Pervio

Definitely glad to know, thanks for the heads up. Appreciate the thought, but did you read all my posts? :P A crap load of stereotypes and all stereotypes aren't the same. As I said, I basically can't name a story of which has more than 30 characters where all characters are stereotypes or based on a stereotype. Also in my opinion neither "Oh, but everything has stereotypes/archtypes" or "it's impossible to be unique" are excuses for bad writing - being true shouldn't excuse the fact it's down right awful. Whether a majority of stories have 100% unoriginal cast we've seen before or not, they should just get just as much criticism towards its unoriginal and generally bad writing in which most cases, they do. Fire Emblem Awakening makes up for the game in so many different ways, a lot of improvements in a lot of different regards and clearly a lot of thought put into it, I just think characters went downhill in writing and design. I'm not asking for a character that I've never seen before, I'm not asking for great in depth writing, I am not asking for no stereotypes. What I want is the minimum, to not use a stereotype that describes the character in its entirety. I mean you said as long as it's not annoyingly stereotypical, but I mean, what else can it do to be even more stereotypical? It's breaking boundaries I've never seen or expected! :P But I digress I haven't read all the supports, so I won't say that they don't develop in general as the ones I've read could be the off ones, aka. gimmicks. I should note however, I was very impressed with Fire Emblem 12's supports, for even characters such as Wrys. The only ones from your list I can actually say are fully stereotypes are Hector, Serra and Florina. I think it'd be more reasonable to list Eliwood given his boring personality lead role. Also Lyn saying what all the time doesn't make her a stereotype. Interesting to note you compared Farina as a stereotype. Funny enough, let's compare Farina and Anna. Now, I may make inaccurate statements here, so please correct me if I make any mistakes, anyone that is. It's hard to debate against Fire Emblem 13's characters since there's so many conversations I haven't seen and just because I read one of which supports anything I say doesn't make it true for all. Anyway, why does Anna want money? Because she's a trickster? From what I know, there's no stated reason for her motivation, making it a gimmick. Now the money obsessed girl is indeed a stereotype and in a sense, could apply to Farina as she talks about money out of the blue, namely with Karla, Hector and Dart, however there's a big difference. A stereotype applying to a character and a character being a walking stereotype aren't the same thing; Farina's character isn't defined by her love for money, on the other hand with Anna, well other than being a gag Nurse Joy, her addiction to money is clearly there for the sake of a stereotype; again inform me if there's a support conversation that tackles this as I may simply be misinformed. Farina's "addiction" to money is a result of being raised in a poor family with her sisters and actually meaningful towards her character, living in a country where women worked for the gold. She cares for money as it is what people need to actually get help, she doesn't collect it simply for the sake of collecting it. She even gives away some for Dorcas after hearing his story about Natalie.

Oh, I agree to an extent. I have read quite a few of the supports and haven't seen a case of which they portray anything unique or interesting for their character that sets them away from their stereotypical behaviour, however I haven't read all the supports, so there could very well possibly be cases of what you're saying. But come on, confessing in sweets?! Sorry Gaius, you're cool and all, but no man. Just no. :P I mean, looking at Fire Emblem 12. Norne the classical "childhood friend" stereotype. She's clumsy, cute and kind. Sure, she's still a stereotype, but we at least see her motivation, her role and really, her character. Seeing her reasoning and motivation made her seem much more enjoyable than any gimmicky character. It was also somewhat unique for a childhood friend role as though they made an impact on each other, they actually had forgotten each others looks, despite it being Norne's drive to join the army. Gaius's conversation with per say Libra could have added extra depth to his character, it was a conversation that finally acknowledges they're killing a lot of other people in Fire Emblem but rather than being deep and meaningful, I saw it as a gimmick. I'm not saying I expect even one deep or meaningful conversation, but come on sweets in this type of support? :/

I disagree. I'm interested to see why you think this, because compared to Awakening's almost one-hundred percent cast of stereotypical characters, I don't find this problem in... let's say Fire Emblem 7 at all. Either way, being stereotypical is not the problem, it's that the stereotypes ride their entire personality. Ninian may be the stereotypical quiet and nice girl, but her character goes beyond that. You can't simply describe her as nice and quiet, her relationship with her brother and her personal views of her own species put her beyond simply the nice and quiet girl. Anyway, from the top of my head for the females, Sonia as a femme fetale, Florina as demure/quiet girl and Serra being the quirky and loud-mouthed girl who's rude are the only stereotypes I can think of (don't get me wrong, I'm sure if I bother to check, there's more) from the top of my head. This could be notable as in previous Fire Emblem, characters lacked personality albeit. Anyway as I said holding a stereotype and being only a stereotype are completely different things and the latter just shows, well really... poor thought. Since you're basically taking an extremely well-known stereotype and applying it to a character. I should give credit where it's due, I haven't read into Gangrel too much but his story sounds extremely interesting. I'm expecting good from him, Aversa and Walhart.

