#FE15 stuff

[randomnameless]

It's crazy how SoV preluded 3H by making one of the protags have a tremendously contradictory mindset of humanity being better off without gods, while also relying on those same gods to fulfill their goals, the hypocrisy of which goes completely unadressed throughout the game; truly masterful foreshadowing

Who directed FE15?

lol

I've recently tried to think about this "gods BaD" shift in more doylist terms - especially since I've finally played a Squenix game recently and...

FE13 was the FE series last ditch effort, it will either work or end up as the F-Zero series, FE13 worked and FE14 followed suit.

Lolcalisation aside, FE14 had a nice plot and I engaging characters - to some people but not me, different tastes and all - but FE14 and FE13 were still FE games, as in part of the old FE series, aka a niche series. Adding dating sim/interpersonal relationship through avatars might have helped a bit, and yet, imo, it was still the "niche" FE series.

Comes FE15 where we basically have a remake, and can't add the interpersonal thing because Alm isn't an avatar (even if the game spends a lot of time praising his oranges) - how to make the game work? Sure, some weirdo fans of the FE series will buy it, and it was never supposed to sell as much as FE13/14, but if it was a 1:1 remake or just with minor adjustments? It might bomb like the Archanea remakes, and good luck coming after that - will they need another "FE13" to reignite the sales or??

And here I thought about it : FE15 was retconned with the "GoDs BaD" spiel, to make this game more in-tune with what I'd call "traditional" JRPGs where the protagonists often defy a corrupt church and "divine" being.

("Traditional" imo being the Squenix way, because while I didn't play all entries of this series, the Tales series never striked me as being particularly as, uh, vindicative against organised religion, maybe save for Symphonia 1 - Abyss' Church really wishes to help the people even if it is corrupted from within by some dude who doesn't want to let the world die and played by the big bad, Xillia has no church, ditto for Zestiria and Phantasia had Mint and... that's it? - compare this to Squenix's Triangle Strategy and Hyzante being comically EvIl and without any redeeming traits/points when all of the other major parties of the conflict have "token good NPCs" as forced as they are in the game, to make it very clear that they might have done questionnable things like invading and slaughtering civilians from a foreign nation who welcomed them at their wedding, but at least they have "MoRaLs" unlike those bozos in their desert...)

And this "let's make FE mainstream by kicking gods" mentality completely runs at odds with the rest of the FE franchise, and while I know RD basically ends like this bcs "uwu Ike defeated a GoD with the help of another who used the lead of that game as a soul jar and granted him exclusive powers to put her sister to sleep" the morale of RD's story - as seen in the perfect ending but in Ike's speech to Yune itself - is that everyone can and should try to live together, asking Gods not the fuck out to let Humanity alone, but to believe in them just like humans believe in gods.

So FE15 ends as this big, uh, mismatched clash of narrative directions - being a remake it cannot stray too far from the source material and Archanea verse : Dragons and Humans can live together (even if it means dragons must sacrifice part of themselves to do so because fuck them I guess) and dragons can help humans just like humans can, uh, not be asses and not target them because their ears are pointy or when they are weakened...

And we had the new Squenix direction where GoDs BaD and HuMaNiTy fuck yeah, which leads to FE15's hypocrisy : please trust and rely on us Gods/dragons and kindly help us when we're in deep shit, and at the same time "HuMaNiTy FuCk YeAh".

Interestingly, the Squenix direction loses in the post game campaign (the one where we discover Thabes) but is reintroduced in the official (tm) timeline, depicting basically how BaD Duma is and how much of a chad Rudy was, before his very tragic (bring the onions!) death.

But yeah, I agree anon, FE15 was crazy foreshadowing and I guess is part of the reason why Tru Piss has this message "Humanity doesn't need Gods" targeted at... Rhea, aka a Nabatean (while Supreme Leader got there thanks to Sothis' powers!!) because the "Humanity Fuck Yeah" narrative is a staple of Squenix JRPGS, and if FE has to become mainstream, I guess to some devs, it has to copy what sells.

That would also explain why FE16 went so off the rails and forgot the tradition FE series message about coexistence, because what the fuck do you mean by "Humanity doesn't need Nabateans", after parroting for the entire game "Nabateans are to blame for the irrational world we live in" and blame "Nabatean blood" for everything wrong in Fodlan, without ever acknowledging the "evilness that lurks in the heart of men" (who aren't called Dimitri) ?

