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Fire Emblem Gaiden is known for be the Series' Black Sheep, with an awkward and outdated design, but filled with lots of interesting ideas; some of the only appears in this game (like visit towns/caves and the HP-Based Magic), but other ideas were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

Gaming Ideas: How would a Light Sage/Priestess Class be in Fire Emblem Fates?

Hi Ladies and gentlemen! This article will be different from other things I have already published. This time I want to explain some ideas I though about Fire Emblem Fates after thinking one day 

"How could be Micaiah if she was a Amiibo/DLC Character in Fates?"

Micaiah Cipher Official Art by 40hara

The first thing I want to talk about is a little comparison between the other magic and the Amiibo classes.

1.- How exactly are balanced the other classes?

First step is to determine the class's caps and growths (this include Staff Classes too)

The highest Magic Cap

Tome-Based Classes

Witch (36) > Sorcerer (35) > Onmyoji/Grandmaster (33) > Dark Flier (32) > Dark Knight/Nohr Noble (31) > Basara/Malig Knight (30) > Oni Chieftain (28)

Staff-Based Classes

Strategist (33) > Adventurer/Butler/Maid (31) > Great Master (30) > Hoshido Noble (28) > Falcon Knight (27)

Other Amiibo Classes

Lodestar (26) > Vanguard/Great Lord (25)

The highest overall Cap (without HP)

215+

Lodestar (222) > Basara (219) > Great Master/Priestress (218) > Falcon Knight/Great Lord (216) >

215-210

Butler/Maid (215) > Dark Knight/Hoshido Noble/Grandmaster (213) > Dark Flier (212) > Nohr Noble (211) >

210-

Oni Chieftain/Vanguard (209) > Strategist (207) > Witch/Adventurer (205) > Onmyoji (204) > Sorcerer/Malig Knight (203)

The highest overall growths

90: 

- Basara (Extremely balanced, focused in HP/Lck)

- Lodestar (DLC, Focused extremely on Skl/Lck)

85: 

- Nohr Noble (Lord Class, Hybrid, Focused on HP/Mag/Spd/Res) 

- Great Master (Extremely Balanced, focused on Str/Lck) 

- Priestress (Magical Hybrid, Focused on Spd/Lck/Res)

- Falcon Knight (Hybrid without Def/HP, Focused on Spd/Lck/Res)

- Hoshido Noble (Lord Class, Focused on HP/Str/Def)

80: 

- Chieftain (Hybrid without skill, extremely focused on Str/Def)

- Dark Knight (Hybrid focused on HP/Str/Def), 

- Dark Flier (DLC, Hybrid, focused on Mag/Spd/Lck/Res) 

- Great Lord (Balanced without magic, focused on HP/Str/Lck)

- Grandmaster (DLC, Hybrid without Lck, focused on Str/Mag/Skl/Res)

75: 

- Butler/Maid (Balanced without HP, focused on Skl/Spd) 

- Vanguard (DLC, extremely focused on HP/Str/Def)

70:  

- Witch (Extremely focused in Mag/Spd, minor focus Res, has low luck)

65: 

- Strategist (Focused on Mag/Spd/Res/Lck, specially the latter) 

- Malig Knight (Focused on Str/Mag/Res, lacks luck)

- Adventurer (Magical Hybrid, Focused on Mag/Spd/Res, lacks luck)

60: 

- Onmyoji (Focused in Mag/Skl/Spd/Res, lacks luck)

- Sorcerer (Extremely Focused in Mag/Res, minor focus in Def, lacks luck)

Links to the data's source: http://serenesforest.net/fire-emblem-fates/

Conclusion: The class that are extremely focused on Mag, Spd and/or Def (at least two of them) combo have low Total Growth and Total Caps (the exceptions to this rule are Nohr Noble, Dark Flier, Dark Knight and Grandmaster). 

The class that have high growths usually are luck-based (and some times also the skill-based) classes and some hybrids for their lack of focused-caps/growths (but with some exceptions)

Probably this balance is because Magic Damage is almost always better that Physical Damages, and give them a good speed and defense increase even more these classes Juggernaut's power, creating a intense unbalance in the classes.

Luck and skill are usually considered as the least important stats in a character (specially luck, that is only wanted to prevent lucky critical hits from enemies without Killer Weapons and 10-15 is usually enough). Skill is a stat that it's usefulness relies heavily on the enemies to face.

Fun fact: Lodestar and Basara are only behind General (95) the classes with the biggest total growhts.

