Special Heroes - Summer Longing

[Fire Emblem Fan]

The first of this year's two summer banners is here, and this one is bringing us L'Arachel, Ephraim, Female Shez, and a Shamir + Catherine Duo unit on the banner, plus Male Shez as the TT+ free unit.

[Sunwoo]

And so m!Shez of all people becomes the first male avatar to have a summer alt ...

L'Arachel being the demote is a nice surprise though. Maybe I'll pull for her.

Also, fukk lull 4.

EDIT: Also while I don't care for either of them, Catherine would've been better off being the lead since Shamir already had a stand alone alt before.

Edited June 17, 2023 by Sunwoo

[Tybrosion]

For those keeping score, this would be the third Summer Duo for Fodlan (plus one Harmonized from last year). And I think I'm being generous when I say maybe five people wanted Shamir + Catherine (mostly because no one cares about Catherine, they only care about Shamir) as a Duo Hero.

Man, this banner is hot ass compared the one from last June. Not even L'Arachel (who is an underwhelming 4* Focus anyways) and the first stand alone Ephraim alt in forever aren't enough to salvage this.

So, thank you IS. I can just keep building up an orb stockpile in peace.

[Acacia Sgt]

Well, I was right about the surfboard... but it wasn't the weapon, haha.

[Othin]

L'Arachel is certainly welcome in my book. It's fitting that the Shezes would get seasonals eventually, and that Ephraim would follow Erika here, but overall my usual apathy towards seasonals continues.

[Humanoid]

Banner seems made for me to be honest. All excellent mounted units with strong player phases suits my playstyle down to the ground. Good mobility with the exception of the Duo not having Canto, but having a ton of utility in exchange. I can definitely overlook that, especially since I S-Supported Catherine in my one and only 3H run. Sure she's not the lead, but I can understand that since Shamir has consistently been much more popular. I like both, so win-win anyway. (Don't tell Catherine, but I actually do think Shamir looks better in 3H. Catherine looks better here though)

Furthermore, unlike in most situations I find myself liking both non-Duo options as well, Shez due to the effective damage, and Ephraim due to having four movement. L'Arachel is whatever, I don't pull for 4* Focus units but looks like she has both utility and damage covered.

On the downside, art is good but not top-tier, and I don't care about the Shezes as characters because I have no interest in Three Hopes. And of course, simply wanting units doesn't cause orbs to magically materialise in my account. If I can't get what I want naturally (which may happen if I also want someone from the other summer banner) then I think it's pretty set that I will try to pull the FEH Pass trick for the 24 July reset.

Edited June 17, 2023 by Humanoid

[Xenomata]

As someone who just started playing Engage... where's Summer Alfred? Someone obsessed with building his body up like him, he'd be perfect for a summer banner!

Instead we get another Fodlan-infested summer banner... man, Heroes really got me hating Fodlan.

Edited June 17, 2023 by Xenomata

[Tybrosion]

1 hour ago, Sunwoo said:

EDIT: Also while I don't care for either of them, Catherine would've been better off being the lead since Shamir already had a stand alone alt before.

I mean, there’s a reason why Catherine has no stand alone alts. She’s at 306th and only three spots ahead of Fodlan Anna in CYL7.

That’s embarrassingly bad when almost every other playable Fodlan female (Manuela is the only other exception at 157tg) is either in CYL7’s top 100 or one of four who have won in a past CYL.

[Ether]

This banner has quite a lot for me. SShez finishing tricolour FShez Emblem is great, and she looks fun. SLara has great art, and I'm glad she's the 4 because I would like multiple copies, HMia would love her staff. If I manage to get Cathmir, SMia would probably quite like Remote Sparrow and Brash 4 given her prf already has the damage reduction on initiation. Ephraim... exists, but you couldn't make that man good enough for me to give a shit about his stank ass. At least I don't need his fodder so I can skip greens. If MShez gets a similar inheritable to Lara it could be fun.

[Sunwoo]

22 minutes ago, Tybrosion said:

I mean, there’s a reason why Catherine has no stand alone alts. She’s at 306th and only three spots ahead of Fodlan Anna in CYL7.

