[How do you think magic use should be approached in gameplay?]

10 hours ago, lenticular said:

 

The other problem I have is that per-game limits restrict the possibilities for map design. Every map in Fire Emblem has to be designed under the assumption that the player won't have access to meteor, warp, fortify, etc. because many players won't. If they created a system where the player was guaranteed to have exactly one use of warp in a given map then that opens up all sorts of interesting new possibilities that they could design around. This is more wishful thinking on my part than anything else, since I don't think this is something that IS have ever really done, but it is a road I'd like to see them take in the future.

Then you have the problem of what if you didn't recruit a mage with the spell/your mage with that particular spell died and now you no longer have access to it.

Or even just not levelling them up enough to get that spell.

I wouldn't mind maps built to use certain spells but then you'd need to either A:make it optional, B:Give you a unit already capable of it or C:Give you a one-off leaves after generic unit who can use the spell if no one in your team can or D : Make sure it's still easily bearable without the spell.

[My problems with modern media criticism]

Since I kinda ended up ranting.

I can see the reason writing decisions are made but that doesn't make them good.

For instance Robin/Corrin/Byleth get avatar-worshipped as a form of power fantasy.

To  me that actively runs the writing quality and is obnoxious on it's own.

Same with Emmeryn, game wants a tragic figure to feel sorry for, I see a deplorable coward with blood on her hands.

The actual intention to me is terrible 

For instance: Chrom isnt' responsible for the war at all, so thats why the game's message falls flat because he's innocent since well, the timeline of events roughly is follows:

Gangrel clearly has intentions to invade Emmeryn's Kingdom

Emmeryn makes no real attempts to protect anyone from Gangrel.

Due to this Gangrel invades, kidnaps Maribelle and leaves, this is Emmeryn's fault for not actually preparing to defend her own kingdom in anyway.

Gangrel threatens Maribelle's life for the Fire Emblem by threatening to execute her as a spy (and could probably use that as an excuse to start a war.), Emmeryn somehow thinks talking down the genocidal ruler will work, anyone with half a brain could tell this wasn't work, Chrom isn't being brash, he's being actually reasonable in how it very clearly won't work. (And surprise! it doesn't.)

RICKEN sneaks behind Gangrel's forces and frees Maribelle, throwing...well not the first stone since Gangrel threw those in the attack to capture Maribelle.

Chrom literally did nothing to instigate the war and the narrative trying to frame him as such is pretentious BS just for the sake of a bad moral, Chrom did not do anything that actually instigated further conflict unless you actually seriously count him defending himself when rescuing Ricken and Maribelle, who by the way was going to be executed and used as an excuse for a war anyway in the first place.

How did Chrom instigate the war? he didn't therefore the game's moral makes no sense.

 

[How do you think magic use should be approached in gameplay?]

1 hour ago, lenticular said:

I much prefer the short-term resource management of per-battle limits over the long-term resource management of per-game limits. If you give me a meteor tome or a warp staff and tell me that I get 5 uses for the whole game then I will probably end up never using them. Or rather, I'll get to the last chapter or two, realise I've never used them, and then spam them for very marginal gain.

For me, there are two main problems with per-game limits. The first is that -- asuming a first-time play through without spoilers -- a player has no way of knowing when the rare magics are best put to use so is almost always going to use them at the wrong time. Depending on the person, that may mean they'll use them too soon and then find a better opportunity later or it may mean that they'll keep on saving them for a better use in the future which will end up never coming. And sure, some people will end up using them at the perfect optimal times, but that's more by luck then judgement. Resource management only really works when you have a reasonable idea of what sort of challenges you're going to face in the future. This is why I like limited uses per map; I can actually see the full map at once and so I can actually make informed decisions about the best spot to use my resources.

 

I think a better way would to simply have them be buyable (And not just out of Secret shops)/ more than one freebie.

I do admit the series is sometimes a bit too strict but I still want to have to actually manage my spell tomes.

So say you can get 2-3 bolting tomes for free and you can occasionally buy them but they're expensive.

I actually like how Three Houses lets you buy better stuff but you can only get 2-3 of them instead of infinite boots like that one secret shop in 6.

[How do you think magic use should be approached in gameplay?]

Like weapons, I'm a big fan of resource management, I wouldn't throw a fit if they used the HP system/Three Houses but I honestly prefer it being as weapons.

For instance, lets say I get Bolting in Three Houses and my unit can use it 1-2 twice a battle, why wouldn't I effectively snipe enemies for massive damage twice in every single battle after I get it? (I presume there's some bolting equivalent.) but in FE7, you get a single bolting tome with roughly 5 uses if I remember, so you actually have to think carefully about who to give it to and when to use it, which to me is a pretty large bit of strategy. ( I pretty much love in-depth inventories in strategy games.)

I wouldn't mind I guess if they used an "In-between" system, so tomes exist as the main method but say, a max level magic user can use some of the weakest spells for free but I'd still want having to buy/find tomes to be a main mechanic, so you can get your basic fire spell for free but any big powerful spells are still limited.

At least in FE6 ,it feels like I can buy more swords/bows many more times than I can buy magic so I found myself having to have physical units do most of the fighting as I'd run out of magic eventually otherwise. (AKA There's more armories that only sell bows/swords than shops that sell magic.)

