Medeus

Young Tiki, Caeda, Camus, Minerva, and Gharnef. Young Tiki as you said has the Amiibo coming up and I don't think they'd have made it if the character wasn't going to have some sort of role in the game, so I feel she's probably playable. Caeda is probably one of the most iconic Pegasus Knights in the series and carries some story relevance to her, so she's also a solid pick. The only reason I can think of for her potential exclusion would be overlapping with Hinoka or Cordelia, but since she can use Swords in the original Shadow Dragon and Heroes even that may not be much of an obstacle since that weapon type can make her more unique from them. Camus is also pretty iconic as he's the first of his archetype and could serve as the lance user to balance out the other two cavalier units in the game. Minerva is story important and could make good use of her Hauteclere. Gharnef because I feel the game will have a typical Sorcerer archetype and he's easily the best choice out of the ones we have. Also, he makes the most sense out of the major villains in Shadow Dragon in the game since Medeus' role seems to be filled by the Dragon OC and the other villains don't carry the same iconic presence as Gharnef.

Cherche is also your pick for secondary Wyvern Rider? You're now my favorite mod on this site. But in all seriousness, there are a lot of fun choices here. Keaton it'd be fun to see that high strength and mobility put to good use in a moveset, Arthur would be a treat just for his antics, and it'd be nice to see how they'd pull off a mounted bow user like Wolf. In general, I'd be pretty happy with this list just for the fun factor that would come with these characters. Wolfkins seem to be based more on stylized mythological wolves and werewolves (with a bit of wendigo thrown in of course) then actual wolves, one potential example of that being this statue. If I were to guess, they probably went in that direction because they didn't want to step on the toes of Tellius by reusing a Laguz concept and wanted a bulkier alternative to the fragile foxes, so they played around with the designs more so that they stood out from both their original and Fates counterparts. Personally, I don't mind the direction they went in since they remind me of Rock from Xenoblade X (who I liked for his companionship with Celica, at least of what we saw of it), though I do understand how they'd come off as odd considering how wolves are usually depicted in media.

I have to say, seeing Lissa swing around Frederick like a ragdoll was the highlight of my morning, that was definitely something nice to wake up to. She and Robin look like a lot of fun, though I am a bit disappointed Lucina doesn't have too many differences between her and Chrom. I still will play as her as I like the character, but I was hoping they'd play around with her options more then they did.

That's mostly because it's usually not the same people making the same decisions. Nintendo is one company, but it's composed of different developers and that of course is going to result in different treatment of their franchises. For instance, HW is probably hands off because the developers behind Zelda were more hands-off and allowed them the freedom to do as they wanted with a couple caveats (ex. Miyamoto suggesting the game was more DW then Zelda). On the opposite end you have Other M, which is mostly due to Sakamoto (Metroid's producer) being given too much creative control and thus restricting Team Ninja from implementing some of their ideas and of course contributing the story (which yeah, less said the better). I can't speak for FE: Warriors, but I get the feeling the decisions will fall more on IS then it would Nintendo as a whole. IS is the primary driver of the FE IP, so they probably would be more involved in most creative decisions then just the Nintendo higher-ups themselves. Additionally, considering the differences between the treatment of HW and this game, IS could be more responsible since Nintendo's higher-ups had no problem with the hands-off approach with the former whereas the latter seems to be getting stricter supervision. Granted, it's hard to say without fully understanding the climate behind the development of the game, but either way I doubt we can blame only Nintendo for whatever goes wrong with the game from a creative standpoint.

Huh, that makes Robin's situation a bit more interesting then since we know he can use the Levin Sword alongside his magic. So either secondary weapons are included in the moveset and just play a small part, or the Levin Sword is just being treated as a magical weapon for some reason. It does allow for some potential leeway with class overlap since you can focus on one weapon type over another (ex. Caeda uses swords and Cordelia uses lances, or Camilla uses magic while Minerva uses axes), but we'll see how that goes.

Yes, they finally put in Sonya! Hopefully her stats are up to par, her skillset as mentioned before looks pretty solid, but it's not going to matter if her stats don't synergize well with them nor can function within the meta.

