vanguard333

Good point. Cavalry being hybrids a lot of the time is certainly good evidence against my theory. That said, in most early FE games that had flying units, flying units were dedicated lance users who only received a second weapon upon promotion. Then again, they're still lance-users in Path of Radiance, which did add playable soldiers, so it's still evidence against my theory. As for thieves, in a lot of the early games, they had no promotion. The earliest game that gave thieves a promotion was FE4, and then Roy's game went right back to them having no promotion.

I agree. I only used "manakete" for the title of this topic since it's shorter than "dragon-person with shapeshifting" and still gets the idea across. Fair enough. I do think though, with Fates at least, the limited types of dragonstone worked because only Corrin and their kid could use them, making them essentially unique weapons like the Yato. That said, I still think it would've been cool if there had also been a dawnstone and duskstone (Pokémon item pun not intended) that made Corrin look like the Dawn Dragon and Dusk Dragon respectively and had different gameplay effects.

Perhaps IS sees it as an imbalance. Generally, the dedicated sword classes are mercenary and myrmidon, the dedicated axe classes are fighter and brigand, and the dedicated lance classes are knight and cavalier (and that's not including flying units; remember that wyvern riders being axe wielders isn't that old). If you had cavalier, knight and halberdier, that's three dedicated lance classes. One reason to think this is the case is if you consider the games that have a dedicated infantry lance unit: In Path of Radiance, the weapon of each cavalry unit varied from unit to unit, soo cavalry was no longer a dedicated lance unit. Of course, in Path of Radiance, there was only one dedicated sword class, and both flying classes were lance wielders pre-promotion, but perhaps they saw the change in cavalry as reason enough to make lance infantry playable. Radiant Dawn had a modified version of the same idea with cavalry in the form of gold and silver knights. In Fates, well, the Hoshidan and Nohrian classes were designed to balance each other: if Hoshido gets an axe class, so does Nohr, etc., with Nohr usually getting the cavalry classes for further differentiation. Nohr got cavalier and knight, so it made sense to give Hoshido lance infantry.

As the title says: should IS try again at having an FE lord that's a manakete: i.e. is at least part-dragon and can shapeshift. The first, and so far only, time that IS has done this is with Corrin in Fates, with Corrin being part-dragon and being able to take on a dragon form (as well as shapeshift parts of their body during skill activations and critical hits). However, it was otherwise very underutilized within the game itself, with the dragon form only being a plot element in the very same chapter that introduced it and never again. One could maybe count Byleth, since they technically are a lord in the Silver Snow route and (spoilers) However, I'm not counting Byleth, and for one simple reason: no transformation. No dragon form.

Ike isn't the only one who can fight Ashnard; the dragons and the royal laguz can as well. In that case, it's because Ashnard is wearing blessed armour provided by the Black Knight. As for Ashera, I wasn't a fan that Ike is the only one who could beat Ashera. By "gameplay/story integration" I think @Sunwoo means that the cutscene where Yune gives her power to Ike and Ike delivers the final blow was made, so Ike being the only one who can strike the final blow keeps it consistent with the cutscene. Personally, I think it would've make more sense if only Micaiah could land the final blow since she's the one hosting Yune in the first place; yet another example of Micaiah getting overshadowed in her own game.

It almost always comes back to crystals. First, it was mega evolution requiring mega stones, then it was z-crystals, and now it's the Pokémon itself becoming a crystal. Being able to tackle the gyms in any order sounds cool. I wonder how they'll balance that; will it just be that the levels of the Pokémon increase the later the player tackles a gym, or will the number of Pokémon that the gym leader has also increase? The mascot legendaries being the main form of transportation is just hilarious. Other regions revere the mascot legendaries and build mythologies around them, while this region uses them as horses and gliders.