In a series that, albeit hazaphardly at times (FE8's manaketes feel forced in the lore! and the less is said about Nowi/Panne in FE13 the better we are), tried to push the "coexistence between all inhabitants of the land is the key to peace!" card - this Squenix direction feels all kind of wrong, especially when friendship with the divine beings (dragons) have been a staple of the franchise (Y!Tiki's number of alts, imo, is telling : for better or worse, Y!Tiki is, along with Marth, the figure of the franchise. She is a dragon, and she's a kid who wants to make friends. Sure it brings the loli crowd, but all those dragon children in the different games? They are a direct throwback to Y!Tiki!).

In a nutshell, I'd say the first crack was FE10's writing that made things seem like the Hero defeated a goddess and its subsequent wanking.

But I agree with you anon, FE15's change in direction and retcons were absolutely gunning for that Squenix "GoDs BaD" while keeping the "traditional" FE message which resulted in hypocrisy that showed in the writing but I guess no one really paid attention because FE15 has other issues too (I didn't before happening on FE16... even if I remember wondering why the fuck the game kept on hammering how BaD Duma was when we had people being asses right and left on their own).

FE Fodlan completely ignored the "we can coexist" message - save for subtext you can have where the optional lords who win the war and aren't Supreme Leader can have half/quarter-nabatean heirs through Flayn but her heritage is never ever mentionned in the ending cards - by completely shitting/ignoring the local dragons, they're blamed for everything wrong and don't get their voice to the chapter.

Masterful writing lol

I can't wait for the next game, let it be a remake (pls not Jugdral!!) or a new entry (Engage was developped alongside Fodlan, not after!) to see if IS will continue with the Squenix developments or return to their roots, even if they seem milquetoast, of "humans and lizards can hold hands".

---

NGL anon, during 2020/2021 and the daily "Supreme Leader was right though" threads in SF, I kind of realised that what I took for granted, aka "coexistence between humans and dragons!" being the message of FE in general, wasn't, even in what used to be the most serious board/thing.

FE as a series came to the West through FE7 where Dragons and Humans were at war, but ultimately the cast learns that dragons aren't evil incarnate and the best ending reveals that the big bad went mad because his dragon wife was killed and he tried to reunite with their dragon-human children he hid away for their safety.

So it was kind of surprising to see long-time, or at least not "Fodlan introduced" members of SF parroting the "well they can't live together" by buying the most ludicrous headcanon/fanon arguments you'd find in other series like "different lifespans" - this argument is pretty much non existent in the FE series, and I've never seen it opposed to Miccy's rule in Daien when, as a Heron Branded, she will outlive her citizens, or what, are we supposed to believe that Myrrh shouldn't interact with humans and remain in her forest because she will outlive humans, or is too "different" from them thus wouldn't have the same considerations?

FE13/14 brought the fandom wars of "new fans" vs "old fans", but FE Fodlan? Brought "casual JRPG gamer" vs "FE gamer" which usually boils down to "Supreme Leader fans" vs "everyone else".

Sure, we had the religion hate boner because the dragons in Fodlan verse made a "Church" with catholic imagery which is a deadly sin to some - but the "dragon blood is indeed the reason why everything sucks in the world" being parroted? "Dragons cannot have power over humans because of the sheer inbalance"? What, are you implying Nergal was forced by Aenir to mate with her twice or what? Ninian was oppressing Pherae in the endings where she marries Eliwood, and humans were finally liberated when she died?

Kana is, by nature, someone who will oppress humans because they're part dragon and their blood will bring strife to the world?

So unless IS doesn't fully commit to one narrative - because yes, for all of its flak, FE Fodlan still takes time, when it remembers, to portray Nabateans in a relative positive light when it comes to them as characters and in the general background, it's just that, they're never given a voice when it comes to discussing about the plot - we're bound to have this hypocrisy :

Dragons BaD bcs Humanity Fuck Yeah

and

Dragons and Humanity can coexist and make babies for scalies/monsterfuckers out there because acceptance/diversity is a way for peace.

[silent-partner-412]

playing the sacred echoes rom hack and realizing echoes could’ve been really good if it wasn’t awful

[crabknight]

Well, just screw Celica, am i right?

Gray, i love you. but its already Shadows of Valentia.

