#are we considering this one fe17 i think we are

[randomnameless]

I'm beginning to think there might have been discourse/debate between KT and IS regarding the Fodlan games. We'll never know of course but it would be amusing if that's the case considering how it translated to their audience.

lol

Some people already thought about it, and while Nopes was a heavily marketed/produced product by KT, at the end of the day, even for FE16, IS had to pop in and give a sign of approval.

I think the interview for Engage more or less revealed that while the two games weren't developed together, they were thought of as being wildly different experiences - both in gameplay and story, and while I have my own gripes with Engage's story especially in the last chapters, Engage's big character resolution is

Alear coming to terms with what they were born as, but deciding, nonetheless, to use their power to be and act as the divine dragon Lumera was, aka use their power to do something "good" even if they were born as Sombron's kid thus supposed to do "bad" things.

Compare this with "crust BaD" - nowhere in the Fodlan games is it ever mentionned, by one character who has a crust, that crust is only a power and not inherently bad or good, it's what you decided to do, you as someone who has the opportunity to use this power, who ultimately choose to do the right thing, or the wrong thing.

Hell, it's only when Fodlan met another game (fully developed by IS, for better and worse) that his question is raised, and quickly eluded by Supreme Leader warping away from Lissa, because hey, in an IS game, that question would have been raised, and defaulting to "crusts BaD" has never been the house's recipe to make a game - especially since this specific recipe has been overused, first in FE Jugdral (Loptyr blood isn't inherently evil, that was the teaching Blaggi tried to promote that was later ignored and then forgotten), then, sort of in FE6 (no Fa, divine dragons aren't doomed to become souless war dragon producing machins or humanity's enemies!), in FE13 with Robin and their fell blood, and finally, in FE17.

I think, even if FE16 still sells a lot of alts in FEH and DLC and what not, the lack of side materials and goodies is, imo, telling enough about what IS wants to do with it - FE17 got a manga release on the shonen jump + (i think?) even when the sales are inferior to FE16's (granted, if we compare something that was around for 4 years including 2020 to a game released in January, that's not very fair) - Nopes's DLC was called off and bar FEH milking the Fodlan verse to sell units, imo, IS wants to drop it and move forward.

And while it makes me sad because there are things I'm legit interested in (war of heroes guide like the tellius recollection guide plz), given what "Fodlan" ended up when KT was left (mostly?) alone in the form of Nopes (you effing beat up refugees to steal their gold! Like, we're the red units beating the green npcs, or the bandits burning houses??) - I am less and less sure I want to see more Fodlan content, even if I was pleasantly surprised with the Fodlan content - especially regarding Nabateans who are completely ignored by their source game - IS made up for FEH.

Sure we have some issues that are inherent to FEH's nature as a gacha selling game cajoling units who can sell a lot (Hilda's family never had slaves unfed servants! Syrup just had some adventures in Goneril!) but to the FEH team - from IS - Sothis is more pissed at Agarthans for having genocided her children and turned them into pincushions than for Billy's dad's death.

Hell, for what it's worth, Emblem!Dimitri mentions how much he likes the idea of a world/place without discriminations based on origins or races, something he cannot say in the KT Fodlan games, because it stars Ms "You are a Nabatean, you should not rule over Humans!" as the main character of the game - so it's not a lot, but imo, FEH + FE17 gives us clues as to what IS would have done with the Fodlan cast -

Even if I'm not kidding myself, Hresvelg Tea was always supposed to be the main selling point of that verse, so while I don't think we would have had less uwus, maybe we might have had some sort of "sekrit brainwash" to make Ashnard in an onesie still be marketable for FEH.

[damoselcastel]

Author's Notes 2023

A yearly-sum-up of my personal thoughts for my written works in 2022 (ones with chapters updates count too), my own personal tradition. All of the fic I listed can be found on my AO3.

JANUARY

Storms at Phinora - FE4 Lewyn/Tiltyu fic

Written for Nagamas 2022, set mid-chapter 5, basically an excuse to explore the angst of various fav ships as they grapple with the events and overwhleming odds.

MARCH

Druid Jaehee's Nursery - TA Jaehee/Elderflower fic

A very silly NSFW take on the world of Terrrium Adventure (manhua), speculating on breeding being used to dupe rare pulls. Even the ship Jaehee/Elderflower, has to be the most casual (bickering) friends-with-benefits ship I've ever written. Although considering how fast and loose I play with worldbuilding references, yeah can understand why NOBODY read it, lol. (I actually had a spinoff featuring Sydling and his Dryads written but sadly lost it cause like a ninny I wrote it in Notepad)

JUNE

Quartet’s Common Time - a FE3H Annie/Mercie/Dedue/Dimitri fic

This is the fic that got the most investment/writing time this year. Big polyam smutfic (f/f, m/m, multi) with nods to Faerghus politics. Very happy with the love we gave the Dimitri/Annette rarepair, along with the various flavors of Dedue/Mercedes (the domestic fluff was a persona fav). Finished, it ended up at a hefty 26,908 words (I do wish we had some more comments for that end chapter... no idea what readers thought of it) Cowritten with the wonderful @mrmissmrsrandom and we'll continue to post for this verse.

