Opinions on that Fire Emblem Echoes SoV Character #1-#52 (Check the OP)

[Sweet_Basil]

Tatiana: She's pretty, she's got a nice voice, I like her huge dress too. As a unit she's useful, but as a character she's okay, not one of my favorites but she's good. I feel bad for Nyna though.

Atlas: I like him, he started off pretty bad but when I turned him into an archer he was way more useful.

 

Spoiler

Alm: He is a good unit but I do not like him at all as a character. He's the character I dislike the most in this game, he's too perfect for my liking. In the writing, to me, it feels like Celica makes too many mistakes for his convenience. Like she's got to be the dumb one over and over while he continues to dominate over and over.  
Celica: The opposite of Alm she makes too many mistakes, she's too flawed and for no understandable reason (I mean come on). I'm indifferent to her which is a shame because I like her design a lot.
Forsyth: I love him!  Yeah he's probably not one of the best units but he's got some of the best catch-phrases, I like his voice too. He climbed up my favorites real quick.
Valbar: I like him a lot, he has a nice backstory and I like his interactions with the other characters. As a unit he starts off okay but he fades away. 

 

[Erureido]

41 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Wait, that's an unpopular opinion? I thought people liked Atlas as a character.

I don't see fans talk about Atlas's character very often, so I assumed most fans felt indifferent or bored toward his overall character, hence why I thought I had an unpopular opinion.

Though from today's responses thus far, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one that really likes Atlas.

[CriticalMiss]

@Thane I'm sorry, but I'm really busy right now and don't have time to respond to what you said. Is it okay if I respond to you once I do have time (it could be a few days)?

[Thane]

Just now, CriticalMiss said:

@Thane I'm sorry, but I'm really busy right now and don't have time to respond to what you said. Is it okay if I respond to you once I do have time (it could be a few days)?

Sure thing. The reason why I let you know earlier was simply because I had just responded in this thread and didn't want to seem rude when I didn't reply to you a few minutes later when I had to leave.

Just write me a PM so we don't clog up this thread anymore. I think that'd be for the best.

[CriticalMiss]

9 minutes ago, Thane said:

Sure thing. The reason why I let you know earlier was simply because I had just responded in this thread and didn't want to seem rude when I didn't reply to you a few minutes later when I had to leave.

Just write me a PM so we don't clog up this thread anymore. I think that'd be for the best.

Sounds good to me. Thanks for understanding.

[Erureido]

Day 3 is now over, and with that, we are now onto Day 4!

Starting today, things will change a tiny bit. Instead of discussing two characters, we will talk about three characters: one random playable unit from Alm's army, one random playable unit from Celica's army, and one random major villain/story relevant non-unit character. 

Today's characters that we will discuss are Faye, Nomah, and Berkut. 

What is your opinion on these three characters?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I will give my opinions on them now.

Faye: My least favorite character in Fire Emblem Echoes. I do not like how Faye's feelings for Alm are her only defining trait, not to mention there's never a clear explanation how her crush originated. Her first base conversation implies her feelings deepened when Alm saved her from Slayde's forces during their childhood, but considering how she acts toward Alm before Slayde arrived, it seemed that her romantic feelings date even before that event. The way how she handles her crush for Alm did not sit well with me either. Her second base conversation was when my dislike for her truly emerged. I found it creepy she would make a move on Alm immediately following his argument with Celica. Her third base conversation only worsened my opinion of her when she stated that her parents are worried for and want her to write more about herself, but she just shrugs it aside and says that she can't stop writing about Alm. The fact she never grew out of her crush for Alm, as revealed in her ending, to the point of frequently disappearing from her new family was also not a pleasant thing to read about.

Aside from her character, I will admit Faye has some aspects I do like. One, she is a really good Cleric. In fact, she was my most dependable Cleric in Alm's army due to her access to Physic, solid bulk, and decent Strength that was enough to damage foes. Two, She also has one of my favorite designs in the game. Her hairstyle looks nice, and her overall clothing has an elegant country-like manner that is fitting of her origins. She also has a nice color scheme.

Nomah: For me, Nomah is just there. He doesn't really stand out in any way. All that I can really remember about Nomah aside from the fact he raised Celica was that he and Mycen have met each other in the past, and he can be quite the jokester. I wish the game showed us more of him. I mean, he is to Celica what Mycen was to Alm: an elderly man raising a main protagonist. I think one Memory Prism that should've been available was one that showed us when Mycen first brought Celica to Nomah. That would've helped give Nomah some more characterization.

