Narm / Fire Emblem

Games with their own pages:

• Heroes
• Three Houses
• Engage

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Narm in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light and Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem

• In the original Mystery of the Emblem, Lorenz bites it in the first chapter of Book Two. How is this represented? His sprite explodes. Clouds of fire, sound effects, the works. This was so bad, it was changed in the remake.
• This piece of artwork◊ for Shadow Dragon, made by Shirow Masamune, would be all well and good... except everyone's expression (especially Ogma's) is really Off-Model, undermining any attempt to seriously appreciate it.
• A certain picture for the original Mystery of the Emblem features Sirius in a... rather stupid-looking pose.

Narm in Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War and Fire Emblem: Thracia 776

• In Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, the Battle of Belhalla loses a good part of its emotional power due to the whole scene being on Super-Deformed. Court mages casting Meteor to decimate an army? Epic and tragic. Cute little SD mages casting Meteor to decimate an equally cute little army?.. Huh?
  YT commenter: There's hardly a more faith-rocking experience than losing this many friends in one sitting. (...) Though, to be honest, the little Fire Emblem sprites of the mages casting Meteor are just a little too... cute... to truly affect any person. I'd love a remake of this game.
• The infamous "DASTARD" line. The word in itself is used correctly, but it's so antiquated that it leads people to think it's a mispelled or censored version of "bastard." Future fan translations replaced that line with "DAMN YOU" instead.
• Deirdre and Sigurd's romance goes beyond Fourth-Date Marriage. After meeting each other once, both of them are pining and a separation of just a few turns is enough for them to say things like "I was afraid I'd never see you again!" Even if you interpret 1 turn = 1 day, that's a pretty short time to be saying wistful things like "I tried to forget you" about a person you've known for ten minutes.
• Many of the lovemaking scenes in Mitsuki Oosawa's manga adaptation are this, natch, as is Sigurd's ridiculously heartfelt declaration of love to Deirdre:
  Sigurd: "A fate in which I cannot kiss you is a fate I will not recognize!"
• The Oosawa manga keeps up with the narm with its massive, terrible, downright hilarious levels of Off-Model. As in "yaoi hands"-level of it.

Narm in Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade and Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade

• In Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, right before the start of the final battle, the Big Bad removes the turban that has been covering one of his eyes. It reveals a big unblinking scarred eye. Though it looks a bit silly, the mood of the scene allows the reveal to be dramatic. And then, the eyeball jiggles up and down like a googly doll-eye every once in a while when he speaks...
• Trying to write crying sounds into dialogue is always awkward. Serra sobs as she tells her possible love interest Oswin how she respects him and craves for his praise in their A support and then "...... snifffff...." HUH?
• The battle between Athos and Nergal, mostly because you can see Athos only did four damage to a guy with 75 HP. And Nergal spends later cutscenes noting that his injury will require time to recover, even though it was basically a papercut.
• In Binding Blade, Roy's promotion is probably supposed to be epic. It just turns out cheesy, considering his sprite-set is the same in both classes. It doesn't help that the game equips the Binding Blade, meaning that the intended reveal of him wielding it instead results in him... turning around?
• Zephiel's defeat of Cecilia is meant to be a terrifying show of strength, but between his over-the-top critical animation (he spins like a freaking top), Cecilia missing him completely, and the fact that Cecilia somehow survives being hit for three times her maximum HP, it just looks hilarious.

Narm in Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones

• Innes is given a card in the One Hundred Songs of Heroes Karuta set. Problem is, it looks freaking RIDICULOUS

Narm in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn

• When The Black Knight/Zelgius dies in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, he mutters "...phiran, I will wait for you in the afterlife..." Although this is intended as a dying man missing a syllable in his last breath, this becomes slightly narmy if one knows that a "phiran" is a type of cloak.
  • And then of course, there's the line "Now one of those two is truly...alone..." Danananananana! You got Alondite!
• While still on that subject, here's three words: Ike's memory scene. The voice acting just COMPLETELY ruined the dramatic moment. For starters, Ike should sound like a kid, not a poor man's reenaction of Marty McFly.
  • Nearly every cutscene in Radiant Dawn had absolutely horrendous voice acting. It's a toss up as to whether the memory scenes involving Zelgius and Sephiran or the wooden dialogue between Ranulf and Skrimir are more painful to listen to. And an honorable mention for Tibarn.
    "To WING, brothers! Keep UP with me if you CAN!!!"
  • The European dubbings got it better, though far from great. The acting was decent enough more often than not, but sometimes you had the same actor voicing two different characters IN THE SAME CUTSCENE. As example, Zelgius and Skrimir in the river battle cutscene in Spanish. WHAT THE HELL?!
  • "FOOOOOOOORM UUPPPP!! SURRROOOOOOOOUUUUUUNNNDDDD THEM AAALLLLL!!"
  • "DOOOOOON'T LET A SINGLE ONE EE-SCEEEEEEEEEP!!"
  • "IZZIT THE DAHHWWN BRIGADE?!" "NAWWHH, IT WAS JUST A BIRD!"
• Pelleas: "You're going to pay! You're going to - BLAAAARRGGH!" Guys, Pelleas just threw up!
• For an otherwise touching and wonderful friendship/shipping moment, Soren's crying at the end of his and Ike's hidden conversation hit this HARD. It's incredibly hard not to laugh at the thought of Soren of all people sobbing "Uwaaaah...GWAAAAH!". It's even better if one tries to make the crying sounds out loud. As said above, writing crying sounds in dialogue is simply awkward; people do not cry like that.

