Board 8 > Fire Emblem Topic 4: Radiant Oliver

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/3/9/AAeolZAAD7YH.jpg

https://twitter.com/SerenesForest?s=09

https://twitter.com/FireEmblemJP?s=09

https://youtu.be/IC3v_Vzp5_s

Current Ranking:

1. Geneology of the Holy War
2. Three Houses
3. Radiant Dawn
4. Path of Radiance
5. Thracia 776
6. Sacred Stones
7. New Mystery of the Emblem
8. Shadow Dragon
9. Echoes
10. Binding Blade

Current game:

Awakening

Remaining games:

The Blazing Blade*
Fates*
TearRing Saga
Berwick Saga
Vestaria Saga

*Have played before.

Decided to move onto Awakening. Its been a very long time, but I did play through FE7 like 3 times as a kid, so its definitely more of a backburner priority.

Awakening is one Ive been...kind of dreading? This is THE game that got me into the series. Yeah, I played other games first as they came out but with Awakening I was IN, I was officially an FE Fan as far as I knew (and I would not say the people like me who had only played newer games dont count as FE fans, gatekeepings for losers!)

And now, after this long journey of playing the older games I am...a little worried....it wont hold up by comparison? Hopefully Im just being warped by osmosis, but I dont remember enough to say for sure.

Guess Ill find out!

I played Awakening recently. It's honestly not too bad, but of course, the map design leaves a lot to be desired. I also just think the way the game is designed is a little flawed, with getting the child units through paralogues about halfway through the game where all your units are getting promoted. I get it, but it's a little annoying, especially since the child units are usually better characters, both personality and stat wise.

Awakening definitely does not hold up if you're a fan of other games in the series, and that's fine. It's perfect as an 'entry point' game.

Also feel the need to post Oliver's special dialogue from RD because I love how every character is completely baffled by his existence.

Ike: Hold on a second... Aren't these your men? Why are you fighting them?
Oliver: It's quite simple, really. A true guardian of beauty stands with those who are beautiful. If your exquisite heron prince will not stay here in my home, I must follow him. I have seen death; it holds no mystery for me. Only my pursuit matters. Rest at ease, friends.
Ike: Look...Would you mind rejoining the enemy?

Vs Hetzel
Hetzel: D-Duke Tanas! You've betrayed us? But why?
Oliver: You could never understand the depth of my commitment to beauty! Sometimes it simply overwhelms me. I can't stop the love welling up inside! I'd do anything to keep the hideous likes of you from my precious birds!

Vs Lekain
Lekain: Duke of Tanas... What's gotten into you? Why are you fighting with these mercenary scum?
Oliver: I am Oliver, champion of beauty! You would harm my precious feathered angels! That makes you my enemy! Unsightly man... Prepare yourself!
Lekain: Have you finally gone stark mad? Who, exactly, do you think you're blathering at?

Vs Levail
Levail: Duke Tanas! I thought you were executed as a slave trader three years ago.
Oliver: True beauty is immortal. Look at me. Right now, I am flawless. You are not without potential. With education, you could aspire to be me.
Levail: ...No, thank you.

Vs Sephiran
Sephiran: Duke of Tanas, imagine seeing you here!
Oliver: Lord Sephiran, as lovely as always. But has it come to this? Must we fight to the death, and deprive the world of one of our beautiful countenances? Can other lovers of beauty endure such a loss?
Sephiran: I confess that your presence has me bewildered. Could this be part of Yune's plan? I simply never would have imagined you here. Your presence proves that Tellius is unraveling at the seams. Judgment cannot come soon enough.

KamikazePotato posted...

Your presence proves that Tellius is unraveling at the seams. Judgment cannot come soon enough.

El oh fucking El.

When I was on his map and about to recruit him I did not expect him to run his ass up ON MY TURN to recruit himself as soon as I put Rafiel in range, easily my favorite part.

