Special Heroes: Double Vision

[Fire Emblem Fan]

This month's Special Heroes banner is the yearly Anniversary/Young banner, and this year it focuses on Awakening. We're getting Male Robin, Lissa, Emmeryn, a Female Robin + Chrom Duo, and Frederick as the TT+ reward.

 

[Sunwoo]

I'm not a fan of duo f!Robin and Chrom for the same reason I wasn't a fan of duo Mark and Lyn. I don't like how they broke the convention from the first three years of making the characters who already knew each other the duo units into making the avatar meet the lord as a child. Oh well, this banner is pretty skippable for me even though I'd like m!Robin.

Also, Emmeryn's art looks bad.

[GuiltyLove]

No baby Grima! Too bad! (I didn't expect a baby Grima anyway)

[Othin]

Emmeryn's staff is neat. Like usual, I'll only focus on the demote for now, and on that note I like how Lissa gets an axe.

I wonder how significant it will turn out to be that Robin F's "second action after assist" effect can work on receiving an assist as well, rather than just using one. Certainly has some potential for shenanigans.

[Some Jerk]

With the advent of Magic Gambit 4, Reinhardt once again stirs from his slumber.

[Flying Shogi]

I expected Miyuki Sawashiro to voice female Robin but also casting her as young male Robin is an interesting choice. Young Chrom is voiced by Ayumi Tsunematsu, her second role in FEH after Ginnungagap. 

[King Marth 64]

1 hour ago, Sunwoo said:

I'm not a fan of duo f!Robin and Chrom for the same reason I wasn't a fan of duo Mark and Lyn. I don't like how they broke the convention from the first three years of making the characters who already knew each other the duo units into making the avatar meet the lord as a child. Oh well, this banner is pretty skippable for me even though I'd like m!Robin.

I'm pretty sure it doesn't break the lore. Loki did wiped the memories from the Archanean Children, Margvel Children, and even the Elibe Children as well who meet each other before their meets in their respective stories.

Also, I think this is the first-time hearing Matt Mercer's and David Vincent's child voices. I know that voice acting studios do usually let female VAs voice the child versions while some male VAs voice Teenager or Adult versions. I know there's some adult male VAs do voice children sometimes. Also, I do wonder what child Frederick might sound like from Kyle Hebert?

[Sunwoo]

I never said that it broke the lore. I said that it broke the CONVENTION of the previous banners and that I, personally, didn't like it.

[Ice Dragon]

I was not expecting Sawashiro Miyuki to also do Young Male Robin's voice, though I probably shouldn't have been too surprised considering Kobayashi Yuu (Lucina / Masked Marth) did Young Marth.

 

I'm too lazy to read skill descriptions right now.

So here are the usual translation notes:

 

The banner name, "Double Vision", is "不思議な出会い" (fushigi na deai), "A Strange Meeting".

Robin's epithet, "Fated Vessel", is "約束の器" (yakusoku no utsuwa), "Vessel of Promise".

Fell War Tome is "戦神の魔書" (senshin no masho), "War God's Magic Tome". As usual, "戦神" (senshin), "war god", is Thorr's epithet.

Magic Gambit is "奥の手・魔道" (oku no te: madō), "Trump Card: Magic". "魔道" (madō), "magecraft", is the name of the Magic (Tome) weapon type. Compare with Gambit, "奥の手" (oku no te), "trump card" or "last resort", literally "hidden hand".

Emmeryn's epithet, "Selfless Exalt", is "心優しき聖女王" (kokoro-yasashiki seijoō), "Kind-Hearted Exalt". "聖女王" (seijoō), which I'm translating here using the localized "Exalt", literally translates as "holy queen". Chrom's version of Exalt is "聖王" (seiō), literally "holy king".

Exalt's War Staff is "戦神の聖杖" (senshin no seijō), "War God's Holy Staff".

Magic Shield is "マジックシールド" (majikku shīrudo), "Magic Shield". This is the Japanese name of the staff typically localized as "Barrier" or "Ward" depending on the game.

Lissa's epithet, "Littlest Princess", is "ぴかぴか妹王女" (pikapika imōto ōjo), "Sparkly Little-Sister Princess".

New War Axe is "戦神の戦斧" (senshin no senpu), "War God's Battle Axe".

Robin's epithet, "Vessels of Fate", is "可能性の器" (kanōsei no utsuwa), "Vessels of Potential".

