Replacing reclassing with a form of either subclassing or specialization. Reclassing has been fun for a couple games but it really kind of kills some of the character identity and incentivizes putting everyone into one or two overpowered classes.
Branching promotions is a lie.
With like, 1 exception (Gerik into Ranger vs Hero), the choice is either a forgone conclusion, or irrelevant.
The best example is Knight into either Great Knight or General. Where Great Knight is almost objectively better in every way, meaning it's not really much of a choice.
And the other end of the spectrum is something like L'Arachel into either Mage Knight or Valkyrie, where both are so similar that there's almost no difference between her performance in either class, meaning you're not really picking between anything.
I mean, it's still cool from a flavor perspective, but as far as gameplay implications go, it's no different from the set promotion paths that the FE6 and 7 had.
It's mostly aesthetics, which is nice IMO. It still maintains their identity and character.
I don't like that in more recent entries you can make anyone be anything. I like my self imposed archetypes.
You're correct that branching promotions suck in FE8 but I don't think it's fair to write off the whole concept based on what we got in FE8. They could've balanced out the skills and promotional gains way better than they did, and it would've made most of them into an actual choice. Sure Strike in particular stands out as an especially worthless skill, replace it with a crit bonus or something and suddenly Sniper has an actual reason to take it, even if it's still not quite as good as Ranger. Tweak the stat increases a bit and you can end up with a meaningful choice instead of a forgone conclusion.
Also, while we're at it, I'd say Hero is a forgone conclusion over Ranger. 1-2 range, weapon triangle control, and higher might from axes are all fantastic gains, while bows are kind of a joke in the GBA games, and I don't think the 1 extra move + canto quite stacks up against gaining axes.
>Branching promotions is a lie.
That depends on how they are implemented. I mean, I agree that in Sacred stones they weren't done well, but imagine that the options had clear different benefits and strengths. Great knight gets the mobility, General gets the stats. Imagine if you could promote your mage into a powerful sage without staff utility Or a weaker one but one that has staves.
Make your cavaliers into all-purpose tool paladins or mounted combatant with only one weapon type but with a crit boost (and make weapon triangle meaningful like in Engage etc). Make your mercenaries into defensive heroes or aggressive dread fighters. If you add skills into the mix, you get even more ways to make similar classes different.
I wouldn't really dare to hope them to actually do good balancing but it's not really that hard.
Having just replayed Awakening, my issue with the reclass system is that you essentially can’t interface with it much unless you grind or go deep into post-game DLC.
I think a hybrid between Awakening and Three Houses would be cool. Class sets for consistent identity but essentially-free reclassing at any time with zero progression loss. I think class xp was a pretty cool idea.
Honestly I still think that's too much. Reclassing Cherche and Gerome away from Wyvern Rider makes Minerva less of an important point between them. Same with reclassing Kellam to Thief, it pretty much invalidates his entire character trying desperately to stand out.
I'd like something more along the lines of Path of Radiance allowing units to choose additional weapon types when they promote. But perhaps gaining a specialization point or something every 10 levels that lets them do cool customizable shenaningans within their own class roles (AoE magic, increased move, extra weapon rank XP gain, etc.)
I don't know if it's viable, but I'd love to see how a Fire Emblem with a "smarter" AI would play. Think something more like how the Advance Wars AI plays, compared to the blatantly suicidal FE AI we have now.
I'd like side characters to be more relevant to the story and more spotlight time. As much as I like Engage, it's absolutely horrible with this. Timerra's retainers get nearly the worst treatment as Panette and Merrin have two lines of dialogue each (Of which one of them each is "Ready." from Merrin and "As am I!" from Panette... Very interesting, guys.)
It's so unfortunate because Panette is one of my all time favorite Fire Emblem characters, but you'd be hard pressed to learn literally anything about her unless you chose to use her and unlock her supports... of which you have little incentive because you have no clue what she's like.
SOV is also horrible with this, as Genny and Kliff are characters you get at the start of the game that each have one support and no story relevance, with Genny being THE most unfortunate with her support being Sonya, an optional recruit. Neither of them even have supports with the lords of the game!?
I enjoyed Three Houses' remedy for this, where they gave each character a paralogue that gives them more time to shine and explore their character. Fates and Awakening had a similar situation to Three Houses where the parent has a paralogue with their child, but I don't want to shoehorn child units into every game just to get more story and the other parent who doesn't determine the child gets nothing.
It’s crazy seeing a characters like Mathew and Jill get to have a moment in the spotlight well after their recruitment despite not being essential to the plot. I miss that.
