Ertrick36

I had a feeling it was something like that... I don't watch too much anime. I know it's sometimes a thing, but it's not something I think of too much. I'd imagine the Gaiden fans would flip their biscuits if they made a dramatic change like that.

Well, for the more dramatic ones, I just like what they did with all the villagers. I also like that they decided to make Lukas/Forsyth into this game's Christmas duo. Have we ever seen armor knights take on that role before? I don't think so... I obviously like the Whitewings. Clair's nice, too. I do think Mathilda looks more like a pegasus-type character, but I think she's fine. Really, I think everyone's improved. I can understand Deen being different, because otherwise he'd be almost too similar to Vrai. That being said, there's no reason they couldn't have made Deen more similar to his original self, and maybe did something different with Vrai instead. But I digress. On a side note, what's with the single sharp tooth in Delthea's mouth? Is it just to look cute, or is she a vampire or some kind of beast? If it's the latter, is that integrated into her role in the story?

A few things. First of all, the Whitewings... We already seen Catria, but I will say again I like her design here a lot. Palla for some reason looks younger than Catria, but I like her anyway. Est is very Est-looking; she looks very much like her SD self. As a whole, I like the little details, like the scratches on their armor. You can tell the artist put a lot of care into them, and others as well. Secondly, does anyone else think Forsyth looks a bit like Abel with that hair (bangs not really in the face like Abel's, but parted in a similar way and green)? It must be because the Christmas pair for this game seems to be him and Lukas. Thirdly, Zeke seems to be staying true to his previous incarnations. Fourthly, Nomah looks like Santa Clause's more religious cousin... In other words, he looks exactly as he should.

Maybe it's proof of their dedication to the memelords of the fandom. Also, holy shit XD Quality map design. Having played Gaiden, I'd take this over Revelation any day.

Yes, I would be satisfied if some of the base conversations were triggered by support ranks; not all of them of course, as base convos serve other purposes, but a decent number of them. I am aware of the conversation at the end between Soren and Ike; I don't know what it entails aside from what you've said, but I know that it's triggered by support ratings in both PoR and RD, among other things. In fact, I think with them putting in other conditions (like, say, reaching a certain plot element), the support-dependent discussions could be made relevant to the plot as well. Yeah, kinda. Though PoR's convos were less limited among the actual cast; there weren't too many supporting pairs in New Mystery. I mean, Ike has seven support options, while Marth only has two (your avatar and Caeda). Though for that, I primarily blame New Mystery's daunting cast numbers; it literally has just as many playable characters as FE Fates does, if not more. They had to dedicate most of their support writing in three convos for every character with the avatar, which is yet another way the avatar ruins the game. Regardless, I think it's part of why those who've played New Mystery sing it's praises so much, while SD gets the short end of the stick. Though it's now getting better for SD, which is good because I don't think it really deserves all the flak some people give it. But yeah, New Mystery and PoR are the only games that had both actual supports and base convos.

If the base convos are a refinement of support convos, then let's have base convos tied to support levels. Let's have some base convos that show up only when a specific set of conditions are met, say, the pair reach a B-rank support level and met a certain character. And let's not have characters be able to support one another if they won't ever have conversations, because friends don't just say a single sentence to each other every so often; friends have full conversations. It's stupid not to write convos for every supporting pair for this purpose. A big reason why I was drawn in by FE was because I actually got a sense that I was bringing particular characters closer together by having them fight together, and they were actually getting warmer and warmer with one another in their conversations. It wasn't just that I got to this arbitrary point in the story where things happened and they suddenly liked each other more; it's that I actually had them fight together, and they grew closer that way. And not only that, but they fought a little better when near friends. It's this... marriage of gameplay and story you simply don't get all that often in the gaming industry; it's very unique to this series. The solution isn't base convos unless base convos are more integrated with the support system. The best solution is, like eclipse said, to cut down on the number of supporting pairs. Not everyone needs to support everyone of the opposite sex, and unless they refine the avatar's writing, they either need to eliminate the avatar altogether or remove some support options. Supports aren't quotas to fulfill; they're a way to build your team and have fun along the way. Naturally, you're gonna have some people who just can't get along, but you don't force 'em together anyway; you work around that. And we don't need to have grand armies of 70, because we'll only be using about 16 consistently. We only need maybe half that number, and even that might be a little much. Also, I'm not disagreeing about having base convos. I think they'd be fantastic; a great way to make the minor characters relevant. It's just that I think the support system in Radiant Dawn is utter garbage because it essentially breaks friendships down to single lines of dialogue that are sometimes shared and numbers; base convos help show characters' friendships, but aren't dependent on support levels (at least, not many of them), so you don't have that sense of building friendships yourself, and they also don't cover every possible supporting pair. We need not turn back the clock, but rather look at the best aspects of its history and apply them evenly to the game without going full to bursting.

