Magenta Fantasies

At long last (almost a year after her Fates double Rhajat,) Resplendent Tharja is coming! Ljosalfheimr is one of the last themes I expected for her, but I like it more than I thought I would. Light pink actually looks decent on Tharja, and her dialogue is funny. This means that (so far) I’ve checked off three characters on my checklist this year: Soren, Camilla and Tharja. Last year I only had two, female Corrin and Shigure.

I’m glad I’m not the only one who had to read the description to tell what Seth’s theme was. Honestly, his outfit doesn’t look very different from his original. We’re receiving a lot of sword-wielding Resplendents this year (but unfortunately none of them are characters on my list…*sigh*) So far, seven, exactly half, of the 2024 Resplendent characters wield swords. Earlier this year we had two consecutive sword infantry (Resplendent CYL Celica and Selena) and now we have two sword cavalry back to back.

I was very pleasantly surprised to see Navarre win against Felix, and by a good margin, too! I hope he does well in the final day.

Unsurprisingly, Karel lost to Felix. Now I’m on Team Navarre, which will probably also lose to Felix. On the other hand, Navarre is by far my favorite of the remaining characters.

His blade is ready to feast on Voting Gauntlet opponents… Honestly, I like this whole lineup. I wouldn’t be TOO disappointed if Karel loses early on…which he almost certainly will, since he’s a relative nobody, and Felix is one of the most popular characters in the most popular Fire Emblem game. Seeing both Felix and Karel here reminds me that it was a total wasted opportunity to not have them meet in Felix’s Forging Bonds. It would have been interesting for Felix to be a little unsettled by Karel and seeing the extreme that the path of the sword can lead someone down, which would make him recall “boar” Dimitri. I’m more excited about this Voting Gauntlet than most because it’s similar to a banner theme I’d love to see, a swordsman/swordfighting tournament banner with French musketeer-inspired attire. That would be a fitting type of outfit for the swordsman theme that wouldn’t look too similar to what any of them already wear. This style could also work for the girls; I picture similar to Peach’s swordfighter outfit in Princess Peach Showtime. I also recently saw a lovely fanart drawing of Céline in such an outfit. I hoped for a phantom thief banner and a maid banner, and despite thinking those would never happen, they both did, so there’s a small chance this swordsman tournament banner could happen. Maybe this August…

Given the number of Awakening Resplendents and Nifl Resplendents, I’m surprised they haven’t overlapped until now. I’ve already stated my piece about alts getting alts, but this one especially annoys me for two reasons. Not only is the design and color scheme similar to what Knight Chrom already wears (a consistent problem with Nifl Resplendents,) but it’s a Chrom alt that always felt superfluous to me. It’s not even something like a Legendary or CYL alt.

I second Fire Emblem Fan. If any Fire Emblem character should have a Wikipedia page, it’s Marth. He’s the face of the franchise. How many times have you seen people who played Super Smash Bros. ask “Are Marth and Ike in this game?” Agreed, this idea of “significance” that has been mentioned in this topic is very arbitrary. For comparison, I took a look at the Wikipedia pages created for Sonic the Hedgehog characters. I noticed that several character pages have been removed from however many years ago I had last visited a Sonic-related page on Wikipedia. Cream, Rouge, the Chaotix and a handful of other B-tier and C-tier (in importance) characters used to have Wikipedia pages. The only one I’m surprised was removed was Amy Rose. I’d even say I’m shocked. Amy is a character I would solidly count among the main cast, even more than Shadow (though he had his own spin-off game, so I suspect that is largely why he got to keep his Wikipedia page.) Another question worth asking is, “Why are so many Wikipedia pages getting purged/merged into other pages in the first place?” Is the server running out of bandwidth?

Day of Devotion Soren: Are you lost? Keaton: I’m lost. Karel: Time to feast. Picnic Felicia: Mmm…yummy… Petrine: Let the hunt begin! Kiragi (who is a hunter): O-oh yeah!

I’m pretty confident that’s Hrid on the left. Given the rest of his family has had summer alts, it makes perfect sense that he would as well. But it doesn’t always work out that way… *looks at the last spring banner and the lack of Karel* I’m much less confident about the figure on the right, but I suspect it is a man. I REALLY hope it Vaike. It’s about time he was added to Heroes in some form.

I was going to say Nohr Noble, both because Corrin is my favorite character and I adore that class from a utility and design perspective, but you said no lord classes. With that being the case, then I would choose taguel since Panne is one of my favorites as well. I love her design and outfit/armor, and the lore behind her species is fascinating. To pick a human class, probably Maid or Adventurer from Fates. They’re both very fun classes to use and I love their outfits. If I were an Adventurer, I’d definitely want a hat like Candace and the other enemy Adventurers. It stinks that Niles, Nina, Shura, etc. don’t have those fabulous hats.

