BrightBow

It's still disheartening for me to see that my former favorite series turned into such an otaku mud-pool. If this is what it takes to be popular in the world these days, then I'm seriously disappointed.

Best: Pahn Worst: Cath I'm not counting RD Sothe, because his awesomeness has little to do with thieving and more with his ability to barehandily knock Micaiah into negative hitpoints with one single hit. Anyway, Pahn is the best thief in the game where thieving just so happens to be more useful then ever. Beyond that, he also has a PCC of five, tons of useful skills, no less then 5 movements stars and a high weapon rank. He also receives a support from the resident dancer. He also supports her and others back. Oh, and he just so happens to carrier a powerful brave weapon with 60 use that gives it's wearer the charisma skill on top of having a huge crit bonus which alone would boast his crit to 100% on his second strike. The list of things that make him awesome is pretty damn long. On the other end of the spectrum, we have Cath. She comes way to late, is a total pain to recruit and is mercilessly overshadowed by her competition. The lockpicks you can steal from her during the first two meetings are more useful then anything that she provides during her whole stay with the army.

Sure. Bioware in particular is kinda cool. But I would still say that they are more the exception rather then the rule.

Because that's what people do. The first impression is called the most important one for a reason. And with video gams, it's not just the first impression that is bad. Publishers present their games at conventions accompanied by scantly clad women. Followed by this, Sex is used in the trailers, ads and covers. You actually have to give the subject enough benefit of doubt to spend enough cast to buy a console and games for it. And why would people who don't see anything appealing about it care enough to go that far? Of course, Nintendo did do a good job of brining a different image of video games into the public consciousness, thanks to the Wii. Maybe the developers but not the publishers. And those things are great and all but it only really shows when you actually get far enough to play them. Hitman is an particular awful example. Remember the trailer where the protagonist killed the sexed-up nun assassins? That's exactly the kind of stuff that I'm talking about.

That's all true but all of them are pretty bad. Or they almost can't be used at all. I mean, it can be so bad that you only get the PoR version for the very final chapter. And the boss in that chapter can't even be hurt by it.

I'm not questioning that but the subject is it's presentation. I mean how does it look like from the perspective of someone who has not much to do with video games? What would that person think about it? And what would that person think of the whole video game culture?

Considering that I started playing games with Tomb Raider III and Lara is pretty much legendary for her sexualisation, I beg to differ. Among other things, I also played a lot WarCraft 3, which has a whole faction of women dressed in their underwear. The American video game industry is not any more mature then the Japanese one and never had been. Though that might change. The only reason one might think differently is because of the market dominance of military shooters, who more often then not feature no female characters at all.

I guess that would be Link. The first time in the series that I really played other characters, was when I wasted hours upon hours trying to win Melee's Event 51 and ended up using someone else. Being a Starfox 64 fan, I ended up switching to Falco, who made quick work of the event. It was kinda weird how all the time with Link didn't seem to mean much in the end.

Of course they do. The industry doesn't really act as if it wants gaming to be taken seriously. Awakening itself is a pretty good example to demonstrate that the industry only cares about targeting horny teenage males.

Best: FE11/12 Palla/Catria/Est Worst: FE4 Vampa/Eliu/Fetra The DS ones are awesome because they allow quite a bit of liberty in it's setup thanks to class change, which comes in handy during mutliplayer. Even better, it actually overwrites Dazzle. Honorable mention goes to Barth/Bors and Wendy. It's the only version of the attack to be available early in the game and it can be used to hit those nasty high avoid bosses with 100% accuracy. On the other hand of the spectrum, the mage trio is actually worse of for having it. Because they will always try to set it up, they will always get into Astra distance of their intended victim, usually getting themselves killed before they can activate it. It doesn't occur to them, that they can just wait next to their target and let the third sister finish it off with one single shot and no chance to counterattack.

