Will My Unit be a recurring feature?

[Nave]

Since both FE12 and FE13 had the avatar as a feature, with FE14 including it as well, do you think future FE games will also include a avatar?

If you think they will have avatar as a recurring feature, which role do you think they should be?

Personally, I think the avatar will be a recurring feature, considering 2 games in a row had it, with a third one having it as well. Not to mention that Awakenign having an avatar character probably helpt with sales.

[X-Naut]

At this point it's safe to say player character input is going to stay until there's a large enough negative backlash against it. However, that's not to say their role will stay the same; in FE15 they might go back to being a background tactician, and not available as a PC until late in the game. I'd like to see the Avatar in an Est roll in the future.

[Jedi]

Fire Emblem has phases with its mechanics.

It could stay, but it may not.

[Yukine]

I like having a character to represent you in the game just probably not an all powerful character, or a game breaker like some of my friends made in Awakening. I prefer having an avatar like in 12 where you're important sure but you don't hog the spotlight from the main lord like the MU did in the second half of Awakening. It probably will be a staple feature moving forward though, all those anime waifus aren't going to marry themselves!

[Radiant head]

FE12 does the avatar better IMO. I mean yeah, his supports are pretty cringe worthy, but I like that he's just Marth's righthand man who happens to be a badass unit as opposed to stealing his spotlight.

Edited April 28, 2015 by Radiant head

[Jedi]

Did we even play the same 12?

Kris takes nearly all of Marths and Jeigans spotlight. Some of their plans and talks even!

[Bandit]

I think with the way Awakening sold and how close the series was to the brink before hand that the Avatar as a lead character will stay for awhile, though I'm sure that they'll slowly slip back to allow for more characters to take the spotlight.
After all if they make the avatar too much his own person (e.g. Robin: Naga I love carrots! Player: I hate carrots...) they risk losing the connection an emersion they try to build with the avatar. That said making it too open ended can lead to very boring avatars.
I mean if they do them well, great I'll take an avatar thanks! But I'd personally prefer to let them be secondary or background than main character.

[Radiant head]

Did we even play the same 12?

Kris takes nearly all of Marths and Jeigans spotlight. Some of their plans and talks even!

Uh, probably not, since most of his scenes are just him talking to Marth and Jeigan, and he never usurps Marth's protagonist role.

Edited April 28, 2015 by Radiant head

[Jave]

Kris doesn't steal Marth's spotlight. He just horribly neuters the character.

[Yukine]

Most definitely feel 12 avatar was closer to a honest sidekick than a co-hero. Sidekicks always get brought in on the plan or they wouldn't be considered the hero's right man.

[Book of Ereshkigal]

I'd say the MU is already a staple, they seem pretty intent on it, at least.

[NoirCore]

I'd be very happy if unit customization stays a recurring thing. I'd also be fine with it AT LEAST being in the fashion of being able to create a unit AND customize his/her appearance/bio, even if he/she isn't an important character, since I'd like to create characters that don't have the same backstory as each other. I'm not really a fan of customization being limited to an almost unseen non-unit character, especially if the only options are name, gender, and birth month (and blood type). Character customization is something I love in video games, and I hope Fire Emblem adds more options and variety to the practice in the near future. :)

[Knight Falchion]

Kris doesn't steal Marth's spotlight. He just horribly neuters the character.

Pretty much this, but even so I think the idea behind Kris- an important character who is not the protagonist- is better than what they did with Robin. I'm apprehensive about Kamui being the main protag, but who knows, it may be the best avatar character yet.

The unobtrusive and silent Mark is still the best way to go imo.

[Roivann]

The unobtrusive and silent Mark is still the best way to go imo.

But, bear in mind, Mark is simply the safest way to write an avatar character, that is, to not write one. Mark, for the most part, might as well not be there.

[Knight Falchion]

But, bear in mind, Mark is simply the safest way to write an avatar character, that is, to not write one. Mark, for the most part, might as well not be there.

As someone who doesn't like avatar characters in Fire Emblem, I prefer the safer route and a character who is hardly there to the two who arguably made each of their games' stories and protagonists weaker. However, Kamui as main protagonist may surprise me and change my mind, but I'm not too optimistic.

[Book Bro]

I'd like to think they won't be in every game. IMO the less important the avatar is to the story, the better, but maybe Kamui will change how I feel about that. Ideally with an avatar character I'd prefer it to be somewhere between Mark and Kris, a regular unit you can customize that occasionally has dialogue/interactions with the main characters. Robin felt more like, say, if Lyn had been the "avatar" in FE7 instead of Mark, he was just too prominent and had too much of a personality to work as a stand in for the player.

Edit: the avatar might fit in the Jagen role actually

Edited April 29, 2015 by Owain Dark

[Refa]

Kris is a tool. Fire Emblem does not need more tools. In fact, it has enough tools as is. Please no more tools.

EDIT Robin totally overshadowed Chrom later on in the story, but they were on the right track there. Mark was pointless as fuck.

Edited April 29, 2015 by Refa

[Kirie]

I can't help but feel that IS keeps tweaking the avatar format with each game trying to find a good niche for it. Marc was practically a non-entity, so the concept was beefed up heavily into the larger Kris role in FE12. Unfortunately, Kris was rather shoehorned in, given that he was simply inserted into a story that was fine without him, leaving many dissatisfied with his role. So next they decided to give the next Avatar, Robin, more of a leading role so they would feel more in place, but they tried to have both a plot-important avatar-character and a traditional main lord, which ended up with Robin stealing the spotlight and feeling more important than Chrom. And so, IS pushes even further with FEif and simply makes the customizable avatar the main protagonist. Of course, time will tell how this actually works in practice, but the worst thing I can think of is that it makes cutscenes and promotion materials more difficult since your main character is something of a shape shifter, though they seem happy enough to just use the default image for promo stuff for now.

The avatar's increasing importance in the games makes me think that it'll probably stick around, at least in the short-/medium-term. A lot of other games offer customization options as well, and when you're looking to sell units, it pays to stay with trends like that, especially ones the players generally react favourably too. Of course, its role will likely change and grow and evolve over time, and may at some point drop out all together.

I can't help but feel that something kinda like Kris but more natural-feeling is probably the best route for an avatar character in FE, though. A regular character in the army, you can pick from a class selection from them to start as. Just because they're an avatar doesn't mean they have to be super important. Having an avatar Est or Jeigan or recruitable enemy or boss would also just be hilarious, but kinda out there.

That said, I do have high hopes for the Kamui avatar. If they want the avatar to be important, just make them important instead of letting them steal the spotlight/plot from the other supposed main characters.