Delfino

Artwork: -Barst looks fantastic. I don't have a single nitpick about any of his pictures. Also, look at them muscles!! -Camus looks really good. His design is spectacular. -Having never played Binding Blade, I hadn't seen Cecilia before this game, but I adore her design. -Male Corrin. His artwork here actually made me not hate his design for a minute, haha. I feel like he looks more dragon-like. -Donny just looks adorable. -Effie. Some of her poses are strange, but her artwork is gorgeous and very soft-looking. -Elise. I still can't get behind the extremely exaggerated pigtails, but I feel like the artwork really does wonders for the rest of her design. -Felicia looks so gorgeous, an impression of her I never really got in Fates. -I love Frederick's injured photo, that look in his eyes gets me every time. -Jeorge. His design is really eye-catching, and the effects on his special skill art are awesome. -Linde, mostly for her dress. It's super pretty and not too fanservice-y. -Niles's attack artwork is so amazing I had to make a desktop background of it. -Nino's artwork is on point, she looks so cute and her eyes really shine. Voices: -I still adore Arthur's voice. I was really excited to see Cam Clarke come back for him because he absolutely nailed it in Fates. "You may think me a clumsy fellow... and, my friend, YOU'RE RIGHT!!!" -Barst's voice is one of my absolute favorites. Deep and nice on the ears. I could listen to him talk all day. "I'm just a... guy who chops wood. Hehe, that's all..." -Bartre's lines crack me up. I love Kyle Hebert already, but he was such a ham this time around, it's great. "CHECK OUT THESE ARMS!! BRUUAAAHHH, HYEEEEH" -Fae is so freakin' cute. I love it when she attacks something and goes "Raahh!!" before firing a giant laser. -Hector is way more cheery than I thought he would be, but I love it anyway. Clicking on Arthur and hearing him go "Mm-hm!" and then clicking on Hector and hearing him go "Oh-ho!" in the same tone made me burst out laughing. -Nino is way more adorable and endearing than I ever thought she would be. "What do you need? To talk? I'm always up for that!" -While I don't think the voice fits him too much, Raven's delivery is simply hilarious. "I'm not angry, this is just my face." -Saizo's annoyed mumbling whenever you click on him in battle is always funny. "What?" -Shanna is really fun to listen to. Her delivery makes her endearing when she could have been annoying. "Hope you're not skipping meals, chief. Bad idea, hmhm~." -Virion, just anything he says. His accent cracks me up so hard.

This one cracks me up every time.

Actually, Spurs DO stack. Just tested it. I had my Julia with 17 def sit next to Draug with Spur Def 2 (+3 def) and Robin with Spur Def 3 (+4 def) and she took 19 damage from a 45 att axe knight. 45 - 17 - 3 - 4 - 2 (from Naga) = 19 In relation to the topic's subject, though, I'd be able to handle 4 Hector's rather easily since Draug doesn't really care. 4 Takumi's, though? Most likely, but probably not without heavy losses. I usually run Draug, Robin, Julia, and Camilla, but Julia has garbage defense AND gets doubled while my Camilla is -Atk, so she's not very helpful against them. Robin is really good against Takumi, but while mine is +Atk, he's also -Def, so he takes a bit more damage (and +Spd Takumi's double him). I imagine he'd be able to take out two of them and maybe dent the third one depending on their stats. Draug and Julia could probably mop up from there.

Oh god, why... I can see my win streak in the arena getting slaughtered already.

I am somewhat terrified. Imagine, say, M!Robin with Swordbreaker, doubling and ORKO'ing all red sword users. Julia with Wary Fighter, suddenly unable to be ORKO'd by Takumi or other mages. Brave users with Death Blow. Takumi with Death Blow or Darting Blow, or Vantage. Draug with Ignis. Seal or Threaten Atk on armored units. A pack of fliers all with Fortify Fliers and Svalinn Shield. Oh god I am very terrified...

