Chase

For as much as I love debate, neither of us provided much to debate over as most of the topics covered are not up for discussion in the first place. The things I've stated were merely titled "musings" and thus were not intended to be taken by you the reader as "declarative statements" that were up for objection. That doesn't mean you couldn't object to them of course, but I wasn't aiming - at least this time - to spar with anyone on these points. I would encourage you to not put "conservatives" under the "bigot" umbrella however, because many of those conservatives (particularly the silent majority of them) are impartial to social liberalism or are opposed on grounds of due process (I.e. disagreeing with the Supreme Court's ruling on same-sex marriages because the Court overstepped it's legal bounds in reaching that decision, as opposed to disagreeing with the decision due to upholding a conservative view on the topic of marriage.) I -DO- disagree with you on "assimilation" weakening the human race conceptually, because the race is ultimately stronger when collaborating with one another as opposed to working independently. I agree with you however in that it's not the point of Christ's sacrifice nor is it edifying to discourage diversity. Nobody said my musings had to be completely sensible either. I suppose it wasn't clearly obvious, but I am criticizing the "religious right" along with you here. It is completely possible for those with more liberal social views and identities to honor God as I do. It was a bit of a rhetorical question. Your clarification on "not everything should be tolerated" is where I have my biggest head scratching moment. You essentially agreed with me, but then disagreed with me to get your piece in diversity - when in reality, you just agreed with me twice. "Not everything should be tolerated BUT you don't have a choice in the differences of others BUT not everything should be tolerated because evil and oppression is bad." I'm uh...glad we're on the same page there for the most part. You're certainly entitled to your opinion on the state of the world, but the Scripture that has been uncannily prophetic when it comes to events (this doesn't mean by the word, mind you!) gives me hope in another world as opposed to the one we live on. Don't mistake my opinion of this rock to be pessimism. You're hopeful because you probably believe humans have the capacity to be good. I'm hopeful because my God is good. ...Anyway, this wasn't a debate thread - so I won't pontificate further on anything other than my musings on tolerance - but know that I wasn't offended at all. I love debate equally (if not more) than you do.

"One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God." - Romans 14: 2-6 --- As a conservative and someone who is usually a strong advocate for assimilation over diversity in some instances I've often wondered if assimilation is what the Gospel truly pushes those who believe in Jesus to pursue. Here, it would seem that Paul is telling the church in Rome the opposite, that both the vegetarian (who may be considered weak due to having to hunt for one's own game during the time period, or because they are unable to eat meat for whatever reason - not to just hold prejudice against those who only eat vegetables.) and the omnivore honor God in their actions. If this is the case - is it not possible for those who love those of the same sex to honor God as those who love those of the opposite sex do? What about those who have cast out the gender boundery in favor of a spectrum or lack of image at all? Is it not possible for the xe's and xem's of the world to honor God? --- This doesn't mean that everything should be tolerated, mind you - but it would seem like - to Paul anyway - that people are not in the position to pass judgement against others. This much is applicable to those of any faction. It also means that maybe those of us in the faith should be more considerate of what God's Word really says about things before applying basic family upbringing and conservative social norms to the world that is doomed regardless of it being traditional or progressive. --- Hopefully, you guys don't take too much offense in the things that I say. I - like many of you - am on a personal journey. I don't wish to trample others on my path to righteousness. That kind of behavior only convinces others not to walk on said path with me. I am sorry for the mistakes I've made in the past.

In my opinion, you can better understand how a series got to where it is by looking at it's second installment. Gaiden is just plain different to the point where judging it against Shadow Dragon was incredibly difficult for critics back in '92. - and yet, many of the things that I liked in Fates were present in Gaiden. Returning playable characters from earlier installments. an overworld element (MyCastle in Fates) the class evolution system Is it the first game most Emblemiers think of when Fire Emblem strikes the brain? No, probably not, but it's a game that's older than me and yet offers the direction Fire Emblem would eventually take to reach the point where it finally met me. To me, that's endearing.

