Lord Glenn

Well, when the "main" characters are all just expies of their parents, it's very hard to have unique characters, especially when the game does nothing substantive to actually give any of them meaningful development... And, I don't know how much I'd agree with the game being "set up as a duology", if an interview with one of Camelot's studio heads is any indication. To quote the important part, "But of course, if there are enough people saying that we really must create another game, then we may just have to listen to them. Still, you would need to give me a bit of time to work on ideas for the story before we could release a fourth game in the series." ... ...... This does not instill a significant amount of belief and hope in me, given the direction of Dark Dawn's story. How can you have the opening several hours (up through, say, after leaving Konpa Cave) and quest line, completely ignore it until the midpoint of the game for one plot point and then ignore it again until the final closing seconds (all the while padding out the stupidest fetch quest of all time to take up the course of an ENTIRE GAME), and then not have the story for a potential sequel already planned out?!? Would also have to add to this that the new weapon unleash mechanics invalidate attacking Psynergy even more (outside of using it to control damage output in order to use Djinn to attempt to get rare drops). And, did anyone even like said unleash mechanics and having to gain "mastery"? Multiple unleashes per weapon basically killed most of the uniqueness of (most of) the Artifacts, and it basically forced grinding if you were using all 8 party members, since you'd get to the next town or find an upgrade before you finished getting the mastery to use all of the unleashes... (Plus, it made it a crapshoot as to which unleash you'd get, making some weapons far too inconsistent to be of use.) (And, you have to give them a little credit; they got rid of the RNG manipulation that let you walk off with Riot Gloves after every battle with a Minos Knight!) 1) From what I inferred, a bunch of the towns in Dark Dawn were "technically" in Angara during the events of Golden Sun and The Lost Age, but simply not visible on the map and not visitable. And, conversely, some of the towns from the first two games aren't visitable or on the map, but are still in Angara during the events of the game (Imil and Kalay, for example). 2) I think you can honestly attribute that to the whole plot hijack after Konpa Cave where the entire story up to that point is neglected for most of the last 2/3s of the game. ----------------- If you can't tell, I'm not overly fond of Dark Dawn. As a successor to the first two games, it's sorely lacking, and if it's the best effort that Camelot can come up with to continue the series, despite the ridiculous cliffhanger, I'm not sure I want a fourth game. Hell, I'd rather have a fangame that continued the story than whatever drivel Camelot might spew out. (Granted, you'd have to slog through all of the bad fanfic-level fangames to find an actual solid successor, but there probably would be one out there that was worthy of the name.) If we're going to be hypothetical though, as much as I hate to say it, Matthew, Tyrell, Karis, and Amiti are pretty much a shoe-in to return. (Please not as playable characters though!) Given the cliffhanger, it's obvious that they would need to show up to tie up those loose ends. (Perhaps in the role that Isaac, Garet, Ivan, and Mia had in The Lost Age - as "NPCs" up to a certain point?) I can't see Camelot not having Piers, Nowell, and Takeru all together at some point - Piers perhaps in the same vein as Isaac and Garet from Dark Dawn, maybe crossed with a little bit of Kraden? I would like to see more diversity and unique characters outside of them, though. We got Eoleo in Dark Dawn, so we still have Ahri (and/or Contigo in general) to account for (not saying she needs to be an ally though!). The Proxeans, the werewolves of Garoh, the village near Aqua Rock on the Apojii Islands, and even the remains of Lemuria are also important enough areas to revisit and feature characters from, too. Heck, Akafubu, Feizhi, Donpa/Dodonpa, the McCoy family, and even Hama, Megan, and Justin are probably important enough for a revisit. (We know that Hama returned to Contigo, so Hama mentoring Ahri is entirely possible...?) And that's not even touching on any potential expy characters related to Felix and Sheba, either. (Would even say Piers too, but Amiti's basically his expy - even though there's the whole thing with Piers and Nowell, that doesn't necessarily mean that Piers didn't previously have a kid, though.) (Please, though, for the love of god, we don't need expies for every character from the first two games. And we certainly don't need them all to match their predecessors' alignments; just because the character that they're modeled after or descended from was an ally / neutral-but-helpful NPC / enemy shouldn't automatically make them that way too. In a believable world, children can act differently from their parents, especially teenage-aged ones - rebellious phases, etc.) EDIT - Also, in terms of party size, since I completely forgot, I honestly think that 8-12 (if they were to expand to 6 slots in battle instead of 4) is the maximum that really works without clutter - there would presumably be no data transfer between Dark Dawn and a potential successor (though, if they can make an app that reads data for Pokémon to go from DS to 3DS, anything might be possible), so that would be a massive undertaking in terms of Djinn finding if you had much more than that. I imagine that what would happen would be a bunch of characters only temporarily joining the "main" focused party and swapping back and forth, or in a perfect world, maybe something like multiple "routes" to increase replayability so that you could follow a different group's journey for part of the story (after they would split up to tackle different tasks) and use those characters instead or even a divergent point later in the game where you chose which characters you wanted to have come with you for combat purposes and the remainder would simply chime in during story portions. That way, Matthew and company's story could still resolve, and yet, if you don't want to use them in combat (me!), then you wouldn't be forced to.

