#and it is part of why I love Tellius. even the VILLAINS have more than one aspect to them

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

on that previous post's tags note, the fact that anyone would look at a Tellius character and reduce them to a single trait with no other characterization is absolutely bonkers to me. the fact that anyone can play a Tellius game and walk out being like "wow that character had nothing to them except this one aspect about them" is completely bonkers to me... but even more so when it's a very recurring character with a very massive range of personality and traits across each conversation.

[enbyleighlines]

Leigh plays Tellius prt 23

Ugh. Featured above is what I believe to be the most frustrating decision Radiant Dawn made. Astrid had so much potential! She's from a noble family, but left to become a knight so that she could escape an arranged marriage! (Likely inspired by seeing her elder sisters enter into unhappy marriages.) She's timid, but determined to become stronger. She starts out weak, but grows fast, due to her special skill. The fact that she becomes demoted to Makalov's devoted groupie is so disappointing.

I mean, in comparison to her original betrothed, Makalov is a vast improvement. But that's more of a comment on Lekain than Makalov.

And here we have the most baffling decision Radiant Dawn has made. I don't hate it, I'm just... confused. Why did Devdan change his name? Why is he pretending to be a different person? Did he actually lose his memory or is this a bit? Or is it a poorly designed scheme to keep himself out of trouble?

I don't know. I do wish Devdan/Danved had more story importance. He seems like a cool character. I especially liked his base conversation with Ike in PoR. If only we could have had more of that.

Crimean Royal Knight Fifth Platoon Captain Kieran hath returned!!! I am so happy to see this absolute buffoon. He just reads as so fruity to me. I can't wait to pair him with Oscar again. Those two were monsters in my PoR playthrough. And with Oscar's avoid bonus, they were nearly untouchable, too.

Man, this map took me so long. I went into it thinking that it would be easy. After all, most of the enemy units are fairly weak. Surely my units won't have any issue staying alive.

Oh, how wrong I was. The amount of times Marcia got sniped by an crossbow, or Geoffrey got crit by a sniper... I didn't keep count, but trust me, it was a lot. And it didn't help that the enemy and ally turns took so long, so redoing this map was a trial of patience.

At long last, however, I managed to pull through.

This part of the game is so heartbreaking. The fact that Ludveck actually sent Elincia Lucia's hair... like, that's serial killer behavior right there. And while I do think Lucia looks better with short hair, I would have much preferred it if she didn't have it chopped off against her will by the world's most evil Southern gentleman. That's a massive violation of Lucia's bodily autonomy, meant to humiliate and degrade her, and I'm again sad we don't get to murder Ludveck for this.

I've always wondered what all the people gathered here think. Are they predominantly on Elincia's side, or Ludveck's? I hope it's the former. I know Elincia isn't enjoying much popularity from the nobles, but I hope she at least has a devoted following among the common folk.

And how I pray to remove your head from your body, Ludveck. God, he's so creepy. Why are all the male villains in RD so creepy? They all have such terrible incel energy.

THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN

I SAID THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN

Gosh, this isn't my favorite cutscene in the game (that happens in part 3), but man this one is SO HYPE. My own complaint is that Soren is the only one who doesn't seem to have a voice actor assigned to him, aside from maybe Rhys. Even Gatrie does a little grunt at one point. But Soren is a main character! At least hire someone to do some quiet chanting in the old language. They did that for Micaiah in the first cutscene.

Oh, well. I'm too happy to complain any further. I'm just relieved to finally get the Greil Mercs back. Part 3 is probably my favorite part of the game, though part 4 is also a lot of fun. It has some of the best cutscenes in the game imo. I cannot wait to see Ranulf animated. His smooth voice and subtle little ear twitches... ah, I'm in love!

[gascon-en-exil]

I've seen you mention a few times how Genealogy was an inspiration for Three Houses and that this shouldn't be ignored when looking at Three Houses. I've studied literature science and wonder if you're familiar with a term called "intertextuality"? Intertextuality basically means that one cannot ignore the influence that a text has on another text. When analysing a work that has known inspiration from another work, its important to consider what the references to the other text might (1/3)

mean to the context of the current one. Looking at Fire Emblem as a series, it often has reccuring story elements and character arcehtypes that can be played straight, for subversion, parody or deconstruction, depending - but something that cannot be ignored is that these elements are used by the writers on purpose to convey information to players familiar with them. For example, someone that has played Genealogy would immidietly pick up that the Flame Emperor title is a reference to Arvis (2/3)

and the many possible implications that come with it. Through something as simple as a moniker, the writers have already given more information to a series veteran than to someone unfamiliar with the series that picked up Three Houses as their first Fire Emblem game. To summarise: If a work is known to have taken inspiration from another work, its important to look at both works when doing a serious analysis. People unfamiliar with the referenced work will miss out on information. (3/3)

I did a fair bit of intertextual study in literature at university, so this is an academic approach I’ve been regularly applying to the media I discuss on my blog. I think fandoms subconsciously apply intertextuality to all long-running series without a single continuous story linking them all together, because it’s an aesthetic and thematic continuity by which they then may be identified as a series even in the absence of a connected plot.

Fire Emblem loves this kind of thing, playing around with the plot and character conventions Kaga established in the earliest entries of the series to produce new ones that share the same basic look and feel and storytelling flow. Of course it’s not just that the games all portray variations on the Standard FE Plot™ enacted in a pseudo-medieval European setting by anime characters; all the character and class archetypes and reused legendary weapons and dragon lore and so forth are part of this too, as is the series’s consistent (apart from FE13, ahem) messaging on war, its instigating factors, and its far-reaching outcomes.

For better or worse, Three Houses is arguably the first “modern” FE to demand a more than surface level intertextual analysis to properly understand it. Preceding it we’ve had -

Three remakes that can be directly compared to their originals. Where they reference other parts of the series it’s either in adding in staple archetypes that hadn’t yet been codified in the early Kaga games and may be easily understood (Athena and Norne as the exotic swordswoman and plucky female archer, the Deliverance trio recolored as Christmas knights plus one, Conrad for incest subtext) or are, for Echoes specifically, story callbacks only as far as Awakening.

Awakening itself, a nostalgia-laden greatest hits piece that does indeed pull from every prior game in the series up to that point. However, apart from its setting and story pulling beats from the first three games these references are straightforward and fairly shallow, with DLC maps and bonus characters taken directly out of previous games in a manner that better resembles the core conceit of Heroes than anything in any other main line game.

and Fates, which I would argue to be the game that can best stand on its own. Fans more familiar with the writing and development of FE14 can undoubtedly pry into why that is better than I can, but the worldbuilding and lore of this game feel fairly independent from the rest of the series to the extent that it appears not to have any true antecedent (apart from Awakening in a mechanical and abstract narrative sense). I’d contrast it with Sacred Stones, which is also the only game for its particular setting but feels more of a piece with the rest of the series because of its more conventional and less ambitious worldbuilding and the story and gameplay elements drawn from Gaiden and Mystery of the Emblem. I’m now wondering actually if one of the reasons that Fates is currently being treated very vocally as the black sheep of the series is in fact this: that it’s too dissimilar from the rest of FE such that it must be appreciated on its own merits - which, having been followed by a lavishly presently Kaga remake and the heavily intertextual Three Houses, many fans aren’t willing to do at the moment. At the very least this would account for why Awakening maintains a better reputation despite being an objectively worse game than Fates in nearly every regard.

And now we have FE16, confirmed to have Jugdral as its inspiration and with the characters and designs of its leads pulling from protagonists and antagonists all across the series. The fingerprints of the other settings are all over Fòdlan too, from with the shadow of Elibe’s Arcadia hanging over how we engage with Rhea and her family to Tellius’s musings on race, religion, and the psychology of what creates and sustains villains (plus, as Tellius is to quote a fellow meta writer “Jugdral in a blender,” there’s a lot of backwash to be had as well - typical of how FE’s referential nature compounds on itself). I’ve said before that expecting fans of Three Houses to play and fully understand two - or four, if we’re including Tellius - other games with a high barrier of entry in order to properly appreciate this one is the kind of snobbish elitism that will get you dismissed outright, but you’re absolutely correct that if you’re not familiar with that material then you’re missing out on a big piece of the puzzle.

[dornishsphinx]

T, U, and Y!

T: Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending?

Hmmm hard and fast headcanons that I’d die defending

From SOV, Conrad’s mother was a lady-in-waiting and close friend to Berkut’s mother who came with her to the capital when she married into the royal family. Lima was invited to the capital during the famine because the Rigelians were desperate. He saw her there and demanded she come with him in exchange for aid. (I may also be writing a fic on Conrad’s mother, watch this space ^_^)

Wrt Tellius, the United Bird Tribes eventually fall apart, the specific breaking point coming about due to arguments about over succession. The ravens end up putting forward Naesala and Leanne’s raven son and the hawk population are adamant that he not be considered (some going as far as to say that ravens in general shouldn’t be considered) due to lingering anger, the ravens getting angry in turn and moving to once again declare the independence of Kilvas (and taking a bit more territory with them this time since they’re in a stronger position.)

