Pre Banner Discussion Thread: New Heroes Banner February 2024

[ARMADS!!!]

I know the exact date of the banner wasn't announced yet, as the February-March event calendar won't be released until a few more days, but the NH banner of February always drops around the 17th so I didn't wanna wait for the calendar, it's around 10 days from now so I don't think it's too soon, I try to make these threads 10 days-1 week before the banner anyway (even though sometimes I do them later).

 You know the deal, drop your expecations, therories and wants (or not wants) about the upcoming banner here.

Edited February 8 by ARMADS!!!

[ARMADS!!!]

Making a second post to not put my personal guesses along with the original post.

 I'd bet on FE4 or Engage, they like to put FE4's banners close to FE5's so I suspect that the FE4 one will come either this month or on the next, Engage because of it's anniversary (though I'm not sure if Emblem Marth + Mythic Lumera might act as a point against it, if they already counted as the anniversary celebration, I really don't know).

 Also, I strongly doubt it'll FE8 because it got a whole banner like 5 seconds ago.

 An FE4 gen 1 banner would be nice, since the last gen 1 one was back in 2021 (February 2021, so 3 years ago!).

Edited February 8 by ARMADS!!!

[Tybrosion]

Last Time Each Game Got a New Heroes Banner
Tokyo Mirage Sessions: January 2020

Path of Radiance: November 2021

Shadow Dragon / (New) Mystery: November 2022
Fates: December 2022

Radiant Dawn: February 2023
The Sacred Stones: March 2023
Three Houses / Three Hopes: April 2023
The Binding Blade: June 2023
Engage: July 2023
Genealogy of the Holy War: September 2023
Shadows of Valentia: October 2023
The Blazing Blade: November 2023
Awakening: December 2023

Thracia 776: January 2024

 

So ignoring TMS (since that's exactly what IS does) and keeping in mind that the Tellius games are essentially treated as being one game for the purposes of the New Heroes banner rotation, Archanea has gone the longest without a New Heroes banner. So if we don't get Engage here, then it'll probably be Shadow Dragon / (New) Mystery or Fates (the other game that was last seen in 2022).

I seriously doubt this will be Genealogy when it's only been five months since its last banner. If anything, the Thracia banner last month came too late and should've been in October 2023.

[ARMADS!!!]

21 minutes ago, Tybrosion said:

Last Time Each Game Got a New Heroes Banner
Tokyo Mirage Sessions: January 2020

Path of Radiance: November 2021

Shadow Dragon / (New) Mystery: November 2022
Fates: December 2022

Radiant Dawn: February 2023
The Sacred Stones: March 2023
Three Houses / Three Hopes: April 2023
The Binding Blade: June 2023
Engage: July 2023
Genealogy of the Holy War: September 2023
Shadows of Valentia: October 2023
The Blazing Blade: November 2023
Awakening: December 2023

Thracia 776: January 2024

 

So ignoring TMS (since that's exactly what IS does) and keeping in mind that the Tellius games are essentially treated as being one game for the purposes of the New Heroes banner rotation, Archanea has gone the longest without a New Heroes banner. So if we don't get Engage here, then it'll probably be Shadow Dragon / (New) Mystery or Fates (the other game that was last seen in 2022).

I seriously doubt this will be Genealogy when it's only been five months since its last banner. If anything, the Thracia banner last month came too late and should've been in October 2023.

 

Oh, thanks for the list. I was expecting FE4 because usually they make both Jugdral banners only a month or two apart (except for last year, since we didn't get a FE5 banner), so Im expecting it to be soon (unless IS decides to break the pattern as they love to, of course).

 If it's Archanea, I'd like it if Xane finally got out of the Alt Hell™ and had a really cool weapon with an effect similar to his Halloween one (maybe it copies the weapon effect or a skill of one ally, or it makes him act as the weapon + color + mov type of an ally), I've been waiting for his OG alts for some years now so I hope they won't screw it. If he isn't there then I'll most definitively not care about an Archanea banner, as Im not familiar enough with the rest of the character what weren't added. I'm thinking that they might be saving Fates for the end of the year to be able to shove as many Asset Heroes as possible on the banner (and thus, not have to add a lot of new heroes), because the cast left to add from there is starting to get small, though maybe is still not small enough yet for them to despair like that and I'm just deluding myself because I don't want a Fates banner.

 

 Another thing, I tend to keep this list (of how many and which characters from each title are left to be added) at hand before the NH banners, it's a doc that @Jotari made, and it's updated. Linking it to whoever else might find it useful too.