YOU FORGOT ABOUT HER??? >:((((

Awwwww thats adorable. While i would lampshade the fact that he has the pendant outside of his armor, he probably has it inside of the undershirt during fights.

WOAH A MAP

THIS LOOKS GREAT!

Oh boy now i can see what DLC i totally legally downloade-

-_-

Decided to just go with this but ALSO

DIVERSITY WIN! THERES AN OPTION FOR OTHER GENDER BESIDES M/F IN THIS GAME IN 2017!!!! Question to end this off: When do you think i should play the dlc maps?

I love that cg of alm so much it's so great

To answer your question I have a couple of answers

1. The first couple dlc maps are for grinding money and exp and items, I would recommend not doing those until post game

2. Next are the overclasses, they add an extra class on top of the final classes before dlc, just use those when you can (lvl 20 in the final classes)

3. Next are the "rise of the deliverance" maps. They don't use your actual units and just give you some. I would probably also wait until later for those, they give lore on the deliverance so I would probably wait with thise until act 3 maybe. After act one definitly, and there's a lot of things going on in act 2/start of 3 so probably just once you've gotten a little into act 3.

4. Lastly are the cipher legends with 2 maps and 2 new characters for each, I would probably also do these in act three as well

Oh also there's some bonus items and such, but they don't matter too much, just collect them whenever and try not to abuse them (can't even really remember what they are) they're the ones called Milas bounty

[loregoddess]

Reverse Unpopular Opinion for Faye and Rinea!

Okay, well first of all both of their designs are really good. Like, I know I'm biased because Hidari is one of my top-favorite illustrators and I think all Echoes artwork is excellent, but Faye and Rinea's is like, especially excellent. Like, we have Faye:

This is the most generic "local girl who lives in a fantasy faming village" look and I mean this in the best way possible. Of all the Ram kids, she's the only one who actually looks like she could have been someone who just hung around some little farming town, and I especially love the little touches that the apron and satchel add. And the color palette is really good, which isn't something I say a lot for FE, and her being dusty blond and paired with lots of browns and whites could have made her look like a sepia photo, but nah, everything's balanced well enough that this looks like a legit.

And then we have Rinea, and just:

LOOK at the amount of thought that went into that dress's design! I'm no seamstress nor cosplay artist, but I do love me some clothing designs where the artist thought out how the clothing might work. And while all the layers aren't broken down, enough are that I can imagine how the dress works, which also makes it easier to draw for me for whatever reason. And again, this is a fantastic palette! Granted, blues and whites with some off-blacks is actually a pretty safe palette to go for and really hard to mess up, but even how the colors get divided is nice, since most of the whites (the "lightest" colors) are at the top of her design, and the black stockings (the "heaviest" color in her palette) are at the bottom. Rinea's color palette looks like glacial, snow-capped basalt mountains, and I love it.

Also like, in line with Echoes' strong emphasis on the divide between the nobility and the commonfolk, we can really see those themes in these two designs. Faye's just a girl from a small farming town, and while she's clearly very trendy and conscious of her appearance, given how she wears cute little bows and has decorated her satchel, there's still something very humble and utilitarian about her outfit. Whereas Rinea's a noble, and her outfit shows as much with the incorporation of more complicated sewing patterns, and the addition of metals as pretty--but essentially non-functional--decoration. Everything about her outfit looks more expensive to produce, and really helps to illustrate her status as a noble engaged to the heir of Rigel. It's such a small detail, but I've seen a lot of fantasy stories where the character designs get a bit carried away and you can't actually distinguish things like social class, or even trends from different geographic areas.

Aside from how much I love the designs, Faye is also one of my favorite units in the entire game. Like, when I did my run of "I'm actually going to try and complete Thabes instead of ignoring it", Faye was front and center on my dungeon-dive team. She's so versatile too! I had her as a pegasus knight my first run and not only was she able to keep pace with Clair, she outpaced the pegasi trio (which might have been lucky rng for the stat growths, but still!). I had her as a cleric for my second run (the Thabes run), and again, she was super useful. Her early access to Physic is very helpful, and while I don't normally use dancer classes, her unique spell Anew ended up being really helpful for my Thabes dive (and also helped me figure out that I didn't dislike the dancer class and its support skill, I just didn't want an entire unit tied up in one type of support only). Also, since Nosferatu can bypass Duma's godshield, I wanted to see if it was possible to get Faye to land the killing blow. This was not a feat I achieved, given that she could only deal a total of 12 damage (although if I decide to buy the DLC before the eShop goes down, I might be able to achieve this feat with an overclass), but 12 damage was the highest not-Alm damage dealt by anyone I had in that battle, which was neat! I think if I ever do another run, I might put her into cavalier and see if she can outpace Mathilda (and then I can give her Gradivus, aka my favorite weapon in the entire series).