OCTOBER-DECEMBER

Daemoni - FE14 Marx/Hinoka demon!AU

A fic that burst into being from a combination this year's spoopy month having a true Friday 13th + this great piece of fanart. While I did initially have a different ending planned, I pivoted to the current one and its frankly been a stress-free write. I'm just going loosey goosey with my monster/myth interpretations and largely making up things as I've gone, but I'm quite enjoying this verse- and I think readers have too? At least, two of them have. …I might still post my OG ending idea, but as a oneshot (it'd be spicy).

My free time activities shifted quite a bit half way through the year, and admittedly I've still not finished a FE17 run- for various reasons. However, it feels like I never hit burnout this year, and boy, most years that's the case at one time or another. Feels like my writing interests have gotten even more niche- likely cause the games involved are getting even older/I remain a rarepair captain. Let's all stay sane in 2024!

[randomnameless]

Do we know about the jp reception of the treehouse lolcalisation?

I thought some people there thought Nopes was marketed and produced for """the western fandom""" because of Billy's treatment, and how apparently """the west""" dislikes avatars which impacted Billy's popularity.

Rhea being swapped by Rhage though... even if you don't look at the lines, the VA's direction can transpire from Leigh's dubs, especially in FEH lol

I hope this controversy will not end up with JP companies returning to the "JP exclusive" games like what happened for FE12, but given how FE16 did 50% of its sales in the US, it'd be a financial suicide so either they tighten their grip or return to different release dates, to make sure the localised version isn't full of lols (like Pat's direction) and western players have the same (as much as localising a game allows it!) experience as jp players - or they go with low cost solution to keep the worldwide release date : everything is released at the same time, but with compulsory dual audio for every release !

Granted, it doesn't change the main issue : FE16 is the first FE game to have dual audio after it was nuked from FE14 and FE15, idk if it was a reaction to FE14's lolcalisation, but if it was, Treehouse didn't give a fuck and still lolcalised to their heart's content and apparently it worked, because, again, 50% of the sales were realised in the US.

So even if Treehouse botchers and "disrespect" or "appropriates" FE16, this version still sold like hot cakes - is IS really going to cut its profit to "respect" the spirit of a game? Of course not!

Hell, even subsequent releases have to account for the "Treehouse version of FE16", (seen FE17's localised version who removes the "live in harmony regardless of the races" to swap it by "regardless of the background" because FE Treehouse tried its hardest to remove Supreme Leader's racism against Nabateans) - whereas the gacha game - who was released during the "no dual audio" era, basically endorses and sells - to the "global" market - Fire Emblem Treehouse, and, again, it still makes a lot of money.

So, even if I hate it, to me, it feels like IS knows what kind of bullshit happens with the lolcalisation, but accepts it because Treehouse sells.

Even if it means having, sort of, basically, a 4Kids version of Fodlan for """the West""" and an og!FE16 for the home market.

A redditer once told me Rhage was but a "valid interpretation" of Rhea, but while I think it can be, for a fan, I refuse to consider it for a localisation POV - aka the compulsory lens a fan has to look through to get a peak at a character/game/media.

Take Lolita, fans can think whatever they want after reading it, who's the hero from who's definitely not at all the hero - but if my french localisation (editor?edition?) localises Humbert as the hero and Lolita as obviously scheming and "forcing" Humbert to find her attractive... it's also an interpretation of the original source (albeit a shitty one), but why, as a french reader, must I suffer through this "interpretation" to get an access to the book, and not build my own interpretation, without the french localisation/edition steering me in their interpretation?

If I were to write an academic paper on Lolita, of course I'd read it english (or learn english to read the direct source), but as a random reader who just wants to enjoy something... I'm forced to read a story where Humbert is the protagonist and the hero of the story? Really???

"Revolutionnary imperialist slay qween fights against evil lizards overlord who controls the world and did y'know Church BaD" sold like hot cakes so it became its own thing and got its staying power - granted, it also benefits from FE16's general "but IdEaLs uwu" and the lack of commitment to anything to make sure Supreme alts sell in FEH - but I wonder, if FE16 had bombed, would IS still had to make sure the Treehouse version would still be referenced in Engage and Heroes, or Dimitri, even if the localised!FE17, would have been able to talk about "different races" and even if it wouldn't make sense for a Treehouse player ?

As I see it, IS is in a pinch :

If they keep a tighter grasp on the localisation, lolcalisers can argue saying the "our version made half of the sales of your best selling game, if you annoy us too much, we won't make your game sell here and say bye-bye to half of your sales" and that's something a company doesn't want.

If they let the lolcalisers run wild - the home market is very unhappy about it and we know JP companies can't completely shit on their home market (DBS showed it!) - so they accept to have "two versions" of the same game, and we return to the 2000s - with the added twist that in 2024, people know they're being fed the Treehouse version, and some of them aren't happy about this.

What could happen next ?

I guess the worst could be the 2000s policy Bamco (or Bandai and Namco didn't fusion yet?) had : release a global version that sells very well (TOS), but release another one shortly after, with QOL and more goodies/shinies for the home market (TOS again, the PS2 version was in every aspect, better than the GC one! tfw when the upgraded PS2 port was released in japan before the GC version in the EU T-T).

It really really really sucks and I would hate it if, for a worldwide release, the JP version had more stuff/access to DLC/ than the other releases - but it would make everyone happy?

