EJ107

Ignoring the student/teacher thing and all of that, the two I like the most given what we've seen are Claude and Dorothea. Sylvain and Edelgard are up there too.

So is forcing every character to be able to marry every character of the opposite sex or having children someone born and raised into adults instantly so that you can recruit them as units. Yet here we are. If the options are having no same sex options or one token option for the MU, or everyone being bi, everyone being bi is by far the better option because of all the extra choice.

At the end of the day Fire Emblem is a series with magic. If they can have kids time travel or age up in an alternate dimension they can let same sex couples have a magical baby. Even if they are only going the adoption route, its pretty easy to justify them inheriting their parents stat growths as something they learnt from their parents. I'd rather Three Houses just doesn't have children characters though, since I'm not fond of how they were handled in fates and it opens up more options for how characters relationships, romantic or, can pan out.

The issue here is assuming that they can't please both crowds at once, or that Japan is incapable of making good LGBT characters, which just isn't true. I've seen plenty of anime, manga and games from Japan that had good, relateable LGBT characters and relationships, even some that were at least partially aimed at fans of that genre. And even if they want to appeal specifically to that group of fans, there's nothing stopping them just adding two same sex couples or options and catering to both groups. I don't see how it would be any different to forcing people to pick a straight pairing for their MU if they want all the child units in Conquest. And that's something they already did. Besides, it wouldn't be forcing anyone to "play homosexual" if you could get the children through pairing up two other units, which is already the majority of the matchmaking mechanic. But Fire Emblem is already a series that panders to very niche minority groups despite community backlash. Are the memes/criticisms about the paedophilic undertones of Nowi and Elise, the teacher-student relationships that may be happening in three houses or the incest in fates really better than memes or augments about a large number of the characters being bisexual? And incest/paedophilia/teacher-student relationships are a lot more off-putting to people in general than same sex relationships nowadays. The big kicker is that there are a lot more people playing fire emblem who either enjoy same sex relationships in media or are LGBT themselves than people who are into loli's or some of the other small groups the game already panders to. So why not try to appeal to that larger group as well?

I really hope that romantic S-supports return to some degree, and that they expand on the same-sex options. I feel like it's reached the point now where there are so many characters and potential relationships in the series that LGBT characters and relationships are massively underrepresented, even if you're ignoring that it's a fantasy setting and looking solely at "real life" demographics. The whole idea of being able to marry almost every unit of the opposite sex and produce time travelling babies is already so ridiculous that they may as well just remove gender restrictions completely if they are going to keep doing it. If they are going to go full fanservice again like in fates, why not go all the way? It's already done to a lesser degree in Heroes, where a lot of units flirt with the summoner, whose gender is ambiguous, to some extent. My main desire though, is to see at least one same sex pairing that doesn't include Byleth. Is it really too much to ask to have two characters in the roster who happen to be gay or bi and like each other? There are plenty of same-sex pairings in Fates and Awakening that would have made a lot more sense and been a lot more compatible than many of the forced S-supports between the male and female units.

You're right about Byleths eyes being more blue on a second look, but lighting in certain scenes aside, Byleth and Sothis' hair still looks like it's almost an identical colour. Obviously it's not much to go on, but that and the fact that Byleth's appearance may be set in stone makes me think that their parentage is going to be important. And all of the characters with green/blue-green hair we've seen are tied to the church and divine dragon. I have a feeling Jeralt is either an adoptive father, or Byleth just strongly takes after their mother.

I think that the identity of Byleth's mother will be important. I don't think it's a coincidence that Sothis, the head of the church and Byleth all have green hair and green eyes. I have a feeling that Sothis and Byleth are related in some way through the head of the church, and that is why he is able to see and interact with her. Or, if they want to go a slightly more unexpected route, maybe Sothis herself is Byleths mother.