Here ya go: Might still need more tweaking somehow, but dropping the brightness below -35 seemed to make it a bit too dark (and I don't really like kicking the contrast much above 50)... EDIT - Of course, the RGB values will most likely need adjusted, too. I didn't bother to autocorrect them to be multiples of 8.

It's very bright, to the point that it's difficult to make the text out. I might suggest tweaking the brightness and contrast on the image (if you've got the text as a separate layer in an image format that supports layers, you shouldn't need to adjust as much). Running a quick test on just the image you have above in Paint Shop Pro 7, I dropped the Brightness to -35 and upped the Contrast to (+)30 and it seems to be a little easier to read while still conveying the "light"/"holy" theme. (Can post a gyazo or something if you'd like.)

My point was just that there was at least a main character that used swords, so Milla and Luger basically qualify. (Though, of the two, I would say that Luger is more able to be counted as an exception.) Initially, I think it was just Alicia that made me think of it, but more things have crept in to go along with it. (Alicia being royalty, yet choosing to be a knight instead, making me think back to Ridley.) Now that I've thought about it though, Slay's outfit reminds me of Jack's Radiata Knight Trainee Uniform, there's the whole exploration aspect (while you're not forced to explore in Radiata Stories, once stuff opens up, you're free to run around and end up in areas really early), other fantasy elements... heck, even the town reminds me a little of Radiata proper in the shots from the first area.

It's also entirely possible that instead of rehiring a voice actor and spending money, they've chosen to simply use the voice clips that were already in Awakening to fill all of needed lines. (And, thus, they needed to record new lines for Ike since there wasn't anywhere near the amount of content to pull from.)

After seeing the new trailer and Siliconera's post describing a couple of the locales (and how exploration's a key focus for the game), I think Zesteria might be the first Tales game that I've seriously been interested in in a long while. (Honestly, it's probably the first - I only experienced Symphonia and Abyss secondhand originally, so I didn't care about them before they released, I wanted to be interested in Vesperia, but I wasn't buying a 360 for it, and all of the others in between didn't do much for me in some way, shape, or form.) I know it's a staple of the series*, but my only complaint so far is having yet another sword-using main character. (I'm sure as localized information comes out, something else will end up grating on my nerves.) *The only game with a non-sword main character I can think of is Legendia, and, IIRC, it wasn't even originally supposed to be a Tales game... ...On a random side note, is anyone else (outside of the number of characters) reminded a bit of Radiata Stories by Zesteria? (Not that that's a bad thing.) I guess I'm just glad that this isn't "next-gen", since I'll actually have the opportunity to play it...

