Azure Sen

Ah, excellent, a closer look...that just provides me more evidence it's a fake, because that Anna sprite doesn't match the one shown in Famitsu, Celica's sprite is an edited Fates Hero sprite instead of her Echoes sprite, Lyn's sprite is just...a mess that seems to have been edited from Lianna's, and Caeda's is just a slightly modified Cordelia. Really, it just seems like at this point the only evidence in favor of this being real is that a retailer posted it. The fake box doesn't have the amiibo logo either.

The article also doesn't say which retailers use it, nor does it provide a screen cap of the page it's supposedly hosted on, which is a pretty good sign it's a fake. That just says what amiibos are compatible with the game. It has nothing to do with the roster. In fact, the details thing under each amiibo specifically says "receive a weapon" as what scanning the amiibo does.

It's a fake. If you check any actual European retailer, this doesn't appear on any of them. It is the actual FE Warriors European special edition box, it's just been Photoshopped to have sprites on it.

Camilla having to kill her siblings is purely fanon. Leo's claims are based off hearsay no matter the translation, but that just goes into the larger problem of how completely inconsistent the timeline of the Nohr siblings' lives and Fates in general are. I made a post about it here, but to put it succinctly Leo would have been four at most based on all the information given about Fates' pre-game timeline and thus should not be taken as a reliable source. He even says "I heard stories about the children of concubines on bad terms killing each other," which is pretty far from definitive proof.

I blew up the image to get something close to a better look: It's still pretty blurry, but hopefully you get a better idea of what I'm talking about. I am convinced of nothing but my own impending wrongness, I've been wrong about every Warriors prediction I've made so far.

Callin' it now, it's actually Merric, and that blue is a mage's cloak. Alternatively, that crescent shape is a bow, and it's Gordin.

I guess this is a difference of opinion, then. While I agree that forgiveness isn't something someone deserves, it is something that needs to be earned, via genuine regret and repentance. And as far as I'm concerned, Berkut has done nothing to earn that forgiveness from anyone, especially Rinea, and is only being given it because it's a trope in Japanese media. (Also, and because I didn't notice until I did another read-through of Chapter 5's script, but Alm doesn't forgive Berkut for his actions; Alm is just desperately begging Berkut not to die because Alm doesn't want to see another family member die before his eyes in the same short timespan.) There was no prophesy surrounding Corrin. The closest Fates actually got to that was the Yato choosing its user and that Yato was forged to be the key to peace in Fateslandia (which is true, that is why the Rainbow Sage forged it). People seem to completely forget Celica was also destined to win thanks to said prophesy, and also that said prophesy existed back in Gaiden, also known as the second game in the series.

Celica isn't a pacifist, nor is she about talking things out. Her motivation for not wanting Alm to fight Rigel is based on two things: 1( she doesn't want Alm to die as per her premonition and 2( she thinks that once she finds Mila everything will be taken care of by Mila. Unfortunately, people seem to take her plea to Alm about Rigel at face value even when the game says otherwise. Celica makes it pretty clear in Chapter 5 of both games that her motivation isn't pacifism. In Gaiden: In Echoes:

Since I don't think I've mentioned it before, I think the cast of Binding Blade is underrated. There are a lot of good supports in the game, but they're unfortunately relegated to character pairs who aren't commonly used in tandem. Niime-Fa and most of Igrene's supports in particular are pretty fantastic.