Tag, these topics have been an absolute blast and are legit stoking a deeper appreciation of the series for me. I'm in the middle of my first playthrough of Cindered Shadows, to be followed by my first run of Verdant Wind, after which I'll have finally finished all the (main) routes of Three Houses. Once that's done I'm seriously thinking of doing what you've done here and playing the ones I've missed out on!

Pretty sure I just straight up killed Oliver without thinking much about it.

"You know he was recruitable right?"
"He was w h a t"

Gonna go ahead and repost the surveys from the last topic because it's interesting data and got stuck at the tail end.

Fire Emblem Main Subreddit Version:
Question 1: What Fire Emblem games you have played?
https://i.imgur.com/dbdM0H0.png
Question 2: What is the first mainline Fire Emblem game you played?
https://i.imgur.com/Tadj5gc.png
Question 3: Which mainline Fire Emblem game is your favorite?
https://i.imgur.com/W8on9Za.png
Question 4: On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate ____?
https://i.imgur.com/nb54bC8.png
Question 5: Which mainline Fire Emblem protagonist is your favorite?
https://i.imgur.com/k6sfCVA.png
Question 6: Which mainline Fire Emblem game has your favorite overall cast of characters?
https://i.imgur.com/NemOKAl.png
Question 7: Which mainline Fire Emblem game has your favorite overall story?
https://i.imgur.com/CemwH5x.png
Question 8: Which mainline Fire Emblem game has your favorite overall music?
https://i.imgur.com/utJReYz.png
Question 9: Which mainline Fire Emblem game has your overall favorite gameplay?
https://i.imgur.com/RUrFlKG.png
Question 10: Which mainline Fire Emblem game has your favorite overall graphics/art style?
https://i.imgur.com/qsqeST1.png
Question 11: Which mainline Fire Emblem game are you most interested in playing?
https://i.imgur.com/Qt1a7oZ.png

Fire Emblem Heroes Subreddit Version:
Question 1: What Fire Emblem games you have played?
https://i.imgur.com/wcTsncb.png
Question 2: Which mainline Fire Emblem game is your favorite?
https://i.imgur.com/b8wtrqT.png
Question 3: What is the first mainline Fire Emblem game you played?
https://i.imgur.com/shfGTjh.png
Question 4: On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate ____?"
https://i.imgur.com/c8GBWs8.png
Question 5: Which mainline Fire Emblem game has your favorite overall cast of characters?
https://i.imgur.com/d94zHcI.png
Question 6: Which mainline Fire Emblem game has your favorite overall story?
https://i.imgur.com/cxt0DpU.png
Question 7: Which mainline Fire Emblem game has your favorite overall music?
https://i.imgur.com/E5Bj2yT.png
Question 8: Which mainline Fire Emblem game has your favorite overall graphics/art style?
https://i.imgur.com/PrN4x8t.png
Question 9: Which mainline Fire Emblem game has your overall favorite gameplay?
https://i.imgur.com/OdT594g.png
Question 10: Which mainline Fire Emblem protagonist is your favorite?
https://i.imgur.com/lXqv6md.png
Question 11: Which character in all of Fire Emblem is your favorite?
https://i.imgur.com/G4D0KPn.png

Also, here's some added analysis I did for the Heroes subreddit posting in specific.

