Commander

I don't think anyone has removed the disobedience script so...good luck with that. I'm a bit busy this month and I have so many modded script files I don't even remember if I still have a clean one anymore. I really hope at this point someone is capable of an easy script change but if not just ping me in a month and I'll do it.

So the story is someone brought this fake banner to work on top of a fake rolled up one and added images to the smash roster and moved them around. These images were not in the same art style as the Smash artists so to cover it up they zoomed out and blurred it. It probably didn't take a long time to make, but this biggest mystery is why the name wasn't properly crossed out. Even if it was or wasn't him, that just damages a guy's reputation hard and it's not easy to bounce back from that...on top of two companies getting targeted for a leak. There were also a couple little design choices such as Isaac being slightly more in the front on top of Banjo looking more 3D that made me skeptical but I decided to remain neutral after looking at both pictures for an overlooked inconsistency. Mostly said there's a 70% chance because the person who did it timed and planned it out rather well. Also because I didn't think someone would be that stupid to take things that far, but humanity is willing to do so. Then I saw there was going to be a 40 minute direct and them announcing 7 characters was unlikely. 5 of which were new and needed a bunch of time to explain. I still have the image in my head and I could go back and say "that was so obvious they faked it." It was kind of believable due to all the effort put into it and leaking some actual set pieces (the Grench stuff), but the fake pics definitely could have used better artwork to cover it up. Banjo was the most obvious one if you look at it. There was a lot of little things where I don't think we could simply chuck it away as an obvious fake, but there was a number of things where we could be skeptical. One I disagree with is the background inconsistencies on the page being decisive evidence. That's not an uncommon thing to have inconsistencies with set board pictures. The set pages lacked details in terms of writing explaining where things go along with the pics themselves being too detailed. I do think one thing blinded people's logic which was the Incineroar leak. People really didn't want Incineroar to be the last new fighter. People also were getting upset with only two fighters left (but we got 3 \o/...even if he's coming later). People really did not want that leak to be true which kind of helped push the promotion of this one. I would've been down for most of these and interested in the smash teams take on them. I guess the moral of the story is don't get into leaks.

So to answer this question I can only explain a little bit of what I know and obviously this is small, but concrete theorizing so don't worry too much about nonsense

I thought the development team hated this run. It's not really the Jan post from above but I always felt there was a bunch of passive aggressive comments which is why I don't really even bother thinking about them anymore and focus on my thoughts and randomness instead of prioritize helping them. I'm not going to point out minor issues because I don't think they care at this point. But if you really want a good point in feedback...I really could sum it up by quoting me from a post about a year ago: This was V9 and it does sadly really hold true even now. The level spike isn't as bad now, but HC quests are an issue. One point I will make in people claiming you should do them after getting a gym badge "then why the hell are they available right off the bat?" Natural human instinct or RPG enthusiast will get a sidequests as soon as possible whenever possible (unless there's like a 30 or 40 level difference). Though I will say on the cons side, I do heavily focus on the character point, but the last point probably is the biggest issue to fix. Why do you think people hate Terajuma so much?

It's always important that your special D has good growths. *Ahem* As for the perverted grandma I can at least show you what it was like in V9 There's...nothing really that big or exciting changes from the top of my head other than a lot of meh stuff here and there. I kind of miss a lot of the cut content such as Venam swimming across the ocean to kill Amber.

This might seem out of left field but Decidueye is actually the most generic of the three and Incineroar is the least generic so I don't know what you are talking about. Incineroar is my least favorite of the Gen 7 starters, but...why am I fighting with someone who is salty anyways? Funny how you're the first person being honest here and I can't disagree with what you said since it did fill like a lot of padding for the 40 minute mark. I feel this was more directed as a presentation to show off how online will be good over anything...which would be quite boring for people who care more about the single player stuff or local. It's directs though and they usually have 50% disappointment. 20 minutes would have definitely been better and they should've saved Ridley for this direct to add something in the middle. Oh well too late now. I miss Bill. I mean Iwata was my favorite to see present stuff but...we can't really...ever see that again. I do think Sakurai is really good at transitioning into those trailers and teasers which kind of usually make those directs. Remember how we got trolled into believing only certain characters were going to be in (believing some were getting cut) then cue Snake for the hype train. Oh that was a grand time.

Amen to that. He may not be as loved in Pokemon, or be worthy of a Pokken tournament, but I will gladly welcome the wrestler with open arms. He deserves this and I feel bad he's getting hate due to all these leaks. Though I do think being the last revealed character probably wasn't the best choice (K. Rool or Ridley would've been a smarter choice to hit her home). So funny story is that when I heard people talking about Piranha Plant, I thought they were talking about Petey Piranha which I thought "Well, I guess that makes since as he's a pretty recurring character." My face was kind of priceless seeing what it really was. Gotta give a round for Sakurai fooling the entire community which really makes the DLC true wildcards we really can't guess. Maybe one is Geno, maybe one isn't. I do have a possible idea what they could be, but I'd rather wait for one reveal to go into my theory. Well when you make coverage on every leak and news expecting things which these devs, mind you, don't have to do to make a ton of money...you're going to be disappointed. As for your Pokemon choices, Hunter said they weren't going to make a roster character anything pre Gen VII which would be a dumb move for a very represented franchise and that pretty much only leaves Decidueye and Incineroar...so tell me which one sounds better: A character who primarily uses a bow in a game with quite a number of characters who use a bow as a weapon or a wrestler when there is not a single wrestler in a fighting game. After seeing him in action, I can say Incineroar was a much, much better choice and really show great representation of fighting type Pokemon (despite being dark type). Do you actually have a son or is that one of those weird sayings? On the bright side, maybe the amount of leaks will go down since "legit" sources seem to get ignored and turned down over fake ones like this. I'd be down for it to be easier not to get the roster spoiled which would probably be easy if topics weren't popping up left and right about it. Here was my mood while watching the Incineroar part of the direct due to the Grinch Leak:

I'm just looking at the reactions towards a the direct and it's pretty much a "are you fucking kidding me?" I'm just going to talk about the leaks right now before diving into the stuff people should care about. Leaks are usually more or less false information which buries the truth, we can't clutch to them like they're the prophets. So if you got upset over the character reveals due to that, that's all on you. You hyped yourself up for something that possibly wasn't going to happen. And for those whining about your character not being in, just get over it. I have 18 characters I'd love to get into smash and many of which I'd main even if they're awful characters, but that doesn't mean I'm not happy with a pretty damn good roster. There are 75 flipping characters. I don't think people are seeing that. 75 of the 80 have been revealed. And there's a possibility of a second DLC wave. The characters aren't even the thing that I was getting mad over. Like there's something worth getting mad over, but let's save that for later as this is a mature talk. Let's...unfortunately start with the characters: Ken and Incineroar So Ken is a special snowflake being an echo fighter that kind of got his own character trailer...an it was pretty awesome. RIP Little Mac. There's just no way that you can simply walk it off. As for Ken, I really like Ryu but wished he moved a little bit faster...which Ken really kind of does that which pleases me. That was a really cool trailer...but it was the first half. So I'm not the biggest fan of Incineroar, but that had to be my favorite character reveal trailer in the smash bros history. He was pretty badass looking and the ending killed me...RIP Ken. He just got here and he's already in the hospital. As for Incineroar, I really, really like what they did with him and I could see him turning into one of my mains. This is coming from a guy who was indifferent. He reminds me a bit of bowser which I love, but kind of fixed a few reasons I don't main Bowser. Great trailers but there seems to be one character people are really upset about: Piranha Plant So I think there's a misunderstanding here. I'll explain what I think went on in the development room. First off, this character was not planned by Sakurai when first making the game. What likely happened is that they reached their goal both under the time constraint and more likely underbudget and decided to take time to put work into a low investment character. The assets to the Piranha Plant were all around so character modeling it probably didn't take much time to develop. So if you say he's an awful character replacing "Geno" or "Isaac", he didn't. Think of him more as a unique extra added. When it's put that way there's two options regarding this: put some money to add one more fighter or just not use the money and have no bonus fighter. If you wish he didn't exist, that's fine, but I welcome any extra addition to the smash roster. I probably won't use him much but I'll at least be willing to test him out. I do think he should be free DLC and not a preorder bonus, but oh well. Now onto the secret mode people were waiting for: Spirit Mode I'll be blunt, this disappointed me for two reasons. The first was that I didn't believe we'd have an adventure mode as the Smash team looked to be focused on the multiplayer aspect. The bigger thing I was upset about was the removal of trophies. I love trophies and they were probably one of the things I loved collecting in Brawl in which I almost 100% it (couldn't be intense boss rush RIP). Stickers are fun to collect, but they can't replace trophies. As for my thoughts on the mode, I kind of like the idea itself. It's an inferior mission mode to Melee but it still seems to be decent enough to take on challenges meant to represent certain franchises. I'm sure we'll be getting a golden sun based one which could be fun. It's a neat idea for meddling around and being a collectathon, but not as good as trophies. It's a good substitute since it seems trophies may take too much development time which is a necessary evil which I'm willing to sacrifice. The lack of trophies did make my mind consider skipping this game if that says anything of how much I like them. Pics are fine as well, but alas it's not trophies. It's just not the same. I don't think I'd play too much of this mode though but hey, I like seeing representation of my favorite lord, Micaiah. Please FE Warriors, at least include her in the sequel. Also I do find it cool that certain spirits can evolve. Online and Multiplayer So this is just a lot of bells and whistles features and I feel some are good and some are not. I'm not a big online...oh shit I forgot you have to buy online now (if and whenever I get to getting a switch). Well I guess I'm not an online player so many of these things don't affect me. I do like how there's an elite rank which recording those matches might be more interesting but I just see it as a lot of resources put into something that will not get much use. Voice chat on your phone? Really? Do they really think we're going to do that? I droned most of this out (still upset about the trophies) but I did see one cool little feature. I really do think the handicap feature is pretty good as it lets people play as their mains against people who aren't as good. My sister hates when I use mains so sometimes I have to gimp myself using characters I rarely use like Palutena and Rosalina. Good change, but not a dealbreaker. I hope that stays a staple for the rest of the franchise if there's any more. New Assist Trophies I don't think very many people got excited over this, but this was the first thing I got super hyped and excited about. Fatal Frame! They brought that girl from Fatal Frame which is amazing considering I don't think a lot of younger people have even heard of that game. Never played it, but the concept was pretty cool so representation is nice. Then the Black Knight comes in which his heroes quotes which yes, hearing all the VA is so nice and crisp. That Tiki assist was also nice to see. And Shadow and Isaac are back as assist trophies probably killing the fans moods, but oh well. I'd have to look back at the direct because I don't remember them all. Tiki made me very happy being a fire emblem fan and all. Smash Costumes Being Bought Through Coins This was a good direction. There was so much filler content in Smash Wii U that it lead up to 120 bucks in DLC, but it seems they won't be doing that this time. Maybe they'll add free updates adding new costumes which would be pretty cool and the way to go. I mean 25 bucks worth of DLC is much cheaper than the Wii U...I don't want to think about it total. It's a good change and while a bit more tedious would make being Mii Chrom from the Fire Embull meeting Luchina more worth it. Good change and a better practice imo. 25 bucks for 6 fighters (or was it 5) is a bit high, but a more fair price then what we had before. World of Light I was indifferent to Smash Ultimate...then this happened. It's...so beautiful. Instead of whining or complaining about all the things that weren't likely going to happen, we should be happy with the one thing never thought to happen actually come true. Adventure mode...after 17 years, yes, 17 years, is back and better then ever. 10 years if you count Sub space embassy. It's been 10 years, my friend since we've had our roster go on an adventure. The fact we open up on the same cliff at the end of Sub-space is a kick in the nostalgia. Then we hear some good old English VA...from Marth and Zelda? And cue the death of everyone but the lovable puffball...again (we'll probably get Mario very quickly...Mario vs Kirby all over again). And when you think this game couldn't get any more epic, it just opens up to an English version of the song...that we can understand and just throw things at us left and right what we can do. I looked back and it seems collecting spirits will play an important part in this, but...I'm not sure if we'll have adventure maps (which would be a sad loss) where you go and collect stuff. But something is for certain: our boy, Galleon is back cuing that there will be boss battles. We don't know how good it'll be. Maybe it'll be almost as good as Subspace or maybe it'll be better. Only time shall tell. It seems spirits are the big theme though so I wonder if we'll even fight some in battle. But alas, I might be biting my tongue for speaking of things we don't know. We just needed this mode back and it's back so it's a good day. Now for those of you who still have complaints or are angry about the direct, I shall direct the most suited destination for such feedback:

I've only played Chapter 1 of FE4, Nothing on Thracia, about a third of FE6, FE12 I got to about halfway, and Tokyo Mirage Session I just got past Aversa. And for ones I haven't played at all and won't ever: FE1, Gaiden, and FE3. I really cannot play NES games at all without losing my mind. We don't know too much about Grima!Robin simply because we never really needed to. All we really know from Lucina is that the Robin from the timeline and Chrom were really good friends and Chrom died at the Dragon's Table. The points in history are the same, but the methods to reach those points changed. Grima...also wasn't too worried about Chrom. They pretty much just sent some goons and were busy doing who knows what offscreen (which ironically is most FE antagonists' demise). I mean Grima does almost win with a single strike. I don't think it was purposely implanted though to kill Chrom. Chrom was an important tool to reach the end destination and without him, many of the events wouldn't have come to pass. In fact, Grima didn't care Chrom was still alive. So looking at chapter 23's script again, there is one little detail I did miss. Indeed that dream Robin has at the beginning is Grima!Robin's memories and it is plainly stated, but after killing Chrom, it seems like Grima!Robin chose to go through with the rite. That's the only reason why Grima wanted Robin to kill Chrom so the rite would be finished. I like how well integrated the "foresight" was into the plot instead of a flat out dream sequence insert (*cough* Echoes and Fates *cough*). And while Echoes did help uncover some of the mysteries to the lore behind this game, there's still many pieces that could be added to better explain it such as the Plegian history and the Dragon's Table being Grima's domain instead of the Earth Dragons. This would be covered in the second game of the "arc" but like SS, Awakening was a standalone so we'll never know. So I am going to talk about Echoes and there's actually...very little we gain that we didn't know already. The masks get explained and where the original risen came from kind of is important and explains a lot of how Grima rose to power, but that's it. We know Grima grew stronger over time seeing as they were much, much bigger later after the first exalt sealed them. This happened probably 1,000 years after Marth in the area where Emeryn committed suicide (whose bones do you think those are?) As for the mind manipulation, Grima was doing that to our Robin giving them headaches and such. The same is shown for Grima!Robin as defeating them in Future Past DLC lets Grima!Robin regain control for a tiny bit. I'm not dissing Echoes for giving us well needed lore, but without it, Grima isn't a terrible antagonist or doesn't have anything going for them.

While it's been a long while since I've played that one, I am familiar still with many aspects of it so I guess I can talk about that thing. Maybe in a week or so because that certainly is a mess to talk about. Owain is...someone I'm neutral on. I like how over the top he is which gets him to be quite silly such as using Missiletain, but it can get a bit too annoying after a long time. Henry!Owain, he was known as the cursed magician with that beast 28 Magic. Too bad he died. After all, you can't quote a dead man... "Oh! My aching blood!"

I would say that I came roughly when league ended (I think season 3 started and was going around when I joined) and for all but 7 or so months of the development time of the game. That doesn't always mean I can't be wrong or incorrect as I am just shy of what we consider the old guard. I've learned to back off more and usually jump into the fray if I have stuff I feel people more than just the person I'm arguing with will find interesting. But alas, I am still part of the problem here of prolonging it. And jumping back to Shofu's playthrough, there are a lot of feelings of his I understand. Shofu has been playing and supporting Reborn for 5 years. He and I likely had very similar views as Reborn was and felt very different 5 years ago and we were also a lot younger. I was in high school when I first played Reborn. Our opinions of the games were pretty similar and we had reactions the same as many of you newbies. It was a very faulty, but fun experience. But in 5 years things changed such as longer waiting times and mechanics which are hit and miss with the fans with field effects being one of the biggest. This does affect your experience as you think more and more on the negatives as times goes on and many fans jump ship of Shofu's playthrough due to the long delays. Have you ever tried picking up a game you set down for years. I did that with Tales of Graces F and...first it was torture (being the second to last dungeon in the game) then it was fun again. Imagine doing this 7 times which each time getting longer between the last. You don't want to replay the game since that'd be so much progress wasted. The other issue is that Shofu focuses on the main content which is a small, maybe insignificant, portion of each episode release. Imagine waiting a year to play a game for an hour. I'd be very unhappy if that's all the game offered in a year and it'd add to my negative views. He was still optimistic even in E16 but it seems E18 was finally the tipping point. I said it was kind of unacceptable after all those years a small demo is what Rising Phoenix published so I can't say people shouldn't say the long dev times are hampering the game. I think he's more falling out of Pokemon as seen in his Phoenix Rising and Clockwork runs. But back on topic, many of the long following fans will start to be more pessimistic about Reborn waiting on it for years and years. I went from a hardcore fan (pun not intended) to thinking the game is alright and fun.

