SpotPass/Legacy Character Rant

[druid777]

... When I found out that a large chunk of characters from previous games were going to make an appearance in Awakening's downloadable content (DLC), I was actually pretty excited. I have a number of characters that I have labelled as my favorites in the past (Particularly in 6 through 8), so if I ever got the game, I could also purchase some DLC on the side to revisit them.

What they did with them, in my opinion, is one of the most borderline unforgivable things you could possibly do with these characters, EVER.

To be more specific, I'm talking about how in certain levels of the DLC, you actually have to fight AGAINST the legacy units. Yes, that is actually a thing now. Because I SO want to beat down on characters I connected with in the past.

Lugh and Raigh from Binding Blade, my all-time favorite duo? I'm supposed to kill them.

Other favorites (Sophia, Nino, Jaffar, etc.) from previous games? I'm also supposed to kill them.

FUN, RIGHT?!

Oh, and they also have their own heart-breaking death quotes when you defeat them. It's not like "Ah, darn it, you beat me," it really looks like they actually die on the pavement while your unit revels in triumph.

FUN, RIGHT?!

I would say that this is more of a personal problem than a true detriment in that regard, but I strongly feel like if you grew attached to ANY of these characters in the previous games, then chances are you won't have a good time having to kill them off as if they were generic enemy soldiers on a normal battle-field.

Now, I understand that these levels are mere downloadable content, and they canonically never happened (Obviously), so I am willing to think I'm overreacting to this since they're completely optional and have nothing to do with Awakening's story, nor that of previous games. But why on Earth would the developers go out of their way to take arguably the most popular characters in their respective games and reduce them to nothing but a bunch of props? What were they thinking when they did this? Did they not at any point think that this would be incredibly distracting and somewhat heart-wrenching? Did they honestly not stop for a moment and think to themselves, "Hey, maybe simplifying fan favorites into a bunch of drones that the player is supposed to exterminate for some prize might not be the brightest idea?" Because that's what I'm thinking right now.

TL;DR: The characters you get from previous games, especially with any of them that you've connected with in the past, are insultingly used as mere obstacles for you to sweep away for some kind of bonus item or skill or whatever. ... Yaaaay.

Edited May 27, 2014 by The Holy Druid

[shadowofchaos]

...you're too into this.

It was nostalgia fanservice.

So what if you killed them?

They're generic enemy soldiers. In fact, their characters were barely written well due to the fact that they were so many to reference.

They were a semblance of the characters you love.

You were expecting too much and therefore you got shot down.

Edited May 27, 2014 by shadowofchaos

[Jotari]

If it makes you feel any better they're kind of like ghosts and not really people at all.

[Czar_Yoshi]

Well, their models look nothing like how the character is supposed to 97% of the time (the three exceptions being the Marths).

But if you really like them... That's what spotpass is for. No need to pay for DLC when everything you want is free (aside from throwing money at Nintendo because you like the game). Just grind up the characters you like and stick to Risen skirmishes/the Challenge Pack and Future Past.

Also, never fight Streetpass teams.

[Elieson]

Didn't old hubba say something like

"They're not human, their reflections of the people that they represent, weapons so to speak."

In champions of Yore 1?

[Lord of Gabriel Knight]

Wow, lighten up, it's just a game, it's not like you're killing your dog or something.

[Faye]

I'm more miffed that they're just edited My Units. :/ If you're gonna pay money for them at least give them their own unique models.

[druid777]

SHADOWOFCHAOS: Hey, I said I'm willing to think I'm overreacting, right? :P
By the way, thank you so much for the GBA critical video. It's awesome.

JOTARI: *See my reply to Elieson*

CZAR_YOSHI: Actually... I don't have Awakening. I found out about all this via the worldwide web.
... Make of that and this post what you will. >_>

GABRIELKNIGHT: Don't worry, it's not like it's literally keeping me up at night or anything (I blame Internet addiction for that)! XD
I dunno, I guess I've been watching way too much Nostalgia Critic/YMS lately and now it's jammed into my brain. :P

ELIESON:

...

...
... So I looked up the dialogue for Champions of Yore 1...

... I think you can go ahead and forget about this topic now. >_<
http://mlkshk.com/r/5MUX

[The Geek]

Protip: Before you get angry about something, make sure you know what you're talking about. Then again, no one else does that, so I guess I can't really hold you to that standard.

[druid777]

I'll keep that in mind. Thanks. XD

[Czar_Yoshi]

Didn't old hubba say something like

"They're not human, their reflections of the people that they represent, weapons so to speak."

In champions of Yore 1?

Additionally, if you recruit them and they kick the bucket, you can just recruit them again, and even keep all the levels/skills you got them the first time if you're willing to pay a little gold.

Also...

Oh, and they also have their own heart-breaking death quotes when you defeat them. It's not like "Ah, darn it, you beat me," it really looks like they actually die on the pavement while your unit revels in triumph.

Linde: "You win... I am bested.."

Close enough.

[Loki Laufeyson]

I'm more miffed that they're just edited My Units. :/ If you're gonna pay money for them at least give them their own unique models.

Yeah im kinda the same way to be honest. I kinda wanted a unique Micaiah or Lyn model.

[shadowofchaos]

By the way, thank you so much for the GBA critical video. It's awesome.

Dude, I want to kill that thing, burn it in the fires of hell and make a new one.

...it's in progress.

[Jacien]

I must be this game's biggest a-hole due to me summoning Wolt nearly 2000 times just to pay him for his Renown.

I never cared about Wolt as a person, he was just a tool for my grind.

[BrightBow]

Seeing the supposed heroes of this game cheerfully killing actual people like it gives them an erection, made me feel a lot more uncomfortable then them doing this to these imitates. Not sure what stops them from at least giving them different palettes. Even if the Spotpass Characters are tagged on, the game should already have them as part of the MU feature.

