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Fire Emblem

oh I didn't mean the character in the game
i want my actual real life son to be a luchador
 
Not sure why you'd read up on all the story/characters beforehand if you're going to play it for story/characters though. I'm also not totally taking the words of anyone who says Nohr story > Hoshido story, since I know some people have awful taste these days. I'll go for Nohr first since I like the story concept and I know the gameplay will be more to my preference, and play Hoshido second maybe. I'll judge it for myself in game.
When I get a game, I need to read every bit of text in that game. It's become a habit; I've acquired almost all supports in Awakening, I always investigate everything in games, talk to everyone, etc. Problem is, there's a lot of stuff in Fates that I know I'll not have time to get, so I've ended up reading online.
I'm also not afraid of spoilers because I know I'm going to get the game eventually. I don't know the Nohr storyline, just why it is considered bad (tone inconsistencies, tons of filler that is unneeded, kind of stale and boring), so that is still going to be a surprise, though. I've read most of Hoshido's because I won't be able to get it until much after the release.

I've read the supports because I want to know how the writing in the game is, and I'd rather have the supports spoiled then the story. I'm glad I did, because I need to do less farming with characters I don't like just to see the text inside their support conversations, which got extremely dull in Awakening, spending so much time farming Reeking Boxes just to get a conversation between two characters I can't stand.
I've not read the supports for the characters I like (except for a few ones just to see how their writing is), though, because that is something I don't want to spoil completely.
 
whats this whole deal about drugging Soleili or w/e her name is and putting her through conversion therapy stuff, please tell me that this isnt a thing
 
whats this whole deal about drugging Soleili or w/e her name is and putting her through conversion therapy stuff, please tell me that this isnt a thing
Eeeh, that is a really, really exaggerated account of what happens.
Soleil likes girls. She wants to not be so embarassed around cute girls (it is effecting her combat performance, not a case of her not wanting to be a lesbian) so she asks Male Corrin to help her not be so weak around girls.
Male Corrin takes a potion to appear as a female to her to help her get over her fear of girls. Soleil falls in love with this female-potion Corrin, not the male version. She explains that in their S-rank conversation.

Basically, gaming news outlets have been taking this out of context and equating this to date-rape drugs(why though) and claiming it is "homophobia". This isn't really the case and the support, while being really stupid, is really innocent.
 
When I get a game, I need to read every bit of text in that game. It's become a habit; I've acquired almost all supports in Awakening, I always investigate everything in games, talk to everyone, etc. Problem is, there's a lot of stuff in Fates that I know I'll not have time to get, so I've ended up reading online.

My strategy would be just to play through once, take it as it is, then read up on the extra stuff if I don't plan on doing an immediate replay.

I think this kind of works in FE since you tend to get stuff specifically for characters you like and use the most first.

As for Nohr, Like I said, I'll be the judge of those issues. I remember reading a big convo on a thread a few weeks ago, in which people accused Final Fantasy 6 of tonal inconsistencies. My reaction was that they were all philistines who didn't know what they were talking about (didn't say that, heheh), and to justify why I disagreed. For example, the cited example of the Octo-whateverhisname showing up in the Opera scene as a bad "tonal shift" compared to the more serious story. I can't agree considering the entire opera sequence was a lengthy, self contained side plot that was lead into fairly organically and separate from the larger war story in the background.

We'll see if the same arguments are applicable to Nohr or not. Will probably play them both (and the third dlc route) eventually anyway though.
 
Basically, gaming news outlets have been taking this out of context and equating this to date-rape drugs(why though) and claiming it is "homophobia". This isn't really the case and the support, while being really stupid, is really innocent.

The date-rape correlation is that
Soleil never really asks for the drug in the first place. Kamui (or Corrin or whatever) just kinda slips her the drug and has her deal with the aftereffects (which involve her falling for him), which is
I guess comparable to slipping someone an aphrodisiac? Personally I just kinda see it as the weird leaps in logic that always occur in these supports, but, that's the position people are taking.
 
