Marty

From a story standpoint, I just assume they work solely as a special charm that allows them to change jobs or something at the shrines, nothing else. And I don't really mind, it's not like they always explain gameplay-related items like the seals. From the gameplay side of things, absolutely not. I love how accessible they make the game because it offers the perfect opportunity for a casual player to transition into classic mode, and to generally just enjoy the game on your own pace without being annoyed by all the artificial difficultys that come with classic mode. I wouldn't mind an achievment that can only be obtained by playing through the game without using it, but all in all I like that there isn't one because lately the FE fandom has been more about bragging rights than actually enjoying the games.

Not really. I thought about this before and thought about how little time there is for an announcement till the game comes out but then I went back and checked the time period between fates announcement and the japanese release + some other nintendo games and realized there's nothing to worry about. We're definitely getting info by the next big smash announcement since they are definitely putting the protagonist from the new FE there, if not as a playable character then at least as an assist trophy or something. They wouldn't want to loose on cheap marketing specially with all the attention FE got in sm4sh. I feel like sm4sh is coming out around july~august (it's smash, it's not like they need a holiday for it to sell) while FE and Metroid Prime 4 will come out during winter holidays.

Wrong. The thing about the timeline discussions of Zelda is that the story has very little to do with it. Besides SS, Zelda was never really about story, yes, but the series has always about it's world. Hyrule is so magical because it's locations are so clear throughout the games, and considering the focus of the franchise is our adventure as we go through it's reimaginations through the years, some things stand out more than others and everyone is bound to make a connection. Not everyone who played Zelda before Hyrule Historia came out cared about the timeline, but we all recognized Lake Hylia or the altar of the Triforce and made a mental note of it's differences and similarities in each game. I feel like this is quite a common misconception because people always interpret story as the actual plot we see in cutscenes and dialogue, but worldbuilding also plays a role in that and that has always been a constant in TLoZ. Agreed. I'm quite new to the FE fandom, but whenever I see someone arguing about an unified timeline they usually start by saying it's purely out of fun to see how they could fit the games together, I've yet to see someone go as crazy over it as TLOZ fans does- and I've been into TLOZ theorys since before Hyrule Historia came out. I'd also go on to say its the contrary, honestly: we fans aren't asking for connections or a timeline or whatsoever, we are happy with sequels and prequels and so on whenever we get them, but it's mostly Intelligent Systems who has been pushing out the connections as of lately since the Archanea saga is obviously more popular than it's other games and they don't really know how to handle the series immense growth in popularity besides exploiting it.

First reason would be the characters, the second is how accessible it is. Fire Emblem is one of the few RPG's I've came acrossing where you can pick it up and start playing at any point. The systems are intricate, yes, but it doesn't take long for one to understand the basics enough to have fun playing the game. And it's also made with non-grinding in mind (although later titles offer that option), so besides the lack of casual mode in older games, I can play through the game as intended progressing purely out of my skill alone and not because I decided to spend x hours leveling my characters. It's also fun that the franchise is quite history-heavy but not due to the history itself (I'd say only 4, 9&10 have a bigger story honestly), but because the games are so character driven. You can complete the game without bothering with the plot at all but if you stop to explore each character and get their supports you end up finding out a lot about their world, and which ends up inciting the want to replay the games to try a different strategy and get the supports you lacked in the previous playthrough, etc. I'd put it right alongside Zelda as one of these franchises that keeps on giving as long as you want to get more into it.

Yeah, that whole sequence never really made much sense to me. I'd imagine he defeated her somehow in Mila's Temple and then they took her to Duma's Temple where she assumed her Divine Dragon form, but that still doesn't explain how the Falchion ended up with her (since I assume Rudolf didn't just handle it to her voluntarily). Unless she was defeated in her temple and they transported her actual sealed-dragon-corpse all the way to the far end of Riguel. lol

Rudolf did not kill Mila. She sealed herself with the blade so it wouldnt be used to slay her brother.

