Opinions. Ambush Reinforcements

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening 

Today we have a different topic to talk about inspired by a discussion I had with some friends, I decided to talk a bit about this particular and controversial topic.

Ambush Reinforcement it's specific version of the reinforcements in Fire Emblem (actually, the original version of the reinforcements in the series); basically enemies can move in the turn they appear in the map.

This mechanic has a very simple but effective objective: avoid turtling-heavy tactics and other low-effort strategies.

FE6 has many chapters like that blended Ambush with the Turn-Limit

For example, they appear in the beginning of the level to punish the player if she/he doesn't even try to move the units, they appear alongside forts, stairs and other kind of suspicious places with the intention to punish careless game-style.

Several people hate them for their "unpredictable" nature and prefer the most safe "Player Turn Reinforcement" (debuted in Blazing Blade), but I would like to explain why the Ambush Reinforcement are they way they're.

Reinforcements are created with the intention to be a threat, like in Real-Life Wars, these aren't supposed to be completely predictable; but you can get an idea of which kind of places would create reinforcements based in patterns that the game showed you in the Early Chapters.

FE1 Chapter 5 is the First Chapter in the Series' Story using this mechanic.

This shows you some important tactics you can do to counter this, it can be the difference between a clean victory or losing an ally; in fact, the games itself gives you tips about this in the houses (but it isn't something you can't find out on your own).

On the other hand, unlike the Ambush Reinforcement, the Player Phase Reinforcements are extremely forgiving, as they become more predictable, you can pick your fights easily and this attempt of "threat"  actually become "Exp Bags". 

What is the danger of these reinforcements if you are able to fix even your worse mistakes just because the enemy is unable to take an inmediate active role?

I found incredible how many people can hate the Ambush Reinforcements just because it tries to be realistic, you would argue this is a way to do "cheap difficulty" but it's actually a way to replicate the "War feeling" in the Game; you can't be reckless, you must understand your possible threats and prepare to deal with them. 

This isn't Kaizo's levels of "silliness", this is actually something that can work in strategy.

Awakening's Chapter 16 is probably the most common example given for people to argue against Ambush Reinforcement

What do you think about ambush reinforcements?

- Troykv (The Dawn's Historian and Micaiah4Smash Main Admin)

(Special) Radiant Dawn 10th Anniversary Article

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening people.

Original Picture here

Today, February 22^nd, we're celebrating a special day: the Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn's 10th anniversary (from its original release in Japan), and I thought it would be a interesting idea talk about this game; how is this game, its legacy and other influences in the Fire Emblem Series (for good or bad reasons), etc.

The Story

Let's begin with what happened before the release; Radiant Dawn is (as we know) the tenth entry of the main series, developed since May 2005, (the same year it were announced the “Nintendo Revolution” and the development of Super Smash Bros Brawl) this game begin its developed soon after the Path of Radiance release, sequel for their previous release; they wanted to take advantage of the Revolution's release, this made Radiant Dawn the first attempt to release a Fire Emblem game in the Earliest Days of a console lifetime.

Radiant Dawn got its official announcement the next year during the Pre-E3 Nintendo Conference (May 9^th, 2006), the Revolution had already changed its codename to the official “Wii” some days ago; Radiant Dawn was briefly showed that day, with most of the content in the teaser being the first two CG cut scenes; a extremely weak presentation if you ask me; but it doesn't surprise me, Fire Emblem don't have anything those days to try to give it a proper presentation; the game was then showed again in some Japanese events and Videogame-dedicated magazines before the eventual release.

When the game was finally released, even with good scores from Famitsu, it got .. underwhelming results, it got 160k sales, only a small improve compared with the PoR's Sales. (Radiant Dawn has the “honor” to be the Fire Emblem Game with the forth weakest first-week sales and the third lowest total sales in Japan), personally I find the fault in the extremely weak advertising (including a weak presentation, boring ads and be overshadowed for other games).

Only Path of Radiance and TMS #FE have overall worse sales in Japan.

As some interesting fun facts about the game pre-release and release; the game confirmed the presence of two main groups and details about the first two parts, with the only element from other Parts confirmed being “The Crossing” fragment of the Part 3 that appears in the intro; the game completely lacked any kind of representation for Ike, something that in the hindsight I find hilarious, specially when you see how the plot is handle after his appearance.