Female Robin having basically the same stats as Male Robin isn't a good thing, in my opinion. She doesn't have the resistance to handle other mages other than Robin, Linde (whom she will still take a reasonable chunk of damage from), maybe Merric since his res is so low, and Cecilia since she's mounted (though Robin will still take a lot damage from Cecilia if she can't OHKO). Unlike Julia, who can at least put a reasonable dent into them, F!Robin is worthless against red mages aside from Leo (whom she's not going to enjoy taking a hit from thanks to him having a WTA and Quick Riposte), and she will definitely lose against the other green mages Nino and Julia. She also loses the advantage against colorless foes that M!Robin has, making her a weaker ranged unit baiter overall without being any better against melee units other than cavalry, which are scarce in the current meta. Quick, powerful sword users running rampant in the arena does her no favors, either. She does have one thing over Julia and Nino in that her defense is respectable enough that if she can't one-shot lance users, she will live a hit to the face on the following turn, and she will survive Takumi assuming he's not +Spd, but I feel like she's less effective as a green mage than Julia or Nino and less effective than M!Robin overall. Defiant Resistance seems almost worthless since she will still lose to most other mages, and it's far less useful than Defiant Speed. We will have some cavalry units coming in the future such as Camus, Xander, Ursula, and perhaps the masked man which may make her more relevant, but while she will likely stomp on Camus, Ursula, and the masked man, she will lose to Xander if she can't OHKO as he will likely 2HKO her (he cannot be baited by her since he's melee, so she will have to make the first strike, but Siegfried allows him to counter and she loses next turn).

-Change how the arena ranking works. It's really dumb that your score is based on the stat totals of the characters you use instead of how well you actually play. You can win 7 battles in a row without losing a single character and still rank poorly because you didn't use the "strongest" characters. -Either decrease the feather requirements needed to promote to 5* or make feathers easier to obtain. +5 feathers from greeting friends and talking to a character each day is absolutely negligible. I heard an idea of providing discounts depending on the character's level, which sounds great. -Give us something to do with leftover SP on 5* units that no longer have any skills to learn. Trading for feathers, for instance, would be fantastic.

I understand why there's no trading as that would kill some incentive to spend more money, but I really wish it was a thing. I wouldn't have traded them for feathers and you could have taken all of them. I don't dislike Oboro, but I've pulled at least 10 of her.

Freakin... Oboro. I am so sick of seeing her face, it would probably be more bearable if I actually liked her artwork. I swear, 1 of 3 blue summons I do end up being her, I have pulled her so many times. Almost always 3*, too. I just want Effie from blue, that's literally it. It's like geez, if you're gonna give me a million of one character, at least make it someone I actually use... Otherwise, I get Palla a lot when I'm summoning reds, and I used to get Cherche literally every other time I pulled green. Thank god that stopped, I like Cherche, but I'm not using her.

I actually love the lava map, but I have Robin. If the enemy team has a bunch of reds or Takumi, they almost always rush out to where Robin can just snipe them from across the lava (or in Takumi's case, bait him without any other units getting in the way). I also run Draug, so although it's kind of difficult to move him into position, he can sit at chokepoints really easily. I haven't had the map with the two bridges very much, but I didn't like it when I got it. The one with the mountain range where your units are split is manageable since you can at least regroup and bait one of the enemy pairs into chasing one of your units around the mountain into a trap, but the map in which your units are split into pairs on opposite corners of the map? Regrouping is too difficult and I almost always seem to get at least three, sometimes all four of the enemies rushing after one pair, and they get overwhelmed. It's no fun when you've got an armored unit to lug around and he has no chance of getting away from the mages. Ugh.

In the Japanese version of Fates, Effie has a soft, girly voice. She is supposed to come across as being rather dainty and feminine so that there is humor in the sheer irony that a character like that is so bafflingly strong. The English version messed up the joke by making her a stereotypical musclehead "DO YOU EVEN LIFT" woman, but obviously, her design didn't change to match it. -- As for voices I don't like... Abel: It's fine when you're just poking him in the status screen, but when you click on him on a map and he squeaks out an "Of course!" I just have to laugh. It sounds so different from his regular speaking voice, like my voice is deeper than that! Anna: I really miss her more mature voice from Awakening... Cordelia: It's not the VA specifically as it's the same one from Awakening, but I don't remember her sounding so... depressed all the time? Florina: Not a big fan of squeaky toy voices. Linde: I barely know anything about her character, but it was really strange looking at the bright-eyed, smiling face of her artwork and hearing a voice that sounds so solemn. Lyn: I haven't gotten her yet, so I don't know what her regular voice lines sound like, but she sounds like she has a sore throat in her battle grunts and they freak me out. Niles: It's different so it sucks I much preferred how he sounded in Fates in voice and delivery. Peri: Man, I thought her smoker voice in Fates was bad, but this "squeaky-weaky" voice actually makes me miss it. Raigh: I don't dislike the voice specifically, but it doesn't work with how tiny his artwork portrays him as. The rest I'm either okay with or haven't heard. I didn't think Raven's suited him at first glance, but some of the delivery in his lines cracks me up. There are plenty of good voices, too. Barst's in particular is freakin' fantastic. "I'm just a... guy who chops wood. Hehe, that's all..."