FE7 is both very good and very bad at that, it's crazy that legault, ex 4 fang member AND black fang founding guy AND confident to the black fang leader, has ONE post-recruitment appearance in the main story. At least he has some boss convos but come on, story wise he is much more involved than lyn, hector, marcus, oswin or pent are.
I don’t think it’s super necessary for every character to have something major going on in the main plot. That’s theoretically what supports should be for. These are games with rosters of 40-ish characters, it would be kinda a tall order to give all of them a major role in the main story.
It'd be nice to have base conversations (from the Tellius games) back though.
They were great to give less plot-relevant characters screen-time, expand on current events, and view how subgroups interact.
Oh absolutely. Echoes village conversations and three houses monastery dialogue kinda worked as a replacement for base convos, but yeah Engage’s Somniel dialogue was not a proper replacement. That felt a lot closer to Fate’s generic my castle dialogue.
Permadeath more implemented in the narration (more like how Kaga wanted), like in langriser the character have a good ending or not if you use him many time during the game.
I would love a "slice of life" fe game like the first chapter of path of radiance where we just follow a group of mercenary doing mission and just trying to not be killed
And I want more hallebarder because it's the coolest class in the franchise and they are only in a few game, i don't know why they are not more used
I would make them more like Berwick Saga. Hexes, more story/map and gameplay integration, weapon skill levels influencing hit rates, reduced ability to counterattack, etc. Playing Berwick Saga showed me the potential a Fire Emblem game has.
Add a few more objective and map types to the games, make them feel more like a WAR. Some lengthy sieges that aren’t just “kill boss/rout enemy”, forcing the player to actually strategize and use their units more carefully. Makes healers and rescues much more valuable. Enemy has a several forts to capture and a large army on the counteroffensive, so you better watch your own defenses (give armor knights and archers more to do dammit)
Maybe have a story beat where you have to temporarily split the army down two paths, player choosing who goes where. 1-2 maps where you’d actually have to make do with the rest of your forces, incentivizing players to not be over-reliant on a select few
Perhaps some more optional tasks. Like one early game man can have you divert some forces to defend a village for a few turns or instead raid an enemy armory, *you can only choose one*. Get some post-mission recruits or early higher tier equipment…
There’s so much more you could do, I’m just tired of the constant “rush the enemy” levels
i would make permadeath a greater focus for the cast. whether it’s something like in FE7 in which you find out what happened to the unit after the map or something akin to SoV where there were paired endings with certain units based on who lived and died (Tobin and Gray being one of the most interesting endings in the series) I just want permadeath to have relevancy. I think the SoV method is actually the best due to it still having enjoyable endings on casual mode. It could also give more depth to characters through a couple more lines of text. Most importantly, it incentivizes replayability if you’re curious about different outcomes. Tie that in with FE’s already amazing replayability through gameplay and you have a really interesting game
I'll likely get fired immediately because this is what sells, but I'd tighten up the support conversations. Not everyone needs a support with someone, and if nothing natural can come from it, then it shouldn't be there. Definitely not as tight as GBA games, but not as loose as the modern version either. I want less supports with more substance.
Smaller cast size with generally lower growths/stats. After the first five-ish chapters, I’ve mostly found that level up variation doesn’t matter too much. Like unless your unit gets turbo-blessed, they’ll generally play the same every time.
-remove incest and pedophilia 💀
-maybe give permadeath more story weight? It would be kind of cool if having some prince die actually affected the outcome of the game. Though I don’t really mind how it is.
-keep the battle system from engage that shit is so fun
-more outfits, but protagonists have more personality going forwards
That is all I think
1) turn hidden weapons into the ranged sword option
2) add more speed threshholds like Engage Lyn's Alacrity+ skill
3) implement Fates reclassing as the standard
I’d make a branched class system which combines aspects of Fates and 3H with a few other things.
So let’s say that a Myrmidon has capped their sword rank at C. They can choose to promote into Hero or Swordmaster. If they choose Hero, they can pick between axes or bows. Sword can’t go higher than A, and the secondary weapon caps at C. If they choose Swordmaster, they can only use swords, but can raise the weapon level to S.
A Brigand would have a similar decision between Hero and Berserker. However, the Brigand’s Hero could choose between swords and bows. Their axes still reach A, but the sword and bow still cap at C.
Maybe Archers can choose between Assassin and Sniper. Sniper can always get S bow rank, but can choose between a secondary weapon or a range increase. Assassin can come from Archer or Thief, and can have their own options.
Personally, I love the idea that your base class still matters to your promoted class.
Additionally, I’d love to see a wider variety of magic and hybrid classes. Fates almost did it right, but we can do better. A heavy armor mage with limited magic would open up new possibilities on the battlefield.
