What is your unpopular Fire Emblem opinion?

[Samz707]

On 10/1/2021 at 5:35 AM, NaotoUzumaki said:

Exactly and the worse part is that the world has to revolve around the avatar.

Yeah I always hate that.

Awakening has it be so painfully obvious that it annoyed me, as my first FE game, after the first real chapter. (Sure Chrom, make this random suspicious person who claims to have no memory but knows your name the Tactician, essentially leader, of your army, You Cro-Magnon, as well as have Elise basically freak out about Robin taking out 4 bandits.)

I think 3H handles it better than the 3DS installments....but that's really, really not saying much, it's like saying FE7 is Harder than FE8, you're not wrong but FE7 isn't exactly considering a difficult FE game by most people.

 

I really, really like how in Blazing Blade Mark is more of a side-character along for the ride, to the point where they're not talked to/mentioned for large chunks of the game.

[NaotoUzumaki]

Exactly you should be a random non important officer. If you die it’s not that they didn’t succeed it’s that you die early thus cannot see how it ends. I have nothing against important character but if the avatar I’m forced to play as has to become important then I want to earn it. That way if the avatar marrie FCorrin got an example. Well the avatar earned its place and bonded with people and he might be the next king. I have nothing against important or OP avatar. I do Have a problem when it’s not deserved or justified. Hell the fact that fanfic writers can come up with a better avatar than Intys in two minutes compared to Intys is really worrisome to me as much as China forcing Mary Sues down our throats rn ngl 

[Ottservia]

5 hours ago, Samz707 said:

Awakening has it be so painfully obvious that it annoyed me, as my first FE game, after the first real chapter. (Sure Chrom, make this random suspicious person who claims to have no memory but knows your name the Tactician, essentially leader, of your army, You Cro-Magnon, as well as have Elise basically freak out about Robin taking out 4 bandits.)

You know the funniest part about this is that a common complaint among Japanese fans in regards to awakening is that Robin didn’t have enough of a prominent role. They didn’t like that the avatar had to share the spotlight with Chrom. Which is something they actually prefer about Corrin/Kamui. That they are indeed the main central character and is an avatar.

[Samz707]

4 hours ago, Ottservia said:

You know the funniest part about this is that a common complaint among Japanese fans in regards to awakening is that Robin didn’t have enough of a prominent role. They didn’t like that the avatar had to share the spotlight with Chrom. Which is something they actually prefer about Corrin/Kamui. That they are indeed the main central character and is an avatar.

I do find that amusing since I basically think Awakening is generally "Robin and Friends" considering how the game treats it like they alone save the day for the most part in terms of praise. (I could be wrong, but I swear FE7 at least has it be like "We did it Mark!" generally tone while Awakening is more among the lines of "We did it thanks to you Robin!" and a good few of the Robin Supports even find ways to turn into praising Robin because of course they do.)

Edited October 2, 2021 by Samz707

[Use the Falchion]

My unpopular opinion for the day:

I actually really like Lysithea and Balthus as a couple. It reminds me of Han Solo and Princess Leia in all of the right ways (the vagabond with the noble). But I also LOVE Balthus and Claude's paired ending...but Claude will always end up with Petra, unless there's a day I can save Edelgard on VW and ship her with our Deer. Or an OT3 with Edelgard, Petra, and Claude. Besides, Lysithea usually ends up paired with Linhardt so she can live. But regardless, I like the two together. 

 

[lenticular]

My unpopular opinion: Nobody should ever refer to Fire Emblem games by numbers. They're not officially numbered by Nintendo or Intelligent Systems, and there isn't really a clear and obvious set of criteria for what should and shouldn't count. Do spin-off games count? If not, where's the border between "spin-off" and "main series"? Is Heroes main series? What about BS Fire Emblem? Or then there's Fates. Should Fates count as one game when it comes to numbering conventions, or should it count as three? Or maybe it should count as two since Revelations was never sold as a stand-alone? How about remakes? Do remakes count as separate games or not? Exactly how much of a game has to be new for it to count as separate?

