Classes Trailer

[arvilino]

Also pitiful damage. How do we consider that?

I'm really not sure what to think of this guy. It does seem like he must have some way to at least return to the class, but being stuck there until using a Change Proof would be... abysmal. Regardless of his growths.

Depending how early Master Seals come (assuming his Hero Promotion comes from his Villager Class), and due to his high-ish base level of 5. He could potentially get a gigantic stat boost if you fed him kills up to level 10 and promoted him.

[Othin]

I prefer Dark Pegasus...those bases...and flying. Not everyday you see flying tome users. The total attack range would be staggering. And if mounted units move like they did in FE9~10, imagine what Dark Pegasus can do with long ranged tomes(again, if they make a return for players)

Canto does not appear to be present.

Depending how early Master Seals come (assuming his Hero Promotion comes from his Villager Class), and due to his high-ish base level of 5. He could potentially get a gigantic stat boost if you fed him kills up to level 10 and promoted him.

We don't actually know if that's his base level. I assumed it thinking it had to be one of his first fights because it was the Ch2 map, but it seems to instead be a skirmish there.

[No. 3]

Are you going to grind endlessly, at least in the story mode?

I know I won't, and I suspect the same goes for most players. Perhaps IS actually realizes that?

I'll rephrase that - we can potentially reset the character level endlessly, which undermines the appeal of trainees (more levelups to gain stats). Even if you play through without grinding, there's no advantage to raising Donny from a Villager to an unpromoted unit to a promoted unit, as opposed to, say, class changing an unpromoted unit once before promoting them. You still get the same number of levels, only Donny has to be babied through the first 20. Unless Villager gets some super broken skills or something...

[TheEnd]

I stand by my wild guess - the Villager class might be a throwback to FE2 and, as such, able to reclass into more classes than usual.

(FE2's Villagers could promote to Soldier [later Knight], Myrmidon [more like Mercenary], Cavalier, Mage and Archer.)

[Melonhead]

Canto does not appear to be present.

With all those mounted units? Might be another way to make them not as great.

[Kia-en]

I'll rephrase that - we can potentially reset the character level endlessly, which undermines the appeal of trainees (more levelups to gain stats). Even if you play through without grinding, there's no advantage to raising Donny from a Villager to an unpromoted unit to a promoted unit, as opposed to, say, class changing an unpromoted unit once before promoting them. You still get the same number of levels, only Donny has to be babied through the first 20. Unless Villager gets some super broken skills or something...

It really depends on how it's handled. If it counts as a T0 unit (boosted EXP), he only has 10 levels as a Villager and then auto promotes to one of his T1 classes, then that means you have more control over his class near the beginning of the game (and without a Change Proof). You seem to think you need another Mercenary? Donny can do that. Or maybe you like mounted units and want an extra Cavalier... Donny is there for you.

I'm more inclined to the idea that we'll get more than one villager and that each one has 3 T1 classes that depend on his personality/upbringing and whatnot and that's why they don't list his promotions.

[Othin]

I'll rephrase that - we can potentially reset the character level endlessly, which undermines the appeal of trainees (more levelups to gain stats). Even if you play through without grinding, there's no advantage to raising Donny from a Villager to an unpromoted unit to a promoted unit, as opposed to, say, class changing an unpromoted unit once before promoting them. You still get the same number of levels, only Donny has to be babied through the first 20. Unless Villager gets some super broken skills or something...

You make a good point.

However, as Kia-en mentioned, it all depends on how it's handled. If he can promote and get a free choice of three Tier 1 classes from LV10, he gets flexibility that's not quite so easy for other characters to match. It's possible that he may retain the option to go back to Villager even after doing so - I'm not sure why you would take that option, but it could explain why he's been seen with such high stats as a Villager.

Also, I get the idea that he may be the user of that Good Growths skill we saw: +20 to all growths. If that really is a flat +20 (no % was mentioned), and his growths are half-decent with it, he'll grow damn quickly with it.

Edited April 12, 2012 by Othin

[riariadne]

I stand by my wild guess - the Villager class might be a throwback to FE2 and, as such, able to reclass into more classes than usual.

(FE2's Villagers could promote to Soldier [later Knight], Myrmidon [more like Mercenary], Cavalier, Mage and Archer.)

Oh god that would be the very best thing.

secret promotion to demon fighter plz?

[Rakath]

Given every unit has 3 Class sets to work from (their default, and the two options from Change Proofs), and they are running Villager like a T0 Trainee from 8, it would track not to list promotion choices given there's no pattern to the rest of the cast's change proof options, just that they HAVE options.

The Specialty Classes (ones without standard promotions) probably can't be Change Proof'd into, for either story or gameplay reasons. Having double dancers could be a problem. And once you've used the bonus leveling a Villager carries, no point stepping back into villager, probably can only Change Proof into their other options.

