Main Lord Customization

[Saint Nightroad]

Fire Emblem is defined as a Strategy RPG, but who exactly are you role-playing as... it always seems as though you are but the invisible higher power who decides what characters you want to bring into battle, what weapons they equip, and possibly what skills they use, as well as how you want to strategize. There is little to connect the player to the game in a true RPG sense.

My suggestion: allow the main lord (or possibly even all lords in the case of multi-lord games) of future FE games to be customizable. This would be completely optional, as the game would still have its own default lord(s) that are canon to the story. This merely means that, if the player so wishes, they can choose their lord's gender, name, weapon selection, affinity, and customize their appearance through a selection of skin colors (logical ones only... no Smurfs), heights, widths, outfits, hair colors, faces, etc.

Base stats and growths would also be customizable through a rather simple "attribute refund" system.

Let's start with bases.

Let's just say that an average lord starts with 20 hp and 5 in every stat. I'm making this up, of course, because I don't care to look it up, but it's a simple example by all means. Assuming that 1 stat is equal to another, you could deduct 1 point from one stat and transfer it to another. Obviously, this could be rediculous, as a lord who already reaches the first class cap of 20 str at level 1 would be broken beyond belief. For this reason, the customize cap on all stats is 10 (in this example), with the only exception being hp, which has a minimum of 10 and a maximum of... well... none really.

Now for growths.

Let's just say that an average lord has a sum growth rate of 300% (again, just making this up). By default, that lord might have a 50% hp growth, a 50% str growth, a 0% mag growth, a 50% speed growth, a 50% def growth, a 50% lck growth, and a 0% res growth. Transfer here is just as simple... transfer the growth percentages from one stat to another.

One example of a customized lord would be:

Name: Captain Falcon

Gender: Male

Hair Color: Green

Affinity: Fire

Weapons: Anima Magic/Staves

Base Hp: 30

Base Str: 0

Base Def: 5

Base Spd: 10

Base Lck: 5

Base Mag: 10

Base Res: 0

Hp Growth: 50%

Str Growth: 0%

Spd Growth: 100%

Def Growth: 30%

Lck Growth: 20%

Mag Growth: 100%

Res Growth: 0%

Ultimate Skill: Falcon Punch- Melee foe attacks first. Counter-attacks with a punch that brings their health to 0. May not work on certain foes.

(The skill was just for laughs, though if you can devise a way to customize skills, more power to you.)

Here, you would have a pretty interesting lord. Looks like a battle mage of sorts, sporting some passable (but certainly not superb) defense, though oddly pathetic resistance, and killer magic and speed growths.

Anyway, the potential of such customization could be amazing... healer lords, dancer/heron/whatever type lords, axe lords, mounted lords, flying lords, mage lords... you name it. It's what you want to be. Such an ability would make a HUGE impact on the game and give the player a sense of immersion into it.

Edited February 10, 2010 by Saint Nightroad

[NinjaMonkey]

I don't think it would be wise to have a dancer/heron/priest/troubadour lord, but i'd like to see this implemented in the future.

[Darth Scelerus]

that would be pretty awesome

KOTOR style FE = epic win!

[Just call me AL]

I don't think it would be wise to have a dancer/heron/priest/troubadour lord, but i'd like to see this implemented in the future.

Dancer lord? Probably not. Cleric lord? Probably too much hassle. But a troubadour lord, IMO, wouldn't be too bad. Especially if it's like the FE4 variety troubadours, minus the need of the Pursuit skill, and doesn't need promotions to defend himself/herself.

(Elincia, despite not being a lord, however, I think was pretty close to one.)

I have mixed thoughts about this however, so I'm not voting yet.

Edited February 11, 2010 by LittleAl

[Saint Nightroad]

You have to keep in mind... that Healer or Dancer Lord could really make for a more challenging game when doing that sort of run. Then again, with the stat customization, you could actually see to it that they grow in all the right places.

[Rewjeo]

I've always thought things like this would be great. What about a custom class w/ customizable animations? You choose weapons, armor, attack style, etc.

[Saint Nightroad]

I've always thought things like this would be great. What about a custom class w/ customizable animations? You choose weapons, armor, attack style, etc.

Well, I could definitely see animation customization coming into play in the lord customizer... perhaps just have all class animations + a few unique ones for the customizer (Hell, I'ld be satisfied with just the class animations).

Weapons was already mentioned...and I'm pretty sure attack style was as well what with stat and possibly skill customization.

[-Cynthia-]

Eh, the thing is that the lord is central to the story and their background is usually pretty relevant. Plus supports could be tricky.

I guess they could just slap a story on your character regardless of who they are. It would actually be pretty cool overall to customize, but such a thing is more a WRPG than JRPG style thing.

At least IS could have less "hurr I'm a mono sword wield hurr" lords. RD was a step in the right direction in terms of originality.

[Bryan]

Eh, the thing is that the lord is central to the story and their background is usually pretty relevant. Plus supports could be tricky.

I guess they could just slap a story on your character regardless of who they are. It would actually be pretty cool overall to customize, but such a thing is more a WRPG than JRPG style thing.

At least IS could have less "hurr I'm a mono sword wield hurr" lords. RD was a step in the right direction in terms of originality.