Unit-wise, he was the least useful out of everyone in my army. Lackluster stats AND lackluster growths this late into the game? Yeah, all he really did was serve as an occasional heal-bot and that was it. 

His voice acting is alright, and his design has a rather standard "old sage." Not much else to say.

Berkut: A villain that I have mixed feelings toward. On the one hand, Berkut is far better than previous FE 3DS villains such as Validar, Grima, Garon, Iago, and Hans. He doesn't act like a generic Saturday-morning cartoon villain and had a more human-like goal, unlike the five listed. I sympathized for Berkut in that one moment when he mentioned that he needed to be strong become a strong and exceptionally talented soldier because his parents hammered him with that ideology growing up. With each passing victory from Alm, he grew more and more desperate to prove himself, fearing that Alm would surpass him.

On the other hand, the game tells us that Berkut is an exceptional general, yet we are never shown this: instead, all we see of Berkut's performance on the battlefield are ones that ends with losses each time. From that, it makes seem him incompetent. More disappointingly, I was a not a fan of Berkut's relationship with Rinea. She is supposed to show his good side, but we rarely see that. Most of the time, it's just Berkut lashing out at her (i.e, following his Act 4 battle, he screams "shut up" to Rinea at the top of his lungs despite her trying to console him). We then get the infamous scene when he sacrifices Rinea to Duma all because she refused to be his empress, and that did not make him feel sympathetic. What also bugs me is that Alm is willing to forgive Berkut despite the facts that Berkut has constantly put Alm down throughout the entire game and Alm learns of what Berkut did to his fiancé.

I will say some good things about him though. For starters, Berkut is the best voice-acted character in the game. Ian Sinclair did a phenomenal job voicing Berkut; he perfectly captured the character's emotions in every scene he was in. The quote where Berkut says "lies" over an over again was chilling to listen to because of how well Sinclair delivered it. Additionally, I also really like Berkut's design. The black color scheme on his armor and hair looks good on him, and those ornaments he has on the sides of his head look cool too. I also absolutely adore of Berkut's theme songs; in fact, The Scions Dance in Purgatory is one of my top favorite tracks in the game. The opera chorus combined with that epic background music gives me some intense chills whenever I listen to it.

Edited August 16, 2017 by Erureido

[bethany81707]

Faye: I love her. Seriously. Not just because she's a godly Cleric with Defence rivalling Lukas's and a godly Support with Alm that proves Avoid isn't the be-all and end-all of a unit's power, but I like her character, too. I've been in Faye's shoes, after all. It's hard, being young, feeling you have a crush, and knowing that the thing is hardly going to progress. I liked how not even Faye knew where she wanted to go, what she wanted to do... but was less pleased with her never figuring it out.

Nomah: If you're only real characterisation as a jokester is your Celica Support, you're going to wind up with the wrong impression. Being a prepromoted Boey isn't exactly going to help you.

Berkut: Hm... I think I was coloured by the people clamouring for Berkut in Heroes back when I started my first playthrough. He's certainly a fascinating individual with a good deconstructivist angle, but I think it was a bit of a stretch to have him think Rinea was against her, knowing the intended point of the scene anyway. "Power won't betray me" basically sealed his fate as an interesting character, but mostly to point and laugh at rather than to admire. And I think the man would hate that.

[Jingle Jangle]

Faye:  I really wanted to like her. The idea of a farm girl with a crush I enjoyed. She wanted to push me to be with a relationship with Alm. But the game would not have that. Alm  is 80% of her character. Even Tharja and Camilla mention Robin and Camilla less. As a cleric she save my hide on a bunch on occasions. 

Spoiler

There should have been an option for Alm to marry her.

Nomah: I only used him in one fight in the entire game. So I don't have much to say about him other than being the mentor to Celica.

Berkut: One of my favorite villains in the series. Before the game came out, I thought he would be the rival to Alm in turns of power and influence. I was so far to the truth. Seeing lose and lose again, venting at Rinea makes him a villain that goes off the rail. Which I am a sucker for. Also what happened to him at the end? Did Rinea soul came back to  take him to  the afterlife?