The advertising before the western release (during November 11^st, 2007) in the other hand, was a lot more Ike-centric, even if this was still small and weak; probably the changes in the focus was with the intention to show perfectly this game is a sequel, thing that I'm not completely sure if was or wasn't a good idea.

The Story wasn't that much better in America (and specially in Europe) sales-wise, with a weak performance, only getting roughly 300k~ in the West.

Without a doubt, Ike has a interesting story in the franchise

Before we pass to the next part, there is something important to point that happened during 2005 related with the Radiant Dawn: It's unknown how it affected the game's development, but during a moment after July 7h (when the roster was “essencially” done), Masahiro Sakurai was in the search of a “burly swordsman” and a “new Fire Emblem Character” for the already mentioned Super Smash Bros Brawl; apparently a suggestion from one of the member from the Fire Emblem's Staff ended mixing both ideas in the form of Ike, eventually his suggestion become a reality, as one of the members of Brawl's Starter Roster, officially revealed in August 1st, 2007. Ike is probably the luckiest example of a Fire Emblem character in Smash Bros, we was essentially selected to fit a criteria and gimmick instead of his character of what he would represent from Fire Emblem... and this decision changed his life forever even if didn't affected Radiant Dawn's development (something I'm going to explain later)

What happened next

After the last two games flopping; as a intent to test the waters and know what direction would the franchise go in future, Intelligent System decided (a little after Radiant Dawn's development was complete) to create a special project that would make the franchise less niche, the known details about the game suggest that this game had more RPG elements than the usual Fire Emblem Game; but this idea had a problem; the project was unable to find a proper objective and focus in its development; and as we know, it was cancelled.

It's unknown if there were other reasons to cancel this game, I ask myself this because just a bit after this game was cancelled, Fire Emblem enter in a Era where not only abandoned completely the Home Console Market, the franchise tried to milk the Marth's Popularity a lot, remaking his two games (Fire Emblem Dark Dragon and Fire Emblem Mystery of Emblem, the last one, the Fire Emblem's best seller) and making him a key aspect of Fire Emblem Awakening merchandise in the form of “Masked Marth” (aka Completely-no-Lucina), one of the most heavily advertised characters in the game (and actually lived his.. I mean, her hype, but that is topic for another day.)

Sometimes I think the Lucina's existence is a product of Smash.

Why I mention Marth's Popularity right now? Because this character has a very special reason to be popular: Smash Bros., even if Anna is officially the Fire Emblem's Mascot, for most of the people, Marth it's considered as such; and he wasn't the only character benefited for the Smash Bros presence... that is right, Ike, even if he was incorporated in the Smash Bros for COMPLETELY arbitrary reasons, he was able to gain tons of love, and even some times been considered the most beloved lord in the franchise; the Ike's love would have existed before, during the post-PoR days, but the Smash Bros establish him as a Fire Emblem Icon; in the Ike's case, Awakening decided to dedicate him a “cameo” with a character based in his design and personality; Paris/Priam, and, according with him, the Ike's descendant, apparently connecting his world somehow with the Akanea/Judgrall/Valentia Universe; also, while not as evident as Priam, Chrom looks in my eyes designed as mix between Marth and Ike, and it's extremely likely this isn't a coincidence.

Ike and the release of Fire Emblem Awakening, awakened (hehe) the interest for these games again, but it was already too late, the games are in most of the places sold out, and their prices increased... a lot, I remember how I found a Radiant Dawn copy in 50 Dollars during 2008, and now is practically impossible to find it cheaper than 90 dollars... How the times change eh?

The future

The recent success of Fire Emblem and Ike becoming even bigger and bigger as a Fire Emblem Icon, makes me wonder... What would happen if IS decided to release again Path of Radiance and/or Radiant Dawn? What would they change? The game's design was already to focused on benefit Ike when we didn't know if his confirmation in Smash Bros affected or not the development... but now, the Ike bias is complete real, and would have actual known consequences.

