BrightBow

I married Chrom because I hoped that the story would benefit from it.

Thank you for the response. So basically stuff like Elincia getting a more melancholic and heavier sounding version of her leitmotif in Radiant Dawn to go along with the burden of her leadership? Or am I completely of the rails there?

If I may ask, could you please elaborate what you mean with "puke on thematic development"? To be honest, I don't even know what "thematic development" is.

Now, I did read the interviews so I know that even before IS started the GBA games, there goal was to go back to the consoles. But I have to disagree with their opinion that this is the best way to play their games. I don't see the games benefit from the qualities of a console. But on handhelds... Turnbased games are so much easier to play on the go then action games. And it can be interrupted any time you want. So Fire Emblem's qualities really shine there. And developing for the Wii U would make the development costs explode while doing the entire opposite for the sales. That would be a huge mistake. Though, I wouldn't be surprised if the crossover serves to test the waters for that.

I am not saying they should include a unique model. I am saying that they shouldn't use characters that they don't come even close to properly display. Nobody held a gun at their head and forced IS to include the Black Knight in some fashion. There are tons of other characters that they could have use. For example, why not just make him Zelgius in the first place?

While we are on it: I also don't consider Spotpass content to be "free" in any way. It's content that you already paid for and therefore can expect quality for it. The fact that it requires an online activation to be used, doesn't make it any less so.

Spotpass units definitely were a wasted opportunity. The worst has to be the Black Knight. He not only looks nothing like he should but can't actually use swords. Even though being a sword fighter is a huge part of his character. I wish they would have at least payed attention to which characters the engine can actually display well. And individual palettes would go a long way to make Spotpass units resemble the originals. Yes, I know that the Avatar creation can't do that. "It's just a bonus, ect..." I've heard it before. But well... the Avatar creation really should allow to do that in the first place. The player should at least be able to choose his own palette. Not everyone likes blue.

Some of my favorite games are Gothic 1 & 2. Two PC games released in 2001 and 2003 respectively. While the series was big over here, it never got off internationally. So it should qualify for this thread. I can only recommend the first two. The series got further sequels. But unfortunately Gothic 3 was broken beyond believe. After that one, I didn't care about the series anymore. Anyway, the first two Gothic games and TESIII: Morrowind were what defined RPGs for me when I was a child. Even though they couldn't be any more different from each other. Morrowind's world offered freedom that I never seen before in a game. Discovering the depth's of the sea's with water breathing spells? You can do that. A destination is at a high place? Just fly there. Etc.. Gothic couldn't match that. But it had other qualities that made it just as good in my book. It had a tight atmosphere and an immensely lively (but grim) environment The first game plays in a prison colony, that was taken over by the inhabitants after an attempt to secure it with a magical barrier went wrong. Since almost all NPCs are outlaws, you not only have to worry about the monsters that force your low level ass to run like hell but also with the NPCs wanting to beat your non-existent lunch money out of you. Literally, since you don't actually die when knocked out by a human. And NPCs are free to empty your pockets until you can get up. But you can return the favor. So the world is fittingly hostile, making leveling feel so satisfying as you grew from having to run like hell from the mere sight of danger, to easily crush anything. There are tons of NPCs running around the camps, going through their daily routine. Like, in the evening you can see like a dozen NPCs sitting around a campfire, eating, talking to each other, playing banjo or whatever before they go to sleep eventually. That was five years before Oblivion btw. I would say that Oblivion's environmental actions can't compare. At all. Like I said, melee attacks don't actually kill other NPCs. They only die when you stab them while they are unconscious on the floor. That makes certain quests a lot easier since you can take all their stuff in the meantime. The same goes for you, but NPCs will only kill you when you murdered someone. Btw, NPCs also remember that you beat them up. So they get scared shitless when they just see you drawing your weapon. Once you get stronger, there is no greater pleasure then to teach a lesson to all those NPCs who gave you a hard time before. Btw, did I mention that level progression in this game is fun? The magical barrier is a cool concept too, since it actually gives a reason that you can't leave the game world. And the barrier is a real thing. Just try walking backwards right after the beginning of the game. Normally you can't see the barrier. But every now and then, you can see he magical web engulf the entire sky to remind you that you are really trapped in a cage. Even after all these years, I still think that the effect looks fascinating. In order to properly start the main quest is too get yourself popular at one of the three rivaling camps. However, after a few small quests, they all lead into the same main quest. The main difference is that depending on how your carrier goes, you have access to teachers who teach different advanced skills. I would say that the game's biggest flaw is that it's as beginner friendly as it sounds. Namely: you get thrown in a world filled with deadly monsters and criminals while your character doesn't know how to swing a sword. Literally. You need to find a teacher before your character stops trying to swing an one-handed sword in two hands. Which consequently makes the combat system initially look a lot worse then it actually is. And you even have to buy a map. Well, or beat up the map drawer and take his stuff. (Did I mention that Gothic is awesome?) But as I said: It makes progress all the more satisfying. And while I don't know for sure, I expect that the English dub isn't very good. Since this post ended up lasting as long as it does, I will summarize the second game like this: It's the same engine but runs quite a bit smoother. Both mechanical wise, controls and in terms from your starting position. Also, it has an ad-don that is amazing beyond words.

