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Hi friends. I'm getting to a point where I can no longer ignore all of the A-going-on-S supports that are staring me in the face. There are a few pairings already set and done: FeMu x Suzukaze Lazward x Hana Asama x Effie Saizou x Orochi As for the rest of the units, I've narrowed down most of my choices, outlined below: Marx x Charlotte Leon x Nyx Benoit x Belka Zero x Elise (lol..) Odin x Felicia Harold x Kagerou Hinata x Setsuna Tsukuyomi x Sakura Jakob x Pieri Flannel x Camilla Nishiki x Hinoka Takumi x Oboro Ryouma x Rinka This means that Aqua is the odd girl out, which seems a little sad seeing as this is my Revelations file. Is there any child that reeeeally wants her as a mother or should I just throw Shigure to the bin? I was thinking possibly Kinu, but Hinoka is bae and I'd much rather her mother the second cutest kid in the game. Obviously, stat/class/skill optimization plays a big part in all of this, too. :')

I'm about to start a Revelations save file, but would love some feedback on pairings before I get into it. Pairings that are pretty much set in stone: Silas x Mozu Tsubaki x Selena Ryouma x Rinka and the rest: FeMu x either Takumi or Suzukaze. Whichever child needs FeMu more, I suppose. Planning on doing +Skl/-Def. I do like the idea of a green haired avatar + green-haired Midoriko (for matching brows!), though. Aqua x Suzukaze (or someone else, if I pair him off with FeMu) Jakob x Oboro Saizou x Orochi Asama x Effie Hayato x Sakura Hinata x Peri Kaden x Setsuna Harold x Kagerou Odin x Felicia Niles x Elise Lazward x Hana Benoit x Belka Leon x Nyx Flannel x Camilla Marx x Hinoka Not sure where to put Charlotte. I had originally paired her with Saizou, but Orochi seems solid if I want to make the most out of Gurei's already stellar magic growths.

In my own silly ideal world: All versions: MaMui and Silas FeMui and Azura Birthright: MaMui and Kaden or Takumi FeMui and Orochi or Reina Kagerou and Orochi Conquest: MaMui and Niles or Benny FeMui and Soleil or Selena Niles and Harold Revelations: Takumi and Leon Oboro and Belka

My headcanons: Marx, 29-30 Ryouma, 27-28 Camilla, 27 Hinoka, 23-24 Aqua, 21-22 Kamui, 20-21 Takumi, 18 Leon, 17 Sakura, 15-16 Elise, 14 Roughly something like that.

The Fuujin is what makes Takumi, really.

I usually prefer to have hybrid magic-physical units. For my Birthrights route, I use: Sakura (Onmyoji), mag only, a really solid unit. Worth investing some time into. Her growths are good enough that she won't lag behind, which is especially nice early on in the game. Orochi (Onmyoji), mag only, good magic user, but has irredeemable speed. I usually keep here in the back to heal, or reserve her for finishing moves/capture. Tsukuyomi (Shura), hybrid, good on defense with a slightly shoddier offense. Takes a while to make usable. Aqua!Dia (Butler), hybrid, surprisingly good magic. I use forged Explosive Kunais. Joker!Shigure (Malig Knight), hybrid, pretty terrible magic growths... but good enough that he can scrape by with a Bolt Axe. Sometimes. Sakura!Gurei (Elite Ninja), hybrid, good magic thanks to his mom. Like with Dia, I use forged Explosive Kunais. Don't remember all the new localized names or classes, so apologies in advance if some of this is hard to parse through.

It feels pretty inaccurate, actually. Gameplay for Fates was better than Awakening in so many ways... and all the reviews coming out right now for Fates focus almost entirely on gameplay mechanics and flow as opposed to characterization, plot, etc. My response to the generally high scores for Fates atm: I'm happy for the series. Like someone else mentioned, higher ratings bring in better sales for a game, which p much lends itself to future development for the franchise. That's all good stuff. I would assume that's why we're here on a FE forum. But I can't help but think that the reviews are biased or hyped. Or that the majority of reviewers only care about gameplay. Or that the reviewers and I share wildly different opinions about what constitutes a "rich" or "excellently executed" storyline. Also, nice to see you again, Thane.