Thanks. Yeah; I already knew about how the first two games were connected. I guess I was more wondering how much of the stuff in 3 is from 1 & 2 compared to how much of it is actually fresh. Incidentally, a video of the ending of Xenoblade 3 recently appeared on my recommended videos on YouTube, and the thumbnail showed an image of certain Xenoblade 2 characters, and I have to ask if the image really was in the XC3's ending or not:

I'm probably not going to play the game anyway. Xenoblade Chronicles is a series that I've wanted to like but, outside of Xenoblade X, I haven't been able to do so. They present interesting worlds and stories, but I've never been able to enjoy the gameplay: exploration is boring outside of X, and I don't like the MMO-like combat.

True; it was easier back in the day. Personally, I would describe a "lord" character, regardless of their class, as the one in command. Characters like Robin and Byleth in 3 out of 4 routes avoid being the lord character because they play the tactician/support role. Similarly, I'd count Ike as a lord in Path of Radiance because Elincia leaves the bulk of the commanding to him; Elincia's role is mainly diplomatic. True; a story that isn't about a political war could work. Perhaps Shiharam chose Daein because of that plague? Perhaps he thought it would give him more leverage when arranging his defection or something like that. Something like, "You have lost a lot of people and are short of troops; we could help protect the Daein... if you agree to our modest requests."

True, though there was also the case in chapter 5 where the Daein troops pretended to be willing to spare the Greil Mercenaries but had every intent on killing them to keep word of the princess from spreading. Shiharam defected years earlier and out of dissatisfaction with the Begnion Empire while Shinon didn't end up in the Daein army until around the time Elincia ended up in Begnion, when knowledge of Princess Elincia was no longer as relevant (plus, there's nothing indicating that his recruiters had any knowledge that he was previously part of the Greil Mercenaries). So it might be less based on Norris being a dick and more based on whichever each Daein commander sees as more beneficial to Daein. Well, this topic is about lords, so I just figured that Kris wasn't mentioned because they aren't a lord. I suppose this does raise the question: what do we define as the difference between an FE protagonist and an FE lord? I argued that, if not for the Silver Snow route, Byleth wouldn't be a lord, since in every other route, they act as support for the actual lord. For a commoner to act as an FE lord, and not just an FE protagonist, it would likely have to be either a mercenary-turned-army-commander like Ike and Silver-Snow-Byleth, or a Joan-of-Arc scenario like Micaiah, as one would have to explain why they're invested in the war effort and why they're in charge. If I remember correctly, Shiharam and Haar defected from Begnion 20 years before Radiant Dawn, so 17 years before Path of Radiance, though there may have been time in between them leaving Begnion and them entering the Daein army, as Shiharam tells Petrine that he and his forces have served Daein for 15 years. Ike is 17 years old in Path of Radiance, he was born after Greil fled Daein, and Greil fled Daein around the time Ashnard took over. So Ashnard was almost-certainly in charge when Shiharam joined the Daein forces.

Fair enough; I'm just saying that the assumption that the eldest will inherit was by no means unique to nobility; everybody had that assumption in the middle ages. The only thing Ike gets from being the son of Greil is being the son of a highly-skilled swordsman; as @Shanty Pete's 1st Mate pointed out, those benefits don't directly come from Greil having been a noble. Besides, in a way, being the son of Greil is socially worse than being the son of a random peasant because of Greil's status as a fugitive: outlaws had zero legal rights or privileges and it was not a crime to kill them. Of course, we're talking about a fantasy setting that could have different rules regarding outlaws, but the fact remains that Greil being a wanted man with an assumed identity gave Ike real societal costs. We don't know if they own the land the fort sits on. Owning the home without owning the land was far more prevalent in the middle ages, and it's never stated that the land itself is there's; only the fort. They generally did not. However, there's a big difference between owning the home and owning the land (not so much in today's society, but definitely so in the middle ages); peasants and commoners owned homes without owning the land on which those homes sat. The Greil Mercenaries, similarly, could easily own the fort without owning the land. Well, he would've tried to sell her only to get killed or tortured in some gruesome way; the examples we see of how Daein treats sellouts is not good: the army that came to the mercenary fort intended to set the fort alight with flaming arrows once the princess was handed over in order to leave no witnesses, and the townspeople who sell out the princess to Norris in chapter 11 are immediately sentenced to torture and backbreaking labour by Norris.

