Fears for If?

[Yunanuy]

My biggest is fear is that regardless of the choices you make (and the differences in the story caused by said choices), there will only be one ending per route.

I can accept everything else. Mostly...

[Phoenix Wright]

That's possible, but since we have an actual writer working on the game this time around, I sincerely doubt it.

one can hope. i just don't want to set expectations too high.

The playable characters in Awakening are NOT as bad as many on this board make them out to be. They were more easily identifiable by a certain trope in many cases, but I really dislike people who make it sound like every character in the game was shallow, especially relative to past FE characters on average (I'm not saying you're going that far, I can't tell if you are). Just because a character could fit into a trope or had a gimmick doesn't make them bad as long as it doesn't dominate their supports.

Reading people's comments on Awakening's characters shows some people either didn't read the supports for many of the characters or have selective amnesia (ex: the people who say Sumia trips in every support or even with every character).

I'm not necessarily saying all this about you in particular by the way. It's just a rant because I get sick of hearing this complaint. Obviously more depth and character development is good, but I too many people say all or most of the cast of Awakening sucked.

i've read the supports. to me, most characters in that game i feel truly are that bad. it's not selective amnesia, either. the supports were (almost overwhemingly) uninteresting. i replayed 7 not too long ago, and ignoring nostalgia, the characters weren't that good either lol. many of them were also boring. it's a consequence of having so many characters in the game (meaning each game in the series)--the biggest problem i have with awakening is that the characters you see the most happen to be the worst characters. that game is fun, don't get me wrong, but honestly i think your standards are a little low if the awakening characters were generally and genuinely interesting. it's a fun game, but its writing was pretty bad in almost every facet. it did have a few gems, though.

i'm genuinely excited for fe if. it's changing the formula in a not-too-big way (i actually like the new triangle and loss of durability, which was an outdated system to begin with), giving the players (the illusion of?) choice, changing the scenary, changing some of the classes, etc. i think it'll be better than awakening! but still, knowing int. sys. for this long, there's some things i know i just won't be happy with. it's too bad the old geezers don't get to have voices in the development process so as to try to make things more interesting for vets of the series. the focus is completely on newcomers, which is monetarily understandable, but still feels a little like betrayal to seasoned players.

Edited May 27, 2015 by Phoenix Wright

[Lakmé]

I really hope FE:If will have low stat caps (between 20 and 30) : Awakening had overpowered enemies by the end of the game in lunatic and you had to focus all your xp on a small squad of 4~6 elite warriors to be able to compete, instead of using an army of 10~15 soldiers (like in previous games)...

[Thedeathby2]

I fear that like awakening, in order to beat lunatic you need to constantly grind and second seal. Also that the game will have bad class design like awakening (Great Knight, General, Berserker, etc.)

Edited May 28, 2015 by Thedeathby2

[Rapier]

--inflated stats

I like high stats and shiny green cap numbers, so long as the growths are proportional to the difficulty of the game, like in Radiant Dawn and Path of Radiance. In Awakening's case it wasn't so ridiculous until endgame, where our team steamrolled through the game like Sigurd clones.

[Bovinian]

in order to beat lunatic you need to constantly grind

People seriously need to stop saying this. If DLC in Awakening weren't a thing and people were just forced to git gud, no one would ever say things like "Lunatic is impossible without constantly grinding"

[Jedi]

Ifear that like awakening, in order to beat lunatic you need to constantly grind and second seal.

You can beat it without grinding. There are quite a few members including myself who have managed nogrind lunatic.

Edited May 27, 2015 by Jedi

[ARGHETH]

Yeah, if someone like me can manage nogrind full deployment lunatic, it's definitely not required.

On topic, I fear that they'll screw up the new gameplay stuff they've been showing. They're nice in concept, and I really hope that it will be done well.

