Ranking each game by class: Dancers/Refresh Units

[Whisky]

4 hours ago, Jotari said:

The game should have been called Icy Lance because Eliwood should have been using Maltet.

Yeah this checks out. He does have an S rank in Lances in FE6.

Honesty, I don’t know why the game is named after a sword at all. The Durandal isn’t particularly important to the story of FE7. The Binding Blade is significantly more important in its game. The more important aspects of FE7’s story are the Dragons Gate and Nergal, and Ninian and Nils.

[Jotari]

3 minutes ago, Whisky said:

Yeah this checks out. He does have an S rank in Lances in FE6.

Honesty, I don’t know why the game is named after a sword at all. The Durandal isn’t particularly important to the story of FE7. The Binding Blade is significantly more important in its game. The more important aspects of FE7’s story are the Dragons Gate and Nergal, and Ninian and Nils.

Meh, the whole series is named after Marth's lock pick.

[Whisky]

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

Meh, the whole series is named after Marth's lock pick.

Come to think of it. The Fire Emblem is more important in FE6 too lol. The Fire Emblem needs to be inserted into the hilt of the Binding Blade before it can be drawn, so both Fire Emblem and Binding Blade are important parts of FE6’s name.  The Fire Emblem has varying levels of importance between games, and sometimes doesn’t even exist.

Edited October 3, 2023 by Whisky

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

14 hours ago, Whisky said:

Yeah this checks out. He does have an S rank in Lances in FE6.

Honesty, I don’t know why the game is named after a sword at all. The Durandal isn’t particularly important to the story of FE7. The Binding Blade is significantly more important in its game. The more important aspects of FE7’s story are the Dragons Gate and Nergal, and Ninian and Nils.

While I'm the first to criticize "Binding Blade" and "Blazing Blade" for sounding to similar - to the extent that I almost exclusively refer to them instead by number - I think "Blazing Blade" works, for story reason (spoilers ahead):

Spoiler

Eliwood seeks out Durandal, the "Blazing Blade", as a means to gain power. Namely, power to save the world, and his loved ones, from a potential war. When he overcomes his trial to obtain it, he achieves power - but there's a catch. When an Ice Dragon comes to visit, seemingly endangering Eliwood and company, the Blazing Blade slays it (just as fire melts ice). This replicates its functionality from a millenium hence, when humanity sought to scour dragons from the world, and forced the few remaining into hiding. A scar that haunts both camps to this day. But... what if that dragon were a friend? This is the horror that dawns on Eliwood, as he is forced to face his second grievous loss, the death of Ninian. It's only when he overcomes his sense of guilt and grief, that he can take up Durandal again, and - alongside his friends - use its power to save the world. The Sword represents Power, with all the possibilities, and dangers, that can present themselves, depending on how you wield it.

So... that's why I think the subtitle works, thematically. Even as I will maintain, it was phenomenally stupid to give one sword the power to summon literal flames, and have that one NOT be the "Blazing Blade". Almost as dumb as, say, giving two games in direct sequence with each other a name that varies by exactly three letters.

[Jotari]

2 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Almost as dumb as, say, giving two games in direct sequence with each other a name that varies by exactly three letters.

Well to be fair to them in that point, the actual names of the games are Fūin no Tsurugi and Rekka no Ken. Which sound very different. And the Inital English localization decided to just call Rekka no Ken Fire Emblem, with no subtitle. Fūin no Tsurugi they didn't have to translate at all as they never bothered to localize it. And indeed for many years we did call it Sword of Seals as that's what Roy's sword was called in Smash Bros. Fūin no Tsurugi becoming Binding Blade and Rekka no Ken becoming Blazing Blade probably wasn't that active a decision and probably came from them naming Roy's sword the Binding Blade first. I think even as late as Awakening Rekka no Ken was just referred to as Fire Emblem, no subtitle, in the spot pass stuff.

Tl;Dr it's probably a case that no one actively chose to name two games in the same continuity with almost identical titles, it was originally a complete non issue as neither game had a subtitle at all and just sort of cropped up over time as these games kept being relevant.

Edited October 4, 2023 by Jotari

[Samu_77]

Late as hell but regards especially to the Binding Blade, I find a dance to be a LOT more useful in a game that 

1: Has some incredibly strong high-move units that help rescue dropping your Dancer to be a lot more useful (Marcus in early game, Zealot in mid-game, Melady and Percival up until the end of the game + your raised units such as Shanna and your promoted cavalier)

2: Has a general rarity of units that are consistently one rounding units, some characters such as Rutger, sometimes Percival and a well trained Beserker might be doing this reliably but in generally, I don't see this too often. Being able to refresh these units specifically is incredibly helpful

3: Gives the option to purchase Angelic Robes in the midgame (1-2 of these will easily make your Dancer reliable at taking one hit, emphasis on ONE though), especially a siege tome

4: Gives the option for boots for the final 4-6 chapters in the game (I don't consider 24 and Endgame real chapters because of how mindless they can be with two range divine weapons but hey, some people break those things)

5: Every chapter is a Seize map and getting Roy to that throne is sometimes a colossal pain in the ass

Also has very solid availability 

On the subject of Ambush Spawns... that's a knowledge check. You, as a person who has access to the internet, can look up where they are coming from, and as such your ability to position your dancer around them is within your hands. Is everybody who is playing BB going to do this? No, but the ability for the player to make the decision about how to maneuver around Ambush Reinforcements is there as long as they have the knowledge. If there's anything I actually just dislike about these dancers it's about how they are necessary to recruiting characters, having to recruit Echidna with Larum is annoying because you have to throw her right in the middle of one of those ambushes and with both of these two you need them to recruit Percival. I'd rank these two as one of the highest if I'm being honest, maybe not as good as somebody like Azura because her availability is insane but she's up there if you ask me