That’s embarrassingly bad when almost every other playable Fodlan female (Manuela is the only other exception at 157tg) is either in CYL7’s top 100 or one of four who have won in a past CYL.

Tbf, having poor CYL rankings didn't stop Nina from leading a duo with Kagero. Or Karla leading a harmonic with Frejya.

Also, with m!Shez being free and blue, I can now create a f2p male avatar team that has color balance: NY!Corrin, Plegian Kris, Groom Robin, and Summer Shez. Guess the latter two will have to carry this hypothetical team.

[GrandeRampel]

And with this all the royals from SS have a swimsuit version.

Eirika, Ephraim, Lyon, Joshua, L'Arachel, Innes and Tana can all go to the beach together. And in case they need an escort, we have Seth, Selena and Lute already dressed for the job.

I will say, even if some have (understantable) issues with it, I like when they complete sets. Sure, completing sets makes it so certain games get the same seasonals in a row and I can see how that sucks, but at the same time having all members of a group of friends come together for a party is exactly the kind of wholesome fanservice the game is built for.

And the game itself doesn't take advantage of the situation nearly enough, which is a bummer. Like, think about it for a second. They have art for all the royals in swimsuits, they just need to write the interactions and they can make something really fun with this paralogue. Instead it will be a miracle if Ephraim interacts with his sister from last year. The more time passes, the more opportunities are missed. Stuff like the Tikis interacting with the groom Marth alt from years ago should be the norm for this kind of game, not a pleasant surprise! What the heck are they even doing?

But even if they don't do much with it, it's still nice to complete sets since there's stuff like Aether Resort (which has a beach version) where WE can do something about it and create our own fun.

 

 

But there needs to be some balance and moderation. Something like the Magvel Royals (less than ten members), or the Greil's Mercenaries (a dozen members) is reasonable and can be accomplished in just 2-3 years.

The enitre cast of Three Houses/Hopes? That's a bit much, honestly.

Like let's count how many characters Have vs Don't have a swimsuit alt at the moment.

Spoiler

1. Byleth (F)
2. Rhea
3. Dimitri
4. Claude
5. Edelgard
6. Sylvain
7. Ashe
8. Ingrid
9. Mercedes
10. Lorenz
11. Marianne
12. Hilda
13. Leonie
14. Dorothea
15. Caspar
16. Shez (F)
17. Shez (M)
18. Shamir
19. Catherine

Spoiler

1. Byleth (M)
2. Seteth
3. Flayn
4. Alois
5. Hanneman
6. Manuela
7. Cyril
8. Gilbert
9. Jeritza
10. Rodrigue
11. Monica
12. Holst
13. Dedue
14. Felix
15. Annette
16. Ignatz
17. Raphael
18. Lysithea
19. Ferdinand
20. Hubert
21. Linhardt
22. Petra
23. Bernadetta
24. Yuri
25. Balthus
26. Constance
27. Hapi
28. Jeralt

 

Ok, things aren't as bad as I thought, I forgot how many playable characters there were in Fodlan. But still 2/5 of the entire cast shouldn't have a swimsuit variant.

Even limiting things to the starting playable cast of Three Houses (and considering Shez, Rhea, Shamir and Catherine flukes) it is still too many f***ing characters.

There's still 12 characters missing (remaining base students + Male Byleth) and a single swimsuit banner can give us 6 (four on the banner, one backpack, a TT+ reward) which means two more banners of only Three House swimsuits for 2024 and 2025 just to finish the starting roster, exactly as many as they would need if this current banner didn't exist at all since they picked only characters that aren't in the starting roster.

And if they did it once, they can do it again. I can't believe that they aren't thinking about swimsuit Ashen Wolves + Manuela + Sothis + Monica at the very least.

Enough is enough already, jeez...

 

[Tybrosion]

7 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

Tbf, having poor CYL rankings didn't stop Nina from leading a duo with Kagero. Or Karla leading a harmonic with Frejya.

Yeah, and both of those were boneheaded decisions on IS’s part. Nina at least was popular at some point (I think), but there was no reason for Karla to be the lead.

