Slumber

I'm all for social justice, I just think it's fun to poke at sometimes.

Because Japan is politically incorrect and hasn't learned about cultural appropriation and how much it hurts us westerners. Kidding, that point was supposed to be comically overblown and tone deaf Japan seems to like good looking, elaborate things, regardless of where they come from. Wedding dresses are very pretty and elaborate looking.

I'm not even mad about the focus on Archanea and Awakening. I AM mad about the inclusion of Fates. At least we know Awakening is set in the same world as Archanea, but Fates is off in its own, poorly developed, weird world. I'd be fine if the game was Awakening, the Archanea characters, and the Jugdral characters. At least then you could make the argument that the characters are all from the same world at different points in time, and it doesn't just break down to "We just wanted to use the most popular games to sell our Musou", like this obviously is. This "too many swords" excuse is a poor attempt to draw away from the fact that they're just using the games that sold most. Which, you know, I'd also be fine with, if they at least said this. At least they'd be honest.

There aren't quite skirmishes, but there is no shortage of enemies to grind on. Dungeons already give you enough EXP to grind to high levels without needing any DLC.

The season pass just gives you access to all DLC with one purchase, but I'd say don't bother, and pick what DLC you want a la carte. Most of the DLC is redundant(IE there are early and late game EXP, Silver/Gold, and item/weapon grinding), and things like the overclasses really don't add much to the game, and make up $15 of the $45 season pass. There is DLC that expands on the story(The Deliverance DLC), but that's a small fraction of the DLC. So you can choose to pay say, maybe $15 on DLC you want specifically, instead of $45 on all of the DLC that contains a ton of pointless stuff and overlap.

If it helps, which I've seen many people say it does, go into Echoes with the mentality that you're playing a more traditional Japanese RPG than a strictly strategy RPG. It's still got the grid, and you're still moving/positioning your units carefully, but it's a lot more straightforward in many ways, and there are dungeons and towns to explore.

As far as gameplay is concerned, Fates beats out Echoes by quite a bit, especially if you're coming off of Awakening. Fates basically smooths all of the rough edges of off Awakening, making it a much more balanced, satisfying experience. Fates is subpar at best in just about every other regard, though. To the point where, for many(Here, at least), it actively detracts from the overall enjoyment of the game. Echoes doesn't have this problem, and most seem to think it has the best presentation in the franchise, along with the best writing for story and characters that we've gotten since Path of Radiance 12 years ago. So go with whatever sounds better. If you just want gameplay, Fates will be your game. If you want the whole package to be solid and not just one aspect, Echoes is for you.

Yeah, you could make the argument for the BK. He and Ashnard are together like in like, 80% of the BK's scenes, but the other 20% of the BK's scenes are him antagonizing Ike directly, while Ashnard only shows up in person for the final chapter. The BK plays more of the direct role that major villains typically play, but the game makes no effort to hide that he's working for Ashnard, which usually doesn't happen with main villains. Usually the main villains show up, appear to be hot shit, then for the last few chapters play as an underling to something bigger. I mean, Manfroy is the one orchestrating everything, but he doesn't really play that out in the open, directly antagonistic role that we're using as "Main villain" for this thread. It's almost like the game would be setting him up as the end boss, but that role goes to Julius, who is also acting as the main villain throughout gen 2.

I actually think Atlas is pretty funny. His struggles to relate to Celica are pretty amusing, and he gets enough characterization(He's basically a rowdy 8 year old boy trapped in the body of a body builder) that he doesn't come off as flat.

There's stuff like people mentioning Mycen didn't have children as early as the end of act 1, if I recall, and I think somebody mentions Rudolf possibly having an heir. You can put two and two together pretty early(Even before Alm picks up the Royal Sword) if you're paying enough attention.

You know what I wish they'd do? I wish they'd go back to having specific promotions for characters, rather than all promotions being class specific(Like a Myrmidon promoting to a Hero ala Machyua, while Shiva, Mareeta and Troude all promote to Swordmasters). If they stick with a single classline and no branching promotions, it'd be neat to see characters of the same class promote to different things. Plus, maybe it'd help with the argument of "Some characters benefit from a choice since not all characters fit their class". Or Do branching promotions, but make them specific to the character like I just said, like say Shiva and Troude could promote to Assassin or Swordmaster, while Mareeta and Machyua promote to Hero or Swordmaster. There'd need to be enough class variety among weapons to make that work, though.