I mean, it would sounds weird nowadays because Ike is established as the main icon of both Fire Emblem Tellius Games; but he went so far in expense of complete destroy the possibilities of the original main character from Radiant Dawn, that isn't other that the maiden we have dedicated this small blog: Micaiah, to get her proper exposure in the story and complete successfully her character arc, a phenomenon it hadn't happened before; a game with a different lord but with the plot complete in the side of the older one unless is completely necessary.

I would now been a little bit pessimist right now, specially for a great day like this, but I'm some times afraid and what would happen if my fears are correct and the remakes of the Tellius became even bigger Ike's fests? Isn't unjust for the new characters that tried to gain a place in the fanbase, only to be completely defeat for Ike and his elite?

The structure of the game's story gave it a unique feeling compared with other FEs ... but at what cost?

Sometimes I think about what would had happened if IS decided to give completely the protagonism to Micaiah like they did with other games where the main character was changed and the story's focus (being the most similar case Thracia 776)... What would happen if we would have the opportunity to control most of the game the new lord? A story more focused in the Micaiah's side of the story, with more room to development and such... This kind of story doesn't need to invalidate Ike, but his presence and personality fit more for a legendary hero than a main character (some kind of Late-Game Character); he has already been developed and ended his character arc. He should already give an opportunity to another character to shine".

That is of course my opinion, but I invite you to think about it and then post your own thoughts.

_______________

And that's it, it has been ten years of really interesting stuff, some good things happened, some bad things happened; I would have liked to see some changes in the aspects of these stories, but I'm glad I was able to share some of my thoughts and knowledge of the topic; and I hope that your enjoy this day as much as I.

Happy Anniversary everyone!!

We're still waiting for Micaiah in FEH.

- Troykv (The Dawn's Historian and Micaiah4Smash Main Admin)

My thoughts of the Fire Emblem Direct (January 18, 2017)

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening people, this week was incredible special for Fire Emblem, with the official annoucement of a lot of content, let's talk about a little bit about the and what I think.

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia

The Direct started with the most shocking and unexpected idea ever; a remake of the least popular Fire Emblem (Gaiden). The game is describe as a "re-imagination" of the game; looks-like they decided to take the basic stuff about the game and expand it how it what originally needed for this game.

Fire Emblem Gaiden is known for be the Series' Black Sheep, with an awkward and outdated design, but filled with lots of interesting ideas; some of the only appears in this game (like visit towns/caves and the HP-Based Magic), but other ideas were adapted for future games (the most destacable are the World Map and the Branched promotion).

I don't have anything against Kozaki, but I'm happy to see this game with a different style (Art by Hidari/LeftSide)

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia as we can see in the Direct has a design based in a mix between the FE!3DS Basic Engine (with some changes to allow the exploration sections) and the Gaiden style to do several things (Minimal Damage is one, the attack/defense bars in the UI, Promotion using the Mila's Shrine, etc.).

I still have my doubts about the possible implications of this game, but the idea sounds great, I always have thought Fire Emblem Gaiden was the kind of game that really need and better Console and Development Time to actually work; and I hope this is the case.

There also some curious things about the Direct's indirect reveals.

We content it's a thing, we have a new villager in this game which her (?) name is Effie/Effa that appears as the forth villager after Gray, Tobin and Kliff (respectly); the original villager trio.

This probably opens the possibilities to more new characters outside of Effa. In fact, if she is indeed a female character, I wonder if the class selected for her promotion are gonna be the same that the other villagers, or she will replace some clases (like Soldier with Pegasus Knight).

Talking about the female classes. Wouldn't be great to see some Second Class like Sage/Saint/Priestess get a Third Tier Class unlike the original Gaiden?

Overall I'm cautious, but excited.

A three minutes video contains more Lore than the whole Fire Emblem Fates Vanilla Story

Fire Emblem Switch... for Switch (Working in a better title)

Hmm... This title is a complete mystery; we only know this game isn't a remake; I will eventually to any new related with the game, I'm not exactly excited, but I'm interested to see what become in the end, and...

Will this game feature the same Character Designer and Art Director from the 3DS Games? Who knows, but I doubt Maeda doesn't work in this new project (that I will call FE16), his games have been really succesful even I don't agree with several of his decisions.

