Slumber

I'm fine with the idea of the Tellius games, Akeneia games, and Awakening being in the same world. It makes some sense(It's a bit fucked that Laguz apparently went extinct beyond a few cases thousands of years down the line, but what can ya do?), and can flesh out those worlds a bit more. Everything else, I think, should be their own worlds.

Because, unlike the almighty Glass, Bahdess had parents who can't spell. You need to be a special caliber to be a meme boss. On the subject of meme bosses, has Schaeffer from PoR ever gotten any recognition? The scumbag's dying breath is that he wishes he used babies instead of priests as human shields.

This is true, but I was mostly just using a Sorcerer as an example of an extremely broken class that everyone just abuses as much as possible. Even without children, the way the series has handled it(And likely won't change for as long as the series keeps doing reclassing) has been tedious and counter-intuitive. In the FE games of yore, you had to find niches to make a lot of characters work, and this is usually where replayability came in. Trying to make characters work was a risk, but those characters would almost always have their role if you worked with them correctly. Now a lot of character building involves finding out which reclassing options give the best skills and the best stat growths for the character. Using my more extreme choice of classes earlier as an example, it ends up feeling like in order to get the most out of the characters, I'm building almost every character in the exact same way to make sure everyone ends up with flawless stats. Yeah, by the end of the games, you end up with a bunch of amazing units, and more of them are arguably viable, but they all turn out the similarly, and I lose the variety I enjoyed in the old games. It stops feeling like a strategy game, and feels more like some kind of spreadsheet pet simulator. I will say, though, if they were to tweak the New Mystery system, where far less of a character's growth rates being tied to classes, and you having not being able to use 15 of the same class type, they may finally have a system that doesn't cause me to get massively disinterested in character progression. But just going on systems they've tried in the past, I really don't care for reclassing. Also, if reclassing continues DLC classes need to go, or be very limited. Maybe do make Dreadfighter missions more involved, and you can only get one Dreadfighter per playthrough. Stuff like that. Also, I like @Night Zap's idea overlapping with branching promotions. Make people commit to their promotion choices. No reclassing into the other branch.

You can't turn Leen 18. Gen 2 takes place 15 years after part 1. Plus, it's probably not the age thing(As I've covered, for whatever reason, people seem fine with the idea of children having sex and having babies, even in the west. See: Mozu, Hayato, Midori, Sakura, Elise, etc). It's more the rape thing, and I think that goes along with the censorship that people don't want in an FE4 remake. I'd be fine with the idea of a 14-15 year old girl not being abused in some asshole's creepy rape dungeon, but some people might think differently.

The difference is that, unlike Leen and Bramsel, there's no implication that Gheb actually rapes Tana. Also the whole deal with Leen being 14 years old.

Makes sense, since she was named after one of the Greek Fates. And thankfully, Lachesis isn't a goofy/gross/gender-bending name for the character, unlike Scathatch(aka Skasaher aka Ulster).

Lara's an odd case, though, as she can effectively skip her "second" tier. So it's up to Phineas. Also, if you're really quick about it, she can technically be a 4-tier unit.

I almost feel like Lara should be included in a "Trainee" poll. While she is a defined class and was already on the Thief poll, she also fits the archetype of a Trainee unit. She has incredibly low base stats and promotes twice, and the main idea out of getting use out of her involves doing that.

A good chunk of Robin's story is just bad plot twist after bad plot twist that I really don't care for. *gasp* Validar, that no-name boss from chapter 5 is Robin's father! *gasp* Aversa is Robin's adoptive sister! *gasp* Robin the the host for Grima! *gasp* There are two Robins! *gasp* The evil Robin is the actual host for Grima! A lot of that stuff rang hollow and it's really just lame for me, and the general pace of the game after dealing with Plegia makes me hold Awakening's story in low regards(Maybe even lower than Fates' story, since at least there were moments where Fates had teeth and didn't backtrack with paralogues). And a lot of it has to do with how Uber super important you(aka Robin) are. Yeah, this stuff could be addressed if IS found a way to write around Avatar characters, but they've shown no evidence that they're capable of this. Even with Kris, who was effectively just Marth's favorite soldier, and didn't really affect the main plot, was still a massive Mary Sue who everyone loved and stole the spotlight from several characters compared to FE3.

