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https://fecipher.jp/ Journey through distant roads across the lands of Magvel, Aytolis, and Valentia in the upcoming expansion of Fire Emblem Cipher, the Fire Emblem trading card game! The Fire Emblem Cipher TCG is a collectible card game based on the Fire Emblem series by Nintendo and Intelligent Systems. Though it has only been available in Japan and there's no word on an official English release, it is regularly updated with new sets and rules which keep it interesting for fans to talk about. Getting Started Despite the TCG only being available in Japanese, there are a number of resources made available by fans in English which provide information on what you need to know in order to collect the cards or even how to play the game. The best source, in my opinion, is the wiki guide written here, though you can also refer to the information on the official site linked above, albeit in Japanese. Basically: New collectors who want to own specific cards of their favorite characters should get an idea of how much they individually go for at the local retailers and try to buy/trade for them within the second hand market (fellow fans in various communities). This is generally more cost friendly than the easy route of buying them off online retailers like eBay, Amazon, or TCG Republic, so you can get a lot of mileage from doing research and knowing what's out there and at what prices. If you want to import sealed starter decks, boosters, or sleeves, I recommend buying through AmiAmi. New players can try owning any of the available starter decks to help them with learning, which are ready to play and are all suitable for introducing the game. Online simulators with English translations of all the cards are out there too! The one shared on the wiki is pretty popular, although I personally prefer playing with FECipherVit. New sets are released every few months and new promo cards are regularly distributed during the interims through various means (events, magazines, etc.), so there's constantly new stuff to glean over. If you really like the art, know that many illustrators of the card artwork tend to publicly upload the full illustrations via Twitter or Pixiv, usually after the release of a new set. Some might not be available though. Card Sets Series 11 will be out on December 7, but there have already been hundreds of different cards released since the TCG started in 2015, with each set focusing on specific groups of Fire Emblem titles. For a full list of cards, you can check them out here, or search the wiki. Series 12, which is confirmed to feature Fire Emblem Awakening, Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, will release early next year. Basic Rules In Fire Emblem Cipher, two players wage battle against each other using their army of characters, with the ultimate goal of claiming victory by defeating the opposing army's leader in combat until they can no longer be sustained by their five orbs. Each army's deck needs at least 50 cards to engage in battle, and unlike some other card games, running out of cards to draw from your deck just means you have to replenish your deck with all the cards left in your retreat to continue the battle, meaning the victory condition is all you have to focus on. Game Flow Each turn consists of these actions in the following order, which are divided into their own phases: Drawing a card from your deck Adding a card from your hand to the bond row Deploying units from your hand to the battlefield Attacking enemies, activating skills, or repositioning your units This goes back and forth between both players until one emerges as the battle's victor! Card Details Here's a quick rundown on what everything means on any card: Unit name - The name of the character depicted on the card. With the epithet, constitutes the card name. Epithet - A title distinguishing the unit from other different cards they may have. With the unit name, constitutes the card name. Power - A measure of the unit's strength when engaged in combat. Aid - A measure of the unit's strength when assisting an ally in combat. Range - Indicates how far the unit can attack in relation to their position on the battlefield. Class - Represents the unit's class and how seasoned they are. Skills - Normal skills the unit possesses, which grant various abilities. Assist skills - A type of skill which may only be activated when the unit is assisting an ally in combat. Field cost - The number of bonds needed to deploy the unit from your hand to the battlefield. Class change cost - The number of bonds needed to promote the already deployed unit to this card. Symbol - Denotes the unit's associated faction and color. Gender - The gender the unit is identified as. Weapon - The type of weapon the unit uses in combat. Types - Additional attributes of the unit if any, such as if they are a flier or armored. Further details on how the game plays can be found on the wiki. If there's anything you want clarification on, whether about the rules of the game or anything else regarding the cards, you're welcome to ask here!

http://fireemblemwarriors.nintendo.com/ Heroes from across the Fire Emblem universe collide in Fire Emblem Warriors on Nintendo Switch and New Nintendo 3DS, available starting October 20th! General discussion for FE Warriors goes here!

