The next Archanea banner (and it's state beyond)

[Jotari]

So everyone thought it was a bit strange we got Elice, Nyna and (Good) Hardin all at once in the last banner. The best theory I heard being they were seeding future ground for legendary versions. Which, fair enough. But then we got Legendary Gotoh. Which changes the way I'm looking at things a bit. Even though Gotoh was always a shoe in for a mystic, it does change my perspective a bit. Because honestly, what's left for Archanea now that Elice, Nyna, (Good Hardin) and Gotoh have all got in in such a short amount of time? What shape will future Archanea banners take? Because it feels like they have used all their heavy hitters despite only having half it's cast in the game. All the characters that remain are, mostly, plot irrelevant niche picks. The most popular Archanea characters not in the game now are Yuliya and Arlen (though even their vote count is quite small), which coincidentally probably are the most relevant characters not yet in the game, along with Jubelo. Lorenz is also pretty important with his role in the first chapter of New Mystery. So my prediction for the next banner would probably be Yuliya and Jubelo on a banner with Lorenz as a GHB, Jake to round it off as a Grust banner and then perhaps Ascended Camus as the alt (or someone with tits). Either that or a heroes OC so they can drop someone no one cares about as a free unit. Beyond that, Arlen as another GHB sometime, but I really don't know how they'll mash together many characters people would be excited about. There's still base Xane, I suppose, though how to implement him is always going to be a weird question to consider until they actually do it. Despite having a bunch of characters on paper not in the game, Archanea is actually kind of done as far as Heroes  is concerned. Any future Archanea banners will likely be trying to gather steam entirely off their Ascended/Rearmed and Heroes OCs. Which I guess is the state for a lot of titles, but it just feels particularly odd for Archanea given ho w many characters it actually still has, but how few of them really matter.

Edited February 20, 2023 by Jotari

[Othin]

Etzel is another one of the more popular ones, they could throw him in wherever. I'd also like to see Cecil and Wendell, although they aren't super popular.

Now that some banners are having two "guest" units, high-profile new characters are increasingly unneeded. Still, I don't expect the next Archanea banner until 2024.

[Jotari]

47 minutes ago, Othin said:

Etzel is another one of the more popular ones, they could throw him in wherever. I'd also like to see Cecil and Wendell, although they aren't super popular.

Now that some banners are having two "guest" units, high-profile new characters are increasingly unneeded. Still, I don't expect the next Archanea banner until 2024.

Wendell is indeed a somewhat significant character I could see getting added within the next two banners.

Edited February 19, 2023 by Jotari

[Troykv]

5 hours ago, Jotari said:

So everyone thought it was a bit strange we got Elice, Nyna and (Good) Hardin all at once in the last banner. The best theory I heard being they were seeding future ground for legendary versions. Which, fair enough. But then we got Legendary Gotoh. Which changes the way I'm looking at things a bit. Even though Gotoh was always a shoe in for a mystic, it does change my perspective a bit. Because honestly, what's left for Archanea now that Elice, Nyna, (Good Hardin) and Gotoh have all got in in such a short amount of time? What shape will future Archanea banners take? Because it feels like they have used all their heavy hitters despite only having half it's cast in the game. All the characters that remain are, mostly, plot irrelevant niche picks. The most popular Archanea characters not in the game now are Yuliya and Arlen, which coincidentally probably are the most relevant characters not yet in the game, along with Jubelo. Lorenz is also pretty important with his role in the first chapter of New Mystery. So my prediction for the next banner would probably be Yuliya and Jubelo on a banner with Lorenz as a GHB, Jake to round it off as a Grust banner and then perhaps Ascended Camus as the alt (or someone with tits). Either that or a heroes OC so they can drop someone no one cares about as a free unit. Beyond that, Arlen as another GHB sometime, but I really don't know how they'll mash together many characters people would be excited about. There's still base Xane, I suppose, though how to implement him is always going to be a weird question to consider until they actually do it. Despite having a bunch of characters on paper not in the game, Archanea is actually kind of done as far as Heroes  is concerned. Any future Archanea banners will likely be trying to gather steam entirely off their Ascended/Rearmed and Heroes OCs. Which I guess is the state for a lot of titles, but it just feels particularly odd for Archanea given ho w many characters it actually still has, but how few of them really matter.

To be fair, Archanea's character is filled with well... filler. Characters that you only consider their existence because of a gameplay role they fit (like Caesar and Radd). The remaining Archanea's cast isn't just filled with characters that aren't plot relevant, but they also only exist as replacements for the actual characters.