Well for one thing, there doesn't really need to be a reason to want to play a game other than for it being fun to play. Training is simply gameplay (I wouldn't call it grinding as it's not necessarily repetitive), and if the gameplay itself is enjoyable, then what's the problem? I'm training up characters because doing so is fun. I like experimenting with different teams and testing my ability to use them properly and cleverly against enemy teams that are always changing. The upper Lunatic levels of the training tower get pretty tough, and it's a challenge aiming not to lose a single character. I look forward to getting new characters and seeing how they play and what crafty things I can pull off with certain combinations, and I get rewarded as I play with skills that give me more options and resources for character upgrades. I'm enjoying the journey without thinking too hard about the destination, but I can understand if that's not really your cup of tea.

I think part of the problem is how incredibly different character art is from one another. Like you get a character that looks great (Barst comes to mind); their artwork is really well colored and shaded, proportions look good, features are well defined, and there's nothing off about it. Then you get a character who comes up short in comparison in some category or another and you notice everything about it, haha. I keep having all these nitpicks that I probably wouldn't even notice otherwise. Of course, though, yeah. There are some glaring issues with some art that you don't need a comparison to notice, like Eliwood's huge eyes, Gwendolyn's off-putting proportions, Florina's icky low face, Female Robin looking like she has the body of a 12-year-old, and Cordelia's squished head. I also lol'd pretty hard at Chrom's "dislocated" shoulder, I hadn't noticed that before. Some other art that bugs me that I hadn't noticed until now is Veronica's. She looks like way too tiny in her attack art, like she's 10... but in her injured picture, her legs look substantially longer. I could also do without the gratuitous fanservice-y butt and boob-highlighting shots. They tried way too hard with Catria to the point where her body is twisted unrealistically, Camilla and Kagero I feel were exaggerated more than usual, and then you get stuff like Peri's and Lucina's injured pictures. Then again, I am kind of a hypocrite as I enjoy Odin's injured art, lol. I do think Mr. Masked Man's was overdone, though...

I have no idea how many pulls I've done, but I feel insanely lucky looking at some other peoples' numbers... 1) Young Tiki 2) Camilla 3) Robin 4) Takumi 5) Fae 6) Peri 7) Hawkeye 8) Julia I think that's all of them. I really want Hector, but I doubt I'll ever get him.

"Resting b*tch face," hahaha! Ain't Raven great, though? I was just poking him a minute ago because I love the super grumpy inflections in his voice. "I'm not angry, this is just my face." Also, glad I'm not the only one who adores Barst's voice. That and his very nicely done artwork made me grow attached to him very quickly. I've come to like Nino as well. At first, I figured she'd just be that plucky mage girl I'd end up rolling my eyes at because she wouldn't be taking the situation seriously, but she's not like that at all. She feels far more realistic and is very likable. Shanna and Fae are also characters I was afraid I was going to find annoying, but they're both really fun. Jeorge is another character I didn't know a thing about, but I love his artwork. He's been a damn good archer, too. Draug was probably the biggest surprise for me, though. Didn't expect to pull a cinnamon roll of an armor knight only to laugh in disbelief after seeing how freakin' tall he is. He's been on my main team for a while now, and many a match have ended with him tanking an onslaught with Robin sniping from behind him. He is one tough cookie.

Elise actually doesn't fail too hard as a Wyvern Rider. She's awful at first, but once she hits C-rank, she can rip things apart with the Bolt Axe. She's a pretty terrible Apothecary, though! Messing up most people is easy since, as others have said, all you really have to do is switch magic characters to physical classes and physical characters to magic classes. Some characters are difficult to truly screw up, though, namely the ones who have decent growths in both magic and strength, like Sakura and Leo. If you want to mess up Leo, though, go Kinshi Knight. It slaughters his stats. Plus starting at E-rank is no fun.

