New Heroes: Attuned Eirika & Ascended Amelia

[Sunwoo]

Send feedback. I sent some scathing (but still relatively polite) feedback after this banner dropped.

Also, I only thought of this now, but it's so damn weird to introduce Forde and Kyle with an Eirika alt. They're Ephraim's men first and foremost, y'know?

I would like to add that getting an Ephraim alt doesn't really help in this scenario, but it just makes the choice of Eirika even stranger than it already was.

[DefyingFates]

8 hours ago, Flying Shogi said:

I'm drawing a blank on Q. Quick? 

Given the Japanese subtitle is "before" I'd assume so. @Ice Dragon, do you still remember what V!Ephraim's B Skill was called in Japanese, because it was Sunlight Bangle D in English? Presumably meaning "Defence".

I spent 42 pulls on the summer banner and got six Clannes for my trouble (2 of them 5*s). If I'd waited a week for this, I would've... probably still pulled on both banners to be honest, but I'm still upset that we're getting this right before CYL. On one hand, as an FE8 and Eirika fan it's great that she has an important looking alt. On the other even I'm getting wary of how many alts she has overall and again: CYL's right around the corner and these days I only ever get a character via sparks or guarantees.

No seriously, I need Sparks to get any new Hero these days (since the start of 2024 at least) and always summon the maximum 160 needed before getting a 5* in stuff like Genshin, it drives me insane.

1 hour ago, Sunwoo said:

I would like to add that getting an Ephraim alt doesn't really help in this scenario, but it just makes the choice of Eirika even stranger than it already was.

Look at it this way, with a BST increase and jump in powercreep due next month, our next Ephraim alt will be doubly strong to make up for the lack of him here! Yay?

Edit: Given how Eirika's axe looks just like Siegmund and Sieglinde, IS really dropped the ball not calling it Sinfjotl. Sure the name has some unfortunate implications, but skipping the Norse naming tradition of FE8's Royal weapons for a bland "Sisterly Axe" is a big let down.

Edited July 15 by DefyingFates

[Fire Emblem Fan]

I'll also be sending feedback. I'm sure the next few NH banners will be similar to this since they're made 6 months in advance, but hopefully after that they'll shake it up and listen, if there's enough feedback.

If this banner had been Eirika (or Amelia)/Franz/Garcia/Niðavellir, then maybe a free quest reward Artur, this banner would probably be more acceptable. But I guess that wouldn't have been enough ladies on a banner for them, not for a lower-selling banner game like SS, anyway.

Heck, even just getting a free Franz with this lineup would make it more acceptable, then at least we'd be getting four brand new SS characters instead of only three.

Edited July 16 by Fire Emblem Fan

[Florete]

I don't think anyone would be upset about Amelia getting her first alt if it had been a seasonal instead of new hero. So that's the problem with her.

Eirika literally already has an alt that's all about glorifying her brother, and here she is with another. Seriously? Fuck off and let her be her own person already.

Forde and Kyle are cool, I guess. There's really no one left from Sacred Stones I'm holding out for, but I'd still rather see actual new characters (and non-OCs) on New Hero banners.

[Sunwoo]

If putting on more than one alt or OC is going to become a norm at this point in the game, I want more instant demote characters for every additional alt past the first one on these banners. And one for every OC.

Want to do another not!Echoes and make a banner with two OCs and one Rearmed from that game, with none of them going into the main pool afterwards? I want two instant demotes for each of the OCs. Not one. Want to make another banner like this, with two alts and one OC? I want two instant demotes, one to make up for the OC and another to make up for the second alt. And if they want to have a banner like the previous Archanea one, with two alts and no OC, then I want one instant demote to make up for the second alt.

And if this is too much work for IS? Well too bad for them.

[Othin]

I sent feedback the first time they did this, in October, and it's been more than six months since then.

I'm not interested in waiting another six months to see if things somehow improve this time. I've finished up claiming the rewards I was working towards, and uninstalled the app.

[Ice Dragon]

2 hours ago, Sunwoo said:

And if this is too much work for IS? Well too bad for them.

Every unit on a banner costs money to produce the art and voice work, and every unit on a banner that isn't helping sell the banner needs to have their slack made up for by the other units. Every unit on a banner that isn't helping sell the banner is there as a net loss.

It's not too much work for them. It's work that costs them money, and yet drives no revenue.

 

6 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

Given the Japanese subtitle is "before" I'd assume so. @Ice Dragon, do you still remember what V!Ephraim's B Skill was called in Japanese, because it was Sunlight Bangle D in English? Presumably meaning "Defence".

"護" (go), "protection".

