Use the Falchion

Fair enough, but I think you may be assuming that I'd be using FE characters in the game. I wouldn't be. I'd be taking the classes, archetypes, maybe a few story beats, and some gameplay mechanics from Fire Emblem, but all of the characters would be 100% original to this game (outside of some historical public-domain figures), hence my lack of worry about fitting the archetypes to these characters. I'm more worried about whether it'd fit the story than FE characters as a whole.

Decided to pull on the CYL 5 banner with improved odds with the hopes of completing my B!Marianne project, or at least getting close. I didn't even pull a single Marianne. I pulled THREE B!MARTHS AND TWO B!EIRIKAS, BUT NOT A SINGLE STORMING MARIANNE. Words cannot express how frustrating this is to me. I've been hoping every week for the past however many weeks the Arena Ticket has been going to pull a B!Marianne there, and zilch! Nada! Sigh...sometimes it feels like this game hates me... I did end up Sparking for Marianne, but I was hoping for maybe two random pulls alongside the Spark. I guess I'll wait until next year. Maybe this year's CYL banner will be nice to me...

I came up with a SMT x FE game idea myself a few years ago! Most of my notes are from last year to early this year, but the original idea dates back to late-2022 IIRC. Maybe into 2021, but I don't think it's THAT far back. This is also NOT my idea for a TMS 2. That's a completely separate idea, with separate documents and sequels. Basically, it's an Isekai story, where a character from our world gets summoned to a world with demons where historical figures from our world are still alive. (This is important for world-building, lore, plot arcs, and personal story arcs.) The gameplay would be a mix of FE, Persona and TMS, in which you have allies who have set classes, but you can also capture demons and use them in place of your allies if you desire.* The main character can change classes too, but to do so you have to "sacrifice" a specific number of monsters of a certain type on your "altar" or to your "Emblem," I haven't decided yet, to gain the class. So, for example, if you wanted the Pegasus Knight class, you'd need to sacrifice a certain number of "flying" type monsters or whatnot. (I.e. 10-20 Pixies, or 1 Pegasus and 1 Pixie.) The lower the level and more common the monster, the lower the percentage each monster will fill. I don't think I got far with the morality aspect, as I was torn on even including it. My thinking of it would be that the "chaos" would be aligned with the "holy" side of things, as an embodiment of Free Will, while the "Order" would be aligned with the "Fell" side of things, as a sort of "Repressive But Efficient" style of government. There are alternative routes I could take as well, depending on the story, potentially. Overall, I like the idea of it, but I'm not sure I want to follow that path. I'm not sure it fits with the story I'm trying to tell. *My notes from January say there would be five humans who have made pacts with demons, with all other characters being recruited later on or simply allowing demons to be used. My notes for the humans are sparce at best, with only the MC and the Jagen archetype having any notes or background at all, but I do know that the five humans would be coworkers who start out as the antithesis of their FE counterpart and grow into it as the game progresses. I do have some idea for mid-to-late-game human characters, but nothing concrete.

For returning characters who are from previous games, Lucina is the top of my list. I can see other characters possibly showing up, like Alear or Yunaka, but they feel less likely to me. What I'd love to see return are the Incarnations, like Tharja and Rhajat, Gaius and Asugi, and Caeldori and Cordelia. I'd love to see genderswapped incarnations in games with children in the future, espeically for the House Leaders and the Fates royalty.