The Legend of Zelda got the Musou treatment a few years ago on Wii U and 3DS, and now it's Fire Emblem's turn. Fire Emblem Warriors combines the colorful characters of Nintendo's strategy RPG series with the visceral and over-the-top action of Musou games like Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors. Thoughtful, turn-based combat is traded for real-time action where hundreds of enemies charge at your heroes, heroes drawn from across the history of Fire Emblem (though largely from the more recent entries in the series). It may be quite a gameplay change for Fire Emblem but like peanut butter and chocolate the two come together perfectly. Nintendo fans familiar with Hyrule Warriors will see some immediate similarities with FEW: worlds collide when portals between different Fire Emblem universes open up, allowing various heroes to fight alongside one another. And just like in Hyrule Warriors there are a few original characters as well. Rowan and Lianna are the twin prince and princess of Aytolis, and they're the ones that bind the group together on their quest to prevent the revival of the evil dragon Velezark. The plot isn't exactly a complex piece of writing, but FEW is still first and foremost a game catering to fans who want to see their favorite characters interact with one another. It may not be an elaborate story but it's fun to see a bunch of characters team up and battle alongside one another. There are even some support conversations as in the main series which is a nice touch, especially when characters from different universes interact. Musou games are founded upon a very simple tenet: it is a lot of fun to destroy enemy armies. Sure you have specific goals on each map and there are sub missions to keep you occupied as well but when it comes down to it, games like FEW are satisfying just for the enjoyment of wrecking whole swathes of enemy soldiers and building your kill count as high as you can. Sure it can be a little mindless at times but it really is gratifying to play. And to be fair there is still an element of strategy at play here as well. It's not quite on the same level as the main Fire Emblem series, but it's enough that if all you're doing is knocking down enemies you're not going to win on some of the tougher maps. In FEW you're both fighter and tactician, and you need to keep an eye on the whole battlefield to know where your ass-kicking skills are most needed at any given moment. Allies may be in danger, powerful enemies may spawn in unexpected locations, or one area of the map may just be overrun. The game alerts you to these developments, though sometimes it's hard to tell exactly what is happening on the mini-map. Thankfully there are some important strategy tools at your disposal. You can pause the game to get a good look at the map and direct your characters to attack or defend certain points. You can also switch between characters at any time—the AI is simply never as effective as a player controlled character—so you can quickly move to whatever point needs you most. On the truly difficult maps it can feel like spinning plates, trying to keep your army afloat against overwhelming odds, but that just makes the victory all the more satisfying. FEW also takes a few cues from the Fire Emblem series to add a bit more nuance to the gameplay. FEW features the weapons triangle (sword beats axe, axe beats lance, lance beats sword) and when you have advantage over an enemy it's easier to stun them and deal heavy damage. You can only bring so many characters into each battle so you'll want to survey the map and plan accordingly as far as what weapons might be most useful. You can also pair up characters just like recent Fire Emblem games, adding a bit of offensive and defensive power to the main character. Some characters on the map are strictly there for support purposes but if you pair up two playable characters you can switch between the two and make better use of the weapon triangle to take down enemies. It's great to have a bit more strategy at play in the game, but on the flipside you aren't beholden to it. If you want you can fight lance users with a sword-wielding character—it'll be a little harder, but FEW also has RPG leveling, so if you are a few levels above your opponent you won't have much trouble cutting through them like paper anyway. If you really want to stick to using specific characters you can (for the most part; some maps do have requirements/restrictions on whom you can bring). And with twenty playable characters in the main game—with more as unlockables and DLC—you're bound to find some that are your favorites. Even outside of the different weapon classes there is a decent amount of variety in how each character fights, so replaying maps with different characters can feel a little different. And Musou games are gold mines for replay value. You can build up support levels between characters, raise levels, earn gold, and gather items for upgrading character skill trees. Suffice it to say that, if you want to 100% complete FEW, you'll be putting a lot of time into the game. And if those hours upon hours of gameplay aren't enough the game also has a string of DLC planned, some of which is even free. A lot of it can be pretty repetitive but it's still satisfying to destroy waves of enemies, even the hundredth time you've done it. FEW also features split-screen co-op, and the only thing better than decimating enemy armies is being able to do it with a buddy. Co-op can also make it easier to coordinate your units since you can just plan together what needs to be done and cover more ground. The downside is the game takes a pretty noticeable hit to performance with two players. When one player is using a special attack the frame rate drops, and since the game is rendering two characters at different locations there are a lot fewer enemies on screen—sometimes this can actually make it a lot harder to hit the bonus goal of 1,000 enemy kills in a single map. The mini-map is also poorly handled in co-op. Both players get their own mini-map which is not only completely unnecessary, but it makes actually seeing the details of the map difficult. Of course you can just pause the game and look at the map there but it really is silly to have separate maps with a split-screen view. It has been quite a while since Fire Emblem fans have gotten to see a game made for a home console rather than handheld, and never before in HD. As a fan of the series it's a lot of fun to see these characters on the big screen, with all of the flashy, over-the-top attacks that pause the battle just so you can drink in all of the destruction. Even if the normal soldiers are pretty faceless there's still something so satisfying about seeing whole waves of them get knocked down with each attack. The game also has a pretty solid rock soundtrack, fused with bits of familiar Fire Emblem themes, but you'd hardly know it while playing. During battle it seems like characters never stop talking, whether to announce some change in battle or spout out a one-liner before a special attack. It's not that the voice acting is poor, for the most part it's pretty good, but it's kind of shame that it steps on the soundtrack's toes so often. As a longtime fan of Fire Emblem it's so much fun to see how much the franchise's popularity has boomed over the past few years, to the point where it now has a spin-off largely catered to the fans. But where Fire Emblem is slower paced and strategic, Fire Emblem Warriors is fast, chaotic, and thrilling. It's a distinctly different style but the characters of Fire Emblem and the gameplay of the Musou series manage to blend perfectly in a game all about fast, rewarding action gameplay. This game doesn't do much to reinvent the Musou franchise—there is still an undeniably repetitive cycle to the way these games work—but at the end of the day it doesn't really need to. Fire Emblem Warriors is still a beautifully action-packed game, one that will reward tenacious players with hours upon hours of game time. The only question now is: what will be the next Nintendo franchise to get the Musou treatment? Rating: 8 out of 10 Emblems

https://fecipher.jp/ Deliver the justice across the lands of Zenith, Jugdral, and more in the upcoming expansion of Fire Emblem Cipher, the Fire Emblem trading card game! The Fire Emblem Cipher TCG is a collectible card game based on the Fire Emblem series by Nintendo and Intelligent Systems. Though it has only been available in Japan and there's no word on an official English release, it is regularly updated with new sets and rules which keep it interesting for fans to talk about. Getting Started Despite the TCG only being available in Japanese, there are a number of resources made available by fans in English which provide information on what you need to know in order to collect the cards or even how to play the game. The best source, in my opinion, is the wiki guide written here, though you can also refer to the information on the official site linked above, albeit in Japanese. Basically: New collectors who want to own specific cards of their favorite characters should get an idea of how much they individually go for at the local retailers and try to buy/trade for them within the second hand market (fellow fans in various communities). This is generally more cost friendly than the easy route of buying them off online retailers like eBay, Amazon, or TCG Republic, so you can get a lot of mileage from doing research and knowing what's out there and at what prices. If you want to import sealed starter decks, boosters, or sleeves, I recommend buying through AmiAmi. New players can try owning any of the available starter decks to help them with learning, which are ready to play and are all suitable for introducing the game. Online simulators with English translations of all the cards are out there too! The one shared on the wiki is pretty popular, although I personally prefer playing with FECipherVit. New sets are released every few months and new promo cards are regularly distributed during the interims through various means (events, magazines, etc.), so there's constantly new stuff to glean over. If you really like the art, know that many illustrators of the card artwork tend to publicly upload the full illustrations via Twitter or Pixiv, usually after the release of a new set. Some might not be available though. Card Sets Series 10 will be out on September 21, but there have already been hundreds of different cards released since the TCG started in 2015, with each set focusing on specific groups of Fire Emblem titles. For a full list of cards, you can check them out here, or search the wiki. Series 11, which is confirmed to feature Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Fire Emblem Warriors, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, will release later this year. Basic Rules In Fire Emblem Cipher, two players wage battle against each other using their army of characters, with the ultimate goal of claiming victory by defeating the opposing army's leader in combat until they can no longer be sustained by their five orbs. Each army's deck needs at least 50 cards to engage in battle, and unlike some other card games, running out of cards to draw from your deck just means you have to replenish your deck with all the cards left in your retreat to continue the battle, meaning the victory condition is all you have to focus on. Game Flow Each turn consists of these actions in the following order, which are divided into their own phases: Drawing a card from your deck Adding a card from your hand to the bond row Deploying units from your hand to the battlefield Attacking enemies, activating skills, or repositioning your units This goes back and forth between both players until one emerges as the battle's victor! Card Details Here's a quick rundown on what everything means on any card: Unit name - The name of the character depicted on the card. With the epithet, constitutes the card name. Epithet - A title distinguishing the unit from other different cards they may have. With the unit name, constitutes the card name. Power - A measure of the unit's strength when engaged in combat. Aid - A measure of the unit's strength when assisting an ally in combat. Range - Indicates how far the unit can attack in relation to their position on the battlefield. Class - Represents the unit's class and how seasoned they are. Skills - Normal skills the unit possesses, which grant various abilities. Assist skills - A type of skill which may only be activated when the unit is assisting an ally in combat. Field cost - The number of bonds needed to deploy the unit from your hand to the battlefield. Class change cost - The number of bonds needed to promote the already deployed unit to this card. Symbol - Denotes the unit's associated faction and color. Gender - The gender the unit is identified as. Weapon - The type of weapon the unit uses in combat. Types - Additional attributes of the unit if any, such as if they are a flier or armored. Further details on how the game plays can be found on the wiki. If there's anything you want clarification on, whether about the rules of the game or anything else regarding the cards, you're welcome to ask here!