[Jotari]

Awful banner feelings aside, this reinforces something I've felt is weird for years and never had the chance to articulate. It's weird that original Amelia was a general. I mean, in the series there is only a handful of legitimate lance infantry, and Amelia is among them in her default class. And default class is what they go with a unit 90% of the time. The only time they've deviated from default class is when they've given mercs axes to stem the tide of infantry swords (and then Python who got to keep his promoted horse). But then Amelia was a armoured lance for basically no reason. I get that it's kind of a popular meme class for her, but they still really should have given us lance infantry Amelia at the start. It's a bit late now since any alt she would get like this needs to be more powerful than the trainee class (unless they could make it obviously the super trainee class). But, really, why are we even getting Ascended Amelia of all people? Is she that popular? The only reason to want Ascended Amelia is because she has class diversity via Trainee, yet they've went and made her the same class as the one we have already. Why not Paladin Amelia? Well, I guess because Kyle and Forde are our pity picks to make sure we're still getting actual Sacred Stones characters and it'd be too many cavalry units. But...then pick someone else than Kyle and Forde? Or better yet, pick someone else other than Amelia. I think I'd prefer almost anyone else on the cast with there alternate promotion option than another general Amelia. Is the female bias so strong that this would really sell better than Summoner Ewan? Or hell if we're going to repeat a class a unit's had before, why not Ascended Seth? An actual impressive character with plot relevance? And he's handsome enough to get the female whales (if they still exist at this point in the game's history).

Sacred Stones continues to limp towards completion. It has 82% of its playable roster in Heroes. The six missing characters are Franz, Moulder, Garcia, Artur, Dozla and Saleh.

[Ice Dragon]

4 minutes ago, Jotari said:

But then Amelia was a armoured lance for basically no reason.

The first Amelia had an axe. At the time, we only had 6 total armors in the game, 2 of each physical melee weapon type (Draug and Zephiel with swords, Gwendolyn and Effie with lances, and Sheena and Hector with axes), so they likely made her an armored axe to offset both armors being the least common movement type and green being the least common color.

As for not being a lance infantry, they already had 8 lance infantry in the game at the time of her release (compared to only 2 axe armors) and one of them was Ephraim from the same game.

Amelia was also the highest-scoring unit in the Arena at the time of her release due to being a trainee melee armor, and that also likely contributed to the choice of class for her. I probably would have been more surprised if they passed up on this opportunity.

[Jotari]

38 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

The first Amelia had an axe. At the time, we only had 6 total armors in the game, 2 of each physical melee weapon type (Draug and Zephiel with swords, Gwendolyn and Effie with lances, and Sheena and Hector with axes), so they likely made her an armored axe to offset both armors being the least common movement type and green being the least common color.

As for not being a lance infantry, they already had 8 lance infantry in the game at the time of her release (compared to only 2 axe armors) and one of them was Ephraim from the same game.

Amelia was also the highest-scoring unit in the Arena at the time of her release due to being a trainee melee armor, and that also likely contributed to the choice of class for her. I probably would have been more surprised if they passed up on this opportunity.

If anything that just shows how overly front heavy they went with the potential lance infantry. There was scarcely 8 natural lance infantry in the entire series at the time (I'm fairly sure that was pre Three Houses, might  even have been pre Echoes). Let's see, Ephraim, Amelia, Forsyth (whom they also made a general), Lukas, Nephenee, Arran, Devdan (go ahead, someone make the joke), Shiro, Azura, Oboro and Donnel. 11 natural lance infantry, and some of them still aren't even in the game. 13 with Levail and Jarod. That they already had 8 of them when Amelia got in is actually pretty wild. Is Jarod the first lance infantry on that list added since the first two years?

Since then the series hasn't given us many more lance infantry. We got Dimitri, which they've made extensive use of, naturally, but that's really it from Fodlan. Technically any character can be lance infantry in that game, but none outside of Dimitri actually lend themselves to it proficiency wise and there's no real classes specializing in it. I guess if they want to give us a non CYL version of Gatekeeper then Lance Infantry would make the most sense. Engage only did a little better with Timerra and Nel (whose dragon status will probably outshine lance infantry status). Possibly Goldmary who comes in a Sword/Lance class.

While I'm on the subject, I feel at least one of Gray or Tobin should have taken advantage of their class lines and been a lance infantry. I get wanting to make one of them sword infantry because of the whole default class thing, but they shouldn't both of been sword infantry. Especially when you're not even following the rules unilaterally since Kliff got to be a mage (and Atlas and Faye are in classes they can't even access, though I'm okay with that for Atlas since they only did what Echoes should have done for him).