I think a better compromise would to maybe have magic users be less-effective in 1-tile range, since I (at least to me) get the idea that mages should be really powerful ranged units but if a swordsman gets up to them, they're in trouble, (Which Echoes kinda does with Dread Fighters since they're fast sword dudes that take reduced magic damage.) they're kinda high damage glass-cannons generally I feel, since they can mess up low resistance units but they themselves tend to have low defense.

 

[Three Houses missed a golden opportunity with the Graveyard.]

It occurred to me today while playing GTA IV Lost and Damned DLC that the devs missed a pretty good idea for the Graveyard area:
In the Lost and the Damned, there is a perma-death system involving generic gang members, there are 24 "Generic" gang members with unique names, if they survive the Gang Warfare side-missions, they get more intelligent AI/better weapons while if they die, they get replaced.

However the Lost MC Clubhouse (Which functions as your safe-house) has a Memorial Wall, while 4 entries on it get added over the duration of the story, the 24 generics will actually get their picture and a name plaque added to the wall. (If more than 24 Gang members die, the game does start recycling them.)

In addition, for various story-line deaths in various games in the series, extra graves do actually get added to the in-game graveyard areas (Such as in Liberty City Stories) for the named characters.

Since Three Houses has a graveyard area, I feel they should have made it slightly bigger but make it so graves for any of your units who die get added to it. (and in the case of members of royalty and such likely to have the body sent home, a small shrine of sorts dedicated to their memory placed there.) 

So if say, Seteth died, you'd find his grave there if you walked down there after the battle.

 

[My problems with modern media criticism]

1 hour ago, Ottservia said:

Again that’s not the point and you’re excluding context. Ylisse doesn’t have an army because Emmeryn took it apart after the previous war ended. She doesn’t wanna have to force her people to fight if they don’t want to which they don’t want to seeing as how well the last war went. She doesn’t perpetuate the cycle of hatred because she doesn’t take action. If she did fight back then she would be perpetuating it. Violence only begets more violence and that’s not what she wants. Fighting back would only mean she contradicted herself. It’s like the old martial art addege. We learn to fight in order to not fight. Chrom says they should fight back and he’s considered somewhat wrong by the story. Another thing you need to take into account is that this is a Japanese story and inevitably is going to implement buddhist and shinto ideals into it. And as far as I can tell, that’s how awakening tackles of the cycle of hatred because it’s very similar to Naruto which takes heavy inspiration from shintoism and buddhism. The idea of hate as a cycle and trying to break that cycle by forgiving instead of fighting back is what awakening is going for. Emmeryn doesn’t fight back for that very reason. 

I argue, that her inaction is exactly what allowed the Cycle of Hatred to continue, she allowed the hateful Gangrel to attack her country and rampage through it and call me crazy but don't people tend to get hateful when their country is invaded and their father got his head on a pike and his mother horribly murdered too?, It'd sure be good if maybe they had a big enough force to just not let civilians get butchered, maybe people would be less upset if that happened, maybe less people would be dead and therefore everything would be more peaceful.

She took the army apart, therefore in my eyes she's responsible for allowing the enemy army to invade and kill civilians, simple as, her logic makes no sense but Awakening doesn't care and obnoxiously shills for her trying to dictate what the player should feel with Robin and it's obnoxious, the game practically feels like it's preaching to you (just like when character shill for Robin) and it's both obnoxious and the moral is dumb regardless.

Again, as much as Chrom is quite frankly the worst lord in the series, he's not the aggressor here and the fact the story treats him as in the wrong is again, stupid, contrived and basically the writer clearly trying to tell the audience what they should think, I bloody hate Chrom but this makes no sense, I guess defending yourself against attackers is wrong and we should all clearly let ourselves be horribly murdered! for PEACE!

If Chrom didn't want to fight at all, Yilsse would, quite frankly, cease to be as everyone would have been killed by Gangrel's forces, that's again, not peaceful, that's allowing violence to spill forth, Chrom also fights bandits, should Chrom just let the bandits continue murdering, selling women into slavery and stealing because that's more "Peaceful"?

There's a difference between " I don't want to force my citizens to invade other countries" and "I want my citizens to be able to defend themselves if we get invaded", the idea that an army is always for invasion is a frankly, childish idea and anyone who actually believes that shouldn't be allowed to be a ruler.

Quite frankly, when you have an evil dude next-door, you need an army, you need a force big enough to go "Hey, if you try to murder us, we'll fight back", again, by not having an army, she allowed Gangrel's forces to rampage through her kingdom, she sat back and allowed the violence to continue.

Having an army does not inherently mean wanting to continue the cycle of hatred, it means you don't want people raiding your kingdom, Most countries today don't exactly jump at the idea of a war, yet they have an army all the same.

It's pretty much the entire idea of nukes, no one wants to actually use them but it functions as a "Hey, if you invade and we're going to lose, I'm taking you with me." it's violence for the sake of peace.

The idea that pacifism is right and is always good is frankly, an incredibly childish, immature and dangerous idea and the way Robin and characters are written make it very clear that you're not supposed to see Emmeryn as the, to be frank, accomplice to the slaughter but a pure hearted WONDERFUL ruler and frankly it's annoying

So it's buddhist and Shinto, so what? it's still frankly a stupid concept and the way everyone practically worships her is obnoxious.

Again, the author clearly wants her to be seen as a pure figure while I frankly see her as a cowardly, unlikable fool who lead her country to near-ruin, the game practically shills for her constantly while she's alive which is annoying, so yeah I think the moral is stupid and makes no sense and Emmeryn is a big symptom of that.