Draconic Pacts is "邪痕と聖痕の竜血" (jakon to seikon no ryūketsu), "Dragon Blood of the Fell Brand and Holy Brand". "聖痕" (seikon), literally "holy mark" and refers to Stigmata in Christianity, is localized as "Brand". "邪痕" (jakon), literally "evil mark", is the name of the Brand on Robin's hand. The Fell Brand item in Awakening is shortened from the full Japanese item name, "邪痕の紋章" (jakon no monshō), "Emblem of the Fell Brand".

Hush Spectrum is "七色の囁き" (nanairo no sasayaki), "Seven-Colored Whisper". Compare with Rally Spectrum, "七色の叫び" (nanairo no sakebi), "Seven-Colored Shout". Note that Rally skills are "叫び" (sakebi), "shout", in Awakening, whereas they are "応援" (ōen), "rally" or "cheer", in Heroes.

Fell Wyrmscale is "邪竜の暗鱗" (jaryū no anrin), "Dark Scales of the Fell Dragon". Compare with Dragonskin, "邪竜の鱗" (jaryū no uroko, "Scales of the Fell Dragon"), Dragonscale, "邪竜の大鱗" (jaryū no tairin, "Great Scales of the Fell Dragon"), and Dragonhide, "邪竜の重鱗" (jaryū no jūrin, "Heavy Scales of the Fell Dragon").

Atk/Spd Link is "攻撃速さの連携" (kōgeki hayasa no renkei), "Atk/Spd Cooperation".

Frederick's epithet, "Youth in Service", is "生い立つ忠節の志" (oitatsu chūsetsu no kokorozashi), "Will of Loyalty Growing Up".

Heavy War Axe is "戦神の護斧" (senshin no gofu), "War God's Protection Axe".

Edited April 4 by Ice Dragon

[Humanoid]

I'm usually disinterested in the child banner at the best of times. This year is ...extra uninteresting. It's a combination of everyone being foot-locked, and the art. Take the Freddies and run.

[Mercakete]

Little Lissa: My big brother, Chrom, is REALLY good at whacking stuff with his sword!

Little Chrom: *jumps up and down and cheers while letting the little girl with him blast stuff with magic; does no whacking stuff with his sword*

Dang, though, the art is so cute! Lissa's 4*, Frederick is free, and I was right about everything except for forgetting that these banners have 6 characters, not 5, on them. Because sometimes I derp super duper hard.

Anyway, if I pull, I may go for the Robins. Man, I hope the story is Owain, Lucina, and the Morgans trying to babysit their parents. (I pointedly ignore any story in the trailers, so you guys know, so that I can enjoy the story to the fullest when it's fully available. So, please no posts being all "Well, the trailer had x story, so (etc.)")

Hmm tempted to pull Lissa, too, so that I can have her son try to look after her.

Ah, and this is probably something of a dream for ChromxF!Robin shippers. (Like how little kids (who eventually grow up to get married) being innocent friends is just so wholesome and really highlights an innocent and true bond.)

Edit:

@GuiltyLove

Actually, I think F!Robin here still has some Grima in her, partially because of that scales skill and partially because of the "dragons pact" skill. (Like, she's the heritor of Grima, and Chrom is a heritor of Naga, hence the plural on "dragons.") (That said, I'm paraphrasing the skill names since I don't remember the names themselves so much as things about them. My memory is odd at times.)

So, we get slumbering Grima, I suppose.

Edited April 4 by Mercakete

[Diovani Bressan]

Is it just me or Duo Robin is just an Emblem Ike counter? lol

7 hours ago, GuiltyLove said:

No baby Grima! Too bad! (I didn't expect a baby Grima anyway)

It would be funny to have a demonic child on the banner. lol

[ARMADS!!!]

Most boring lineup they could possibly do with Awakening. Also, I agree with whoever was it that said on the Pre Banner Discussion thread that it's a bit of a shame that Frederick makes it into the banner while Titania and Seth didn't on the previous years. At first sight, I thought that the Duo inflicted Hush Spectrum on itself and I was hella interested to know why or how the unit would potentially use it to it's own benefit or as trade off for something better (I love when they do this sort of thing, like Emblem Ike, Summer Ephraim, Urvan's refine, Haar's prf, how Julius's weapon treats him as if he was a dragon, etc...) but then I realizei I had just misread it and that it's the foe that gets Hush Spectrum and became less interested. The units are alright and all not but nothing struck me as particularly interesting (or at least not enough for me to spend orbs on it, not even Emmeryn, and I tend to be a sucker for these new Prf staves), + I don't care about the characters so definitively a skip.

