Sid Starkiller

Agreed completely. And despite CF being my personal favorite, I agree with your ranking in an objective sense (again, I like CF better, but it definitely got shafted in development time and budget).

That's fair, it just felt like he was trying to convince me that it was a good idea, and I was trying to inform him that he's wasting his time. The people who do want it are free to discuss amongst themselves their ideas, I just won't agree with any of them.

You're missing the point: I DON'T WANT A GOLDEN ROUTE. The very idea spits on the game's themes. If IS added a golden route, I would be legitimately angry with them, and legitimately think less of the game for having it. The Crest of Flames is the Fire Emblem.

I knew it was gonna happen, but I'm still bummed Caspar got dropped. Dorothea's still the best, anyway.

Except none of them are the type of person who would just talk about their problems. Dimitri's been bottling up his rage over Duscur for 8 years and is a walking powder keg, Claude has severe trust issues due to all the racial abuse he's had to deal with his whole life, and Edelgard is a paranoid trauma victim who's about to launch a coup, meaning secrecy is key to successfully launch her offensive. Where exactly do you see them sitting down for a nice pleasant chat? And it's not like therapists exist in Fodlan, or else Seteth would've hired Rhea a grief counselor after Nemesis was killed and this whole thing wouldn't have happened at all.

Personally considering them honorary members of the houses in question. I would assume that at the end of this thing, there will be no more need for them to stay in Abyss, and thus the Ashen Wolves might disband.

Dimitri and Claude are technically allied with Rhea. Their goal, in addition to their personal goals, is to rescue Rhea from the Empire. There doesn't need to be a separate route for it. EDIT: Scratch that, they are formally allied with the Church. In Rhea's absence, Seteth is in charge, and he gives them the church's full support, or what's left of it, in their respective routes.

That would require a rewrite of the entire story to remove Claude. Not happening. EDIT: To clarify (since this haircut is taking forever), removing VW means Golden Deer would serve no purpose. Which would mean Leicester serves no purpose. There would have to be MASSIVE rewrites to remove not just the faction, but all references to a three-way rivalry, like the Gronder battle. That affects every route. Removing SS would not affect Part 1, CF, or AM at all. Maybe VW would've turned out different, but that's it.

Maps and general plot structure, sure. But how about dialogue and animated cutscenes? Instead having to animate a reunion clash between Byleth and Edelgard for SS, they could make a happy reunion animation for CF. Instead of the cutscene at the end of SS, they could have the Immaculate One rampaging through Garreg Mach and attacking Byleth for CF's Chapter 12. Instead of having to have VW and SS share assets, VW could have had cutscenes tailor-made for it.

In a vacuum, sure, but its mere existence undermines the supposed premise of the game: to make you choose sides in a morally ambiguous conflict between your birth family and your adoptive family. The second Rev dropped the choice became "birth family", "adoptive family", or "LOL f*** it take everyone and also they're not your birth family so you can bang em!" Disagree. As I argued in my Silver Snow topic last month, the routes feel incomplete because there was one too many demanding the developer's attention. If they removed Silver Snow and used that development time to improve the other 3, I think the game would've been even stronger.

Hoping not. I got new classes for the BE to master and I'd like to get them done ASAP.

Because she is? She PERSONALLY gives you the power to do it. It's not her blood, it's her soul acting through you.

That was Rhea that wanted that. Edelgard was PISSED because she was sure it meant Byleth would side with the church. She basically gave up on the idea of working with them. That's why she assumes you're going to oppose her after the Holy Tomb, and why in CF she's so legitimately shocked that you take her side.

The absolute best way is to not. There shouldn't be some golden ending where everything is all sunshine and rainbows and everyone has a big harem wedding after the credits. The whole point is to decide what side of the conflict you want to support. Why are people so afraid of making hard decisions? Not to mention that the plot of both Birthright and Conquest was made worse by the existence of Revelation, and I think IS realized that. They wouldn't be so stupid as to do it again.

I would assume whoever nominated it was thinking more about -5 than -3. Pretty much agree with everyone else here. Not much else to say.

How many are in your group? Are you all playing one game, or split into multiple tables? My preferred group size is 4-5 PCs, never more than 6. I'm also willing to bet that distractions are a big part of what's making combat take so long, but beyond that, my DM has instituted a group initiative of sorts. All the people who roll higher than the monster's initiative go at once, same for all those who roll lower. Then everyone's paying attention and participating at the same time, rather than "Your turn: What are you doing? Your turn: What are you doing? Your turn: What are you doing?" etc. If there's uncertainty about specific rules, make a judgment call and look it up later. Having to take the books out during the game drags things out as well. If phones are a problem, institute a phone box.

Well, the only comment I could really think of "This tells me almost nothing!" and I didn't think it was worth posting. The other 3 I felt like I had a basic idea of who they were, but this...she has an attitude? She has some deep dark secret? That's all I got from it, and that describes half the damn cast.

I believe Lindhart tells Lysithea in their C support that there's no record of anyone having been born with 2 crests, which is why he's so interested in how she got hers, etc. I don't think they go into any more detail than that, other than "it's an inherited trait".

Raptor with a lightsaber for main weapon. And primarily red in robot mode.

Yeah, and in 3 out of 4 paths the church is still there. It's like he's WANTS to be arrested or killed. But I do love how he's just like "Tell your friends!" when you leave. Screw gatekeeper, Dark Merchant is the real MVP!

You know what might be neat? If they moved the Dark Merchant (who I'm positive was called the Black Market in the JP version) to Abyss. I mean why would the black market be found in the normal shopping area?

Now I'll actually be inclined to use the damn thing outside of Chapter 12 and whatever final chapter.

The whole chain is saved. I got Byleth and Caspar to have all class masteries and all S+ skills (actually Caspar's Reason is only A+, but I'll finish him off when I come back to the game after the final DLC drops).

I was expecting you to say "other than money" since it's so obvious. Money. All I really want in life is to be out of debt.

I still have a sliver of hope that those are placeholders and there will be new skills when it actually drops. I was thinking about the lessons and how they presumably work. Weapon classes would be mostly drills, with some theory on technique. Riding and flying are presumably spending time with/on the mounts to get a feel for caring for and handling them. Heavy armor could be strength training to bulk up your muscles in order to handle all that extra weight. ...and then there's Authority training. How exactly would that work in-universe? "Class, today I'm gonna teach you how to boss people around."