Besides the characters you and Othin mentioned, the only characters that I see appearing that are actually remarkable enough to well, be characters, are like Midia (she is still one of the female characters from Archanea and well, she's kinda relevant for one of the big names), and Malliesia (also one of the only women).

There are a few other characters that could stand out (the other remake characters, Ryan and Samuel), but I'm not so sure with them.

Archanea is in such a bizarre dilemma that besides the very next banner (that at least has several women to choose from), as you implied, Archanea needs to be part of the months with OCs, in order to make sure half of the banner is marketable characters (an OC and a Ascended/Remared) and getting to do two demotes.

Edited February 19, 2023 by Troykv

[Tybrosion]

Honestly, there's pretty much no one left to add from Archanea that needs to be in this game. Like Troykv said, Archanea's roster is bloated with filler characters and that's most of what's left to potentially add at this point.

I don't think we'll even see another Archanean banner this book between that, Engage now existing and the previous Archanea banner (the one that had Coyote Hardin, Nyna, and Elice) apparently being a complete dud financially I choose to blame that on IS's "screw you for making us acknowledge A!Tiki" Y!Tiki alt.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Archanea is in a really strange place, yeah, but I think there's a little more hope for other banners than most give it credit for, I can see a few themes to use. I think we could definitely see a banner with Ascended Katarina/Kris, Cecil, Ryan, and Marisha. I can see them using Samson or Arlen or even Rickard as easy GHBs. I definitely think we'll get something centered around Yuliya because of CYL 7, and I'd think she'd pull along Jubelo and Lorenz. Another banner that pushes Midia to the front is possible as well, and I think she'd pull Horace along. Personally, though, I just hope we get Castor at some point. I really like that dude, he's always been my sort of "dark horse/background" favorite from Archanea's cast.

[FlyingKitsune]

This reminds me of how Awakening has almost no units left to be added. They've got Vaike, Laurent, Kellam, Validar... And some minor antagonists, like Pheros or something. I genuinely wonder what FEH's gonna do about the lack of units.

[Othin]

30 minutes ago, FlyingKitsune said:

This reminds me of how Awakening has almost no units left to be added. They've got Vaike, Laurent, Kellam, Validar... And some minor antagonists, like Pheros or something. I genuinely wonder what FEH's gonna do about the lack of units.

Pheros still isn't on CYL, so I think they don't expect to add her for the foreseeable future. That said, there's a bit more than that: Severa, Inigo, and Noire still don't have regular versions, Excellus is the other villain present on CYL, and Trickster Anna might be up for consideration (but maybe just as an Ascended/Rearmed). So I think they could get two more banners out of it over the next three years or so, then just stop making Awakening New Heroes banners. I don't think anyone would complain about just skipping it in the cycle from that point forward, once it doesn't need anything else.

[Jotari]

I expect, because it's easy to do, they'll give us the three Sable Knights together on a banner with an OC. Not sure who the fourth auto demote would  be to fill out their group, but I could just see the three Sable Knights as being a particularly uncomplicated trio to use in a Forging Bonds scenario. Just bang them up against the various different des Camus we have and make it all about his character, with some aside for their Archanea saga adventure with Nyna.

32 minutes ago, Othin said:

Pheros still isn't on CYL, so I think they don't expect to add her for the foreseeable future. That said, there's a bit more than that: Severa, Inigo, and Noire still don't have regular versions, Excellus is the other villain present on CYL, and Trickster Anna might be up for consideration (but maybe just as an Ascended/Rearmed). So I think they could get two more banners out of it over the next three years or so, then just stop making Awakening New Heroes banners. I don't think anyone would complain about just skipping it in the cycle from that point forward, once it doesn't need anything else.

I unironically want, and expect them to add, Old Hubba to fill out Awakening's final banners. Don't know why he's not on CYL. The guy's great.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

We definitely have a couple of Awakening banners left, I think. Severa, Inigo, and Noire, with Laurent as a free quest unit or something and an Ascended/Rearmed/OC could be a full complete banner. And since Trickster Anna continues placing high in CYL, I'd bet they'll use her on the next gen 1 Awakening banner with Vaike and Kellam.

[Jotari]

10 hours ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

Archanea is in a really strange place, yeah, but I think there's a little more hope for other banners than most give it credit for, I can see a few themes to use. I think we could definitely see a banner with Ascended Katarina/Kris, Cecil, Ryan, and Marisha. I can see them using Samson or Arlen or even Rickard as easy GHBs. I definitely think we'll get something centered around Yuliya because of CYL 7, and I'd think she'd pull along Jubelo and Lorenz. Another banner that pushes Midia to the front is possible as well, and I think she'd pull Horace along. Personally, though, I just hope we get Castor at some point. I really like that dude, he's always been my sort of "dark horse/background" favorite from Archanea's cast.

