Legendary Hero - Hinoka: Thundering Wings

[Fire Emblem Fan]

And the Legendary Hero for this month is...Hinoka, from Fates!

[Sunwoo]

...

...

... I fucking hate this game.

[Florete]

Lmao. I love it for the fact absolutely no one expected this. Really surprising to see her before Camilla, Takumi, Leo, and MCorrin.

[Tybrosion]

RIP anyone who thought this would be one of the remaining male avatars (especially if it was M!Corrin specifically). For my part, my random guess for this Legendary was Finn.

So if the rest of the Fates royals are now serious possibilities for Legendaries, we can probably assume that all of the Engage royals will be fair game down the line too.

[Diovani Bressan]

Hinoka looks to be a very good unit.

She is very offensive for being effective against two classes, having easy sweep effect, Spd based damage and be able to debuff foes in combat.

But she is also very supportive, since her in-combat debuffs have a huge range so allies can use them, and she grants special charge status and Charge status to allies around her (Charge is only for fliers though).

I will skip the banner anyway because I have others plans, but I wouldn't mind getting a copy of her in the future.

[Humanoid]

Unironic wow. Hinoka is the best Fates royal and she looks fantastic here. All previous iterations haven't been quite right, and to be honest that's still true of her attacking art here, but that's less important. If I hadn't just spent those orbs sparking the Fallen banner...

I don't think it's realistic for me to get her right now. But regardless, I'm happy she exists.

[Tybrosion]

The history of Hinoka's Bow Flier alts:

Blue Sky Warrior (Colorless; April 2018)
37/32/35/17/29

Fair Pirate Pair (Green; August 2021)
40/40/40/23/23

Thundering Wings (Red; May 2023)
40/46/46/23/22

I for one will be disappointed when the Blue Bow Flier Hinoka doesn't show up with an Atk/Spd of 50/50.

[Lemmy]

Wings of mercy might be scary for the legendary hero battle, might need to use an antiwarp character.

[Xenomata]

Well story-wise this version of Hinoka shouldn't exist... unless she's the version of Hinoka from Conquest where both Raijinto and the Fujin Yumi are left ownerless, and given Sakura's pacifist nature Hinoka is the only one left who can wield either weapon, so she just... uses them both? I was under the impression the real Fujin Yumi died alongside Takumi in that path, but it's not like they talk about it that much...
Also makes me wonder what Legendary Takumi would look like, since if the above is true then that means the Hoshidan Legendaries are coming from the Conquest path, and Takumi kinda came down with a case of "corrupted and euthanized"...

As a unit, I guess Hinoka's thing is gaining powerful effects if she has a color advantage, which is neat. Rallying Cry I have to assume references the prominence of fliers in her battle chapter, but still makes for a frightening unit who gets the Charge status basically for free while still having access to a Rein effect (that doesn't affect fliers, but she already kills most of them anyway so whatever)

WoM4 is definitely an upgrade. Do Dancers benefit from it, oh yes they do.

And as usual, the prominent color is Red, with Legendary Nanna (definitely still effective in this world where defensive specials are prominent) and Rearmed Ophelia (arcane weapons oh my) also on offering.

Edited May 30, 2023 by Xenomata

[Tybrosion]

13 minutes ago, Xenomata said:

Well story-wise this version of Hinoka shouldn't exist... unless she's the version of Hinoka from Conquest where both Raijinto and the Fujin Yumi are left ownerless

This is post-Conquest Hinoka, according to her Meet the Hero page.

Link: https://guide.fire-emblem-heroes.com/en-US/11002006000955-2/

[Ice Dragon]

Uweh. I actually want to pull for Hinoka, but this banner's value is brought down heavily for me by the fact that the other two units sharing her color are completely useless for me. Nanna is already +10, and I don't need any of her skills (since I have a ton of copies of Brave Eirika, who is just strictly better as skill fodder), and I already have twice as many copies of Ophelia (18) as there are red tome Special Heroes in this game that don't have an exclusive weapon (9) because the AHR banner gave me nothing but her.

I'll probably just pull until the spark. I might go for some additional pulls after that, but I don't expect to spend much on this banner. Hopefully, her rerun will have a better lineup because I do want to merge her up. She looks like a ton of fun to use.

I also totally didn't realize that the weapons of the Hoshido royals were a Fujin and Raijin pair until I saw the name of Hinoka's weapon, probably because I don't remember Fujin Yumi's existence due to it having never been relevant in this game.

Hinoka looks like she'll be an absolute pain in the ass to go up against in Aether Raids. At the very least, she likely won't be too common since a lot of players don't put Legendary Heroes on their defense teams.

Super stoked at Kita Senri doing her art, though.

 

Anyways, the usual translation notes:

 

Hinoka's epithet, "Thundering Wings", is "風と雷の双翼" (kaze to kaminari no sōyoku), "Wings of Wind and Thunder". "双翼" (sōyoku) literally translates as "a pair of wings", and is used specifically for animals with two wings to mean "both wings".