No to Avatars as I don't think IS with their current storytelling model can really get them right. They're either going to be too irrelevant (Mark) or too overidealized/overcentralizing, and until they manage to get a better handle on their writing I'd rather they avoid the concept altogether. As for S Supports, I'm mixed. On the one hand if it's done in the way that's been suggested (ex. limited to only a few characters) then I'm fine with it, but if it's like the way it was in Fates then no, especially if they tie in the Children once again.

Out of the three games that are represented: Minerva, Caeda, Linde, Oboro, and Saizo. Of those, I only have any hope for Caeda and maybe Minerva, but I'll be happy to just get any one of them.

While she was expected, I'm happy to see Lissa in the game. Her using an axe like a War Cleric was something that I was hoping she'd do ever since she was first leaked, and having that confirmed in the trailer was nice to see. Also, in terms of personal preference I'm happy to see Lucina brought as she was my favorite of the main three in Awakening, though I'm curious how they'll separate her out from the other Sword Infantry units.

The duality is interesting, but it doesn't change the fact that they have little to their characters otherwise. You can't define Mila outside of 'motherly with bountiful powers', and you can barely define Duma outside of saying 'hard working', as what else we hear of them does little to add much else to their traits. That's not a bad thing in terms of their role as Mila is more a backstory character/motivation for Celica while Duma is the final boss and thus has little interaction otherwise, but if you were to look at their characters in a vacuum there's not much to them. It's comparable to the characters involved in the Dragon War and War of Liberation in that regard, we get details about their backstories, but it doesn't fully affect their personalities outside of certain traits and motivations. Minor nitpick, but Gharnef (or at least, Shadow Dragon Gharnef) couldn't care less about Medeus outside of what he can do for him. The relationship between Gharnef and Medeus is actually somewhat unique among their archetypes as they both see each other as a means to an end and once the war is over, their partnership is over and more then likely (and it's heavily implied Gharnef is plotting it) one would overthrow the other for their own goals. So Gharnef wouldn't blindly sacrifice himself for Medeus' sake, at least not without a potential gain for himself. Now leading into Jedah, I'll only focus on Echoes here as Gaiden lacks some of the traits you're talking about due to less dialogue. The thing with the point of greedy villain like Jedah is that it's still not that much of a step up from characters like Validar. Yes it's true that we at least have a reason for him to serve Duma that isn't just 'watch the world burn', but we never see what pushes him to get this power. Is it because of the cult influencing his mindset? Is it because he was raised that way under Duma's and Rigel's ideals? It's never delved into why he seeks this strength, he's just shown doing it for his own selfish gain and that's pretty much all that's given. Compare that to the manga's Manfloy (it is implied in FE4, but the manga delves more into it), we know that he wants the Lopt Empire to rise again and thus give him power, but then at the end of the 1st Generation we get to learn why he wants that power. Back when he was kid, he was captured and nearly burned at stake for being a part of the Lopt cult alongside his family and friends. Even though he meant no harm and was just curious what the world outside of the caves looked like, it didn't matter and he was being persecuted outright just for being in that cult. Thus, he grew resentful of the people on the surface, and through that desired power as a way to persecute those who tormented him like they did that very day. So for him, that power was given more meaning to him outside of just plain greed, it was also a way to serve out his own vengeance. Jedah doesn't have that, he has more of a reason to serve his god, it's still not delved into enough to make him that developed as a villain. He still lacks the execution to make his motivations and goals fully understandable, and as a result ends up very limited as a villain.