So yeah, I disagree with the message and the way the message is presented is pretentious and obnoxous as the game honestly might as well as have the Authour show up to soapbox at you.

Switzerland remained Neutral during WW2, that's because it had a huge army, it would have been detrimental for Germany to attack Switzerland for the duration of the war due to Financial reasons also, Switzerland did not remain a peaceful neutral country that refugees fled to because it had no army, it remained Neutral because Germany would have been screwed trying to take it on while fighting all the other countries it was already fighting in addition to the fact Switzerland money remaind the only "netural" currency during the warand even then? Switzerland still had to shoot down Allied Bombers during the war since Civilians were getting killed from them, it still in a way had to defend itself against attack as well as shoot down German Bombers passing through to show that any violations of their neutrality would be responded with force, especially since certain allied generals considered Switzerland part of the Axis Forces due to their somewhat co-operation with Germany, if Switzerland was ran by Emmeryn, Germany would have taken over it during the war since no army.

TLDR: Emmeryn is a crap ruler and the game obnoxiously shills with her to push an bad moral to the point where characters practically feel like they're paid shills.

IMO, just because you have a moral doesn't excuse pretty crappy writing where you're obviously trying to inform your audience of what to expect of a character as it's just bloody obnoxious when it doesn't work. 

As you say, she's intended to be a figure of peace and to show off the peace moral, I see her as essentialy an accessory to all the murder destruction and a defining example of why peace doesn't work and a frankly reprehensible person.

So while I see the writers intention, I heavily disagree with it and if anything I think Emmeryn works against the game's moral and the attempts paint Chrom as in the "Wrong" are absurd and basically the writer soapboxing the moral, if it wasn't for the game painfully obviously shilling and using the characters to tell you what to think, I'd think Emmeryn was a deconstruction character to show why trying to be entirely peaceful is a flawed and stupid concept.

[My problems with modern media criticism]

20 minutes ago, Ottservia said:

Whether or not Emmeryn is a good ruler is not the point that’s why the story does not dwell on it too much because that’s not the story the game wants to tell. Awakening’s narrative is not interested in commenting on that. What it is interested in is exploring themes regarding the cycle of hatred and overcoming the past which Emmeryn’s character fits perfectly. That’s the purpose of her character. The point of awakening’s narrative is basically summarized as peace good violence bad. That is it and everything in the story is in service to thattheme. You want the story to criticize Emmeryn for being a bad ruler, correct? Well the story is not at all interested in doing that. It doesn’t want to do that because that’s not the point. If that’s the story they wanted to tell, they would have told that story but they didn’t. They told the story that we got. Awakening’s story is not poorly because it explores its themes in a way you dislike. That’s not to say you aren’t allowed to dislike it because you are entitled to your personal preferences but it is not bad writing by any means just because you don’t like it. I don’t like American first person shooters but that doesn’t make them bad by any means

 

I do, but the fact is that even the "Peace good" moral falls completely flat and makes no sense.

Again, Parabellum "If you want peace, prepare for war", Emmeryn if anything allowed the cycle of hatred continue by just standing by and doing nothing, she allowed the hateful Pelgians to invade her country and frankly I doubt no civilians were harmed, Chrom was actually trying to save lives while Emmeryn was allowing the bloodshed to commence pretty much, Chrom was effectively keeping the peace because frankly, you actually do need a self-defense army at the very least for peace, Peace because your nation was pillaged and murdered isn't exactly what most people would define as peace.

Emmeryn, via inaction allowed the cycle of hate to continue, she's frankly just as responsible for it as Gangrel, she didn't overcome the past, she was a cowardly fool who allowed it to consume her and a good number of lives of people of her own kingdom yet everyone practically worships the ground she walks on, which is pretty nonsensical writing if you ask me when it comes across as incredibly pretentious BS written by a 14 year old fanfiction writer.

She provided peace in the same way an apathetic bystander who just stands by and does nothing when a dude gets stabbed to death on the side-walk does, that's not peace, that's being a hypocritical coward.

WW2 was also the product of a cycle of hate from the previous war and it took a big war to sort it out, if the leaders of other countries during that war were like Ememryn, well, the nazis would have probably won frankly.

After all, Maribelle getting kidnapped and such was because she inadequately prepared the kingdom incase the literal cartoon villian next door invaded, it's literally Emmeryn's shitty leadership that allowed the war to kick off, Chrom isn't responsible, she is.

Emmeryn is quite literally one of the worst examples of a peaceful ruler ever,  and infact is actually a poster child for WHY you need armies and WHY you need to actually not try be all friendly with a nation you have a troubled history with so if Awakening is ment to be about oh how wonderful peace is then frankly Emmeryn literally shows how that doesn't work.

And no, a major theme doesn't justify crappy writing that tires to prop up a clearly awful character for the sake of it.

[My problems with modern media criticism]

1 hour ago, Ottservia said:

I feel like you’re being too biased in your analysis though. Ask yourself this, Do good things come out of Emmeryn’s pacifism? Aside from death in chapter 9, I would argue no. Hell it was her very pacifism that got her captured in the first place. Because she refused to act, Chrom did and that’s what started the war in the first place. And even then you’re ignoring a lot of context. Whether or not Emmeryn is a good ruler(at least politically and technically) is besides the point because awakening as a story isn’t really interested in exploring those ideas. The point Emmeryn as a character is supposed to represent is the idea of the cycle of hate and learning from the past. She is fully aware of the kind of man Gangrel is but refuses to go to war simply because she does not want to repeat the mistakes of her father. Which again, contrasts with Gangrel who is using the wars of the past to rally plegia to action as retribution for what her father did. This also contrasts with Chrom who is also stuck in the past and is fully willing to give Gangrel the war he wants but a war would only perpetuate the cycle of hatred and thus only cause more suffering. Emmeryn’s sacrifice proves that what people want is peace not revenge or war because as Emmeryn herself states revenge earns you nothing in the end. That’s the story awakening wants to tell when you break it down. All the aspects of the story are in service to telling that story and when you look it a specific way it all comes together and makes sense.