If Berkut actually seemed remorseful and apologized to Rinea for, you know, sacrificing her instead of "killing the man she loved by calling to a higher power"...honestly, I would still hate him. He crossed a line that is impossible to come back from in my book, and the Japanese trend of "irredeemable asshat gets forgiven by the person(s) he victimized for all the terrible stuff he did as he's dying because reasons" is one I really dislike. As far as I'm concerned, that vision of Rinea was a dying hallucination on Berkut's part. The Mongols and other Central Asian nomadic groups didn't really have class divisions as we know them. Nor did they have any sort of infantry troops due to how their military tactics favored lightning-fast strikes with cavalry and their conquests involved moving across large stretches of land, at least until some of them settled and formed/took over actual nations. The nomadic groups of Central Asia had easy access to horses thanks to wild horses that lived on the steppes, and the average Mongol army of 10,000 men would have three to four times that number of horses, since each soldier generally had three or four horses. Cordelia's supposed to be a call-back to Catria, who similarly had unrequited feelings for Marth, and the game makes it clear that Chrom and Cordelia don't have supports because Cordelia can't work up the courage to talk to him. I just go Chrom/Olivia anyway. And I'd disagree that Chrom and Cordelia are more compatible than Chrom and Sumia, but that's another discussion for another time. Sumia and Azura I could see complaints about, sure, but I'm not sure how Alm/Celica and Marth/Caeda qualify for "obvious canon love interest" status when they have no other romantic options you can pair them with and the games make it clear they're the respective official couples. If you don't like them, fine, but it's not really an overdone trope if it's only been in what, three games?

Faye: Everything that needs to be said already has, moving on. Berkut: There are elements of an interesting foil to Alm in him, but the potential is squandered, and he just ends up looking like a petty, selfish child. Fernand: Could have been an interesting foil to Clive, but again, it was wasted, making him look like someone who is just using his grief as an excuse to act on his bigotry. Rinea: Complete waste of space, does nothing for the plot or Berkut's character.

Dragon lolis is a big one. Granted, the pre-Awakening dragon lolis weren't just there for otaku bait and I like quite a few of them as characters, but they've been in too many of the games, and there's no reason why they couldn't be anything but dragon lolis. Camuses can go. They've long since overstayed their welcome, and it's clear IntSys isn't even bothering when it comes to their writing anymore (if they ever did in the first place). The last Camus who had a decent, logical reason for staying loyal to their obviously evil lord is Selena, who owed not only her own but the lives of everyone in her hometown to Vigarde, and she's one of the very few with such a reason. Can't speak for saisymbolic, but I agree that a lot of the series "archetypes" (which aren't actually archetypes but for the sake of argument let's roll with it) are tired and need to be retired. The Christmas Knights aren't particularly interesting, as they generally share the exact same dynamic and stat distribution across games. The Jagen/Oifey archetype, at least, provides a crutch for new players, and Gordin is not part of a character archetype.

He's not holding a lance. The higher quality scans here show he's just holding a sword. I wonder if this means consumables that you can use on other allies will be in the game? Seems like a shame to implement this just for healers. I'm okay with this. Honestly, I'm amazed he even showed up at all.

I knew Bad Girl and Charlotte were related, I didn't think they'd be alternate universe versions of each other.

Currently doing: Myself/Gordin. The truest of true OTPs until I pull a Takumi or an Alm. Roy/Gordin. Only until Wolt is added. Julia/Ninian. Because why not pair one mysterious waif(u) with another? Eliwood/B!Lyn. Because they're canon, as far as I'm concerned. They rank up automatically after battle.

Speaking of cutscenes since I missed that part the first time, the one time we do see Leo using Brynhildr in a cutscene in Birthright, it's magic and aura is bluish-white, as opposed to the red-purple-black that dark magic is associated with. As for his official art, it doesn't match his in-game animations. Compared to several other DW games, three characters potentially sharing the same moveset isn't that bad. Yeah, I don't get why his moveset is so focused on so many elements instead of giving him a moveset that actually matches Brynhildr's from the games, which has the potential to be pretty cool between being able to summon foliage at will and mess with gravity.

It's mechanically not a dark tome, and Leo plainly says in his support with Forrest that Brynhildr is a tome of earth, gravity and life. I also can't find the supports where it's supposedly referred to as a dark tome.

Not gonna lie, Validar being in is a pretty big disappointment, even as an NPC. I really didn't expect the worst villain of Awakening to be in, especially when he doesn't fit the criteria at all--his only character relationship is Robin, his plot importance is non-existent, and no one seems to actually like him. Validar and possibly Gharnef being in doesn't do anything to Tharja's chances. If having a similar moveset was a detriment to a character's chances, we wouldn't have a good chunk of the current roster. I think Leo not being associated with darkness or dark magic at all would be a better explanation for that.