Duma maybe (and I only say that because his final quote is more meaningful then anything Medeus and Gharnef say), but I can't say I agree with Mila. She never appears in Gaiden proper, so we don't see her character on display anymore then we do Naga (pre-Awakening), and the stray dialogue we get about her paints her as a motherly figure with the only point of interest being her spoiling people. That's still pretty generic and underdeveloped in the scheme of things as she's basically your typical mother goddess archetype with little else. The lore does give her a bit more to work with due to her warring with Duma, but only in the same way it gave Medeus a proper backstory: We learn about what these characters did in the past and how they got to the point we see (well, hear in Mila's case), but nothing that would make them a well fleshed out character. Similarly, I wouldn't say Jedah is all that developed in either incarnation. He serves Duma as a part of a cult, but his motivations for why are left up to interpretation at best and he's causing suffering just because it suits him and his god. FE15 does give him more screentime, but in the end he's still the exact same in terms of motivations and isn't far off from villains like Validar in that regard. He serves his god, loves doing evil things for reasons that are not properly explored, and there's little (if anything) that's sympathetic about him.

Story-wise, no, absolutely not. His role in the plot comes at the expense of the story's personal and political conflict and as said before renders two games' stories superfluous, he's responsible for Garon, another villain who's pretty terrible in his role, and whatever meaningful characterization he does get is locked behind a paywall and said characterization isn't all that good in the first place. All around, he's a terribly implemented villain with little redeeming qualities to his role in the plot, and is one of the major reasons Fates' story is considered one of the worst in the franchise. Gameplay-wise, not really. I do like the idea of a multiphase boss, but it's pretty simple to take him down as the units he surrounds himself with can be easily defeated. Additionally, none of his phases pose much of a threat as it's easy to play around their range and their only difficulty comes from being HP sponges. He may be better then some of the other final boss battles, but considering the ones he's better then that's not much of an accomplishment.

I don't expect either of the three dragons villains to appear physically in the base game due to the OC dragon taking their role, so if Grima appears I feel it'll be through his attachment to Robin (or DLC). With that in mind, my best guesses would be an alternate weapon of sorts for Robin where he dips into Dark Magic, or he gives some sort of influence into Robin's base moveset such as having him use Expiration as a super attack.

M!Robin and Lucina come as no surprise, the former is the more popular of the two Robins and he has Smash popularity, general popularity, and unique moveset potential in wielding tomes, so he was pretty much a given. Lucina is in the same boat, except she has a huge amount of popularity in trade for some uniqueness, it was just a matter of when we'd hear of her, not if. Lissa is a bit more of a surprise, she's decent in popularity and has story involvement to an extent, but as a healer I didn't pay her much mind. Still, it will be interesting to see what they pull off with her, particularly depending on whether they go the sage route, nuns with axes route, or just use the staff as her weapon.

I don't think Duma refusing to take a human form was the reason he fought with Naga. Duma, like Mila, is portrayed as having a human form in the Memory Prism and the Relief in Mila's temple, so he doesn't seem to mind it that much. Additionally, considering how fast degeneration hit the Earth Dragons in lore I think if Duma refused to take a human form at all he would've been long gone by the time Alm and friends came into the picture, so he had to have taken that form for at least some time if he staved off his degeneration for this long. So if he wasn't bothered enough when he took the form in those cases, I don't think he'd be bothered enough to make it an issue with Naga, it's probably something else entirely like their conflicting ideals on humans. Also, I think even if Duma and Mila were Earth Dragons Naga still would've given them a Falchion. The thing with the Earth Dragons as a whole is that they were resilient to taking a human form because they saw humans as nothing more then insects and didn't want to cede to world to them. Duma and Mila by their backstory wouldn't fit that mold, they want the best for humanity in their own way and try to nurture it with their extreme ideologies. So Naga wouldn't have a reason to withhold the Falchion from them if they were Earth Dragons anymore then she would've if they were Divine Dragons, she'd still want to provide the humans of Valentia a way to combat both if they went bonkers sometime in the future.

I'll second Anankos, very few villains are bad to the point where by just being present they hurt the plot of their games, and Anankos is one such villain. His mere existence means the conflict between Hoshido and Nohr can't reach its full potential as any personal or political stakes get pushed to the side for slaying the dragon, he's responsible for a couple controversial plot points such as Garon (who has an interesting backstory, but is rendered moot because he's turned into a water blob), and isn't interesting enough to make up for any of his shortcomings. I do appreciate that they tried to give him backstory, but locking it behind DLC and having said DLC bring even more problems into the plot still does little to help his case and ultimately begs the question why he was added in the first place if they had to try to patch him up in such a messy manner. In general, he not only adds nothing to Fates' plot, he takes away a lot of what could've made it interesting, and that is a crime that no villain should commit to their story.

