Kiran_

Honestly I really do love Three Houses. But therein lies my fear. I also loved Awakening. And then they took the popularity of Awakening and created the awful mess that was Fates. Which to be fair, taught me that no matter how fun the gameplay is (I genuinely think Conquest had great gameplay), if the story/characters are trash, I literally cannot finish a game. And so I'm afraid they'll take the popularity of Three Houses and churn out a similar, but inevitably worse game as a response. But my true hope is that they take the core of Three Houses (an intriguing, realistic story, paired with great characters), tone down the Monastery portion (which while I did love it, was as everyone has stated, overbearing doing it 4 times), and bring back that Sacred Stones/Tellius vibe of war. Honestly, I'm sorta done with the split routes. I think Fates executed it terribly, and honestly I don't think Three Houses executed it the best. One, it should have just been 3 routes (though honestly I think they could have just done 2 routes), and I think the monastery portion should have been significantly different with unique monthly requests depending on the house chosen. Map design could also have been substantially improved/different instead of just the same map from different angles (admittedly some of the angles were fun). I really liked Ashen Wolves cause the maps there were fun and different, as well as challenging, so I hope they can improve upon that. But story/character wise I hope they keep creating dynamic characters and not tropes. I loved both Edelgard and Dimitri. And even though I hate Rhea, I love how she was written and the fact she inspires such hatred. It's the mark of a well-written character imo. I see a lot of people complaining about the genre mash-up/3H getting away from the true strategy RPG, but honestly I don't think the game would survive just sticking to one thing. It wasn't surviving sticking to one thing. As much nostalgia as I have for the old games I played as a kid, I think the evolution has been really necessary and good for the series. I don't see why there needs to be such a divide between the new and the old, because nothing stays the same, so naturally we'll have to look forward to how it keeps evolving. I don't think 3H is the end of the series evolution. Though I did enjoy the Persona 5 elements. Haha.

You don't need meaningful thematic conflict all the time. Moreover, the absence of thematic conflict in VW sorta feels like the point of the route. VW was never about thematic conflict, and honestly with CF and AM being full of thematic conflict, I don't think we needed ANOTHER thematic conflict in SS. Sure it sounds great on paper, but it's just redundant and unrealistic. What I think made VW stronger narratively and realistically than SS, is that not everyone WOULD have some thematic conflict. That's not how real life goes. That's not how history goes. Claude's route is about being the outside in a war that's not even his. It's about having a far off perspective of the conflict and understanding it goes deeper than some silly war between Edelgard and the Church. Sometimes conflict isn't meaningful, it's just conflict and I think that's what Claude's route portrayed in the best way possible. Stuck in a war that's not even his own, and fighting against two tyrants vying for their power and control. We don't always get a stake in war, and that makes the conflict both painful and meaningful to the characters. To me what made Claude's route strong (not that it didn't have numerous flaws), was that it was truly the route free of bias. Edelgard had a LOT of bias. Dimitri had a LOT of bias. Rhea had probably the most bias. And so when you follow their stories you miss so much because none of them look at what's happening objectively. Claude offers that objective look at the war and the situation, that I think 3H really needed.

Like....who? And in-so-far as FEH there hasn't been, because in all FE games, the Lords usually end up doing "Legendary" things. That's ... sorta the point of why they're the lords. All three of the lords in 3H do 'legendary' things, namely each of them unify an entire continent and one of them completely usurps a ruling class/species. Also, um have you finished 3H? Byleth is 100% Mythic territory. They could definitely make them Legendary as well, but...

