Iridium

It's almost like it's a bad idea to invest money into a service that relies on abrupt power creep to stay afloat.

yeah i'm not dumb enough to think anyone i like stands a chance, they never do Donnel was probably my best shot of getting a character I actually like in, but I kinda doubt he's got much chance now since we already have a bunch of Awakening characters and any open slots will probably go to a villain or Tharja. Henry and Redhead Canas definitely aren't getting in when Tharja exists, Hinata definitely isn't getting in when Ryoma and even Hana exist, Sheena is never getting in over Draug/Kellam/Effie, and Xane's probably too complicated to work in a game like this. The best I can hope for at this point is Merric and Wrys. I'm not super in love with either, but they're okay, and they're at least popular enough to stand a ghost of a chance compared to tiddy monsters and main characters.

STEAM happened before Smash though, didn't it? Smash, if anything, lets him use a sword more often than he usually does/would.

As far as an Awakening trailer goes, everything here is pretty reasonable. Lucina is functionally worthless for as long as Marth and Chrom exist, but she's too popular not to include. Lissa and Frederick are both pretty good choices for Awakening, with Lissa being one of the most unique Cleric candidates and Frederick being a pretty well-liked guy with a semi-uncommon weapon type. Robin is obvious.

I'm going to have to disagree somewhat: Alisa and Machias have some of the worst character introductions I have ever seen in a video game, with Alisa's you-know-the-one scene in the prologue in particular being so cringeworthy that it took all of my love for FC/SC not to put the game down then and there. Jusis also starts out pretty badly, but he gets vindicated by subsequent playthroughs when you realize he did nothing wrong and everything is Machias's fault. Luckily the prologue itself is over pretty quickly, even if the forced drama from it doesn't completely evaporate until Chapter 3. And once it actually does get going it's probably more consistent about it than FC on average until at least endgame. So there's that.

Christ. I've hated Photobucket for a long time since it's literally impossible to view their images on mobile devices (it spends like 3 minutes loading ads and the image ultimately never even shows up, not that you'd be able to see it at the standard zoom anyway), and yet I somehow continue to be impressed that they find new ways to make their service even worse. Of course, if this means that fewer people dare to waste my time with pointless Photobucket links then I'm all the happier for it.

This sounds cool, uh, but... If I'm reading this right, doesn't that make this effectively a board game with day one DLC and pre-order exclusive content. That kinda unnerves me, man. Is this common? Nobody ever wants to play board games with me so I don't follow them much, but this is new to me.

Lucina getting into this game is less surprising than water being wet. She's by far the most popular character from her game and the third most popular from the entire series -- and unlike Lyn and Ike, she didn't even have the advantage of an entire game's fanbase rallying behind her on principle, which ought to at least make things even. Of the three creepily devoted fanbases she's the only one who is in a game that already has been officially confirmed. There was practically no need to even mention it because Lucina getting disproportionate attention is the norm rather than the exception. Her presence is no more a surprise than the sun or the moon; her fans can count on being pandered to as they always are, and only the most deluded of those who dislike her would expect it to suddenly cease in a game like this. There is thus no need to react. Like, Chrom is more of a surprise than she is.

While I have my issues with the games, especially compared to their predecessors, they're still pretty fun and worth a shot for people who can't quite get into Sky FC. I do already own them, though, so I'm probably not going to buy these unless there's something radical like Olivert being added as a Mirror.

While Eliwood is nominally the main character, bear in mind he's by far the least popular member of his group, and his fighting style is virtually identical not only with the confirmed Xander but the only possible MC representatives from FE4. Even in-universe he gets overshadowed by his son, and unlike Chrom he lacks 'focus game' status to push him over the edge. Poor guy didn't even get DLC in Awakening because Lyn's sex appeal apparently more important to Elibe than Eliwood's Secret Misadventures. Like, he's a protagonist in the most technical sense, but there's otherwise no reason to add him. He adds nothing, he's not particularly popular even in the region that cares about his game, and his only meaningful contribution is being the most resilient parental figure of a main character in the series. If there's one protagonist that they can easily skip to no ill effect, it's him. Eirika, in comparison, at least has the niche of being the first female Lord that doesn't unambiguously lose main character status by the end of the game. She's also just as mounted as Eliwood, technically -- and a mounted Swordmaster at that, which may well be weird enough to offer something unique compared to other sword cavalry and sword infantry alike if they choose to pursue that route (they probably won't.) I wouldn't put her in the same camp as Eliwood and Chrom's "overshadowed by his friend with a cooler weapon, a cooler woman with the same weapon, and ultimately his kid who has Smash fans" club.