The next playable character in Fire Emblem Warriors has been revealed via Famitsu, and it’s the final one of the royal siblings from Fire Emblem Fates, Sakura. Her main weapon is a bow, which she could use in Fates if she promoted into a Priestess. Edit: Forgot to add that Male Corrin is also confirmed. http://nintendoeverything.com/sakura-revealed-as-next-playable-character-in-fire-emblem-warriors/#disqus_thread

Cordelia and Female Robin confirmed for Fire Emblem Warriors!

https://fecipher.jp/ Uncover hidden strengths from across Valentia, Elibe, and Tellius in the upcoming expansion of Fire Emblem Cipher, the Fire Emblem trading card game! The Fire Emblem Cipher TCG is a collectible card game based on the Fire Emblem series by Nintendo and Intelligent Systems. Though it has only been available in Japan and there's no word on an official English release, it is regularly updated with new sets and rules which keep it interesting for fans to talk about. Getting Started Despite the TCG only being available in Japanese, there are a number of resources made available by fans in English which provide information on what you need to know in order to collect the cards or even how to play the game. The best source, in my opinion, is the wiki guide written here, though you can also refer to the information on the official site linked above, albeit in Japanese. Basically: New collectors who want to own specific cards of their favorite characters should get an idea of how much they individually go for at the local retailers and try to buy/trade for them within the second hand market (fellow fans in various communities). This is generally more cost friendly than the easy route of buying them off online retailers like eBay, Amazon, or TCG Republic, so you can get a lot of mileage from doing research and knowing what's out there and at what prices. If you want to import sealed starter decks, boosters, or sleeves, I recommend buying through AmiAmi. New players can try owning any of the available starter decks to help them with learning, which are ready to play and are all suitable for introducing the game. Online simulators with English translations of all the cards are out there too! The one shared on the wiki is pretty popular, although I personally prefer playing with FECipherVit. New sets are released every few months and new promo cards are regularly distributed during the interims through various means (events, magazines, etc.), so there's constantly new stuff to glean over. If you really like the art, know that many illustrators of the card artwork tend to publicly upload the full illustrations via Twitter or Pixiv, usually after the release of a new set. Some might not be available though. Card Sets Series 9 will be out on June 22, but there have already been hundreds of different cards released since the TCG started in 2015, with each set focusing on specific groups of Fire Emblem titles. For a full list of cards, you can check them out here, or search the wiki. Series 10, which is confirmed to feature Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest, Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright, and Fire Emblem Heroes, will release later this year. It has also been announced that Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones and Fire Emblem Warriors will be featured in a Cipher set release at some point this year, most likely in Series 11. Basic Rules In Fire Emblem Cipher, two players wage battle against each other using their army of characters, with the ultimate goal of claiming victory by defeating the opposing army's leader in combat until they can no longer be sustained by their five orbs. Each army's deck needs at least 50 cards to engage in battle, and unlike some other card games, running out of cards to draw from your deck just means you have to replenish your deck with all the cards left in your retreat to continue the battle, meaning the victory condition is all you have to focus on. Game Flow Each turn consists of these actions in the following order, which are divided into their own phases: Drawing a card from your deck Adding a card from your hand to the bond row Deploying units from your hand to the battlefield Attacking enemies, activating skills, or repositioning your units This goes back and forth between both players until one emerges as the battle's victor! Card Details Here's a quick rundown on what everything means on any card: Unit name - The name of the character depicted on the card. With the epithet, constitutes the card name. Epithet - A title distinguishing the unit from other different cards they may have. With the unit name, constitutes the card name. Power - A measure of the unit's strength when engaged in combat. Aid - A measure of the unit's strength when assisting an ally in combat. Range - Indicates how far the unit can attack in relation to their position on the battlefield. Class - Represents the unit's class and how seasoned they are. Skills - Normal skills the unit possesses, which grant various abilities. Assist skills - A type of skill which may only be activated when the unit is assisting an ally in combat. Field cost - The number of bonds needed to deploy the unit from your hand to the battlefield. Class change cost - The number of bonds needed to promote the already deployed unit to this card. Symbol - Denotes the unit's associated faction and color. Gender - The gender the unit is identified as. Weapon - The type of weapon the unit uses in combat. Types - Additional attributes of the unit if any, such as if they are a flier or armored. Further details on how the game plays can be found on the wiki. If there's anything you want clarification on, whether about the rules of the game or anything else regarding the cards, you're welcome to ask here!