Like, they could’ve went with a beast cav Harmonic instead of yet another axe cav Harmonic / another seasonal axe Cav in general.

[Florete]

FKris in shambles as the only CYL-voteable female avatar without a summer alt.

[Sunwoo]

... Holy Shez, I think m!Shez also has a prf.

What is this Fodlan bias

[Xenomata]

Oh wow, Odd Atk Wave is finally a Sacred Seal!

...wait, read my notes wrong. That was meant to be "What do you mean Odd Atk Wave is finally a Sacred Seal?"
And if my notes are further right, Odd Res Wave is also not a SS yet. Neither is Defiant Res... hm, guess we aren't gonna be short on bad sacred seals only the generic units in Abyssal Hero Battles will care about maybe...

Chill Atk/Res exists. That's neat.

Male Shez does not have any drawbacks to his Prf Brave weapon. I guess the drawback is that it doesn't have as many strengths, but it still has Canto Rem. +1, Spd +5, dual phase Brave, and 20% Spd as additional damage, which by my guess is still better than most of the rest of the Brave weapons that exist. Also, Male Shez the TT grail unit has a Prf weapon. Summer Elincia last year didn't even have a Prf weapon.
Welp, just throw him onto the pile of Grail units I stubbornly refuse to associate with, because that's a load of bull.

I've already given up on caring about this banner, so what new skills will be added to Hall of Forms in a few months...?

• Lull X/X 4 isn't much of an upgrade, is it? At bare minimum it's only marginally better, and at most it's more better, but it's still very lackluster as a Tier 4 passive.
• Sure okay keep pumping out the Alarm skills. That just means more chances for it to appear in HoF.
• Seaside Parasol+, correct me if I'm wrong, is the first completely battle-oriented inheritable Staff weapon... not counting that nonsense Groom Saul tried to pull off before. That's pretty neat, shame it's on a seasonal unit. And have we seriously not had a Spd/Def Balm yet...?
• Brash Assault 4 can more or less guarantee a follow-up, reduces incoming damage, lowers enemy stats, and boosts damage by the total of all reduced damage. That's pretty good, considering the original only worked if A. the unit was below half dead, and B. only on enemies who could counterattack.

So yeah, not horrible skills I guess... mostly underwhelming if I'm honest, considering it's one T4 that's barely an upgrade, another variant of a recently new passive series, a variant of a much older skill series, one good weapon, and one good T4.
SHAME IT HAS TO BE ON A BANNER I CAN'T GIVE MORE CRAPS ABOUT WITHOUT THE PRESENCE OF MULTIPLE BULLS.

Edited June 17, 2023 by Xenomata

[coldhand25]

Weird, it feels like some of these units should be on separate banners, but instead they decided to put them here all together - anyways, I'm sad Ephraim is not the demote, but happy that L'Arachel is, as long as it's someone from Sacred Stones, I'm good. Tier 4 skills on the other hand seems to continue invalidating other skills, I remember when a working build required only tier 3 skills, which could be inherited from units available even at 3-4* (with a few notable exceptions, like Swift Sparrow). Now it seems like you have to actively fish for specific skills on seasonals...

[Tybrosion]

Oh, so M!Shez is good enough to randomly get a Prf weapon as a TT unit but characters like M!Robin and Soren (among many, many others but I’m choosing to name these two since they’re the latest male CYL winners) aren’t.

Piss all the way off, IS.

[Humanoid]

To think that I was tempted to make Spring Michalis my first +10 lance flier (with Alfred's weapon and Canto).

 

3 minutes ago, coldhand25 said:

Tier 4 skills on the other hand seems to continue invalidating other skills, I remember when a working build required only tier 3 skills, which could be inherited from units available even at 3-4* (with a few notable exceptions, like Swift Sparrow). Now it seems like you have to actively fish for specific skills on seasonals...

And it has the side effect of looking at Duo Shamir skills and being disgusted at the non-premiumness of her Fatal Smoke 3. No, I need all yellow border skills!

