Missed Oppertunities *spoilers for both games*

[Snowy_One]

• Hardly much focus or character development on Dawn Brigade. I loved the personalities of all the new characters in this game, and I feel all of their potential was wasted in place of the Greil Mercenaries.

I agree a lot with this. My personal wish is that they would have expanded on Laura and Aran more. I just didn't mention it as I was looking for complaints beyond 'OMG! NO SUPPORTS IN RD' and the like. Not that that makes this want invalid.

• Meg. Oh, God, Meg. Her base stats are gross, and I just find her an annoying character.

I think they were trying for a new type of armor-knight by their growths. Course, they not only tried with the first female armor knight in America, but on one who received little development at best character-wise.

• Support system allows the player to completely destroy any relationships 2 characters developed for another character for strategic purposes. Top that off with little to no character development, and you get a support system that completely sets me off.

I don't think that was their intent, at least. I think it was to provide both more flexibility and replayability (playing again to see who had convos) but they got rushed at the last second to get the game out the door and couldn't put in the actual convos... Which was a big mis-step. Not to mention that the elements weren't balanced as any support that gave hit was largely useless while avoid and attack mangled.

[Fargo294]

As a response to my previous post, I mentioned that Radiant Dawn isn't entirely bad.

• Even though I hate the support system, I can't deny the fact that it does have its advantages. You're allowed to support with anyone for however you feel that he/she should be supported with based on their compatibility in terms of movement and/or affinity. I guess I'd like it a bit more if you could have more than just one support.
• Elincia is so well-developed in her part of the story. She has to fight off an entire army of people who hate her after she believes she helped start a new piece. Her breakdown is what really gets me.
• I love the cast of the Dawn Brigade. In fact, I love the Dawn Brigade story. That's what this game should have been about, Micaiah and her friends taking down an oppresive Begnion, and maybe just having Ike as an adversary and not a playable character until near the endgame.
• I liked how Sothe became a main character from a seemingly unimportant side character. And he turns into a badass as well.
• I swear I have more, but I can't remember my other positives at the moment.

[fangpoint]

Well I can't really say that I had a lot of problems with these issues.

The whole Meg and Fiona thing being terrible didnt bother me as they were pretty obvious to me to be characters created only for FE10 and werent supposed to actually be good. Meg is pretty much the punchline to Zihark/Brom convos from the previous game. Fiona is pretty much just there to show how Daein's military isn't all composed of those jerks from the last game and how they actually have regular soldiers who care about people to make the Bengion guys seem more evil. Her thing about being the daughter of one of the Riders seems really tacked on with nothing else but in name only. Shes the daughter of some guy who we're learning of for the first time, never will hear about again, and has no presence in the the entire series besides a name and occupation. In short, yes they did waste these characters, but I don't think they were ever supposed to be fleshed out well developed characters. They seem to be made for being a punchline and a contrast to the previously believed opinions about Daein and Bengion. I guess they also give more class diversity to the DB but they are the most useless classes they can have.

I do agree that they did miss the opportunities to develop Micaiah and Elincia as well as Ike, but they did get plenty of development. I mean the GMs do steal the spotlight in part 3 and onwards, but you have to remember that these are the guys who saved the continent in the previous game. It would be really hard to have them in the plot and NOT steal the spotlight. They most of the fighting in the previous war and defeat Ashnard. Having them not steal the spotlight would kinda be like "Hey these guys are our heroes! But now no one cares about them anymore."

I think they could have probably made Part 2 longer and given Elincia's subplot more presence in the main story. But she already does get a considerable amount of development as it is. The same could be said of Micaiah as shes supposed to be the main heroine of the game, but she gets probably more development than Ike. She does experience changes in the story of this game while Ike is just the same from start to finish.