The general reception on Corrin(And Robin in retrospect) in reviews and what I've seen around here, is that they really held the story of Fates back, when if Corrin had just been a normal lord, Fates would probably have had a much stronger story in general. The problem people have noticed with Avatars is that, since they're self-insert ego trips, IS makes sure that they're always center stage in the story, and everything completely revolves around them. The writing in the supports always dips when it's about Corrin and Robin(How many characters in Awakening and Fates are basically defined by how much they love the Avatar, and how few characters are there that ever actually have any sort of negative interactions with the Avatar compared to older games?). Robin got away from this a bit, as they only really took center stage in the second half, and Robin was a "new" concept to a lot of people. Corrin, it seems, has more people saying that Avatars have overstayed their welcome, much like how the shoehorned children did, and desperately need to be addressed. I don't think a ton are calling for their removal(I am, I have no confidence that IS could ever implement them well), but it's clear that the presence of an Avatar did more damage in peoples' eyes in Fates. I've already said this ad nauseum, but I doubt they'd actually get rid of the Avatars, who, by their nature, I think put IS into this corner that they can only get out of with shitty writing. BUT, I don't think Avatars are necessary for FE to do well, and I'd say it's a stretch to call them a series staple, when this series changes so often. Avatars have been in 1/5(4/15 if you really wanna stretch it and include Mark) of the total games, and if they were gone from Echoes onward, I think there'd be an understanding that it was just a mechanic that those few FE games of yesteryear had.

Catering to new fans will cause the series to stagnate and it will be back on its deathbed again before long. Look at Fates compared to Awakening. Fates downplayed pair-up considerably, and those "new" features that brought in new fans with Awakening like tike travel babies and Avatars(Yeah, kids and Avatars had been in the series before, but not front and center like Awakening) were both universally panned in Fates, and Fates was very difficult. Yet Fates still sold gangbusters(Relative to FE sales). Honestly, part of the reason I think Awakening revived the series the way it did was simply because it was the first FE that really got any marketing in the West beyond "Hey look, this is the series that has those characters from Smash Bros", got good reviews, and strong word of mouth. FEs got some of this in the past, but the franchise has basically had 0 marketing in the West before Awakening. That said, I think SoV will kind of demonstrate how the series will do going forward. If it can be a success with NONE of those features that people think we're vital in reviving the series, then I think it will show a lot about how people actually like the series beyond babies and self-insert characters. If not, then you are likely correct, and people really only like the series for those things.

Turn A might honestly be a place for you to look. Maybe not as a start, but as a series to look forward to. It's the one I had in mind when I said "super dark", and it's kind of the last point where I've been able to really enjoy Gundam. It also has Yoko Kanno doing the soundtrack, so that wins it extra points.

Ranulf. He's a pretty cool cat. TIbarn, almost entirely because of his design, but he's also got a good enough character. Tiki, cuz she's a classic and for a bonus, one of the few units in Awakening that didn't make me want to tear my eyes out.

Wing was the series that got a lot of people(Myself included) into Gundam in the west. I'm not saying it's a good series, I'm saying it's a good entry point. Big difference. As somebody who has been a part of a bunch of big online communities, the only people I really see hating Wing are people who are super into the franchise, and saw it later. Which is why I also said he might hate it later. If he gets into the franchise, he's going to want to watch it eventually, so it's better to watch it sooner than later. Yeah, it has recycled animation and poor pacing, but welcome to anime. Some series are good at avoiding that, most aren't. Gundam, even its good series, recycle animation, and while the pacing of the plot over the course of the 50 episodes isn't great, it's decent at pacing episode to episode, which is the inverse problem that a lot of Gundam series have. I do agree with the characters not being built up though, but it's more something that I'm unhappy about with in retrospect, not so much as I was watching the series. And if somebody's going on a Gundam binge, they probably won't have time to dwell on what the hell the point of Heero was, or why Wufei was such an asshole all the goddamn time. Black sheep or not, G Gundam is a decent Super Robot show that doesn't take itself seriously, and it a sight to behold once you have a few Gundam shows under your belt. If Rapier is a super critical person, maybe all of my past two posts are for naught, and he might dislike Wing off the bat, and won't have the tolerance for goofball shenanigans that go on in G Gundam, but it will all be made up if he hates SEED with a fiery passion. Because holy shit that show.