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Faye: As a unit, she was one I used a lot and brought to the Endgame, so she gets some points for that! I also like her design, the simplicity of it is good and it seems to fit her. As for her character...I'm not quite sure what to think. I didn't dislike her, but at the same time, she skittered a little too close to the Tharja/Cordelia/Camilla line. She has some good moments, like when she accepts Alm's rejection (albeit still obsesses over him anyway), but as a whole I wasn't quite sure what to think.

Nomah: He's like Valbar, except with even less presence! He's just...there. He has a line of dialogue here, and then another there, but then doesn't say much aside from supports. As a unit, I'd rather just use Boey, Mae, Sonya, or any other mage on Celica's side. His design was fitting, though. It fit the wide old mentor thing.

Berkut: At first I thought they were doing a good job of making a character that you dislike, like, and feel sorry for, all at the same time. But then he went and pulled a stunt that just DESTROYED every single bit of sympathy I may have held for him. If they wanted to make a character I was glad to slaughter, they succeeded! His design is fine, nothing bad but nothing amazing, and as a unit...well, in Heroes, I prefer Camus.

[epilepsyduck]

Man, we're getting to the controversial folks early, huh?

Faye

Meh. Faye is obviously pretty dull and one-note, and there's more than a hint of sexism in the way she's written, but she also is hardly Tharja 3.0 like I often saw her being touted as. Ultimately just bland and annoying and definitely not worth the drama she generated. At least she makes a pretty sweet Cleric.

Nomah

It's hard to really say much of anything about this dude, frankly. He doesn't strike me as terribly useful as a unit or a particularly interesting dude, but maybe if he'd been around longer I'd be a bit more attached to him. Though the idea of Villager Forking him and making him, like, a Dread Fighter or something is pretty hilarious. Maybe next playthrough.

Berkut

A terrific performance by Ian Sinclair aside, I wasn't really feeling Berkybear as an antagonist even before you-know-what happened, mostly because it felt like the game was trying too hard to shill him as being really scary and strong only to turn around and have him be a wimp the first time you fight him. The aftermath of you-know-what basically killed any positive feelings I had towards the fucker, not just because of the event itself but because the game felt the need to completely and utterly absolve him of it. Ugh.

Edited August 16, 2017 by epilepsyduck

[Armagon]

Faye: Unpopular opinion time. I like her. She's one of my favorite characters in the game. While it's true that her personality revolves around Alm, i find her obsession to be well done compared to Tharja and Camilla. While it's true that Tharja and Camilla have more to them, it's worth noting that those two originate in games where almost everybody can support with everybody, whereas Faye originates in a game with limied Supports. And there are a few things that set apart Faye from Tharja and Camila, and make her a better character compared to them. First, she's actually brave enough to confess her feelings towards Alm. And when Alm rejects her, she accepts it. Quite reasonably too. Second, Faye never puts Alm in harm's way. Tharja cursed Robin in their A-Support. And Birthright!Camilla outright tries to kill Corrin as an act of love. But name one time where Faye actively tries to hurt Alm. Answer: there is none. Honestly, i think it's more accurate to compare Faye to Marisha from FE3/12.

In particular, i really like Faye's A-Support with Alm. While i've already covered how she handles the rejection, i also like how she actually talks about her future and how she hopefully wants to spend it with Alm. Speaking of Supports, i would've really liked to see her Support with one of the Ram Villagers. Or at the very least, Celica. If you leave Faye in Ram Village and then go back there with Celica in Act 2, Faye is genuinely happy to see her again. Speaking of, that same bit of dialouge shows that while Faye is obsessed with Alm, she has her limits. 

Spoiler

"I thought about going after him just to teach him a lesson, but I didn't. I'd probably get killed by some foul beast out there on my own, you know?" -Faye in her recruitment dialogue with Celica

Given that Faye is one of the two Ram Villagers that can join Celica in her route (the other being Kliff), there should've been Supports here. Using her 1st and 3rd Base Convos, as well as her A-Support with Alm and some other quotes from her, i'm pretty confident in saying that Faye's feelings for Alm are genuine. Her 1st Base Convo has her talking about why she loves Alm. Her 3rd Base Convo has her acknowledging that her parents want to hear more about her but the reason she writes about Alm is because he matters to her, and (according to her), in a way, she IS writing about herself. Then of course, her A-Support has her confessing and accepting Alm's rejection. A lot of people have described Faye's quotes as "creepy", but i never saw it that way, especially because of her voice acting. Like, when she's rude to Silque in their C and B Supports, or her passive-aggressive comment about Celica, her voice acting makes it sound like she's unintentionally rude.

