Cosmetic Ideas for Fire Emblem Switch

[Hawkwing]

Over the past few months, we've been discussing gameplay mechanics, story ideas, and whatever else we want to see in the the upcoming Fire Emblem game for the Nintendo Switch. Rarely, however have I seen any ideas presented on how the game should visually look, which can be just as an important a factor as the gameplay itself. So, I believe its about time that I presented my ideas on the topic.

The ideas I have on the matter are as follows:

Each Nation or Faction Should Have a Different Style for Each Class

What I mean by this is that that the knight design of Nation A should be different than the knight design of Nation B, and the style for bandits should be different from both. One nation would have their archers be heavily armored, while another would have them wearing little more than leather armor. Each factions could go more in depth with being stylized after real world cultures than the previous games have, which helps prevent every nation from looking like they bought their armor from the same store (I now have a new headcannon about every villainous nation in Fire Emblem buying their equipment from Walhart). Some classes could even be different from each other while still serving the same purpose. For example, one nation would use the previous designs of myrmidons, while another would be stylized more like a fencer, without changing the function of the unit. Overall, differentiating each nation through a more obvious visual style helps them to be more memorable, which is something the Fire Emblem tends to lack in.

Randomize the Faces, Hairstyles, Builds, Race, and Gender of Enemy Units

After playing through both Awakening and Echoes, I soon grew tired of facing the same enemy with the same face and hairstyle as the rest of the army. Regardless of whether or not an avatar is returning, the customizability aspect of it could be applied to enemy units. Each enemy would have a randomized face that's different every time you play, which prevents the aforementioned problem of the enemy designs getting stale. I also think that some more female enemies should be thrown into the mix, with the game randomly determining whether an enemy unit on a given map will be male or female. If you can have female units for nearly every class, why can't the enemy? Plus, a ratio could be present so that for a certain amount of male units, there would be a female one, and it would be different depending on which enemy nation you are currently facing. This could help enforce whether a nation's culture is egalitarian (for every male enemy, there is a female one), has nothing against women fighting (2 or 3 males for every female), is reluctant for women to fight but still allows it (for every 7 through 10 enemies, there is a female one), or prohibits it altogether (the only female enemies are clerics and pegasus riders). I also think that armor designs should differ slightly between each unit as well. Some would have plain armor, others would have it be scratched up a little, and some of them would be personalized (such as having skulls or sayings or what have you painted on their shields and armor). Similarly, for example, a female archer/mercenary could wear armor that has a skirt or is otherwise more feminine, be wearing the standardized armor for the class, or they could be more uniquely/oddly armored (one-sleeved shirts, anyone?). Overall, this would prevent the enemy units from growing stale to look at, while also ensuring that each playthrough you would be facing different enemy combinations.

Have Stats Affect the Appearance of Armor

As in, a mercenary with high defense could have a shield, shoulder guards, chainmail armor, and a helmet, while a mercenary with comparatively lower defense may only have leather armor and maybe a shield or helmet. This helps the effects of character growths make sense, prevents the designs from growing stale, and helps show visually how a unit has grown more powerful throughout the game.

Logical Armor Damage

I haven't played Fates, but from what I've seen, the clothing damage was a bit excessive, and didn't make much sense. When playing SoV, I enjoyed seeing seeing both my own units and the enemy lose their headgear and have their capes torn after a devastating attack. It was simultaneously funny and painful, and helped enforce the power behind the attack. It did happen too rarely for my liking, however. For the switch game, I would like both for the damage done to make logical sense (as in, a unit could put a tear in the opponents clothing or scratch their armor depending on which direction it was struck. Enough damage to a shield would cause it to break. A critical hit would puncture and crack an area of the armor, but said armor wouldn't just fly off) and be more apparent without going overboard (i.e. no attack should strip an opponent to their underwear).

(Runner-Up: Adding blood. I would put this as its own topic, but I'm admittedly a little too scared to do so. On the one hand, I'd like it to be similar in style to how Mount & Blade handled it, which I thought did Teen-rated blood right, but on the other hand, I do wonder if it would fit the style of fire emblem, or if its a step to far.)