Lolcalisers could still swap the message of the game by their own - like what they tried to do with FE16 as you noted - while giving more content to the game for the ones who play it, and not the lolcalised one, aka the jp market.

The outcry with Nopes imo - even if it's uncalled as I feel like Nopes is the Bad Ending game so it obviously has shitty ends even if, just like Tru Piss, the devs hide it by addind catchy OSTs and quirky quips here'n'there between the characters - was mostly fueled by the feeling JP players/fanbase got the feeling they were playing the Treehouse version of the game, which is, obviously, not their FE16.

Which is hilarious, in a way, because to them, FE Treehouse is the "Bad Ending" of FE16 - talk about changing the message of the game lol

2 thoughts:

Number one, Emblem Byleth is supposed to be a post-Houses Byleth and has the Sword of the Creator. It's not really confirming which route he is from, but if you think about it it can hint which the route the Emblem isn't from. In order for the Sword of the Creator to work, it needs it's Crest Stone however it's Crest Stone can't be inserted into the sword because it's in Byleth's chest. So for a post-war Byleth to be able to use the SotC, they'd still need that rock and said rock disappears in Flower. Their solo ending says he continues to wield his legendary sword, but that ending says Byleth loses his power due to an injury, an injury we don't see them taking. The Crest Stone just disappears, with the only explanation coming from the Japanese text that it has "shattered" aka you broke Sothis's heart. We also see Byleth use the Sword of Seiros in the Jeritza ending, pointing to Byleth's solo ending just being propaganda by the empire less people think Edelgard doesn't have the approval of the Goddess.

So if Emblem Byleth is meant to adhere to any form of canon, then he can't be from Flower.

And two, I know the localization controversy is a pretty complicated matter but from what I'm hearing, there's a lot of backlash in Japan over it. Otaku are calling for the localizers to lose their jobs, as they feel what they're doing is both disrespectful and appropriation. But the thing that was really sticking out with me is going back to when Hopes launched we had players in Asia accusing the game of being made to pander to the Western fanbase. In the past, I've seen some fans reverse-engineering the translation, and they appear to know the direction given for Rhea. While people argue that Fates shouldn't be used as a bad translation due to it's age, I can't help but wonder if over there they're using Houses as an example of localizers running wild. Because, let's say it, Treehouse didn't just change lines it tried to change the message of the game itself.

[mariyekos]

FE Engage Trailer Breakdown

There are going to be and already are a million of these I know, but I wanted to do one for myself, so here it is! Below a cut because there will be lots of pictures. As in, 30 of them, so I actually need to make a second post to finish my analysis! I go into some speculation, some personal preference, and some references to other FE games, so get ready for a lot of rambling. This goes pretty heavily into detail, so if that's what you're looking for, here ya go!

The first two posts are mostly a breakdown with some analysis here and there. The more complete analysis will occur in a third repost (both of which will be RBs of this one.)

“We live on the continent of Elios- 4 realms surrounding a Holy Land at its center."

Important things to note here: the dragons are entwined, so it seems to be a continuous war. Or so I'm interpreting it! Also you have the traditional white/good dragon and black(purple)/bad dragon. The continent is named Elios (I'm guessing at that spelling). Along the bottom, you can see the FE Protags fighting Black/Purple armored warriors. So, it seems that Historically the FE Protags fought for the White Dragon. Lyn is facing the other direction so at first I wondered if she was fighting for the other side, but I think it's not actually noteworthy and just the whole dramatic myrmidon thing given no one else is facing that way. What I also find noteworthy is who they went for: Celica over Alm was a bit of a surprise, and Sigurd over Seliph was definitely a surprise (I can't name anything off the top of my head, but I feel like Seliph has been the face of FE4 a little more often lately). Eirika over Ephraim was unexpected as well. Lucina being there instead of Chrom was also a bit of a surprise, but then again she got into Smash before Chrom so I think even if I personally haven't considered her more the protagonist than Chrom, she's the more popular of the two. Beyond that, Corrin appears to be F!Corrin based on the headband, but I'm not 100% certain. I'll discuss the top part later. This means our Past Protag Lineup is as follows: Marth, Celica, Sigurd, Leif, Roy, Lyn, Eirika, Ike, Micaiah, Lucina, F!Corrin (probably, maybe M, but I think F), and M!Byleth. This comes out to 6 male characters and 6 female characters- which is what I think about 50% of the reasoning behind the female character pics was. I really like this even split tbh! They're all good characters, so they all deserve it.

"A thousand years ago our lands endured a vicious war with the Fell Dragon."

This time the Evil Dragon reminds me of a King Cobra, seen below. Fell Dragon has been used before in the FE series, the one who pops to mind first being Grima, but I think that name's just there to sound cool. I highly, highly doubt there's any connection between the two.

"We called upon Heroes from other worlds to aid us; heroes known as Emblems. With them, the warriors of our nations fought as one."

