Later FEs have made me appreciate this game's narrative. (SPOILERS FOR RD, AWAKENING, AND FATES)

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

yeah its still pretty badly thought out, thats the only way i can think to make it make abit "more" sense, but it just brings up more questions.

[Rezzy]

I figure the Blood Pact is a powerful piece of magic that not just any para-legal is able to perform, so that's why they aren't everywhere. Isn't Lehran responsible for at least 2 out of the 3 Blood Pacts seen in game? Getting someone to sign it must mean it is written in convoluted legalese, that aren't really clear to the average lay-person.

Also, the game's a bit vague on the criteria of the Blood Pact, but maybe they have to fulfill a clear obligation, like "assist us in war-time", or something like that, rather than "you have to do whatever I want".

[Augestein]

I figure the Blood Pact is a powerful piece of magic that not just any para-legal is able to perform, so that's why they aren't everywhere. Isn't Lehran responsible for at least 2 out of the 3 Blood Pacts seen in game? Getting someone to sign it must mean it is written in convoluted legalese, that aren't really clear to the average lay-person.

Also, the game's a bit vague on the criteria of the Blood Pact, but maybe they have to fulfill a clear obligation, like "assist us in war-time", or something like that, rather than "you have to do whatever I want".

Even if he is, you can't just have something that powerful be created by someone and not have any real knowledge about it. Just saying "he made it" doesn't really work too well. Like how Izuka is the only one to summon Laguz for instance, but they explain how he's able to do this from stuff in PoR, it's not like it comes out of left field. The blood pact is quite literally the equivalent to "a wizard did it." It serves as something that makes people do something despite all arguments they might have against it. It's something that's so out there that it NEEDS to be clearly explained. It's not like say anima magic where it's just something of the world of Tellius and used as a tool/weapon, it's something outright unknown and bizarre to the characters themselves, and nothing is ever cleared up about it.

Which is one of the many problems with it. It'd be the equivalent to if Marth got hit by a plague that forced him to only be allowed to walk in grass tiles. In the middle of the story. It'd be hilarious if the story wasn't expecting you to take it completely serious. Then it just becomes frustrating. Because you'd wonder when, how and why it only affected Marth and no one else. That's sort of how the blood pact works, it's like "oh you didn't win, we just wanted you to win." It also makes Leharn retroactively stupid, because they could have gotten Elincia to sign a blood pact too effectively making everyone in the world fight the laguz alliance.

[bottlegnomes]

I figure the Blood Pact is a powerful piece of magic that not just any para-legal is able to perform, so that's why they aren't everywhere. Isn't Lehran responsible for at least 2 out of the 3 Blood Pacts seen in game? Getting someone to sign it must mean it is written in convoluted legalese, that aren't really clear to the average lay-person.

Also, the game's a bit vague on the criteria of the Blood Pact, but maybe they have to fulfill a clear obligation, like "assist us in war-time", or something like that, rather than "you have to do whatever I want".

The issue with the legalese part is that, from all indications, the blood pacts are a single sheet of paper. Even if it was incredibly dense legalese, a single page would be parsable, especially when the stakes are at a national level.

But again, this would all be fixed with a scene depicting Pelleas reading a literally several hundred page document, and eventually rage quitting and signing it because there's so much bullshit. It'd fix a lot of the issues—a competent person, maybe Sanaki or Sigrun, could read it after the parties join up and find the loopholes to help Miccy get out of it—and be fantastic in its own right.

I suppose that's one point of view, but I usually try to use different units in subsequent playthroughs, rather than having it forced on me.

Same. One of my favorite things about FE is building different armies and getting to see them grow. That's a lot more difficult in RD because you're essentially forced to use the same units for every section until part 4. And even then, it's still awkwardly limited.

Edited October 16, 2015 by bottlegnomes

[Rezzy]

I like fighting my armies against each other in theory, but I don't think it was exacuted well. (It's one thing I like about the persective switch, which I think is more negative than positive.) It really shows the power gap between Greil's Mercs and the Dawn Brigade, it's like beating up a kindergartener in parking lot. The other worse thing is that while they're enemy units is they waste all my best weapons.

"Darn it Soren, I was saving that Meteor!"

"Laura, stop wasting that Sleep Staff!"