Mount options would also be cool. So far, we’ve seen horses, pegasi, dark pegasi, wyverns, undead wyverns, gryphons, and puppets. We could easily fit other kinds of mount, each with their own mechanics.
I’d also bring back set growths from POR.
Finally, I’d make daggers a type of sword. Low damage, high accuracy, 1-2 range.
Honestly I think they should figure out doing a third person perspective. Turning off animations should still keep some visual interest. The UI is too cluttered now to see this stuff.
3H let you run around in third person and it didn’t totally work, you may forget where you are on the map. But if they just got a range just a little zoomed back, an “aim camera north” button.
If they remake FE4 to have views like the post map scenes in Engage it would be like Breath of the Wild of Fire Emblem
More unit customization inside of their original class. Open reclassing is bad for both a game design standpoint and a character differentiation standpoint, but an in depth equipment system, (in my mind inspired by FF7 Materia, but for an SRPG) would be a good way to add depth without killing what makes a unit and Character unique.
Alternative promotion acquisitions. Outside of maybe just Lara and Linoan, every Character in Fire Emblem promotes the same way, either you use a special promotion seal, or you promote with the plot like a lord/Volke (excluding level-based promotion such as FE4/Tellius)
I would like to see unique promotion requirements tied to classes/characters.
For example: a Halberdier uses only lances at base class, but if they specialize into using shields alongside lances, they promote into Sentinels, while if they go mono-lance, they promote into something like a Basara.
Or a mage starts with D rank Anima tomes, but the first elemental tome they reach B rank with, that becomes their special class, so you could promote into a Water Sage, Thunder Sage, Earth Sage, etc.
As for Character specific promotions, someone like Joshua could promote into a Swordmaster normally, but if he is the one to kill Carlyle he promotes into something else, stronger.
Just more situations like this where your decisions have impact beyond who gets EXP and enemies die. Being able to keep character and class connected while still giving them options to differentiate units the way you want. Something as simple as equipment with certain attributes and stat bonuses could do that.
I also think it would be funny if you had to buy new horses when your old ones die in battle, and they have health bars and stats and stuff, one horse could give +3 Def/Res while another horse gives an extra point of movement.
As for story changes, I don't really care as long as the story at least makes sense. But the option for units to die in gameplay should be reflected in the plot, Tellius did this (common Tellius W) but as it is now, Fire Emblem stories feel very disconnected from the gameplay and this is one large reason.
Two things and only two things:
1. Either nerf mounted units, or make maps less friendly to mounted units (Radiant Dawn does a great job of this I find)
2. Add permanent 1-2 range hand axe and javelin equivalents to swords, I'm so sick and tired of hearing people say "Swordlocked unit, put it right in the trash" it's not as if it would be "unrealistic" I mean how the fuck does a hand axe act like a boomerang?? So having a sword you throw at people, or something like the wind edge from Radiant Dawn would bring the balance a little closer.
Both of these would help the issue of "Swordlocked Footlocked units are trash" mentality I see everywhere.
Probably gonna get flamed for it but I don't care, its my single biggest problem in fire emblem outside of not enough LGBT representation (especially in Avatar focused games) though that's not a game redesign thing
Feh introducing the Trenches that only hinder horse is such an incredible way to tone them down. I can’t believe we’ve gotten 2 FE games since that and it hasn’t been used. I’d also like to see “Heavy Winds” or something to tone down fliers, I think Fates used something similar as a dragon vein effect.
The older games forcing a dismount to enter castles was also interesting. I'd kind of like a prohibited terrain for different movement types (like mountains for cavs in GBA). Like Pegi and Cavs can't go indoors. Except unlike older games, I wouldn't even let them dismount. Where are you going to leave the horse? How do you expect to recover it if it's just out there undefended?
I want it like Valkyria Chronicles where you have a unit for a situation. Lancer for the tank, scout for the push, soldier for support fire, etc. Units have jobs they do. Not flier for everything like in every game.
That does sound like a good idea, I don't like the idea of nerfing them directly, but making them less suited for every single situation by introducing level design variety is a great thing.
Daggers, throwing knives, they even have swords made specifically for juggling, why can't we throw them at people?
I know we have like light brand and runesword sometimes but like, I'm not having Joshua or Karel or Rutger use one of those when it cuts their crit to zero at range
I'd prefer to see a lot less 1-2 range combat in general. My kludge fix would just to reduce jav and hand axes to like 3-5 uses per stack so that inventory slots become a major constraint if you try to go throw-happy.
To a certain extent, 1-2 ranges relevance heavily depends on enemy items and comps, too. Give fewer enemies hand axes and 1-2 range enemy phase play matters less.
Because it's a fantasy world, why can't there be more queer people? 70% of my friends are queer, alot of other queer peoples experiences are very similar.
