Czar_Yoshi

How isn't it? Awakening is all about first impressions, easy to get into, and has a ton of throwbacks that are practically begging new fans to play the other games. Not to mention that all the other games (bar Sacred Stones) are very hard to get your hands on, or require incomplete translation patches, or are Shadow Dragon. It almost feels like being a gateway was the game's entire purpose. TC specifically asked for no Spoilers. You might want to go back and edit out the names and goals of every single villain in the game, and the bit about the Spotpass Paralogues.

Well, technically Gregor does give +1 Str out of the box...

And aside from their specials, how many moves of theirs are remotely similar? One (Back air). Wolf's moveset is almost entirely based around his claws, fox is about kicks. Their smashes? Not remotely similar. Aerials? Not remotely similar. Jab? Not remotely similar. Just because two characters have similar body proportions doesn't mean they're clones. Wolf may have been initially based on Fox, but practically everything about him is different.

Apo takes too long for time-limited skills to be of much use (typically 15-25 turns depending on how many combat pairs you have and how aggressive you are), and the most dangerous dodgeable things are all on the last wave (though there are a few foes on Wave 4 where the +Hit would come in handy).

A game can be objectively terrible and still considered great by many- look at Brawl. I'm fully aware of Awakening's flaws and love it anyway, and the same can be said of a good portion of the people who bother to keep playing it after doing "everything there is to do". It's mainly because of the villains- FE plots are very villain-driven as a rule, but Awakening's villain (the main one, at least) has a generic plan of world destruction and absolutely no motivation. Compared to the like of Arvis (who had a far more complex plan with somewhat noble intentions) or Lyon (who has a far more complex relationship to the heroes), it's a travesty.

This. VV is a strategy that will get you killed if you lack 100% DS, doesn't need more than one competent pair and is overkill anyway on No Holds Barred Apo. Because people like Airship_Canon used it to do some incredible challenge runs it's gained a reputation as the greatest thing ever, but it's not something you should build an entire team around (and it usually obsoletes having a team when you do use it, to the point where even Morgan isn't very good. Anyway most of those pairings are solid if you just keep the parents but change the skills. Henry!Owain is the only one you might want to change (Barbarian overlap and Henry is in high demand elsewhere).

Hit+20 is a skill from Sniper, which Gregor!Yarne doesn't have. He doesn't have Prescience either, and Patience isn't much good in Apo. However, everything done perfectly still winds up being overkill even for Secret Apo. As long as you have LB/Rally and don't mess around with the bosses, it's perfectly doable even with suboptimal pairings.

Henry!Inigo can work, but Libra!Inigo is much better due to having Tomefaire, lacking Barbarian overlap and Libra being more available in general. Libra!Inigo also has better ending classes to choose from; Henry!Inigo is pretty much stuck as a Hero and lacks Tomefaire.

I'd say it's because Nos is very easily buyable and there's a growth unit who's practically made to use it (Avatar), but eh.

Canto allows you to run to safety after making a kill, essentially increasing the number of kills you can make without bothering a Staffbot per turn by 1. The difference between units with Canto and without would be as big as the difference in Awakening between units with Galeforce and those without. Please don't talk about balance and ask for Canto in the same post.

The first one is seen as a good thing by plenty of people too. And inheritance is where all the replay value comes from...

Yeah, Fred!Gerome isn't very good- but mostly because he lacks a Faire.

No, my argument isn't about me hoping nobody looks behind the curtain, it's about Awakening hoping nobody looks behind the curtain. And yes, it is possible to determine intentions when looking at how things are portrayed. As was said earlier, if you want to challenge established beliefs, the burden of proof falls on you. Ignoring it makes it impossible to take your argument seriously.

That hole is where Aggressor normally goes. Since you don't have it, DS+ is probably the best.

Panne is good with all of them actually, though Kellam is the worst out of those. Just go with whatever supports you like best (Fred gives good mods, Stahl and Virion give mostly good mods and Hit+20). Nowi should go with Virion if you want a Magical Nah and Stahl if you want her to be physical. Henry is an awesome dad. In addition to the obvious Cynthia, he works well on Nah, Brady and Gerome. Henry!Nah has the fullest set of support skills in the game bar Avatar/Morgan, along with 3/3 Str/Mag mods, Axefaire for Wyvern and Tomefaire for Valkyrie, allowing her to be the most versatile support in the game- and since any Nah except Avatar!Nah should be hard support, this is great. Brady normally only wants mods from his dad- Henry gives those in spades with +1 Mag and +2 Skl. However, Henry also gives Vengeance, giving Brady an alternate choice for a proc. Furthermore, Henry also boosts his Str- Brady is almost always magical, but if you do want to try him as physical, for a gimmick run or whatever, he can do that while still being able to perform at maximum magical capacity. Gerome, on the other hand, looks like a physical monster who only needs Berserker and a +Hit skill to wreck stuff. Henry gives him both of those (Hex/Anathema). Gerome's lesser known point, however, is a natural +1 Mag mod and natural Tomefaire- so Henry!Gerome has 2 Mag and can switch between physical and magical as well. This is especially fun when paired with Virion!Severa, for a full pair that can switch. Basically Henry gives people the ability to switch between physical and magical at will, as well as completing a lot of skillsets. He's the main reason I like Chrom x Sumia- so that he's free for others to use.

Probably Brady since Noire is Avatar's daughter, but under any other circumstances I'd say Laurent. Just so you know, DLC carries over to all your files, so if you start another file to try out different pairings you get to keep LB/Apo.

For grinding it is, but once you're at S it essentially gives the lead unit +5 Hit/Avo/Dge/Crit, which can be... Slightly underwhelming depending on your other options. Depending on what you're doing, of course.