When it comes to Naesala and Leanne’s kids, the heron girl mostly takes after Naesala in personality, though the raven boy is more similar to Reyson than either of his parents (both also have traits from Leanne, but they’re less noticeable on first impression.) Both can sing galdr due to their mother but, especially for the raven boy, its effects are far weaker. (Maybe let’s say in gameplay terms that raven boy can buff and not actually refresh.) 

Their heron daughter on one occasion also accompanies Naesala on a diplomatic mission to Begnion, where she decides to learn beorc magic—with Sanaki’s blessing and occasional direct tutelage—as a way to bypass herons’ inability to fight the laguz way, even staying there for a while when he leaves for his next destination. This is a major scandal in the laguz world.

U: Three favourite characters from three different fandoms and why they’re your favourites.

Oh man, it took me a while to settle on who to talk about, but:

Jason Todd (DC Comics)

Jason is the reason I got into DC generally, so I was already biased, but Jason is interesting because he’s a counterpoint to the idea that Batman knows Gotham City better than anyone, as someone who actively grew up on its streets rather than in the safety of a mansion, and someone who came to a vastly different conclusion on what had to be done to make it safer without being painted (mostly) as a clear-cut villain. Also, he’s a literary nerd and it’s such a cute little detail which is never really brought up explicitly on page but is a recurring thing in the background. The antique book collection in UTRH, reading Pride and Prejudice while in jail, really liking school as Robin, and in other bits I can’t remember the context of. 

Where he gets fascinating is on a meta level though. We have the juxtaposition between what modern writers want Jason’s Robin to have been (I really love his run as Robin too, he’s such a cutie in comparison to what he becomes later) and how he actually was written, which kinda comes off as the characters themselves trying to convince themselves of something that isn’t true. And I’ve seen complaints about how people treat his death as being so much more important than others’ deaths when he’d hardly the only DC character to die, but it’s precisely because of real-world circumstances that it’s such a big deal–killed off by poll, left untouched for decades, his costume an ever-present ghost in the Batcave and for the Batfamily–it’s one of those things that can only happen in a big shared comicsverse medium.

I’ll never forgive the New 52 for being the reason we never saw, and can never see now, the Batfamily and Red Hood’s relationship develop.

He just became an ally again randomly in a way that screams editorial mandating “make them get along now, we don’t care how.” They just made everyone do a 180 without bothering to explain why or how and I hate it.

(Also, imo, grey morality Red Hood>outright villain Red Hood AND outright hero Red Hood.)

Laurent (Captive Prince)

Man, I know Captive Prince is controversial, but the story is just so good and even though it’s been a while since I read them, Laurent as a character has stuck with me. (I mean, I adore Damen too, but so many of the character concepts

I’ve come up with since reading the books have been Machiavellian princes shutting themselves off from their emotions, I’m pretty sure Laurent is the source.)

He’s had to adapt to survive the personal hell his uncle transformed the Veretian court into when he (and Damen) got the rest of their family killed—and, at the same time, anyone with the power or desire to protect Laurent from him—when he was just a little kid, and has just built up all the walls around himself. Seeing them slowly peel back and reveal the other sides to him he’s been forced to keep hidden for so long is one of the great things about the series. He’s such a well-realised character, and as you read along, you get to the point where you just need to see him succeed in taking Vere back from his uncle.

He always has the best comebacks too. Nearly everything he says when he’s not awkwardly trying to work his way around emotions he can’t properly express, usually when around Damen, is just pitch-perfect sarcasm even in dire circumstances.

Just a great character overall.

Franziska von Karma (Ace Attorney)

Last time I talked about a favourite Ace Attorney character it ended up being Ema, but I did say she only just beat out Franziska, so it’s her turn now. I’m so sad she’s not reappeared in any of the main games since the original trilogy, though at least we have Investigations. She still has to give Phoenix that card back!

But yes, I just love Franziska. She is very much part of the running theme of legacy families in Ace Attorney with her need to attain perfection and measure up to the Von Karma name, and her relationship with Edgeworth is sweet in a super competitive way. When she comes back later and spends the night trying to solve the puzzle locks to save Maya, you can also see that she has gone through a lot of development over the course of JFA and T&T.

(I maintain that 6-5 would have been vastly improved if she’d taken Edgeworth’s place, and am not entirely convinced it wasn’t originally written with her in mind. I mean, last time she appeared she was undergoing character development and trying to save Maya in a spirit medium-related setting, and this time had Maya being in a perilous situation in a spirit medium-related setting in a foreign country AND she has a history of working with Interpol. It would have actually made sense for her to show up as opposed to the Chief Prosecutor of a foreign country.)

(Also her design is amazing)

(Foolish fool)

Y: What are your second-hand fandoms (i.e. fandoms you aren’t in personally but are tangentially familiar with because your friends/people on your dash are in them)?

Dragon Age is the big one I can think of. I played a little of Dragon Age Origins before Redcliffe became a never-ending zombie nightmare and I wasn’t able to progress, so I don’t count myself as having really played, but I pretty much know all the spoilers. And have even plotted out who I’m gonna romance when I finally do get around to it. Current plan: Alistair (while pouring one out for the F/F romance with Morrigan that could never be), Fenris and Josephine.

Also Marvel, kinda? I don’t really buy or keep up with Marvel comics anymore aside from going to see the movies. I’ll check it out, but usually it’s only on a whim. (If Agent of Asgard/JiM Loki ever get a run again, you can count on me jumping back in.)

[hippomanblog]

My Fire Emblem Rankings

I’ve had a few questions about my legitimate Fire Emblem opinions and thoughts, so I figured I’d write this up while I’m waiting for some things to process. This is all just personal opinion, no shade is meant to be being thrown, and this probably won’t interest you too much.  But, hey, here it is.  I’ll list the Fire Emblems going from favorite to least favorite, and explain a little bit about why I feel that way. Note that I won’t be including 1-5.  I’m considering the remakes the “definitive” versions of 1/2/3, and I haven’t actually played the Jugdral games.  I’m also not counting Heroes because it’s kinda hard to “judge”, but I do like it a lot and play on a pretty regular basis. THIS POST WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR EACH GAME!

#1. Awakening

Awakening is a game that gets a few things wrong but most things right.  What don’t I like about it?  I preferred the art style of the Tellius games.  The maps aren’t very creative.  Pair Up is a thematically cool mechanic that really doesn’t hold up to scrutiny and trivializes many encounters.  The story is simple, with the exception of a couple twists, and Validar is a dull villain. I like pretty much everything else.  Awakening managed to be accessible to new fans and still provide a nice challenge for series veterans.  There’s a diverse selection of characters who are all pretty viable, meaning you can use your favorites.  Most characters have a lot of personality and depth to their lines, like with how they turned Frederick from a typical stoic Jagen-type into this goofy obsessive pyromaniac without making him a complete joke character.   The SpotPass characters are also a lovely addition if you adore the series like I do, and there’s just so much to do in this game, so it feels like a celebration of the franchise as a whole.  If I’m trying to get someone into Fire Emblem, I will tell them to play Awakening. Favorite Character: Gregor or Owain. Least Favorite Character: Yarne #2. New Mystery Of The Emblem

This is bias, yes, but I love New Mystery.  I was really excited for this game, because I was pretty new to the fanbase when it was announced, and couldn’t wait for an English release.  I waited, and waited, and waited, and... Once I finished playing my JP copy I just lamented that we didn’t get to play this game here.  I think that while Awakening reinvents Fire Emblem, New Mystery is sort of the pinnacle of “classic” FE.  The game is just fun, the maps are diverse and challenging, and the combination of reclass and the sheer amount of playable characters gives it immense replay value. The plot is nothing to really write home about, but after the vast wasteland of Shadow Dragon Plot, I really liked what was there.  It’s nothing that’ll blow your mind, but there are some nice moments.  I know a lot of people hate Kris, but I don’t mind them.  I won’t go to bat for them being any kind of great character or vital addition to the story, but as a sounding board to give other Archanea characters a little personality, and a way to customize your own unit and give them all sorts of terrible hats, they work just fine.  I also like the idea of Marth as a bit of a shell-shocked, reluctant king who relies on his friends to rise to greatness.  It prevents him from being “too perfect”, like RD Ike.  But I can see where people have problems with this. I wish this were a more accessible entry in the series, because I think it has a little bit of something for every Fire Emblem fan. Favorite Character: Honestly?  I like Caeda and Ogma, they’re cool people. Least Favorite Character: matthis is creepy and I hate him 3. Blazing Sword

