NegativeExponents-

Why is like 70% of my Wii U lifetime just YouTube?! I honestly feel like that has to be wrong but then again I don't remember using it to play much. I hate being reminded of my crippling Awakening addiction. I'm honestly surprised I have less playtime here than the Wii U. Like I still use my 3DS to play every now and then meanwhile I haven't touched my Wii U since like 2017 or earlier.

Bummer that Claude didn't make it but glad Thorr did. Will throw my full support behind her because Flow Guard fodder is too good to pass up.

Chrono Cross and Live A Live made the direct for me. I'm so hyped! I do wish that Chrono Cross got a proper remake instead of a slightly updated remaster but Radical Dreamers, redone character art, and new orchestral ost totally make up for it imo. Live A Live is getting way better treatment than I ever imagined it would. The fact that it's being localized at all after such a long time is mind blowing. Like I didn't even think Square gave a single fudge about it anymore. At the beginning of the trailer I really thought it was gonna be about the DQ3 remake instead but no, it was freaking Live A Live! And it's being remade in 2.5 HD and and getting voice acted?! Take it, just take all my money. Square really came directly for my wallet this direct and that's something I haven't seen them do in a long time. Oh and 48 new Mario Kart tracks is cool too. Wasn't expecting new Mario Kart 8 content at all. If anything I would have expected Mario Kart 9 by now but I guess they're content with just continually updating 8 and saving 9 for the next console generation.

A bit of mixed feelings with this. For one, I would have much preferred series wide representation as opposed to just 3 Houses, but more than anything, it seems to be taking cues from AoC and I really didn't enjoy AoC. Not just from like a plot or character aspect but like the actual gameplay. It just felt way less satisfying than the original Hyrule Warriors and I hope that doesn't end up being the case here since the gameplay was what redeemed the lacking roster in FEW. As far as roster goes, I kinda see the how not adding all characters after recycling the 3 House's engine and models would be lazy but at the same time, there's also movesets to consider so unless they go for an absurd amount of clones or they've been secretly working on this for a long time then I expect to see character cuts. Depending on who is in might affect my choice to buy this, because honestly, a roster that could realistically have the only playable non-lord guys be Felix and Hubert is very depressing. Man, yeet Lysithea's Thyrsus stealing ass and give me Lorenz instead. Also, what are the chances of any of the Ashen Wolves being playable? I kinda only expect Yuri to make it in if any of them do. Didn't see any signs of them in the trailer. As far as OCs go, I don't know if it would technically count as one but Holst being one of them would be cool. Along with any other of the prominent faceless characters. Would be rather refreshing to just take those already existing background characters and flesh them out as opposed to conjuring new ones.

As far as top 4 go. I see either Felix or Soren overtaking one of the top 2. I expect the women's side to stay as it is with A!Tiki in first and F!Byleth in second. Maybe Berna will take second over Byleth but I doubt it.

Woah, I'm really amazed by these results. A!Tiki in first and Soren in fourth!? These are pretty interesting results. Fans of them really rallied hard this year. I'm gonna jump all in on Soren. Hoping he'll be able to usurp one of the top 2. As for the girls, I really hope A!Tiki keeps her ri̶g̶h̶t̶f̶u̶l̶ place and as far as 2nd place... ideally either Hilda or Dorothea get a big push up there but as long Burnie stays out I'm not too bothered by it.

Ophelia not being acknowledged by her own grandmother must be gut wrenching for her. I'm glad that daily results aren't a thing because it could really just pigeonhole all votes to those top 8. I'm sticking to Owain for all of my votes this year. I'm really desperate for an alt. Although seeing Soren as part of the top 8 almost made me want to jump ships. Maybe I'll throw some votes his way after seeing midterm results.

The only board I truly dislike is Woody Woods. It's always been my least favorite of the Mario Party 3 boards and I would've been happier with any other board. I feel similarly about Space Land but I don't hate it. I just like Pirates or Western more. I've never played the first Mario Party so I don't have any strong opinions but I'm OK with the ones that were picked.

Honestly, a bit surprised Makalov isn't anywhere to be seen. After seeing Astrid and Marcia, I definitely expected him as either a direct demote or GHB.

