Alastor plays and ranks the whole series! Mission Complete! ...For now.

[Shadow Mir]

1 hour ago, Samz707 said:

Not to mention that the thief ALWAYS drops the stolen item when killed, I swear the actual thief class in this game is borderline useless since you can just buy keys I'm pretty sure and just let the thieves steal the items for you. (not to mention grinding via the random battles/Anas can get you any item in the game pretty much.)

You can't buy keys in this game.

 

1 hour ago, Samz707 said:

IMO generally a strategy game should be beatable on your first go when you've gotten a nice grasp on the mechanics, there can be surprises but nothing that will wipe out your units with no way to really counter them outside of knowing ahead of time (Unless your units are all/mostly generics who get replaced anyway.) which Awakening does not do, at all, Nosferatu tanking with only Tharja/Robin and their stat backpacks is considered one of the best strategies for a reason.

...aaaaaand this is why I refuse to give this came's Lunatic the time of day. It seems they took the mistakes New Mystery Lunatic made and doubled down on them.

[Samz707]

22 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

You can't buy keys in this game.

Oh, I figured since you can buy literally anything else you could. (Such as permanent stat boosters and such.)

I still think Thief is rather redundant since you can easily just wait for Ana to show up on the map with any stat booster/powerful weapon and she'll almost certainly have a skrimish that you can get gold from to buy that item with too, which kinda devalues chests alot. 

Edited January 1, 2021 by Samz707

[Interdimensional Observer]

The fact that swords are the second worst weapon type in Awakening doesn’t help Thieves (bows are the worst). Myrmidon and Mercenary are better generic infantry sword classes too. And then there is Locktouch not being locked to Thief or its promotions. Panne can take Locktouch and then jump ship for Wyvern Rider, which, triple weaknesses aside, is a better class.

Fates has the same Locktouch issue, but Outlaw and Ninja are actually good classes not inherently outdone by two others.

3H however... the game should’ve abolished chests altogether. Chest Keys are infinitely buyable all the time, Thief is rather bad, and some chapters seem like they have random chests for no reason other than they’ve been a thing in FE in every game barring Genealogy.

[Samz707]

3 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

 

3H however... the game should’ve abolished chests altogether. Chest Keys are infinitely buyable all the time, Thief is rather bad, and some chapters seem like they have random chests for no reason other than they’ve been a thing in FE in every game barring Genealogy.

Wow, that's uh, kinda terrible.

I haven't got way too far but doesn't Three Houses at least have enemies not drop all their items on death? so steal is actually still a thing at least.

[Alastor15243]

11 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

The fact that swords are the second worst weapon type in Awakening doesn’t help Thieves (bows are the worst).

Nope! By sheer accident bows actually have some okay utility in high level play. Bows at least have the advantage of being the only weapon type where it's physically impossible to be killed by counter, which in some Lunatic+ strategies is hugely useful. Also, bows are great in apotheosis, especially the longbow/double bow. The real worst weapon type is, by a country mile, beaststone.

[Jotari]

9 hours ago, Ottservia said:

But that’s not what awakening was trying to explore. One of the major points of the valm arc is unity and loyalty. Yen’fey joined Walhart out of fear for his sister’s life and is ultimately killed for it. He feared Walhart and was not loyal to him due to some philosophical alignment but rather fear and blackmail. Though in joining Walhart, he only brought division between him and his sister as well as the dynasts. He is ultimately considered wrong for doing this because he’s killed for it. It’s not like the story at all rewards him for doing any of this.

Yeah, but that's not what I was talking about at all. I was talking about how realistic Excellus's threats to kill Say'ri are. If he could at any point before Chrom showed up then it means everything Say'ri achieved was not her own merit but because Excellus was keeping her alive. And then after she joins up with Chrom there's no real excuse at all. If he had the capacity to kill her then he'd have equal capacity to assassinate Chrom and Robin which he has full motive to do.

[Ottservia]

1 minute ago, Jotari said:

Yeah, but that's not what I was talking about at all. I was talking about how realistic Excellus's threats to kill Say'ri are. If he could at any point before Chrom showed up then it means everything Say'ri achieved was not her own merit but because Excellus was keeping her alive.