Names like Subaki, Kagero, Ryoma, and Saizo are a no-go for me. Pretty sure Western audiences can deal with the original romanized spellings of the names. Shortening of names like we see with Kazahana, Suzukaze, Mozume, etc., is also kinda disappointing. Kaden seems wildly out of place in the Hoshido route. Caeldori is a mouthful. And Rhajat just seems like a sad attempt at mystic exoticism despite the obvious Japanese backdrop and her dad's very obviously Japanese name... I don't mind the name changes for Nohr quite as much, although I guess it's because the names are mostly Western in origin, anyway. The name Forrest is always welcome in my book. I do like Flannel more than Keaton, though.

Fav guy: Leon. Fav gal: Oboro, with Kagerou close behind at second. A few of her supports were genuinely funny.

You've just about described half the supports... I think the women in Fates are even more domestic than the ones in Awakening. But yeah, gameplay is solid and they've addressed a lot of its previous shortcomings. I'm realizing now that I should manage my expectations. Still hoping on better story development and characterization for future installments, but won't get too invested in the idea.

These supports could have gone beyond platonic friendship for sure, and giving players the option to S support these characters would have been awesome. There's obviously a limit to how much new stuff the developers can put into a single game, but I have hope that same-sex supports will take on more heart and nuance in the future. Hmm... I get what you're saying, but I have to say that I don't think this should be a concern. First off, I don't think your parents would get that an S support = marriage, unless seeing it really piqued their curiosity and they pored a fair amount of time researching Awakening or Fates. Second, most characters have multiple other characters that they can potentially S support with. If I were someone looking at the game who hadn't played it before, I would have thought that the S support meant super best friends. Or soulmates. Or just something confusing that I wouldn't think twice about. Also, if you are with team "I'm okay with it, but personally wouldn't use same-sex supports", then your parents wouldn't even be seeing any "funny business" at all.

I definitely had fun playing the game, and you bet I'm going to spend hours post-game optimizing all of my units and starting new save files. But I equally value good storytelling, and that's where this game fell short for me.

