Blue Lions a bit too loyal?

[ZanaLyrander]

I realize that given that the story of Three Hopes involves the Kingdom being invaded it kinda makes sense that most of the Blue Lions stick to their guns and refuse to switch sides. But the fact that only two of them are recruitable outside of Azure Gleam (and only on one other route for one of them) is kinda disappointing. I like a lot of the Blue Lions, and having so many of them locked to a single path severely limits how much time I get to use them. It makes me miss the days when all it took to lure Sylvain away from his homeland was being female.

Spoiler

Perhaps I'm also just salty about how many of them I'm forced to kill on the Scarlet Blaze route. Ingrid and Sylvain deserved better.

 

[Fabulously Olivier]

I really wish Ferdinand and Felix could be recruited. Them shifting loyalties would make sense, and they're very fun units. Also, CB doesn't have a native swordmaster (but here - have 10 fucking tome users!)

[ZanaLyrander]

Just now, Fabulously Olivier said:

I really wish Ferdinand and Felix could be recruited. Them shifting loyalties would make sense, and they're very fun units. Also, CB doesn't have a native swordmaster (but here - have 10 fucking tome users!)

I also wish there were more opportunities for friends to win over friends. Like, if you could get Ashe to persuade Ingrid, and then use Ingrid to persuade Sylvain, or use Mercedes to persuade Annette, or use Linhardt to persuade Caspar. In some cases like these, it really bugs me that they're willing to kill each other, and almost feels out of character.

[Azz]

Eh, I personally don't mind it. Obviously a bit biased, but I think it makes sense for those who can't be recruited (in all houses) for them to not be recruited and stay loyal to their house (well, country in this case). If anything I feel like some units shouldn't be recruitable considering it feels like they are just prisoners of war who don't want anything to do with you.

I'm also the same person who doesn't like recruiting units in Three Houses also so I could juts be an outlier

[Etrurian emperor]

Its a missed chance. Edelgard's ideals should logically apply to Sylvain's situation, and Annette could have been trapped by duel loyalties due to her (in TH) uncle aligned uncle. I think it misses some interesting opportunities for such characters. 

[ZanaLyrander]

1 minute ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Its a missed chance. Edelgard's ideals should logically apply to Sylvain's situation, and Annette could have been trapped by duel loyalties due to her (in TH) uncle aligned uncle. I think it misses some interesting opportunities for such characters. 

Yeah, Sylvain and Miklan's whole conflict was caused by the system of nobility and their focus on crests, the very thing Edelgard is trying to do away with, and yet he's stuck defending Rhea, the woman responsible for perpetuating that system. It's kinda messed up. Ingrid is trapped between her desire to be a knight and her duties as a noble, another thing Edelgard is trying to fix.

Given Sylvain's willingness to seek peace with Sreng in his paralogue, I feel like he'd also really resonate with Claude's plans for Fodlan, his desire to erode barriers and develop better relationships with Fodlan's neighbors. Sylvain should honestly be recruitable on all routes.

And the fact that Mercedes can't convince Annette to surrender just disappoints me, those two are practically inseparable, the idea that they'd be willing to fight/kill each other, even reluctantly, is kinda hard to swallow.

[Tediz64]

4 hours ago, Azz said:

Eh, I personally don't mind it. Obviously a bit biased, but I think it makes sense for those who can't be recruited (in all houses) for them to not be recruited and stay loyal to their house (well, country in this case). If anything I feel like some units shouldn't be recruitable considering it feels like they are just prisoners of war who don't want anything to do with you.

I'm also the same person who doesn't like recruiting units in Three Houses also so I could juts be an outlier

You aren't an outlier. I also don't like having to micro manage so many people. I get that fire emblem Fates had branches and so did 3 houses but I never liked that concept to begin with. And knowing you have the capacity to pull them, I feel obligated too but I dislike it. If it wasn't for supports in 3 houses with kids from different branches, I would have never had a roster with 24+ people per play thru. Once I had those supports knocked out, I never again pulled units from their respective houses and foe the most part I also never pulled the staff/knights from the academy either. I was happy to kill them lol. Except Lorenz and Ashe/Catherine in three houses. That staff from his paralogue was far too valuable to skip and the boots from protecting Rhea that added movement was also much desired. 