Games I've played thus far: Fates Games I am most interested in playing: Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn, Awakening, Gaiden

As much as I like to rag on Corrin, the Avatar probably finds a way to strike most units twice with the Yato (especially if he gets good level ups in the stat) and thus I just opt for using the Dragonstone nearly all the time with this set - because the Dragonstone at least can't double. I like Wary Fighter because it's insurance and I don't really want much of anything else anyway. Nobility/Renewal from Castles later on. Shurikenbreaker from Castles Wary Fighter Def+2 Dragon Fang Draconic Hex ...works perfectly fine with me. Fang gives me the extra firepower and it comes standard. Nobility still helps Corrin cheat with experience. Renewal and Def+2 because then Corny can just stand out there even longer, and Wary Fighter to insure ANY unit, speedy Gonzales or otherwise, doesn't get the jump on me.

So my favorite build for Corrin so far has to be this. Boon: Sturdy (Defense) Bane: Slow (Speed) Talent: Knight "BUT HUNTER WHY WOULD YOU BANE SPEED ITS BEST STAT IN FATES YOU IDIO-" Look, look, look. Our good Lord Cornholio here is going to be decent almost 70 percent of the time even if you aren't paying too much attention. The real question is - Do you want your Avatar to be extremely good, or do you want the rest of your team to be extremely good? As a Knight, Corrin gets access to the General class branch and more importantly, Wary Fighter - which with the current build gives you two options. You can stick with General, as Corrin's growths will cover things like Strength and the build suits a typical General adaquately due to Defense being your boon. You can switch back to Nohr/Hoshido Noble and make primary use of your Dragonstone with Wary Fighter to prevent Corrin from being doubled. If running with Nohr Noble you get Draconic Hex, which will hinder the enemies that engage you by also nerfing all of their stats by 4 points, making the job of the units you're trying to raise much easier. Dragon's Ward can help Corrin and other tanks hold down larger chokepoints by reducing damage caused to adjacent allies. This set-up doesn't kill Corrin's magic growth so his tome and stave usage will be fair as well. You do this because Corrin puts himself at risk of getting outsped with a bad Speed growth, but it also makes Corrin In the House the ultimate bait for your other units to mop up and gain experience. You also get access to Great Knight if you want Corrin to have a little movement as well as Luna in your skill list.

this is Kayle. She's neat and stuff - and is the complete opposite of her sister Morgana, who Ame of course naturally likes a WHOLE lot. Ergo, It's probably this chick.

Alternatives:

What is my Honest Trailers name? What is your Too-Early Top 25 College Football Rankings? If you were to ever have to play League of Legends to save your own life or someone you loved, which Champion would you use? Using only the power of memes, describe how you feel about the satisfying sizzling flavor of Tabasco sauce? If you were to write fanfiction about two users on this site, who are your unlucky muses? Paper or Plastic? What is your favorite Bible verse - if you have one?

I agree with Evi's course of action here - at least in part. The premise of a games company meeting the bottom line on a project should always be making a better product than competing developers. --- There are a few qualms to address though. 1. Firstly, Game Freak and The Pokemon Company don't engage in these wars on independent developers so much as Nintendo does such on their behalf - so instead of telling GF or TPC to come up with better content, you have to ask Nintendo to quality check and crowdsource what players want in order to direct the former two companies in a positive direction. That doesn't mean they shouldn't do such things though. 2. Secondly, there's a fine line when it comes to borrowing content you didn't create yourself. The reason lesser lasting copyright durations would be unpopular would be the same reason Deviantartists aren't okay with people freely using their work. It belongs to the creator - and if a fan game is going to "legally" operate with the same content they need permission to do so. If you're not going to get permission, then your game is fair-game for prosecution. Generally speaking, it's hard to get permission for using content made by others at times and thus this is just the risks we take. It doesn't make them unjustified risks, but it doesn't make them unfair either.