So did everyone in the Middle Ages. The farmer's son inherited the farm, the blacksmith's son took on an apprenticeship and eventually took over the forge, etc. If you were the eldest child in the Middle Ages, most of the time you inherited whatever your parent was, and those who didn't usually were those who either lost their status or died before they could inherit. The difference is what the person inherits. Ike, as the eldest son of a mercenary leader, inherited a mercenary company. Not a rank, title, or piece of land: a mercenary company. Ike inheriting isn't indicative of nobility; it's indicative of him being the eldest son. As for the sword, yes; it is called the 'regal sword', but the context is completely different. The regal sword in Path of Radiance is just a sword; it's Ike's first sword that isn't a hand-me-down. Greil had it made for Ike after Ike became a mercenary, and he has it given to Ike before Ike's mission to investigate the fall of the Crimean capital because it's the first mission where Ike's in charge and the first mission where Ike's likely to encounter soldiers rather than bandits. Sure; his father was former nobility. Emphasis on "former". Gawain lost all his titles, rank and status when he fled Daein and become an outlaw. His blood was no longer 'noble blood' anymore, as there was nothing to claim from it. Micaiah has claim to the Begnion Empire, Alm has claim to the Rigelian Empire; Ike has nothing to claim, as he is not the son of a noble: he is the son of a fugitive who lived under an alias. The game even specifies that Ike was born in Gallia, i.e. after Gawain ceased being Gawain. Thanks for at least understanding. Honestly, I wouldn't say Ike is the only commoner lord, but he is the first. Caineghis would not have done that, for multiple reasons: 1. Titania is an old friend as well; he would have wanted to see her. 2. The whole point of the meeting was to establish that Gallia cannot harbour Elincia as it would provide Daein further justification for war and they need to come up with a new plan.

I wouldn't know; I just know that the Wikipedia article for Lament of Innocence says that it's a hack-&-slash. It also describes Devil May Cry as a hack-and-slash, and given that you keep saying it is like DMC, that's probably the reason. I see. Thanks for the info. All I know about Curse of Darkness is that it's the game where Hector is the protagonist. Learning that he was the protagonist in his own game made me really disappointed with how the show handled his character.

Byleth I would agree is a commoner in that Jeralt raised him as a common mercenary, and the position of teacher at the monastery is not exclusive to nobility. I would argue though that he isn't a lord as the lord characters are Edelgard, Dimitri and Claude... or at least, that's what I would be arguing if the Silver Snow route didn't exist. Micaiah... that one's tricky. On the one hand, for most of the game, she is a classic Joan-of-Arc. However, her abilities are because of her brand, which is revealed in part 4 to have originated from her being the true heir to the Begnion Apostleship. She turns down both the position of Apostle and Empress, but the fact that Sanaki offers the position(s) to her demonstrates that the position would've been available and it would've been solely because of her bloodline; she has no ties to those positions otherwise. I haven't played Gaiden, so I'll have to take your word for it in regards to Alm. However, while he might be a commoner lord in Gaiden, he is definitely not a commoner lord in Echoes; not with that line from Mycen removed and instead there being entire scenes where the other characters gush about how there was always something superior about him, and let's not forget the sword that only he can wield because it only allows royalty to wield it.

I see. I didn't know that. All I knew was that the 3D Castlevania games were hack-&-slash games, so I said I would make a 3D Castlevania that would actually be a Metroidvania. How was the whip used for puzzle-platforming in that game? Was it any good?

Ike is still a commoner. Greil was indeed former nobility; emphasis on "was" and "former". By the time Ike was born, Greil was nothing more than a common mercenary and an outlaw living under an alias. Greil himself outright said that he is no longer Gawain: Black Knight: I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. I would prefer it if you used your proper weapon, so that I might see you at your full strength… General Gawain, Rider of Daein. Greil: That was my name... once, but I threw it away. You have a point. He probably sees it in terms of both power and will.