Like a lot of people, Blazing Sword was my first exposure to the series (through an LP on Youtube for me), and it does a great job.  You could honestly probably swap these first three around in any order, to be frank. The balance in this one is a little wonky, and it goes on a little too long.  But I like what it does with its extra time.  You get some clever gaidens that mix up the formula, have room to use lots of units, and the sprite animations are just wonderful to watch.  The three lords all bring something to the table, even though you’re honestly probably just going to play Hector Mode once you’ve unlocked it.  Lyn has a story about claiming your birthright and using nobility to help people, Hector’s brash and boorish nature is offset as he learns how to be a better person on his journey (That scene with Matthew on the Dread Isle is great.), and Eliwood...exists. With maps ranging from cramped and objective based to sprawling battlefields, there’s a lot of variety in gameplay and room for different units to shine.  It’s also got some of the best supports in the series.  It’s a must-play for any Fire Emblem fan. Favorite: Hector is a good boy and a friend.  Legault is also a surprisingly involved side-character with some great lines and dialogue with almost every Morph in the final map! Least Favorite: Jaffar, because it’s hard to tell if I hate him more for killing Leila or ramming his face into the paladin in Battle Before Dawn and getting slaughtered so many times.

4. Path Of Radiance

I guess only the top 3 are getting thumbnails, sorry.  PoR sticks with me because it tries a lot of new things and most of them work out.  The bonus experience is a good system, I think this game does support unlocks better than any other, Laguz units are fun to use, and the conversion to pseudo-3D maps feels smooth and never gets in the way of gameplay. There are issues, though.  I’m not a fan of the way the full-body portraits look in the cutscenes of this game, biorhythm is silly, and that Bridge Map sure does Exist.  The reason this isn’t breaking Top 3, though, is that I just never really got attached to the cast.  Characters are a big part of Fire Emblem for me, and while there are some great ones in PoR, there are also several that feel very forgettable.  The plot is also a little...iffy, because it’s all FANTASY RACISM and it feels like it’s trying to punch above its pay grade sometimes.  Like, be honest, did you give a shit that you had to kill Jill’s dad?  That character who showed up maybe once?  The maps also tend to blend together, with a few notable exceptions (because they’re annoying, mostly).   In Minor Nitpick Town, the 3D cutscenes are hilariously goofy and the Trial characters have really awful unlock conditions. Still, PoR is a very solid entry and I’d give it a hearty recommendation. Favorite: Ranulf, probably. Least Favorite: makalov shouldn’t have been recruitable

5. Sacred Stones I balked a little at putting this one this low, like “Really?  This is FIFTH?”  But I guess that’s just a testament to how much I enjoy all these games.  Like with the top three, you could probably swap this with PoR. Sacred Stones gets a lot of shit for being “too easy”, and I don’t think that’s necessarily wrong, but I also don’t think it’s that big a deal.  This game takes risks, but they’re good risks that frequently pay off.  This was the ideal game for the Trainee classes to come in, because you can actually feasibly use them!  The monsters add variation to the types of enemies you encounter!  Split promotions are interesting tactical decisions that give the player more control over their personal experience! There’s just...not a ton of substance to SS, though.  The monsters, at heart, aren’t really interesting to fight.  The game’s plot often feels like it’s on fast forward, and it ends before any real tension builds.  The villains are, with the exception of Lyon, who’s great, mostly just cardboard cutouts of bad guy stereotypes.  The postgame is mostly just grindy and once you’ve beaten the Tower or Ruins once, you’ll probably say “okay, I’m done!”  Well, you aren’t, not if you want 100%!  Get back in there and kill more Dracozombies to unlock your underleveled Druid! If you really crave that “challenge” as an essential part of your FE experience, although I think SS is often made out to be easier than it really is, you can probably skip it.  But for most fans, it’s not to be passed up. Favorite: L’Arachel, of course. Least Favorite: I usually forget Syrene is in the game until she appears. 6. Fates: Conquest Yes, I’m dividing Fates into three games.  Sue me.  Conquest feels like the best of the Fates routes, because it’s creative.  In... a lot of ways.  The maps are creative.  While some just amount to gimmicks, several are, in my opinion, series standouts.  Chapter 9 is a Defense map that actually feels like a Defense map.  You’ve got anti-siege weapons, you’re scrambling to keep the Hoshidans from flooding in, and when Takumi drains the water the whole dynamic of the map suddenly changes.  It rules.  To me, that map encompasses all the best parts of Conquest. It’s too bad it’s still in Fates, though.  Let’s get it out of the way: Plot Bad.  But, unique to Conquest, I think, is a plot so utterly ridiculous and convoluted that it actually becomes actively enjoyable.  This is a story where your cousin puts on a different colored costume to COMPLETELY FOOL your adoptive dad, who she reveals is actually a jelly monster, but cannot tell anyone else because of a terrible curse inflicted by the King Of The Jelly Monsters, so you organize an invasion of an entire country to unmask Jelly Dad by making him sit on the Super Special Chair that will reveal his gelatinous form.  I love it, to be honest. Otherwise my issues are mostly just the standard Fates Problems.  The game tries to take what worked in Awakening and amp it up to 11, which ruins most of it.  The child characters are unmemorable and the plot explanation is bafflingly nonsensical (BABY DIMENSIONS), the characters often feel like they’re just gimmicks that smash into eachother and then get married for some reason, and the game tries to be so many things at once that most of them feel half-assed or over-complicated. Jelly King Dad though. Favorite: Arthur cracks me up. Least Favorite: Peri Peri Peri peri peri p e r i   p  e  r  i 7. Echoes: Shadows Of Valentia

Confession time.  I still haven’t finished this one all the way.  I’ve seen the ending, though. Let’s get the problems out of the way first.  The gameplay is not very fun.  The map design delights in sticking you in poisonous swamps, slow and dreary deserts, or Nuibaba’s Abode, which I would personally say is the worst map in the series.  While some of Awakening and Birthright’s maps feel lazy, most maps in this game feel like they were designed either just to frustrate you or with a series of random dice rolls that somehow plant a single Cavalier at the ass-end of nowhere and extend the map for three turns with zero rhyme or reason.  Class balance is all over the place and you basically just want all the Dread Fighters possible, with a Cleric to summon more Dread Fighters.  The dungeon crawling doesn’t add much, most of the game mechanics go woefully underexplained, and the voiced supports feel minimalist and shallow. But when Echoes works?  It really, really works.  I don’t like playing it, but watching someone play Echoes is a treat.  The game is bursting with personality thanks to some phenomenal voice acting, which leaves the story with some unforgettable moments, both comic (the boey scream) and dramatic (Berkut Loses His Shit).  Even though the characters don’t have a lot of explicit backstory, their voices and conversations are so expressive that it’s easy to sort of form your own ideas about their personalities and lives.  The art is some of the best in the series, and each portrait is expressive and well done.  It’s clear that this remake had a lot of care put into it, and it produced some of the series best lords and a wonderful new villain in the sinister Berkut. 8. Radiant Dawn

A lot of good things from Path Of Radiance carry over to Radiant Dawn.  Namely, the stuff I mentioned earlier, I won’t go into it all again.  All of that is good, but the new additions and changes often don’t work. The multiple viewpoints has a few cool moments, like facing down Ike and friends in 3-13 (with the greatest faceless NPC of all time on your side), but often just contributes to making the game way too long and making the characters often appear outright stupid or contradictory for the sake of moving the plot along.  Remember when Micaiah, who spared one of the most vile people in FE history in Part 1, dumped flaming oil on a 13 year old girl and her guards in Part 3?  Remember when Ranulf just walks up and tells you who the Black Knight is, ending a mystery that had been developed since the previous game with the dialogue equivalent of showing you a spoiler on the internet?  Remember blood pacts? The massive split in characters also makes some of them completely worthless.  Never forget the sad case of Vika, who suddenly disappears and doesn’t return until almost the final chapter, still at her Part 1 level.  Yikes. I do enjoy the Finale maps a lot, however, and the final boss encounter is fairly memorable, though it does carry its own problem with Ike being basically hero worshipped by the entire cast, to the point where only he can strike down Ashera.  I like Ike, but RD kind of feels like it’s forcing him down your throat sometimes. Favorite: Out of the new characters, Nolan, probably? Least Favorite: surprise it’s still makalov 9. Shadow Dragon I’m sure this is bottoming out a lot of people’s lists, but let me make my case. 1. Reclass is cool and they introduced it in this.

2. Hardin’s turban.

3. The Prologue, where IS got to make new stuff, is a lot of fun and has personality.

4.