As much as Micky wasn't great, I liked the Magic useing Lord. :)

[Ike-Mike]

The greatest works are the ones where you can identify yourself as the main character, so I'm all for it.

[Just call me AL]

As much as Micky wasn't great, I liked the Magic useing Lord. :)

She wasn't the first mage lord however. If you wanna know who the first mage lord is, play FE2.

At least IS could have less "hurr I'm a mono sword wield hurr" lords. RD was a step in the right direction in terms of originality.

There's only, like, 5 "swords only" lords, though. If you ask me, that's like, half the number of lords that use other weapons as well as/instead of swords.

[Terra]

I'm not sure about this....usually the story has to do a lot with the lord right, so if the lord was that custom, it'd be....well...odd. But perhaps allowing alternate names to characters as you're introduced would be good.

[-Cynthia-]

There's only, like, 5 "swords only" lords, though. If you ask me, that's like, half the number of lords that use other weapons as well as/instead of swords.

Some do get additional weapons post promotion, but the list of mono-swords pre-promotion is high.

Marth, Celice, Leaf, Roy, Lyn, Eliwood, Eirika, and Ike. Marth and Ike could even count more times since they appear in multiple games.

Edited February 12, 2010 by -Cynthia-

[NinjaMonkey]

Plus supports could be tricky.

Not if the 'anyone can support anybody else' system is implemented, like in RD.

[Just call me AL]

Some do get additional weapons post promotion, but the list of mono-swords pre-promotion is high.

Marth, Celice, Leaf, Roy, Lyn, Eliwood, Eirika, and Ike. Marth and Ike could even count more times since they appear in mutliple games.

Huh, I was thinking post-promotion . :/

[Deliriyum]

They should have implemented a Create a character feature for the games with trial maps. To make this fair, there would be a number pool to choose your character's stats from. The amount of numbers in the number pool would be determined by your top ten(by levels)characters' stats averaged together.

EX: lets say it only took 3 people's stats and averaged them together instead of 10

   
        lvl    hp  str  skl  spd  lck  def  res
Unit A:  20/20  48  18   20   18   9    12   5
Unit B:  20/20  60  22   18   13   10   23   2
Unit C:  20/20  60  26   14   16   11   13   3

Therefore your created character could have up to:

               56  22   17   16   10   16   3

Then you get to choose their class and weapons

Edited February 12, 2010 by Core

[Parrhesia]

Pre-imprinted personality and backstory, told to you beforehand (I've attached the 'Ferret' moniker to so many characters who turned into bland and/or stupid people who I never cared for) and then I'd be so happy and would finally have my archer lord :)

[shroudening]

Yes to some extent. I think the player should be able to choose gender, name, hair color, and clothing/armor for the lord, an E rank of a weapon of choice, and the ability to add (not subtract) stat bases (limited).

Possible problems:

1. Specialized Weapons: Weapons that only the lord can wield would be almost impossible if you choose what the lord's weapon is.

2. Classes: The lord needs his own class.

3. Plot: The script for the default lord wouldn't match the customized lord's personality. Mugs would have to be customizable along with the battle sprite.

It's a good idea, but it would be hard to do flawless.

[Acacia Sgt]

While I do support the idea, I don't think it should be as free when it comes to it. Limited, but still giving some freedom. If anything, I would suggest a system similar to the one used in Super Robot Wars Alpha (of course, with the necessary changes to adapt it to FE).

[NinjaMonkey]

How about something like this?

Posted from the "What would you like to see in a new FE" thread:

I'd like to see a customisable lord.

First of all the player would choose his gender (male or female) and then his or her class (Archer/Fighter/[insert magic type here] Mage, etc). The only classes that are exempt are classes that cannot attack (Priests/Clerics) and Pegasus Knights (if you entered your gender as male).

As for base stats/growths, the lord would then get them depending on which gender and class the player selected (for example, a male fire mage would have slightly different stats/growths from a female fire mage and a male thunder mage).

[Bryan]

She wasn't the first mage lord however. If you wanna know who the first mage lord is, play FE2.

She was a princess upon promotion, but I know what you mean. :)

[Rewjeo]

Well, if there would be a problem with them being the lord, you could still design a character to accompany the lord. That way you don't run into the problem of dealing with the lord's story/personality being so important to the story.

[Suichimo]

I like the somewhat free customization of the main character in the Ogre Battle games. You start off with a few questions and depending on how you answer the questions it changes your alignment, class and abilities, and even the units you start off with.

If they really went the distance and added full customization, they could write in the changes to the story/game based on the choices you make.

[Bryan]

I like the somewhat free customization of the main character in the Ogre Battle games. You start off with a few questions and depending on how you answer the questions it changes your alignment, class and abilities, and even the units you start off with.

If they really went the distance and added full customization, they could write in the changes to the story/game based on the choices you make.

I think it would be nice if your choices in the story affected the rest of the story, like Shadow the Heagehog, or Bioshock.

[Mister Cold]

Eh, the thing is that the lord is central to the story and their background is usually pretty relevant. Plus supports could be tricky.

they could do, males support X chars, females support Y char

or the RD support system >.>