Anyhow, I actually have a lot of love not born of spite for these two, and for FE in general, and could probably go on but we'll call it good for now.

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

@ anon who wondered why the hell fe is a kids' game: it's rated pegi 12 internationally, and t (13+) in the states. I played it in middle school at around 12 years old. the fandom isn't suited for kids, but that's universal (didn't stop me lol.)

i remember one time i was playing fe15 at school and one of my classmates came up to me and asked if my parents were aware i was playing that "inappropriate" game. because of Palla's boobplate. we were 14. Im still confused about this interaction to this day bc he was playing stuff like cards against humanity and openarena at lunch and was probably playing CoD at home so why was he so freaked out that a character had a slightly sexualised design. Frank you have seen much worse, Atlas' abs are really not that bad.

[emblemxeno]

Can you imagine if FE14 had Memory Prisms like FE15 did? I would've loved to see flashbacks of things like the Concubine Wars, Saizo learning of his father's death, etc.

Memory Prisms were such a good fucking opportunity to bring in more lore stuff similar to base conversations, and the fact that neither 3H nor Engage brought them back is absolutely criminal

And you're right, FE14 having them would've been fucking lit!

[mitsubinyuri]

Opening drawing requests again <3 taking a break from making my MV (gonna only work on it on weekends I think)

You can req any character from anything but I'll prioritize reqs from MILGRAM, FE3H, FE4, FE15, and JJBA (particularly parts 5, 7, and 8)

Feel free to req scenes/scenarios and stuff, they may not look the best but as I have discovered the CSP 3D model feature I feel more confident in doing poses

[circle-bircle]

purging a bunch of stuff from my drive... gosh there are still a lot of things i want to write but it's hard to tell what's there when some of my file names are "gh384t90g8h" or "2" as i look through the drive i will put in this readmore any cool ideas i come across (mostly ff some fe and gbf and will sort them by fandom if ur into it)

please know i am deleting all of these drafts as i go along so if you want me to post snippets of what i have tell me in like 3 days before they are permanently deleted

fic titled "virgin in the dynamo" where i make vigorous reference to henry adams in my ff2 emperor redemption fic... well ok then!

doc called "BACK ON MY BULLSHIT" is an isekai for ff2. i've written a few of those but i haven't liked how any of them have turned out. idea for another day

more emperor fics; i have some where y/n gets fired as a servant, some reverse isekai drafts, and i have about a good long chunk of drafting for another vampire au where (spoiler alert) the emperor is not a nice guy and murders a bunch of people in the first chapter. the drafts are still there but i just don't know where to take the fic in the last stretch.

another emperor fic but this time it's an arranged marriage au (y/n is a noble of altair and i take the book canon and shake it vigorously)

edward chris von muir reverse isekai - i remember writing this. some really bad irl stuff happened and edward was the character i wrote a fuckton of to cheer me up. i'd still like to write it properly. in another fic i wrote an arranged marriage au and i still think i could write it and it'd be fun

doc titled "k"; rewrite of an old fic with zidane & kuja with the in veno veritas vibes... i'd like to post it but it's not done so it won't get posted

i write a 210 fic in firion's pov where tidus gets lost and firion comes to help him. hehe!

more tidus ideas; one of them was where y/n was a nurse taking care of tidus, another idea that i still might write where y/n is a total stalker of tidus and makes him love them... i still want to write that.

seymour fic with another isekai... circle be creative sometimes smh!

some gorefic of ravus nox fleuret... i really don't talk about ffxv but ravus is one of my favs i think he's so cool

"2" is a fe15 gray high school au. it's goofy i guess

more kurth ideas; i wrote a dreamsharing fic with him as well as a timeloop? i could have SWORN i published the timeloop fic but i don't think i did. i got 4k words into the draft. whatever, down the trash it goes!

doc titled "UNKIE JANNIE" where janaff takes care of a wounded shinon...

i've written a janaff/reader and a janaff/reader/ulki but not an ulki/reader. none of the ideas i have have been any good though and i still feel like they're not cute enough.