But it is a disappointment that they couldn't come up with something better then having two teams of entirely random characters face off against each other. They had the means to create every possible scenario in every Fire Emblem setting ever, and all they did was to slap random artwork on what might have just as well been generic grunts. It's such a waste.

Well, the artwork is not entirely random. But a theme like "Boys vs Girls Deathmatch on Talys" is not worth a lot.

Edited May 28, 2014 by BrightBow

[Lord of Gabriel Knight]

Seeing the supposed heroes of this game cheerfully killing actual people like it gives them an erection, made me feel a lot more uncomfortable then them doing this to these imitates.

In every FE ever.

[Book of Ereshkigal]

Um...

Well, yeah? They're just bonus units. There's no way they were gonna write supports or something for legacy characters when there is a new cast. I don't really understand your complaint, this is a game where you have units fight each other, and fighting old units is pretty much the biggest callback, anything else and you're pointlessly taking away from Awakening itself.

I agree the paid DLC units should have had unique models/heads, though. The free ones having generic models doesn't bother me though.

Edited May 28, 2014 by L95

[BrightBow]

In every FE ever.

There isn't even a Fire Emblem game besides Awakening that uses voice clips for battles in the first place. The closest thing to compare their to would be in Radiant Dawn, where characters are striking poses after killing an enemy.

Edit: Anyway, this risks getting off the rails.

Edited May 28, 2014 by BrightBow

[shadowofchaos]

...You know I really wish we could hack the game.

I'm wondering if it's just a single bit/byte controlling whether or not they have cut-ins. I don't care about the voices.

...For goodness sake, Katarina DLC would fit just in because Yusuke Kozaki art.

[BANRYU]

This topic and all the talk of characters having their own models reminds me of a little thing called 'unrealistic expectations'.

If the Einherjar WERE going to be executed well and have their own models and everything, they'd need their own game to devote to it. As it is, they're a fun little throwaway feature, but don't mean much otherwise. Personally, I'd just rather the creators worked on making the story better, but IIRC most of the Einherjar came out after Awakening was released so that may well be a moot point too.

...You know I really wish we could hack the game.

I'm wondering if it's just a single bit/byte controlling whether or not they have cut-ins. I don't care about the voices.
...For goodness sake, Katarina DLC would fit just in because Yusuke Kozaki art.

Yeah Awakening hacks would be nice.

Ever since I saw your video with the three Tikis in Double Duel I've been wondering why Tiki doesn't actually have Aether in the game, and wishing I could hack it onto her lol. *shrug* ohwell

[druid777]

Sorry for the delayed response, I don't visit this site that often :P

It does kind of seem like some people are kind of misinterpreting what I said, or maybe it just came out wrong. It's not that the old characters not having much dialogue and such that irked me. In fact, I knew that the characters would get minimal-at-best development with their conversations with the new characters, etc. It is pretty unrealistic to think that this gigantic sleuth of characters would be getting a ton of development and fleshing out, with all of these new characters already being a handful.

What annoyed me, however, was that you would have to kill them off in certain levels, and instead of being nostalgic, it just kind of sucks the fun out of it because you might be facing your own older favorites. Again, it's much more of a personal issue than anything else; it was just a bit hard to stomach, at least for me.

BRIGHTBOW: ... Yeah, I read one of your posts a while back, and it did sort of make me realize how messed up these supposed "heroes" look when they perform skills, criticals, claim victory, etc. I mean, there's being confident in battle (i.e. Fir from Binding Blade), but then there's taking too much enjoyment out of plowing down enemies, especially when those enemies are other people. It's... rather disturbing.

[RJWalker]

I have a few complaints. I don't mind the free Spotpass characters basically being Avatars with different hairstyles but the DLC legacy characters definitely desereved more effort. All of them should have had unique skills or classes (though being Avatars and having access to all classes and skills makes this difficult).

There are definitely a few bizarre decisions when it comes to the legacy characters. The Black Knight isn't black, can't use swords and doesn't even wear a helmet. Legion doesn't have a mask either and they easily could have used the Risen Chief Mask on him. Lachesis is a Troubadour even though she's best at using physical weapons in her own game. Some of the unique legacy characters definitely deserved unique classes. And if not, then if would have been better to just exclude them completely. Some characters are in classes that just clash so heavily with their character. Gentle and sweet Deirdre wearing the see-through outfit of a Dark Mage? Technically, it makes sense since she can now use Nosferatu which was a Light magic tome but no. Just no.

But I don't really see the problem with killing thses characters in battle. That's not really an issue for me.

[The Geek]

I have a few complaints. I don't mind the free Spotpass characters basically being Avatars with different hairstyles but the DLC legacy characters definitely desereved more effort. All of them should have had unique skills or classes (though being Avatars and having access to all classes and skills makes this difficult).

There are definitely a few bizarre decisions when it comes to the legacy characters. The Black Knight isn't black, can't use swords and doesn't even wear a helmet. Legion doesn't have a mask either and they easily could have used the Risen Chief Mask on him. Lachesis is a Troubadour even though she's best at using physical weapons in her own game. Some of the unique legacy characters definitely deserved unique classes. And if not, then if would have been better to just exclude them completely. Some characters are in classes that just clash so heavily with their character. Gentle and sweet Deirdre wearing the see-through outfit of a Dark Mage? Technically, it makes sense since she can now use Nosferatu which was a Light magic tome but no. Just no.

But I don't really see the problem with killing thses characters in battle. That's not really an issue for me.

Sigurd's behind it.

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

Sigurd's behind it.

don't you mean alvis?

[IceBrand]

don't you mean alvis?

Lol. That's some dark humor right there.