Apparently a bunch of Pelgia's army defects after that which sounds like a pretty good thing. (Haven't see that myself personally yet since Awakening makes me wanna smash my 3Ds so I can't bring myself to play it more than 2-5 times a year as it's one of the worst games I've ever played.)

I'm not saying for Emmeryn to have a war, I'm saying Emmeryn should have had an army capable of driving off Pelgia in self-defense rather than seemingly just allowing them to march in, the distance between Ferrox/Yilsee doesn't seem that big yet somehow Gangrel forces already took the capital, you know that bit that would be the most heavily defended part of your country? the bit that would probably have a high concentration of soldiers?

Again, everyone, including  Robin, the Audience's character, keep talking about how she's a "good" person and a pacifist, they never ever imply that she's a horrible (and I don't mean "oh ruler makes a mistake, I mean an abhorrent person.) person for essentially allowing Gangrel to charge in and kill everyone because that's exactly what she did, they never imply that she's ment to be seen as a bad ruler despite her being IMO being just as responsible for it as Gangrel is, it's all just so tragic because Emmeryn is such a wonderful peaceful leader and it's some of the most pretentious BS I've ever seen written in a video game.

Again, even the Audience self-insert doesn't even imply she might be a terrible ruler.

Or how about Maribelle getting kidnapped, where she's such a braindead moron that she thinks talking with the cartoonishly evil dude who flat-out in PG terms says he wants to genocide her kingdom will somehow work, Maribelle would probably be dead if it wasn't for ironically the the actual kid being the smartest person in the entire kingdom.

I'm honestly amazed Gangrel hasn't just walked in and killed everyone without much resistance before Robin came along since he really wants  them all dead and they don't have an full army to defend themselves.

The story's writing clearly wants her to be a victim when frankly, she's practically nearly as responsible as Gangrel is, she was pretty much asking for anyone to invade her kingdom, she was essentially running it into the ground and putting every single person in her kingdom at risk of being slaughtered, she's no tragic heroine like the game tries to paint her at, she's an incompetent fool who has as much blood on her hands as Gangrel does.

Not to mention, Chrom didn't start the war, it was Gangrel, he's the one who invaded and kidnapped, he's literally the aggressor who wanted any excuse. (and I bloody hate Chrom but for once it wasn't him being an absolute moron here and painting him as the one responsible is incredibly flawed logic since they were only attacking because Gangrel was threatening to execute an innocent, which makes Gangrel responsible, not Chrom.)

Letting your kingdom be freaking genocided isn't "Ending the cycle of hate" it's being an godawful ruler who effectively helped in the massacre of your own kingdom, Gangrel is the one continuing it frankly if you wanna talk about that.

Defending yourself by simply having an army to go "Don't invade us or we'll fight back" is actually peace, there's literally a saying about it.

"Parabellum" which essentially translates to "If you want peace, prepare for war." 

Because funny enough trying to act nicely didn't stop any dictatorship/warhungry kingdoms (if you want an IRL example, the Nazis), you need to be able to defend your own land from those who wish to harm it and Gangrel can't be reasoned with.

There's nothing revengeful about defending yourself, if anything isn't Gangrel the one leading a revengeful army?, Chrom doesn't act out of revenge, Chrom acts out of the very real threat to Maribelle's life. 

So no, it doesn't make sense, it's pretentious BS that makes no sense that's pseudo-deep if you're 14 and can't actually think.  

 

[My problems with modern media criticism]

20 hours ago, Ottservia said:

. This isn't your story. You're not the one telling it. The author is the one telling this story not you. Usually when I see people complain about "what should've happened" they fail to really to take into account that maybe the author wrote the story that way for a specific reason

 

Yeah but it's also possible to think the Author wrote it for a bad reason.

Tomb Raider 2013 long story short, has a scene at the start which is essentially ment to give rape-y vibes while staying juuuust far enough from it so they can claim otherwise (Not that it stopped someone involved outright claiming it was attempted rape before the game came out.), it's ment to pile onto the torture porn of "Wow, look how terrible life is for Lara isn't shes so relatable and don't you care for her?" while for me it was an incredibly hollow attempt at shock value/trying to make me care for a character entirely by just making them suffer.

So yes, they wrote that scene for a reason, I still think it's god-awful and the reason is part of it.

Or how FE Awakening clearly wants you to think Emmeryn is a wonderful, peaceful ruler while I see an incomptent unlikable ruler who seemingly refused to even have an big enough army for self-defense despite all the warning signs from Gangrel, therefore making her a horrible ruler and assuming Gangrel's early game antics caused any civilian deaths, she's almost just as responsible for them iMO in a form of Murder by Inaction that means the game trying to emphasis how such a wonderful person she is pisses me off. Her scenes are clearly written in a "Oh look how pure of heart and pacifistic and wonderful ths ruler is" while I frankly see an unsympathetic idiot who's in a way responsible for just as much as the battles such as saving Maribelle.