Yes? Doesn't seem relevant as the stereotypes though not strictly, are generally referring to Japanese stories appealing to the Japanese audience, which unfortunately has become a big section of the online forum community. Feel free to mention any Japanese comics, animations, novels or other forms of media that have a cast of almost all stereotypes like Awakening. As I said, I can think of some, as well as think of some that have a majority of the cast like such but still offer new, fresh characters, which I don't feel with Awakening at all. The Awakening characters give the impression that the characters are based off the stereotype rather than the stereotype applied to them after creation. Edit: Might as well explain here as well. My problem is not that the entire cast is a stereotype (and people god forbid liking that...) but it's added on top that the character development is so irrelevant or just downright bad that they offer nothing new. Sure, Misaka Mikoto from Toaru is a tsundere, just like Severa, but because of the in depth explanation on her character, history, development and simply evolving as a character, Misaka can be seen as a great character, not stuck as an archetype to explain her entire personality. Severa on the other hand is just downright tsundere. That's it, not further explanation on her character needed. I laughed, but yeah. I did say it appeals to a certain group (I think most know what I'm referring to), which as you said, seems to conform the majority. I agree with you in other words.

Personally, I have no problems with the previous games. I mean, yeah, the previous games did have characters that were unrealistic so to speak, but Awakening is filled with tropes that base that character entirely to extreme amounts. It's hard to name any character in the entire game that isn't based on a common stereotype/archetype and even worse when it becomes their entire character. It was a problem in previous games, but has become over the top to cater for a certain audience, which I'm not going to name as it's becoming a growing majority. Out of the entire cast, there's not really any memorable definitive or unique characters. I often hear people say "Oh, but everything has stereotypes/archtypes" or "it's impossible to be unique", but honestly, I can name only a few series I've seen in my entire life where the entire cast is a stereotype. If you want to learn stereotypes used in Japanese stories, you could get a great gist of them from Awakening or well... a variety of Japanese eroge visual novel. I'm glad they're giving characters personality when in previous games, though they were there, they were more or less boring, but I find it silly how they're making this one attribute their entire character. Yes, I know Guire likes sweets, but to the point he even confesses attributing to them seems poor and pretty bad. It doesn't help when I find the character designs either mediocre or just simply bad which I find funny considering Kozaki basically attributes the designs of previous Fire Emblem being difficult for new people to come into the series and him being unable to complete a single Fire Emblem game in the past being due to this, which is complete and utter bullocks. The art styles from most previous Fire Emblem (FE6+) were more appealing and the designs were better, those being 7, 9, 10 and 12. I put it above 6 easily, but equal to 8 as 8 at least had proportions. This is cooped by the fact that my standards are actually pretty low and as long as they're not a stereotypical archetype I've seen hundreds of times before, I'd probably have no problems with them as a character, which unfortunately isn't the case. Awakening takes basically all of the archetypes I know and places them into one game... Doubled with the stereotypical spa and beach scenes in harem anime or visual novels. Of course, this is just me rambling about what I find to be the worst aspect of the game, as it makes up for it in all kinds of ways pretty easily improving almost other every aspect. Just get riled up easily. ;) Feel free to disagree anyone, I won't debate or anything, as I do think the game is really "that good" that people hype it up to be, as the appeal in Fire Emblem hasn't really been the characters all that much. Edit: Should I add that Tear Ring Saga has proved you can have a large range of characters without sticking many to archetypes, lack of development/personality or place a single trait on them and base them on that entire trait.

If characters are doing everything they can to win, why did Isadora go from a Silver Sword to Killing Edge? The change seemed confusing as the critical rate is hardly noteworthy or reliable and she went from less chance to hit, weaker damage and proceeds to get doubled.