DISCLAIMER: This is a reproduction of a thread on NS2, which has long since been lost to the flow of time. I am re-posting it here for archival purposes only, as it is the origin of an inside joke that few people would otherwise understand. The opinions expressed in this thread are solely those of the people being quoted, and do not reflect the views of N4A or any of its affiliates. Additionally, N4A is not responsible for any brain damage caused by prolonged exposure to this thread. Since I'm shit at editing, I'll just tag each post by putting the person's name in front of it. The_Ultimate_Mario_Fan: @DLurkster: The_Ultimate_Mario_Fan: @DLurkster: @Youngster Joey: @Carl321: @Chrom: @K The_Ultimate_Mario_Fan (from here on out referred to as TUMF): Sorry, but Romans ARE Italians. There's a reason Rome is known as "The Eternal City." Just because we call Rome part of Italy now doesn't mean Rome can't be considered Italian history as well. "Felicità" means "happiness" in Italian, so it does seem they are decidedly focusing on Italian themes, even if in ostensibly minor ways. I hope they continue to inject more of this culture into the game. Also, "if" in Italian is "se." I wonder if that means anything.... (SE.... Square Enix? :o) @K: Except you used the word culture not history, Roman culture is not italian culture. And no Romans are not italians. TUMF: No, it is, at least in a matter of speaking. It isn't current Italian culture, no, but historically Rome is inextricably tied with Italian history and its culture. Think of Rome as the Proto-Italy. And that second sentence is almost as dense as saying New Yorkers aren't Americans. @Chrom: The first two Fire Emblem games on the GBA also had some minor Italian flavor, for what it's worth. For example, there's a territory called Tuscany and an entire region named after Etruria. In fact, the whole continent of Elibe (the setting of the aforementioned games) is even shaped like Europe, so those games are rife with a ton of similar European references, although none as blatant as the Mouth of Truth monster. @K: That's not what your original sentence meant though, what you're saying now is that it's tied to Roman culture, which is true, but it's tied because roman artifacts an and ruins are in Italy and they have based their daily lives around those things. To say Roman culture is Italian culture is a fallacy. And Rome is in no way a Proto-Italy. Only if New Yorkers lived thousands of years ago and had been conquered a dozen or so times. Making that comparison is dense. TUMF: Uh dude, yes it is. "Proto" means "earliest" or "ancestral" and Rome indeed far predates the Italy as the way we know it today. Also, numerous Roman customs carried over into the Italian way of life. The Mouth of Truth has since been adopted as a quintessential part of Italian cultural history as well. So many aspects of Rome have been enmeshed with the Italians that you can't just cleanly separate them like that, especially considering that Rome hasn't exactly changed locations. And let me just make sure: Are you aware that Romans still exist? Yes? Then you'll see how silly you sound. Ancient Romans on the other hand technically aren't Italian because Italy didn't exist yet. However, it isn't a stretch to call these Romans a part of Italian history, as without Rome, the Italy we know today basically wouldn't exist. Now let's please get back on topic. @K: Clearly you don't get how proto is used, just because they were a civilization that existed in the same space as the current italy and borrowed some customs doesn't mean they were Proto-Italians, they were completely different culturally. And I didn't say you couldn't say that there are parts of Italian culture tied to Roman culture I said that Italian Culture is not Roman culture. You know I was talking about Ancient Romans, or did you not read when I was talking about thousands of years ago. You even saying something like that just makes you seem spiteful. And I said from the beginning that I wasn't arguing that Romans weren't part of Italian history, I've been arguing your use of the word culture this whole time and yet you seem to not get that. TUMF: That's what I'm trying to get through to you: Romans were not "completely" different culturally--which also depends on what era of Italy you are drawing a comparison with--and were the same geographically. "Proto" can indeed be used here. Your point of contention was that the Mouth of Truth is not Italian, which simply isn't true--it is both Italian AND Roman. I frankly found it disrespectful that you would deny this artifact is in any way Italian when it has resided in Italy for centuries (millennia geographically), regardless of its origin, but to each his own. Italian is one of the few things I take very seriously around here and if I have learned anything from this prattle, it's that you're exceedingly persnickety when it comes to subjective semantics. For the record, I never said nor meant that Italian culture was the same as Ancient Roman culture. @K: So you would call Roman Armor Italian Armor as well? America isn't completely culturally different from Rome or Japan or Irish. There isn't a culture out there that doesn't take some small things from another, but if you're gonna tell me that Italian culture is even close to what Roman culture was then you're sadly misinformed. You know arguing semantics is not an insult right? You said things that were incorrect and now your saying that's not what you meant? @Iridium: This would almost be a good comparison if you'd at least said "New Yorkers aren't English", considering that that's far closer to what you're trying to compare it to. They were English at one point. Aspects of English culture carried into their society. That doesn't make them the successor to England or Modern Englishmen or anything like that. English history/culture/society, for the most part, is not the history/culture/society of New York. @Malkon: TUMF: It wasn't intended to be an insult, it was a tired statement. And please point out where I say the Italian and Ancient Roman cultures are the same, because I never did. However, I cannot agree that Ancient Rome, and especially Rome, shares no relation with Italy or its history and culture. The Romans and Ancient Romans are different, my friend. If you want to trade blows, take it to PMs. In the interest of conserving space, I'm cutting it off here at the end of page 1. Pages 2 and 3 will be up sometime after dinner.

So I saw this on GoNintendo earlier today but this trailer was shown at the 2017 Japan Expo. Believe it confirms Male Robin, Frederick, Lissa and Lucina. It could just be a confirmation for them being in the story. Pick a God and Pray!

http://fireemblemechoes.nintendo.com/ Intro Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia is an enhanced remake of the second game in the Fire Emblem series, Fire Emblem Gaiden, which was originally released exclusively for the Famicom in 1992. In the game, players lead Alm and Celica along parallel paths in a quest to bring peace to a war-torn land through turn-based strategic battles. Now remade, remastered, and releasing outside of Japan for the first time ever, players can embark on the adventure on Nintendo 3DS with new features, including full voice acting, animated cutscenes, and new story content. In addition to the standard retail version and digital edition on Nintendo eShop, the Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia Limited Edition has been made available too. Along with the retail version, comes with: Valentia Artbook (~40 pages) Reversible title sheet (designed after the original Fire Emblem Gaiden cover) Sound Selection CD (30 tracks) Pin Set (Alm, Celica, Marth) Features Explore Dungeons in 3D In a series first, players can explore dungeons in full 3D environments. Dive deep into what lies ahead, collecting treasure and engaging enemies in real time (though the actual battles are still in classic Fire Emblem fashion). Difficulty Options When you start a new game, you can choose options such as Classic Mode, where fallen warriors are gone forever, or Casual Mode, where the fallen return in the next battle. Relationships Position heroes next to each other on the battlefield and you may get to see extra conversations between characters. There are no mechanics tied to an avatar, marriage, or children like in Fire Emblem Awakening or Fire Emblem Fates. Tour the Towns You can visit towns and villages to talk to locals, look for items, and get quests. You may even meet new recruits to add to your armies. Experience Need to level up certain characters? Use them to explore 3D dungeons as many times as you like. Choose Your Battles Keep an eye on the map for new enemies that pop up in areas you’ve visited—then go get ‘em. Mila's Turnwheel You can use this special function during battle to revert back to a previous turn...helpful if you make a bad choice. amiibo With the Alm and Celica amiibo figures releasing alongside the game (exclusively as a two-pack in North America, individually elsewhere), you can challenge special dungeons. Test your mettle to see if you have what it takes to overcome them. In addition, you can tap an amiibo of a Fire Emblem character during battle to summon an ally in their likeness to assist you for one turn. The Alm and Celica amiibo can also store data so that you can retain their stats as they grow stronger. And if you don't have any amiibo of Fire Emblem characters, any other amiibo will work too and summon a random monster ally. DLC Build up your army with purchasable downloadable content. Some packs let you farm for items, experience, or in-game currency, while others offer more story content or add new characters. Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia offers five different DLC packs that will be released weekly starting at launch, but you may buy them all in advance with a single purchase via the season pass at a discount ($44.99 USD) versus buying each piece of DLC individually. Fledgling Warriors Pack ($7.99 USD): A bundle of maps and a dungeon designed to aid novice warriors in the opening stages of their adventure. Undaunted Heroes Pack ($9.99 USD): A bundle of maps and a dungeon designed to aid seasoned champions in the latter stages of their adventure. Lost Altars Pack ($14.99 USD): A set of altars that grant power beyond normal human limits to those that are worthy. Each of these maps allows a character that has reached their maximum level to move up. Rise of the Deliverance Pack ($12.99 USD): A prequel pack of four maps tracing the war waged by the Deliverance. It occurs shortly before the start of Alm's tale. Cipher Companions Pack ($5.99 USD): Each pack in this two-pack set introduces two exclusive characters from the Japanese Fire Emblem Cipher trading card game. The characters will also be usable in the main game and will be fully voiced. For more information on DLC, you can check out this page: http://fireemblemechoes.nintendo.com/dlc/ Trailers Here's a collection of official videos by Nintendo promoting the game. Also included here as a bonus is Nintendo Minute's unboxing video of the Limited Edition. Launch Trailer Extended TV Cut Warring Gods Zofia's Call Two Armies 'A Master Class in Strategy' DLC Briefing Limited Edition Unboxing – Nintendo Minute Enjoy the game!