Notable here: They seem to all have a sigil floating above their fists. Roy also got a close up and his looks the same as Eirika and Lyn's as far as I can tell. At the end of this pan we go out to see this image is contained in a ring, which makes sense since the Emblems are summoned via ring. As seen below, some of the characters seem to have their Brave Alts as outfits. Marth is particularly notable because he's wearing the OG outfit (seen most recently as his Child Alt in Heroes), but when he's summoned is wearing his modern/remake outfit. Talking to some other FE friends, we wondered if this was maybe to get more than just swords in the mix, since most of these are sword lords. In that case they could've gone for Hector and Ephraim over Lyn and Eirika respectively, but they seemed to prioritize an even gender split over weapon types. In any case, Sigurd has a lance instead of Tyrfing, Ike has Urvan instead of Ragnell, Lucina has her Bow instead of the Parallel Falchion, and Corrin is focusing on their Dragonstone instead of the Yato. (Micaiah is also using magic, but she doesn't get a sword anyway. It may be notable to point out that it's Fire magic instead of Light Magic, but that might just be because Fire is easier to illustrate than light. She has Yune too!)

"In the end, we were victorious in defeating and imprisoning the Fell Dragon."

This dragon design is SO king cobra and I find it fascinating. Noteworthy: Defeating and imprisoning the fell dragon. Not killing. So like with Grima. The Lord who hits the dragon was wearing the Engagement Ring (haha, get it, it's even on the right finger), but other than the blue cape they don't have any noteworthy features.

"In the years since, our world has been safe. But now, I sense a resurrection. The binding weakens."

Then the trailer goes to what I assume are the people of this land? I wonder if they're the people of the Holy Land only, or just the general populace. I also wonder if that's what the modern people still look like (so, will our NPCs be so non-anime it makes the protags feel insanely out of place, or will they be different than this and slightly more anime style). What I find notable is there are actually considerable variations in skin color, so I wonder if we'll get more than just 1-3 token brown characters this time around. If we don't even after having this image of a varied populace, I'm going to be seriously disappointed. These people are on the top part of the opening mural, flipped upside down. After that image goes up in flames, we go on to Obviously Evil Guy, who I expect is our antagonist. Whether he'll be the antagonist the entire time, end up being a puppet near the end, or only show up at the end I don't know. Ashnard for example was always there, while Grima was not (Validar was the one in the story until the end, even if Grima as a concept was present). If I had to guess, he's the human form of the Evil Dragon. His neck...thing reminds me of the Evil Dragon's neck frills, and pointed ears are a definite Dragon Thing™. He could just be a vessel or something, but my bet is on the dragon's human form. This part also has a dramatic music cut. And side note but ooh he appears to be shirtless aside from those cool shoulder pauldrons!

Dramatic Music Transition Time

First, our new protagonist (who by later Gameplay footage appears to be named Alear) appears in the white void to grab an Engagement Ring. To me he looks very...I don't know. Otome Protagonist? Not what I was expecting of FE, but not totally out of place. To be honest i think if you changed all the red in that image to blue, he'd look about 80% more like a normal (albeit fancy) FE character. Looking up the name Alear, all I can find says that it comes from "the Gaelic word Mac-Giolla-Uidhir, which literally means son of the pale youth or son of Odhar's servant.". Here's a second source mentioning Mac-Giolla-Uidhir, though it only mentions MacLear and not Alear. While I used to love Yu-gi-oh!, which is what I think of first when it comes to two-toned hair, I have to say that the two-tone hair is not my favorite. Fire Emblem has never been about realism, but there are limits to what I personally find aesthetically pleasing, and this goes beyond them. He has the Fleur-de-Lis on his coat (below) which is interesting...Also the side loops/ropes remind me a bit of Shigure! I won't bother you with too many pictures, but I thought I would note it. I do have to say that the Fleur-de-Lis is an interesting choice. It's often associated with French royalty, and while FE has always been inspired by various parts of Europe, this seems a little...too direct? It's a pretty symbol though, so it's fine.

Once Alear exits the void, they encounter the White Dragon. I want to say that the reason the shot goes straight from the ring to the dragon is that it looks good for a trailer, rather than that the ring summoned the dragon. Though it could be that the Dragon gifted the Engagement Rings to the original Heroes, so the Dragon could be how the Heroes come to the world (and then it could be an interesting point if in the end both dragons die and so the connection to the other worlds with the other FE Protags is lost).

The Dragon Appears

This Dragon is not the King Cobra type. It's more Falcon-like, with a mix of whatever Corrin was. I'm 99% sure it's the dragon from the intro, since the wings and tail match. I'm also about 90% certain that the girl by the tree is the human form of the White Dragon. It's a direct cut from one to the next, and while the backgrounds clearly don't depict the same area (castle in a grassy valley versus a village with trees), why else cut it like that? And we all know how much FE loves little girls that are secretly dragons. Her dress has a feather motif going on, which matches the feathers of the White Dragon. Something I didn't catch until I zoomed way in is her color scheme- she ALSO has the blue and red thing that Alear has going on! See below. Her ears are hidden, but her hat pokes out at the top. Maybe it's hiding dragon ears like Obviously Evil Guy above. Note added after watching further in the video: Alear is supposedly from a family of Divine Dragons, so maybe they're related. I wonder if he's only half dragon (like Corrin), or if he's a full dragon and either his hair just hides his ears really well, or if the White Dragon/Divine Dragon race doesn't have as long ears as the Black Dragon?

