Cysx

Well, it's not like we know for sure that there aren't any.

Well it reminded me of it:p Lots of information at once for that small brain of mine.

I edited the above a bit late for you to see, but Bernadetta has lance and bow lv1 above her battle forecast, so lances are probably her secondary weapons. Which is funny because they suit her about as well as they suited Amelia back in FE8. Yup, the secondary reason tome will probably modify stats in some way, which would make it the new shuriken! But frankly it's unclear what it'll do at this point. I'm willing to trust trailer one overall. It's not been straight up proven wrong(or on very few things), and if anything Edelgard's 5 man team showcased a lance user that could very well be Ferdinand, since both emo boy and him are once again shown alone with Edelgard and Byleth in trailer 2. So emo man would have a bow/reason focus, and perhaps Hilda and Claude will be differentiated by Claude getting his own class line. Mercedes certainly doesn't look like a sword user, though, I'll give you that. I think the different builds were pretty clearly a result of the models not being made yet. I'm even wondering if what we've seen in trailer 2 is final, because of the similarities first, but also because your analysis made me realize that a lot of characters are carrying swords right now... even emo-man, making his potential focus reason swords bows... that'd be fresh at least.

Yes, that is also possible. But it'd be weird of them to include weapon levels then, considering they do not seem extremely relevant in that situation either. They're also grouped with Bernadetta's skill above her battle forecast. I don't see those levels as what a student can and cannot use personally, since that would seem a bit redundant when ranks are also in this game(also neither of the three cases where they appeared showed every weapon type, even for Bernadetta who is a confirmed noble)... but it's true that it's unclear what purpose they serve. Maybe they're tied to combat arts, or the weapon triangle. I'm confused as to why the lack of swords specifically is what surprises you here though, since Ferdinand doesn't have levels for fists, bows, etc either.

I generally agree with your conclusions, and you spotted many things I didn't. As for the few I "disagree" with: Bernadetta: It bears mentioning that this is a lone classroom shot, so it might be a studying book rather than magic, especially since beyond the icons, magic users do not seem to wield books in battle, implying it's not necessarily that closely tied to reading. She also has remarkably low res for a character with magic affinity(2). I do agree about the bookworm appearance though, and am not too sure what other weapon she'd get. Edit: Worth noting is that she has a LV1 lances icon above her combat forecast. Dorothea: Considering that the mage Caspar fights shows us that fire is a black tome, I think it's more the black and white magic of Echoes than the Light and dark we see usually. Anyway out of her two focuses reason is the one at D, so I'd expect a primarily magic-based hybrid out of her, and yes, tactician seems perfect. Leonie: Her design screams tomboy that gets up close and personal to me(not only because of Chie from Persona... but that obviously doesn't help), so while she is seen with a bow, I assume she'll be using gauntlets as her primary weapon, and will perhaps be a thief. Hilda: ...which would open up the archer slot, beyond Claude I suppose. I'll trust the first trailer on this one. Also, I find myself wondering if any of them will have authority as a primary focus, and what kind of class would result from that...

I assumed Dorothea gained more because in the japanese trailer, the chosen category had two bonuses(strength and that hand thing), as opposed to just one. Yes, many people did.

I don't know, the edges look just sharp enough to evoke lightning, to me at least, but, your point definitely makes sense here. And I did misspeak, it's not literally engulfed in flames, there's just a bright red aura emanating from it.

The fact that Edelgard has what very much looks like vantage as a noble makes me wonder if we're not going back to way Jugdral/Tellius approached skills. As for class mastery, maybe mastering a class opens up new reclassing exams? What's for sure is that neither of these two gentlemen seem to start with a skill so it might not be an universal thing: As for combat arts... maybe that's what the + ranks are about, and maybe just maybe, you can actually choose to skip them and sacrifice getting the art for faster progress? That's just wishful thinking though, because I'd really like that kind of choices. Overall there's quite a bit of potential here. Probably the part of the game I'm the most eager to learn more about.

Yes, her eyes are just too big. M!Byleth's aren't and there's no real problem with his face as a result, despite his iris being just as empty. It's an acquired taste as far as I'm concerned though, so I'm sure it'll be fine in the end.

Thane theorized that the grand battle we saw in trailer 1 was from the past, and considering we got two lookalikes in it(the blond church warrior and the older enemy general, looking like the current head of the church and Jeralt respectively), it makes a lot of sense to me. If that's correct and those are ancestors, Byleth can use the whipsword due to his lineage. In any case, it ends up in possession of the church at some point, but also seems to be cursed in some way, so maybe Byleth obtains it as a poisoned gift? And as Vincent pointed out in his analysis, it used to house a crest that is now gone. So clearly there's a lot going on here, and this thing is probably going to be Yato levels of importance. Edit: Also, someone else(I can't remember who, apologies) pointed out that the flaming sword of the swordswoman jumping at the screen(Vincent's analysis has a good shot of it) looks a lot like the sword of Seiros on the mural, with that distinct lightning design... so maybe these two blades are representing opposing forces, and while she's the warrior of light so to speak, Byleth is the warrior of dark. Or something like that.

The one thing I'll say is that there's an assumption that Byleth's powers come from his mother, when I see little reason to think Jeralt doesn't have them too; time rewinding sounds pretty useful in becoming the successful mercenary he seems to be. Also I don't want him to just die off because that's boring. But I said that about Mikoto as well.

I guess you're right.

Well it's not a translation change at the very least. They're different options in japanese as well, and no other term has seen any change in that version from trailer one to two as far as I can tell. But, it's still possible I guess.