"the ranch fic" where shinon fucks a bottle of ranch. nsfw but an ex-friend did it out of curiosity and then he told me not to tell anyone but then he aired my dirty laundry so i air his dirty laundry back.

more in lewd news for shinon/janaff i tried to write a motivation chapter 2 but i never could decide on what shinon was going to do. i had a couple ideas, like shinon and janaff meeting up and fucking or continuing their parasocial relationship. in my latest drafts of it shinon was going to doxx janaff and say the most egregious sort of stuff before going back to his NEET ways (now without a purpose because janaff would be disinterested) but i couldn't make it as sexy as the first chapter so i just didn't finish it

nordion vampireverse multichap fic titled "diarmuid chomps" where it's not actually about diarmuid at all and febail gets really sexy and saves y/n from the evil vampires... i wrote that fic twice but neither are any good. idea for another time

speaking about nordion vamps, doc titled "sex sex sex sex sex sex" where the vamps get down and dirty with y/n. OTL i want to post it but it's incompleted as FUCK so it won't see the light of day ever

kempf mermaid au i would have posted for mermay if i knew how to write it. but every draft i did just wasn't right and i think fe is too technologically historic(?) for what i want to happen so i might write it with some other fandom instead

found my resume! been lookin 4 that

a kyd wykkyd fic... i had a moment

did i ever post a grimnir fic about hanahaki? i've written it a couple times but i don't think i liked any one of the drafts i wrote. an idea for another day!

there's also a lobelia fic where the captain goes to try and find him a hobby that isn't death related. music didn't work and at the end of the draft djeeta is trying word searches and crossword puzzles. i guess miscellaneous stuff, i wrote more lobelia fluff that wasn't published soo

i feel like i kept up deleting stuff so there is not much else. but that's all!!!!

[fayesdiary]

I posted 2,251 times in 2022

That's 434 more posts than 2021!

327 posts created (15%)

1,924 posts reblogged (85%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@starswake

@good-beans

@sieglinde-freud

@femblemfemslash

@nowis-scales

I tagged 2,233 of my posts in 2022

Only 1% of my posts had no tags

#fire emblem - 2,047 posts

#reblog - 1,901 posts

#queuerealm gate - 1,114 posts

#my rambles - 165 posts

#robin - 159 posts

#celica - 122 posts

#fire emblem awakening - 112 posts

#ask replies - 112 posts

#fe13 - 111 posts

#fe15 - 111 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#given it's very likely rumors of grima's creation that led duma to destroy thabes and him and mila being banished to valentia because of it

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Fire Emblem Series Ask Game!

Compared to my previous ask games this is one about Fire Emblem as a whole, enjoy! Previous ask games: Echoes, Fates, Awakening

What's your favorite main game of the series?

What's your least favorite main title?

What titles have you played?

What games do you wish to play next?

What game would you recommend to someone new to the series?

Who's your favorite lord/protagonist?

Who's your favorite character?

Least favorite lord/protagonist?

Least favorite character?

A character you find underrated?

A character that deserved better?

A game that deserved better?

What do you like most about Fire Emblem?

Something you really don't like about this series?

What are your favorite musical tracks?

What's your favorite world/setting?

How did you get into Fire Emblem?

How do you tend to play Fire Emblem? (es. casually, doing Ironman runs, playing it like a visual novel)

Favorite (canon) pairing?

Least favorite (canon) pairing?

Any rarepairs/crack ships you have?

What's your opinion on Heroes?

Have you played any FE hacks/fangames? If yes, talk about one of them!

An FE title you wish would be remade?

Any general or specific headcanons you have?

Come up with a pitch for a new FE title, no matter how silly it is!