[Othin]

I think this past cycle was them trying to desynchronize the Jugdral banners. I'd love another FE4 banner, but I don't expect one until Book 9.

Engage seems like the most likely option, followed by SD/Mystery and Fates - those two have a good shot at March and April. Maybe June will finally be the return of FE9.

To me, the biggest question is: Elusia banner lead by Ivy and Hortensia, or Solm banner lead by Timerra and Fogado? I'd previously been thinking Elusia would be the fourth nation featured, but Ivy has had longer since her seasonal version.

[Armagon]

10 minutes ago, Othin said:

To me, the biggest question is: Elusia banner lead by Ivy and Hortensia, or Solm banner lead by Timerra and Fogado? I'd previously been thinking Elusia would be the fourth nation featured, but Ivy has had longer since her seasonal version.

Probably Elusia since it came first. The Engage banners have so far been following the path taken in the game. We got Firine first, then Brodia. Elusia is the next logical choice. In both cases, we've also had a Rearmed unit in the mix (Alfred, Alcryst). So in addition to that, it's "who's the Rearmed unit". Ivy makes sense because that takes her out of the pool outside of reruns, which means more money for IS.

[Florete]

(Title spells the month wrong, btw)

I can basically just quote my post from last month's equivalent thread, obviously taking out the possibility of getting Thracia:

On 1/8/2024 at 3:48 PM, Florete said:

My own prediction for an Elusia banner:

Ivy (5* red or blue tome, flying)
Hortensia (5* staff, flying)
Rosado (4-5* Axe, flying)
Goldmary (5* sword, infantry)
Griss (GHB, green tome, infantry)

They skipped Diamant's retainers entirely and I can totally see them doing the same with Ivy's. If they want to throw in a Heroes OC, make Rosado an instant demote instead.

If it's not Engage it could be any of Thracia, Archanea, or Fates.

While CYL results won't have influenced the next Engage banner, they do perfectly fit with this prediction, as well as what my Solm banner prediction is (Timerra, Fogado, Panette, Pandreo).

If we get Archanea, I don't care nor have any predictions who we will see.

If we get Fates, please, for Anankos' sake, give us Mozu already.

[Othin]

11 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Probably Elusia since it came first. The Engage banners have so far been following the path taken in the game. We got Firine first, then Brodia. Elusia is the next logical choice. In both cases, we've also had a Rearmed unit in the mix (Alfred, Alcryst). So in addition to that, it's "who's the Rearmed unit". Ivy makes sense because that takes her out of the pool outside of reruns, which means more money for IS.

That makes sense. I never actually played Engage, so I'm not as familiar with its progression.

2 minutes ago, Florete said:

(Title spells the month wrong, btw)

I can basically just quote my post from last month's equivalent thread, obviously taking out the possibility of getting Thracia:

While CYL results won't have influenced the next Engage banner, they do perfectly fit with this prediction, as well as what my Solm banner prediction is (Timerra, Fogado, Panette, Pandreo).

If we get Archanea, I don't care nor have any predictions who we will see.

If we get Fates, please, for Anankos' sake, give us Mozu already.

Hmm. Rosado being a demote would surprise me - he seems quite popular, and looking to CYL8 results, he outscored Goldmary there.

Archanea's roster doesn't have a ton of standouts left, but Xane has a solid CYL lead, and Lorenz could make for a good GHB. The others with 100+ votes on CYL8 (but all below 200) are, in order: Arlen, Etzel, Midia, Yuliya, Castor, Wendell, Radd, Jubelo, and Cecil.

For Fates, Scarlet, Mozu, Mitama, and Shura all outscored any of the Archanea candidates, and I'd bet on getting 2-3 of those this spring. Others with 100+ votes are Hisame, Izana, Hayato, Sophie, Layla, Candace, Yukimura, Haitaka, and Anna.

[Florete]

8 minutes ago, Othin said:

Hmm. Rosado being a demote would surprise me - he seems quite popular, and looking to CYL8 results, he outscored Goldmary there.

Like I said, CYL8 results won't have influenced this banner, and Rosado still has boy syndrome getting in his way. Plus, I expect Goldmary to be a sword infantry, and the most recent Engage demote (Lapis) was a sword infantry. It is possible for Goldmary to be a lance infantry, though, in which case she'd be more plausible as the demote.

...Actually, I just checked and saw that Goldmary has boosted lance proficiency in Engage, so maybe lance infantry is more likely for her.