The Royal Sword showing up in the plot as Alm-exclusive is directly related to the plot as a hint of what's to come, and the event is completely optional as well (I assume, since I never skipped the chest to see what would happen lol). In case of the Falchion, Alm is the only one (besides Celica) who can access the are that leads to it, so it's pretty self assuring, I guess. But It does raise a fair point on wheter or not anyone can wear the Valentian Falchion. I haven't played FE1/11/3/12 yet, but I read in discussions before that one of the antagonists holds the Archanean Falchion before it gets to Marth (although he doesn't actually fight with it), so I'd assume anyone can hold it? After all, the intention behing it's creating was giving Valentia a weapon to end Mila and/or Duma in case they went through the degeneration.

I see. I haven't played Genealogy yet so I wasn't sure how major/minor blood work, but that sounds pretty messy. But I agree that the retcons to make Echoes fit more with the rest of the Archanea saga are a godsend. On another note, I really want to see what they could do with the genealogy remake in that regard (retcons). I assume they would explain the whole holy blood ordeal more since they've beeb referencing it in fe13&15.

Huh, so I suppose all kingdoms in the Archanea series must have a ruler with dragon blood in them. Boring. But yeah, I'd say major/minor blood and the appearance of brands in Archanea doesn't work in the same way as Jugdral, even though both exist in the same world and share Naga as the major divine dragon. It makes no sense for Lissa to have no brand even though she shares the same parents as Chrom and Emmeryn. Plus both her son Owain, Lucina and any other kids Chrom gets also get the brand, even though all of them have minor blood (although it's possible for them to have Grima blood in them too if you have Robin as the parent, which is fun I suppose) Going even further, there's also the Valentia mess. We have no idea who Alm's mother is, but it's feasible to assume that Berkut has at least minor Duma blood. Then there's Celica whose mother most likely had no Mila's blood (unless Mila just mad a pact with any of her priestesses?) making her have minor Mila blood, just like her brother.

Chrom, Lissa and Robin definitely do, although Lissa's brand never surfaced (which imo is just some bad writing for cheap supports because it makd absolutely no sense and they never explained why, it's just there for support convos). Grima being artificially made doesn't mean anything as he is still considered a divine (albeit fell) dragon, Naga herself refeers to him as an equal. It's just that his bloodline was convoluted. However, I don't remembered being stated that Validar did not have the brand- it's just said he can't handle hosting Grima. Regarding Alm and Celica, I don't think neither of them have any divine dragon blood at all. Duma and Mila never made a blood pact with anyone, the brands are just results of a prophecy, and they don't seem to fade after both dragons are defeated like Grima's. But I'd say it doesn't really mean much because the brands in new games were probably only meant to be references to Jugdral and aren't really developed in the same fashion they did there.

That depends. Everything that happens in Heroes isn't canon (like Roy and Lilina meeting young Elliot and Hector in tempest trials/paralogue) but we can take the interactions themselves as canon regarding the characters personality and how they would act around each other. At least that's how I see it. Also, Walhart not being able to equip Chrom or Lucina's falchion doesn't mean anything. They can't wear each others weapon either, plus Lucina's says Marth's Falchion even after chapter 15, so it's just a gameplay thingy. For all we know, Walhart is a valid descendent of Alm who could wield the Falchion.

Thabes labyrinth is definitely canon, but I do agree that Alm and Celica going there is debatable (after all, they had a whole continent to fix and rule). I personally believe that it happened in some fashion and Alm's falchion was used to seal away grima, but it's power was already weakened from fighting Duma so the sword was lost when Grima eventually resurfaced and caused the Schism, either by breaking or just loosing power. And the tale of the Falchion was not as well know in Valentia compared to Archanea, so when Grima showed up no one really tried to get it. It's definitely a plot hole in Awakening, but it surprised me that they never addressed that in Echoes, unless they wanted to imply that it's in Thabes.

