Ertrick36

Huh. My birthday is literally the day before yours. Destiny is a strange thing, I must say. Though I, too, am rejoicing, because it gives me something I could request for my birthday. Now that I think about it, this fact makes my decision in regards to buying the Switch much easier. Let's both hope they don't end up delaying the damn thing. Also, to the people talking about losing handhelds... I've actually technically lost every single handheld I've had up to, but not including the one I currently have (3DS XL; not the new one). Some might've been taken by my sister (they were her's, to be fair), but the Nintendo DS my family had was legitimately lost to time and space, as far as I know, along with all its games. So that's, what, some half-thousand-or-so dollars down the drain maybe? Which is funny, considering we didn't usually have a lot of money to buy these things.

I usually tend to avoid buying consoles day one in general because I want them only when the games I want for those consoles are on them. Though I'm really tempted to skip the Wii U version of BotW and just get the Switch so that I can play it on that and be ready for the future in Nintendo games. It depends on how much of an upgrade the Switch version will be, as well as what the other launch/near-launch titles will be (aside from the obvious). It'd also help if there was some sort of preorder bundle. If there is such a thing, please tell me. That being said, there's definitely nothing wrong with you buying day one yourself, even if there were absolutely no games on it day one. You do you; you hurt no one by making such a purchase. Now, if you demanded others to do the same, then there'd be a problem. Probably meant "creative". Still, though, it's a silly thing to bash on. As if I haven't ever bashed on something petty and stupid myself.

He's definitely just really thick. Kaze can be a bit that way in some cases, too, and he's also considered a ladies' man. I surmise that Kaze is actually male Corrin's secret, long lost brother from another mother. First supports (all in spoilers because I just don't like this looking so long compared to others' posts; plus, some are only interested in my choices, rather than reasoning and whatnot): Mozu (BR) - Leo (CQ) - Oboro (Rev) - Other supports: Rhajat (BR - Run Defunct) - Setsuna (BR - Run Defunct) - Flora (Rev) - Velouria (Rev) - Kaze (BR) -

A lot of the advice here is solid; preserve Master Seals until level 20 (or 18, if you're in a hurry), heal grinding, penny pinching, etc... Another bit of advice: think carefully about who you'll be using and how to relegate experience to them. So, for example, if all your units are unpromoted by the time you get Xander, try to use Xander for weakening rather than straight up killing; either that, or, depending on the situation, use him to take on enemies you don't want your units fighting. Generally speaking, on the first run, you'll want to use all the royals. And as such, you might want to pair them up. But don't focus on using everyone, because that'll just result in everyone being underleveled after a certain point. On the first run, most do blind pairings. Just figure what types of units the males (and Azura) are and figure that into who their potential partners can be. Generally speaking, the children aren't actually too much more useful than their parents unless you actually plan out who their parents are and how they'll grow and inherit skills, but due to the risk of encountering spoilers (and doing a blind run), it's generally a good idea to keep your nose out of everyone's unseen stats. If you're concerned about how the support lines actually play out, then I'll just say experience them for yourself. You can generally get a good feel for how a support line will play out as a whole just from reading the C support, which is always pretty easy to get. Though sometimes, they could throw a curveball at you. Other than that, just try to think tactically. Always plan for the next turn, be mindful of everything going on around your units, and definitely take advantage of your Avatar's unique position as an auxiliary unit. Unless there's a turn limit, don't be afraid to slow down and take it easy while you prepare for the trials ahead; some might be able to beat Endgame CQ Lunatic in 5 turns or whatever, but that's because they have elite LTC strats and have likely played the game to death (though in Endgame, it really is a good idea to keep moving so that you don't get overwhelmed by constantly spawning enemies). Keep in mind that Conquest was made with offline players in mind. There's never a reason you should ever have to obtain units from other castles, despite what the idiots at IGN might tell you. It also is possible to beat the game without a single unit dying, so sacrifices shouldn't be necessary. Above all else, don't get discouraged. If you get frustrated with a particular level, go do something else for a time and come back later. The game can always wait.

On one hand, as a villain, Krieger would be infinitely more interesting than Iago, thus aiding in alleviating my main beef with most of FE from a story standpoint. On the other hand, I would like to actually be able to use Krieger, and I definitely could see him fulfilling Odin's role. I mean, he wouldn't necessarily be shouting random names while attacking, but like Odin, he appears fairly off-kilter and most try to keep their distance from him unless they have to request something from him. And he's just as entertaining as - if not more entertaining than - Odin. I like the idea that they just sort of wait around for Corrin to come back. They don't engage one another in combat after Corrin leaves, they just sit around wondering when he/she will come back. Maybe it's an alternate way of achieving peace between the nations, though rather than true peace like in Revelation, it's more like the stalemate between North and South Korea. Still, I'm sure Corrin would rather not have to go through all the BS that is Revelation. I mean, he'll be missing out on all the shipping wars, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

I did read the LP Archive one, but there's also one here on Serenes Forest in the LP Forums done by TheMoniker. It's something of a cult classic in the ROM hacking community. He also did an LP of a terrible ROM hack based off of an inconsequential FE8 boss. That hack was called GhebFE, and it contains jokes that range from crass and distasteful to outright offensive and immoral. Highly recommended LP.

To add to that, Conquest is the only path where the other DLC maps give your units no experience at all. Also, unlike in Awakening, the Boo Camp monsters will level with you, and certain monsters will actually attack your units. If you have trouble with money, I do recommend getting the Ghostly Gold DLC as well, since Conquest is notorious for giving you piss for money. However, if you're good about getting all the treasure, the only things you should really need money for are staves, vulneraries, and maybe a few extra weapons for allies who are poorly equipped, in which case a single playthrough of Ghostly Gold is more than enough to satisfy your needs. That is, unless you're playing Luny. Then depending on how you play, you'll be spending every last gold piece you get throughout the game.

