Should royals really be generic classes?

[Espinosa]

I've always appreciated it when royals or characters of storyline importance had their own unique classes and promotions, like the GBA Lords or Micaiah and Ike in Radiant Dawn.

In Fates, Xander and Camilla are just two of the Paladins and Malig Knights you can get, which applies to, say, Ryoma and Hinoka on the other route too. Some of the royals may have a Prf weapon that remains useful throughout the game and are characterised by having a useful support ability, but wouldn't they be more unique if they were given unique classes?

Their outclassing their competitors in the same classes is also evident. Xander > Silas / Camilla > Beruka / Leo > Odin / Elise > uhh, Deere? on the one hand, and Ryoma > Hana/Hinata / Hinoka > Subaki / Takumi > Setsuna / Sakura > Azama (arguably; I prefer Sakura for the option to reclass into a flier and for her support skill). Being unique would give reasons for using other units (such as them having totally different skillsets in their classes).

[nyainou]

I think its fair to say the the royal siblings aren't necessarily main characters. They're of secondary importance, I think, so there's no reason to make them 100% unique. They get their PRF weapons and are very useful. Corrin and Azura have unique classes because they're the most important. I'm not saying the royals don't have any place in the story and aren't of significance, but focusing that much attention on 8 more characters is kinda eh. It would be overwhelming.

[MCProductions]

I still think Xander should of been a Knight Lord, while Ryoma should of been a Blade Lord.

The others should of kept generic classes, but I feel those two deserve special classes.

[Kaze]

I think its fair to say the the royal siblings aren't necessarily main characters. They're of secondary importance, I think, so there's no reason to make them 100% unique. They get their PRF weapons and are very useful. Corrin and Azura have unique classes because they're the most important. I'm not saying the royals don't have any place in the story and aren't of significance, but focusing that much attention on 8 more characters is kinda eh. It would be overwhelming.

Yeah. While the Nohrian and Hoshido siblings are important, they're not AS important as Corrin and Azura are.

[Anomalocaris]

Xander and Ryoma being special classes would have fit, at least, but I also like them as Paladin and Trueblade.

I don't understand why each royal sibling has a retainer who's in the same class but inferior, though. THAT seems like a bit of a waste to me.

[MCProductions]

Xander and Ryoma being special classes would have fit, at least, but I also like them as Paladin and Trueblade.

I don't understand why each royal sibling has a retainer who's in the same class but inferior, though. THAT seems like a bit of a waste to me.

Still won't stop me from preferring Beruka to Camilla

That is rather stupid now that I think about it. I guess I can headcanon that the royals trained them at least.

[Thor Odinson]

I don't mind generic classes, but I think some of the royals could get more customizations to their design and models. My opinions on Camilla's actual design aside, I do like that she's a heavily modified version of Revenant Knight that tailors the design more to her, whereas I believe Leon is 100% generic bar his clothes-inside-out texture for chapter 1. Even in cipher, his down-classed design showed that he was wearing the generic blue as a dark mage, and his most custom design is actually his Cipher!Samurai.

Tbh I'm not a fan of the recent tendency to design directly to class, anyway. I'd like more liberties taken for each character from the base class design, period.

[Anomalocaris]

Still won't stop me from preferring Beruka to Camilla

That is rather stupid now that I think about it. I guess I can headcanon that the royals trained them at least.

I also prefer Beruka to Camilla.

It makes sense from a story perspective, it's just sorta silly from a gameplay perspective, at least for the royal siblings who join at the same time as their retainers anyway.

[HK Motendra]

Xander and Ryoma being special classes would have fit, at least, but I also like them as Paladin and Trueblade.

I don't understand why each royal sibling has a retainer who's in the same class but inferior, though. THAT seems like a bit of a waste to me.

Ryouma's retainers are both ninjas. Hinoka has a priest and archer. Takumi, a samurai and lancer. Sakura, Sky Knight and Samurai. Unless you were talking specifically about Nohr that is, minus Elise with her fighter and Knight.

[The DanMan]

I don't mind generic classes, but I think some of the royals could get more customizations to their design and models. My opinions on Camilla's actual design aside, I do like that she's a heavily modified version of Revenant Knight that tailors the design more to her, whereas I believe Leon is 100% generic bar his clothes-inside-out texture for chapter 1. Even in cipher, his down-classed design showed that he was wearing the generic blue as a dark mage, and his most custom design is actually his Cipher!Samurai.

Tbh I'm not a fan of the recent tendency to design directly to class, anyway. I'd like more liberties taken for each character from the base class design, period.

That's something that's really started to bother me.

*puts it on art direction wishlist*

[Anomalocaris]

Ryouma's retainers are both ninjas. Hinoka has a priest and archer. Takumi, a samurai and lancer. Sakura, Sky Knight and Samurai. Unless you were talking specifically about Nohr that is, minus Elise with her fighter and Knight.

Ah, whoops. I had gotten them mixed up. I thought Azama was Sakura's retainer, Setsuna was Takumi's, Hana was Ryoma's, and Subaki was Hinoka's.

Still applicable for Odin, Beruka, and Peri, but at least Odin can go to Sorceror which is pretty deviant from Dark Knight.

