Kysafen

Or maybe they could, you know, auto-dismount when moving indoors and have remaining movement proportional to how much movement they had when mounted (9 MOV -4 outside movement=3 spaces to move indoors in dismount; 9 MOV -7 outside movement= 1 space to move indoors in dismount; 9 MOV -8 outside movement=0 space to move indoors in dismount). /problem... unless anyone has a valid argument against this, then I'm all ears. In fact, you know what? Here's the psuedocode: IF Mount Switch= <toggled, 0 for dismounted, 1 for mounted> THEN <add/remove weapon proficiency/stats/movement> IF Terrain= outside THEN Mountable Switch =1 IF Terrain= inside THEN Mountable Switch =0 IF Mount Switch =1 AND Movement terrain = inside THEN Mount Switch=0 AND <<Remaining Movement>> = <<Base Dismounted Movement Stat>> -{[(<<Used Mounted Movement points>>/<<Max Mounted movement>>) *<<Base Dismounted Movement>>], rounded to the nearest whole number} Not to mention it balances out your units: dismounting puts the usefulness of mounted-to-infantry in a much better balance through inferior movement, and in the case of not-Fergus (who has a low enough strength growth to not break the game), dual weapon proficiency means they'll be disadvantaged compared to infantry sword wielders. Dickish... ...unless you place your units with the highest DEF/HP in a row of 4 (<Whoever you used the Life ring on earlier in the game, I used it on Leif>, Dalshin, Fergus, and Brighton/Machyua) and have your backup units (Lifis, Karin, Lara, Machyua/Brighton) on standby ready to bump off the mages/soldiers that'll come. Give your vulneraries to your frontliners (especially Dalshin, who's going to be blasted with Fire magic), don't hesitate to have Dalshin use his turn to use the vulnerary. Prioritize bumping off the units with less likely a chance to whittle away more HP from your units, and Lara's greatest incorporation here is her stealing the Mage's Fire books. Understand how many hits each unit can take, and if you can have Lifis kill a mage instead of stealing its Fire tome and survive the enemy phase, then do it, as you won't be getting many chances to level him up with his low strength. Unless, of course, you have Lara kill the unarmed mages, because she'll have even less opportunity than Lifis to level up. See that? That's why Thracia 776 is best Fire Emblem.

I'd vote Sain but fanon demands that Sain go mad and become Narshen, explaining both his narcissistic tendencies and rationalizing how he had been able to almost conquer Lycia. It'd also be nice to see Lowen be Roy's teacher (if only to see an updated older Lowen sprite), but that would mean we'd have to see how his character developed, which would be interesting, so that would dictate we'd be getting Lamesadorawho'sasboringasarock.

The Dancer does seem to have a genuinely shocked expression on her face, so it might be someone that she legitimately cares about... possibly the Avatar. Take a closer look at the head in the figure's outline: If it was the avatar, then that's probably the reason why the "head" portion looks so vague where the other parts of the body come into better focus. Nnnnnope, you're not. Of course, I'm always looking to see a design crush the status quo in the spirit of world-building to a specific setting; the more culture and rationality behind a design, the better (which is why I'm liking this new game better, in the hope that the opposing forces in the trailer are not just countries at-face-value, but they're also clashing fighting styles, societal norms, ideologies and philosophies, and their very ways of life as well).

Who's in the mood for fruitless and pointless extrapolation of data? This guy. Now, the obvious way of looking at it was that it was hostile. Look how it crumbles away as the Fire Emblem necklace glows, as if the Fire Emblem protects her, suggesting that it's the spirit of Medeupterima-whatever that's after her. BUT! Take a look at the dragon's tail in the opening shot: Does that not bear resemblance to the "seahorse dragon" motif that Manaketes in Awakening had? What if, say, this was a shot of the two going underwater, after the Dancer fell into the water, and the dragon here was coming to save her? What if, in this universe, the Fire Emblem was Dragon Kryptonite, and it's keeping the dragon from using its power to rescue her? And why, tell, would the dragon rescue her? Well, for one, the dragon could be the white-haired prince. Look at the picture again: if the dragon was by any other color, it'd be showing it. The dragon's scales might just be naturally white... a tabula rasa, if you will (and what better a canvas for an artist to make decisions than a clear, white one? Thematically it fits the game's theme of decision-making). And this is a lame argument and ripe for rebuttal, but you also had manakete characters whose hair/clothes matched their scale color. Ninian, Yahn, Fae's clothing. It's a really, really long (and probably dumb) stretch, and it also presumes that the dancer character in question is A) On the player's side and B) Story-wise, involved enough (whether both by the dancer's significance in the setting or by the intimacy between the two) to have the main character think her life is worth saving in this way. See also: they seem to be in water, judging by the bubbles around. It could also just be a metaphor for the trailer/bad dream the Dancer had/has in the game. Also, extrapolate from the imagery here what you will.

