Samz707
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Posts posted by Samz707
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8 hours ago, Revier said:
I would say strategy games in general are extremely niche. Barring some standouts like the Civilization franchise and Paradox games, there's not really a big market for them. I definitely agree that it's hard to market their strategic side, even the aforementioned Civilization and Paradox games market themselves as major empire builders or absurd alternate timeline simulators respectively.
And yeah, I think most strategy RPGs tend to ultimately play like "regular" RPGs with a bloated cast and more dead space. While they do have more going for them than your average RPG with menus, the strategic aspect often tends to be underbaked. I suspect this is in large part due to these games tending to still have very weak AI that falls into the most common traps imaginable, and acts with little sophistication, often just choosing to pepper your party with as much damage as they can. Thus, what should be an engrossing battle of wits instead ends up being a search for exploits. I still like some of them, but mostly for their storytelling and flexibility of building characters more than anything.I won't name names to avoid a war but I do feel even some Fire Emblem games fall into that "More like "regular" RPGs" trap, where it feels more like stats than strategy.
Even some SRPGs I like such as Fallout Tactics or Silent Storm do suffer from not encouraging "non-standard" tactics as much. (Just look at alot of SRPGs set in the modern day like Jagged Alliance where equipment such as mines would in theory add strategy but in reality there's little-to-no use in actually using them, Fire Emblem Blazing Blade having most enemies be melee actually made them more useful than most SRPGs.)
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GBA definitely imo.
3H has strong designs but the actual graphical implementation isn't the best.
Echoes is great but it's right next to some truly awful stuff from the other 3DS games.
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6 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:
>when the internet cannot handle that men are hornier than women
Excellent post, 100/10, very cool and good. I fully endorse this condemnation of faux depth and shallow audience manipulation. Narcian once again is the most strong, smart, and beautiful.
Indeed Narcian is the best, FE6 remake having voiced Narcian would make it the objectively best Fire Emblem game and officially give Heroes no reason to exist anymore outside of breadcrumbing me more SOV.
(It always bugs me how people and the game act like Mustafa is an complete innocent when his entire goal is to essentially get the shepherds executed without a fight so his conscience is clean despite the fact he'd still be responsible for their deaths.)
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I found Mustafa's whole thing to fall incredibly flat to the point where he actually came off as less sympathetic.
He basically causes his own death with his stupidity at worst and at best is a coward who'd rather see the Shepherds captured and executed because he doesn't want to kill them himself but still too much of a coward to attempt letting them go, essentially coming off as incredibly slimy or incredibly stupid to me.
I am genuinely baffled anyone felt bad for killing him.
I honestly respect outright villains like Narcian more than him.
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On 3/18/2024 at 7:19 PM, BubbleOdyssey said:
In Fire Emblem Fates they brought back a bevy of old characters, as you all already know. They brought back Owain, Inigo, Severa, Gaius, Cordelia, and Tharja in some form. What characters would you like to see make a cameo in a possible new game? What characters would you hate for them to bring back? How would you bring those characters back in a natural way?
For me I would love to see Owain again. It would be so hilarious to me if he became this world jumping hero.
Outside of maybe references with similar but clearly not intended to be literally the same characters, not really.
I like FE being standalone and it doesn't help I did not like any of the characters that returned in Fates.
At most, I'd like a small joke where you meed an NPC who's suspiciously similar but not supposed to literally be them as an in-joke.
As people mentioned, it at least makes sense in Shadows of Valentia/Gaiden because those are explicitly the same universe and the fact they travelled to Valentia has an actual reason.
As opposed to the Awakening characters who are in Fates purely because popular and with (from what I've seen) a half-assed excuse locked away in DLC.
I only want to see any returning characters if it makes sense (Like SOV) instead of more multiverse nonsense.
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I like the 3H system with how understandable it is (as well as no limits) but I have a soft spot for SOV, mainly because Alm and Faye actually has a negative support effect as Faye loses dodge when close to Alm.