I will say the other thing i didn't like about Faye besides her having a limited Support pool is her ending. I don't mind that she still has feelings for Alm, even after marrying someone else, but Intelligent Systems, enough with the "disappeared" type endings, please! Even though Faye's disappearances are only temporary, don't give it to characters that don't need it. "Disappeared" type endings upset me the most in this series when characters that don't need one get one. This isn't SoV but i'm still pretty mad about Azura's Revelation ending.

Now, as a unit, Cleric!Faye is God-tier. Early Physic is just too good. She has a Defense stat that most Clerics wish they had. She can preform the Silque Road (Silque's Warp+Faye's Rescue=true combo). One she promotes into Saint and gets that A-Support with Alm, she basically breaks the game. Her Seraphim spell's hitrate gets boosted up to 100%, making it the only time any Mage has a spell with an 100% hitrate. Nosferatu becomes reliable as well. I gave her the Mage Ring and she just destroyed anything. She loses Avoid in her Supports with Alm? Who cares, she's healing back that HP anyway. She's also your Dancer, but Anew comes in really late.

Nomah: Literally Dumbledore, except he doesn't die. But he's also the worst unit in the game. Terrible growths AND terrible stats. Well, it's an improvement over Gaiden. In Gaiden, all of his growths were much worse than they are in Echoes. As a character, he's alright. I don't know how the fuck he ended up underneath Mila's Temple though, considering it was flooded. Like, there's getting lost, and then there's this.

Berkut: One of my favorite villains in the series. Ian Sinclair did an amazing job with Berkut. Unlike the past villains we've getting, Berkut has an actual motivation, and when he belives that power is everything, it's not because "he's the bad guy", it's because this is what taught at a young age. And then we get to see Berkut fall into despair, as Alm slowly takes away everything. Berkut's also got one of my favorite designs in the series. Blue's my favorite color but so is black. And Berkut has both of those colors (the blue is more noticeably in Heroes). I do agree with some of the criticisms, in how Berkut doesn't really accomplish anything, but i personally forgive him because of everything i just mentioned. And can we talk about how amazing The Scions' Dance in Purgatory is? The song's name itself perfectly represents what is happening in that battle: the two heirs of Rigel dueling to the death.

As a unit, lol, he's not playable. But, he IS playable in Heroes. This isn't Heroes but i just want to say that Berkut is one of my main units in Heroes and he's pretty good. I 5-Stared him as soon as i got the chance.

Edited August 16, 2017 by Armagon

[Rex Glacies]

Why didn't I know about this thread until now?

Faye: Admittedly a better "yandere" than Tharja and Camilla, though that's not saying much. Her character wasn't much beyond "Alm are you watching?" which is pretty boring especially since Clair and Celica already were already sort of after him. Gameplay, though, she was great. As a cleric I found her to outperform Silque at almost all aspects, especially since she had Physic.

Nomah: I thought he would be someone akin to Athos where he comes in at the last chapter and is really awesome, but... no. Bland, not too powerful, and his only supports (I think; I haven't reached A yet) are just "old man problems" and I know enough elderly people to not be amused.

Berkut: Probably one of my favorite villains in Fire Emblem, and possibly becoming so in fiction. He starts out as the cool, collected, proud prince of Rigel, but after losing to Alm numerous times he slowly gives up his honor, dignity, and eventually identity in order to beat him. He has a lot of character growth, (and done well, thankfully) which is something not often seen in villains and as such makes him cut a bit above the rest.
I've seen a lot of people not like him because they can't sympathize with him, but that's the point. He begins as a good man with honor who embodies Rigel's strength, but after losing to Alm he begins questioning himself, wondering who he is if he doesn't have power. And that's the thing - by losing to Alm, he loses his identity, and becomes willing to do anything to get it back. He's not meant to be sympathetic; he's suppose to be a good man who falls to the wrong path.

I might go by later to answer the other characters in the previous days.