And that matters because? I don’t understand what you’re trying to get at here. I mean if he says he could do it then fair enough. We just kinda have to take his word for it. I mean like that’s the point is that Say’ri was only able to achieve anything because Excellus kept her alive. What’s the problem with that again? 

 

8 minutes ago, Jotari said:

And then after she joins up with Chrom there's no real excuse at all. If he had the capacity to kill her then he'd have equal capacity to assassinate Chrom and Robin which he has full motive to do.

Again, Yen’fey dies. I don’t what you’re expecting here. The dude did something the story deemed incorrect and paid the price for it. Again, I don’t get the point here. He did something stupid and he dies for it. His actions ultimately get him killed. I don’t think he’s a character you’re supposed to think is completely reasonable. Are his motives understandable, yes, but were they correct? Definitely not. 

[Samz707]

25 minutes ago, Ottservia said:

And that matters because? I don’t understand what you’re trying to get at here. I mean if he says he could do it then fair enough. We just kinda have to take his word for it. I mean like that’s the point is that Say’ri was only able to achieve anything because Excellus kept her alive. What’s the problem with that again? 

 

Again, Yen’fey dies. I don’t what you’re expecting here. The dude did something the story deemed incorrect and paid the price for it. Again, I don’t get the point here. He did something stupid and he dies for it. His actions ultimately get him killed. I don’t think he’s a character you’re supposed to think is completely reasonable. Are his motives understandable, yes, but were they correct? Definitely not. 

Except with the kind of situation present here, it at least to me kinda requires explanation.

How was Exellus able to talk to Yen’fey in person without Yen’fey killing him if they met face to face? how was he able to presuade Yen’fey that he can instantly kill his sister if he wants? his sister who BTW, Walhart is trying to kill anyway so that kinda requires explanation for why Exellus is the one Yen’fey should be worrying about.

Could this work? yes, if the game bothered explaining how but like many things in this game, the "how" seems to be forgotten and it's there simply because tragically having to kill a family member is tragic yo. 

Not to mention how he's "protecting" his sister by outright working for the side who's ultimately going to probably end up killing her anyway.

It just strikes me as contrived melodrama that's there because we need a mandatory sad scene and a mandatory Camus.

Not to mention, why the hell does he keep fighting us?, I know you hate bringing up other examples but Zeke from Echoes was this exact same idea done way better, Zeke outright defects if Tatiana is alive, since there's no point in him still fighting for the bad guys, there's no point however for Yen’fey to keep fighting beyond melodrama.

FFS, I'm pretty sure he's probably able to kill her himself as well in the fight, which really makes it nonsensical. (since I highly doubt Awakening cares enough to do what Echoes does with Rudolf not attacking Alm.)

 

 

Edited January 2, 2021 by Samz707

[Jotari]

6 minutes ago, Ottservia said:

And that matters because? I don’t understand what you’re trying to get at here. I mean if he says he could do it then fair enough. We just kinda have to take his word for it. I mean like that’s the point is that Say’ri was only able to achieve anything because Excellus kept her alive. What’s the problem with that again? 

Oh no problem (prior to Chrom showing up). I said as much here.

10 hours ago, Jotari said:

So if he's not dumb is Say'ri just incompetent as a resistance leads then? If the answers yes I don't think that necessarily a bad plot thread to explore, though I don't think Awakening really did explore it.

 

But once she joins up with Chrom we have a serious issue regarding Excellus's capabilities. If he is able to assassinate Say'ri he should also be able to do the same for Chrom. The fact that he doesn't just immediately assassinate Chrom the moment Chrom becomes a threat suggests long ranged assassinations of people in hostile militaries suggests that he can't so Say'ri and her life are safe from Excellus from that point on, yet Yenfey continues to fight for Whalhart right up to fighting the sister he's trying to protect inside a volcano.

 

6 minutes ago, Ottservia said:

Again, Yen’fey dies. I don’t what you’re expecting here. The dude did something the story deemed incorrect and paid the price for it. Again, I don’t get the point here. He did something stupid and he dies for it. His actions ultimately get him killed. I don’t think he’s a character you’re supposed to think is completely reasonable. Are his motives understandable, yes, but were they correct? Definitely not. 