This is my hopeful side thinking that Intelligent Systems drew inspiration from Atlus while in development of SMT X Fire Emblem and hoping that you can choose whether or not to choose a Neutral, Chaos, or Law side (and potentially switch sides during the conflict) and have at least 3 different endings. And this is my realistic side saying that it probably won't happen, and even if it did happen they'd probably make the choices inorganic and far too straightforward, such as off-battlefield decisions as opposed to, say, your actual playstyle (as in, faster clear times for certain chapters, stronger/weaker balance of unit EXP). Hell, in Awakening the final battle option of It's that kind of weak gameplay-to-narrative handling that should be completely absent this time around.

How about "release window" information? Fire Emblem lacked any relevance in Western markets before Melee released. Know what gave it relevance? Releasing Melee. Know what made it relevant? Nintendo released it. Know what would make Roy relevant? You tell me.

Or maybe instead of Together We Ride we get a recruitment theme that shows what the defecting character is, what he/she stands for, what he/she has to lose through defecting, and through whatever hardships he/she may face as a result, that he/she will not back down from risking his/her life to join your side in strong resolve. Or better yet, an entire soundtrack that elegantly encapsulates the tone of the conflict at hand through tone, tempo, lyrics and time as a means of conveying the true nature of the game's themes whilst giving attention to the current action on-screen in the knowledge of what the game's true underlying philosophy is. There you go: a template for a good soundtrack. We've got a freaking formula for it.

Guys! I found the main theme through l33t hacking! FEI4 Main Theme (we promise).mp3

*listens to the "vocal" theme from the trailer* ...I'm getting serious vibes of Turn A Gundam's "Uka" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoMCTLNOCg0

inb4"thenwhydon'ttheridersjustusethewyvern'sfirebreathagainstenemiesinsteadofrelyingonswords/axes/lances?"

I'm not going to deny that each game in the series brought something new to the table: FE2 introduced the idea of a story with split paths FE3 introduced the idea of growth rates, as well as an actual graphical representation of movement range FE4 introduced skills FE5 introduced rescuing, capturing, fog of war, escape, defend/survive, fatigue FE6 introduced actually being able to re-position your units at the start of battle FE7 introduced being able to use your stat boosters in-game, as well as an "alternative" hard mode that changes more than just stats FE8 introduced a plethora of new classes and refined FE2's split path system FE11 introduced reclassing (as loath as I am to it as a gameplay concept, at least as a mechanic unlocked from the get-go) FE12 introduced the Avatar and casual mode FE13 introduced pair-up (for the record, haven't played FE1/2/3/9/10 to completion) And here's the thing: Nintendo could have designed all of Awakening's maps brilliantly, they could have written the characters far better, they could've written the 3-plot story to not be the clusterfuck that it is, and they could've had more chapter mission objectives, and I'd bet the game still would have sold as amazingly as it did. It begs the question as to why Awakening sold so well. I'll still buy Fire Emblem if. I'm not going to generalize that all hope has been lost and say "goodbye forever to new entries in the series, for you are but dead to me," because I like to judge something by its own merits, not from its predecessors. After all, one game isn't another game in the series unless you're Sacred Stones; then you're the result of what happens if you fuse Gaiden's overworld/grind mechanics with Fire Emblem 6's plot devices.