Also, not sure how popular or unpopular this opinion is but it I detest when they put both genders of the same avatar on the same banner (if it's on the same year I mean, if they did something like fallen male Byleth now it wouldn't annoy me), it pretty much takes a slot and makes the lineup more boring than it'd have been otherwise, pisses me off specially more on banners that they don't repeat for the same title (like Valentines or child banners) because then it's a slot that was even more wasted for the same character. 

 

2 hours ago, Diovani Bressan said:

Is it just me or Duo Robin is just an Emblem Ike counter? lol

It would be funny to have a demonic child on the banner. lol

 Didn't notice this lol, but yeah that was fast. I reckon they tend to take a bit longer to release counters than that (right? Or am I missing something?), makes me worry a bit that the powercreep might start to happen even faster and that the meta might move even faster. Although maybe it's better to have the stronger units be dehtroned fast than to have another Fallen Edelgard/Brave Edelgard situation.

[Diovani Bressan]

Cool that Staff units can finally score the same as others heroes, since Magic Shield+ is a 400 SP assist skill, finally granting them a high scoring assist.

[ARMADS!!!]

50 minutes ago, Diovani Bressan said:

Cool that Staff units can finally score the same as others heroes, since Magic Shield+ is a 400 SP assist skill, finally granting them a high scoring assist.

Oh, cool, I haven't even noticed that. Can't believe they didn't do it before but in any case, it's better late than never.

[Ice Dragon]

For those who haven't seen it yet, the new Sacred Seals from the Tempest Trials are Goad Beasts and Pegasus Flight.

Pegasus Flight has never been good due to the fact that it doesn't boost Spd and has garbage conditions, and making it a Sacred Seal doesn't make it any better when you have so many other stat-boosting Sacred Seals with significantly easier conditions. At best, you'll get a skill that's occasionally useful in a challenge map when you can see how much Spd and Res the opponents have beforehand to make sure the skill actually activates.

Goad Beasts is okay, I guess. It's the lower of the two rewards, so it's not like I have any hopes for that reward slot to begin with. At least it's probably more useful than Pegasus Flight.

 

10 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Heavy War Axe is "戦神の護斧" (senshin no gofu), "War God's Protection Axe".

Added Frederick's weapon to the translation notes.

It grants Frederick +6 Atk/Def, Bonus Doubler, and follow-up prevention as status effects at the start of the turn if there is an ally within 2 spaces. If he has support partners within 2 spaces, he grants the same status effects to them. If he has no support partners in the team, he grants the status effects to the allies within 2 spaces with the highest Def.

In combat, it grants +5 to all stats, a guaranteed follow-up, additional damage equal to 20% of his Def, and 30% damage reduction. It also has permanent visible +3 Def.

He comes with Bonfire, Atk/Def Clash 3, and Close Guard 3.

Basically screams to give him Atk/Def Prime 4.

[Tybrosion]

Oops, this Duo Hero might be my fault because I called it in the pre-banner discussion thread.

Otherwise, yep this sure is a typical boring kid banner with the usual copious amounts of power creep. Loki really needs to get Thorr a new hobby.

This really should’ve been a one time theme because the unit choices (both the actual characters and their unit types) are always so damn predictable. All it had to offer (besides power creep) was novelty, and that is obviously long gone by this point.

[Sunwoo]

It's also funny how they keep on running away from the canon SoV child designs.

I feel like the first three games were chosen because of that one FEH comic from a long time ago. And Awakening has canon designs for young Emmeryn, Chrom, and Lissa so that's about half the work done there. But they continue to skip over SoV and made up entirely new designs for FE7.

And because the child banners are so mired in canon, it's not like we really get anything too interesting for these characters anyway. Lissa getting an axe is the most interesting thing that's happened with the child banners, and even then she canonically can wield one so it isn't too left field.

[Etrurian emperor]

I know Fire Emblem nations thrive on child soldiers but Lissa seems weirdly young even by those standards. Most child canon fodder seem to be in the 10-12 range and the baby banners are hovering around that age too. But Lissa seems more in the 4-6 range which gets silly. 

I guess it tracks since Lissa already was younger than most the cast but its still silly. I know we had literal baby Est too but she was an accessory rather than an actual unit.

 

[Sunwoo]

1 hour ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I know Fire Emblem nations thrive on child soldiers but Lissa seems weirdly young even by those standards. Most child canon fodder seem to be in the 10-12 range and the baby banners are hovering around that age too. But Lissa seems more in the 4-6 range which gets silly. 

I guess it tracks since Lissa already was younger than most the cast but its still silly. I know we had literal baby Est too but she was an accessory rather than an actual unit.

