Fire Emblem Goddess, forgive me. |
- Goddess, forgive me.
- Finished Ferdinand and prepared Caspar and Petra
- [OC] The Blue Lions (and a very excited Flayn!!)
- [OC] felibern wedding! (drew this for my own birthday haha)
- Summer Leonie
- The beginnings of my high-end Rhea cosplay, made by the fabulous Moe Marks . Dress construction will start soon!
- When you’re the shortest guy out of your childhood friends
- Byleth preparing her online class
- Reach for my Hand [OC]
- Mycen Fanart (Fire Emblem Echoes) [OC]
- a quick Constance
- Grima Lucina; Procreate, Me.
- Fire Emblem Fates is a great game and its reputation as one of the worse Fire Emblems is a little ridiculous: an essay
- I drew some dimileth
- On his way to the tower.
- I painted Cecilia!
- FE12 released 10 years ago today, so I made a compilation of people hoping it'd be released in the West
- Did you bring me roses? My Academy Edelgard Cosplay! [self]
- A Disgusted Summer Bylass
- [OC] Hilda but the world is hers
- FE 12 Chapter 1 in a nutshell
- a reflection on three houses discourse and why it's bad, but also it's actually good the whole time.
- My version of Rhea (Three Houses) Tweaked her headdress slightly to match a cosplay of hers that I'm working on!
- Drawing Melady everyday. Day 98: Life's greatest treasure Melady
- I sketched Eliwood, Hector, and Lyn
| Posted: 15 Jul 2020 03:15 PM PDT
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| Finished Ferdinand and prepared Caspar and Petra Posted: 15 Jul 2020 05:10 AM PDT
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| [OC] The Blue Lions (and a very excited Flayn!!) Posted: 15 Jul 2020 06:22 AM PDT
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| [OC] felibern wedding! (drew this for my own birthday haha) Posted: 15 Jul 2020 10:22 AM PDT
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| Posted: 15 Jul 2020 09:08 AM PDT
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| Posted: 15 Jul 2020 11:21 AM PDT
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| When you’re the shortest guy out of your childhood friends Posted: 15 Jul 2020 03:51 PM PDT
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| Byleth preparing her online class Posted: 15 Jul 2020 06:53 PM PDT
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| Posted: 15 Jul 2020 02:41 PM PDT
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| Mycen Fanart (Fire Emblem Echoes) [OC] Posted: 15 Jul 2020 03:29 AM PDT
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| Posted: 15 Jul 2020 04:29 PM PDT
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| Posted: 15 Jul 2020 05:45 PM PDT
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| Posted: 15 Jul 2020 11:50 AM PDT Before I get to my overall thesis, let me establish that I will be referring to Fire Emblem Fates as a single game and not three games or two and a half games. My rationale for this is because of the fact that I use my copy of Birthright to play all three versions, and they all use the same mechanics with the only variants between them being story and which characters are playable in each. It is important that you realize that I view Fates as a single entity because I think the game is great and part of my reasoning is because of it being split into three parts. Now that has been dealt with, to the main essay. Fire Emblem Fates was a game burdened with the impossible. It had been tasked with being a followup to Awakening, which had saved the series and brought new life to it. At the same time, it was stuck trying to deal with the task of trying to please both new fans who had been brought in through Awakening as well as older fans who weren't entirely thrilled with some of Awakening's choices. Fire Emblem Fates took a risk by creating a larger experience through three narratives based off of a single choice the player character was forced to make early on, causing the game to cost more overall and even have its narratives split up in price. While the game did have its flaws, its strengths outweigh them in its gameplay differences, revamped equipment system, tweaks to its ability system, music, castle customization, cast, and music. I will attempt to address all of these without going on for too long. Point 1: Gameplay changes Fire Emblem Fates did more than simply being Awakening with a new skin of paint. In particular, the pair up system, which allowed for unstoppable spouse teams in Awakening to clear maps with relative ease was tweaked for balance sake. Fighting separately became the only way to get assisted attacks, but those could easily be stopped by pairing up. Of course pairing up units limited the amount of actions that could be taken without the same level of buffs that came in Awakening, making the system more fair and allowing different strategies for different circumstances. The dragon vein system was also a uniquely Fates idea that added another layer to the game. The dragon veins allowed characters of certain bloodlines to affect the terrain of maps, adding another factor to take into consideration with team composition. While not all of its uses were revelationary, it still did add something that made the maps feel more unique than your standard maps from several games in the series. Finally, the difficulty is something to bring up. While I have yet to play the SNES Fire Emblem titles, I have played the rest, and