His motives arent understandable without him being a colossal idiot though. At least by the time you finally see him. What we have here is a Zeke Tatiana situation, only instead of helping Alm after Tatiana has been secured, it's as if Zeke would continue fighting Alm's army up to and including Tatiana herself. Simply put, if a character is going to be performing actions because they're being blackmailed, said blackmail needs to have some sort of basis in reality. I'm usually far more forgiving of the Camus archtype than most fans, but it's simply not working here. By the time Yen'fay is fought his reasons for fighting you have been completely removed.

[Ottservia]

35 minutes ago, Jotari said:

His motives arent understandable without him being a colossal idiot though. At least by the time you finally see him. What we have here is a Zeke Tatiana situation, only instead of helping Alm after Tatiana has been secured, it's as if Zeke would continue fighting Alm's army up to and including Tatiana herself. Simply put, if a character is going to be performing actions because they're being blackmailed, said blackmail needs to have some sort of basis in reality. I'm usually far more forgiving of the Camus archtype than most fans, but it's simply not working here. By the time Yen'fay is fought his reasons for fighting you have been completely removed.

I mean he dies for it though. Again I like to compare him to Itachi from Naruto. They both dirty their hands and become an enemy in order to protect their younger sibling so they can die by their hand with the knowledge that they are safe. Is he an idiot? Yeah he is but again he dies because he’s an idiot. That’s just how character flaws work. His decision to side with Walhart at all basically made his death a forgone conclusion.

and beyond that we already know what happens when he decided to fight with Say’ri instead. She is the one who dies. At least that’s the implication you get when you recruit him from his paralogue. 

Edited January 2, 2021 by Ottservia

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Ottservia said:

I mean he dies for it though. Again I like to compare him to Itachi from Naruto. They both dirty their hands and become an enemy in order to protect their younger sibling so they can die by their hand with the knowledge that they are safe. Is he an idiot? Yeah he is but again he dies because he’s an idiot. That’s just how character flaws work. His decision to side with Walhart at all basically made his death a forgone conclusion.

and beyond that we already know what happens when he decided to fight with Say’ri instead. She is the one who dies. At least that’s the implication you get when you recruit him from his paralogue. 

You said previously that you don't think he's dumb, and I don't think the story wants us to think of him as nearly as stupid as he is acting. It wants us to think him well intentioned but misguided, but the scenario we have here he is outright dillusional.

[Interdimensional Observer]

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Nope! By sheer accident bows actually have some okay utility in high level play. Bows at least have the advantage of being the only weapon type where it's physically impossible to be killed by counter, which in some Lunatic+ strategies is hugely useful. Also, bows are great in apotheosis, especially the longbow/double bow. The real worst weapon type is, by a country mile, beaststone.

I forgot about the Beaststones, though I did remember that the Taguel class is bad.

You’re right on bows having a niche, but it is as you say only to semi-counter Counter and player-phase some stuff at the supremely high end of Awakening.

I meant on a more... less optimized level. Tomes hit Res with good Mt & 1-2 range (and Nosferatu for durability) so they’re the best. Axes and Lances have Handelins being infinitely buyable and they can kill things readily enough on a snowball unit as weak as they are. Dragonstones are 1-2 if hindered by being locked to a slow class. Swords need Armsthrift + Ragnell/Amatsu for 1-2, but being range 1 locked is far better than being range 2 locked in most circumstances.

No surprise, the drastic phase imbalance casually defines Awakening’s weapon balance (prior to getting a full team of Galeforce gals and sons of fallen angels). Not like it hasn’t happened before, although RD was cruel to tomes.

 

4 hours ago, Samz707 said:

I haven't got way too far but doesn't Three Houses at least have enemies not drop all their items on death? so steal is actually still a thing at least.

Steal does exist, and mastering Thief lets anyone use it any time, though I never really tried to see what it could get me. The one thing I do remember is the bridge battle in the second half had a Master Seal you had to steal from an enemy, I think.