Edited May 28, 2015 by ARGHETH

[BlueL]

i've read the supports. to me, most characters in that game i feel truly are that bad. it's not selective amnesia, either. the supports were (almost overwhemingly) uninteresting. i replayed 7 not too long ago, and ignoring nostalgia, the characters weren't that good either lol. many of them were also boring. it's a consequence of having so many characters in the game (meaning each game in the series)--the biggest problem i have with awakening is that the characters you see the most happen to be the worst characters. that game is fun, don't get me wrong, but honestly i think your standards are a little low if the awakening characters were generally and genuinely interesting. it's a fun game, but its writing was pretty bad in almost every facet. it did have a few gems, though.

I don't agree at all on the supports. And if you go back and look at professional reviews of the game, a great cast of characters is usually something mentioned as one of the highlights of the game. I think you and the people who agree with you probably dislike the kinds of characters in this game. I know one of the complaints I see is people wish they were more serious. Serious supports are fine, but so are light-hearted or comical ones, and Awakening excelled at those.

And I'm not sure which characters you're referring to.

[Eveangaline]

The playable characters in Awakening are NOT as bad as many on this board make them out to be. They were more easily identifiable by a certain trope in many cases, but I really dislike people who make it sound like every character in the game was shallow, especially relative to past FE characters on average

Agreed. It seems overblown. I mean part of it may be that some people slightly disliked awakening, and when they saw how many people liked it that made them angier (I admit I've fallen in the trap a few times of hating something only mildly disliked because I thought it got praise far beyond what it deserved) but man, I've seen people say Awakening had terrible characters and then go on to extol the writing of FE10 which...man, if you'd asked me is the game with the worst writing. But maybe it's just that fe10 didn't suit my taste.

I guess it all just comes down to different folks and different strokes. I think people need to not conflate "I don't like this" with "THIS IS OBJECTIVELY BAD"

[S_Cero]

^^Here's my stance on Awakening's characters and actually touches upon one of my fears for IF.

One of the wishes I had when FE14 was announced was "better" characters. Though after recently going through some of 13's support convos and re-thinking why I didn't like these characters so much, I found out why I didn't like them and why probably 14's will be the same.

Now, I'm gonna preface this with 13's characters overall are not bad. They're pretty much standard, though maybe a little lower, FE quality. Every FE has their one note characters such as Kellam and Vaike. And every FE has their deep characters such as Virion. Here's the reason why I find 13's characters to appear of lesser quality.

First was the overabundance of supports. With so many supports in the game the writing quality suffered. While there are good supports, quite of few of them lacked substance and were really just there for there to be a support. Past FE games had finite supports which expanded upon the characters while 13's were more like locker room conversations with some of the old mixed in.

The second reason, which I find to be the bigger reason, is the over exposure to each character's gimmick. Along with the multitude of supports, there were a plethora of other ways to see the characters 13. From event tiles, to the barracks, to the critical quotes, to even battle quotes. And these options all amount to pretty much one-liners about their gimmick. And that is where I find the main problem to be with Awakening's characters. Compared to past FE games, a character normally only got their joining convo and any supports to show you their character. While in Awakening the gimmick of each character is shown all the time like this and gets pounded into your head. With every critical, with every battle you are reminded of their gimmick. And that's where I find to be Awakening's downfall for their characters.

Now bringing this back to the topic, considering that 14 is running on Awakening's engine, it's pretty much guaranteed these feature will be coming back. Along with the new standard set for support conversations it's most likely that the characters will be presented in the same light as Awakening's characters.

Edited May 28, 2015 by Cero

[Thedeathby2]

You can beat it without grinding. There are quite a few members including myself who have managed nogrind lunatic.

Bruh, fire emblem masters like you don't count, on a sidenote I fear that map

design will be bad like awakening. The map design in fe12 was great and I was surprised when it was so bad in awakening.

EDIT

Meant to say lunatic+ difficulty.

Edited May 28, 2015 by Thedeathby2

[Bovinian]

Bruh, fire emblem masters like you don't count, on a sidenote I fear that map

design will be bad like awakening. The map design in fe12 was great and I was surprised when it was so bad in awakening.