Rosalinde and Yanha were my pre-release picks, and they've stood the test of time. I've seen pretty much all of the confessions from characters I like, and theirs are still the best to me. Victoria's is both funny and sweet and also really weird at times, but I love the second-coming of Queen Illenia in a way. Berengaria's is nice, but unless there are epilogues, I'm not going to go for it. Celeste's is cute though! Fortunately, I missed a recruitable character or two, so I need to replay the game for those sweet, sweet romances. I'll probably romance Scarlett eventually, but for now, she's on the sideline, as I'm not the biggest fan of the whole "childhood friend" romance. ...I've also heard that Josef's confession scene isn't romantic, and I've played with the head-canon that Alear simply gives the ring to him and has...well, saying a harem may not be the most polite term, it feels appropriate. A multitude of Queen Consorts. Other unrelated thoughts about Unicorn Overlord and Fire Emblem: I fully consider UO a Fire Emblem game in my head. If I was introducing a new person to Fire Emblem, I'd go: Awakening, Fates, Engage as the first arc, Unicorn Overlord as a the palette cleanser, and then Echoes, Three Houses/Hopes, and hopefully the unreleased FE 4 remake. After that, another palette cleanser and then FE 7, 8, and Tellius. If UO was going to cross over with any FE game and have them both take place on the same continent at the same time, I think Fates is the best bet...well, the Hoshido/Nohr part of Fates, that is. I used to think Engage was better, as the two are ring-themed games, but I think Fates could use the worldbuilding and actually accentuate Ferverth's own.* The Kitsune and Wolfkin have a place to call home, where they're not the only beastkin, as they'd hail from the northernmost continent. Cornia would function as a several city-states, each with their own royal family, and the Cornian family would rule over them all. Garon would have been the king of the citystate of Nohr and loyal to Illenia, until one day he changes. (Since the change happens in Fates proper, it feels like it fits here.) Alain and Azura would be twins, separated after Cornia's fall, only to be reunited later in life. (For kicks and giggles, the island that Alain is taking refuge in would now be Hoshido, who have taken a very isolationist standing towards the war due to the failed peace talks 10 years prior. The reason the two never met was because Mikoto forbade it. Mikoto cares for Azura like a daughter, and wanted her to be at peace in Hoshido. Alain and Josef are gunning to take the throne back, and Mikoto wouldn't want to be involved. It would only be after Mikoto's demise that Alain would get his start on his journey, not knowing that his sister has been on the same island as him for the past however-many years. Alain lived near one of the smaller port towns, while Azura lived in the central city in the castle, so the two never had a chance to meet.) I have more, but I want to finish the game first before I worldbuild any more than what's above. EDIT: Speaking of Fates, I'm finding that I'd love for Fates: Revelation to have a squad-based TBS system in the future. For literally years I've thought of the characters in Revelations as attacking in "squads" and I've incorporated recruitable enemies into that too. (I.e. Caimlla leading a flying squadron that flies behind enemy lines and drops off Ninjas and Dread Fighters behind enemy lines to target mages and healers before circling back to the main force.) To see it be an actual gameplay mechanic would be AWESOME! This is also partially driven by the fact that it takes FOREVER to train everyone due to the unit limits. If you could do 5-6 units per squad just like in UO, and have 4-5 squads per map, then you're already training more characters per map than nearly any other FE game. (IIRC, FE 4 and specific levels in other games, such as Priam's map in Awakening, get higher.) Finally, a list of FE Lords and Main Characters Alain would get along with, from most to least: Most - Average Dislike Unsure *I did consider Tellius and Fodlan, but both have solid worldbuilding IMO, and adding anything too that would have hurt both games. Meanwhile, Fates can really only go up and UO can carry that burden.

Booted up an old demo save on Monday and sped-ran everything I could this time around. I skipped some of the smaller battles, but with my current team comp, slightly better gear, and the advice of those who have done FAR more than me, I was able to unlock I think every recruitable character but one and level up most of my units to between levels 13-15ish. Due to all of these upgrades, this is the file I'll be playing going into the main game. I'm using slightly different characters in my new Units, and they're all able to handle four characters, but I do need to switch a few things around come Friday. (I.e. Yanha moving to Josef's Unit to support Hodrick, as there may be some romance between the two.)

I think Awakening is still my favorite in terms of character design, but Path of Radiance probably has the best IMO. It's grounded but still clearly high-fantasy, gives a sense of characterization while still being functional, and is overall awesome. Least favorite would either be Radiant Dawn simply because I didn't like how several of the characters looked or Fates, because while some designs were incredibly awesome, others were terribly over-designed and just annoying. (ODIN I'M LOOKING AT YOU.)

Just beat the demo last night/late this morning! I really had a lot of fun with it! Unicorn Overlord has been on my list since its Direct announcement, and I had lost pretty much all hope for a demo in the Partner due to the gameplay trailers Atlus had been releasing...right up until it happened! Needless to say, I started playing as soon as I could on Wednesday. It was tough waiting until Friday to play again, but I did, and it was WORTH IT. Overall, this demo has convinced me to preorder the Deluxe edition instead of just buying the base game. (Something I regret not doing with Fates and Three Houses.) Unicorn Overlord, from the trailers, felt very much like "Atlus takes on classic Fire Emblem story with similar battle and character recruitment philosophies" until I watched some in-depth analyses on YouTube and played the demo myself. In fact, it's a squad-based RTS rather than a TBS. (Although the ability to control who goes into the squad is VERY useful and greats a nice layer of depth.) Still, the Fire Emblem vibes are strong with this one, especially since the latest FE game we got had a big focus on rings as well. (My Headcanon right now is actually that Unicorn Overlord takes place on Elyos, but eons after Engage takes place. Most of the rings have been lost to time, and Alear's time has long-since passed. This will most assuredly change as the game goes forward, but it's a fun connection for now.) My school district's Spring Break begins the Friday this game comes out, so I know what I'll be doing for most of it! I do have two books I've been waiting for coming out during that time as well, so I'll have stuff to do when my Switch's battery gets low, but I'm excited! Hopefully this isn't like Triangle Strategy, where I adored the demo and found the base-game to not live up to the hype due to choices that you could make. If it does live up to the hype, this will most assuredly be one of my top games of the year. My main squads by the end of the demo: This game tickles me in a way that has been evident in my Fire Emblem experience since Awakening that I didn't really address until these past few years - unit crafting and build-crafting. I LOVE buildcrafting units in Fire Emblem.* I've got a build I'm working on in Three Hopes for Dimitri (BOB SAGET HE WILL LEARN BOLTING EVENTUALLY) and am actively resisting starting Engage again to test out a few builds since I just finished a unit-crafting playthrough a few weeks ago. I'm doing some unit-crafting for Fates, since I haven't done that in a while.** Unicorn Overlord is looking to be RIPE with unit-crafting, and I AM HERE FOR IT. I just really hope we can get Renown easier, as we're going to need a LOT of it to experiment with different Unit builds. *Ironically the one FE game that has a ton of buildcrafting that I don't care for is Heroes. I just like using the units I like and the teams that feel good. (And for the dailies, the ones that get me victory with little investment.) And that's the long-and-short of it. **I'm more or less waiting until a mod comes out where the Awakening kids are fully playable and romanceable in Fates in a mod called Awakened Truth. I have the Silent Waves mod, which is fine, but the only playable charactersI wanted from that were Layla and Lilith. If the Awakened Truth mod can add them as well, or work with another mod that adds them, then I'll be in heaven. Fates is also one of those games where buildcrafting is far more fun in theory than actuality. I HATE the early-game of Fates with a burning passion, so much so that it's stopped multiple playthroughs.