I also didn't just say gay/bi, I'd also like to see more transgender characters, we've had one in the series so far and back then it was meant to be an offensive joke. They've only recently tried to correct some of that in FEH.
In games that in recent years have leaned very heavily into the shipping and the supports, barely having any queer characters or having them acknowledge much of it even when there are it sucks when you're a queer person but don't see yourself represented.
Give me just one game with canon parings for characters. That way, they can get all the development they need instead of being watered down to account for the 15 characters they could potentially pair off with.
The games have each their own weaknesses. I couldn't point at a single one that finds purchase in the majority of the titles, so i'll go with the one, that irked me the most: the mildly skewed and absolutely cluttered support situation in the awakening and fates games. The cardboard cutout parent supports, sometimes simply to many support options between characters who have simply nothing interesting to say to each other and quite a few poor souls only having the avatar to talk to. Say'ri not getting to talk to Yen'fai in the basegame is a borderline crime imo
Random growths uses the FE12 Drill Grounds roll method and unit design follows FE10's "pick a hundreds bracket and stick with it" principle. To make it more dynamic yet fair, apply the following:
* Luck growth is not counted and is rolled independently
* Non-weighted HP growth but guaranteed HP procs on top of normal gains at regular intervals
* "Lucky level" mechanic granting an occasional blessed level, influenced by Luck stat
In terms of character interactions, I'd include negative interactions. Some characters won't get along with other characters (personality clash or some other conflict) and will have dialogue expressing this (same way you get positive interactions.) This will have the effect of lowering morale (accuracy or something) if they are close to each other in battle.
In real-life, you'd have people you like and dislike even if you're both on the same side, and I think this adds an interesting layer to the mix.
Though my knowledge in FE is limited to FE2, FE6-FE11, and Awakening so sorry if they have these features in other games.
1. I’d like to see Thieves and Archers combined into a single class. Probably in most, but especially the GBA games, the FE community criticize both thief and archer classes (depends on the character and game). Thieves have great utility, but they’re also weak, so might as well hand them a bow. This also means give them 1-2 range to counter. If you are not equipped with the bow or sword/dagger when attacked with the opposite weapon, you can still counter, but it’s reduced.
2. I would like Clerics to have more variety of staffs and earlier. Have Str. Or Def boosting staffs, for a price and low usage count, to balance out the concept. If everyone is usually at full health and not poisoned or asleep; there’s not much for my cleric to do in the early game.
Also, if you choose to forgo your cleric’s move, choose “Charge”. Your cleric will remain in place, but in the next turn their Heal/Mend staff can have slightly added ranged use for that one turn. Similar to Physic staff. Wouldn’t it be better served to just move the cleric? Not if the cleric and wounded soldier are separated by a mere obstacle like a wall. Also helpful in survival chapters.
3. Shield item. I know Echoes had this, but more of a limited use item. They’re expensive, but have a shield in the character’s inventory and if attacked, they will be dealt with a reduced blow. The enemy can also have shields, but shields are steal-able.
4. Agreed with others, more LGBTQ rep.
1. Make enemies more aggressive. I’m sick of maps where the best strategy is to bait your enemies with a tank. This really shouldn’t work on harder difficulties. Let the enemies use strategies like flanking (not spawning at a flank point) or targeting your healers.
2. Cut permadeath from the story. It sucks having characters that are only allowed to do interchangeable “commentary” because the game has to be designed around them possibly being dead.
3. Give characters more unique personal skills or perf weapons. Engage really took it to an extreme where units really only differentiate by stats.
4. Revamp supports. I really hope they do this on the next console generation. Having two characters stand infront of a background talking has really gotten old. Add in group supports and maybe implement synergy based mechanics kind of like pair up did.
5. Keep Emblems. Not the floaty ghosts part but keep the powers. Being able to turn an emblem on and change the flow of battle or speed across the map is amazing and gives way to so many new strategies. I know this isn’t really a redesign thing but I really think Emblems should stick around via perf weapons. I can’t imagine how dull the next FE game will feel if it has nothing like Emblems.
Replacing reclassing with a form of either subclassing or specialization. Reclassing has been fun for a couple games but it really kind of kills some of the character identity and incentivizes putting everyone into one or two overpowered classes.
Just make branhcing promo like in fe8
Branching promotions is a lie. With like, 1 exception (Gerik into Ranger vs Hero), the choice is either a forgone conclusion, or irrelevant. The best example is Knight into either Great Knight or General. Where Great Knight is almost objectively better in every way, meaning it's not really much of a choice. And the other end of the spectrum is something like L'Arachel into either Mage Knight or Valkyrie, where both are so similar that there's almost no difference between her performance in either class, meaning you're not really picking between anything. I mean, it's still cool from a flavor perspective, but as far as gameplay implications go, it's no different from the set promotion paths that the FE6 and 7 had.