You know, Effie would be Pam, wouldn't she? Now I'm imagining Effie eating bricks of cocaine that are supposed to be sold to Mokushujin Ninjas.

You could've gotten a Killer Axe and called it "The Sucker's Axe". You know, to reference the scene of which your member title is based off of. I totally didn't start rereading the LPs of that game again. Raider's Knife, hmm? If only Shiida used bows or axes These are some high quality names. Imagine Odin just shouting "I'm gonna crit you now!" He's meta enough as it is, what with him shouting the names of other FE titles and sometimes nearly referencing the fact that he and the others are in a game. If he starts talking about crits, he'll be encroaching on Metal Gear levels of Fourth Wall breaking. Huh... serrated edge... CC... Cookie Cutter... whew, that joke almost flew over my head. On that note, wouldn't "Cutie Cutter" imply that Soleil is cutting cuties? Isn't that the opposite of what she'd want to do? I really don't want to further the creeping image in my head that Soleil is secretly a polyamorous psychopath. I never played the game, but given those two names, I'm inclined to take your word for it. Now I have some ideas for Niles' new collection.

Lemme list some of my favorites among my own stupid joke names. Iron Shuriken +5 - youre that ninja (didn't have room for le apostrophe nor for capital letters) Blessed Lance +1 - Sneezing Lance Iron Naginata +7 - Ouroboro (came from a time when I happened to notice that "Oboro" was contained in the word "ouroboro" - a word for a snake that eats itself - so I made a special cheat stick for my favorite fashionista from a word that just sounds kinda cool) Beruka's Axe +1 - Big Boss's Axe Berserker's Axe +2 - why (I mingled with calling it a "Devil Axe", since it hurts the user, but eh) Bone Axe +2 - Bone Zone Felicia's Plate +2 - Got Trouble? Mini Bow +1 - Bad Bow (what kind of bow only has melee range?) Rubber Bow +2 - Rubberer Bow Ox Spirit +5 - Sakura Spirit (the name of one of many terrible visual novels with a "Sakura" in them) Kodachi +3 - KoDaCHi LiFE The rest are a bunch of stupid puns and in-jokes, though an honorable mention goes to the Brass Yumi I called Yoko Ono. Also, on a side note, that iron naginata I mentioned has stronger base stats than the freakin' Omega Yato. Why in the hell am I able to make weapons that are almost as strong as the ultimate weapon of the game and that don't provide debuffs of any kind? I don't think this joke will ever get old. That's what I call Peach's up special in Smash Bros. Seriously, you can do some damage with that freakin' thing. I can only assume this is exactly why they didn't make a Raider Club. Then again, nothing has ever stopped sleezy teens and young adults like myself from coming up with naughty jokes like this. Probably because unlike in pretty much every single other FE game, the weapons in this game never break, so you have much more of an incentive to name them. I hardly even forged weapons in FE before Fates because I knew they'd end up breaking. Though I did make a forged Steel Lance in New Mystery called the "Bitch Stick". I gave it to Sirius and he made every foe he fought his bitch with it. It was glorious.

I definitely don't mind it. The Cipher cards are often done by professional artists, and the difference in styles isn't jarring at all. In fact, with Trading Card Games, a variety of artists actually adds to the game, rather than diminishes its value. And I think it's important for artists to be able to embrace multiple styles while also recognizing when a single, consistent style is necessary. I'm more referring to an unprofessional inconsistency. Like, say a hypothetical video game company made a 2D RPG. But in it, they decided that for one of the characters, their sprites will be hand-drawn by an amateur, while another character's sprites will be ripped from pictures they took of a bad 3D model (think "Limbo of the Lost", if you know what that is), and the terrain will just be a series of screenshots of FE1 maps. I mean, there are other reasons to hate the game, but that's the kind of inconsistency that makes me legitimately hate the creators. She's still the glorious fashionista of all our hopes and dreams, and she'll rock that black hair just as well. You... you... you clown! I see what you did there. Aight, time for Camilla's ladies. "Not looking so... severe... heheh, get it?" Although the reality is, she almost always looks severe. Finally get to talk about the quilts all the mercs wear. I believe it has an actual basis in the real world or something, but I can't quite put my finger on it. They look awfully fancy, though, which I find kind of odd, since among the descriptions that come to my mind when I think of a typical mercenary, "fancy" is not one of them. I like the extravagant shield; much cooler than the old merc shields. The Bow Knight class... is a little wonky looking, imo. I like the left arm guard and shield, but everything else feels off-kilter, and I think it's due to the pauldron and those pants. I actually preferred the Bow Knight look in Awakening. I've said this before, and it's pretty obvious, but her design is literally Tsundere. Even more so in this game than in Awakening, since she doesn't have the option of having any other hair color than red. It doesn't help that her neutral expression is a frown. I don't think they could make her look any more Tsundere if they tried. As a Mercenary or a Hero, the animations are fairly solid. There's one animation I remember in particular for the Hero class, and it's when they spin the sword around low to the ground, then spring up like a cyclone and bring their sword down on the enemy. It's pretty damn impressive. Same VA, same Tsundere voice. Though there's gotta be some award for Selena's batshit crazy laughter. Is death really that funny? I could imagine in CQ, she belts out that laugh right after killing Oboro. Like, come on, Selena, is that any way to treat your sometimes head-canoned wife? Punished Beruka Since she's one of the few mounted female units that isn't sexualized in a dumb way, I'm already inclined to like her. Her armor is pretty cool, not gonna lie. I also like her tattered scarf, which shares the same color as her eyes and meshes well with her dark design. When I think of proper dragon-riding attire, Beruka's uniform is one that would come to mind. And yes, it also fits my idea of an assassin design. Even though she's a trained killer and outwardly cold, she still manages to be fairly pretty. The hair and headband combo work well, and she has one of the pretties sets of eyes. Is it just me, or is she really short? Maybe it's her portrait, but she looks shorter than some of the other characters, like Camilla and Selena. I guess she's about the same size as a lot of the girls, but I just notice it with her more. Also, I actually removed that headband by giving her a head accessory (I did it because of a prompt), and she looks... surprisingly disarming. Very strange, how that headband makes her look so much more intimidating. And yes, she was still a wyvern rider when I did this, and she had no other accessories on. Still looked a little disarming, especially when she smiles. With her animations, there's a lot of down-thrusting and up-thrusting to help her with finishing the mission. They're the same as the Malig Knight animations, pretty much. Except there's no tail swipe attack, I don't think. I can't remember. Same victory pose as Camilla, but I just gotta mention it again because I love scratching under the necks of adorable pets. I think I was initially surprised with her voice being relatively high pitched. However, there's something charming about her being the little deadly assassin, and between my perception of her being short and her voice, that's what it comes down to. It's like the inverse of what Benny is.

