What kind of changes would you make to the Fire Emblem series' gameplay?

[sithys]

I would start from Radiant Dawn and branch from there.

So leaving everything else the same I might:

1. Make the game more like FE7 in terms of pacing, character growth, and relative unit strength.
2. The only unit forced into the endgame chapters would be the lords.
3. Bring back mercenaries/heroes. Enemy Swordmasters would be rare and placed in positions which challenge the player to come up with a strategy.
4. All units would have one useful, balanced, and interesting skill that cannot be removed and which serves to give that character more character. To get other skills the player must find scrolls.
5. Make dragons weak to arrows again.
6. If the player is going to get stuck at some future point in the game, the game should instead force the player to get stuck immediately so that they must change their behavior until they are guaranteed to not get stuck at that future point. On the easier difficulties it should be impossible to get stuck.
7. Make sure that speed growths are fair and balanced so that the player can reasonably form a team that they like and which fits their strategy using units that they like.
8. Improve the stat caps for minor characters/classes relative to the most powerful units (Laguz Royals in Radiant Dawn)
9. Don't put Tier 1 and Tier 3/Royal units in the same chapter.
10. Normalize unit availability.
11. Maybe get rid of Biorhythm (it seems somewhat unconsequential)
12. More dark magic users earlier in the game. Nosferatu would be dark magic again. Lightning magic would have much higher crit.
13. There would be much stricter limits on forging and you would not be able to bypass weapon disadvantages through forging. Maybe remove the Vine and 4 Ravens cards, remove the player's choice of improving stats, and make all forging require a coin, but make coins more common on enemy units to steal.
14. Remove harmful skills (bane, mercy) and frustrating skills (canto)

I would also add the following brand new features:

1. Community modes, such as a randomized mode that is available after the end of the game that randomizes allied unit classes, or 0% growth LTC mode built-in.
2. A Timesplitters 2-style mapmaker would be cool.

I would change the mechanics further to add new gameplay mechanics:

1. I feel the story must be linear (string of pearls) in order to create a proper dramatic experience, with no grinding/backtracking/world map for the same reason. But the gameplay can get a bit samey after a while, so I would change the map objective and unit count in different maps to make the game feel more varied. For example, there could be a 5v5 map against powerful enemies with abilities and unique personalities, or lone WoW-style raid bosses that require time-bound strategies to defeat. This would help break up the experience while leaving the existing game unaffected, provided these types of objective would only be present rarely. (2-3 times each out of 30 chapters)
2. I might add new weapon types, maces, morning stars, longswords, halberds, battle staff. There would be a minor weapon triangle internal to each weapon category (swords beat daggers, daggers beat longswords, longswords beat swords) with a 5% bonus.
3. I would make javelins/hand axes 1 use only, remove the hit penalty and immobilize units struck by such weapons for 1 turn.
4. With the exception of javelins/hand axes, weapon durability would have 2 levels. Existing durability numbers would remain the same, but after a weapon reaches 0 durability in the current system, it would have an additional 50% uses before breaking with dramatically reduced effectiveness.

These changes especially would need to be playtested extensively to see if they create a good experience.

[Anouleth]

I would make very very heavy changes to the game. Ideally:

1. Rework miss chance. Missing is not longer a constant risk, it only occurs under certain conditions, like how in FE4, criticals could only occur when using the critical skill, next to a Bond unit, or using 50+ kill weapons.
2. Add an MP stat that is used to pay spell costs.
3. Spells now work more like other RPGs, they're active abilities that consume MP rather than just another type of weapon.
4. Spells are learned based on character and class upon levelling up. So some characters might learn unique spells, and there would be standard spells available to every unit of a particular class.
5. Rework growths to be more reliable. Level-ups will occur less often, but have a larger impact.
6. Rework experience distribution, now each chapter gives a fixed amount of experience distributed equally among all your units.
7. Weapons have unlimited durability, but can be forged when they have a certain number of kills on them. More kills with a weapon allows more advanced forging.

[The Geek]

I would make very very heavy changes to the game. Ideally:

1. Rework miss chance. Missing is not longer a constant risk, it only occurs under certain conditions, like how in FE4, criticals could only occur when using the critical skill, next to a Bond unit, or using 50+ kill weapons.
2. Add an MP stat that is used to pay spell costs.
3. Spells now work more like other RPGs, they're active abilities that consume MP rather than just another type of weapon.
4. Spells are learned based on character and class upon levelling up. So some characters might learn unique spells, and there would be standard spells available to every unit of a particular class.
5. Rework growths to be more reliable. Level-ups will occur less often, but have a larger impact.
6. Rework experience distribution, now each chapter gives a fixed amount of experience distributed equally among all your units.
7. Weapons have unlimited durability, but can be forged when they have a certain number of kills on them. More kills with a weapon allows more advanced forging.