I know this is beside the point, but I wouldn't consider Alm a commoner lord as he isn't a commoner; he's secret royalty. Ike actually is a commoner. I would say that there's another important difference between Ashnard and Edelgard: Ashnard only sees people in terms of military strength and really does just simply want the strong to rule over the weak, while Edelgard wants a system where those best-suited for each job fill that job.

I haven't played Xenoblade Chronicles 3. The Xenoblade games are a series I really wanted to like because of their really imaginative stories and science-fantasy worlds, but I've never been able to enjoy them enough to finish them outside of Xenoblade X. I can't say anything about Xenoblade 3, but I can say something about how it was advertised, mainly because I wanted to ask a question. One thing I remember about Xenoblade 1, X and 2 was how much their imaginative worlds was front-and-center in their advertising. For Xenoblade 1, they showed off that everyone lives on two dead giants and how there's a war between humans and robots and a sword that can predict the future. What you see front and center is the Mechonis and the Monado. Similarly, with X, the advertising was all about a remnant of humanity crashing on the Planet Mira and needing to explore and survive on the hostile planet; what you see front-and-center is the planet and a giant Skell, and for 2, again: everyone lives on living giant animals and people can use living weapons called Blades; what you see is Rex holding the Aegis while overlooking the world tree and one of the Titans. For Xenoblade 3, however, while there was some of that imagination on display in the trailers, with a war between two nations with both sides using seeming clone armies that have a lifespan of 10 years that can be repeated up to nine times, but I got far less of a sense of, "that looks interesting," and far more of a sense of "I recognize that". This time, what's front-and-center is an image of the Mechonis Sword and one of the Titans. So, I was wondering, for those who have played 3, is that reflective of the game? Is it less new world & ideas and more "we're continuing on from 1 and 2"?

I think one could still translate a Metroidvania into 3D design; for just one example (well, technically three examples), the Metroid Prime games demonstrated that it is possible to make a 3D Metroidvania. The emphasis on platforming is one reason I suggested making the whip also be useful for platforming.

No, I have not played them. I have heard of them though, and, from what I've heard, they play very differently from what I described; playing more like a hack-&-slash.

Castlevania: I would make a 3D Metroidvania (think games like the Metroid Prime Trilogy and Dark Souls 1). The game would star a Belmont sometime around the 16th Century (i.e. the age of pikes and early guns), and the story would be non-canon but still respectful of the original Castlevania lore. For the gameplay, first things first: the whip. Before working on anything else; before making a single level or boss fight, I would first iron out all the gameplay surrounding the use of the whip and make sure it was fun to use, since it's the primary form of combat. I would make sure that using the whip for combat is fluid and almost like something out of the show (see the video in the spoiler tag for an example of the whip combat in the show to see what I mean). Furthermore, I would make it that the whip isn't just for combat; it also acts like the grappling hook from Wind Waker (but more fluid) in being useful for swinging across gaps and retrieving distant objects among other things. To be clear, the combat would not revolve around building up combos or anything like that; this is not a hack-&-slash. Ideally, there will be nothing mindless about the combat: the combat revolves around having to be smart about what you're fighting; spamming the whip or other items will lead to defeat. To help, there's a bestiary that provides hints about how to fight the various monsters. There would of course be other items that can be used for combat: a short sword, throwing knives, throwing crosses (which I recently learned was an actual thing historically; they were basically two metal spikes forged into the shape of a cross), holy water, etc. Aside from combat, there would also be exploration (naturally, since it would be a Metroidvania). I don't know if the game would take place solely within the titular Castlevania or also take place in Wallachian locations outside the castle. The exploration would make extensive use of the three dimensions.