Edited July 16 by Jotari

[DefyingFates]

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

Sacred Stones continues to limp towards completion. It has 82% of its playable roster in Heroes. The six missing characters are Franz, Moulder, Garcia, Artur, Dozla and Saleh.

There are a few NPCs left we could get as seasonals or if IS is scraping the bottom of the barrel. Even if not Morva is a good contender for future Mythic or Fallen Hero.

[Some Jerk]

You have now been reminded that Brazen Atk/Spd 4 exists.

[DefyingFates]

2 hours ago, Some Jerk said:

You have now been reminded that Brazen Atk/Spd 4 exists.

I'm amazed you bothered feeding Wolt to Eirika first.

Also, all of this minus Brazen was my plan for OG!Alear too. I assume A/S Finish 4 is still her ideal A Slot, but she's a good user of everything else - I think.

7 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

"護" (go), "protection".

So yeah, "D" probably did mean "Defence". Thank you very much!

[Tybrosion]

8 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Every unit on a banner costs money to produce the art and voice work, and every unit on a banner that isn't helping sell the banner needs to have their slack made up for by the other units. Every unit on a banner that isn't helping sell the banner is there as a net loss.

It's not too much work for them. It's work that costs them money, and yet drives no revenue.

Unless if a demote ends up being a popular character for some reason. In that case, you might see some people who are willing to do this: 

Spoiler

https://www.reddit.com/r/FireEmblemHeroes/comments/154h62u/1_lapis_fan_goes_through_32_copies_of_diamant_to/

I’m not trying to make a legitimate argument here, to be clear. I know most instant demotes aren’t going to cause people to pull on a banner just for the instant demote.

That Reddit post has just stuck with me and I wanted to remind people that this was a thing that apparently happened.

Edited July 16 by Tybrosion

[Jotari]

3 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

There are a few NPCs left we could get as seasonals or if IS is scraping the bottom of the barrel. Even if not Morva is a good contender for future Mythic or Fallen Hero.

Yes, that's from the playable roster. The remaining NPCs  on CYL are the three monarch parents, Fado, Ismarie, Haydon, and Morva. And outside of CYL there really aren't any other option, Sacred Stones's CYL listing is pretty complete, it's only minor bosses like Gheb who aren't there. Probably the most noteworthy characters not featured are Pablo and Klimt, but they're not exactly saleable. Of it's CYL characters, Sacred Stones is at the second lowest with 10, ahead of only Awakening at 4. From playable rosters it's third from the bottom as both Awakening and Echoes have 3 playable characters not in the game (if we discount the Cipher characters in Echoes who have never been on CYL, and also if we ignore TMS completely).

What does all that mean? Well, it means they could squeeze out another four Sacred Stones banners if they maintain a pace of three new characters per banner. And we could go for quite a while if they indulge in NPC bosses on Echoes (which there is a disprorptinate number of minor bosses on CYL), but they are completely at the end of their string with Awakening which doesn't have enough characters for even two more banners at three new each.

And for anyone wondering about the upcoming months, the three games going the longest without a banner right now are Fodlan, Binding Blade and Genealogy. Although next month is set to be CYL month (I hope the GHB will be a Shadows of Valentia villain of which there are still several significant ones missing).

Edited July 16 by Jotari

[Ice Dragon]

2 minutes ago, Tybrosion said:

Unless if a demote ends up being a popular character for some reason.

I mean, "demote" and "unit that isn't helping sell the banner" weren't a perfect overlap to begin with, so even if it's not always the case with demotes, it's still always the case with units that don't help sell the banner, i.e. units that are, in fact, unpopular and don't have the gameplay performance to make up for it.

It's worth noting at Grail units also fall under this category. Some of them are actually popular, but none of them are actually driving revenue and are therefore guaranteed financial losses that need to be made up for by the banner carries.

 

On 7/15/2024 at 6:32 AM, Ice Dragon said:

Pursual Lance is "追撃の槍" (tsuigeki no yari), "Follow-Up Attack Lance". "追撃" (tsuigeki), "follow-up attack", more commonly means "pursuit" or "chase".

Added Kyle's weapon to the translation notes. Now just to wait for Glen to be officially announced.

[Tybrosion]

43 minutes ago, Jotari said:

(I hope the GHB will be a Shadows of Valentia villain of which there are still several significant ones missing).

They had their chance to go with Desaix last year. So naturally, they went with a Fodlan character (Cyril) instead who would've had plenty more opportunities to get added into FEH compared to Desaix (or any of the other SoV NPCs).