To start - I believe that humans are not the greatest possible being in the universe (and I also believe in God) - which would mean I am in the camp that believes humanity doesn't have the capability to directly shape the universe. This doesn't mean that humanity is without free will. --- Luis de Molina crafted a concept referred to as "Molinism" after himself, but also sometimes referred to as "middle knowledge." In the event that God exists, many people believe that by default eliminates the ability of humans to hold free will because God has "predestined" all aspects of the universe. Molina brought about this doctrine to answer such people (referred to as Calvinists or Reformers in church circles) and the popular idea of "theological fatalism" (essentially, God decides who rises and who burns.) The concept goes as follows: God's knowledge consists of three logical "moments" that are not chronological and may or may not be dependent on God's will. Natural Knowledge - Essentially, this knowledge is of all necessary and possible truths of the universe. God, being presumably all-knowing, thus knows every possible and needed truth. This knowledge is independent of God's will (because there is no feasible reason for God to act on making truth false.) Middle Knowledge - This is knowledge of what a creation of God's may do in any given circumstance. This is the part where God knows every possible thing man could do, but through the lens of "possibilities" or "branches of fate". The man is able to choose any of the possible branches freely, but may not create his own branch because God knows every possible choose and outcome to be made. Essentially, Man can't do the impossible, but absolutely can do anything possible - and God knows all possible choices. Since this is dealing with what Man "may" do, it's independent of God's will as well. Free Knowledge - This is knowledge of everything that God has made, or essentially, "what is". God, as the creator, would have a dependence on His will here, as he is the one who is responsible for building and structure of the universe. If this idea of free will holds up, it establishes two points: Man DOES have free will, because anything man may do is independent of God's will and man does have say in what he does without being coerced. God is still sovereign, because supreme power (in the example being able to create) falls squarely on God despite man's ability to choose for himself. This draws criticism from Reformers (or Calvinists) -AND- the opposing camp (known as Arminians.) Calvinists will argue that Molinism cracks God's ability to be truly sovereign because man has the freedom of choosing multiple paths and thus God's will for that individual is not predetermined. Arminians will argue that Molinists claiming that God is sovereign undermines the idea of "free will." It's important to know this when thinking about this from a logical perspective. Even if God is involved, nonsense is still nonsense - if there is no feasible reason for God to do something, chances are He wouldn't need to do it.--- Hopefully, I stayed on topic. The title of the thread is "free will." - and if it helps, it may be better to understand the Molinists' idea of free will as "personal free choice" - as it pertains to all "possible" outcomes which God already knows about.

If the point of a unit was to utilize their personal skill then Dwyer getting no use at all makes a lot of sense as his personal only works in MyCastle battles. Finally, it's more the skillset Caeldori can pick up while not making her supports with her father silly (he comments on her naginata usage throughout the support.) because I've re-classed her to something else. Natural access to both Astra and Rend Heaven AND Quixotic is just too good to pass up. She also gets fantastic skill growths with Hinoka and thus procs things almost all the time. Caeldori is the hardest unit to screw up in Hoshido. If you give her a staff bot or magic mother it's okay because the Bolt Naginata exists and Caeldori gets access to Falcon Knight, which enables her to use staves. Giving her a fast unit allows her to double almost everything. Giving her a defensive unit allows her to defend. She likes offense too. This isn't something either of us can really argue over as it's a matter of preference. I'm notorious for abandoning personal skills (as my Kana almost NEVER uses her dragonstone despite her personal activating when she does) and I genuinely like to play offensively and with a little risk.

Prodigy really isn't needed for Caeldori to thrive in my opinion - of course, in my runs she genuinely overpowers the opposing unit anyway. Lancefaire also makes up the difference when it's learned while giving one extra damage. This also doesn't mean Prodigy doesn't get -any- use regardless of mother. Caeldori makes for a very decent bosskiller as they tend to hold competitive stats regardless of who she momma is. I like to have Caeldori have Astra and Rend Heaven as proc skills, and Basara gives her RH as well as an assisting skill in Quixotic - and while Death/Salvage and Counter is interesting, I love Peg Knight's move and dislike Rinkah's speed growth too much to want Caeldori to be anything else but a Peg.