EDIT

Meant to say lunatic+ difficulty.

Lunatic+ is also beatable without grinding, I and several others have done it. It's painful though, not gonna lie.

The game describes it as a mode "for fire emblem masters" so of course they count lol (it really isn't though, more like "Awakening masters", since it's so different from the rest of the games)

Definitely agree that the map design could be better than in Awakening. I'm not really afraid that If won't deliver in that aspect though.

[BlueLore]

That you can't get all classes in one run.
I always hate it if a class is enemy exclusive(like soldier or brigand in many games)

[ReaperGuardian]

@Cero

I think that quote perfectly describes my fear for the characters in FE14.

Great job!

[3Comrades]

I don't agree at all on the supports. And if you go back and look at professional reviews of the game, a great cast of characters is usually something mentioned as one of the highlights of the game. I think you and the people who agree with you probably dislike the kinds of characters in this game. I know one of the complaints I see is people wish they were more serious. Serious supports are fine, but so are light-hearted or comical ones, and Awakening excelled at those.

And I'm not sure which characters you're referring to.

I mean I loved Awakening, and only played awakening, and the majority of characters(which I loved) were terribly over done. Take Inigo, a favorite, he talks about girls when his father decides not to die, like really he cannot keep out of his gimmick and while he added to it with his sad clown personality, in essence nearly every single support was about him chasing girls.

Yarne really was a coward worried about going extinct. I can't think of anywhere where it isn't mentioned. Tharja is a creepy woman that casts curses, and me unit really loves their tactics. none of this is bad or wrong, the problem is that is the vast majority ever said about them. Olivia cries "Don't look at me" while she crits. She talks about being shy and dancing at every opportunity. You can be light hearted in more than 1 way, in fact Brady was a character who was kind, was uncouth, sensitive, and needed to be taken more seriously in combat, and most of those supports were fine with being comedic to explore all those parts of his personality. He was done really well in my opinion, but most of the characters lacked by being defined by their gimmick.

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

Oilvia's the most amusing case of that stuff "imma be embarressed when people look at me, but be a public dancer and wear revealing clothing when you don't necessary have too as a dancer.

what i'm saying is it'd make more sense if she was dressed like Ninian or something with her personality.

[Mr. Myrmidon]

Oilvia's the most amusing case of that stuff "imma be embarressed when people look at me, but be a public dancer and wear revealing clothing when you don't necessary have too as a dancer.

what i'm saying is it'd make more sense if she was dressed like Ninian or something with her personality.

I totally agree. if they're going to build their characters from overdone tropes, they should at least be consistent.

[BlueL]

Yea, Olivia being shy and a dancer was kind of weird, I never really got that except maybe it was intended to be funny? I mean it was occasionally funny in a vacuum, but it really is kind of weird to imagine how she ever became (and stuck with) being a professional dancer with her anxiety. At least Inigo hid his love of dancing.

Agreed. It seems overblown. I mean part of it may be that some people slightly disliked awakening, and when they saw how many people liked it that made them angier (I admit I've fallen in the trap a few times of hating something only mildly disliked because I thought it got praise far beyond what it deserved) but man, I've seen people say Awakening had terrible characters and then go on to extol the writing of FE10 which...man, if you'd asked me is the game with the worst writing. But maybe it's just that fe10 didn't suit my taste.

I guess it all just comes down to different folks and different strokes. I think people need to not conflate "I don't like this" with "THIS IS OBJECTIVELY BAD"

This is all I'm saying. I'm not trying to convince people to like them, just that they're all objectively flawed and on average worse than other FE characters.

^^Here's my stance on Awakening's characters and actually touches upon one of my fears for IF.

One of the wishes I had when FE14 was announced was "better" characters. Though after recently going through some of 13's support convos and re-thinking why I didn't like these characters so much, I found out why I didn't like them and why probably 14's will be the same.