*Genealogy had by far the most ardent support for Best Story. 42% of people who played it voted for it in that category.
*Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn had the most ardent supporters when it came to rating games. 28% of the people that rated them gave them a 10/10. Genealogy and Thracia 776 had 18% of the people rating them give them a 10/10. No other games had supporters that dedicated.
*Revelations had by far the loudest detractors. 8% of people that rated it gave it a 1/10. Pretty much every other game had 1-2% of people giving them a 1/10.
*The average number of FE games that people have played is 7.44. People that started with Blazing Blade and Sacred Stones have played around 8. People that started with Awakening have played 7.
*People that started with Awakening rated the 3DS-era games more favorably, but not by much. They also rated pre-3DS games lower than the average, but only by a little.
*People that started with Blazing Blade were overall harsh. They rated nearly everything below the average, with the exception of Conquest, which they actually rated above.
*People that started with Sacred Stones were more mixed. They rated pretty much everything close to the average. Except for Radiant Dawn, which they rated extremely high for some reason.
*In general, people that started with a game rated that game above the average. First impressions stick with you! Even then, Blazing Blade stood out. They rated it very far above the average. When combined with their harsh ratings on almost all the other games, it would seem that Blazing Blade starts have a clear idea of what they want from Fire Emblem and don't accept much else.
*The playrate for Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn among people that started with Awakening is atrocious.
*Perhaps out of disappointment with Awakening, about 20% less of the people who started with Blazing Blade and Sacred Stones went on to play Fates.
*467 people have played at least one Fates game. That's just under Awakening's 480+ playrate.
*A person's favorite game was very strongly correlated to their favorite protagonist. In one of the more extreme examples, 71% of people who voted Robin as their favorite protagonist also list Awakening as their favorite game.
*Oliver defeated Arden in the Best Girl poll by a margin of 158-147. True beauty has been recognized.

I do not remember any Echoes music!

How on earth is New Mystery at the bottom with this banger??

https://youtu.be/o10vXisPWqo

Echoes was recent when I did those surveys, so I'm pretty sure the FE fanbase as a whole was both in a honeymoon phase and latching onto it after Fates disappointed a lot of people. Wouldn't be surprised at all so see Echoes drop in every category if I held those surveys again today. Especially after Three Houses reminded people of what good FE is.

It DOES have some banger music though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T6Mip7uJe4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3msSeE7VtM

OK I'm legit not sure how I forgot that first track.

I'm not saying the Echoes music isn't likely very good but I think it just didn't worm it's way into my brain like some other tracks have.

Every FE game since the GBA era has had tracks that wormed their way into my head. Even from the games I didn't like. The GBA soundfont didn't do that series any favors.

KamikazePotato posted...

Every FE game since the GBA era has had tracks that wormed their way into my head. Even from the games I didn't like. The GBA soundfont didn't do that series any favors.

You're not wrong, but this will always be the most iconic recruitment, and that's not gonna change. Blame Smash if you must.

Xiahou_Shake posted...

Tag, these topics have been an absolute blast and are legit stoking a deeper appreciation of the series for me. I'm in the middle of my first playthrough of Cindered Shadows, to be followed by my first run of Verdant Wind, after which I'll have finally finished all the (main) routes of Three Houses. Once that's done I'm seriously thinking of doing what you've done here and playing the ones I've missed out on!

Same. I've been in a real FE mood since these topics started myself.

Also tag

This topic series really makes me want to try out FE4/5, but FE4 has a remake and it would feel playing FE5 without 4, so I'm holding off for now.

When I first played Awakening I made literally all of my pairing decisions based on child hair color using MS paint to make a shipping chart.

I look forward to crafting my decisions based on....playing the game.

I absolutely did a shipping chart based on who I thought made the most sense for each pairing. Some standouts were:

-Putting Virion and Cherche together because I didn't like Virion and she had him by the balls.
-Putting Tharja and Henry together because I didn't want to subject anyone else to either of them. This is coming from someone who likes both characters.
-Putting Donnel and Lissa together so I could uplift Donny from his poor upbringing, only for the princess of a nation to give everything up to go be a fucking farmer.
-Putting Gregor and Nowi together because of process of elimination. Someone had to get the creepy fanservice loli.
-Putting Chrom and Sumia together because Sumia doesn't have a lot going for her and I would've felt bad if I took away her one successful goal in life.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

You're not wrong, but this will always be the most iconic recruitment, and that's not gonna change. Blame Smash if you must.

You're right and you should say it

KamikazePotato posted...

-Putting Gregor and Nowi together because of process of elimination. Someone had to get the creepy fanservice loli.

They're the two oldest (pairable) characters so it makes sense!