Although it's not really implied in the story (although it's not hard to see it if you so want), from a developer stand point I'd say Alm being raised in Zofia was also to give him a bigger grasp on everything. It's kinda like what they did with Corrin in fates except done correctly: He's a Rigelian Prince raised within Zofia, and although he does exhibit some unusual traits (like how he doesn't find Rigel cold while the rest of his army does), it reflects on how he would rule later on. It's not that hard to headcanon that this is what Rudolf envisioned when he gave him away to Mycen. A Prince raised as a commoner in Zofia would understand them and would be more prone to unite the continent after he ascended onto the Rigel throne: the people of Rigel would accept the heir regardless of where he lived since he was still the heir apparent, while the people of Zofia would still need convincing. Alm's actions had the people in Valentia whispering about him becoming the next king even before his royal blood was made public, we hear about it in Celica's route and, if I'm not mistaken, in Alm's too when they go into that one village close to Nuibaba's Abode. Plus, it's not like he just waited until things happened by some magic string of fates. If Rigel didnt extend an offer for Desaix then the whole coup in Zofia wouldve never happened, so no Deliverance for Alm to join and eventually lead. If Mycen wasn't aware of the plan, he would probably have joined them and Alm's role standing out for him would not have been as big. Heck, the whole reason he was so adamant on not letting Alm leave Ram village was so he would stay safe there until the eventual war broke out. I don't think he expected Alm to rise as much as he did; that was probably just some really good luck on his side. But he did lay out the events that would allow his growth as a soldier.

That would only be the case if Robin was a blank slate in which we can build a personality through those choices, but they aren't They're placeholder characters with a defined personality (although quite bland) and the only thing we have actual control over is their appearance (support doesn't count because every character has supports, they just have more options). I never once projected myself on my Robin because I always saw him as his own dude, I didn't even play with his appearance. Their personality is expanded more on Heroes and Warriors as well.

The fire emblem is portrayed as a possible weapon in Awakening as its said to be able to change the coursw of the war and has the power to free Grima. I'm pretty sure there's at least one mention of it being able to grant a wish or something in the early game?? I agree with you otherwise though, the choices are as relevant as me saying Robin liked to sunbathe in Plegia. It's never shown so it's only a headcanon.

I believe so. I'm playing through Birthright right now and it seems Corrin makes all the strategys since they are in control of the army, after all. The thing is: Fe is held back a lot by permadeath and how it affects everyone in your army besided you. There's also how gameplay is priorized over the story. I'm not saying it's impossible to implement those effectively on my units , but I personaly would much rather have no avatar and have those choices befall upon the other characters.

The thing is, we don't see that. The only moments in the story where we see Robin make an actual plan are the warship one, the ambush in Valm and when they fool Validar. And they get their ass kissed a lot before those. Every other one can be assumed to just be what you do in the normal gameplay, which also applies to Corrin.

The only way to make an avatar work is having them be a normal unit in the army that you aren't even forced to make/use. i haven't played new mystery so I can't speak for Kris ane everyone dislikes Corn dragon, but I don't think Robin worked either. First of all, they are NOT low profile and I don't see how anyone could think as such. There are various moments in the story where they step over Chrom as the main character- in Valm Chrom is less relevant than Flavia and Basilio. I'd go as far as to say the reason Chrom is such an underdeveloped protagonist is because Robin is a thing. Then there's also how everyone worships absolutely everything Robin does, even more than Corrin (at least Corrin had the royalty to back him up, Robin wins one little fight against villagers and might just be the next coming of jesus). Also the S supports. Everyone is weak for the Avatars regardless of your gender because of their avatar status and you can't do anything with them unless they are the opposite gender (besides two ppl in Fates). The worst offender is Chrobin: the speeches Chrom and Robin give to each other were so intense that not being able to pair them up was almost boring. I'd just rather have no avatar at all next time.