Now, I'm gonna preface this with 13's characters overall are not bad. They're pretty much standard, though maybe a little lower, FE quality. Every FE has their one note characters such as Kellam and Vaike. And every FE has their deep characters such as Virion. Here's the reason why I find 13's characters to appear of lesser quality.

First was the overabundance of supports. With so many supports in the game the writing quality suffered. While there are good supports, quite of few of them lacked substance and were really just there for there to be a support. Past FE games had finite supports which expanded upon the characters while 13's were more like locker room conversations with some of the old mixed in.

The second reason, which I find to be the bigger reason, is the over exposure to each character's gimmick. Along with the multitude of supports, there were a plethora of other ways to see the characters 13. From event tiles, to the barracks, to the critical quotes, to even battle quotes. And these options all amount to pretty much one-liners about their gimmick. And that is where I find the main problem to be with Awakening's characters. Compared to past FE games, a character normally only got their joining convo and any supports to show you their character. While in Awakening the gimmick of each character is shown all the time like this and gets pounded into your head. With every critical, with every battle you are reminded of their gimmick. And that's where I find to be Awakening's downfall for their characters.

Now bringing this back to the topic, considering that 14 is running on Awakening's engine, it's pretty much guaranteed these feature will be coming back. Along with the new standard set for support conversations it's most likely that the characters will be presented in the same light as Awakening's characters.

See, this is a fair and well-written criticism.

I'm glad someone can be critical of the supports and still acknowledge they are pretty much standard with the rest of the FE supports. I personally find them a little above average, but it's possible this is a side effect of me ignoring the characters I dislike or find boring (cough Yarne cough). It's rather subjective and not worth arguing as long as you're not in the "their all or mostly trash" camp.

First, this is what I mean by the supports get criticized for being light hearted. I don't see why all, or even a vast majority of the supports need "substance". I hate to say that because it makes it sound like I'm ok with shallow characters, but what I'm trying to say is "locker room" talk supports (which is actually a good description of them btw) aren't bad. Not every string of 3 conversations needs to end with people becoming the best of friends and paired forever.

I agree that their needs to be more supports with substance. But I don't think locker room talk supports are inherently inferior to talks with substance. As a matter of fact, if you ever listen to professional athletes talk, most of them say one the things they enjoy the most is how fun the locker room is, which I think we can presume includes ample locker room talk. Ideally, the ratio of locker room talk to supports with substance would would always be in favor of substance.

Nonetheless I can understand people wanting more from the supports, but I don't think what's present is bad.

Second, I've come to understand this criticism recently but I don't agree that it detracts from their character. Maybe someone can show me when it's been done better elsewhere, but I don't think it's realistic to expect every single character (of which there are nearly 60) to show depth in their critical lines, victory quotes, level-up lines, shiny tiles and base conversations, specifically the first 3. Would it be better if they just said some generic thing like "Yea, you're going down!" or "You'll never beat me?" I just don't really know what people would expect from IS except for them getting new critical lines, victory quotes, level-up lines occasionally throughout the game, which, given the sheer number of characters and dialogue in this game, seems idealistic. That being said, base conversations and shiny tiles had room for improvement.

So while I understand the complaint of their personalities being overly exposed, I look at that as something trivial and that gets outweighed heavily by the actual supports.

Lastly, like you said, outside of main characters, most characters rarely talked after joining you outside of supports, of which you could only access 5 at a time, barring multiple playthroughs. I think if all the things mentioned above had been present in past FE games (the extra opportunities to talk, unlimited ability to support), people would have complained about their personalities as well. Say unlimited supports and all those chances to talk were in FE8, don't you think almost all of those non-support instances of Joshua's would involved gambling or him suggesting a coin flip? That L'archeal's wouldn't be about her being a hero of justice and driving out the dark? I guess it's fair if you want to the characters would talk less, but given the number of character and brief opportunities they have to talk out of supports, I think it was handled well.