So the first thing we don't know is if this is real or not...because there's evidence pointing to both. Of all the leaks so far, this is one of the best fake ones if it is fake and we're just trying to figure out what he did which all grinds down to what images he used. It's a pretty impressive edit using the blurriness to make it really hard to prove or disprove but...here's some of my knowledge of the matter so far if these images are fake: I'm normally not one to talk much about leaks but...this is the first one I can't simply dismiss because whoever the idiot is could have done this since graphics sometime do arrive much earlier and are put in storage until they need to be opened. Usually the graphics come one month early and have a box of DO NOT OPEN until a certain date. I'm guessing the idiot doesn't care much about work as he isn't going to have any once certain people find out. I'm going to say 70% chance of being real.

I will never see that S-craft the same way ever again. "My carrot is the holiest of veggies" This is actually kind of why you often learn of their backstory after their fall or the first meeting kind of unlike Angie. First impressions are everything and a lot of the Angie stuff was added in future versions. Heck, we didn't even know of Anju in V7 (unless someone is going to barge in and correct me). *** Normally, I would keep quiet and let what happened pass, but bloody hell I see the passive aggressiveness and misinterpretation in the status bar so I guess I'll dig a deeper hole to explain something that is probably a bigger thing to everyone but me. So I'm also going to clear one thing up. Toshihiro Kondo is a male, but that doesn't mean he can't write strong female protagonists. The same logic applies with someone being gay not being able to write good homosexual characters. The dev background shouldn't matter, but I can see how I worded it people who are would get upset at some of my poor word choice. I was talking more about the interpretation over the inclusion as yeah, you can include it if you want. If you do not have a spine and are going to lash out at what I say, just ignore the rest of this passage for everyone's sake as I'm going to be blunt when explaining my "insult." Homosexuality is and likely will always be a controversial issue. I'm not going to be focusing on the right or left wing people as they are only going to view this one single way, but I feel most people are somewhere in the middle, myself included. I mean personally speaking when I saw the E3 trailer of The Last of Us part 2 I kind of was weirder out by the kissing scene since it kind felt out of nowhere and honestly whoever designed this was brilliant as that was the thing most people were talking about. Many people haven't played the first game so there was a lot of confusion and people trying to explain, but if you are going to talk about that trailer, that's likely how you'll start it. It works at remembering it and keep discussion as any discussion is good discussion. I'm not sure if the devs were even in control of that trailer. So my personal belief is that controversial topics need to be carefully planned and executed not because of the matter at hand, but how they will be recieved. Let's just take abortion for example. Let's just say that a woman threw her baby off a cliff...which is mentioned at like the 2/3rd point in the game. There's 0 hints to her even having a kid nor does any character react or say all that much. Honestly, I don't know how I'd react to that other than "WTF" and it certainly wouldn't help my thoughts on the matter. Wouldn't say it would hurt either. It does, however, still leave an impression on people. I'm not referring to people who want to include these for storytelling and put in the work, I'm more geared towards media that gives off an impression they inserted these subjects without much thought often being poorly executed or shallow kind of leaving a not very good impression on people. And with issues like these being more vocal and a big deal then 10 or 15 years ago, of course people are going to want to tap in for marketing and money giving off the obligation. Maybe I'm absolutely wrong and very little of these exists. I'd be happy about that. Controversy sells and it sells cheap and easy. There have been plenty of good examples and a lot more good ones in modern times. Argue about it all you want, but Steven Universe, Adventure Time, Yuri on Ice, uhhh...I'm drawing blanks here...are well recieved shows that do these things. I actually wouldn't mind digesting what they did wrong or right, but it still is a controversial issue nonetheless. I really think Mitch from Modern Family nailed the issue in a scene where he's bothered by how someone looked at him saying it's disgusting how people look and treat gays on the street when it was actually a misunderstanding. I don't like talking much about controversial, especially this issue, since people (and this community) stand on both sides and if you talk about any of the negatives, people will get emotional and you'll receive a thousand lashes if you say the wrong thing in the wrong way. I am so thankful this didn't go further than it did. Now let's finally dip into what started this in Rejuv. I will start by saying I do not know what the scenes are like in the future events since I have not reached it, but anyone who doesn't live on a rock around V10...I think, pretty much knows about it. So many people talked about it and weren't there multiple threads? So the nice thing about knowing certain spoilers is that you can often read and analyze pieces of dialogue foreshadowing or referencing the buildup to that event. I don't know if I'm missing something but it feels about as much development as Aelita x Adam. There has been plenty of time to develop this or at least give slight understanding of it but...I honestly feel like that idea kind of came out of nowhere being shoehorned in. That's the impression I have so far and impressions can change. And the only thing I really know about GDC is the Melia x Venam thing which imagine getting there and me having to say it's terrible. I don't know if it is but it has those signs. It just makes me dread reaching there and talking about the possibility of questioning why it was included in the first place. Basically a repeat of this. At the end of the day, the dev and the player will often never see each other, much less agree with their thoughts. Usually my thoughts stay constant on hard ideals but sometimes I have contra...is that the Ducktales theme playing on the Goldbergs...*ahem* Sometimes I contradict myself when I gain new knowledge shifting some of my thoughts and what I think is good and not good. Point is I have reasons behind the things I say, but never know what people are interested in so sometimes I skim over stuff half-assedly. Kind of comes at the price of being free spirited over aiming to be more professional. I'll also never know what Jan or whoever did something was thinking, but it doesn't mean I shouldn't at least take an assumption here and there to talk about why something may be the way it is. tl;dr Praise Angie! I really only put this up for people who wanted to know why I said what I said since I think some silent readers misinterpreted a certain aspect I said and not some kind of apology. If you still interpret what I said that way, fine by me. If you want to read it you can, but if you don't, I don't blame you as I wouldn't either. I'm not here to start fights. I'm here to be the hated and loveable idiot suffering through a game he's not sure what to think on. And for shippers of Rock Hard Bods (Aelita x Adam), I am sorry to inform you, but that ship is unlikely to occur and was merely used as a random illogical ship to use as an example.