I don't like the supports in the middle of a battle either, I'd rather have them in the base. But besides that, the only other problem with echoes was having fewer supports than expected. But I heavily disagree with Dreamyboy. The supoorts in echoes were diverse and showed us some really interesting dynamics (like Tobin and Python, or Sonya and Genya) or were just fun in general (I really enjoyed watching Faye get rejected 3 times, for once). The "show something we already know" argument doesn't really work because fe characters in general tend to be pure archetypes (awa fates being the worst offenders of this, mostly fates though) so it's to be expected. I also don't mind their length. I don't need my supports to be long all the time, just fun to watch. For example, Boey and Mae. The two bicker all the time so the romance was implied even if you don't support them, but it was really nice to see how oblivious they were to each other's feelings. It's even nicer if you did Celica and Mae before doing Boey and Mae's A support since it builds up nicely. I'd say overall that's what I enjoyed the most in Echoes supports: they were all canon and they all added up to the existing characters and their roles on the plot. It's stuff that happened in the story wether you did tje supports to find out or not. Meanwhile, in the other games (or at least the 3ds ones since I don't really remember the supports In gba games) they seem like an after thought that has little to no impact in the story whatsoever, even if you get the S rank one. There's conversations that are obviously locked to that support and didn't really happen in the normal game. Heck, there's even conversations that are flat out plot holes (like how Morgan doesn't remember anything other than Robin but will say they remember Lucina wielding Falchion in the future in one of their supports).

Your point is?

- No Avatar character. They always have their own personality and the only actual avatar part of them is the ability to change the way they look and having an S support with essentially everyone. - No FE13/14 style of support. Echoes was a step in the right direction by having fewer supports that actually add something to the character's personality instead of the orgy that the other 3DS games went for. - No S supports, or at least not like how they worked in FE13/14. C to A supports were nice, but then comes S support where the character randomly shows up with a ring and asks for the other's hand in marriage when in most supports, they are barely good enough friends by their A supports. If anything them at least give us more lgbtq S supports besides the creepy weirdos we got in Fates. - No sword/blue haired Lord. Heck, stepping away from the usual melee weapons would be a nice change altogether. Leo and Takumi are one of the few actual good characters in Fates, both of them are royals and step away from the usual sword or lance wielding Lord. Maybe even give us a female protagonist that doesn't feel like a side story like Celica, Eirika or Micaiah for once? - No incest. I doubt we'll see this happening since FE fandom is pretty incestuous and prone to shoving those pairings out of nowhere (like how people try to make the fe8 twins work as a ship even though there's an actual line in heroes where Ephraim made it obvious how disgusted he is by that), but at least stepping it down to side characters instead of the royal harem from fates would be nice. - No more bikini manakete girls. - No useless archers. Fates and Echoes took steps in the right direction, so I expect them to keep them useful. - No more major changes to the basics like the weapon triangle. Fates already gave us amazing gameplay (for conquest at least), work on improving that instead of having us relearn Fire Emblem every time we decide to (re)play one of the games. - No weapon durability. It's not strategic, it's a chore. - Take the game seriously when introducing tropey characters. I don't mind them as long as they are taken seriously in the chapter they get introduced in; Awakening and Fates broke my immersion many times because a character showed up making jokes in the middle of a battle all the way in the very beggining of Fates when Miriel shows up carrying Vaike's Axe. Maybe instead of re-using the same paralogue trope were a village gets attacked, explore other things like a tournament happening in a city. Echoes did this perfectly with most characters joining in the villages, keep that. - No children. I did not play FE4 so I don't know how well they work there, but they were garbage in awafates. In Awakening they are interesting characters for the most part, but I hate how their relationship with their parents is portrayed (seriously. If you show up in the present with similar ages then it makes no sense whatsoever to automatically treat each other by a father-son basis. it never felt natural to me except for main plot!Lucina, but it still shows up in her supports.) and I specially hate how monotone your army turns out because of them. In older games you are always gaining new allys with diverse origins, while awafates has the playable cast cut in half. And the worst part is how powerful they are when compared to their parents with basically forces you to use them and, in harder playthroughts, you barely grow attached to your units because you are rushing to create the perfect army to deal with that lunatic run.

I see your point and while I would be ok if we had gotten something like Byron instead, I still don't think Rudolf has any flaws in his appearance whatsoever. My playthrough of the game was completely blind with no exposure to gaiden whatsoever (heck, I didn't even see Echoes stuff before playing it since fates burned FE for me for a while) and I still thought he looked imposing and I never questioned his role as a villain, I just knew there was more to him. I don't know you, but maybe the only reason you have a problem with his expression is because you played the older game and held your own expectations to how he would be portrayed in the remake according to how you saw him in gaiden. For a new player like me, he just.. worked.