Ya know what I'd like? How about we finally port Roy's game...or remake/HD port the Ike/Radiance games? I might be after Fates has been out, and if its a remake and we have deal with them adding the whole marriage or pair up or whatever, I'd be fine, but I'd like to see some of the older or aging games get a nice new coat of paint while hopefully staying faithful to what they were.
 
My strategy would be just to play through once, take it as it is, then read up on the extra stuff if I don't plan on doing an immediate replay.

I think this kind of works in FE since you tend to get stuff specifically for characters you like and use the most first.

As for Nohr, Like I said, I'll be the judge of those issues. I remember reading a big convo on a thread a few weeks ago, in which people accused Final Fantasy 6 of tonal inconsistencies. My reaction was that they were all philistines who didn't know what they were talking about (didn't say that, heheh), and to justify why I disagreed. For example, the cited example of the Octo-whateverhisname showing up in the Opera scene as a bad "tonal shift" compared to the more serious story. I can't agree considering the entire opera sequence was a lengthy, self contained side plot that was lead into fairly organically and separate from the larger war story in the background.

We'll see if the same arguments are applicable to Nohr or not. Will probably play them both (and the third dlc route) eventually anyway though.
I much prefer actually having the supports myself, though, in the support logs so I have them recorded. It just isn't the same reading it on a pastebin; the actual games can support the tone of whatever the support is going for much better (character art emotions, music, etc.).
I'm worried about the Nohr storyline for a few reasons, mostly the fact so many people who have read the original Japanese story say it isn't as good as Hoshido. I wouldn't care if it was just one person making a large rant about the subject, but this is a large group of people collectively saying that it just doesn't have the same level of care as Hoshido.

Conquest's story was originally being toted around as an intense game where you reform Nohr from the inside out, but that isn't the case. In reality, you're doing a lot of waiting around for an opening to make a stand against your father without getting executed (you're basically one step from execution the entire game, which makes for a really interesting dynamic).
While I can see that getting bland, they can either do this well, or put in a lot of filler to make this a bit more eventful (sadly, the problem stems from the second seemingly being the case). I'm fine with filler if it is done correctly. If there are interesting characters working off each other in interesting ways, then I am completely fine with it. Actually, I'd prefer good filler being in a game if it is interesting, because I like to see how the characters interact with each other.
That seems to be where the tone inconsistencies come from, the filler. You can't have upbeat or friendly filler similar to Awakening with the dark and serious tone Nohr tries so hard to establish.

The date-rape correlation is that
Soleil never really asks for the drug in the first place. Kamui (or Corrin or whatever) just kinda slips her the drug and has her deal with the aftereffects (which involve her falling for him), which is
I guess comparable to slipping someone an aphrodisiac? Personally I just kinda see it as the weird leaps in logic that always occur in these supports, but, that's the position people are taking.

That is so stupid.
It isn't like it forces her to fall for him(her in this case? I don't know) like some kind of love potion, she just starts to like him.
While I'm not defending this support conversation (probably one of my least favorites with Soleil and Foleo/Kamui and Camilla), this entire ordeal is really annoying. It just shows how these news outlets just want something to write about.
 
I much prefer actually having the supports myself, though, in the support logs so I have them recorded. It just isn't the same reading it on a pastebin; the actual games can support the tone of whatever the support is going for much better (character art emotions, music, etc.).

I agree, and that's all the more reason I'd wait to play the game before reading it. I'd probably either read (or skip entirely) things that don't sound too good after experiencing the parts of the game that do strike me as good the first time. Unless I go for more than one playthrough, in which case I don't mind manually unlocking everything. Regardless, I just don't wanna dig too deep into it before I actually have a chance to experience it properly in game.

I'll keep hope alive for Nohr being good. Who knows, might decide on Hoshido first when I actually start playing it (unlikely though). I've kind of become jaded to group opinion in the gaming world these days. Weeaboo's saying Touhou has a good setting and characters, jaded shmup fans saying Ikaruga is over-rated, and nearly a decade of bad taste in gaming magazines (example: the infamous "Party Babiez > Godhand") are just examples of things that have put me in an ultra suspicious mood towards things I haven't gotten a chance to play myself.