I actually had more, but at the end of the day I do need to make my posts not be essays so I picked the most important piece. Also, don't a lot of people love Riverdale? Anyways, a studio isn't meant to solve all your issues and faults. I hate to be blunt, but you are basically saying to censor Ame's ideas and designs. I always believe that a developer's creative freedom comes first and foremost and while Nintendo does do the questionable of shutting down Pokemon Fan Works, it has challenged devs to go above and beyond what they believe they can do. Just look at the Iwata asks of Xenoblade Chronicles which is regarded as one of the best RPGs of all time. What you are suggesting would not let Reborn go from Paper Mario to TTYD, but to the infamous Color Splash. You cannot have people barge in and force Ame to change big chunks of the game. I said once no Dev is immune to mistakes and faults, and it's a learning experience. People can help guide and throw suggestions, but at the end of the day Pokemon Reborn is Ame's dream and nobody should stop her from doing what she wants. And many people have thrown their thoughts and helped Reborn and Ame improve over time. But let's be theoretical and say that this game was being published as an Indy game on the Nintendo branch. Let's go to presentation day and a board of people are playing a demo to get the feel and experience of it. The opening statement most likely would be "This game is a little bit differently then what we are used to, but I actually enjoyed many ideas of it" and would list off many of the positive traits of why they enjoyed the experience. I do believe they would have some issues and they wouldn't be afraid of saying something. Let's take exploring the desert for example. I suppose someone would go "You seem to be fond of big maps, but walking around them does get tiring to find every nook and cranny. Perhaps you could add something similar to the Tauros on Route 1 to make it much faster to explore." And if anything is unacceptable to their standards they would say so. Kind of like many of us have been doing. And also not trying to tarnish Ame here, but you are acting like a million dollar budget will save everything. If Reborn went the Mighty No 9 method and got that huge of a budget, I feel Reborn would've flopped hard. I know Ame is familiar with a majority of RPGmaker mechanics, but I'm not sure how well she'd manage trying to run a team through an engine she's unfamiliar with. And if Ame is reading this, what would you even do with a million dollars? Just curious. I think he legit stopped though he could be taking a couple months break before hopping back in again. Who knows. Also, nerd will be nerds with their essays and opinions. And funny enough, I'm just thinking of all the things I wouldn't believe since Shofu first started playing Reborn and like wow: -Nintendo would make a portable tablet -Tales of Vesperia PS3 would be localized -There'd be two more smash games after brawl -Pokemon Reborn would influence many others to create their own fan-games -The Zeta/Omnicron dev would make a sequel -KOS-MOS would appear in another Xeno game -Ridley made it into Smash -Gay marriage is considered legal everywhere in the US -Trump would become president -I'd be dumb enough to make a hard mode of Reborn -Zelda would become open world -Another Mario 64 type game would be created -KH3 would actually be released -FFVII would get a remake -Loot Boxes and the Gacha Market would boom -FE Gaiden would get a remake -Field Effects would become a thing ...Wow a lot happened since I was a wee newbie on the forums.