Or Warrior's Realm, which is written as a quirky fun excuse for a battle, that to me and friends, came off as making the Shepards look like remorseless killing machines and same with the Ferox Guards, the fact it's only brought up once after and with the kinda dialogue that used to call back to a minor comedic inconvenience, means that for me and my friends, it's actually not "wacky fun excuse for a battle", to us it came across as more "Wow, this cast of characters are a bunch of unlikable gits with no regard for human life that isn't someone particularly close to them.", yes I know what it was written for, a dumb excuse for a battle despite the fact we literally have dumb time travel zombies for that exact god damn reason but to me and my friends it's part of the reason why Chrom, Robin and the rest of the Shepards frankly come off as awful.

Or how Robin is written as a "Great Tactician" but I legitimately see more of a Tactician in Ricken since he's the one who actually displays initiative and any IQ higher than 1 when Maribelle is held as a hostage while Robin is just a warrior, was that the author's intention? no but that's what I actually get out of how the scenes are written.

[Your headcanons for anything FE-related!]

3 hours ago, Axie said:

and this is one of the many reasons why BlaBla's storyline is a disastrous atrocity that blows a hole in the tidy worldbuilding of elibe that BinBla had set up. did we NEED to question why this kind of crap just doesn't have any long term impact somehow? brammimond is clearly not around in BinBla at all, but that makes no sense with how they set them (brammimond was non-binary sort of?) up in BlaBla since your reasoning is sound and and correct. there was no reason for that. how does this game manage to have a storyline that at the same time has nothing effectively happen to the elibe timeline and yet all sorts of weird consequences to the worldbuilding? BAD, NAUGHTY WRITING. how people say any non-fates game has worse writing than this one is beyond me lol. (maybe 3H too since i haven't played it yet)

headcanon: the remainder of brammimond's soul lives in the apocalypse tome. its user explores it and finds themselves staring right back because brammimond is there. spookeh.

IMO at least Fe7 kinda works if you've only played it. (While Awakening is a nonsensical mess even if you've never played a previous FE game,  I can already rant for hours about roughly the first 7 chapters in how frankly stupid everything and every character is, FE7 doesn't have half the sheer amount of stupidity present in the early game of Awakening, I'm half-convinced somehow the average IQ dropped drastically before Awakening because that's the only way anything in that game makes sense is if almost every character was canonically incredibly stupid, especially Emmeryn who is one of the worst characters in the series for how pretentious the writing in that game is about her.)

You get to see non-evil Zephiel and actually see his backstory for yourself instead of just being told about it.

I'm pretty sure Bramimond is still a living person, they're just a living person who's lost their sense of self, they still need to eat and sleep but whenever they talk to someone they reflect the personality of that person, they're a shell of a person rather than a purely magical reflection.

I'm pretty sure it's also easier to care about Hectors death and Llia/Sacae getting invaded since you actually know about these things/Hector since Hector barely gets any dialogue in FE6.

I also feel that Zephiel is even more hateable and the consequences of a full-scale war on Elibe is felt more when it's implied how a large amount of FE7's cast dies due to it, as opposed to a war where mostly a bunch of generics die and a few characters who we aren't attached to, having actual characters ( even if only implied) from a previous game die makes the war feel significantly more big and impactful I feel.

[What changes would you make to Binding Blade in a potential remake?]

5 hours ago, Benice said:

Pretty sure that the director of SoV expressed interest in doing an FE6 remake. The consensus amongst fans also seems to be that the next remake will likely be FE4 or FE6, although I'm not too sure about why those two in particular, aside from the one time that the director stated that he wanted to do an FE6 remake. (I'll try to find a citation for that later, by the way.)

FE6 to me at least seems like the most likely candidate for another remake. (first at least.)

It wouldn't surprise me if Shadows of Valentia was done first since it technically ties into Awakening. (even if the actual Awakening tie-in part is the worst part of the entire game.)

And FE7 American Version still had the prequel hook that never got followed up on for us Gaijins.

They did put a bunch of FE6 characters in Heroes which makes me wonder if that's a possible sign.

 

[Your headcanons for anything FE-related!]

16 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Are we sure that Bramimond professing their impending demise... isn't just their way of mirroring Athos? If Bramimond has become a reflection, it seems like they would survive in some form, so long as there are people to reflect.

Well Bramimond isn't around for FE6 so I presume they're dead.

[Your headcanons for anything FE-related!]

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

 

 

I'm not sure if Bramimond is using Quintessence to stay alive, nor is Athos.

Athos:
“Ah, Nergal… He took the dragons’ knowledge… He learned the art of stealing the essence from living creatures and turning it into power.

It only says he learned how to steal (Quint)essence, not of its entire existence, but it could be interpreted that he didn't know of Quint' at all until then. This was 500 years prior to FE7's start, so Athos would've already have extended his life for that same length of time. And if Athos didn't know, then Brammy couldn't have either. And thus, in this interpretation, sustaining one's life, which Louise points out is declining in the very old Athos, is not related to Quintessence and cannot grant total immortality from time.

 

That's kinda part of my theory that reviving Ninian killed Bramimond, while we don't get a good luck at them in 7, they don't visually  look like age is catching up like Anthos and definitely not in Heroes. (Even if Heroes is really non canon so not exactly 100 canon to FE7.)