If I could ask for a moment: Realizing that Yusuke Kozaki is the man behind the designs of No More Heroes makes me wonder about something. Could it be that every little girl he draws looks just like a Bizarre Jelly girl? I would prefer to believe that the people at IS not actually wanted Nowi to look just like Strawberry and her friends. On topic, I consider his artwork to be a massive downgrade. Armor that flaunts a character's anatomy is a bad idea in general. It's not even a matter of realism. After all, the artwork is supposed to express the character. But Yusuke Kozaki's artwork merely tries (keyword being "tries") to make the characters look sexy in exchange for mercilessly underselling the efforts that the writing stuff put into them. And it doesn't end with the wardrobe. I consider the poses to be way worse with that. The male characters are all fine. They have very expressive poses. I would say that I get a good idea who those characters are just by looking at them. The poses of the female characters on other hand... well, I would say that they are all horribly bad at that but looking at Cordelia above in particular... Just what is her pose supposed to express? It's probably supposed to be sexy but it's just all kinds of messed up, swinging her hips like that and bending her body awkwardly. Anyway, just compare the pose to Titania. Look at her focused eyes and secure stance. I would say that this an expressive pose. Compared to that, Awakening is just awful.

But the absence of tutorials is the only difference between Lyn Normal and Hard mode. Therefore, it doesn't make sense that it could be turned off in Normal mode. Not to mention that they actually did include the possibility to skip the tutorial. But you have to link up with Sword of Seals. Of course, that isn't an option with the international version.

But you can't play hard mode when it's your first playthrough.

Oh yes. Ilyana. Honestly, I don't see anything appealing about her. There is nothing to her character besides that one quirk and she only provides rather sorry comic relief. What makes this worse, is that it's not just a cute quirk but has been shown to be rather harmful. She constantly faints, is very weak and is entirely dependent on the goodwill of the merchants. And that's not really funny. Still, I would say Mia is the worst. Not that there is to much wrong with her but I think that it's kind of a problem that she is associated with the mercs. I mean, all members have a lot of depth and synergy with each other, thanks to them getting plenty of time to interact outside of supports and info convos. However, Mia joins too late to get any dialogue, so she kinda feels alien to the rest of the team. And her supports don't manage to levitate her above being two-dimensional, further making her feel out of place to her more fleshed out comrades. Granted, that lack of synergy only became a problem in Radiant Dawn. If she doesn't count, then it would probably be Ilyana for reasons already stated or with Devdan because I just don't see the point with this guy. Best is way easier: Jill. For one thing, she shows us that doing the right thing can be immensely difficult. But more importantly, she does the very important job of humanizing the Daein people. Levitating an entire nations above being merely a bunch of faceless racist bastards is quite an accomplishment. Not bad for an optional character. Plus, she rides a dragon and can use axes after promotion. And she has armor that covers her entire back. What's not to love?

Well, back in the NES games, there was at least a reason for Tiki's design. At least I would say that I've read enough Asterix comics (and took a few Latin classes) to tell that the designs were intended to resemble ancient Rome or Greek or whatever. And naked legs come with the territory there. Unless it involves toga's going all the way down to the feet. It wasn't done for mere sex appeal. Heck, before he got pants and threw away his sandals, Marth's robe was probably even shorter then Tiki's.

Hey, that sounds great. That actually sounds like a very good concept. It's just to bad that stuff like this is wrapped up in such an disgusting package. Ribbons and hearts are stereotypical childish and girly. Lingerie? Not so much. She does to you? I have to say, she never really comes across more then a little girl to me. A melancholic, lonely and dark little girl who doesn't want or dare to burden anyone with her troubles but a little girl nonetheless. Granted, it doesn't show all that much because she is so reserved and formal but it showed when she tried to become family with Ephrahim.

Well, if that claim would change my mind, that would be very impressive, considering I even used the term "lingerie" very deliberately because I figured that even the term "underwear" just isn't sufficient in describing her clothes. And the game really isn't helping it's case with the ribbons and hearts. Edit: Good to know, I'm really not the only one to edit their posts when somebody already writes a response. Honestly, I don't know what to make of the new part. There is no difference between a normal child and a sexualized one because they appeal to the same crowd anyway? How does this make her any better? Or somehow not sexualized for that matter?

