Interdimensional Observer

To be fair, most people criticize the latest games for fear they constitute a trend that will continue into the future. One reason why fewer people make topics about FE4's giant maps or other criticizable things in older games, because we know they didn't become a trend that would continue ad infinitum. If we already knew that FE Switch has no overly gimmicky characters, we wouldn't be complaining about it in FEs 13 and 14 so much. Nostalgia I'll admit is a second reason. Canas I will concur is a good character- but even he gets a garbage support in the form of Vaida. Raven, I bring him up because a recent topic on him led me to read all of his supports, is probably one notch down from Canas. Not bad, the Rebecca support is great, the Priscilla and Lucius ones are little too edgy, but otherwise solid, his Bartre is a mixed bag, and his Wil may make you want to will your own death. FE7 Bartre on his own (sans FE6 knowledge) is one note and bad across the board. Karel, another 6&7 character who also lusts for battle in FE7, is done a decent bit better, but his Geitz support is an atrocity. Regarding Pent- being older and married help him (and Canas) so much. Despite having a mere 2 supports with everyone not his wife, Pent manages to deliver again and again (his Hawkeye is weak, but blame Hawkeye). Quality need not the full CBA support chain, nor romance.

I find myself reusing this template in my FE-related fanfictions for the main protagonist. The hero starts young, pathetic and self-deprecating, naive and idealistic. Wanting to prove themselves in spite of their flaws, and despite some others being critical of them. Part 1 of the plot is them trying to do just that, and they succeed to an extent. Ultimately however, something happens which undermines all of the hero's efforts. They ultimately leave their home either being forced to or by their emotional desires. In a foreign land, the hero becomes extremely apathetic towards everything. They abandon love of country, of idealistic cause, of even comrades; life itself becomes a meaningless charade for them. After a time lapse during which the hero is apathetic, they come across some endeavor which gradually shakes their apathy from them. This endeavor also improves their martial capabilities to notable level. Once they are no longer stuck in the doldrum of not caring, they become a tempered soul. They keep a candle of idealism in their heart, but is not aglow with optimism and idealistic vigor. They'd rather fear the worst than hope for the best, but they choose to do neither. Instead, they focus on what is in front of them and do what they know they're capable of. Aloof, but as they'll frankly admit, they do care about others and about noble causes. Only after they are tempered, do they prove in the end victorious over all.

The Tellius approach seems more realistic than "shop in the middle of a battle". Plus for a first time player, you might overbuy/underbuy due to not knowing when the next shops are going to be in the "middle of the battle" approach. Though the Normal FE6-FE8-FE11 approach does counteract this. Fates's is basically RD with a 3D base and most things being limited quantity Bargains. Awakening's world map shop system breaks immersion, and also lets you buy everything in unlimited quantities all the time. So my favorite? I'll say RD's, minus the Japanese version of the forge system. It's the same as PoR's, but I do like the Bargains/Rare Items section addition.

Takumi's goodness is all in the Fujin Yumi and how terrible Setsuna and Mozu start. He is a decent Archer/Sniper 'till the end if you want to stick with him, and with his great early- and mid-game power, he can easily get the EXP necessary for being kept on. Send him Sword or Spear Master, and you'll see how mediocre he can be. Hinoka is much better in the long run. And so is Azama.

Yeowch! Jimenez got uglier. You can do better Atlus! Do better!

Every game has its dud supports and dud characters; as well as those who have their bad supports and then also their good ones. We have to accept that among dozens of characters and even more supports, that there will be some failures in every game. Gimmicks help deal with this massive quantitative problem, as do repeats of character traits. Gimmicks shouldn't be extreme (Soleil could work better if she just loved being a gal pal/doing and chatting about girl stuff), nor the only thing that defines a character. And, in the case of a more extreme gimmick, giving it reasonable explanation could help somewhat (Camilla's unexplored concubine trauma war thing (which I replaced in a fanfict with having seen Garon beat her mommy to death)). I want to say more, but I feel my thoughts are too jumbled right now. (I'm interested in knowing how the Sagas, which lack CBA supports but nonetheless seem to attempt characterization, fail or succeed in their task. (Feel free to nail me with your favorite FE skill, crit or spell virtually if you tire of me bringing up games I've never played.))

Makes perfect sense, it's easier than developing full fleshed out characters, and not as boring as simplistic "normal" ones. Though a sea of superficial craziness can be pretty blah as well. Rune Factory 3 tried the same thing- they went crazy with most of the bachelorettes compared to RF2. Has FE ever had a stablehand as a PC before? We've had animal lovers like Cherche, but ever anyone who before becoming a knight took care of the stables? I actually tried to rationalize Reina's nonchalantness about killing somewhat by giving her a stablehand/animal husbandry background in my fanficts. Basically, she's seen a lot of life and death caring for livestock, so she is a little desensitized to death.