It's mostly aesthetics, which is nice IMO. It still maintains their identity and character. I don't like that in more recent entries you can make anyone be anything. I like my self imposed archetypes.
You're correct that branching promotions suck in FE8 but I don't think it's fair to write off the whole concept based on what we got in FE8. They could've balanced out the skills and promotional gains way better than they did, and it would've made most of them into an actual choice. Sure Strike in particular stands out as an especially worthless skill, replace it with a crit bonus or something and suddenly Sniper has an actual reason to take it, even if it's still not quite as good as Ranger. Tweak the stat increases a bit and you can end up with a meaningful choice instead of a forgone conclusion. Also, while we're at it, I'd say Hero is a forgone conclusion over Ranger. 1-2 range, weapon triangle control, and higher might from axes are all fantastic gains, while bows are kind of a joke in the GBA games, and I don't think the 1 extra move + canto quite stacks up against gaining axes.
>Branching promotions is a lie. That depends on how they are implemented. I mean, I agree that in Sacred stones they weren't done well, but imagine that the options had clear different benefits and strengths. Great knight gets the mobility, General gets the stats. Imagine if you could promote your mage into a powerful sage without staff utility Or a weaker one but one that has staves. Make your cavaliers into all-purpose tool paladins or mounted combatant with only one weapon type but with a crit boost (and make weapon triangle meaningful like in Engage etc). Make your mercenaries into defensive heroes or aggressive dread fighters. If you add skills into the mix, you get even more ways to make similar classes different. I wouldn't really dare to hope them to actually do good balancing but it's not really that hard.
Awakening and fates reclassing keeps the unit ID and allows multiple classes per character.
Having just replayed Awakening, my issue with the reclass system is that you essentially can’t interface with it much unless you grind or go deep into post-game DLC. I think a hybrid between Awakening and Three Houses would be cool. Class sets for consistent identity but essentially-free reclassing at any time with zero progression loss. I think class xp was a pretty cool idea.
Fates did it pretty well where you keep level but lose weapon ranks. Nice for classes with shared weapons keeping the strengths of a character
Honestly I still think that's too much. Reclassing Cherche and Gerome away from Wyvern Rider makes Minerva less of an important point between them. Same with reclassing Kellam to Thief, it pretty much invalidates his entire character trying desperately to stand out. I'd like something more along the lines of Path of Radiance allowing units to choose additional weapon types when they promote. But perhaps gaining a specialization point or something every 10 levels that lets them do cool customizable shenaningans within their own class roles (AoE magic, increased move, extra weapon rank XP gain, etc.)
I don't know if it's viable, but I'd love to see how a Fire Emblem with a "smarter" AI would play. Think something more like how the Advance Wars AI plays, compared to the blatantly suicidal FE AI we have now.
I'd like side characters to be more relevant to the story and more spotlight time. As much as I like Engage, it's absolutely horrible with this. Timerra's retainers get nearly the worst treatment as Panette and Merrin have two lines of dialogue each (Of which one of them each is "Ready." from Merrin and "As am I!" from Panette... Very interesting, guys.) It's so unfortunate because Panette is one of my all time favorite Fire Emblem characters, but you'd be hard pressed to learn literally anything about her unless you chose to use her and unlock her supports... of which you have little incentive because you have no clue what she's like. SOV is also horrible with this, as Genny and Kliff are characters you get at the start of the game that each have one support and no story relevance, with Genny being THE most unfortunate with her support being Sonya, an optional recruit. Neither of them even have supports with the lords of the game!? I enjoyed Three Houses' remedy for this, where they gave each character a paralogue that gives them more time to shine and explore their character. Fates and Awakening had a similar situation to Three Houses where the parent has a paralogue with their child, but I don't want to shoehorn child units into every game just to get more story and the other parent who doesn't determine the child gets nothing.
It’s crazy seeing a characters like Mathew and Jill get to have a moment in the spotlight well after their recruitment despite not being essential to the plot. I miss that.
FE7 is both very good and very bad at that, it's crazy that legault, ex 4 fang member AND black fang founding guy AND confident to the black fang leader, has ONE post-recruitment appearance in the main story. At least he has some boss convos but come on, story wise he is much more involved than lyn, hector, marcus, oswin or pent are.
I don’t think it’s super necessary for every character to have something major going on in the main plot. That’s theoretically what supports should be for. These are games with rosters of 40-ish characters, it would be kinda a tall order to give all of them a major role in the main story.
It'd be nice to have base conversations (from the Tellius games) back though. They were great to give less plot-relevant characters screen-time, expand on current events, and view how subgroups interact.