Mitama's problem is that her best mothers (save for Rinkah) are wanted badly by other children if you're trying to preserve her father's physical growths, whereas not many children want Felicia. Felicia also is a better mother for her if you do wish to use her as a stave user. Oboro is essentially the Camilla of Birthright, with growths and mods that are decent for nearly everyone. Hinoka has already reached S-support with Silas. Fortunately for her, Mitama absolutely can do just fine as a stave user because both parents are great at it, and Felicia's magic growths are much better served when passing down Troubadour to her child, as Strategist Mitama becomes a thing that works wonderfully. And she gets pink hair. It all works out. Prodigy has to do some damage control offensively, and Peg Warrior isn't the most fantastic defensive class (although it's definitely better than most Hoshidan alternatives.) Oni and Samurai require Caeldori to fight through weapon ranks. Hinoka and Oboro are fantastic mothers for Caeldori because they pass down arguably Hoshido's best class in Spear Fighter - which Caeldori doesn't need to struggle with when using because the class meshes well with her starting lance rank. Through Spear Fighter she gets access to Rend Heaven, Quixotic, and Lancefaire. - and if using Hinoka, the support with Subaki is actually quite informative on Hinoka's character. I'm all for casting Rinkah in a better light, but I'm where you are on Caeldori, it's hard to tell me that Hinoka or Oboro aren't her best mothers.

so, I restarted my hard BR run. I was a female Corrin and wanted to marry a male character for male Kana -...and due to not wanting to marry Shura or ...anyone (other than Silas who I needed to marry someone else due to Corrin not fixing his speed issues -I had Slow as a bane because I like getting XP with other units and not so much myself- I ended up marrying Rhajat. RIP Kana. I wanted to get out of Shiro-late-paralogue-hell. Oh my goodness, the unit placement on that map is just....50 shades of bullshit. (/endrant) Anna is Anna - and I want to use Kana as she was intended to be used - a Dragonstone primary unit. This has set up a run where I have no idea what my boon and bane is - but it's been very fun so far. I'm only at Chapter 9, and I already have access to Sophie's paralogue. Pairings: Silas-Hinoka - this is one of those pairings that has a potential for happening by accident if you know what both characters need. Hinoka appreciates Silas' strength, which she lacks by herself, while not having her movement killed if she needs Silas to be the lead unit. Silas on the other hand gotta go fast, and needs some support in order to make that happen. Hinoka gives him more opportunities to double - and thus defeat - enemies. The resulting Sophie is actually a combination of the two, with double digit bases in almost every skill, including Res, which isn't always great for Cavaliers. Redhead Sophie looks fierce, and the support conversations between the two land and sky knights are great because they are actually relevant to the times. Most supports have a downside of being too "slice-of-life" when in reality they are in the middle of wartime. Not here. Corrin-Anna - fairly self explanatory, but should be really neat in Birthright becuase both Corrin -and- Anna are able to be stave users in this game without reclassing to Nohr Princess/Outlaw. Anna is incredibly lucky and for some strange reason has a great magic growth, which Kana (who looks best as a redhead) absolutely needs to deal great damage as a dragonstone user. Kagarumi - Kagero has strength, and gives Takumi access to silly things like Replicate and Lethality to make him even MORE ridiculous. Takumi also is allowed to use his Fujin Yumi as a Mechanist, so it's definitely viable. The resulting Kiragi should hit like a train with things like the Dual and Surefire Yumis, and can also pick up Replicate without castle hunting if he so desires. Perhaps more desirable here is the Mechanist skill Golembane for both Takumi and his son. The Fujin Yumi + Supereffective damage against Stoneborn will be a great help in a certain lava level that ..... absolutely annoys me. Azama-Felicia - Every Hoshidan staff bot wishes she was a Nohrian staff bot instead, and Mitama is no different. Felicia also passes down Tomebreaker and great Res, making Mitama a very scary Strategist. This time though, I'm going to definitely swing over to Priestess at level 5 and back to pick up Renewal. Wish I had it last time... ANOTHER thing that can happen is that Felicia can marriage seal for Renewal herself, while Mitama can also swap over to Maid for Live to Serve. Kaden-Setsuna - Selkie the Hedgehog...fox, really, but also makes her a little more offensive. She can pick up Certain Blow and Quick Draw from her mother. Azura-Jakob - The game has this really wonky checking procedure when passing down classes, so Jakob!Shigure ends up with.....Wyvern Lord?...well...he DOES have the lance rank to make it work! Azura!Dwyer is workable because she passes down Falco and Jakob's great str growths stick with his son while staves are still available. This one is also helpful for Azura in a game where pairing her is an absolute pain due to Jakob's ability to go Cavalier and Shelter her after she dances. Subaki-Oboro - With Hinoka gone, my Cordelia-lookin' Caeldori is pretty much gone. Still, Oboro gives access to Spear Master just as Hinoka did, and Oboro isn't a bad unit. Hayato-Sakura - cute support, bubble-gum pink Rhajat that doesn't suck. We have a winner. Hinata-Hana - Oh, Pickles. This one's simply because both Hana and Hinata are swordmasters and their support is very well done. Saizo-Orochi - I wasn't fond of this one at first, but maybe if I get this one done earlier, I can take advantage of a STUPID good 75% magic growth access for Asugi. He also gets access to Magic +2 from his mother, which works well for the Flame Shuriken. Also - Rend Heaven and Quixotic access through Basara. Ryoma-Rinkah - Not the greatest Shiro, but getting access to Oni Savage skills allows his offense to be serviceable. This is more a Birthright:the Ryomaing pairing that makes the Lobster Lord better ....because Ryoma really needs to be better guys. ....Wyvern. Lord. Shigure.