If creating entirely new life requires taking life away essentially with the morphs, I kinda assume the same is required to resurrect someone in at least some capacity that you need to add Quintessence to a body. (Assuming Morphs don't actually have their "shell" of a body created via some other means before adding life to it.)

And since Bramimond probably didn't exactly go out of his way to get a ton of Quintessence like Nergal, since he wasn't going around stealing it, I think Bramimond ended up using a pretty large amount of his own life force to revive Ninian as opposed to Nergal using the life force of others, Elbert was able to hold on for a while after the dragon's gate was opened with his life force so I imagine Bramimond was able to survive at least longer than Elbert did while still fatally drained of Quintessence.

 

 

[Your headcanons for anything FE-related!]

1 minute ago, joevar said:

LOL, my condolences.

  Reveal hidden contents

FAAAIIIYAAAA EMBUREEEEMMMMM---

 

in my headcanon, he's not exactly good guy, morelike neutral-alignment. the perfect guy for sitting hundreds of years just to make sure seals not broken by mistake because he didnt really care that much what happen elsewhere to get up from that post. Because no one know what is in his mind, or rather minds. you know, plural.

Bramimond is ripe for fanfiction i say.

altho i would choose FE7 to not exist at all for better continuity, gotta wonder tho why nergal not part of divine general when bramimond is despite both use lost dark/ancient magic which is diabolic in nature

Yeah Bramimond is a bit creepy and such, I ment more among the lines that he probably doesn't set out to kill people/animals to steal their quintessence like Nergal. 

[Your headcanons for anything FE-related!]

12 hours ago, joevar said:

wait, thats not canon?

--------------------------------------------

Since losing soul equal to losing emotion in FE6,.. Bramimond actually have more than one soul within him.  Bramimond emotion was unstable at first and keep changing because of that, but then gradually controlled to becomes  reflecting what other person he/her was facing
Maybe his/her lover dying in the beginning of scouring event and tried to revive them but the spell not perfect unlike with the time with ninian, thus gone wrong and absorb the soul instead. after perfecting the spell  bramimond can live very long enough and even revive ninian because have denser/multiple soul than average people

st. Elimine is jealous/angry towards Hartmut for sparing Idunn, thus keep telling any priest/bishop that dragon must be driven away if they happen to found one after her passing, deep in the church teaching. (hence yoder so fervently searching for dragon info) while other heroes in their respective nation already satisfied as long as conflict stopped thus only passing stories about dragon like some bedstories.

 

I mean I've seen people say he dies for no reason and I don't think the game explictly states exactly why he's dying but at least to me it seems evident that resurrecting the dead/making Morphs requires Quintessence (and Nergal kills animals/people to get the amount needed for his morphs.) and since Bramimond seems to somewhat be a good guy, he probably doesn't have the amount of Quintessence Nergal stored up plus it's never stated (though I'd imagine it requires alot more and I'd like to be alot since it's kinda silly if it's really easy to ressurct someone in a perma-death setting.) exactly how much more you need to resurrect someone compared to just making the fantasy equivalent of a voice mail. 

Nergal had a bunch of morphs dedicated to domestic stuff like brushing the floors/cooking/pretty much everything that takes away from being evil time.

 

[Your headcanons for anything FE-related!]

Bramimond actually just suffers from a severe form of  Dementia, hence them rambling about random unrelated stuff from FE7 such as the seals in Heroes as they aren't actually aware where they are half the time.

Bramimond says he's going to die soon when Anthos is dying because he actually used almost all of his own Quintessence to revive Ninian since the spell required so much that to perform such a nearly impossible act effectively killed him.

Byleth isn't actually emotionless.

In order to cope with the food issues it faced, Valentia started trading with Archanea/other continents with maybe the White wing sisters putting in a good word how they weren't savages in Valentia. (Since at least the harbor town in Archanea believed they were.)

Knights take extra damage from magic due to their heavy armor as heavy metal armor doesn't exactly help against fire or getting zapped by lightning.

Hawkeye's massive defense is due to the sheer strength of his pecs so much so that swords simply bounce off them.

The Mani Katti/Sol Katti were held onto by Bern after acquiring them after the fighting in Sacae/Ostia, however they were unable to draw them out of their scabbards and were forced to just store them locked away somewhere, unable for any of their troops to wield them.

Ereshkigal was either destroyed, taken away by a curious Canas (And either lost in the snowstorm that killed him or hidden away by him or Niime after his death.) or sealed away like the legendary weapons after the events of FE7 with it's location unknown. 

[Theme of Conquest]

5 hours ago, Silver-Haired Maiden said:

That's the point, they think the same about your arguments as you do theirs! They believe their arguments to be pretty sound while yours have flaws and it comes down to personal interpretation and the fact that, in discussing literature, there is no right or wrong. People can view the exact same information in a wide plethora of ways because the way every single person views and interacts with the world is different.

Just to give an example, take the Rainbow Sage's death. I saw it, went "Well that was stupid and pointless" and moved on. A friend playing the game was quite touched. We have different world experiences and so reacted to the same thing differently. Or a more extreme example, Edelgard's little talk to Byleth after Jeralt died. I heard her and immediately thought she was an asshole who I wanted to punch in the teeth and would have had it been an option. Meanwhile there are several people here who saw that scene as her being comforting.

So through your world lens you may see arguments as flawed but never forget that people will think the same about yours and it just comes down to that we're all different people.

To be fair, much of Three Houses' dialogue would be improved if "Punch them in the face" was a dialogue option.

