Children in future games

[Rezzy]

Unpopular opinion but: I hope they do. I really really liked seeing Odin, Selena, and Laslow because of how they were worked into the story. I liked these characters in Awakening and they improved them even further with supports. They're so much more mature and complex now than they were in Awakening.

(Don't care for Rhajat, Asugi, or Caeldori though - except in Caeldori's case they didn't really make these characters more complex or interesting. I guess I concede that I wouldn't like recycling if it were implemented this way.)

Plus, who wouldn't want to see their faves come back? If I got to play Oboro or Midori in the next FE I would be gushing.

Odin, Laslow, and Selena have the benefit of actually being their Awakening counterparts, rather than just carbon copies. I didn't mind them in Fates.

Rhajat, Asugi, and Caeldori were just clones, which coupled with the lack of backstory the babyrealm engenders, really hurts them as characters. Only Caeldori really seems like an improvement, and that's really an addition by subtraction, since she's not pining over Chrom in every stinking support convo.

tl;dr: I don't mind returning characters, but I don't like clones.

[semolinaro]

I'm kinda on board with what most people have been saying. Children need to make sense in the story. Fates wrote them into the plot so badly that I was absolutely baffled when I married my first couple off. To add to that, the children in this game are really... meh. They just aren't interesting and are built almost solely around gimmicks and fetishes (I'm especially looking at you, Selkie). I mean, growing up in an isolated babyrealm until adulthood probably doesn't make for very much character development. Meanwhile, I loved the Awakening kids. They came from a ruined future and had to live with the pain of their parents' death, and have different goals and reasons for trying to save the world. Their supports with one another also feel more organic, and you can really feel like they might have grown up together.

One of the problems with Fates is that it's afraid to be like Awakening, but also doesn't want to let it go. I feel like the children are an example of this. On all my run-throughs, the only kid I ever use is Velouria. The game would have been perfectly fine without children. Though it's a fun mechanic, the execution was so poorly done that it feels like a terrible gimmick. Unless it makes sense story wise, which I don't see happening for future instalments, kids can stay out.