It helps sell how obsessed she is.
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21 minutes ago, ARMADS!!! said:
Don't people consider the gameplay of Fates to be pretty good though?(I never played it myself but I've seen a lot of people saying that Conquest's maps are top tier and among the best in the series). I think Fates is a strongest contender for the FE that gets more hate, not for the most unremarkable one.
I personally despise the gameplay and maps, I've only played Conquest.
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It's happened for a few:
Devil May Cry: Only played the HD Collection, DMC1 was my favourite as I felt it was well designed and extremely fair outside of two bosses, I played it first and really liked it, DMC2 was flawed but at least not too frustrating, DMC3 I felt was awful, it had alot of the same issues as Devil May Cry 2 plus new ones like a unfair difficulty and somehow even worse designed enemies. (I hate 3 so much that I'm genuinely considering dropping the series if this is the "best" one for the post DMC-1 games and I don't want to replay it for Vergil mode despite the fact I did both characters in DMC2.)
ARMA/Operation Flashpoint: The original ARMA/Operation Flashpoint (There was a name-change post-release) has one of the strongest campaigns in the series and is ironically one of the more stable games in the series, later campaigns suffer from feature creep, buggy mission scripts and some awful at times design.
Sniper Elite: The first game has a unique atmosphere and game-play design that the sequels pretty much abandoned, they also adopted an over-the-shoulder camera which I really, really hate.
Resident Evil: I can't remember which I exactly played first but I know the Wii ports of Zer0 or Resident Evil 1 remake (not sure which I got first) and Darkside Chronicles were my first Resident Evil games and I love both Resi-remake and Zer0.
And of course not at all for a few:
Tomb Raider: I started with Tomb Raider 3 but it's honestly one of my least favorite now, I prefer most games in the series over it, it's simply badly put together with some unfair traps. (It got different developers internally compared to the previous two and it shows.)
Fire Emblem: I started with Awakening, I hated it then and I only hate it more now with my second game, Blazing Blade being what actually got me into the series.
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Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance
Been playing this, it's a pretty good RTS so far, it's on the same engine as the "Warfare" series of old RTS games so it's a fully featured realistic tactical RTS. (infact they've actually made things more complex it seems.)
You can capture vehicles to bring them into later levels for instance and vehicles have realistic armor.
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I guess this is unpopular as I seem to be the only person whoever brings it up:
Faye really should have had a boss convo with Slayde.
Him nearly killing her as a kid and Alm punching him seems like something that'd turn her crush into full on obsession but the fact Slayde was going to kill her specifically never comes up again.
It would have been great if she had a special boss convo with him and it's one of my biggest dissapointments with Echoes that she doesn't.
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14 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:
That's possible though its also possible that Duma moved himself and his followers into a domain that was already cold and swamp infested to toughen them up.
In either case the area seems much more livable during Awakenig's timeline.
Now I'm just imagining the Swamps as the word's worst boy scouts field trip.
You will learn how to swim in filthy swamp water and you will like it.
Alternatively it's intended as some sort of defensive area, like building a castle or fort but more poisonous.
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On 2/1/2024 at 6:41 AM, Acacia Sgt said:
I think the implication is that it's surplus for when Mila was still blessing the land, and that the decline wasn't a sharp drop but going at an incline.
On that subject, if Mila keeps the land healthy and fertile, I doubt the Zofians needed to do crop rotation. Rigel perhaps, but not Zofia.
Yeah I assumed they still had food in reserve but had either little or no actual overall increase in their surplus.
AKA: They would run out or have to ration food if it kept up.
Since otherwise they'd be kinda screwed at the end of the game if they were about to all die from famine. (Even with Alm saying how he'll toil the fields myself, which brings to mind the glorious mental image of Alm forcing all the nobles who were sitting on their asses and eating alot to actually help farm.)