Edited August 16, 2017 by Rex Glacies

[maybe]

faye is kinda cute and has a nice a support with alm but is otherwise nothing interesting

berkut gets nothing done and yells about it until he gets the power to get nothing done more dramatically 

his voice actor did a good job, his music is good, but there's really nothing good about him otherwise

i guess i still have a somewhat positive opinion of him though but that's like 3% because of those 2 things and 97% because of his special art in heroes, it's fantastic look at it

i actually really like nomah though

his introduction in the story is done in a way that's pretty amusing and the whole "don't treat me like an old man" thing is done in a pretty funny way too

his quotes are also great like "You're hard on an old man..." when he's at low hp

i wish he got more dialogue 

Edited August 16, 2017 by unique

[bethany81707]

11 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Faye: Unpopular opinion time. I like her. She's one of my favorite characters in the game. While it's true that her personality revolves around Alm, i find her obsession to be well done compared to Tharja and Camilla. While it's true that Tharja and Camilla have more to them, it's worth noting that those two originate in games where almost everybody can support with everybody, whereas Faye originates in a game with limied Supports. And there are a few things that set apart Faye from Tharja and Camila, and make her a better character compared to them. First, she's actually brave enough to confess her feelings towards Alm. And when Alm rejects her, she accepts it. Quite reasonably too. Second, Faye never puts Alm in harm's way. Tharja cursed Robin in their A-Support. And Birthright!Camilla outright tries to kill Corrin as an act of love. But name one time where Faye actively tries to hurt Alm. Answer: there is none. Honestly, i think it's more accurate to compare Faye to Marisha from FE3/12.

In particular, i really like Faye's A-Support with Alm. While i've already covered how she handles the rejection, i also like how she actually talks about her future and how she hopefully wants to spend it with Alm. Speaking of Supports, i would've really liked to see her Support with one of the Ram Villagers. Or at the very least, Celica. If you leave Faye in Ram Village and then go back there with Celica in Act 2, Faye is genuinely happy to see her again. Speaking of, that same bit of dialouge shows that while Faye is obsessed with Alm, she has her limits. 

  Reveal hidden contents

"I thought about going after him just to teach him a lesson, but I didn't. I'd probably get killed by some foul beast out there on my own, you know?" -Faye in her recruitment dialogue with Celica

Given that Faye is one of the two Ram Villagers that can join Celica in her route (the other being Kliff), there should've been Supports here. Using her 1st and 3rd Base Convos, as well as her A-Support with Alm and some other quotes from her, i'm pretty confident in saying that Faye's feelings for Alm are genuine. Her 1st Base Convo has her talking about why she loves Alm. Her 3rd Base Convo has her acknowledging that her parents want to hear more about her but the reason she writes about Alm is because he matters to her, and (according to her), in a way, she IS writing about herself. Then of course, her A-Support has her confessing and accepting Alm's rejection. A lot of people have described Faye's quotes as "creepy", but i never saw it that way, especially because of her voice acting. Like, when she's rude to Silque in their C and B Supports, or her passive-aggressive comment about Celica, her voice acting makes it sound like she's unintentionally rude.

I will say the other thing i didn't like about Faye besides her having a limited Support pool is her ending. I don't mind that she still has feelings for Alm, even after marrying someone else, but Intelligent Systems, enough with the "disappeared" type endings, please! Even though Faye's disappearances are only temporary, don't give it to characters that don't need it. "Disappeared" type endings upset me the most in this series when characters that don't need one get one. This isn't SoV but i'm still pretty mad about Azura's Revelation ending.

Don't worry, I'm in this corner, too.

Funny thing about comparing her to Marisha: Marisha's ending is her becoming a delinquent, apparently. Looks like you're closer to the mark than you might have thought.

[property of nuvelle]

I forgot to do Tatiana and Atlas, but I don't care too much for them anyways.

Faye: She's okay. I liked all my other clerics more, and I never got to unlock her "dance" spell either. As a character, I expected something else when we first saw her. I imagined her acting as the older sister of the Ram boys, keeping them in check and being somewhat protective of her friends. Too bad I was super wrong and we got what she is now. I wouldn't have minded her Alm crush but it's pretty much all she is so I do. Her obsession/love isn't on the same level as Tharja, but at least Tharja had other things going for her. I think it would've really helped if she didn't just have an Alm support. Kliff could've totally gotten that extra convo because they're both stuck with one.

Nomah: I didn't use him, I don't really care too much about him. He was in such a random place and the fact that he's a hidden optional character makes him less significant to me.

Berkut: I thought he was a cool guy. I really liked the last scene in Duma Tower but I feel like they don't do enough to make you feel for him. It's just bug-stomping and high almighty nephew. He wasn't even that nice to Rinea and I don't get why she really liked him. He didn't even make a good rival/obstacle for Alm, since he got rekt everytime. I know that they stayed faithful and they couldn't alter things much, but if Berkut actually had a bigger effect on the story, I would've liked him more.