Why did you think that?? They're the Lords of the 3H? Like Eliwood, Lyn, Ike, etc. And they're all Legendaries...so why would they not make the Lords of the game to be Legendaries? I honestly thought it was very obvious from when they introduced Timeksip designs that the 3 House Leaders academy forms would be normal heroes and their timeskip designs would clearly be Legendary Heroes. When the game came out, pretty obvious that Byleth (and Reha) would probably be Mythic Heroes. Not super surprised by this banner, I figured 3H was overdue for some Legendaries. But while I do love Edelgard, I'm really not a fan of her art in this. Her still art looks great, but her attacking art (with the open mouth) looks really off to me visually. Pair that with being an armor unit (even with her C skill), and I'm just not really compelled to pull for her. Which is a shame, because I adore her, but artwork trumps love for a character for me (looking at you M!Grima). Will probably pull a single green orb (if I get it!) and then go back to focusing on getting Baby!Marth. Haha. Excited to see Dimitri and Claude tho! Especially Dimitri, since I'm assuming they're using his immediate post-skip design, which was my favorite. And he'll most likely be infantry (yes!). Better start saving some orbs!

Ah. When I said class growths in my original post, I meant the modifiers (aren't they the same thing?). But 'bases and modifiers' sounded better than encompassing everything under class growths (I lump the stat increases from changing classes under the 'growth' category). But I meant the exact same thing, I wasn't trying to take credit for anything someone else pointed out. Anyways, I agree with Eclipse it is meaningless without context of enemies! Oooh, I definitely did him as Assassin as a leveling thing (for the speed growths) and it was very fun, because I didn't realize how much Duelist's Blow would affect it. =D I like this idea of Sword Avoid, but I agree Trickster is fun for what you can get off of it, but definitely not for the long haul.

I agree that objectively it's not the best, but my point was more you can't totally ignore class bases and modifiers, which is what your original post did, which was my entire point. And once again, you're ignoring class growths. Once again his speed isn't amazing, but once again, if you do class growths right (like you even point out) you can have my Sylvain which has 37 speed (with 1 speedwing), by level 34. Not saying this is the norm, but if you're smart at layering the class growths ontop of normal growths you can effectively maximize a character. For me I did Mage-->Swordmaster-->Trickster. The difference between 28 speed and 36 speed is huge. That's why you can't just ignore class boosts/growths. Sure it's not top tier, but nobody is arguing it is.

Lyon wasn't in frail health during his possession. It was before and after he lost it. If anything I'd think you'd be worse off after being possessed by an evil entity, so I'm not really sure your point. Also it's not really a far stretch to think that Thor easily fixed said health issues—they're glowing. Haha. And Loki specifically said that Thorr loves to take pity on and help the small and weak, which to me suggests fixing the things that make someone weak, including health. I don't think it needs to be spelled out in a mobile game, it's not hard to take a half-step in implied logic here. Edit: He mentions having been sick in his quotes!

Well the paralogue explained the Merric part, so it's not really shaky lore in that regard. I thought the little explanation for the sparkles/their insane powers was kinda cute.

Ooooh this was surprisingly amazing. I got a Kiria as my free pull (she's already sitting nicely as a combat manuel), 30 orbs later got Keaton (FINALLY!), Baby!Merric (all green/blue/colorless orbs), and 4*Baby!Marth(who I was sniping for)! I'm honestly like 10x more excited about finally getting Keaton. I missed him on his original banner AND his rerun, because of the stupid red pool never giving me who I want. I'm shocked I got Baby!Marth so soon. And I was going to fodder Merric but his artwork is honestly soooooo cute, so he's joining my team.

Yeahhhhh, my Sylvain on 5 different play throughs with no Spirit Dust always reached decently high levels of mag, that rivaled (or in 2 play throughs) surpassed his Str stat. Sure he wasn't Lysithea levels, but he wasn't unusable. Pair that with his speed, and he was always doubling. I wouldn't dismiss class growths that much, they can really affect how a character turns out. Clearly I got lucky (especially on 1 play through), but I find it hard to believe him using black magic is a meme build when on none of the playthroughs did he manage to have 17 magic by level 40. At Level 34 in my current play-through he has 24 magic and 23 strength. Anyways, my Sylvain is currently a Trickster on my Maddening playthrough (aiming to be a Dark Knight), but I'm actually loving him as a Trickster, it's a great intermediate class I think. I think for endgame he's definitely going to perform better as a Dark Knight, but for this middle section, Trickster is definitely doing it. I didn't do the Sword Avo+20 (opted for Fiendish/Death/Duelist Blow), which is cool for initiating combat and being pretty great about dodging everything.