Edited February 8 by Florete

[Fire Emblem Fan]

I can see this month's banner being an Engage one, but I'm hoping for Archanea. Castor, Lorenz, Xane, Yuliya, Jubelo, Arlen, Samson, and Midia are all characters I'd like to see. Castor is the highest priority for me, personally, but I'd bet that there's a good chance that Lorenz, Yuliya, and Jubelo make it in, based on CYL 7's results (CYL 7 being the one that'd have influence on this banner, CYL 8 likely won't influence a banner until September this year at the earliest).

[Othin]

10 minutes ago, Florete said:

Like I said, CYL8 results won't have influenced this banner, and Rosado still has boy syndrome getting in his way. Plus, I expect Goldmary to be a sword infantry, and the most recent Engage demote (Lapis) was a sword infantry. It is possible for Goldmary to be a lance infantry, though, in which case she'd be more plausible as the demote.

...Actually, I just checked and saw that Goldmary has boosted lance proficiency in Engage, so maybe lance infantry is more likely for her.

CYL8 won't influence any banners anytime soon, but I doubt it's the only popularity metric IS uses. I'd be willing to bet that they do smaller-scale data gathering throughout the year, and the CYL8 results can probably give us some idea of what that previous data might have looked like.

As for gender, the banner shouldn't exactly be short on women, and Rosado might be pretty enough to further help his chances.

TIL Engage has a sword/lance variation of the Hero class.

[Jotari]

3 hours ago, ARMADS!!! said:

 Another thing, I tend to keep this list (of how many and which characters from each title are left to be added) at hand before the NH banners, it's a doc that made, and it's updated. Linking it to whoever else might find it useful too.

I also track the monthly new heroes banners so you can see how long it's been since a certain title was added.

I'm calling it for Fates. Don't know why. Just feel like they'll go with Fates does month. Has  Fatey feels to if February. In addition, to extend the remaining roster of Fates, I'm predicting we'll get our first capturable boss as a unit. It's not a coincidence the only minor boss in Fates that isn't capturable (because he comes before you have capture) and Kotaro aren't on CYL while every capturable boss is.  They genuinely view the capturabable units as playable characters, just not very important or popular ones. But we're getting low on Fates now and they need to extend it, so this will be the month for Candace or Kumagera or someone. Probablyas a GHB unit to shaft Zola or Sumeragi.

Course, there's like an 80% chance I'm wrong, but I'll be so fucking delighted if I'm on point.

Edited February 8 by Jotari

[Humanoid]

Hortensia may be insufferable, but she's probably our best chance yet at an arcane staff. I'll begrudgingly go along with that. Though I suppose Miitama could also fill that role. I don't know enough about the other realistic choices to call any units from them.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Humanoid said:

Hortensia may be insufferable, but she's probably our best chance yet at an arcane staff. I'll begrudgingly go along with that. Though I suppose Miitama could also fill that role. I don't know enough about the other realistic choices to call any units from them.

She does use a Break staff in her battle, so there is certainly potential for an arcane staff that has a specific ability that is derived from the games but still general enough for anyone to use.

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

I also track the monthly new heroes banners so you can see how long it's been since a certain title was added.

I'm calling it for Fates. Don't know why. Just feel like they'll go with Fates does month. Has  Fatey feels to if February. In addition, to extend the remaining roster of Fates, I'm predicting we'll get our first capturable boss as a unit. It's not a coincidence the only minor boss in Fates that isn't capturable (because he comes before you have capture) and Kotaro aren't on CYL while every capturable boss is.  They genuinely view the capturabable units as playable characters, just not very important or popular ones. But we're getting low on Fates now and they need to extend it, so this will be the month for Candace or Kumagera or someone. Probablyas a GHB unit to shaft Zola or Sumeragi.

Course, there's like an 80% chance I'm wrong, but I'll be so fucking delighted if I'm on point.

To add a little on to why I think we're getting Fates and not Archanea. Archanea is actually in a worse position than Fates bannerwise. It has lots of units remaining but no one really cares about them. It's simply not as potential a money maker as most titles in the series. So I think they will prioritize stuff like Fates over it. They'll still naturally give us Archanea banners as they do for Thracia, but out of obligation. Ultimately it ends the same as all titles have more or less the same number of banners at any given time (I think, could go check, but I'm on mobile and lazy), but they'll prioritize and give us the more saleable banners first. I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't see Archanea until June, with Fates, Engage, Tellius and Fallen Heroes being used before Archanea.