[Thane]

Faye

An almost insulting character in how bad she is portrayed and how other cast members approach her.

Spoiler

I can see liking creepy and manipulative characters - Kreia is my favorite video game character, after all - but there is just nothing to Faye. She only has extensive dialogue in the prologue, in her two supports and in her base monologues. In those, she only talks about Alm, usually in the most obsessed way possible. She tries to manipulate Alm into forgetting Celica right after they had had a fight, she doesn't want to make friends that are not Alm, and her ending has her not getting over him and leaving her family without explanation for days at a time. So not only is she unsympathetic, but she is also completely static.

If they had expanded upon her desire to be nothing more than a normal girl in a small village, then there would have been something more to her character to enjoy. If characters had just reacted in a more normal fashion to the nonsense she was spewing - like Silque not being a doormat and Alm reacting a bit more forcefully to his childhood friend cheerfully proclaiming she'll murder people in his name - then she would've felt more realistic. As it stands, she's probably the character that has had the least thought put into her, and was added just so that Alm's early party wouldn't be a sausage fest.

Regardless of your opinion, the fact that Camilla and Tharja exist in the same series is not any reason to give Faye even one iota of praise.

Nomah

Literally who? 

Berkut

A filler villain and a complete joke

Spoiler

Berkut accomplishes nothing and doesn't have a single sympathizing moment aside from his Memory Prism. Yet we're supposed to feel bad about him dying, even though he literally sacrificed his girlfriend to get power to destroy the world. All throughout the game, Berkut acts like an asshole, both against his enemies and Rinea, and his relation to the latter has such a lack of chemistry that I'm sure if they stand next to each other for too long, they'll warp time and space around them.

The thing about Berkut though is that if you remove him from the story, the overall plot would remain the same. He has no impact on it. Some then say that he's important for the themes, but since Alm renderr the themes of the game useless anyway, and the writers are so afraid of actually exploring what happened to Berkut in detail, I don't see that argument. If they had only at least actually admitted the fact that Rudolf screwed over his nephew throughout his entire existence, then maybe at least a part of his character could've been salvaged.

I want to like Berkut on the voice acting, art and premise alone, but it's impossible. Either to make God-Emperor Alm stand out even more, or because they were deadly afraid of altering the direction of Gaiden's story even slightly, Berkut turned out to be nothing more than a joke.

 

Edited August 16, 2017 by Thane

[Stephen the Great]

16 minutes ago, Thane said:

Faye

An almost insulting character in how bad she is portrayed and how other cast members approach her.

  Hide contents

I can see liking creepy and manipulative characters - Kreia is my favorite video game character, after all - but there is just nothing to Faye. She only has extensive dialogue in the prologue, in her two supports and in her base monologues. In those, she only talks about Alm, usually in the most obsessed way possible. She tries to manipulate Alm into forgetting Celica right after they had had a fight, she doesn't want to make friends that are not Alm, and her ending has her not getting over her and leaving her family without explanation for days at a time. So not only is she unsympathetic, but she is also completely static.

If they had expanded upon her desire to be nothing more than a normal girl in a small village, then there would have been something more to her character to enjoy. If characters had just reacted in a more normal fashion to the nonsense she was spewing - like Silque not being a doormat and Alm reacting a bit more forcefully to his childhood friend cheerfully proclaiming she'll murder people in his name - then she would've felt more realistic. As it stands, she's probably the character that has had the least thought put into her, and was added just so that Alm's early party wouldn't be a sausage fest.

Regardless of your opinion, the fact that Camilla and Tharja exist in the same series is not any reason to give Faye even one iota of praise.

Nomah

Literally who? 

Berkut

A filler villain and a complete joke

  Hide contents

Berkut accomplishes nothing and doesn't have a single sympathizing moment aside from his Memory Prism. Yet we're supposed to feel bad about him dying, even though he literally sacrificed his girlfriend to get power to destroy the world. All throughout the game, Berkut acts like an asshole, both against his enemies and Rinea, and his relation to the latter has such a lack of chemistry that I'm sure if they stand next to each other for too long, they'll warp time and space around them.