The youngest princess of Hoshido has taken control of the site? Honestly, I'm not upset about it at all. I think this is as good for her as it is for all of us. She needed to get out of her comfort zone a little. We all did. And also, she finally gets to have some actual power and influence instead of just being an endearing cherry blossom.

Or Innovation Turmoil. EIther way, I think it perfectly sums up what April Fools is all about these days.

I wasn't expecting anyone to answer that... well actually, maybe I half expected someone to. I guess every character has their fans, but I do think those fans would at least like to see the writers integrate a character like Effie more into the story. I think I'd like every character more if they responded to the world around them instead of them just feeling totally detached from these events narratively-speaking, and I most certainly am woeful that the only characters who remain relevant are the royals. Though that's partially because I don't really like most of them. Not hate; just am not a big fan of them. Also, when I say "gimmick" in regards to Oboro, what I have in mind is her "demon face" that's sometimes comically instinctive. It gets to the point where she scares little children and, in a discussion with Benny, she can't "revert" to a normal face because she's "super sensitive about any negative emotions from Nohrians" as if she has some almost telepathic connection to them. Though I do admit her introduction isn't nearly as silly as this stuff, and I'll also admit that there weren't any support lines with her that I didn't like. I only referred to it because it's just one example of how they try to cram the "most interesting" aspects of even a good character into a drawn out introduction. Not the worst, but I'm not sure it's an intro that would pull in some who might otherwise appreciate her character. Yeah, I'm a relatively new fan, but I like some of the old games as well. I'll criticize any of the games, but I make a point to never attack a person for having a different opinion than I do or to avoid offering one-note opinions without elaborating. Some treat differing opinions like an affront on everything they know and love. And they also tend to take everything said on the internet too seriously. And I have to wonder if the Echoes support system actually will fix it... It seems to emulate the GBA support system, but those have their share of issues as well. What it ultimately comes down to is the quality of the writing staff. And I mean the whole staff, not just a few writers. After all, Fates had some good writers, but the staff as a whole seemed to have plenty of shortcomings. As long as there are holes in the team or the team doesn't work well together, there will always be significant flaws in the storytelling.

What are you talking about? Those green gloves are the backbone of Deliverance fashion. Almost as much as Maison's blinding-red armor and the phallic armor adorned only by the most esteemed warriors of Valentia. I'm sure there's a "Pillars of Modern Combat" joke to be made here, but I've about filled my quota of jokes for this post. I find this particularly hilarious because you list Blazing Sword as your favorite FE. For some reason, FE's anniversary date always escapes me except for when the day actually approaches. Every April I'm like, "oh yeah, FE released on the day of Hitler's birthday and that one weed holiday". That's a confusing jumble of things to have in your mind that elicits some contradicting emotions.

I mean, just 'cuz it's 4/20 blazin' doesn't mean it's a prank since that's when Echoes is released in Japan (unless Echoes is an elaborate prank, and they're just waiting to kick us all in the collective groin... shall I get some tinfoil hats?). There's plenty else to indicate that it's a farce. Like the fact that it just came out of the blue on April 1st in Japan, and that they have arguably the worst "artistic inspiration" possible (though admittedly, I do like the art and sprites for the characters). Plus the fact that it apparently releases the same day as Echoes, and that they say it's April Fools. @Captain Karnage @ping There's also the tag at the bottom of the article that says "April Fool's"...

I think the first question is kind of pointless... Who wants gimmicky, poorly written characters? Is there anyone here who actually finds Effie's "I'm always hungry" gimmick funny? I didn't play the Judgral games, nor have I beaten any of the FE's besides the last four ones (though I have played through them enough to get a general grasp of their overall writing style). Shadow Dragon and Mystery didn't have too much character writing to begin with. Mystery was mostly exposition dialogue, which is a different kind of bad altogether. I can say that I hate that they feel the need to express first impressions through gimmicks. Even my favorite character in Fates, Oboro, is introduced in this fashion (hur hur, I made a pun), with both her racism and adoration of Takumi being all-too-prominent. I think the biggest issue with the last two games isn't so much characters being gimmicks, but rather their gimmicks being emphasized too much. The gimmicks need to simmer down a bit and give the better aspects of these characters breathing room. Also, I remember Thane or someone said something to similar effect... It's severely unfair to compare the best aspects of the oldest games to the worst aspects of the newest games, or vice versa. That's a straight up straw man argument, and I feel a lot of people tend to use it to justify their love of any era. If you place a garbage can next to a golden statue, of course people are gonna say the statue is more beautiful (unless you're Frank Reynolds), and not many will look inside the can to see that it contains a piece of art of equal caliber to the statue, nor will they investigate as to why the art was put in there in the first place. My main problem with this poll. Also, I prefer to have varying degrees one way or the other, as I almost seldom venture towards extremes. I don't know if I'm necessarily in the middle on the second choice, but I'm certainly not one of the extremes, either. It's not a question you can answer with either a "yes", "no", or "meh". In fact, I think there are a lot of layers to discuss in regards to the writing quality, and there's no simple answer. Yeah, I do agree... Many question why Arthur, a very heroic man of justice and righteousness, is willing to work for a king who orders his men to slaughter innocent civilians. I'd like to have seen his thoughts on this. Kellam's gimmick is included in other supports (Donnel comes to mind), but he does, for the most part, have more to his character than just being a lacking presence. Though first impressions are important, and as much as we shouldn't dismiss the high points of a character, we also shouldn't dismiss the low points. As for Cordelia... that's wrong. Her S-Support with Frederick is notorious for essentially making Fred into her sloppy second. The rest of their supports are pretty much building up to that, as well. And as others have said, it does come up more frequently than that; I think you're underplaying how often the gimmicks appear.