It's the blue hair. And Lucina's sibling can wield it because ... they have blue hair too. It's very simple. Emmeryn and Lissa and Owain don't have the blue hair. I like to think in some capacity over the centuries the 'strong' holy blood must have correlated to the blue hair. Hehe. But on a serious note, the quote someone had from the game definitely doesn't make it seem like it has to be male-only. So it doesn't really feel like that much of a surprise or change in-lore. I also like the idea that the blood restrictions probably diminish over time naturally.

Stahl is a good choice! Haha. I would like Ranulf or Silas to be the laid back/chill best bud gay option. XD But Stahl can work too. I just always loved him with Olivia and Sully, so he's hetero in my minddddd. Anddd that was not intentional. XD Chrom is my favorite gay option of the 4. Gauis I actually don't care about, but he's aloof enough and I never really paired him with anyone so to me he could be anything. Inigo and Owain are just some of my fav characters overall, and I just like the idea. Heh.

Hmm, going with their problematic trend of making feminine and 'evil' characters gay (I'm not naming names), I could totally see them making Walhart or Henry your gay option. XD Though personally I'm sorta sick of my options being feminine characters or evil ones. Why can't your gay guy just be your everyday person? On that note for males, I'm going to go with....Chrom, Gaius from first gen and Inigo and Owain from second gen. For females, Olivia, Say'ri, Tiki and Flavia from first gen. And Kjelle and Severa from second gen. Though Chrom always had a secret affair with M!Robin, why else would he marry a villager?

Why would that contradict? "Old age" could have been 800 years. Or 300. There's numerous explanations. "Your body ages, your appearance does not." or "You age, very, very slowly, so it almost seem as if you're not aging at all". It's not really a counter-argument because I never said the crest stopped them from aging completely, which would mean it would contradict the church. I said the crest grants them long life. Not immortal life. So like I said, sure it's easy for us—the player—to pick it out, but I don't necessarily think Rhea *did* reveal that to him, because I think it would have opened up too many other questions that he clearly did not know the answers too, but should have if he knew Rhea was actually Seiros.

The only reason I don't think Jeralt knew is because of the very things you mentioned. If he got the Major Crest of Seiros from Rhea and it granted him long life, why would he not just assume that the reason she lives so long is because of the same reason? It would make a lot of sense that she could have told him, "My crest grants me unnaturally long life and as such, I am forced to don new identities every few decades to avoid those who would seek to discredit the church or steal the power for themselves." I think given his own long life it wouldn't necessarily feel like a lie and would keep him from knowing that she is actually Seiros. In regards to Sothis, I don't think he knew or why else would he question why Byleth lived or why it was unnatural. If he understood her plan (or was part of it), he would have known from the start that Byleth was merely a host for Sothis and housed her 'heart'. He stole the baby away because he was afraid, I don't think he would have done that having participated in Rhea's plan to resurrect Sothis. And as for Sitri, this is a bit muddier. If even Seteth didn't know about all that Rhea was doing, I find it hard to believe that Jeralt would know Sitri is nothing more than an artificial doll that Rhea created. But if he'd been with her for all these years I'm sure he'd question all these 'nuns' who kept appearing and were probably in frail health. But he was also sent away from the monastery for long periods of time, which could explain him not knowing. I'm sure he was told some lie about Sitri tbh, because as we all know Rhea isn't a trustworthy character in most regards, not necessarily because she's 'evil' or anything, but simply because she holds her secrets very close to her and doesn't seem to trust others. I am under the impression that if Seteth, one of her closest advisors and friends didn't know, that Jeralt also wouldn't know. For what we can assume Jeralt guessed, is another story. I'm sure his running away could have been completely spurred on by the fact he realizes that Rhea was 'obsessed' with the baby and felt her bad intentions without necessarily knowing what they were. There's also a level of 'blind faith' I think Jeralt held simply from his line that he "once thought the world of Lady Rhea". It just sounds like at one point in time he was blindly loyal to her and perhaps it was his love of Sitri (and he subsequent death, followed by Rhea acting weird around the baby) that really brought him to start seeing the pieces. So while I think he was aware of a lot more than he told Byleth for sure (and knew a lot more about the Church as well) I don't think he was quite aware of some of the more closely guarded things.