Let me add on to this: FE11/12 H5/Lunatic boil down to just this, except nix the stats, dodging as a feasible and consistently reliable tactic, and a general sense of fun. Hearing Fire Emblem 14 promising "challenges never before seen" in the series, after we had the past 3 Fire Emblem games define "challenge" as raising enemy stats/skills, is giving me warning signals. My philosophy on gameplay challenge still stands: good challenge isn't raising enemy stats and calling it a day. It's designing a series of maps with diverse tactical potential, and defining player success not by battle strength, but from unconventional and ingenious incorporation of your resources. You guys who praise FE11/12/13's hardest modes can enjoy the raised stats like potato chips, but me? I prefer my levels like a nice beef wellington in the form of Thracia 776: finely-crafted, meticulously and laboriously made, and you've got to slow down and take your time to enjoy it. Also, if Eliwood Mode is like regular NY-Style Cheesecake, then Hector Mode is like Chocolate-Espresso cheesecake topped with raspberries: yeah, the texture (maps and story) are same, but the flavor of the texture (the added/changed enemies, and enemy placement, along with starting player unit positions/deployable slots) and the added berries (chapters) make it a great spin on cheesecake (FE7) and arguably the more interesting dessert. Or in other words: Hector mode was the best hard mode of the series, not because it raised enemy stats, but because it altered the level design to force players to rethink strategies that worked in Normal mode in ways that go beyond number-crunching. If I had to make a hard mode for a Fire Emblem game, I wouldn't be so insulting and lazy to have it boil down to different numbers. I'd feel enough of a sense of duty to the players that would support me, to put forth my time and hours of thinking about the map design, enemy placement/equipment/stats, to make the mode different and fresh enough to have players walk out after playing it and have them say "...wow. That was so different from the normal mode." That's exactly what I want out of a hard mode for Fire Emblem. If that philosophy makes me wrong, then I don't want to be right.

The series began to move in the wrong direction ever since Shouzou Kaga left. Wow, going on the "my opinion is stronger so people can listen to it" tone, huh? You can say that until you're blue in the face; it won't change the fact that levelling up in a stat made WAY more of a difference than in a game where the max for stats is 50, stat-boosters were far more valuable (imagine if Awakening's boosters increased stats by 5; that's how valuable they are in 776), and you actually had a greater incentive to promote units before level 20 not only as a result of having a shorter path to maxing out your stats, but for some units as a result of wanting to gain weapon proficiency. And by designing the levels to force you to choose your units based off of "what can my units do based on their strengths" and less about "which ones can kill the best?", coupled with that you can't just spam one unit on account of the fatigue system, coupled with that staff users had low HP growths in tandem with the fatigue system, along with the Crusader Scrolls being able to compensate for lower growths, I can conclude Thracia 776 had the best unit balance in the series, and it had the best template for balancing units. And then Shouzou Kaga left. Then "IMMA USE LANCE/DIECK/RUTGER-CLARINE/MILEDY/OsWIN/SETH/WOLF/SEDGAR/CHRIS/ROBIN EVERY CHAPTERAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA No, if you wanna talk "not a shred of balance," go talk about Seisen no Keifu.

If this game utilizes the Awakening engine and made levels half as good as Thracia 776 did with Genealogy's engine, then consider me satisfied dumbfounded because it's hard to imagine Nintendo being able to design levels that can be considered above sub-par what with Awakening's very existence satisfied all the same.

You missed my point: Seisen no Keifu actually incentivized players to marry the first generation through its gameplay mechanics and narrative flow; you're going to be playing through the second generation whether you like it or not. Do the Child characters play any effect on the second half's narrative? No. Do you have incentive to utilize the generational system being that the game mechanically rewards that you do? Hell yes. Awakening gave the players little to no incentive to recruit, let alone use any of the child characters because your roster would already be filled with powerful units by the time you get them, and made no effort to provide players incentive otherwise, such as, potentially, altering the story and/or changing the ending. Better != good. It's better to be $200 in debt than $2,000,000 in debt. Also, as an idea to balance grinding, the fatigue system should not only be in place, but also should be ignored when it comes to "grind" maps, and then deduct 30 points of fatigue every time you finish a full chapter, should your unit be overfatigued. Example: you grind Franz up to level 19 with 36 HP, and you can deploy him to Valni despite his fatigue being over 180. He levels up to level 20, and from his actions on the map he gets fatigued 20 points, making him at 200 fatigue. Now he has to stay benched for at least 6 chapters to reduce his fatigue to 20, since you overfatigued him. So you want to make someone incredibly strong? You better be prepared to risk benching that unit when it could really, really count. Easy mode: Fatigue only happens on grind maps Casual mode: You can deploy an overfatigued unit to a main chapter, but his/her stats will be reduced Normal mode: Fatigue happens on all maps.

