Fire Emblem series

[SadLonelyLoser]

I've always thought the in-universe explanation for the lord characters being so meh at combat is that they were busy commanding the battlefield. They're normally the ones filling the role of the player's stand-in and are busy being the tactician for their entire army and micromanaging everyone's movements.

Eliwood and Lyn are also kind of shit and their game has some really weak enemies too.

They were busy protecting the useless GBA avatar tactician.

 

[Flaming Insignias]

I've always thought the in-universe explanation for the lord characters being so meh at combat is that they were busy commanding the battlefield. They're normally the ones filling the role of the player's stand-in and are busy being the tactician for their entire army and micromanaging everyone's movements.

They were busy protecting the useless GBA avatar tactician.

Lords are supposed to be the metaphorical king-piece on the horny chessboard, so them not being able to wade into the battlefield and rip through enemies makes sense. You're usually supposed to have them be protected from danger while leveling them by picking off weakened enemies, until you get their stupid-strong legendary weapon to beat the final boss with later in the game.

The trend of powerful lords can be traced back to Sigurd, who was explicitly supposed to be an exceptional knight to explain him steamrolling multiple countries for Granvalle, plus the fact that his strength amplifies the shock when he was betrayed and murdered halfway through the game. Seliph, then, is given exceptional growths to match up with the doubting young prince resolving to become strong enough to continue his father's legacy and save Jugdral. Most of the physically powerful lords then continue to be those with an intense love for battle like Hector, Ephraim, Edelgard, and Dimitri, who all explicitly make a theme of seeing violence as one of the best solutions to problems and then are supposed to learn the importance of actually leading their people instead of just killing those they consider threats (Edelgard notwithstanding, since she is really just a “Rudolf-pattern” emperor conquering the continent even on her own route). The problem then is trying to prove the narrative theme of Lords either learning to lead or gaining the resolve to fight through their stats and growths instead of making them either monstrous demigods or total pushovers, and I really don't think any lords have done that particularly well excluding Sigurd and Seliph.

 

[NerdShamer]

The problem then is trying to prove the narrative theme of Lords either learning to lead or gaining the resolve to fight through their stats and growths instead of making them either monstrous demigods or total pushovers, and I really don't think any lords have done that particularly well excluding Sigurd and Seliph.

Come to think of it, Alm never really conquered his guilt over his assigned role in life in SoV. It's weird, he's (rightfully) depressed that he had to kill most of the people who were important to him and most of this goes away off an deus ex machina when Celica was revived.

As with Dimitri, even within the Warriors spinoff he was questioning why does he have to kill people; but that kind of died off with that glowie wearing an skinsuit. But the writing in 3 Hopes felt like an slightly less retarded version of the game it's inspired by.

 

[BananaSplit²]

Lucina flat-shaming/bullying will never get old

Goldmary: Say, when I'm with you (Lucina-san)... I feel attracted by your coolness. I'm cute but nobody says that I'm cool...
Lucina: I do admire your cuteness. Moreover... This voluptuous body too. I'm envious.

also thank god you can quickly level up the rings relationship levels in the arena room, at least for the first ten levels.

 

[Jeff Boomhauer]

I was honestly surprised at how mediocre Lyn is in Blazing Blade. The first time I played through Blazing Blade, I put a lot of time and effort into raising her, only to get a character that was good at getting critical hits that barely did any damage. I didn't even bother using her in Hector's path unless necessary.


The lords being weak is actually reflected well in the Arena in Engage.
It's hilarious watching these almighty Emblems get the shit beat out of them, especially in one hit.

 

[Leaf Wage Slave Jr]

The fact we’ve practically gone full circle back to the days of 4Kids is hilarious, in a morbid sort of way

Who’d’ve thought the people who bitched about 4Kids would be doing the exact same thing years later…

 

[NerdShamer]

View attachment 4443172
The fact we’ve practically gone full circle back to the days of 4Kids is hilarious, in a morbid sort of way

Who’d’ve thought the people who bitched about 4Kids would be doing the exact same thing years later…

I'm honestly just waiting to see if someone will just post an accurate translation of the Japanese script, at this point. I just saw Goldmary's C support with the MC and I have an feeling that conversation was actually about that mole on her chest

 

[The Zekenator]

Okay this is confusing the fuck out of me and I feel this is some bizarre lost in translation moment. So can @BananaSplit² or anyone who knows moonrunes tell me what the fuck is up with Zelkov's speech pattern?