Fujin-Raijin Yumi is "風神雷神弓" (fūjin raijin yumi), "Fujin-Raijin Yumi". This weapon's name obviously comes from the combination of the Fujin Yumi (風神弓, fūjin yumi), literally "Fujin Bow", and the Raijinto (雷神刀, raijintō), literally "Raijin Sword". Fujin (風神, fūjin), literally "wind god", and his brother Raijin (雷神, raijin), literally "thunder god", are Shinto storm gods associated with their corresponding meteorological phenomena.

Wings of Mercy is "救援の行路" (kyūen no kōro), "Rescue Route". Compare with Escape Route, "離脱の行路" (ridatsu no kōro), "Withdrawal Route".

Rallying Cry is "叱咤激励" (shitta gekirei), "Loud Rally".

[GrandeRampel]

Damn, she looks gorgeous. I also don't have Nanna and Ophelia is always useful so I'm pulling on red for sure.

 

1 hour ago, Xenomata said:

Also makes me wonder what Legendary Takumi would look like, since if the above is true then that means the Hoshidan Legendaries are coming from the Conquest path, and Takumi kinda came down with a case of "corrupted and euthanized"...

???? Why would you think that Legendary Hinoka being from Conquest means all Hoshidan legendaries need to come from Conquest? Legendary Ryoma exists and comes from Birthright. For all we know Legendary Takumi will come from Revelation.

[Humanoid]

Hmm, it is a bit of an awkward lineup of units - I didn't actually check until now. I haven't used any of my Ophelias either (three is fewer than eighteen but the principle is the same), nor do I use her as a unit. I do use Nanna but ironically perhaps, if I did get another copy, it'd be to give Push and Menace to Ophelia, so that Ophelia can then actually have things other than her weapon to give to non-infantry.

The only other units of any interest to me are Alfred and Elincia, so there are no colours where I want multiple units. So I'll wait for the re-run, presumably August or September. Hopefully the semi-anniversary event around then isn't a damp squib and gives me more reason to be active around then.

 

EDIT: Checking the end date of banners around that time of year and I've only just noticed that last year, the second summer banner ended two days earlier than the first summer banner. Bizarre stuff. There was a possibility of capturing the first Summer banner, the Thief banner, and the Flame banner with one month of FEH Pass last year. If things lined up like that again this year that would be a good strategy. Even moreso if they don't repeat that weirdness with the second Summer banner. And of course if the Hinoka re-run is captured in that window as well.

Edited May 30, 2023 by Humanoid

[Etrurian emperor]

Wait what’s so legendary about Hinoka? She easily contributed the least compared to the other royals.

[GrandeRampel]

6 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Wait what’s so legendary about Hinoka? She easily contributed the least compared to the other royals.

This alt is based after the ending of Conquest in which Hinoka becomes the queen of Hoshido.

You can say that becoming the queen of a country in one of the endings isn't much but the bar was already on the ground after "I only exist if you buy a DLC, and even in said DLC I don't do anything that LEGENDARY" Yuri and "I don't do anything legendary and I'm not even the canonical queen of the lord, unlike Caeda and Nanna who had that going for them" Lilina.

 

[Othin]

I'm not surprised to see her getting a legendary - it seemed inevitable for the legendaries to reach Hinoka/Camilla/Takumi/Leo eventually. And Hinoka was both the first of the four to get a non-seasonal alt and the first to get a duo, in both cases seemingly to help balance out Camilla's other alts. Even so, it's hard for me to care much, especially with the banner lineup being fairly unexciting. Her skill set is neat, especially the introduction of Wings of Mercy 4, although it's pretty restrictive as long as it's just on a legendary.

June will probably be red as well, based on Yuri and Veronica being there.

[Humanoid]

There was also that Hinocopter cutscene, that's pretty legendary.

[Ice Dragon]

It bugs me a bit that Hinoka is coming with Atk/Spd Catch. I understand that she doesn't have a better option for the A slot since the Sweep effect makes Remote Sparrow unnecessary and that there are no other skills she has access to that grant the same amount of stats, but she's now the eighteenth unit with Atk/Spd Catch 4 and the fifth unit in the Legendary/Mythic Heroes pool with the skill.

For comparison, we also currently have eighteen units in the game with Swift Sparrow 3.

 

To be fair, though, this isn't really a critique of Hinoka as much as it's a critique of A skill inheritance restrictions.

Ranged fliers and cavalry currently only have access to Catch and Remote for general-use A skills that boost Atk/Spd, so it's not like there are actually any real options if the unit can't use Remote's secondary effect. Ranged infantry at least have access to Finish as an alternative, and infantry bows and daggers also have access to Hexblade.

Melee fliers and cavalry have access to Catch, Surge, Clash, and Distant Solo. Melee infantry additionally have Finish, and human melee infantry also get Hexblade.