Cool Battle Cutscene Time

Next is a fight scene in which all i could think was "god he looks like a clown." His outfit...does not get better from far away. It looks like the common JRPG protagonist that makes me cringe outfit. Like if you took Sora (KH), Tidus (FFX), Rex (XC2), a Yu-Gi-Oh! character for hair, and a standard FE lord and tried to combine them all into one cohesive character. Except I kind of prefer all of their outfits to this guy's. Well. Tidus' at least. The others are not personally my thing, and it's been so long since I've played a KH Sora has surely gotten a few new outfits. But the point is- I personally believe there's too much going on there and that they should've reduced the color by one and maybe gotten rid of the weird leg band thingies. And the hair is just... I don't like the shape, I don't like the color, I will say no more because this is not Mari's fashion analysis post, this is a video analysis for plot/gameplay post. I've included a comparison of Alear and the Dragon-Sealer's swords below. They don't appear to be the same blade. The Dragon-Sealer's sword appears to have thin holes in the center of the blade (see the lighter lines), and the hilt is a different shape. I wonder if Alear will get a sword upgrade at some point, or if the game will allow them to be completely independent people? For a second I wondered if Dragon-Sealer was maybe Marth, but the Falchion doesn't look like that even if their hair is similar so it doesn't seem so.

New Characters Appear

Next we have our new characters: Not-Dimitri, Percival GBF, and Orb Girl. They seem to be Alear's allies, given Not-Dimitri (Alfred) is playable. There's also Sexy Mage Lady, who I forgot to include in my above image group but just slapped up there. There's not much to note about them. I think the only thing I have to say in terms of speculation is that maybe "Percival" (this is not his name, I don't see it in the trailer) is the son of the red king that shows up later (below)? He has nice armor and red hair and hair color is everything in this game. Actually wait- is it just the quality of this image being bad or does Red King have holes in his sword? Is he the descendant of the Dragon-Sealer? Hm...Looking again the hilt isn't right. I think I'm just seeing things. Beside that, character designs are fine. They're kind of all over the place, but I don't hate any of them. "Percival" has my favorite outfit, Sexy Mage Lady is nice fanservice, Alfred is okay though it does look a bit like he just has a dress shirt on and in my perfect world he'd have another top layer, and Orb Girl...looks like something I've seen before and absolutely cannot remember. It reminds me of some Latin/South American styles I've seen, but in media where I'm not sure if they're legit outfits or something that has been misrepresented/sexualized in media. Some preliminary research isn't giving me any good answers and I'm not an expert so I'll just say that I'm not really in favor of thighs/bellies/arms out on the battlefield in general. FE is not a game of realism, but I love complex armor okay? If she's a dancer type character then I'll give her more of a pass because at least they're not trying to be hard combat units, if that makes sense.

The Summoning and Title Drop

After the battle, Alear summons Marth in what I think is the same field that the White Dragon appears in. The grass and color scheme are very similar, and it also appears to take place in a grassy valley. So maybe the White Dragon does give Alear the ring! After this we get the title drop: Fire Emblem Engage. Engage since they're Engaging the Emblems, and also it's a ring. Gotta say it's a boring title imo.

"You're awake! You're really awake, yeah?"

Also known as "goddamnit FE get a new trope." How many times are you going to do this? I haven't played FE12 and though I've played it I've wiped my memory of FE11, but Awakening started like this (loved it, it was a great plot point), Fates started like this (why did Corrin have amnesia you could've just said that they didn't remember what Garon did because they were a little kid and kids forget things), and Three Houses started like this (why did Byleth have weird sort of amnesia you could've just said Geralt tried to keep them from the world and Byleth, having very little personality, just genuinely wasn't interested in learning much about the world themself). Please stop going with the "waking up to someone over you" trope, especially when accompanied by convenient amnesia. Though I do have to admit I'm slightly more interested in this amnesia than I was the past two amnesia scenarios- this one actually looks like it'll serve the plot in a good way! So I'm not as bugged by the amnesia thing as I said I would be before this game was announced (as in, when I was speculating about the next FE). It's more the "starting with a 'you're awake!'" thing. Then it seems like we have a sibling/twin thing going on. Female pink one, probably male green one. Braids on opposite sides. Both...dressed in pretty modern styles, tbh. What style is this game going for?? We also get a bit of Alear being confused in different areas. My guess is that it's the main base.

"A thousand years? That's how long I've been asleep...?"

The line above is from Alear. So! Clearly we've got a special guy. The question is: is Alear non-human, or was he put to sleep by special magic? Is that magic what wiped his memories (if he's an amnesiac), sort of like Robin's magic/merge mishap with Grima? I have to say that this idea in particular is extremely intriguing to me. This is a personal favorite trope. So other than not liking his outfit (which to be honest, looks perfectly fine from this angle! He's kind of cute here. Just not in that battle cutscene), I think his character has gotten it right right off the bat. About 10 second later we find out he isn't human. He's a Divine Dragon. So that's that. But again, his ears look pretty normal- so is he only part dragon? What's up with that?

"Whoa-whoa-whuh, what are those horrible things!?"