It's difficult to say. I doubt we've seen all of the playable characters, and I'm sure we'll come across some who aren't students. So far we seem to have seen the early-game cast, which is the students of the three houses, but I'm sure we'll come across others later in the story. Awakening and Fates only had one Beast Unit in each route plus a child unit, so it's possible one or two do show up later on. But it's also possible there aren't any. I suppose we'll have to wait and see. I do hope we get at least one or two though, since I always enjoyed them.

My stance on it is that personally I'd want them to limit everyone's S Rank options at around 2-4, depending on the character. Including the Avatar. And there should be several who have none at all, where it makes sense. But I also think that if they do insist on keeping the Avatars option to marry anyone, they should just go all out and let them S rank everybody regardless of gender. If it's going to be that level of fanservice and pandering like in fates they may as well go all out. At that point the gender restriction just comes across as an arbitrary limitation. I'm actually much more interested in the possibility of same sex S supports between units other than the Avatar at this point, though. The teacher thing concerns me too, and is one of the reasons why I would ideally simply see the Avatars (and everyone elses) S rank options be more restricted. At the very least they should be limited to other adult characters of a similar age, if they are in a teaching position.

They definitely seem to be. But I expected that, so it's not too interesting. I'm far more interested in what sort of protagonist they will be. "Avatars" seem to get a lot of hate on these boards for the fanservice aspects, but Avatars in last few Fire Emblem games have basically just been pre-defined units with a few customisation options. Beyond a single decision or two their actions and relationships with the other characters are static and always play out the same way. Too predefined to act as a true player avatar, but too bland, generic and universally loved by the rest of the cast to feel like a natural inclusion to the world. I'd personally rather either have a fixed, flawed and more interesting protagonist who is completely their own character, with maybe a gender choice but nothing more, or an avatar more akin to those you get in Western RPG's, where all of their actions and dialogue are chosen by the player.

I love the new mercenary design, and, by extension, the new Hero design. On the Hoshido side of things the archers/snipers look really cool, and I really like the oni savage design, especially for females. It's a good example of how showing skin on fighting classes doesn't have to look awkward, it can be done well. My least favorite has to be female cavaliers, as the thong completely ruins Sophie's design for me. Diviners are quite ugly as well, the butt-crack on Orochi isn't even particularly sexy, it's just weird. Like the fantasy equivalent of plumbers who refuse to wear belts. In general I'm not a huge fan of the games obsession with exposed thighs. Trousers exist, and women can wear them too! Obviously not every class has to, but the mounted classes in particular really should have them.

I've been trying different supports in my revelations playthrough, and the difference in quality is kind of shocking. Unsurprisingly, the ones that seem to fit better character-wise tend to end up being better written, and it makes me wonder why the S-ranks weren't more limited in the first place. Hana/Hinata was pretty good, and Kaze/Mozu is one of the best support chains I've seen so far. The S rank felt completely natural. Selena/Subaki is also really good, but I'm sure that's because extra effort was put in. Sakura/Silas on the other hand was incredibly weak. The C-A weren't that bad, just revolving around a mediocre joke, but the S came completely out of nowhere. Definitely the strangest I've seen so far.

I find it more annoying than anything, because not only is the deeprealms explanation plot-hole ridden and strange, but there is actually a lot of potential with a second generation. A 20-year or so timeskip in the story would be really interesting because you could see older versions of the first gen characters and introduce the children much more naturally. But of course it won't happen, because it would make an avatar x second-gen pairing impossible / even more creepy than it was in Fates and people probably wouldn't want their avatar to actually become a middle-aged parent. Personally I think they should either fully embrace the idea of child characters and add a large timeskip to the story or leave them out entirely. They weren't particularly popular characters in fates and the game really didn't need them. They felt very tacked-on, compared to Lucina and the other children in Awakening.

It's kind of like the children characters. I appreciate it for the extra content and gameplay it adds, but narrative-wise I mostly ignore it. I'd like to see both features properly tied to the story in a future installment, though. An actual base of operations that exists in the game world if they want to bring back the myCastle feature and a proper 20 year time skip in the story if they want to include children characters.