Fates does difficulty very uniquely by making the difficulty based off of which version you played. Conquest is clearly the hardest with even some of its early maps being incredibly punishing and requiring near perfect strategy. Birthright is more of your standard Fire Emblem difficulty (with the exception of Rygoma, who can clear maps on his own). Finally Revelation is much easier than either due to making it much easier to obtain experience without having to grind and giving you characters from both Hoshido and Nohr, making the game even easier while allowing for more customization than in the other titles. While many may scoff at the easier campaigns or cry foul at Conquest, this does in turn leave more variety in terms of difficulty so players jumping back in have more options for how they wish to challenge themselves. Point 2: The Weapon System Virtually every Fire Emblem has had weapon durability. This is a standard for the series. Fates is one of the only exceptions, and the way they handled the system in my opinion created a superior weapon system than most games. Instead of managing your money and just restocking your weapons whenever they broke, Fates makes every weapon (minus healing staffs) unbreakable, but adds a catch to every weapon (minus the character specific weapons like the Yato). This system both encourages players to actually use their strong weapons while still leaving reasons to use their weaker weapons. While the silver sword may have superior damage, it will debuff you after using it, which makes it a weapon good for taking down strong enemies but harmful if relied on too much. As a series veteran, I often fall into the habit of relying only on iron weapons for the majority of my playthroughs and not switching to the good stuff till the last stretch. This system is one of the few that actually encourages me to use all of the weapons, not just the replaceable ones. As one final strength of the weapon system, the differences in weapons from Hosihdo and Nohr are minor, but noticeable nonetheless. From gameplay appearances to stats, this does add more to the differences of the campaigns and is another strength of the game. It actually makes you feel like this is a war between two separate cultures, and not two generic medieval countries. On a minor note the gag weapons are also kind of hilarious. Watching Ryogma kill an enemy using a radish is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. Point 3: The Ability System The ability system of Fates is much like that of Awakening, but with a few unique differences that further makes it stand out. For starters, giving characters their own unique character specific abilities makes each character stand out a small bit more. While not all of these abilities are game changing, at least some of them do provide unique buffs to specific characters that are worth using and can be used when planning out one's playstyle. The real meat of this system is through the heart and partner seals. By giving characters the ability to switch their classes to that of their spouses or by a non romantic A+ support character, characters unlock new potential for what they become capable of doing. This increases not only the overall potential of each character, but adds a gameplay layer to the whole "shipping" business. One example of this working really well was during my second Conquest playthrough. My Silas was often getting doubled, so I put him with Effie so he could become a general. When he became a general, I had him level up so he could learn Wary Fighter, removing his speed weakness before sending him back to Paladin so he could regain his mobility (if you take one thing away from this essay let it be use Effie; she is broken and I love her for it). Point 4: Castle Customization The castle system in Fates is so far my favorite system in Fire Emblem for handling the time in between missions. The castle system allows for a short period in between chapters in which you can take things easy, interact with your allies, and handle upgrades without it going on for way too long. While it's not super in depth, it didn't need to be too complicated. It was a small side thing that gives you a bit of a break. One thing in particular that stands out to me is how you upgrade the castle at your own pace. You decide what's most important to you as the player and then build it. Not all of them are useful (I'm looking at you, bath house), but the fact that you get to make the choice of how to prioritize your buildings and what's most important to me is an incredibly fun and relaxing option. As another fun minor detail, it's so much fun walking into one of the stores and seeing one of your favorite characters manning it for the time. It makes your castle actually feel more like a community of your army and less of a hollow experience. Getting to see your characters outside of battle and just doing things their own way is amusing and to me, helped bolster my connection to them. Part 5: The Cast It's weird talking about Fire Emblem casts in the aftermath of Three Houses, in which they learned how to properly pace narratives for minor characters that showed growth across the entire game, which arguably surpasses any western released Fire Emblem to date. However, that doesn't take away the fun to be had with Fates' cast. To be fair, a lot of Fates' cast can come off as