Yeah, I always turn them off. I don't see the point with Auto-Cursor in particular. It's a lot more convenient when the cursor starts where I left off. For Auto-End, I guess the point is to allow people to move forward that haven't yet figured out how to end a turn. But otherwise? I think it just kinda takes you off-guard.

There is another saying: "If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.". And quite frankly: Since it was announced, this game has quacked a lot. Do you really think that Nowi's wardrobe serves a meaningful purpose to the games narrative? Really? Besides pandering to the worst aspects of the Otaku subculture and a few cheap jokes? And Nono's personality is that she really does act like a child. I'm sorry but I fail to see any redeeming factors with her. If you really want to, you can shrug it of by calling it a cover, whatever. But even that doesn't change the fact that said cover just so happens to be disgusting. You know as well as I do, that those girls have an entirely different wardrobe. They are "Moe" or whatever but they aren't sexualized in any way. Nowi really is without equal.

Most of my posts are probably negative but: I do appreciate the improvements in regards to the endless game rather then what FE8 did. For the artwork, I actually like the coloring. I think I can do without everyone being armored in Rainbow colors. Most of the mechanical changes seem promising enough but I haven't played it yet so I don't know yet. I'm pretty sure that list goes longer once I get to play. The thing is, I usually don't post casually. I tend to post only when I feel particular strongly about something so I end keeping my positive thoughts for myself.

So I complain about Nono, argued that NoA's adaption of a Reggie meme might be out of character for him and protest about Nono by using a sarcastic Avatar... Yes, I can see why you think that I complain about everything and not just Nono. No, Fa showed that Dragons do in fact have the same maturity as their appearance would suggest. The girl didn't even know about death even though she is the same age as Sophia. And she was already stated to grow slower then normal humans. Trust me, I did try seeking for redeeming circumstances for this game.

The thing is that over the course of the lifetime of her husband, she couldn't have possibly grown much older because Ninian and Nils didn't grow much older over the course of a whole thousand years. Think about it, even in the best possible circumstances we are looking at a mere tenth of what little growth those two showed. And that's heavily exaggerated in IS favor. Nobody reaches a hundred years, let alone keeps their sexual potency that long. Man, I just love how IS burned themselves every bridge that could have served as an excuse. There are no redeeming circumstances for her.

"Apparently" based on what? I don't like it's sexualisation of the female cast and that said sexualisation reaches entirely new lows by not even shying away from little girls. The fact that I complain about that a lot doesn't change that this is what my complaints are focused on. I'm sorry but if you want to discredit my argument by discrediting me, then you have to try a little harder. Doesn't she have a daughter?

Yes, her looks do matter. There was no reason for her to look like a kid. it's just that the fellas at IS figured it would be appropriate for a character that can be impregnated to look like a kid. Second, even if we let this excuse slide somehow, there is still the issue that her behaviour proves her actual maturity: She is a kid. And why am I on this board? Because this is a board about a series which has for the last twenty years done an impressive job of not putting little girls into Lingerie. And I kinda liked that. As a result, I think that I have more reason being her then the people who don't actually mind this. You... might wanna take another look at their artwork. Fa and Tiki http://www.serenesforest.net/media/fe6illust/s/fa.png http://www.serenesforest.net/media/fe3illust/Chiki.jpg In contrast to Nono http://serenesforest.net/fe13/img/nd_nono.jpg I don't think so. Heck, No More Heroes featured a group of sexualized little anime girls who look EXACTLY like Nono, and they were intended to be an exaggeration for the sake of parody. I doubt, that you find plenty of characters like her in stuff that isn't outright pornographic because that is stuff that only the otaku subculture appreciates. It has no place in mainstream.

Yes, I can understand that nobody wants to talk about her. Because nobody wants to face the fact that their favorite game contains on of the most disgusting characters to ever appear in a mainstream video game. And the accompanying reality that including such characters in games is not okay. That just ignoring these kind of characters is not okay. And that approving of those things by giving money to the company that does think that those things are okay, is NOT okay. But hey, that's not the reason right? It's just because we already had that discussion... not last month though. I think I would know that. But praising the game that turns little kids into sex objects is of course something you can do every day of the week and 24 hours a day.