Interdimensional Observer

On the Fire Kingdom, may I bring in this? Maybe it'll make Loki seem better by comparison? Ahem, other than do some blatant Odin Sphere promotion (the Vulcan girl in the first pict is when they're fighting). I will say that sultry seductresses aren't always bad. They just have to be done right, however hard that is to define the boundary between right and wrong. Lady No in Samurai Warriors is okay for instance, as is the old design of Lilith in SMT. I think the thing that is necessary, is that the women own the outfits and not the outfits the women. They have to be strong beneath the attire, or tragically mentally broken, but I rarely find the latter to be the case. Things pushing the limits a little might be excusable as a way of making enemies uneasy. Flora is a Mars Adept from Prox- they never get cold because of their fiery affinity, only in death do they feel the chill.

There are only 4 seasons in a year. Why are they called Seasonal? Holiday Banners doesn't sound right either. You can count marriage as a holiday- people do celebrate anniversaries. And you could weasel an excuse that the swimsuits are part of a tradition of summer vacations that counts loosely as a holiday. But what does October have to do with the performing arts? What holiday does the month have celebrating them? I guess these are a money maker for IS/DeNA/whoever is making this game. Limited time only puts pressure on players that makes them more willing to PtP. Taking popular characters and reusing them lets the developer make more money off them, which is better than adding not so popular characters who'd bring in presumably less cash flow. Plus, people like the holidays. And some of the ideas they can use for seasonal banners- like an all refresher group and flying/armor units of types FE has never or very rarely done- are by their gameplay uniqueness appealing, on top of exclusive skills.

Can I add to the SD criticisms the absence of a rescue mechanic? Even with a natural 7 move, having to drag Marth from village to village and throne because he's the only one who can visit/seize is a chore. If they at least fixed the village thing (some dialogue tweaks could make it work easily), then it wouldn't be so bad. Like any FE, there are also character balances issues, except unlike say Conquest where there was a general effort to try to give everyone good pros and cons (save for like Cammy and maybe Xandy), SD doesn't have anything comparable. Julian is just plain better than Rickard, Arran and Midia are equals to Abel, Cain, and Hardin only with effective weapon forges. Those are the levelers of SD, since enemies are often overwhelmingly Cavs and Armors- another problem. True, SD did introduce this radical now beloved mechanic, it does have that going for it. It also gave us those Weapon Rank Bonuses (eg. +2Mt with a B Sword rank) designed to make the WT more relevant after it kinda wasn't in RD or PoR. SD did try to make some innovations and update itself, but it didn't do enough. As for plot- well I don't have a Google account so I couldn't answer, but the questions didn't ask about individual aspects of the games, only the whole. Understandably, those who play FE for gameplay just ignored the story when voting, which could explain CQ. SD's plot? Marth invades again and again, Medeus never really taking the offensive despite Marth roaming the world. This isn't exclusive to SD admitted, Gen 2 FE4 has passive Julius and Manfroy, while Ashnard is passive in FE9 (but at least he has an excuse for it- buying time for more chaos generation and to provoke Gallia and Goldoa). Back to SD, the plot is simple, traditional, minimalistic, little to mess up, but little to do in the first place. It is a Marth soliloquy since few others (Nyna, Malledus) feature, and they are generally passive to him. Again, this is not exclusive to SD, FE4 Gen 2 is something of a Seliph soliloquy from what I can tell, while FE6 is a Roy one to some degree, but SD coming in a later era, makes it come off as worse than it is to those older games. FE7 and FE10 and probably FE15 from what I hear, by comparison have good ensembles in the main story. Marth's noble, reserved personality and subtle development over the course of things doesn't bother me though, that's fine. The writing of what is there is fine too.

True enough on the Steel Sword thing, the Mani Katti has 45 uses, which is plentiful on a full sized team so as long as you're not indiscriminately spamming it. The Hammerne doesn't have much competition either. 1-2 range I think is more a later game concern, since you need durability and high attack power (enough to ORKO or near it) to make it valuable. Outside of Marcus, this won't be true of anyone for a while. Hence I think she's fairly good in the short term, possibly better than Guy since the MK is Lyn's alone and has more uses than the KE (though you can buy those in a Secret Shop fairly early). Lyn's ability to double at the start > Eliwood's lack thereof and better durability. FFO and Battle Prep are the only chapters selling Reavers- but they exist and you can stockpile them in the former. They only have 15 uses apiece, but they would make her evasive against lancers admittedly. Of course FFO is probably around the time 1-2 range is becoming kinda dominant and Lyn's peak performance is past. But of course she isn't useless at this point, just relatively less useful.