Oh, I fully intend to play it - I already own the game, I just need to chip away at my backlog of games that I'm already in the middle of before I want to sit down and start playing it. And, I don't really mind waiting, since it's not like Triple Deluxe will drop in price any time in the near future, given that it's a Nintendo-published game...

Seconding: Radiata Stories 2 - Even though the original game is largely stand-alone and left ambiguous on purpose (and thus, is probably better left alone), I enjoyed it enough to play through it a second time immediately after finishing it the first time, so I wouldn't mind a revisit. All I ask is for battle system and level design improvements - the world needs to be less thin paths and more open and explorable and the battle system could use some touch ups (deeper gameplay, more diverse combos, maybe upgrading equipment based on level for party members, etc.). Golden Sun 4 - It needs to happen, despite the fact that it might be even worse than its immediate predecessor. I mean, when said predecessor sidesteps the entire purpose of the game for like 20 hours and even goes so far as to completely drop and forget about all of the major plot points that happen in the first few hours until the LAST MINUTE of the game, there's a problem. The problem gets even worse when one of Camelot's producers was quoted as, "Still, you would need to give me a bit of time to work on ideas for the story before we could release a fourth game in the series." ?! How can you have no idea for the story with how Dark Dawn ended?!? Seconding (kind of): Pokémon (Colosseum) "3" - I said "kind of" as I'm fine with leaving Orre behind; just give me a quality narrative that doesn't have some stupid generically-evil group called "Team ________" and isn't tied to getting badges or anything of the sort. Heck, you can leave the focus on Double Battles at home too - give me a nice blend of all of the different battle types, along with a fresh region that is ripe for exploration. Resonance of Fate 2 - I only saw the beginning of the game at a friend's (and I want to pick it up myself too), but I remember enjoying what I saw. Don't know how the story ended or if there would be room for a sequel/prequel, but Tri-Ace is always pretty solid, so I'd be game for more. Wishful thinking: Grandia II (or the original or Xtreme): With Takeshi Miyaji's passing, this is entirely unlikely, even moreso after Square Enix defiled the last (actual) entry in the series (Online doesn't count) so bad. But, Grandia is probably my favorite series in gaming just by way of its battle system, so I can't help but want more of it. Skies of Arcadia 2 - Just ponder this for a second: what if you took the world, setting, and characters from the original and married them to Valkyria Chronicles' combat system (as in just the moving around and picking attacks portion, not the CP and strategy aspect)? I mean, it would certainly be more interactive than the battles were trying to make it feel in the original, with characters running over to enemies and attacking and missing when it wasn't their turn... (Too bad there really isn't much story reason for this to happen - no real exploration available unless you default to before the Rains of Destruction and no real conflicts available if you go with a pure sequel...) Final Fantasy Tactics 2 - None of that Advance stuff, either. Really curious to know what else was in the Durai Papers that happened after the ending... Lunar 3 - After Dragon Song, I'm not too sure I want this. But the first two were certainly amazing. Pokémon Stadium 3 - With modern connectivity, there's no real need for a dedicated battling game, but Stadium 2 + Transfer Pak and the Gen II games were a meaningful part of my childhood... Gauntlet: Dark Legacy - Dark Legacy was great. Just give me more Gauntlet like it (that doesn't suck), okay? Vanguard Bandits - Maybe I should just put all of the games that Working Designs localized on here... Sakura Wars VI - Berlin, please? Definitely Want: Power Stone 3 - C'mon Capcom, get off your ass and get it done. Vigilante 8 "3" - I mainlined Second Offense when I was younger with a buddy - he'd rent it and we'd play it all weekend. I'd play my own copy if it weren't for the fact that it isn't compatible with VGA mode on the Dreamcast... Dragon Force - Okay, it technically got a sequel, but it never came out here. I just remember being amazed by this on my cousin's Saturn back in the day. I definitely want a modern revisiting. Golden Axe 4 - Let's pretend that Beast Rider never happened, 'kay? Zone of the Enders 3 - Konami, Kojima-san doesn't need to make Metal Gear anymore. MechAssault 3 - I know most people prefer MechWarrior, but I was always partial to its step-sibling. Just don't make it Xbox-exclusive this time, 'kay? Mischief Makers 2 - I think this one's self-explanatory. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles 2 - Or at the very least, a spiritual successor that makes use of the game's mechanics. Given modern connectivity, you could plop this down on any of the main consoles or even the 3DS and easily make use of the multiplayer aspect (unlike the Gamecube game...).