KamikazePotato posted...

Putting Tharja and Henry together because I didn't want to subject anyone else to either of them.

Problem is solved on this front because I'll be subjecting myself to her.

https://youtu.be/rxGnonKB7TY

I am not ashamed to admit that I am a typical Tharja simp who still contemplates buying "The Statue".

I actually like the GBA era songs a lot! Though, as with most FE games, the early game songs are better than the late game songs. I don't know what it is about lategame FE music. I don't even like Id Purpose.

I mean if we're talking endgame OSTs...

https://youtu.be/VuB3T76HTng

I paired with Lissa when I first played and have since also done the deed with Nowi and Severa in subsequent playthroughs.

I have... a lot of problems with Awakening personally both in story and gameplay but I do like most of the cast.

KamikazePotato posted...

I absolutely did a shipping chart based on who I thought made the most sense for each pairing. Some standouts were:

-Putting Gregor and Nowi together because of process of elimination. Someone had to get the creepy fanservice loli.

I would've gone Donnel or Ricken there, because at least they look like kids too.

Mewtwo59 posted...

I would've gone Donnel or Ricken there, because at least they look like kids too.

That makes sense, but Ricken had that main story thing with Maribelle and I was all aboard on trying to make Donnel a rags to riches story.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

I mean if we're talking endgame OSTs...

https://youtu.be/VuB3T76HTng

I see you that song and raise you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMfvZmhqW0A

And not to leave Tellius out of the equation, here's my favorites from PoR and RD respectively:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2XBIKviOBk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DLYly29DNQ

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/4/2/AAeolZAAD7Zu.jpg

Well that's quite the first level up...

I think the one aspect of Three Houses I allowed myself to get overhyped on was the endgame music. I avoided being spoiled on them until I encountered in in-game, and whilst they're by no means bad I was still a little disappointed by it compared to how highly I rate Id (Purpose) and End Of All. The first of those I've probably been heavily overexposed to now since it came out, but it hasn't dampened my impression of it too much.

Also I might be able to give some thoughts on Awakening. I'm a little more studied on it compared to the GBA games and it had really been too long since I last played PoR and RD to give fair commentary on it.

Awakening (and the games that followed) have much higher growth rates than in previous games. It's obviously to prevent the feeling of total garbage level-ups.

Yeah, that's one part I kind of miss from earlier games, although it's maybe healthier for the games that they did change it. It's novel getting stuff like a surprisingly useful Erk, but wanting to use a specific character and watching them get RNG screwed over and over kind of sucks.

I think Awakening's growths are better than the games that came after them too. Fates and Three Houses had great growths across the board, but they were dialed back a bit compared to Awakening (especially Fates in HP). And then Echoes had mediocre growths, but they were still an upgrade from Gaiden growths.

Note to self: unlike the last several games I've played, it's NOT worth killing early game bosses with prepromotes.

I swear to God I 1000% forgot the character Stahl existed, and the maxed out Iron Axe I made for Jill in RD that I named Stahl was a complete and total coincidence.

Stahl's great! I'm not a big fan of the Awakening 1st gen cast because of their over-reliance on their character gimmick. But Stahl basically doesn't really have a gimmick other than just being a normal, average dude.

25 exp per heal.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/6/7/AAeolZAAD7aH.jpg

SSBM_Guy posted...

over-reliance on their character gimmick.

This is definitely the biggest problem I have with post-Awakening characters is the over reliance on tropes. I do think Fates was the worst about it but Awakening definitely has the same problem. Three Houses has shades of it as well but they dialed it back enough to where it doesn't really bother me at least.

Also while I don't particularly mind the pairing system as a whole it did damage support conversations in very noticeable ways (every support pair between opposite sex has to either be romantic or have the marriage proposal come out of absolutely nowhere, + the cookie cutter 2nd gen ones). It definitely would have been better if they kept it to one game or at the very least significantly reworked it for Fates.