If it's good enough for Cassius Bright, I'm sure Lissa can handle it. Lissa's probably the best choice for a healer, realistically. All of the Archanean healers are pretty boring (except Wrys, who's pretty much just a meme). Honestly the Fates ones are pretty bad too, with Elise only being popular because she's an underage sister who is also an underage sister. The fact that she can promote into an Axe User, if utilized in this game, would also make her extraordinarily unique. Libra's pretty whatever and I don't think anyone else has that particular combination (i.e. staff/axe) in the games in question.

The other Alan, I assume. Can't wait for Kurt/Kurz confusion.

Well, in Yuzu's case it makes sense; she's foremost a swordsman and only a Priestess because it's literally the only female class that has the weapon. To that end I'm almost pleasantly surprised she even got Sagittae. Shade definitely seems like the most interesting candidate so far. She can fulfill Faye's duties (i.e. Rescue and Physic) for whatever route doesn't get Faye, which also means a more viable Rescue user on Celica's route. Freeze and Silence don't seem incredible, but they're fairly rare, and I'm sure someone will find a good use for them. Freeze was previously locked to Mage Faye and Mage Kamui, while Silence was previously locked to Mae and Mage Deen (and thus, more generally, Celica's route.)

Weird. I'm not playing it personally, but I've seen English screenshots from multiple sources. Whatever black magic they're doing to reach it is not known to me.

cipher

It seems to have added compatibility for the Cipher DLC, which is also out now. Apparently Lando is Randal. We Miracle Mask now.

I would love to see more serious competition in the current console market, as it's becoming abundantly clear that it's sorely needed. Unfortunately I do not see Atari/Infogrames as capable of being this competition without an absolutely incredible partner backing them -- something like Amazon, Apple, so forth. And if such a company were to get involved with the current market, I have doubts that they would be doing so out of love and kindness. Basically it's either going to fail or they'll hit a one-in-a-million chance where we may end up wishing it had. It's a shame, since Atari actually has some nice IPs -- but considering how poorly they've treated even their more marketable ones recently, the thought of reviving them doesn't fill me with confidence.

I really want to see Schera return. Out of all of the party members from Sky that have not reappeared, she strikes me as having the most unfinished business, as she has incomplete stories with As far as Cold Steel goes I'm probably most curious about Elliot, since it seems like he's had a mild redesign and I need to know if he's still a cutie.

We probably won't have even the foggiest idea until the next Investors meeting, whenever that is.

Christ, I've been interested in the game recently but the $300 of DLC turned me off. I can't imagine why they'd make the barrier even higher; it seems like at that point you're practically begging people not to buy it. I know I certainly won't any time soon.

Tellius sold like hot garbage and Ike is the sole reason it gets acknowledged at all. Without Ike they'd bury it like Jugdral and Magvel. It is no coincidence that they're choosing from Awakening, Fates, and Archanea; all of these games not only outsold both Tellius games combined (likely several times over), but they're by far the best known and best selling continuities in the series.

let's look at awakening's popular characters Chrom: Sword-user Lucina: Sword-user Robin: Sword-user (technically) Owain: Sword-user Gaius: Sword-user Lon'qu: Sword-user Inigo: Sword-user Severa: Sword-user Olivia: Sword-user Morgan: Sword-user (technically) Tharja: Foregone conclusion Cordelia, Virion: Reasonable choices with stiff competition from Caeda and Takumi Cherche: Competes with Minerva, Michalis, and Camilla Lissa: Competes with Wrys, Elise, and Sakura; potentially also Felicia, Flora, Jakob Nowi: Nah let's not look at awakening's popular characters

Male, both as my expectation and my preference. I'm not really a huge fan of female Robin's design and male Robin's relatively cute by MC standards. It also seems to be the generally preferred version of the character, although not quite to the extent Corrin has. what about no let's do what awakening did and replace him with katarina forever

"there are too many sword users" "but where is ike/lyn/roy/zigludo" 20/20 fanbase would pander to poorly again I'm feeling this:

Damn, I was really hoping I'd be on the mark with my guess of Liane, but it looks like they're pulling a Shareena/Sharon and using something more gibberishy instead for reasons. Well, whatever; she's not cute and she's another sword user, so her name doesn't really matter. It looks alright so far, though. Fairly standard Warriors, but I'm glad they got the obvious announcements out of the way (and female Corrin is still at least a small surprise). Looking forward to Lobsterman breaking yet another game. Would really like to have seen at least one character we didn't know about, but alas. Really wonder how the class system is supposed to work here, and I suppose level-ups too.