So, how do you guys feel about Fire Emblem surviving extinction?

[Knight]

I'm relieved.

[Silver Lightning]

I'm happy its safe and more popular than I've ever seen, at least on this side of the Pacific Ocean. Hope it stays that way for years to come! :D

I actually want the self-insert fanservice feature to die. It *WILL* get stale. To some people, it already has.

As much as I enjoyed it, I do see the flaws and understand why some people don't like it. Maybe, if the Casual/Classic choice is going to continue to be a thing, they should allow the My Unit/Avatar feature to be a choice as well. That way people can play with what they want; and the Avatar then can't be central to the plot and runaway with the spotlight if half the time they're not even part of the plot at all.

And the same could be said for Pair up. Its like a higher or lower difficulty mode; its there if people want it, but your never forced to use it. You were never forced to use it in Awakening either, for that matter.

[Redwall]

And the same could be said for Pair up. Its like a higher or lower difficulty mode; its there if people want it, but your never forced to use it. You were never forced to use it in Awakening either, for that matter.

I don't think it's possible to beat the game on the difficulties above Lunatic Casual (so basically, Lunatic Classic and both flavors of Lunatic+) without Pair Up. In those difficulties, the consequence of Pair Up is that you have a very small core of combat units (smaller than in previous FEs) get strong really quickly, and a bunch of auxiliary fighters who get benched in no-grind playthroughs unless they can use staves or dance, making the game less reliant on teamwork than earlier FE games.

[Refa]

And the same could be said for Pair up. Its like a higher or lower difficulty mode; its there if people want it, but your never forced to use it. You were never forced to use it in Awakening either, for that matter.

People will always pick the easiest way to play the game though. You can't just handwave that by saying "well you could ignore it".

[shadykid]

I don't think it's possible to beat the game on the difficulties above Lunatic Casual (so basically, Lunatic Classic and both flavors of Lunatic+) without Pair Up. In those difficulties, the consequence of Pair Up is that you have a very small core of combat units (smaller than in previous FEs) get strong really quickly, and a bunch of auxiliary fighters who get benched in no-grind playthroughs unless they can use staves or dance, making the game less reliant on teamwork than earlier FE games.

you keep switching your username >_>

but yeah, in particular I'm sure early Lunatic+ is impossible without pair up

[1% critted]

Don't make me try to complete that!

Don't make me!!!!!

[shadykid]

Don't make me try to complete that!

Don't make me!!!!!

oh hey that reminds me

more Fire Emblem games means more chances to die to 1% crits

I dare you to try it

[Nobody]

People will always pick the easiest way to play the game though. You can't just handwave that by saying "well you could ignore it".

Have you tried it without pair up? It's really fun.

[Hawk King]

Im glad Awakening was successful but Im sad the game is so bad compared to other games in the series.

Rout and kill boss? really? thats it?

Gary Stu/Mary Sue avatar needs to go. Avatar in general should go. At least a massive nerf.

Marriage should go away.

Pair-up absolutely needs to go and never return.

[General Banzai]

you guys do realize that the things you don't like about awakening are exactly the reason it did so well right

be glad IS had the decency to pepper the game with metafictional winks at the old guard fans

[RJWalker]

you guys do realize that the things you don't like about awakening are exactly the reason it did so well right

That's the worst part.

Though this game does have incredible production values. I'll give it that.

Edited September 27, 2013 by Ranger Jack Walker

[Vashiane]

you guys do realize that the things you don't like about awakening are exactly the reason it did so well right

be glad IS had the decency to pepper the game with metafictional winks at the old guard fans

I think we realize this, yes.

But nothing can ever be perfect, of course, meaning there's always SOME room to make it better.

I'm actually quite glad Awakening was the game to save the franchise, because it's a good base to improve upon. It implemented several news features to play around, the gameplay is great, and it's really well-polished. I'm not going to say it's flawless of course - nothing is and Awakening is FAR from flawless - but it shows that there lies potential to make something even better than before.

Now granted, if you truly want my opinion on what they could fix I could list a few things off the top of my head, but that's not the topic of conversation right now so I'll refrain.

But yes. I'm glad they made Awakening and I'm glad it saved Fire Emblem.

[Anacybele]

Intelligent systems is and have always been a studio of nintendo. They ARE nintendo, just like EAD (the guys who make Mario and Zelda games, if you don't know).

If you're going to correct someone, at least get it right lol

That's what I said, they WORK for Nintendo. xP They're a second party company, a company that makes games only for one family of consoles (ie Nintendo).

[Nobody]

That's what I said, they WORK for Nintendo. xP They're a second party company, a company that makes games only for one family of consoles (ie Nintendo).

No, they don't just work for nintendo, they're OWNED by nintendo. They were a studio CREATED by nintendo. They're first party, not second party. Gamefreak is second party, IS isn't

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_Systems

"Intelligent Systems Co., Ltd. (株式会社インテリジェントシステムズ Kabushiki-Gaisha Interijento Shisutemuzu^?) is a Japanese first-party video game developer and internal team of Nintendo best known for the Fire Emblem and Paper Mario series. It has its headquarters in the Nintendo Kyoto Research Center in Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture"

Edited September 27, 2013 by Nobody

[amadeuscho]

Well what you do when you face extinction?
Evolve or Die.

And that's exactly what Fire Emblem did. Advance Wars didn't, and I haven't play an AW game since DoR, because there were none.

Shadow Dragon for the DS was such a commercial misfire. Everything, from the cover art, to the aged gameplay. Awakening wasn't the first game to try out many of the concepts. Avatars were FE12, along with a casual mode.

Fire Emblem art style often changes between games, but I can't say enough good thing about the art style of Yusuke Kozaki. The best part about Fire Emblem: Awakening is you can play however you want. You can play in the easier mode, on casual, and watch all the animations. Or you can play with no pair ups on hard mode with no animations. You can change how you view the cutscenes.