one dimensional and more like caricatures than as actual characters, but I think it works well. For starters, it makes the characters easier to identify with in a game in which you will probably not watch the majority of their support conversations unless you replay the game like crazy. And more importantly, when you're forced to kill many of these characters later on in the other campaigns (or at least fight them), it makes you feel crappy. It's not fun to fight characters you have grown attached to and kill them. Even if a lot of these characters don't have massive character arcs or 10/10 writing, many of them are still memorable. For Hoshido, Oboro, Takumi, and Hinoka stand out as characters I can't help but love and for Nohr, Niles, Effie, and Xander are characters I love to see in action, and that's just scratching the surface. Also, many of these characters have depth, which are hidden away in their supports. Learning what made them the people they are when you meet really made me care about them, To be fair I don't love all of them and I actually have never done a playthrough in which I used the children characters enough to remember their personalities so that might be a flaw of the game (I'm kind of torn on if that's the game's fault or my own). Still, this game has so many memorable characters that it is a strength of the game in my eyes. Part 6: The Music Fire Emblem has always been a mixed bag for me with music. I love some of it. Not all of it resonates with me. Depends from track to track. However, as I write this essay I have been listening to the OST to help refresh my memories, and it's good. The music fits the mood of the tracks. Much of the music does an excellent job of fitting the idea of this eastern vs western story idea and I like it. I can't really say anything more. I like music. I'm not an expert on it though. Before I wrap this up, I want to address some of the criticisms I know people have with this game. I'll just quickly share my thoughts on how valid I think they are to me. Issue 1: The story A lot of people hate the story of Fates, and I don't fully disagree. I don't think the issue is that the story is bad, but rather that it squanders its potential. Birthright on its own I think is a perfectly serviceable game, neither being the best or worst of the series. Conquest is really wasted potential, as it tries its hardest not to make you feel guilty for fighting for the obviously bad side. However, I also understand that they may have been worried about making the game too dark (this is still a Nintendo property after all). Revelation furthers this issue by making it clear that there was a superior path to take all along (I think there were ways they could have fixed this, but I won't get into it here). That being said, to say the story is all bad to me is ignoring a lot of good moments. Birthright specifically had several moments in the story that turned around and punched me in the gut when certain characters died (won't say who for spoilers). Both Conquest and even Revelation had moments like this but to a lesser extent. There haven't been many Fire Emblem games that made me feel the shock of a beloved character dying in front of me, but Fates did that, and I applaud them for it. Issue 2: The waifus Fates is clearly the most fan service centered Fire Emblem game. There is no getting around it. Not even mentioning the characters, we have things like the bath house and the weird face rubbing and air blowing spouse mini games (I was a senior in high school when this came out, and when the game wanted me to blow in my husband Silas' face with my dad literally three feet to my left was so awkward). I'll admit, the fanservice is a double edged sword. I really dislike parts of it (the face blowing for example), and I think certain characters are harmed by the fan service (Kagero and Nyx specifically). However, I do feel like there was some extent of tact. I think characters like Charlotte were actually well written and well rounded, using the fan service as a way to further their characters. Really, what it comes down to is your own individual tolerance for fan service, and I'm not going to tell you you're right or wrong for how you feel about it. Issue 3: The incest This is my biggest issue. Corrin should not be able to romance any of Hoshido or Nohr siblings, and I am disgusted by this. I remember watching Hinoka's, thinking that the S support would be more of a platonic thing, and getting disgusted with myself. I know Japan likes the idea of adoptive siblings being allowed to get together in some media, but with how I was raised I think that is a big no. Also, Corrin and Azura is also a big no in my book. Issue 4: LGBT Representation It seems to me that Fire Emblem has been one step forward, one step back when it comes to its representation of LGBT characters. Since I am not a member of the LGBT community, I feel like I should leave criticism of how Fates handles this issue to the actual members of the community. Not saying that nonmembers can't engage in this discussion, but I would rather leave this specific game to people who have more of a horse in the race when it comes to representation. I'll just leave the issue by saying, I think the game could have done it better, but it's still done better than any other JRPG I played from that general time period. As I end this essay, I just want to add a couple of things. Oh my gosh. I didn't mean for it to be this long. I am exhausted. Sorry if you felt like this dragged on. Also, if you disagree with me, I'm not going to say you are wrong and I'm right. Art is subjective, and to me videos games are art. I'm not saying this is some holy grail of gaming that can't be criticized. I actually really like to hear opposing opinions, and I do try to respond to other ideas to get more of a conversation going about how we as individuals interrupt things differently. Thank you for sticking through this essay, and have a great day. [link] [comments] | ||