Narm in Fire Emblem: Awakening

• In Fire Emblem: Awakening, whenever the Avatar dies (which is a Game Over), Chrom's screams of "OPEN YOUR EEEEYEEEEEES!" are... overblown, to say it politely.
• Outside of the CG cutscenes, Awakening shied away from full-voice acting, and instead just gave each character a dozen or so voice clips that are played when the character is fighting or speaking. In the wrong context, some of these can be unintentionally hilarious, like Donnel shouting out his Critical Hit quote "GET READY!"... while proposing marriage to Sully.
• One of Yarne's voice clips, "No, YOU go extinct!" is unintentionally amusing in the context of a love confession.
• The fact that none of the characters look like they have feet is very noticeable and unintentionally funny. Apparently, this was done because the developers weren't sure how powerful the 3DS would be in terms of rendering the battles, as if adding a few extra vertices to the character models would suddenly drop the whole game down to 5 FPS. A ridiculous oversight leading to ridiculous character designs.
• As if his limited competence as The Dragon isn't bad enough, Validar's ridiculous looks make it hard to take him seriously.
• Ricken's Dark Knight model is so tiny, it makes him look as if he was a kid cosplaying a mage and riding a freaking pony.
• In pair-up mechanic introduced in this game, the unit that will be playing the support role will begin the battle by delivering a voice line swearing to help and protect the unit that'll be fighting, which, combined with how the fights are rendered, makes it unintentionally hilarious when the fighting actually starts and the support unit just stands there and doesn't do anything to help.
• Cordelia getting a S-Support doesn't changes her dialogues. Depending on the point of the story and whether the player has gotten Chrom married or not, her keeping a crush on him ranges from understandable, to making it seem like she's looking to cheat on her husband. This is specially notable when she supports with Gregor, as the whole chain is about him helping her get with Chrom and falling for her, which comes as even more egregious if the player has also gotten Gregor married by the point they unlock the support.