[Othin]

Given every unit has 3 Class sets to work from (their default, and the two options from Change Proofs), and they are running Villager like a T0 Trainee from 8, it would track not to list promotion choices given there's no pattern to the rest of the cast's change proof options, just that they HAVE options.

The Specialty Classes (ones without standard promotions) probably can't be Change Proof'd into, for either story or gameplay reasons. Having double dancers could be a problem. And once you've used the bonus leveling a Villager carries, no point stepping back into villager, probably can only Change Proof into their other options.

I'm not sure about your givens. We know that normal characters have three class sets, and we know that characters starting in special classes like Taguel and Manakete also have those same three class sets. We do not know if all characters will follow the same rules. MU apparently has the option to take any class - but we don't know if that means the option of completely free Change Seal use to jump to everything in a single playthrough, or just that you get two choices on any given playthrough based on character creation options, and those options create a typical group of three class sets that could contain any regular classes.

I'm still keeping my hopes on the latter, but we can't discount the former, which would mean that there may be exceptions to the three class sets rule - and Donny could be another exception. We also don't know if Krom can use Change Seals at all, which may be another exception. Regardless, this all highlights the possibility TheEnd brought up of increased Change Seal options, like FE2 Villagers. What bugs me about that idea is the notion of Donny being the only character who might then have all of his Change Seal options, however many of them there are, be determined by his starting class.

We also don't know if Villager is really being treated as a Tier 0 class. It would make sense, but we can't be sure.

I'm not sure of any practical reasons for why Donny would use a Change Seal to go back to being a Villager. However, one of the Dual Tag screens shows him as a Villager with much higher HP than he should be able to get just by gaining a few levels in that class. If those stats are legitimate and not somehow fake, that means he almost certainly must have a way of returning to the Villager class. That's my main reason for the assumption.

[Rakath]

I leave out Game Ending units because they never follow any sets of 'rules' due to their plot importance. I was incredibly shocked MY in 12 followed the Class Change limits at all, for instance.

When it comes to villager it really depends on how many Villagers we get. If Donny is the only one, then the FE2 theory is viable. If we have more than 3 (Rak pulls an arbitrary number out of the air) it makes less sense as it makes the Magikarp characters impossibly useful if each has access to more than a few classes. The Trainees in FE8 were 'useful' but each branched in a different area, and usually only got 1 extra Class choice by the end (not counting Super Trainees and Ewan's access to four different mostly-the-same magic classes).

So far (ignoring MU and Krom) even one of the Special classes has only access to 3 class sets (which leads to 5 class endpoints for Nono). If we use the five FE2 class options (replacing Soldier with Armor) as an example for how that might get out of hand for 3 villagers. We have Armor, Cav, Merc, Mage, and Archer. That gives us General, Great Knight, Pally, Hero, Bow Knight, Sniper, Sage, and Dark Knight. Having that much variety and (assuming) a +20 to growths from being a Trainee, and being able to Change Proof around? More than Donny would get a bit out of hand. And those classes at least (save the Mage tree) share enough points to limit endpoints. If we had Myrm over Merc, and Dragonknight over... something, let's say Cav, we lose Hero and Pally for Swordmaster, Assassin, Dragon Master, and Griff. That'd step on MU being special.

(I do realize that Donny has Merc and Pally as options, but otherwise I would have to swap out Armor and Archer for Dragonknight/Barbarian/Thief (pick 2), and for the point being made it worked. Barbarian Donny would be silly.)

If we get three Trainees in 3 different class set options, they'll probably be customized to the character and fit into the standard 5-6 endpoint model. Which is more than plenty.

[arvilino]

^ I wouldn't call that change ending or out of hand. The number of change seals and EXP required would be collosal to give a Villager with more reclass options a large advantage over characters with only 3 base class options.

Edited April 12, 2012 by arvilino

[Melonhead]

It all seems pretty open ended. I'm not really sure what to think about it..

[HP+1]

Hmm... I like what I see. I'll miss Bishops and playable Soliders/Halberdiers, but overall I'm very pleased with the classes. I really like how they've taken series mainstays Clerics, Priests, Pegasus Knights, Wyvern Knights, Thieves and Assasins who've nearly always been the same from game-to-game and done something different with them. I love the idea of the Battle Monk/Cleric class especially. Assassins having bows makes a lot of sense as does Pegasus Knights getting a staff (Elincia felt so right) or tomes. Rouges, oops sorry 'Tricksters', using staves is a bit of a strange one, but it should be interesting to see what it's like. I'm glad that the My Unit gets its own class too.