I don't post often but wanted to create a space to talk about any and all aspects of the game: gameplay, plot, characterization, general vibes, etc. Someone made a similar thread, but I'm pretty sure it died back in July. Big spoilers to follow. These are just my opinions so feel free to disagree or add your own points. Pros: I'm really pleased with the whole premise of the game. Choosing one family over the other based on either blood ties or having shared a long history together was a good way to get the ball rolling. Maps feel more lively and creative than in Awakening. I can't speak on behalf of Conquest/Nohr since I haven't played it yet, but the ones that I did play in Birthright/Hoshido were challenging enough. Skills and weapons are balanced. The game developers addressed some of Awakening's biggest flaws by pushing Galeforce into DLC, giving more positive/negative attributes to weapons, making Hoshido and Nohr-specific weapons and classes, etc. Inclusion of different proofs/seals. One of FE's defining attributes is how it allows players to essentially design their units and teams as they please. This customization is pushed further along with the addition of Marriage and Buddy Seals. I appreciate the addition of same-sex relationships, though I do think the game would have benefited from more thoughtful writing in the supports. I would hope that in future iterations (if there are any to follow), developers open up same-sex S supports to characters other than the Avatar... think something like Kagerou x Orochi, or Leon x Takumi. What were previously exclusively-male/female classes are now gender-neutral, with the exception of some DLC classes. This is awesome. I love being able to have male pegasus riders and Tsubaki, despite all the flack he gets, was one of my favorite units. Balanced growths. This goes alongside the point I made about balanced skills and weapons. It was way too easy to make overpowered units in Awakening, so this is good. It forces you to strategize more effectively. Leon, Takumi, and Oboro are strong characters. They are honestly stand-out for me and worth mentioning, and you'll see why... Edit: THE MUSIC. I can't believe I forgot to mention this. Some of the battle themes are nothing short of incredible. I found myself really psyching myself up for battles because that usually meant 30-60 minutes of good music. I distinctly remember the music from the prologue when you're fighting alongside Hinoka/Takumi. Very atmospheric. Cons: The plot was executed shoddily, to say the least. In Hoshido, you spend what amounts to almost half the entire game looking for your siblings. What happened to defending the country? As soon as you make the decision to aid your blood-related family, you skip out on the actual citizens and leave poor Yukimura behind to figure the war out for himself. In Nohr: what was supposed to be a complex revolution that transformed the country from inside out ended up being Kamui playing doormat and carrying out a bunch of chores. Instead of Kamui doing the spying (what I had imagined when I first caught wind of the Nohr route), he's the one being constantly spied on. Invisible Kingdom feels like something the writers thought of to make everyone happy. The whole point of making this big decision early on in the game is to make you feel bad. There are real, tangible consequences. You're supposed to live with that. Why insist of making another path that essentially renders the other two irrelevant? That's exacerbated when you find out the whole reason for the conflict, and it basically boils down to: Hoshido and Nohr are both wrong. Actually, there's no real point in fighting. It's all some shady dragon that's to blame here but welp, you'd never know unless you played this version of the game. The writers really messed up here. Why not stick to just two versions and do them well? You could have written Garon up as a hardened, bitter old guy, focused on building an interesting history and immersive landscape, and the game would have been way better. Treatment of royal family could use some work. As it stands, six of the eight siblings are one-dimensional and underdeveloped. You have an upstanding yet stubborn samurai/knight warrior, a possessive older sister who exists only as sexual fodder, another older sister with literally nothing to offer plot-wise, and two younger sisters: one energetic and clingy, one shy and painfully insecure. Takumi got way more plot (in both Hoshido and Nohr) than the other characters. There were times when I forgot Hinoka existed. The legendary weapons were only bestowed to the male siblings. Potential sausagefest of heroes if you played male Kamui, with the girls applauding in the background. There are so many characters in this game. That normally wouldn't be a problem for me, but the consequences for writing up so many damn people is that the writers didn't bother to flesh any of them out (with the exception of a few). I vote Kamui for most uninteresting, played out character of the year. And so many of the other characters rely on single tropes or character flaws for all of their supports. This leads into my next point, which is: The game has generally poor support conversations. A substantial number of them are way too rushed, or feel unnatural. Or make me feel uncomfortable (e.g. Leon x Camilla, or the now infamous Kamui x Soleil). Again, I feel like this could have been helped by simply cutting down on the character roster and focusing more on building organic interactions and trying to figure out ways to reveal aspects of each character that could only be discovered through a particular support. Also, where did the voice acting in the supports go? Children... why are they here? I understand that children were an important part of Awakening's appeal. But they were also crucial to the story. And it made sense there. They don't really make sense here. As much as I like the idea of something coming out of the relationships I spent time nurturing, if they're not core to the plot, I don't think they need to be included. There is an astounding amount of symmetry happening between the games. Aside from some differences in gameplay, a lot of things happen in one version that happen in the other. It makes buying both versions seem like an almost "okay, I guess I should have both just to have them" kind of decision. I genuinely believe that if you're going to release two versions of one game, they should be really varied. It's why I never got into the Pokemon craze. TLDR: Core gameplay elements have made some solid strides forward. OST is pretty great. Plot and characters are generally pretty terrible though, and are a major turn-off for me. Excited to see what Intelligent Systems comes up with next, if they continue with the series.

Are you able to pass down purchased skills to children?

(AMAZIN) Thank you!