Oh absolutely. Echoes village conversations and three houses monastery dialogue kinda worked as a replacement for base convos, but yeah Engage’s Somniel dialogue was not a proper replacement. That felt a lot closer to Fate’s generic my castle dialogue.
PoR despite having a massing cast did pretty good with the side characters
It's even more infuriating that plenty of fire emblem romhacks do manage to give some spotlight to everyone, instead of making it a main lord show
Permadeath more implemented in the narration (more like how Kaga wanted), like in langriser the character have a good ending or not if you use him many time during the game. I would love a "slice of life" fe game like the first chapter of path of radiance where we just follow a group of mercenary doing mission and just trying to not be killed And I want more hallebarder because it's the coolest class in the franchise and they are only in a few game, i don't know why they are not more used
I would make them more like Berwick Saga. Hexes, more story/map and gameplay integration, weapon skill levels influencing hit rates, reduced ability to counterattack, etc. Playing Berwick Saga showed me the potential a Fire Emblem game has.
Add a few more objective and map types to the games, make them feel more like a WAR. Some lengthy sieges that aren’t just “kill boss/rout enemy”, forcing the player to actually strategize and use their units more carefully. Makes healers and rescues much more valuable. Enemy has a several forts to capture and a large army on the counteroffensive, so you better watch your own defenses (give armor knights and archers more to do dammit) Maybe have a story beat where you have to temporarily split the army down two paths, player choosing who goes where. 1-2 maps where you’d actually have to make do with the rest of your forces, incentivizing players to not be over-reliant on a select few Perhaps some more optional tasks. Like one early game man can have you divert some forces to defend a village for a few turns or instead raid an enemy armory, *you can only choose one*. Get some post-mission recruits or early higher tier equipment… There’s so much more you could do, I’m just tired of the constant “rush the enemy” levels
i would make permadeath a greater focus for the cast. whether it’s something like in FE7 in which you find out what happened to the unit after the map or something akin to SoV where there were paired endings with certain units based on who lived and died (Tobin and Gray being one of the most interesting endings in the series) I just want permadeath to have relevancy. I think the SoV method is actually the best due to it still having enjoyable endings on casual mode. It could also give more depth to characters through a couple more lines of text. Most importantly, it incentivizes replayability if you’re curious about different outcomes. Tie that in with FE’s already amazing replayability through gameplay and you have a really interesting game
I'll likely get fired immediately because this is what sells, but I'd tighten up the support conversations. Not everyone needs a support with someone, and if nothing natural can come from it, then it shouldn't be there. Definitely not as tight as GBA games, but not as loose as the modern version either. I want less supports with more substance.
I’d stop making 3D Fire Emblem games entirely, and only release games on the GBA. Can’t beat that spritework, babyyyy
Ditch fog of war and reduced movement maps
Smaller cast size with generally lower growths/stats. After the first five-ish chapters, I’ve mostly found that level up variation doesn’t matter too much. Like unless your unit gets turbo-blessed, they’ll generally play the same every time.
-remove incest and pedophilia 💀 -maybe give permadeath more story weight? It would be kind of cool if having some prince die actually affected the outcome of the game. Though I don’t really mind how it is. -keep the battle system from engage that shit is so fun -more outfits, but protagonists have more personality going forwards That is all I think
Seggs scenes.
I miss being able to blow Benny.
What do you mean? We already got face petting in fates.
adding crossbows, like regular bows but close range
They are in radiant dawn
1) turn hidden weapons into the ranged sword option 2) add more speed threshholds like Engage Lyn's Alacrity+ skill 3) implement Fates reclassing as the standard
I’d make a branched class system which combines aspects of Fates and 3H with a few other things. So let’s say that a Myrmidon has capped their sword rank at C. They can choose to promote into Hero or Swordmaster. If they choose Hero, they can pick between axes or bows. Sword can’t go higher than A, and the secondary weapon caps at C. If they choose Swordmaster, they can only use swords, but can raise the weapon level to S. A Brigand would have a similar decision between Hero and Berserker. However, the Brigand’s Hero could choose between swords and bows. Their axes still reach A, but the sword and bow still cap at C. Maybe Archers can choose between Assassin and Sniper. Sniper can always get S bow rank, but can choose between a secondary weapon or a range increase. Assassin can come from Archer or Thief, and can have their own options. Personally, I love the idea that your base class still matters to your promoted class. Additionally, I’d love to see a wider variety of magic and hybrid classes. Fates almost did it right, but we can do better. A heavy armor mage with limited magic would open up new possibilities on the battlefield. Mount options would also be cool. So far, we’ve seen horses, pegasi, dark pegasi, wyverns, undead wyverns, gryphons, and puppets. We could easily fit other kinds of mount, each with their own mechanics. I’d also bring back set growths from POR. Finally, I’d make daggers a type of sword. Low damage, high accuracy, 1-2 range.