Definite Returns: Height (with some more nuances) Something that can replicate the effects of Dragon Veins Capture (along the lines of the Berwick Saga version- e.g. a bonus you can strive for, but not a necessity of the gameplay) Base Conversations (shall I make a topic expressing my adoration for them?) Go ahead and bring back Affinities Rankings I would be okay with, they're optional after all; the Berwick style of Rankings could be interesting Some form of forging- no Fates gem materials though- Maybe a Chameleon type unit And here is one map design idea I'd like to see executed once: Heroic Army is passing through a mountain pass controlled by Bandits, possibly with help from Evil Empire. The slope up the pass to the Fort which commands it is heavily defended, if Lord attempts to take the Fort as is, it will involve massive casualties. Fortunately Flying Mercenaries are coincidentally passing by. Flying Mercenaries want to get through the pass and are willing to help Heroic Army. The Fort rests on a cliff next to the ocean, and its seaward side lacks a tall wall- why the Fort has no roof even. Nor, are there ballista or any defenses set up along the seaward side. There is no fear of aerial attack. With this knowledge in mind, Heroic Army, led by Lord, decides it will distract Bandits by slowly trudging towards the Fort. Flying Mercenaries will strike from the seaward side, throwing the enemy in disarray and disabling the ballistae and other defenses directed towards the Heroic Army. As a plus, Flying Mercenaries, controllable by the player, will offer to ferry a few of the Heroic Army's named playable units into the Fort. Once the Flying Mercenaries have completed their job, rush up the slope with the Heroic Army and together wipe out the Bandits. Also, when you've eliminated the defenses, the Flying Mercenaries turn into Yellow Allied Units. If all goes well and certain conditions are met, a Flying Mercenary member will even permanently join you. If I wanted to make things a little more complicated. Have the Evil Empire field a few of its own fliers to delay the Flying Mercenaries, and make it so that those Mercenaries ferrying your units suffer stat losses. Meaning you have to have the unburdened Flying Mercenaries defend the burdened ones from the Evil Empire fliers.

Hugh I pity. In a vacuum, he doesn't seem so bad. He is a balance between Lugh and Lilina, and by 20/20, I daresay he outdoes Lugh with his notable durability lead +9 HP and +4-6 Defense lead. Unfortunately he is a growth unit who joins seriously far too late (so does Zeiss) and his stats are too balanced and low to start. The gold cost is just the cherry on top of his problems that make people really hate him. As someone else said, make him a 20/1-5 Sage with his averages at that level and he'd be good. I'd also add a D Staff and A Anima, cut back on his Magic a little, and increase his initial durability. Though that might be a little too good and make Cecilia, Lugh, and Lilina a little obsoleted towards the end by him. Mind you I've never played FE6, but I've glimpsed over all the info on this site enough to develop sympathy for Hugh for some reason. Gwendolyn I have no such attachment to. Nor Sophia.

"Around 35" according to the character ages page on this site. That'd put This reminds me, a colorless sketch of Titania from one of the art books reminded me of Evayle. I mean colorless yeah they would obviously look similar, but it got me thinking. If Tellius was a return to Jugdral like Elibe was to Archanea and Magvel Valencia- was Titania inspired by Evayle? A mother to the motherless Ike and Mist like Evayle to Leif and the whole of Fiana? Titania's "apparent age" by the way is 30.

My heart says Palla for some reason. But in gameplay, her leads over Catria in bases are nothing compared to Catria's leads in growths. Now just give us Whitewings Adventures Part 2: Est Discovers a World of Pure Chaos and the Sisters Give It Form, Scientific Law, and Life; and Before Leaving They Leave Behind Three Golden Symbols of their Special Attack

One of the revival Lion Heads also offers stat boosts. Even with Casual, they could keep the revival lion heads, just give the two mono-revival ones stat boosts/experience as well. And I think they might get rid of the revival character team transfer thing. Seeing how it would be something Classic players could do that Casuals couldn't. Though turning revival into "warp" could work too.

One last comment on the laguz power loss thing, as much of a tangent it is from this topic's main inquiry. The power loss is likely not reversible. Light of Creation – Lehran At Lorazieh’s urging, Sephiran lay himself down within Serenes, and was healed by the songs of the herons. Lehran is healed by the Herons, but that may just have been his mind and soul at last having all the trauma and sorrow it has accumulated over the centuries alleviated. "lay himself down" might not mean laid down for a ritual, he just decided to live in Serenes amongst his fellow Herons and the other Bird Laguz. The Epilogue suggests he still can't sing Galdr anymore, the trademark Heron Laguz power. Ashunera: “Lehran. I’ve missed your songs. Would you sing for me now?” Lehran: “I… I no longer…” Ashunera: “Well, then I will sing. And you may sing with me. Is that all right?” Lehran: “…Yes.”

