While I love Awakening to death (seriously I've played it through almost 10 times) I have a lot of problems with the dialogue and characters. I'm not sure if this point has been made already in this thread but it really bothered me how many characters are similar. Oh look, a pegasus knight with a crush on the protagonist? Look at this other pegasus knight with a crush on the protagonist. Oh, look, a ladie's man? Look at this other ladie's man. It just gets grating at times, not to mention it's rare in the support conversations that you learn much about the characters unless you check out this one specific conversation between two unrelated characters.
And yeah, as it has been said, I really, really dislike how bland the characters are. You're lucky if you have two or three traits about you, and it'd be a miracle if they can actually be considered interesting. Since when is being in love with someone a character trait? I know I'm lingering on this, but this bothers me especially. Can we, just for once, get a love interest that is fleshed out? It's always the same thing. Characters who's only identity is being the love interest. Nia from Gurenn Lagann. Celica from BlazBlue. Seriously, the best character in this game is Gregor. Not because he is fleshed out, or has a wonderful backstory, but because he is Russian. Yes. Being Russian makes him the best character, because there is nothing else to the others. That is sad. A funny accent that gets laughs out of you is better then anything up for grabs here.
But, to be honest, I'd hate if they removed the support conversations. It's the same reason I'd be up for them repeating the time-travel plot they used in the first game so we'll have children in If. The conversations add a nice amount of replayablility. I've had quite a bit of fun to try and collect all the conversations in the game. We don't really learn much about the characters but it is amusing at times. I got a few little silly chuckles out of it.
Also, did it bother anyone else that they added marriage? I'm up for the idea but it made me kind of hate the fanbase, and is another reason I don't like to participate in the community for this game. Everyone seems to act like the only redeeming quality in this game is the fact that you can have a waifu or husubando. That really makes me aggravated. To be honest, the game probably wouldn't have done NEARLY as well over here if we couldn't get married. Again, while I'm up for it, it adds more to the game, I really dislike the way they put it in. That cutscene you get and all the pandering to the fangirls just felt out of place to me.
For some reason, though, I'm just not getting very hyped for If. While Awakening is my favorite game on the 3ds, the trailer just kind of ruined my expectations. All I'm excited for is the thing they said about choices in story mode. That, I liked.
Eh, I'll see. While Awakening is my favorite game on the 3ds, it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.