Granted Byleth would probably get executed for decking Rhea but eh, worth it.

5 hours ago, Ottservia said:

That’s just subjectivist which is a somewhat flawed way to look at art. Cause you can wrong about art. Again I’m just gonna bring up the Edelgard is racist example. Edelgard isn’t racist there is evidence to directly support that she isn’t. To say that she is objectively wrong. And even with your example of Jeralt it’s wrong to say that she’s being an asshole cause she’s not. If we really break down what’s she’s saying, essentially what she says is basically “sitting around moping and wallowing in pity isn’t gonna change anything. You just have to accept what happened and do something about it cause action is better than inaction”. Is she harsh about it? Perhaps. Is she being an asshole and outright malicious? Definitely not she’s simply giving her own advice in the way she knows how and how she chooses to understand the world. I wouldn’t call that being an asshole because she’s helping Byleth get out of their funk. It’s just a trope where the depressed character is snapped out of it by being harshly yelled at. She’s blunt but that’s just how her character is. If you simply do not like her method of giving advice well that’s personal taste. She’s not being an asshole though. That is simply not true

 

Yeah there is a small amount of "Objectiveness" for art (Like saying Claude is a white Polish man or King Lima is gay, those are objectively wrong as the characters clearly aren't or that Shadow Dragon on the NES has supports.) but most of it is ultimately subjective in some way or another. 

Yeah she's trying to help, that doesn't mean it'd A: work or B: not be seen as an asshole thing.

Byleth's an emotionless trope, that to me personally is A: inconsistent since they clearly show emotion (Such as literally any time they're low on health) and B: Gets dumb since it starts feeling like an excuse to have them just nod along when no sane person wouldn't be getting probably very angry. (Oh Rhea knew Miklan would turn into a in-universe dangerous horrifying beast thing? better just nod my head and not actually get mad that me or the students I allegedly care about could have very likely died if it wasn't for Sothis in my head telling me what to do.)

It personally, just feels me to like it's a cop-out since they clearly show emotion (Hell I'd argue caring for their students at all, from near the very start, is an obvious sign of emotion and joking they're a bandit to Alois, in literally after the first battle is a sign of emotion I'd argue too.)

While I heavily dislike this, I can't claim this is an literal objective fact of how Byleth's emotionless trope works. (Even if I strongly believe it's actually just a lazy excuse to make Byleth go along with Rhea ultimately at the start.)

 

 

[Something you'd love in a fire emblem game but fear you'll never see]

5 hours ago, Jotari said:

Oh Three Houses Training Weapons are fantastic in Three Houses, even if they're stealing the name for a(n obvious) concept I came up with years ago. They're the most reliable weapons for actually hitting the enemy, which is a massive issue in Maddening, and they're high uses make them great for combat arms. I carry iron and steel weapons just in case I need the extra few might to get a kill I wouldn't otherwise, but I end up using training weapons far often because the higher hit is totally worth the reduce might.

That's kind of how the og Jeigan runs things. His stats are not impressive at all, like even compared to the units you get at the same time as him. But his weapon rank is high so he's the only unit that can use the silver lance for quite some time. And honestly I think that is a good balancing thing for units outside of typical "How many stats do they have." A unit who is weaker but with good weapon ranks, or a unit who is stronger but with bad weapon ranks (like Seteth) is an interesting way to provide more units that are distinct from each other.

Honestly I'm thinking of trying to avoid using them when I finish my first run through, Bernadetta with a training bow is I'm pretty sure not ment to be half as effective as I found it, since I'm usually having her weaken dudes for other units to finish off in a single round and how cheap the bow is means that durability with repairing isn't actually an issue so I can just spam weapon-arts that are more effective.

I guess maybe I was thinking they'red be some sort of "spar" option, where two allied units have a fight to the not-death (Like a non-lethal arena battle.) and both get  EXP depending on how long they both last, I was kinda expecting training swords to be for something like that and not "super-light wooden sword that I'm actually bringing into battle".

 

 

[What is your unpopular Fire Emblem opinion?]

6 hours ago, OutcastsofRelix said:

Or have the avatar either die or betray SIgurd. Then their child who would be( I want to say the opposite gender but at the same time we need something different) or the gender of your choosing.

I think having Naga blood would be cool but the Loptyr just no. If Naga have it be minor and a distant relative to Deirdre through her father like an uncle or aunt or something.

For Second Gen: Remove most of the substitutes(except the Tailtiu niece and nephew) because they offer nothing to the story.

Change Lester's hair color because how tf is his hair blue if his dad(in my canon) is Midayle. Did she cheat.

Remove the incest and child sacrifice. 

And give Julia someone to S support that's not Seliph.

I'm pretty sure that Genealogy actually let Pregnant women die while Awakening chickened out of it. (If I recall seeing online, when two characters get together in Genealogy, if the father dies, you still get the child unit but if the mother dies you don't, so the implication is they're actually pregnant like FE7 Louise so if they die, the unborn child unit dies with them, thanks Kaga.) 

Doubt they'll remove those, Fates was heavy on the incest (Yes, I know you get a convenient letter of "Oh it's not actually incest!" when you S-rank, it's still pandering to that fetish.), Echoes had people trying to kill children (and even got away with Valbar's VA outright saying Bastard.) and both Echoes/FE7 potentially had children dying on-screen. (Delthea's underage if I Remember and I think the Ram kids can die in the prologue? never tried it while Zephiel can die in Fe7.), They could get censored admittingly but it's not a guarantee.

