if they are already a competent fighter. Besides, if OP doesn't want promotions that become hybrids, that's going to limit what mages can equip. Anyway, there is nothing wrong with the class list being derivative. No need to fix what isn't broken.

Gaiden has apparently been in the works for a while too. Does that mean that they have different teams working on the two games? It would be neat if they had one group focused on making remakes and another working on the next "modern" game.