New Heroes: Attuned Nino & Ginnungapgap

[Fire Emblem Fan]

ISADORA! YES! I'm so glad I saved my orbs.

Ahem, sorry. Anyway. This month's New Heroes banner gives us Rearmed Ginnungapgap, Attuned Nino, Isadora, Harken, Wil as a direct 3-4 summoning pool injection, and a GHB with Fargus.

 

[Sunwoo]

Wait, what the fuck. Are any of the banner units going to be the 4-star demote at the end of it? Both Isadora and Harken's kits look too powerful to be demoted.

What the fuck is this shit???

Yes, I know Wil is there, but he's an instant injection into the pool and not actually a focus unit.

Did they just cut out making a demote on an otherwise normal banner?

[Othin]

I'm not happy about the continued lack of Thracia, but I've gotta say, this is pretty much the next best thing. Wil rounds out Lyn's original squad, Isadora and Harken are solid picks, and while Fargus isn't at the top of my list of remaining FE7 bosses, I can't complain about him. Meanwhile Nino gets to have an alt headline a New Heroes banner for the second time, which... at this point, sure, why not. I quite like the Assassin take on her, it's a much more interesting approach than her previous alts.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

As far as this banner goes, this is a pretty darn good Blazing Blade banner. Yeah, another Nino alt, but hey. I'm super, super happy to finally see Isadora. She's one of my favorite Blazing Blade characters, a Top 10 character from BB for me. With her here now, that entire Top 10 is in Heroes with a base New Hero form. In fact, 19 of my Top 20 BB characters are now in the game with base New Hero forms. I really cannot complain about the representation for Blazing as far as its playable cast goes, especially since we all know Athos will be coming as a Legendary/Mythic at some point. The only thing it's missing is Nergal, the main villain.

Plus, I'm just really happy we didn't get a Three Houses/Hopes banner this month. We're getting a break from the flood of TH content, even if it's only a small one.

[Humanoid]

Fargus looks great, the rest of the banner is fine I guess. No, there's no temptation to keep playing in order to summon here, but if I did, the extra mobility shenanigans of Harken and Nino would be attractive. Isadora is just there with the Rally stuff, whatever. Shame about her and Harken's incomplete kits too, really the plain new heroes should come with more complete kits, not less. Ginny with her lack of Canto is meh for me.

Edited November 16, 2023 by Humanoid

[Tybrosion]

Fargus is at least a cool choice for the GHB, but man IS still really doesn’t like Nergal (or Jedah, Manfroy, Validar and Thales).

I know that Nergal could be a Mythic instead, but there’s no excuse for the continued absence of Validar and Jedah in particular.

[Othin]

7 minutes ago, Tybrosion said:

Fargus is at least a cool choice for the GHB, but man IS still really doesn’t like Nergal (or Jedah, Manfroy, Validar and Thales).

I know that Nergal could be a Mythic instead, but there’s no excuse for the continued absence of Validar and Jedah in particular.

Yeah, that's been pretty baffling. At least we got Veld, despite him being probably the least interesting of the group (and scoring horribly on CYL). I wasn't expecting him to ever get in, but I'm glad he did.

[Humanoid]

Jedah is still busy in his cave spamming summons because I never figured out how to kill him and just completed the game by walking past him.

[Ice Dragon]

Assassin Nino looks cute.

I guess "Remote Dart Echo" didn't fit... so they just give it a brand new name instead of abbreviating it. Either way, this looks like it'll be the best-in-slot skill for fast ranged cavalry and fliers in order to allow them to run Flared Sparrow instead of being stuck with Remote Sparrow. Unfortunately, Nino is infantry and can't be used to duplicate Flared Sparrow, which is a huge bummer.

Harken has his signature Brave Sword and brings Brash Assault 4 into the standard summoning pool, which is really nice. I wasn't expecting it to be added to the standard summoning pool this soon given that Duo Shamir was the only unit that previously had it.

As expected, Ginnungagap's exclusive skill has a Pulse effect to make up for the fact that cavalry otherwise have no good way to actually use Lethality. And it's an exclusive skill, so all other cavalry daggers are still out of luck.

