Fire Emblem - Revision history

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2023-06-21T04:32:02Z

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1d4chan>Boyd the Reaver at 14:46, 18 June 2023

2023-06-18T14:46:37Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:46, 18 June 2023
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	=== Fódlan/Crest of Flames/Brown ===		=== Fódlan/Crest of Flames/Brown ===
	Brown introduces to Cipher the '''Crest Power''' keyword. Certain units (those that have a Crest) have the ability to use their Crest Power skill while they are in hand and sent to the Retreat Area, effectively having them act as spell cards. Many units synergize with Crest Powers, either by them gaining a buff or activating an effect whenever any kind of Crest Power is used, or only allowing the Crest Power of the unit in hand to be used when any copy of that unit is already on the field. Brown units also have much more varied class lines for their characters, to honor the wide variety of classes the characters within Three Houses could obtain.		Brown introduces to Cipher the '''Crest Power''' keyword. Certain units (those that have a Crest) have the ability to use their Crest Power skill while they are in hand and sent to the Retreat Area, effectively having them act as spell cards. Many units synergize with Crest Powers, either by them gaining a buff or activating an effect whenever any kind of Crest Power is used, or only allowing the Crest Power of the unit in hand to be used when any copy of that unit is already on the field. Brown units also have much more varied class lines for their characters, to honor the wide variety of classes the characters within Three Houses could obtain.
	* ''Fire Emblem: Three Houses'' (''ファイアーエムブレム風花雪月'', ''Wind, Flower, Snow and Moon'') is the sixteenth game in the series, released on the Nintendo Switch. Strangely the majority of the development for this game came from Koei Tecmo, who have experience with war sims as well as brawlers, with only a few senior Intelligent Systems staff involved. The main character is once again a player stand-in. They're a mercenary who bonds with a loli dragon that allows him or her a limited ability to rewind time. After saving a bunch of students, the player is invited to become a teacher at the prestigious Garreg Mach Monastery military academy. The player picks one of three classes, each representing students of one of the continent's four coexisting powers, the Adrestian Empire, the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, and the Leicester Alliance, all under the auspices of the Church of Seiros. Unfortunately, these happy days of peace cannot last, and eventually war flares up, the powers all come to blows, with the player having to pick one of three sides and kill at least some of their former students. Another wildly experimental title, liberally mixing in time-management mechanics from the ''Persona'' games alongside an even-more-customizable spin on the class system, where most characters start in Noble/Commoner classes and take exams to be guided into different class trees, equippable battalions of troops, and the removal of restrictions on weapon usage between classes (though some are better with certain weapons than with others). It also (fittingly for a game that clearly takes much inspiration from ''Genealogy of the Holy War'') revives some lost Jugdral mechanics, like Holy Blood (now called Crests) and the Dismount feature, as well as the turn-back mechanic from ''Shadows of Valentia'' and special attacks that consume additional weapon durability. Generally seen as a better second iteration of many of ''Fates'''s best new ideas (though unfortunately weapon durability makes a return), and has received praise for serious, mature storytelling in a war where all sides have shades to them such that none start as "the bad guys," but that also mostly avoids sliding into [[grimdark]] outside of the designated grimdark route. It does the best job yet of marrying together bits from both the classic and modern incarnations of the series, and is a great new step forward out of the 3DS era. Of course, that's not to say the game is perfect; [[Skub\|depending on who you ask]], ''Three Houses's'' gameplay may either be serviceable or an affront on God itself, largely due to the downright awful class balance and the Monastery ''very much'' grating on people's nerves with the amount of filler there is in it. That's not even bringing up [[Advancing the Storyline\|the pacing coming to a screeching halt]] to account the pre-timeskip storyline, and while New Game Plus does a lot to make it more tolerable, it's nowhere near enough and oftentimes the winning strategy just becomes "[[Cheese\|reclass everyone into Wyvern Lords]]," itself struggling from the fact that the class and skill system is a frustrating mess. Overall, while the ''combat'' is fun, and has several good ideas, it's got a lion's share of issues with the sheer amount of horrific pacing with the game, to the point even the devs didn't consider that people would want to replay different routes... [[What\|in the game that only gives you the full story by playing every route]]. Doesn't help that for every nice quality of life feature added, like constant access to shops, it's missing major features from previous titles like Rescue or just picking your endgame pairings (though the DLC added it back in [[rage\|for a king's ransom in renown]]. Overall, while the story is good and very much a positive step forward for the franchise, the gameplay is subject to a whole lot of Skub, especially in recent years where the former fandom-breaker in ''Fates'' ended up having far, ''far'' better gameplay. Overall, whether or not you like this game depends on how much you're willing to put up with bad gameplay loops if it means getting to a story, but for those who do, this game's very much worth it.		* ''Fire Emblem: Three Houses'' (''ファイアーエムブレム風花雪月'', ''Wind, Flower, Snow and Moon'') is the sixteenth game in the series, released on the Nintendo Switch. Strangely the majority of the development for this game came from Koei Tecmo, who have experience with war sims as well as brawlers, with only a few senior Intelligent Systems staff involved. The main character is once again a player stand-in. They're a mercenary who bonds with a loli dragon that allows him or her a limited ability to rewind time. After saving a bunch of students, the player is invited to become a teacher at the prestigious Garreg Mach Monastery military academy. The player picks one of three classes, each representing students of one of the continent's four coexisting powers, the Adrestian Empire, the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, and the Leicester Alliance, all under the auspices of the Church of Seiros. Unfortunately, these happy days of peace cannot last, and eventually war flares up, the powers all come to blows, with the player having to pick one of three sides and kill at least some of their former students. Another wildly experimental title, liberally mixing in time-management mechanics from the ''Persona'' games alongside an even-more-customizable spin on the class system, where most characters start in Noble/Commoner classes and take exams to be guided into different class trees, equippable battalions of troops, and the removal of restrictions on weapon usage between classes (though some are better with certain weapons than with others). It also (fittingly for a game that clearly takes much inspiration from ''Genealogy of the Holy War'') revives some lost Jugdral mechanics, like Holy Blood (now called Crests) and the Dismount feature, as well as the turn-back mechanic from ''Shadows of Valentia'' and special attacks that consume additional weapon durability. Generally seen as a better second iteration of many of ''Fates'''s best new ideas (though unfortunately weapon durability makes a return), and has received praise for serious, mature storytelling in a war where all sides have shades to them such that none start as "the bad guys," but that also mostly avoids sliding into [[grimdark]] outside of the designated grimdark route. It does the best job yet of marrying together bits from both the classic and modern incarnations of the series, and is a great new step forward out of the 3DS era. Of course, that's not to say the game is perfect; [[Skub\|depending on who you ask]], ''Three Houses's'' gameplay may either be serviceable or an affront on God itself, largely due to the downright awful class balance and the Monastery ''very much'' grating on people's nerves with the amount of filler there is in it. That's not even bringing up [[Advancing the Storyline\|the pacing coming to a screeching halt]] to account the pre-timeskip storyline, and while New Game Plus does a lot to make it more tolerable, it's nowhere near enough and oftentimes the winning strategy just becomes "[[Cheese\|reclass everyone into Wyvern Lords]]," itself struggling from the fact that the class and skill system is a frustrating mess. Overall, while the ''combat'' is fun, and has several good ideas, it's got a lion's share of issues with the sheer amount of horrific pacing with the game, to the point even the devs didn't consider that people would want to replay different routes... [[What\|in the game that only gives you the full story by playing every route]]. Doesn't help that for every nice quality of life feature added, like constant access to shops, it's missing major features from previous titles like Rescue or just picking your endgame pairings (though the DLC added it back in [[rage\|for a king's ransom in renown]]). Overall, while the story is good and very much a positive step forward for the franchise, the gameplay is subject to a whole lot of Skub, especially in recent years where the former fandom-breaker in ''Fates'' ended up having far, ''far'' better gameplay. Overall, whether or not you like this game depends on how much you're willing to put up with bad gameplay loops if it means getting to a story, but for those who do, this game's very much worth it.
	** ''Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes'' (''ファイアーエムブレム無双風花雪月'', ''Unrivalled: Wind, Flower, [[Derp\|Snow]], Moon'') is the actionized sequel of both ''Three Houses'' and ''Warriors'', taking the best -- [[Skub\|and worst]] -- of both worlds. ''Three Hopes'' was made with the intent of fixing the problems people had with both games; the non-existent story of ''Warriors'' very much introduces an Avatar-like stand-in who neither wants to tear out your eardrums and only serves as additional bread and butter to the already-meaty storytelling of ''Three Houses'' and is unusually well-written for a ''Warriors'' game. On the flipside, the downright painful loop of the Monastery is done away with aplomb and it fixes both a lot of issues people had with ''Three Houses'' (like Edelgard being a shorter route and an absolute pain to know how to unlock) as well as getting to the timeskip. And thankfully, they actually give Byleth a ''personality'' when out of the hands of [[Matt Ward\|writers who don't know what they're doing]], and Shez is [[This Guy\|very likable as well]]. The Camp that's reskinned based on what route you're on is luckily completely streamlined too, and while not as good and snappy as My Castle, it's more than serviceable. That said, it still runs into some major issues. Story, while not as much of a flawed-but-high-potential mess as ''Fates'', runs into several pitfalls; it assumes that the audience already played ''Three Houses'' which can really hamper enjoyment of the story for those who skipped on ''Three Houses'' for the poorer-than-average gameplay loop, and there's several decisions that are just baffling, such as Rhea being completely shafted and her route being scrapped altogether (likely an overcorrection from Silver Snow being regarded as the worst route of ''Three Houses'', though not without good points to it, and Rhea's ''absence'' for most of it being cited as a factor), as well as the downright [[Khornate Knights\|god-awful writing decision]] of having Edelgard [[RAGE\|mind raped in Dimitri's route and turned into a mental child who's subservient to Those Who Slither]]. The writers said they didn't want to overwrite the endings for the original ''Three Houses'' by creating new ones, so without fail every single ending is a disappointing and sudden mess. Fans expected this to be itself papered over with DLC that would never come to sell them the actual ending, and then the DLC never came. Overall, very much a "two steps forward, one step back deal". Fixes pretty much all of the problems people had with ''Warriors'' and ''Three Houses''... [[Derp\|but adds plenty of new ones as well]]. Gameplay, there's not much to say; it's pretty much the same as ''Warriors'', being semi-mindless hack and slash action with a strategy overlay, so if that's your thing then it's very much worth a try.		** ''Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes'' (''ファイアーエムブレム無双風花雪月'', ''Unrivalled: Wind, Flower, [[Derp\|Snow]], Moon'') is the actionized sequel of both ''Three Houses'' and ''Warriors'', taking the best -- [[Skub\|and worst]] -- of both worlds. ''Three Hopes'' was made with the intent of fixing the problems people had with both games; the non-existent story of ''Warriors'' very much introduces an Avatar-like stand-in who neither wants to tear out your eardrums and only serves as additional bread and butter to the already-meaty storytelling of ''Three Houses'' and is unusually well-written for a ''Warriors'' game. On the flipside, the downright painful loop of the Monastery is done away with aplomb and it fixes both a lot of issues people had with ''Three Houses'' (like Edelgard being a shorter route and an absolute pain to know how to unlock) as well as getting to the timeskip. And thankfully, they actually give Byleth a ''personality'' when out of the hands of [[Matt Ward\|writers who don't know what they're doing]], and Shez is [[This Guy\|very likable as well]]. The Camp that's reskinned based on what route you're on is luckily completely streamlined too, and while not as good and snappy as My Castle, it's more than serviceable. That said, it still runs into some major issues. Story, while not as much of a flawed-but-high-potential mess as ''Fates'', runs into several pitfalls; it assumes that the audience already played ''Three Houses'' which can really hamper enjoyment of the story for those who skipped on ''Three Houses'' for the poorer-than-average gameplay loop, and there's several decisions that are just baffling, such as Rhea being completely shafted and her route being scrapped altogether (likely an overcorrection from Silver Snow being regarded as the worst route of ''Three Houses'', though not without good points to it, and Rhea's ''absence'' for most of it being cited as a factor), as well as the downright [[Khornate Knights\|god-awful writing decision]] of having Edelgard [[RAGE\|mind raped in Dimitri's route and turned into a mental child who's subservient to Those Who Slither]]. The writers said they didn't want to overwrite the endings for the original ''Three Houses'' by creating new ones, so without fail every single ending is a disappointing and sudden mess. Fans expected this to be itself papered over with DLC that would never come to sell them the actual ending, and then the DLC never came. Overall, very much a "two steps forward, one step back deal". Fixes pretty much all of the problems people had with ''Warriors'' and ''Three Houses''... [[Derp\|but adds plenty of new ones as well]]. Gameplay, there's not much to say; it's pretty much the same as ''Warriors'', being semi-mindless hack and slash action with a strategy overlay, so if that's your thing then it's very much worth a try.