I unfortunately don't have much to add to your ideas, you pretty thoroughly covered those leads. What I do find weird is that we can switch weapons and combat arts in the pre-battle forecast... but not this, apparently, even though the L and R key are left unmapped. Maybe they're for the camera. I do think the wedge symbol doesn't necessarily contradict the symbol. It also disappears as the screen fades to black, so as you said, gambits are probably separate from formations. I think somebody theorized that gambits are only available when you're next to an ally(it was probably LuckyCrit), but regardless, it's weird that we can't seem to get both options at once. Even if gambits were only possible when near allies using the same formation as yours(just spitballing here), the gambit option should simply disappear if you switched. Edelgard's lifebar is weirdly misplaced on that shot now that I'm looking at it Not much to add here either, just wanted to say, really good stuff.

It is also for you. That's the difficulty of it, they have to compromise as a result of trying to reach several audiences, and with Fates, they failed(imo). Going on a bit of a tangent here, but a nice part about teenagers is that they can generally enjoy the same quality standards that already work for adults, as opposed to how it is with children. The main issue, however, is that you don't draw them in the same way at all. I think avatars are in part a consequence of that, because they're easy to advertise.

I think a more healthy way to look at it is that you may not be the target audience in terms of age(for that aspect of the game in particular, I mean. Not the whole product.). If I had to guess, it's to appeal to early teenagers, who typically have a lot of self-worth issues, as opposed to adults suffering from depression, that would indeed not find much respite in a videogame telling them they're cool repeatedly.

Yup, I just decided against listing them at the last moment because while they're pretty definitely from the Golden Deer house, the fact that we saw so many other backs of so many other student heads made me doubt that these two in particular would be playable. It's probably happening still, that's just me being cautious. Their existence is interesting because we saw nothing remotely similar to what they're wearing, to my knowledge. Typically when characters wear masks in Fire Emblem, it's either to conceal their identity, or because they're mooks. So this person appearing in cgi either revealed to us that we'll have a mysterious opponent/ally, or that there's some sort of additional faction, on top of the four we currently know of, with its own agenda. None of that is exactly unheard of when it comes to FE, but anyway, that's my take on it. Nobody else got much spotlight, to be fair, especially the Golden Deer.

You say definitely but it's the exact opposite as far as I'm concerned.

I won't lie, this is pretty much exactly what I expected. I don't dislike it though. The style itself is only decent in my eyes, but she seems to have a lot of experience so the result isn't too bad, Dimitri uniform aside. Byleth is wearing a dark swordmaster(probably, looks a lot like Awakening's version) outfit in the US trailer and a white one in the japanese one. Same for edgey mc edge wearing a black and a red robe respectively. While it could be different versions, I doubt they ever considered actually making the swordmaster(probably) outfit white, so light customization elements might indeed be a thing.

That's true, but it could be a consequence of it being a reveal trailer rather than the story being basic. I mean look at Botw, the story elements weren't revealed until very late. ... actually, do not look a Botw. Let's forget I said that.

Might also be a result of them revealing things progressively. They have an FE-focused expo coming, potential months of coverage in Famitsu, and a golden opportunity to generate hype at E3 since the game releases a month later. Plus the first trailer was pretty story focused.

Well, it happens from time to time. Also Rafiel ( ラフィエル ) and Raphael ( ラファエル ) are different. Unless you were referring to somebody else.

While I agree(and have been preaching the same thing in the past), that is also why you hire people that are specialized in that field. We'll just say Three Houses was too far along in development when Heroes exploded for them to retroactively up the budget, but in the future, unless TH majorly bombs, IS really ought to grow as a studio and not run into these kinds of problems anymore.

It's interesting that the winning options for question 2 and 3 almost directly contradict one another, unless the conflict is extremely short. Honestly while most of us have been too burned by Fates to be optimistic, it is a very ambitious idea they went for once again. There's a lot going on here, with characters that are friends with different allegiances and us having to pick one of three potentially very different sides. Thing is, considering they don't have to sell us on several versions, they didn't really need to make things that complicated on themselves, so maybe this design choice actually is a result of ambition rather than smoke and mirrors. But yeah, they outright lied to our faces with Fates and it's going to take quite a bit for me to trust them again when it comes to story elements in trailers.

While I don't specifically want to make this conversation about Alm, it's worth noting that the game doesn't present him as being always right, if anything, Celica's point of view is given considerable credence... until a certain point of the story, that is. Alm's plans aren't presented as flawless, and the main opposing narrative isn't presented as constantly wrong. His actions also led to the deaths of his father and cousin. Overall, his successes are conveyed as happenstance rather than him being flawless, and though I agree that he doesn't leave enough shining room to the supporting cast, I don't think this is specific to him at all as far as FE protagonists go. He's just slightly worse about it than most of the others. Anyway, I too had a bunch of red flags raised as a result of the newest trailer. There's no longer a doubt that Byleth is gonna be super special and central to the plot, and also potentially the kind of characters everyone relies on completely and that has all of them, even the reasonably competent ones, completely hopeless without him around. Hopefully, that second part doesn't end up being true. Still, there were other interesting things that may prevent another Corrin; for example Byleth was never presented as the commander of armies. While he will likely be de-facto if we're being honest, as far as the narrative goes... well he's a teacher. His role is parallel to the students/headmasters rather than higher on the same scale. As an instructor, even if he has some larger place in the plot, the dynamics are necessarily different because his primary goal is for his students to become better, not himself through them; allegedly anyway. And, as we all know, we have characters to fit the commander roles that were actually repeatedly shown doing just that. Unfortunately this was also the case for Xander and Ryoma, so we can't rejoice just yet. Now the fact that Byleth joins battles and was clearly shown getting his hands dirty and wielding the super special weapon of legends TM does undermine what I just said. Also, him going from mercenary to teacher implies that education might just be the mean to a different, currently unknown goal. So, it's all about whether or not they'll balance the whole thing properly. But, still, the fact that he was presented as a teacher first and foremost is a good thing, methinks.