[Ottservia]

39 minutes ago, Jotari said:

You said previously that you don't think he's dumb, and I don't think the story wants us to think of him as nearly as stupid as he is acting. It wants us to think him well intentioned but misguided, but the scenario we have here he is outright dillusional.

Yeah because I still think his motives are still understandable. Like I said, his death at this point was more or less a forgone conclusion. The minute he decided to side with Walhart was the minute his fate was sealed. I probably sound like a broken record at this point but he really is just a poor man’s Itachi just handled with a lot less nuance. He made a choice to protect his sister and by this point it’s a decision he can’t go back on. He probably follows a code similar to that of bushido considering the whole samurai motif in his design. If anything, I’d actually argue that he wants to die because he is aware of the mistakes he’s made. I wouldn’t call it so much delusional as it is just plain stubbornness on his part.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Ottservia said:

Yeah because I still think his motives are still understandable. Like I said, his death at this point was more or less a forgone conclusion. The minute he decided to side with Walhart was the minute his fate was sealed. I probably sound like a broken record at this point but he really is just a poor man’s Itachi just handled with a lot less nuance. He made a choice to protect his sister and by this point it’s a decision he can’t go back on. He probably follows a code similar to that of bushido considering the whole samurai motif in his design. If anything, I’d actually argue that he wants to die because he is aware of the mistakes he’s made. I wouldn’t call it so much delusional as it is just plain stubbornness on his part.

You sound like a broken record because you're not actually addressing the issue at hand. When Yen'Fay is herding the army containing his sister into a volcano, what is his motivation? If he believes his sister's life is under threat, then why does he not simply allow Excellus to assassinate Chrom from afar? If he does not believe Excellus can do this, then he has no reason to believe that he can kill Say'ri. Thus his desire to protect Say'ri is not furthered by forcing her to fight a battle for her life in a volcano. That is, in fact, achieving the opposite effect of putting his sister in further danger. It's like if Zeke continued to fight Alm saying "I can't not fight you as they'll kill Tatiana!" while Alm safely as Tatiana secured. Or for another comparison, Minerva and Maria. Say'ri at this point has safely been secured by the protagonists (who have just destroyed Whalhart's fleet and taken out a third of his forces and are only on the run because Yen'Fay's own forces are working with Whalhart, who ends up losing when Yen'Fay's forced do join them). Only instead of like Minerva and Zeke who turn on the people black mailing them once said black mail has been removed. Yen'Fay continues to fight for his blackmailer, even putting the person he is defending in more danger without explaining his actions at all. It's not the fact that he's acting under black mail that's the issue here, it's that he continues to do so long after that blackmail has been done away with.

[Ottservia]

11 hours ago, Jotari said:

You sound like a broken record because you're not actually addressing the issue at hand. When Yen'Fay is herding the army containing his sister into a volcano, what is his motivation? If he believes his sister's life is under threat, then why does he not simply allow Excellus to assassinate Chrom from afar? If he does not believe Excellus can do this, then he has no reason to believe that he can kill Say'ri. Thus his desire to protect Say'ri is not furthered by forcing her to fight a battle for her life in a volcano. That is, in fact, achieving the opposite effect of putting his sister in further danger. It's like if Zeke continued to fight Alm saying "I can't not fight you as they'll kill Tatiana!" while Alm safely as Tatiana secured. Or for another comparison, Minerva and Maria. Say'ri at this point has safely been secured by the protagonists (who have just destroyed Whalhart's fleet and taken out a third of his forces and are only on the run because Yen'Fay's own forces are working with Whalhart, who ends up losing when Yen'Fay's forced do join them). Only instead of like Minerva and Zeke who turn on the people black mailing them once said black mail has been removed. Yen'Fay continues to fight for his blackmailer, even putting the person he is defending in more danger without explaining his actions at all. It's not the fact that he's acting under black mail that's the issue here, it's that he continues to do so long after that blackmail has been done away with.