Any fanfics/fan content you'd recommend? (You can plug your own stuff it's fine)

Because this fandom doesn't see enough discourse [citation needed], post a spicy hot take here🔥🔥

See the full post

179 notes - Posted January 17, 2022

#4

Look at this concept art of Emmeryn, Chrom and Lissa as kids

That's all have a nice day

271 notes - Posted April 5, 2022

#3

Now with that said, I hope Grima sues the new villain for daring to steal the title of Fell Dragon™ from them

307 notes - Posted September 13, 2022

#2

See the full post

331 notes - Posted March 7, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

"Dad, how was I born?" "You see son, when two people fall in love after talking to each other four times, they unlock a paralogue map where they meet their kid who's already a teenager for some reason"

696 notes - Posted March 28, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[gentleoverdrive]

Celica!

character: LOVE them | THEY ARE MY PRECIOUS

ship with: Alm (well, obviously! I am one of the CelicAlm guys on twitter). Originally with Mae during my first week or so of playing SoV

friendship them with:  Alm (the secret sauce for their stable marriage post-game? they're a couple who are still friends), Mae, the Ram Kids, Leon, Valbar, Forsyth and Tatiana.

general opinions: She is tied with Alm as my favorite lord of the series. You know those goofy "they are a set. do not separate them/frequently bought together" memes? That's my jam for these two, baby! I am that basic bitch, tyvm I'll be here all week! ---- But fr fr, let's focus on the young lady originally born Anthiese Lima for a second: To keep it short and sweet, I love Celica's character as a whole. While the writing in FE15 can be classified as "economic", it is extremely efficient, and nowhere does it reflect best than with Celica. ---- While it is true that her writing is not always batting a 1000, when it stays consistent, her portrayal is that of an individual who reflects the nurturing she received and the stuff she internalized. It is refreshing to see a character display both the boons and banes of her being raised as she was and have it be as internally consistent as with her. ---- She accomplishes that rare balance of showing a character being strong without coming off as flawless/infallible. Celica shows all her sides at different points of the game and it hits like few things do. So yeah: Celica? Chef's kiss. My compliments to the chef. Would recommend + buy again. 5/5

[drainbangle]

! how about 23 27 and 43 for the oc ask thing

OC questions

23. Introduce OC that has changed from your first idea concerning what the character would be like?

Makisig changed a lot from when I first thought of him! All I had was that he and his partner (which my friend Leo made) were going to be based off of the failed heroes concept that PMD4 kinda touched on but… never really explored in depth.

This and my other answers are under the cut since I rambled. o(-(

We never even planned on them being on like… good terms by the end of their story? And all we knew is that they were a protagonist/partner team that failed to stop their respective final boss/calamity, one of them is bitter over it, and one of them is an antagonist as a result.

(We didn't even keep a lot of those ideas. Makisig's story role changed completely from when I first thought him up.)

We also didn’t plan on them having a whole adventuring party either… The exacts of the calamity that Makisig lived through, his role in it, and his relationship with posthumous characters are all so different now.

Makisig’s design changed a lot too. The main accessory I wanted him to have was a fur cape to reference a Chesnaught’s spikes, but his vibe changed drastically. He initially looked kinda… pathetic… and disgruntled…? But now I would describe him as looking stalwart, if somewhat always stressed and jaded.

Like he still has the same idea at his core: tragic fallen hero, parallel to the protagonist, mourning his partner. But also the exacts of those things and what happens because of them are so far from what I thought would happen. In a good way.

27. Any OCs that were inspired by a certain song?

Not exactly inspired by it, but one song I always listen to when writing Makisig is A Distant Promise from FE15; specifically whenever I plan/write he and Eden's more romantic scenes with Leo. It's melancholy, ethereal, and also has that yearning to it. It's perfect for them.

43. Do you have any certain type when you create your OCs? Do you tend to favour some certain traits or looks? It’s time to confess

Hmm. The OC’s I have for wider stories vary a lot by virtue of being like… part of a story, and are usually built around the themes of that story but for my favorites:

A lot of them tend to have themes of grief, mainly because it’s something I just find really interesting as a character. Specifically, how it changes a person and what it can motivate people to do.

For character creation, I like building characters in terms of foils and parallels a lot, especially in their designs. The most recent example of this is how I designed Makisig and Ione. They’re not only parallels, but mentor and student, so having them share some similarities visually ties them together.

I even made a quick diagram of just some of the stuff I put in their designs because diagrams are fun:

Narrative parallels that are so so unwell and so not doing well right now.

[randomnameless]

Since you're from old school FE, may I ask a question?It is generally related to FE16.