I just realized that the first and last voice options of the male Avatar are of Cam Clarke, and I said I preferred the middle one... I guess subconsciously, I don't want to hear Cam Clarke out of Corrin's mouth. Right, I figured as much. I myself am a stickler for consistency in a collection like this. I mean, I wouldn't chastise or criticize you for not using portraits from various different artists - after all, it can sometimes be difficult to find an artist who draws all the characters from a game like this - but it can really irk me if I come upon, say, a little indie game where character sprites are of wildly varied artistic styles. And when I create stuff, I'll go out of my way to make things relatively consistent. True, dat. And in BR at least, she's just as useful as a unit. More fantastic names. Especially love "Foxy Grandpa". Alright, moving on from all of this, it's time to catch up on the latest FE fashion trends. Nightman, fighter of the Dayman If you're a girl and you see a pretty (and very sexualized) boy, let it go "Ding, ding!" So I actually am alright with his sexualization. It's not only in the exposed abs and pecks; he's got some bulges going on downstairs, too. Odin's gotta be one of the sexiest men in the whole game from a design standpoint. And the reason I'm okay with this is because mages in the series hardly ever wear protective armor, so unlike Cavaliers, Malig Knights, and Armor Knights, Odin doesn't really need to wear protection. If he wanted to, he could run around naked. Plus, it fits with his showy attitude. Onto his non-clothing cosmetics. I mean, with the exception of that circlet on his head, he's the same Owain as ever. He looks like the kind of guy in an anime who would be so hip that he'd get all the best stuff for some cool new card/collectethon game (and even some early access stuff), and he'd either be the protagonist's opponent somewhere down the line or the friend who introduces the protagonist to this game. Another thing: no one can convince me that Spark of Pokemon Go's Team Instinct wasn't at least a little inspired by Owain after seeing this. We got dupes, bro! Anyway, he's the flashiest mage I've ever seen as far as his own animations are concerned. I'm not just talking about FE, here; I'm pretty sure I've never, in my life, seen a mage move so much and with such flair. The voicework remains outstanding; better, even, since he actually names his attacks instead of just his weapons, so you can actually hear him shout these ridiculous names. Such enthusiasm, and absolutely amazing lines and names for his attacks. All the critical quotes are fantastic, and I love his rather childlike "My darkness was darker than yours!" Seriously, it sounds like a bunch of preteen edgelords on Deviant Art arguing about their OCs. I mean, the tone doesn't, but the line itself exudes that feeling. In any case, he seriously would make a fantastic wrestler. He'd kick everyone's asses with his Eldritch Smackdown. Nile Thornberry His design is simply SMASHING. I really dig the Outlaw design. They look real shady and rough. The Adventurer design is a little odd, IMO, but still fairly neat. I like that his shirt has a low-cut, V shaped collar that exposes a little bit of his pecks and, if it weren't for his cape, his collarbones. Everyone notes the contrast between his dark skin and white hair, and I, too, enjoy that. His eyes are close to the same shade of blue that his cape is, which reinforces the color scheme in his face. His expressions are almost always either nefariously happy or condescending, which are about the only states of being he's ever in when conversing with most people. His animations aren't too impressive. Though I do like that the thieves of this game get bows; it's a unique, yet sensible choice, given that many archers used improvised arrows (e.g. a stick and a rock) when out of regular arrows, and that'd be an economically viable option for lowborn fighters. Though I do miss thieves who used just regular knives; Volke was totally killer. I'll describe his voice in his own words: "Oh, yes~...!" Azama This guy is really fuzzy. He's got fuzz balls on his clothing, and his hair is one big fuzz ball. He's got the priest look down pretty well. There aren't too many Hoshidans with a black/white design, but I like it, since it reminds me of the Yin-Yang symbol, which would tie in with Azama's philosophical nature. The Great Master class is a little odd, with the beast feet, but it still manages to look priest-like. I have to wonder why he never opens his eyes, though. I mean, one might think it'd be to hide his star-shaped pupils, but Mitama always has her eyes opened, so that explanation doesn't cut it. Didn't he say something about how it helps him disguise when he's asleep? Or am I thinking of one of the 4Koma Kings strips? I think the Great Master borrows some animations from the Spear Master class while also mixing things up with some unique animations. Hey, I'm always down for Spear Master animations; the extra ones are just the icing on the cake. His voice captures Azama's gleeful nihilism very well. I particularly love when he says "Death comes for everyone!" It's like he was part of the cast for a children's education show (like Teletubbies or whatever), and they come upon the topic of death for whatever forsaken reason. And they had to talk about death in a cheerful way, so they just brought Azama in to sing about death. Also, he's voiced by Mister Mercer, so he's basically Chrom as a nihilistic cult leader. Snoop Lion So now there's the female Archer, which, for the most part, shares the same color scheme as Azama's outfit. Except the tights and gloves are the same color as Setsuna's hair. And Setsuna's the only female character to get tights for the Archer and Sniper classes. I like her hair; it's kind of cute. Her primary color is a very mellow color, which obviously reflects her personality. Her face also seems to capture that dazed personality, as she always looks vacant. Her VA does an excellent job of making her sound like she's really high all the time. In fact, I'd be surprised if she wasn't told to imitate someone who was high off of the Rope o' Dope.