1d4chan>SpectralTime: /* Fódlan/Crest of Flames/Brown */

2023-05-27T20:30:59Z

Fódlan/Crest of Flames/Brown

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:30, 27 May 2023
Line 72:		Line 72:
	=== Fódlan/Crest of Flames/Brown ===		=== Fódlan/Crest of Flames/Brown ===
	Brown introduces to Cipher the '''Crest Power''' keyword. Certain units (those that have a Crest) have the ability to use their Crest Power skill while they are in hand and sent to the Retreat Area, effectively having them act as spell cards. Many units synergize with Crest Powers, either by them gaining a buff or activating an effect whenever any kind of Crest Power is used, or only allowing the Crest Power of the unit in hand to be used when any copy of that unit is already on the field. Brown units also have much more varied class lines for their characters, to honor the wide variety of classes the characters within Three Houses could obtain.		Brown introduces to Cipher the '''Crest Power''' keyword. Certain units (those that have a Crest) have the ability to use their Crest Power skill while they are in hand and sent to the Retreat Area, effectively having them act as spell cards. Many units synergize with Crest Powers, either by them gaining a buff or activating an effect whenever any kind of Crest Power is used, or only allowing the Crest Power of the unit in hand to be used when any copy of that unit is already on the field. Brown units also have much more varied class lines for their characters, to honor the wide variety of classes the characters within Three Houses could obtain.
	* ''Fire Emblem: Three Houses'' (''ファイアーエムブレム風花雪月'', ''Wind, Flower, Snow and Moon'') is the sixteenth game in the series, released on the Nintendo Switch. Strangely the majority of the development for this game came from Koei Tecmo, who have experience with war sims as well as brawlers, with only a few senior Intelligent Systems staff involved. The main character is once again a player stand-in. They're a mercenary who bonds with a loli dragon that allows him or her a limited ability to rewind time. After saving a bunch of students, the player is invited to become a teacher at the prestigious Garreg Mach Monastery military academy. The player picks one of three classes, each representing students of one of the continent's four coexisting powers, the Adrestian Empire, the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, and the Leicester Alliance, all under the auspices of the Church of Seiros. Unfortunately, these happy days of peace cannot last, and eventually war flares up, the powers all come to blows, with the player having to pick one of three sides and kill at least some of their former students. Another wildly experimental title, liberally mixing in time-management mechanics from the ''Persona'' games alongside an even-more-customizable spin on the class system, where most characters start in Noble/Commoner classes and take exams to be guided into different class trees, equippable battalions of troops, and the removal of restrictions on weapon usage between classes (though some are better with certain weapons than with others). It also (fittingly for a game that clearly takes much inspiration from ''Genealogy of the Holy War'') revives some lost Jugdral mechanics, like Holy Blood (now called Crests) and the Dismount feature, as well as the turn-back mechanic from ''Shadows of Valentia'' and special attacks that consume additional weapon durability. Generally seen as a better second iteration of many of ''Fates'''s best new ideas (though unfortunately weapon durability makes a return), and has received praise for serious, mature storytelling in a war where all sides have shades to them such that none start as "the bad guys," but that also mostly avoids sliding into [[grimdark]] outside of the designated grimdark route. It does the best job yet of marrying together bits from both the classic and modern incarnations of the series, and is a great new step forward out of the 3DS era. Of course, that's not to say the game is perfect; [[Skub\|depending on who you ask]], ''Three Houses's'' gameplay may either be serviceable or an affront on God itself, largely due to the downright awful class balance and the Monastery ''very much'' grating on people's nerves with the amount of filler there is in it. That's not even bringing up [[Advancing the Storyline\|the pacing coming to a screeching halt]] to account the pre-timeskip storyline, and while New Game Plus does a lot to make it more tolerable, it's nowhere near enough and oftentimes the winning strategy just becomes "[[Cheese\|reclass everyone into Wyvern Lords]]". Overall, while the ''combat'' is fun, and has several good ideas, it's got a lion's share of issues with the sheer amount of horrific pacing with the game, to the point even the devs didn't consider that people would want to replay different routes... [[What\|in the game that only gives you the full story by playing every route]]. Overall, while the story is good and very much a positive step forward for the franchise, the gameplay is subject to a whole lot of Skub, especially in recent years where the former fandom-breaker in ''Fates'' ended up having far, ''far'' better gameplay. Overall, whether or not you like this game depends on how much you're willing to put up with bad gameplay loops if it means getting to a story, but for those who do, this game's very much worth it.		* ''Fire Emblem: Three Houses'' (''ファイアーエムブレム風花雪月'', ''Wind, Flower, Snow and Moon'') is the sixteenth game in the series, released on the Nintendo Switch. Strangely the majority of the development for this game came from Koei Tecmo, who have experience with war sims as well as brawlers, with only a few senior Intelligent Systems staff involved. The main character is once again a player stand-in. They're a mercenary who bonds with a loli dragon that allows him or her a limited ability to rewind time. After saving a bunch of students, the player is invited to become a teacher at the prestigious Garreg Mach Monastery military academy. The player picks one of three classes, each representing students of one of the continent's four coexisting powers, the Adrestian Empire, the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, and the Leicester Alliance, all under the auspices of the Church of Seiros. Unfortunately, these happy days of peace cannot last, and eventually war flares up, the powers all come to blows, with the player having to pick one of three sides and kill at least some of their former students. Another wildly experimental title, liberally mixing in time-management mechanics from the ''Persona'' games alongside an even-more-customizable spin on the class system, where most characters start in Noble/Commoner classes and take exams to be guided into different class trees, equippable battalions of troops, and the removal of restrictions on weapon usage between classes (though some are better with certain weapons than with others). It also (fittingly for a game that clearly takes much inspiration from ''Genealogy of the Holy War'') revives some lost Jugdral mechanics, like Holy Blood (now called Crests) and the Dismount feature, as well as the turn-back mechanic from ''Shadows of Valentia'' and special attacks that consume additional weapon durability. Generally seen as a better second iteration of many of ''Fates'''s best new ideas (though unfortunately weapon durability makes a return), and has received praise for serious, mature storytelling in a war where all sides have shades to them such that none start as "the bad guys," but that also mostly avoids sliding into [[grimdark]] outside of the designated grimdark route. It does the best job yet of marrying together bits from both the classic and modern incarnations of the series, and is a great new step forward out of the 3DS era. Of course, that's not to say the game is perfect; [[Skub\|depending on who you ask]], ''Three Houses's'' gameplay may either be serviceable or an affront on God itself, largely due to the downright awful class balance and the Monastery ''very much'' grating on people's nerves with the amount of filler there is in it. That's not even bringing up [[Advancing the Storyline\|the pacing coming to a screeching halt]] to account the pre-timeskip storyline, and while New Game Plus does a lot to make it more tolerable, it's nowhere near enough and oftentimes the winning strategy just becomes "[[Cheese\|reclass everyone into Wyvern Lords]]," itself struggling from the fact that the class and skill system is a frustrating mess. Overall, while the ''combat'' is fun, and has several good ideas, it's got a lion's share of issues with the sheer amount of horrific pacing with the game, to the point even the devs didn't consider that people would want to replay different routes... [[What\|in the game that only gives you the full story by playing every route]]. Doesn't help that for every nice quality of life feature added, like constant access to shops, it's missing major features from previous titles like Rescue or just picking your endgame pairings (though the DLC added it back in [[rage\|for a king's ransom in renown]]. Overall, while the story is good and very much a positive step forward for the franchise, the gameplay is subject to a whole lot of Skub, especially in recent years where the former fandom-breaker in ''Fates'' ended up having far, ''far'' better gameplay. Overall, whether or not you like this game depends on how much you're willing to put up with bad gameplay loops if it means getting to a story, but for those who do, this game's very much worth it.
	** ''Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes'' (''ファイアーエムブレム無双風花雪月'', ''Unrivalled: Wind, Flower, [[Derp\|Snow]], Moon'') is the actionized sequel of both ''Three Houses'' and ''Warriors'', taking the best -- [[Skub\|and worst]] -- of both worlds. ''Three Hopes'' was made with the intent of fixing the problems people had with both games; the non-existent story of ''Warriors'' very much introduces an Avatar-like stand-in who neither wants to tear out your eardrums and only serves as additional bread and butter to the already-meaty storytelling of ''Three Houses'' and is unusually well-written for a ''Warriors'' game. On the flipside, the downright painful loop of the Monastery is done away with aplomb and it fixes both a lot of issues people had with ''Three Houses'' (like Edelgard being a shorter route and an absolute pain to know how to unlock) as well as getting to the timeskip. And thankfully, they actually give Byleth a ''personality'' when out of the hands of [[Matt Ward\|writers who don't know what they're doing]], and Shez is [[This Guy\|very likable as well]]. The Camp that's reskinned based on what route you're on is luckily completely streamlined too, and while not as good and snappy as My Castle, it's more than serviceable. That said, it still runs into some major issues. Story, while not as much of a flawed-but-high-potential mess as ''Fates'', runs into several pitfalls; it assumes that the audience already played ''Three Houses'' which can really hamper enjoyment of the story for those who skipped on ''Three Houses'' for the poorer-than-average gameplay loop, and there's several decisions that are just baffling, such as Rhea being completely shafted and her route being scrapped altogether (likely an overcorrection from Silver Snow being regarded as the worst route of ''Three Houses'', though not without good points to it, and Rhea's ''absence'' for most of it being cited as a factor), as well as the downright [[Khornate Knights\|god-awful writing decision]] of having Edelgard [[RAGE\|mind raped in Dimitri's route and turned into a mental child who's subservient to Those Who Slither]]. The writers said they didn't want to overwrite the endings for the original ''Three Houses'' by creating new ones, so without fail every single ending is a disappointing and sudden mess. Fans expected this to be itself papered over with DLC that would never come to sell them the actual ending, and then the DLC never came. Overall, very much a "two steps forward, one step back deal". Fixes pretty much all of the problems people had with ''Warriors'' and ''Three Houses''... [[Derp\|but adds plenty of new ones as well]]. Gameplay, there's not much to say; it's pretty much the same as ''Warriors'', being semi-mindless hack and slash action with a strategy overlay, so if that's your thing then it's very much worth a try.		** ''Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes'' (''ファイアーエムブレム無双風花雪月'', ''Unrivalled: Wind, Flower, [[Derp\|Snow]], Moon'') is the actionized sequel of both ''Three Houses'' and ''Warriors'', taking the best -- [[Skub\|and worst]] -- of both worlds. ''Three Hopes'' was made with the intent of fixing the problems people had with both games; the non-existent story of ''Warriors'' very much introduces an Avatar-like stand-in who neither wants to tear out your eardrums and only serves as additional bread and butter to the already-meaty storytelling of ''Three Houses'' and is unusually well-written for a ''Warriors'' game. On the flipside, the downright painful loop of the Monastery is done away with aplomb and it fixes both a lot of issues people had with ''Three Houses'' (like Edelgard being a shorter route and an absolute pain to know how to unlock) as well as getting to the timeskip. And thankfully, they actually give Byleth a ''personality'' when out of the hands of [[Matt Ward\|writers who don't know what they're doing]], and Shez is [[This Guy\|very likable as well]]. The Camp that's reskinned based on what route you're on is luckily completely streamlined too, and while not as good and snappy as My Castle, it's more than serviceable. That said, it still runs into some major issues. Story, while not as much of a flawed-but-high-potential mess as ''Fates'', runs into several pitfalls; it assumes that the audience already played ''Three Houses'' which can really hamper enjoyment of the story for those who skipped on ''Three Houses'' for the poorer-than-average gameplay loop, and there's several decisions that are just baffling, such as Rhea being completely shafted and her route being scrapped altogether (likely an overcorrection from Silver Snow being regarded as the worst route of ''Three Houses'', though not without good points to it, and Rhea's ''absence'' for most of it being cited as a factor), as well as the downright [[Khornate Knights\|god-awful writing decision]] of having Edelgard [[RAGE\|mind raped in Dimitri's route and turned into a mental child who's subservient to Those Who Slither]]. The writers said they didn't want to overwrite the endings for the original ''Three Houses'' by creating new ones, so without fail every single ending is a disappointing and sudden mess. Fans expected this to be itself papered over with DLC that would never come to sell them the actual ending, and then the DLC never came. Overall, very much a "two steps forward, one step back deal". Fixes pretty much all of the problems people had with ''Warriors'' and ''Three Houses''... [[Derp\|but adds plenty of new ones as well]]. Gameplay, there's not much to say; it's pretty much the same as ''Warriors'', being semi-mindless hack and slash action with a strategy overlay, so if that's your thing then it's very much worth a try.