I mean I loved Awakening, and only played awakening, and the majority of characters(which I loved) were terribly over done. Take Inigo, a favorite, he talks about girls when his father decides not to die, like really he cannot keep out of his gimmick and while he added to it with his sad clown personality, in essence nearly every single support was about him chasing girls.

Yarne really was a coward worried about going extinct. I can't think of anywhere where it isn't mentioned. Tharja is a creepy woman that casts curses, and me unit really loves their tactics. none of this is bad or wrong, the problem is that is the vast majority ever said about them. Olivia cries "Don't look at me" while she crits. She talks about being shy and dancing at every opportunity. You can be light hearted in more than 1 way, in fact Brady was a character who was kind, was uncouth, sensitive, and needed to be taken more seriously in combat, and most of those supports were fine with being comedic to explore all those parts of his personality. He was done really well in my opinion, but most of the characters lacked by being defined by their gimmick.

I'm curious you like him if you think he (Inigio) is overdone.

I don't like Yarne and I agree. He's actually me least favorite FE character ever.

Tharja's supports do involve a lot of supports and her dark magic, although I don't think that makes them bad since it's not like they're always used in the same way. It be different if every time it was about using curses for selfish or negative purposes. For example (and this might be a waste since you've only played Awakening), Joshua is usually considered a good unit and character but almost all of his supports (except for with Marisa) involve him bringing up gambling. Just because something is used constantly doesn't make it bad, it depend on how it's used. You could say there's room for improvement, but that doesn't make it bad.

And Robin likes his tactics? It might be his favorite subject, but I think if you look at his supports (and he has almost 60), Tactics don't come up in more than a 3rd of them at most. It's his defining trait, but in the majority of his supports it isn't mentioned

I'm not saying a good number of characters weren't gimmicky, but there are also a good number who aren't gimmicky or whose gimmicks or tropes don't come up as much as people claim (ex: Sumia and pies).

I'm not saying there's only one way to be light hearted, I was only saying I dislike that some people claim that Awakening supports are bad because of too much small talk. I'm not sure why you interpreted that as me saying that means one dimensional.

I totally agree. if they're going to build their characters from overdone tropes, they should at least be consistent.

See, I dislike that people's issue with the characters seems to be that their "anime" tropes. Apparently it would be fine to rip off overdone movie or book tropes, but somehow them being anime tropes makes them more annoying.

[Sniper Knight]

I have a keen feeling that the storyline for Nohr won't quite meet my expectations. The "revolutionize from the inside" part sounds interesting, and I hope they pull it off well, but it sounds like the kind of plot that would difficult to write without making it seem dull. Video games are based more around game mechanics and less around plot, so the revolution probably won't be as grand as I'm hoping. Kind of like the Emmeryn thing- it was fairly moving, and the whole "Plegian soldiers are deserting while chanting her name" was a nice touch, but I feel like they could have done a lot more with it. Also, you know, bringing her back to life kinda lessened the blow a bit.

Also, I'm afraid that forging is going to cancel out weapon debuffs. -STR or -SKL isn't going to do shit when we can casually as MT or CRT to a weapon. Especially since we'll have a lot of money left over from not having to buy all those killer weapons that we didn't break.

Also I'm afraid they won't bring back FoW, which I'm really looking forward to. I'm also kind of afraid that Hoshido Phoenix Mode is going to scare newer fans away from the older games. Also I hope they do characterization better this time around. I'm hoping that, since most of the units have connections to each other, the supports will be more meaningful.

Edited May 29, 2015 by PanneKnight

[S_Cero]

Second, I've come to understand this criticism recently but I don't agree that it detracts from their character. Maybe someone can show me when it's been done better elsewhere, but I don't think it's realistic to expect every single character (of which there are nearly 60) to show depth in their critical lines, victory quotes, level-up lines, shiny tiles and base conversations, specifically the first 3. Would it be better if they just said some generic thing like "Yea, you're going down!" or "You'll never beat me?" I just don't really know what people would expect from IS except for them getting new critical lines, victory quotes, level-up lines occasionally throughout the game, which, given the sheer number of characters and dialogue in this game, seems idealistic. That being said, base conversations and shiny tiles had room for improvement.