Nothing from Gaiden should really be taken into account artwise when compared to the remake because it's a completely different aesthetic and we barely had a story or personality to define the characters. The in game portraits were quite low quality even to a nes game standarts and although I agree that the first impression you get from them stays with you, they still should not be taken so seriously in a discussion nowadays. Regarding the eyes: Fernand and Berkut are both Villains and their eyes are closer to the style of the playable characters. Did you mention the whole art thing as just another point in why Rudolf is supposed to be a Villain or did you actually want him to have a darker expression? Because in my opinion that would just make him more forgettable like all of the minor generals we fight.

Rudolf wasn't simply meant to be a villain; he IS one. Just because they made him more sympathetic doesn't erase everything he did after he invaded Zofia. My biggest problem with Rudolf is not the way he was presented, because I fully believe he was well written in those moments. My grip with him (and the whole end of Echoes) is that we didn't really get to see him before the very last battle before the end dungeon. He was stern and proud, but willing. He trusted Alm to Mycen to have a better life and grow up strong, but he essentially had given up then: If Alm grew up into his plan as fate would have him, then everything would have worked out for him and Duma would be dead. If not, he still got the chance to grow up happy and away from the corruption of Rigel. If anything, the whole contrast between Berkut and Alm showcases this: Berkut is, for all intents and purposes, what Alm might have turned out to be if he was raised as the prince in Rudolf's way. Design wise, I honestly cannot compute how you think the design for Echoes lacks anything, nor how the Gaiden one is better in any regards. The moustache doesn't make him threatening, it makes him corny. The general we fight a few chapters before captalizes on this with his own big ass moustache just to end up dying before we can even remember his name. Being young doesn't make him more of a threat either. It was pretty common for royalty in medieval times to father children until very late in their lifes and we can't assume the reasons for Rudolf taking so long since we never get any info whatsoever on Alm's mother (or the other Rigelian royalty that Berkut is related to). Maybe it was because he didn't want to father a child that could be manipulated by the Duma Faithful, or maybe his wife was too ill to have a kid and that's why we never heard of her: she might've died in childbirth. His age might also have to do with the color of his hair; Being old = white hair to avoid players looking at his greenish blue hair and being "Ha! Alm!!!!". Regardless, I think his design is perfect as it is.

I'm going to talk about my rooster idea for an actual new Smash game, since I'm sure the newly announced game is just an enhanced port of sm4sh in the likes of mk8 or spla2oon (maybe leaning more towards spla2oon with a new subspace emissary kind of story mode, but still essentially the same game) and all current characters will remain with the possible adition of a fe16 protag. With that in mind: Keep: Marth, Robin, Ike. Lucina as Marth's clone. Marth isn't going anywhere, and I doubt Ike would either. He's extremely popular in the west and FEH got him more popular in japan as well. If anything, maybe we'll get a FE9&10 HD port on the Switch eventually to keep his popularity and get some easy money. Robin and Lucina as representatives of the most popular game, plus Robin has a unique gameplay style. Maybe?: Roy, Corrin. I can see Corrin staying on the rooster (and I'm personally rosting for them as well since I like their design and Warriors proved they can be nice if taken out of the Avatar role), but if they were making a cut them they are the most likely in my eyes. Roy is a complicated case: he's popular enough to be kept in the rooster, but I don't see him being anything other than a Marth clone purely because of the possibility of a FE6 Echoes. If that does end up happening in the future, then they will wait until them to make him into an actual character. Most Likely: FE16 protagonist. It's pretty much confirmed since all new fe games had representation in smash since melee. Want: - Anna. Shes supposed to be the series mascot even though Marth takes that spot in smash, and warriors showed that she can have an interesting moveset. They can go all crazy and have her do things like summon any of the assist items (she is a merchant after all), and attack with the flagship weapons of past protagonists. If anything, they can just use the awakening version as a basis, but I'd prefeer to see her pulling a falchion out of her bag, honestly. - Tiki. Popular and cute, if corrin gets cut they can reutilize their dragon moves on her. Final smash called dragonstone+ where she transforms into her divine dragon form and causes Naga-level destruction on her enemies. Would be able if we could choose between the Archanea and Yllise versions as well.