In English he has this *fucking weird* pattern where I think he is meant to over emphasize his words and the English text uses "*this*" to emphasize it in the text. I want to know if this means anything at all, because it annoys the fuck out of me and I've never seen this sort of quirk before in a localization. So is this just bullshit some edgelord thought was cool, or does Zelkov speak in some esoteric form of Japanese that can't be translated properly so they made something up? I'd greatly appreciate if someone can explain what this is all about.

For convivence here is the JPN version for Alear and Zelkov's C support and I've time stamped the same one for ENG.

 

[NerdShamer]

So is this just bullshit some edgelord thought was cool

I'll never be fluent in moonrunes, but my initial impression is that it's his means of being fancy. He's essentially an diet horror version of Hubert.

 

[Peru oso donas]

Okay this is confusing the fuck out of me and I feel this is some bizarre lost in translation moment. So can @BananaSplit² or anyone who knows moonrunes tell me what the fuck is up with Zelkov's speech pattern?

In English he has this *fucking weird* pattern where I think he is meant to over emphasize his words and the English text uses "*this*" to emphasize it in the text. I want to know if this means anything at all, because it annoys the fuck out of me and I've never seen this sort of quirk before in a localization. So is this just bullshit some edgelord thought was cool, or does Zelkov speak in some esoteric form of Japanese that can't be translated properly so they made something up? I'd greatly appreciate if someone can explain what this is all about.

For convivence here is the JPN version for Alear and Zelkov's C support and I've time stamped the same one for ENG.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=5R5p-QFQOq0https://youtube.com/watch?v=RNSrzQc7EAA:3295

He also stresses certain words in JP just like he does in ENG, only the words are marked with 「Brackets」 Instead of *Asterisks*, but it's less noticeable if you don't understand moonrunes.

 

[BananaSplit²]

I've clocked 70 hours in Engage so far, reached chapter 20 and completed a couple of side chapters and skirmishes.
That BGM for the Trial of Fates has no right to be this much of a banger during battle animations.

Okay this is confusing the fuck out of me and I feel this is some bizarre lost in translation moment. So can @BananaSplit² or anyone who knows moonrunes tell me what the fuck is up with Zelkov's speech pattern?

In English he has this *fucking weird* pattern where I think he is meant to over emphasize his words and the English text uses "*this*" to emphasize it in the text. I want to know if this means anything at all, because it annoys the fuck out of me and I've never seen this sort of quirk before in a localization. So is this just bullshit some edgelord thought was cool, or does Zelkov speak in some esoteric form of Japanese that can't be translated properly so they made something up? I'd greatly appreciate if someone can explain what this is all about.

Like @Peru oso donas explained, it's just an unique speech pattern where he stresses certain words in-between short pauses. Although I would have written [word] that way, instead of asterisks, in order to convey a similar feeling of his quirkiness in the english translation.

On a related topic, back when I played the japanese demo of Three Hopes, I remember Petra had a very unusual speech quirk that was lost in translation

Basically, she can only speak in extremely broken sentences, entirely omitting grammar particles, making poor choices of words and often correcting herself on the main verb at the end (she tends to say the verb in its base form then wholly separate the conjugated form, or sometimes adding a redundant です/-desu copula). First screenshot would be translated into something along the lines of "Me, cannot speak, lot. However, Eldelgard-sama's, enemies, confirmed." She's a lot more dysfunctional in speech ability for the japanese readers compared to the english audience. There is no doubt anyway that she was a nightmare for any translator.

I'm honestly just waiting to see if someone will just post an accurate translation of the Japanese script, at this point. I just saw Goldmary's C support with the MC and I have an feeling that conversation was actually about that mole on her chest

I screenshoot'ed, and translated, that entire conversation because the entire aspect of Goldmary is to act like a succubus between her constant sultry voice (by Natsumi Takamori) and being proud of her charm appeal. Things that I expect the localizers to not take kindly.



Playing as female MC ramps up the gay to eleven in scenes like these, no kidding. But I also get the impression a good chunk of Engage was written with a main female character in mind, even assuming the scenes are the same regardless of the MC's gender.

 

[NerdShamer]

I screenshoot'ed, and translated, that entire conversation because the entire aspect of Goldmary is to act like a succubus between her constant sultry voice (by Natsumi Takamori) and being proud of her charm appeal. Things that I expect the localizers to not take them kindly.