Yeah, the Valla curse is a terribly veiled plot device. Given that so many people can come up with so many different ways for Corrin and Azura to tell Ryoma and Xander about it while also avoiding the curse just goes to show how terribly thin and pointless it is. And this aspect does wonders to totally ruin Azura's character. So it's overall just a detriment, rather than it is a compelling plot point. The children are literally just fanservice, and another flaw in Fates' story. Like others have said, 2nd Gen armies had much more plot relevance in other FE games. In Genealogy, the second half of the game is the story of the second generation. In the first two GBA games, there were two different generations; first we had Roy's generation in the first game, then the next game went to the previous generation, which included Roy's father, Eliwood. And in Awakening, they come to stop a blighted future. Also in Awakening, there were DLC stories that focused on an alternate future where the kids still have a fighting chance. But main story Fates doesn't give them much of a reason to fight other than just "I wanna help daddy save the world". You could go through the entire game without them, and the story would be completely unchanged. They did it solely because people liked it in Awakening, but unlike how it was done in Awakening, they put absolutely no thought into how they'd be integrated into the story. These are all great questions, though I'd say for the variance in aging, it's more because the children were recruited after different spans of time, rather than the deep realms themselves aging the children quicker or more slowly. But then again, you might have married Corrin off very early (like I did in BR), while Ryoma gets married much later on, but then get the children at about the same time, and since it's implied that they have the children as soon as they marry, Shiro should actually be much younger than Kana here if my rationale was applied here, but he clearly is not. So really, it's anyone's guess how exactly this hellhole of a plot device works. It's like... all the plot devices only serve to make the characters seem really, really stupid. Though then again, I suppose it's good if they are, indeed, very stupid, because if they acquired any modicum of intellect in these regards, they'd all suffer severe brain aneurysms due to the stupidity of all these situations and how they've been treating them.

That is true. I mean, for one thing, there are some supports that Corrin has with certain characters that are pretty good. And another example is many people hate Azama, but I actually went through his supports with Subaki, and they're pretty good as well. You can never fully judge a character from an incomplete picture, but most of the time, that's all we have to work from. It's like in real life, where you never really know someone unless you spend a great length of time with them, but because there are so many people around us all the time, we pick and choose our friends rather than befriend as many people as possible. It's the attitude most players carry to these games. Anyway... damn, I was hoping I would be able to post voice opinions here before the thread updated, and I wanted to keep my voice opinions for the former characters in a separate post, but I really want to talk about Team Takumi, so I'm not going to wait on this. They'll be together, though voice opinions will go in spoilers below my Team Takumi posts. And I may or may not post opinions for all characters, as some of them aren't too remarkable to me. Also won't have any opinions on Japanese voices, since I've hardly ever heard them. Hinata Matata What a wonderful phrase that I may or may not have referenced before. Oh yis, this boy's got some spunk! He's got lots of scars, some of which I'm pretty sure he got from trying to cut his own hair when Oboro wasn't around. Another character that has green eyes, though I think they're darker than Effie's. Again, I like unique outfits, and his is pretty goddamn good. Very showy design, displaying both his arm muscles and his scars. Overall, it meshes well with his personality. And I like that he keeps the themes of his clothes (the colors and the bare arms) in his canon promotion. As for his voice, I think it adds nicely to his established character. Cocky, young, almost something of a dudebro. Very enthusiastic about fighting, but I like it more when he lets out that disappointed "Oh, man..." He shounds like he dropped some ice cream all over the floor and the cat started eating it. Glorious Fashionista Yes, you can absolutely tell that she's a real trendsetter. Her outfit's one of the best, if not the best female outfit in the game. Her promotion outfit is nice, but I miss the blue, and I don't particularly like that the orange is less prominent. And her hair... you know I like that shade of blue, and it only helps me to like her more that her hair is that color. It's wonderful that both she and Hinata wear their hair the way they do to emulate Takumi, but they still have their own flair to their hair. At first, her face kind of made me laugh. That sounds horrible, but it wasn't because I thought she was ugly. It was because of her smile and the way her eyes look. She's the only character that I can remember who has a perfect curve to her smile that's so wide. Most others, it's either a side smirk, or they have really tiny mouths. And her eyes... I think some people said they look dopey, but I think they more look uncannily content and longing. I don't know why, but that was my impression initially; the uncanny part might have been spurred on because her introduction has her doing the "scary face" and whatnot, so it was weird at first, getting to see her warm side. But I think the smile in her mouth and the contentedness in her eyes actually reflect well in her personality. In most of her supports, she acts as a rather mature caretaker, pretty much like a mother. And her expressions of happiness are so warm. It's just so precious. And then there's her other half, which terrifies even little children. I like that they give her a literal shade in her face to add to an already pretty terrifying visage. There's a real lust for revenge behind it that would make Skullface from MGS V proud. As for animations, they kick ass. They express great mastery over the use of the naginata and lances, and make lance-exclusivity more appealing aesthetically. If you'll notice, the lance animations are different from the naginata animations. The same is true for the victory poses Oboro has. With lances, she does this salute which always reminds me of a certain maniacal group of right-wing extremists from Germany. With a naginata, she takes on a rather darling pose. Her voice is wonderful. It's very comforting outside of combat, again reflecting her mother-like nature in a lot of her supports. In combat, she more sounds like she's trying to get revenge against a wasp that stung her, especially when she says "Oh, that's it!", and I love it. One more additional thing, but I'll put it in spoilers, as it's less about her design than it is about art styles. And now, the moment you've all been waiting for (except not really). The moment where I dump a bunch of text about voices into yet another spoiler. Arr ya ready, kids?