I am glad that FE has new fans as a result of their decisions. And I hope the series keeps thing familiar with them so that they stick around. This is the first game in a while, maybe ever, to actually be in the game of the year conversation. To many sites, it's the game to beat on the 3DS. The game's strongly critical reception is not to be underestimated. This is the best FE has ever been received internationally, and that matters quite a bit. This is the Fire Emblem I know I can recommend to anyone, which is just about the best praise you can ever give a game.

Edited September 27, 2013 by Viewtiful_J

[RJWalker]

I still maintain that the removal of many features in SD was an intentional decision to finish the game earlier and release it as a quick cash grab, appealing to the Japanese audience's nostalgia and the international audience's curiosity with Marth's games. And it worked. After the disappointment that was PoR and RD, SD might have save the series. It's not secret that if there is something responsible for the near death of the series, it's the Tellius games.

[sumerian99]

I still maintain that the removal of many features in SD was an intentional decision to finish the game earlier and release it as a quick cash grab, appealing to the Japanese audience's nostalgia and the international audience's curiosity with Marth's games. And it worked. After the disappointment that was PoR and RD, SD might have save the series. It's not secret that if there is something responsible for the near death of the series, it's the Tellius games.

Also, the graphical style of SD and Mistery of the Emblem was a difficult transition from the GBA sprites players had grown accustomed to. They somehow had less charisma and felt less impressive (to me at least). I do believe that the critical hit abilities looked less amazing or satisfying, not to mention the character models (in combat) had no EYES. It made them look like faceless characters that could be associated to generics, supressing part of their charisma.

I understand IS did its best to succeed in the transition to the DS graphically wise, but it didn't cut it for quite a few fans.

[amadeuscho]

I still maintain that the removal of many features in SD was an intentional decision to finish the game earlier and release it as a quick cash grab, appealing to the Japanese audience's nostalgia and the international audience's curiosity with Marth's games. And it worked. After the disappointment that was PoR and RD, SD might have save the series. It's not secret that if there is something responsible for the near death of the series, it's the Tellius games.

I don't think SD did much to reverse the decline trend. I believe the FE series was in danger of being cancelled because of trajectory, not just sales. THE series was in decline in popularity even in Japan.

I don't believe SD worked as well. It showed an aged design and poor graphical sense, as well as presentation. The animation didn't work because it made all the characters seem so slow and lifeless. And unfortunately, being a remake meant in some ways going backward in design.

The Tellius game unfortunately started the decline, and FE11 and FE12 continued it.

[eclipse]

Funny, I liked SD/NM better than the Tellius series. Ahem. . .well, glad that FE marches on, but FFS, get rid of Pair-Up. I didn't care for Rescue, but it's a better mechanic than Pair-Up (as it was a trade-off between stats or positioning).

[RJWalker]

I don't think SD did much to reverse the decline trend. I believe the FE series was in danger of being cancelled because of trajectory, not just sales. THE series was in decline in popularity even in Japan.

I don't believe SD worked as well. It showed an aged design and poor graphical sense, as well as presentation. The animation didn't work because it made all the characters seem so slow and lifeless. And unfortunately, being a remake meant in some ways going backward in design.

The Tellius game unfortunately started the decline, and FE11 and FE12 continued it.

I don't think it reversed it either but my point is that for a quick cash grab (which I believe SD to be) is did pretty well and made enough of a profit (along with FE12) to allow them to work on a game like Awakening to really make money.

And yes, Pair Up is terrible. Rescue allowed you to save a unit in danger at the cost of gimping another. Pair Up just provides bonuses to the character. What a huge a buff.

Edited September 28, 2013 by Ranger Jack Walker

[Gregosa]

Very pleased that the series is still around. If Awakening flopped I think it would have served as an excellent swan song for the series. Now that it succeeded, I think it serves as a good evolution for the series combining a nice mix of classic and new features.

[Cymbalina's Revenge]

I still maintain that the removal of many features in SD was an intentional decision to finish the game earlier and release it as a quick cash grab, appealing to the Japanese audience's nostalgia and the international audience's curiosity with Marth's games. And it worked. After the disappointment that was PoR and RD, SD might have save the series. It's not secret that if there is something responsible for the near death of the series, it's the Tellius games.

I think the fact that the Tellius games put the franchise in trouble is more widely known that it was, but there seem to be plenty of fans who don't know that, like the ones that hail Ike as "Fire Emblem's ambassador to the world!" over on GameFaqs and can't understand why Marth was popular enough to be tied into FE13.

100% agree that FE11 was a cashgrab, though. And I genuinely enjoyed that game.

As for the future of the series, I hope it maintains Awakening's slick polish and dumps every other thing about it. Pair Up on an FE4 remake would be a hoot, though.

[Ein]

I'm rather indifferent but I would have been fine with Nintendo just killing the franchise if Awakening bombed.

I'm not looking forward to the next main FE game simply because IS will likely stick to a safe thing again and will likely implement the Avatar again.

[Irysa]

Just remake FE6 and 7 bundled with the generations gimmick and with more depth, and have Mark show up in both. And no pair up, have rescue instead. People already headcanon the fuck out of what pairings lead into FE6 anyway, and maybe Roy might actually not suck if he officially gets a halfdragon skill or something.

Marcus could degrade in stats from 7 to 6 based on his stats in the first. ALL OF THE STATBOOSTERS.

Edited September 29, 2013 by Irysa

[The Void]

What did Blazing Sword and Binding Blade do to deserve remakes?

And Blazing Sword didn't have that much to do with Binding Blade. Most of the playable characters in both games aren't related, so a generation system wouldn't add that much.

Edited September 29, 2013 by The Void