Ugh, I don't WANT Bramimond. I don't. Not at all. So useless....so....pointless..... Nah, I really, really want them! But that Colorless Pool is so bad. But the art is SO good. I'm such a sucker for mages in hoods. Like honestly I barely even remembered Bramimond from the game, but I saw hooded mage and I instantly was about to throw my orbs out the window. And now that stats (and high quality artwork) are out, yeah. I want them. But I wish Eir and other Alm were in the colorless pool. That way I could throw all my orbs and not be disappointed. But F!Grima and .... whoever the other person is. No thanks. Might do a limited colorless snipe run and just see which of the 3 pops up first. I got lucky with Líf and Thrasir sooooo I'm having a feeling that means this is the one I'd be unlucky on. But who knows!

It's *generally* harder for me to play as the opposite gender in games. An exception being Fates, simply because I was less annoyed at Female!Corrin doing dumb, naive stuff than I was at Male!Corrin doing it. Probably because when I play as a male, I do naturally self-insert a bit, so it's easier with someone of my same gender. So Byleth has always been male for me, though I do think thematically and for the game it probably works better as a female, because then I think it *partially* makes Rhea a lot less creepy and that line where she's like, "You are my...." I can at least understand in a female why Rhea would be so devoted, but in a male, it seems weird she associates you like that. Though I did want to play as Female!Byleth once just to get darting blow, but idk. I also just really am not a fan of her design. At least Female!Corrin I thought had a very attractive design.

I personally loved Cindered Shadows where I think that along with the other minor things justified the DLC overall. I would have liked to be able to choose to just get Cindered Shadows, but I didn't mind the other (useless to me) stuff we got. Cindered Shadows was just enough content and just fun enough for me to not mind the price tag (and I'm pretty damn cheap when it comes to DLC). Also the new classes are SUPER fun to play with on my new playthrough. My only complaint with them is the stupid gender locks and no flying mage class for guys. CS successfully challenged me (it was super tough and actually made me strategically think which I loved), the story was cute and fun and I liked the backstory on Byleth. The four new characters were fun and it got me to replay Dimitri's route (with the new characters) and next is going to be Edelgard's route, which I'm excited about. The lore added was lovely (hi Abysskeeper, my new favorite), and it was nice to see what exactly Seteth was pulling from the libraries. I finished the 4 main paths pretty early after it came out and then I dropped the game until CS so it was fun to pick it back up and get sucked into a good story/challenge. And it inspired me to do Maddening finally, so that's been a challenge all on its own. Making everyone Dark Fliers is so much fun. Especially after picking up Uncanny Blow for accuracy from Valkyrie. Idk why, but it feels 'canon' to me, because it can easily fit within the main story barring a few dialogue changes, which I also enjoyed because it didn't feel totally out there and unrelated.

She's still bad, depending on your viewpoint. I don't think anyone thinks Rhea is power-hungry so much as very selfish (as more time goes on), unethical and unnecessarily violent. I think the main complaint is her abuse of her power, which is different than being power-hungry. So this snippet of the interview only serves to sorta show that good-intentions don't always lead to good outcomes, which I sorta think is the driving point behind Rhea! I'm excited for the full interview to be translated, as the translator said they only translated what they found interesting and ignored a lot about Edelgard. I'm not shocked Silver Snow was the first route concepted, but I still have doubts it was the first to be fully fleshed out/executed. When I write novels, sometimes the second book is the first one concepted, but it's rarely the first one done or polished. It was probably their starting point for lore/history/etc, but I still think that route (and VW) were the result of poor polishing.