So is it mainly another case of them trimming out the explicit stuff or did they also change some more important details?

 

[BananaSplit²]

So is it mainly another case of them trimming out the explicit stuff or did they also change some more important details?

I just looked up the english version (& recorded it through my capture card) and localizers very much trimmed down anything mentioning her good looks, and the feeling of frustration that her sex appeal is not working on somebody. Which is mentioned in the character textbook in japanese, but the meaning was altered in english as well (魅力 - "miryoku" means glamor, attraction, appeal or charm)

Spoiler: お酒落

Just as a helpful tip to avoid a dekinai moment: お酒落 (o-share) absolutely does not mean "getting drunk" or the like, in case someone here were to recognize the 酒 character commonly known for 'sake/alcohol' and 落 for "fall/drop", thus leading to the otherwise logical conclusion of "falling into alcohol". It does mean "fashion(able)" in this jukugo while 酔 is the correct kanji for anything related to drunkenness.

I don't want to be much a bother to other users here with all this talk of localization, unless invited to do more.

 

[Waifuchu]

Are the subtitles actually accurate if you have it set to JP voices, or are they still localized bullshit no matter the audio language?

Honestly, since this thing was first announced, it's really never appealed to me. Alear's design was the first red (and also bright neon blue) flag, and then that's followed up with the annoying nostalgia-bait "LOOK, IT'S MARTH! LOOK, IT'S ROY! LOOK, IT'S LUCINA (Who isn't remotely the protagonist of Awakening but she's got the waifu factor and/or Smash Bros notability)! LOOK, IT'S CORRIN!" shit. Then I see a dev interview where they repeatedly say that they want Engage to "appeal to a more casual audience" and "appeal to a younger audience" and "draw in people that don't play tactical RPGs"

I'll probably just emulate it and hope that it's a one-off, and not the first example of the mobile gacha game infecting the entire franchise.

 

[The Zekenator]

Are the subtitles actually accurate if you have it set to JP voices, or are they still localized bullshit no matter the audio language?

Honestly, since this thing was first announced, it's really never appealed to me. Alear's design was the first red (and also bright neon blue) flag, and then that's followed up with the annoying nostalgia-bait "LOOK, IT'S MARTH! LOOK, IT'S ROY! LOOK, IT'S LUCINA (Who isn't remotely the protagonist of Awakening but she's got the waifu factor and/or Smash Bros notability)! LOOK, IT'S CORRIN!" shit. Then I see a dev interview where they repeatedly say that they want Engage to "appeal to a more casual audience" and "appeal to a younger audience" and "draw in people that don't play tactical RPGs"

I'll probably just emulate it and hope that it's a one-off, and not the first example of the mobile gacha game infecting the entire franchise.

It is localized text with JP voices, you need to read moonrunes to get the intended script.

Also I would not call Engage casual (by FE standards) unless we count having the casual mode there I guess, but even then I think this is harder then Awakening outside of Lunatic+ and is at least as hard as Echoes if not more so. The grinding in this game is hot garbage for casuals because they're sometimes harder then even the main maps due to how level scaling works and all the enemies just bum rush you. Also the fanservice stuff barely does fuck all to be honest in the story and have very little presence, they exist, they have their little references, but they barely do fucking anything. I hated it as pandering nonsense, but frankly I barely know they are there outside of their model being on screen a little during combat. The actual story isn't really good, but it is not because of the Emblems, it is for a lot of other reasons.

Engage is not for casuals, at least not if you factor in how unfriendly grinding is, how shit the MC is in combat (especially compared to byleth), how the maps force ambushes quite often to make turtling a bad option outside of like normal mode. Maddening mode has more intelligent AI in that they don't hit enemies they do 0 to or they can't fit, which makes them smarter then many classic AI because in Radiant Dawn you could just unequip Sothe and the enemies will always attack him for 0-3 damage of his 35 health.

This game's resources are pretty strict too, gold is kind of on the sketchy side, emblem management and routing to a proper skill build takes some work and knowing of how the game plays out, forges are not really super plentiful either, the enemies even try to warp skip you on some maps which is hilarious. Byleth's paralogue literally warp skips 4 enemies into you and three of them are mini bosses with effectively 100 hp that can two-three hit pretty much anyone but a general or whoever has Ike equipped and can easily kill your weaker units in one round.