Claude probably has the better reasoning IMO, although I don't think either hold up depending on the point of view. The Church, while not the friendliest to outsiders, doesn't seem to oppose them at the highest level. Rhea hired Shamir and has Cyril as her personal assistant/servant. Petra and to a smaller extent Dedue are allowed to attend with little-to-no consequence. If Claude, as the prince of Almyra came to Rhea and said "I want to improve relationships by going undercover and ultimately working to stop the cycle of violence between our two nations," I honestly don't think she'd oppose it. ...so long as Claude doesn't mention tearing down walls just yet. Edelgard ironically has a lot of similarities with Rhea, from both having their siblings murdered by the same people, to having the same enemies, to subtly and forcefully changing the geopolitical landscape of Fodlan to fit their ideologies. To me, Edelgard is where Rhea was. While they have no reason to be honest with each other, if they could both be a little more honest, I think they'd actually work great together. Although maybe that's the point. Scarlet Blaze also had a really good set-up for that. Edelgad comes to Rhea for help in outing TWSITD, and from there we could have seen the two team up to take them out. Remember that the Church, while allowing Crests to be prominent in society, doesn't condone it. (IIRC, one of the lore drops mention the Goddess "turning her back" on the people of Fodlan once they started to abuse the power of the Crests.) If Edelgard said "I can get rid of our mutual enemies if you step down and allow for a meritocracy system," I don't think Rhea would actually oppose that much. (Rhea's mindset would be like "sure, try out your little changes and I'll revert the system back in a couple of centuries," but maybe could come to appreciate and even agree with the changes over the course of the route.) As for Dimitri, I honestly don't think he'd tell. Well, not for Claude anyways. He'd ruminate over it, and he would fundamentally disagree with Edelgard, but he'd prefer to talk it out and come up with a solution that fits all of their needs rather than fight at first. Dimitri's first instinct isn't to tell, but to research, verify, and then act.

Emblem Oliver with Goldmary, two utterly narcissistic beings with different ideals of beauty would be hilarious. L'Archel with Citrinne Felix with Kagetsu - (Random side-bit I just wanted to share; I'm toying with a scenario in which the characters of Engage are the second generation to the Three Houses characters, and it's hilarious. Goldmary is now Manuela's daughter, Kagetsu is Felix's son, and Yunaka and Diamant are Sylvain's children. (Yunaka is Sylvain's daughter out of wedlock before he married and Diamant is his child with his wife.))

They personally don't bother me, and I like them for the head-canon/roleplaying aspect. I liked Byleth being called "Professor" or "Teach" far more than Persona 5's "this guy" thing. It was more personal and affectionate.

Story - A story told where each chapter has a different cast of characters, but they all meet up and join forces. Kind of like Radiant Dawn but only for a part of the game. Gameplay - More like Genealogy and Vesperia Saga (and the FEW games), where we'd have larger maps with things like side objectives and mini-missions to do on them per level. Magic - More like Disgaea in a way. where you can level up specific skills and have the shape of said skills change. For example, after getting a Fire/Thunder/Wind spell to Level 5, you can choose two spots for it to attack on a 2x2 grid for that character. For the next spell tier (Elfire/Wind/Thunder), get it to level 10 and it's 3 spots on a 3x3 grid. Final tier is 4x4 for the Arc-level of the spell.

I know that's sort of just Grima, but I'd love a game about trying to figure out how to stop a Godzilla Loptyr (aka a Fell Dragon or whatnot) the first time it appeared. No "we sealed it away for a thousand eyars before so we'll do it again" nonsense. This is the first time, and everything you throw at it, it'll throw back at you with more force.

From the 80 Pulls of CYL and a few random pulls: 4*+1 Nephenee B!Seliph Julia 2 B!Sorens (UGH) Fallen!Lyon B!Corrin Fem!Alear Fallen!Lilith I used my free summons on Robin (the giveaway one), Corrin (first 40), and Gullveig (next 40) Now I'm just trying to clear out my storage so I can get to 800k feathers and finish some 2-year-old merge projects.

I'm not the best person to talk about the game since I never completed a playthrough, but I like the characters!