Favorite game is easily Super Star. (Though I still need to get around to playing Kirby's Return to Dreamland.) Favorite sub-segment of it is also easily Milky Way Wishes. (And I always dread The Great Cave Offensive for how long it takes, especially if you want 100% completion.) Despite the above, my favorite track comes from TGCO: Trees in the Depths of the Earth Don't care for DeDeDe's theme much at all, except for the battle in Spring Breeze (especially since that fight is quick). Favorite power is Mirror (if only for its broken shield). Triple Deluxe looks nice... but it also kinda feels like Return to Dreamland on handheld with a front and back path added to it. Still need to play Return to Dreamland before I even consider getting Triple Deluxe, though.

One of Firefox's extensions, ImageZoom, used to upscale without anti-aliasing before Firefox upgraded to like, version 3. Since then, the only solution I've been able to find is to just use Print Screen to screencap the whole screen (or just right-click and copy the individual image if you only want to look at one) and then Paste it into Paint / Photoshop / etc. and use the zooming in the image program. It's not as much work as Save As... -> Open in program, but it's still a pain, unfortunately. :/

Chrono Cross - Only on here because of the "haters" who don't consider it a true sequel to Chrono Trigger. If there weren't legions of people hating it solely for that reason, it wouldn't meet the second criteria at all. Drakengard 2 - Niche/cult series to begin with. Most people seem to prefer the first game over this one, simply because of the story. I actually prefer the "better" combat mechanics, despite the flaws still in the system. Grandia Xtreme - Not my favorite (or really anyone else's) in the series at all, but the ability to go back into dungeons, find "loot", and take on bosses over and over (at least to the point I'm at in the game) certainly makes up for it. Radiata Stories - I don't know if people actually hate this game or if it's just less known and no one talks about it. One of my friends did detest the game though, solely because the battle system wasn't as good as the Tales series' ones. Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love - Worst one of the series, nowhere near as good as the first three, blah, blah, blah, blah. I don't care. I'll take localization over greatness w/ no localization pretty much every time. Zone of the Enders - The only reason most people even cared about this game was just for the Metal Gear Solid 2 demo. I actually bought the game for the game. (Too bad it's really short.)

