Slumber

My only hope here is that this means they at least have a hard limit on how many characters from any specific game will be in Warriors. If the roster truly is about 25-30 characters, then it means at least we probably won't see anymore Fates or Awakening characters. Which means the last handful of characters they have yet to reveal will probably be non-Awakening/Fates characters that ranked highly in CYL(As per IS' request). As sad as it is to lose out on a spear dancer in an action game, this might mean good things(At least for people who don't want MORE Fates characters) in the long run.

Persona 5 is probably the closest any of the modern Persona games are to actual SMT. And I mostly mean that you need to negotiate with demons to recruit them. Story-line and atmosphere is a different deal. But Persona's just as SMT as every other SMT spinoff. Another recent, notable SMT spin-off franchise, Digital Devil Saga, is a more traditional JRPG, and it's a more linear, story focused affair. So it's arguably even less of an SMT game from a gameplay perspective, but it's closer in tone/atmosphere to mainline SMT.

And the art/art direction.

What? Tharja's obsession is treated as WAY less creepy, and she's actually doing shady shit, like putting hexes on people who approach her or Robin, and the biggest thing of all, Robin can actually reciprocate her feelings. Tharja can get her object of desire with no strings attached. Her creepy obsession can be played as straight romance. Faye gets none of that. Her obsession with Alm is virtually self contained, and the scenes where she tries to "replace" Celica in Alm's eyes can't be described as anything but "creepy". Her ending involves her disappearing from her family(That isn't Alm's family, and presumably to try to see Alm) for days at a time with no warning to them. Everything about Faye's obsession with Alm definitely seems like it was intended to portray an unhealthy obsession compared to Tharja, who, again, can actually hook up with Robin.

Actually, Hawkeye's kind of an odd one out. Igrene even wears more than him. Most desert dwellers in the franchise are either myrmidons/swordmasters, or dark magic users. Both typically wear robes or loose, but fully concealing clothing. The deserts of Archanea are pretty much just inhabited by bandits. Jugdral has Yied as the primary source of operation for the Lopto Sect prior to them taking over Grandbell, and it's still a hangout for them once that happens, and the Lopto Sect is ALL robed dark mages. Nabata has Hawkeye, who wears no shirt, and Igrene, who dresses kind of normal. Jehenna is a kingdom of myrmidons/swordmasters. FE9 has pretty much just Stefan living in a small settlement with other Branded that we never see. FE10 introduces the wolf laguz, who do basically wear nothing, but it's hard to say much about them because, you know. They can transform into animals. Considering it's just Branded and Laguz living in the desert, it might be that they're just better suited for it. So prior to Awakening, FE characters who lived in the desert and wore skimpy clothes: Hawkeye, Volug and Nailah.

Squall's development is a lot more gradual, since it's not tied to a semi-physical/mental block that could actually be reomved like Cloud's issues. Squall first starts taking charge during the assassination mission at the end of disc 1, where after Irvine fails to kill Edea, Squall tells him he did his part just fine, and to let Squall handle it. Then, when they're all imprisoned, Squall starts getting somewhat concerned over his allies(Like Zell) being in danger. Then, when Galbadia Galbadia attacks Balamb Garden, he's freaking out over Rinoa dangling off the edge of the Garden, and he's worried about whoever gets put in charge of the counter attack. He also fully takes over leadership of the Garden during this attack from Cid and gives a speech to reassure everyone in the Garden that Balamb will be alright. The closest point to an actual "turn" Squall would have is when he has a major crisis over Rinoa being in a coma, where he walks her all the way to Esthar(He even tries to calm himself down by talking to her unconscious body, saying stuff like "Man, what would everyone think of the hardass Squall if they saw me doing this?") Another one would probably be him on the Ragnarok and him going to free Rinoa from stasis, where he starts opening up to her(When she isn't in a coma) and he finally comes to the conclusion that he likes having Rinoa around, likes having his friends around, and would rather deal with having to fight off sorceresses or whoever would come for Rinoa than not have her and his friends. His crew feels the same. Ending cop-out aside, I'd actually say Squall has one of the best character arcs of any FF protagonist. The game flat out says that all of his issues stem from his abandonment at the orphanage, where he was the last one to get adopted, giving him a complex, and losing Ellone, who was his last support there. So basically he forced himself to grow up to deal with being alone, and his 17 year old-self is stuck with the mentality that a 7 year old came up with to deal with being alone(Him being eventually picked up by a mercenary academy didn't help, and him losing his memories kept him from ever even realizing this). And the whole game is him letting people in and learning what being an adult is really like, vs. what he's spent his entire life thinking an adult is like. Rinoa's the one who works her way in the most, and gets him to come out the most. The fault is more on Rinoa for a lot of the stumbling for the romance, due to he basically just being stubborn and not listening to people for a lot of the game, and apparently her character in the western translations is way different than in the original Japanese. I've always felt that his character and development was... I guess more "realistic", since it's a fairly plausible situation in his childhood that led to his personality as a young adult/teenager. And it's not some extreme personality as an adult. He just kind of wanted to be left alone.