Fire Emblem Warriors

Look like Chrom got his chance

Fire Emblem Warriors Extent Trailer didn't show anything new gameplay-wise outside of the overall Warriors-Style. Looks like we'll have to wait for the Koei Tecmo's updates to know more characters.

I good new in the other hand, Fire Emblem Warriors will arrive sooner of what we expected (Fall 2017), prepare yourselves people.

Also, if for some reason you don't like the Switch and you have a New 3DS; you're lucky, the game will have a version for the N3DS Users.

Fire Emblem Heroes (aka: Fire Emblem Mobile)

Featuring our two Original Protags, and some popular Fire Emblem Characters

And then, this is the thing we was waiting (but didn't exactly excited); I wasn't expecting a lot from this game, but at least this game fulfill a little idea I thought was perfect for this game: the ultimate fanservice game!

From Marth to Chrom, from Celica to Lyn, from Shiida to Sophia,... pretty much everything has a place here.

Fire Emblem Heroes is a simplistic version of Fire Emblem, and while doesn't have a particuarly great deep gameplay, the idea sounds fun, and I like the idea to recollect new Fire Emblem characters playing a lot (just don't get to greedy if you're using the microtranslations, the orbs aren't exactly cheap, I don't recommend pay for it unless you're really sure about it)

.

Looks like Chrom will get his chance another day... again.

This are my basic opinions about this games revealed, while my excitement it's mostly focused on Echoes and Warriors, I'll check Fire Emblem Heroes (the game is free-to-play), and I'm interested in what would brings us the future with Fire Emblem Switch. 

Prepare yourselves, this is a incredible year for Fire Emblem with three titles in the same year (two Spin-Offs and one main-game). Maybe I'll get the chance to review one of these games.

See you next time!

- Troykv (The Dawn's Historian and Micaiah4Smash Main Admin)

Opinions. Let's talk about Wada Arco's Micaiah DLC Art.

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening people, after some time without any activity this blog now have a new article!

What is the topic today?

Well, since some time I have the idea to talk about one little thing that generate many negative reactions and was one of the first weird designs to appear in the Awakening's DLC.

Micaiah Dark Mage Official Art for Wada Arco

And that of course is Micaiah's Dark Mage Picture. What is wrong with this picture? Why it was designed like that? What I would change in this picture if I have the power to do it?

Let's answer this questions and more.

Wada Arco's Design (and possible idea about Micaiah?)

One of the first one can see when know this artwork is the Micaiah's Head

Bigger shiny eyes, a noticeable lack of any thing resembling a nose (unless you count the thing at same height that the eyes), a weird smile hard to know what exactly is she feeling.

The hair has a ahoge instead of the line that divided the hair in the original artworks; and the bangs are traslucent (also, the hair's colors are overall darker).

Wada Arco has drawn character with nose in many different ways...


- Some times she draws characters with relatively realistic faces, like this Gilgamesh.

- Other times she does small noses, like this Saber Extra's Artwork

And then... We have the weird noses, like this Saber/Saber Extra Art; this is one of the arts more similar in style to the Micaiah's DLC Artwork.

Sharing the eye size, nose height, the transparent bangs and it has ahoges too.

This style appears in some arts from 2012 and 2013 (the years of Awakening and the DLCs release), so, it's likely that the Micaiah's Artwork had the disfortune to inheriting some of this style because Arco drawn some of these arts at the same time (or were made in short periods of time between them).

This explain the face's proportions and many details about the head and the hair. But what about the rest?

Micaiah's pose is one known as "Wariza", a japanese traditional informal sitting style where the butt is on the floor and the legs are bent backwards on each side of the body, mostly used for women; this is likely because the pose requires specific flexibility in the legs, making it painful to perform for some people, but for other it comes naturally.

Elise DLC Artwork by Kozaki Yuzuke

It could works as some kind of fetish in the Japanese Fandom (for some reason you can find it in many anime related media).

And finally... Why Micaiah was drawn doing a wariza with that ambiguously happy face?

This is probably a stretch, but in my opinion, Wada Arco saw Micaiah as some sort of "sexy character" that needed to focus on their appealing aspects. What reasons she would have to think that?