[Tybrosion]

56 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't see Archanea until June, with Fates, Engage, Tellius and Fallen Heroes being used before Archanea.

I’m not sure whether this is intentional or coincidental, but Archanea has actually never gotten a New Heroes banner before June.

To date, Archanea was gotten New Heroes banners in: June 2017, September 2019, July 2020, October 2021, and November 2022. 

[Jotari]

34 minutes ago, Tybrosion said:

I’m not sure whether this is intentional or coincidental, but Archanea has actually never gotten a New Heroes banner before June.

To date, Archanea was gotten New Heroes banners in: June 2017, September 2019, July 2020, October 2021, and November 2022. 

It's almost certainly coincidental, but it's a coincidence that could continue.

[ARMADS!!!]

6 hours ago, Othin said:

I think this past cycle was them trying to desynchronize the Jugdral banners. I'd love another FE4 banner, but I don't expect one until Book 9.

Engage seems like the most likely option, followed by SD/Mystery and Fates - those two have a good shot at March and April. Maybe June will finally be the return of FE9.

To me, the biggest question is: Elusia banner lead by Ivy and Hortensia, or Solm banner lead by Timerra and Fogado? I'd previously been thinking Elusia would be the fourth nation featured, but Ivy has had longer since her seasonal version.

Whether they desynchronize or not I don't care, but I'd be pretty bummed if they fully skipped FE4 this year (specially since gen 1 doesn't get new heroes since 2021, as I said before). I think that now that only 6 of the 12 titles (13 if we count TMS but lol) have more than 15 characters to add, they might start to slow down on the banners for the games with smaller casts left (probably giving them more seasonal banners to not let them starve) and focus on the titles with more units left to add on the NH banners, or at least, that'd be the smartest thing to do I guess (or not, I don't understand about marketing and whatever else related to selling PNGs on a mobile game, that's just a guess). They started to slow down with SoV (with the banner that managed to add only one new character), that's the only one I remember they obviously slowing down though (I don't wanna check it right now, but later I'll confirm it if they haven't been slowing on other titles with small casts too) so I guess that the point where they absolutely start to do it would be when there's less than 10 units left to add or close to it (which means that if they don't start to slow down a bunch of titles now, it'll be soon, as a lot are close to reaching 10).

5 hours ago, Othin said:

As for gender, the banner shouldn't exactly be short on women, and Rosado might be pretty enough to further help his chances.

TIL Engage has a sword/lance variation of the Hero class.

(TIL that Rosado is a man, guess they took the Lucius "archetype" to a new level this time).

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

To add a little on to why I think we're getting Fates and not Archanea. Archanea is actually in a worse position than Fates bannerwise. It has lots of units remaining but no one really cares about them. It's simply not as potential a money maker as most titles in the series. So I think they will prioritize stuff like Fates over it. They'll still naturally give us Archanea banners as they do for Thracia, but out of obligation. Ultimately it ends the same as all titles have more or less the same number of banners at any given time (I think, could go check, but I'm on mobile and lazy), but they'll prioritize and give us the more saleable banners first. I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't see Archanea until June, with Fates, Engage, Tellius and Fallen Heroes being used before Archanea.

 They didn't do the "each title only gets one NH banner a year" until like 2019 or so, I won't check it right now but as I remember (from the last time I checked) there were a lot of Fates and Awakening banners (which would seem to explain why they are the titles with the biggest amount of playable units in, with 48 and 56, respectively, the only other title with more than 35 playable characters in is Archanea), so they probably don't really have more or less the same amount of banners. Although, I agree with you that Archanea will probably not be now since no one cares about most of the remaining cast, I bet they'll save it for the second half of the year so they can shove some OCs (and a brand new and profitable type of Asset Hero) to carry the banners (unless they use some random popular Archanea character as an Ascendant to carry the banner like the last banner used Reinhardt, they could do Ascended Nyna and finally give her an alt that isn't shit or something, if they did this then Archanea might have some chance now).

 

 

 EDIT: I went to check it and last year they started to add the OCs in September. From October on, every title was chosen for the NH banners had less than 15 characters left to add: Awakening in december, FE7 in november, SoV in october, so I think they started to be stingy as of the end of last year (FE8 had more than 10 but less than 15 to add before it got it's new banner at the beggining of 2023 and they didn't weren't stingy with it then). Perhaps not a rule, of course, but it looks like they started to be stingy only recently Also the September banner (that had an OC in it) was FE4 even though it still has a large amount of people to add so nothing stops something of the sort from happening again.