About Tormod's crew, Volke and Ena:

Tormod's crew does seem like they were just forgotten about. Them showing up with pathetic stats for their joining stage helps cement this. But I don't think it should have taken much effort to just stick them in part 3 in Micaiah's team or the Ike's team. I mean all they had to do was just make a short scene or even a base convo where they join up. But the problem I think of this is that them joining a side would be difficult as they have reasons to not join either side. Can't join with DB because they don't want to work with Izuka and the Laguz won't really be well liked in Daein. And they can't join the Laguz Alliance because they would be fighting against Bengion which is where the Laguz they are trying to protect live. Since they can't join either the bast thing would just be to stick them in after that part got settled.

Volke is too OP to join sooner. At least he has a good reason though.

Ena can't join sooner due to that whole Goldoans being neutral. Obviously endgame would be the only place where she could have been used. Maybe she could have gotten stuck in part 4 somewhere but at least shes with the group i guess.

While Zihark/Illya was adorable, it's obvious he's not over his ex. He's probably a furry too. Boyd/Mist seemed pretty obvious to me. They always are fighting like a typical tsundere couple since the prologue.

The only thing I can really think of at the moment that are missed oppertunites are the developments or certain minor characters like I pointed out earlier or relationships between characters who you think would have supports. Some obviously more than others. Most of this can be solved by adding actual support convos in FE10 and more in FE9 between appropriate characters like Ike/Mist and Mia/Any of the GMs.

There's probably more I can think that they missed out on the opportunity but that sticks out the most for me.

Edited May 7, 2013 by fangpoint

[NinjaMonkey]

Tormod's crew does seem like they were just forgotten about. Them showing up with pathetic stats for their joining stage helps cement this.

How are their stats bad for 1-7 (i.e the chapter where you can first recruit them), exactly?

[Fargo294]

How are their stats bad for 1-7 (i.e the chapter where you can first recruit them), exactly?

He was talking about when they come back in Part 4.

[Fargo294]

A lot of characters got under-developed in RD. I think the only 'new' character who wasn't a main character to get anything more than minor development was Heather and that was 'lesbian'.

Wait, what? I think you just blew my mind and ruined my childhood at the same time.

[NinjaMonkey]

He was talking about when they come back in Part 4.

If you read his post carefully, he said "showing up with pathetic stats for their joining stage".Well, their joining stage happens to be 1-7, not 4-4 (unless of course, it's different in the non-PAL versions).

[Fargo294]

If you read his post carefully, he said "showing up with pathetic stats for their joining stage".Well, their joining stage happens to be 1-7, not 4-4 (unless of course, it's different in the non-PAL versions).

He was responding to my post where I mentioned how Tormod and his friends seemed almost shoved in at Part 4-4. From that context, one could assume the 'joining stage' he was talking about was the same one I was talking about. Not only that, but everyone can agree that Tormod and co. arrive with very good stats at the time they first appear, so I'm not sure that's what he meant unless he has some evidence to back it up. (It could also have been a typo of some sort).

[fangpoint]

He was responding to my post where I mentioned how Tormod and his friends seemed almost shoved in at Part 4-4. From that context, one could assume the 'joining stage' he was talking about was the same one I was talking about. Not only that, but everyone can agree that Tormod and co. arrive with very good stats at the time they first appear, so I'm not sure that's what he meant unless he has some evidence to back it up. (It could also have been a typo of some sort).

I meant when they permanently join in part 4 sorry. Not when they join for about 3-ish chapters in part 1. Their stats in part 1 make the DB look terrible.

Edited May 8, 2013 by fangpoint

[Rapier]

• I love the cast of the Dawn Brigade. In fact, I love the Dawn Brigade story. That's what this game should have been about, Micaiah and her friends taking down an oppresive Begnion, and maybe just having Ike as an adversary and not a playable character until near the endgame.

That would be great. It's how I imagined RD to be, before I got to play it. The game should've focused more on Elincia and Micaiah, but especially on the latter. Then only midway through the end should Ike have appeared again, along with the Laguz army and the GMs.

[Snowy_One]

Wait, what? I think you just blew my mind and ruined my childhood at the same time.

It's implied throughout the story that Heather is into women. Been a while so I can't recall the exact details though.

[fangpoint]

It's implied throughout the story that Heather is into women. Been a while so I can't recall the exact details though.