[coldhand25]

6 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

And it has the side effect of looking at Duo Shamir skills and being disgusted at the non-premiumness of her Fatal Smoke 3. No, I need all yellow border skills!

You know what? That's also true, I haven't even noticed that before, but now it bothers me 😩

[Sunwoo]

18 minutes ago, Tybrosion said:

Oh, so M!Shez is good enough to randomly get a Prf weapon as a TT unit but characters like M!Robin and Soren (among many, many others but I’m choosing to name these two since they’re the latest male CYL winners) aren’t.

Piss all the way off, IS.

Don't forget summer Elincia from last year ;_; She not only didn't get a prf, but also had no prf skill because she hadn't gotten a legendary alt yet. Completely unfair.

Also, it's rather odd that the TT reward unit gets a prf but not the demote. Has that ever happened before?

Edited June 17, 2023 by Sunwoo

[Xenomata]

23 minutes ago, Tybrosion said:

Oh, so M!Shez is good enough to randomly get a Prf weapon as a TT unit but characters like M!Robin and Soren (among many, many others but I’m choosing to name these two since they’re the latest male CYL winners) aren’t.

Piss all the way off, IS.

Let's take that a step further.

Elincia was 25th in CYL6 last year, while the Shez's were not available for voting. CYL7 sees Elincia in the Top 10 of Women and 14th overall, while Male Shez placed 26th. Dunno if this technically matters, but if I know you well enough it was bound to come up.

Last year, Elincia's summer alt, the TT/Grail unit of that summer banner, was the only unit of that batch of summer units to NOT have a Prf weapon. In fairness she did bring with her one of the best inheritable Bows in the game, but she was still done a disservice in a banner with 3 TH units, one RD unit, and one RD unit as the Harmonic backpack.
And then there's Shez this year. Who is from Fodlan.

You might begin to believe that someone at IntSys has something of a fetish for Fodlan... and you would be wrong, because they have an extreme fetish AND a wank sock for Fodlan.

Edited June 17, 2023 by Xenomata

[Sunwoo]

4 minutes ago, Xenomata said:

Let's take that a step further.

Elincia was 25th in CYL6 last year, while the Shez's were not available for voting. CYL7 sees Elincia in the Top 10 of Women and 14th overall, while Male Shez placed 26th. Dunno if this technically matters, but if I know you well enough it was bound to come up.

Last year, Elincia's summer alt, the TT/Grail unit of that summer banner, was the only unit of that batch of summer units to NOT have a Prf weapon. In fairness she did bring with her one of the best inheritable Bows in the game, but she was still done a disservice in a banner with 3 TH units, one RD unit, and one RD unit as the Harmonic backpack.
And then there's Shez this year. Who is from Fodlan.

You might begin to believe that someone at IntSys has something of a fetish for Fodlan... and you would be wrong, because they have an extreme fetish AND a wank sock for Fodlan.

Considering that several Fodlan demotes and TT reward units didn't get a prf, we could just have a Shezdev or something

[Humanoid]

15 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

Also, it's rather odd that the TT reward unit gets a prf but not the demote. Has that ever happened before?

Flame Mordecai had one while Rinkah didn't, but that's kind of cheating. 😛

Before that you have to go back to, uh, Brunnya and Echidna, in the days before TTs were reserved for seasonals. And going back even further, the only other example I can find is Black Knight and Oscar.

Edited June 17, 2023 by Humanoid

[coldhand25]

To be fair, it's best for them if they treat the new characters better if they want to get new people to play - and spend money on - Heroes. If someone's entry to FE was Fodlan, they would probably start playing Heroes for Fodlan characters. If said characters are underwhelming, then they might not spend much time playing the game, and probably wouldn't spend much on it either.

[Sunwoo]

9 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

Flame Mordecai had one while Rinkah didn't, but that's kind of cheating. 😛

Before that you have to go back to, uh, Brunnya and Echidna, in the days before TTs were reserved for seasonals. And going back even further, the only other example I can find is Black Knight and Oscar.

Yeah, I wouldn't count the beast units since all of them have prfs no matter what.

But lol, that be quite far back.