With the advent of the first new details about the upcoming Fire Emblem Warriors for Nintendo Switch and New Nintendo 3DS, Koei Tecmo has just launched the official site for the game, as well as an official Twitter account (@FireEmblemMusou) for the Japanese audience. The site at this time mostly just provides the same details as the preliminary info that was recently published by Famitsu (summarized in English here), but even more information is expected to arrive soon, as the Twitter account has posted that they intend to provide daily updates on the game. The game's planned release for fall 2017 is still a ways off, but in the meantime, these daily Twitter updates should prove to help make the wait more interesting as we learn more and more about the game over the next few months. Thus, the purpose of this topic is to facilitate any discussion regarding these forthcoming updates. Feel free to share or talk about any of them! To start, the Twitter account itself has revealed one entirely new detail: the presence of Anna, who serves as something of a series mascot for Fire Emblem, so it's little surprise to see that she serves a role in this new title. Whether or not she is actually playable has yet to be revealed!

When Fire Emblem finally made its international debut in 2003 with the GBA game, it was actually the seventh game in a series already well regarded in Japan. For several years American players didn't have a chance to play those earlier six games, until Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, a remake of the first game, released on the DS in 2009. It's been close to a decade since then but Nintendo has finally treated its international Fire Emblem fans to another taste of those early strategy adventures with Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, a remake of the second game in the series, Fire Emblem Gaiden. Shadows of Valentia isn't just a glimpse into the history of Fire Emblem though. Similar to Zelda II this sequel deviated from several of the features from the first game that would go on to become series norms. Shadows of Valentia retains most of these quirks while adding new features familiar to modern players to make one of the more unusual but just as captivating Fire Emblem games. The basic story of Valentia my seem familiar for anyone that has played a previous Fire Emblem game: the two nations of Rigel and Zofia are fundamentally opposed to one another in ideology, and when a coup kills the king of Zofia a war erupts on the continent of Valentia. There's more intrigue at play here though with missing royal heirs, as well as a missing goddess. It's a fine backdrop for a Fire Emblem story made better by a strong cast of characters. Alm and Celica share the spotlight as the key protagonists, and despite a childhood friendship find themselves on separate quests across Valentia. Their interactions with one another and the rest of the cast prove compelling, especially since there are essentially two armies in the game (Alm's and Celica's) so it doesn't feel like there are as many fluff characters as you might encounter in past Fire Emblems. The characters have a realistic amount of depth in their support conversations–after C level at least, many of which are oddly abrupt–and by the final plot twists of the game it's easy to care for all of them. As mentioned Shadows of Valentia retains many of the unique features of the original Gaiden. One of the more significant ones is dungeon exploration, where you can explore small caves and shrines to find treasure and battle monsters (battles are in the traditional strategy map grid). It feels strange for a Fire Emblem game at first, but it's a novel feature and a fun change of pace. The enemies within these dungeons are generally push-overs and you can get advantage on them before the battle by striking them, which makes them ideal for training weak units. On the other hand these battles can be so easy at times that it feels like you're wading through battle fodder, which can be fatiguing–literally, in this game's case. The fatigue system is brought back from Thracia 776, so when you use one unit a lot in battle they might tire out which causes their stats to drop. It's pretty much a non-issue in Shadows of Valentia though. For one, fatigue isn't a serious factor in normal battles, so it only has an effect in dungeons. For two, although fatigue carries over from one battle to the next, fatigue accrues slowly (thanks to the easy battles) and it is extremely easy to recover fatigue with healing items. Fatigue isn't the fun novelty that dungeon exploration is, but neither is it a weight on the player. Shadows of Valentia also lacks the familiar weapon triangle that has been a staple of the series for years (although the weapon triangle was not in Gaiden either). This is another feature that can feel jarring to veteran players, especially since it is mostly noticeable on weaker units who no longer have the crutch of a small boost to hit rate. Aside from the fact that your units' hit rate will be lower than average for other games you'll probably forget about the lack of a weapon triangle after the first few maps. More interesting is the weapon system itself in Shadows of Valentia, where weapons are equipped as items and you can only have one at a time. Weapons don't break, and after a unit repeatedly uses a weapon they'll learn an art–a special attack. Arts are an interesting addition; they're not useful in every situation since you can't attack twice with the majority of them, but every so often you need just a little extra power to finish off an enemy and arts become a valuable asset. And since you can't carry multiple weapons like other games, arts can sometimes fill the role of a different weapon, like adding +1 to your attack range. The downside is you don't get to keep the art if you change weapons, but Shadows of Valentia does have a weapon forge so you can improve weapons to keep them useful. It's a new way of planning out how best to equip your army for a Fire Emblem game, and although equipping only one weapon seems more simple there is still a satisfying degree of forethought necessary. Another surprising quirk of Shadows of Valentia and Gaiden is that magic requires health to cast, and the more powerful the magic the more costly it is. At first this system sounds kind of crazy, especially for a strategy game where making sure you have just enough health to survive the enemy's turn can sometimes be crucial. It definitely adds another layer to how you lay your plans. Mages end up feeling particularly delicate, especially if their maximum health isn't high to begin with. But as with everything in Fire Emblem it's manageable with a little strategic planning, especially since there are several spells that have a range of 3, so it's easy to keep mages out of the line of fire. And more importantly, magical attacks are far too valuable in this game to recoil at the sight of a few lost hit points. Resistance seems to be the dump stat of choice for just about every enemy type–and your own characters as well–so a good mage is worth the calculated risk. Easily the most useful oddity of Shadows of Valentia is Mila's Turnwheel, a feature entirely unique to this game. Every Fire Emblem player has had a moment that they wish they could undo, whether it's a character's