It looks like Awakening is IS's second ode to Gaiden so Villagers (presuming there's more than one) I expect will be like the Villagers in the game Awakening is taking inspiration from and you'll have the choice to promote them into one of several first tier units.

If I were to nitpick I'd have to say that I wished the Pegasus Knights still got swords when they promoted on top of either staves or tomes depending on which class you choose. Dancers should really have a promotion too, I don't know what to but I'm sure IS would be able to think of something good. It'd be really awesome if they put in a nod to FE5 by having dancer as a possible alternate promotion for a female thief, but I can't see it.

[Hash Jar]

I think the point of the villager class is to not have to use change proofs. You can choose whatever tier 1 class you want them to be right at promotion.

[Rothene]

I hope we get a whole range of status staves and tricksters get some way to boost status staff success rates. That way they can be 'tricksy'. Might also be a good way to make them comparable to Assassins and Swordmasters since they might be able to warp, rescue and unlock doors from a distance. More utility, less combat prowess.

[PKL]

Oh God no, I hope status staves burn forever and never make into FE13.

[HP+1]

Oh God no, I hope status staves burn forever and never make into FE13.

Why? Yes, they're annoying but it's Fire Emblem, they're supposed to be annoying.

Staves are cool. Staves surprisingly seem to be one of the most used 'weapons' in the game with Sages, Valkyries, Battle Clerics/Monks, Tricksters and Falcon Knights all getting them, so they better make good use of them. Heal/mend/recover, torch, restore, barrier, psychic, warp, unlock, hammerene, sleep, berserk, silence, rescue, rewarp, thief (last appeared in Thracia I believe) as well as some new original and innovative ones will be nice.

[Rothene]

Oh God no, I hope status staves burn forever and never make into FE13.

But...you can't get any trickier in a strategy game without disables that mess up enemy formation.

Super durable General blocks your path from attacking frail sages behind enemy lines.

Swordmaster: I shall try my best to double/Astra them to death *tink* *tink*

Assassin: I have a small chance of activating Lethality...but if I fail, I might get killed in a counter attack.

Trickster: Pfftt...*whips out Berserk Staff* Go kill your comrades for me, tee-hee~

Of course Armourslayers exist and mages do and what not. But comparing these three classes that are probably similar on some level(ahem, high speed, swords, not very amazing strength), it's very flavourful if Tricksters are good at using status staves to truly set them apart to handling opponents. They're the sneakier ones after all. If there are high Res Battle Monks/Sages, they can just whip out their swords and kill them.

So yeah, here's to hoping awesome Status Staff utility from Tricksters.

[Othin]

You don't need status staffs for tricky effects if you have enough fancy skills. And status staffs would require a higher staff rank than Tricksters, as secondary staff users, are likely to have.

I can see them having a skill that might give them a chance to inflict a status on a nearby enemy, or something like that. They also have Lucky 7, whatever that does.

[Book of Ereshkigal]

I like status staves, it seems kinda boring to only have the ability to heal :C

[FrostyFireMage]

With status staffs, Tricksters will be the ultimate rapists.

"Hey there, honey, wanna meet after the battle?"

"Uh, no thanks, I don't want - "

"SLEEP STAFF GO!"

Edited April 14, 2012 by Frosty Fire Mage

[RNG Princess]

I don't like that all magic using units have the same aura ;A; they could at least color Sariya's aura purple to make her more dark mage like. I don't like the name dark mage ^^' I like shaman better but i'll just pretend it says shaman not dark mage ^^'. I really dislike the lack of soldier class that means no Aran for dlc ;A;.

and no swords + staves for pegasi? I'm upset that means no Lincy! QQ

There is one thing that bugs me about Miriel, her hat and colored outfit makes her look like a witch! Sariya looks closer to a mage to me than Miriel, Miriel looks more like a shaman/dark mage ^^'. I may switch them around o3o turning Miriel to shaman dark mage and Sariya to mage. I'm saddened by the lack of light magic.

Edited April 15, 2012 by Queen_Emelina

[BBM]

If they switched Wyvern Knights from Lances to Axes fro FE9 to 10, they can replace Elincia's Swords with Lances. She won't have Amiti, but it's doubtful that DLC character would have gotten Prf weapons anyways. Also keep in mind that the localized version will probably change Dark Mages to Shamans.

Edited April 15, 2012 by BigBangMeteor

[Othin]

If they switched Wyvern Knights from Lances to Axes fro FE9 to 10, they can replace Elincia's Swords with Lances. She won't have Amiti, but it's doubtful that DLC character would have gotten Prf weapons anyways. Also keep in mind that the localized version will probably change Dark Mages to Shamans.

Dark Mages were still called Dark Mages in FE11/12.

In FE7/8, where they were translated as Shamans, they were still called Shamans in the Japanese version.

Edited April 15, 2012 by Othin