Yes, but FE4 is the only game they can remake that has the marriage mechanic baked in. And considering how reviewers like IGN docked points off of SoV for not being able to hook up a 17 year old priestess with a 34 year old pirate, I'd say FE4 has more to do with where the current fanbase priorities lie. Plus, FE5 is more or less set the template that all FE(FE6 included) games have followed since. Obviously it has its quirks and systems that have shown up here and there(Fates using modified a modified capture system, SoV using a modified fatigue system), but all in all it's a pretty identifiable FE experience for people who have played any of the games since. Plus, as I'll say a billion times, I'd prefer if FE6 was remade after FE7, since I think FE6 would work better as a sequel than FE7 does as a prequel, if that makes any sense. Basically, if they remake all of the 2D games, I want FE6 to be the last(And yes, I know the SoV director wants to do Binding next, so we'll probably go FE6->FE7->FE4->FE5).

FE1: Gharnef vs. Medeus - Both kind of suck, but Medeus' role is more interesting in the grand scheme of the dragon-centric FE games. FE2: Rudolf vs. Duma - Rudolf. FE3: Hardin vs. Medeus(Again) - Hardin. FE4: Rolls the "villain" and "final boss" role into one. You could break it down as Alvis vs. Julius/Loptyr, but IMO, Julius generally fits both roles a bit better, even if he has 0 presence in gen 1. FE5: Raydrik vs. Veld - Both suck and are uninteresting as characters. FE6: Zephiel vs. Idunn - Zephiel by a country mile. FE7: Nergal vs. Generic fire dragon - Interestingly enough, the fire dra- I can't even make a joke argument for the fire dragon. FE8: Lyon vs. Fomortiis - Lyon, as much as I don't really care for FE8 or the protagonists, is a decent sympathetic villain. Certainly more interesting than gray Satan. FE9: Ashnard vs. Ashnard - Ashnard gives Ashnard a run for his money, but I'm gonna give it to Ashnard. FE10: Sephiran/The Senate/Zelgius vs. Ashera - Zelgius and Sephiran make for pretty good villains, and Sephiran gets browny points for being the only major villain in the franchise to join you in the main story. The Senate are laughably evil, but entertaining. Altogether, they beat out Ashera, who is a decent antagonist for setting up the final chunk of game, but not much else. Awakening: Validar vs. Grima - Both suck and are uninteresting as characters, but at least Grima doesn't make me want to be doing something other than play the game. Validar just makes me wish I was watching Aladdin. Fates: Garon vs. Anankos - *insert Seinfeld laughing and walking out of movie .gif here* Villains: 6 Final bosses: 2

Yeah, but the Fist of the North Star/Gundam/One Piece games were more or less just Musou games with the aesthetics of those series, even when it made 0 sense. Admittedly, making crossovers from manga/anime franchises is likely a bit harder, since there's no basis for adding in game play that resembles the series. But those games don't resemble their franchises in any way besides aesthetics. But even in the case of like, the Dragon Quest games, the first one had tower defense elements. I get wanting to spice things up, but why the Dragon Quest crossover? Dragon Quest Heroes 2, however, is obviously very heavily inspired by JRPGs and DQ in particular.

I do like it that Omega Force seems to be trying to integrate aspects of the properties they make Warriors games out of more now, instead of just making Warriors games with licensed skins on them. If they can add FE mechanics and make a convincing Musou with them, then I think I'll look forward to their works a bit more.

Kinda bummed that it's strictly FE1/3 and Awakening+Fates. Those are probably the four games in the franchise where I care the absolute least about that characters. Like, I get that those are the Marth games+The two best selling games in the franchise, but still. Major blow to my excitement of the game. Now I'll be waiting to see how intensive the strategy elements are to determine whether I actually get this or not.

Oh, you're right. I forgot he got a memory prism.