death, a bad level-up, or a rage-inducing miss despite a 92% chance to hit. If the result was truly unforgivable players would routinely restart the entire battle, sometimes losing an hour or more of time. With Mila's Turnwheel players can turn back time by a single move or more to correct these mistakes. This can be hugely valuable, though there's a limit on the number of uses you have in a single battle (or a single dungeon) which prevents it from being completely overpowered. Of course, die-hard traditionalists can just ignore it, but for players that don't mind the game taking a bit of pity on them a bad move no longer has to be a catastrophic one. Of course, not every preserved quirk of the original Gaiden is necessarily to Shadows of Valentia's credit. Most notably the map design is a bore. And not just in the sense of uninteresting designs or repetitive objectives (most are rout the enemy), but annoying designs such as huge fields with one funnel that requires you to slowly move characters through. Enemy armies aren't always the most interesting either, with small numbers and little variety. Battles within dungeons are perhaps understandably simple, but even many of the main story battles tend to be surprisingly uncomplex. There is a bit of a feeling of quantity over quality battles in Shadows of Valentia. That's not to say the game is easy. There are still challenging moments, and perhaps the biggest challenge is the abysmal growth rates of most characters, which really makes the lack of a weapon triangle sting. Hit percentages can seem almost comically low, oftentimes not worth the risk in a different Fire Emblem game. None of this makes Shadows of Valentia too frustrating per se, but overall the core map and battle design of Gaiden could have used a bit of an overhaul for this remake. It's a Fire Emblem game so there's nothing fancy to learn about the controls–just about the only noteworthy aspect is that the N3DS c-stick is useful for camera control while exploring dungeons. Speaking of N3DS, Shadows of Valentia also supports amiibo. Any amiibo can be used to summon a random ally for one turn, or a Fire Emblem amiibo can summon that specific character (i.e. a Marth amiibo summons Marth). The only problem is that summoning an ally not only costs Alm's or Celica's turn, it costs them 10HP. This has a weird catch-22 effect for amiibo usefulness: having an extra unit would be most beneficial in early maps, but those are the times when losing 10HP would be the biggest problem. Conversely, by the time that health isn't as much of a concern you probably wouldn't have much use for an amiibo fighter, especially at the expense of Alm or Celica attacking directly. amiibo rarely have a profound effect on any game anyway though so it's not a huge loss having the amiibo in this game be only quasi useful. More importantly, Shadows of Valentia released alongside its own amiibo, one for Alm and one for Celica. In addition to being quite nicely detailed the amiibo unlock bonus dungeons with challenging enemies that, once defeated, drop valuable items and weapons. On one hand it's a nice boon for anyone dedicated enough to buy yet more amiibo, but it still would have been nice if the bonus dungeons had been more like real dungeons, with twists and turns to explore. Instead these are pretty much just a series of battles, and although the rewards are great the dungeons are a bit bland. Finally we come to the visual and aural features of Shadows of Valentia which are, perhaps surprisingly, pretty great. Obviously there is not much room for visual design in a grid-based strategy game, and even the newly rendered 3D dungeons lack panache, but the character design in this game is beautiful. The colors have a blown out, softer style that gives the game a misty, ethereal look that is captivating. Perhaps it is simply the change of pace from the past two Fire Emblem games but the character art looks great, plus you get to see it more often since while you are in villages you can see full body portraits of random characters. And although there aren't many cutscenes they don't look half bad either, though they don't leave nearly as much of an impression. The game's visuals are complemented by a quality soundtrack and excellent voice work. Part of the charm of many of the characters comes from their lively voice acting which does a great job of bringing out their personalities. Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia straddles the line between old and new, creating an experience wholly unique and yet still recognizably Fire Emblem. The many quirks of Gaiden may still seem bizarre now, 25 years later, but they have a fun value in their own way, and are a good reminder that even beloved franchises deserve some wiggle room to experiment with new features. Speaking of which, the new features for this remake help keep the game accessible even to inexperienced players, and builds up on some of the areas where the original game was lacking. Outside of the unfortunate retention of uninspired map design Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia is a fantastic and fantastically unusual turn-based strategy adventure. Rating: 9 out of 10 Emblems

https://kantopia.wordpress.com/2017/05/28/fire-emblem-awakening-nintendo-dream-first-year-anniversary-developer-interview-june-2013/ Some pretty interesting stuff.

http://gematsu.com/2017/05/fire-emblem-warriors-adds-twin-original-protagonists-marth-chrom The next issue of Famitsu has the first new details on Fire Emblem Warriors, and from what we're able to take away from it so far, there's a lot of new info. Fire Emblem Warriors will tell the story of two new protagonists, Shion and Lian of the kingdom of Idris (names subject to change, presumably they're of royalty), which is engulfed in war. Legendary characters from the many different worlds of Fire Emblem appear to take up arms and join their cause, as we can see as Marth (from Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon) here in contact with their world. The Hero-King himself wields of the Blade of Light, Falchion. Chrom (from Fire Emblem Awakening) is also teased in a silhouette earlier in the magazine feature, though his inclusion is nothing new since he was confirmed in the original trailer for the game. There's a lot of smaller info that gives more insight on what the game is like, from the article: Fire Emblem Warriors will release for Nintendo Switch and New Nintendo 3DS this fall.

Apologies for the shit video quality. I don't have time to do a full let's play of the game right now, but I think it's really neat that I now own an English cart of FE6 that I can play on an actual handheld. If you guys want, I can try playing a bit further into the game to see if anything weird happens.

http://www.metacritic.com/game/3ds/fire-emblem-echoes-shadows-of-valentia/critic-reviews http://www.gamerankings.com/3ds/204443-fire-emblem-echoes-shadows-of-valentia/index.html Critic reviews for Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia are in! Here are a couple of them, with more at the previous links. Gaming Nexus - 9.5/10 GameSpot - 9/10 Cubed3 - 9/10 Nintendo Life - 9/10 IGN - 7.8/10 Destructoid - 7.5/10 Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia will be released for Nintendo 3DS in North America and Europe on May 19.