Okay, so Shadow Dragon is disappointing.  It’s a remake that did not change enough, and if the FE games were yogurt flavors, Shadow Dragon would be the batch they just forgot to put flavoring in.  Everything, down to the graphics, is covered in this thin veneer of blandness, and it’s sort of a muddy march to the finale, so you can finally take down a villain who literally gets about four lines in the whole game. The Gaiden chapters also feel like a rude prank.  If you want to get at the fun maps with the interesting characters with good dialogue, you have to slaughter all of your friends on purpose!  At least it’s in Shadow Dragon so you probably won’t like most of them anyway! Favorite: The guy who calls Gordin “Gaggles”. Least Favorite: surprise it’s still makalovmatthis 10. Binding Blade I admit that this is bizarre placement.  I just...don’t like Binding Blade.  It’s mostly due to stat distribution in gameplay, honestly.  The skill/luck formula in this one results in a lot of boss fights that are just two 40% characters whiffing on eachother for ages.  Several of the maps are giant slogs, especially 14, but I don’t remember any in particular that I really enjoyed.  The plot is okay, but not memorable.  Idunn is a bit of a letdown encounter.  Hector deserved better.  To summarize, I guess I just don’t think this is a game that does anything that Blazing Sword didn’t do better.  So I’m gonna play that one instead. Favorite: Bors because of a terrible stupid inside joke I have with a friend. Least Favorite: I don’t remember anyone I cared enough to dislike, really.  Let’s go with Cath for having the worst recruitment for a Worse Chad. 11. Fates: Birthright Remember all those cool things Conquest did?  What if they didn’t? Birthright! While the story is still bad, it’s not nearly as funny-bad, although I do have to give props to the scene where Flora sets herself on fire and Jakob spends about a solid minute screaming out how pointless this is, echoing the player’s thoughts perfectly.  The maps are mostly just stat-checks and open fields, and the answer to your problems often isn’t “make a better plan”, it’s “go grind a bit and then just roll through it”, especially on some late-game maps.  Iago’s comes to mind, with the whole Entrap into Berzerker combo?  Screw that. Favorite: Azama is a treasure.  On the NPC (in this route) side, Elise is a beacon of rationality and kindness.  I sure hope nothing happens to h-Oh. Least Favorite: I remember literally nothing about the personalities of Hana and Hinata so them, I guess.

12. Fates: Revelations Do you remember when I said Shadow Dragon was like unflavored yogurt?  What if all the flavorings got mixed into one batch?  And then you add chocolate and cherries and sprinkles and nuts and caramel and parsley and cinnamon and more cherries and shaved ice and spaghetti and then you tell it to explain the plot of Fates.  That’ll be 20 dollars. Revelations actively harms the other two routes of the game by being the obvious “true route”, where nobody has to get hurt (except the best characters, r.i.p. Scarlet and Izana) and everything turns out just fine, negating any sort of moral ambiguity present!  Anankos is a non-entity and a dull villain, and to add insult to injury, you don’t get to learn shit about him unless you buy the other DLC for this DLC that also decides to crib from Awakening and mess with some of the characters from that one.  Almost every map has a bizarre gimmick that’s just weirdly cumbersome, and the amount of plot twists the game shoves at you in an attempt to explain EVERYTHING is just exhausting.  You can play as any character in the Fates package (almost, double r.i.p. Izana) but the balance is tossed out the window to the point where once Niles and Odin come crawling in, they’re nigh-unusable in their joining chapter. It doesn’t feel like any part of it really comes together. Favorite: not this Least Favorite: Thinking about what else I could have bought with those 20 dollars. Well, that took about two hours, but this is my list.  If you have any questions, I’m open.  Sorry if I dissed your favorite, but if it helps, know that I can see why someone would enjoy any game in the series, even my least favorites.  Also, know that I’m an idiot on the internet and that my opinion doesn’t have to impact what you enjoy!  Just love the games you love, I’ll stick with mine, and we’re cool! I’m going to stop typing now.

[eienias20]

Fire Emblem Warriors thoughts

I’ve made no attempt to hide my utter disappointment at this game and I think I made a post some months back that I might be reiterating...but I just want to say it one more time to outline my issue not just with Warriors but with what I encounter quite regularly for being a fan of the older games. Oops. I mean an “elitist.”

In my opinion: Fire Emblem Warriors biggest crime is that it could’ve ended, or at least severely broken “this”. What is this? The split. That’s what “this” is.

Since Awakening/Fates and all that, the Fire Emblem fanbase has been split. Badly. Warriors had the potential to be a Fire Emblem game for everyone. It could feature characters from all across the series’ history that everyone could bond over.

New favorites, old veterans, nearly everyone could’ve potentially had at least one character that really resonated with them, surrounded by many more familiar and maybe even some unfamiliar faces.

You can’t account for every single sense of taste but you could go for most of them. Ignoring that stupid “too many swords” argument the devs tried to use, you don’t actually HAVE to feature every single Lord. I think a game like this would be far more interesting with more of the B-teams from across the series. Some Lords, some plot important characters, A LOT of B-team. Because those B-team characters are the ones that people really invest into on the side, beyond the main lords, beyond the central characters, everyone has those side characters they just love.

And again, I doubt this game could cover every game in the franchise but it could do more than 3, two of which are already related and all 3 of which connect to one another. Warriors stated it would have support conversations. But with these games and casts being so interconnected ALREADY, what’s the point? They’ve already supported with each other once before, that’s another prospect lost.

Going back to unfamiliar characters, new fans would see these cool old characters, much like how Heroes introduces old characters, and they’d be inspired to learn more about these characters and maybe even check out their old games. Which btw Nintendo, you could release the games digitally on the eShop to make money off these new interested parties. In this hypothetical scenario where you did something smart at least.

But of course, in reality, they decided NOT to do that. Catering almost exclusively to the new fans, the new games and ignoring almost ten games worth of heroes and villains, thus widening the divide even further.

The saddest part is that the idea of a Fire Emblem Dynasty Warriors game is not new. People have wanted this kind of game for YEARS! And for those fan who wanted to play as their faves from Tellius, Magvel, Elibe or anything before that! Jugdral, Archanea...their wish finally came true.

Fire Emblem Warriors is real!

And it is nothing at all like how they imagined.

When I regularly bring up my grievances, I’m told to shut up and stop being an “elitist” and given these types of responses otherwise.

“Awakening Saved The Series” every time I hear that I have to bash my head into a wall. What does that have to do with anything?

Look. I think Fates is trash. The worst FE game ever made. And I think Awakening is way to over hyped. It's decent but many other FE games did what it did, BETTER. Did I want those games excluded from Warriors? NO.

I don't like them and they definitely should not represent Fire Emblem as a whole, but they are the most recent games (not counting Echoes because idk why) there was no version of Warriors in my head that didn't feature those games. I'm just so disappointed that they are the ONLY games being featured alongside Shadow Dragon.

Beyond that there is the “Wait for DLC” argument and that is a huge insult and unacceptable. If you are a huge Awakening fan imagine if no Awakening characters were going to be in this game. No one and instead you were told just to wait for DLC, that’ll fix it. That wouldn't feel good now would it? See?

I’m just asking for a little bit of empathy from the new fans for the many old fans being screwed over by this game.

I’ve made my decision that I am not buying a game for a roster comprised only of 1/3 of characters I actually care about and I am not holding over for DLC. It's a disgrace. It's an insult. It's a huge slap in the face. And while at times it makes me angry, it more often than not disappoints me.

When the announcement trailer released, I was hyped. This is a game, a concept, a crossover that seemed SO COOL! I imagined playing a game not unlike Hyrule Warriors but controlling characters I absolutely adore, heroes like Ike and the Greil Mercenaries (Mia stands out) or villains like Ashnard and the Black Knight! And that’s just Tellius! I couldn’t wait to see what they’d do with this game only to get “Shadow Dragon, Awakening, Fates” only shoved in my face.

Yes they said mostly. But you know why I don’t trust them? Because the same thing was said for the last Fire Emblem crossover. Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE.

The game would feature Fire Emblem characters MOSTLY from Shadow Dragon / Awakening. Come release, ONLY those characters are in the game. Caeda, Cain, Draug and Navarre (Shadow Dragon), Chrom, Tharja and Virion (Awakening) fucking knock it off with tharja pls.

But you know what got me MOST excited in #FE? Seeing Ilyana as an NPC hostess for a restaurant. THAT did it, above all else.

This came out longer than I thought it would be but again this is the last big thing I’ll write over this whole Fire Emblem Warriors thing.

If you follow me on twitter, I’ll probably still reference it through retweets or some comments because I just can’t let go of my disappointment. But regardless of what I say, this is my biggest stance.