-Cordelia: Her face looks super weird and it's like she barely has a jaw. -Corrin (Female): Some of her poses are weird, her legs look so off in her injured picture, and where's her nose?! Male Corrin looks so much better even though I typically like his design in general far less. -Eliwood: Beating a dead horse here, though. It's literally only the eyes, they're too big and practically on his forehead. -Florina: She has the opposite problem as Eliwood, except it extends to her whole face. Her mouth, nose, and eyes are far too low. I dislike it so much that I immediately traded her for feathers upon summoning her. -Gwendolyn: Not only are her boots weird, but her proportions are terrifying. Her thigh is thicker than her torso! -Niles: Only his standard art, though. His face just looks weird. His other art is freakin' awesome. -Odin: His injured art looks fine, but his face is majorly off in his standard and his poses are so awkward in his attack art. -Peri: Her attack art is fine, but her face freaks me out in the other two. -Robin (Female): She has the same weird face thing going on as Cordelia, and why is the rest of her body so tiny? Like where are her feet? She makes Female Corrin look like Sasquatch. -Saizo: The art is good actually, but... is he really that short?? Let's not put him next to Draug. -Setsuna: She looks so lifeless (though it is Setsuna we're talking about here) and almost noseless. -Subaki: Something is just really wrong with his face. It creeps me out. -Xander: His nose looks really off and that's the only thing I don't like about it.

Pretty much agree with the TC here. I'd say around level 10-25 is when I have the most fun. Before level 10, the enemies are pretty much too easy. It's moderately amusing thrashing things, though, and at least you start gaining SP like crazy to get skills with, so there's fun to be had. It also barely takes any stamina to do these levels, so you can have a good time switching around to different low-leveled teams. Around 10-25, enemies start gaining skills that you have to watch out for, but it doesn't feel like cruelty and enemy stats aren't stupidly high. It takes a lot of mind to positioning, but as long as you play well, you can get through most any stage without losing a unit, so they can all get some decent exp. It's hard to stay motivated past level 25, though. Enemies start getting crazy skills and weapons, which is okay, but coupled with severely inflated stats, it gets frustrating. Completing a map without losing a character becomes very difficult, only compounding the frustration feature since units that are defeated lose any experience and SP they gained in the fight, which is made even worse by the fact that EXP and SP gains slow to a crawl at that point and stamina costs are hefty. Winning with a weapon triangle disadvantage becomes pretty much impossible at this point, and I noticed that I often end up in a situation in which there will be one enemy that's literally undefeatable by my whole team other than one unit since the weapon triangle effects become so severe, and they'll almost always have either a defense or resistance stat that's so inflated that the character on my team who's neutral against them can't even scratch them. You know you have issues when it's too easy to get screwed by ONE PERSON on the enemy team. Maybe my teams just suck, I don't know...

You don't have to make the absolute perfect play every time. It's good to have foresight about where your units should end their turn so they're in the best position possible for your next phase, but your number one focus when you've got enemies in front of you is dealing with them in such a way that none of your allies die through the enemy phase. I typically play on Lunatic, and I almost never take an action with any of my units until I figure out what the rest of them are doing. That's probably what I'd emphasize the most, don't move a unit until you have a game plan for your turn. Questions you should probably be asking yourself when making a move: -The first thing you should ALWAYS ask is: "If this unit sits here, can they survive until my next turn?" Always keep an eye on enemy range and remember that damage is calculable. -If they can't survive, ask yourself, "Is there any way to decrease the damage they take so they will survive?" Certain characters give defense on pair-up. You also have skills such as Elise's Lily's Poise which decreases damage taken by adjacent allies. -If there's no way to increase their defense to the point in which they'll survive, ask, "Is there a bulkier unit I can put in the way to block the enemy from reaching this unit?" Sometimes it's a good idea to move a unit just to serve as a roadblock against the enemy. Just make sure they can survive, too! -If you can't deal with an enemy/a group of enemies without someone dying from it, don't be afraid to back up. -If your unit barely can't defeat an enemy, ask "Can I increase their damage enough so they get the kill?" Remember that you have pair-ups and abilities that can increase attack or speed if you need them. I've had the +1 damage from Elise's ability or the +1 attack/speed from Laslow's make all the difference before. Play on Casual if you need to. It's virtually impossible to remember and account for everything the first time you play, you'll slowly start to remember your options as you play more. As most of this stuff gradually becomes second nature for you, you'll begin to think more about optimization as you go along. I started on Normal/Casual in Awakening, then moved to Normal/Classic for Fates (which was really difficult for me at the time), then Hard/Classic and finally Lunatic/Classic. You can do it!

I managed to get Gaius, which I initially thought was great! I love Gaius! And then he got like, 4 levels in a row in which he gained nothing other than SP or 1 point. What. He has mediocre speed so he can't double, very little attack, and no defenses or health. He can't do anything. Even Jagen has been getting better levels than him. Meanwhile, Eliwood and Barst double and kill anything they attack so I can barely train anyone. Hahaha... ha... siiiigh...