Top five for me would be Elincia, Jill, Ranulf, Nasir, and Skrimir in no particular order, with Soren, Tauroneo, and Calill being honorable mentions.

I'm... Mixed on him. I don't mind the idea of him being kind and he does have some nice lines and a great VA, but a major thematic of the game is that he's supposed to be aggressive and brash to contrast Celica's naivety. We get to see the latter come into play in a notable way, but with Alm it's not the case. As Thane says, he's very forgiving, he's very kind, and he never really does anything wrong in the story (the only potential exception I can think of being the Nuibaba thing), so we never get to see the flaws of his methods or have him learn from said flaws as much as the game tries to tell you otherwise. He's essentially what the lords have been for the past few games, and in terms of what the game needs out of the character, I do think playing into that mold and thus losing his aggressiveness was a negative to the story.

From the sound of it, the boss music for when Xander comes in is a remix of You of the Dark/Lost in thoughts all alone/You of the Light. It sounds pretty good, though I do wish You of the Light wasn't cut off where it was before it transitions into the next segment. As for the characters, Marth and Corrin look like they'll be the most fun to play for me while I'll probably stay away from the twins ignoring story segments that require them.

Actually, the Japanese like Jugdral, or at least they like Genealogy out of the duo. While it's more outdated now a few years ago Famitsu did a poll and it did the best out of any FE game at #11, sales-wise it was the second best selling behind Mystery in Japan before Awakening and Fates, and the fanbase in general seems to comment positively on it among those who played it. So at the very least it's no Sacred Stones or the original Gaiden in terms of how the Japanese receive it, and is arguably just as beloved as it is over here in terms of the older fanbase. For Wind, Merric and Takumi are the most obvious candidates since their signature weapons draw from that element. Caeda is a possibility as well as while she's not tied to the element, it could complement her signature Wing Spear from the remakes.

Hey, Tiki finally got an Amiibo! Makes sense though, she's one of the most recurring characters and definitely among it's most popular, so she was bound to get one and Warriors was a good way to do it if she's playable (which I expect at this point). As for the story, evil dragon does evil stuff again, expected, but Warriors was never huge on the story when it comes to crossovers. I just hope the villains they pick to support him will be fun characters to play as.

Don't make the Avatar the lord of the game, while IS has had issues with balancing the Avatar both as a lord (Corrin) and as a supporting protagonist (Kris, Robin), I feel making him the latter is the lesser of two evils here. With Corrin there were too many characters that he had wrapped around his little finger and a good chunk of them suffer in their characterization because of it. If the Avatar is a supporting protagonist, while it won't completely avoid the issue it should lessen it since there won't be a need to have characters play support for them. If the Avatar isn't the main character, don't make the lord too reliant on him. One of the major problems about Kris was that Marth leaned too much on them to the point that it felt like his character regressed from his Shadow Dragon counterpart. A balance needs to be struck where the Avatar can support the lord, but doesn't do so to the point that the lord seems to barely function without him. Similarly, keep their role in the plot minimal. I don't mind the idea of the Avatar having a role but they can't overshadow characters like they have been in the past few games. If the Avatar is going to be more defined as a character, don't be afraid to let the Avatar character fail and grow. Corrin's major problem is that their flaws don't really come into play, and if they do they aren't truly learned from and the story brushes it aside. It's OK to let the Avatar have failures, everyone makes mistakes, allow the character to do it and let them grow from it as I don't think players would hate their Avatar as long as they're likeable in other ways. On a related note, if they are a defined character, as mentioned before give them a more varied personality. All three of the previous Avatar had basic traits so that they didn't clash in personality with the other characters, but it also meant that in the story they didn't have anything truly interesting about them and made them come off as completely bland and most of their conversations lack anything of note. If they have to be in the story, they should have more to them then just the basic traits, give them more to work with so that they can have more in-depth interactions with the other members of the cast and more properly react to what's happening in the plot. Finally, I'll revoice better customization options. Corrin and Robin were surprisingly limited in how you could customize your character, and I think there should be more added into them to make them more unique for the player.