1d4chan>SpectralTime: /* Fódlan/Crest of Flames/Brown */

2023-05-27T20:16:44Z

Fódlan/Crest of Flames/Brown

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:16, 27 May 2023
Line 73:		Line 73:
	Brown introduces to Cipher the '''Crest Power''' keyword. Certain units (those that have a Crest) have the ability to use their Crest Power skill while they are in hand and sent to the Retreat Area, effectively having them act as spell cards. Many units synergize with Crest Powers, either by them gaining a buff or activating an effect whenever any kind of Crest Power is used, or only allowing the Crest Power of the unit in hand to be used when any copy of that unit is already on the field. Brown units also have much more varied class lines for their characters, to honor the wide variety of classes the characters within Three Houses could obtain.		Brown introduces to Cipher the '''Crest Power''' keyword. Certain units (those that have a Crest) have the ability to use their Crest Power skill while they are in hand and sent to the Retreat Area, effectively having them act as spell cards. Many units synergize with Crest Powers, either by them gaining a buff or activating an effect whenever any kind of Crest Power is used, or only allowing the Crest Power of the unit in hand to be used when any copy of that unit is already on the field. Brown units also have much more varied class lines for their characters, to honor the wide variety of classes the characters within Three Houses could obtain.
	* ''Fire Emblem: Three Houses'' (''ファイアーエムブレム風花雪月'', ''Wind, Flower, Snow and Moon'') is the sixteenth game in the series, released on the Nintendo Switch. Strangely the majority of the development for this game came from Koei Tecmo, who have experience with war sims as well as brawlers, with only a few senior Intelligent Systems staff involved. The main character is once again a player stand-in. They're a mercenary who bonds with a loli dragon that allows him or her a limited ability to rewind time. After saving a bunch of students, the player is invited to become a teacher at the prestigious Garreg Mach Monastery military academy. The player picks one of three classes, each representing students of one of the continent's four coexisting powers, the Adrestian Empire, the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, and the Leicester Alliance, all under the auspices of the Church of Seiros. Unfortunately, these happy days of peace cannot last, and eventually war flares up, the powers all come to blows, with the player having to pick one of three sides and kill at least some of their former students. Another wildly experimental title, liberally mixing in time-management mechanics from the ''Persona'' games alongside an even-more-customizable spin on the class system, where most characters start in Noble/Commoner classes and take exams to be guided into different class trees, equippable battalions of troops, and the removal of restrictions on weapon usage between classes (though some are better with certain weapons than with others). It also (fittingly for a game that clearly takes much inspiration from ''Genealogy of the Holy War'') revives some lost Jugdral mechanics, like Holy Blood (now called Crests) and the Dismount feature, as well as the turn-back mechanic from ''Shadows of Valentia'' and special attacks that consume additional weapon durability. Generally seen as a better second iteration of many of ''Fates'''s best new ideas (though unfortunately weapon durability makes a return), and has received praise for serious, mature storytelling in a war where all sides have shades to them such that none start as "the bad guys," but that also mostly avoids sliding into [[grimdark]] outside of the designated grimdark route. It does the best job yet of marrying together bits from both the classic and modern incarnations of the series, and is a great new step forward out of the 3DS era. Of course, that's not to say the game is perfect; [[Skub\|depending on who you ask]], ''Three Houses's'' gameplay may either be serviceable or an affront on God itself, largely due to the downright awful class balance and the Monastery ''very much'' grating on people's nerves with the amount of filler there is in it. That's not even bringing up [[Advancing the Storyline\|the pacing coming to a screeching halt]] to account the pre-timeskip storyline, and while New Game Plus does a lot to make it more tolerable, it's nowhere near enough and oftentimes the winning strategy just becomes "[[Cheese\|reclass everyone into Wyvern Lords]]". Overall, while the ''combat'' is fun, and has several good ideas, it's got a lion's share of issues with the sheer amount of horrific pacing with the game, to the point even the devs didn't consider that people would want to replay different routes... [[What\|in the game that only gives you the full story by playing every route]]. Overall, while the story is good and very much a positive step forward for the franchise, the gameplay is subject to a whole lot of Skub, especially in recent years where the former fandom-breaker in ''Fates'' ended up having far, ''far'' better gameplay. Overall, whether or not you like this game depends on how much you're willing to put up with bad gameplay loops if it means getting to a story, but for those who do, this game's very much worth it.		* ''Fire Emblem: Three Houses'' (''ファイアーエムブレム風花雪月'', ''Wind, Flower, Snow and Moon'') is the sixteenth game in the series, released on the Nintendo Switch. Strangely the majority of the development for this game came from Koei Tecmo, who have experience with war sims as well as brawlers, with only a few senior Intelligent Systems staff involved. The main character is once again a player stand-in. They're a mercenary who bonds with a loli dragon that allows him or her a limited ability to rewind time. After saving a bunch of students, the player is invited to become a teacher at the prestigious Garreg Mach Monastery military academy. The player picks one of three classes, each representing students of one of the continent's four coexisting powers, the Adrestian Empire, the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, and the Leicester Alliance, all under the auspices of the Church of Seiros. Unfortunately, these happy days of peace cannot last, and eventually war flares up, the powers all come to blows, with the player having to pick one of three sides and kill at least some of their former students. Another wildly experimental title, liberally mixing in time-management mechanics from the ''Persona'' games alongside an even-more-customizable spin on the class system, where most characters start in Noble/Commoner classes and take exams to be guided into different class trees, equippable battalions of troops, and the removal of restrictions on weapon usage between classes (though some are better with certain weapons than with others). It also (fittingly for a game that clearly takes much inspiration from ''Genealogy of the Holy War'') revives some lost Jugdral mechanics, like Holy Blood (now called Crests) and the Dismount feature, as well as the turn-back mechanic from ''Shadows of Valentia'' and special attacks that consume additional weapon durability. Generally seen as a better second iteration of many of ''Fates'''s best new ideas (though unfortunately weapon durability makes a return), and has received praise for serious, mature storytelling in a war where all sides have shades to them such that none start as "the bad guys," but that also mostly avoids sliding into [[grimdark]] outside of the designated grimdark route. It does the best job yet of marrying together bits from both the classic and modern incarnations of the series, and is a great new step forward out of the 3DS era. Of course, that's not to say the game is perfect; [[Skub\|depending on who you ask]], ''Three Houses's'' gameplay may either be serviceable or an affront on God itself, largely due to the downright awful class balance and the Monastery ''very much'' grating on people's nerves with the amount of filler there is in it. That's not even bringing up [[Advancing the Storyline\|the pacing coming to a screeching halt]] to account the pre-timeskip storyline, and while New Game Plus does a lot to make it more tolerable, it's nowhere near enough and oftentimes the winning strategy just becomes "[[Cheese\|reclass everyone into Wyvern Lords]]". Overall, while the ''combat'' is fun, and has several good ideas, it's got a lion's share of issues with the sheer amount of horrific pacing with the game, to the point even the devs didn't consider that people would want to replay different routes... [[What\|in the game that only gives you the full story by playing every route]]. Overall, while the story is good and very much a positive step forward for the franchise, the gameplay is subject to a whole lot of Skub, especially in recent years where the former fandom-breaker in ''Fates'' ended up having far, ''far'' better gameplay. Overall, whether or not you like this game depends on how much you're willing to put up with bad gameplay loops if it means getting to a story, but for those who do, this game's very much worth it.
	** ''Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes'' (''ファイアーエムブレム無双風花雪月'', ''Unrivalled: Wind, Flower, [[Derp\|Snow]], Moon'') is the actionized sequel of both ''Three Houses'' and ''Warriors'', taking the best -- [[Skub\|and worst]] -- of both worlds. ''Three Hopes'' was made with the intent of fixing the problems people had with both games; the non-existent story of ''Warriors'' very much introduces an Avatar-like stand-in who neither wants to tear out your eardrums and only serves as additional bread and butter to the already-meaty storytelling of ''Three Houses'' and is unusually well-written for a ''Warriors'' game. On the flipside, the downright painful loop of the Monastery is done away with aplomb and it fixes both a lot of issues people had with ''Three Houses'' (like Edelgard being a shorter route and an absolute pain to know how to unlock) as well as getting to the timeskip. And thankfully, they actually give Byleth a ''personality'' when out of the hands of [[Matt Ward\|writers who don't know what they're doing]], and Shez is [[This Guy\|very likable as well]]. The Camp that's reskinned based on what route you're on is luckily completely streamlined too, and while not as good and snappy as My Castle, it's more than serviceable. That said, it still runs into some major issues. Story, while not as much of a flawed-but-high-potential mess as ''Fates'', runs into several pitfalls; it assumes that the audience already played ''Three Houses'' which can really hamper enjoyment of the story for those who skipped on ''Three Houses'' for the poorer-than-average gameplay loop, and there's several decisions that are just baffling; such as Rhea being completely shafted and her route being scrapped altogether (likely an overcorrection from Silver Snow being regarded as the worst route of ''Three Houses'', though not without good points to it), as well as the downright [[Khornate Knights\|god-awful writing decision]] of having Edelgard [[RAGE\|mind raped in Dimitri's route and turned into a mental child who's subservient to Those Who Slither]]. Overall, very much a "two steps forward, one step back deal". Fixes pretty much all of the problems people had with ''Warriors'' and ''Three Houses''... [[Derp\|but adds plenty of new ones as well]]. Gameplay, there's not much to say; it's pretty much the same as ''Warriors'', being semi-mindless hack and slash action with a strategy overlay, so if that's your thing then it's very much worth a try.		** ''Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes'' (''ファイアーエムブレム無双風花雪月'', ''Unrivalled: Wind, Flower, [[Derp\|Snow]], Moon'') is the actionized sequel of both ''Three Houses'' and ''Warriors'', taking the best -- [[Skub\|and worst]] -- of both worlds. ''Three Hopes'' was made with the intent of fixing the problems people had with both games; the non-existent story of ''Warriors'' very much introduces an Avatar-like stand-in who neither wants to tear out your eardrums and only serves as additional bread and butter to the already-meaty storytelling of ''Three Houses'' and is unusually well-written for a ''Warriors'' game. On the flipside, the downright painful loop of the Monastery is done away with aplomb and it fixes both a lot of issues people had with ''Three Houses'' (like Edelgard being a shorter route and an absolute pain to know how to unlock) as well as getting to the timeskip. And thankfully, they actually give Byleth a ''personality'' when out of the hands of [[Matt Ward\|writers who don't know what they're doing]], and Shez is [[This Guy\|very likable as well]]. The Camp that's reskinned based on what route you're on is luckily completely streamlined too, and while not as good and snappy as My Castle, it's more than serviceable. That said, it still runs into some major issues. Story, while not as much of a flawed-but-high-potential mess as ''Fates'', runs into several pitfalls; it assumes that the audience already played ''Three Houses'' which can really hamper enjoyment of the story for those who skipped on ''Three Houses'' for the poorer-than-average gameplay loop, and there's several decisions that are just baffling, such as Rhea being completely shafted and her route being scrapped altogether (likely an overcorrection from Silver Snow being regarded as the worst route of ''Three Houses'', though not without good points to it, and Rhea's ''absence'' for most of it being cited as a factor), as well as the downright [[Khornate Knights\|god-awful writing decision]] of having Edelgard [[RAGE\|mind raped in Dimitri's route and turned into a mental child who's subservient to Those Who Slither]]. The writers said they didn't want to overwrite the endings for the original ''Three Houses'' by creating new ones, so without fail every single ending is a disappointing and sudden mess. Fans expected this to be itself papered over with DLC that would never come to sell them the actual ending, and then the DLC never came. Overall, very much a "two steps forward, one step back deal". Fixes pretty much all of the problems people had with ''Warriors'' and ''Three Houses''... [[Derp\|but adds plenty of new ones as well]]. Gameplay, there's not much to say; it's pretty much the same as ''Warriors'', being semi-mindless hack and slash action with a strategy overlay, so if that's your thing then it's very much worth a try.