I'll concede with Tharja's garb, but I still don't have to like it or Tharja. Regardless of how practical or "accurate"(There's a reason why a lot of desert civilizations in the real world, Egypt included, stopped wearing sheer and undies a long time ago) it is, I still think her outfit, and every other Plegian outfit, is bad and tasteless. Oh boy, you have no idea. Kingdom Hearts was the start of Cloud's "I'm a troubled soldier who has to fight with the darkness." thing where he's LITERALLY fighting for Hades for... reasons. And then they amped it up to 100 in Advent Children, where Cloud's a loner again, hanging out by himself in the middle of nowhere until bad shit happens, even though he's basically married to Tifa and taking care of a bunch of orphans, for no reason. He mopes, and talks softly to himself for the whole movie, and really only actively decides to show up and help at the end. It's funny. Most of Cloud's character in FF7 was him mentally struggling to handle that Zack's personality and memories was basically forced onto him. And once he sorts out his history and personality from Zack's, and his true personality comes out, he becomes super determined to launch a potential suicide mission to stop Sephiroth and save the world. For the first time in the game, he willingly steps into a leadership position without a joke or complaint. I don't even know if Cloud's personality in KH and AC is only weird because we got a weird translation or anything, but his portrayal in the KH games and in AC is a complete 180 from how he is at the end of FF7. When they were making KH, they remembered that Squall stopped being a loner asshole and became a cool-headed leader. They forgot with Cloud, though. And then they forgot in everything else Cloud has been in since FF7.

Python's biggest boon isn't even his stats, it's BECAUSE he's an Archer that he's a solid unit. Being able to cover nearly half the map on even the biggest maps is pretty damn good utility in the late game. His solid stats are somewhat hindered by the poor promotion gains that Archer classes get. And yeah, Soldier's pretty worthless on units who aren't forced to be Soldiers.

Oh, yeah. I added in that they at least wrote a reason for it, but Charlotte's still more extreme than previous FEs when it comes to skimpy-ness. It wasn't meant to be a knock against Charlotte(Of the 3 people I brought up, she's probably my favorite by a country mile). Just commenting on the design sensibilities.