I don't think it's that different. You need to wait for everyone to vote before making a judgment call of the SF taste versus overall fanbase. Looking at it in the beginning doesn't reveal true intentions. Dimitri and Felix are winning. Dimitri being who I chose. Haha.

I'm currently playing Blue Lions again, and Dimitri is by far my favorite character. But aside from Ingrid and Dedue, I honestly think the entire Blue Lions cast is incredibly strong and dynamic as characters. Really hurts to bench so many of them this time, to include the Ashen Wolves. =\ After Dimitri, I'd probably have to go with Sylvain/Felix (they're tied, I'm sorry), followed by Ashe.

I thought Balthus and Yuri would be my favorites, but honestly Hapi stole the show. Her supports are seriously amazing, and I just find her character both relatable and intriguing. Her profile of being 'neutral' and 'apathetic' had me worried, but I found her personality actually incredibly dynamic. Constance—while my least favorite of the 4—is still pretty awesome if only for the fact she made me laugh out loud a few times. Her voice acting of the two different sides of her was very, veryyyy well done. Balthus I really like too. He's exactly who he is, and I appreciate that in a lot of ways. Yuri I also enjoy, though I think not as much as I hoped. The casually flirtatious with everyone feels off, because it's so obviously fake. I sorta wish they had either left that part off, or made him a little bit more charming and suave. Despite it, he's still my second favorite of the group, so clearly it doesn't bother me that much. My favorite part about Yuri is that they didn't make him effeminate as his appearance would suggest. He seems like a sassy, effeminate character based on the design, but then he opens his mouth and you get anything but. So that was a huge plus for me, since he's one of the few gay options I have. XD But overall these 4 characters were incredibly strong, imo. Yuri & Hapi will probably be on my main run team from now on, replacing Annette and Mercedes (sorry girls!).

I love your analysis (also just because I was literally just playing the part where he talks about Sylvain and those issues). But I didn't actually find his ending that vague based on what he said. He cared about orphans because he essentially was one. Got it. And for listening to the voices of all, it really just felt like he probably instituted something for the commoners to air their grievances with the nobles/ruling houses. That way they (those with Crests) could keep taking up the 'metaphorical blade' as he said, and the commoners with marginal access to literacy might be able to have a little bit more of a voice over their homes and lands. And by that I mean ... he just listens. Because listening and acting are two totally different things. A 'new' form of government is probably just referring to the fact he ruled over all of the continent, versus the split way it was before, but it sounds still like a monarchy. Just one where he let commoners come to court so he could listen to them, so it felt like they were being heard. And when it comes to "people" are free to be active participants, I think this was referring to the fact he said Miklan should not have been disowned. In this case, it just felt like he was saying, rather you're a noble or a commoner, you're free to become a knight, or be head of a house. They have a choice, whereas before the determination of the crest was the FINAL deciding factor. In the world he creates, your skill is more of a defining factor. He basically just improved upon a flawed system, without actually really making much difference. Which makes sense. He marginally improved everything, but kept a world in place where the strong protect the weak, which is exactly how he views the people. So to me it was less vague and more—he kept the status quo. To me, that's all Dimitri's route was—a standard FE route with a standard, good-natured hero. It kept the church and faith of the people (cause according to Dimitri, people can't live without their religion), and kept a monarchy and nobility to 'guide' and 'protect' the people. All this said, I absolutely adore Dimitri—but his good-natured ideals are really a burden. Haha. I wish they let Byleth have more of a voice, I would have coaxed him into going for Edelgard's plan. XD

