Have your opinion of awakeing changed?

[Airship Canon]

The problem I have with Excellus is that unlike the Senators, he's basically just a condensed bunch of the worst qualities someone can have with no redeeming factors. The senators at least had a bit of background and other character traits than just being evil.

To be fair neither did Manfroy. He was basically evil for evil's sake, and yet is easily the best villain in the series.

The obvious difference is that Manfroy is effective at what he does.

He's oh so hateable, but by the gods, he's just gonna do what he does and nothing can even mess with him- his "failures" bring him ever closer to success until guess what... the last part of the last chapter.

He actively messes with the player for the whole game. If it's bad [from the Player's PoV] and it happens, chances are, it was Manfroy's fault. He's good at what he does, and that's piss the player off.

Excellus on the other hand is just creepy. He's ineffectual. He doesn't show threat. He's whiny. He's... he gets the hate factor right, but at the same time, he's no Manfroy, boy. No Manfroy.

Edited March 30, 2014 by Airship Canon

[Jave]

To be fair neither did Manfroy. He was basically evil for evil's sake, and yet is easily the best villain in the series.

Manfroy would have been the best villain in the series... until he made that huge mistake at the very end of the game that basically allowed the good guys to win. He literally plotted EVERYTHING in the game and then ruined it in the blink of an eye.

[xcel]

I like this game still. Picked it up again after having played other games like Persona 4 Golden and God Eater 2 but Awakening has a charm that pulls me in.

@Silver lightning. Your second paragraph relates to a quote I read somewhere (might have been a Gamefaqs sig lol). The fastest way to hate a game is to talk to other people that play it.

edit: The irony of that quote since I'm posting here lol. Oh well :)

Edited March 30, 2014 by xcel

[Silver Lightning]

I like this game still. Picked it up again after having played other games like Persona 4 Golden and God Eater 2 but Awakening has a charm that pulls me in.

@Silver lightning. Your second paragraph relates to a quote I read somewhere (might have been a Gamefaqs sig lol). The fastest way to hate a game is to talk to other people that play it.

edit: The irony of that quote since I'm posting here lol. Oh well :)

I feel like that only happens when fans who can't stand someone having a different opinion end up clashing as a result; I for one actually do enjoy talking to other people about the game in a civil enviroment, even if they have vastly differing views than I do because I find it interesting to see and try to understand unique perspectives. But I suppose its foolish and unrealistic for me to expect the majority to have this outlook...

[Thor Odinson]

Gameplay: Thought it was unbalanced, but enjoyable. That has not changed.

Characters:

-Design

So back in the beginning I thought most of the designs are pretty terrible, bar a few. Now, I think even more of the designs are pretty terrible now that I saw fullbodies and did more of my own research into character design principles and armor design, and only a few remain as ones I actually like. Maybe I'm just critical as an artist myself, though. The class designs are even worse and are the basis of the character design. I like the guy's style. I don't like the stuff he had to work with one bit.

-Characterization

I was pretty excited to read supports, because I'm very big on characterization for the games that do try to have it. I can ignore a bad plot, but characters are very important for me. The first few supports are entertaining enough, but the more I read the more I felt how much they're just repeating themselves over and over again. So I got fed up with it. Then localization came and I gave them another chance. And at first I thought they were able to improve it and was excited again, but soon enough I found out that they only dressed the supports in better wording than what I was translating, but the substance (or lack thereof) is still the same and I suffered disappointment again. To those of you who are math-literate, think my excitement level for the characters as a cosine curve drawn from 0 to 3pi.

So yeah gameplay is alright, character impressions went from pretty excite to eeeeeeeeeeeh

I don't hate the characters since I'll work with what I got but

I'm not as attached to them as I do some far more well-written ones

[Moira]

I feel that Excellus isn't even worth consideration. He had virtually no effect on the game and was just a slightly powerful unit in whatever chapter. There's not even much to say about him. He's just sad and pathetic and I'm really harsh towards him.

As for my feelings, they haven't really changed except that once I experienced more of the supports and story, It feels rather dull. Not bad, but not something you'll really remember story wise.

Edited March 30, 2014 by n00srac

[NobodiePichu]

-Design

So back in the beginning I thought most of the designs are pretty terrible, bar a few. Now, I think even more of the designs are pretty terrible now that I saw fullbodies and did more of my own research into character design principles and armor design, and only a few remain as ones I actually like. Maybe I'm just critical as an artist myself, though. The class designs are even worse and are the basis of the character design. I like the guy's style. I don't like the stuff he had to work with one bit.