Don't get me wrong; I don't hate her. If anything, it just makes me like Corrin less (not because of her victim blaming having any validity). But I'm also not her biggest fan. Just indifferent. But I already expressed my opinion of her in the old opinion thread, and this is not the place for this kind of analysis, so I will discuss it no longer. Backdoors, anyone? Yeah, there's one to talk about here. Effie And it's with our lady Armor Knight. Yes, the exposed derriere. Because we need to make absolute certain that this horse is deader than Sumeragi. We've all agreed that it's weird that Camilla's got those battle panties. And in regards to the Cavaliers, the forum has discussed it in passing and in depth. But it's the worst for Armor Knights because they're supposed to be heavily armored. Now, I know that typical armors protect the crotch region and leave the back part exposed, but usually, one wears chainmail or something underneath all the plates. Sure, male Armor Knights actually don't seem to wear chainmail, but it's just distasteful for females to wear less than their male counterparts when they're both supposed to be heavily focused on defense. Especially in a region that's pretty sexualized in general to begin with... Anyway, I don't want to bog down her otherwise solid design; I just wanted to let that complaint out, since it's stuck with me since Awakening. I like the toned down weight of the armor. It looks more like a suit of armor than it does a vehicle in the form of armor, if that makes any sense. I'm always down for armors that set themselves apart from the generic, and it's especially good since it uses a couple of colors similar to the ones Hana wears. It just aligns right with the mirror themes they were going for with the royals and their retainers. As for her face and hair. There aren't many characters in Fates (or FE in general, really) that have green eyes, and they seem to work for her. I like buns on girls no offense, fellow dudes, but manbuns are an abomination, and I like its color. She has some butter lips, kind of like Sully and Kjelle, so I'm pretty sure that's just going to be a recurring thing for big, tough girls from here on. She looks fairly cute, but the cuteness factor doesn't take away from the impression that she could probably snap you like a twig with relative ease. Now, animations... In Awakening, the Armor Knights seemed kind of... floaty in their movements? Like, they could jump about 2-3 feet in the air, and it just seemed like they had a hard time grounding themselves. Of course, it could just be that the animations in Fates are all around faster and flow better, but the Armor Knights seem much heavier, and they use weight to help them make smashing strikes that would make Nigel Thornberry proud. They have varied attacks as well, which makes them a bit more interesting. Effie's victory pose, though... Captain Nohr: Civil War There's just one thing I have to say about Arthur's color scheme: I like that instead of just being mostly bare skin, he wears tights. It actually makes the Fighter design more appealing by at least 50%. If they were going for the super hero look, they've obviously succeeded with flying colors. I lied when I said I only had one thing to say about the colors. This image is only furthered by his blonde hair, blue eyes, and big chin. If Superman had Aryan traits, you wouldn't be able to tell him apart from Arthur. I also love his "H" belt buckle. Again, it just screams Super Hero. Animation-wise, he has typical axe-wielder animations. In fact, I think they were ripped straight from Awakening, for the most part. Not very impressive, but no glaring flaws, either. I'm gonna have to make a separate post for all that. And put it in spoilers. Then, if there are no characters between now and when I voice these opinions, I'll just add that spice to the stew that is my lightly salted opinions.

Hey! Men in dresses look absolutely glorious. That's really adorable. I, too, love Leo's shiny armor and Takumi's bow. Though does she have an opinion on Sakura? Me too. Though then again, I generally just want to see the armies break from the usual blue = ally, red =enemy, since it's easy enough to tell who's who with the map sprites (those sprites can keep the blue/red/green scheme). I'd like to see all Hoshidan units wear red and white (which they do when you fight them, but red is swapped with blue when you capture them) and all the professional knights and fighters of Nohr to wear colors reflective of Nohr. Bandits can wear whatever the hell they want. But even more, I'd like for all the retainers to wear special apparel to signify that they're servants and guards of the royal siblings. A badge of office, if you will. Anyway, here are the opinions of the day. Hana Barbera Can't remember how the surname's spelled, but I tried. Alright, we got Samurai Mia, here. I actually like the color scheme on her outfit. It's much more appealing to me than the generic Samurai outfits. Other than that, I agree with the statements others made. It's just too bad she isn't all the appealing as a character, what with the whole "victim blaming" support line and whatnot. I don't really have much to say about the Samurai animations, since they're pretty identical to the Swordmaster/Master of Arms animations. Though it is worth it to note than unlike the Swordmaster, both the Samurai and Master of Arms classes always use single weapon animations, regardless of whatever weapons they use. So that means you'll get to see Hana wielding a single Sunrise Katana in both of her hands, while you'll never see Ryoma holding less than two Sunrise Katanas without reclassing. Tub-ak-ee First ever male Pegasus Knight, except for all those male Pegasus Knights in the original Mystery of the Emblem that nobody talks about since that got retconned in the remakes. I have to say, his face looks very pompous. Like, even the way he wears his face has to give off this aura of perfection, though it's more accurate to say it gives off an aura of him believing (or pretending he believes) that he's perfect. Though I love his "nervous" face; it looks like he accidentally spilled a bowl of cereal on Sakura or something. Not much else to add. His hair's nice, and the male Pegasus Knight uniform is nice. I don't really have feelings about him having pants. Personally, I don't think the female Pegasus Knight design comes across as pandering or impractical nearly as much as the female Cavalier and Armor Knight/General designs do. But I'm pretty sure I already talked about female Pegasus Knights when I talked about Hinoka, so there's no reason to talk about it more here. And thus, I also have nothing to say about Subaki's animations, as they're the exact same as Hinoka's.