 

Yes, Push exists, but the only time it's actually a viable alternative is when you need to take damage to activate another skill's effect, like Wings of Mercy or Escape Route, and the unit's weapon doesn't already do that for you. In most cases, it's just an outdated relic of a time before Ideal/Catch existed.

Yes, Solo exists, but it's never strictly better than Ideal/Catch, so there's never a reason to use it over Ideal/Catch. (And even more so on a unit that teleports.)

Unity actually has an argument to use it because it can be much better than Ideal/Catch in very specific situations, but it's noticeably worse in all other situations, so it's not exactly good for a general-use skill.

 

It's also possible to release a tier-4 version of Form, though that would probably be better on someone that isn't Hinoka. Impact is also missing a hypothetical Atk/Spd version, though it probably wouldn't be better than Surge/Remote. Scowl could potentially get an Atk/Spd version if they change the stat comparison for the secondary effect to Spd instead of Res, but that's obviously irrelevant to Hinoka (I would imagine that Scowl would change the stat comparison to always be the second stat for other stat combinations).

Edited May 30, 2023 by Ice Dragon

[Magenta Fantasies]

3 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Wait what’s so legendary about Hinoka? She easily contributed the least compared to the other royals.

3 hours ago, GrandeRampel said:

This alt is based after the ending of Conquest in which Hinoka becomes the queen of Hoshido.

You can say that becoming the queen of a country in one of the endings isn't much but the bar was already on the ground after "I only exist if you buy a DLC, and even in said DLC I don't do anything that LEGENDARY" Yuri and "I don't do anything legendary and I'm not even the canonical queen of the lord, unlike Caeda and Nanna who had that going for them" Lilina.

 

I’m hoping that bar is low enough that Jakob, Felicia, Titania and Soren can make it over. I’d mention Elincia, but Legendary Elincia seems more like a matter of “when” than “if” and she has an Ascended form.

I’m torn about Legendary Hinoka. On one hand, I love Hinoka’s art and design, and she looks like an extremely fun unit to use. On the other hand, I guess this means Blue Sky Warrior is invalidated as a Legendary. Was she ever a Legendary? Maybe I’m confusing her with Supreme Samurai Ryoma. I’m lukewarm about Hinoka as a character, so I probably won’t summon for her. I’ll probably try to get Ascended Elincia, since I now have the orbs and she’s back!

[Diovani Bressan]

3 hours ago, GrandeRampel said:

This alt is based after the ending of Conquest in which Hinoka becomes the queen of Hoshido.

You can say that becoming the queen of a country in one of the endings isn't much but the bar was already on the ground after "I only exist if you buy a DLC, and even in said DLC I don't do anything that LEGENDARY" Yuri and "I don't do anything legendary and I'm not even the canonical queen of the lord, unlike Caeda and Nanna who had that going for them" Lilina.

 

Same goes for some Mythic Heroes. "I pilot a big mecha... that's very mythical, right?"

But yeah... if Yuri can be considered a Legendary Hero, then I have no problems with Hinoka as one. Going this route then we can have Legendary Leo in the future, considering he becomes the Nohrian King at the end of Birthright.

[DefyingFates]

4 hours ago, Tybrosion said:

This is post-Conquest Hinoka, according to her Meet the Hero page.

Huh. In hindsight this makes sense but you'd think that a Legendary Hero would come from their own game.

As for Hinoka the unit, I'm going to pass but her kit seems to essentially be a super-charged of Warrior Princess which makes sense especially after Ryoma also became a Kinshi Knight for his alt.

[Othin]

57 minutes ago, Magenta Fantasies said:

I’m hoping that bar is low enough that Jakob, Felicia, Titania and Soren can make it over. I’d mention Elincia, but Legendary Elincia seems more like a matter of “when” than “if” and she has an Ascended form.

I’m torn about Legendary Hinoka. On one hand, I love Hinoka’s art and design, and she looks like an extremely fun unit to use. On the other hand, I guess this means Blue Sky Warrior is invalidated as a Legendary. Was she ever a Legendary? Maybe I’m confusing her with Supreme Samurai Ryoma. I’m lukewarm about Hinoka as a character, so I probably won’t summon for her. I’ll probably try to get Ascended Elincia, since I now have the orbs and she’s back!

Blue Sky Warrior was never a legendary, she was always a main-pool unit.

[Diovani Bressan]

4 minutes ago, Othin said:

Blue Sky Warrior was never a legendary, she was always a main-pool unit.

She is a non-ascended ascended hero.

[Othin]

1 minute ago, Diovani Bressan said:

She is a non-ascended ascended hero.

Basically. The 2018 New Heroes alts of Erika, Chrom, Reinhardt, Olwen, Hinoka, Nino, and Olivia were essentially proto-Ascended Heroes.

[Xenomata]

8 hours ago, GrandeRampel said:

???? Why would you think that Legendary Hinoka being from Conquest means all Hoshidan legendaries need to come from Conquest? Legendary Ryoma exists and comes from Birthright. For all we know Legendary Takumi will come from Revelation.

Because I was under the impression LegRyoma also came from Conquest.