Narm in Fire Emblem Fates

• Regarding Fire Emblem Fates, general consensus amongst the fanbase is that the English voice acting that has been seen/heard so far is good...except for Garon's, thanks to his only spoken line being laughably full of ham.
  Garon: You are my child now.
• The game allows the players to modify their characters's looks by adding accessories (animal tails or ears, specs, etc.), which can potentially disrupt the mood in special scenes. i.e, taking Scarlet's death seriously can be quite harder if Gunter aka her Demonic Possession-afflicted killer is wearing something like a fox tail or a funny pair of glasses when this takes place...
• While the English versions of the dancing scenes during both Birthright and Conquest are mostly awesome thanks to Rena Strober's singing, the Closed Captioning shown when Garon is reacting to Azura at the end of both scenes is...not so awesome.
  (groans of increasing discomfort)
• When Ryoma commits seppuku in Conquest, the angle in which this genuinely shocking action is shown makes it look more he has just stabbed himself in the nuts instead. The fact that the following scene has his corpse curled up in exactly the same stereotypical position many guys take when they are kicked in the groin doesn't help.
• Hans, The Brute of Nohr and one of the secondary villains, becomes hard to take seriously when you take a look at his outfit. His character class is Berserker, which wears a fluffy tail on the back of their outfits in this game.
• Sophie has a personal skill that strips enemies down to their underwear. This allows the player to soften some enemies up by having Sophie reduce their defense... then have them finished off in their underpants. The player can have quite a bit of fun by sending some characters to have important pre-battle conversations with bosses... when the bosses are in their underpants, like this spoileriffic picture shows.◊
  • Bonus points for when someone like Flora, Felicia, or Rinkah (who summon particle effects when they attack) attacks the character reduced to their underpants. Frankly, they should be getting first-degree burns or frostbite with no clothing.
• The deaths of Flora in Birthright and Lilith in both routes are seen by a large portion of the audience as impossible to take seriously:
  • Flora's suicide because it makes no sense (especially to somebody who knows nothing about their character and has not played Conquest or Revelation, aka the paths where she can be recruited and her supports explain why she is... well, the way she is), no explanation is given in Birthright for how what they did is even physically possible, it's ridiculously over the top and the sort of thing that would have greatly benefitted from having a CGI cutscene instead of using the in-game models, and it comes way too quickly after a previous (potential) death scene that's seen as better done as a whole. Many let's players react to this scene not with tears, but laughter or meme-spouting. The character's last words are also impossible to take seriously.
    I regret... everything.
  • Lilith's Heroic Sacrifice because in both routes it comes across as incredibly contrived, as they come completely out of nowhere (despite almost never being seen outside of My Castle) to block an attack either from a random mook the player just killed dozens of or a boss one has just both watched get curbstomped by mooks and later curbstomped themselves, and instantly die in one hit despite in all likelihood being ridiculously durable in-game.
• In Heirs of Fate 5, if Male Kana fights the Brainwashed and Crazy Queen Mikoto aka the Avatar's mother/his grandmother, the latter will refer to the first as "an adorable moppet". Quite the out-of-place choice of words, indeed.
• Zola isn't quite a gonk, design-wise, but his rather stupid jester-like hat is impossible to take seriously.
• This Niles art is almost painfully, hilariously Off-Model as it has him bending his spine to ridiculous levels.
• While opinions on the increased Fanservice in Fates has been mixed, the one thing that is almost universally considered unnecessary is the female uniforms for the Cavalier and Knight class trees. These are classes that normally wear full suits of armor, the latter crossing over into Heavily Armored Mook, and while the female uniform doesn't at first look any different, viewing them from behind reveals they aren't wearing any armor on their butts, leaving their butts hanging out covered only in what looks like a thong. At that point it crosses the point of fanservice and ends up coming off more like a sight gag.
• Ryoma's cut scene during Conquest Chapter 25, where he makes it clear that he's out for blood and is going to show you no mercy after he thinks you've killed his sister is immediately negated by this message once the battle actually starts.
  Prince Ryoma will wait patiently for his revenge, but only for 25 turns.
• Later on in Revelations, you fight a Revenant Zombie version of Arete, who has a tragic death scene of passing on being cradled in the arms of their child and passing on some parting wisdom and declarations of fondness after finally being freed from Anankos's control, before dissolving into blue flame. In a vacuum, this is perfectly sensible, if a bit sappy... and then it proceeds to happen again in the following chapter, beat for beat, with Mikoto. And then it happens a third time in the chapter immediately after, with Sumeragi. At that point, it just becomes downright goofy.
• Clothing Damage will carry over to some cutscenes - but only for playable characters. While this can end up making Mikoto and Sumeragi's deaths more tragic showing how much it's harmed their children and stepchildren with dented armour, missing armour, torn clothes.... if you're playing particularly poorly or intentionally sacrifice them enough on Phoenix Mode, you can make them be in their underclothes.
  • Overlapping with Narm Charm and Intended Audience Reaction, some people play on Phoenix Mode and intentionally throw units in harms way just so their characters will confront someone practically reduced to their underarmour.

Narm in Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia

• In the beginning of the English Dub, Gray says "It's better than waiting for Rigel to reach Ram and kill/enslave us"... but Max Mittelman reads that literally as "Kill slash enslave us."
• When the active character is moving through the villages, and the player moves to a distant dot on the map, they may sometimes walk literally through an icon representing a building.
• If any of the player's units are defeated, the game will call them out on it. This is normally a very effective Tear Jerker, especially when specific units react to the deaths of either their lovers or family members. However, this loses its luster if the player is using Casual Mode, which turns off permadeath, making said death reactions seem like Comical Overreacting because the defeated units aren't actually dead. For example, Est having a breakdown from losing Catria or Palla comes across as her being a major drama queen.
  • There's also the comically absurd side-effect of Palla and Catria's recruitment conditions on classic mode. The sisters will abandon your party the second you head in the direction of the temple of Mila before rescuing Est from Grieth, which has the hilarious side-effect of making it so, should Palla or Catria die and you head to the dragon temple to resurrect her, the remaining sister will callously ditch you rather than help you bring their sister back to life.
• Celica's plot-based Class Change is a powerful moment in-story. However, due to the way Class Changing works in this game ^Explanationyour stats are increased to match the new class' base stats if they're lower, and left unchanged otherwise, it's very possible she'll get no stat gains (besides HP) from this, and the only change in her model is a headband and shield.
• Bosses will sometimes say something upon being defeated, but usually it's quick... with the exception of a late-game fight with Jedah, who, if you beat him, will give a fifteen or so second speech face-down in the mud.