Flux, I think what Mael is trying to point to here is that my thread wasn't simply aimed at criticizing nostalgia. I incorporated being both new and inveterate to a franchise as two sides of the same coin when it comes to gaming discourse. The game-play split in Melee and Sm4sh is a relevant topic here when taking casual players into account. Sure, you can say that Melee's competitive aspects and niche in gaming are unique - but they don't change the fact that this discussion about other franchises doesn't mirror which smash game is preferred over another smash game. You do bring a good point about features that seemingly didn't make the cut in newer installments - and axed features are a reason Smash seemingly thrives the most in an older generation in the series whereas Fire Emblem's popularity is still riding the recent boom. However, I wouldn't attribute that as anything special in it of itself. I know a lot of people that are avid players of "Old School" RuneScape as opposed to "Runescape" (called RS3 by most people who played RS for a good while.) because competitively it was easier to player-kill back in 2007 than it is in the current game. Before Old School long ago there was still active "RuneScape Classic" servers, or the first iteration of the MMO. Game-play is, probably more than anything else, a reason one person prefers one game in the franchise over another. Competitively appealing or otherwise. It still fits under the tent.

^^

The game has to be fun the first time playing it. Period. - If a game developer wants to even hope that their games are played multiple times, they need to hook the player on the first time. In my experience, I'm much more likely to replay or continue playing a game if I enjoyed myself within the first 30 minutes of game-play. This point is pretty self-explanatory, but it's also mightily important because it can make or break entire franchises - at least in my experience. The game may offer rewards that can only be obtained through multiple runs. - Not everybody is Jirard Khalil (or "the Completionist"/"That One Video Gamer" from Youtube if you have no idea who that is.), but for some people the hook comes at the finish line. This applies especially for games with great difficulty or games that have multiple endings or unlockables depending on the path the player chooses. The game may not have a true ending and/or is regularly updated with content. - Without a doubt the game I've wasted the most amount of my life over was "RuneScape" - the early 2000's MMORPG that is -still- free-to-play and alive to this day. MMO's don't really have an ending, so the replay-ability factor comes from the content and the fact that the player has new methods as they level up to gain experience and rewards. There isn't just "one story" in these types of games too, so the various "quests" fill in this very large tree-like graph that is the game's lore as the player focuses primarily on collecting all of the resources and best gear while being the best player. As for games the are regularly updated that -will- have an ending - Hi Reborn! The game must not make the gamer "insane". - one of the so-called "definitions" of the word insanity goes as follows: doing the exact same thing and expecting a different result every time. Video games however don't follow this principle - at least in the game-play aspect. Each league of legends round is different for example. You may choose to side with Nohr over again, but instead decided to give Nyx a lot more experience this time around. You may choose Squirtle over Charmander this time. In the end, the story has it's set ending, but you took a different way to get there. If there's all of these little variables in a game, then it really does help it's replay-ability factor a lot. The game must ultimately find -some- way to hook the gamer. Some games aren't really so much "fun" as they are a test of endurance. Take Flappy Bird (the mobile phone game from a few years ago that Pewdiepie made extremely popular) It's game-play is hardly compelling. There is no story. And it can be EXTREMELY frustrating and may not be all that fun at first. However, I ended up playing it in virtually every moment of free-time I had while not back at the dorm my freshman year and got to 247 pipes before croaking. Some games just bring out the right reactions in us.