Edited February 8 by ARMADS!!!

[Jotari]

23 minutes ago, ARMADS!!! said:

Whether they desynchronize or not I don't care, but I'd be pretty bummed if they fully skipped FE4 this year (specially since gen 1 doesn't get new heroes since 2021, as I said before). I think that now that only 6 of the 12 titles (13 if we count TMS but lol) have more than 15 characters to add, they might start to slow down on the banners for the games with smaller casts left (probably giving them more seasonal banners to not let them starve) and focus on the titles with more units left to add on the NH banners, or at least, that'd be the smartest thing to do I guess (or not, I don't understand about marketing and whatever else related to selling PNGs on a mobile game, that's just a guess). They started to slow down with SoV (with the banner that managed to add only one new character), that's the only one I remember they obviously slowing down though (I don't wanna check it right now, but later I'll confirm it if they haven't been slowing on other titles with small casts too) so I guess that the point where they absolutely start to do it would be when there's less than 10 units left to add or close to it (which means that if they don't start to slow down a bunch of titles now, it'll be soon, as a lot are close to reaching 10).

They might slowdown the rate of new characters added, but nothing suggests they have any intention of slowing down the rate in which we get new titles. It makes sense for balance and all that to give us more Archanea, Tellius and Genealogy banners, but they're no doubt more interested in selling characters than making every character playable. We had two Awakening banners in the span of time it took to get two Thracia banners, for example.

23 minutes ago, ARMADS!!! said:

(TIL that Rosado is a man, guess they took the Lucius "archetype" to a new level this time).

 They didn't do the "each title only gets one NH banner a year" until like 2019 or so, I won't check it right now but as I remember (from the last time I checked) there were a lot of Fates and Awakening banners (which would seem to explain why they are the titles with the biggest amount of playable units in, with 48 and 56, respectively, the only other title with more than 35 playable characters in is Archanea), so they probably don't really have more or less the same amount of banners. Although, I agree with you that Archanea will probably not be now since no one cares about most of the remaining cast, I bet they'll save it for the second half of the year so they can shove some OCs (and a brand new and profitable type of Asset Hero) to carry the banners (unless they use some random popular Archanea character as an Ascendant to carry the banner like the last banner used Reinhardt, they could do Ascended Nyna and finally give her an alt that isn't shit or something, if they did this then Archanea might have some chance now).

I think the Archanea, Awakening and Fates roster bloat is because those are the three titles they pulled from the most when the game started and needed an initial cast of characters. Such was the state of the franchise in the yesteryear of 2017. Probably should have made some of that early filler Genealogy substitutes and the less popular Archanean characters, but hindsight is 20:20 and at the time they didn't know if those whole Fire Emblem mobile biz would sell.

[ARMADS!!!]

24 minutes ago, Jotari said:

They might slowdown the rate of new characters added, but nothing suggests they have any intention of slowing down the rate in which we get new titles. It makes sense for balance and all that to give us more Archanea, Tellius and Genealogy banners, but they're no doubt more interested in selling characters than making every character playable. We had two Awakening banners in the span of time it took to get two Thracia banners, for example.

Ah, yes, I meant that for now they'll probably slow down the rate of new characters added (easiest way would be to push it's banners to the end of the year, as they apparently have been doing already, I edited my previous comment adding this part) but eventually the 3 Awakening characters we have left will have been used so I think they'll probably start to slow down the rate we get new titles too (but that only when we get closer to finishing the rosters, like when Fodlan, Fates, FE7 and FE8 have each like 5 characters left to add or so), because it'll get to a point where they won't be able to push every banner with almost finished roster to the end of the year so they'll either have to add more than 2 characters at once, or slow down the rate we get each title (in NH banners only of course, that's why I mentioned they'd probably give these titles more seasonals) or have to think of new ways to to add less characters, otherwise these rosters will end and they'll have to do the work with the rest of the titles.

 

24 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I think the Archanea, Awakening and Fates roster bloat is because those are the three titles they pulled from the most when the game started and needed an initial cast of characters. Such was the state of the franchise in the yesteryear of 2017. Probably should have made some of that early filler Genealogy substitutes and the less popular Archanean characters, but hindsight is 20:20 and at the time they didn't know if those whole Fire Emblem mobile biz would sell.

Oh yeah, the Archanea remakes were among the newest ones back then... Even so, weren't the GBA titles and Tellius a lot more popular than the Archanea remakes (or is it just the impression I got)? Because then, they didn't have to necessarily add such underdogs as the FE4 substitutes but just more Tellius characters or something would probably have done it. 