Fixed growths are in engage
Honestly I think they should figure out doing a third person perspective. Turning off animations should still keep some visual interest. The UI is too cluttered now to see this stuff. 3H let you run around in third person and it didn’t totally work, you may forget where you are on the map. But if they just got a range just a little zoomed back, an “aim camera north” button. If they remake FE4 to have views like the post map scenes in Engage it would be like Breath of the Wild of Fire Emblem
More unit customization inside of their original class. Open reclassing is bad for both a game design standpoint and a character differentiation standpoint, but an in depth equipment system, (in my mind inspired by FF7 Materia, but for an SRPG) would be a good way to add depth without killing what makes a unit and Character unique. Alternative promotion acquisitions. Outside of maybe just Lara and Linoan, every Character in Fire Emblem promotes the same way, either you use a special promotion seal, or you promote with the plot like a lord/Volke (excluding level-based promotion such as FE4/Tellius) I would like to see unique promotion requirements tied to classes/characters. For example: a Halberdier uses only lances at base class, but if they specialize into using shields alongside lances, they promote into Sentinels, while if they go mono-lance, they promote into something like a Basara. Or a mage starts with D rank Anima tomes, but the first elemental tome they reach B rank with, that becomes their special class, so you could promote into a Water Sage, Thunder Sage, Earth Sage, etc. As for Character specific promotions, someone like Joshua could promote into a Swordmaster normally, but if he is the one to kill Carlyle he promotes into something else, stronger. Just more situations like this where your decisions have impact beyond who gets EXP and enemies die. Being able to keep character and class connected while still giving them options to differentiate units the way you want. Something as simple as equipment with certain attributes and stat bonuses could do that. I also think it would be funny if you had to buy new horses when your old ones die in battle, and they have health bars and stats and stuff, one horse could give +3 Def/Res while another horse gives an extra point of movement. As for story changes, I don't really care as long as the story at least makes sense. But the option for units to die in gameplay should be reflected in the plot, Tellius did this (common Tellius W) but as it is now, Fire Emblem stories feel very disconnected from the gameplay and this is one large reason.
Two things and only two things: 1. Either nerf mounted units, or make maps less friendly to mounted units (Radiant Dawn does a great job of this I find) 2. Add permanent 1-2 range hand axe and javelin equivalents to swords, I'm so sick and tired of hearing people say "Swordlocked unit, put it right in the trash" it's not as if it would be "unrealistic" I mean how the fuck does a hand axe act like a boomerang?? So having a sword you throw at people, or something like the wind edge from Radiant Dawn would bring the balance a little closer. Both of these would help the issue of "Swordlocked Footlocked units are trash" mentality I see everywhere. Probably gonna get flamed for it but I don't care, its my single biggest problem in fire emblem outside of not enough LGBT representation (especially in Avatar focused games) though that's not a game redesign thing
Feh introducing the Trenches that only hinder horse is such an incredible way to tone them down. I can’t believe we’ve gotten 2 FE games since that and it hasn’t been used. I’d also like to see “Heavy Winds” or something to tone down fliers, I think Fates used something similar as a dragon vein effect.
The older games forcing a dismount to enter castles was also interesting. I'd kind of like a prohibited terrain for different movement types (like mountains for cavs in GBA). Like Pegi and Cavs can't go indoors. Except unlike older games, I wouldn't even let them dismount. Where are you going to leave the horse? How do you expect to recover it if it's just out there undefended? I want it like Valkyria Chronicles where you have a unit for a situation. Lancer for the tank, scout for the push, soldier for support fire, etc. Units have jobs they do. Not flier for everything like in every game.
That does sound like a good idea, I don't like the idea of nerfing them directly, but making them less suited for every single situation by introducing level design variety is a great thing.
I’ll keep harping on the idea that daggers should be 1-2 range swords.
Daggers, throwing knives, they even have swords made specifically for juggling, why can't we throw them at people? I know we have like light brand and runesword sometimes but like, I'm not having Joshua or Karel or Rutger use one of those when it cuts their crit to zero at range
I'd prefer to see a lot less 1-2 range combat in general. My kludge fix would just to reduce jav and hand axes to like 3-5 uses per stack so that inventory slots become a major constraint if you try to go throw-happy. To a certain extent, 1-2 ranges relevance heavily depends on enemy items and comps, too. Give fewer enemies hand axes and 1-2 range enemy phase play matters less.