I think the problem with this would be that people wouldn't be playing as themselves at some point. They'd be playing whatever the critical path is that gives them the best results in gameplay. So after a certain point, having an Avatar becomes pointless and poorly implemented again. Instead of fleshing out gameplay and being immersive, you're just restricting yourself to get the best units, the best paralogues, the best weapons, the best supports, etc. In a game like Dragon Age or Mass Effect, making choices based on personality have very little effect on gameplay. Usually, it means you are a nice dude who can talk his way out of fights, or a tough dude who can kill people in the middle of dialogue to get out of fights. Whatever secondary gameplay benefits you get out of playing with a different personality are negligible, and since they're action games, often aren't even apparent. As far as I can recall, being a different type of dude doesn't even change the kind of weapons you get. The big changes come from story, which will affect how people like you, which doesn't tie into gameplay at all, really. In Fire Emblem, how much people like you ties directly into gameplay. It's a different system entirely, and I don't see how it could work in any fashion if it's reminiscent of DA or ME. As I've said many times, if you're going to do an Avatar, which I find debatable in and of itself, the best way to do this is the "Kris" style(With tweaks, obviously, so units aren't fawning over your Avatar to the point where it's affecting story and your character ends up still being a Mary Sue). Have your Avatar be the right hand of the main characters. A really powerful normal unit who lets you observe the story from a distance, or occasionally gives suggestions. Kind of like a mixture of Mark and Kris. If the game doesn't have children, then personality and choices affecting supports would probably be fine.

Start with G Gundam. For real though, Gundam Wing is a good starting point. It's a lot more accessible than a lot of Gundam shows, which are either super anime(Post-2000 Gundam), or weirdly dark and serious or super political Gundam shows(Pre-2000s Gundam). Also, you might end up hating it if you watch it last. Wing is kinda anime, has some kinda politics and is kinda dark and serious. It kind of dabbles in every area that exemplifies the series, so you can think of the elements you liked in it and go from there. Of you could take my original suggestion, and just say "Fuck it, let's try the only time the series ever dabbled in light hearted shounen shit" and go with G Gundam, which is intentionally goofy and ridiculous, and is more of a Super Robot series. Really, there's no wrong place to start(Except SEED). Turn A will probably make you hate life, so maybe save that for later. It's really good, though.

I love Hannibal with all of my heart, but he's baaaaaad. Definitely the worst unit of Gen 2. He can soak up a few physical hits, but as we've already dissected with Altenna, magic units are checkered in with physical units all throughout those last two chapters, meaning even trying to make him a physical damage sponge is risky, and getting any active use out of him has to be a calculated act. So yeah, his only real practical use is sitting on a castle you know won't get besieged by magic. Which is a really, really niche role that can probably be filled better by several units. 2.5/10

This, the second article even says "9 months of the fiscal year", ending on December 31st. Meaning the start of the fiscal year was March 31st, nearly a month and a half after Fates released. Also, from what I recall, most information suggests Fates sold closer to 3+ million when you account for downloads and Revelations.

Unfortunately, we know what happened to Tiltyu all throughout FE4. After the defeat of Sigurd's army, she's tortured by her family for a decade, and loses the will to live. She dies sad, alone, and never getting to see Tine free, which was the one reason she kept living after Arthur escaped. Honestly one of the most depressing endings to an FE character good or bad.

'Bout time somebody on this site acknowledges the awesomeness of this game.

There's something I've learned about RPGs over the years: Giving everybody ALL of the options you can does more to limit playability than giving people certain parameters to work with(See: Fallout 4 vs any Fallout before it). This was true for Awakening(And Fates to a lesser degree, which limited the reclassing, but still made the gameplay less interesting). At some point, using certain characters lost all meaning because everyone could become almost every class. At some point, the characters stop using their individuality, and ALL that matters is who had access to the best skills and the best class, and eventually, you'd just have a team with only Armsthrift Scorcerers and Nosferatu/Avesra's Night. The game doesn't try to limit you in any capacity, so why wouldn't you do this? And once you do this, that's it. The game's not fun anymore. Compared to playing a Fire Emblem and finding ways to make certain team compositions work, which has always been a much more enjoyable experience to me. I'll be fine with branching promotions, provided they make sense for the classes, but reclassing has been an absolutely awful experiment that I don't want to see anymore.

No reclassing, please.

I think most people won't say Birthright because who would do challenge runs in Birthright? Up until you get to Lunatic, Birthright is a much more difficult game than Awakening, its closest comparison as far as mechanics go.

It's a tie between Awakening and Sacred Stones. Awakening has the tendency to be incredibly breakable, but it also has several points in the story where enemies levels shoot up, and there are several difficulty spikes. Plus, adding in difficulties, the difficulty ceiling is MUCH higher. Sacred Stones is less breakable, but there are no difficulty spikes, and the game is consistently a breeze except for chapter 11 on Ephraim's route and the ceiling was built for a child.

I prefer how FE6 made you work for them, and how getting the true ending involved getting them all. Made the weapons seem like a bigger deal, since there were chapters dedicated to getting them. Just getting them all tossed at you always seemed lazy to me.