Like you get that many seals? Prior to C20 you're getting like 5 Heart Seals. Not that many. Partner and Friendship Seals exist too in similar quantities, but they take time to be able to use barring online support grinding. Those Heart Seals have plenty of competition. You could buy more Hearts and such online- but would that be cheating? Childhood Seals are worth it, save the children who are difficult to save (like Ignatius and Shiro) and those who you might want the chapter rewards from early, such as Ophelia, and Percy if you want the gold. You miss nothing saving Shigure for later, and little from saving Midori or Soleil. I like late recruiting to fill in open unit slots with practical prepromotes I never had to feed a drop of EXP to. As for Rally Strength, you need a level 5 Berserker for that. I don't recall any Berserker Capture fodder being available for most of CQ (barring Paralogue use). So instead you have to get someone to a level 5 Berserker- Arthur and Charlotte need some time to attain that. Defense Rally is plentiful on the player side, and I can easily see Capturing a Falco for Speed Rally, and Izana exists for Magic Rally. I rarely see real consensus on what is good and bad in Conquest, compared to other FEs. I mean some stuff like Camilla top/high and Charlotte on the lower end can be agreed on, but the rest is much in flux. With this stated, I'm just going to pull of this. It's a little toxic.

*Despairs to the point of becoming a degenerate dark dragon, who promptly devours this board whole in their grieving madness* I want zero references to the older FEs in FE Switch barring DLC. Make me a game that can stand on its own, over-reliance on other games is a major no!

I think Lyn is an okay short-term unit on Eliwood/Hector Mode, but nothing particularly special in the long haul. To echo the sentiment of others: Pros: The Mani Katti is durable and powerful personal weapon Lyn Mode means she can come well leveled (say 10 at most) with a potential Ring and or Robe dumped on her (but Florina likes them more) She's fast and can dodgetank well under the right circumstances Cons: She's fragile- 16 HP and 2 Def at base is bad. Low Con means anything heavier than Iron bites into her Speed (-5 AS from a Steel Sword). Low Str, combined with weak swords andthe lack of 1-2 range bites into her offensive potential. After Lyn Mode, axes aren't quite as prevalent, lances become more common and Lyn faces frequent WTD. To dodgetank, Lyn needs the enemy to be mostly axers and or dodgy terrain and or supports, and she can't equip anything heavy, or counter ranged hits. Her competition all finds ways of outdoing her on promotion: Rath gets what Lyn gets and a horse, Guy gets +15 critical, Raven gets axes. For Hard Mode, unit slot restrictions really limit who you can bring, and two of the above chars get stat boosts. To talk Funds rank, the Heaven Seal is double the value of a normal promotion item.

True, I haven't played FE6, but I can tell it's bad for axes from the hit rates alone. Albeit they're only about as bad as Lances, since the Hit rate difference between the two is 5, tiny compared to the gulf between an Iron Lance's 70 hit and a Iron Sword's 85. It helps axers that lance users (Pegs, Wyverns, Armors,) are typically not-dodgy, Cavs are the most evasive they confront. Lances on the other hand typically fight Mercs and Myrms- dodgy classes, and sometimes Cavs and the rare Nomad Trooper/Wyvern Lord/Falcoknight. Hence, given a user with decent Skill (Lott, Dieck, Echidna), Axes shouldn't be terrible. From experience I know axes aren't the worst in Blazing and Sacred. Swords are the worst. Why? Because besides enemies not dodging a lot and axes getting a Hit buff, enemies are terribly weak. Hence 1-2 range, even if it means a weaker equipped weapon, is good. Thus Hand Axes and Javelins reign in FE7 and 8, while swords are shafted by their lack of 1-2 range. This isn't to say swords are useless, they still have uses in the beginning, but once you get your units up and running as murder machines, swords will fall to the wayside barring dodging axes in some circumstances. Raven and Gerik rarely touch a sword once promoted in my experience. As for the Weapon Triangle. A big NO vote to the Fates version- keep magic out of it! It did help bows admittedly, since Takumi has a anti-Ninja niche, but I thought tomes were nerfed by being included. An "okay, I'm fine with it" for SD-Awakening WT style, which is a progression of the GBA-Tellius style. And lastly, I'd be okay with FE abolishing the Weapon Triangle entirely in a future game- why does this little Rock-Paper-Scissors mechanic matter so much? It's tradition, but is it really that strategic? On the magic triangle- well like dismounting, it might not have been executed well in the past. But I'm naive and optimistic enough to believe nothing is beyond good reform, pure abandonment isn't necessary.

Because Thracia 776 hasn't been added yet.

So an infantry mage of whatever color the developers desire. Selena's original, which should be better than current one when it gets added. Marisa is yet another sword infantry (looks take you far). Selkie can't happen yet b/c she couldn't use breath or any other weapon. Soleil- another female infantry swordie? Kaze- surprised he wasn't in the base game, hopefully he could enliven the Dagger pool.