The reason I bring up Itachi a lot here is because I’ve seen this trope before so I’m personally a lot more forgiving of it. Though I wouldn’t say Yen’fey’s situation is at all comparable to Zeke and Titania. Sure they’re both being blackmailed but that’s really where the similarities end. One major difference is that Zeke could stand up to Jerome if he wanted to but doesn’t because he’s blackmailed. Yen’fey on the other hand doesn’t know if he could stand up to Walhart even if he wanted to. Sure, they may be comparable in strength but at that point it’s a 50/50 shot on whether he’d win. If you wanna talk believability. Walhart really is just that strong in-universe. Like I said Yen’fey’s death is more or less a forgone conclusion. He had two choices. Either fight with his sister and risk her life as well as his or fight with Walhart to at least temporarily Guarantee her safety in exchange for his own life. I compare him to Itachi cause their plans were more or less the same.
 

Itachi was presented with two choices. Either fight with his clan risking both his life and his younger brother’s or kill his clan himself in order to(at least temporarily) guarantee his brother’s safety in exchange for his own life. In both cases as well the plan was to make their younger sibling a hero that killed the rotten traitor of their nation. Now I don’t think Yen’fey’s situation is nearly as nuanced as the huge political situation between the Uchiha and the leaf. But I can at least buy into what they were trying to do with him even if it wasn’t as nuanced as I would’ve liked it to be.

[Jotari]

5 hours ago, Ottservia said:

The reason I bring up Itachi a lot here is because I’ve seen this trope before so I’m personally a lot more forgiving of it. Though I wouldn’t say Yen’fey’s situation is at all comparable to Zeke and Titania. Sure they’re both being blackmailed but that’s really where the similarities end. One major difference is that Zeke could stand up to Jerome if he wanted to but doesn’t because he’s blackmailed. Yen’fey on the other hand doesn’t know if he could stand up to Walhart even if he wanted to. Sure, they may be comparable in strength but at that point it’s a 50/50 shot on whether he’d win. If you wanna talk believability. Walhart really is just that strong in-universe. Like I said Yen’fey’s death is more or less a forgone conclusion. He had two choices. Either fight with his sister and risk her life as well as his or fight with Walhart to at least temporarily Guarantee her safety in exchange for his own life. I compare him to Itachi cause their plans were more or less the same.
 

Itachi was presented with two choices. Either fight with his clan risking both his life and his younger brother’s or kill his clan himself in order to(at least temporarily) guarantee his brother’s safety in exchange for his own life. In both cases as well the plan was to make their younger sibling a hero that killed the rotten traitor of their nation. Now I don’t think Yen’fey’s situation is nearly as nuanced as the huge political situation between the Uchiha and the leaf. But I can at least buy into what they were trying to do with him even if it wasn’t as nuanced as I would’ve liked it to be.

I dont think Yen'fay is intimidated by Whalhart, since he is literally prepared to die to protect his sister (which he chooses to do so by fighting his sister). Whalhart never even enters the conversation. It's all Excellus's doing iirc.

[Etrurian emperor]

Ah yes Yen'fay. He seems like a character that the writers had a lot of plans for before cancelling just about every single one of those plans when it turned out Awakening was going to be the last Fire Emblem. 

The story gives Yen'fay quite a bit of hype only for him to actually show up a single time after which he dies. And every second he's on screen he just comes off as the most boring character imaginable. Because Yen'fay never did anything other than to show up and die all the hype seems undeserved. That little posthumous victory he has when its revealed the Dynasts were scared of him rather then Excellus seems more like the plot desperately trying to convince us that Yen'fay is a big deal without actually doing anything to show it. At the end of the day he's just a complete nobody. 

And you know what? Despite him being a rather offensive stereotype I actually somewhat enjoy Excellus. He often has fairly amusing dialogue and the idea of a ''genius'' strategist being stuck in an empire full of brainless jocks who don't even value strategy is  interesting. He and Walhard have quite a neat little dynamic between them with Walhard's open contempt for him being amusing. Then again even a total loser like Excellus can actually be correct for once. Despite Walhard talking down on him Excellus is right that all Walhard's devotion to strength achieved was Chrom and the Dynasts surrounding his castle and killing off the whole empire. He's a bad villain, and his whole subplot with boring Samurai man is a complete mess, but if you take him as a joke villain rather then anything meaningful he can be enjoyable in his own little way. A character can be incompetent, they can be poorly written, they can be unlikable or even a complete mess. Or all of them if you're Excellus, and yet I still vastly prefer all of that over a character like Yen'fay who's only trait is that he's extremely boring. Being aggressively boring is far worse than being horrible. 