Certainly, it's possible to come up with a coherent numbering scheme based on a specific set of answers to all these questions, but it will never be the one true numbering scheme. I know that if someone in the fandom refers to "FE13" then they probably mean Awakening, but if someone else thought they meant New Mystery (including BS in the numbering) or Three Houses (not including remakes) then I wouldn't blame them. And honestly, if someone thought "What the hell was the thirteenth game? Do you expect me to count them all?" then I wouldn't blame them for that either. Which I think is a bit of a problem because it makes the fandom somewhat exclusionary and impenetrable to outsiders.  Calling games by their actual names (or abbreviations like FE:SS and FE:RD if you're too lazy to type out the names in full) is more accessible, clearer and less ambiguous than using numbers.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, lenticular said:

My unpopular opinion: Nobody should ever refer to Fire Emblem games by numbers. They're not officially numbered by Nintendo or Intelligent Systems, and there isn't really a clear and obvious set of criteria for what should and shouldn't count. Do spin-off games count? If not, where's the border between "spin-off" and "main series"? Is Heroes main series? What about BS Fire Emblem? Or then there's Fates. Should Fates count as one game when it comes to numbering conventions, or should it count as three? Or maybe it should count as two since Revelations was never sold as a stand-alone? How about remakes? Do remakes count as separate games or not? Exactly how much of a game has to be new for it to count as separate?

Certainly, it's possible to come up with a coherent numbering scheme based on a specific set of answers to all these questions, but it will never be the one true numbering scheme. I know that if someone in the fandom refers to "FE13" then they probably mean Awakening, but if someone else thought they meant New Mystery (including BS in the numbering) or Three Houses (not including remakes) then I wouldn't blame them. And honestly, if someone thought "What the hell was the thirteenth game? Do you expect me to count them all?" then I wouldn't blame them for that either. Which I think is a bit of a problem because it makes the fandom somewhat exclusionary and impenetrable to outsiders.  Calling games by their actual names (or abbreviations like FE:SS and FE:RD if you're too lazy to type out the names in full) is more accessible, clearer and less ambiguous than using numbers.

What you say makes a lot of sense. And I think for the very reason referring to the games by numbers has significantly fallen out of favor since the release of Fates and the various spinoffs that accompanied it that generation muddied the water (an influx of new fans just plain not used to the numbering system and who only had a scope Fateswakening to care about probably contributed to it too). You don't really see many people refer to the games by numbers much anymore. It's just a shame Binding Blade and Blazing Blade are both in the same continuity and have the same initials.

[lenticular]

20 minutes ago, Jotari said:

What you say makes a lot of sense. And I think for the very reason referring to the games by numbers has significantly fallen out of favor since the release of Fates and the various spinoffs that accompanied it that generation muddied the water (an influx of new fans just plain not used to the numbering system and who only had a scope Fateswakening to care about probably contributed to it too). You don't really see many people refer to the games by numbers much anymore. It's just a shame Binding Blade and Blazing Blade are both in the same continuity and have the same initials.

I still see a lot of people using numbers, honestly. Possiby not as many as used to, mind. I wouldn't know. While I've been a fan of Fire Emblem since Path of Radiance, I've only really been around the fandom since Three Houses. If it used to be even more prevalent then I'm glad that it's at least dialed back somewhat.

(I tend to think of Binding Blade and Blazing Blade as BiBl (pron: "bibble") and BlaBl (pron: "blabble"). This may just be because I am silly, however.)

[Florete]

Yeah I've pretty much stopped using numbers since Fates, the one exception being Blazing Blade where I'll sometimes still use FE7 since the original game wasn't subtitled in English. 

[Fellstar]

Fire emblem 4 is the worst fe game.

[Acacia Sgt]

As someone who never used the numbers (outside saying jokes involving the Fahrman Experimental series of aircraft since those did used the moniker of F.E.1, F.E.2, etc.).... good I'd say! XD

On that subject, for the Elibe games, I tend to refer to Blazing Blade as Blazing Sword sometimes. Years ago, I simply used SoS for Binding Blade, back when we didn't had an official Western name for it and so used the Japanese one: Sword of Seals.

[Use the Falchion]

I use the number way willingly, since there are a lot of FE games and it's easy to catalogue them that way. But I don't mind using initials, depending on which games I'm referring to. I don't mind saying RD or PoR or SoV; but if Fates comes up and it's just overall Fates, or if Binding Blade and Blazing Sword come up, then I'm likely to switch to the number system for the sake of convenience. 