Caeda, the peggies and the Dancers are not comparable to Camilla, Tharja, or Charlotte. Or anything of that ilk. Yes, Caeda and the Dancers ARE fanservice. But while the peggies inexplicably wear miniskirts, they're pretty tame. Caeda wears a full leather breastplate and high boots that are nearly pants. Similar deal with other peggies who wear armor plates and skirts. Dancers, meanwhile, at least have a contextual reason to wear skimpy clothes(Which is still far from underwear. They all wear skirts and wrapped tops. Hell, Lara doesn't even wear dancer garb in her game because she's a thief, meaning her default outfit that you see in the game is a shirt and a skirt). Free movement is also why Lewyn and Homer(And for Homer, barely a shirt at all) wear loose clothing, as they're also performers. While Tharja and Charlotte ARE in their underwear. And Tharja's outfit makes negative sense, since she lives in a dry, arid environment, where skimpy clothes are actually more dangerous than helpful. The "well it's hot, wear less" argument doesn't make sense. The only time where less clothes are justified are in humid environments, which it definitely not Plegia. Charlotte's outfit only makes sense because she's specifically written to be fanservice, so there is some reason there, but it's still more extreme than the pre-Awakening games. Camilla's outfit is just straight up dumb. Not only does form-fitting metal hurt women in the chest area more than help them, she specifically has a leather strap RIGHT between her boobs for the sole purpose of drawing your eyes in. There's no excuse for Marth though. Put some damn pants on, you weirdo.

I only care if it's done kind of tastefully. It's not like having large breasts makes a character inherently less respectful. As much as people like her for her breasts, I like Tifa from FF7 as a character. More than Yuffie and Aerith by a long shot.

I do agree that Walhart is a wet thud of a villain, but I'd say his motivation it pretty much the only thing that makes him unique. While most other "conquerors" like Ashnard are a bit more charismatic and intimidating, their motivations are usually paper thin. Walhart's the opposite, in that the idea of culling the weak to ensure a population strong enough to stand up to a big catastrophe is a bit more of a fleshed out idea, but again, he has the personality of a grain of rice. I'd still much rather have Ashnard. Like, I actually kind of like Gangrel as a personal villain for Ylisse, and his arc was far and away the strongest. Validar's so bad that he's at least fun to make fun of and mock. Walhart having a more interesting motivation doesn't really make him an engaging villain. He just exists to say things a caricature of Genghis Khan would say. Actually, scratch that. The Genghis Khan caricature in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure is waaaaaaaaay better than Walhart. Plus, SoV had to shoe-horn in a possibly non-canon post-game to even hint at an explanation for how Walhart knew about Grima.

I'm gonna lose my mind if I don't get to see some new Orsin or Homer art.

WELP, SO MUCH FOR THAT I mean, it wasn't a complete shut out, but the Vikings were pretty bad. So many penalties. It's like they knew it wouldn't be worth it to potentially injure Bradford, so he didn't even show up. At least Bridgewater is coming back, so the Vikings will have two pretty damn good QBs on hand.

Yeah, but this only happened because there's already a Leo(Leonardo) AND Leo in Fire Emblem. Same reason Effie became Faye, because the Fates translators decided to randomly change names, creating a problem due to a lack of foresight. EDIT: Oh right, Leo from Fates was supposed to be Leon. Really, the Fates translators just fucked up all kinds of shit for the SoV translators.

Just give each skill a numbered value, then put a cap on how big that number can get, like the Tellius games did.

That said, I want the standards of each class to hold up across sexes. If male Axers are super big and buff, I want super big and buff lady Axers. If female peggies are frail and petite, I want male peggies to be frail and petite. Fates seemed to think making Charlotte a closet aggressive tomboy made up for this. At least we got ripped Rinkah.