When DLC is announced I just know its going to be painful. At this rate, I’d rather the DLC as well be restricted to Shadow Dragon, Awakening, Fates. That’d be far less hurtful than seeing my favorite characters relegated to such a role.

I’d go back to playing Fire Emblem Heroes which understands how to represent the series even if Fates/Awakening still hold such a majority, especially since Sacred Stones finally got their banner...but my tablet no longer works so I can’t play it again.

I’m hoping to pick up Fire Emblem Echoes soon, since unlike Fates that looks like an FE game I’d actually enjoy and of course I am still cautiously optimistic for Fire Emblem Switch.

I’ve been a Fire Emblem fan for so long, despite the fact that I feel so bad about the series recently, I refuse to give up on it just yet. I’m hinging everything on what Fire Emblem Switch turns out to be like.

I’m looking ahead to that in 2018 for countless reasons.

small addendum

what the hell happened to the voice acting? in Awakening, I enjoyed the vocal performances. no one stood out to me as bad.

Fates? yeah...poor quality i’d say. Especially in Corrin’s smash trailer. wow that was bad.

but this? VA changes sure, but some characters have their old VAs and according to ppl more well versed in those characters, they don’t sound good. The less we say of the OCs performances the better.

Regardless of if you’re excited for this game or if you’re me who is staying as far away as possible, the voice acting leaves a lot to be desired.

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

how to ruin jugdral characters and make them into shitty modern tropes: have two teenage girls cat fight over their romantic feelings for a grown ass man and make them aggressive rivals

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

I know that you like Jarod, but now that Ludveck's in Heroes, I was wondering if you had any thoughts on Jarod's smarmy brown haired twin.

LISTEN it's so nuts to me bc like

Ludveck is a perfect choice for this banner!

But... when Micaiah came out, where was Jarod?!

I huff, and I puff, and I blow IntSys' house down!

Anyway, on to Luddywuddypuddy...

IIII don't like him! I mean, he's a decent villain, nothing grand or unexpected, but I think his existence was solely to prop up Elincia. I don't dislike Elincia and I enjoyed her in part two, but he didn't seem to have any particular standout traits. Jarod for instance, he does strike me as a petty villain simply to make Micaiah look good, but he did have good lines and gave the feeling of a commander who was highly respected by the people who followed him. He's funny imo too, and all of that is at least more to his character than Villain for Arc #1.

Ludveck to me kind of felt more bland. He was easily outwitted and even though he had contingency plans, he doesn't come out on top in any way. For example, Jarod, the villain just prior to him, got his last words in by damaging Nevassa before he would be judged by the apostle. Even if he died, he took some of his enemies down with him like he wanted. Ludveck ended up with nothing but his ass in jail.

All Ludveck got to really do was sacrifice his own people as pawns (admitting they were disposable pawns too), ultimately being outwitted by both Geoffrey and Elincia. Geoffrey knew of an old highway that Ludveck apparently didn't know about, and Elincia defied his predictions at every turn for the entire section of the game.

I guess ultimately to me he has no standout qualities that make him much better than the senators? Like I guess you could say Hetzel was a bit more of a character that stood out to me as not being nefarious like the other senators, but most of them were the same general character. If you wanted the difference between Numida, Valtome, Oliver and Lekain for example, there really is no difference except that one of them joins you because ??? (not sure why the devs did that other than for the memes honestly, like I really have no idea), and that Lekain is basically the boss of all of them. Besides that stuff they're just like, a blob of all the same character.

Ludveck kinda feels like a much more generic villain, which is really rare for Tellius to have as far as non-chapter boss villains. Even the senators at least have presence and come across as threats over a long period. There's just something about Ludveck that didn't click with me, I guess. At least the senators actually caused a lot of trouble within the story, you know? Like they feel kind of like all the same person but they did do damage and have a huge impact on the story. Ludveck wasn't an interesting character like Jarod and he didn't have a lasting impact on the story like the senators.

I can't really compare him to BK and Sephiran since those two are more like... ingrained into the story itself. If you lose them you lose a lasting impact on various things, but if you take out Ludveck, he's so confined to such a small part of the story that nothing really changes, and had no interesting traits. Like, if you took out part two of RD, it wouldn't change... anything, really. You could put any other villain in Luddy's place and it would feel the same to me.

One thing he did do for me was tell me that Haar was capable of soloing half that map on his own so I guess that's cool too LOL.

Tbh my favorite part of part two was Geoffrey and was part of what made me love his character. I guess Ludveck had a bit of a hand in that since I enjoyed seeing Ludveck get outwitted by Geoffrey and it showed a lot more character from Geoffrey than what we got in PoR since he was a late game arrival in PoR. When it comes to the man himself though I feel like any villain could've still made me love Geoffrey more.

Sorry Ludveck, you wanted to be Jarod but you simply could not be Jarod.

[gascon-en-exil]

I Liked Fates Before It Was Cool!: Birthright Part 1

Prologue

Opening Chapters

Chapters 6-11, in which Hoshido’s military is extremely disorganized and only regroups because the mere idea of Ryoma is just that awesome.

Chapter 6

Not much to say here. Corrin tells Xander they’re siding with Hoshido against Garon and implores him to do the same, Xander accuses them of being brainwashed and, after repeated refusals, tries to kill Corrin. Following this is a chapter that will probably be finished during the first enemy phase unless Ryoma gets really unlucky. I suppose it makes sense that this is the shortest of the three versions of Chapter 6 as Corrin went to the border already with the Hoshidans. While it’s kind of neat that all the Hoshidan royals are playable on this map as a bit of a preview, note that this is the fourth of just seven chapters in which Ryoma has appeared as a unit prior to his formal recruitment. We get it already, the guy’s an OP powerhouse and a clear favorite of the writers.

This is also where I should probably bring up My Castle, but I don’t have much to say here as it was never a feature I particularly enjoyed. Other FEs have addressed the concept of a base for your army integrated into gameplay far better than this. Genealogy and the Tellius games and others may not let you perv on your units taking a bath or disgust them with your horrendous cooking, but what does that really add to the experience? I know, I know, a bunch of small and scattered stat boosts....

Chapter 7

Oh, silly banter in the middle of an attack while surrounded by wounded and dying soldiers. Never change, FE. But seriously, even if he’s just Cordelia with a dick whose semen produces more Cordelias let’s take the time to appreciate that Subaki is the series’s first playable male pegasus knight. Fates’s take on classes is actually very egalitarian, a fact that often gets lost in its sea of fanservice and subtle story-enforced misogyny and everything about <insert character whose gender/sexuality-related presentation offends you most>. Moving on.

I’m still not entirely clear what happens to the Hoshidan army between this chapter and the preceding one. They really appear to just break ranks and scatter: Corrin and co. go fool around in the astral plane with Lilith, Ryoma and Takumi lead some of their forces toward Izumo (why?), no one cares about Hinoka, and Sakura retreats here to Fort Jinya to tend to the wounded at a makeshift military hospital. It makes sense that the Hoshidan army wouldn’t have the strictest organization thanks to their years of protection under Mikoto’s barrier, but the problem is the game never tells us that and we’re left to infer these things based on the events of the next few chapters.

The Nohrians meanwhile are still on the offensive, but they screwed up by sending Silas’s unit to attack the fort. Silas has an unhealthy attachment to Corrin that frankly rivals Camilla’s, and his abrupt defection here because he wants to hang out with his partially amnesiac BFF undoubtedly bodes ill for anyone associated with him when news of it reaches Nohr. I guess it’s cute in my case that Silas’s obsession with Corrin knows no gender, but the guy probably steals underwear to sniff. Saizo is entirely justified in being suspicious of him.

Paralogue 1

Oh yeah, I forgot all about this chapter. Mozu’s just not as memorably meme-worthy as Donnel, and recruiting her is less frustrating since you’re not forced to make her poke things in her joining chapter. It does make the Faceless seem like more of a threat to Hoshido, although as a consequence playing through this paralogue in Conquest always feels a little weird. This plus the first Castle Invasion were mostly for EXP and support farming. For anyone wondering, I’m going to be keeping most of my characters in their default class sets since I don’t feel like grinding skills or anything elaborate like that. Also, I’m playing on Normal, so I’ve got a lot of latitude in how I play which is how I prefer FE anyway.

Chapter 8

Hinoka sums up my feelings on her and her retainers. Azama’s got some amusing lines and if I knew more about Buddhism his...interesting take on philosophy would probably be even funnier, but that’s about it. And yeah, Hinoka really just does pop onto the scene with no explanation except that she’s also trailing her brothers and I guess everyone really did forget about her. Sucks to be a late development addition.