[lenticular]

19 minutes ago, Use the Falchion said:

I use the number way willingly, since there are a lot of FE games and it's easy to catalogue them that way. But I don't mind using initials, depending on which games I'm referring to. I don't mind saying RD or PoR or SoV; but if Fates comes up and it's just overall Fates, or if Binding Blade and Blazing Sword come up, then I'm likely to switch to the number system for the sake of convenience. 

I kinda see it for BiBl and BlaBl, but "Fates" is literally 5 letters long. It's only one character longer than "FE14". It's a super convenient game to refer to as is.

[Shaky Jones]

2 hours ago, Fellstar said:

Fire emblem 4 is the worst fe game.

I mean, I agree, but I feel like that kind of statement should at least be elaborated. What's the worst part about it to you? For me, I get really frustrated by the map design and the repetition of enemy squads constantly running to you in herds of 10 to 15 units per squad throughout these maps, making me just want to use a handful of tanks to power through them all rather than actually devise a strategy with a full team (one that can't even catch up with cavaliers). The large maps feel more like a bunch of gaiden maps glued together, and so much time is spent just walking before any actual combat occurs. Of course, the larger the map is, horse units continue to make more progress over foot units, making it a lot more difficult to not play horse emblem than it should be. I couldn't even use Jamke or Ayra because of how Sigurd, Lex, Midayle, and Quan could easily route the enemy on their own. The villages in need of rescue only seem to promote this way of playing, and trying to get foot units to make it to these villages to receive the rewards is so slow and tedious. You could say it's rewarding you for playing optimally, but it felt more like punishing me for wanting to play my own way. Weaker units have a hard time leveling up in the arena, because enemies don't scale there, meaning they could easily lose round 2, while your overpowered horses sweep all 7 rounds and just get stronger and richer. FE4 just feels like I end up playing the same way with the same few units, and anything else just makes things tedious. I can't have fun like that. I'm sure it's gameplay mechanics are probably appealing to some, and many fans usually love FE4 for its story, but I tend to focus solely on gameplay, and most things in this game just annoy me.

[ping]

I mostly adopted BinBla and BlaBla and SacSto for the GBA titles, but for those three in particular, I feel like the numericals have been used so much that most people will know which one is which. The games after that then largely have short and convenient abbreviations, so I don't really feel the need to type FE9 instead of PoR.

[Use the Falchion]

2 hours ago, lenticular said:

I kinda see it for BiBl and BlaBl, but "Fates" is literally 5 letters long. It's only one character longer than "FE14". It's a super convenient game to refer to as is.

Or I can refer to it as FE14 because I want to and it's easier for me to do so. I don't have to think when I do that, and I don't need to elaborate. If I say Fates people may ask which one. If I say FE14, then it doesn't matter - or it hasn't yet, in the conversations I've been in. I use the system that I think is best for me in the moment or for the context. 

[ping]

45 minutes ago, Use the Falchion said:

Or I can refer to it as FE14 because I want to and it's easier for me to do so. I don't have to think when I do that, and I don't need to elaborate. If I say Fates people may ask which one. If I say FE14, then it doesn't matter - or it hasn't yet, in the conversations I've been in. I use the system that I think is best for me in the moment or for the context. 

Fates = all three, at least that's how I read it unless specified otherwise. Not sure why it should be different from "FE14", tbh. I use CQ, BR, Rev for the individual routes if I'm too lazy to type it out, which I think isn't too ambiguous.

I'll say that personally, I usually need half a second to decode any "FE#" past FE13, simply because it's less common to refer to the latest games in that fashion.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Use the Falchion said:

Or I can refer to it as FE14 because I want to and it's easier for me to do so. I don't have to think when I do that, and I don't need to elaborate. If I say Fates people may ask which one. If I say FE14, then it doesn't matter - or it hasn't yet, in the conversations I've been in. I use the system that I think is best for me in the moment or for the context. 

Not really helping if people don't know what you're referring to though. And wouldn't the logic of "People would ask me which Fates" apply just as much to FE14? Unless, like I said, people just don't know what you're referring to in general and just ignore you.