I know it's not going to happen since 1) it's a massive change and 2) he's been in since the original, but if I were Sakurai, I'd be pimping out Kirby's moveset, especially since the man created him. It's a nice throwback that a bunch of Kirby's moves harken back to some of his Copy Abilities from his own games, but the selection in Smash Bros. is just so limited for him when he has so many different ones to pull from. As such, (according to my document's Properties Window) I've had these changes down since August of 2012 (Copy Abilities only used once across Smash moveset): (Please reference http://kirby.wikia.com/wiki/ (Copy Ability Name Goes Here) for more information on the selected moves. Ability names listed in Italics below.) [spoiler=Moveset Inside, Spoiler'd for Size] L / R (Hold): Reflect Guard (Mirror) - Works the same as the normal shield, but just with a rainbow texture to it A: Vulcan Jab (Fighter) - Identical to previous games A (Repeatedly): Nonstop Vulcan Jab into Smash Punch for combo finisher (Fighter) - Punches X times, then finishes with a 5-10% "wave" punch at the end that knocks the target back slightly Dash + A: Wheel Roll (Wheel) - Controllable similar to Jigglypuff's Rollout? Ends when A is released. Tilt -> + A (Facing): Yo-Yo Throw (Yo-Yo) - Arcs his Yo-Yo in direction pressed like a whip Tilt <- + A (Facing): Yo-Yo Throw (Yo-Yo) - Arcs his Yo-Yo in direction pressed like a whip Tilt -> + A (Away): Yo-Yo Throw (Yo-Yo) - Backwards Yo-Yo throw with a different arc than used when facing Tilt <- + A (Away): Yo-Yo Throw (Yo-Yo) - Backwards Yo-Yo throw with a different arc than used when facing Tilt ^ + A: Beam Whip (Beam) - Produces a 135 degree arc of beam above him, similar to Samus's Up Smash Tilt v + A: Slide Tackle (Normal Kirby) - Similar to his previous, but he slides across the ground in the direction he was facing Smash -> + A: Jet Kick (Jet) - Fundamentally similar to current one, but he moves forward and kicks much more than in Melee/Brawl Smash <- + A: Jet Kick (Jet) Smash ^ + A: Hammer Flip (Hammer) - A hammer swing upwards, dealing moderate damage and knocking the target upwards more if their damage is higher - Has a slight charge time / delay between button press and swing Smash v + A: Bomb Set (Bomb) - Kirby drops a bomb in front of him which explodes seconds later, works similar to Snake's Rocket Propelled Grenade Side Smash A (Midair): Fireball Spin (Fire) - Spins in air, hitting those around with fire -> + A (Air, Facing): Sweep Cutter (Cutter) - Throws a short-range Cutter Boomerang while holding another one in front of him to deal damage to anyone that hits it <- + A (Air, Facing): Sweep Cutter (Cutter) -> + A (Air, Away): Ice Sprinkle (Ice) - Spins in air, producing rotating, diagonal ice breath that damages and can freeze at high percentages <- + A (Air, Away): Ice Sprinkle (Ice) ^ + A (Midair): Whirlwind Spin (Tornado) - Tornado-powered drill spin, works similar to Kirby's previous v + A (Midair) kick move, but with less downward momentum - Also catches enemies directly above Kirby and pulls them in to the attack v + A (Midair): Parasol Dive (Parasol) - A diagonal dive downwards, assisted by a Parasol and two spinning stars - Kirby is protected from attacks directed at him from below, but vulnerable to those from behind and above B: Inhale (Normal Kirby) B (After Inhale): Star Spit (Normal Kirby) - Spits the foe back out and doesn't take their power v (After Inhale): Swallow (Normal Kirby) - Replaces all B moves with those of the swallowed character -> + B: Plasma Needle/Arrow/Spark/Laser/Wave (Plasma) - Charge builds as time passes and Kirby moves - Using the move expends the charge and reverts back to Plasma Needle -> build charge again to use higher powered attacks <- + B: Plasma Needle/Arrow/Spark/Laser/Wave (Plasma) ^ + B: Sword Spin (Sword) - Forward and upward somersaults in air, with sword spinning around Kirby (new recovery move) v + B: Stone Change (Stone) - Identical to previous L / R (Single): Grab (After Grab Below:) A: Slap - Identical to previous B: Feather Gun (Wing) - Shoots a weak feather at close range for each button press (up to 3-4) that can be directed with tilts (similar to Marth's Dancing Blade) - Feather direction can direct target backwards, upwards, or downwards at end of grab? -> (Facing) / L / R: Air Drop (Ninja) - Identical to previous <- (Facing) / L / R: Air Drop (Ninja) -> (Away): Laser Blast (Laser) - Kirby launches the target backwards over his shoulder and then blast them with a minimal knockback laser (similar to Fox's Blaster, but with more damage) <- (Away): Laser Blast (Laser) ^: Mega Needle (Needle) - Kirby moves the enemy above him and unleashes a giant needle spike upwards v: Fury Stomp (Suplex) - Identical to previous Final Smash: Supernova (Crash) - Kirby releases a giant shockwave blast (of certain radius) of energy outward, damaging and heavily knocking everyone in the direction of the blast when they were struck - Kirby must cool down for a few seconds after using, leaving him open to counters if Supernova failed to defeat opponents D-Pad ^: Release Power + Hi! [Taunt] D-Pad <-: End of Stage Dance from games [Taunt] D-Pad ->: End of Stage Dance from games [Taunt] D-Pad v: Doze Off (Sleep) [Taunt] - Kirby falls asleep for a few seconds before snapping back awake