FE1/11 - Barst, for being a deceptively powerful, versatile unit. FE2/15 - Gray, for being a good Merc and a fun character. FE3/12 - Still probably Barst. FE4 - Leif, for being broken as all hell and retroactively(Via FE5) being my favorite lord in the franchise. FE5 - C'mon. You should know this. He's a very fun unit to build up, and hard partying bards are always fun to have around. FE6 - Miledy. One of the best units in the game and a solid character. FE7 - Canas, for being a cool dude with some great supports and a unit that can use Luna. FE8 - Don't really have one. Can't think of a standout unit that I really like. They're all just alright to me, except for Lute, who's garbage. I guess I'll be unoriginal and say Joshua, who I do probably like more than everyone else. I think I might have said Lute was my favorite ironically once, and the idea of it haunts me. FE9 - Another tough one, though it's mostly because I like everyone(Except Ilyana and Makarov). I'll go a different route and say Keiran, who is a fun archetype that I got a kick out of. Him being the logical extreme of the Red Cavalier, I can't help but get a little into it when he gets super passionate. FE10 - Compared to 9, I'll actually say Zihark here. Of the original FE9 characters, he's the one who I tended to enjoy seeing more than the others, and his existence is a good excuse to never touch Edward. Jill's up there, too. Basically, the members of Ike's crew who make the DB chapters more bearable(Except Ilyana). FE13 - Henry. Mostly in hindsight, seeing how wrong Henry could have gone. A character obsessed with blood, death, and loves cracking morbid jokes shouldn't be as fun as Henry is, especially in a franchise like Fire Emblem. But him actually having something of a moral backbone helped a lot... In contrast to you know who from the next game. FE14 - I guess maybe Beruka. I like the idea behind the character, and despite her butchered support with Saizo, she's still one of the better executed characters in the game. Basically, it seems that I like dudes with obscure magics and chicks on flying dragons.

nothing personnel, kids

I do agree that it's still far from perfect in Fates, which is why I think the system is out of place as a whole. BUT, I vastly prefer how Fates does it vs. Awakening. Whereas it's completely lopsided in Awakening, it's only kind of lopsided in Fates. You can get away with using OS on your phase, but it is generally better for DS. And the game using DS to make bosses harder gets a bit tiresome, but it's mostly just so you don't use OS and just ORKO every boss(Though that still happens plenty). I'd prefer if it was just gone in future games, though. There are spikes that aren't just the first chapter of each "arc", though. The Mila Tree with Cervantes, I recall, being the bigger jump than the first chapter in Valm. And after the Mila Tree, it more or less stays constant. It's true that it requires a lot of leveling, but I was more going for the extreme with Galeforce+Armsthrift on a Sorcerer, though that can be done fairly easily on a good chunk of the children, which is the only place you'll see that combo outside of the Avatar. Really the main problem that I probably should have clarified a bit more is that EVERY skill is treated equally, even when they're clearly not. The PoR/RD way of handling it made it so you couldn't just stack 4/5 overpowered skills on a character. There was usually a compromise. You could get maybe 2 or 3 more general purpose proc abilities on a character, or you could get one powerful proc or passive on a character. Right, not saying every pre-Awakening support was a winner. But I'd say Ilyana's supports are a lot more along the lines of the Awakening/Fates style of supports than the other support convos of the era. They don't really reveal anything significant about either character in the support that we didn't already know, and we learn nothing about Tellius from her supports.

Right, forgot they got that C-A supports.

Gregor's one of the handful that I like out of Awakening's cast. Henry and Cherche are pretty solid, too. As weird as it is to profess your love on the battlefield, it did give for some more active supports that actually involved people being on the battlefield. It also gave an excuse for two characters who didn't seem like they'd ever talk to start conversing with one another.

I mean. The two remakes that exist(In the west) are remakes of the only two FEs I could never force myself to finish. So I'd be all for remakes of FEs I don't like if they saw legitimate improvements. Bring on the remake of Sacred Stones, as much as I'd prefer a remake of almost anything else. Bring on the Binding Blade remake, just so long as it comes after the Blazing Blade remake. Can't say I want an Awakening remake, though. Another crack at properly remaking FE1 wouldn't hurt, but I think they should wait to do that again.