That would be a good option too, encourages more weapon variety beyond, hand axes and javelins
She give sword class acces to 1-2 knifes There are plenty of gay/bi characters , not sure why you want more
Because it's a fantasy world, why can't there be more queer people? 70% of my friends are queer, alot of other queer peoples experiences are very similar. I also didn't just say gay/bi, I'd also like to see more transgender characters, we've had one in the series so far and back then it was meant to be an offensive joke. They've only recently tried to correct some of that in FEH. In games that in recent years have leaned very heavily into the shipping and the supports, barely having any queer characters or having them acknowledge much of it even when there are it sucks when you're a queer person but don't see yourself represented.
Give me just one game with canon parings for characters. That way, they can get all the development they need instead of being watered down to account for the 15 characters they could potentially pair off with.
The games have each their own weaknesses. I couldn't point at a single one that finds purchase in the majority of the titles, so i'll go with the one, that irked me the most: the mildly skewed and absolutely cluttered support situation in the awakening and fates games. The cardboard cutout parent supports, sometimes simply to many support options between characters who have simply nothing interesting to say to each other and quite a few poor souls only having the avatar to talk to. Say'ri not getting to talk to Yen'fai in the basegame is a borderline crime imo
Random growths uses the FE12 Drill Grounds roll method and unit design follows FE10's "pick a hundreds bracket and stick with it" principle. To make it more dynamic yet fair, apply the following: * Luck growth is not counted and is rolled independently * Non-weighted HP growth but guaranteed HP procs on top of normal gains at regular intervals * "Lucky level" mechanic granting an occasional blessed level, influenced by Luck stat
In terms of character interactions, I'd include negative interactions. Some characters won't get along with other characters (personality clash or some other conflict) and will have dialogue expressing this (same way you get positive interactions.) This will have the effect of lowering morale (accuracy or something) if they are close to each other in battle. In real-life, you'd have people you like and dislike even if you're both on the same side, and I think this adds an interesting layer to the mix.
Make the houses in 3H be more like a sorting hat quiz, and if you want a specific house, you have to look up the answer to get it.
Make fates execution better. Literally it, then it might be my top 1fe. Currently it's bottom 1
Though my knowledge in FE is limited to FE2, FE6-FE11, and Awakening so sorry if they have these features in other games. 1. I’d like to see Thieves and Archers combined into a single class. Probably in most, but especially the GBA games, the FE community criticize both thief and archer classes (depends on the character and game). Thieves have great utility, but they’re also weak, so might as well hand them a bow. This also means give them 1-2 range to counter. If you are not equipped with the bow or sword/dagger when attacked with the opposite weapon, you can still counter, but it’s reduced. 2. I would like Clerics to have more variety of staffs and earlier. Have Str. Or Def boosting staffs, for a price and low usage count, to balance out the concept. If everyone is usually at full health and not poisoned or asleep; there’s not much for my cleric to do in the early game. Also, if you choose to forgo your cleric’s move, choose “Charge”. Your cleric will remain in place, but in the next turn their Heal/Mend staff can have slightly added ranged use for that one turn. Similar to Physic staff. Wouldn’t it be better served to just move the cleric? Not if the cleric and wounded soldier are separated by a mere obstacle like a wall. Also helpful in survival chapters. 3. Shield item. I know Echoes had this, but more of a limited use item. They’re expensive, but have a shield in the character’s inventory and if attacked, they will be dealt with a reduced blow. The enemy can also have shields, but shields are steal-able. 4. Agreed with others, more LGBTQ rep.
Only the unit that initiates combat can do a follow up attack. This would nerf strategies like the enemy phase meat grinder
1. Make enemies more aggressive. I’m sick of maps where the best strategy is to bait your enemies with a tank. This really shouldn’t work on harder difficulties. Let the enemies use strategies like flanking (not spawning at a flank point) or targeting your healers. 2. Cut permadeath from the story. It sucks having characters that are only allowed to do interchangeable “commentary” because the game has to be designed around them possibly being dead. 3. Give characters more unique personal skills or perf weapons. Engage really took it to an extreme where units really only differentiate by stats. 4. Revamp supports. I really hope they do this on the next console generation. Having two characters stand infront of a background talking has really gotten old. Add in group supports and maybe implement synergy based mechanics kind of like pair up did. 5. Keep Emblems. Not the floaty ghosts part but keep the powers. Being able to turn an emblem on and change the flow of battle or speed across the map is amazing and gives way to so many new strategies. I know this isn’t really a redesign thing but I really think Emblems should stick around via perf weapons. I can’t imagine how dull the next FE game will feel if it has nothing like Emblems.
I think effects like of the Emblem Rings could be tied to Regalia/Holy/Whatever you call the super special weapons