I just 100% completed Super Mario Galaxy. That meant beating the game as Mario to unlock the purple coin comets, collecting all 120 stars and beating the game again, then doing all that again as Luigi, and then completing the Grand Finale Galaxy. First, playing the game as Luigi is essentially no different from playing it as Mario. Luigi is a little faster, jumps a little higher, and is a little slipperier, but it's barely noticeable a lot of the time, and the levels are completely unchanged; the only difference being that the cosmic Luigi races are a little harder than the cosmic Mario races (and there are only three cosmic clone races in the whole game). I'm sure there were a lot of people who were excited to finally be able to play a 3D Mario game as Luigi, but I wasn't one of them, so playing the game again as Luigi didn't really provide anything; I only did it because I knew there was an additional galaxy if the player collects all 120 stars as Mario and Luigi. As for the Grand Finale Galaxy... it works as a celebration that the player fully completed the game, but it is a little disappointing if expecting a final challenge or anything like that, as there is none: just collect 100 coins that are difficult to miss. Anyway, while it was a little disappointing that there was that much repetition, it really is optional and isn't set up as required in any way to get the full experience; it really is completely optional. As for the game itself... it's Super Mario Galaxy; is there anything new I can really say about it? Its level design is fantastic and imaginative and it is one of the best Mario platformers. I've seen complaints about the motion control gimmicks, but I honestly didn't mind them; not even the gyro levels involving rolling a ball containing the power star. They take a bit of getting used to (especially in my case since I'm left-handed and Nintendo, ever allergic to control options, mapped the gyro controls solely to the right joy-con), but they really aren't bad at all. To be honest, I would've loved to see another manta ray surfing level and was a little saddened that there were only two. I'd argue that there are more problems when controlling Mario and Luigi normally. On larger planetoids, their movement is fine, but on smaller objects, they have an alarming tendency to suddenly run in circles when I'm telling them to run in a particular direction. I know it's not joy-con drift, as it only happens in this game and I have a brand new joy-con. Anyway, I've completed Mario 64, Mario Sunshine, and Mario Galaxy all on 3D All-Stars (I've also completed Mario Odyssey and Mario 3D World), so now I guess the next logical step would be to play Mario Galaxy 2. …Oh, wait...

This video, unlike Nintendo, remembered that Link is supposed to be left-handed.

I wouldn't know what their Heroes voice actors sound like; I haven't played Heroes since long before the Tellius characters were included. As for the music, why would the music be updated though? The music in Path of Radiance is great; some of the best in the series. Why mess with something that's already fantastic? Oh, yeah; that is true. Honestly, though I may just be speaking as someone whose first FE game was Path of Radiance, I never really saw the point of showing that during combat, as you see all that when you go to select the fight and, during combat, well, it's during combat; you can't back out of it, so I don't see the point of displaying that info. Sure, a remaster could include that as an option, but I'd prefer for it to be an option. I never saw the combat animations or overworld animations as particularly slow, but that would definitely be a good option to add for those who don't want to watch the animations, especially since it would be that: an option. Yeah; I agree. Path of Radiance is a good game that left some good sequel hooks. We did not need to see Yune be released in Path of Radiance; that would've undercut Ashnard, and it's nice to have one game where the emperor/conqueror is the final boss for once; something the series really didn't see again until the Azure Moon route of Three Houses. We didn't yet need to know the Black Knight's identity; his purpose was to set the bar Ike needed to reach, to further Ike's need to get stronger while also being a formidable antagonist.

Oh; don't get me wrong; I think that's gross as well. Corrin should not have been able to s-support any of the Hoshido or Nohr siblings. I suspect that Fates was developed less as a game in its own right and more as IS throwing everything at the wall to see what stuck. It's telling that they advertised Birthright as being like Awakening and Conquest as being like the older games, and that they included 2nd-gen characters despite it not fitting the game at all. I suspect that they wanted to include everything they could to see what people would like, and Corrin being able to s-support the royals was part of that. Yeah, I agree, both with your assessment of Micaiah and Sothe and with the idea of two characters already in a relationship being underutilized in FE. The only other example I could think of was Marth and Caeda.