Are you sure it wasn't Dorothy? I don't think any of the main characters do, but I'm pretty sure there was at least one playable character who did somewhere in the series, and I'm pretty sure it was in one of the GBA games. Though I think I also recall some of the commoners having freckles. People could be busy with stuff. Busy with work. Busy worrying about political events. There seemed to be a bit of a lack in activity today (and yesterday) on this forum. Silas No jokes come to mind at this point. How 'bout dat hair, tho? I do like his color scheme. It makes me wonder why most Nohrians don't share the color scheme when Silas - a simple knight - has it. It's pretty spiffy. If you'll notice, his armor is accented with silver instead of gold, the latter color of which accents the royals' (except Elise) armors, as well as more professional characters' armors, such as some of the retainers. I just think it's kind of a neat touch, which only leads me to further wishing that Nohrian troops shared the color scheme in some respect. I won't talk about his animations, as they're the same as the paladin ones. They don't call me GUN-ter for nothing I'll never not reference that joke. When was the last time (remakes aside) that we got to actually use an old man? And I mean a really old man, not middle-aged or whatever. Wasn't it in Sword of Seals, with Hector's retainer? Very Jeigan-esque design, but I actually like Gunter's appearance more. But then again, in Jeigan's original appearance, it looked like half his face was melting off. So it isn't like it's too difficult to make a prettier face than Jeigan's, though he admittedly has improved substantially since then. I guess at this point, it more comes down to a preference in colors and art styles. His armor is very unique. Of course, it's a similar design to the generic Great Knight design, but there are clear differences, the most noticeable being the color scheme, which again, I wish was applied to more than just one unit. The horse also has a different color scheme, which is good. But the model itself is slightly different, as well. There are a few extra pieces to his gear, and the armor is a little differently shaped than the generic armor. Believe it or not, Great Knight animations are different from the other cavalier animations. They're... interesting. With blades and blunt weapons, the first strike is a downward slash, and the second strike is a clockwise spin, then diagonal slash. The lance animations are close to the same as regular cavalier ones, but slightly different. They aren't all that impressive either, but props for variety, I guess.

If you felt your first playthrough was very easy, you might want to go up to hard classic. But when I was a newb starting out with Awakening I did it like this: normal/casual -> normal/classic -> hard/casual -> hard/classic. I say test the waters; if it still seems like it's easy, go up a difficulty or switch to classic if you haven't already. Playing casual is very different from playing classic, so that's why I kind of treat it like an extra difficulty. But if you like being challenged from a tactical standpoint, then classic is the way to go.

Honestly wasn't expecting a scientific explanation. But I guess a "thank you" is in order. It shall arrive at your doorstep at 4:30 am on a Monday in the form of a piece of cardboard with the words "thank you" written on it. Krusty Kaze One of the three (four, if you count child folk) ninjas, Kaze has the most reserved design of them. I'm inclined to like his design if only because green is a favorite color of mine. No, but seriously, ninjas do look pretty killer, and Kaze is no exception. I guess they had to make them look cool, since ninjas have made such a major impact on our cultures. The animations are the most flashy of all battle animations. They take all the good from those animation tricks in anime (the ones where fighters are so fast, they appear to flash in and out of existence) and put them into this crazy (and insanely OP) class. Plus, they help me in imagining how exactly a scene plays out when they decide to "disappear". I could see if they were swinging their arms back at someone how it could go wrong, but it'd be pretty hard for them to hurt themselves unless they bent their arms in ways people don't normally bend them. I suppose the purpose of them is so that if they were attacked and/or grabbed from behind, they could fight back easily. I'm obviously not a professional armorer, so I wouldn't know. Mozu Jesus, this girl is total cuteness overload. The little freckles, the eyes, the little flowers over her ears, the - I guess you'd say cowlick? - on the top of her head, and that little farmer gal dress... It's obvious they wanted you to look at this little gal and gush about how cute she is. And dammit, it worked. How could you hate this lovely lady? And poor girl, with her animations. She's clearly frightened to death. It's a bit endearing, but I also feel really bad for putting her on the battlefield and forcing her to fight, especially since I often have her fight by baiting enemies. I just look at her and think "she doesn't belong here". But then I train her and things die as soon as she pokes them, so then I feel she doesn't belong there for entirely different reasons. Behind all the cute looks and support convos, there's a demon hell bent on destroying everything. I believe there was a girl who had freckles in one of the GBA games. I don't think she was a very popular character, though. I think it's safe to say Mozu's the first in a long time to have freckles.