From pink-silver girl. These guys remind me of Risen. Clearly something bad is happening here. What may or may not be notable is that they have a red glow. Evil Dragon is purple. However, Obviously Evil Guy has a red eye in the center of his head, and since my current theory is that Obviously Evil Guy is Evil Dragon's human form, they're probably its pawns. My guess is that this battle is probably the tutorial battle (below). We have a healer (pink), a mage (green), a Jeigan (axe guy, who is later named Vander), and our protagonist. This field ALSO looks like the Dragon Field. Since Alear appears to wake up indoors, my theory is that he'll come back here to encounter the dragon at a later point. Probably within the first 5 chapters.

"If I may, you are a Divine Dragon. A member of a royal family of dragons revered as deities."

Said by a deep voice, my guess is Vander to Alear. Here's the true confirmation that Alear is not a normal human - he's a "Dragon Child". He also wields a sword called "Libération" whose é makes me think that this game is in fact going for a French motif. There's also a character named Céline.

Gameplay wise (below), it looks like FE combat. I'm satisfied here! The enemy is called Corrupted. This game's Risen as far as I can tell. I'm including a second gameplay pic because it looks like they heavily improved upon one of my biggest criticisms of Three Houses, which was empty spaces. So often the game tried to fill the screen with battalions while having empty environments, which was part of what made the graphics look so bad. These aren't super complex graphics, but they don't need to be! I like them actually. The colors are bright, the area is defined, the battlefield has depth, and the UI is visually pleasing. Gameplay wise I think it's perfect. No criticisms here. I'm happy.

"The war...the Fell Dragon... I feel like I can almost remember. But..."

We see some more gameplay and learn that pink girl is named Framme. It also seems we're fighting some Elusian soldiers rather than corrupted. They look like the people who Alear is fighting in one of the cutscenes above (the one I used for the sword comparison). I wonder if Elusia/Elu-something is one of the four realms? Other than that, we meet a few more characters. Etie the archer who's in the gameplay image under the Divine Dragon quote, Louis the general(?) who might be the axe guy under Alfred in that image, and Chloé the pegasus knight who has a fun crit animation. Alfred did a "break," so I wonder if that means there's an armor break mechanic, or if it's just a personal skill? Chloé has the crit quote, "I've had my eye on you!"

"The ring..." "Marth!" "Right!"

Alear calls upon Marth and equips/junctions him. So the Emblems do appear to have at least somewhat of a sense of self! I'm thinking of the Einherjar in Awakening (I did not play #FE, which this has also been compared to.) Equipping an Emblem ring gives stat bonuses, and the Emblems have skills of their own. So that break I mentioned above? That's probably a skill. I'm not sure if people and Emblems can share certain generic skills. I'm also not sure what Bond 6 means. Can you bond more than unit at once? The bond number did not change when Alear bonded Marth. He also got a "Type Bonus" on Divine Speed and Lodestar Rush- I wonder if these only activate if you match the type, or just get stronger if you match the type. Then more map gameplay. There are special spots on the ground, which makes me think map effects. I wonder if they're like the healing spots in Radiant Dawn, or if they have special effects? When someone has a Emblem Bonded their name changes to include them and they get the stats, so we can clearly tell when someone is or is not bonded. The Bond 6 is still there, so maybe you can only bond for a certain number of turns? So that could be something to strategize around- when in a map do you bond with a unit, if they can only be active for certain turns? In addition, I wonder if everyone can access any ring at any time, or if they have to have it in their inventory? Alear as the Lord most likely has convoy access so him not having Sigurd or Marth's ring in his inventory right now tells me nothing. I think it might also be cool if rings worked sort of liked the Thracia fatigue system and had to be recharged. Though that worries me they might dip toward the Tellius Laguz recharge which was...less than optimal. Alfred (below) calls out "Sigurd!" when equipping the ring to which Sigurd responds "Leave it to me!" so I think they have generic quotes. But what's notable here is that 1) Alfred appears to earn a "Type Bonus" from Sigurd, just like how Alead got one from Marth, which makes me think it's a Bonus skill you get if your movement type (or something similar) is compatible with the ring type given they're both cavalry, 2) Anyone can equip any ring, and it appears to be at any time? At least, it's not permanent, and 3) In this image Alfred and Sigurd have Bond 1, but in later footage they have Bond 10. For both Sigurd+Alfred and Marth+Alear, the two fought together on the battlefield. Perhaps Bond is an attribute that depends not on story progress, but is like a Support Rank for rings, where the more you use it, the higher your Bond?

At this point I'm out of available Image space, so I'll have to split it off here!

Here is part 2, going to the end of the trailer. There will be a part 3 with more in depth analysis (rather than just a breakdown and spotty analysis) tomorrow.

[crestofshame]

My thoughts on Fire Emblem Three Hopes DLC

I’ve seen a lot of people acting super bummed about no Three Hopes dlc news (mostly on twitter, but my twitter is private because I’m terrified of public twitter) because they expected it to be announced as part of the latest Nintendo direct.

Here’s why I think that there shouldn’t be any concerns:

Fire emblem games, at least, the past several games, have had a DLC. While three houses DLC was announced really close to release, with all four waves releasing spread out over the course of *I believe* about a year and a few months, warriors games don’t operate on the same schedule with DLC.

I’ll use age of calamity as the first example because it’s the most recent warriors game, and was also developed by Koei Techmo:

Age of Calamity released in November of 2020, and the DLC pass wasn’t available for purchase until May of 2021, six months from the release of the game. The first wave didn’t come out until June of that year.

