In which I offer rebuttal to various (but valid) criticisms on FE13

Fire Emblem: Awakening is the latest entry in the Fire Emblem franchise, as many people likely have heard of by now.  Heck, it's one of the few Fire Emblem titles to receive televised commercial advertisements in America (a very rare phenomena for non SquareEnix RPGs, in comparison to the genre in general).  So, I was reading a more-or-less rant by some tool who was displeased with the game, so much as to label the game bad.  But, how bad is or isn't it?  With only my general knowledge of the game, I will offer counterpoints on all of their incessant whining.

(any spoiler-ish content will be omitted as much as possible)

1.  "The story. ... The charming simplicity of past games' stories has been replaced by a wonky Sci-Fi/fantasy hybrid that aims for epic and ends up cluttered, confused, and strangely uninteresting."

 If one reads the articles pertaining to the game developers' thoughts and original drafts for this entry, this is actually what we nearly ended up with -- "Fire Emblem IN SPACE!".  Obviously IS wanted a new spin on their old formula and they went with it which is why you'll find elements of science-fiction in the plot of FE13.  If this really unnerves you, play Radiant Dawn and tell me which game feels more "confused and uninteresting".  Also, does the fanbase really want a title that ONCE AGAIN deals strictly with political conflicts that only stem from social hiccups?  Oh yes, Awakening has that but at least they're daring enough to add more, which seems to one as me as the entire focal point of this title--it's Fire Emblem... and more.


--their second complaint was entirely a spoiler element, skipping--


3. "Support conversations. ... While there's plenty of character development, the characterization is never particularly good. There's a more nuanced conversation to be had here, but a quick example should explain what I mean: compare Erk, from FE7, to Ricken. Erk is a young mage like Ricken, but also ambitious and fiercely intelligent, often to a fault; he's got a quick wit, a sharp tongue, and a short temper. He's bad with women. Despite his cool outer appearance, he fatigues easily and obsesses over his master. He feels like a believable and complex human being despite his limited screen time. Ricken feels like a generic anime stereotype with a bit of backstory."

The fault here is the characterization is entirely the choice of the original developers who are based in Japan and thus, cater essentially to themes of escapism that appeal to the audience in the east.  A lot of the so-called personality the plaintiff claims to be present in Erk (who btw is only 15 years old and sounds like he has the persona of a 25 year old easily) is entirely the result of the localization team grasping at straws.  In the case of FE13, the characters ARE anime stereotypes and whether or not one can feel endeared by this is solely up to the player's discretion.  Personally, Erk is way too developed for an individual who hasn't even finished puberty--and there is beauty to be found in simplicity.  If you want a believable ~13 year old boy, who actually shows profound maturity (if still naivety) at occasional moments (especially his introductory chapter), Ricken is your man.  You will also find a few characters who were polished up a little for the western audience though; Olivia can be a bit too "soft" in the source material (intentional, her trope is "moe") and clearly shows a more proactive mindset in her support conversations with the Avatar/My Unit.


4. "Balance. Or more specifically, the lack of balance. Nosferatu is broken. MU is broken. Frederick is broken. SpotPass content, DLC, and Renown items can trivialize any difficulty mode. You can elect not to take advantage of this imbalance, as I've tried to do recently, but this leads to two sub-problems..."

4a. "Children characters. The children acquire the growths and skills of their parents, making them exceptionally good units. To compensate, they're hidden in difficulty-curve-botching Paralogue maps, which means recruiting most of them on any mode above Normal a practical impossibility. When a typical non-grinding run sees only one or two children characters recruited, you know you've implemented a feature poorly."

4b. "Challenge runs. I remained optimistic as long as I could, but this Lunatic run I've been trying out proves that the game is not designed around challenge runs. If you don't take advantage of broken options, you're left with an under-leveled and outmatched team that demands favorable RNG rolls on the later maps. This leads to an infuriating paradox: the higher difficulties can't be reasonably completed without broken options, but broken options (unsurprisingly) break the game completely. It is impossible to enjoy Lunatic for this reason, and cripples the game's replay ability."

Nosferatu has been nerfed from its first iterations in Western Fire Emblems to half-drain efficacy (originally was 1:1 damage to recovery ratio).  The Avatar is hardly broken.  Remove Veteran (possible as soon as the preparation menu shows up) and the Avatar levels at the same speed as every other unit.  Remove Ignis and the Avatar's damage output goes from above average to below average as their strength and magic will always fall below more specialized classes.  Don't want to reclass a bazillion times?  Then don't.  Frederick is entirely fair for difficulties above Normal and his internal level for starting promoted, in tandem with his crap bases is enough to hurt his longevity (while ensuring you don't explode in one turn on Lunatic/L+).  Children paralogues are all optional and the reward of very potent characters certainly justifies the means.  I wonder if the plaintiff understands the definition of the word "Lunatic".  And are they perhaps aware that most of the development team do not personally advocate playing Lunatic (heck, one man found Hard too challenging for his self)?  Lunatic is meant for the ultimate challenge and there are plenty of people who will enjoy it because it forces them to plan their moves many turns in advance (plenty of people love chess, this is a fact).


--their fifth complaint was further rants of "Lunatic+ is unfair!" and thus, skipping--


6. "Inconsistent tone. In places, this is a very dark game. People kill themselves. Thousands are lost in war. The game takes place on the backdrop of past cruelty and oppression. The future is condemned to death and fire. Yet there's plenty of goofy romance, fourth-wall breaking, fanservice, swimsuit scenes, and even awkward slapstick to take whatever serious tone exists and undermine it completely."

"A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down."  This is clearly a sentiment the game presents to help keep its audience invested in "the very dark game," its developers created.  If one has an honest problem with this, then maybe you should murder every light-hearted individual on the planet.  Then you can have your constant grim-dark plots 24/7.