Edited January 3, 2021 by Etrurian emperor

[Ottservia]

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

I dont think Yen'fay is intimidated by Whalhart, since he is literally prepared to die to protect his sister (which he chooses to do so by fighting his sister). Whalhart never even enters the conversation. It's all Excellus's doing iirc.

I mean it’s not like you can take Walhart out of the equation entirely. If you fight Excellus, you fight Walhart after all. I don’t think Yen’fey’s strength is the issue here. He’s more concerned with his sister rather than himself. If he fights Walhart and dies that doesn’t matter to him. But if he dies like that there’s no way to guarantee Say’ri’s safety afterwards. Like if he had fought with Say’ri from the beginning she would’ve died. That much is made apparent. This way he can guarantee her safety for as long as possible. 

[Etrurian emperor]

16 minutes ago, Ottservia said:

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

 

I mean it’s not like you can take Walhart out of the equation entirely. If you fight Excellus, you fight Walhart after all

I think Walhart might beg to differ on that one 😀

Walhart seems the type to just let Excellus die and publicly shoot down any attempt of Excellus to claim that fighting him is the same as fighting Walhard. 

Excellus: ''Stand back! Lord Walhart will protect me!''
Walhart: Will I now? And I was so looking forward to see how impressive you really are. Now show me, worm!'' 

Edited January 3, 2021 by Etrurian emperor

[Samz707]

53 minutes ago, Ottservia said:

I mean it’s not like you can take Walhart out of the equation entirely. If you fight Excellus, you fight Walhart after all. I don’t think Yen’fey’s strength is the issue here. He’s more concerned with his sister rather than himself. If he fights Walhart and dies that doesn’t matter to him. But if he dies like that there’s no way to guarantee Say’ri’s safety afterwards. Like if he had fought with Say’ri from the beginning she would’ve died. That much is made apparent. This way he can guarantee her safety for as long as possible. 

We never see HOW she would have died though, she's already fighting Walharts forces, did Exellus threaten to reveal her hideout or something? it's stuff that you kinda need to explain.

Also gutting Say'ri himself if it comes to that doesn't exactly protect her. AndIthoughtFateswastheonlyFEgamewithPeoplewantingtostickSwordsintheirsisters

Maybe actually helping her fight against the dudes trying to kill her would keep her safe, maybe actually joining her at the volcano instead of shanking her himself would keep her safe.

On 1/1/2021 at 8:43 PM, Axie said:

awakening was trying to explore the perceived last opportunity of swiping money from fire emblem fans by expressing how previous fire emblem universes existed, in the most chaotic way possible. there.

i guess if we remove all of that, we have a story of... idk, there are two wars and a time travelling villain and not much of a message? it's a very anemic story that counts on its previous references to impress, yet they also make it nonsensical.

but at least it's something, which makes it a better story than BlaBla. blazing blade: the game that ends the exact the same way it starts, with some elibe desecration in the middle.

Blazing Blade makes you kinda care when Bern invades in 6, I wouldn't exactly care for Llia if I just played 6 first, it's a random country I know basically nothing about that I never visited in my playthrough, while knowing more about Llia/the fact several characters return to Llia in their endings in 7, means I care about it even if I never actually visit it in my playthrough. (and Zephiel's backstory is more effective when you get to actually see it.)

Also makes Hector's death scene less of a "Well I can see why Roy is sad but I personally have no attachment to this dude I know for 5 seconds" into a kinda gut punch for anyone hoping Hector would be a cool unit in 6 like Marcus is. 