So while I understand the complaint of their personalities being overly exposed, I look at that as something trivial and that gets outweighed heavily by the actual supports.

Thing is, I can't really think of a way for them to not overexpose their gimmick. I would say not to include them, but they're entertaining.

[3Comrades]

Yea, Olivia being shy and a dancer was kind of weird, I never really got that except maybe it was intended to be funny? I mean it was occasionally funny in a vacuum, but it really is kind of weird to imagine how she ever became (and stuck with) being a professional dancer with her anxiety. At least Inigo hid his love of dancing.

I'm curious you like him if you think he (Inigio) is overdone.

I don't like Yarne and I agree. He's actually me least favorite FE character ever.

Tharja's supports do involve a lot of supports and her dark magic, although I don't think that makes them bad since it's not like they're always used in the same way. It be different if every time it was about using curses for selfish or negative purposes. For example (and this might be a waste since you've only played Awakening), Joshua is usually considered a good unit and character but almost all of his supports (except for with Marisa) involve him bringing up gambling. Just because something is used constantly doesn't make it bad, it depend on how it's used. You could say there's room for improvement, but that doesn't make it bad.

And Robin likes his tactics? It might be his favorite subject, but I think if you look at his supports (and he has almost 60), Tactics don't come up in more than a 3rd of them at most. It's his defining trait, but in the majority of his supports it isn't mentioned

I'm not saying a good number of characters weren't gimmicky, but there are also a good number who aren't gimmicky or whose gimmicks or tropes don't come up as much as people claim (ex: Sumia and pies).

I'm not saying there's only one way to be light hearted, I was only saying I dislike that some people claim that Awakening supports are bad because of too much small talk. I'm not sure why you interpreted that as me saying that means one dimensional.

See, I dislike that people's issue with the characters seems to be that their "anime" tropes. Apparently it would be fine to rip off overdone movie or book tropes, but somehow them being anime tropes makes them more annoying.

This is a case of favoritism affecting how gimmicky we think characters are. Inigo I called a favorite less because he is mine, but a general favorite I have found, but take Yarne, cliche overdone character, I love him because I like cowards in fantasy and his supports show him having growth in nearly every one as compared to other characters that are stagnant. I am able to say, I love Yarne, while still saying he is overly gimmicky.

Tharja is a favorite, and she gets more leeway of being allowed to show it, and after looking up the supports for the old FE games, they all are pretty one note characters. the best characters, IMO, are multi faceted which is pretty hard to get across in these games, and often only 1 or 2 supports really characterize them while the rest were more of the same. And it is hard to show multi faceted characters in these games because just not enough to show (but if does have more involved characters so we may see more). I find Libra boring, but I will admit that he is a better character than Yarne. Yarne worries about extinction ALL the Time, Libra is kind, a drawer, someone who is often depressed, highly religious, and somewhat put out by often being confused for female.

Most likeable and most complex rarely go hand in hand. The best characters are complex, but the most enjoyable characters are usually simple. My favorite characters ever are incredibly simple, and that isn't bad. Like The Three Musketeers, Aramis is complicated beyond reason, in the books, but Porthos always had my heart every time he was a stupid oaf, and I like that the last line in Man in the Iron Mask can be interpreted that Aramis goes to Hell. Protags are usually incredibly bland to make them more likeable and insert able. Being one note isn't bad, just when they drill it into you, which awakening does constantly makes it more noticeable, unlike the other supports in previous games that were still just as simple but didn't make it so advertised.

Sorry i didn't make myself clear, I was agreeing with you, seriousness has nothing to do with good characters.

Edited May 29, 2015 by 3Comrades

[Blue Sun]

My fears? That Fire Emblem if doesn't do well with the "true fans" and that the rift between the fandom widens even further with if. That and if doesn't do well enough to create doubt with the developers.

