Custom Avatar Names

[edelbert]

Not sure where else to put this. I personally do not like the ability to name the avatar in recent games. Specifically Three Houses and Engage. It butchers the voice acting for little to no reason. In Awakening and Fates it made sense, because you could change how you looked and the voices weren’t full. But in the aforementioned games, not only can you not change your appearance but now the characters have to use another name the entire time to refer to you. It was funny to name my Alear “Daddy” on my Maddening playthrough, but that’s about it. I hope in future games, IS uses the canon name and removes the ability to change it.

Opinions?

[indigoasis]

I would tentatively agree with you on that; in New Mystery, Awakening, and Fates, I think it's fine since the avatar is fully customizable, and you still have the option of going with the canon name and appearance (which is what I personally do anyway). Three Houses and Engage have more "story-involved" avatars, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

The way I see it, it's like being able to name Link (and Epona in Twilight Princess) whatever you want in older Zelda titles. It's just an option to make the player feel a little more connected to the main character that they're playing as, if that's what they want to do (or to make a funny name). Byleth and Alear are counted among avatars since they more or less follow the trend that's been set since New Mystery (barring Shadows of Valentia).

[Eltosian Kadath]

I would be happy with that, but it would be a clear move away from the idea of the Avatar that has been dominant, and popular in FE since New Mystery, which I doubt IS would do. As someone who usually plays without audio, the voice acting isn't a big deal for me, but I do think moving away from an avatar would have other benefits, like moving away from our army having to be all local singles in the avatars area, less avatar worship, not to mention the way customization options clash with cutscenes, etc.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

As a result of full voice acting plus renameable avatar, Jeralt never once called his child by their name.

Burn it all down.

[Florete]

I'd like it if they just voiced the default name when it's used, and avoided it when a different name is given. I always use default names, but I still kind of like having the rename option since it's part of having an avatar, and I like having an avatar.

[lenticular]

On the one hand: I don't typically like avatar characters in games where story is important to the experience. I don't think they've added to my personal enjoyment of any Fire Emblem game that has featured them, and I almost always just keep to the default name (the one exception being Mark, who I renamed to Maria because Mark seemed a strange name for a woman). My own preference would be for them to go away and never come back.

On the other hand: Enough people seem to like them, and IS seem sufficiently committed to them that I doubt they're going to go away any time soon. So it seems like a waste of my energy to really care about them too much. They're an annoyance, for sure, but a sufficiently minor annoyance that I can live with them.

[Jotari]

I'd say we're only about ten years away from voice actors getting kicked to the curb anyway and companies using Ai voices that can pronounce basic names on the fly.

[ARMADS!!!]

I agree with @Florete on having the option of having less complete voice lines if you change the default name. Or at least have 3 or 4 options for default names with full voice acting?

Alternatively, I don't know anything about Alear, but man... Doesn't Byleth have a canon surname? They could've made people call them by the surname and having you choose the name you want! (Jeralt could call you some pet name or "son/daughter"), being called "professor" or "teach" or whatever ALL the time, even post time skip and by people that are now clearly your friends (or more...) just looks a bit off, it's like how everyone keeps calling your avatar "rookie" on Sonic Forces. Though I gotta admit that Byleth is so non customizable that it's barely an avatar, is more of an actual character that acts as your POV and you sometimes can say stuff for them, like Phoenix Wright, imagine being able to change Phoenix' name? Maybe they shouldn't even have given the option to change Byleth's name on first place.

 But yeah, since it's an avatar, I like to have the option to change the name (when the voice acting can't get in the way), it's always cool to change Mark's name to something stupid in FE7, or to change your name to something stupid in Pokemon games. In cases where it can get in the way, it's harder to make it without being ankward but I think it's possible.

[Use the Falchion]

They personally don't bother me, and I like them for the head-canon/roleplaying aspect. 

 

I liked Byleth being called "Professor" or "Teach" far more than Persona 5's "this guy" thing. It was more personal and affectionate.