[HK Motendra]

Ah, whoops. I had gotten them mixed up. I thought Azama was Sakura's retainer, Setsuna was Takumi's, Hana was Ryoma's, and Subaki was Hinoka's.

Still applicable for Odin, Beruka, and Peri, but at least Odin can go to Sorceror which is pretty deviant from Dark Knight.

Adding on to that, Peri also does have Great Knight, which I think(?) she promotes to in Birthright, if that says anything. As does Odin to Sorceror, like you pointed out. I'm not sure about Beruka though

[Tooru]

Adding on to that, Peri also does have Great Knight, which I think(?) she promotes to in Birthright, if that says anything. As does Odin to Sorceror, like you pointed out. I'm not sure about Beruka though

Great Knight Pieri, Sorcerer Odin and Wyvern Lord Beruka.

Their classes as enemies are always differet from their lords.

Hoshido characters promoted to the same classes as royals.

But the only chapters we can see bosses in the same class are Ryoma's chapters, and that is because he has two ninjas as retainers.

[CrimeanRoyalKnight]

I think its fair to say the the royal siblings aren't necessarily main characters. They're of secondary importance, I think, so there's no reason to make them 100% unique. They get their PRF weapons and are very useful. Corrin and Azura have unique classes because they're the most important. I'm not saying the royals don't have any place in the story and aren't of significance, but focusing that much attention on 8 more characters is kinda eh. It would be overwhelming.

Sorry to be that guy but we have had FE games before where less important characters had their own unique class or were OOAK in their generation/game.

Examples:

Xane in the Marth games.

Lachesis and Leif in FE4 (they are the only ones in their generations to be able to promote to Master Knight).

All Manaketes in the GBA games.

Elincia in Radiant Dawn.

Pelleas in Radiant Dawn.

There is probably more.

Not all of these are as important as the male royals in the plot of their games, therefore I don't think it's weird or farfetched to give them cool unique classes

Anyway!

I like the point you make Espinosa. It would have been interesting to give Royals more uniqueness, but wouldn't that still make them much better than similar options?

[Skarthe]

Sorry to be that guy but we have had FE games before where less important characters had their own unique class or were OOAK in their generation/game.

Examples:

Xane in the Marth games.

Lachesis and Leif in FE4 (they are the only ones in their generations to be able to promote to Master Knight).

All Manaketes in the GBA games.

Elincia in Radiant Dawn.

Pelleas in Radiant Dawn.

There is probably more.

Counting Xane and the Manaketes is a bit silly IMO, since their unique class isn't because they're important to the plot, it's because they're unit types that function differently from other units - Xane with his transformation, GBA Manaketes with their limited uses. You might as well count Dancers if you're counting those.

The RD characters in question are all the rulers of their countries - worth noting, every country's ruler in Radiant Dawn has their own unique class (see: Elincia, Pelleas, Sanaki, Caineghis, Nailah, Tibarn, Naesala, Dheginsea) but Radiant Dawn's roster is also huge. Revelation's roster is a bit smaller, and the other routes' are smaller still. Besides, unique classes feel a good bit less unique when you're getting so many of them throughout the game - in Radiant Dawn they're mostly at the very end (ones gotten before that tend to not have constant availability - Elincia isn't usable in most of P2, Nailah isn't usable in most of P1, etc.) but in Fates you'd be getting unique classes as early as Chapter 5, which kinda kills some of the effect IMO.

[Tharne]

The Royals with the God-Like weapons should have been unique classes. At least Ryouma and Xander.

[NekoKnight]

People might not like Marx and Ryoma being generic classes but those two classes are representative of their entire faction (as shown clearly in the first trailer). I think it's fine so long as they get some aesthetic features (such as a color palette) to make them unique. You could change Marx from a Paladin to a Knight Lord but if they still look and function in a similar way, what really changed? The skills? Sure, but everyone already gets a personal skill so two characters sharing a class aren't exactly the same. Now, if they want to make their class truly distinct, in stat growths and weapon ability, then sure, unique classes can be neat.

Most of the generic classes look pretty good in Fates so I can't complain.

[HK Motendra]

If we're going with the notion of Marx and Ryoma deserving a unique class, why not have them be a Gold Knight and Trueblade respectively? If anyone were to have it, it'd be them.

[dragonlordsd]

I don't mind that royals are generic, because that's been true for almost every game to date.

Percival in FE 6

Tana, Innes, L'Archel in FE 8

Elincia in 9 and 10

That said, I always love to see new classes, so it'd be cool if they did have unique stuff.

[Skarthe]

Percival in FE 6

Tana, Innes, L'Archel in FE 8

Elincia in 9 and 10

While I agree with your point, your examples aren't that good. Perceval isn't royalty, he's an Etrurian general; Elincia is actually never generic, she has a unique class in each game (Princess Crimea -> Queen)

Also, I think the only people in the GBA games to get unique classes are the Lords, the main antagonist, and the final boss, plus mechanically unique stuff like Dancer and Manakete. Not that that's an invalid approach; just starkly different to what, say, Radiant Dawn did.