There are reinforcements that show up until Turn 11 in 4-P. You took things quite fast. I like Naesala and the other Laguz Royals being so powerful. The Laguz are said to choose leaders based on strength, the gameplay is simply reflecting the lore. Meanwhile Elincia and Sanaki and Pelleas aren't the strongest things in the world since Beorc choose based on blood ties. Those gold units say second tier, but their a "Special" Second Tier version with higher caps and stats. You don't see 3rd Tier enemies for the most part because of those broken Mastery skills- would you want every General you fight to have Luna? (Which is the same as the BK's Eclipse, but the 5xStr is reduced to 3xStr, total Defense negation is still a thing.) And that Nihil is why I said to strip Ike of skills, I never knew what would happen if he didn't have enough capacity for it. The last Extended Script SF has until P4 Final is 4-P's and here are the differences/additions, barring a few tiny ones I skipped. First, two filler lines (the non-bolded is in the Standard, I'm just including it for context): Then we have Yune in the Extended saying a little more when talking to Mist: They also changed and add to this bit with Yune slightly later: Now after Yune is done speaking, a bunch of people chime in, the bolded is what was cut in the Standard: That Sothe-Ike mini-conversation with the whole "I wasn't looking forward to that matchup" which follows Sanaki's second quip in the above dialogue in the Standard version, was added in the English version- the Japanese Extended doesn't have it. They then shrunk this: Into this: Then after Yune finishes possessing Micaiah and flies off (Elincia got snubbed in the English) Then the BK reveal is less condensed like some of the other conversations too, I bolded one particular line since it stands out, but which they didn't really need: Lekain and Sigrun say a little more too: Part of the Naesala-Skrimir and co. convo also got tweaked. I extracted the relevant segment, and the differences are enough I didn't feel a need to bold them: When Sanaki says she'll fight, she also says this: The just before the battle begins: The post battle convo: And lastly the Sothe-Micaiah dialogue: And oh yeah, the Sanaki-Sigrun end dialogue is slightly different with Sigrun saying more: On the BK-Zelgius reveal, it's logical. Ranulf knows the BK would survive, the time for gathering evidence to confirm his hypothesis is past, and since he's leaving Ike's group, he feels the need to Ike- the one person who cares the most about the BK. All too often, RPG characters withhold information without good reason, Ranulf didn't do that for a change of pace. However, they could have made that scene a little more climatic if they did a cut away after the "It's about Zelgius". Ike would learn the BK's identity, but the player wouldn't get the reveal until Ike and the BK's final confrontation. And, I guess Yune's sleep was different from Ashera's. Since Ashera was also asleep, but woke up with nuking powers. Yune being sealed in the Medallion must be different from Ashera sleeping in the Tower of Guidance.

Or they can have multiple battle themes. RD has 5 (one for each Part plus 4-Final). Either do multiple with it changing as the game's general tone proceeds, or make different ones for different situational tones. It's a little more effort than dynamics, but it pops a little more too. My problem with the dynamics is that they're a little "lazy" to me. Maybe its too much SSBB/4, but constant remixing of one theme can get dull to me and be a sign of a lack of creative effort. I don't mind some remixing, I adore hearing the latest rendition Fire Emblem Theme, and I'm kinda sure that my treasured Wheeling Corby is a remix of On Black Wings (Naesala's theme). I don't mind all the Id remixes either, and I recognize the dynamics are but a single remix- not two million, so it isn't like a loathe in their entirety or anything near it.

Could they try doing something plot-wise for an upgrade? Shiny pointy sharp things releasing their true shiny slashy stabby power is always cool.

So has anyone made any jokes with this yet? Would a leek be a lance or what?

Well Loki did have that one little moment in Norse mythology where they turned into a mare, had a stallion chase after them, and then got pregnant and gave birth to Odin's eight-legged horse Sleipnir. So five seconds of sex bending and boom Loki the trickster is capable of going either way in cheap entertainment media references. Which reminds me of the little story when Thor had to disguise himself as a girl, and pretend to be a bride. Well she does come with one in RD. Better than a Slim Sword- aka a weapon with no use in Heroes since accuracy isn't a thing.

A little SRW-derived thought experiment: SRX: The idea is a super unit who is extremely powerful, but the price paid is that it effectively cuts down on your fieldable units from 4 to 2. But is this too weak, or too strong?

And the Three-Headed Beast ravaged the lands. And the Underworld invaded the realm of the living, led by its Lord. And the Cauldron quickly drained the life from the world itself, causing it to crumble. And the Last Dragon in the skies above destroyed the earth, even the highest of mountains sank and were swallowed into the watery void. And so was the death of Zenith, whoops I meant Erion.