	=== Colorless ===		=== Colorless ===

1d4chan>Boyd the Reaver at 16:49, 28 April 2023

2023-04-28T16:49:36Z

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	* ''Fire Emblem Warriors'' (''ファイアーエムブレム無双'', ''Fire Emblem Musou'') is a big cross-over spin-off done by the ''Dynasty Warriors'' guys, in the style of those games (level-based hack and slash). Twin siblings Lianna and Rowan are living out the very-standard ''Fire Emblem'' plot of having their peaceful nation invaded by a greedy neighbor who wants to loot their holy artifacts for an evil dragon, only to end up ripping open a hole in space-time and letting the cast of ''Fates'' and ''Awakening'', as well as a few characters from other ''Fire Emblem'' games, tumble out to join them or their adversaries according to alignment. The gameplay isn't bad, if, you know, you're into these sorts of games, and while moveset-cloning is a problem, it's generally limited to a relatively small pool of other characters. Compare what those lazy fucks at Koei-Tecmo would do to their flagship series just one installment later. Just like the contemporary ''Hyrule Warriors'', a number of mechanics make their way over from the games they're crossing over with, like weapon triangles and a surprising amount of unit interactions. Supports make their way in as reskinned versions of the character interactions from ''Warriors Orochi''. The game's focus on mainly ''Awakening'' and ''Fates'' as well as overuse of sword users in a game with the weapon triangle received negative reception, and in general it's seen as an alright, if vanilla, ''Dynasty Warriors'' clone released in a time when a better class of clone (if not of mainline series entries) has become more standard.		* ''Fire Emblem Warriors'' (''ファイアーエムブレム無双'', ''Fire Emblem Musou'') is a big cross-over spin-off done by the ''Dynasty Warriors'' guys, in the style of those games (level-based hack and slash). Twin siblings Lianna and Rowan are living out the very-standard ''Fire Emblem'' plot of having their peaceful nation invaded by a greedy neighbor who wants to loot their holy artifacts for an evil dragon, only to end up ripping open a hole in space-time and letting the cast of ''Fates'' and ''Awakening'', as well as a few characters from other ''Fire Emblem'' games, tumble out to join them or their adversaries according to alignment. The gameplay isn't bad, if, you know, you're into these sorts of games, and while moveset-cloning is a problem, it's generally limited to a relatively small pool of other characters. Compare what those lazy fucks at Koei-Tecmo would do to their flagship series just one installment later. Just like the contemporary ''Hyrule Warriors'', a number of mechanics make their way over from the games they're crossing over with, like weapon triangles and a surprising amount of unit interactions. Supports make their way in as reskinned versions of the character interactions from ''Warriors Orochi''. The game's focus on mainly ''Awakening'' and ''Fates'' as well as overuse of sword users in a game with the weapon triangle received negative reception, and in general it's seen as an alright, if vanilla, ''Dynasty Warriors'' clone released in a time when a better class of clone (if not of mainline series entries) has become more standard.
	* ''Fire Emblem: Heroes'' is a mobile gacha game with stripped down ''Fire Emblem''-style grid-tactics gameplay on fairly-small maps. Variations on characters from across the series can be summoned (introducing many classic characters to an English audience for the first time in an official release) with voice acting and everything. It has a story focused on a pair of twin Lords, Alfonse and Sharena, from a nation that summons heroes from across space and time, and currently at war with another that enslaves them. There's a bit more to it than that, especially if you're ''really'' into Norse and Finnish mythology, but it takes its sweet time getting good. Notable for retaining triangle mechanics, but reducing them to red/blue/green colors specific to units. Decent enough gameplay, for a cut-down free-to-play mobile game, and like many such titles has improved with time.		* ''Fire Emblem: Heroes'' is a mobile gacha game with stripped down ''Fire Emblem''-style grid-tactics gameplay on fairly-small maps. Variations on characters from across the series can be summoned (introducing many classic characters to an English audience for the first time in an official release) with voice acting and everything. It has a story focused on a pair of twin Lords, Alfonse and Sharena, from a nation that summons heroes from across space and time, and currently at war with another that enslaves them. There's a bit more to it than that, especially if you're ''really'' into Norse and Finnish mythology, but it takes its sweet time getting good. Notable for retaining triangle mechanics, but reducing them to red/blue/green colors specific to units. Decent enough gameplay, for a cut-down free-to-play mobile game, and like many such titles has improved with time.
	* ''Fire Emblem Cipher'' is the card game you're reading about! There ~~are (so far)~~ 7 original characters created just for it. Their class changes every appearance, and, unlike other spinoff characters, they typically aren't colorless but a random color. The original characters that existed at the time could be recruited in DLC for ''Shadows of Valentia''.		* ''Fire Emblem Cipher'' is the card game you're reading about! There were 7 original characters created just for it. Their class changes every appearance, and, unlike other spinoff characters, they typically aren't colorless but a random color. The original characters that existed at the time could be recruited in DLC for ''Shadows of Valentia''.

	== Post-Cipher Titles ==		== Post-Cipher Titles ==
	As we [[Chris-Chan\|can't have nice things on the internet]], Cipher ended around the release of ''Three Houses'' and put the kibosh on any future tabletop junk for the foreseeable future. That said, it wouldn't hurt to cover the games released after this era.		As we [[Chris-Chan\|can't have nice things on the internet]], ''Cipher'' ended around the release of ''Three Houses'' and put the kibosh on any future tabletop junk for the foreseeable future. That said, it wouldn't hurt to cover the games released after this era.

	=== Fire Emblem Engage ===		=== Fire Emblem Engage ===

1d4chan>Boyd the Reaver at 16:46, 28 April 2023

2023-04-28T16:46:38Z

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	=== Colorless ===		=== Colorless ===
	Colorless cards are those of character original to Cipher (though cards of these characters sometimes have the symbols of random existing universes instead), those of characters originating in one of the spinoff titles, certain promotional cards, or the character Anna (who appears in every game in the series but ''Gaiden''). They have no set mechanics and are splashable since they don't need a color bond to deploy, but don't provide a color when played as bonds.		Colorless cards are those of character original to Cipher (though cards of these characters sometimes have the symbols of random existing universes instead), those of characters originating in one of the spinoff titles, certain promotional cards, or the character Anna (who appears in every game in the series but ''Gaiden''). They have no set mechanics and are splashable since they don't need a color bond to deploy, but don't provide a color when played as bonds.

	* ''Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE'' (''幻影異聞録♯ＦＥ'', ''Illusory Revelations ♯FE'') started life as a title that was announced as a crossover between ''Fire Emblem'' and ''Shin Megami Tensei''. After it was revealed following ''years'' of unnecessarily secretive development to be a ''Persona''-themed game about various young folks in showbiz battling monsters with ''Fire Emblem'' characters as [[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure\| Stands]], resulting in absolutely thermonuclear levels of [[RAGE\| fanbase drama]], it bombed, and by the time that calmed down while the game was nearing western release, said release was censored to the point the Japanese dialog was rerecorded to match the changes, flopping overseas as well. Not a bad game; the story's fine if somewhat vanilla, the gameplay is well-designed with that traditional Atlus brand of challenge and satisfaction, and its sad history means it's generally available quite cheap.		* ''Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE'' (''幻影異聞録♯ＦＥ'', ''Illusory Revelations ♯FE'') started life as a title that was announced as a crossover between ''Fire Emblem'' and ''Shin Megami Tensei''. After it was revealed following ''years'' of unnecessarily secretive development to be a ''Persona''-themed game about various young folks in showbiz battling monsters with ''Fire Emblem'' characters as [[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure\| Stands]], resulting in absolutely thermonuclear levels of [[RAGE\| fanbase drama]], it bombed, and by the time that calmed down while the game was nearing western release, said release was censored to the point the Japanese dialog was rerecorded to match the changes, flopping overseas as well. Not a bad game; the story's fine if somewhat vanilla, the gameplay is well-designed with that traditional Atlus brand of challenge and satisfaction, and its sad history means it's generally available quite cheap.
	** ''Encore'': An enhanced Switch port that was hoped to provide a good afterlife for the game, but itself resulted in thermonuclear drama after it was revealed the censorship of the Wii U version was now in the Japanese version too, because this poor game accidentally swallowed a cursed amulet or some shit and cannot get a fucking break to literally save its life or legacy, and only sold marginally better, very likely killing off the creators' stated hope of a line of ''Persona''-themed collaborations with other game franchises permanently.		** ''Encore'': An enhanced Switch port that was hoped to provide a good afterlife for the game, but itself resulted in thermonuclear drama after it was revealed the censorship of the Wii U version was now in the Japanese version too, because this poor game accidentally swallowed a cursed amulet or some shit and cannot get a fucking break to literally save its life or legacy, and only sold marginally better, very likely killing off the creators' stated hope of a line of ''Persona''-themed collaborations with other game franchises permanently.
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	As we [[Chris-Chan\|can't have nice things on the internet]], Cipher ended around the release of ''Three Houses'' and put the kibosh on any future tabletop junk for the foreseeable future. That said, it wouldn't hurt to cover the games released after this era.		As we [[Chris-Chan\|can't have nice things on the internet]], Cipher ended around the release of ''Three Houses'' and put the kibosh on any future tabletop junk for the foreseeable future. That said, it wouldn't hurt to cover the games released after this era.