Fireflood Boost 3 is nice, but I wish they would have given us a new Boost skill instead of repeating the one that already exists.

Fargus is cool. Hopefully he's actually a good unit considering how terrifying I remember him being in game.

[Lemmy]

Part of me was hoping goat lady would have shown up on the final map, she has Gullveig’s boss theme with Kvasir too …

 

I’ll focus on Nihility goddess, X skill will be backup color.

[Tybrosion]

20 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

Jedah is still busy in his cave spamming summons because I never figured out how to kill him and just completed the game by walking past him.

There is a NPC in Halcyon's village (in SoV at least, don't know about Gaiden) who hints the way of getting around Jedah's gimmick, but yeah most players aren't going to figure out what Jedah's deal is on their own (if they don't already know).

The best part is that is gimmick is actually different in Gaiden than it is in SoV (and vice versa). So, even players who have played Gaiden won't immediately know what to do against Jedah in SoV (if, again, they don't already know).

Edit: Actually, ignore the second part. I might be wrong on that.

Edited November 16, 2023 by Tybrosion

[Seafarer]

6 minutes ago, Tybrosion said:

There is a NPC in Halcyon's village (in SoV at least, don't know about Gaiden) who hints the way of getting around Jedah's gimmick, but yeah most players aren't going to figure out what Jedah's deal is on their own (if they don't already know).

The best part is that is gimmick is actually different in Gaiden than it is in SoV (and vice versa). So, even players who have played Gaiden won't immediately know what to do against Jedah in SoV (if, again, they don't already know).

Edit: Actually, ignore the second part. I might be wrong on that.

Don't worry, you're correct.

Spoiler

In Gaiden, Jedah's vulnerable on turns divisible by 4. In Echoes, it's every 4th round of combat. Honestly, I prefer the Gaiden incarnation.

I wonder whether Thracia is going to get a banner soon enough to play back-and-forth with Engage on my "highest percent of playable characters missing from FEH" list, or if Engage has already overtaken it for good. I appreciate a good Isadora, but Thracia needs a banner soon.

[Ice Dragon]

And the usual translation notes:

 

The name of the banner, "Attuned Nino & Ginnungagap", is "響心ニノ＆魔器ギンヌンガガプ" (kyōshin nino & maki ginnungagapu), "Resonating Hearts Nino & Arcane Weapon Ginnungagap". As usual, "響心" (kyōshin), "resonating hearts", is the term used for Attuned Heroes, and "魔器" (maki), "magic weapon", is the term used for both Rearmed Heroes and Arcane weapons.

Ginnungagap's epithet, "Ruler of Nihility", is "虚無の王" (kyomu no ō), "King of Nihility".

Arcane Void is "魔器ギンヌンガガプ" (maki ginnungagapu), "Arcane Weapon Ginnungagap".

Ruler of Nihility is "虚無の王" (kyomu no ō), "King of Nihility".

Fatal Smoke is "不治の幻煙" (fuji no gen'en), "Incurable Illusory Smoke". "幻煙" (gen'en), "illusory smoke", is the name of the Smoke skills that inflict status effects, whereas "紫煙" (shien), "purple smoke", is the name of the Smoke skills that inflict stat penalties.

Isadora's epithet, "Escort of Pherae", is "フェレの守護騎士" (fere no shugo kishi), "Guardian Knight of Pherae".

Guarding Lance is "守護騎士の白槍" (shugo kishi no hakusō), "White Lance of the Guardian Knight".

Atk/Def Snag is "攻撃守備の干渉" (kōgeki shubi no kanshō), "Atk/Def Interference".

Harken's epithet, "Troubled Warrior", is "影の勇者" (kage no yūsha), "Hero in the Shadows".

Troubling Blade is "影の勇者の黒剣" (kage no yūsha no kokuken), "Black Sword of the Hero in the Shadows". As usual, anything but a "sword".

Nino's epithet, "Fang's Heart", is "心は牙と共に" (kokoro wa kiba to tomo ni), "[With] the Fangs By [Her] Heart".

Göndul is "ゴンドゥル" (gonduru), "Göndul".

Spd/Def Tempo is "速さ守備の拍節" (hayasa shubi no hakusetsu), "Spd/Def Tempo".