Iago tosses the conflict ball to ensure the party’s trip to the Wind Tribe village is a rough one, though since Fuga was set on testing Corrin’s worth by sending a bunch of his tribesmen to get slaughtered by their army anyway I wonder why he even bothered. This is a rare case of a desert map that isn’t a frustrating pain in the ass, because it’s small and there are Dragon Veins to reduce the amount of sand. I also like how even on the lowest difficulty of the easiest route the game is already throwing a boss at you with some annoying skills. Fuga’s motivations may be silly, but at least he leaves us with the memory of a good chapter, some cryptic foreshadowing for the Yato, and a shota wind mage who unfortunately continues in the tradition of Ricken stepping away from their archetypical dynamic after Tellius made it just a little too close to explicitly gay.

Chapter 9

Izana, huh...Izana is...

Let’s talk about Zola!

Zola is one of the rare Fates villains who isn’t (always) exactly what he looks like. On first glance he’s just a typical simpering syncophant with a fitting talent for illusions, but he actually comes with a bit of a character arc in Birthright which I have to say I wasn’t expecting. It was almost as unexpected as Leo’s unexplained appearance at the end of this chapter to kick off said arc by leaving Zola exiled. One big problem I have with Fates is how characters have a tendency to teleport around off-screen as the plot demands it, distance between locations or basic geography be damned, but it’s marginally more forgivable here since Leo is shown later in this route to know how to perform literal teleportation.

I believe this is also one of the only times in Birthright where Hinoka gets to do something that affects the plot, so good on her for acting suspicious of fake!Izana. She’ll go right back to being overshadowed by her brothers - including being overshadowed at being overshadowed - soon enough.

Izumo’s role as the designated neutral nation is delved into more thoroughly in Conquest, weirdly enough. Here Corrin and co. get left only with a vague directive to head toward the Bottomless Canyon and some of Azura’s song lyrics. That’s kind of a good thing, because I’ve got nothing on Izana now. I get that he’s an amusing surprise the first time around, but...who wrote him like that?

Chapter 10

Allow me to divert for a moment from the Takumi angst to pick some very large nits with the geography of this game. In the previous chapter Corrin learned that Ryoma and Takumi had been pushed to the Bottomless Canyon, which is nowhere near their location - but hold onto that thought. The canyon is clearly northwest of Izumo, yet the party goes south to Mokushu allegedly in an effort to reach them there. Fates has a bad time in general with giving a good impression of where its events are taking place, partly because the scale of the map is odd and not helped by it being a topographic rather than a political map like in every other FE, partly because there are times like this where the information presented appears to be simply wrong. What’s worse, the major plot development surrounding Takumi’s possession in Birthright does not, at least so far as I recall, necessitate that he have been possessed by Anankos or anyone else connected to the Bottomless Canyon. I’ll certainly be revisiting this when the time comes.

But...whatever. In spite of everyone getting lost except Ryoma (because of course) this is actually a good chapter, with a cramped map filled with environmental hazards to add challenge. The treachery of Mokushu spans all three routes and is one of those set pieces that benefits from development in each of them. Kotaro’s connection to the, er, Christmas ninjas (and elsewhere, Shura) isn’t developed here unless you choose to have them engage him in combat, but that just saves stuff for the other routes. 

Chapter 11

Pictured: easily one of the most forgettable playable characters in this game. It’s a shame too, because she’s the only default kinshi knight and her bits of dialogue and few supports offer hints of an interesting backstory that would speak to gender roles in Hoshido. Alas, she’s merely a Corrinsexual.

This chapter itself is filler, but mechanically it’s good filler. Your new OP archer royal gets plenty of targets for his bow, there are some promoted generics to spice things up, and the Dragon Veins can either help or hinder you depending on how you use them. I don’t care for the antagonist fake-out between the opening and closing cutscenes and the chapter proper - where did possessed!Sumeragi the mysterious swordsman go while you were fighting the fliers? - but that’s a minor quibble. Corrin already beat that guy.

A larger problem is with Takumi’s development, or rather lack thereof. As I said last time the events of the opening chapters explain his initial hostility to Corrin (and Azura) quite well, and Mikoto’s death only reinforces that feeling. Why then does that hostility vanish so quickly in Birthright? Just one chapter after recruitment and he’s already turned his characteristic prickliness onto Zola instead, and I don’t recall it appearing much again except in the context of possession. It’s only the route the ends with Takumi as the final boss that allows him space for his feelings to develop organically (albeit in a negative direction), possibly because Conquest is the only one in which he’s not beholden to love Corrin like all playable characters in Avatar-centered games.

Next time: Birthright Chapter 12 - 18

[gascon-en-exil]

A Not Actually Definitive Ranking of Fire Emblem Games

So after a lot of deliberation I’ve decided not to revisit last year’s Zelda ranking project on a full scale for FE, but that doesn’t mean it’s not something I really wanted to do. 2018 is the year we’re going to get alternatively hyped for and disappointed by FE16, after all. With that in mind have an abbreviated list that will end up being one very long post. I’ve got games to gush over and an anon or two (and very likely actual followers…eep) to piss off, so here we go.

The “personal favorites of the series, love revisiting them” Tier - FE10, FE2/15, FE4

I’m never going to argue that Radiant Dawn is a perfect game or even just a perfect FE game, but damned if it doesn’t manage to do so much right all at once. An extremely ambitious story that builds off its mostly conventional predecessor in a variety of interesting ways, deconstructing a bunch of series narrative standards (life in a defeated country kind of sucks and there are people that don’t warm that quickly to young and inexperienced rulers, go figure) and taking an eleventh hour hard right at Nietzchean atheism as read by a Pride parade. Kind of falls on its ass by the end, but every experimental FE story does the same thing so I can’t fault this one. I love the army switching as motivation to try different units almost as much as I love the oh-so-exploitable growth and BEXP mechanics. Its Easy mode also hits a sweet spot for me of being challenging enough to not be a complete snore while also allowing the freedom for all manner of weird self-imposed challenges that don’t even require grinding. By all accounts Hard mode is one lazy design choice after another, but I don’t play at that level so no complaints here.

Never played Gaiden, but to its credit around half of the unique gameplay mechanics I like in Shadows of Valentia were also in the original: the modest army size, the novel approaches to inventory management and magic, the pretty basic class system with just a hint of nuance. The remake threw in some hit-or-miss questing, dungeon exploration, and achievements, but all the rest was either a solid addition or a continuation of NES-era annoyances that I could live with. And the story…SoV makes me dislike the DS games even more just because this game does so much with so little. Even leaving aside the mostly great voice acting there’s a bunch of new content that characterizes almost everybody and makes half of them (the men, anyway, because this is a remake of a Kaga-era game and therefore misogynistic as can be) gay because why the hell not, and then some development that constitutes the only solid attempt at worldbuilding Archanea-Valentia-Ylisse has ever really gotten and also retcons some stuff from Awakening into making sense. It’s even got some solid DLC with lots of character stuff for the Deliverance, the least sucky grinding of the 3DS games, and probably the only context in which I’ll ever be able to comment on anything from Cipher.

No remake needed for Genealogy of the Holy War to make it competitive with the rest of the top tier - just an excellent translation patch and the standard features of an emulator. I’ve never watched Game of Thrones and probably don’t plan on it, but I gather that this game provides the same essential experience with less blood and female nudity and marginally more egalitarianism for all. I can forgive it for being the original Het Baby Fest since you’d be hard-pressed to find a single entirely healthy and well-adjusted individual anywhere on Jugdral and I relate to that just as much. Screwed up family dynamics for everyone! It’s also arguably got a more fun breeding meta than either of the 3DS games, lacking Awakening’s optimization around a single postgame map with very specific parameters or Fates’s high level of balance that ironically stymies analysis. This is another game for interesting inventory management and unit leveling that isn’t too obnoxious, which mostly makes up for the maps taking an eon to play through even with an emulator speeding through those enemy phases. This would be a strange game to remake, but if it got a localized one of the same caliber as SoV I fully acknowledge that this could climb to the #2 spot. SoV would probably have the queer edge though unless they do some strange things to the plot or just make Gen 2 really gay…but then again Gen 2 is the part that’s more in need of fleshing out as it is. (Also, this game has So. Much. Incest. That’s not even really a kink of mine especially as it’s all straight incest, but I just find that hilarious in light of how Tumblr’s purity culture speaks of such things.)