And of course, trading with Archanea may have helped. (Why didn't we see that you had one job IS.)
You can honestly see this lack of thought in IRL situations, where people will see people having food or a food cart and then proclaim that "X country having food issues isn't real" on social media.
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On 1/26/2024 at 3:16 PM, Etrurian emperor said:
Another aspect to consider is that customizing your avatar is mostly meaningless anyway. Even if you get the option IS is pretty open about this not being the intended experience. Whoever you make or name won't be Robin. When there's a crossover it will always just be default Robin with his default voice and his default appearance. No crossover ever had him keep the hood on and name him ''the tactician''. And in cases where avatars don't have a personality so you can imprint on them they will get a personality when appearing in later titles.
And I get that. Giving Byleth a personalty in Hopes was the better option, just putting default Robin in Smash and Heroes was the better option. But it still highlights the futility of customizing an avatar when IS is so clearly going to stick with the default options and give them a personality in the next title anyway.
I'm of the opposite opinion, I believe Heroes should have used versions of these characters with a few of their alternative design/personality choices in Heroes, it's a god damn multiverse where the Heroes aren't even from the same timeline as each other, I see this less as "customization is bad" and more "Heroes being lazy".
If anything I'm dissapointed we never got a more "cold" Byleth in Heroes. (The kind that would pick B in that Linhardt support choice that he finds revolting.)
If it's a multi-verse where even the exact same character is from a different universe in an alt, they should have honestly played with that.
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1 hour ago, Etrurian emperor said:
Personally I think its more that they're stuck into the wrong role. The Corrins are sweet, helpful and dorky. As a person they're as nice as can be. The problem is that their personality is incomparable with leading an army and that due to being an avatar they're never allowed to grow into a real leader or have the plot directly cast attention to how unsuited and dense they are.
When freed of the burden of being a main character such as in Heroes or Warriors I find them plenty likable. The same happens to Xander who's improved by leaps and bounds when no longer shackled to the role he had in Fates.
And they do incredibly dumb things.
Like Corrin
Spoilerliterally letting Takumi shoot them in the face, even if it wasn't possessed Takumi, you think the guy who absolutely hates Nohr is just gonna stop at killing you and not keep trying to kill Nohr soldiers trying to invade his country?
There is no way you can write stuff like that and not have me eventually just think that this character deserves to die for their stupidity.
SpoilerWhich Corrin does but then gets revived because....plot armor I guess.
Corrin also says alot of dumb things which makes it hard for me to root for them, the 4 hours I managed to play of Valkyria Chronicles had this issue where Welkin was an unlikable dumbass for me which is part of why I dropped it. (He unironically tries to say something among the lines of "we should all get along like animals in nature" to be anti-war, which is objectively wrong, he is also supposed to be someone who's knowledgable on nature.)
If I don't like the main character, it gets alot harder to enjoy something. (And both games not having good gameplay didn't help.)
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5 hours ago, Keikyushi said:
In Hoyoverse games, the player's name is displayed on the text, but voice lines usually replace it with titles, or just cut it off completely (in a way that still makes the sentence doesn't sound awkward). I think that's one way to acknowlege player's custom name without sacrificing full voice-acting, though the discrepancy between what I see and what I hear is jarring sometimes.
This I don't get. Shez does have dialogue choices showing different personalities, and gameplay choices just like Byleth. I don't think they are any downgrade in term of Avatar-ness compared to Byleth
At least so far, I can't recall as many of them feeling as drastic as the Linhardt one, Shez just feels more like a predefined character to me.
It's still better than the 3DS Avatars but I feel that more's condemning just how shallow and terrible they are than any real praise for Shez.
4 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:Rather than customize the looks of the avatar I actually think it be far more rewarding if we could customize their personality. Have us decide whether they're a gentle Marth or a blunt Hector, or have your character gradually turn into one based on the choices you select throughout the game. To some extend this has already been done. When Hector takes over scenes from Eliwood in Hector mode then what he says is usually the same. The difference is how he says it.
