Othin

Looking into things: In FE3/4/5/6/9/11/12, promotion gains are the difference between the two classes' base stats. (Except HP in FE4/5, which doesn't increase at all.) I would assume it's also true for FE1, but I couldn't find info on promotion gains to check. I did some calculations, and it appears to also be true for FE13, assuming those wheels represent base stats, which seems very likely. In FE7/8/10, on the other hand, promotion gains are disconnected from class base stats and very arbitrary. FE2 uses the promoted class's base stats, but as a minimum. I calculated projected base stats for the classes here: http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=30975&view=findpost&p=1884467 It's worth noting that for Cavalier and Paladin, the projected base stats for the FE13 class are equal to or greater than the corresponding stats for the FE6 class in every stat. Great Knights appear very well balanced with Paladins: +1 Mag, +1 Skl, +3 Spd, +5 Res, and +1 Move vs. +2 Str, +4 Def, and Axes. Even if the two aren't equal, they each have substantial advantages over the other. It seems much better than how they compared in FE8, which was really just a question of whether you care about Move or not. And just because I feel like it: Cleric Str: 0 Mag: 3 Skl: 2 Spd: 4 Def: 1 Res: 6 Sage Str: 1 (+1) Mag: 7 (+4) Skl: 5 (+3) Spd: 7 (+3) Def: 4 (+3) Res: 5 (-1) Battle Cleric Str: 5 (+5) Mag: 5 (+2) Skl: 4 (+2) Spd: 6 (+2) Def: 6 (+5) Res: 6 (+0) Cleric similarly has all of its base stats equal or better than its FE6 counterpart. Sage has a couple of losses, depending on whether it's compared to the male or female version of the FE6 class, but regardless, its stats seem higher overall as well. I guess this is a time to wonder about whether or not the male/female class distinctions will carry over. I'm hoping they don't; they always seemed unnecessary and only serving to weaken the female classes. They weren't in FE11/12, but that was probably just because they weren't in FE1/3, either, so it remains to be seen whether or not IS still wants to use the system in a game where the differences may be even more substantial. If nothing else, it's worth noting that the Cleric and Battle Cleric classes will be strictly female, because of their Japanese names. So if the game has male Priests (like every game except FE7), they'll have their own class and promotion, although I think it's likely that they'll share Sage as an option like in FE8. We may or may not see this sort of thing with other classes.

With strength like that, I imagine outside of that armor, he'd be terrifying.

Or they just wanted to demonstrate changes over time, opting to be a bit excessive. Say, can anyone read the kanji over Valencia in the first scan?

Yes, as I just explained.

I played FE4 a lot some time ago, and therefore I tend to have a lot to say about it, but since last summer, I started finding it to be very boring and haven't played it since. Meanwhile, I've been playing FE11 pretty much continuously for the past few days to finally get through it for once; the farthest I've played through it before was Ch3. Dark Sage, are you familiar with the concept of hyperbole? FE10 in particular is not balanced at all; it may be more balanced than FE4, but it's definitely not a game I would play in the search for a balanced game. My impression of FE11 and FE12 so far is that they are not particularly balanced, either. In terms of player vs. enemy balance, they seem to veer wildly in one direction or the other, and in terms of how the characters compare to one another, I'm more concerned with the ability of each character to stand out in some way. It's hard enough to stand out without valuable, permanent personal skills like in FE4, FE5, TRS, and BS (and occasionally FE9), but damn near impossible without even having individual classes. Although it hasn't been so bad with ignoring Reclass as an option entirely.

According to Pegasus Knight, Alan's death quote starts with "く くそっ." "くそっ" appears to translate as a variety of curses, including "Shit", "Fuck", and "Damn it". (At least, according to Google Translate; I'm not familiar with the word myself.) The additional "く" at the beginning, then, can be understood as the stammering he displays in the translation.

Continue is fun, but not interesting enough to determine a promotion alone, I'd say. It's worth noting that this is the first game to have both branched promotions and a full skill system. That may open up some interesting options.

Because magic. We don't really know how much stuff has changed, just that it hasn't developed in the same way as our own world. Certainly, the presence of magic would change those developments.

Indeed. I don't think we should expect to see things sticking to the way the patterns in FE11/12; those were just the way they were because of the limits of FE1/3. For example, adding a Thief promotion there would have substantially changed the role Thieves could play, but it's definitely going to show up here. Mage --> Sage/Mage Knight and Knight --> General/Great Knight seem certain. Mage Knight fits with the pattern of classes with both weapons and magic, and I think we'll see an FE4-style version with either swords or lances as its new weapon. Great Knight as the Knight promotion makes sense for why it would have base stats set up in a way that would allow for a negative Speed promotion gain from Cavalier. Hard to say about the rest, but they do seem interested in getting creative.

It is set in the future. Krom is described as the descendant of the "Hero King", whom we know as Marth. That indicates at least 100 years have passed, and possibly many hundreds of years. Yes, they forgot what Archanea was supposed to look like and then made a map with land masses in all the same places but sometimes just shifted around a bit. They wouldn't have checked the map for the games they were making just a couple of years ago, to make sure the new one compared to it in exactly the way they wanted it to; they just happened to make one that's basically the same by sheer coincidence.

Pass. I like my mind.

Indeed. Randoman, you seem to think the only reason anyone would say he's not Marth is that we don't want him to be Marth. You're entirely dismissing the real answer: we look at the facts, we see reasons why it wouldn't be the real Marth, and to us, those appear to be the strongest reasons.

Why must it stop at Ch4. Why can there not be more of this.

As was just explained, Aegir was originally mentioned in FE4. And fuck no.

http://serenesforest.net/fe13/img/070312A.jpg http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/2714/882229-akaneiabigshadowdragon_large.jpg

I wasn't aware that I play FE4. And FE10/11/12 are hardly paragons of balance.

Indeed. Edited for clarification.

FE13 is (initially) in Archanea. There's no question about that. Regardless, that's completely meaningless. FE4 didn't have the Rescue command, but FE5, set in the same place, did. FE11/12 only didn't have Rescue because they were remakes of specific games that didn't have the commend. FE13 is not, and it's demonstrated many other things the previous Archanea games didn't have, including branched promotions, monsters, the teaming up system, and hell, a Lord not named Marth. Granted, most of these were also in Valencia, which is the setting for some of FE13, but that just means it would be even harder for the game to be bound specifically to the features of the Archanea games.

Yeah, that's what I'm waiting to find out. But it seems pretty much certain that Krom's sword is named the way it is to differentiate it from the other Falchion, by whatever means. Well, it's definitely evidence that he's claiming to be male, which makes sense as he's claiming to be Marth. Could still allow for the actual character to be female, but at least it's reason enough to stick to one set of pronouns for now.

There's been plenty of time, and from what I understand, there's plenty of travel between the two continents. I can't say I have any real idea as to what the reason might be, but I don't think feasibility is an issue.

Alternate translations seem to include Sealing Sword Falchion, or perhaps Confining Sword Falchion. Two continents, each with their own Falchion. Both continents are now featured in this game. Two characters show up with Falchions. Marth II has one of them; chances are, that's the real Marth's Falchion from FE1. Krom's Falchion, in turn, then seems likely to be the one from FE2. After all, that's the one that functions as a "sealing" (or "confining") sword.

Wait wait wait. One of the Falchions was a sword that sealed a goddess? What's Krom's sword's name, again?

"Marusu" is also the katakana used for the original Marth's name. Also the game is set in Archanea (at least partially) and Krom is a descendant of Marth. So no way any of that is coincidental.

Hell yes.

I play a game with less balance issues instead of a game with more, yes.