The “good games, but don’t come back to them as much” Tier - FE7, FE9, FE8

Blazing Sword is not here for nostalgia purposes, especially since when I first played the game at 14 years old most of what I like about it didn’t really register. It was just that game with RPG elements that I liked and permadeath that I didn’t, and it took a few games after that for me to become an established fan of the franchise. Massive props for putting such an unconventional spin on a prequel to a textbook FE; this is a game in a series about war in which no war is fought, how crazy is that? We actually get to see the backstory of FE6′s tragic antagonist, even as it’s completely tangential to the plot of this game and so just feels like random Jugdral-esque family drama without context, and on top of that we get the first hints of interdimensional travel and kinky human/shapeshifter sex several years before either of those became controversial talking points about how they were ruining the series. I am so there. Lyn doesn’t matter to the saga, but her character arc is distinct and self-contained and also she picked up a disproportionately large fanbase while being bisexual and biracial so go her. Eliwood is sympathetic and homosocially-inclined even if his growths frequently make me want to cry (at least he gets a horse unlike his similarly-challenged son), and I can live with Hector even if I could have done without his lordly legacy. Throw in some average-for-the-time gameplay with just enough variety across the two routes and even more good character work *waves at Sonia and Renault and Priscilla -> Raven/Lucius and Serra and…* and it’s all in all a solid experience. The ranking system can go die in a fire though, which funnily enough it did after this game. Yay!

Like most early 3D games - except on Gamecube so it’s even more embarrassing - Path of Radiance has aged terribly by every aesthetic measure aside from the soundtrack. It’s also painfully slow, and my computer can’t run Dolphin apparently so an emulator’s not going to fix that for me. Those obvious flaws aside, it’s still an entertaining game, and more importantly it’s the prologue that had the crucial task of setting up all the pins RD knocked over in stellar fashion, whether we’re talking about the basic storyline that actually isn’t or the many het relationship fake-outs (more so in localization…I guess we’ll never know if NoA was actively planning that when they pushed Ike/Elincia like they did). PoR is also a love letter to Jugdral in both gameplay and themes, albeit an occasionally critical one. The jury’s still out on whether Jugdral or Tellius succeeds the most (fails the least?) of the FE settings at developing a complete world with a nuanced and resonant saga narrative, but that Tellius manages to be competitive while being kind of clumsy overall with racism and shifting the series’s overarching motif of dragon-blooded superhumans to one of kinky interracial sex is pretty impressive. The less I say about Ike the better since it’s only his endings in RD that save him for me; suffice it to point out that his worldview and general personality were clearly designed to appeal to a demographic that does not include me.

And finally comes The Sacred Stones, truly my average benchmark FE as I like it but struggle to have any particularly strong feelings on it one way or the other. The story is standard but has a few intriguing quirks, like the light vs. dark magic meta, surprise necrophilia, and how the main antagonist’s sexuality sort of depends on which route you take (except he’s still never getting laid so does it really matter?). It also seems to have been the first game to have made a legitimate effort toward the kind of replayability that’s normal for RPGs, what with the branched promotions, the route split, and the actual postgame. That’s all much more engaging than just filling up a support log. The gameplay is also more polished and (I think?) more balanced than the other GBA games, if one is willing to overlook the minor issue of Seth. Let’s see…something something twincest that’s now an IS running gag, something something guys talking intimately about their lances, something something SoV did the whole dungeon crawling with monsters bit better but I can forgive SS for not taking it that far. Moving on….

The “they have Problems” Tier - FE14, FE13

Probably qualifies as a fandom heresy, but yes I’m putting Fates first of these two. Fates is in every conceivable way for me the “You Tried” game, because I had such high hopes for it from the moment we got the earliest promotional content. I was expecting a World of Warcraft-style conflict between two morally grey factions with myriad convoluted grievances against each other messily resolving themselves one way or the other according to player choice (though note that this is already somewhat damning with faint praise as no one’s going to call WoW a storytelling masterpiece), with Conquest in particular a true villain campaign that I imagined might play out as European Imperialism: The Game. What we actually got was…not that, not at all, but amid all the complaints about plot holes and idiot balls and moral myopia most fans seem to have forgotten just how much there is to this game. It’s three full stories that together average out to be just about passable, with possibly the biggest gameplay variety in the series that fixed most of Awakening’s more broken elements (pair-up, children being unquestionably superior to the first generation) while also adding in new features that undoubtedly appealed to someone or other like Phoenix mode and the castle-building aspect. I can even mostly forgive the obvious growing pains Fates exhibits in terms of queer content, as they were pretty much inevitable once the developers realized that (almost) everyone was picking up on the subtext and that that approach just wasn’t going to cut it anymore. Again, they tried, and if the results included face-touching fanservice and plot contrivances left and right and two-way cultural posturing that inevitably crosses over into real world racism at some point I can still step back for a moment and acknowledge that Fates began as a distinctive, high-concept setting on par with Tellius and Jugdral that was willing to do something different with the narrative norm (for two of its routes at least, and even so I’m not begrudging Birthright its conventionality because that grounding is important overall). And who knows? Maybe a later game will come along and retroactively make this setting coherent.

Fates might have more sexual fanservice, but if there’s any FE that I feel ends up a slave to fanservice in a broader sense it would be Awakening. Yeah, I get that when it was in development everyone thought this would be the final game, so it makes sense that the finished product turned out to be a nostalgia-laden greatest hits piece. It’s still hard to forgive Awakening for feeling so insubstantial, doubly so since it ended up revitalizing the franchise and now it and Fates are everywhere. It’s got a plot that only makes some sense in light of SoV and possibly on a meta level (following my theory that the plot structure is meant to mirror FE1-3 in sequence), the first iteration of an Avatar dating game heavily coloring the characterization and support system, and a queasily feel-good atmosphere that allows almost no character to actually remain dead and centers everything around the self-insert and the power of friendship. So much for the series’s traditionally dim view of human nature and recurring theme of the inevitability of conflict. What’s more, in spite of its theoretically broad scope (including a criminally under-explored time travel plot with a bad future) and numerous call-backs to older games Awakening does surprisingly little for developing the series’s most frequently-visited setting. I think it was in large part how generic this game has always felt to me even before release that I never got very hyped for it and as a consequence was never very disappointed by it. It’s just….there, with its nostalgia and its chronic “no homo” and its host of hilariously broken mechanics. I wonder if we’d have ended up viewing Awakening more favorably if it really had been the last game? Eh, probably not.

The “needs a remake or needs a better remake” Tier - FE5, FE6, FE3/12, FE1/11

I don’t have a specific order for these, except that FE1/11 is almost certainly the bottom since 5 and 6 have remake potential and, lack of localization aside, New Mystery was a better remake than Shadow Dragon.

I still haven’t fully played Thracia 776, but I’ve watched and read through Let’s Plays and have read more than enough analysis and meta on the game to where I can definitively say that I wouldn’t enjoy playing it too much and don’t feel all that emotionally connected to the story except insofar as it relates to the overall Jugdral saga. The concept of a standard FE plot that ends with the playable cast losing is an intriguing one, though they really could have done better than the weird non-ending that is this game’s final boss. I’m also not as invested in Leif the fallen aristocrat as I usually am those types of characters, possibly because it’s a foregone conclusion that he eventually gets his kingship anyway. I would like a remake, hopefully one that smooths over some of the original’s mechanical roughness and also makes a bunch of characters gay because the material’s certainly there in places, but I also admit that I’d rather have a remake of Genealogy first. Or, for that matter….

Binding Blade doesn’t have the potential for an amazing story-driven remake that Thracia does; after all, it’s basically a soft reboot of FE1 with an equally bland lord saved by his Super Smash Bros. fanbase and possibly his weirdly large harem. That said, there’s a fair amount of character potential and worldbuilding opportunities what with the series’s first true support system and the content of its unorthodox prequel. Even by itself I feel like BB does more to sell Elibe as its own distinctive world than any of Marth’s games ever did for Archanea, and that’s even with the reality that like the Archanea games this playable cast is inflated with some really forgettable characters (that seem to have followed a semi-rigid numerical quota by class in this instance. It’s weird.). This game never really stuck in my mind as a good playable experience either, not helped by the fact that it feels simple and antiquated compared not only to the GBA games that followed it but to the Jugdral games that preceded it. Good on them for throwing out some of Thracia’s more unwieldy mechanics, but did they have to throw out skills, hybrid classes, and varied chapter objectives too? The space limitations of the GBA couldn’t have been that severe.