Later today, I'll try create a thread to give my thoughts and ideas about the animation I want the game to have (I'm a slow typer, and this took me over an hour and a half to write! I need a break before I do another version of this).

So what are your thoughts on how you what the game to look visually?

Edit: The thread on animation has been out for over a week now, so if you want to see my ideas on the matter and/or add your own, go check that out. I'm glad to see that so many people like these ideas, and it's always nice to see your own.

Edited November 24, 2017 by Hawkwing
Fixed some minor grammatical errors, and anything else I accidentally overlooked.

[Lance-a-lot]

I completely agree, the only thing I'd like to add to this is MORE PORTRAITS. Reclassing and promoting are inevitable so I think each character should have a unique portrait based on their current class, similar to how Alm, Ike, Sothe, Micaiah, etc. change portraits based on class. FE: New mystery for DS also had the player created character change portrait based on their starting class, I'm dying to see this implemented. It always bothered me when a character like Leonardo would be a full fledged marksman and still had the portrait of a back street level 1 archer. Lets be honest here, portraits are one of the easier things to make in an FE title with current technology and when compared to 3D modeling, etc.

 

The stat armor appearance is something I never knew I needed until now and if they could implement that into the game alongside unique portraits that would be amazing.

Edited November 15, 2017 by Lance-a-lot

[SoulWeaver]

Wow, you thought this out really well. I hope they put in the effort for even half of these, because any two of these, whichever they were, would be amazing. It looks like a TON of work, though, so I doubt they'll do all this. I'll keep my fingers crossed, though, especially for the randomized enemies as I'm hoping recruiting makes a return - I require as many generic enemy ladies as possible!

[Captain Vulgar]

I love all of this, and I really want IS to do that level of unit variety. It would make the enemy feel alive and like an actual army. Something like that would make me want unit capture to return. Country variations in armor would be absolutely PHENOMENAL OH MY GOD.

(I would kill to see blood.)

Blood would be pretty intense. Give the battles depth and reality. Maybe add sparks to that equation for when blocking with shields or weapons. As much as I'd like it, would it boost the rating to M?

[Gebby]

1 hour ago, Hawkwing said:

Plus, a ratio could be present so that for a certain amount of male units, there's female ones, and it would be different depending on which enemy nation you are currently facing. This could help enforce whether a nation's culture is egalitarian (for every male enemy, there is a female one), has nothing against women fighting (2 or 3 males for every female), is reluctant for women to fight but allows it (for every 7 through 10 enemies, there is a female one), or prohibits it altogether (the only female enemies are clerics and pegasus riders). I also think that armor designs should differ slightly between each unit as well. Some would have plain armor, others would be scratched up a little, and some of them would be personalized (such as having skulls or sayings or what have you painted on their shields an armor). Similarly, for example, a female archer/mercenary could wear armor that has a skirt or is otherwise more feminine, be wearing the standardized armor for the class, or they could be more uniquely/oddly armored. Overall, this would prevent the enemy units from growing stale to look at, while also ensuring that each playthrough you would be facing different enemy combinations.

At first I thought you were going to get into some feminist bullshit, but after reading it, I quite like this idea and how it could help enforce the cultures of different nations. What better way to build your world than through the enemies you face?

I agree with pretty much everything you said, the only issue is IS putting in the work to make it happen. After all these bait banners in Heroes, they'd better be putting together something real fucking nice.

[Hawkwing]

2 hours ago, Captain Vulgar said:

Blood would be pretty intense. Give the battles depth and reality. Maybe add sparks to that equation for when blocking with shields or weapons. As much as I'd like it, would it boost the rating to M?

Spoiler

A teen rated game, everybody.