			=== Fire Emblem Engage ===
	''Fire Emblem Engage'' (''ファイアーエムブレムエンゲージ''; literally ''Fire Emblem Engage'', captain obvious) is the seventeenth mainline installment in the franchise, and sadly, it's right back to being the most divisive installment in the franchise since ''Fates''. Predicting which camp you fall into this game is VERY easy; if you like ''Fire Emblem'' for the gameplay, this is easily the best installment since ''New Mystery of the Emblem'' and ''Conquest'' with all the massive changes and lion's share of cool mechanics and gameplay features... but if you play ''Fire Emblem'' for the story, this is one of the '''worst''' in the series. Hell, some people have even said by pretty large numbers that it's even ''worse'' than ''Fates's'' story, as ''Fates'' is a case of [[Dawn of War II\|high potential, good characters and messy execution]], while ''Engage'' barely has anything to work off and just feels like a parody of ''Fire Emblem'' down to the extreme shallowness of the world, [[FAIL\|an impressive feat given how Skub-tastic the former game was]]. To be fair, it may be by design; topping ''Three Houses'' was going to be a tough act that could've backfired hard, so they instead focused on being a gameplay-centric installment. But it sucks because the story of ''Engage'' has good ideas (such as the protagonist, Alear, actually being a Fell Dragon who was imbued with Divine Dragon blood, hence their multicolor hair; because their dad Sombron was [[The God-Emperor of Mankind\|a fucking awful dad]] and his mother adopted him by virtue of being the first person to treat them like a person, this could've gone very interesting places, but alas...) but just really barely did anything with it. On the plus side, seeing many of the callbacks to the other Lords in the Emblems was very fun, and the game has several good characters (like Yunaka and Alfred), but good luck finding the right supports that expand on their characters so much. Also, Treehouse in their [[Bullshit\|infinite wisdom]] overcorrected on the fact [[Loli\|you can marry children in the Japanese version]] and that Alear is technically a minor by removing the ability to romance ''everyone'', which [[Skub\|bringing up is liable to start several flame wars]]. By contrast, gameplay is exceptional; the Emblems feel as powerful as they should be and the Somniel is far better in general than even the Encampment in ''Three Hopes'', and while not right up to My Castle's level, it gets close. Gameplay is fun and snappy and the AI is actually very smart, even outright using [[Cheese\|warp strats against you in one map]]. The game is also one of the best balanced save some weird quirks; the Jagen of this game actually falls off by the mid-point, Armors are not just good but downright critical to the early-game, and the resident Trainee is downright excellent, and the sheer customizability with the Emblems help make it very fun -- and given how hard the game can be, you'll need it. There's several issues, of course; reclassing returns in ''Awakening's'' format by lowering your stats and lowering your level to Level 1 when you reclass and forcing you to work your way up to that level again, Skirmishes for some bizarre reason doesn't scale to the chapter map you fight them on but your party level which makes training up units you've benched basically impossible, and while the majority of units are at least with some niche the Royals generally blow their retainers out of the water altogether and make justifying using them over the retainer units very difficult. Overall, just like ''Three Houses'' is as lopsided in the story department, ''Engage'' is lopsided in the gameplay department. That hasn't stopped a major contingent of fans protesting the game for not being ''Three Houses'', but it remains to be seen where this would lead the series, and in spite of such, the game ''IS'' good, so fans of the gameplay of ''Fire Emblem'' are bound to be pleased with this one.		''Fire Emblem Engage'' (''ファイアーエムブレムエンゲージ''; literally ''Fire Emblem Engage'', captain obvious) is the seventeenth mainline installment in the franchise, and sadly, it's right back to being the most divisive installment in the franchise since ''Fates''. Predicting which camp you fall into this game is VERY easy; if you like ''Fire Emblem'' for the gameplay, this is easily the best installment since ''New Mystery of the Emblem'' and ''Conquest'' with all the massive changes and lion's share of cool mechanics and gameplay features... but if you play ''Fire Emblem'' for the story, this is one of the '''worst''' in the series. Hell, some people have even said by pretty large numbers that it's even ''worse'' than ''Fates's'' story, as ''Fates'' is a case of [[Dawn of War II\|high potential, good characters and messy execution]], while ''Engage'' barely has anything to work off and just feels like a parody of ''Fire Emblem'' down to the extreme shallowness of the world, [[FAIL\|an impressive feat given how Skub-tastic the former game was]]. To be fair, it may be by design; topping ''Three Houses'' was going to be a tough act that could've backfired hard, so they instead focused on being a gameplay-centric installment. But it sucks because the story of ''Engage'' has good ideas (such as the protagonist, Alear, actually being a Fell Dragon who was imbued with Divine Dragon blood, hence their multicolor hair; because their dad Sombron was [[The God-Emperor of Mankind\|a fucking awful dad]] and his mother adopted him by virtue of being the first person to treat them like a person, this could've gone very interesting places, but alas...) but just really barely did anything with it. On the plus side, seeing many of the callbacks to the other Lords in the Emblems was very fun, and the game has several good characters (like Yunaka and Alfred), but good luck finding the right supports that expand on their characters so much. Also, Treehouse in their [[Bullshit\|infinite wisdom]] overcorrected on the fact [[Loli\|you can marry children in the Japanese version]] and that Alear is technically a minor by removing the ability to romance ''everyone'', which [[Skub\|bringing up is liable to start several flame wars]]. By contrast, gameplay is exceptional; the Emblems feel as powerful as they should be and the Somniel is far better in general than even the Encampment in ''Three Hopes'', and while not right up to My Castle's level, it gets close. Gameplay is fun and snappy and the AI is actually very smart, even outright using [[Cheese\|warp strats against you in one map]]. The game is also one of the best balanced save some weird quirks; the Jagen of this game actually falls off by the mid-point, Armors are not just good but downright critical to the early-game, and the resident Trainee is downright excellent, and the sheer customizability with the Emblems help make it very fun -- and given how hard the game can be, you'll need it. There's several issues, of course; reclassing returns in ''Awakening's'' format by lowering your stats and lowering your level to Level 1 when you reclass and forcing you to work your way up to that level again, Skirmishes for some bizarre reason doesn't scale to the chapter map you fight them on but your party level which makes training up units you've benched basically impossible, and while the majority of units are at least with some niche the Royals generally blow their retainers out of the water altogether and make justifying using them over the retainer units very difficult. Overall, just like ''Three Houses'' is as lopsided in the story department, ''Engage'' is lopsided in the gameplay department. That hasn't stopped a major contingent of fans protesting the game for not being ''Three Houses'', but it remains to be seen where this would lead the series, and in spite of such, the game ''IS'' good, so fans of the gameplay of ''Fire Emblem'' are bound to be pleased with this one.

1d4chan>Boyd the Reaver: Expanded on ''Three Hopes'' and ''Engage''.

2023-04-28T16:45:32Z

Expanded on ''Three Hopes'' and ''Engage''.

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	=== Fódlan/Crest of Flames/Brown ===		=== Fódlan/Crest of Flames/Brown ===
	Brown introduces to Cipher the '''Crest Power''' keyword. Certain units (those that have a Crest) have the ability to use their Crest Power skill while they are in hand and sent to the Retreat Area, effectively having them act as spell cards. Many units synergize with Crest Powers, either by them gaining a buff or activating an effect whenever any kind of Crest Power is used, or only allowing the Crest Power of the unit in hand to be used when any copy of that unit is already on the field. Brown units also have much more varied class lines for their characters, to honor the wide variety of classes the characters within Three Houses could obtain.		Brown introduces to Cipher the '''Crest Power''' keyword. Certain units (those that have a Crest) have the ability to use their Crest Power skill while they are in hand and sent to the Retreat Area, effectively having them act as spell cards. Many units synergize with Crest Powers, either by them gaining a buff or activating an effect whenever any kind of Crest Power is used, or only allowing the Crest Power of the unit in hand to be used when any copy of that unit is already on the field. Brown units also have much more varied class lines for their characters, to honor the wide variety of classes the characters within Three Houses could obtain.