While I’ve been spending much of this post ragging on Archanea, I will say that (New) Mystery of the Emblem has some interesting character beats, like the resolution of the Camus/Nyna/Hardin tragedy, Rickard and the situationally bisexual(?) Julian, and some of the antics of Marth’s retainers. I did like bits of the remake’s new assassin plot even if most of it is cribbed from the Black Fang; Eremiya’s no Sonia, but Clarisse and Katarina have their moments. Also, Kris isn’t that offensive to me since I was never all that engaged in Marth’s inconsistent personality and from what I’ve seen his/her supports don’t all devolve into a dating sim. New Mystery has a broader array of characters than either the original or the previous remake, without requiring the player to kill off characters just to get some of the new ones. That said, the reclassing in the DS games is still broken and allows the player to strip even more character out of their personality-deprived units. I’m getting to the point where I’m having trouble separating the two actually, so I’ll just go ahead and remark that I think everyone can agree that Shadow Dragon is the worst of the three remakes so far, with no supports, the aforementioned killing of units, a prologue that adds to the story but only exists on Normal mode and also requires you to kill someone off (seriously, what is it with this game? Is it commentary on the necessary sacrifices of war that they tried forcing on the player for one game until they realized it was a terrible idea?), the needless removal of features from earlier games like rescuing even as others like weapon ranks and forging were left in, that first clumsy iteration of reclassing, and little to nothing that I can see as elevating the story above the standard fantasy adventure fare of Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light that might have been good in 1990 but didn’t look so hot in 2008. Archanea just feels so lifeless overall compared to every other setting in the franchise, to the point where I don’t even feel that guilty about putting the first game in the series way down at the bottom when over in the Zelda ranking I raised the NES games above ones I found more fun to play solely because of their historical significance. Isn’t FE1 arguably the first tactical RPG? I feel like I should appreciate it more, but I just can’t. *shrugs*

[gascon-en-exil]

Mercilessly Judging the Camus Archetype

Per request by Markoftheasphodel, here’s a bonus round of the Mercilessly Judging series, in which I’ll be using my discriminating taste and considerable experience with hot (and not-so-hot) gay sex to grade that most curious of Fire Emblem character archetypes, the Camus. What was probably intended to be written as a figure out of classical tragedy has instead morphed into an only occasionally tragic sex symbol, because that’s what you get when your namesake is the male equivalent of Helen of Troy. Since I like my men like I like my roux - rich, seasoned, and thick in just the right places - I’m especially well-equipped for this undertaking.

The Arbitrary Requirements

Slotting characters into FE archetypes can be a slippery business, and so to get that part out of the way first I’ve settled on the criteria I’ll be using to determine who will end up on this list. These guys must possess at least three of the following traits:

Unrecruitable, at least in the main game or the game/route in which they fulfill the Camus role

Unwavering loyalty toward his country and/or a major antagonist

Blond

Black armor/clothing

A legendary weapon

A paladin or other horse-mounted class

They must also be male, both because I am absolutely not the person to ask when it comes to judging women and because the female Camus, a.k.a. the Ishtar, comes with traits of her own, such as a greater predisposition toward magic and a romantic inclination toward the antagonist to whom she’s loyal. The latter trait is obviously absent from their male counterparts, except in Tellius because of course.

Camus/Zeke/Sirius - Camus classic

This man’s dick has caused world wars. It’s that amazing. Has identity issues that are only worsened by his roleplaying and use of aliases. Long-term value is questionable as he has a tendency to outlive the countries he serves...but hey, at least he has a long term unlike half the guys here.

9/10 - The greatest sex you will ever have, but loses a point because when it comes time to settle down it’ll be pretty low-rent.

Eldigan - Camus père

An idiot, but not as much of an idiot as his two college buddies. His sister wants to sleep with him. Is the only guy on this list to have spawned a little Camus of his own (Shiro and Siegbert don’t count.).

5/10 - Suffers from a short amount of screentime and loyalty to a mere arc villain, and not even an interesting one at that. Saved only by brother kink.

Ares - Camus fils

The aforementioned little Camus. Wishes he was as cool as his dad, but at least he’s recruitable. Has no sister to get all hot and bothered, but he’s got a first cousin for that as well as an orphaned prostitute dancer. 

7/10 - Actually gets to be a king in the end, but Naga help Agustria if he doesn’t have competent people supporting him. Also...cousin kink, maybe?

Reinhardt - magic Camus

So threatening as a boss that the only safe strategy for his map is apparently warpskipping. Does not want to bone his sister even though this is Jugdral, and he gets cockblocked by the setting equivalent of the Antichrist possessing the body of a teenage boy. Harsh.

4/10 - Too waifish for the role. Is much better in Heroes, or so I’ve heard.

Perceval - gay Camus

The smartest man on this list since he sees the wisdom in joining up with the fifteen-year old ginger with the inexplicably gigantic harem on the word of his boyfriend - or a prostitute dancer who happens to know his boyfriend, close enough. Is what Elffin will be coming home to after he’d done traveling the world doing Bard Things.

10/10 - FE6 needs a remake just for him. Who wouldn’t want to come home to such a devoted retainer?

Galle - flying Camus

Has the honorable but doomed soldier and tragic unattainable love interest parts of the role down pat, but kind of an outlier otherwise. He’s more like Arion redux, who’s not on this list because I kind of forgot about him. Oops.

3/10 - He and Arion have the option to not die, I guess? Kind of takes the wind out of the whole loyalty thing. A real Camus puts his loyalty to his nation above the needs of his dick, guys.

Murdock - roadblock Camus

See, now here’s an FE6 anti-villain Camus done right. Not very interesting, mind you, but he gets the point. To think that the entire game wouldn’t have happened if he’d just been a better babysitter.

4/10 - Too bulky, too purple, and too dead. More than two decades of service to wind up as the least engaging Camus is a game piled full of them. That’s his real tragedy.

Linus - ‘roid rage Camus

Allergic to shirts and seriously needs to calm down. He might look like perfect one-night stand material, but that’s not the Camus way.

6/10 - Misses the mark, but I wouldn’t kick him out of bed. Is very...attached to his brother. Best enjoyed as a pair.

Lloyd - goatee Camus

The least Asian swordmaster boss ever. Embraces tranquility in the face of death befitting of the archetype much better than his brother.

6/10 - Equally as hot in his own way, even if it’s still non-standard. His Heroes artwork is a new degree of heinous, though.

Bryce - old Camus

The Rider of Daein no one cares about, least of all Ashnard. At least he’s packing a legendary lance, the confusingly-named Wishblade. 

3/10 - Is not too likely to die since his boss has a much bigger movement range, but is also not too likely to have any kind of resolution. Might have been better in his prime.

Levail - uke Camus

His loyalty to a man who’s never going to give him the D is beyond reproach, mostly because that man is also a Camus dealing with his own cocktease situation. That’s just how Sephiran likes to keep his underlings in line.

4/10 - Very definitely a bottom. Presumably commits suicide if you kill Zelgius before him since he knows he’ll never get laid now.

Zelgius - dramatic Camus

Is Ike’s foil down to his having to choose between a bishonen caster and his faithful lieutenant, but Zelgius chose poorly in the end. Props for pulling off the Black Knight schtick with far more gravity than any Camus before or since. It’s hard to beat a concealed identity and a dramatic reveal. Or cold-blooded murder.

7/10 - Gets a sexy shirtless scene and numerous guys who want his cock (including Valtome, to everyone’s displeasure), but he remains true to his archetype in the end by standing by the one man who’ll definitely get him killed.

Yen’fay - Asian Camus

Asian racial stereotyping in a Japanese-made game...so confusing. He fights you in an active volcano, which is pretty badass. Also, his Spotpass recruitment doesn’t cancel out his death thanks to alternate universe shenanigans. Imagine that.

2/10 - Has non-sexy sister angst and...not all that much else, really. Since he’s a stereotype he presumably has a tiny dick.

Xander - woobie Camus

A sensitive soul carrying around a lot of familial trauma who longs for a loving father and a fabulous pink ensemble. Not psychologically cut out to be a Camus and he knows it, but funny what accidentally murdering your own sister will do for your motivation. Likes to spout contradictory ideas about the nature of justice to disguise his own fatalism...or because the writers were sloppy.

8/10 - Has way too many issues to be all that stable, but he’s undeniably hot and plays his part to a tee. Would ride his giant carrot any day.

Ryoma - shonen Camus

Blew off Camus class because it was too Eurocentric for him, so all he knows is how to be arrogant and dickish and then commit ritual suicide at exactly the right time to make you cry over how good and honorable he was. Would have been significantly more palatable if the story ever acknowledged that he’s kind of an asshole.

5/10 - Actually is the head of state during his tenure as a Camus, but he’s clearly been cast in the wrong role. In the endgame boss gauntlet ranks below the Obviously Evil minor villain duo...fail.

Berkut - psychotic Camus

First fully-voiced Camus, and he’s doing a lot better there than Zeke. Goes off the deep end in a terrible way, killing both his fiancée and his gay hanger-on in the process. Still has undeniable style and gravitas for a remake addition.

7/10 - The explicit afterlife redemption leaves a bit of a sour note, but it’s easy to see why Fernand wants him so badly. Let’s hope that his obvious inadequacy issues aren’t stemming from anything below the belt.