Edited February 8 by ARMADS!!!

[Etrurian emperor]

14 minutes ago, ARMADS!!! said:

Oh yeah, the Archanea remakes were among the newest ones back then... Even so, weren't the GBA titles and Tellius a lot more popular than the Archanea remakes (or is it just the impression I got)? Because then, they didn't have to necessarily add such underdogs as the FE4 substitutes but just more Tellius characters or something would probably have done it. 

Shadow Dragon seems to have had a relatively tepid reception due to the blandness and ugly characters though people look on it more favorably now. I think the bigger problem is that Shadow Dragon refusing to do its job and characterize its cast gives Heroes less to work with. Who cares about bald general 1 and his clone bald general 2. 

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, ARMADS!!! said:

Ah, yes, I meant that for now they'll probably slow down the rate of new characters added (easiest way would be to push it's banners to the end of the year, as they apparently have been doing already, I edited my previous comment adding this part) but eventually the 3 Awakening characters we have left will have been used so I think they'll probably start to slow down the rate we get new titles too (but that only when we get closer to finishing the rosters, like when Fodlan, Fates, FE7 and FE8 have each like 5 characters left to add or so), because it'll get to a point where they won't be able to push every banner with almost finished roster to the end of the year so they'll either have to add more than 2 characters at once, or slow down the rate we get each title (in NH banners only of course, that's why I mentioned they'd probably give these titles more seasonals) or have to think of new ways to to add less characters, otherwise these rosters will end and they'll have to do the work with the rest of the titles.

 

Oh yeah, the Archanea remakes were among the newest ones back then... Even so, weren't the GBA titles and Tellius a lot more popular than the Archanea remakes (or is it just the impression I got)? Because then, they didn't have to necessarily add such underdogs as the FE4 substitutes but just more Tellius characters or something would probably have done it. 

NES/SNES Nostalgia in Japan is the reason for Archanea being there and in Warriors.

[Othin]

8 hours ago, Jotari said:

I also track the monthly new heroes banners so you can see how long it's been since a certain title was added.

I'm calling it for Fates. Don't know why. Just feel like they'll go with Fates does month. Has  Fatey feels to if February. In addition, to extend the remaining roster of Fates, I'm predicting we'll get our first capturable boss as a unit. It's not a coincidence the only minor boss in Fates that isn't capturable (because he comes before you have capture) and Kotaro aren't on CYL while every capturable boss is.  They genuinely view the capturabable units as playable characters, just not very important or popular ones. But we're getting low on Fates now and they need to extend it, so this will be the month for Candace or Kumagera or someone. Probablyas a GHB unit to shaft Zola or Sumeragi.

Course, there's like an 80% chance I'm wrong, but I'll be so fucking delighted if I'm on point.

Hmm. The capturable bosses will probably be GHBs, and while I've been expecting Shura to be the next Fates GHB, he could very well be on the banner instead.

[ARMADS!!!]

10 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Shadow Dragon seems to have had a relatively tepid reception due to the blandness and ugly characters though people look on it more favorably now. I think the bigger problem is that Shadow Dragon refusing to do its job and characterize its cast gives Heroes less to work with. Who cares about bald general 1 and his clone bald general 2. 

Oh makes sense, if it was just some characters bland chadacterization they'd find a way (like they did with Altina, Elimine, Ullr,...), but with a cast so big as it is, and the fact that most of them (the ones that still aren't in, I mean) don't have a lot of fans because there's nothing to create interest about them (since they're not an ancient plot important figure like Altina and the others, and to top it ended up being so ugly which makes even less people interested), makes me wonder if they'll really try to shove the rest.

 I think they're trying to create some interest in them by witholding characters that theorically should've been in already like Bord and Cord (who are early game so everyone who played it a bit of the game knows them, like how they witheld Wil, Kent, Sain and Guy from FE7, or are doing it with Alen, Lance, Bors and OG Wolt from FE6) but I think that on the case of the Shadow Dragon characters, this has not been working too well, or it's just the impression I got because I barely see anyone mentioning how excited they're for them or how angry they are cause X or Y weren't added yet, or barely any hype for them after they added Nyna. Now I see more hype for new FE5 characters (though that's undeniably common here in Serenes Forest) than for Archanea's.

