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.

I'm so glad that someone else feels the same way because I thought I was being too nitpicky for disliking that particular choice but the costumes are like one the biggest reasons Mario Party 2 is still my favorite. Would have been so great if they extended it to the other non-MP2 boards too like formal wear for Peach's cake or beach/summer attire for Yoshi's Tropical Island. Anyway, overall the direct was very underwhelming but Kirby 3D looks great. I had given up hope of such a thing ever happening but this has me more hyped than Smash or BOTW2. It looks so gorgeous despite being in what seems to be a post-apocalyptic version of our Earth. I'm a bit worried because there wasn't a whole lot going on in the gameplay. I know it's early but still stuff looks empty and there was barely more than like one or two enemies at once showing up. Hopefully future trailers prove me wrong though. As far as the movie announcement goes, Chris Pratt kills it for me. They could have picked any Chris to attract the MCU audience and of course they went for the homophobic one. Definitely not supporting this movie, but with Illumination behind it, I don't think I'll be missing much anyway.

Bandai Namco vs Capcom would be pretty fantastic. I mean a game with Digimon, Gundam, Idolmaster, and Pac-Man vs Viewtiful Joe, Phoenix Wright, Tron Bonne, Dante, etc. makes for a deliciously ridiculous game.

Marianne is shockingly disappointing to me. I'm glad they at least referenced Maurice with that really cool tome but she doesn't seem that great as a unit, at least comparatively. The dance special is cool but I wonder how well it'll do in practice. I just wish they would have gone all in and actually made her a beast unit or at least given her adaptive damage Blutgang instead of tome yet again. And I'm baffled that she still lacks a mount of any kind. Also, of course she just had to get Kusakihara as an artist. For a second I actually thought this wasn't too bad and then I saw exposed ass cheeks. Excuse me, but Marianne would never. Truly deserved more respect than being given to this fetish artist. Honestly, almost considering using my guaranteed free summon on Erika or Gatekeeper instead and skipping the banner. Which sucks cause I was really looking forward to this.

Wow I was really expecting Caspar to lose and Ashe to get struck by an upset. Regardless of who wins I expect them to get crushed in the final round seeing that both Freya and Shiida have over 3 times their score.

Well, I called it wishful thinking for a reason. It could be a similar to the non-canon Fallen Ike alt but with a positive twist where she doesn't lose her sanity and is able to take control of her beast form and learn to comfortable with it. After all, Maurice was one of the more intelligent beasts in the game being able to verbally communicate so I think it wouldn't be that big of a stretch. But I do agree that it would fit a fallen alt better. As far as Pegasus vs Cavalry, I just love Pegasus Knights and I think she would look great as one. 3 House's Falcon Knights also have profiency in swords so I think that would fit more with a Blutgang alt as opposed to Holy Knights who are Faith based would fit better with a tome or a staff imo. I did bring up the lack of Blutgang or adaptive damage though because of that post. I had seen it before and it shook my confidence of it being a sure thing after all. Also, I just honestly forgot that Crusher had adaptive damage and was thinking Felicia's plate was the only weapon besides Breaths with it which just made me buy into it more. I mean, I still doubt it though, since apparently the leaker doesn't have a good record but the possibilities may not be so clear cut after all.

My wishful thinking is adaptive damage on Marianne, and she's either a Beast or Pegasus Knight with a skill that allows adjacent beast units to transform, and Gatekeeper as an Infantry lance with an exclusive save skill that doubles as obstruct. Pessimistic side expects Cavalry Marianne without Blutgang, or with it but no adaptive damage, and Armored Gatekeeper with no extra movement.

@Baldrick She was, especially during CYL 4 when she got a sudden spike in popularity becoming the 4th most popular Blazing Sword character that wasn't in the game yet, only behind Nils, Erk, and Athos. Even among the playable Heroes cast, only Nino and Ninian were above her. Of course, her popularity plummeted after that but that's natural for most characters after being added. From what I've seen so far, Reinhardt is in no way comparable to Brigand Boss. Brigand Boss is just some generic that kidnapped Silque that for some reason was made a candidate for CYL despite IS not even bothering to name him. Reinhardt seems just a tad more important. I'm not sure there's any answer I can give that can satisfy someone who just doesn't care and actively fights against any ideas for change. And I've also explained Ares already and how his strength had no relevance in what I myself was talking about and am not interested in going in circles with that only because, again, my answer didn't satisfy you. You know, that was my bad. I clearly let things get too personal when I brought her to the mix and did not mean punch down other people's liked characters just because I personally disagree with that take of her being more memorable than half of the cast.