Say that we are going to get a DLC, it would not have been well-received in the last direct because of FE17’s announcement, and that direct was already DLC heavy for other games. It would make more sense if they announced it in a trailer independently on YouTube and twitter (as Nintendo has been doing more frequently for the past year), or, there’s a small possibility that we would get a Nintendo Direct fire emblem focus, either of these things happening in December around that three month time frame. An FE direct would probably also contain news on FE17 to hype it up for the release the following month, and might possibly talk about some Heroes news, a remake, and *maybe* an FE seasons game. Regardless of which of these happen, my guess is we’ll get an announcement late December.

So, what could the DLC contain if we do get one? Well, another thing that adds to my confidence is the fact that the first fire emblem warriors game got a dlc, and three hopes has certainly outperformed it in sales and reviews. The previous game had these features in a dlc that I think could translate to Three Hopes:

• New playable characters that are unlocked by playing a certain map quest. Based on the character dummies in the datamine, I think we could get between 3-4 playable characters, one route exclusive for each one and then one character that’s playable in all routes.

• New character costumes. These operated a little differently because the previous warriors game featured a medley of characters from different universes, not just one continent. I think three hopes would more likely either add the same costumes from the Houses DLC, and/or timeskip houses outfits.

• New support conversations for new playable characters and supports between existing characters. This is my biggest hope for a DLC because supports are one of my favorite parts of the game. I think that whatever new characters become playable would get probably three new conversations each, and that the lords would get probably 3-5 new conversations. I think that the reason it would be reserved to those characters only would be because I can’t imagine any other system for choosing who gets new supports. It wouldn’t make sense for random units to get supports, especially considering the passing of Billy and Ferdinand being considered a pretty important character that would likely get bonus conversations if that were the case.

Who would the lords have new supports with? My most realistic guesses would be this: One support chain with the bonus character respective to their route, one chain for the bonus character in all routes, and one chain with Byleth OR Jeralt.

TL;DR: This is all just speculation, but we’ll probably still get a DLC announcement in late December or early January.

[crystalelemental]

I know it's way too early for this kind of speculation, but what do you think FE17 will be? the Genealogy remake would be interesting, but that'd possibly damn FE18 into a Thracia remake, much like Shadow Dragon/New Mystery. unless they decide to make it into 1 game, which doesn't sound probable to me. maybe they'll make a new story, with less, uh, questionable morals to keep the new 3H fans interested into the franchise? will they keep the calendar, the instruction stuff, or go back to the laid back way of Awakening/Fates/Echoes? you don't have to give a long answer if you don't want, I'm just musing a bit here

“You don’t have to give a long answer,” as if that’s ever stopped me.

What do I think it will be?  I have no idea.  But given its popularity, they could be considering it like a Tellius situation, with a prequel game.  I don't think they can go sequel (more on that in the other response), but prequel with Seiros as the focus, going from the Red Canyon Massacre to the end of the War of Heroes?  Sign me up.  I would love more on that.  And I adore games that focus on side stories (Thracia, Blazing Blade), so I'm super on board for a fleshed-out side story about that period in Fodlan.

I can't say what they'd try to do with gameplay, but I do think they'd keep a sort of "home base" kinda thing at a minimum.  The instruction aspect of Three Houses was very specific to that game, and truthfully, I don't know if it will maintain.  Not to be how I am constantly, but I hope it doesn't.  I really feel like the monastery exploration and having to fine-tune instruction for students was more tedious than anything, and ultimately didn't add much to the gameplay experience.  I also feel like the calendar was kind of a bad call too.  A lot of events, as they're laid out, feel like they should be happening back to back.  But because of the calendar focus, you have situations where it implies you traveled far off to engage in a big battle, but then just walked back to the monastery for a whole month before marching out the same direction.  I don't think it blends events together all that nicely.  Frankly I think Fates' decision to have a pocket dimension where you can take care of your bullshit was a better way to hand-waive the question of how you're able to backpedal and stock up in the midst of a campaign.

That said, any non-remake game, and possibly even the remake game, will take inspiration from Three Houses in the same way Fates and Echoes did from Awakening.  The massive success of Three Houses is guaranteed to be an anomaly to them.  They still don't know why Awakening worked, I doubt they'll know why this one worked.  So I anticipate a lot of character tropes and storytelling angles will be reused in future games.  They'll try to mess with perspective and the idea of hidden history muddying the morality of things for sure.  I don't think there's any benefit for them to go back to more clear-cut morality.  Even if there's a lot of fan argument about it (Edelgard and Dimitri fans), that's never a bad thing.  That's still attention being drawn to your game.  That's still discussion around it.  No press is bad press, and this game is still more popular than the rest of the series ever had been.  So they'll keep characters like Lysithea, and Bernadetta, and have that attempt at a complex plot, and a bunch of mysteries that never get answered, and oh god every MU is going to be like Byleth now oh god oh fuck.

But personally, I want the next game to be a Genealogy remake.  I have issues with Genealogy as a whole, both gameplay and story-wise, and a remake could salvage at least some of that.  Support conversations definitely could, and a changing of certain story elements would be nice, although Fallen Julia's already in FEH so like...there goes my greatest hope.