Fanged Ties is "牙の絆" (kiba no kizuna), "The Fangs' Bonds".

Fleeting Echo is "響・飛燕の離撃" (hibiki: hien no rigeki), "Resonance: Flying Swallow Distant Strike". As usual, "飛燕" (hien), "flying swallow", is the Spd stat indicator for the Blow and Stance series. "離撃" (rigeki), "distant strike", is the name of the Remote series.

Wil's epithet, "Unequaled Archer", is "稀代の弓使い" (kitai no yumi-tsukai), "Extraordinary Archer".

Halting Bow is "制止の弓" (seishi no yumi), "Restraining Bow".

Fargus's epithet, "Badon Buccaneer", is "バドン海の首領" (badon-kai no shuryō), "Head of the Sea of Badon".

Corsair Cleaver is "海賊の長の大斧" (kaizoku no chō no daifu), "Pirate Boss's Great Axe".

 

Isadora, Harken, and Wil all have the same epithet they have in Blazing's epilogue in both languages, with the one exception that Wil's was reworded from "Archer Without Equal" in Blazing to "Unequaled Archer" in Heroes in English.

Edited November 19, 2023 by Ice Dragon

[Florete]

1 hour ago, Sunwoo said:

Wait, what the fuck. Are any of the banner units going to be the 4-star demote at the end of it? Both Isadora and Harken's kits look too powerful to be demoted.

What the fuck is this shit???

Yes, I know Wil is there, but he's an instant injection into the pool and not actually a focus unit.

Did they just cut out making a demote on an otherwise normal banner?

Last month's Echoes banner also lacked a demote. Only 1 of the units on that banner even remained in the standard summoning pool (Mycen).

The lack of demotes and consistent new units who can't be summoned off-focus is very concerning to me.

Edited November 16, 2023 by Florete

[Karuu30]

can we talk about how awful Ginnungagap’s kit is for inheritance purposes? i was expecting they’d come with tempo 4, that would have go better with lethality. 

not to mention fatal smoke 3 is still 5 star locked, and they didn’t give us a new boost 4 skill either.

and the arcane dagger… well, wasn’t expecting much since the arcane weapons have not been great lately, especially rearmed sonya’s.

[Tybrosion]

1 hour ago, Karuu30 said:

not to mention fatal smoke 3 is still 5 star locked, and they didn’t give us a new boost 4 skill either.

For Fatal Smoke, there is at least a Summer Freyja manual (if one hasn’t used it already) available in the third Compile Manuals set.

Otherwise, I guess we all have to hope for something like Griss getting Fatal Smoke 3 as a GHB unit.

[Etrurian emperor]

Oof no Vaida or Nergal.

I like we got Fargus though. Is it me or is he the only character with visible chest hair?

Edited November 16, 2023 by Etrurian emperor

[DefyingFates]

4 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Either way, this looks like it'll be the best-in-slot skill for fast ranged cavalry and fliers in order to allow them to run Flared Sparrow instead of being stuck with Remote Sparrow.

It also just negates the need for Remote Sparrow in general, right? So other speedy mages can equip some other A skill, or is Atk Oath Echo still their best option?

Anyway: high pitched squeal A new Nino with such a cool design concept and outfit! She looks SO cool and I love the assassin vibes! I know this is what a lot of people wanted for a Brave alt and this is the second time a Nino alt has headlined a banner, but I can already see my Orbs vanishing as I try to get her. She just needs Lethality and she's good to go, right?

Edited November 16, 2023 by DefyingFates

[Ernivus of Celephaïs]

Wooohoo another Nino alt, I really like Nino she's like the only character that matters in FE7, I love how she's the three main lords all at once and the only character you get to recruit I think her inability to read is a really good and unique character trait I really do love stupid children, they make for wonderful candidates to be sent to war, it's just a shame that she also plays the role of every single villain in the game but it's refreshing that every single unit you recruit in that game is also Nino, it really hammers home how much growths are superior to bases I wish Nino was my mom, dad, sister, retainer and wedding planner, perhaps if we're lucky they release a FEH patch that replaces every unit with Nino, Edelgard, Lyn, Camilla and Lucina, we all know they the only characters that matter don't send hate my way you know I speak the truth. My favorite part of Blazing Blade was definetly when Nino said "It's Ninoing time!" and ninoed all over the place.