Edited October 3, 2021 by Jotari

[NaotoUzumaki]

God and this WHY it flopped in the west. Not only the narrative was solely focused on Corrin but it was a black and white morality on a literal scale. Norh being the bad guys and aka Westerners being evil while Hoshido aka Japan were the good guys. This literally was the game of Fire Emblem: Japan Stokes it Ego and dick all at once. War is NEVER black and white that way on the morality or conflict scale. They developed the game for them first and then change it for western audiences. Normally I’m all for it as a small indie dev if you don’t get a massive publisher but when awakening SAVED your franchise OVERSEAS you should develop your game with the rest of the world first in mind then

[Jotari]

4 minutes ago, NaotoUzumaki said:

God and this WHY it flopped in the west. Not only the narrative was solely focused on Corrin but it was a black and white morality on a literal scale. Norh being the bad guys and aka Westerners being evil while Hoshido aka Japan were the good guys. This literally was the game of Fire Emblem: Japan Stokes it Ego and dick all at once. War is NEVER black and white that way on the morality or conflict scale. They developed the game for them first and then change it for western audiences. Normally I’m all for it as a small indie dev if you don’t get a massive publisher but when awakening SAVED your franchise OVERSEAS you should develop your game with the rest of the world first in mind then

Where does Valla fit into your political narrative? Is that like...idk Russia?

[Etrurian emperor]

9 minutes ago, NaotoUzumaki said:

God and this WHY it flopped in the west. Not only the narrative was solely focused on Corrin but it was a black and white morality on a literal scale. Norh being the bad guys and aka Westerners being evil while Hoshido aka Japan were the good guys. This literally was the game of Fire Emblem: Japan Stokes it Ego and dick all at once. War is NEVER black and white that way on the morality or conflict scale. They developed the game for them first and then change it for western audiences. Normally I’m all for it as a small indie dev if you don’t get a massive publisher but when awakening SAVED your franchise OVERSEAS you should develop your game with the rest of the world first in mind then

Flopped isn't really an accurate description. Controversial to be sure but sales wise it was a smashing success. Rather than being a flop Fates can be credited with consolidating FE's rise to success. 

Now in a lot of cases I do agree that Fates was made without the plight of the localisations in mind. Things like skinship, child marriages and Soleil must have all given the localisation team a spook, and while their discomfort is noticeable in many instances it hasn't really held the game back much.

Edited October 3, 2021 by Etrurian emperor

[AnonymousSpeed]

I like referring to the games by numbers. Didn't really take that up for Fates, Shadows of Valentia, and Three Houses, mostly because that didn't seem to be how most people referred to them so I never got used to it, but I wouldn't mind saying FE16 instead of Three Houses. Maybe I should, it'd save key-strokes and that's pretty important to me.

[Jotari]

2 minutes ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

I like referring to the games by numbers. Didn't really take that up for Fates, Shadows of Valentia, and Three Houses, mostly because that didn't seem to be how most people referred to them so I never got used to it, but I wouldn't mind saying FE16 instead of Three Houses. Maybe I should, it'd save key-strokes and that's pretty important to me.

If you like numbers you can combined the best of both worlds with 3H.

[AnonymousSpeed]

1 minute ago, Jotari said:

If you like numbers you can combined the best of both worlds with 3H.

Yeah, I thought of that, but I just don't like 3H for some reason. It almost seems...indistinct. I can't quite explain it.

[Use the Falchion]

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

Not really helping if people don't know what you're referring to though. And wouldn't the logic of "People would ask me which Fates" apply just as much to FE14? Unless, like I said, people just don't know what you're referring to in general and just ignore you.

 

1 hour ago, ping said:

Not sure why it should be different from "FE14", tbh. I use CQ, BR, Rev for the individual routes if I'm too lazy to type it out, which I think isn't too ambiguous.

 

Again, I go to FE14 if I'm talking about all three at once or if the shortening has already been used. I'm not going to type out "Thracia 776 and Genealogy (or even GOHW) combined game" when I can just say "FE4/5 combined game" or SoS/BS" when FE 6/7 works well. And (again) if I'm already using the numbers, then switching to a different system in the middle of the conversation isn't usually needed unless it's a specific version of Fates. If I need to mention Revelation or Conquest or Brithright, I will. But those distinctions don't come up a lot in my conversations, since I don't talk about them like that. I usually don't need to break up the FE14 into its three games to talk about characters or relationships, which is my primary focus. Assuming I'm going to talk about Fates much at all.