@ Sheep I think I'm tracking with you on the things I don't like about Fates quite a bit. In fact, I think Commander touched on the other half of it. Birthright for example is a fantastic introductory route that offers using many unfamiliar classes to series vets but is mainly aimed at newer players in terms of mechanics and difficulty. It's highlight though wasn't so much the mechanics but the story. It's the interpretation of the Hoshi-Nohrian conflict that is the most cohesive while still holding a few moments of shock-and-awe. The maps and objectives do get rather repetitive, and it can be jarring to try and defend with units that are mostly frail and fast instead, and the Hoshido characters seem too similar to one another to really stand out. Conquest is easily the better gameplay route and definitely has a stronger cast, but for as much praise as it gets from the Emblemier community, it's borderline cringeworthy story-wise - largely because Corrin doesn't fit the route very well and tries to shine a very strange light on the kingdom of Nohr. The story basically tries to tell you that even though you "chose the dark" you "are going to save the day" from Chapter 8 onwards - where the story would have been much more effective if Corrin had stuck to the original "I can't betray the older brother/sister I may or may not have strange feelings about-.....*sorry*......I can't betray my adoptive family" idea. It doesn't mean Corrin has to sell his soul to the devil. It's just better to have someone who abandoned their moral compass stick to the script - at LEAST until Azura makes the story even worse #Youcan'ttellyourfamily #IcouldhavetoldLeomyself #Azurawhyudodis and Revelation is just an erratic third telling of the story that focuses too much on filling in the blanks instead of telling it with any form of cohesion. Aside from storytelling, all of the characters are in play - even if horribly behind the eight-ball when recruited, meaning it's best to get this route if you like Wi-Fi battling other tactitians. ....with regards to other games, I hope there's things I would like and appreciate. And thanks for clearing the record on Awakening. --- @ Lexi I think people appreciate Melee over N64 because Melee actually was the first game to provide a fairly large cast of characters. Smash is a fighting franchise as opposed to a game typically driven by a storyline, so character selection matters a whole lot more. Finally, if there was a "competitive scene" that ever developed in Smash, it did so during Melee. As Flux said, Melee's biggest draw isn't nostalgia. It's the competitive aspects.

I think the record should be set that even though older games will probably be "No Charlotte/10" when talking about the Fire Emblem series, that I was not into the whole "shipping" mechanic at first and actually was pretty guilty of picking on some of the Emblemiers who enjoyed Awakening for that reason. Having played the game, I kind of understand them a lot better. Older titles are probably going to fall short based on my expectation of what a Fire Emblem game is. It's simply because as you go backwards in a series, you start to lose features that may have been the cornerstone of your positive experience with the first game you played. For example, I've heard that Guard Stance doesn't exist in Awakening and that enemies don't have access to Pair-Up. I would SORELY miss those features because they were extremely helpful in beating the game I had played previously. I'm also a fan of grinding up various characters in games - and Fire Emblem is majorly (aside from Awakening, Fates, and Sacred Stones) an anti-grind franchise that prides itself on it's limitations. If I'm unable to grind all of my characters up, there may be a chance I can't use all of them, and that would become extremely annoying. That being said, I'm particularly fond of Marth and Ike as characters, and if an older game in the franchise has any prayer of beating Fates - it will come through story telling and memorable characters. I need to play Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn at some point just to get to see Ike in his own franchise. I think it's truly difficult for new players and series vets to agree when everyone has a different initial experience and set of expectations. Fire Emblem vets seemingly get disgruntled when an Awakening or Fates player praises the game and then follows up with "I don't want to play the previous games because of this feature that I like that you seemingly don't."