-If enemies can't pair up, neither should the players -A good 2-gen system or none at all. Look guys, can we all agree that Seisen no Keifu is the obvious superior of the games when it came to generations because the story demanded you use them? Awakening's was almost if not completely optional, and thereby pointless: did you get a different ending for recruiting all the children? No. Did their presence (sans Lucina) in the main game actually CHANGE anything about the main story? Not a damn thing. The only time when their presence is actually meaningful is in The Future Past... a DLC story that you have to pay for, is optional and unnecessary to finish the main game's story. If you're going to introduce the children of our units, then don't make it some option, force us to use them. Or better yet, don't have a 2-gen system at all and focus your efforts instead on polishing the other aspects of the game. -Writing. Seriously, do any of you people picture Tharja as someone who could exist in real life? As a character you've seen and said "you know what, she really does seem to have a background that rationalizes why she has her attitude, personal tendencies, and decisions she's made in her life?" Because I sure as fuck didn't. She sucks, not because she's grimdark, but because she's grimdark without any kind of humanity that would explain WHY she's grimdark. In fact, do we get a backstory as to why Olivia is shy to dance around people, and why she decides to do it, despite? Do we get a reason as to why Cordelia doesn't just fucking talk to Chrom? Do we know why Gaius likes candy? Do we know why Virion likes to flirt with women? Do we have any real reason WHY Anna likes money? Of course we don't. Because they're poorly written. They're not written as people so much as trope-ridden icons rife with character traits, but no humanity or depth underneath. If Pegasus Knight Hinoka is going to be a tomboy, explain through the support conversations WHY she's a tomboy, and with NUANCE, and how her interactions with other units makes her not only learn something about the other unit, but herself as well. Give her, give the whole damn cast a piece of heartfelt humanity that we, the players, can personally connect and relate to. Don't write characters, write PEOPLE. -A story with focus: Awakening had it rough being the tentative "final" Fire Emblem: the developers must have felt that it had to be a grand epic: about the story of how a woman's sacrifice changed the tide of a country's conflict, it wanted to be about taking down an empire hell-bent on taking over the world, and it wanted to be about defeating an ancient evil bent on destroying it. It's the Spiderman 3 syndrome: it tries to be everything, and either stumbles or outright fails at each thing. If you had the entire game be about just one of these things, cut the 20-something paralogues and make them part of the main story, then maybe we would've had the time to focus the drama at play here, and maybe even make it actually compelling. But can you blame IS? It wanted not just 3 storylines, but it also wanted to pay homage to the previous titles in the series, a "curtain call," if you will, in the form of being able to recruit characters from previous titles, and playing in some re-made maps in the DLC. It would have made for a decent-enough finale to the series... except it sold. Brilliantly. And now that Intelligent Systems has the financial proof that Fire Emblem isn't going anywhere, they no longer have the excuse to make their story a full-on scattershot of plotlines. Now, I don't know how good of a writer Shin Kibayashi is, but if he has the privilege to professionally write for the game industry, then he'd better make it a tale that organically and logically unfolds, and is pretty lacking in plot-holes, filled with relatable, human characters and actual drama that has the capacity to touch us in one way or another, or at the very least make it rife with political intrigue. Or so help me, I will tear this game a new one. -Actual varied mission goals: it's easier than you think to organically write how you can have different mission goals in a series like Fire Emblem: --Escape: "Though the defense of the fort was indeed fierce, the young lord found it somewhat off, that their resistance was somewhat lacking. Setting up guards for the night, he awoke upon the brink of dawn to his personal guard bursting into his room. The Emperor, in a gambit, had sacrificed the strategic Fort Lawrencia and lowered the guards there, to trap the young Prince's forces, demolish their forces, and retake the Fort in one fell swoop. It was a harsh truth, but the booming of the overwhelming numbers of the vengeful Empire, coming from the direction of dawn, spelled out one single option: they had to run." --Arrive: "The information of an imminent massacre on Palace Vestol was a piece of information bought with many of Vestol's lives. His Majesty's honor guard, the Nacht Ritter, all carried the information of this news. 8 men, fleeing a force of 100. Would the riders fly along the coastline? Would they endanger the guardsmen of the villagers to buy time? What weighed heavier in their hearts? Even so, they knew: not all of them would survive. Who would live? Who would die? And who would be the one to deliver the message alive?" --Defend: "Castle Ro: Might Upon High. With the Empire dispersing the Prince's forces, morale was low for the country of Vestol. Murmurs abound the textiles and blacksmiths alike on the expedition towards this battleground suggested an air of defeat for the Humble Country, submission to the Empire, even. The Prince had decided: 'Now is the time to show them why we are humble, for beneath each man and woman here lies the ferocity and tenacity of a thousand subjects of the Empire!' The two forces, separated from the ambush of Lawrencia, reunited, and ensnared Castle Ro in a pincer's strike. Fighting on two fronts, the Prince seized the place from General Naevec's cold, dead grip. Vestol had retaken Ro. But in the Empire's tremendous battalion of pegasus and owl riders, set to swarm the palace, the question still remained: could Vestol weather the storm of the Empire, and instill hope in her subjects?"