The upcoming Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia game, which launches exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems on May 19, is a massive game filled to the brim with content. For players who want to extend their adventure even further, five major DLC packs are coming to the game starting on May 19, adding more maps, dungeons, characters and items. Season Pass (May 19, $44.99, 22 pieces of content): The Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia Season Pass includes all five DLC packs as they release. By purchasing the Season Pass, fans who want to receive all DLC will save more than 30 percent compared to purchasing all 22 pieces of content on their own. DLC Pack #1 – Fledgling Warriors Pack (May 19, $7.99, three pieces of content): Ideal for early- to mid-game adventurers, this pack includes a new dungeon (The Astral Temple) and two new maps, great for gaining more items, money and experience points. DLC Pack #2 – Undaunted Heroes Pack (May 25, $9.99, three pieces of content): In addition to a new dungeon (The Inner Sanctum), this pack also includes two challenging new maps that stronger, more seasoned heroes will want to tackle. DLC Pack #3 – Lost Altars Pack (May 25, $14.99, 10 pieces of content): The mysterious dungeons included in this pack hold the power to upgrade characters to exclusive classes that don’t appear in the main game. DLC Pack #4 – Rise of the Deliverance Pack (June 1, $12.99, four pieces of content): Discover the previously untold history of Valentia in this Prologue pack. Complete with new story content and additional voice acting that details the rise of the Deliverance in Zofia, this collection of challenging maps includes new support conversations between selected heroes, as well as the ability to take command of a character players won’t be able to control in the main game. DLC Pack #5 ($5.99, two pieces of content): More information about this final DLC pack will be revealed in the future. All of these packs, as well as the individual components included in each pack, can be purchased separately, giving players the flexibility to buy as many or as few as they want. While Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia features all this great paid DLC, free downloadable content will also be released for the game after launch for a limited time, starting on May 19. The first free content is a special gift from Goddess Mila and can be obtained when playing the game. For more details about the game’s DLC, visit http://fireemblemechoes.nintendo.com/dlc. Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia launches for Nintendo 3DS on May 19 at a suggested retail price of $39.99. A limited-edition bundle for the game will launch on the same day at a suggested retail price of $59.99. Also launching on May 19 are the Alm and Celica amiibo figures, available only as a set at a suggested retail price of $24.99. For more information about Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia visit http://fireemblemechoes.nintendo.com/.

https://fecipher.jp/ Enter the crossroads of fate with Ylisse and Jugdral in the upcoming expansion of Fire Emblem Cipher, the Fire Emblem trading card game! Basic Rules In Fire Emblem Cipher, players create their own army of characters from the Fire Emblem universe, with one of their characters being assigned the role of the leader of the army during battle. Any card with a Field Cost of 1 can act as the army's leader, so many of your favorite characters can step up to the front line and guide your way to victory! A player's army is contained in a single deck, which must contain at least 50 cards in order to do battle. There are a variety of themed starter decks that you may purchase to get ready to play, or you can buy booster packs for even more ways to strategize. Or you can just collect them, that's fine too. The objective of any battle in Fire Emblem Cipher is to best your opponent's army with the strength of your own. Draw a card from your deck to your hand and choose which one to set as a bond card in your bond row each turn, having them serve as the resource for deploying the cards from your hand to the battlefield by paying their respective Field Cost or Class Change Cost with your bond cards. Then, after your preparations have been made, direct your units to utilize their skills and combat prowess to overcome their enemies! To win the battle, you must defeat the leader of your opponent's army before they do to your own. Each army leader carries a shield, the Fire Emblem, equipped with five orbs that protect them from falling in combat each time they normally would otherwise. However, each defeat of a Leader instead shatters one orb, and if no orbs remain when a leader is defeated in combat once more, they will fall and the opposing army claims victory! Of course, your leader isn't battling alone. Other members of your army can join up in the battlefield and fight alongside your leader, each with their own unique skills and traits. To do this, you must deploy your units from your hand to the battlefield by paying a cost. This cost is paid by counting the number of cards set in your bond row, which are called bond cards, and at least one of them must have a symbol (color) that matches the card you wish to deploy. You may only add a bond card to your bond row once per turn, and cards set in the bond row cannot join the battlefield, so choose wisely! Put simply, you may deploy any number of cards from your hand to the battlefield that can total up to the number of bond cards that are set in your bond row each turn. Command your units to attack your opponent's and defeat them in combat to remove them from the battlefield and send them to their retreat. In this game, defenders do not counterattack, so attacks that fail to defeat an opponent will not cause anyone to lose their lead units. When a round of combat begins, both players draw a card from the top of their decks and assign them to their support space. Cards set in the support space become a partner and team up with their friendly lead unit to assist them by lending their aid and utilizing support skills. To determine the winning side of a round of combat, compare the sums of the lead unit's power (left number) and the partners's aid (right number). If the offense side's combined strength is greater than or equal to the defense side's, then the offense wins and the defender is sent to their retreat. If the offense side's combined strength is not, then nothing happens to either lead unit. When combat resolves, the partners of both sides will always go to their retreat, regardless of the outcome of combat (unless otherwise stated). Check out the official introduction video to see another explanation of the basics on how to play. For more rules, check out the official how to play guide (Japanese), EmblemWiki's comprehensive rules, and ShadowDrifter's in-depth video tutorial. Refer to all of that before asking any questions. Please note that some terms used therein may not match the terms used in this topic. FECipherVit (online play) Card list Starter decks and booster packs Series 8, featuring characters from Fire Emblem Awakening and Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, releases March 16 2017.

The Japanese ROM has been leaked online as of this morning, ahead of its official release on April 20. We're about to learn pretty much everything about the game this week. To facilitate discussion about Fire Emblem Echoes before its English release on May 19, you may do so here. We recently learned that the game will bring back base conversations, a medal/achievement system, and a new chapter after the end of the game. There's also a rumor going on that female Corrin could potentially be getting an amiibo to be compatible with the game in addition to male Corrin.

http://gematsu.com/2017/03/fire-emblem-echoes-introduces-two-new-characters-unit-movement-rewind-system New information about Fire Emblem Echoes from Famitsu! We may get more info really soon, but here's a start. Note: "Effie" is just the character's Japanese name and is not to be confused with the Fates character; PAX East gameplay videos show that her official English name is Faye. In addition, Mila's Gear is most likely called Mila's Turnwheel in the official English release based on these same gameplay videos, which you can watch here. I've included one of these below for your convenience. If you pay attention, you may even notice a few more things, like the reference to weapon forging or the bond growth animation. Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia will be out on Nintendo 3DS on April 20 in Japan and on May 19 in North America and Europe.