Has fire emblem ever been so marginalized in an FE game as FE16 did? (I know that FE15 doesn't have a fire emblem in its story either, but I think it's an exception because it's a remake of the second game in the franchise.) Where the fire emblem plays a central role in the plot or in a decisive event in most of the FE games. Devs have confirmed that the fire emblem in FE16 is Byleth's flag in Silver Snow:

Kusakihara: Well, as with the examples you provided, the form of the Fire Emblem isn’t fixed across the games. To me, the Fire Emblem is more of a representation of everyone joining forces, rather than something that has a physical form. And actually, in my opinion, the Fire Emblem is defined in this game as the flag that flies the crest instead of the crest itself that’s inherited by blood.

Yokota: You get to see Byleth’s flag in “Silver Snow”.

Kusakihara: It’s when everyone believes in Byleth and they join forces to fight together. I think the Fire Emblem is the insignia that can be flown in the interest of gathering everyone together and inspiring them to fight, even if it means putting their lives on the line.

It's a cool and interesting concept, but it's not well exploited in a story, as it's believed that the fire emblem is the crest of flames, even on the FE Wiki.

Ooh!

If we go game by game, in FE7 it's just a jewel needed for a kid to become an official heir - but in the Elibe verse, just like what it used to be in Archanea, the Fire Emblem was something used to seal dragons (iirc in Elibe, Hartmut sealed Idunn with the Fire Emblem and the Sword of Seals?).

But if we want completely worthless stuff, we have the Jugdral Fire Emblem!

It's the Crest of Velthomer !

Of course we can read a deeper meaning in it, Velthomer having been tied to this verse's events and war, Azelle's son wanting to make it a symbol of justice anew can be seen as trying to redeem his House and wanting to move on, but also another reminder of Arvis's words about how he wanted to create his Empire in the name of "justice", etc etc.

But yeah, in the greater scheme of things, the Judgralian Fire Emblem is as, uh, noteworthy as Fodlan's!

[sunieepo]

If bad localization interests you, have you read how several recent Fire Emblem localizations try to "Christianize" fictional religions.

Like a recent artbook, Legacy of Archanea, completely altered and removed the polytheism, Naga being genderly ambiguous, and Naga being a minor god among many in favor of making everyone worship only Naga with no other gods, changing the male or gender neutral dialogue to refer to Naga to instead being solely female, and making Naga an absolute god.

Sorry for the late response - I was away from my PC for most of this weekend!

I haven't actually heard much about this, but in fairness to me I've kind of checked out of Fire Emblem series lore after FE14/16/17 LOL

The thing is, like, Fire Emblem localizations have famously changed a lot about the games. Like, way more than almost any other series I've played, down to altering the difficulties (ex: the infamous FE10/11 difficulty renaming/modifying switcheroo) or updating entire gameplay mechanics (ex: FE10's class change requirements were changed to no longer need Master Crowns in the English version, and the English version also doesn't use forging points).

The newer FE games (AKA FE13 and later) don't make gameplay changes like that anymore, but the number of translation changes they make are still extremely gratuitous. In very few instances, I can see why it's warranted - like the stuff with Soleil or FE17!Anna - but in other cases it feels like holdovers of old-fashioned Nintendo localization.

FE as a franchise in general is in a very confused spot, IMO. Like, look at FEH (or don't, actually). Nintendo, which has staked its entire brand on family-friendly entertainment, has FEH as one of their flagship mobile games, and it's literally about as scummy as FGO in terms of gratuitous fanservice and sexualization of girls. The newest FE games in general are just dripping with weird otaku fanservice and creepy anime tropes, and yet Nintendo still tries to damage control their English versions by stripping as much of the creep factor as possible.

This strategy might have worked before the age of the Internet, but nowadays everyone can tell how much they've changed, and not only that, but FE has now attracted a huge audience of horny weebs who scream and cry whenever you censor a single vagina bone, so they don't take ANY kind of censorship well. I wish Nintendo would just like... stop trying to change their shit depending on the audience and just maybe not make weird creep shit in general? LOL but who am I say.

Anyways I rambled way too much, all this to say, no I wasn't aware of all of this specifically - I did know that Naga has always has their "genderfluidity" censored and is always referred to as female in the English versions, but I haven't really seen much about the removal of the polytheism as that might be artbook-specific. In the FE games I've played, it's pretty clear Naga is only one of the gods, particularly in FE15, where the main god of the plot is Mila. But it also doesn't really surprise me, because it's Nintendo and they love to censor the shit out of their own material.