Also keep in mind the localization could change things, both in terms of script and tone, so I wouldn't get too attached to any one particular translation on the internet.
 
I dont really think you making a character go through conversion therapy through the use of a drug is not really innocent, also the fact that she is a lesbian is apparently making her unable to stay focused in a fight?
 
It's stated in other supports that Soleil is bi, just in a 99-1 in favor of women kind of way.

I get where you're coming from, but, referring to it as conversion therapy feels like topical buzzword nonsense, and
I mean it's not really? She doesn't stop being into girls, she just sees what you would look like as a lady (probably just since they had those assets and wanted to do something with them) and gets into that.
'S not like the two characters hadn't been building their relationship in previous supports and she doesn't, you know, stop being bi just by being in a hetero-sex relationship.

The biggest crime in her character is pretty much that you can't romance her as a female.
 
Well I mean have you seen what those ladies are wearing out there?
It'd be hard for anyone attracted to women to stay focused
there must be nip slips out the ass.

(also Soleil is bi, not lesbian. She has a preference for women)
 
Poor Inigo, even his own daughter could probably score more chicks than he could
<or, she would if she was the same-sex support instead of Tharja 1.5 or not-a-Maverick-Hunter Zero>
=v
 
tumblr_nmrxceu7kD1u4zkg1o1_400.jpg

CONFIRMED
 
I love the amiibo conversations:
FEAamiibo1.png

"I have the strangest feeling that before coming here, I battled against many combatants… launching people, getting launched…"


FEAamiibo2.png

“I just remembered… before coming here, I matched up against countless warriors from all over the world to hone my skills.”
 
From the sound of Ike's convo, it sounds less like him and more like Ryu dyed his hair and took his place
 
Street Fighter x Fire Emblem confirmed?
 
While Robin's is a nice little nod to Smash, Ike's is a bit cheesy...
 
Trailer for the 3rd route is out (I think the 3rd route is out in JP now too)
 
I'm not a fan of the tied-in DLC with the TCG, mostly because the TCG really comes off as a cash grab to me.
Hopefully, though, they'll add the TCG DLC as a standalone thing for the U.S. since we're not getting the TCG over here, if I'm correct.
How is the card game as a game, by the way? I've not seen people ever mention it, although I've seen one person say it isn't very good.
 
So a friend on a super ultra violet hardcore forum I frequent recently caved (no pun intended) and started playing the Jp version, here's some of his feedback (trimmed a bit)

Fire Emblem Fates. I wanna resist writing an essay on it; let's just say it exceeded all expectations...[reference to Awakenings biggest problems]...Fates is totally different. For starters, the difficulty and balancing are MUCH better. Lunatic is no longer stats inflation out of the ass and a RNG fest. Thanks to debuffs any enemy unit can kill any of your unit, and vice versa, making everyone usable and babysitting a less torturous task. Weapon durability finally fucked off and replaced with stat penalties instead. Dual mechanics are guaranteed to trigger under the correct conditions and are no longer RNG based. The enemy can also use them against you, so you're not safe just because one enemy can reach you; it can pull its buddy from across the room and the damage can sometimes be enough.

Although it's supposed to be Awakening 2.0, Hoshido maps feel more like PoR Maniac. The maps are chokepoint heavens and thanks to the lack of space you have to do a bit of tossing allies around (for bonuses and enabling dual attacks/guards).
The Nohr route I haven't got to yet, but apparently it's evil. I can't wait to play this fabled "Ninja Rape Cave" map. I also saw videos of this map where wind blows people around i.e. your units either get blown into their neighborhood or you suddenly wake up to find 10 red units in your formation.
The third route has fun things like fog of war and moving platforms.

There are, uh, 94 chapters total.

It's a good game that conveniently plays a bit differently from regular FE, so even old timers can find something fresh in it.