I’m neutral on this Resplendent. Her art isn’t among the best for Resplendents, but it’s certainly not among the worst. Reading some of Hinoka’s supports has shifted my opinion of her from neutral to lukewarm, but she’s still far from my favorites Fates character. Personally, I’m not a fan of Hinoka’s Resplendent outfit. It looks too similar to her normal outfit. Resplendent Lyn (base Lyn,) Ilyana, Shigure, Ninian, and Selena amongst some others I’m forgetting have the same problem. Four of those five are Nifl Resplendents, which reminds me why Nifl is one of my least favorite themes.

It’s about time Legendary Male Corrin was added! Honestly, I didn’t expect him for quite a while, since Legendary Camilla debuted roughly six months ago. Almost two years went by between Legendary Female Corrin and Legendary Xander’s debuts.

Since characters need to be 5-star in order to learn/inherit Swift Sparrow 2, that would still make it a 5-star premium skill in my book. Suzuki Rika has a beautiful coloring style, but I don’t love how she draws faces. She’s not one of my favorite FEH artists, but she’s far from my least favorite.

Finally, a Vanaheimr Resplendent! It took IS until halfway through Book 8 to use this theme. I’m lukewarm about Ayra as a character (mostly because I haven’t played Geneaology of the Holy War) but I really like her art and the Vanaheimr spin on her outfit. I also have three of her, so I could make her a +3 merge. Swift Sparrow 2 is the only skill she has that is 5-star premium fodder.

I couldn’t care less about optimization, but otherwise I’d have to agree with TC’s initial post. Story is definitely important to me, but I can think of plenty of games that I enjoy with weak stories (the Sonic, Kirby, Pokemon and Super Mario series comes to mind) that I enjoy regardless. I don’t think a good story can save bad gameplay unless the story is one of main driving forces in the game (e.g. visual novels, point-and-click games, adventure games and narrative games are all genres I enjoy.) Visual novels with minimal gameplay can be plenty of fun. While I think the stories of Conquest and Revelation (my favorite Fire Emblem games) both had definite flaws, their stories were intriguing enough that I wanted to play to know what would happen next, a rare feeling for me in video games. I absolutely love the casts of both games and several of my favorite Fire Emblem characters are among them. Also, I find the Fates settings fascinating, and wish more had been done with them from a lore/worldbuilding standpoint. Judging from the amount of fan theories and fan fiction I’ve seen, I’m not alone in that. By extension, the individual character connection is one of my favorite things about Fire Emblem and RPGs in general. It’s fun to use and build characters, and it makes me care about them. I love Pokemon because I enjoy collecting, training them, and customizing them by which skills I teach them. This is even better in games with characters with established personalities who can bond and interact with you and each other. Fire Emblem games without supports feel hollow to me. While I miss base conversations—they lend some fascinating insights to the characters, story and world—Radiant Dawn felt hollow to me in comparison to Path of Radiance. I like the direction that Awakening, Fates (and to a slightly lesser degree Three Houses) went where you can make most of the cast interact with each other and in many cases pair them. I also appreciate that in Shadows of Valentia, they react when another character dies in battle. If I had to pick one, this is probably the most important element for me. I would extend this to say immersion. I love games that make me feel like I’m part of the game’s world. Part of that is self-insertion, and while I definitely enjoy this (one of several reason why Corrin is my favorite Fire Emblem character and I really like Robin and Kris as well) great immersion doesn’t require an avatar/player-created character. For example, I don’t think Night in the Woods is the masterpiece that many people seems to think it is. It’s an overall somewhat good game with somewhat good gameplay and a somewhat good storyline that has highs and lows, but it’s one of the most atmospheric and immersive games I’ve ever played. Even though you play as a character with an established personality (and one I don’t particularly like), the games does a phenomenal job with making you feel as if you are her and living her life in her town. This also relates to vibe. While it’s not as important as the above, the feel and aesthetics of a game definitely influence my opinion of it. For me, the technical quality of the graphics isn’t very important. NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams had adequate graphics when it released in 2008, and they haven’t aged favorably since, but it’s such an aesthetically pleasing game for other reasons that it’s still one of the most aesthetically pleasing games I’ve ever played. Do your ears a favor and listen to the soundtrack on YouTube. Strategy and gameplay are among the most important things. While I don’t dislike Awakening, Shadows of Valentia and Birthright, most of the maps in these games range from mediocre to bad and I don’t enjoy the combat as much as in other games. This puts them on the lower end of my list of favorite Fire Emblem games. Shadow Dragon has pretty good maps, but it lacks the other elements I listed above, which also puts it towards the bottom of my favorite Fire Emblem games list. I enjoy Shadow Dragon for what it is, but New Mystery is a vastly better game and my third favorite behind Conquest and Revelation. Ludonarrative harmony/dissonance is important, but still less important than the other aspects. I see it as a bonus that aids storytelling rather than a necessity. One important facet is also replay value. While I’ve played games where the first playthrough was the best or most memorable, it diminishes a game if I see no reason to play it again, or if I would want to wait a very long time before playing it again. Games can be linear and have replay value if there is plenty to do within the game that can be done differently in a different playthrough, e.g. which skills are given to a unit, which units are used more, and which allies you pair with each other. Different Fire Emblem games have handled this in different ways, but in general they have plenty of replay value.