Well as I mentioned, a save skill for one. Right now he picks between his Ostian Pulse 2 for support or Save Skill for better combat. Doesn't help that Ostian Pulse 2 restricts him to tactics which means he's usually left behind rather than seeing combat due to lacking movement skills like armor march or armor stride. Alternatively, going all in on support and becoming something like Fae that boosts all stats but with a map wide range would be a pretty good thing and his restricted movement wouldn't matter anymore because he's fine just cheering from the backlines while still having decent combat compared to most dedicated supports.

I really wish they went all in on support for Hector's refine. Or gave him built-in savior. It's still good, don't get me wrong, but I feel it doesn't synergize with his Ostian Pulse 2

Why is Link always left out of the conversation? I've seen lots of these "silent protagonists bad" posts for a while now but no one ever brings up what is probably the most iconic mute. What makes him "better" or at least "inoffensive" compared other silent protagonists in gaming that he is often free from criticism? For the record, I like silent protagonists as a whole unless it's cases like Golden Sun where the same character is inconsistent between games.

Playable Mark would be the sweetspot for me. Just grab Mark and make them playable. Minimal impact on the story while still being acknowledged and respected by other characters but not worshipping the ground they walk on. I honestly prefer supports like those that Byleth had over Robin/Corrin. Maybe elaborate on those to make it like more like hangouts in Genshin where different dialogue choices lead to different outcomes. Of course, the number of outcome would have to be trimmed down since making 5 different outcomes for all characters would be a ton of work for a large cast Fire Emblem typically has. Their appearance would be customizable like Corrin/Robin with an option for "obscured" that keeps their face covered by like a hood or whatever. Maybe even options for covering it up with a helm or a mask or with their hair. Also, options for skin color. Seriously, three avatar creators and none have that option. The classes is a bit trickier to handle because it works differently in every game but I'm going act as if they work like FE7 (1 base class + 1 promoted class. No reclassing or branching promotions) for no reason other than mentioning Mark got me in an FE7 mood. You get the choice of 1 weapon and either infantry or armored movement for your base class options. After confirming your base class options you will now be able to choose what you're promotion will be like. Now the option for gaining a mount will be available and you can pick 1 extra weapon to wield for a total of 2 weapons. Weapons can be anything as long as it's not impossible due to the lore. For example, if it's like Awakening where there's a character who is the last of their kind (Panne) then beast stones (or whatever they happen to use in this hypothetical game) will not be available, but dragons, although rare, are not one of a kind, so dragon stones are fair game. Any conflict between chosen weapons and mount will be treated as if they have no mount but will still be able to move the same amount of spaces as if they did. For example, choosing dragon stone and cavalry will make it so that they have no horse, and therefore no horse weaknesses, but will still able to move the same amount of spaces as other cavalry units and they still retain their dragon weaknesses. Flying movement types will always retain their flying weaknesses despite not using a Pegasus/Wyvern but will not retain their secondary weaknesses. Completing the game at least once will unlock the option for mounts and 2 weapons as part of the base class and promoted classes will now be able to wield up to 3 weapons. Lore-unfriendly weapons will also be available to use now. Stats will be handled using bonus points. You will be shown the base max stats of the avatar, which are subpar across the board, and will use your bonus points to increase them to acceptable levels. You will be limited to how many bonus points you can use on any one stat to prevent players from dumping everything to just one or two stats. The amount of bonus points you get is dependent on chosen movement type. Presets and a randomize option will also be available to prevent overwhelming players. Growth rates are determined by movement type and using the usual boon and bane system. Nothing too in-depth here, cause I fear this would break the game more than having something like a max stat of 99 atk. After all, you wouldn't be able to actually use that if growth rates don't allow it.

I honestly thought Fae's special would give me a lot of trouble, and in a sense it did, because I wasted so much time trying to find a way to disable it when the solution was as simple as pump more atk and lower Brady's healing to stay at 75% hp. I tried so hard to give all ko's to Owain only but that stubborn Pegasus kept going for Nils even when they couldn't do any damage and get counter-killed in return. Oh well, I'll begrudgingly take it because I already spent way more time on this than I wanted to.

I don't really get the whole rebooting idea that's going around. What's the point? Cutting characters for the chance of a possible rework is a silly and drastic idea. There's nothing stopping the developers from currently altering Ganondorf or other characters moveset other than their own unwillingness to do so. You don't need a major characters cut for that. Unless they rework the core of the game to something that plays completely differently than what we have now, then I see no reason to not just work off of what they currently have, adding and removing characters as needed due to licensing or whatever.