 

Disclaimer: you've just witnessed a random act of violence I mean seething sarcasm. In truth I do not hate Nino at all (I do despise the Adrestian hypocrite though), it just infurates me that we always get alt after alt of the same four characters instead of new faces. I'm sure Nino Emblem fans will be happy but every time something like this happens I can't help but feel bad for people who wanted someone like Vaida to make it in as it just elongates the wait needlessly. I know the feeling, my boy Warren probably won't even make it in before FEH shuts down, I should be lucky they even bothered to put Malice in. If anything I think we shall all unite to provide psychological support to Jaffar fans who are gonna have to live vicariously through a Nino that took Jaffars place as a fast assassin as they wonder where did Jaffar's attack stat go. I propose we set up a gofundme to give every Jaffar fan a warm blanket for emotional comfort in these trying times.

 

Getting a new old man and a hairy one at that with Fargus... well, that does put a smile on my face. I'll take all the fathers, grandads and middle-aged men IntSys is willing to give because I ain't playing with no kids like I'm some sort of birthday clown. So in conclussion... how many years until Nergal finally drops, boys?

[Ice Dragon]

2 hours ago, Karuu30 said:

can we talk about how awful Ginnungagap’s kit is for inheritance purposes? i was expecting they’d come with tempo 4, that would have go better with lethality. 

Cavalry can't use Tempo in the first place, so that was already off the table from the start.

The source of the problem is not Ginnungagap's base skill set, but the fact that she's a cavalry unit, as cavalry units don't have access to a lot of the inheritable skills that make Lethality more viable.

 

2 hours ago, Karuu30 said:

and the arcane dagger… well, wasn’t expecting much since the arcane weapons have not been great lately, especially rearmed sonya’s.

Literally all a dagger needs to be good is +1 Special charge rate, and this one also comes with Sabotage (the status effect) built in, which is a pretty strong effect.

The ranged Arcane weapons also have fewer skill effects than the melee Arcane weapons, so it shouldn't really be a surprise.

 

13 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I like we got Fargus though. Is it me or is he the only character with visible chest hair?

Chest hair is not common among East Asians, and the inclusion of chest hair is typically a deliberate choice in order to give a character a more brusque and non-East-Asian appearance.

 

7 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

It also just negates the need for Remote Sparrow in general, right? So other speedy mages can equip some other A skill, or is Atk Oath Echo still their best option?

Infantry have enough different permutations of skills that I can't make as sweeping generalizations about them, but yes, Fleeting Echo does give units an alternative to running Remote skills in the A slot if they have other alternatives.

Cavalry have the simplest case simply due to the fact that they don't have access to Oath Echo to begin with and therefore don't have much competition for the slot yet, and additionally, they have access to the incredibly strong Flared series, which they normally can't run without risk of dying to counterattacks unless they have damage reduction of some kind on another slot. Assuming that all Blow Echo skills will be +4 to one stat, it's completely worthwhile to lose 2 points of that stat to run Remote Echo and open up the A slot for Flared Sparrow.

Fliers also have access to Flared Sparrow, but also have access to Oath Echo. However, I'd argue that Oath Echo is less valuable for fliers than it is for infantry because fliers don't have a strong alternative to Oath 4 in the C slot (Hold and Guidance 4 are the only real alternatives), and any unit that wants the Formation effect should just be running Oath 4. This functionally leaves fliers in the exact same spot as cavalry with Remote Echo being worth running over Blow Echo due to Flared Sparrow.

 

Returning to infantry, they don't have access to Flared Sparrow, so there isn't quite as large of a gap in strength between options for the A slot, and they have viable competitors to Oath 4 in the form of Pledge, Time's Pulse, and Infantry Pulse 4, which make Oath Echo more appealing.

If the unit already has +1 Special charge rate on their weapon (and don't need a Pulse effect), then they don't need to run Pledge and can instead run Oath 4 in the C slot, Remote Echo in the X slot, and Finish 4 in the A slot. This is the situation where Remote Echo has the least competition.