.....You should probably find the all spark first.

Silas is one of the few units that you pick up oddly late that isn't borked or a Nohrian royal in Rev it would seem. Effie is shamefully underwhelming in this route as oppoed to Conquest. TOMTOMTOMTOMTOM. I don't know if you use Rinkah or not in your run, but while Charlotte may be horrendous - Rinkah could really use her as a buddy. Fighter Rinkah gets her axe-cess (*kneeslap harhar*) to Axefaire, Gamble, and most importantly, HP+5, while being paired with Charlotte boosts her mediocre damage output. Becuase she starts in the Oni line, she can also pick up Death Blow, and Rinkah goes from a bad early recruit to a very potent member of your army. Rinkah and Hayato get MUCH better draws in Revelation than in Birthright. (Give the kid Nyx. Just do it.)

Having played since the beginning of a phenom franchise -AND- having jumped onto the bandwagon of another budding one, the question finally has been boring itself into my brain cells. "How does perspective change how we feel about specific games in a franchise?" --- the SERIES VETERAN. One of the series I'm sure almost all of us can lay claim to when it comes to being considered "inveterate" to would be the thing that brings us all together in the first place - Pokemon. I've been catching 'em all since 1995 myself, and while my personal favorite game in the series wouldn't come until either the Game Boy Color was replaced by either Nintendo DS or the former handheld's advanced counterpart (a.k.a White 2 or Ruby) - there's very evidently a phrase that is popular among people my age. "Genwunner." (Gen-won-er, the pronunciation should sound like something indicative of what I'm talking about.) These people swear by the original Kanto adventures being the best games in the franchise, and usually claim a decline in product quality began to occur starting with the Hoenn titles (if not earlier.) - and these people can get very hostile very quickly toward those who advocate later games in the series, particularly generations five and six, where the popular "Game Freak is running out of ideas" response becomes par for the course. This isn't a bad thing. For many people slightly older than myself, they have a very profound memory playing Red Blue.....Yellow...or even Green whereas I was just messing around as a kid for the most part. It's very natural for the first game that hooks you into a series to be your favorite. ...however, it seems to close some minds at times. Especially when a following game has very inherent flaws and when the player clearly ages to the point where they begin to understand them. Nostalgia is therefore effective when it comes to driving interest (and sales) at the risk of hurting intelligent discussion when it comes to other games. However, this isn't the only issue when it comes to game discussion... --- The NEWBIE. On the other side of the coin, we have the people that begin to play games in a series that becomes popular after a much longer period of time (either due to lack of localization, size of target audience, media coverage, etc.) A prime example of this is the Fire Emblem Franchise, long hailed as "those games where Marth/Ike/.....lolroy from Smash Bros. come from" here in the West. ...that is, until gamers around here were "Awakened". As the games finally began to make some noise across the nation (they may have been on shelves quietly before) more and more new fans put down the Smash and experienced the strategy oriented titles that packed a heavy cast while coming bundled with a dating sim-esque skin. A generation later, I would finally get into the bandwagon. After playing Fates I can unsurprisingly say it's my favorite game in the franchise, and gladly admit that I have no experience of the game prior. That being said, I believe I responded to Sheep (in my AMA) in a manner that sounded like Fates and games down the line would be the only games I would play due to lack of equipment and ability to emulate older FE titles. I also had a quip about how I enjoyed the dumbed down game-play of the newest installments. In other words, you don't have to be a series veteran to be closed minded if you aren't careful --- For me, it's very simple. Pokemon has come a very long way since it's release in 1994. There are things I will love about Pokemon Red that no other game will emulate for me, but that will never be the standard for "what makes a good Pokemon game." As for Fire Emblem, I really should try to play something older just to have that experience. It's very possible I enjoy Fates more than any other game in the franchise after the fact, but I can't talk until I have more experience under my belt. --- What about you guys? Is there something you see from your veteran -or- newbie -or- both perspectives that you can improve to have good discourse on a game series? What series are brought to your mind here? Am I truly a moron for saying Fates is my favorite game in the series?