Personally I think Corrin's the character of who'm its by far the hardest to say is you. Out of all the avatars he has by far the most aggressively established personality. Corrin always being the extremely naive, gentle and sensitive bleeding hearts leaves very little chances for a player to imprint themselves on Corrin. What doesn't help either is that Corrin's actions are the ones players are most likely to not want him to take.
3H would have been peak if we let Byleth be more "Ashen Demon" like in that Linhardt support.
Yeah Corrin is just flatout a fixed character and not even remotely a likable one like Shez is.
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21 hours ago, GlitchWarrior said:
My take? Alear is not an Avatar. They are a player character, but not an Avatar. Alear has a fully defined character and a minor arc as well. I could say the same thing for Shez. Byleth is... a different issue. Byleth is a character, but the game very much refuses to acknowledge that, both because they barely speak or emote, and even the captions call Byleth "Professor" or some other title. Like... at least Engage had the dignity to name Alear in subtitles sometimes. As such, despite being in the same mold as the above two, I don't connect with Byleth as much.
Customization is what makes an "avatar" for me. Can you really say Byleth is you? Can you say Alear is you? By comparison, you can alter the appearances, stats, and (in the 3ds games at least) even voice of Kris (again, voice doesn't apply here), Robin and Corrin, so they feel like your character. And in Robin's case, despite having a defined character, doesn't have a character that is overly pandered to as the "real hero" like Kris until the end, nor do you feel insulted by their character because the writers played it too safe like with Corrin.
But you don't need customization to slot into a Fire Emblem character. You can do that through a player character that isn't an avatar. Case in point? When I played the first act of Shadows of Valentia, I felt like I was Alm. I've said this in the past, but in Alm's side of SoV you really don't feel like you're controlling Alm. Maybe I'm just a sucker for the awkward everyman. It felt a lot better than when Celica was in command.
At their core, Fire Emblem games are strategy RPGs, and roleplaying involves feeling like you are that character. It's much easier to feel like I am Robin, or Alm, or Alear, and I actively feel like I do them. When I'm controlling Corrin, Celica or Byleth, I don't think, "hey, that's me," I think "hey, that's my lord" and I start to treat them differently.
…I might be far off topic. My take is, I really don't care whether avatars are customizable. It'd be nice, but not necessary - Alm proves that by not being customizable at all (granted, he's the main lord of a remake, so that was never going to be an option). Just make them a character I can get in the mind of... one I can truly *feel* like.
Eh, I'm of the opposite opinion.
Robin and Corrin are the exact same for every single player, they say basically the same things every time, every place, they are the exact same person (Which really isn't a good thing especially for them) just with a different cosmetic coat of paint.
Byleth meanwhile has actual dialogue choices and even has one mid-game dialogue choice that actually matters outside of support point gain (the CF route split) so IMO I feel like Byleth is more of an actual Avatar for the player, stuff like the Linhardt support for instance are more interesting than just changing their hair style:
- Linhardt: It's just... I was wondering why it seems as if no one values their own lives. Why do we fight until we die? Why do we kill without hesitation? I hate it. I don't like taking lives or even the sight of blood. In the last battle, some of the soldiers under my command died for foolish reasons. Those soldiers could have pulled back... Instead, they kept fighting...and were overrun. Am I supposed to be satisfied with the victory alone? Even at the cost of such life?
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Byleth:
- Choice 1: No, I couldn't be satisfied with that.
- Choice 2: Yes, I could be satisfied with that.
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Linhardt:
- Choice 1 response: Exactly. I don't see the point. Honor? That's a foolish reason to give your life. Glory? Even worse.
- Choice 2 response: Really? I— Trading someone's life for a bit of honor and glory... You'll pardon me if I say I find that repulsive.