Klok, there is such a concept as "working in secret". Just because someone hasn't shown anything doesn't mean that they don't know how to do something, especially at a very high level. Also, Pi, while I know that you're an exceptional spriter far beyond my level, if you'd like a donation of Judgral weapon/item icons to replace the default FE7 ones, I've slowly been working on such a set based off of the TCG card art. It's probably not going to be complete for a while, but having a reason to work on it faster might get me motivated to get back to work on it more often.

You could also just Ability Capsule and run a different Mega if your team has that option in that situation. (Or for other Pokémon that got the wrong ability and don't require a Hidden Ability.)

I don't exactly think gameplay design is the big reason (or really any reason at all) that Awakening sold so well. The lack of RPGs for the system at the time and the more "common denominator" approach (along with actual advertising) is probably a much better indicator for that one. It is uncommon yes, though, honestly, I don't understand why it isn't used more frequently. But that's a different matter altogether. From basic research: FE6: Chapters 2, 8, 13 FE7: Chapters 3, 6 (Conditional on both only if you don't manually recruit before), 11, 12 (Mode Dependent for both) FE8: Chapters 1, 8, 15 FE9: Chapter 24 FE10: Chapters 1-P, 1-2, 4-2 (Second Playthrough+) FE11: None FE12: Chapters P-5, 6 (Not going to count Extra stuff) FE13: Chapters 1, 2, 6, 7 Out of the sample size, very small. But, since the question is hypothetical anyway, let's throw the hypothetical situation in where more of these types of recruitments are found in the game in general - let's make the question actually matter to some extent.

Let me pose a tangentially-related question: If all things were "fair" and ALL reinforcements (including NPC and Player) arrived on the same turn cycles (that is, if Enemies spawn at the end of their phase or the start of the Player Phase, then Player reinforcements spawn at the end of their phase or the start of Enemy Phase), would you really want your prospective allies showing up right before the enemies have a chance to slaughter them, or would you prefer that they appear on time with your own units? (I'm willing to guess the latter.) Now, obviously, the game is tuned in such a way that enemies normally drastically outnumber the player and thus have an "edge" to compensate for being AI controlled and oft at lower levels than the player characters and it helps flip that advantage around if enemy reinforcements can't immediately help the enemy outside of extra body count. But, from a "fair" point of view, if one army (the players) has reinforcements during their turn, the other army should have the same privilege. Unless you're willing to compromise and let player reinforcements show up off-turn or have mixes of on-turn and off-turn reinforcements on maps... Lest we forget, Fire Emblem (pre-Casual Mode) is predicated on permadeath (and the fallacy that players will stick with deaths that happen instead of restarting), so having situations that have an increased chance of causing that wouldn't be "out of character". (And, if playing Casual, then death doesn't matter.) It's still "bad gameplay design", but when has IS really ever been great at that in recent memory anyway?