-Characterization

I was pretty excited to read supports, because I'm very big on characterization for the games that do try to have it. I can ignore a bad plot, but characters are very important for me. The first few supports are entertaining enough, but the more I read the more I felt how much they're just repeating themselves over and over again. So I got fed up with it. Then localization came and I gave them another chance. And at first I thought they were able to improve it and was excited again, but soon enough I found out that they only dressed the supports in better wording than what I was translating, but the substance (or lack thereof) is still the same and I suffered disappointment again. To those of you who are math-literate, think my excitement level for the characters as a cosine curve drawn from 0 to 3pi.

i think that's some of my biggest problems with the game actually. also on a side note the male avatar chrom support seems more romantic then the female avatar chrom support.

then again the romance in awakening just comes off as awkward and unpolished.

if the game was a dating sim like it seems to want to be it would have had more time to polish character relations.

[Czar_Yoshi]

When I first got it, I loved it and within a few weeks counted it as one of my favorite games ever. I still do, so my love for it hasn't changed- however the reasons I like it have.

Prior to getting it, I was a huge Paper Mario fan (the first three, at least) and extremely disappointed with Sticker Star. Awakening was, as it would happen, also a new IS game that happened to have every single thing Sticker Star was missing: A story, unique characters, good one-liners, a skill system that works somewhat like Badges, replay value, a decently long main campaign, and mustache humor. It helped that the artstyle could coexist with the rest of the game without butting in on dialogue, and the CGI cutscenes at the start were pretty.

Now, I like it because the customization is just powerful enough and the hardest things in the game just hard enough to leave almost unlimited room for challenge runs that are barely possible, perfectly sandwiched between the realms of impossible and easy. As I get better at the game, new things that I wouldn't have though possible before become possible, providing essentially unlimited replay value without using redundant strategies.

So my focus has shifted from aesthetics to gameplay (though I still do plenty of casual playthroughs where I watch all the cutscenes and don't skip any battles just for fun...), but I still like the game just as much as I did a year ago.

[Anacybele]

The only part of the fanbase that really annoys me are the Chrom x Avatar and Chrom/Lucina fanboys. They like to go on about how Chrom x Female Avatar is canon and no other pairings matter and shit like that. Or if it's about Chrom and Lucina individually, they say they should replace Marth and Ike in Smash Bros. or something dumb like that. I'm not saying ALL fans are like that, but a lot of fans have made it very hard for me to see what's so great about them, Lucina and Chrom paired with Female Avatar especially. Chrom by himself though, not quite as hard because he's managed to entertain me a few times, but still.

I also hate that like 90% of the fanart is related to Chrom x Female Avatar in some way. Chrom x Female Avatar isn't the only thing in the game, nor do all the fans want to see only that. I also hate how Chrom fangirls pubically bash Chrom x Sumia for being "canon." Hate Sumia all you want to, but keep your comments and thoughts to yourself, thanks. It might not be easy to deal with, that I can understand (after having learned to cope with some of my own preferred FE pairings being "decanonized"), but that's no excuse to go whining about it to a bunch of people.

Edited March 30, 2014 by Anacybele

[XeKr]

Most of the problems it has are present in other FEs or are down to the fanbase being terrible, so shrug. I still like this game.

+1, though I probably don’t mind the fanbase quite as much (unfortunately occasionally it does feel toxic). Also, I suppose I’m pretty casual wrt to plot, characters, etc (for FE, at least).

tbh, I feel like I now defend Awakening more than I actually like it. (And I do certainly still like it). Mostly pertaining to certain totally objectively false considerations regarding balance/design that are widely propagated.

I honestly think the community has ruined the game for me. It's an okay game, but it seems like you can only love it or hate it to an extreme degree (with both sides citing features that are hardly exclusive to Awakening).

It’s probably just the extreme/strong opinions (on both sides) being inherently louder and more memorable. Most people are almost certainly somewhere in the middle.

Edited March 30, 2014 by XeKr

[TheFreshestSlice]

The only part of the fanbase that really annoys me are the Chrom x Avatar and Chrom/Lucina fanboys. They like to go on about how Chrom x Female Avatar is canon and no other pairings matter and shit like that. Or if it's about Chrom and Lucina individually, they say they should replace Marth and Ike in Smash Bros. or something dumb like that. I'm not saying ALL fans are like that, but a lot of fans have made it very hard for me to see what's so great about them, Lucina and Chrom paired with Female Avatar especially. Chrom by himself though, not quite as hard because he's managed to entertain me a few times, but still.

It's bound to happen when a game becomes more popular, the amount of newer fans will start to even out with the older ones. Chrom's the protagonist and the only guaranteed character throughout the story, so he'll have more story time than anyone else. Lucina, as Chrom junior, will always be there once she's introduced. More content, higher chance for appeal. Just sort of have to live with it.

[Anacybele]

Yeah, you have a point there. But the main protagonists' fans aren't always so annoying. I never saw any of this with Ike's fans (though some Soren fanboys can be annoying when they ship him with Ike), or Marth's fans. Or heck, even Eliwood's fans, and Eliwood x Ninian is often claimed to be canon. In Awakening's case, it's probably the marriage system that makes all the difference...