	* ''Fire Emblem: Three Houses'' (''ファイアーエムブレム風花雪月'', ''Wind, Flower, Snow and Moon'') is the sixteenth game in the series, released on the Nintendo Switch. Strangely the majority of the development for this game came from Koei Tecmo, who have experience with war sims as well as brawlers, with only a few senior Intelligent Systems staff involved. The main character is once again a player stand-in. They're a mercenary who bonds with a loli dragon that allows him or her a limited ability to rewind time. After saving a bunch of students, the player is invited to become a teacher at the prestigious Garreg Mach Monastery military academy. The player picks one of three classes, each representing students of one of the continent's four coexisting powers, the Adrestian Empire, the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, and the Leicester Alliance, all under the auspices of the Church of Seiros. Unfortunately, these happy days of peace cannot last, and eventually war flares up, the powers all come to blows, with the player having to pick one of three sides and kill at least some of their former students. Another wildly experimental title, liberally mixing in time-management mechanics from the ''Persona'' games alongside an even-more-customizable spin on the class system, where most characters start in Noble/Commoner classes and take exams to be guided into different class trees, equippable battalions of troops, and the removal of restrictions on weapon usage between classes (though some are better with certain weapons than with others). It also (fittingly for a game that clearly takes much inspiration from ''Genealogy of the Holy War'') revives some lost Jugdral mechanics, like Holy Blood (now called Crests) and the Dismount feature, as well as the turn-back mechanic from ''Shadows of Valentia'' and special attacks that consume additional weapon durability. Generally seen as a better second iteration of many of ''Fates'''s best new ideas (though unfortunately weapon durability makes a return), and has received praise for serious, mature storytelling in a war where all sides have shades to them such that none start as "the bad guys," but that also mostly avoids sliding into [[grimdark]] outside of the designated grimdark route. It does the best job yet of marrying together bits from both the classic and modern incarnations of the series, and is a great new step forward out of the 3DS era.		* ''Fire Emblem: Three Houses'' (''ファイアーエムブレム風花雪月'', ''Wind, Flower, Snow and Moon'') is the sixteenth game in the series, released on the Nintendo Switch. Strangely the majority of the development for this game came from Koei Tecmo, who have experience with war sims as well as brawlers, with only a few senior Intelligent Systems staff involved. The main character is once again a player stand-in. They're a mercenary who bonds with a loli dragon that allows him or her a limited ability to rewind time. After saving a bunch of students, the player is invited to become a teacher at the prestigious Garreg Mach Monastery military academy. The player picks one of three classes, each representing students of one of the continent's four coexisting powers, the Adrestian Empire, the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, and the Leicester Alliance, all under the auspices of the Church of Seiros. Unfortunately, these happy days of peace cannot last, and eventually war flares up, the powers all come to blows, with the player having to pick one of three sides and kill at least some of their former students. Another wildly experimental title, liberally mixing in time-management mechanics from the ''Persona'' games alongside an even-more-customizable spin on the class system, where most characters start in Noble/Commoner classes and take exams to be guided into different class trees, equippable battalions of troops, and the removal of restrictions on weapon usage between classes (though some are better with certain weapons than with others). It also (fittingly for a game that clearly takes much inspiration from ''Genealogy of the Holy War'') revives some lost Jugdral mechanics, like Holy Blood (now called Crests) and the Dismount feature, as well as the turn-back mechanic from ''Shadows of Valentia'' and special attacks that consume additional weapon durability. Generally seen as a better second iteration of many of ''Fates'''s best new ideas (though unfortunately weapon durability makes a return), and has received praise for serious, mature storytelling in a war where all sides have shades to them such that none start as "the bad guys," but that also mostly avoids sliding into [[grimdark]] outside of the designated grimdark route. It does the best job yet of marrying together bits from both the classic and modern incarnations of the series, and is a great new step forward out of the 3DS era. Of course, that's not to say the game is perfect; [[Skub\|depending on who you ask]], ''Three Houses's'' gameplay may either be serviceable or an affront on God itself, largely due to the downright awful class balance and the Monastery ''very much'' grating on people's nerves with the amount of filler there is in it. That's not even bringing up [[Advancing the Storyline\|the pacing coming to a screeching halt]] to account the pre-timeskip storyline, and while New Game Plus does a lot to make it more tolerable, it's nowhere near enough and oftentimes the winning strategy just becomes "[[Cheese\|reclass everyone into Wyvern Lords]]". Overall, while the ''combat'' is fun, and has several good ideas, it's got a lion's share of issues with the sheer amount of horrific pacing with the game, to the point even the devs didn't consider that people would want to replay different routes... [[What\|in the game that only gives you the full story by playing every route]]. Overall, while the story is good and very much a positive step forward for the franchise, the gameplay is subject to a whole lot of Skub, especially in recent years where the former fandom-breaker in ''Fates'' ended up having far, ''far'' better gameplay. Overall, whether or not you like this game depends on how much you're willing to put up with bad gameplay loops if it means getting to a story, but for those who do, this game's very much worth it.
			** ''Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes'' (''ファイアーエムブレム無双風花雪月'', ''Unrivalled: Wind, Flower, [[Derp\|Snow]], Moon'') is the actionized sequel of both ''Three Houses'' and ''Warriors'', taking the best -- [[Skub\|and worst]] -- of both worlds. ''Three Hopes'' was made with the intent of fixing the problems people had with both games; the non-existent story of ''Warriors'' very much introduces an Avatar-like stand-in who neither wants to tear out your eardrums and only serves as additional bread and butter to the already-meaty storytelling of ''Three Houses'' and is unusually well-written for a ''Warriors'' game. On the flipside, the downright painful loop of the Monastery is done away with aplomb and it fixes both a lot of issues people had with ''Three Houses'' (like Edelgard being a shorter route and an absolute pain to know how to unlock) as well as getting to the timeskip. And thankfully, they actually give Byleth a ''personality'' when out of the hands of [[Matt Ward\|writers who don't know what they're doing]], and Shez is [[This Guy\|very likable as well]]. The Camp that's reskinned based on what route you're on is luckily completely streamlined too, and while not as good and snappy as My Castle, it's more than serviceable. That said, it still runs into some major issues. Story, while not as much of a flawed-but-high-potential mess as ''Fates'', runs into several pitfalls; it assumes that the audience already played ''Three Houses'' which can really hamper enjoyment of the story for those who skipped on ''Three Houses'' for the poorer-than-average gameplay loop, and there's several decisions that are just baffling; such as Rhea being completely shafted and her route being scrapped altogether (likely an overcorrection from Silver Snow being regarded as the worst route of ''Three Houses'', though not without good points to it), as well as the downright [[Khornate Knights\|god-awful writing decision]] of having Edelgard [[RAGE\|mind raped in Dimitri's route and turned into a mental child who's subservient to Those Who Slither]]. Overall, very much a "two steps forward, one step back deal". Fixes pretty much all of the problems people had with ''Warriors'' and ''Three Houses''... [[Derp\|but adds plenty of new ones as well]]. Gameplay, there's not much to say; it's pretty much the same as ''Warriors'', being semi-mindless hack and slash action with a strategy overlay, so if that's your thing then it's very much worth a try.