[crabknight]

hmmmmmmmmmmm. hit me with your top 5 favorite AND least favorite fe maps

hmm alright, I'll try

First the least favorite maps (after the first one, then it's not really in any particular order)

Fe5 chapter 19, this fucking asshole map frustrated me to all hell before even starting the map, I told you all about it I believe, but it was all because I had a fantastic idea, that I then found out didn't work because Thracia doesn't allow to switch unit deployment locations and I just got very angry at that

Fe6 chapter 16, this one is just not fun because the side objective is just such a hassle to complete while also completing the map with minimal casualties and max gain, and you can't just ignore it because you need to complete it to get the sidequest to unlock the true ending

Fe6 chapter 14, I know there's a lot of binding blade here and you're playing through it right now, but don't worry about it, there's just some real stinkers that stand out. This one is just not fun at all, a dessert map, with fog of war, and wyverns hiding in the shadows. You gain a new horribly weak character who needs to make it to the other end of the map and survive and you have to win within 20 turns to unlock the sidequest for the secret ending

oops another thacia map, fe5 chapter 4, this one is called the dungeon. I will say I love the idea and some of it wasn't horrible, but it just turns into a slogfest so fast, especially if you don't know what's coming for you (like me, I played most of this game blind) and especially the end of the chapter is not fun imo. and ohh the reinforcements

Idk man I suppose fe10 chapter 9, just because you always just get Micaiah and Black Knight, and because black knight oneshots everyone and everyone oneshots Micaiah (most of the time, not always depending on her stats) it's pretty much just the same each playthrough with basically no variance, it's just "oop sorry you didn't know that guy was in the shadowy bush, start over" and none of the combat is interesting either it's just black knight saying bonk and blowing out the light in the enemies eyes with a singe swing of his weapon. always

Now for my favorites, this one is also hard, I almost never really remember the maps themselves, but whatever (order doesn't really matter that much)

Thracia endgame, I don't really care much for the boss himself, he isn't really that interesting, but the whole map leading up to it was a lot of fun, somewhat because this is a pretty well designed final map for fire emblem, but mostly actually because I am very proud of beating it the way I did. I used all the tools at my disposal, I planned it out very well, I made good use of the characters placements and locations and also manipulated it a little to my advantage, I finally got my revenge on this game for all the bullshit it pulled on me by bullshitting it's deadlords in return. But most of all, I like what this chapter represents for me, I had finally conquered this game that had been toying with me for many weeks and I considered that a great achievement, but more than that I had beaten the final chapter, and thereby the final game I had left in the fire emblem series

Genealogy chapter 5, just a long and awesome gauntlet. So much cool stuff happens in this chapter and you fight so many cool enemies that have been talked up throughout the entire so far, just overall great, no notes

Fe7 endgame, yeah sure the final boss itself isn't all too interesting, just one dragon in a room that always deals 37 damage no matter who it attacks, but the first part is pretty cool imo. You slowly uncover the rooms and fight all the bosses you've fought throughout the game, while they are wielding super buff weapons that you also get after? yeah, that shit fucks

Fe15 attack on rigel castle, just the culmination of alms entire arc up to this point and the end of his war on rigel, mixed with the revelation in the cutscene after is just fantastic

Fe5 chapter 14, just a really cool defend map where you defend a walled city while enemies break down the walls and push you further back while you try to hold the line, and then right near the end the enemies get one final push with a battalion of wyvern knights that you now have to protect against. There's also a whole bunch of villages you can visit for items, unlocking the sidequest or even recruiting a whore. just a very interesting chapter overall

[loregoddess]

For the rarest of rarepairs of all, Faye/Rinea!

I would have answered your original ask, but then by blog went kapoof so *shrugs*

RIP to the original ask, but also this is a BIG mood.

[gascon-en-exil]

According to a new developer interview for Engage. apparently IS didn't put in New Game+ or other endgame material in favor of the online multiplayer stuff.

I'm not surprised. I've said before that New Game+ is not typical for FE, and it's usually not a good fit for the series anyway. On the other hand though, FE has been experimenting with multiplayer since the GBA games, and both the DS games and Awakening/Fates had online PvP. It's a big thing for handheld games (see also: Pokémon). Even Heroes has a few different PvP modes, and Engage is mostly following that script.

That doesn't excuse the lack of a global support log, however...not that Engage is the first game to lack one (FE6, FE9 without transfers, FE15).