Once upon a time, Archers were considered a shit-tier class. Their inability to attack from a single tile away (and, more damningly, to counter-attack during the enemy phase) caused most players to ignore them in favor of Mages, or multi-range weapons like Javelins and Hand Axes. But then, in Radiant Dawn, all that changed. In the thirteenth chapter of the third "part", there dwelled a lone bow-user, clad in the golden yellow of "ally" units. As the pitifully under-leveled Dawn Brigade faced wave after wave of Laguz reinforcements, this nameless Archer simply laughed in their faces as he effortlessly blocked their advances. In time, this man came to be known as the "3-13 Archer", and it was decreed that from that day forward, the thirteenth day of the third month would be dedicated to celebrating this once-thought-useless class. Anyone who's seen my LP of FE6 already knows about my grandma Dorothy, but this year, I have a few more candidates: In my LP of FE3, Castor tragically passed away in an Arena-related accident (I bet Catria was responsible for this). So, I picked Jeorge as my Parthia user as a replacement. And he did a damn good job. But it wasn't until Heroes came out that I truly began to appreciate him as a unit. As the very first 5-star unit that I ever pulled, he's gotten me out of several tough spots, and my team wouldn't be the same without him. Next up we have Eleonora from Hashtag Effie. From the get-go, she avoids most of the negative things associated with Archers due to the game's status as a JRPG instead of a turn-based strategy game. She also has access to a good range of elemental strikes, and as the only bow-user in the party, she's useful to have around when fighting against Blackscale Riders late in the game. Be sure to check out her upcoming movie, Arrow of Destiny! So, on this March 13th, who are YOUR favorite Archers in the Fire Emblem series? Since Fates went and fucked everything up, Outlaws and Apothecaries are also accepted.

Nintendo has released a new trailer for Fire Emblem Echoes! Have a new look at dialogue, gameplay, and cutscenes in English. While we're here, also feel free to check out the official site for North America for more information about the game. Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia will be out on Nintendo 3DS on April 20 in Japan and on May 19 in North America and Europe.

Whew. My love for you is so big that I almost can't fit it into a single photo. In fact, there is a distinct possibility that it might have inspired the creation of a side-character in Tokyo Mirage Sessions. And thanks to the aforementioned side-character from Hashtag Effie, I can now feed you something that you canonically like instead of just discount Valentine candy from two weeks prior. But that's not what's important. What's important is that we've been "together" for about eight years now, give or take a few millennia between Shadow Dragon and Awakening. I'm sure that most people reading this will just see it as yet another one of those pictures of a weeaboo offering a snack to an anime girl on a screen. And they'd be right. But it's also a celebration of a fictional character who encourages me to be a better person. Where do I even begin? I suppose I should start with when I first laid eyes on her... First of all, the idea of a cute little girl transforming into a powerful dragon is both awesome, hilarious, and adorable at the same time. And since I'd already played Sacred Stones, I knew that they were awesome in combat, too. However, while Myrrh's Dragonstone could only be used a finite number of times before it broke, Tiki could also use Bantu's Firestones (which were all-but guaranteed to have full durability due to Bantu himself being shit). So, right off the bat, I was getting a more practical version of a unit that I already liked. And even without Bantu's Firestones, Tiki joined in a chapter where you got an item that prevents weapon degeneration, which allowed me to use her even-more-powerful Divinestone with no consequences. But it wasn't just her combat prowess that drew me in. There was also... this: This wasn't just a typical "enemy soldier who suddenly decides to join you for no apparent reason". This was a little girl. A sad, lonely little girl. A little girl that had been locked away in her room for centuries by her own parent out of fear that her own power would destroy her mind. I mean, sure, I may also be a shut-in, but that's my own choice. Tiki didn't have that choice. And now, thanks to Marth's efforts, she could finally be happy. And I wanted to protect that smile. While I could discuss how awesome she was in New Mystery due to the new Dragonstones she got to play with, but that would fall back unto treating her as merely a unit in a strategy game. And Tiki is far more to me than that. When I found out that Tiki was romanceable in Awakening, I was already planning on marrying her from the get-go. But I had no idea that her characterization in this game would cause my love for her to transcend the game. Throughout my life, I've had to leave friends behind due to changing schools, graduating, and other life-changing events. To make matters worse, at each new school, I was always encouraged (sometimes forced) to interact with new people. And I always said to myself, "What's the point? Why should I bother trying to become friends with these people if I'm just going to be forced to leave them behind when I graduate? It'd be much better if I just never made friends with them at all." By the time Awakening takes place, Marth has been dead for thousands of years. A common theme in Tiki's support conversations is that, as a Manakete, she is cursed to watch her loved ones die of old age while she remains young forever. And yet despite this, does she seal herself back in the Ice Dragon Temple like Gotoh ordered? No. Instead, she goes out of her way to make friends with Chrom's party, even knowing full well that she will outlive them. But why does she do this? Well, her confession quote sums it up perfectly: "I know that to love another, I must watch the world move past him. But such short years make an eternity worth living!" To me, Tiki isn't just a waifu. She's a reminder that just because you'll eventually be separated from somebody, doesn't mean that it's not worth it to know them in the first place. Happy Birthday, Tiki. May we be together until Chrom finishes FE1... and beyond.

Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of the release of Fire Emblem Fates in the US. Much like the thread we had on the other site one year after Awakening, let's have a discussion on the pros and cons of the game, as well as how our opinions of it may have changed over the past year. When it first came out, Fates received a lot of flack for: *Splitting the game into two separate campaigns that must be bought separately. *The presence of a third, "canon" campaign that renders the major decision that the game was hyped around completely pointless. *Locking said "canon" campaign behind a paywall. *The retarded story. *The controversy surrounding Soleil's supports with M!Corrin. *Poor in-game justification for the return of Awakening's children mechanic. *The castrated English localization, featuring removal of swimsuits, the face-petting minigame, and friend-zoning M!Kanna and all of Soleil's S-Supports barring Forrest and M!Corrin. ...among other things. But surely there must be some good things about the game(s)? After all, it did outsell Awakening (the game that saved the franchise from cancellation). What did you like (or hate) about Fire Emblem Fates?