Avalanche

I ALMOST brought her up, as I actually think she (and Setsuna on Revelation) is probably Niles' best wife from a class perspective. Archer for Niles is great (Nina also really likes Aptitude) and Mozu as an Outlaw seems pretty nice too. The modifiers aren't great, but the Pairing is probably one of his best Main Game wise.

Soleil really wants a physical mom. Her Personal Strength Growth (60%) is the highest of any child character, so you definitely want to compliment it. Peri is a pretty popular choice, mainly due to both Soleil and her dad getting Cavalier (Luna, Elbow Room ect.) and Peri getting Mercenary (Strong Reposte, Sol ect,). If your playing Revelation, Hana could also work, boosting up Soleil's low Speed (she has a -1 Modifier from Las) while also giving her Samurai (for Vantage, Flowing Strike and Life and Death). Really though, as long as you don't tank more than 1 of her Spd and Def Modifiers, she'll be okay. Velouria is in a fairly similar boat. Keaton already gives her a +3 Str Modifiers and she has a 50% Personal Growth. 2 of her most popular pairings are Effie and Charlotte (mainly for dat +7 Str Mod), though Camilla works too (decent Str Mod, Growth and Wyvern Rider to use with her Fighter alternate class) Ophelia is, predictably, a Magic focus Child. She does fine with any of the Magic Focus moms (Felicia, Nyx, Elise and even Orochi if your on Revelation), however, due to Elise and Leo being siblings, Ophelia is most often made Elise's daughter. Nina is probably this games closes equivalent to Owain from Awakening (Wherein she has better Magic Mods and functions best as a Mage if you want to optimize). Elise will give her a great Personal Magic Growth (considering that she has better Personal Strength Growth), while Nyx will give her access to Diviner (Tomefaire and Breaking Sky). If you want her to go Physical, you can make Charlotte or Effie her mom (much like Vaike!Owain). Midori is pretty complicated, so I may get into her later and I'm not too sure about Selkie and Shiro.

The first idea that came to mind was to make an Enemy Phase focused Soleil. I'd reccomend adding Vantage, Life and Death and either Elbow Room or Strong Reposte. Basically, the idea is to have a Sword specialist Soleil with Life and Death (which is a guaranteed +15 Damage, possibly even more with whichever of the last 2 you pick) and thanks to LaD's other effect, she will hopefully be in Vantage range enough to kill people before they kill her and Sol exists as a back up incase something goes terribly.

It's the same concept as in Awakening. You carry Weapon Ranks through all of your classes, it's just that switching, say, a Lv. 10 Great Lord Chrom into a Lv.1 Sniper, wouldn't work out great due to his resulting Weapon Rank; E Bows. However, if he switched into Bow Knight, he would keep the Bow Rank he built up from Sniper and retain the Sword Rank he had from Lord and Great Lord. As far as I know, this same concept applies to Fates

You are so wonderful Rena, have a great night!

I kid, I kid XD I was just surprised how decent that seemingly random pairing was. In all honesty, your reccomendations are probably better, so I appreciate it.

Aww, I was so proud of that Takumi x Mozu Pairing too... Hana would give Kisaragi a pretty decent +2 Speed Modifier, I'm just a little concerned about the classes everyone would get. Takumi and Kisaragi aren't really super craving the Samurai line, though Hana would get another bow class in addition to War Priestess... Hmm. I still have no idea what to look for in a good Selkie, so I guess Aptitude is a temporary solution!

I can pair Marisha Ray (Oboro) and Matt Mercer (Ryoma)... it's the second coming of Ricken (Yuri Lowenthall) x Miriel (Tara Platt).

To go off this, how about switching Setsuna and Hinoka? The Pair Up bonuses in a Setsuna x Hinata pairing are pretty good for both of them and Hisame will have pretty decent Modifiers. Hinoka will at least pass Midori down an okay Strength Growth, as well as Kinshi Knight to use with her inherent Bow Rank.

I guess to start, i'll post my "Optmized" Pairings for Hoshido. These were made with the intention of both the parents and Children benefitting from Pairs (mainly from a class perspective). I actually made a thread for this a while back, so I'll mostly just copy paste my explanations from there. Female Avatar x Kaze: A gimme pairing (mostly because the two of them were leftover), though I think it could be decent with a +Str Avatar. Let's Midori roll With a +30% Activation rate to Luck based Skills due to Lucky Charm and Hoshido. Azura x Silas: Silas and Sophie get Sky Knight for flying Lances and Azura and Shigure get Cavalier for a bulkier, mounted Lance class. Jakob x Kagero: Gives Jakob and Kagero the only other Hidden Weapon classes they don't have access to. Also, stronk Deere. Subaki x Oboro: Oboro get's Sky Knight and Subaki and Caeldori get Spear Fighter. Also, decent Caeldori mods. Azama x Hinoka: Azama and Mitama get Falco Knight (for Physical Staff usage) and Mitama get's decent Physical mods. Hinata x Setsuna: Mostly for decent mods across the board for Hisame. Kaden x Hana: This is mostly for a glass canon Kinu, since I have no idea what classes are good for her. Saizo x Sakura: Mixed Grey that will likely become the main Explosive Shuriken user. Hayato x Orochi: Fairly basic Stronk Magic Rhajat. Plus, it gives all 3 of them basically every Magic using class in Hoshido. Takumi x Mozu: Takumi get's Herb Merchant (the only bow using class he doesn't have) and Mozu get's Spear Fighter. Plus, Aptitude on Kisaragi may give him a decent niche. Ryoma x Rinkah: Get's Ryoma Blacksmith (another Sword option) and can pass Shinonome down Ogre strike and good Physical mods.