As far as this year goes, I'm expecting Stefan (highest ranking missing character who isn't from Engage or TMS or named Nidhoggr) if we aren't getting another Fodlan character. The GHB grail unit has still never been a character who isn't from either Tellius or Fodlan.

I do wonder if IS will finally break that trend this year.

[EricaofRenais]

4 hours ago, Tybrosion said:

They had their chance to go with Desaix last year. So naturally, they went with a Fodlan character (Cyril) instead who would've had plenty more opportunities to get added into FEH compared to Desaix (or any of the other SoV NPCs).

As far as this year goes, I'm expecting Stefan (highest ranking missing character who isn't from Engage or TMS or named Nidhoggr) if we aren't getting another Fodlan character. The GHB grail unit has still never been a character who isn't from either Tellius or Fodlan.

I do wonder if IS will finally break that trend this year.

honestly I am expecting Rodrigue to be the GHB just so they shove Fodlan in there again, plus Felix is on the banner.  Though I would be very happy with it being Stefan.

[Tybrosion]

4 hours ago, EricaofRenais said:

honestly I am expecting Rodrigue to be the GHB just so they shove Fodlan in there again, plus Felix is on the banner.  Though I would be very happy with it being Stefan.

Nah, I have a better idea. 

They should make Gregoire (Count Varley) the GHB so everyone can have the privilege of murdering that guy over and over.

The funny (and sad) thing about this idea is there's actually a shred of credence in it happening. In Japanese, Nidavellir happens to be voiced by Satoshi Mikami (who voiced Gregoire in Three Hopes).

[Sunwoo]

They should save him for a 3H/3Hopes GHB banner then. Tellius needs all the help it can get, with it barely being over 50% of its playable roster.

[Jotari]

9 hours ago, Tybrosion said:

They had their chance to go with Desaix last year. So naturally, they went with a Fodlan character (Cyril) instead who would've had plenty more opportunities to get added into FEH compared to Desaix (or any of the other SoV NPCs).

As far as this year goes, I'm expecting Stefan (highest ranking missing character who isn't from Engage or TMS or named Nidhoggr) if we aren't getting another Fodlan character. The GHB grail unit has still never been a character who isn't from either Tellius or Fodlan.

I do wonder if IS will finally break that trend this year.

Highest ranking character who isn't already in the game really should be the standard practices for the CYL Grand Hero Battle. Although, I guess if it were standard practice then some actual popular characters who aren't in by coincidence yet would end up in it when they could be better left for saleable banners. Felix for example ranked really high in the first and second years Fodlan characters were in it even though he wasn't in the game in h is non summer alt for ages. Still, it's an odd thing that CYL GHB. The other non standard new heroes banner is the fallen one and it's easy to have a character on theme there, but the CYL GHB is just sort of random. Maybe the rising hero thing they celebrated before would be the best. An unpopular character that is probably not going to be saleable yet people have liked enough in the moment to see their popularity increase (so, yeah, basically exactly Desaix that one year only as consistent standard).

On the other hand, Tellius is the cast most screwed by the 1 New Heroes banner every 1.5 years, so them having every extra way to get characters in the game is best. So I wouldn't exactly be dissapointed if it were Stefan or another Tellius character.

Edited July 17 by Jotari

[Tybrosion]

24 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

They should save him for a 3H/3Hopes GHB banner then. Tellius needs all the help it can get, with it barely being over 50% of its playable roster.

IS clearly doesn't care about that and probably never did at any point. If they did, they would've given Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn a yearly New Heroes banner each from the very beginning instead of (on average) only giving Tellius one New Heroes banner per year.

And as I previously mentioned, they picked Cyril for the CYL GHB last year even though he could've easily been saved for a proper Fodlan New Heroes banner.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Cyril as the CYL GHB last year was a huge disappointment. I had really been hoping for one of Valentia's characters, preferably an NPC like Desaix or Jedah, either that or Stefan. This year, I'm hoping for the same...but I know I'm probably going to be disappointed again.

[Ice Dragon]

On 7/15/2024 at 6:32 AM, Ice Dragon said:

Sunstone's Blade is "日長石の剣" (nicchōseki no ken), "Sword of the Sunstone". So Forde gets a sword, but Glen is stuck with just a blade.

Added Glen's weapon to the translation notes.

[DefyingFates]

On 7/16/2024 at 8:31 PM, EricaofRenais said:

honestly I am expecting Rodrigue to be the GHB just so they shove Fodlan in there again, plus Felix is on the banner.

The sad thing is they already did the "dad tags along" thing with Jeralt for B!Byleth. It's funny saying this since we used to get Tellius GHBs with CYL in the early years, but we really could use those again...