Out of sheer curiosity I downloaded FEH, which I played for like an hour at some point forever ago and didn't know like 80% of the characters, to see what units I had happened to pull at the time.

This....ALMOST makes me wanna stick with it.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/7/1/AAeolZAAD7e3.jpg

Hilariously, it appears I had not included him on my team, because he was some loser I had never heard of.

FEH was a legitimately fun game for the first year or two, but power creep and unit saturation hit it hard. Such is the fate of any gacha that gets too popular.

Reinhardt is still usable but his best days are behind him. Back in the day (2017-2018), he was one of the best units in the game. Intelligent Systems didn't understand game balance so he was a 4* unit at that. As such, he was a very popular pick among players who don't spend money. Intelligent Systems would then drop the ball on nurturing his unexpected popularity and he hasn't seen a new unit since late 2019.

TeamRocketElite posted...

Reinhardt is still usable but his best days are behind him. Back in the day (2017-2018), he was one of the best units in the game. Intelligent Systems didn't understand game balance so he was a 4* unit at that. As such, he was a very popular pick among players who don't spend money. Intelligent Systems would then drop the ball on nurturing his unexpected popularity and he hasn't seen a new unit since late 2019.

Funnily enough, his one alt was released on the same banner that introduced Leif, and he was by far the best unit on that banner and super overshadowed the Thracia crew's grand entrance. The actual Thracia fans didn't seem happy about that.

Yeah, that FE5 banner was advertised a long time in advance and IS said that Leif, Nanna and Finn would be on it. Then surprise Reinhardt and Olwen with Finn getting kicked off the formal banner and given out as an underpowered free unit.

Speaking of FEH, this was my all time favourite Forging Bonds conversation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvxjhPXDLLU

Patrick Kelpeck has been recruited.

I managed to raise 3 of these in Sacred Stones, surely I can manage 1 here.

https://twitter.com/SerenesForest/status/1597163788121538560?s=20&t=4DzZCV3WlU78oLIPb8Sl2A

https://twitter.com/SerenesForest/status/1597163946061885441?s=20&t=4DzZCV3WlU78oLIPb8Sl2A

https://twitter.com/SerenesForest/status/1597164031080812544?s=20&t=4DzZCV3WlU78oLIPb8Sl2A

You know if it weren't for the wierd hat thing I wouldn't mind this design at all, I'm realizing.

Also Magic and Staff Wyvern obviously totally busted.

Got that trivet on her head so she can serve a casserole straight from the oven while still keeping both hands free

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/3/3/AACm-yAAD7kh.jpg

You may not like it, but this is what peak Wing Tamer performance looks like

I'm reliably informed she's wearing what's called a fascinator.

I'm hilariously late to this discussion but Short Hair Lucia > Long Hair Lucia. I prefer longer hair on 99.99% of women but Lucia is the definite .01%.

I think both designs are top tier FE looks, though. White coat best coat.

Today's gameplay heavily delayed by car trouble lol.

Will note that the opening to Awakening is...harder than I remember? Not, like, DIFFICULT, but everyone is pretty squishy, and they don't seem to dodge anything.

What difficulty are you playing on? One of my bigger gripes with Awakening is that I'm not a fan of the min-maxing, class-swapping, 2nd gen optimising that Lunatic more or less requires of you, but I doubt you're playing on that difficulty or else you'd have mentioned it.

And yeah, your cause at the beginning of Awakening isn't helped by the fact a lot of early availability units are kind of underwhelming.

Normal, I'm not really someone very interested in super hard modes. I mentioned this before, but I've beaten 3H on the highest difficulty but only like....3 NG+ runs in with all the buffs, so it was more like I had to do that in order for it to even be a real game, lol.

Can't get used to how Lissa is over twice the level of everyone else.

Such a contrast to other games.

Uh oh, forced combat animation. CHUNK.

Hopefully that doesn't happen too much lol.

The auto sort equipment amongst selected units is such a fantastic feature. Is this somethingater games had and I just forgot?