@Baldrick you know, fair enough. I consider them lords, you don't. I think the fact that Ryoma got a legendary shows that Heroes also considers the Royals as lords but you view it as an exception, fine. In that case I'll just specify that I indeed meant to include Fates royals when I mentioned "lords" my mistake for forgetting that not everyone views them that way. Outraged is a strong word when I don't really mind if she's good as much as I mind that she's good and not the other more popular males in the series. There is no male npc in Heroes that is just background and then dies without ever becoming an ally or being fought against like Leila that I am aware of. She is seriously one of the biggest nobodies in the series. Closest thing that comes to mind is Greil and he didn't exactly get the same treatment as Leila and he at least was a prominent figure with a reputation for being powerful. I don't know enough about Reinhardt but I do know he's at least fought to some capacity and he likely wasn't meant to be powerful in his OG version meanwhile his alts are due to his newfound and enduring popularity in the Heroes community. That was seriously just the answer to the question you yourself asked. "What would change if Nifl was male?" nothing other than provide more diversity. But on the topic of it, you're clearly not as bothered by the lack of it like some others are as you proceeded to make snide comments about characters "reproductive organs" and representation not mattering when you had asked what would change had Nifl been male instead. Which is fine. You don't have to be. But if you don't care, why even come here and make those sorts of comments to someone that does? You certainly came off as rather unpleasant the moment you made those comments to say the least.

@Baldrick Fates royals are indeed lords no matter how much you avert your eyes and you've definitely excluded a few alts for Sigurd, Hector, Dimitri, Ike, Alfonse, Byleth, Eliwood (why did you specifically mention his worse version?), missing a Reinhardt, neglected to bring up any version of Alm, Seliph, Roy, Claude, or Ephraim. Unless you think those alts aren't powerful enough to be mentioned, but when the floor is Shiro with a prf that's been powercreeped by inheritable weapons long ago, I'm not really sure who doesn't qualify anymore. I think the biggest issue here, besides your bundling of alts to make it seem like it isn't indeed the same suspects getting these good versions over and over again, is that we may have different thresholds on what we consider powerful. Weird that you would assume that I care for Reinhardt to any extent. I honestly don't know what made you think that after singling him out the way I did. I wasn't in charge of any games in the series, especially considering I wasn't even born until at least 4 of them were out, and probably no one else here was in position to dictate what sort of characters get made for the games either, so I don't see how that implies that anyone here doesn’t like diversity because of decisions that were out of our control. @XRay fair enough but does simply being good make a unit meta? It is my understanding that meta isn't just about being good at the job but also being one of the best options among the competition that leads to certain units being picked by the majority of competitive players. I can't say I've ever seen many of the units you mentioned in comparison to Ophelias, Sigurds, Duo Lif, Edelgards, Brave Hectors, Shinnons, etc. be it in Arena or Aether Raids but then again I only hover between ranks 18-19 in Arena and I'm nowhere near close to reaching the highest ranks of Aether so I'll just take your word for it.

Because they're usually not as powerful as their female counterparts, take more investment, it's usually the same male units getting these powerful alts, and less males means more delay for units that people have been waiting for even longer? I mean look at the examples provided for almost every powerful male here. They're mostly lords or Reinhardt over and over again. There's very little diversity outside of those picks. Many people like playing with their favorites, for a lot of players those favorites might be males who aren't lords, and many male secondary characters are either getting ignored or making it in but not even getting as good of a treatment as a dead female npc like Leila. And when this issue is brought and the reason given is "males don't sale" of course people are gonna bring up stuff like "is it really true?" "have the developers tried hard enough to make enticing male units?" "is this is a self made problem?" Also, don't even try to twist that Leila comment into the tired old "You saying npcs shouldn't exist or get good stuff?!" But it's cute that you're trying to diminish this into a "lol it's just jpegs bro. They don't even show genitals" And I guess the implication for Nifl would be nothing other than providing more diversity among their OCs which would be nice. I mean it's not that deep but some people just like seeing more diversity. You might want to fact check that because that's blatantly false. Bold Fighter didn't release until almost 2 months after H!Jakob's debut and Armored Boots was like 4 months after his debut with the Elibe Valentines Tempest Trial. But DC was being kept. Just as an A slot and not as part of the weapon. OK, only because someone can run a meta build doesn't make the unit itself meta. Not many are gonna be replacing Ophelia, L!lilina, Shamir, Innes, Shinnon and the like for units like Odin or Leon who will do subpar at the job compared to others. I really think you're over-bloating those lists with unlikely candidates. Like, sure, you could pick those units over others but that doesn't make them the meta pick. @GrandeRampel I see but I don't understand how saying they won in quantity but not quality is relevant. I ignored Ursula and Clarisse only because of the 6 units you provided as examples, all 3 of the boys were mediocre meanwhile only 2 girls were mediocre with MM being good which again showed a bias for females. Also there were ONLY 4 female grail units at the time. 1 out of 4 being good is a lot better than 1 or 2 out of 17. Also, 3 of those 4 female units have at least one alt that is way better than their current version meanwhile for a good portion of those males that one mediocre version is all they have. And while all these males where being shoved aside as unwanted GHB and TT units more females were being added onto banners with better kits and access to traits and merges. Fair enough about the Ninian stuff. I failed to consider that there wasn't that many Elibe banners to begin with. But even if it was popularity it doesn't change that early on it was one of the most unique and helpful combinations in Heroes that I believe contributes as to part of the reason why it became such a female-biased game. I agree that maybe it wasn't until 2018 that the game started going full force with the female-bias. Especially since that's also the year where they started introducing alts in New Heroes banners too which only made things more lopsided. But I do believe that that started only because of choices made in 2017, most of which were likely unintentional, that attracted the demographic which they then naturally shifted all efforts to pander to.