So generally speaking, my desires are sort of in the same vein as Xelon's. A huge flaw gameplay-wise with FE Fates: Revelation is it gave you so many characters. I want all or at least most of the characters to be relevant in my playthroughs. So I would appreciate a greater emphasis on tactics and using your entire roster, which may or may not entail cutting down the roster size. I mean, what masochist gonna use 70 characters? Trust me, the 200+ hours I have logged in Revelation is totally not me grinding all these units. Specifically? I'm fine with whatever can add to the tactical depth of the game. I'd like for FE Switch to take the best aspects of the last decade of FE plus Echoes and put them in FE Switch. Varied objectives, many tactically unique classes, useful skills to learn, good map manipulation, a complex weapon system... also, a solid magic system. Magic felt like a more unique class of weapon in earlier FE's, especially the GBA games and Tellius games where they had their own "triangle". Now, it just feels like regular weapons, but with better range and calculations based on Magic and Resistance. One last thing... We all know that typically, FE's start off very difficult but become easier as you go on, mainly due to the fact that gaining levels gains your units security. One exception to that rule is Conquest, which has difficulty spikes all over the place. Probably the biggest boon to this FE would be if they took a cue from that and put in a few surprises. By the end, I want to feel like I toppled a mountain, not a bunch of ankle-high rocks.

I'm of the opinion that if they have a practical use, they're generally a useful unit. As others have said, Jeigans are a boon early on. That makes them more useful than an Est, which is a unit that's redundant (you probably have plenty of good units on your team before you get one), a late-comer, and only useful if you put significant time into them. Even if you're only using them to tank some enemy hits or to soften up enemies, that's still more use than a lot of characters will get in a playthrough. And some such as Frederick on Lunatic mode are practically vital, which ramps their usefulness up even further. If there was any kind of unit we ought to remove, it's units like Ryoma, who start off OP and continue to be such until endgame. Or maybe unit archetypes that are neither widely used nor useful. But I also think that taking away from unit diversity is a lazy solution to problems that are present with the status quo. Whatever problems you might have with Jeigans could probably be fixed with some tweaks. So ultimately, I think it's best to advocate for change rather than removal.

I was referring to how many per shrine, not how many total uses there were in the game.

I'll wait and see. They were far enough in the game and few enough that it might not be something they'd care to advertise. Like, "Hey, here are these shrines deep in a few dangerous dungeons you can use to revive, like, three people!" I do know that in Shadow Dragon and New Mystery, you still get the Aum staff, yet I highly doubt they advertised it. Heck, you even get it in Fates, though in that it's called "Bifrost" and its use is severely limited compared to the Aum staff and resurrection shrines.

Get out of my house with that; how dare you make me read that? I'm sure that the remarks about her being sad because of Marth are partial japes, though. In reality, whatever sorrow she has is probably a combination of things, like it is for most people who are at least of adolescent age. I do think a missing sister would be more significant a woe than unrequited love, though. It's revealed towards the end of Chapter 2 that Est is missing. It's not much of a spoiler, 'cuz Est is always getting kidnapped or captured. It's something of a running gag with her and her archetype. And it's funny too, 'cuz Catria's original sprite doesn't even look like she gives a damn about Est being missing. In regards to the timeless battle of the Whitewings, I'm throwing my lot in with Catria. That lady was my MVP in both Shadow Dragon and Mystery. Plus, blue is my favorite color. I don't know any Japanese, so I'm glad for the analysis... I did recognize that the battle skill animations were different from the regular animations, so I knew something was up. I think that's by far one of the most interesting pillars of modern combat innovations of Echoes. Skills are no stranger to this series, but there aren't many instances where you get skills you can activate at will, and I don't think there's any FE that had this unique leveling system for weapons. Black sheep game is still black sheep game.