Except Yune had no knowledge of the Branded. And the first was not conceived until Lehran and Altina were married- after Ashera went into sleep. The Goddesses explicitly had no idea the Branded existed- which is probably why Ashera's stony judgment doesn't affect them- it was specifically made to target only Laguz and Beorc- animals are explicitly stated as spared.

Actually, I took some time and collected Growth Rate Totals (all a unit's growth rates added up) data for most FEs, and I found something interesting when I was looking at FE6-9. FE6: Marcus: 185 Allen: 290 Lance: 285 No prepromote exceeds 215 barring Karel or Klein (270). 270 is about average for anyone else not a thief, Fae, or Roy. FE7: Marcus: 250 Sain: 290 Kent: 290 Lowen: 300 Marcus is about representative of an average prepromote's GRTs, and Lowen's of a non-lord/Nils/Nino unit. FE8: Seth: 325 Franz: 295 Forde: 300 Kyle: 295 Your eyes do not deceive you. Seth exceeds everyone in GRTs but Myrrh, the Renais twins, Tethys, and (international) Lyon. FE9: Titania: 390 Oscar: 310 Kieran: 310 Astrid: 305 Makalov: 305 Ike: 365 Yep, Titania even exceeds Ike (who is significantly above the average). No unpromoted unit but Sothe beats her. Only Laguz and other promoted Beorc win out. GRTs aren't everything, for Seth surely is more imbalanced than Titania due to lower enemy stats in his game. And Bastian, the man with the highest GRT among promoted Beorc (395) has crap stats and nobody praises his combat contributions. The story is clear: From FE6 to FE9, growths for prepromotes creeped and creeped higher and higher. Allen could destroy Marcus at 20/1 vs. Marcus at 20/20. A 20/10 Sain is stronger by 4-5 points and faster by 2-4 points against a 20/20 Marcus (while losing Skill), to completely destroy him he needs those last 10 levels. A 20/20 Franz wins vs. a 20/20 Seth by mere few HP and Speed- Franz can never radically outdo Seth. Titania actually pretty definitively loses to Oscar when both are at 20/20, it's closer to FE7 Marcus vs. Sain than Seth vs. Franz, so in way she was actually a step back from this prepromote power trend. In RD, to be a prepromote means little. Awakening and Fates give most prepromotes excellent or at least decent growths to compensate for high enemy stats, and to appease all fans by making their all favorites capable of having glowing green numbers across the board.

Jugdral needs a double remake first! Also, I'll say no to more characters in FE6- the cast is already large enough. Instead fix the lack of balance in that game (I suggest giving Gwendolyn wings and Fimbulvetr). The game as a whole seems the crudest of the GBA FEs (which makes sense- it came first). Delete the Nils level requirement on 19xx- it is utterly tedious. The reasoning behind it I guess is that Nils's being at level 7 suggests he has gained increased stamina through experience, which Ninian also benefits from. And which thus allows her to run away from everyone else- causing 19xx. I'll concur with another statement made above: make it more possible to piece together Nergal's background. By this, I mean give us hints as to how Nergal then completely forgot he had kids and never mentioned them to Athos when they were friends. That'll fill in the one major void in our comprehension of his past. Is it because he knew they would have crossed through the Dragon's Gate by the time he returned, and with Aenir dead (it'd be also nice if they could tell us whether it was Man or Nature which killed her), he'd never be able to see them again? Or did the grief of Aenir's death cause him to subconsciously repress his wife and kids? You know, the more I think on Nergal, the more I think of him as a shell of a former human being. The main villain is FE7 is utterly hollow inside, he has no depth, no real conviction. He is but a victim infected with the impersonal darkness's corrupting power and hardly a truly active participant in causing the events of FE7. Nergal is but the scion of a force of nature which is the real villain- darkness. You can't say the same of the generic Demon King or Manfroy. You can of Gharnef, but to be fair he came from an earlier time when a more generic story was more acceptable in FE. Though Nergal is more pitiable than Gharnef.

Agreed, the new skill system seems like an excellent edition to flesh out physical units, as I discussed in an earlier post. And, as something else I feel is also worth repeating: Celica and Priestesses can possibly take advantage of sword skills and magic! I very much doubt it'll be broken, but some niche might arise from it.