I think the game you're looking for is called Dungeons and Dragons.

[Shrouded In Myth]

When SMTxFE was first announced I got excited because I thought it would be the perfect opportunity for a revival of the Majin Tensei gameplay. Obviously #FE is what any of us expected but during those two years I just started imagining what it would have been like. Then I started thinking of an original game that is inspired by SMT and FE, so if I ever wanted to make a game like this I could. Anyways here are my ideas from that train of thought. This is how I imagined SMTxFE.

-Probably the most drastic change that is a switch to a modern day setting and demon summoning, all taken from SMT.

-Hex-based maps.

-Firearms would be the main weapon of the game, so ranged combat would be the norm. Firearms have very high might and will be able to 2HKO any unarmored unit, if not 1HKO. Ignores User’s Strength. Uses bullets.

- Units can equip body armor which increases defense and shields which will negate damage for the cost of durability. CONn will decide what armor a unit can equip,

-Melee weapons are still in but there will be no weapon triangle. Instead weapons will be much more differentiated from each other. Knives ignore defense, Swords are what you would expect, spears gain might by how many hexes you move, and axes disarm enemies. As for firearms they cannot move and attack in the same turn, there are a few exceptions. Firearms can Overwatch.

-Human units can be assigned a demon to be their guardian, think of it like a Persona, or the Guardians from SMT if. They boost stats and change normally unchangeable unit properties like movement type, CON and maybe grant a skill. Magic and Resistance stats are equal to the stat boosts to Strength and Defense respectively. So human units with no guardian assigned have no magical parameters.

-Magic is completely reworked. Humans cannot cast magic, they need to summon their guardians as demons on the field to use magic. Summoning, maintaining and using demons’ magic requires a limited resource called bio-magnetite. Magic and demons are extremely powerful and have special effects, like warp, dance, transform etc. Demons’ HP cannot be healed. Magic ignores terrain.

​-Negotiation from SMT.

-Bonus EXP, only with more restrictions so you can't make a super-unit with it and to favor lower-level units. I'm think something like Genealogy of the Holy War conversations giving bonus EXP to certain units.

-Flying units can fly over ground units and can only be attacked by ranged weapons. Melee weapons can counter.

-Level 30 cap, no level reset.

-No elemental weaknesses, instead certain weapons have intrinsic advantages over certain units, like ranged weapons being good to take on fliers.

-Skill and Weapon Rank is replaced with Individual Weapon Skill for each weapon type, like in Berwick Saga.

-Growths are bracketed like in Berwick Saga. Low growth rates..

-Two types of fusion, Demon and Weapon fusion. With weapon fusion you can fuse demons with weapons to increase the weapon’s stats. Certain combinations will create a unique weapon. Demon fusion will work like Devil Survivor.

-Criticals can only be enabled by a skill or weapon. Criticals ignore defense and adds Luck Stat to damage.

-Berwick Saga Chapter and Mercenary system. Generic units can also be hired.

-Fatigue lowers stats gradually instead of making a unit sit out.

-Fog of War affects enemies as well. Can’t counter units you can’t see. Thieves can steal anything if unspotted.

-Can’t counter if hit.

-Capture system from Berwick Saga, only make it easier to inflict an injury when fatigued.

-Ledges and height system from Radiant Dawn. High ground also increases range.

-Alternating Turn-Based Control like in Berwick Saga

-Memory Staff effect from TearRing Saga.

-Skills are tied to the character and can be attained through level up, promotion, event, guardians, accessories, etc.

There is probably more, I have to dig up my notes. This will be a drastic change from both SMT and FE, but I find that to be a good thing, as long the core remains the same. That core is gameplay that promotes efficiency through resource and probability management, and through SMT demon fusion. Narrative-wise, it will probably be something cyberpunk, only with royalty instead of mega corporations oppressing the people. Maybe royalty are the mega corporations.

[Bullwine85]

- If you're going to have an MU, give the player a say in his/her personality (i.e. Shepard in Mass Effect). Sure I'd want the ability for my MU to be a goody perfecty perfect person, but also I'd want the ability to do a 180 and be the most awful person in your army, even saying "Because it's a big stupid sub-human" or something similar to that nature. If you're going to have an MU, go all out, don't half-ass it like FE13/14 and don't clumsily insert him/her into the story like FE12

- Leveling system similar to Radiant Dawn

- Limited supports, but don't make them tedious to build up (something akin to Path of Radiance's supports would be perfect)

- If you're going to have kids, do it similar to FE4.

- Bring back rescuing