This game is also pretty enemy phase unfriendly unlike say Blazing Blade or Sacred Stones where you can max move your Paladin with a Javelin and kill most the enemies pretty easily. Bonus points if they're Seth who is the best unit in his game and is the early overleveled character at the same time.

If this is how they "casualize Fire Emblem" I'll take it, because this is way better then the utter shitshow that was 3H's actual gameplay and map design. I'd consider Engage is a notably more involving FE to play then at least FE7-9 in terms of raw strategic gameplay and management. Even within the modern era I'd say it is about as hard as Conquest give or take.

 

[Waifuchu]

It is localized text with JP voices, you need to read moonrunes to get the intended script.

Well shit, maybe there will be a fan translation for Yuzu.

Engage is not for casuals, at least not if you factor in how unfriendly grinding is, how shit the MC is in combat (especially compared to byleth), how the maps force ambushes quite often to make turtling a bad option outside of like normal mode. Maddening mode has more intelligent AI in that they don't hit enemies they do 0 to or they can't fit, which makes them smarter then many classic AI because in Radiant Dawn you could just unequip Sothe and the enemies will always attack him for 0-3 damage of his 35 health.

I wish devs would stop lying in interviews, but I'd much rather they say it's for casual audiences when it isn't than the other way around. Or hell, maybe that interview was a botched translation too.

I actually enjoyed Fates overlooking the varying degrees of retarded the writing could be, so if Engage is just Fates 2.0 with hololive aesthetics, I can live with that.

 

[The Zekenator]

I wish devs would stop lying in interviews, but I'd much rather they say it's for casual audiences when it isn't than the other way around. Or hell, maybe that interview was a botched translation too.

It probably is for casuals if you play normal, but so is Radiant Dawn on Easy and that game is a cumbersome mess to play by casual standards even back in 2008. "Its for casuals because permadeath can be turned off and we made game journalism mode" is not really that huge of a causal favoritism as pretty much most games have something like this. The real game beyond game journalism mode is actually pretty legit and is a real game.

If anything this game has even less unit building and shit like that (which full blown casuals adore from what I've seen) then Awakening, Conquest, or 3H. You got your Emblem skills, and you don't get many of those for about 80% of the game, and you get a max of 2 inheritable skills and half of them are basic bitch stat passives and the really good ones take so long to get without grinding your ass off. I feel it answers a problem some people had with FE where the game had too many skills, but Engage has barely any. Enemies have like 2 most the time, only some select bosses have 4+.

Bosses also have multiple HP bars in this game so bosses don't get merced by one guy who can double them in kill boss maps, you tend to need your at least half your squad to one turn kill them and bosses are actual threats. The first axe boss guy in chapter 5 one hit half my units with a hand axe in hard mode and he two hits everyone else and he has about 80 hp you have to slam through. The only good side is his speed sucks so he is easy enough to double. He wasn't even alone, he moves with two cavaliers in order to back him up and get in your way. Bosses actually feel like threats in Engage, which is far more then I can say for most games in this series.

This is actually a pretty reasonably balanced FE.

 

[Waifuchu]

I can live with that. I like 3H, but it was more than a little silly how 90% of the combat could be solved by just throwing Byleth/Edelgard/Dimitri/Felix/Ferdinand at the enemy and sitting back with no further effort needed.

 

[NerdShamer]

I can live with that. I like 3H, but it was more than a little silly how 90% of the combat could be solved by just throwing Byleth/Edelgard/Dimitri/Felix/Ferdinand at the enemy and sitting back with no further effort needed.

Oh, this shit is in Engage. But it's mainly confined to the armor knights until an mage walks up to them.

 

[The Zekenator]

I can live with that. I like 3H, but it was more than a little silly how 90% of the combat could be solved by just throwing Byleth/Edelgard/Dimitri/Felix/Ferdinand at the enemy and sitting back with no further effort needed.

There's some sauce in this game, but every FE has some autistic LTC strat. This game has probably one of the best player phases of any FE though for how much you can accomplish due to how you strong you can make warp with Micaiah's broken emblem. I can't believe Micaiah is actually broken in this game, but miracles can happen.

Oh, this shit is in Engage. But it's mainly confined to the armor knights until an mage walks up to them.

Or chain attacks, unless you spend most your SP across the entire playthrough on the corrin skill to block those. Plus Maddening ignores armors they tink, so sometimes your armor can just get stuck trying to single attack its way through enemies.