So you opted not to do the 3 Brightmoon Tor watches and the secret final battle? Or did I miss that? I understand if you left them out. Square wasn't trying to make difficult battles with them. Only egregiously obnoxious ones where your enemies are guaranteed two thousand turns to your one, and yet they still can't kill you.

Reina. She's the closest thing that isn't Felikob which BR has for a Jagen. So glassy she can scarcely solo maps, but remains a viable, if not ideal, player phase unit to the very end of the game. Also, let us hereby abolish this Oifaye nonsense! The inventor of the term Oifaye meant to salvage the reputation of some Jagens, but it is pretty clear now that on SF at least we do not need such a term. We have embraced Jagen-ism, we have turned a pejorative catchall into a phrase of highest esteem!

They do have Russian Lady Gaga. I'll concede defeat.

Lucifer is so much better! http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/megamitensei/images/a/ae/Smthelel.png/revision/latest?cb=20170213115441 The idealized human form (if a bit anorexic). Six magnificent white wings. The red hair a splendid contrast. A pose of poise and confidence. A face of deep contemplation, or shallow self-assured arrogance. Only his horns suggest of his fallen nature. 'Tis beauty that hath made many a soul consider the ways of chaos! And when he's angry, he looks quite serious and less beautiful, but still very good! http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/megamitensei/images/d/db/KazumaKaneko-Lucifer.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20080926062734 Just don't ask about the bald, middle-aged-gay-pimp/generic-1980s-cartoon-gang-boss-with-a-tumor redesign. It's a crime against nature! God cursed him I say! http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/megamitensei/images/b/b9/Lucifer_smt_4.png/revision/latest?cb=20130906211305 And when the tumor bursts. (Eyes are for some reason missing from the artwork despite being in the game.) http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/megamitensei/images/b/ba/Lucifer_II_SMTIV.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20160527004207 Did I mention that Lucy is also in touch with his feminine side? And children and the elderly too. Even the middle-aged businessman. Unfortunately, you'll have to take me at my word on these. For an avatar, I've been considering a semi-Lucifer for it for some time. Why, he even lets you get to know Lucifer if you get to know him! You do have to ask whether extending humanity's existential freedom is worth it though if you want to get that close. http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/megamitensei/images/9/97/Melancholy_Man_ingame_portraits.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20111121030100 Why haven't I put his pic in? Laziness I guess.

I was thinking of Fates a little and imagining if it had been done like Radiant Historia (Lilth and Azura give you the ability to traverse time and space at the moment you decide your route. You then alternate between BR and CQ, and then gradually you come to realize you shouldn't have sided with either to fight Anankos and end up going back to create Rev.. Only to get stuck there eventually and force you to finish BR and CQ before at last vanquishing Anankos.) And then I decided on having a little-not-so-creative funsies: Introducing Radiant Fateoria: A Parody Starring: (Cast is currently pending)

Stream of consciousness on full display here on SF!

Liked Pokemon Conquest enough, not bad, but not tremendously great. It introduced me to Samurai Warriors, though I didn't buy one until Hyrule Warriors came out. My criticisms: Enemy AI is extremely predictable. Each country has only one battlefield- they should have included 2-4 variations for each, with which one you get on a given occasion being randomized. My biggest criticism- only one move per Pokemon was extremely limiting. This is baby's first strategy RPG, but one move? C'mon! Many Pokemon have twice as many types as that! I want at least two, ideally three, per Pokemon in a Conquest sequel. Also- don't make it so I can blitz most stories in four months or something with Guardian Charms and Dragon Rage. Though I did reset on a number of occasions when I saw I wasn't winning a battle, so I probably could have just avoided doing that to extend things a little.

Dunno why Laguz lose their powers, that is never explained. In the case of a Laguz mother, it happens when she is impregnated- I can get some sense of a fantasy logic behind that. But it makes zero sense in the case of a Laguz father because it doesn't happen until the child is out of the womb. A male body has no way of knowing whether it has conceived a child on a woman or not, and of course no way of knowing whether a such a woman has given birth or not. Also, what if the woman aborted the child/it died in the womb? Would the Laguz father lose his powers then? Unless, by some really strange coincidence, sexual contact between a male Laguz and female Beorc always carries the potential of infecting the male with some form of gradual Laguz power decline which takes say ~ten months for the symptoms to manifest (a pregnancy + some time before it during the attempting to make a baby phase and the post-birth phase). Basically a kind of STD. But then how is it that a pregnancy always seems to be accompanied by a power loss if sexual contact only carries the potential of infection? And why only Laguz males? Or do females get it too, but pregnancy accelerates the appearance of symptoms? I'm thinking too much on this.