I think we'll see Yuliya, but I don't think CYL will be a major deciding factor. I did mention her and Arlen in the begnning, but I should stress they have less than 200 votes each which puts them in the upper 300s in rank. Their popularity is very, very, very much relative.  The truth is that none of the remaining Archanea characters are considered popular. But Yuliya and Yubelo do have going for them that they are somewhat plot relevant to the beginning of Mystery of the Emblem and Lorenz being a convenient GHB to go with them.

Edited February 20, 2023 by Jotari

[Fire Emblem Fan]

7 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I think we'll see Yuliya, but I don't think CYL will be a major deciding factor. I did mention her and Arlen in the begnning, but I should stress they have less than 200 votes each which puts them in the upper 300s in rank. Their popularity is very, very, very much relative.  The truth is that none of the remaining Archanea characters are considered popular. But Yuliya and Yubelo do have going for them that they are somewhat plot relevant to the beginning of Mystery of the Emblem and Lorenz being a convenient GHB to go with them.

What I mean by CYL 7 was that sub-category they had this year, where they gave the three male characters and three female characters who had gained the most votes since last year a special introduction. Since Yuliya was a "winner" from that, it put a spotlight on her she otherwise wouldn't have had.

[Jotari]

3 minutes ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

What I mean by CYL 7 was that sub-category they had this year, where they gave the three male characters and three female characters who had gained the most votes since last year a special introduction. Since Yuliya was a "winner" from that, it put a spotlight on her she otherwise wouldn't have had.

Oh? That was a thing. Went over my head.

RE Castor in the other comment I quoted: We might see Castor come with the two remaining axe bros. Weird that they're not in the game yet, in the sense that they're kind of iconic, but at the same time not actually that interesting.

[Othin]

Oh, huh, that's interesting.

 

[Troykv]

On 2/20/2023 at 5:48 AM, Othin said:

Oh, huh, that's interesting.

 

Yeah, we still don't know if the Rising Heroes stuff is gonna do anything in particular, but I like it's existence, because it can be used to get rally for people in the lower end of CYL, some characters in the middle can actually get up many places as well (like Monica)

[Jotari]

2 hours ago, Troykv said:

Yeah, we still don't know if the Rising Heroes stuff is gonna do anything in particular, but I like it's existence, because it can be used to get rally for people in the lower end of CYL, some characters in the middle can actually get up many places as well (like Monica)

I really hope they do make a special banner for rising heroes. As it would encourage people to actually vote for their niche picks for who they really want in the game and not just jump on the bandwagon of characters they think have a shot of actually winning.

All that being said, I feel like it's kind of inaccurate that Monica is even on that list. Because, in truth, CYL6 Monica and CYL7 Monica are actually different characters. Because we had Three Hopes released in between. So anyone voting in CYL6 were voting for Kronya disguised as Monica (or random cute red head they know nothing about), while in CYL7 there is an actual Monica character.

Also my man Bloom is number 4! Long live Mage Armourers!

[Troykv]

13 hours ago, Jotari said:

I really hope they do make a special banner for rising heroes. As it would encourage people to actually vote for their niche picks for who they really want in the game and not just jump on the bandwagon of characters they think have a shot of actually winning.

All that being said, I feel like it's kind of inaccurate that Monica is even on that list. Because, in truth, CYL6 Monica and CYL7 Monica are actually different characters. Because we had Three Hopes released in between. So anyone voting in CYL6 were voting for Kronya disguised as Monica (or random cute red head they know nothing about), while in CYL7 there is an actual Monica character.

Also my man Bloom is number 4! Long live Mage Armourers!

Oh yeah, I know, I just mentioned it because "Monica" actually was around the lower middle, instead of being like in the bottom like most of characters in Rising Heroes, while her case is a bit special, it shows that is possible for a character in the middle to appear here.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Troykv said:

Oh yeah, I know, I just mentioned it because "Monica" actually was around the lower middle, instead of being like in the bottom like most of characters in Rising Heroes, while her case is a bit special, it shows that is possible for a character in the middle to appear here.

Oh you didn't mention Monica at all. That was me just going on an unrelated tangent.

EDIT: Oh wait, I see you did mention Monica XD I honestly don't think I noticed when I made my previous comment. Anyway, my relevant point is that, if it exchanges to tangible results in the game, rising heroes is great as it will make the voting less top heavy. Monica fans will have an actual reason to vote Monica.

Edited February 22, 2023 by Jotari