Improved Second Attempt / Fire Emblem

• Fire Emblem Heroes:
  • One of the criticized parts of the plot of Fire Emblem Fates was the total lack of worldbuilding and context for the game's conflict. The "Festival in Hoshido" paralogue gives Hoshido and Nohr a little backstory; the two countries were founded by the Dawn and Dusk Dragons, and their eternal rivalry began when the dragons came into conflict.
  • Ever since the first few free units were distributed (whether from Grand Hero Battles or Tempest Trials), many free-to-players have complained about harder difficulties being over-reliant on units with many merges. These same players tended to have units that didn't have many merges, or units without merges altogether. The 2.11.0 update alleviated this by introducing the new in-game currency Heroic Grails, which can be used to summon past Grand Hero Battle and Tempest Trials reward units. This gave players the opportunity to max merge their favorite free units, and have extra fodder to boot since players can summon every unit available via Heroic Grails up to 20 times. Various other additions like the changes to the Merging System, Weapon Refinements, Trait Fruit, and Dragonflowers now make almost all free units strong options, even if they aren't able to outright match new units in terms of raw power.
  • After the upset of the removal of pre-Book II 5*-exclusive heroes from new hero banners in April 2019, the June 2019 Feh Channel announced Revival Banners, where 3 of those heroes will be the focus for a week, changing out each week, and have them be 4% focus and 2% off-focus, instead of the 3%-3% the regular banners have. And if that isn't enough, it will more likely be an endless cycle of those heroes to give everyone a chance to summon those heroes in the future. When the early-to-mid Book II 5*-exclusive heroes were announced to be removed from future new hero banners in August 2020, they were added to the weekly rotation alongside the Book I heroes. Additionally, the February 4th, 2021 Feh Channel made it so that all those mentioned are now summoned as the guise of a special 4-star hero. They're not as common as their normal 4 star counterparts, but it's still a nice change of pace, especially for some people who weren't able to obtain those heroes in the first place. Additionally, their rerun banners are still in effect, and those rates won't be affected. With the August 2021 Feh Channel, they also announced the removal of the 5* heroes from the pool with the rest of Book II and the first third of Book III, also going towards the weekly revival banners and 4* special rate heroes pool.
  • Although it is relatively minor, the fact that Book III's been dropping some 3/4 star units can be seen as a slightly welcome change to the summoning pool. Even though they aren't really showcased in the trailers or Forging Bonds, it is still slightly better than just having to wait until one of the 5 star units demotes. Besides of mass-demotes showcased on Feh Channel, such base units were only featured on the release of the game.
  • Announced in the April 2 Feh Channel in 2020 - you can get a free focus summon with a New Heroes summon once you summon 40 heroes (the free summon and the Forging Bond tickets count towards this summon too, meaning that if you get all the summoning tickets from that event, you only have 35 summons to worry about). This was met with a lot of rejoicing, as even though 5-star summons have a higher chance of appearing based on how many orbs you spend in the banner, there's still that off-chance that you could get pity-broken by a unrelated hero and that you could get the hero you would want, but they have bad asset/flaws. This being in the Feh Channel after the Feh Channel that announced the FEH Pass felt like IS tried to patch some of the wounds caused by the Pass, which generated a lot of dislike.
  • With the Hall of Forms being a Luck-Based Mission mode already with the skill kits, all of them before the featuring the Valentines versions of Ike, Greil, Soren and Mist featured a lot of Demonic Spider units from Book III and Book IV (the latter which had just introduced their Fallen Heroes at the time) that could easily ruin ones day (and they're only getting more powerful), considering a map with even one of these units could guarantee a wasted run. However, starting from the eighth Hall of Forms map, only units from Book I and Book II are pulled as random enemies, but to make up for their absence, most of the enemies have their refined weapons.
  • The December 7th 2020 Feh Channel brought a small change to the summoning system by making it where being pity-broken by a non-focus unit no longer resets the 5-star drop chance, but instead lowers it by a percentage. One of the longest running complaints about the game was having a random 5-star rob your chances of getting a new unit.
  • One of the complaints of ongoing books was that once a Book concludes, its respective heroines (Fjorm, Eir and Peony) are dumped to just hanging out in Forging Bonds, never to be relevant or appearing in future books again. In Book V, Peony makes a cameo to inform the Order of Heroes that Niðavellir's army is attacking Askr. It's only a cameo, but many are positively surprised that previous book heroines aren't just ignored once their stories are done. This trend further extends to the next chapter, where it's Fjorm's turn to make a reappearance. In addition, the Ice and Flame Tempest Trial finally acknowledges that Fjorm is slowly dying of the Rite of Frost by having her making a deal to cancel the Rite to Nifl. The TT also ends with Laegjarn returning to the narrative after her death. Likewise, Eir gained her own set of Tempest Trials the following year.
  • Some units, such as semi-Legendary heroes like Surtr, and the Fallen Heroes, and Legendary heroes like Nifl are generally considered Demonic Spiders especially at the time they're released. In response, units like these are marked as not to appear in normal gameplay, so players do not need to worry about them showing up in modes like Tempest Trials.
