MrRedCR

IRL tournaments have gotten my nerves up, but in a good way. I've only ever done some local tournaments for Super Smash Bros. Melee, but even at the local level the energy that comes from enthusiasts that you may or may not know gets nerves going, but is also energizing. I still remember the first time I pulled off a Ken combo (I'm a Marth main) on a Fox main that had garnered quite a bit of attention in the local scene. The subsequent group "OOOOOOOOOH" was thrilling, but also made me nervous because the expectations were so high (I ended up losing in game three against him :(). Aside from that, I find competitive mode in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to be nerve-racking at times because of just how much one shot can matter, and how once you're down, you're out of the round. That nerve though, like with Melee, can be what energizes you at the same time. You know you have a good game when it can pull that off.

I finally managed to pull a dang focus unit for once, and it was our lord and savior Sigurd (I didn't even need to call to the dark lord, this time)! He's +spd/-res, which I think is still usable since his skills already help him so much against magic. I hope so, as I don't want to spend another 50 orbs to try and pull another one.

Perhaps my mind is playing tricks on me, but I swear I hear the sound of Taps being played in the distance. I haven't summoned in a while, so I have a bunch of orbs saved up for the Genealogy banner. When it comes to summoning reds though, I get basically this every time except with Hinata. Could anyone mention some sacred rituals I can perform to will Sigurd into existence?

May the RNG goddess be in your favor. They really stack the deck against Fiona in this game, but you have little reason to not use her at first. Perhaps she can be a nice rescue bot. :p

With regards to Persona 4 Arena characters, could that potentially include Persona 3 characters? There were some in the first version, and more in Ultimax, so would it be possible since their assets already exist, or do you folks think that they'll stick with the Persona 4 cast to make the roster more focused? (I just think it would be nice to see Akihiko and Mitsuru again)

I would argue that Fates discouraged iron man runs. Perhaps I'm just dumb, but I had a lot of deaths in Conquest that involved a unit getting killed by a dual strike that I didn't realize killed them. It also doesn't help that, like Sacred Stones, the unit rosters for Birthright and Conquest are smaller (Revelations has a bigger roster, but I hear the balance makes it hard to use quite a few units; I haven't played it, so let me know if I'm wrong about that), and there is a lack of prepromotes in the late game. There is also the fact that the games were designed around using the royals since they're objectively better than everyone else, and are almost always going to be on your endgame team. I don't want this to sound like I'm just bashing Fates, as I really like Conquest in particular, but I do wonder if adding in more elements to facilitate iron man runs would have added or talen away from the overall experience. The game's still great on its own, but I do think that facilitating permadeath runs more would have made it even better.

How did the overall fanbase outside of the more hardcore section react to children in FE14? Perhaps this is anecdotal, but the people that I talked to who had only played Awakening prior to Fates did not seem to care for children in Fates even though they got really into how much you could customize them in Awakening. I'm wondering if IS is considering making children a "once in a while" mechanic, but perhaps that's just my bias speaking. Unless a second generation is handled like FE4, I don't want to see it come back for a while. As for the difference between children in FE13 and FE14, it seems like the tone of the story and game structure lent itself better to children in FE13 than in FE14. Although time travel is a contrived explanation in which its inclusion is opening a can of worms story-wise 99% of the time, the emphasis on customization in Awakening made children feel like more of a natural fit. In FE14, however, especially Conquest, there is nowhere near as much customization, as well as significantly less of an opportunity to grind (heck, you straight up could not grind in Conquest, so you have less time to get the skills that you want to pass down).

That's one thing that I liked about Shadows of Valentia. Some character deaths affected the stories of character that had relations to them, such as Mae grieving in the post-battle screen if Boey gets killed, or Gray becoming an alcoholic in his ending if Tobin dies (I think that was only in the original Gaiden though; I think IS might have softened up this ending in SoV). More bits like this as well as special base conversations like Sai said could be a great way to encourage iron man runs without necessarily forcing it upon players. You could get alternative story bits that transform the narrative in such a way that you do not get a lesser experience for keeping deaths. Fingers crossed that they at least do the altered character endings when their friends/loved ones die for FE Switch. Just please do not make half of the cast retreat to facilitate the existence of child units like in Awakening and Fates again. I love both those games, but that was annoying. I want my characters to actually die in battle dangnabbit.

A little bit of Mega Man Zero music is always good for the soul. :)

A little bit of Mega Man Zero music is always good for the soul. :)

I have recently gotten into playing Fire Emblem games "iron man" style (i.e. keeping character deaths a-la nuzlocke runs in Pokemon games), and have grown to love how much doing so adds to the games. My first iron man on Thracia 776 (because I may or may not hate myself) really made me love the game, which I previously had not played much of since life got in the way when I was still early in the game. For as stressful as it can be, I like how it forces you to think about each move, and lends itself to emergent gameplay narratives, such as how I accidently got Felgus killed in chapter 4 while trying to save Karin from being attacked by four guards. For as frustrating as it was (particularly because he had the killing edge in his inventory), it provided so much more meaning to his dialogue at the start of the chapter when he talked about staying behind so that Leif could escape. As time in the game passed, I imagined that Karin thought about how this complete stranger sacrificed himself for her, and she used that as motivation to grow into one of my best units (crusader scrolls FTW). This made me wonder if it is important for Fire Emblem to facilitate this style of play because of what it could do for the narrative. Perhaps a return of systems such as crusader scrolls to help character growths, including more late game pre-promotes in case you lose too many units early on, alongside units that are a little weaker than others you meet earlier in the game as "replacement" characters, and other things like that for people that want to play that way. Of course, this style should not be forced upon people who do not want to play in this fashion, as I imagine that most players would rather not, but I think that many of the best games in the series lend themselves well to this style. But that's enough of my rambling. I want to know what you folks think. Do you like playing iron man runs? Have you thought about trying them? Do you think including systems designed to facilitate that sort of play would be beneficial or harmful to the overall gameplay and/or popularity of the games? I really want to know what people think about this.

Hello, I am a long time lurker coming out of the shadows to post here, as I'm a fan of the series. I have played almost every game in the series (some multiple times), and have consistently enjoyed my time with the games for years. I am also just an avid gamer in general, so I play a lot more than just Fire Emblem as well. Of course, I have more interests than just gaming, but I would rather keep this brief. Perhaps I will pop into the Discord occasionally for possible shenanigans.