I think Three Houses has my favorite cast. Never in any Fire Emblem game have I struggled to cut down my roster to 10-12. Usually there's only about 8-10 characters I truly like/want to use on the field. I'm currently doing my second Azure Moon run (Maddening), and wow it's tough only using 10 characters for most of the game. There's so many favorites I can't help but use, and so many ones that I WANT to use, but I simply just can't. Cindered Shadows was my full dream because I got to use Claude, Dimitri AND Edelgard and did I mention how much I love the 3 House Leaders (and how freaking broken Claude is?!). And to be honest, the characters I HATE (Rhea, Seteth, Catherine, etc. (I swear I don't hate the church)), I hate them because they're so well-written and have so much depth. They're not flat characters, they're very dynamic, which allows me to fully hate them. Haha. I take great pleasure in killing Rhea and Seteth whenever I can—or at least just choosing dialogue that lowers my support with them—but I still think they're awesome villains. The only characters that fall into "I really just don't care", are Raphael, Ignatz, Dedue and Leonie (sorry Golden Deer cast, you were by far the weakest for me). They just didn't feel really dynamic or multi-faceted, and to be fair, I didn't really go into that many of their supports (well Ignatz and Dedue I got pretty far, but I got really tired of the same supports). So I'm sure there's more depth maybe in their A supports that I just didn't even get to.

This is my biggest issue with Camilla. Like she had so much potential and I agree the mix hurt her. On topic of Fates v. Three Houses, I'm firmly in the camp that Fates is absolute trash—but I can see why people liked it. Because I think the whole debate is so firmly in the ground of preference. And the worst part about it, is that I absolutely adore the concept of Fates. I still think it has the best concept of a FE game. Blood versus Family. But I was SO, SO excited for Fates. I adored Awakening, and Fates looked like a great step forward for the franchise. My first bit of disappointment was the reveal of Inigo, Owain and Severa. And those are some of my favs from Awakening. But I wanted Fates to be it's own game. And already it was just using Awakening as a jumping off point. Then suddenly Gaius and Cordelia (and Tharja) were in the game? My fears intensified. This wasn't going to be a FE game. It was going to be a pandering mess of fan-service. But I still had hope. I understand marketing, so even though I disliked it, I was hoping that was the only bits they did. The game comes out, I choose Conquest, because hello! And then Corrin starts speaking. And they keep speaking. And halfway through Chapter 3 I'm already annoyed at Corrin, and the story. Get to Chapter 8 or 9 and I actually put the game down. Because I don't want to play anymore. This is the first (and only) Fire Emblem game I've ever put down. I pick it up a week later, thinking maybe I was just too hyped for it and I keep playing. I get more than halfway and I put it down again. Because each chapter is annoying me. The supports are grating and I don't like many of the characters. Corrin I actually despise (this is both half personal and half the actual writing - I don't think his personality is awful, but the way in which the story bends to him is annoying, and on a personal level, I hate, hate, hate goodie-too shoes and naive heroes, which Corrin fits to a T), and the rest of the characters just feel like poorly written tropes. My favorite part about Conquest is the gameplay — it is my favorite of a FE game. Fast forward, and I hear Birthright is good, so I get that. I actually (reluctantly) finish it. But I'm not happy with it. The story is better than Conquest for sure, but it was a literal chore to play and get through. Revelations come out and I think, "Maybe this is better?", so I get that. I get maybe to Chapter 18 and I just can't bring myself to finish. And to this day, I still haven't finished it. Because it just didn't appeal to me. The concept completely failed upon execution of the story, and the poor writing of the characters and plot really got to me. I always thought gameplay and story were the heart of video games for me. Fates made me realize that characters are the heart of video games for me. Without liking the characters, I can't play a game. Something similar happened with Tales of Zesititra (and Graces), where I struggled to finish, not because the stories weren't great or the gameplay wasn't amazing. But simply because I found the characters unappealing. So for me Three Houses wins solely on its characters. I mean, I loved the rest of it as well, but what stood out to me about TH was the characters and where Fates failed the most for me was its characters. The rest of it (maybe not the story) I can go either way about, but the characters are what broke Fates for me.