Berkut actually is a decent villain, and his development is clear and easy to follow. We know he was basically groomed to be the next ruler of Rigel, a country that rules with an iron fist. The current ruler is basically lying to him constantly to serve a greater purpose, and the interactions between Berkut and Rudolf that we see imply that Rudolf is always dangling the throne in front of Berkut on a stick that he can't reach, and is quick to make Berkut feel unworthy as a leader. And THEN Berkut, after a major meltdown, finds out that he was never ever even really a candidate for the throne, and that his entire life was a lie. We're given reasons as to why Berkut is initially a threat to the good guys, and we see him breakdown throughout the game as Alm takes everything he thinks he has little by little. He's not an amazing or deep villain, but he gets development, and the game makes it easy to understand why he is the way he is. Which is something you can't say about Garon or Validar, who were pretty much just evil for the sake of being evil(Garon was at least once a decent father apparently, but that's never explored or talked about in any detail). Same kind of deal with Fernand, but his character is a bit harder to get behind. Yeah, his family was killed because his people overthrew them, but it's never explained if his parents were good rulers, or if there's anything they could have done to appease the villagers. His fervent anti-peasant stance leads me to believe that he was probably brought up hating them, and as such, his parents were probably greedy, shitty lords. I'm obviously inferring a lot from the little we're given, but Fernand is a pretty minor villain in the grand scheme of things. I could see an argument where Fernand is also a sympathetic, "screwed by fate" type of antagonist, but I think you'd need to make more assumptions than the arguments of Fernand always just kind of being a shitty dude.

I'd say Awakening's story is actually bad. The first chunk, where it's focused on Chrom and defeating Plegia is a solid, though very standard FE fare. Nothing amazing, nothing completely awful, aside from Chrom's insane trust in Robin out of nowhere. And even that wouldn't be that bad if it wasn't for what happens later in the game. After that, though, the story pretty quickly falls apart. Continent across the pond that nobody ever worried about suddenly starts acting nuts, Ylisse is now forced to work together with Plegia's new, couldn't be more shady and suspicious ruler, the Walhart arc is incredibly rushed and falls flat, and the final quarter reveals that everything that has happened in the game is because of the Avatar, and basically that Chrom can go sit on a broomstick, because it turns out his story didn't really matter. Then you bring in the Paralogues where everyone who(Supposedly) died previously comes back, either because the writers didn't know how to do anything besides use the Outrealm/Dragon Gates as massive deus ex machinas, or because it turns out your army was super careless in determining whether or not major threats were actually dead after a battle. And then the whole game ends with "And the tears of all the Pokémon brought Ash back to life" nonsense, Robin defeats their other self with no repercussions because of the power of friendship. It's not as bad as Fates on the whole, but Awakening's story nosedives to terrible after Plegia.

Cool. Will absolutely tune in.

No.

What? Third tiers have been in two games in the franchise, and one of those games had 0 grinding.

Benefits: It gives a lot of context and allows for long term world-building. The FE1-5+Awakening world gives an impression of an old world where dragons have very overreaching powers and wage devastating wars. Repercussions: It makes the series incredibly inconsistent. FE8-10 deal with Gods and Demons, which while conceptually not too dissimilar from the roles of dragons in the Archanea-verse, these entities clearly aren't dragons, and they're never brought up in other games. The role of the Fire Emblem also loses all meaning when it can be basically a magic deus ex machina that can do whatever the plot needs. If these games take place in separate/parallel universes, at least there's a reason for the Fire Emblem doing different things. Plus, much like the Gods/Dragons type deals, many other similar concepts don't work the same across the games(Like manaketes/animal tribes and the Laguz from Tellius). It just makes for an overall very inconsistent world. These are just the big things, too, let alone the smaller details specific to each game that takes place in a separate universe, like the Sacred Stones and their function in their titular game having no ground in any other game in the series, or why dark magic sometimes corrupts the soul(FE6-7), sometimes it's the ability to channel magic from another source(Like a dragon in FE1-5), or why it's sometimes just an old, difficult to use magic with no repercussions(FE8-10). Plus, it makes the plot of FE6-7 very confusing, where dragons aren't native to whatever world Elibe takes place in. If we were to suddenly find out that FE6-7 take place in the same universe as FE1-5+A, then where in the world are the dragons coming from when the Dragon Gate opens? And why is Elibe's world toxic to dragons suddenly? It makes more sense that the Dragon Gate opens up a portal to some place in Archanea(Or maybe some other world with native dragons, but Archanea's world makes most sense), a completely different world, and that allows the dragons to come to Elibe.

I think they're probably gonna do more third-person, world-immersion type things like they did with SoV, which may be what they're talking about.

1) I'm pretty sure the Kriemhild is obtainable post-game. I've gotten both the Emperor Shield and Lance, but they were both in a DLC. 2) Not sure. 3) Yes, you can craft them in side quests. Any ingredient quests that require Duma Moss give you stat boosting items. 4) Without DLC, it's unlikely. Celica and Faye CAN cap HP naturally, but it's unlikely. 5) Yes, only one right now.