So something that took about 2 years to do was finish my iron man of Fire Emblem Awakening which I set a no pair-ups restriction. Just imagine setting your Cordelia in the last tile of an ambush spawn Bow Knight. I did it, and I'm proud I did it...but oh no I'm never doing that again. It did actually give me quite a bit of insight of the game and rereading some of that dialogue really changed my view of it. Some things actually surprised me and now I can safely say that it's my third favorite FE game which is close to SoV but...I'm pretty sure Radiant Dawn will always be my favorite. This game also divided the community, but I really do think it deserves to be considered a Fire Emblem like the rest...unlike the beast of Fates which is a different story (I don't hate Fates btw). I do want to talk about different aspects of this old game: The Maps Fire Emblem Awakening's Map Design makes Radiant Dawn's structure look like a masterpiece and we know how all over the place that game is. I want to take pair-ups out of the equation since that actually ruins a lot of the game and many of its design ideas. The problem with that is you basically can send any S-ranked support in the middle of the field and they can destroy everyone due to a high guard chance and pretty much always dual strike. When they are adjacent, it's more like a 50% chance to dual strike and a 12% guard rate making things quite different. I'm starting to think the game was designed more with no pair-ups in mind. Your units are much, much squishier when they can't take on 20 units in a single turn and you have to make use of the maps more. So the biggest flaw in Awakening is that every objective is either Rout or Defeat the boss. There's no defense maps nor any escape maps so there's never a time limit. It's actually kind of impressive how varied many of the story maps are despite this. I'm not a fan of the Gaiden paralogue chapters but that's a minor issue. So let's talk about a good map like Chapter 12 which is the port chapter. It's actually designed to be a defense chapter (and lo and behold you gain a new tanky unit) where you try and guard the three sides while you get hammered by the calvary storm. Another interesting chapter is Chapter 21 where you are meant to push forward or get slammed by Mire tomes. Another good one is Chapter 24 as while all enemies move at once, all the calv are slowed by the trees letting you have time to take down all the fliers. I think my favorite chapter is now the one right before the endgame where you fight Aversa a second time. So the reinforcements are actually well planned out and you can avoid getting clobbered by all of them by pushing forward. I think so long as you make it to Aversa by turn 8 you are fine as reinforcements spawn from the bottom slowly upwards. This actually ties in with the story which you have to hurry up before Grima leaves. I have to say for having all the same objectives, many of these maps can be varied and have to be taken on differently. It's kind of impressive they make a time limit without a forced one similar to BExp with the Tellius games. Now I need to talk about the Ambush reinforcements which happen on hard and higher. Honestly, most of these maps only work and are done pretty well due to these mechanics. Because ambush units are so awful you want to do what means necessary to stop them which often the game gives hints shortly before the storm arises. The maps that you can stop these storms or limit them by standing on forts and stairs are some of the better ones. The ones you can't are often the worst ones. You have incentives to stop them over additional free Exp since they more often then not are the reason your units are killed. So many of my deaths were due to those which some were out of my control. And with the good comes with the bad maps...and the bad maps are really, really bad. The irony is that most of those maps are where you fight the big baddies such as Gangrel, Walhart, and Validar. So Validar's is one of my least favorite since you are in a smallish area with pretty much 0 coverage with 25 units charging at you all at the same time with reinforcements hopping in. You need your beasts and best units to sponge up damage as those who survive will overwhelm you while the next wave comes. And if you can't kill them, your other units become easy picking as they have free range to try and hit everybody. Walhart's first fight is pretty bad as well as you're in the smack dab middle with everything charging at you including, you guessed it, reinforcement spawns. The worst one has to be the bloody Milla tree. You are on an open map for flier while all your units are constricted in pretty linear paths while being hounded with ambush spawns from the north and south on top of enemies who run counter who you need to kill ASAP. Gangrel's isn't as bad since the ambush spawns are not right next to you and enemies attack in waves, but it's still an issue with moving forward since you can't cover all sides very easily. All in all, I don't dislike the maps and actually am surprised it has more variety than many of the Fates gimmicks making how you handle maps change. Those open field maps just leave such a sour taste and I think the pair ups mechanic takes away from the pretty well designed maps which I definitely could say weren't lazy or shoddy. My guess is that they were having issues with learning the engine or something as this was the first portable 3d game they made. Also they made bow units pretty damn viable with all those flier threats around. I felt losing Virion super early in the run. Many of them probably should have been how they made them in Echoes...but it's good for what it is. Mechanics Probably the biggest charm of this game was the mechanics. I like and dislike many of them. I actually really, really like the idea of being able to have supports with nearly everyone else so that means almost everyone gets a benefit on the battlefield if someone else is nearby. I also like that there isn't a limit to how many supports a character can have which makes the additional S rank a big plus in my book. I hope that's a staple they change in older games when remaking them. It's just so nice not having to choose whose story to listen to. One thing I'm hit and miss about is the overworld enemies and merchants/shops. I don't mind the idea of fighting enemies for extra grinding but I don't see the point especially when you don't need it and the DLC trumps it in every way. Having to run around the world for certain items was also a pain especially when you weren't sure what was where. I loved the Tellius mechanic of special items being sold from merchants...making me wish the good old Tellius base was back. There are many of the old basics such as weapon durability (I know people dislike it, but even without the weight on con restriction it's still effective...but you stick with better weapons at the end) and the weapon triangle. It just feels wrong in the games that don't have them including SoV. I wouldn't mind magic costing HP though as that's an idea I can get behind. One new addition was the Taguel (Laguz) and...I think they are underrated as Panne was level 30 and still finding a number of uses in the final battle. I wouldn't mind them doing that for a Tellius remake to make Laguz less of a pain to use. Another thing I missed that it feels Fates did less of was the varied character recruits with some being enemies required to talk and other being allies you need to beat the chapter to recruit. There's a lot of tiny things which help and hurt, but now for the big things: Pair ups. I think this is the one thing that's both great and awful at the same time. It's great as it makes the game easy enough for almost anyone to step into the series