[a few posts discussing the games later, mention of petting etc., topic of the story in If/Fates pops up, I removed something that might be a kinda sorta spoiler for route 3]

And not that FE stories were any good to begin with, it's always the most basic "you beat up the bad guys" kind imaginable so I'm not setting the bar too high. I think the default 2 routes are some of the more dark, edgy entries in the series though.
That said, I think it actually did a good job with the characters, especially the royals and servants.


Tl:Dr: It's pretty much guaranteed game of the year material. I am salivating.
 
Is it sad the most excited I am about Fates is for the card game we won't even get?

So you know, I'm just gonna supply you with an albeit unnecessary, long rant nobody even wants because who cares what I think. This is after doing as much research as I can manage. (Reading up on the wiki for stuff, different sites with articles on the game, support conversations, stuff like that.) Hopefully it's not just random rumor and speculation.



SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE GAME I GUESS (If my resources are accurate?)
I mean god I don't even care about the petting at this point, the game itself looks like "Fire Emblem Awakening: Squint A Little Edition."
I don't agree with the two-versions to begin with, this isn't Pokemon, and the third version is clearly just a cash in that shamelessly kinda just says "hey this one's canon tho" and demands you play it for the actual experience or whatever (Much like Pokemon).

The characters so far as I've seen are either forgettable, dislikeable, or just annoying, and lack any kind of actual personality (With some rare gems, which are very good). I get that they're trying to give them rich characters or whatever; I feel like Awakening did it better with the supports being most of the time humorous. If the supports were well written, I seriously just couldn't tell. Maybe I'm being too "Gen-13" about this, but I feel there was no change between Awakening's and Fates', other than the characters being worse.

Not to mention the game does a lot of stuff, gameplay-wise, I dislike. Changing pairing is cool. I'm fine with that. Terrain changing, depending on where you read, is cool. Not excited if it's just changing a tile or two, excited if it's a specific interaction. That could lead to interesting secrets or whatever, if you go off the beaten path. Weapon triangle is alright, not really one way or the other on it.
But removing weapon durability, and pretending it's ok because you have "Pushing" now, is not cool.
Pushing? PUSHING? I'M ALREADY DOING THAT WHEN I'M TOUCHING YOU IN MY CASTLE WHILE MY BUTLER WATCHES US AND I BLOW IN YOUR HAIR-

Kamui's design is just bad. His design is Robin lite, but with Robin, he doesn't have random dragon elements thrown into him for no reason other than to say "Hey, I'm supposed to be a dragon, I guess, but you know, I look NOTHING like a dragon when I transform!" And is the main character being a Manakete supposed to be cool? Maybe, if it weren't that it's literally just there to tell you your mom was into some freaky stuff. *Hint Hint* Robin had a nice little coat too. Not some weird looking armor. And maybe there's something about it where they state why, but why is Kamui's armor white, and his entire family, ON BOTH SIDES, is either Red, or Black-Purple? "Kamui, you need to color code! You're so unprofessional!"

Not even going to talk about Azura. I just dislike her design, her, her everything. Seems like a tool, acts like a tool.

I can appreciate some designs, however. I enjoy Hinoka and Camilla's designs. I absolutely LOVE Camilla's. Dragon themes are nice, and her horns are great. Leo and Xander look stellar, and Xander looks just like he crawled out of Castlevania. On the Family, I think they did top notch. Jakob looks great, Asama looks like Danny Sexbang and I'm totally marrying him or Chin-Man McGee if I were to play as a girl. Finally, Gunter and Rinkah are really good designs. The returning characters from Awakening look great. The changes are all good for them.
Also, I might be totally biased, but Shara's design is godlike. (Tharja I'll never forget youuuuuu.)

And then there are some that make me want to rip my hair out. The fox OCs look garbage, almost everybody looks like an OC in SOME way, and generally they're forgettable, or something like Foleo, Zero, somebody else. They make me cringe how everybody is so cookie cutter. I can't remember any of their names to themselves because they're just so visually boring.