[Tybrosion]

Because I have nothing else to do right now, these are my sure to be incorrect predictions for the banner:

If it's Shadow Dragon / (New) Mystery:

Spoiler

Attuned Katarina (B Tome Inf)
Yuliya (Staff Inf)
Cecil (Sword Cav)
Jubelo (G Tome Inf; Demote)

Arlen (B Tome Inf; GHB)

Notes

• For reference, these are Katarina's voice actresses: Kana Yuuki in JP (also voices Nino, who was last seen in Nov 2023), Kira Buckland (also voices Eirika, who literally just showed up on a Special Heroes banner). So yeah, I feel Katarina is a fairly safe bet for the Ascended / Rearmed / Attuned slot.
• My second pick for the Ascended / Rearmed / Attuned character would be Navarre. Yes, a male I know but his JP voice actor (Takehito Koyasu) just voiced Validar in December.
• Yuliya got 161st in CYL7 but dropped to 304th in CYL8, oops, which made her the highest ranking missing Archanean character. By proxy, her brother Jubelo is also included to serve as both the banner's lone male and demote.
• Cecil is here more or less just to be another girl, since IS has clearly shown they don't care about preserving females for future banners. She is also a member of Altea's 7th Platoon alongside Katarina and Kris, so there's also that.
• Arlen is the second highest ranking missing Archanean character in CYL7 (174th) and is the highest ranked one in CYL8 (275th). He also practically has the letters "GHB" stamped on his forehead, so that's where he goes.

If it's Fates:

Spoiler

Ascended Felicia (Staff Cav)
Scarlet (Axe Fly)
Mozu (Lance Inf)
Hayato (R Tome Inf; Demote)

Shura (C Bow Inf; GHB)

Notes

• Felicia getting the Ascended / Rearmed / Attuned slot is honestly just a biased pick from me. But given that her last two CYL ranks were 75th (7) and 89th (8), she definitely should have more than just one alt and no Resplendent.
• I would certainly accept Azura or Sakura as the Ascended / Rearmed / Attuned character instead, though. The former hasn't gotten an alt since Jan 2022 and the latter hasn't gotten a stand alone alt since Jan 2019.
• Scarlet is the highest ranking missing Fates character in both CYL7 (79th) and CYL8 (112th), so she should definitely be here.
• Mozu is the third highest ranking missing Fates character in CYL7 (116th, is behind Mitama who got 102nd) but passed Mitama to get second in CYL8 (Mozu got 142nd, Mitama got 152nd). I wanted to just stick with Gen 1 characters and also, I quite like Mozu.
• Hayato is here out of pity since in addition to his daughter being in the game since Dec 2017, his adoptive dad also somehow got in before Hayato did.
• Shura is a pretty easy choice for the GHB since it doesn't matter which route you take, you always face him as an enemy (and you do need to defeat him in both Birthright and Conquest).

If it's Engage:

Spoiler

Rearmed Hortensia (Staff Fly)
Ivy (B Tome Fly)
Kagetsu (Sword Inf)
Rosado (Axe Fly; Demote)

Griss (G Tome Inf; GHB)

Notes

• Hortensia is an easy and expected choice to be the provider of the first Arcane Staff. Now, whether IS is actually merciful enough to give an Arcane weapon to staff units is anyone's guess.
• I don't need to justify Ivy being here, right?
• If IS is smart they probably won't be smart despite their company name, we get Kagetsu here instead of Goldmary. Besides, surely we can't go another month without getting a new god sword unit right? Oh, and Takehito Koyasu (again, he just voiced Validar in December) also voices Kagetsu.
• Being a popular fem boy didn't save Forrest from being the demote of his banner, so I don't why Rosado should be spared from the same fate regardless of whether we get Kagetsu or Goldmary in the third banner slot.
• Griss should hopefully be the next Hound on tap for GHB duty, mostly because I really want the funny masochist. He's also a green tome specifically because there actually aren't that many green tome infantry GHB units (the list is literally just F!Robin and Limstella). Actually, there are also just six green tome Grail units in general. The others are Adrift Azura (Inf), Picnic Leo (Cav), Winter Bruno (Arm) and Tea Tailtiu (Inf).