Blazing at least feels like it's trying to expand on Elibe, successfully (Hector) or otherwise, it hits most of the stairs falling backwards in the process but it feels like the writers were at least trying as opposed to Awakening which I still refuse to believe they got 6 people to write a game that somehow feels like a bunch of disorganized retcons one after the other that feels like every scene/character was taken out of a cliche book. (Yes, I know technically that's all the writing but the point is you make it feel like the characters/events aren't as opposed to simply throwing stuff in randomly that makes no sense, like the Taguel.) 

TLDR: Blazing Blade feels like it was actually trying to genuinely, if not exactly successfully, expand on Elibe while Awakening simply doesn't care and just wants money.

Edited January 3, 2021 by Samz707

[Alastor15243]

2 minutes ago, Samz707 said:

TLDR: Blazing Blade feels like it was actually trying to genuinely, if not exactly successfully, expand on Elibe while Awakening simply doesn't care and just wants money.

Yeah, Blazing Blade is far from perfect, but it's easily one of the most successful games in the series in terms of writing an emotionally compelling story. It does a lot of stupid shit with regards to its canon interaction with Binding Blade, but... that stuff feels more like oversights by a team that at least mostly knew what they were doing, rather than just complete rampant retcons by a team that didn't care at all.

[Ottservia]

Let’s not forget that the lead writer behind both awakening and blazing blade was Kouhei Maeda. I’m just saying before you start making assumptions like this.

[Eltosian Kadath]

1 hour ago, Ottservia said:

Let’s not forget that the lead writer behind both awakening and blazing blade was Kouhei Maeda. I’m just saying before you start making assumptions like this.

Maeda was also working with lore he had a hand in originally creating with Blazing Blade. Here he is pissing all over lore set down by Kaga, and the lack of care and respect shows.

[Jotari]

6 hours ago, Ottservia said:

I mean it’s not like you can take Walhart out of the equation entirely. If you fight Excellus, you fight Walhart after all. I don’t think Yen’fey’s strength is the issue here. He’s more concerned with his sister rather than himself. If he fights Walhart and dies that doesn’t matter to him. But if he dies like that there’s no way to guarantee Say’ri’s safety afterwards. Like if he had fought with Say’ri from the beginning she would’ve died. That much is made apparent. This way he can guarantee her safety for as long as possible. 

The game certainty tries removes Whalhart from the equation by not including him in this plot at all. It makes no mention of Yen'fay trying to protect Say'ri from Whalhart, only Excellus. That he fears Whalhart's might is speculation. And even within the plot it's pretty erroneous. As this volcano battle is the decisive battle of the arc. After this battle Yen'fay's army joins Chrom's and suddenly Whalhart is holed up in his castle making his last stand, the war is effectively over. The whole reason Whalhart is winning at the point of this battle is because he has Yen'fay and Yen'fay controls a considerable host. So if Yen'fay thinks at this point that the best decision is to attack Chrom (by herding his sister into a volcano where she could be easily killed) instead of doing what everyone and their mother is telling him to do (join Chrom) despite the fact that Chrom and him our never Whalhart considerable, and his army seems quite willing to do so consider they do it on their own volition the moment Yen'fay himself is out of the picture. And this isn't a matter of honour as it's made clear fighting with for Whalhart is a stain on his honour.

So we have a character with the motivation to not fight the heroes (because his sister is among them and Robin has organised it so the battle happens in a naturally dangerous environment), a motivation to fight the antagonist (because that's what quote unquote any true Chon'sin would do), a means to join the heroes (given one of them is his sister who would vouch for him once his position is explained) and let's face it, no motivation at all to trust Excellus nor any reason at this point to believe he can carry out his blackmail (which Excellus himself admits too after Yen'fay is dead). The only way this plot can work is if Excellus managed to put a magical bomb inside Say'ri earlier that's never directly mentioned and then chooses to honourably keep his deal with Yen'fay following the latters death.

Edited January 3, 2021 by Jotari

[Samz707]

5 hours ago, Ottservia said:

Let’s not forget that the lead writer behind both awakening and blazing blade was Kouhei Maeda. I’m just saying before you start making assumptions like this.

Kojima wrote every Metal Gear game and those ended up a mess of retcoms and plot holes. 

So Maeda clearly didn't care as much when it came to Awakening.

Edited January 3, 2021 by Samz707