Isn't Young Est basically how old Young Lissa is? At the very least, I feel like post-time skip Lissa should be about the same age as New Mystery Est.

[ARMADS!!!]

5 hours ago, Sunwoo said:

It's also funny how they keep on running away from the canon SoV child designs.

I feel like the first three games were chosen because of that one FEH comic from a long time ago. And Awakening has canon designs for young Emmeryn, Chrom, and Lissa so that's about half the work done there. But they continue to skip over SoV and made up entirely new designs for FE7.

And because the child banners are so mired in canon, it's not like we really get anything too interesting for these characters anyway. Lissa getting an axe is the most interesting thing that's happened with the child banners, and even then she canonically can wield one so it isn't too left field.

Roy and Lilina also have kid designs that keep getting skipped and that pisses me off a bit, but SoV likely pisses me off more cause it's so obvious! I wonder if they'll even make the Ram village kids full the whole banner when it comes, since the only girls are Faye and Celica, think they might want to throw Mae, Genny and/or Silque instead of one or two of the boys. Would be really curious to see who'd be the duo too, since Alm+Celica was already used.

 Oh yeah, and Dimitri and Edelgard have kid designs too, they keep skipping the ones that have it (not that I wanted another crazy Edelgard just now but anyway).

 

3 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I know Fire Emblem nations thrive on child soldiers but Lissa seems weirdly young even by those standards. Most child canon fodder seem to be in the 10-12 range and the baby banners are hovering around that age too. But Lissa seems more in the 4-6 range which gets silly. 

I guess it tracks since Lissa already was younger than most the cast but its still silly. I know we had literal baby Est too but she was an accessory rather than an actual unit.

 

Say that to baby Est.

[Acacia Sgt]

2 hours ago, Sunwoo said:

Isn't Young Est basically how old Young Lissa is? At the very least, I feel like post-time skip Lissa should be about the same age as New Mystery Est.

Roughly. Lissa is just about 15 pre timeskip (she's ten years younger than Emmeryn, who was almost 10 when she became Exalt, 15 years before the game begins), so 16-17 post timeskip. Est is 16 in SoV, and New/Mystery begins the year after that, making her 17. So yeah, roughly.

33 minutes ago, ARMADS!!! said:

Roy and Lilina also have kid designs that keep getting skipped and that pisses me off a bit,

Lilina's is already in-game, actually. Technically. She's in a duo with Hector in a Harvest alt, the latter also having his Blazing Blade epilogue design to match.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

11 hours ago, ARMADS!!! said:

Also, I agree with whoever was it that said on the Pre Banner Discussion thread that it's a bit of a shame that Frederick makes it into the banner while Titania and Seth didn't on the previous years.

That was me. I also correctly predicted every character on the banner, and that it would be Female Robin/Chrom, and Frederick would be the TT+ unit. The only thing I was wrong about was the demote, I thought it'd be Emmeryn, but it's Lissa.

[Jotari]

10 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

For those who haven't seen it yet, the new Sacred Seals from the Tempest Trials are Goad Beasts and Pegasus Flight.

Pegasus Flight has never been good due to the fact that it doesn't boost Spd and has garbage conditions, and making it a Sacred Seal doesn't make it any better when you have so many other stat-boosting Sacred Seals with significantly easier conditions. At best, you'll get a skill that's occasionally useful in a challenge map when you can see how much Spd and Res the opponents have beforehand to make sure the skill actually activates.

Can Pegasus Flight stack with itself now? At least then you'd only need to be filling the condition once to activate it, though still situational at best to have a skill that depends on comparing both your speed and res against the enemy's. I get what they  were going for with Pegasus stat lines but it just makes it a case of not having any solid reason to use it. Pegasus having high res also theoretically means you want them to attack mages, who also have high res and thus the skill doesn't work on. Of course by this point in the game it feels like none of the four stats are particularly meaningful outside of absurd attack stacking and damage reduction.

[XRay]

10 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Pegasus Flight has never been good due to the fact that it doesn't boost Spd and has garbage conditions, and making it a Sacred Seal doesn't make it any better when you have so many other stat-boosting Sacred Seals with significantly easier conditions. At best, you'll get a skill that's occasionally useful in a challenge map when you can see how much Spd and Res the opponents have beforehand to make sure the skill actually activates.

Does Pegasus Flight 4 have any niche at all? I think it is still useless against fast foes due to the lack of Spd boost. Against slow units, it feels a little weak, since all it has is just follow-up denial. It is a nice defensive effect, but it feels pretty underwhelming by itself. I think if they add guaranteed follow-up or offensive Null Follow-Up, it would be more competitive.