While sadly the game doesn't consistently do this, this makes Byleth far more of an avatar since we are allowed to (Not very much and not for much impact admittingly) actually decide how they feel about certain things. (Now if only the game had an alternative dialogue path that let you be more "Ashen Demon" than friendly teacher consistently.)
So I'm honestly of the opinion that Byleth is the first real avatar we've gotten since Mark, even if the game sadly doesn't lean into this as much as it should, you and someone else's Byleth could have said or acted in somewhat different ways consistently due to the many little dialogue choices. (which is imo a step in the right direction.)
It's why I consider Shez a downgrade, Shez is more of just a fixed character that you can swap the gender of, they're an actually likable "Non-Avatar Avatar" this time around but still not really an Avatar.
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16 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:
So I'm in a curious predicament here. Playing through the entire series for the posterity of this forum made me realize something about my opinions on the games: When it comes to Fire Emblem, I have absolutely no overlap between games I love for their story and games I love for their gameplay. No game in the series ever exceeds "okay" in both categories for me. The only exceptions are Birthright and Conquest, and only if you include "so bad it's good" as "loving a game for its story".
And if I have to choose (which I do, see above), I'll pick gameplay over story every time. Of the three games in the series that have my favorite stories, 7 is the only one I have any desire to play again any time soon, because the gameplay, while deeply flawed in many ways, has a lot of appeal to me, especially when I'm in a more casual but not quite mood. 4 is just too much of a slog and 9 just gets too simple and is too long. It'll be ages before the story will be enough of a draw to bring me back to either on their own.
Meanwhile games like Engage and Fates bring me back despite their terrible stories, because when I'm not in the mood for them, I don't have to deal with them.
Is it weird that I can have that attitude about a franchise I claim to be my favorite of all time? Yes. Can I justify it in any intellectual or emotional way? No, not at this moment. It's been eating away at me ever since I finished marathoning the series. But Fire Emblem is the sort of series I love in spite of its flaws, and in one case because of them.
Nah, it's understandable.
I'm a Tomb Raider fan and that series has never had a "Perfect" game, there's always a big issue with my favourite games in that series.
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For the FE games I like, I like the mix of a permadeath srpg but with actually developed characters.
Most permadeath strategy games have generics. (X-Com/UFO Afterblank series for instance.) or named characters with personalties but also are pretty static. (Silent Storm and Jagged Alliance.)
I like the gameplay as simple to understand (Mostly, I feel Fates/Heroes stray away from that, hence why I'm not too big fans of those among other reasons.) but still strategic game as JRPG combat is honestly too dull for me to enjoy and sometimes I want something a bit more fair than X-com.
And of course, I think (in the games I've played...aside from Awakening, Heroes and Fates.) the stories aren't bad, FE3H managed to make me feel a bit bad for having to kill your former friends at the start, something that other games attempt (Not exactly but some way of "Feel bad for these people you killed") but often imo fall completely flat.
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On 1/12/2024 at 6:32 PM, SnowFire said:
I think that's just the game not wanting to disrupt Kayfabe and provide "spoilers", sort of, by having Rhea really unleash during White Clouds (same with Catherine & Ashe's Paralogue). Since Rhea is supposed to just be an important official early in the plot (...for all that... some other elements suggest Rhea might have been some eternal Archbishop which would have implied that it'd be common knowledge she wasn't), having her be just a person under threat makes sense.
I can think of no less than two other RPGs off the top of my head where you do "escort" missions where the helpless archaeologist / explorer you keep bumping into is actually the final boss slumming around with mere mortals. But so as to avoid spoilers, if they "die", it's still a Game Over, even if they're really a dark god or the like.
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On the general point: Recurring bosses are fine, especially from a gameplay perspective. Some form of interaction with the villains throughout is also helpful for building a rivalry and why do you care - it can be difficult for a villain you've never met before fighting & killing them to have the proper impact, and one way is just to have that villain show up sooner and either taunt the heroes then teleport off, or just fight them then somehow escape. There's a reason that allowing this tool is kind of a default in video game fiction.