Also...Fates, if you're trying to be progressive and all that with your new options for Wife-Meat, don't make the same-sex marriages only with characters who are portrayed clearly as crazy, or throw in characters like Draj, who appeal to fetishes, mind you my own fat fetish, and simply play them up to only be about those fetishes. (Her name in Japanese is Dragee, a candy used to kinda garnish baked stuff, and you literally find her because she's stealing herbs.)

STORY SPOILERS FOR ALL ROUTES (If True)
Holy god the story is garbage too. It tries so hard to be edgey at times, and is bad at others. "Oh hey your brother dies isn't it sad he kills himse-CRAWLING BENEATH MY SKIIIIIN." It's trying so hard to be climactic and deep, but then it throws beach scenes at you almost right off the bat. It's just you being either a tool, a tool, or, in the third path, a rebel (CRAWLING BENEATH MY SK-). And let's not even get STARTED, on the third path. You just say screw you, go on your merry way, find what, the world of Narnia or some other crap just by falling into a cliff, you find a guy who should already be clearly dead by now, and then you get told you can't talk about the secret kingdom you find in the cliff, which just so happens to be invisible. Also, don't forget children, Azura explains very clearly that THE ONLY WAY, THE ONLY WAY, to access the invisible kingdom again, is to have Nohr and Hoshido make peace.

Wha-What fanfic did I just read?
Wait what it's not the end?
Oh...My...God...

STORY SPOILERS FOR ROUTE 3 (If True, Again, Probably Not? I Hope?)
"The Avatar travels through Hoshido and Nohr, gradually gaining the trust and allegiance of his/her hereditary and adopted families, as well as their retainers and other members of the army. During their journey together, the two families gradually overcome their differences. Once the group finds the way to the Invisible Kingdom, the party head to confront Anankos, and during their journey battle resurrected forms of Mikoto and former Hoshidan king Sumeragi, the latter of whom is revealed to be Mikoto's assassin. They are eventually betrayed by a possessed Gunter, but the Avatar succeeds in freeing Gunter from Anankos' control. When they face Anankos, they are initially helpless, but Ryoma, Takumi, Xander, and Leo feed the power of their weapons into Yato, transforming it into the Fire Emblem. Near death after being defeated, Anankos summons then eats the false Garon to regain his strength, but is finally destroyed with the Fire Emblem. In the aftermath, the Avatar is made the new ruler of the Invisible Kingdom and a lasting peace is established between the three kingdoms."

That...That's from the wiki. That's from the god forsaken wiki.
TELL ME THAT'S FAKE. I WOULD BE HAPPY, ECSTATIC, TO KNOW THAT IT'S FAKE.

Jesus christ it's so dumb. It sounds so dumb that I actually think I lost some IQ points reading it. I just-
Remember when Fates had the first trailer? No dialogue? No nothing? Just the gameplay?
That was cool.



Anyways, that is my entire opinion on Fates. Gameplay is totally salvageable, it might be better, or maybe worse than Awakening. I've never played it, I can't say. However, when it comes to the people saying the supports or story, or even the characters are good, well, I just disagree. I feel like now that the game has been out for a while in Japan, and people have kind of hammered out the game's features and story*, that it's a good time to kinda pass my judgement on it at a face value.

(And by no means is this meant to start a flame war. I've never even played this thing, so take everything I say with a grain of salt, the experience might be totally different, and maybe even my resources wrong.)
((I'm gonna get bodied so hard for this.))
 
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I'm going to ignore most of this and address the character issue.
About the characters, there I've got to agree with you. Not their personalities, about their designs.
I like the designs of a lot of characters, but a good deal look a bit boring. The royal families all have fantastic designs, and the rest of the Nohr/neutral characters look really good, but I don't really like a lot of the Hoshido units.
Awakening didn't have the best designs, either. Cavaliers had those idiotic pieces of armor, knights had those stupid shoulder things, etc.
Corrin, while I'll admit I dislike the fact he doesn't really seem to fit in, it wouldn't make sense if his design wasn't neutral. If you spent the entire game dressed in Nohr armor while working for Hoshido, that would be unfitting, and if they were to make extra models for game-specific armor, that would be a lot of work. I do like his design as-is, although I prefer the female version.