In any other situation, you have to weigh whether or not the benefits of Atk/Spd Finish 4 (or Atk/Spd Hexblade or Atk/Spd Prime) are worth losing one of Pledge (or a Pulse effect) or Oath Echo.

In other words, the comparison isn't between Oath Echo or Remote Echo in the X slot. It's actually a comparison of the opportunity costs of running Remote in the A slot versus the opportunity costs of running Remote in the X slot (and this distinction will become more clear as we get more skill series in the X slot).

 

7 minutes ago, Ernivus of Celephaïs said:

but every time something like this happens I can't help but feel bad for people who wanted someone like Vaida to make it in as it just elongates the wait needlessly.

The non-Heroes special unit type slot was guaranteed to be an alt anyways. If it weren't Nino in that slot, it absolutely couldn't have been Vaida.

It's unlikely that any banner going forward is going to have more than 4 new non-Heroes characters, so if Vaida got in, it meant one of Isadora, Harken, Wil, or Fargus didn't. Four new characters per banner is the absolute fastest pace that you can expect new characters to be released, and that's exactly what we got. No wait was needlessly elongated by this banner.

[Mercakete]

Oh neat. Wil's in.

If I go for anyone on this banner, it'll be Lady Gagap, since I collect Heroes-native units. However, I don't really care much about anyone on this banner.

It was sweet that Nino was shown working with the Fangs.

I guess IS had been waiting for a Jaffar-styled Nino to win CYL and it just kept not happening? I guess these units will be dressed as loved ones just like the brave units are (about half the time, these days.)

And those are basically all my impressions. 🙂

Edit: Harken is cool but I don't remember much of him. I should finish my FE7 playthrough someday. I'm seriously like...2 chapters away or something.

Also, just saw that Fargus is in, too! Yay! 😄

Edited November 16, 2023 by Mercakete

[Diovani Bressan]

I will guess the lack of demotes in the banner is just for this time of the year, because IS wants to introduce a new alf of the banner's themed title while also introducing one of the TT Story's units.

I believe it will go back to having a demote on the banner starting on December or January.

...

Anyway, about the banner... this is a skip to me.

Ginnungagap looks annoying to deal with, only because of her B skill... that acts like a menace skill, which makes me surprised it's not a C skill instead. Also, IS being IS in creating a problem and trying to sell the solution after, with the non-Miracle counter effect.

Isadora looks nice as both a buffer and debuffed, but not much to say about her.

Bothers me a little that Harken is just Male Shez but better. He does what Shez does, and more. Also, why the Hel's Warping effect? That's kinda random.

Finally, we have Nino... Honestly, BoaFerox did well in describing this alt as a "Brave Hero alt that never existed", because being a dagger unit wearing clothes similar to Jaffar is for sure something Brave Nino would be. Well, she looks good and strong... that's about it.

Insta-demote Wil... cool.

And the GHB unit is the Holy Kingdom of Fargus. Infantry Axe unit, which to me what looks like a prf weapon. If he has nice stats and a good weapon, it could become a merge project.

Edited November 16, 2023 by Diovani Bressan

[Fire Emblem Fan]

If Fargus has a Prf weapon, that's crazy in the best way.

[Flying Shogi]

If I understood Nino's kit correctly then she would like to attack a unit that can counterattack so her follow up attack also triggers her Special. However, in the case she attacks a unit that can't counterattack, assuming she doubles and the enemy is still standing after the initial hit, then her Special will be charged (if it's a 3CD Special) at the end of that combat. But it looks like Fanged Ties would have charged her Special at the beginning of next turn anyway regardless of Flash Sparrow in that scenario, rendering the CD charge from her A skill redundant. 

[DefyingFates]

7 hours ago, Mercakete said:

I guess IS had been waiting for a Jaffar-styled Nino to win CYL and it just kept not happening? I guess these units will be dressed as loved ones just like the brave units are (about half the time, these days.)

Yeah, if all Attuned Heroes are going to be based on someone else, that's pretty much the basis for a good chunk of CYL Heroes. I wonder if that means those'll be a bit more diverse going forward?

Or heck, this might mean we'll finally get Ephraim cosplaying as Eirika in the next FE8 banner to pay off all those CYL 5 memes.