  • When Fjorm's refine came out, many took note how its effect of neutralizing penalties was anti-synergistic to her remix skill Atk/Def Unity,^*Grants Atk/Def+5 and bonus to Atk/Def during combat = current penalty on each of those stats × 2 as long as she's within 2 spaces of an ally. where you want penalties to reverse them into combat boosts. Following some complaints, Fjorm was quickly instated with a new remix skill, Mirror Stance 3^*If foe initiates combat, grants Atk/Res+6 during combat and inflicts Special cooldown charge -1 on foe per attack.. Not only does this remove the conflict with the refine, but it synergizes well with her remixed special, Ice Mirror II, which relies on her Res to boost damage.
  • One of the major fan complains of Astrid in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn is that she fawns too much on Makalov. Intelligent Systems then made sure that Astrid was put in the Path of Radiance banner, not the other one, and her characterization harkened back to her time there, as a naive newbie knight and former noble running away from home. She had no mentions of Makalov (it was more reserved to Marcia who already had legitimate annoyance against him) except one minor time paradox-ish item (her Accessory mentioned that she got that from Makalov, but her Forging Bonds dialogue made her unaware that he's Marcia's brother), thus Astrid fans breathed a sigh of relief that for the most part she was summoned at her peak form.
  • One complaint about Books I and II were that their conflicts were essentially dropped at the end of their stories with no real closure. Then starting in July of 2021, the Tempest Trials started to focus primarily on the Nifl and Muspell conflicts, with reveals of the respective gods of their kingdoms and continued where Book II left off. Meanwhile, after several focuses on different kingdoms, Book VI started to show more focus on the Askr vs Embla conflict that was quietly dropped after Book II after threats such as Surtr and Hel started to eclipse it.
  • The character of Kyza from Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn was somewhat infamous in their original incarnation for being an unflattering Camp Gay stereotype with a resulting Ambiguous Gender Identity. When Kyza returned for this game, they were exclusively given gender-neutral pronouns (the first Fire Emblem character who isn't a deity or artifical creation to hold that honor) and most of the Unfortunate Implications were ironed out without removing their flamboyancy, including by making the Love Triangle between them, Ranulf and Lyre not only more explicit, but also by heavily implying that Ranulf reciprocated their feelings in the past. The response to this version of Kyza has been much more positive this time as a result.
  • The Normal Combat Manuals were well liked for allowing players to get copies of units that could be used for merges or fodder, but a common issue was the next year's batch meant players would stop collecting older Divine Codes, preventing them from getting units they wanted. Prior to the release of the third batch of Normal Combat Manuals, an update was announced that would allow players to use newer Divine Codes to obtain older ones, which was positively received since many players had likely run out by the time it was announced, and were unable to obtain past ones.
  • Though she is popular for Love to Hate reasons, Hilda of Friege was often viewed by some as being too cartoonishly evil, which given her home game was more grounded and gritty, did make her stand out, but it made her a bit hard to take seriously. Here, her Level 40 Confession works to try and give her side of the story while not justifying her actions: She actually loved House Friege beyond herself, as well as her husband Bloom and father in-law, and after their deaths, she's resorted to drinking to sate her sorrow over losing those things, and spins her conflict with Seliph and the Liberation Army beyond being For the Evulz as having more justified basis in hating them as well as her horrific torture towards Tailtiu and Tine, if Hilda respected Reptor, she will have extra reasons aside of pure sadism to torture, since she also blames Tailtiu for getting Reptor killed and shaming the house, thus they're not just mere covers for sadism, it works both ways. It doesn't excuse her actions at all, but it gives her more humanity/characterization beyond simply being seen as "the most evil mother in all of the series".
  • Faye from Shadows of Valentia, is a Base-Breaking Character for a few reasons, most notably her obsession with Alm, but also how she spends most of her support chain with Silque (notably the only one Faye has with someone other than Alm, and the only one Silque has period) rebuffing the latter's efforts at being friends. Faye's Drawn Heartstring alt talks about enjoying the festival with Silque and getting Silque flowers as a gift, while Silque's Selfless Cleric alt also talks about her time at the festival with Faye, actually showing that the two did indeed become friends.
• Fire Emblem: Three Houses: While there are divisions over how the game handles Story Branching, it is generally agreed that it does a better job at conveying Gray-and-Gray Morality with route splits compared to the previous game in the series that used this structure, Fire Emblem Fates, which advertised its conflict as morally gray but ended up coming across as White and Gray Morality at best. Here, fans appreciate that there is no "obviously right" faction, fandom wars notwithstanding.
• Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes:
  • Fire Emblem: Three Houses was criticized for the abrupt ending of its Crimson Flower route since Edelgard never properly got to start hunting down major antagonists Those Who Slither in the Dark during gameplay and merely assuring the player it happened later on, leaving a loose end hanging within her story, potentially undermining Edelgard's onscreen efficiency and, as a result, making Adrestia's victory less satisfying. In this game, Edelgard switches gears the second she gets an opportunity, handily double-crossing Those Who Slither in the Dark and playing a game of Xanatos Speed Chess to earn more allies for her invasion and pull off her plan brilliantly. This restores more of Edelgard's credibility as a character and a planner, and lets Black Eagles players deliver satisfying payback to the Agarthans. And by the end of the Scarlet Blaze route, all of the main members of Those Who Slither in the Dark (with the possible exception of Solon who only dies if the player recruits Byleth and Jeralt) all end up dead, and thus, players finally are able to see Edelgard and the Black Eagles taking down those who slither in the Dark on-screen.
  • For fans who were let down by Byleth's status as a Heroic Mime and not being able to speak in spite of their dialogue options, they and Shez both get fully voiced dialogue, and while you can choose dialogue options for Shez it serves as more of a guideline for their responses, allowing them to display much more personality. Likewise, Byleth in particular has several players praising the voice actors for being able to show the personality of the Ashen Demon in the short but direct lines they do have.
  • Despite his machinations ruining Edelgard and Dimitri's lives and being considered by many the main antagonist, Thales back in Three Houses was received in the fanbase with indifference at best and disappointment at worst due to various factors, such as: lack of presence in the overall story; being killed with little fanfare in Azure Moon as Lord Arundel; being dealt with offscreen in Crimson Flower's epilogue; and not being the Final Boss of both Verdant Wind and Silver Snow, as each invokes their own Giant Space Flea from Nowhere after his defeat. In contrast, Three Hopes' timeline forces Thales to take a more proactive role in the story, promotes him to final boss in two of the game's three routes, and his actions on the Azure Gleam route firmly solidify him (and his faction) as the main antagonist of Dimitri's story.
  • Some fans lament that several characters had potential to have a support chain with each other (such as Dorothea and Hilda) in Three Houses but they cannot support each other in said game. In Three Hopes, new support chains are added between characters who didn't have a support chain in the original game along with support chains with existing same faction characters such as the popularly wished Dorothea and Hilda support chain along with new ones like Hubert and Hapi, Yuri and Sylvain, Ferdinand and Lysithea, Bernadetta and Marianne, and more.
  • One of the big examples of They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot in the original game was the idea of two of the three lords working together against the last, with the most popular involving Dimitri and Claude against Edelgard in the war. On the Scarlet Blaze and Golden Wildfire routes, Edelgard and Claude share an alliance that has the opportunity to last for the rest of the game on Scarlet Blaze and always holds out on Golden Wildfire if you achieve the Golden Ending. And you can go as far as having all three of them working together with Shez in the secret chapters.
  • A common complaint about Three Houses is that Raphael and Ignatz's paralogue raises suspicious circumstances surrounding the deaths of Raphael's parents and Claude's uncle, but this is never followed up on. Three Hopes gives them a paralogue with Lorenz which goes into detail on exactly what happened.
  • In the original game, many were upset that the Mêlée à Trois at Gronder Field was unavailable on either Black Eagles route, despite what trailers suggested. In this game the Black Eagles, and only the Black Eagles, get a similar battle at the Valley of Torment, and it's possible for the fight to be Adrestia vs every other faction.
  • After the DLC in Three Houses revealed that Count Varley beat up Yuri for trying to assassinate Bernadetta, some felt that the game was trying to make the Count seem more sympathetic while ignoring his other abuse towards Bernadetta. A new support conversation between Bernadetta and Dorothea (which serves as a follow-up to Bernadetta's original supports with Dorothea and Yuri) confirms that these revelations don't change her opinion of him much, as her issues with her father go way beyond that incident, and that the Count wasn't trying to protect her out of love, but because he needed her. With Count Varley also showing up in the flesh, the game doesn't even try to portray him sympathetically, showing him as a sniveling coward that even his own allies barely tolerate and only tries to keep alive for political convenience (and it's implied he got promoted to Bishop of the Southern Church for the dual purpose of both filling a position and painting a target on his back to torment him). In the final mission of Scarlet Blaze, he's also one of the only main protection objectives in the game whose death doesn't result in a Game Over, with Hubert and Bernadetta treating his death as not a tragic loss, but an inconvenience to the former.
  • A common complaint was that Claude failed to show much of his supposed cunning and deviousness in the original game, instead mostly delving into Fodlan's mysteries and fighting Those Who Slither In The Dark. In Three Hopes, Claude is much more politically focused. On his route, we see him attempting to juggle Alliance politics with battlefield concerns, and his tendency to keep his allies in the dark when plotting his schemes almost costs him valuable supporters. As an opponent, Claude has a knack for dictating where two armies will fight, and is often able to minimize the risks to his own forces. As an ally, he's steadfast, but not always forthright and it's hard for the other leaders to trust him.
• The Fire Emblem Engage manga has been praised for improving on the game's story in some regards, such as giving Alear and the supporting cast more chances to show personality outside of supports, as well as adding more detail and explanation to the culture and society of Lythos (in contrast, in the game you see and hear next to nothing about Lythos beyond interactions with Lumera, to the point that one could be forgiven for thinking she is the only person who currently lives in the region).

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