The characters are really good, and they aren't as one-note as Awakening's. Fates has a lot of varied characters.
The problem with Awakening, as discussed before, is the fact that every character has a few character traits constantly being hammered into your head, being repeated over and over in different support conversations. In Fates, characters have a lot of traits, so supports are much more varied. It isn't as much as them not having developed backstories, which would be nice, the problem was more that Awakening characters were very basic and didn't have much to them.

That doesn't mean there are no bad characters in Fates, though. Soleil and Foleo both have a character trait each (likes girls, looks like a girl/is feminine, respectively) that is abused in their conversations. There just isn't as much of that as there would be in Awakening.
 
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the knights and cavalier's armor designs make sense to me.

you have a big thing around your neck so your head just doesnt get lopped off when you're charching, and the big shoulder things look like they're meant to deflect attacks while you're attacking.
 
the knights and cavalier's armor designs make sense to me.

you have a big thing around your neck so your head just doesnt get lopped off when you're charching, and the big shoulder things look like they're meant to deflect attacks while you're attacking.
Didn't see this alert in my mountain of them, sorry.
To address the Cavalier, it isn't a problem of it not being practical. You can have a practical design without it looking ugly.
With the knights, I don't see how that is practical. They should just be given a helmet to cover their head, considering how that would protect your head just fine, without making you so top-heavy.
Somone coud literally just push you over, and you couldn't get up.
Most importantly, it is just ugly, which is the problem.
I doubt when they were designing the Awakening characters, practicality was important to them, anyways. This is the same game that gave us Say'ri's design, which leaves her legs absolutely vulnerable, or Chrom's, which leaves one arm completely exposed, for some reason.
 
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"Heheheh, they'll never hit my head with my new radical ARMORED HOODIE... now if I could only... turn my head or... have any degree of peripheral vision... "
 
the knights have always meant to be tanks, so it makes sense they are tanky.
and pushing over something with that much metal on top of it would be a lot harder than you think when they're trying to KILL YOU TOO.
also, knights aren't wearing that much.
just look at Sully'd daughter, who isn't wearing her shoulders in this artwork.
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also, the swordmasters aren't exactly the most ARMORED characters.
hell, my favorite character in Awakening is Lon'Qu, and he wears little to no armor.
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he looks casual even as a swordmaster himself.
from what I can tell, they're meant to be more agile characters, able to run ahead and fight, as noted by the literal fact that they can run further than knights during their turns.
I'm not defending the hoodie. even i know that it's impractical and looks dumb.
 
the knights have always meant to be tanks, so it makes sense they are tanky.

hell, my favorite character in Awakening is Lon'Qu, and he wears little to no armor.
he looks casual even as a swordmaster himself.
from what I can tell, they're meant to be more agile characters, able to run ahead and fight, as noted by the literal fact that they can run further than knights during their turns.
You can have a tanky design without looking silly, which is my biggest problem with those designs. They just look cluttered and silly. Practicality wasn't my problem with the armor in my first post.

At least Lon 'Qu is wearing pants, which is my point. With her, there is no clothing there to give at least some kind of protection. Again, it looks silly, and out of place; this is a war situation, her legs should not be uncovered.
 
what difference does pants or no pants make?
I doubt an inch of cloth is gonna make that big a difference if someone gets a good slice at your legs, plus, the swordsman classes are supposed to be nimble. excess armor in the legs would only hinder their movement.

i mean, it's worked since Lyndis in Sacred Sword.
 
what difference does pants or no pants make?
I doubt an inch of cloth is gonna make that big a difference if someone gets a good slice at your legs, plus, the swordsman classes are supposed to be nimble. excess armor in the legs would only hinder their movement.

Pants don't protect much against battle as they do the elements.
I don't see how pants would really be restrictive. It isn't like they are heavy pieces of armor.
 
I'm not referring to pants, I'm referring to armor.