In the Japanese version, she says she joined up to meet "all the pretty girls." There's also a LOT of really shallow subtext in the NA version.

[Snowy_One]

Wonder how she'd feel if I paired her with Meg?

[fangpoint]

Wonder how she'd feel if I paired her with Meg?

Terrible. No one wants that lol

[Mr. Haar]

Except for Brom.

[Snowy_One]

I'm actually surprised that wasn't a paired ending. I mean, Brom tried to set him up with Meg in PoR and in RD she comes, turns against her homeland, and sticks it out all for the chance of marriage to Zihark. I honestly kind of admire Meg's perseverance and feel very bad she didn't get an ending.

[fangpoint]

Well i though it was obvious that Meg wouldn't get an ending as shes quite literally a joke character and has the stats of one. The joke of course is the Brom/Zihark supports. I thought it was pretty obvious that the game was HEAVILY pushing zihark/ilya and zihark/lethe.

Edited May 17, 2013 by fangpoint

[Mr. Haar]

I'm actually surprised that wasn't a paired ending. I mean, Brom tried to set him up with Meg in PoR and in RD she comes, turns against her homeland, and sticks it out all for the chance of marriage to Zihark. I honestly kind of admire Meg's perseverance and feel very bad she didn't get an ending.

I feel bad for Meg because she doesn't know that her fiance's a furry. Quite a bummer.

Edited May 17, 2013 by Mr. Haar

[Snowy_One]

Oh. I'm not going to argue the game pushing Zihark/Ilyana or Lethe. I just think it's really backhanded on Meg. I mean, she leaves her homeland for the land of her enemy to meet a man whom her father may not have even known all that well who *might* be her husband one day. She's forced to fight despite being pretty awful at it. Forced to turn against her homeland on the hopes that her lover might wed her. Forced to fight even her own father. And yet SURVIVES this, possibly all while the man she's doing it all for won't even LOOK at her and instead has his eyes on a girl who isn't even human or even returns his affection... and she DOESN'T get a paired ending? Not if Brom A's Zihark in PoR and she A's Zihark in RD? Not if Lethe and everyone else who isn't essential DIES? And even then the game goes out of its way to state that Meg ended with a perfectly ordinary marriage with a perfectly ordinary family and Zihark eventually settles in Gallia outright destroying even vague 'well it *might* have happened' chances for her getting the man she did all that for? Talk about back-handed!

[Acacia Sgt]

You know what can top off the whole thing? Zihark can switch sides, and meanwhile Meg remains with Daein even though Zihark is now with the Mercs/Laguz. Not to mention that potentially it can be Brom of all people to convince him to defect... and even afterwards have Zihark talk with Meg, or Brom talk with Meg, and despite all that Meg remains behind.

Well okay, maybe they didn't want to have lots of people defecting Daein for x,y,z reasons, but still...

Edited May 18, 2013 by Acacia Sgt

[Snowy_One]

Yea. Meg got backhanded very hard in RD, which is really sad. She's not just a butt-monkey. She's not just the universal butt-monkey. Her sole reason for existing is basically to get neglected both in 'our' universe where she is one of the worst units and in 'her' universe where her whole reason for everything she does keeps getting mangled.

I mean, I'm not a Meg fan, but she gets screwed by the universe and system far more than anyone's fair share.

[LightLelouch]

No Ike/Elincia romance. Really bizarre considering some of the implications (such as Shinon heavily hinting at it). Then the romance just dissapears in Radiant Dawn when Ike decides he likes men instead.

[Snowy_One]

Ehhhh... I can kind of understand where they were going with it, trying to make it so that the main leading lady and leading man didn't fall in love simply because... but in order for that to work there has to be an actual chance that they would fall in love. I mean, Elincia is the worst support for Ike unquestioned, if only because she joins so late. If one were to pair her with him it would only be for romance. Even in RD we have to wait till Part 3 for Ike to even show up in the first place, never mind building a support between him and Elincia so... Yea. Especially since their PoR conversations at least hint that there is a solid friendship/respect there. But, then again, a lot of characters 'deserved' endings and didn't even get nods.