[HeroMystic]

This "true fan" stuff is pretty garbage. There actually isn't a rift between Awakening fans and veterans.

I'm quite sure any veteran FE player understands Fire Emblem was in a severely tight spot, and Awakening's success is the reason why the series still exists, and even further it's still a good game. Veteran FE players aren't asking FE:if to be ballbustingly hard by default, just that there's a reasonable difficulty.

The problem with Awakening is how easy it was to break and there was no balanced difficulty. A lot of people usually cite EXP grinds but the real culprit here is actually supports and pair-up. This is the main reason why it's better to to have a small squad (2-6) so they can be fed EXP and be buffed beyond the game's difficulty. Lunatic can't survive this and Lunatic+ is basically the only legit challenge which is ridiculous in it's own right.

If every map on the Nohr side is something akin to the Future of Despair DLC from Awakening I'll generally be satisfied. Those were very fun and actually challenging. The developers are generally very good at giving everyone what they want along with drawing in new fans, which is what they seem to strive for. They just haven't hit that sweetspot for veterans with Awakening.

[Blue Sun]

This "true fan" stuff is pretty garbage. There actually isn't a rift between Awakening fans and veterans.

I've seen multiple comments on this board from different topics about how people lamented when Fire Emblem wasn't "Waifu Emblem Garbage" infested with noobs only interested in easy modes and crap supports, among a few wanting a return to the days of Thracia 776 or Radiant Dawn. And trust me, it's not just this site where lots of people make those remarks. The actual "rift" between Awakening fans and older fans lie with how some older fans hate how Awakening is bringing new people who "don't understand the true essence of Fire Emblem and is getting this watered down bastard child". Those are not exact words but they may as well be. Do you not see any of this going on at all?

I'm quite sure any veteran FE player understands Fire Emblem was in a severely tight spot, and Awakening's success is the reason why the series still exists, and even further it's still a good game. Veteran FE players aren't asking FE:if to be ballbustingly hard by default, just that there's a reasonable difficulty.

I'm not very much convinced that older fans knew that FE was not shaping up well. No one knew that Awakening could have been the last game and most assumed that Fire Emblem was merely in a slight slump after Radiant Dawn's success (which was one of the two poorest selling games in mainland Japan next to its prequel), the very game many people said was the end-all Fire Emblem in terms of gameplay. Again, I've seen people wish they had Thracia's level of difficulty because they felt that it truly captured Fire Emblem's essence, the notoriously most difficult game even by the series standards.

The problem with Awakening is how easy it was to break and there was no balanced difficulty. A lot of people usually cite EXP grinds but the real culprit here is actually supports and pair-up. This is the main reason why it's better to to have a small squad (2-6) so they can be fed EXP and be buffed beyond the game's difficulty. Lunatic can't survive this and Lunatic+ is basically the only legit challenge which is ridiculous in it's own right.

There's no argument there but too many people blow it out of proportion, hence the derisive noob arguments leveled at Awakening's fans.

If every map on the Nohr side is something akin to the Future of Despair DLC from Awakening I'll generally be satisfied. Those were very fun and actually challenging. The developers are generally very good at giving everyone what they want along with drawing in new fans, which is what they seem to strive for. They just haven't hit that sweetspot for veterans with Awakening.

Are we talking Lunatic(+) mode? I actually haven't tried Lunatic(+) yet so I may need a gauge for as to how that would work. Sure, they can try to appeal to many types of people, but can IS really gather the fandom together on one single thing at this point? Fire Emblem: Awakening was the game that split things in two.

I'm not meaning to be disrespectful towards you or anything, and I know that there are some older fans who have some legitimate concerns with Fire Emblem: Awakening (I myself am a new fan and I have a few things that come to mind as well) but I've seen enough garbage to convince me that it isn't a minority of of people who are like that. Maybe I just don't react to things as strongly as others, but some of this seems like "what the hell".

Edited May 30, 2015 by BlueSunStudios