*reads thread* It's like watching Valve fans "confirm" Half-Life 3.

From what I understand, SMT fundamentally isn't about "good" or "bad," it's about whether the corruption of the side of order is worth destroying it and the securities order provides to make way for a fundamentally new paradigm; Law versus Chaos. Let's break it down, character by character: -Yune: Chaos -Ashera: Law -Zephiel: Chaos -Roy: Law -Celice/Leif: Chaos -Julius/Arvis: Law -Eliwood/Lyn/Hector: Law -Nergal: Chaos

What "if" Intelligent Systems got inspiration from Shin Megami Tensei and made This guy the Law hero, this guy the Chaos hero, made the dancer/manakete the main character, and gave the game 3 endings? It'd fit in with the "...but what if?" theme. Spoiler alert:

Why the hell not. Let's make a poll first and vote on what language we're going to do, to see what language (read: Japanese) most of us are going to do.

An entire retranslation of the original script is both beyond my skillset and, ultimately, not my intent. I have every intention of editing the script for the purposes of improving characterization, conversational flow, and delivery of information, or to put it bluntly: if the way it was originally written sucks or could be written better, then I vote complete faith to the original script be damned. On the same hand, that's also going to require taking constructive criticism of my prose... from an actual literary standpoint.

EDIT, 1/13/15, 12:28 AM: On second thought, you know what? No. I'm going to re-write FE5's dialogue right now. EDIT 2: I was able to whip this up in about 20 minutes Fine by me: Look at the positions/necessary assets the project requires, and post what you can do.

Designing a level? For GAMEPLAY purposes? Roofed door surrounded by units that'd be guaranteed to kill any thief/keyholder that'd warp straight to the door. Problem solved. IF Warpswitch=1 THEN H5 Reinforcementswitch=1 Oh, someone actually playing in that gameplay scenario would mean you'd be playing a hack of Shadow Dragon to make all of its levels harder through enemy placement. Can you imagine? Seriously though, has anyone made any enemy placement modules for every chapter in Shadow Dragon?

Another Mashup. Guess who wants Persona 1 to have greater representation within the community? THIS GUY. So to secretly forward my Persona 1 agenda, I've planted it within one of the tracks of the latest mainstreamsoitsautomaticallyobviouslytrash Persona game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiFLqd553P8&list=UUkGL_tMEtHmNNkTiKY4c1_g Let's see how the fans react!

Is this compatible for Thracia 776?