These seem fine. The late joining servant is always going to be a bit of a pain to pair, but you can start a good amount of these when the dad joins and the bonuses all seem okay. Also, are you planning on just not using Niles? I didn't see him in your list.

This is a pretty decent idea, th optimization thread was getting cluttered. I've been trying to hash out my "optimal" pairings for my second run of each route, so I think I'll post them here once I'm back at my pc for some feedback

If you mean as a 1st tier class, none. You should always promote once you hit 20. If your referring to reclassing characters, it's honestly more so down to a case by case basis

I've mentioned it before in other threads, but adapting songs from Japanese to English is supremely hard. Rena had probably the hardest task of anyone in the cast and it came out beautifully. Bravo Ms. Strober! I can't wait for Friday!

Wait, the video was taken down? Seriously? People reacted that negatively?

I"d be game for doing something for her. This is why I can't stand fandom sometimes... This woman deserves none of this. Like, at all.

I'm still not a fan of this Support, but I think this is a big improvement over the original (and probably the best they could do short of rewriting it). The fact that it not only includes her consent to the issue, but also makes clear that she is still bi in the S Rank is really all I could ask for... and yet I still have a friend who is going to be pissed that it changed... all of the salt.. all of the salt..

Honestly, the best advice I can give is pretty universal across all of FE, but here goes; Above all else, don't rush things. Always make sure you look at enemies stats and Weapons, lock in their ranges and make sure you don't throw units (particularly ones that will be doubled) into situations you don't think they can survive. Unit placement is more important than ever with Attack and Guard Stance, so make sure you have characters who can Support each other stay adjacent to make your life easier. If you ever have the "I can't keep my healer alive " problem, it's highly likely you are not taking the proper approach to the Chapter). Also, Guard Stance acts as a means of negating enemies Attack Stance, so make good use of it.

One of the downsides to picking a Male Corrin is that (unless you marry a Corrinsexual or a Gen 2 Unit) you will be unable to Pair everybody without leaving 1 guy single. That being said, don't let that stop you from picking a pairing you like, you'll always be able to pair up the person you left single during a Revelation playthrough. As for Azura, it's really best to leave her as a Songstress. Since she is the Dancer unit, she will always have a great amount of utility in refreshing units. While she does have great stats for an offensive glass canon, the Dancer utility is more than enough incentive to have her stay in her base class. If you really can't help it, her secondary class is Sky Knight, so you can switch her to that if you choose. However, if you want to make her an attacker, I'd suggest marrying her to Silas so she can Marriage Seal into Cavalier, if only for a little more bulk.

I haven't read up on Fates' story much, but I refuse to believe it's THAT bad. Seriously, people make Conquest seem like it's the low point in the franchise for storytelling. I refuse to believe anything can hold my attention less than Binding Blade and Shadow Dragon.

It's the same principle that got Radiant Dawn poor reviews; reviewers always appreciate games that let them power on through, since they rarely have time to truly immerse themselves into the system of the game they are reviewing. Bare in mind, I'm not saying this is a GOOD principle to base reviews on, but it's what the business is unfortunately.

I can't add a ton of new info, but I guess I'll throw my opinions in; - Definitely start with Birthright Normal/Classic, as it will help you adjust to how Fates changes the formula up from Awakening - From what I've heard (I haven't actually played Fates yet, Friday can't come soon enough...), all Routes of Fates are harder than Awakening with respects to Normal and Hard mode. Lunatic is much better designed and nowhere near as "Avatar Emblem" as Awakenings became. - With the exception of the Boo Camp DLC Map, you are unable to gain EXP in non Main Story/Paralogue Chapters in Conquest. - Child units return in this game and are obtained in the same method as Awakening; get the associated Parent to an S Rank Support. With 1 (possibly 2) exceptions, Children are tied to their Fathers this time around. You can start recruiting Children as early as Chapter 10. - For Pair Up, it is nowhere near as broken as it was in Awakening, but it is still quite useful. As mentioned by the others, you'll want to develop Supports with Units that complement each other with their bonuses. Some examples include Rinka x Kaze (Rinkah gives massive Str and Def Bonuses, 2 stats Kaze needs), Hayato and Orochi (Both give each other Magic, while Hayato also boosts Orochi's low Speed) and Hana x Subaki (Hana boosts Subaki's lacking Speed and Subaki gives Hana some more Defense). - Master Seals work the same as they always have (Promotes a Unit to Tier 2 if they are Lv. 10 or higher). With some exceptions (Azama), your best waiting until the unit hits Lv. 20, because infinite leveling is much harder to do in this game over Awakening, so you want to make each level count. - Reclassing has been expanded on even further. Second Seals have been replaced with Parallel Seals, which let you jump into a secondary class without resetting your level (different from Awakening). You can also use Marriage Seals to switch into your S Rank units base class. Finally, Buddy Seals let you do the same thing for a character you have achieved an A+ Support with (essentially a non Marriage S Rank) That's all I've got for now, feel free to ask if you have anymore questions :)

You sir, have a very warped perception of voice acting's pay. Most will attest to most gigs not paying much at all (many anime VA's get more from 1 commercial than they do a 26 episode series). Trust me, very few VA's that aren't industry legends or also actors in films are "in la la land with their money".

In terms of other games in the series, where would you rank Normal/Classic for all 3 Routes. With school and work to consider, I think I may weenie hut junior my first run of each route. I'm just curious where each may rank.... also to make me feel like less of a scrub...

It's a joke.