...THAT SAID, just because something is a healthy default for understandable reasons doesn't mean it should be done ALL the time. And I'm talking about across fiction here, not within a work or even within a series. Something that made the older FEs stand out was a "mood" of "this is really happening, there are no guarantees, these are not play fights." Lyn can DIE to a random-ass bandit and there is no cheap revival item from a store. When you fight someone, think as if you're doing it in a real RPG - that means you're really fighting them! If you kill Vaida now, she's obviously not going to appear later, because she's dead! Older FEs are pretty good about being disciplined about how many fights turn into "eh, that was just a wound", and often only do it for the likes of Cecilia vs. Zephiel (basically a cutscene that uses the in-game battle engine, so sure). You don't HAVE to do this, but if you set this mood and are consistent with it, it provides a different, realer feel than you'll find in your average Ultimate Anime Battles game where everyone apparently fights with nerf bats and battles never really stop anyone permanently.
The reason I'm less fussed with repeat fights in more modern FEs is that they've stepped much closer to the "Ultimate Anime Battles" style than the low fantasy "You are there, no takebacks, no going easy, this is real" style. And if you're already having people facetank giant energy beams that only cause their clothes to get dirty, then whatever, might as well take advantage of all the storytelling advantages of repeated encounters with the same people.
For what it's worth, I think it also depends on "how" they survive:
Erik in FE7 has Hector yelling at him to get up, so it's clear the implication is that Erik is seriously wounded so while yes, he's alive, the fact we beat the crap out of him is fully acknowledged.
Characters fleeing (even if we assume they have rewarp mages on standby) does get a bit silly. (3H moment.)
Worst is what Hopes does with Byleth, you fight Byleth, possibly beat them up alot since Musou gameplay doesn't exactly lend itself to difficult bosses...then watch as they completely instantly turn things around and are now winning in a cutscene which is the worst thing they could have done. (or in the cases where you can fight Byleth off, the game's dialogue is clearly written for the "You ran away" outcome and the game doesn't have two different end map dialogue to account for it so it's still annoying.) -
On 1/8/2024 at 11:24 AM, Imuabicus der Fertige said:
Simple question, Reinforcements for the player that are visible on the deployment screen, their position and inventory being changeable among said reinforcements, that are however not present on the map from turn one, but enter on say turn 3 or 5? Like a squad of scouts you had to choose/send out in a prior maps, returning, that had to go around the enemy forces.
Has this or something of this variety been attempted in FE or other SRPGs, cuz i dont remember it?
E: i guess chapter 13 from TH for non-CF, but i mean a more planned entry to map.
This reminds me of a few things that aren't quite the same but similar:
Rainbow Six 1 has several maps that are taking place around the same time on different parts of the world, the game warns you about this in the briefing menu, so anyone sent out will be absent for the next mission.
Another strategy game I played, Syrian Warfare, usually had you bring only some of your army at the start of every map but certain main objective thresholds/sidequests would let you deploy "reinforcements". (basically the option to deploy more of your army mid-map several times so you can bring in soldiers/vehicles you didn't take with you at the start.)
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On 1/7/2024 at 9:29 PM, Etrurian emperor said:
I think the Tellius games make a pretty smart move in regards to making the Black Knight intimidating. They incorporate it into the stages. Two times in POR the Black Knight will appear and you'll be completely helpless against him. Don't pursue the Black Knight and all that. Then Radiant Dawn switches it around and its the enemies turn to be completely helpless when you control the Black Knight.
The difference between Ike and BK is probably smaller than between Eliwood and Nergal. But Nergal dominates the cast purely in cutscenes. You don't actually experience it yourself.