FE1: Medeus, but I agree with Interdimensional Observer that both him and Gharnef suffer from the same problem: They exist in an outdated game that does little to flesh out their backstories and motivations. The only reason I'd personally put Medeus over Gharnef is that I find his backstory a bit more interesting and Xane's comment in New Mystery gives him a partial sympathizer from it, but it's still a long way from being anything in-depth and both would benefit from having their stories revisited down the road to be fleshed out in some way. FE2: Rudolf easily, his plan definitely has holes, but his motivations for said plan are actually understandable and his role is more memorable. Duma, while he does have a backstory and his motivations are one born from corruption rather then malice, I don't think the story is too successful in showcasing his contrast with Mila. Duma has a number of villains that show the corruption of pure power while Mila only has King Lima to showcase the corruption of her spoiling, so while both aren't portrayed as correct Duma ends up having more of his flaws showcased then his sister. His appearance as the final boss also just has him as another mad god, so he comes off as a bit bland in role as a result from that as well. FE3: Hardin is probably the most memorable out of the Archanean villains. He loved Nyna genuinely, but since she couldn't return his feelings and he knew it he fell into despair and ended up being manipulated and possessed as a result. So as a result, it's easier to get into his tragedy and he stands out from the more generic crowd that's among him, so it's really no contest between him and Medeus whose tragedy is more limited. FE6: Zephiel, his downward spiral in sanity being owed to his parent(s) and upbringing was a much more interesting backstory then Idunn's. FE7: Considering the Fire Dragon has no personality, Nergal. FE8: I do like Formortiis' design (and as of now, he's one of the non-dragon final bosses and one of the fewer not related to them at all, so points for that), but he's still basically a generic eldritch abomination. Lyon is much more interesting for the dynamic between the two routes, watching his corruption, and his relationship with the twins. FE10: Sephiran, Ashera by virtue of being a goddess who seeks an emotionless world is by consequence an emotionless being and hard to really care for outside of her story with Yune. Sephiran's backstory from his time among the four heroes to the Serenes Forest finally causing him to snap after witnessing years of suffering is much more fleshed out and easier to care about. FE13: Walhart, if only because there's actually a good amount of thought put into his reflection of Alm through his interactions and motivations. Grima I'll give a point for SoV giving him a more memorable backstory, but his poor motivations and actions in the story of Awakening proper bog him down terribly. FE14: Both are terrible, Garon for wasting any amount of potential he did have to be Anankos' slime minion, and Anankos for dumbing down a great thematic to 'the dragon did it'. So my preference falls to the main villains, they definitely have their low points, but overall I feel they benefit from having their roles be more involved in the main story rather then being shoved into the background until the final battle comes around.

I can't say I'm surprised by the roster restriction, the initial trailer only had those three games appear, so I figured that would be the only ones getting representation in the initial game. I won't deny I'm a little disappointed about that as I would've liked to have had characters like Lyn and Ike playable, but it does make sense to start small and go from there. As for the characters that are feasible now, just give me Tiki (SD or Awakening), Linde, and Minerva/Michalis in the initial roster and I'll take it.

I'm hoping for the best, but my expectations are not too high. Awakening and Fates were pretty mismanaged in the story department (especially the latter), and Echoes, while an improvement, did have its own share of problems with a good number of them coming from the new additions and changes to the story. So as much as I want for them finally hit their stride and show great improvement with this game, their track record leaves me wary of such a hope. Ideally, I think a good idea already suggested in the thread would be to keep the scale small and focused. FE tends to do better when its scope is limited to a smaller setting and cast as it allows for them avoid having things get too bloated and overcomplicated. It also allows for more characters to get more involved and developed since then the developers can better distribute their focus, rather then something like Fates where while you had some great characters, but you also had your Peris and Story!Xanders.