| Posted: 14 Jul 2020 11:46 PM PDT
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| Posted: 15 Jul 2020 02:06 PM PDT
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| Posted: 15 Jul 2020 05:30 PM PDT
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| Posted: 15 Jul 2020 08:52 AM PDT
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| Did you bring me roses? My Academy Edelgard Cosplay! [self] Posted: 15 Jul 2020 11:42 AM PDT
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| Posted: 15 Jul 2020 01:29 PM PDT
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| [OC] Hilda but the world is hers Posted: 14 Jul 2020 11:59 PM PDT
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| Posted: 15 Jul 2020 05:28 PM PDT
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| a reflection on three houses discourse and why it's bad, but also it's actually good the whole time. Posted: 15 Jul 2020 09:55 AM PDT i unquestioningly believe that fire emblem three houses is a masterpiece that i adore and also totally trash, as every fire emblem fan ought to. nearly a year has passed since the game's release, and in this year i've had to read some of the worst fucking posts on this earth, and reflect on how Shitty everyone's opinions are except mine. this is the brain zone, this is The Thinking Hour. i am cookie bug, and i Hold The Keys to Unlock your Brain... cast your mind back to your first playthrough of this awful trash heap of a game. which house did you pick? studies[1] show that your first house is the one you remained most loyal to. do you Recall learning more and more about the world? do you Remember uncovering the Dumb Ass Conspiracy? remember the flame emperor? what the fuck! cast your minds back in time to the present, we all know who the flame emperor is,, but the question people always ask is, did they do anything wrong? the answer is yes you fetid shitheel, you disgusting little garbage heap. now, you may ask, cookie bug, "that seems like ad hominem." and i would say in return, that's not a question you fucking square. and then you say, "well it seems that the framing of you getting to choose everything i say is positioning yourself as morally correct when in actuality there's at least some amount of moral ambiguity in the different routes of three houses" and then i say something absolutely genius that really turns everything on its toes, but i havne't figured it out yet. it all comes back around to discourse. discourse is when you go online and argue abouit this stupid fucking game online with other fools with bad opinions . discourse is, at the end of the day, part of critically consuming the media we enjoy. the aim of the game is to have fun or whatever but when it comes to the story of three houses. the thing it does best, in my Brain Genious Mind Opinion? is get people thinking. and people have some truly garbage opinions about this game, but at least they're trying to think. write this down, this is the Too Long Didn't Read. leonie is a good character and saying she wants to fuck jeralt isn't remotely funny. and cyril is subjectively the best character and maybe if you were simply better at critical reading you would agree with me actual tl;dr: fire emblem three houses is good at making people think [link] [comments] | ||
| Posted: 15 Jul 2020 11:17 AM PDT
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| Drawing Melady everyday. Day 98: Life's greatest treasure Melady Posted: 15 Jul 2020 06:07 PM PDT
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| I sketched Eliwood, Hector, and Lyn Posted: 14 Jul 2020 09:58 PM PDT
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![[OC] The Blue Lions (and a very excited Flayn!!)](https://b.thumbs.redditmedia.com/ingvIpOW_7OvyXomCDnyIMYPK932ymw7BlVuLkFQpcA.jpg "[OC] The Blue Lions (and a very excited Flayn!!)")
![[OC] felibern wedding! (drew this for my own birthday haha)](https://b.thumbs.redditmedia.com/iY2E1cWjpBXQphgFPW8F2TwbYomdDKuOjiQY9MBH_XA.jpg "[OC] felibern wedding! (drew this for my own birthday haha)")
![Reach for my Hand [OC]](https://b.thumbs.redditmedia.com/z3nAQPGAoZm57tIJbqcFNhmlfkhEG9l1EURmVZvVxVA.jpg "Reach for my Hand [OC]")
![Mycen Fanart (Fire Emblem Echoes) [OC]](https://b.thumbs.redditmedia.com/mJxH3rzuFKPNkcW46A1R2q6J5pdVRURJ4hy1EkMTw6Q.jpg "Mycen Fanart (Fire Emblem Echoes) [OC]")
![Did you bring me roses? My Academy Edelgard Cosplay! [self]](https://b.thumbs.redditmedia.com/63EkwbTz6V_b4K_NBdDpWyA-Tzb0tdvx8P5R0GK9SGc.jpg "Did you bring me roses? My Academy Edelgard Cosplay! [self]")
![[OC] Hilda but the world is hers](https://b.thumbs.redditmedia.com/exglKagTK9JoGoX0PgLk9kZeAWXCud8AI79UXJ2nrjo.jpg "[OC] Hilda but the world is hers")
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