The thing about Berkut though is that if you remove him from the story, the overall plot would remain the same. He has no impact on it. Some then say that he's important for the themes, but since Alm render the themes of the game useless anyway, and the writers are so afraid of actually exploring what happened to Berkut in detail, I don't see that argument. If they had only at least actually admitted the fact that Rudolf screwed over his nephew throughout his entire existence, then maybe at least a part of his character could've been salvaged.

I want to like Berkut on the voice acting, art and premise alone, but it's impossible. Either to make God-Emperor Alm stand out even more, or because they were deadly afraid of altering the direction of Gaiden's story even slightly, Berkut turned out to be nothing more than a joke.

 

Bravo! È molto saggio! Bravissimo!

Translation: I agree on all counts. Completely.

[Truthblade]

Tatiana: I honestly do not know much about her aside from how much she loves Zeke. 

Atlas: I like him. Obviously suffers from having nearly no supports, but how he cares for his siblings is rather endearing. I also like muscular male characters, so that's a plus as well.

Faye: I don't have a burning passion of hatred towards her like many other people, but I can not say the reasons for doing so are baseless. Aside from her crush on Alm, there is literally nothing about her. Almost every sentence she has is about Alm , even her pre-god-kicking line against Duma, which only made it more irritating. The fact that the writers seem to be aware of this (when she mentions how much she writes about Alm) makes it all the more grating. Even worst is how she never gets over it.

Nomah: I didn't even know where he came from tbh.

Berkut: I will have to be honest, being better than the other 3DS villains is hardly a feat. I could live with his questionable relationship with Rinea (I saw her burn coming miles away anyway) or how quick Alm forgave him (they could have at least lampshaded it), but his lack of any actual feats to justify his reputation is baffling. It makes him come across as whiny brat and nothing more when he is built up to be a very threatening foe, and Alm curbstomps him at every corner almost effortlessly. I mean, I get they wanted him to have a mental breakdown over how he keeps losing to a commoner, but they should at least make sure we find him actually threatening. Instead of just telling he is, why don't you show us. His mediocrity in Heroes certainly doesn't help.

That said, his design is one of the S tier ones in the game. The voice acting was also done very well. (I wondered if his actor was enjoying job. :p)

 

[Etrurian emperor]

Faye. 

Her crush on Alm being Faye's only real character trait is off putting but I can't say I hate her. Faye is far to minor and easy to ignore for me to feel to much negativity about. 

Nomah

I have no opinion on Nomah as a character. Most people say he's a bad unit but he's got his value. You can field every unit so you don't really lose out by just making him a spare healbot. 

Berkut

As with everyone I have conflicting feelings about Berkut. He certainly is a better and more deep villain then any other 3ds villain but that's hardly an achievement. I think Berkut's main problem is that they made him a little to flawed. His kinder behavior to his girlfriend should balance this out but Berkut is hardly ever kind to her. Even before setting her on fire he just yells or snaps at her most of the time. 
I don't like Berkut going on and on about being a royal. That should be a Zophian thing. Berkut is from Rigel where such statements really shouldn't come from. If power is everything to Rigelians they shouldn't flaunt their birth so much. 

There are good things about Berkut too. As everyone says he's voiced very well, his design is good and I like him and the Faithful being so openly hostile towards each other.

I would disagree that Berkut's losses makes him incompetent. I think his first look can be overlooked because the game makes it clear he's just messing around and that Alm still struggles with defeating him despite that. 

[Thane]

2 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I would disagree that Berkut's losses makes him incompetent. I think his first look can be overlooked because the game makes it clear he's just messing around and that Alm still struggles with defeating him despite that. 

It has less to do with Berkut losing and more to do with him never winning. Anything. At all. His impact on the main story is zero and we're never given a reason to fear this guy, nor do we get to see him being a good general. 

[Ertrick36]

*Sees the three listed*  Oh good lord, why?!

Alright, I'm gonna go ahead and get the least controversial character out of the way first.

That One Creepy Mall Santa Who Owns a Windowless Van That Supposedly Has Candy and Cute Puppies In It (AKA, Nomah)

Old dude who asks for backrubs from Celica.  That's all I got out of his character, and that's mostly due to how much he completely sucks as a unit.  And honestly, I couldn't care to learn more about him after that.

3 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Most people say he's a bad unit but he's got his value. You can field every unit so you don't really lose out by just making him a spare healbot. 

If you aren't careful, he becomes a liability, which is a serious issue if you want to play through the game without any deaths.  In that way, it's less about "losing out" on good units and more about "if I field this guy, I'm gonna have to give him a four-man escort just so he doesn't croak and die".