I would argue that it's worse because of the reinforcements. Sure, FE6 has instantly moving reinforcements too. But usually not close to your army, since the maps are actually pretty huge in that game. Of course, Sophia's joining chapter is an absolute nightmare. But I would say that afterwards it's comparatively easy for her to avoid getting attacked at all.

Best: FE10 Haar Worst: Lissa FE10 Haar is an over leveled Dragon Knight in a game where nothing can really hurt them. And he has tons of availability as well. Honorable mention goes to Shigen (TRS), who has a sword that revives him again and again as long as the 40 charges of his sword don't run out. And Lissa is a low level cleric with no speed, who gets double attacked to death by instantly moving reinforcements spawning near your army. Plus, I am still sore that she died on the last turn in the final chapter.

There is no thing in Awakening that I enjoyed in the first place. The characters are absurdly shallow, the story is a really bad joke and the gameplay is boring. The best thing I can say about it, is that the atmospheric soundtrack might work if everything else in the game wasn't trying to be as goofy as possible. But as it is, it's a complete mess. But okay, my feelings aside, the continuation of the series is of course good for the people who do enjoy it. But every other series has people who enjoy it, too. So why does Fire Emblem deserve special treatment beyond a mere personal level? What "greater good" does Fire Emblem provide that other franchises don't? And if a personal level does matter... well, I would rather not have yet another franchise which objectifies one half of humanity for the benefit of the other half. Obviously porn will alway exist and I don't actually mind it. At this point, my respect for Fire Emblem would actually rise immensely if they would just officially become a H-game series. But it worries me to see this sort of dehumanization everywhere and in such an extreme fashion. It's not to long ago, when No more Heroes had a group of girls just like Nowi for the purpose of parody. Back then, it was funny. But Fire Emblem of all franchises, did surpass this exaggeration by not only having a little girl dressed exactly as the ones from NmH but with added marriage and pregnancy. And all of this without the self-awareness of No more Heroes. No, in Awakening we are supposed to care about the characters. They are serious. One could of course argue how much our fiction affects our society, But I have no doubts that it is at least a reflection of it. And it looks very ugly. Unless of course video game publishers are just ignorant about what their customers actually want. But then there is no reason not to get rid of it. And In the faint hope that I am not yet deserving of a warn or worse, I will tune out now. Edit: Oh, whatever. It's too late to avoid a warn that way. And to be honest, I think it's perfectly on the topic of this absurdly out-off-any possible-character figure anyway. Especially since we know how this one looks since no less then four months and we haven't even anything about the Marth figure. And if the series stays like that, then I am wasting my time on the forums anyway. "Sniff... Ah, gods. Eighteen long years...What does any of it mean now?"

Fanservice? Fire Emblem is a fantasy themed strategy RPG... or something like that. RPG, you know story, characters, that sort of thing. So how those any of this crap service a fan? The fact that IS seems to think that this is fanservice is specifically what pisses me off about this. Because I just so happen to be a fan and I don't feel serviced. Just insulted. And while I technically couldn't care less about random merchandise, I also can't ignore how it fits in the bigger picture. Because the attitude that makes this figurine is the same attitude that produced Awakening. And it will produce the future games in the series. And that matters because this is not why I play RPGs or Fire Emblem. My life has already become richer for having played this series. It left me with tons of positive experience and some of my favorite characters ever, most of them who just so happen to posses ovaries. And if IS continues to produce characters that are mere vaguely human shaped sexual fantasies rather then anything coming close to resemble the characters that I play the series for, then it's naturally a concern for me.

Amazing. So I guess they finally made if official that Fire Emblem is a H-game series now. About time. About fucking time. ...I wish I could still say how disappointed I am. But since March 2012, too much has happened for me to even give a damn anymore. So just fuck IS, I guess.

Best: Thracia Worst: Akatsuki no Megami (aka Radian Dawn JPN version) You need less then 20% Hp AND the skill is based on your... well, Skill. Aaaaand then it still might not be a critical hit since you only get a 50% boast. Unless there is something that I misunderstand, this one sounds even worse then Awakening's version.

Well, I put my hopes on the Shadow Dragon one. The Awakening design was taking into account that he was Lucina's model. The look doesn't suit him. On the other hand, I can't see them use the old design, since we also have a new Falchion now.

"Strategy in your face!" "One sad widow coming up!" "So long, sucker!" "This will leave a stain." "I love this part!" "Your fault for getting yourself drafted." "I make deep cuts!" "Die, my little chunks of exp"

Stahl with 10 speed as a 15/1 Paladin. He does have 20 Def though. I should probably have promoted him to Great Knight for a whooping 6 Speed. He got doubled by anything anyway.