7. "Lacking map design. The open maps are devoid of interesting design, made worse by the lack of meaningful secondary objectives. The Paralogues are better, but still a mixed bag. Nothing says "bleh" like an escort mission with high-level, same-turn reinforcements. The map locations are nicely varied (mountains, plains, waterfalls, giant trees, even a dragon's back), but the design beneath the aesthetic is drab and samey. Awakening really could have used the multiple mission objectives of games like FE5 and FE7."

I do not completely disagree with this.  But it would have likely been more trouble than it was worth to implement.  They have to cut corners in places to compete with the speed of other games' developments nowadays and so I find the "lack" of variety here as moot since everything else in the game screams, "OMG!  Choices!".  Reclassing, children, scathes of supports returning to the beloved formula of FE6~9.  Honestly I think some people are nigh impossible to please.


Well, that's how I feel.  The plaintiff isn't truly wrong, nor without sympathies.  But my god, they have a lot of free time to have typed all that spazz.  Some people, I tell ya, too much free time!!  Lol.

Ciao~.

List of Current Peeves

Things about myself:
-I care way more than I should
-I really need to lose weight
-well, I don't like the way I look and it mostly coincides with--I need to lose weight
-I'm way too shy, and as a result, awkward
-I'm way too honest, and apparently can come off as a "creep" to some people

Things about other people:
-misogynists
-my mother's air-headedness
-my mother and grandfather's doormat-like behavior in regards to their peers
-my mother needs to tell ____ to get the hell out of her house so she CAN LIVE IN HER LEGALLY OWNED PROPERTY (no hate to ____, it's just the principal of the matter)
-my grandfather needs to tell people off when they say dumb/rude things instead of constantly confiding/taking out his hatred on me
-people that think average = undesirable
-promiscuity (I mean MY GOD, reading someone say they'd do their best friend if said friend swings their way is just SCARY)
-prudes (ok, so I want to be able to talk about sex openly)
-people who don't talk much (re:  people who give too many single-word responses or take incessantly long to reply)
-people who say they "can't live" because "so and so..."
-anyone who gives me orders or tells me what to do in a commanding/demanding manner
-also, people who don't shut up (re:  asking me "what are you up to?" 3 times in 3.5 hours is A BIT INVASIVE)


some of those I've likely shared already, and I don't care, they still annoy me, hah!

take care, randoms~

Words

They say actions speak louder than them; but what if you can't see the person's actions?  Aren't those actions then rendered useless?  And what about our thoughts?  A lot of people think in words.  No, not everyone but anyone who's ever read a book will in turn have been affected by words alone.  Especially any book with no illustrations.

Lately I've been thinking about... well, let's not mince words here.  Casey.  ♥  Oh... lol.  It's weird I guess.  I mean, it's been 4 years since I last heard from him (or about that long).  And still I miss him.  I try to get over it.  I try to welcome new people and possibilities, shifting as much energy and affection as I can to those things.  But I still just want to see, well, talk with him again as the case may be.  I never saw him directly.  I found his Myspace page around the time the site was mostly dead anyway and I did try to contact him nonetheless.  I'm *fairly* sure I got no reply.  Oh well, that'd be too easy.

I guess I'm in love with him to a degree.  I can go weeks without thinking much of him at all but he's always there. I guess I want someone that fits most of the things I liked about him--well, he was giving and open but never overtly so.  We'd spend a lot of time spooning in cyberspace but we'd also talk just about our lives and the joy of being free to live together.  It wasn't that we had any particular goals in anything, we just seemed more alive with one another.  I don't know about you, whoever reads this, but that sounds like a rather positive thing to me.

I never really knew the him outside his words though as I more or less meant by "never saw".  No real looks to go by.  But I trusted him.  I did get a glimpse of something physical and I'm fairly sure (though I don't have the image any longer--deleted for sanity's sake) that wasn't a lie.  There'd be no point in that.  Besides, I liked him too and though I mostly showed it by wanting to spend an hour or so with intimate exchange, I was pretty honest with him.  It was my own fault for mistaking such displays as genuine attraction from people though.  It led to our falling out if you want to call it.  But we were able to talk a little after it and mostly I was just elated to have time with him again, though that turned out brief.

He was sensitive in some regards, kinda enjoyed humor, and needed me to a degree.  I like those things in people... I don't like feeling unneeded or without being able to laugh.  As it turns out I apparently laugh easily when I'm amused/feeling happy in general.  It might be that since I cry easily, I also laugh easily?  Not unsurprising, I suppose.  I may just feel a bit lackluster since he felt he could leave so easily.  It's positive I was able to show him that he could be loved (his words mostly) but I can't help but wish he was still around.

I think I'm able to love most people.  Or, that I simply try to really know and appreciate people just for being there.  Just for their words, as it appears.  Oh sure, I could probably find some things to not like about him.  I just wasn't quite given that chance, lol.  I guess it feels incomplete, so I'm still in love with him, at least a little.  Sometimes more than a little.  But, I will earnestly try, when it's more than a little, to remember to love whoever is trying to love me.  At least, when they truly want to.  I'm at least, not out of love just yet.

And one more thing... he never made me choose.  Oh sure we both hadn't had sex before and I still haven't as of this entry.  But that was a big thing.  He let me do as I wanted.  Hell, he encouraged me to be the assertive/aggressive partner and for that I was thrilled.  Sure my text implied I would be open to taking turns with him, but he didn't need that.  There are few things hotter than the person you love (y'know, not to leave out you boring straight folk) asking you to go inside them.  Pfft, I don't care if I ever did get to penetrate him or not, I'd even be content with my fingers.  And there I go... bad me.

Later, randoms.