That said, I don't really want them to do too much?  Like, Echoes added a few characters, and while those are some of the best in the game, a lot of that I feel like was to add any sort of significance to Alm's journey beyond the end goal.  Alm's route would be boring as all hell without Berkut, so his inclusion was a massive benefit to the game.  But I can't think of a situation where my qualms with Genealogy is "This just isn't engaging enough, we don't have enough people."  Genealogy almost has too many characters.  If anything their bigger problem is that characters and themes they set up are never utilized.  So it's more about reworking the narrative a bit rather than needing to include things to make a blander game stand out, you know?

I definitely don't think they'd combine Genealogy and Thracia.  I mean they could, but I don't think it's a good idea.  Genealogy, again, has too many characters already.  Combining the games leads to the question of where the hell Leif's army is, and that's adding like 50 characters to the roster.  Since you deploy every unit you have in Genealogy, that's...way too much.  They'd have to completely rebalance the game.  Not to mention Thracia doesn't play at all like Genealogy, and is way too long to be a brief side-story or DLC exclusive.  There's just no effective way to integrate the two.  I think it would be better to just make the game after that the Thracia remake, which...honestly is the best possible outcome as far as I'm concerned.

Binding Blade may not have come to the west, but people know Roy, and this series started over here with Blazing Blade.  We know a lot of Binding Blade information, by virtue of dedicated fans being upset the logical continuation of their starting point never got translated.  Comparatively, Genealogy and Thracia are pretty damn isolated, and it shows in their CYL placements.   They're not well known games at all, and gameplay-wise, they're really awkward and (in my humble opinion), not actually fun to play at all.  A remake is ideal for those games, because it gives them a chance to gain more attention and popularity in the general public's eyes.  Which is good!  Genealogy does have a worthwhile story to tell despite my gripes about its problems, and I honest to god thing Thracia's one of the best stories in the series, with one of the best protagonists in the series.  These games deserve more recognition than they get, and they're not gonna get it until they get remade to be more accessible.

It also dawns on me that the "less questionable morals" may have been about Genealogy's whole incest thing.  Listen, I get it, but they can't take it out.  I don't say this lightly, but that is like...the central point of Genealogy.  The awakening of Loptous is a matter of converging its bloodline, which had only one surviving member.  You really cannot work around this one, without making things either too confusing or too stupid.  If they really felt the need for that, they might back off of the remake entirely, which would be to their detriment.  But considering the Byleth/Rhea situation, I don't think they'll have much trouble.  And besides, it's pretty clear that an act of incest was the catalyst for almost destroying the continent, so I think it's safe to say the game doesn't agree with the practice.

[randomnameless]

@zevfern replied to your post “@zevfern replied to your post “If i may provide a...”:

A whole post to reply to my comment? You shouldn't have 🥰 I wonder if it's possible with magic to replace organs in people's bodies, because in that case Sitri could have been developed like an IV baby and then at some point during her gestation she would have the Crest Stone implanted into her. Buy left does have a heart, it's just not being used, so maybe it's the same case with Sitri? I don’t know, I just don’t want to believe the homunculus theory because it makes Rhea look really shitty (and gives Edelgard serious ammunition to use against her)

​it's because i have many thoughts and the comments aren't long enough lol

TBH the homonculi theory could be a bit fucked up... but then, again, to Nabateans who were also "created" by someone and not "born" (as in Sothis didn't meet a Mr. Sothis and they held hands and what not) I do not think the sheer idea of creating life from scratch is that taboo (or maybe it is since only Sothis is supposed to do it?).

In the most charitable reading, Rhea makes a "being" using her mother's recipe but since she's not her Mother Rhea's "creation" isn't a "full nabatean", then when the "being" wakes up and has a different consciousness than Sothis's, Rhea feels like she failed but, if Citrus is any indication, gives them names and let them live like random humans (or even as her own children).

I think the most "grey" factor could be Rhea's reasons and motivations to create "artificial beings", but someone already pointed out how, irl, we know some people have a baby for, at first, some sort of selfish reasons, like giving a playmate to a first born, rolling for a boy/girl, wanting to have a kid to bring a couple closer, wanting to have a heir, etc, etc.

And yet, wanting to create "a being" to be a vessel for the Goddess isn't, imo, an acceptable reason to, well, "create a being" (maybe that's what Rhea meant by breaking taboos? Or it was the sheer act of mimicking Sothis?) and yet, regardless of the reasons behind those beings's existence, as far as we know for Citrus, when they do not fulfill the role they were created for, instead of throwing them in the trashcan, Rhea loves them as their own beings, supports them as they live in her home and interact with people : aka live.

I'd find this argument rich coming from "devoted fans" especially as it is heavily implied Ionius had children either to get one with a major crest, or said children were a "consequence" of his philandering - dude had 11 I think - and who could "only watch" and close his fist (if you follow the theory that he wasn't the one who foddered them!) when said children were experimented upon.

In a series where sleazebag dads at least had one exposition line about "being good dads to their kids before possession/following an evil cult" (FE7, FE14 and FE17 iirc?) Supreme Leader has nothing of the sort to say about her dad...

Which ultimately leads to the question about what is worse, creating a "tool" and considering "it" like your own child after its birth, or fathering children to use them as tools ?