Sidereal Wraith

Yoshitaka Amano's (Faris' artist and famous Final Fantasy artist) artwork of Elric:

You think that Peri and many of the other playable characters of Fates are villains? Flawed? Yes. Do morally questionable things? Yes. Villains? No. Characters like Elric of Melnibone are goddamn villains. Elric has slaughtered untold hundreds of innocent people with his hellsword, Stormbringer, to please his patron god, Arioch, Lord of the Higher Hell and to keep himself alive. And the funny thing is that Elric is the protagonist of his own saga and saves the day in the multiple times over the course of his adventures. P.S. Stormbringer doesn't just kill people but also devours the souls of its victims.

The Prince of Ruins, Womenslayer, Kinslayer, Dragon Emperor, The Thin White Duke, Godslayer, The White Wolf of Immryr. Since 1961, Michael Moorcock's infamous Elric of Melnibone has been a major influence on many famous anti-heroes, anime villains, and edgelords the world over. Join me in traveling back through the mists of time to rediscover a character that has left an indelible mark on the fantasy genre for over half a century.

I don't think TMS will get a port to the Switch.

Some interesting food for thought on Awakening and its story.

Cries for Tanelorn!

Have a good time!

Just curious.

Jeans all day everyday!

Bang Bang!!!

Shannan and Ares from Genealogy of the Holy War. The two of them are as badass as they come with their Holy Weapons.

Understands the importance of the Knight of Darkness.

Still in the middle of nowhere.

Is a fan of old timey radio shows.

Nym's comment was as inevitable as his guilty conscious...

Knows that the Shadow knows! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!

Knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men!

Tales of Zesteria!

Killed Nei!

...ALYS!!!

They're coming...

A) Its an example of incredibly poor writing and design. The inclusion of the Awakening characters comes off as forced rather than organic. I can buy the prospect of characters from SD appearing in Gaiden because both games exist in the same world and around the same time. This is why I'm okay with characters from Binding Blade appearing in Blazing Sword and vice-verse. Anakanos travelling to another dimension to find dragon slayers to help him kill himself and help his son/daughter, only to have this plot point destroyed by the curse of Valla reeks of poorly thought-out story telling. I.E. the explanation is longwinded and nonsensical. B) The whole idea of the character endings in Awakening is to give closure to the characters and even get the characters married depending on the player's choice. By having the option to marry off Inigo, Severa, and Owian in both games runs the risk of getting their marriage endings in Awakening retconned in the process and invalidating the player's agency in Awakening. It also doesn't help that the original Japanese version of Hidden Truths heavily implies that Inigo, Owain, and Severa in Fates are actually the same characters from The Future Past and not from Awakening. Also Inigo is killed in the Birthright path, making it impossible for him to return home. B Subsection) I was referring to Est's ending in Mystery of the Emblem, not SD. Even thought IS revived Camus I feel that this addition added something to the already paper thin plot of Gaiden and helped to apply some more character conflict for Nyna in Mystery of the Emblem. The Awakening characters in Fates are superfluous, adding nothing to the plot and instead raise several questions about why they are here in the first place. These questions are not answered main game and were only given in two DLC maps later on as an afterthought. C) Even thought archetypes do appear regularly in FE, these expies are still nothing more then blatant fan service. The expies might as well be Gaius, Cordelia, and Tharja, because these second-generation characters are literally nothing more then carbon copies of already existing characters from Awakening. At least in the other games the archetype characters were given different names, appearances, and backstories as opposed to the characters they were similar too. D) Agreed E) I still think that more leeway can be given to the FE series in 1992 because it was still young and fledging, as opposed to the FE series of 2015. The appearances of SD characters in Gaiden added something to the game, whereas the inclusion of Awakening characters to Fates did nothing except give use two more second-generation characters and raised several questions about the continuity of the series which then only got explained in two paid DLC maps.

The reasons why I'm fine with Camus and the Whitewings being in Gaiden: A) Archanea and Valentia exist in the same world and the events of both SD and Gaiden happen around the same time. B) Camus' (a.k.a. Zeke's) appearance in Gaiden contributes to his overall story and character development, even if the amnesia is a forced plot point. C) Having the Whitewings participate in Gaiden helps to explain Est's disappearance at the end of Mystery of the Emblem, for it can be inferred that she ran away to Valentia and Abel followed after her. D) I can forgive Gaiden for reusing characters from SD because it was the second game in the series and as such FE, as a whole, was still searching for its identity as a series. Why having Awakening characters in Fates didn't work: A) The events of Awakening and Fates take place in different dimensions. B) Hidden Truths 1 and 2 did a piss pour job explaining why Inigo, Severa, and Owain are in Fates to begin with, on top of retconning their character endings from Awakening. C) As far as I know, Fates provides NO reasons for why Gaius, Cordelia, and Tharja appear as second-generation characters in Fates. (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) D) Fates didn't use this opportunity to flesh out any of these characters anymore so then Awakening did. E) The fanservice of Fates comes off as pure pandering to fans of Awakening when compared to the reused characters in Gaiden. This is the case because all the Awakening characters who appear in Fates are incredibly popular amongst the FE community.

I'm excited that Gaiden is getting a remake, because of all the other games it was the one that needed it the most. My biggest fear is that this remake is being made in the Post-Awakening era of FE. Don't get me wrong, I like Awakening and Fates despite their flaws, but I fear that IS will shove boatloads of fan service into the game in order to appease newer fans. I don't want Takumi or Xander randomly appearing as playable characters in Echoes for one simple reason: Gaiden is NOT their story! One of the biggest problems with Fates was the inclusion of Awakening characters who didn't contribute anything to the plot and were put in the game solely for fanservice. From what I've seen so far I'm still optimistic about Echoes. All IS has to do with the plot of Echoes is flesh out the original story, add some NEW characters, and have a support system to give depth to the cast. Just keep fanservice on a very short leash and this game will be golden.

Evil