Micaiah Light Priestess fanart by Tenmal/Tenmaru

2.- Defining Light Sage/Priestess Stats.

Now is time to adapt the class stats based on her RD!Light Priestess's Stats.

Light Sage/Priestess Caps

The Class in the original game has this caps.

HP	STR	MAG	SKL	SPD	LCK	DEF	RES
50	22	40	35	33	40	23	40

(SS Tome Rank / SS Staff Rank)

This doesn't sound extremely different from the Fates style of Caps. We can begin trying something similar like what happened with the Great Lord's Caps. 

What I'm exactly talking about? Great Lord (the female/Lucina version) has these caps in Awakening:

HP	STR	MAG	SKL	SPD	LCK	DEF	RES
80	40	30	42	44	45	40	40

In Fire Emblem Fates the Great Lord has these caps.

HP	STR	MAG	SKL	SPD	LCK	DEF	RES
60	30	25	32	34	35	29	31

Have you noticed it? The caps (with the exception of magic/HP) are (almost) exactly 10 points lower than it was in the original game. And in the magic/HP's case the cap was adapted to the usual non-magic user Caps in the game.

With this already explained I'll put some examples of how could be the caps adapted to Fates's Standards.

Str/Def adapted to the lowest cap possible (25) and the rest of the stats reduced 5 points:

HP	STR	MAG	SKL	SPD	LCK	DEF	RES
50	25	35	30	28	35	25	35

Total Caps (without HP): 212

These caps are overall high for the usual magician's standars. But there a little but important detail about this. Outside of Magic this class doesn't excel in any actually extremely useful stat (Str/Spd/Def).

But Light Sage/Priestess would still be a valuable unit in battle with its extremely great healing abilities and be able to resist a lot of magical punishment.

Additionally, the HP cap would be as the witch's: 50 (like in Radiant Dawn, and would still be the lowest HP Cap from the Amiibo Classes anyway).

Light Sage/Priestess Bases

The next step is to define the Class's Bases, with the caps already defined this a lot easier.

The Strength and Defense are the minimal possible (between promoted classes), Light Sage/Priestess would have (like Strategist) 0 Strenght and 2 Defense Base.

The Magic and Speed caps are similar to the Sorcerer's Caps. So, I see Light Sage/Priestess sharing the base stats: (9 and 6 respectly)

The Skill, Luck and Resistence caps are exactly as the Falcon Knight's Caps. So, it is extremely probable that its base stats are shared (6, 5 and 9 respectly)

And the HP base can fit the same logic applied to the HP Cap (shared with the Witch class: 17 base stat.). 

HP	STR	MAG	SKL	SPD	LCK	DEF	RES
17	0	9	6	6	5	2	9

Light Sage/Priestess Growths

The third step is to define the class growths, and this is actually really easy: Give it high growths (20%) in the stats where the class is focused (Mag/Lck/Res) and give it minor growths (5%) growths in Skill and Speed to fill 70 total growth.

HP	STR	MAG	SKL	SPD	LCK	DEF	RES
0	0	20	5	5	20	0	20

The class is complete stat-wise. 

	HP	STR	MAG	SKL	SPD	LCK	DEF	RES	Total
Bases	17	0	9	6	6	5	2	9	54
Growth	0	0	20	5	5	20	0	20	70
Caps	50	25	35	30	28	35	25	35	262

Possible Light Sage/Priestess Skills

And finally, after defining the Class's Stats. It's time for the last step: The Skills.

Micaiah in her original game has two skills that are heavily related with her and her class: Sacrifice (her personal skill) and Corona (Light Priestess's Master Skill)

This already give us two options to work. The next option is take a skill related to the Micaiah's Traits. One example would be her foresight ability. In fact, I think would be a good idea give to the class a skill that it's name is actually "Foresight" that would work in the enemy's turn.

Finally, Micaiah would share the Marth's and Ike's "taker" skill. In her case the "Magictaker".

Order for the possible skills:

Level 1: 

Sacrifice: The character can heal status effects and can share HP with one adjacent unit.

Level 10:

Foresight: In the Enemy's Turn, Avoid + 15.

Level 25

Corona: Skill 0.5% chance to performe a hit that active Sol and Luna at the same time.

Level 35:

Magictaker: When user defeats the enemy, Magic +2 (up to 10) (does not overlap with other Taker skills and expires after the chapter)

Note: I know, the Corona version in this article actually works like the RD!Flare. But personally, I found this style of ability more appealing.

Note 2: These are just examples, if you think there are better ideas for skill you can always share it in the comment box.


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