And the Three-Headed Beast ravaged the lands. And the Underworld invaded the realm of the living, led by its Lord. And the Cauldron quickly drained the life from the world itself, causing it to crumble. And the Last Dragon in the skies above destroyed the earth, even the highest of mountains sank and were swallowed into the watery void. And so was the death of Zenith, whoops I meant Erion.

So I'm hearing more of power creepism. I'm reminded of SRT: OG- in the first game you get mostly get Gespenst Mk II Ms and just barely get enough more special units to keep them out of the final roster. OG2 gives you more plenty more unique units which great, but there is still room for customizing a bunch of Real Robots like the Ash Saber, Gespenst R, the Huckies, Gan Duro, the Grungusts. The later games from what I hear though kinda sideline pilot-mecha customization for wickedly cool Super Robots and powerful combination attacks. That isn't bad a thing, just don't mislead people. So in other words, be upfront that FEH isn't about customizing characters in the foremost.

Eh this looks boring to me.

Ah this, I kinda remember it now. Fairly good. They could easily fix battle themes restarting over and over by remembering where it left off. Not that difficult to program I think, and yet some games keep doing it. It was annoying in XCX since 1 second of flight and the ground theme is back to the beginning.

The difference is that RD takes place in Tellius in the same dimension and same time period as PoR, and as we've seen from PoR, Tellius isn't that big. I wouldn't mind a microcosmic FE at all, and Thracia 776 did it I shall admit. This isn't like Suikoden or what I hear of Trails in the Sky. On Chrono Cross, that game huge roster issues. Namely nobody but Kid, Harle, and Lynx get any development at all really. Chrono Trigger wasn't that much better in this regard, but the characters did get a little development and the much smaller roster made them more charming and memorable than CC's bloated one. Serge and Crono are both silent and samey, except for Serge being special and Crono not. (I just had to get this out of my system.) As for Pokemon- the only PC is the self-insert trainer. While PCs don't matter in VLR since it's a VN and there are major returning characters.

Eh, as a kid I used to play Harvest Moon, but I haven't played one in millennia. My earlier memories were of 64 and Back to Nature, with a tiny tiny smidgen of SNES and a bigger one of Save the Homeland. I tried A Wonderful Life too, but that was too slow and I never played more than like 2 days (although I am now amazed by how mature it is, thinking on it makes me glum because of the circle of life). Magical Melody and Friends of Mineral Town were as far into HM as I intensively got. After this, HM died off for me. Later I tried getting into RF, I played through the original and Frontier completely, but not any other. I made it as far as the Wind Shrine on RFO, the boss of the Fall Dungeon in RF3, and the start of the 2nd Gen in RF2 (after a year long 1st Gen). I just couldn't bring myself to marry anyone in RF3, nor ever commit in general barring to Mana to progress RF2. I played all the games for a while, but after a certain point, they've all lost their appeal to me for some reason, maybe I just don't like dating sims? Maybe they were too intensive? Maybe the gameplay was too easy and simple? Maybe the narratives were weak? Farming not nuanced enough? Hence I never bought RF4. There is also the fact it's impossible to return to an RF/HM you've put down for a while unless you make meticulous notes your elaborate highly strung schedule before you took a break. Maybe I'd get SV on sale to see if I can get back in some day, but as it, like Pokemon, this is a gem that's lost its lustre.

Honestly, I played Fates with animations off most of the time, the same with SoV. Both dynamicism and battle themes work. But I voted for battle themes. Why? Probably because the earlier FEs do have good/great battle themes IMO. Repetitiveness is an issue with any VG soundtrack, but turning off animations, which I increasingly do as I get older and want to get things over with, lets me bypass the battle themes altogether. So I'd just do that and turn on animations only when I rarely want them. Ideally, IS would give us a choice between dynamics and battle themes, but why'd they do that unless they wanted to be real nice? Remind me- do Awakening and Fates even have boss battle themes? I can't remember. I don't recall Grima having one, and I don't recall anything associated with Gangrel or Walhart either. To be fair, the final boss of RD doesn't have a battle theme- but the bosses right beforehand do, which more than compensates. Alternatively, IS could go the SRW route and give everyone their own personal battle theme, or assign group themes. Like Ace Attacker belonging to all non-SRX psychodrivers, the Hoshidan royals sharing a "Scion of the Dawn" for examplewould be sweet. Sirius with Trombe would be a dream come true. Rushing Dandy (Kai Kitamura's theme) on Tauroneo would also rock. This would be a metric ton of effort though.

Micaiah at the least deserves a Radiant Flame personal legendary light tome. Since she lacks a legendary and has the Goddess who is the Fire Emblem itself inside her. Lehran can use Light and Dark, and Micaiah as his powerful descendant could deserve the same.