	=== Colorless ===		=== Colorless ===
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	* ''Fire Emblem: Heroes'' is a mobile gacha game with stripped down ''Fire Emblem''-style grid-tactics gameplay on fairly-small maps. Variations on characters from across the series can be summoned (introducing many classic characters to an English audience for the first time in an official release) with voice acting and everything. It has a story focused on a pair of twin Lords, Alfonse and Sharena, from a nation that summons heroes from across space and time, and currently at war with another that enslaves them. There's a bit more to it than that, especially if you're ''really'' into Norse and Finnish mythology, but it takes its sweet time getting good. Notable for retaining triangle mechanics, but reducing them to red/blue/green colors specific to units. Decent enough gameplay, for a cut-down free-to-play mobile game, and like many such titles has improved with time.		* ''Fire Emblem: Heroes'' is a mobile gacha game with stripped down ''Fire Emblem''-style grid-tactics gameplay on fairly-small maps. Variations on characters from across the series can be summoned (introducing many classic characters to an English audience for the first time in an official release) with voice acting and everything. It has a story focused on a pair of twin Lords, Alfonse and Sharena, from a nation that summons heroes from across space and time, and currently at war with another that enslaves them. There's a bit more to it than that, especially if you're ''really'' into Norse and Finnish mythology, but it takes its sweet time getting good. Notable for retaining triangle mechanics, but reducing them to red/blue/green colors specific to units. Decent enough gameplay, for a cut-down free-to-play mobile game, and like many such titles has improved with time.
	* ''Fire Emblem Cipher'' is the card game you're reading about! There are (so far) 7 original characters created just for it. Their class changes every appearance, and, unlike other spinoff characters, they typically aren't colorless but a random color. The original characters that existed at the time could be recruited in DLC for ''Shadows of Valentia''.		* ''Fire Emblem Cipher'' is the card game you're reading about! There are (so far) 7 original characters created just for it. Their class changes every appearance, and, unlike other spinoff characters, they typically aren't colorless but a random color. The original characters that existed at the time could be recruited in DLC for ''Shadows of Valentia''.

			== Post-Cipher Titles ==
			As we [[Chris-Chan\|can't have nice things on the internet]], Cipher ended around the release of ''Three Houses'' and put the kibosh on any future tabletop junk for the foreseeable future. That said, it wouldn't hurt to cover the games released after this era.

			''Fire Emblem Engage'' (''ファイアーエムブレムエンゲージ''; literally ''Fire Emblem Engage'', captain obvious) is the seventeenth mainline installment in the franchise, and sadly, it's right back to being the most divisive installment in the franchise since ''Fates''. Predicting which camp you fall into this game is VERY easy; if you like ''Fire Emblem'' for the gameplay, this is easily the best installment since ''New Mystery of the Emblem'' and ''Conquest'' with all the massive changes and lion's share of cool mechanics and gameplay features... but if you play ''Fire Emblem'' for the story, this is one of the '''worst''' in the series. Hell, some people have even said by pretty large numbers that it's even ''worse'' than ''Fates's'' story, as ''Fates'' is a case of [[Dawn of War II\|high potential, good characters and messy execution]], while ''Engage'' barely has anything to work off and just feels like a parody of ''Fire Emblem'' down to the extreme shallowness of the world, [[FAIL\|an impressive feat given how Skub-tastic the former game was]]. To be fair, it may be by design; topping ''Three Houses'' was going to be a tough act that could've backfired hard, so they instead focused on being a gameplay-centric installment. But it sucks because the story of ''Engage'' has good ideas (such as the protagonist, Alear, actually being a Fell Dragon who was imbued with Divine Dragon blood, hence their multicolor hair; because their dad Sombron was [[The God-Emperor of Mankind\|a fucking awful dad]] and his mother adopted him by virtue of being the first person to treat them like a person, this could've gone very interesting places, but alas...) but just really barely did anything with it. On the plus side, seeing many of the callbacks to the other Lords in the Emblems was very fun, and the game has several good characters (like Yunaka and Alfred), but good luck finding the right supports that expand on their characters so much. Also, Treehouse in their [[Bullshit\|infinite wisdom]] overcorrected on the fact [[Loli\|you can marry children in the Japanese version]] and that Alear is technically a minor by removing the ability to romance ''everyone'', which [[Skub\|bringing up is liable to start several flame wars]]. By contrast, gameplay is exceptional; the Emblems feel as powerful as they should be and the Somniel is far better in general than even the Encampment in ''Three Hopes'', and while not right up to My Castle's level, it gets close. Gameplay is fun and snappy and the AI is actually very smart, even outright using [[Cheese\|warp strats against you in one map]]. The game is also one of the best balanced save some weird quirks; the Jagen of this game actually falls off by the mid-point, Armors are not just good but downright critical to the early-game, and the resident Trainee is downright excellent, and the sheer customizability with the Emblems help make it very fun -- and given how hard the game can be, you'll need it. There's several issues, of course; reclassing returns in ''Awakening's'' format by lowering your stats and lowering your level to Level 1 when you reclass and forcing you to work your way up to that level again, Skirmishes for some bizarre reason doesn't scale to the chapter map you fight them on but your party level which makes training up units you've benched basically impossible, and while the majority of units are at least with some niche the Royals generally blow their retainers out of the water altogether and make justifying using them over the retainer units very difficult. Overall, just like ''Three Houses'' is as lopsided in the story department, ''Engage'' is lopsided in the gameplay department. That hasn't stopped a major contingent of fans protesting the game for not being ''Three Houses'', but it remains to be seen where this would lead the series, and in spite of such, the game ''IS'' good, so fans of the gameplay of ''Fire Emblem'' are bound to be pleased with this one.

	== Related titles ==		== Related titles ==

1d4chan>SpectralTime: /* Classes */

2023-01-19T09:45:24Z

Classes

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	In ''Cipher'', classes tend to have a few consistent abilities and, for heavily-armored, flying, or mounted units, offer certain affinities beyond their listed weapon, game of origin, and sex. Every card has a class listed, but this has no direct mechanical effect. Class changing is represented by being able to deploy more-powerful versions of units on top of base models, which have reduced cost and grant a card draw. Cards without a class change cost can still be added to existing units as a "level up" but this doesn't draw a card. Tellius cards in particular depend on having a large number of cards stacked in this way to achieve their full potential.		In ''Cipher'', classes tend to have a few consistent abilities and, for heavily-armored, flying, or mounted units, offer certain affinities beyond their listed weapon, game of origin, and sex. Every card has a class listed, but this has no direct mechanical effect. Class changing is represented by being able to deploy more-powerful versions of units on top of base models, which have reduced cost and grant a card draw. Cards without a class change cost can still be added to existing units as a "level up" but this doesn't draw a card. Tellius cards in particular depend on having a large number of cards stacked in this way to achieve their full potential.

			The following list is not comprehensive; plenty of games have their own unique ideas for new classes and no two of them seem to be able to agree on how to handle putting a bow on a horse.