And it probably goes without saying, but bringing him to endgame or the Thabes Labyrinth is a terrible idea.

Effie

I still don't think she's the worst character ever...

But I was disappointed in her as soon as we got an inkling of information about her.  I wanted a girl who got a personality of a quality on par with that of the villager boys, instead I got a flanderized, sexist trope.  Don't really have much more to say than that.

Man-child

A big goddamn joke.  At first he was a bit cool... until his first loss.  Then he digresses into a screaming brat.  I think he was added in to further exaggerate the themes of classist warfare, but instead of an interesting perusal into what it's like to be of a high class and think lowly of commoners, we got a total loser who bitches and whines every time things don't go his way.  Every appearance of his after his first battle with Alm made me dread seeing him more, especially after his Kylo Ren tantrum.  And like Thane says, he adds pretty much nothing to the story.

I won't talk about his relationship with Rinea until she comes up because otherwise, I'll have absolutely nothing to say when the time comes.

[vanguard333]

Faye:

Um... I didn't like that there was next-to-nothing about her other than Alm. I didn't like her supports with Silque at first, though they got better... When I first read her epilogue, I was thinking, "Good; she finally moved on," only to then think, "Are you kidding me?" (To be fair, I disliked a lot of the character epilogues). As a character, she could have been worse, but she also could have been a lot better...

That being said, she was very good as a cleric, and one of my favourite strategies was to have Silque warp someone to defeat an enemy and then have Faye bring that character back with rescue.

Nomah:

I have no idea; I honestly somehow managed to miss him on my first playthrough (he was the only character I missed...) So I can only really judge from his very brief appearance in the beginning of chapter 2, and I can say... nothing. I got nothing.

Berkut:

Where Faye and her obsession with Alm was a bad idea done better than it easily could have, Berkut is the opposite. He's a good concept that fit the game, but was not executed as well as it could have. His introduction was excellent; confident and proud of his strength and noble heritage, and the very first scene he has is Fernand walking in  on him dancing happily with Rinea, which is fitting considering that the arc neared its end with Fernand walking in on something else entirely... More about that when I speak about Fernand. Then, over the course of the game, he becomes more and more frustrated with Alm and his insecurities are revealed. Duma's madness worming into Berkut's mind was gradual and made sense, considering everything else that was going on. Honestly fairly well done. The scene where the king tells him not to take part in the fight was also good. However, a lot of the overall story's problems naturally spilled onto Berkut. He gets chastised for losing a fight that was supposed to merely gauge Alm's strength; nothing more. Duma worming into his mind would have made even more sense had the mirror actually accomplished something, rather than the seven-layer deus ex machinas that amounted to nothing. His reluctant willingness to break the mirror in the first place was well done, but, ultimately, that scene, along with many other things that affected the Berkut Character, became a victim of some of the writing problems in SoV. Berkut was an interesting character, damaged by the overarching story problems (a lot like his uncle in that regard...)

Edited August 16, 2017 by vanguard333

[Sentinel07]

Guess I'm kind of late to the party here. Perhaps I'll do the other characters later.

Faye: I don't hate her character, though I wouldn't say I like it either. Seriously, all they would have needed for me to just be okay with her was give her some conversations that actually delved into other aspects of her lifestyle. They do that and I wouldn't have thought much of the Alm obsession.

Nomah: Not much to think here. He's likable enough, if not a bit unmemorable.

Berkut: My 2nd favorite antagonist in the franchise, only behind Lyon. A very human antagonist with a reasonable backstory that gives pretty good reasons for why he became the power-obsessed man we see in the game. It's been a while since I was that emotionally invested in a FE villain, and he just hit all the right notes for me. His descent into madness was both intriguing and tragic, as we see him lose everything he valued and he's pushed to desperation. At least in the end, he was finally able to realize those mistakes he made, urging Alm to create a world where people won't end up like he did. I could go on for a lot longer, but that I think that's good enough.

Plus, his design is excellent and his voice one of the best I've heard in any video game. 

[bethany81707]

You know... who actually calls Berkut a good general? Maybe it's self-proclaimed.

[Sentinel07]

10 minutes ago, phineas81707 said:

You know... who actually calls Berkut a good general? Maybe it's self-proclaimed.

Pretty sure Lukas said that Berkut is known as a great general.