especially with the ability to not play with Permadeath, but it makes the game to easy to enjoy for the experienced players. Even with my no pair-up run, I liked using it to help traverse characters around the map kind of like how you use Pivot on armors in heroes. It's also pretty neat how the pair-up mechanics are more RNG related when units are adjacent which sounds like a bad thing, but it was pretty fun. Dual strikes were not uncommon but sometimes you get screwed by a much needed one not activating. And since dual guard is rare, it felt like a lucky miss which was always super nice. Unlike Fates, either choice is fine and it kind of gives you a greater freedom to play which I think it appealed to a much broader audience...not only saving but making the series now thrive. Supports. I'll be honest, I think Awakening's smallish cast (if we ignore child units for a minute) worked well with being able to pair everyone with everyone. It was an unheard of idea...other than Radiant Dawn, but unlike that game each character still had a story to explore on top of falling in love and most characters had a different background so you never knew what would happen. The children then had their own group and story to unfold and it was interesting exploring how a child makes up with a dead parent along with how close the others were with each other due to the horrible future. So while I won't disagree with Awakening being "Waifu Emblem" I do feel many characters have pretty interesting stories to explore such as Lon'qu who grew distant to women due to losing the love of his life. The concept itself is interesting, but as seen in Fates, it can get too much taking away from the characters being characters. I love the idea of everyone being able to support with everyone, but I suppose a limit of 5-8 keeping the characters as characters would be the best middle ground. I dislike how all the father supports are all the same and male and female robin count as different supports despite many being the same. Many of the ones I saw and watched were pretty good though and did their job. As long as the original core idea of supports isn't lost, I'm all for "Waifu Emblem"...just no more child units. DLC. 3 Houses is going to have DLC, but I feel like IS and Nintendo has been money grubby after Awakening. Awakening's DLC was much cheaper and delivered so much more. This was Fire Emblem heroes before Fire Emblem heroes. I mean we could argue if the DLC is good enough but the maps were pretty cool bits of nostaglia which you got an old legacy character out of it. I find most of them pretty good, but I want you to imagine Awakening getting a remaster. Just imagine all of those card characters...getting proper 3d renders and being fought on those maps. I think it would be pretty cool looking and make the maps, really, really worth playing (they sometimes have unique convos with certain characters) and it even added well needed dialogue for the spotpass characters...something Scarlett x Ryoma or Yukimara and Shiro will never get. This was DLC I'd say done right and I hope 3 Houses goes back to its roots and not make half-assed cash grabs like they did (Rise of the Deliverance was great but overpriced and Fates only had Heirs of Fate which was not bad). The Story This is actually why I made this post. So a lot of the older fans of the series and some of the newbies all point out that Awakening's story is bad, then some point out that up to Gangrel is fine and then it all falls apart. It's pretty unanimous. I kind of agreed but when I replayed the game I had a revelation (pun not intended) and after relooking at it, the story in the endgame is actually pretty good. If you haven't played Awakening, you are about to be spoiled. I just want to say that the story was built and written on a concept: bonds. And while this is that power of friendship BS you've seen time and time again, it gets interesting so bear with me. So we have to start off with the fact that there are two timelines. There's the original timeline Lucina and the children are from, and there's the new timeline this game takes place. The most important piece of info you need to know from the original timeline is that Robin retained his memories (I believe). It's not as important as the original timeline has different events leading to the same outcome. So when Lucina traveled to the past, Grima caught on and traveled further back into the past than she did. He, however, was only able to send his vessel there as his main body was left behind (or was destroyed. I dunno if past future is canon). So since he wanted to keep traveling between timelines, he tried jump starting Robin to turn into Grima. Since Robin did not perform the Awakening and the rite of passage, it backfired and Robin lost all of his memory, but gained the one memory of how Grima killed that world's Chrom. I should probably look to see if there are any differences in the scenes, but probably not. And that is the only thing Robin remembers before being helped up by Chrom. History continues pretty much the same. The next change is Masked Marth and the Risen coming which is likely the point in time Lucina opened the portal and all those Risen poured into this world causing she and her friends to part different ways. Oddly enough, nobody did question where all the other Risen came from (likely Grima opened a portal letting them through). The next change is Masked Marth replacing Lon'qu in the arena duel. I'm not sure whether she was trying to change this outcome or simply wanted to duel with her father but perhaps it was an attempt to save Basillio's life. The biggest change is Validar's assassination of Emeryn while aiming to steal the Fire Emblem. Now we do have one plot hole here. Chrom was killed by Robin, but Masked Marth says she was about to save Chrom's life. I thought she later said it was just injured but I didn't see that. I'm just gonna go with injured regardless since it will make more sense. This event is what sparks the war between Plegia and Ylisse. Grima not being happy decided to step in and bring Validar back to life...he can do that for some reason. They needed to rewrite history again to make the war with Plegia happen which is how Aversa manipulates Gangrel to pretty much start it. The Fire Emblem was supposed to be brought to his hands, but it didn't matter. The events went back in place and the war happened but I like to believe Chrom was there for this war and had to stay back in the old one due to his injuries leaving Robin and Frederick to take the charge. This means less time spent between Chrom and Robin. The only unknown here is if they recovered the Fire Emblem or not. It does not matter that much. Now this is where history gets a bit complicated. We meet Validar again who is now the king of Plegia, but it's probably more or less he just gave them the ships and told them to go away. He was busy looking for the gemstones and that'd help take care of two. It also helped take care of a major threat to their plan, Walhart. So one of the most important details that's easy to miss happens next. Some point off the screen in the current timeline, Robin told Chrom about his dream in a place where the Plegian Spies could not reach them. We don't know when and we don't know when they devised this plan. So when Lucina tells Basillo Walhart is going to kill him, that's when Basillo got an idea. So before he faked his death, he gave Flavia the fake gemstone. He likely always had the fake one around since the real one is kind of dangerous. This didn't happen in the original timeline. So while Chrom and the others are fighting Walhart, Basillio is going offscreen and stops Plegia from getting the real gemstone also probably because they thought Chrom had the real one. The