I am pretty neutral on this, despite liking Sakura and preferring m!Corrin's design to f!Corrin's. Probably because I'm completely burnt out on Fates reveals; in hindsight, choosing to reveal the majority of the roster from each game in large chunks like this was a terrible idea. Each game's roster comes from early in the game, not before it. Since that seems to indicate around chapter 6 in Fates and Chapter 7 in Awakening, there's plenty of non-swordie allies of Marth's for them to choose from: Gordin, Draug, Cain and Abel, Hardin, Caeda, Matthis, Wrys, Lena, Barst, etc. etc.

I've played and beat Xenoblade Chronicles, I've played but not beat X and have played and beat all three Xenosaga episodes. I have very mixed feelings on Xenosaga as a whole since I revisited the series recently, and this is a bit of a tangent so apologies in advance. It explored a lot of interesting themes, there are several characters I still love, the overall plot has a genuine air of suspense and mystery, and the gameplay is usually fun. On the other hand, the theological, philosophical and psychological references are dense and sometimes entirely meaningless, a lot of stuff in the series is vague or outright completely unexplained in general, the amount of important information put into side games or buried in in-game encyclopedias can render the plot difficult to understand at times, the series ends on a less than satisfactory note, both because of the problems with the resolution and because of Namco being meddling idiots, and series protagonist Shion Uzuki is an annoying asshole. Should you play them? I can't say I regret playing them (except II, which is a steaming pile of rancid excrement), but I don't feel the urge to replay them either. I'd say try Episode I and see if you like it. As for Xenoblade Chronicles, I'll admit I unabashedly love the game aside from a few minor gripes, but it may not be everyone's cup of tea. X meanwhile is a game I just don't enjoy on any level aside from the exploration and graphics.

There's enough space beside Chrom and Lucina to comfortably fit a character each. Compare to the narrow spaces between Ryoma/Xander and the edges of the poster, which would be too narrow to fit in another character. And you couldn't fit another character in-between Marth and Frederick without excluding the nametag, there's simply not enough space. As for who the character could be, there's a couple possibilities. Sumia's an option, but not a likely one unless the flying unit for SD if there is one is Minerva instead of Caeda. Maribelle and Sully, both of whom have known Chrom and Lissa since childhood, are also options. To further emphasize my point, here's a quick rough photo edit, using Frederick's portrait to demonstrate the spacing:

Which they would never do, because it's Tharja, and she's not a direct clone/alt like f!Robin. My guess is they're going to announce an actual eighth Awakening character with Tharja.

The poster won't be symmetrical anyway, because unless they add another Awakening character Tharja will make seven since the Robins share a slot on it. I didn't mean to imply that SD would only get two characters, because I don't think they will even if the more cynical part of my brain says that might be the case. However, I wouldn't be surprised if they only get four in comparison to Awakening's seven or eight and Fates' ten. (Of course, this is operating under the still faulty assumption that 25 is the hard cap on the roster, and that all playable characters will show up on the poster.)

I think that, while the game will probably have around that roster size, the cards aren't going to reflect that. Speaking from experience with other special additions, cards like these are just usually concept/special art rather than being character focused; I wouldn't be surprised if some characters didn't appear on them at all. As for who the remaining roster slots will go to, we have at least three roster slots eliminated by Tiki, Azura and Tharja who are all but confirmed to be in, so that leaves ~5 slots for whatever Shadow Dragon characters they add assuming SD gets even that many, which all signs point to no.

I really wish anime would stop being the easy scapegoat people use to blame IntSys's recent writing problems on. Especially since a lot of the anime elements people complain about in Awakening and Fates have been around in the series for ages but only started being a problem when Awakening and Fates did them. We have two conflicting reports on this front. The first is that they took Kibayashi's unfinished first draft, filled it in enough for it to be "finished," and then used that for the basis of the game with no further revisions. The second is that, aside from a few select elements of his first draft like Gooron, they completely disregarded his script and just wrote whatever. Neither reflects very well on IntSys. Unless someone leaks and translates his original draft, we'll never know either way.