I'll be honest, when i first saw the child CG's I thought it was a joke fanart where somebody had photoshopped the live2D heads onto the images from the Awakening DLC. Then I saw Dwyer and realized they were real... oops. What is going on with Foleo/Forrests head? He looks like a bobblehead.

Also, having a m/m option who looks like a woman sort of ruins the point. "Traps" are one of those Anime tropes that I really just don't see the appeal or point of. He seems a decent enough character from his supports though.

I just want options that don't involve Kamui. I don't care for the self-insert stuff and the main character tends to be dull as dirt. I'd much rather be able to pair some of the other guys/girls together, like Soleil and Ophelia or Xander and Ryoma. As for what we got, I like Niles just fine, though I prefer the pre-localized version of Rhajat. With regards to other options for s/s supports, Soleil is a blindingly obvious choice who really should have been a female option. As for another male one, I think people will just say whoever their personal preference is. Personally I find Silas bland, and would much rather have had Keaton or Hinata. I don't think either of them fit better than anybody else, just my tastes.

It does look like a placeholder, If it was an intended joke it would probably have been longer. The joke doesn't really work when it's so short. Or it could have just been a poor localization choice.

I like the idea of Soleil and Kanna's supports being mostly platonic. I know Soleil is bi, but she clearly prefers girls, and Kanna is a little kid who looks half the age of most of the other children. "Sorry, I'd rather be friends and keep scoring cute girls" and "Uh, you're like 10 years old" are perfectly realistic reactions, and make the characters feel more real. In fact, it's nice to see some variety in the top-rank supports.

For the most part the name changes are terrible. Apparently they think that names with more than two syllables (and which aren't English) are too difficult for people? And not only are the Japanese names being butchered to shorter versions that just sound terrible (Mozume, Kazahana, Suzukaze) but even french names like Benoit and Eponine are apparently too much? It's particularly aggravating considering I'm currently at University (and universities in the UK are very multicultural), and know people with all kinds of different names and backgrounds, many far more complicated than anything in Fates. The dumbing down of even relatively simple names in these games is painful.

This seems fine. Better than the original, even. You still get the nice models and extra dialogue, but It's a casual chat rather than rubbing their face. It's all the aspects of skinship I liked minus the uncomfortable ones. I won't cry over the loss of the lines specific to skinship either. I don't find a narration on where I'm touching someone to be engrossing dialogue. Also, why didn't they just release this information in the first place? If people knew that it was being replaced with this from the beginning then I doubt there would have been anywhere near as much drama.

How big a deal it is depends on why it was removed. If it was because of peoples mixed reaction to the feature then I think it is a big deal because it means any feature could be removed for any reason. If it was because it broke the laws/regulations in certain countries (the best example I can think of is the ability to skinship the younger looking children characters) then it's just standard practice.

Oh god Felicia's voice is really not good. I swear none in Awakening were that... well, low quality I guess. It sounds like they pulled some random drunk girl off the street and asked her to record some lines for a free pint, though that may be the fault of the voice director, not the actress. Kadens voice was great, and Niles was pretty good. Rinkah's and Crimsons were decent, and Camilla sounded like I would expect her to. I don't even know what was going on with Effie... I can't find this infamous "Nohriam scum" line from Hinoka, but I'm still laughing at "WEEV GUT TRUBOULE". Seriously, I could have sworn it was a guy speaking!

If that's true it will be a complete farce, since almost all Western European and Scandinavian countries have same sex marriage legalized far longer than America, and it's generally a non-issue here politically. The Netherlands has had same sex marriage since 2001. Why would Vatican controversies have any sway over how a game is released in countries other than Italy? Here in the UK our own church has practically no power as an institution, let alone the Vatican. If this is true then there will be a pretty large outcry coming.

To be fair, that dead or alive game wasn't released in the west specifically because of the currently sensitive "women in video games" issue, so that one is pretty relevant. I seriously doubt that the removal of skinship is in any way related to feminism though. I'm leaning more towards the fact that some of the characters are kinda young (Lutz, Midoriko, Kisaragi...). I mean "game lets you touch kids while they say innuendo" is hardly a good marketing point.