Ah, the servants. When I first heard that we'd get servant classes, I was rather intrigued. I thought they'd be trainee classes like the villagers or whatever. Though what they've done with 'em is pretty interesting, as well. But I digress. Felixia I try way too hard to come up with a joke for every character, but to no avail. Ah, the classic French maid outfit. The center of a well-known fetish, which is often associated with subjects that are anything but French. Though the outfits that the maids in this game wear are actually much less sexualized than the usual French maid outfits you'll run come across in stores, which actually makes the maid design in this game more appealing to me. I guess it's as they say: less is more. Felicia herself looks very nice in her default class. I think her looks compliment the dress she is given. She's very pretty and fairly cute. There are maybe a few imperfections with her hair, but they compliment her personality, I feel. And the stern expression she sometimes takes on in her portrait does convey a familiarity with war that Flora's facial expressions don't seem to convey (even though both characters look very similar), which reiterates the point (of which the game makes, not me) that Felicia's more inclined towards a soldier's life than Flora. The only thing I can complain about with the maid animations is just the same for most staff/rod wielders, and it's that those healing animations are merely par. But aside from the "only okay" staff/rod animations, the actual fighting animations are like those of a master of dancing. Watching Felicia fight in her default class makes you forget that she's a total klutz because her fighting is so elegant and powerful, even when using flimsy, useless "weapons" such as chopsticks or loafs of bread. Even her throwing animation looks kind of cool. By the way, totally off-topic, but how exactly are you able to forge bread? Like, how does combining two loafs of bread with an ore make a sturdy weapon that's more powerful? Little Jacob Who remembers that guy from GTA IV? Anybody? Does anyone here even play those games? Another very well done servant design. Though his beginnings are shoddy and troubling, he comes out of them looking none the worse for wear. You don't actually get a good look at his ponytail too often. But when I do get to see his tail, it reminds me of those white wigs many European/American politicians and judicial officials wore in olden times. It actually makes him look fairly elegant, along with his dignified butler attire. His animations are also pretty interesting. Swift and deadly, they do well to reflect Jakob's attitude towards his role as a military official. And his victory pose just screams (or quietly yells, since Jakob's not really the screaming type) "I'm a loyal butler", and I love it. Obviously, Dwyer wants to spite Jakob by ruining his own hair as much as possible. Or he doesn't care about how he comes across to others. Though then again, Jakob doesn't care about that, either, except for when Corrin's involved in any way.

Alright, time to play catch up. Pineapple Head (AKA Radditz AKA Meme Man AKA Takumi) He looks more like a hunter. His outfit sets himself entirely apart from the rest of the Hoshidan royals, with the dominate color being blue instead of red or white. But it's also in the fact that he's the only one who wears actual furs, which suggests that he probably is a game hunter of some kind. Wouldn't it be hilarious if he hated bear meat like a certain other meme man in the series, though? He does make up for the dominance of blue with his white hair, except that also breaks from the norm of red and brown hair his relatives have (yes, I'm including Mikoto and Sumeragi in the mix). I do like him being overall different, since he sets himself apart both in his attitude and in the story. Now, in regards to his animations... It's nice to see that archers get a bit of the spotlight. The archer and sniper animations are very elaborate, though I kind of find it funny that they do so many 360 spins given the culture of a certain genre of games. But all around, they're much more elaborate than previous games, and goddammit, it took them long enough. But there's an extra matter to discuss in regards to his animations as well, and it's the Fujin Yumi. Rather than using traditional arrows, the Fujin Yumi spawns a magical arrow whenever the bow string is pulled. It basically fires laser arrows, which... isn't really something I see often in games. I like how the bow string is also made of this magical material. Also, during the victory pose, the archer normally holds an arrow in their hand, but with the Fujin Yumi, they just kind of hold their hand in the air there. All around my favorite royal weapon, especially since the buff it gives is pretty much the Trickster's Acrobat skill from Awakening, which essentially is a big "f*** you mountains". Leonardo Da Vinci Can I just go on-record to say I really love the dark knight design in this game? In spite of it being available to plenty of non-royals, it has a look of nobility while also having a tough and sturdy look. Basically an armored mage uniform, though I like the added cosmetics for the mount. As for Leo himself, he has that European look like Xander does with his blonde, short hair. Yet he manages to look more calculating than stern. Perhaps it's the different headpieces. He looks best as a dark knight, obviously. His animations aren't too elaborate. I mean, they're better than Nohr Noble's extremely stale tome/scroll animations, but they're not as cool and flashy as the dark mage/sorcerer animations. And yes, the sword animations are just the cavalier animations. Though I do like Brynhildr just summoning a freaking tree. I mean, of all things it could do with its masterful control of the earth beneath our feet - fling boulders at people, conjure jagged stalagmite to pierce a foe from the bottom up - it just summons small trees. [insert name of mild porn visual novel with the name "Sakura" in it] Also, there's a martial arts training dojo or whatever called "Sakura" in my town. Damn, Sakura, you're so famous, your name's everywhere! I think her looks do well to portray her timid and innocent heart. She shares the color scheme of the older siblings, but I think she represents Hoshidan ideals the best as a character. Anyway, I do like her design as well. Shrine Maiden is the best class for her both from a gameplay stance and a design perspective. She has a more interesting staff/rod animation than most others. She does a little spin, sort of like a dance. The bow animations for the Shrine Maiden class are a bit more tame than the archer/sniper ones, but still are better than any of the ones from Awakening. I like that after firing, the force of the bow string is so strong that the bow itself actually spins around in her left hand 180 degrees each time she fires it. It might happen with other classes, but I just happen to particularly notice it with this class. I also find it funny that the dodging animation is just her shuffling backwards. It's oddly endearing. That One Recital Song (Elise) So now I finally get to talk about those cinnamon drills, among other things. Her dress is actually kind of similar to Sakura's, but it obviously has a distinct Nohrian twist to it. I think while Sakura's short hair reflects her relatively reserved personality, Elise's drills reflect her very outgoing and free-spirited personality. In fact, every bit of her design reflects that spirit, from her eyes to her boots. It's elegant, endearing, and has some flair. And I don't really get that "trying too hard to be cute" impression from her that I get from so many other cutesy characters in media. The combat animations aren't anything to get excited about, though. The scroll/tome animations are the same blend of dull as the Dark Knight's (in fact, they probably are the same), and the staff/rod animation is just par. Nothing much more to say other than I find the sound she makes when she uses a staff to be oddly funny for some reason.

To be fair, the main Kinshi knight you get, the woman named Reina, does actually wear pants (or tights; whatever). She's just the only promoted female flier who wears pants, and since she's likely the first one you'll see (and potentially only one), it could be easy to not notice that no other women wear pants as promoted fliers. Sort of like how Setsuna's the only lady who wears pants as an archer (though incidentally, I don't think she wears pants as a Kinshi knight).