events all play out the same and then we go to Chapter 21. So the plan is all going to plan and Chrom knows it doesn't matter if Plegia gets the Fire Emblem since the fake Gemstone is in there leading to Chrom's amazing horrible acting and Robin's silence. The plan was so stupid it worked because Validar was so obsessed with reviving Grima he got careless. So we now enter the dragon's table. So the first thing that happens is Robin wants to stay back because they are afraid the events might happen and Validar might take control and kill Chrom. Chrom assures them that won't happen due to the trust and strength they've grown over time. Many of the bonding events this pair went through happened due to the interference of both Grima and Lucina and since Robin had no memory, Chrom really was the one who they trusted above anyone else. So when Validar casts the spell this time, Robin is still in control and aims the spell slightly off to prepare for Validar's downfall as Basillio and Flavia show up. After Chrom died in the original, the rite of awakening happened resurrecting Grima. This chapter explains all of it, but it's so jammed it can come off as nonsense. Now enter Grima who shows up and resurrects their own body. And you're probably wondering, why the hell didn't they do that in the first place? It may seem contrived, but Grima both could and couldn't revive himself. You'll see later, but he had the Awakening requirement down and over with...he just didn't have enough power to do so. That's why he needed Robin and wanted him since that'd bring him up to full strength which backfired and he lost some powers and possible memory loss. Fortunately, Validar did bring a huge power supply (all those Grimleal) which was his backup plan as he pushed history around to make it to that point. So while he lost the Robin battle, he always knew he was going to win the war. So another detail that was lost was the fact Robin switched the fake gemstone out of the Fire Emblem in which is was now shining. So Chrom now performs the rite and I believe theoretically if he traveled to Lucina's timeline, he would still hold the power of the right. After all, he was able to communicate with Naga afterwards kind of like how Grima was still controlling Old Timeline Robin. So now we jump to the final battle and Grima heavily damages everyone and sucks Robin into his body (no homo). And then the dragon grip fails due to the bonds Robin made letting him escape that and...Grima is weaker than when he did the first resurrection. And one final touch for the final battle is the heart showing that no matter the danger, their bonds can overcome anything. And as a final sendoff, Robin sacrifices themselves, but due to moving and creating so many bonds with so many people his (and Grima's) remaining power managed to bring him back to life though with Grima gone, the mark vanished. And thus the adventures of Chrom and Robin started anew. Honestly, I don't think Awakening's story is that bad and nothing really felt shoehorned. Maybe a few things are a bit contrived and most of the plot reveals were jammed in a single chapter, but nothing is super nonsensical bar the ship jumping due to their armor. It worked especially with the fact that you had a choice to sacrifice yourself to save all of humankind. It has its charms and the Lucina scene is kind of sweet seeing as she can't kill you if you're her mother or husband. I do think the illusion of choice is terrible as it pretty much has the character ignore you and do said action anyways. I do think a lot of the story events could've been better executed, but that Gangrel arc was really well done. In other words, I don't think it's as bad as people treat it. Music and Graphics I will say one thing Fates did better. They had better graphics and music. I mean Awakening is still a good looking game and had a pretty good soundtrack. Some of the attacks like armor crits looked ridiculous (general sliding is still hilarious) but I actually didn't notice the feet thing until someone pointed it out. And I still forget about it when watching scenes so I guess the devs did have a point in "we didn't think anyone would notice." I love the map design as all the maps look great and just right. The birds flying backwards is hilarious though, but that waterfall in chapter 24 was another great extra. And that final boss theme was pretty epic sounding. There's a lot of good and memorable themes, but Fates just had better battle themes and boss themes. Conclusion Fire Emblem Awakening was meant to be a sendoff and swan song to the series, and it would have been a damn good one. I really do think that even if it came a few games before or a few games after it still would've done really well and be highly recieved. I actually first heard and picked up this game from a podcast with Marriland in it and I don't regret doing so. It was so easy to pick up and play and a game really needed to bring newcomers into the series and I don't think a single game could've done it better. It's a very faulty game, but it really did try to bring a little bit of everything about why people like Fire Emblem while being its own thing and appealing to a bigger audience. It's also the one Fire Emblem game I could safely say I enjoy every aspect of. I dislike Radiant Dawn's unbalanced roster and weak characters, Echoes has terrible maps, FE7 has the archaic controls, PoR has meh graphics and terribly slow animations. Fates, the game that kind of milked off of Awakening, is all over the place as Conquest had a laughable story and a couple maps that went overboard with mechanics, Birthright was gimmick overkill and terrible unit balance, and Rev was...rushed making it not fun to play. Looking back at Awakening does give me hope for 3 Houses as it was worried at a point that every game in the series would be just like it. What I'd like to see come back from this game in 3 Houses is the large amount of supports and actually a good variety of DLC which can bring that ultimate challenge and methods to conquer it. I also wouldn't mind the pair-up system being brought back if both the guard and dual strike were removed (mostly the guard) as while I prefer rescue, I do feel having a way to better traverse your characters is a requirement in all FE games and would rather have an optional mechanic to abuse over not having one at all. I also don't mind the customizable avatar either, but please don't make them the lord and more along the sidelines. And if I ask of something not to come back, please for the love of god, no more small open field maps where everything charges at you all at once. And as for that iron man, I lost a lot of valuable units and some vital (like Kjelle and Cordelia), but when Lissa, my last main healer, fell, I thought the run was over. But fortunately one man with a Killer Axe in his right hand and a Mend Staff in the other stepped up to the plate and saved the run. Robin may have gotten the most kills, but Libra is the true MVP.

And thus Sean finds another A-chan. I mean we have to call the group something. Also, I had the strategy guide so hooray for that saving me work. Loved Gen III and I was that idiot kid who fought the whole Elite 4 with just a Groudon. Man, those were the good old days. And it's no surprise you forgot about the opening segment...back when things were simple and dumb. Dumb fun. Her super-strength is gone in new versions, but...she still has that ever so convenient warping Togekiss. Though honestly, I would have preferred seeing Melia pick up and throw a large boulder for us to cross the lava over...whatever we got. #BringBackHulklia I'd take that over pervy grandma And V-who-must-not-be-named is going to be the death of me. It's always fun times when she and Melia are around.