- First of all, Wada had draw a character using the skimpy Awakening!Female Dark Mage Outfit as the basic base. As many know, this custome is basically a combination between a bodystocking (covers the whole body but doesn't work to actually "cover" the user because it's a skin-tight garment), a bikini-like thing, a cape and some golden accesories. The whole description of the outfit as something sexy, and that technically should be used for a character that actually makes use of this dirty sexyness.

A brief description of Tharja's weird but appealing "clothes".

- The second reason is Micaiah's original design... Yes, I'm talking about Micaiah's own design, she has her own special sexy aspects, include: a overall nicely designed body  (mostly the legs, she also has breasts in a size that isn't too big or too small); the use of some kind of tights (they look like pantyhose); exposed shoulders and armpits; exotic and charming eye/hair colors; the presence of side-slits (made more modest thanks to the pantyhose), etc. Also, the hair ribbon and the scarf have their own charm in the design's balance.

You know, a pretty girl for all of kinds of tastes.

(The aspects focused in her outfit vary between class; with the exception of all of them be bare shoulders with the expose the armpits and have a big focus in her legs)

And these are the likely reasons for the direction that this artwork took, after explain the Wada Arco's vision, it's like to took a more critical analysis with the artwork itself.

Why Micaiah was selected as the Dark Mage? Other mistakes in the design and how to fix them

The first question is answered with a stretch again; Micaiah is the only lord in the franchise that use pantyhose (or maybe they're tight pants? It's hard to tell), make her easier to adapt in the Dark Mage Style; the other reasons are likely influenced for one curious and ironic aspect of Micaiah in Radiant Dawn: Her "Dark Affinity".

Between the viable choices for this outfit and the Shadowgift skill, Micaiah was the only one that made sense. 

Now again with the weird design choices of the art...

We already talked about her face and her hair. But... What about this custome has anything special compared with the Dark Mage outfit outside of Micaiah's Blue Hair Ribbon?

She doesn't have anything else; with other character even if the custome was mostly generic, they decided to give to the character some extra clothes or change the colors, or even change the clothes itself.

Just... look at them.

 

The colors are different (mostly blue and whilte is changed to include more red), Lyndis doesn't use the head armor.

Celica has some big changes in the outfit. Instead of the pants she has shorts; she lacks long sleeves but she has fingerless gloves; instead of the normal boots she has armored books; her outfit looks like it has a midriff, and the colors are completely different.

Elincia has her characteristic orange/white color scheme, alongside this, she has an orange cape, slighly different boots and some additional details.

Roy changes the color scheme, also he get a torn blue cape (a similar colors to the used in Binding Blade), the shield is draw differently, and other small details.

And this are enough examples in my opinion. Maybe the changes aren't big in most of the cases, but some little changes can give it a more unique look and personality to a draw; something that unfortunately Micaiah's Dark Mage drawing lacks in my opinion, looking very generic; the biggest reason for this artwork look so generic alongside the other Fire Emblem DLC Characters.

What could be change in the design to make it stand-out more as a Micaiah look but without breaking the design of Wada's drawing ? I have some ideas.

• Replace the cape and the choker with a blue scarf.

A simple and effective change, Micaiah most known design (her Light Mage custome) include a large blue scarf. The blue scarf can fit the role that the blue cape has in the original outfit, and make the references to Micaiah's more evident. Also, the cape's absence makes Micaiah's shoulders visible like in pretty much all of her outfits.

• Change the colors of the outfit to make it resemble Micaiah's color scheme more.

Another idea is to change some clothes colors to fit the blue/magenta Micaiah's Color Scheme. The cape is already blue like the cape that she has as a Light Sage. But the other blue elements in the outfit (the bra-like garment and the lower-body set in her crotch) could be changed to magenta, making the resemblance to Micaiah more evident.

Also, in both cases I would make the "bra-like" thing cover more the Micaiah's cleavage.

As an additional opinion there is the possibility to combine both ideas. 

What do you think of these ideas to change Micaiah's Dark Mage appearance? Do you have another one. 

I would like to see your comments explain your opinion. See you next time!

- Troykv (The Dawn's Historian and Micaiah4Smash Main Admin)