Fire Emblem

Hitting the point where I can deploy multiple Cats at once now. Because dealing with just Lethe's chronic grass habit wasn't enough.

Someday I'll play the Radiant games. Someday.

Hey we are safe from datamined Three Hopes talk in this thread right? Because even with people talking in spoilertext all over it's too much for me in the other two.

Wonder if that game's gonna get DLC.

Shez talking makes them so much better than Byleth, sorry.

For those more classically inclined: Dangen Entertainment just announced the localization of the second Vestaria Saga game, Sacred Sword of Silvanister. It's supposed to come out on July 28th on both Steam and GOG.

I am ready for more Kaga greatness.

More Triple Cat-astrophe in Part 3. The eternal question: will they fight or just spend the entire time grassing up?

Porruck* is my favourite name.

How do you pronounce the apostrophe?

I think you mean "asterisk?"

Sidenote since I'm curious on TVT ratio of this: So I'm personally type who doesn't dig silent protagonists much outside of specific examples and executions (like Link) and I personally think it doesn't work in Fire Emblem or Three Houses well, but I do understand that some people genuinely like silent protagonists whether they like projecting onto character or not.(thats seperate matter since you can project onto character with established personality as well)

My personal preference regarding FE is that I prefer established main characters you can't name over the "avatar/my unit" characters, but regarding avatars I do think Shez is actually best implementation of them yet. Robin and Corrin kinda suffer from "they can't appear in cutscenes due to custom appearance syndrome", Robin had the "they have no backstory because of amnesia" problem and Corrin had problem of being protag of badly written game (:p Hey lot of Corrin's annoying problems might not have existed in better written version of Fates), but that does lead me on side of preferring that execution to Byleth's. That said I do think there is potention for more "roleplay heavy" avatar character if there were more meaningful dialog options in these games, but that kind of dealio hasn't been on series MO yet.

But yeah, curious on how people on TVT prefer avatar characters on series to be handled?

Small nitpick, but this isn't true. Robin does have a backstory, it's just not given to you right at the start. "Born in a cult and raised to be a dragon's vessel" is a backstory.

Edited by dragonfire5000 on Jun 11th 2022 at 11:27:28 AM

I mean I agree, but we don't learn much of their personality or life pre amnesia. Like backstory Robin has lot of potential to be fascinating character so its bummer we never see even flashback of what they were like. The Robin we know for all of the game is person who never remembers their backstory, so we don't see how much amnesia affected them personality wise.

Edited by SpookyMask on Jun 11th 2022 at 9:28:43 PM

Robin and Corrin (and Kris?) are just regular characters with a bit of extra customization attached to them. You could give them a set name, gender, and appearance, and the only thing that would change is marriage/child related stuff. And maybe not even that depending on how brave IS is. Skip the character creation menu, and they're indistinguishable from the other lords.

I mean, Byleth is regular character who is silent protagonist, so I don't think that logic disqualifies Robin/kris/Corrin from this discussion. Byleth is presented differently (such as most of their supports not being dialogs and being more of them listening another character monologue), but there are multiple references from other character's perspective of what their personality is supposed to be like. Byleth has even less customization than those ones did, I remember you being able to present Robin's personality differently in minor ways at least.

Edited by SpookyMask on Jun 11th 2022 at 9:31:31 PM

Because what Robin was like before their amnesia is ultimately not important to the game. It's a case of "some people might find it interesting, but it's not a super vital part of the character for the story we want to tell."

It's probably also meant to give players a chance to fill in the blanks on their own. Since video games are an interactive medium, I would not be surprised if the devs not filling in the blanks is because they know a good number of fans will have their own preferences.

Edited by dragonfire5000 on Jun 11th 2022 at 12:02:18 PM

It makes character come across as somewhat of blank slate though since they have no "place in the world" so to speak as result of being essentially an outsider to everything.

There is nothing wrong with blank slate characters, they’re just a different type of protagonist and are meant to provide a different experience than protagonists with more established backgrounds.

Edited by dragonfire5000 on Jun 11th 2022 at 1:44:44 AM

Err, are ye going to challenge me on every story telling opinion? ^_^;

I think Shez is a really good example so far of how to do an avatar character in Fire Emblem.

Byleth swung a little too hard in favor of "blank avatar" at the expense of "actual character". Shez is a nice middle-ground where they're actually chatty like a real character, but you get to control what kind of tone they respond with, giving the player an opportunity to express themself in the role.

Robin was pretty decent, having a mellow personality that's easy for most people to associate themself with but still feels like a real character within the setting, and not getting too much avatar dick-sucking/pussy-licking compared to a certain super-speshul half-dragon-god triple-royalty beloved-by-all avatar who makes stupid decisions yet is praised endlessly for it.

Ye as said my only problem with Robin is that I would have liked to know more about them. Shez's different tones of dialog options is really good with how you can play them as braggart or defensive or quick to apologize and such. Shez' is in many ways kind of evolution of Robin's execution when ye think about it.

For Avatar characters, I don't really have one preference over the other, mostly because they offer different experiences from each other. Whichever one a game chooses to use, I adjust my expectations accordingly and then see what the story has to offer.

To use a Dragon Age reference, I consider Byleth more along the lines of "Hero of Ferelden" while Shez is more "Hawke." They're different types of main characters, but both are fun to play as.

Edited by dragonfire5000 on Jun 11th 2022 at 2:36:01 AM

I do think its comparable yeah, though you have much more personality options than Byleth does with Warden. (elsewhere someone mentioned the line telling Alistair to lick a lampost x'D)

(sidenote: I think that is good way to consume fiction in general, I also tend to enjoy entertainment in that way. I tend to be more critical of execution after being finished with a story, during it I'm just going along the ride)

Admittedly Byleth isn't a perfect comparison to the Hero of Ferelden, as the devs did intend for Byleth to have some personality traits set in stone. The Hero of Ferelden leaves more open room for roleplay purposes and is a lot closer to a "blank slate hero" than the Avatars of Fire Emblem.

And even then, the Hero of Ferelden has some personality traits that will always be present.

Edited by dragonfire5000 on Jun 11th 2022 at 3:06:03 AM

Billy Kametz, voice of Ferdinand von Aegir has passed away. RIP. Too young.

That's really sad to hear. May he rest in peace.

Indeed. First Brad Venable, and now him. He was Ferdinand von Aegir.

I'm glad we'll get to hear him one last time in Three Hopes.