There are several people on this forum (myself included) who have poured upwards of a thousand dollars into this game. Make of that what you will. Anyway, Awakening has an incredible amount of replay value, and with a good amount of Willing Suspension of Disbelief the first playthrough is also one of the best out there. If you do go through with the buy (which I recommend), make sure to look at the rest of the 3ds's library though.

Anyone who can go into the Avatar logbook and has all classes- that includes past Avatars, units from the Wireless menu, or units recruited from beating DLC maps. You could just pick them for aesthetics, or for whoever requires the least amount of grinding to use (look for high-Mag Sages for Staffbots, and try to pick units like Cyas or Horace for Rallybots- they already have several. You'll need one male Rallybot and one female though so you can't use both of them).

Inigo can keep Libra or take someone like Stahl, Chrom or Frederick- I think only Fred is free though. I'd recommend keeping Libra because Nah can switch, so he might as well be able to do it too. Physical Noire is usually either an Assassin/Sniper/Bride (Bowfaire is the norm, but Swordfaire and Lancefaire work on some of them as well). With no LB I'd give her GF/Faire/Luna/Astra/Mov+1.

If you lack Golden Gaffe, the best way is to fight spotpass teams with lots of Archers using Leif's blade, yeah. Two other methods that might be slightly faster are mopping up strong Risen and then selling the weapons you get for beating them (assuming you're on Normal) and using Despoil instead of Lief's Blade which lets you use a Bow to make enemy phase combat even rarer than with Lief's Blade (there are no Spotpass teams consisting entirely of Archers, but there are a few with no ranged units). Lief's Blade and Despoil don't stack, so equipping both at the same time has the same effect as equipping just one or the other.

Don't put Fred on Severa. Severa's Spd is her strongest asset and he'll wreck it. Give Severa either Lon'qu, Virion, Stahl, Ricken or Vaike. Noire has higher Mag than Str, but she lacks Tomefaire and can be either magical or physical (though she usually winds up being physical). Vengeance is an offensive proc and isn't restricted to magic or VV. The main idea behind using it offensively is to attack something that will be able to retaliate against you while your HP is full. If you fail to KO it before it strikes, then Vengeance will get a boost so you'll almost definitely kill it afterword. Against bosses, you can engage them on enemy phase with full HP to get a massive Vengeance boost (particularly useful for the boss of Waves 3 and 4) before striking 2-4 times in retaliation- this is generally the way bosses are killed on challenge runs, and without LB it will be very hard to kill them any other way. Unless your asset is Spd, it's generally better to have Avatar and Morgan both be the same physical/magical orientation. Lucina has more Mag than Str, so Avatar and her may want to switch to Magical (Inigo and Nah can go physical instead without a parent swap, or you can just have a 5/2 balance).

Physical Inigos are usually fathered by Stahl, Chrom or Frederick, with the occasional rare Kellam- basically anyone who gives Luna and has a positive Str mod. Libra!Inigo can actually be physical (Libra's Str isn't negative and Inigo still has several good physical classes) but that's very rare. Magical Nah can be fathered by Henry, Libra, Ricken, Virion, Lon'qu, and pretty much anyone else who doesn't have negative Mag (and preferably has a lot of Skl). She already has Sage/Tomefaire, so she's basically set to go. Be warned that if you lack DLC she often will have very few skills to choose from, so if that's the case definitely go with Henry (he'll give her a ton of stuff like Anathema and Dual Support+ that she can use as filler). Actually, I don't see Henry on your pairing list anywhere. He's probably the the highest-in-demand father in the game, so definitely make the most of the opportunity and give him to Nah (Henry!Nah can also choose between physical and Magical support, so if you put her on Libra!Inigo they'll be a whole pair who can perform well either way!). Make sure to have him pass her Axefaire. She can also choose to be a Valkyrie if you want a magical +Spd support.

How many battles happened as a result of Plegia's aggression? Cht.5, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11. That's six fights. A surgical strike would probably take two or three. When I said FE was about battles, I meant that in a "the more the merrier" sense- killing Gangrel off early just robs potential for more gameplay. And Cht.11 is almost halfway through the game, by the way. Yes, I can. Being intentionally shown something and noticing it anyway are different things. The game wants me to think that Emm is perfect, and even though it's obvious that she isn't it still tries. They did a terrible job of hiding her flaws, but the fact that they tried at all is what people are mad about.

No, Gerome does quite well with Stahl. Stahl allows him to be a Bowfaire Warrior, which hits -almost- as hard as a Berserker, but has none of the massive hitrate issues. Vaike!Nah is fine, but has to support physical Inigo which you don't have, so I'd do someone else. Physical Severa is fine, she can be a good Hero with Stahl and a good Wyvern with Lon'qu. With Virion, she can switch between physical (Wyvern) and magical (Dark Flier) effortlessly. Personally I prefer Virion. No Luna on Severa is fine because she has natural Vengeance. If Yarne's to be a Berserker he benefits from mods and Hit+20. Fred gives just mods, Stahl and Virion give Hit+20. Kellam works, but is basically a worse Fred. As a general rule, -never- bench a male Galeforce user. Having a pair that can kill three foes per turn is great, especially with Agg. Most setups (Male Avatar) have two- Owain and Brady as Sages (usually married to Cynthia and Morgan, but sometimes Kjelle or Noire) (Inigo is usually paired with Nah because he's the best candidate for taking her). If Nah is magical though, she can go with any of the three. Typical teams have 4 magical pairings and 3 physical pairings, though it's not too hard to change it a pairing or two in either direction.