	=== Lord ===		=== Lord ===

1d4chan>SpectralTime: /* Hoshido/White and Nohr/Black */

2023-01-19T09:43:00Z

Hoshido/White and Nohr/Black

← Older revision		Revision as of 09:43, 19 January 2023
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	=== Hoshido/White and Nohr/Black ===		=== Hoshido/White and Nohr/Black ===
	In ''Cipher'' this unnamed continent has two symbols, one for each of the two warring nations that dominate it. Japan-inspired Hoshido focuses on swarming while medieval-European Nohr gets abilities that destroy units and bonuses when it destroys units. Shared between the two is the Dragon Blood mechanic possessed by the royal families, which [[Slivers\|gives every unit with a Dragon Blood skill the Dragon Blood skills of the other units you have deployed]].		In ''Cipher'' this unnamed continent has two symbols, one for each of the two warring nations that dominate it. Japan-inspired Hoshido focuses on swarming while medieval-European Nohr gets abilities that destroy units and bonuses when it destroys units. Shared between the two is the Dragon Blood mechanic possessed by the royal families, which [[Slivers\|gives every unit with a Dragon Blood skill the Dragon Blood skills of the other units you have deployed]].
	* ''Fire Emblem Fates'' (''ファイアーエムブレム if'') is the 14th game in the series, and the most... ''[[Skub\|varied]]'' in fans and critics. One of the most ambitious ''Fire Emblem'' titles in years (and surely no flawed product has ''ever'' been euphemistically described as "ambitious"), ''Fates'''s story is split into three branches, [[What\|two of them DLC after buying one of two base games]], where you side with one of two warring nations, or strike off on your own to get to the bottom of what's really going on. The customizable player character, who is also the Lord, a manakete-equivalent, ''and'' the main character, is a noble hostage, born to the royal family of Hoshido, but raised in the courts of Nohr whose royals treat them like family, while a Nohr princess, a mysterious dancer, is similarly raised as a hostage in Hoshido. After the evil emperor of Nohr unsubtly tries and fails to engineer your death, but ''does'' succeed in assassinating the queen of Hoshido in the process, war outright breaks out between the two powers, with the PC torn between the only family they've ever known and the moral high ground of their blood-kin. It sounds like a great setup, doesn't it, and one that offers more moral complexity than the average title? That's what the fans thought too, in the lead-up; reality is often disappointing. The end result was a title that, for a time, was a major divisor and originator of hot takes whether you liked it or hated it, and while by no means a ''bad'' game [[Dawn of War III\|like other disappointments]], it has quite a lot of issues that, depending on who you ask, make this either one of the worst installments in the series or are not so awful as to effectively drag all the game's good qualities down into the muck. There're some fundamental differences between the three different versions of the game, which will be spelt out in their own sections, since they went full Pokemon for this sucker and sold them separately. Characters generally have a lot of depth if dug into via supports, and the royal families display an endearing range of personalities, but some make weak first impressions, and the localization team tried to please both sides of the ongoing internet wars between tribes of easily-offended weirdos and instead boiled the entire game's translation in a pot of [[skub]]. Gameplay actually carries over the best ideas from ''Awakening'' and expands on it with an extensive reclass system divided along national lines, giving the two nations different pools of units and different styles of combat, and each character now has a unique personal skill, making none of them perfect replacements for one another even with stats taken into consideration. It also reworks Pair Up in an exciting new way, with adjacent units able to take advantage of offensive supporting attacks from other units that hadn't moved yet, a la ''Super Robot Wars'', and paired up units able to take advantage of stat boosts and block attacks (based on an increasing meter rather than a random chance) but not able to get supporting attacks. The game ~~also~~ experiments with a bold and well-implemented alternative to the series' traditional breakable weapons, making all weapons indestructible, but causing stronger weapons to impose stat penalties, and therefore creating interesting tradeoffs. And various royal family members can use their "Dragon Blood" to make changes to the map as they play, such as drying up rivers, summoning windstorms to slow aerial units, or raising earth bridges to close gaps. Less well-implemented were the second generation, clumsily crowbarred in out of obligation rather than as a holistic part of the game's design and story, and the "social gaming" features, where the player constructs their own extradimensional town for their characters to relax in between missions, including a bizarre minigame seemingly inspired by Pokemon Amie where the player could touch the faces of their retainers. (This was clobbered for the Western release.) Overall, a mixed bag. It has its ups, and plenty of good ideas, enough that it can't truly be called a bad game when considered as a collective whole... but its downs are glaring and include plenty of bad ideas too. Financially, ''technically'' outsold its predecessor, though whether or not that's due to triple-dipping on an existing fanbase by selling three stories separately is unclear.		* ''Fire Emblem Fates'' (''ファイアーエムブレム if'') is the 14th game in the series, and the most... ''[[Skub\|varied]]'' in fans and critics. One of the most ambitious ''Fire Emblem'' titles in years (and surely no flawed product has ''ever'' been euphemistically described as "ambitious"), ''Fates'''s story is split into three branches, [[What\|two of them DLC after buying one of two base games]], where you side with one of two warring nations, or strike off on your own to get to the bottom of what's really going on. The customizable player character, who is also the Lord, a manakete-equivalent, ''and'' the main character, is a noble hostage, born to the royal family of Hoshido, but raised in the courts of Nohr whose royals treat them like family, while a Nohr princess, a mysterious dancer, is similarly raised as a hostage in Hoshido. After the evil emperor of Nohr unsubtly tries and fails to engineer your death, but ''does'' succeed in assassinating the queen of Hoshido in the process, war outright breaks out between the two powers, with the PC torn between the only family they've ever known and the moral high ground of their blood-kin. It sounds like a great setup, doesn't it, and one that offers more moral complexity than the average title? That's what the fans thought too, in the lead-up; reality is often disappointing. The end result was a title that, for a time, was a major divisor and originator of hot takes whether you liked it or hated it, and while by no means a ''bad'' game [[Dawn of War III\|like other disappointments]], it has quite a lot of issues that, depending on who you ask, make this either one of the worst installments in the series or are not so awful as to effectively drag all the game's good qualities down into the muck. There're some fundamental differences between the three different versions of the game, which will be spelt out in their own sections, since they went full Pokemon for this sucker and sold them separately. Characters generally have a lot of depth if dug into via supports, and the royal families display an endearing range of personalities, but some make weak first impressions, and the localization team tried to please both sides of the ongoing internet wars between tribes of easily-offended weirdos and instead boiled the entire game's translation in a pot of [[skub]]. Gameplay actually carries over the best ideas from ''Awakening'' and expands on it with an extensive reclass system divided along national lines, giving the two nations different pools of units and different styles of combat, and each character now has a unique personal skill, making none of them perfect replacements for one another even with stats taken into consideration. It also reworks Pair Up in an exciting new way, with adjacent units able to take advantage of offensive supporting attacks from other units that hadn't moved yet, a la ''Super Robot Wars'', and paired up units able to take advantage of stat boosts and block attacks (based on an increasing meter rather than a random chance) but not able to get supporting attacks. The game experiments with a bold and well-implemented alternative to the series' traditional breakable weapons, making all weapons indestructible, but causing stronger weapons to impose stat penalties, and therefore creating interesting tradeoffs. Throwing knives and shuriken are introduced as support weapons, used more for imposing debuffs on enemies than going for the kill themselves. And various royal family members can use their "Dragon Blood" to make changes to the map as they play, such as drying up rivers, summoning windstorms to slow aerial units, or raising earth bridges to close gaps. Less well-implemented were the second generation, clumsily crowbarred in out of obligation rather than as a holistic part of the game's design and story, and the "social gaming" features, where the player constructs their own extradimensional town for their characters to relax in between missions, including a bizarre minigame seemingly inspired by Pokemon Amie where the player could touch the faces of their retainers. (This was clobbered for the Western release.) Overall, a mixed bag. It has its ups, and plenty of good ideas, enough that it can't truly be called a bad game when considered as a collective whole... but its downs are glaring and include plenty of bad ideas too. Financially, ''technically'' outsold its predecessor, though whether or not that's due to triple-dipping on an existing fanbase by selling three stories separately is unclear.
	** ''Birthright'', the Hoshido route, involves the main character siding with the painfully-obvious good guys and their blood family. It's actually reasonably well-written, with an optimistic tone leavened by a few moments of heartfelt tragedy that bite deep, and, humiliatingly, a better halfway-reasonable excuse for the war that never comes up in the Nohr route. The twist that you're not blood-related to ''these'' relatives ''either'' is spoiled by the Support menu listing that you can S-Support with them, so no judgement. (The fact that they will retroactively have been revealed to know all along you weren't blood related either upon S-Supporting is an unfortunate exception to that "good writing" thing above.) Gameplay follows the ''Gaiden''/''Sacred Stones''/''Awakening'' mold, with a world map that offers some grinding opportunities between missions. Probably the best of the three, just in terms of having the least wrong with it.		** ''Birthright'', the Hoshido route, involves the main character siding with the painfully-obvious good guys and their blood family. It's actually reasonably well-written, with an optimistic tone leavened by a few moments of heartfelt tragedy that bite deep, and, humiliatingly, a better halfway-reasonable excuse for the war that never comes up in the Nohr route. The twist that you're not blood-related to ''these'' relatives ''either'' is spoiled by the Support menu listing that you can S-Support with them, so no judgement. (The fact that they will retroactively have been revealed to know all along you weren't blood related either upon S-Supporting is an unfortunate exception to that "good writing" thing above.) Gameplay follows the ''Gaiden''/''Sacred Stones''/''Awakening'' mold, with a world map that offers some grinding opportunities between missions. Probably the best of the three, just in terms of having the least wrong with it.
	** ''Conquest'', the Nohr route, sees the player siding with Nohr, since the ''rest'' of the royal family of Nohr are actually pretty decent people they love and can't bear to fight, and trying to intrigue their way to the bottom of what's going on from the inside. It is easily the subject that comes under the most fire of the three stories, with bizarre and nonsensical plot twists and borderline-incoherent character motivations. Gameplay, thankfully, is much stronger, though, generally seen as the strongest of the three games and further arguably one of the series' highlights, with a "classic" ''Fire Emblem'' linear sets of levels with the odd optional detour for a side mission but no between-mission snacking. Difficulty is higher, but in a good way, with intricate and well-designed maps that possess interesting gimmicks. It's also worth noting that while the story is a mess, the characters thankfully are great in this route, and are generally more popular than Hoshido's characters.		** ''Conquest'', the Nohr route, sees the player siding with Nohr, since the ''rest'' of the royal family of Nohr are actually pretty decent people they love and can't bear to fight, and trying to intrigue their way to the bottom of what's going on from the inside. It is easily the subject that comes under the most fire of the three stories, with bizarre and nonsensical plot twists and borderline-incoherent character motivations. Gameplay, thankfully, is much stronger, though, generally seen as the strongest of the three games and further arguably one of the series' highlights, with a "classic" ''Fire Emblem'' linear sets of levels with the odd optional detour for a side mission but no between-mission snacking. Difficulty is higher, but in a good way, with intricate and well-designed maps that possess interesting gimmicks. It's also worth noting that while the story is a mess, the characters thankfully are great in this route, and are generally more popular than Hoshido's characters.