Honestly, I too found FE11's art style not my particular taste, but I do have a friend who absolutely loves that style and thinks its the best. Looking at it objectively however, Shirow Masamune puts a lot of detail more than any other artist that had worked for the Fire Emblem series had done with their official art. On the other hand, his art style just appeals to a more select audience. My problem with Fire Emblem 13's art however is not the style, but just the designs seem inferior compared to previous titles starting from FE7. Of course really, that's all opinion. :)

Is there any precautions for a unit dying in Casual a part from not getting EXP/relationship ups with other characters? In Fire Emblem 12, if a unit retreated, you didn't get the support points for them participating in that battle and they're excluded from the extra ending scenes, basically solidifying that classic > casual for me. Is there something like that in Fire Emblem 13 that would compel me to play classic as my first run through?

I did mention that man, haha. Fire Emblem, especially with a cast of such a large number is riddled with archetypes and stereotypes, just like a lot of series, but that is even more reason to voice complaints, in my opinion. Severa's entire personality just looks like it was made to fit the common ground of what people consider tsunderes, however unlike ones such as Asuna Kagurazaka or Misaka Mikoto, they have development which makes them define characters not clinging to an archetype as their character. Also, I never said they were handled bad, although I do think clinging to an archetype is a poor choice to do. You two are completely right! It is hard to do and what people consider good characters are always subjective. I personally find Kirito from Sword Art Online a terrible character riddled with the idea of creating a "badass" as his only appeal and lack of development, which I guess, a lot of main characters fall under. However they're actually very popular characters, regardless of development! As you all said, it's hard, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be attempted. Leaving a characters personality at a single trait or stereotype/archetype is a common thing, but really, there are a lot of stories that have casts of characters towering over Fire Emblem Awakening and generally give pretty great development. Although to be fair, they are different mediums, so comparing a long running manga vs a video game is unfair.

No one ever said it has. It has always been a problem and bringing up now is better than never. I actually, have been finding this a problem since I first started the series. A problem is something there to be improved, so saying nothing is silly. Fire Emblem characters in any of the games can be improved. Though with the cast as big as the Tellius series, that does seem difficult to do, which is why I applaud Awakening limiting the cast of characters.

And...? I'm sorry, but what more do you want? It's a valid criticism, but you seem to be under the impression one is "hate on a perfectly great game" just because they're stating a criticism, which is not the same as hating. Also considering it's an RPG, characters and story are something that should be looked into.

Honestly man, as great as Awakening seems, I completely agree with BrightBow. The characters give the impression that they were based on stereotypes at times. Tsundere, yandere, quiet/nice/cute girl, proud/rude princess, loli, etc. Then for the guys there's the lazy guy, bland badass, muscular tough guy, meek guy, guy who looks like a girl and such. Samias said it perfectly though, it's not much a problem and it's still evident characters were given albeit more thought and such, even with their "main trait" so to speak, being played off much more often. For me, I don't have too much of a problem with it, though I can understand why someone would. Personally, the only real complaint I have is the designs themselves being not as slick and cool as previous titles, however that is of course, subjective. All in all, I do think Fire Emblem is going in a great direction and has improved in a wide range of areas and goes to show unlike Sticker Star, Nintendo can add and remove details of game play in a positive direction. Despite them following stereotypical anime archetypes, they're at the same time still given more character than a lot of the cast from previous games where it's much harder to grasp their personality. I don't like focusing on negative aspects too much, so that's why I added that little part of positive opinion. On the other hand, I disagree with calling the art "super anime-ish" though Awakening's artist isn't my favourite, I don't think it's "super anime-ish" and what I mean by that is, conforming to the majority of anime today, which is a style often known as "moe". Though there are some characters that are out of it, it still follows the trait of "realistic anime" art for me where to say the least, characters are proportionate. Edit: Also, stating a dislike or stating a criticism isn't the same as hating a game.

How will support conversations go - left basically the same or altered? Will they be altered since there's no need for ambiguity in terms of parents and such now?

Sorry if this has been asked before, but per say one of my friends who lives in an entirely different country gets a game. Will me and her be able to connect online battle and trade My Units or is that only available to those who you pass in real life? Like, how available is the game in terms of playing together when you live in different countries?

I listened to your first warning, haha. Duly noted and shall message him. ;) Though in regards to pairings, the pairings in Elibian Knights are going to be the pairings here, right (at least I think!)? So shouldn't we allowed to be able to talk about them?