 

[Jotari]

10 minutes ago, Tybrosion said:

Because I have nothing else to do right now, these are my sure to be incorrect predictions for the banner:

If it's Shadow Dragon / (New) Mystery:

  Hide contents

Attuned Katarina (B Tome Inf)
Yuliya (Staff Inf)
Cecil (Sword Cav)
Jubelo (G Tome Inf; Demote)

Arlen (B Tome Inf; GHB)

Notes

• For reference, these are Katarina's voice actresses: Kana Yuuki in JP (also voices Nino, who was last seen in Nov 2023), Kira Buckland (also voices Eirika, who literally just showed up on a Special Heroes banner). So yeah, I feel Katarina is a fairly safe bet for the Ascended / Rearmed / Attuned slot.
• My second pick for the Ascended / Rearmed / Attuned character would be Navarre. Yes, a male I know but his JP voice actor (Takehito Koyasu) just voiced Validar in December.
• Yuliya got 161st in CYL7 but dropped to 304th in CYL8, oops, which made her the highest ranking missing Archanean character. By proxy, her brother Jubelo is also included to serve as both the banner's lone male and demote.
• Cecil is here more or less just to be another girl, since IS has clearly shown they don't care about preserving females for future banners. She is also a member of Altea's 7th Platoon alongside Katarina and Kris, so there's also that.
• Arlen is the second highest ranking missing Archanean character in CYL7 (174th) and is the highest ranked one in CYL8 (275th). He also practically has the letters "GHB" stamped on his forehead, so that's where he goes.

If it's Fates:

  Hide contents

Ascended Felicia (Staff Cav)
Scarlet (Axe Fly)
Mozu (Lance Inf)
Hayato (R Tome Inf; Demote)

Shura (C Bow Inf; GHB)

Notes

• Felicia getting the Ascended / Rearmed / Attuned slot is honestly just a biased pick from me. But given that her last two CYL ranks were 75th (7) and 89th (8), she definitely should have more than just one alt and no Resplendent.
• I would certainly accept Azura or Sakura as the Ascended / Rearmed / Attuned character instead, though. The former hasn't gotten an alt since Jan 2022 and the latter hasn't gotten a stand alone alt since Jan 2019.
• Scarlet is the highest ranking missing Fates character in both CYL7 (79th) and CYL8 (112th), so she should definitely be here.
• Mozu is the third highest ranking missing Fates character in CYL7 (116th, is behind Mitama who got 102nd) but passed Mitama to get second in CYL8 (Mozu got 142nd, Mitama got 152nd). I wanted to just stick with Gen 1 characters and also, I quite like Mozu.
• Hayato is here out of pity since in addition to his daughter being in the game since Dec 2017, his adoptive dad also somehow got in before Hayato did.
• Shura is a pretty easy choice for the GHB since it doesn't matter which route you take, you always face him as an enemy (and you do need to defeat him in both Birthright and Conquest).

If it's Engage:

  Hide contents

Rearmed Hortensia (Staff Fly)
Ivy (B Tome Fly)
Kagetsu (Sword Inf)
Rosado (Axe Fly; Demote)

Griss (G Tome Inf; GHB)

Notes

• Hortensia is an easy and expected choice to be the provider of the first Arcane Staff. Now, whether IS is actually merciful enough to give an Arcane weapon to staff units is anyone's guess.
• I don't need to justify Ivy being here, right?
• If IS is smart they probably won't be smart despite their company name, we get Kagetsu here instead of Goldmary. Besides, surely we can't go another month without getting a new god sword unit right? Oh, and Takehito Koyasu (again, he just voiced Validar in December) also voices Kagetsu.
• Being a popular fem boy didn't save Forrest from being the demote of his banner, so I don't why Rosado should be spared from the same fate regardless of whether we get Kagetsu or Goldmary in the third banner slot.
• Griss should hopefully be the next Hound on tap for GHB duty, mostly because I really want the funny masochist. He's also a green tome specifically because there actually aren't that many green tome infantry GHB units (the list is literally just F!Robin and Limstella). Actually, there are also just six green tome Grail units in general. The others are Adrift Azura (Inf), Picnic Leo (Cav), Winter Bruno (Arm) and Tea Tailtiu (Inf).

 

If we do get the Grust twins then I hope someone has the good sense to fix their localized names. Unlike my recent thread about Legion's localization where I speculated someone had played new Mystery, Yulia and Jubelo look painfully like they were translated from a list of names with no context. Come on guys, they're twins. They're obviously meant to be alliterative. I don't really care if you go with the Y or the J, but be consistent! And, for what it's worth, they have changed GHB localization before...it's been about six years since Ulster became Scatach and Thite became Thea, but that still shows some willingness to go back on characters who haven't actually been in any localized games yet. If they're translating an actual banner and forging bonds and realize these two characters are related than I hope they have the good sense to give me two names that will actually be near each other when sorted alphabetically.