I'm not as down on Fates as I am Awakening, but Awakening has a lot of problems. And it took a while for these problems to set in for me. Opinions ahead, so if it seems like I'm stating a fact when it's clearly opinion, keep that in mind. It's just the way I post sometimes. Just imagine everything subjective is preceeded by "To me, ": - The gameplay's not balanced in the slightest. Now, finding a properly balanced FE is impossible in general, but Awakening just has horrid overall balance. Enemies are way to weak, yet there are still really random difficulty spikes, Pair Up is a borderline unsalvageably broken mechanic(Fates salvaged is a bit, but I still don't think it really has a place), the class and weapon balance is just awful, the way it distributed skills was a complete step back from how they've been handled in the past and the complete lopsided-ness of the skills just added way too many ways to break the game(Hello Armsthrift+Galeforce on Sorcerers with Aversa's Night with no repurcussions), and it was far too easy to grind out EXP. - The map design was some of the worst since Gaiden. Most maps were flat, symmetrical maps with very little in way of obstacles. To make matters worse, the only objectives in the game are rout and boss kills. The series hasn't been this way since FE4. - The story's not super great, and it gets away with a lot for being a "send up to games of the past". Pretty much everything after Gangrel's story is a dumpster fire. The Valm arc is underwriten and rushed, ultimately goes nowhere, and Walhart, no matter how much anybody tries to convince me otherwise, is just as one-dimensional and boring as Garron. The idea behind his character isn't unique, but it could have been good if it was executed well. It was not, all because the writers neglected to give him any character beyond being a generic conquerer archetype. And to top it all off, Walhart's knowledge of Grima was a giant question mark until Shadows of Valentia retconned in a backstory of questionable canonicity for Alm finding Grima. Everything involving the Grimleal is just bad and lazy. They're a rehash of the evil cults of FE past, but even less believable, and they're NEVER given a reason for being why they are. They're just evil for the sake of being evil, and EVERYBODY hates them. Then you have Validar, the leader of the whole bunch, who openly threatens and taunts people he's supposed to be making a deal with, because he literally can't stop being evil. Compare to the Duma Faithful, the Lopto Sect, the Zoa Empire, or any other dark cults that worship evil dragons in FEs past, who we see actually manipulating people with a bit of reason and subtlety, and backstories that slightly explain why they are the way they are. - The characters are just... I don't think I hate any characters in the franchise more than I hate Gaius and Vaike. Even Peri. They're shallow characters. And it's not just Gaius and Vaike, it's most of Awakening's cast. And a lot of it comes down to how romance and supports are handled in the game. Whereas FE6-9 went with the route that would give you chunks of semi-major development and world building for every character through a smaller support pool, Awakening went the "As wide as an ocean, as shallow as a puddle" approach. There were tons of supports but nearly every single one was just the two characters bouncing their on or two character traits off of each other for 3 conversations until one of them professed their love out of nowhere(Or they just stop abruptly at A). Then you get the non-Shepherd characters who don't even get that. Basically everyone who joins after Valm just gets one support chain from the Avatar. Sorry, Emmeryn. I'm sure your little brother and sister would be super stoked to see you alive, even if you're disabled, but nope. Just gonna let a fully functional man potentially have his way with you, and that's your only closure. ... And that's most of the major issues I have with Awakening. I could mention more subjective and minor things like the artstyle and art direction, but it'd be more nitpicky than what I wrote above. As for Fates, Fates addressed most of what I just wrote. There's a a lot more balance to the game play, the map and objective design is a major step up(Though not that this is always a good thing... *coughcoughRevelationcoughcough*), the supports are a little less one-dimensional(Though there are still quite a few stinkers, and the "We're suddenly in love!" problem still exists). The story's still a huge problem, and likely even worse than Awakening, since Awakening had at least that first chunk with Gangrel that kind of worked. Again, these are my opinions, though they are shared by others who aren't big on Awakening and Fates. I'm not trying to say people are wrong to like Awakening. It'd be dumb to say that when it introduced so many people to the franchise. And I do still like Awakening despite my many issues, I'm just disappointed by it. AND I'm grateful that it kept the franchise from going the way of Advance Wars(Though I'm not a fan that it's seemingly the only game Nintendo thinks is part of the franchise).

I suppose the Bengals and the Browns are better to have than the Lions and the Bears, since there's usually not any threat of either team doing well, unlike with the Lions.