 

This game would have made me damn happy if they just left each of them in their respective houses. I played almost all the Dynasty warriors games and I love that franchise for not making me play with people outside their kingdom until I played their respective route. It was fun cause I was forced to play with new people and get to know them. Fire Emblem is falling into the same pit trap Pokemon is pulling. Many pokemon players complain how about certain staple pokemon are always present and most people makes teams with old favorites. Segments of the community ask for Game Freak to make a game with only the new ones available so you are forced to get to know them and try some out. Fire emblem seems to not understand this and now you seem team comps with a few key people regardless of route on 3 Houses. And it spilled over to 3 Hope's as well to a certain extent. Ideally, I want everyone to be route exclusive with no exceptions. Actually give me reason to try out different people ya know?

[ZanaLyrander]

I respect that point of view, even if I'd enjoy more chances for interactions between characters belonging to different houses. I think more than anything I'm just a wuss who gets really sad when the game forces me to kill characters I really like, and would prefer being able to recruit, or at very least spare them.

[Seazas]

Sylvain never resonates with Edelgard's army. It doesn't really matter if they share "crest bad" ideologies when Sylvain shows tons upon tons of love for his homeland and friends. He didn't even have his heart in it within Crimson Flower either. He goes out of his way to belittle Edelgard and Hubert in base dialogue.

11 hours ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

I really wish Ferdinand and Felix could be recruited. Them shifting loyalties would make sense, and they're very fun units. Also, CB doesn't have a native swordmaster (but here - have 10 fucking tome users!)

?

Felix makes no sense for Hopes. He's duke this time. Him shifting loyalty makes no sense this time since his relationship with Dimitri is properly explored.

[Tediz64]

4 hours ago, ZanaLyrander said:

I respect that point of view, even if I'd enjoy more chances for interactions between characters belonging to different houses. I think more than anything I'm just a wuss who gets really sad when the game forces me to kill characters I really like, and would prefer being able to recruit, or at very least spare them.

Personally I didn't mind killing a small select few, but then there were a few who it was heart crushing to hear their death quote sequence come up. Made me feel like a monster. I think a good healthy balance would be to give us an option to spare them or at least inflict an injury that forces them to retreat and they can no longer battle anymore. You hear it done on causal mode (they say they'll retreat to prevent further serious injury) and in previous fire emblem installments there existed characters who would not be killed. Like for example Titania from PoR was ordered by Ike to retreat since she still could be valuable to the team outside of combat (like Soren as well). And even in the epilogue, her ending was shortened to something along the lines of "Retired due to injuries in chapter X". Jacob from Fates also retreated but continued to serve Kamui (english name Corrin). I could go on but ya get the point. People could just retire from battle. Both from your side if you lose someone, of from the enemy side if you defeat them in combat. 

[ZanaLyrander]

Man, looking back, seeing Ferdinand's supports with Shez and how he's constantly going on about giving one's all, it's kinda tragic that he and Annette are mutually exclusive characters, those two would get along like a house on fire. Everyone else gets tired just watching them.

It is kinda crazy to me that Azure Gleam has 10 route exclusive characters while Scarlet Blaze has 6, and Golden Wildfire only has 3. Azure Gleam has more characters that are exclusive to that route than the other two routes put together. It kinda undercuts the accomplishment of recruiting new characters while playing Azure Gleam: like, when I recruit someone from one of the other houses in AG, I'm like "well I'm glad I didn't have to kill you or anything, but I'm sorry to say you will never see use because I already have 10 frigging characters that I won't be able to use for a long time after this run, so I'm gonna use them while I have them."

Edited July 11, 2022 by ZanaLyrander