Kammaru

Well according to the supplementary information by region, It's still slated to come out this year, however that is literally the only information the reports glean.

Nah, I think it still comes out this year. If not, it's going to look pretty bad for them, most if not all the games due in mid to late year that have been or are going to be delayed, have already put out announcements about doing so. For IS to wait this long and then drop the ball, would make them look incompetent. Taking more time does not mean that you are getting it right, it only means that it's taking more time. They could be taking more time for any reason, not just making it better, Not every change is a good one, and not all work is quality, regardless of time spent. I'd honestly feel more confident if they were right on schedule, had a grasp of what they wanted to do, the ability to do it well, and the belief in themselves that they were putting out an outstanding product. The alternative of not believing in their own product and taking more time to polish over something that's crap is disheartening, it's better than releasing said crap, but I'd much rather them have an awesome product and know it.

Fair enough, but in this particular discourse, the one you and I are having, there is nothing being said to muddy the name of any character. So I propose, that we just stick with that, because who knows, maybe we could have an enlightening conversation. At the very least, we can have one without so many biases present.

There's plenty of room in any FE, ever, at least, imo. I've never seen a cast that's all perfect etc and doesn't have quotes or passages in support that make my eyes roll. Fates and Awakening even have some diamonds in the rough, but they did seem to be trying to push too many messages and or force conversations rather than make them feel organic there.

I mean, if this is all you got from Clive's discussions with Alm and the other soldiers, then I'm not really sure what else there is to say. Clive begins as someone who is a little too high on his own self import, then slowly loses everything, including Mathilda, and only gets a semblance of what he lost back after a young peasant volunteers to help him and then in a short time takes back everything Clive lost..again, including Mathilda. It isn't until he watches Alm be brave and selfless that he realizes what he has done was cowardice, not bravery, and that by upholding his beliefs and social class above the needs of the common man, he lost his country, his castle, his title, his partner, and his best friend. Mathilda doesn't give a damn about social withstanding, she just wants to fight and prove herself on the battlefield. There is a passive argument to be made that she is proving to her father that she could a better warrior than any son he would ever have. So yes, there are motivations and conflict within these characters, at least the two you mentioned as bland, diluted tropes, with nothing but what they scream.

For me, the answer is going to be representative more of the type of player. If you like to rush the game, play everything as it comes and make it as difficult as you possibly can, then he's going to lag behind. If you like to grind, built units up slow, and level up even the weaker units to see what they could be, then he's going to be a beast.

Kind of? I mean, FE4 made it so that it mattered because of the whole pairing thing. Without that, people will take the most optimal route for the most part, which is to say build the stronger units and leave the weaker ones behind. What needs to happen is a reason for these varied units to exist, something more than..well they've been there for 15 years so let's just keep creating different versions of the same tired tropes.

I don't think over-ambition had anything to do with it. I think they took the Avatar and story concepts and thinned them out a bit too much. I am reminded of a short story I read once, where a mother is asked by all of her family to not include a single element within her soup, then at dinner they get a steaming pot of water, because when she removed everything they asked her to remove, only the water was left. That steaming water is Fire Emblem Fates, imo. There is so many choices, so vapid and uninteresting of a plot, that not only can you not see yourself within it, but it doesn't make any sense even though it could fit almost anywhere. The whole concept of branching timelines isn't anything new, but honestly the general story stays the same no matter what you choose, and even though the battles change a little, the basic idea is the same. So to me, they weren't ambitious enough and spent too much time on things like my castle simulated warfare and perhaps included too many characters for such relatively small skirmishes. The support conversations were also poorly done imo. There were some gems there, no doubt about it, but for the most part they just sucked imo

Honestly would have been hard pressed to accomplish within the confines of an RPG strategy game based on combat. What could have been done is a different approach though to troops and recruitment, though it would have been a difficult task for a famicom game to give. Something like having Alm be about forcing people under his boot, and Celica being about choice and free-will, then have Alm's choices backfire. Maybe he becomes king earlier and there is a coup where he is attacked and has to kill his own people etc, though that is very derivative of other FE games. Honestly, being in between games that were already developed as a Gaiden, and now a remake, they had little room to move in the narrative. It's a fairy-tale, and that's all it was ever meant to be imo.

Why should I have to earn a feature? You want to incentivize going through tedium to get choice? This seems...problematic and honestly antagonistic, as it really only serves those that don't want it. I'd just ignore a game that did this.

She and Alm both start out as powerful mary sue-ish characters and they both end that way. She doesn't really fail or lose anything based on any decision that she made. If she had truly died, and her death made Alm see past his own rage or something, then that would be a loss, but as it stands they both suffer nothing for their own choices imo. It's all very fairy-tale like, which is not bad per say, but it's not a complicated confluence of incongruous conflict and decision either. Where as other characters, mostly Clive really, are truly changed through their experiences and thus more hero-like. I think the intent was that Alm was aggressive and Celica was passive, and that her giving in to the gods and him fighting railing against them, was some kind of literal dichotomy, but it isn't very well represented..especially since Alm seems more than willing to be passive and Celica seems more than willing to split a few skulls.

Fair enough. I don't agree with your last statement either though.

This statement, which is completely subjective and has little to no merit, actually contradicts itself when in the context of re-classing. The whole point of re-classing is to find suitable or aesthetically pleasing classes for Units, thus using them more, thus getting the same supports, thus actually having a wider variety of supports, conversation, base talk and other character exposure. After all, it's not as though any of the character elements are hidden if the character changes class.

Is this really a feature? It's almost like saying that a store with limited selection is 'nuanced' or 'charming'. Why not just play battle chess if limited and defined roles is what makes or breaks the game? That having been said, what compromises would you be willing to live with? Because that's really what moves us forward, compromise, a little give and take etc.

Hmm, I could get behind this and it is a compromise, which is something I am more than fine with. One thing I found a bit irksome in Echoes is that the female units have no ability to loop like the dread-warriors. I also feel as though in the translation some of the lore behind each class is being lost, though I know that has little to do with what is being discussed now, it's something that passes my mind thinking of the change from Myrmidon to Dread Warrior. Also a personal issue with me for units is in the new games, I find little use for cavalry units other than more movement..which is both a boon and a curse, because it only means you can either outrun your support and get yourself into trouble or just have wasted movement. Though I think they tried to help some of this with pairing up etc.