Well, it's leagues better than a hundred-line wall of text with no paragraph breaks at all. Though yeah, it isn't particularly the most helpful, either. To Darizuka: Usually you're supposed to paragraph break after a sentence or two (or a few, depending). Doing it mid-sentence just seems broken and confusing. You don't need to have it be eight lines long, but most adolescents and adults are easily capable of reading all the way from left to right. Only time this isn't the case is if the person is very tired, but in that case, they really shouldn't be surfing the web in the first place. Not that it'll stop me. If you're doing it because it's how Asia does it (which is obviously a contested fact given the previous post, but I'll humor you since I literally have no clue), then that's just a case of the right intentions gone wrong. From what I know about Asian languages, they can typically express a whole word or concept with a single character, so they need much less characters than we in the West do in order to express a full sentence. So they can get away with doing it because it doesn't break the flow of the reading process. In essence, English is a more drawn-out language visually than Japanese, Chinese, or Korean are.

That's some really nice artwork; I have to agree that he looks pretty damn good with a ponytail. Takumi and Oboro are certainly onto something in that regard, which is of no surprise. I'm sure they're quite proud of Royma. Also, what a cute little pupper. I mean, I always have to make a note of every dog I see, but that little dog is really cute. Anyway, I was typing this before the thread actually updated, so I guess there might be a hipster joke in here somewhere. Or... something? It's late in the eve, I had pizza, and spent a few hours ruining my brain with FB, so I don't care for japes atm. Hinoker Okay, believe it or not, I actually think she's prettier than Camilla. Shocking, I know; how could I dare think anyone is better looking than Lovely Lady Camilla? But given that she was one of the more defensible units in my BR playthrough (don't ask me how; it just happened) and always had good stats, I'm probably a bit biased. She has a tomboyish sort of look, yet she also looks like royalty, if only due to the fact that she shares the color scheme of two of her relatives. She doesn't really have much armor, but I can infer from discussions about Pegasus knights and the Chon'sin/Japanese that sky knights are meant to have light armor so that they can travel farther and fight with speed. Her armor focus is on her arms, which makes sense, since enemy attacks on her would typically come from the sides rather than the front. I only mention this to stave off criticisms of hypocrisy in regards to any of my complaints about "fanservice" uniforms having senseless armor choices. Animation-wise, she shares the animations of the sky knights. They're as swift and deadly as ever, except I can't seem to recall Pegasus knights ever using stabs in their attacks before Fates, which was really odd, considering their main weapon type is polearms. Dem Camillas I can try to ignore fanservicey designs like a bashful teenager who won't admit he only cares about titties, but that only goes so far. Camilla's one of the very few characters in this game whose primary focus includes some degree of sexualization. You can talk about a few other aspects of her appearance (and I will), but when talking about her design, you have to mention the fanservice. So let's get that bit out of the way. So, off the bat, you have a well exposed chest and panty region. With most armor designs, including western ones (which Nohrian classes are based off of), these would be the most covered up regions. So her uniform goes for the literal opposite of that, though admittedly it's not as bad as Charlotte's armor. I don't care what you say about her breasts being too big or needing room to breathe, she's royalty! She has the wealth and power to get a set of armor fitted for her, no matter how large her mammaries are. And there's no excuse for her crotch region to be exposed like that. Some might say, "But you excused Hinoka's lack of armor; they're both fliers, so they'd require the same amount of armor!" No, friend, not really. The wyvern knights have always been more armored. They don't favor speed like the Pegasus knights, so they aren't looking to strip themselves of as much armor as possible. They can afford to wear a shit ton of armor, and most of them do. Malig Knights are no exception; they wear less armor than the wyvern riders for sure, but they still have armor where it's needed. But Camilla's chest and pelvis are wide open to be pierced by Takumi's arrows. Yes, that was a half-assed, totally unoriginal sex joke, and I feel very ashamed about it. Please forgive me, dear fashion goddess. Aside from the fanservice (and her fanservicey personality, which is another discussion entirely), she's actually fairly nice. Her hair is very pretty and flowy, which is aided with a wonderful shade of violet. The rest of her armor is quite nice; black and gold, and also fairly heavy like a wyvern knight's. And I like that her gloves are the same color as her cape and close to the same as her hair, so you might not see her hands as she's twittling with her hair. As far as animations go, they're the same as malig knights (woah, big surprise!). The one-range axe fighting animations are great because they take advantage of an axe's weight to help with the first strike, much like how you're supposed to use the weight of an axe to help you in chopping wood. I like it better than the usual "swipe attack" so many fliers have used historically in the series. Also, the victory pose fits Camilla, as she has a tendency towards showering cute creatures with affection. It also makes me think of my bulldog and how he always tilts his head straight up like the dragon does so that I can scratch his neck. Really just an adorable animation. Why am I just now learning about this? I don't need this right now. I've already got enough to worry about with this mess of a character...

Yeah, FE never really has been a paradigm of great villains. Evil conspiring mages are practically a staple of the series, almost as much as mad kings and evil dragons are. Why can't we get more villains like Gangrel at least, who make fart jokes about the heroes? At least there's some entertainment to be had there. Also yes, BR is supposed to be a more straightforward story. It's basically your typical FE story, except with a few additional bells and whistles. And CQ isn't really supposed to be the big revealer story or "complicated" as much as it is the "edgy" story, I guess. Or the "grey" story, except... not really. But let's not beat the dead maggots on the dead horse with a discussion that's deader than dead. Both paths are meant to hint at the hidden truths, but neither are supposed to reveal a significant portion. Information is omitted in both paths, and each has their own exclusive plot pieces. I personally get the feeling you're meant to play BR first, but that's only because it's how I did it (and because it's decidedly the easiest route of them all). Many bought CQ first and probably don't share this feeling. I wouldn't know.