Kinda surprised Echoes ended up with a 12 rating, considering on-screen blood when Rudolf died and Valbar's VA, again, outright saying Bastard at one point. (Then again I'm amazed Fates/Awakening got away with it.), FE in general is a series I'm surprised only 12 rated considering some of the dark stuff in the series. (The ESRB is weird), it's just Echoes has stuff that really gets the ESRB in a twist to a 15 rating. (Blood and swearing.)

Honestly I'd be interested in a Cleric Lord, who actually starts off mainly healing the army and being bad at/unable to defend themselves in direct combat. (Maybe they can technically use Swords/Axes/Lances but they're comparable to Donnel until they get levelled up a good bit, I'm okay with a unit that's utterly terrible at combat if they can at least do things other than combat.)

Difficulty should effect the amount of promotion items/Status boosters that are in the game, so say, (assuming this is a game where Easy is actually comparable to Normal in the more recent games.) Easy has promotion items /status boosters available in most stores and somewhat frequently can be stolen, Normal has a decent amount laying around and you are given the option to fork out gold for some (So the stock of them in shops would be limited, like in Three Houses.) while Hard is extremely stingy like FE6.

So you can easily promote everyone on Easy, most units/all with Arena use on Normal but Hard will force you to only promote 2-3 units in each Promotion category. 

[What is your unpopular Fire Emblem opinion?]

Ambush spawns/an abundance of reinforcement spawns (Especially when the total amount of reinforcements surpass 20) are way, way more annoying than Cantors.

 

 

[So who`s playing Shadow Dragon and the Sword of Light for the first time?]

Just now, Silent Mercenary said:

It would have been nice if there was a digital version of the complete manual and it was available within the Switch (ideally accessible from the new features 'X' menu). I'm going to have to print out the weapon stats and terrain data since I keep mixing up some details. QoL features aside, the port's been enjoyable thus far and I'm happy I waited on trying FE1 until this release.

I've only done the first map but I am enjoying it so far.

it's just this is really, really bad to not include. (Since again weapon stats in FE are vital.)

[So who`s playing Shadow Dragon and the Sword of Light for the first time?]

52 minutes ago, tirex367 said:

I mean technically:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QlQphWkYJg

starting with 6:10 he flick through the manual.

EDIT:

Another unboxing with a more clearer picture with however the bottom missing, at 5:48

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rQouDEnBcU

And another clearer picture with a hand in the way the most time starting at 3:53

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHnP0YU2liQ

 

Heres' hoping Nintendo realizes they messed up and add these to the Digital manual.

It's bad enough it's not included in the actual game download (Can the switch not support the ability to see the manual as an option outside of the game like the PSP Vita did?) but the manual is basically missing what seems to me to be literally the most important reason to look at it. (Stats for weapons.)

[Your headcanons for anything FE-related!]

3 minutes ago, Axie said:

i mean

it might as well not have happened considering how it impacted exactly nothing in binding blade's story

not that much of a headcanon

Ah the wonders of "Oh crap we didn't actually think about making a prequel" which means only so much can happen.

I like FE7 but it does hit alotta bad prequel problems. (Being completely unplanned probably didn't help.)

After all it's hard to tie into a game when you also have to really make sure your prequel won't have been mentioned during the many times it should have been mention during Binding Blade. (And even then you could argue someone probably should have told Roy at some point his dad had intercourse with a dragon and he was the result.)

More Headcanons:

Mark died during the conflicts before the start of FE6, possibly trying to help either Lyn or Hector during the battles in Sacae/Ostia before Roy arrived.

The reason there are no mines/light runes in FE6 is that Mark used them all up during/after FE7 and bought and used every last one of them.
In every FE game with the "Wo Dao" it is a foreign imported Sword from a fictionalized version of Japan. (Wasn't aware this was actually confirmed in New Mystery somewhat when I was googling it to check I spelt it right so the headcanon is more that it's this in every FE continuity with it.)

Summoned Monsters like Mogalls are summoned from an different, messed up Dimension. (Kinda like Xen in Half-Life but a bit more freaky and H.R Geiger Inspired.)

 

 

 

[So who`s playing Shadow Dragon and the Sword of Light for the first time?]

2 minutes ago, tirex367 said:

The original Japanese manual had over 60 pages, the physical english manual has ca. 30, though as a European with no knowledge of Japanese language, comparing the pictures in the scans of the Japanese manual I have found online with frames in an unboxing video of somebody flicking through a physical english manual, it seems to me more like the physical english manual was condensed, than that something was cut therem though I might be wrong. But yeah, the digital version then is 16 pages, cutting weapon and movement stats, as well descriptions of characters.

Wonderful, are there any translations of those descriptions for characters online? (Since well, it's FE1 and I'm probably not gonna get to know the characters much outside of those.)

[So who`s playing Shadow Dragon and the Sword of Light for the first time?]

I had a feeling something was missing.

Out of curiosity, anything else missing in the English manual? (such as if for instance, it talks more about the characters.)

I used to have a Vita and the English Download Shadow Dragon Manual reminded me of the Vita "manuals",which were just text screens half the time that weren't even all the info in the manual, not even screenshots of the actual manual just white text on a background of around half the stuff in the manual. 

And when it was screenshots of the manual, you had the page that outlined the controls...and that was it usually. (Such as for Tomb Raider Anniversary, which is about 10-ish pages long but only 2 of them were actually in the digital manual.)