She is very open about being a backstabber and abuses the people in the army. And even her own husband and daughter apparently I would say that it is perfectly in line with her character.

...while s/he was unconscious...?

A support with MU. Where MU falls unconscious, It ends with her getting exited like a (evil) schoolgirl over how helpless s/he is. Tharja: Aw, how sweet. He's sleeping. Sleeping and...helpless. Hee hee hee hee! Yeah, it's just someone being at the mercy of their chaotic evil, giggling yandere stalker. It's totally innocent and doesn't imply rape at all. *sigh*

Oh man, I remember that developer interview. *sigh* Even though my impression of Awakening couldn't have been any lower (or so i thought), seeing everyone of them expressing their love for this particular shallow looking character in combination with the Facebook poll, made me consider that there might be some good writing to be found after all. That the book might be so much better then the really, really, really ugly cover. So I read the script of her recruitment chapter... where she gets recruited despite making no effort to hide her evil nature. Okaaaayyyy... Then I read her supports and... yeah, it wasn't much better. She abuses people left and right and gets away with it. Except for marriage proposals, of course. And she actually rapes Robin... *sigh* Definitely the most disgusting thing in a game that I have ever witnessed. I find it difficult to imagine that anyone working on Awakening could have worked on PoR-RD... ...except for whoever it was, who decided that a well written script was too much for their audience, resulting in the two scripts of RD. The involvement of that person would explain sooo much about Awakenings writing. Anyway, it doesn't matter if Tharja is nice to some people. She has no regrets and not the slightest bit of selfdoubt. But just because she manages once or twice to go one single day without drowning a bag of kittens, she can somehow be forgiven? That takes a bit more work, to say the least.

It is absurd to assume that people only care about the female characters because of their bodies. They all have the same boring 8/15 supermodel body as everyone else. Because that one didn't get old in the last two decades. And since day one (aka, the release of the Tiamo artwork.), I found the complete lack of any sort of expression and identity in the artwork of the female characters to be completely repulsive. In exchange we saw objectifying poses and outfits, reaching new lows with every update. As a male customer, I always feel insulted by the assumption that I could only consider dolls without any personality to be appealing. But in this case it was particular painful since not only was this insult coming from my favorite franchise but they even expected me to marry one of these goofs. And once we got information on the fetishy quirks that the female characters have in exchange for actual personalities, I decided pretty quickly to play as female Robin since male characters wouldn't be as objectived as the female ones. Turns out that they were just as shallow. It's just that their quirks are more random. (Suuuugggaaaaaar! *dies*) Needless to say, I couldn't bring myself to marry one of them either. In the end, I simply married Chrom because I was hoping for some extra drama with Lucina. Turns out that when Awakening tries drama, it actually ends with comedy. Still a win, I guess.

My Avatar was originally formed by my feelings after playing the demo. Because of how nonsensical everything was and how stupid the characters acted, I, intended her to be the Kiff to Chrom's Zapp Brannigan. I even named her Kiff because of that. But seeing how everyone loves her for no reason, that wasn't very easy to imagine. And then I had to change my interpretation after witnessing her burning and drowning hundreds of thousands of people, like they were nothing but mere rats. Not to mention that she was using the very same strategy that in the last big game was considered to be cowardly and despicable to the point that people had trouble even believing it. And she was using it without showing herself even the slightest bit affected by the weight of her actions, instead earning nothing but praise for her genius... and lack of humanity apparently. The fact that she was throwing dangerous sharp objects (seriously, who does that?) at Chrom's unprotected skin didn't help matter either. So depending on circumstances, she is two different character: If I feel like using her as an actual Avatar, she is still the original Kiff. But if I play her consistently with her actions in-game, she is more like the Black Mage to Chrom's Fighter. (As in 8-Bit Theater of course) This Kiff is completely without empathy and extremely impulsive. Her supposed strategies are nothing but nonsense. She is nevertheless highly intelligent, it's just that she considers seeing random plans in action, way more interesting then bothering to come up with a plan that is likely to work.

Well, there obviously is going to be representation but I don't think that any songs in Awakening fit an action game. This is something that already bothered me in Brawl. Atmospheric songs like "Crimea marches" were just to freaking dull. And honestly, even for a turn based game, I found the whole Awakening soundtrack to be boring and forgettable. If nothing else, I would expect a pretty heavy arrangement. But even then, there is no tune in Awakening that I would recognize. I mean, I normally have always have tunes of games stuck in my head after playing it. But not with Awakening.

Man, Nintendo really gets into DLC now. Buyable cheat codes for Awakening and now DLC for the StreetPass Plaza of all things? Really? Update 3 is amazing, of course. I'm not sure why we still have to deal with limited save slots when we can save data on the system itself.