Alazen

You can say that about Awakening and Fates. I call it a case of developers shoving whatever they can fit in instead of finding a direction and sticking with it.

The Black Knight (instead of Zelgius the General of Begnion) is a bluntly unneeded character in RD whose attempted characterization (see Ike calling him his last teacher) clashes with how he was shown in PoR (see him threatening to rape or otherwise inflict ''horrors'' on a teen girl).

Fates: Get rid of Camilla, one of the younger sisters, Hinoka, Iago, and an Ice Sister. The game struggles to keep what are 8 siblings relevant to what's happenening and it shows from how Elise's big moment comes in Birtright, with the moment being dying a death that doesn't shift anything about Xander. Iago's an unneeded villain who really amounts to having a way to get gimmicky maps.

I'm sure that RD would go better if you cut out the Warring Player Characters gimmick of Part Three. Talk about the Blood Pact, but it really is an excuse for the Greil Mercenaries and Dawn Brigade to fight each-other without either of them being "the villain." Along with having an excuse to have Nasaela backstab again. Part Four dwells little on the fighting beyond Ike waving off Sothe. You can have Daein invade Begnion out of revenge for its defeat in Ashnard's war.

To be frank, I'm up for the enemy kingdom's royal siblings getting wiped out to a man and being among the final boss's (Garon in Birthright, Mikoto in Conquest) troops as undead minions.

I suggest to have an option to finish Hinoka or let her live but exile her.

We've gone over Garon with Hans and Iago being cartoon villains, the lopsided war between the two kingdoms, and Corrin dindu nuffin. Well, I propose that we take being the sure mean side and run with it. Make Conquest a full blown Villain Campaign in the path of Der Langrisser's Chaos Route, WC3's Scourge Chapters, or Undertale's No Mercy. So, Corrin for example could figure to carry out Hoshido's conquest not from some silly plan to get Garon to sit in a chair, but to put an end to the war, Hoshido's defiance, and seek glory.

I wonder Fates would be like if they took what the Big Choice established trailer to the ultimate conclusion. I mean, look here: 1. Corrin is at least a half-sibling to Ryoma and Company (since the BC trailer pointed to them being Corrin's birth siblings). 2. Picking between the two kingdoms is framed as either staying loyal to the land you were raised or deserting for your bloodline. 3. Conquest is a full blown villain campaign where you live up to Nohr's specialty in glory seeking. No wishy-washy "Corrin's helping Garon but sorta kinda not fully helping him and talks about how hard he has it with those dirty Hoshidans not seeing how wonderful he is."

Conquest is too busy framing Corrin as a good boy who dindu nuffin to do the "Noble boy raised in a corrupt land who gets challenged by what he sees in the war until he's driven to invade his birthplace" schtick. And Corrin being able to beat all those maps without any enemies dying is silly.

I was talking about this trailer: Start at 1:10. You can see from both the words and their positioning that the trailer was pointing to Ryoma and Co. sharing a bloodline with Corrin. Also, Ryoma's pre-release profile said he was Corrin's "real older brother."

Reminder that the trailer showing off the Big Choice framed it as Blood VS Loyalty with the former having the Hoshido siblings pointed to.

Well anyway, I'm not seeing the point of Iago being a character. He's just a goon for Garon so he doesn't do the scheming chancellor against the ruler act, he plays too little of a role in the setting's affairs to be a dandy Gharnef wannabe, and since Zola is a character he comes off as even more unnecessary.

After going over it, I'm sure that a major issue with Fates' narratives is that once again the devs tried to do too much for what they were able to pull off in the end. Fates has the issue Awakening did in that it tries to juggle what are separate premises for narratives. At the least, Fates has the following: A. A boy of two worlds settles the conflict between two warring nations B. A boy fights in a rebellion against a corrupt monarch in a rugged land. C.A boy goes to war against an ancient threat located within a dead land. To clarify what I'm saying, I'll bring up Operation Throne. Right before his talk with Azura it's established that Corrin doesn't seek Hoshido's defeat and that Hoshido dindu nuffin'. However, apparently the narrative demands that Hoshido be invaded so that Garon will sit on a throne. Even then, the narrative trying to frame it as the ONLY way to get rid of Gooron, and so Corrin dindu nuffin', is a case of the Avatar worship we've been getting since New Mystery of the Emblem. And let's not forget the shift that occurred during Awakening. We can point out how lopsided the Hoshido VS Nohr conflict is with the Gooron/Iago/Hans trio being flat and incapable, but Ylisse VS Plegia was hardly better and the Grimleal were a cheap imitation of Loptyr's worshipers.

Well yeah, I did say the poster caught something that wasn't planned by the devs.

If we're talking about how to "shade" Hoshido then here's a tumblr post that caught something I doubt was planned by the devs: http://irandrura.tumblr.com/post/145088150148 Sooo, you could roll with this and make it confirmed that Hoshido works more or less like Japan before the Tokugawa Era came.