The biggest customization addition I'd like to see is something that allows the player to choose their character's personality, at least to some extent. It hardly feels like an avatar character when we're not allowed to choose their decisions, dialogue, or anything about their personality. It'd also be pretty cool if we could choose between a set few backstories which would affect where the Avatar originated from and maybe change who they start the game interacting with. I don't really expect to see this considering the fact that it'd make for a ton more work in regards to the story and supports for the Avatar, but it would be nice to have so that I wouldn't feel annoyed with Corrin the Avatar because he/she keeps making decisions that I don't agree with or talking to characters in ways I'd never talk to them. Otherwise, I agree with what most everyone else said... it'd be nice to have MORE of what we've already got. Eye shapes, hairstyles, accessories, etc. There just need to be more customization options in general. I also feel like there weren't enough voice options or body types, and it'd be great to be able to change the Avatar's outfit. I felt like Corrin's outfit in Fates was atrocious, especially on male Corrin...

I'm surprised at how many people don't seem to like Kozaki's designs. Personally, I really love them. It's the art direction that's been kind of cruddy lately, in my opinion, with too much emphasis on fan service. Compared to old FE designs, I really enjoy how Kozaki is good about making characters more proportionally realistic in the face, especially in regards to the eyes. I'm honestly not a fan of anime artstyles that make their characters' eyes way too big (it's especially a popular thing to do that with females). Micaiah is an example of a character whose design just immediately turned me off simply because of how enormous her eyes were compared to the rest of her face. It bugs me more than it probably should. I love some of the suggestions on this thread, though. I adore the art of Kimihiko Fujisaka and Tsubasa Masao in particular.

Really? Ugh, I hate it... it's different for a game like Banjo Kazooie because it's easier to stop what you're doing and pay attention, but for the Warriors games, I often end up missing dialogue when I have to look at the bottom of the screen to read it. There's too much going on for me. Okay, that makes sense then. I guess we'll just have to wait and see... I think it's a terrible idea for them not to have a dub, but it is Koei Tecmo...

It's possible that Kaiji just hasn't been contacted about it yet. The game is still over half a year away from release. Granted, I don't know when in the development process they tend to get the voice acting done, but it's still a possibility. I mean, it's still possible that they'll have the game dubbed even with a large cast (they dubbed DW8 after learning the fans really wanted it (although the finished product was incredibly rushed), even though they didn't bother with DW8: Empires), but it's less likely. I really hope there is a dub, though... playing Warriors games without it is pretty chaotic. Trying to listen to the emotion in the voices and read what they're saying as you're in the middle of a giant group of enemies is... tricky, to say the least.

I've been a fan of several Warriors series for a long time, so I think I know Koei Tecmo pretty well. First off, about the dub... it's been a little confusing lately with Dead or Alive suddenly being dubbed after years of not, Dragon Quest Heroes getting dubbed, Attack on Titan not being dubbed (and correct me if I'm wrong, but it doesn't look like Berserk will be, either), etc... but yeah, in general, KT hasn't really been dubbing their games much as of late. This is partially because the rosters in some of their games are gigantic (Samurai Warriors 4 had over 50 playable characters, Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires had over 80, Warriors Orochi 3 had over 130). They've also said before that recording even the Japanese voices is becoming a real project for the DW series. However, the main reason is that they don't really expect to make the money they spend back. Warriors games aren't terribly popular overseas. This puts Fire Emblem Warriors in a weird position because it's possible that there are going to be a lot of characters in it (which seems to be what everyone wants), but it's probably going to be expected to sell well in the west as Hyrule Warriors did. Even if you hate dubs, having one is far better for sales than not. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people completely abandon a game they were interested in after learning that there won't be a dub. The gameplay footage shown during the direct on Wednesday not being dubbed is a bit concerning, but it's possible that they just haven't gotten to it yet since it's still being developed. KT's DLC practices leave a lot to be desired, I hope to god Nintendo has a hand in this one. KT very rarely does DLC characters, but given Hyrule Warriors, I have some hope. Their other DLC practices are rather atrocious, however. They primarily do cosmetic DLC, like costumes and the like, but charge outrageous prices for them. SW4: Empires for instance has yukata DLC where each character gets a yukata costume. Nothing special, really, but it costs over $40. I'd also like to mention that with Omega Force developing the game, the roster will very likely go in one of two directions. Either we're going to have only a handful of playable characters, all with distinct movesets, or a lot of characters total with a huge chunk of them having cloned movesets. Dynasty Warriors 7 had only 36 unique movesets for over 60 characters, something the fanbase was extremely irate over, and even with two expansions (DW7:XL and Empires), it took them until DW8 to get it sorted out. Here's hoping Nintendo has as much say in it as Hyrule Warriors.