Edited March 30, 2014 by Anacybele

[Jave]

I'll never understand why some people get so bothered by the fact that a pairing is more popular and that it has more fanart. Let people like what they like.

[Tamanoir]

I... honnestly completely forgot about Excellus until now. Show how effective he is. Since I'm playing FFX right now, he kinda remember me of Kinoc (AKA "Why can't we just slice him in half, Auron ?"). Useless, pathetic guy who sees itself as a great chessmaster. I first thought you were talking about Cervantes (Whose facial hair truly deserve admiration).

I don't have played for... 6 months now. The gameplay is pretty fun if not extremely well thought out.

I had played Luminous Ark 2 before playing this one (and Luminous Ark, who is the worst SRPG ever concieved...), so my opinion weren't as negatively biased as the other. (Luminous Ark is a pretty fun game, but it makes FE:A looks really tame)

I was pretty excited about it before it came, and when I played, but now I think it's just a fun, no-brainer game. Not a masterpice by any mean, but clearly not the worst game ever produced. Say what you want about the gameplay, at least it plays fast, an is easy to use.

I liked discussing with the fanbase, and exchanging our ideas, when the game came out. The flaws or positive points of the game allowed us to be pretty creative.

Not sure how it is now, since I don't come to the forum anymore

[Loki Laufeyson]

Ship To Ship Combat

Im actually curious as to why this matters so much to people. You know, im a huge fan of Cherche/Virion but if someone makes a ton of fanart of Gregor/Cherche, its not going to bother me in the slightest. A bunch of people on tumblr like Chrom//Avatar? Big flippin' deal. So what if there's a disproportionate amount of fanart of it? Theres a ridiculous amount of Florina/Lyn fanart out there and i dont give a fuck. (Hector/Florina fan here) The shipping wars is just...its just silly.

[Potato123]

I liked it for a bit because it seemed fun, but then I realized it was pretty much just "yay marriage love love terrible story love waifus marriage love marriage" so now I like it less.

Hate Sumia all you want to, but keep your comments and thoughts to yourself, thanks.

what

[Sunwoo]

The only thing that bothers me about shipping is when certain fans are so insecure that they attack the hell out of everything that could possibly "interfere" with their pairing, attack the fans who ship pairings that they don't like, or act like their preferred pairing is just so much more meaningful and canon that it's better than everyone else's. Other than that, ship what you like, I don't care.

[TheFreshestSlice]

The only thing that bothers me about shipping is when certain fans are so insecure that they attack the hell out of everything that could possibly "interfere" with their pairing, attack the fans who ship pairings that they don't like, or act like their preferred pairing is just so much more meaningful and canon that it's better than everyone else's. Other than that, ship what you like, I don't care.

Yeah, although taking any of the pairing seriously is something I never understood. Until it actually mattered for optimization, I usually just flipped a coin a few times and laughed about the support I read to get to it.

[Loki Laufeyson]

The only thing that bothers me about shipping is when certain fans are so insecure that they attack the hell out of everything that could possibly "interfere" with their pairing, attack the fans who ship pairings that they don't like, or act like their preferred pairing is just so much more meaningful and canon that it's better than everyone else's. Other than that, ship what you like, I don't care.

Yes theres this too. Why not ship everybody with everybody? Isnt that kind of the point?

[shadowofchaos]

Yes theres this too. Why not ship everybody with everybody? Isnt that kind of the point?

Screw you, only *I* get to ship myself with everyone.

Edited March 30, 2014 by shadowofchaos

[Airship Canon]

Screw you, only *I* get to ship myself with everyone.

You gained that harem through chaining S-support->Save in a different Slot->Reset.

Like everyone else.

[Loki Laufeyson]

Screw you, only *I* get to ship myself with everyone.

I said "ship everybody with everybody" not "ship myself with everybody". Everyone in the game having their own harem is funner.

[shadowofchaos]

You gained that harem through chaining S-support->Save in a different Slot->Reset.

Like everyone else.

They did it with the obviously inferior English copy.

Edited March 31, 2014 by shadowofchaos

[Book Bro]

My opinion on the story hasn't changed; thought it was awful from the beginning. Most of the characters made a better impression when the game was brand new, though. Now I only have a few favourites and don't really bother with the others beyond marriage.

Like many others some of the more outspoken "new" fans have made me somewhat less forgiving of the direction of the game, aka it being more anime dating sim than FE.

[Gaia]

I expected it to be a bloody amazing FE that would rule the FE fandom through its awesomeness (read bold). I mean, it *DID* look awesome during development. And that's actually what I thought for about the 1st month of me having it. After going back to replay SS, I realized, "Oh wait. Everything else was better." Story-wise, anyways. Even RD.

Edited March 31, 2014 by Gaia