VASM's got the FE4 one up on the mainsite (General FE -> Sprite Works -> Resources): http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v139/VincentASM/Resource/FE4_All_Item.png

Despite the fact that I have Ayra, I'd probably have to say Tiltyu. Her pose is just more dynamic feeling than most of the other figures. (And it sucks that mine is broken right now, too. Flung an index card like a playing card when I was angry one day, fully expecting it to hook away from that area; instead, it flew straight for Tiltyu, impacted her left arm, and snapped it clean off. :/ )

When I went to a small-ish, semi-local con back in... late 2010 or early 2011 I want to say, one of the vendors had a display of the FE4 figure blind boxes there. (I was only after a few figures, but I offered to buy up all of the blind boxes that were left (he had sold 1 prior) - dude was a bro and opened the boxes to see if the ones that I wanted were there or not!) I'm reasonably sure that 6 of the blind boxes are fixed to be the main set and the last two are random from the pool of all seven (without replacement - i.e. can't pick the same one twice for the randoms); the display ended up having one of each of the six minus Eltshan (the one that was sold) and Ayra and... Sigurd, I think, as the two other figures. Needless to say, money left my wallet that day.

Correct, since staves aren't equipped normally. So, basically, if you want Heal, Mend, Restore, etc. to be able to both attack and use their Staff Effects, you're kinda out of luck. You can, however, create new Staves that can attack and supplement the regular Staves. (And those supplements could bestow stat bonuses, I believe.)

For B2 and C? For A (and its subquestions), sure, but those two? EDIT @ Brendor - Sure, you can't, say, have Physic both heal and attack, but you can most certainly create staves that can attack, as seen from my two links

Pretty sure that B2 and C can be done without assembly. In fact, B2 basically requires C to work, theoretically. Consider the following: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us2N7NcThcw#t=71 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HOrjECWGBg#t=840 As long as the staff is made equippable and given stats and a spell animation, it can be changed to be used offensively (so, you can create offensive staves as new items, but you can't add it on to existing staves and still get their current effects - at least not that anyone's tried). And I'm pretty sure that once it's able to be equipped that you can have it give bonuses like Vaida's Uber Spear.

Honestly, I feel like "hate" for mobile games really stems from the fact that companies are diverting their resources into pumping them out, possibly even at the expense of their other offerings. (And, also doing it with established yet idle franchises, effectively "killing" them - see Breath of Fire, etc.) And, honestly, when you think about it, the companies that are doing it are just going to end up shooting themselves in the foot one day. Just like with the Wii or any of the big mobile hits, the target audience will eventually move on to whatever is the next new shiny thing (be it a new piece of tech or the new hot app) - the entire mobile market is dominated by a few huge titles with a bunch of stuff just trying to float in the water, and eventually something new comes out and everyone latches on to it for the next 6-12 months before repeating the process. Eventually, something new will come around, and people's attention will be drawn away from smartphone gaming, and the market will crumble. And, as you would expect from the strip-mining corporations, they see lots of money cropping up in places, think they stand a chance of grabbing that same amount of money, and heavily invest, not realizing the actual situation at hand - just as Nintendo is experiencing right now. (Not that Nintendo was "strip-mining" with the Wii, just that they haven't realized the situation that all of the "casual" market has moved on to the new "in" thing.)

Nintendo has said that they will remain on the server, inaccessible, for a certain amount of time, after which they will basically be purged from the system - unless you drop the money down to purchase the license (again). IIRC, they haven't said definitively how long they'll stay on the servers before being booted, just that they will eventually. EDIT - Source: http://www.pokemonbank.com/en-us/faq/

Adding on to Yeti's comments, you should also consider the stat limitations of third tier classes. Even under the assumption that the regular FE8 highest-tier units have their caps reduced, you're still basically at the mercy of the engine's storage system for character stats (at least as of this writing, minus the one autopatch that FEditor has). And, really, what does reducing the Sage's caps to add a bigger, spiffier class past it accomplish? You'd basically be ending up with a class that had a similar stat cap distribution to the original Sage. And, really, it's my opinion that this is one of the big reasons why "third tiers" have never really worked well in the GBA setting. If you're dead set on having third tiers, I think that lower starting base stats + lower starting classes and "t0 caps" are really the only way to accomplish it. (And, honestly, isn't that really just what FE10 did?)