I'm lovin' the new Catria. The Barbarian design looks pretty cool as well, though since it's Atlas, that pretty much means that any villager we get on Celica's side will be a new one. Of course, that's assuming he isn't a villager. Regardless, I think he looks a lot cooler here than his original self. I'm beginning to really like this artist. Now I have to wonder how they touched up the other Whitewings. @Jedi I also really like May's redesign. Time will tell if I'll like her as a character, but she does look nice. I mean... They have yet to remove a character from Gaiden, so I can't imagine they'd do so with our not-so-illusive friend... maybe...

Of all the unironically good lines that have come from silly and dopey characters, this one's right up there with "This peace is what all true warriors strive for". Like yes, there is a subtle yet distinct difference between justice and vengeance, and I think everyone should hear his lecture on that. I am also an Arthur fan. Even though I do riff on a lot of characters in Fates/Awakening for being one-note and gimmicky, Arthur's just... he's done so right. I guess I just love his positive energy amidst all the sorrow and anguish you witness in Conquest. I loved him in his supports with Elise. He just never gives up, and he almost never lets anything get him down.

Fair point... It's funny how Alm's in-game sprite had blue hair, but now in this game he's gonna have green hair like he's depicted to have in most places outside of the game. Yeah, I miss the handlebar mustache. Though I'm glad that at least one character (Mycen) kept his mustache. He's low-key my favorite Jeigan-esque character just for that feature.

Um, okay? I'm just referring to the new villain, Berkut. Unless you think his face looks like moldy leather for whatever reason. That makes even less sense. I don't doubt you, it's just... How could they screw up the Whitewings' color coordination so badly?

Yeah, let's take a look at the differences between official artworks of the original Gaiden. Because we all know how consistent they are. This isn't meant to be condescending or anything, but I mean... How is it destroying their original identity when even the more iconic characters like Alm or freakin' Est aren't consistent in their designs, and when one of the defining moments of a character like May is a line about them being a better mage 'cuz they can use lightning magic? If I had to pick a design change that I'm disappointed in... I'd say maybe some of the villains. Though I like that we're at least getting a villain that doesn't have moldy leather for a face. I like how even in the DS remakes, those two armor knights you rescue in the Akaneian Palace (Dolph and Macellan) are still essentially palette swaps of one another.

Pillars of modern warfare, such as battle panties and mismatched leggings, have no place in Valentia. Pillars of modern warfare, such as support conversations and varied objectives, may have a place in Valentia. Pillars of modern warfare, such as the Whitewings of Macedon, should have a place in Valentia. Who knows? Pillars of modern warfare, such as archers who can't fight enemies from point blank range, have no place in Valentia. Pillars of Modern Warfare, such as repetitive "shooty, shooty" gameplay, generic plots about Russian terrorists, and the constant return of Captain Price, a man who apparently is immortal, have no place in... wait, this is getting out of hand.

Look at the descriptions for each of the villagers we got from the official website. I'll post them here in spoilers for ease of access: The male villagers have more fleshed out personalities in their descriptions than Faye does. What kind of family does she have? What are her interests aside from Alm? Is there any other reason for her to join the Deliverance besides Alm? What even is her personality besides wanting to be close to Alm? Why is it that literally every sentence of her description has the name "Alm" in it, while the guys' descriptions don't? The concern I had at the time I wrote that response is that every other villager would be fuller characters, whereas Faye would just be this fangirl who'd be obsessed with one of the guys. And if this list of descriptions is any indication, my concern wasn't far off. Not even Catria or Cordelia have a description as egregious as Faye's; they at least only have the name of their crush listed once. Also, to your "if Faye was a male character, you wouldn't bat an eye" comment... Yes I would if there was something to imply he might be poorly written (hell, just make Faye a guy as is, keep the description the same, and he could still fall under a trashy trope; see: Ricken or Vaike and their obsessions with Chrom). The simple fact that Faye is a token female is already a red flag because there are so many examples of the token female either being a filler tomboy with less plot involvement than the guys or the love interest of/someone who crushes on one of the guys. I just don't have faith in the writers to subvert this trope or make it more interesting. And I'm not asking for more from Faye than the males, or for her removal; I just want characters who aren't solely tropes.

I'm curious; how do you think they'll go about building the roster? Will it be based on popularity, will they go for diversity (either in fighting style or representation of multiple games), or will they try to cram as many major characters from as many FE's as possible... or maybe even something totally unexpected? And a follow-up relating to that: what kind of series representation would you expect from Warriors? Just the last four games? Or possibly more? Also, I know this isn't necessarily about the game itself, but when do you think they'll drop some more news about the game? You think it'll be right after Shadows of Valentia is released, or when we're closing in on the release date?