Its a shame the Fire Emblem games kinda lost the ability to make its villains intimidating. These days most of them come off as losers who are probably a lot weaker than the playable characters. The prime example being Team Garon. Iago clearly doesn't come off as very competent or powerful in the grand scheme of things, and Hans is introduced with the notice that Xander has already kicked his ass before. Aside from the little sisters I doubt any of the royals are weaker than Hans and Iago. Thales also never comes across as all that intimidating. Its clear that Edelgard could crush him like a fly, and Dimitri even does so purely by accident.
The likes of Nergal, Zephiel, the Black Knight or even the likes of Valter and Petrine come off as dangerous and imposing while the likes of validar or Iago come across as mere nuisances at best. Often I think this is reflected in their designs too. Nergal comes across as a dangerous arch mage and Valter like a mad dog, but Validar kinda looks like a mini boss.
Admittingly I've not played Tellius but I found Death Knight pretty terrifying in Fodlan since my units were always underprepared to fight him for the early stages.
Then Hopes has Byleth who is supposed to be even tougher and scarier who I just effortless juggled in a corner constantly. (Then the game has the gall to say Byleth won afterwards.)
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22 hours ago, Jotari said:
We only get textual confirmation of Witches, but, if I'm right, I think some of the cantor's dialogue in the Japanese version is rendered in katakana which is Japanese short hand for possessed speak, suggesting they don't have souls either.
I actually love how they bring up Medusa as this evil...something and then refuse to elaborate at all. I could probably claim I like it because it makes the world feel bigger or something, but, nah, I think I like it out of the sheer blatant laziness of it. I mean, it was clearly done so Nuibaba could get the the gender change to a witch while still retaining agency (even though that wasn't explicitly a thing in Gaiden).
Edit: Oh wait, Nuibaba still refers to a pact with Medusa even on NES. So it's not blatant lazy writing for gender swap, it's blatant "throw shit at the wall we live in the 90s and no one expects games to have robust lore" writing that never went anywhere until over two decades later they could use it as a convenient excuse to pull a gender swap (and still refuse to elaborate on the actual existence of Medusa).
GIves random woman evil powers, refuses to elaborate and never even show up on screen.
Honestly bugs me that the SOV post-game is dedicated to Grima instead of Medusa now.
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32 minutes ago, Jotari said:
Duma literally eats the souls of his followers. And Jedah willingly gave the dude his daughters for that express purpose. I think we can be fairly sure that is Alm and Celica didn't intervene then Duma would have eventually turned on Jedah (but...Jedah being the fanatic he is probably would have found that to be an excellent idea).
Hey, he only eats the souls of women. (I seriously wonder if Duma turning women into witches was something he did pre-degeneration or not.)
I guess Nuibaba exists but also she instead sold her soul to Mesdua instead of Duma. (Was that a thing in Gaiden?, it does bug me how Echoes basically implies there's another big evil thing with Medusa that's never addressed again.)
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While I'm not too sure to put Smartest, I do want to say that I think Hector is a little smarter than people think and agree with that line of thought:
Hector literally guts that fake soldier in his first Eliwood chapter who tries pulling the "This is none of your business" charade (Not sure what the trope is called but I think I've seen it done before?) while I feel other dumber lords would have actually presumed this was a real soldier and at least tried to argue, Hector seems to catch on right away that he's probably not a real soldier, so he just takes him out and goes to save Eliwood. (This moment may have endeared Hector to me instantly so I might be biased.)
I do agree that Corrin is the dumbest by a mile with only Chrom/Robin really putting in any sort of competition. (I only played CQ but CQ finale literally hasSpoilerCorrin temporarily die because they're a dumbass who lets Takumi kill them, they intentionally get themselves killed for no logical reasons which is an unbeatable standard for stupidity. (Takumi's whole thing is hating Nohr yet somehow Corrin assumes that them dying will make Takumi's bloodlust completely stop.)
Minor character unappreciation thread
in General Fire Emblem
Posted
NGL I still wish they had it be a feature.
Being able to summon a neutral monster that attacks everyone on command would have been fun.