That's why I said I'd like the blood to be in the vein of Mount and Blade. Partially because it's optional (I always think that blood, as well as language, should be optional if it's not the selling point of the game. I know that many people can stomach that sort of thing, but I always end up turning it off because I have younger family members around), but also because it doesn't go overboard. If you slash at an enemy, a small blood splatter will appear and your weapon will get blood on it, the enemies armor will have blood where it was slashed, and if you're close enough, blood will get on your hands and clothing. It helps to show how intense and brutal medieval fighting can be. Despite this, the effect is reasonable. No one has blood spraying out of them, nor are there pools of blood. There's no gore or amputations (although decapitations exist in Viking Conquest), and it never seems as if a simple fight will turn into a needless bloodbath, only in grand battles (or multiplayer) will everyone look like they took a dive into a crimson pool. 

 

[Captain Vulgar]

4 minutes ago, Hawkwing said:

No one has blood spraying out of them

Lethality would like to disagree

Yeah, having the blood be option would be pretty nice. My only issue with that; Will they really be splatters, or are the more likely to be splotches of red? If that game is rated T than that gives me some hope, but has there ever been blood in a Fire Emblem game?

[Zapp Branniglenn]

I wouldn't mind a return of the accessories in Fates. Goofy as they may be. Or if nothing else, I wouldn't mind an option to tailor different colors for my units armor sets. At least let me choose the lord's cape color.

[Hawkwing]

1 hour ago, Captain Vulgar said:

If that game is rated T than that gives me some hope, but has there ever been blood in a Fire Emblem game?

It's been brought up in conversations before, and a spoilerly yet dramatic death in Shadows of Valentia is the first time there was blood shown (it was in a still portrait, not in gameplay, but still) in a Fire Emblem game (it was small, but noticeable), so I wouldn't be surprised if blood appeared again, even if its appearance was miniscule.

21 minutes ago, Glennstavos said:

I wouldn't mind a return of the accessories in Fates. Goofy as they may be. Or if nothing else, I wouldn't mind an option to tailor different colors for my units armor sets. At least let me choose the lord's cape color.

Even if I haven't played Fates, I do like the idea of accessories. I would like them to be more down to earth than what we had in that game though, and I'm debating on whether or not they should have a minuscule effect on gameplay (as in 1 or 2 stat boost at most) or if they should be purely cosmetic. I my I also would like for them to be unlockable, though on the easier side of things, with the cooler armor requiring you to do something badass, and the goofier costumes requiring you to do something wacky.

Heck, an idea I had that for a New Game+ for Shadows of Valentia is that you could unlock alternative costumes for your units depending on what difficulty you beat the game on. For instance, Celica could unlock both disney-esque princess looking outfit to wear, or her original design, Kamui could unlock both ninja and samurai armor, Jesse could have an cowboy/Indiana Jones-esque costume, and so on and so forth.

[thecrimsonflash]

The game is already ruined, this thread will get my hopes up for something impressive, even though I know IS will disappoint and the game will look only slightly better than SoV. cant wait for all enemies and allies to be color coded based on their alignment compared to our heroes, koei tecmo did fates better than IS in aesthetics.

I would love for more unit customisation though, fates had some fun stuff, but it was really lacking in the options department, and SoV's battle damage was disappointing in my opinion.

[DemolisherBPB]

On 15/11/2017 at 4:16 PM, Hawkwing said:

Adding blood. I would put this as its own topic, but I'm admittedly a little too scared to do so. On the one hand, I'd like it to be similar in style to how Mount & Blade handled it

AIIEEE! URRGHH!! (ahem) Nice to see M&B.

20 hours ago, Captain Vulgar said:

but has there ever been blood in a Fire Emblem game?

The two instance of blood I can recall are in FE 6 and FE 15, Since 6 never game out in the west it hasn't got a rating I can give, meanwhile FE 15 is 12 of the PEGI Rating, which is what the series has had since 10.

 

But on the main topic all of these are really interesting and nice ideas, the only thing I could see is them cheeping out on random enemy faces and it just been repeated set of eyes, head shame, and hair if they aren't helmeted so eventually you'll have seen all the bits around 10 chapters in, Still be nicer than the 3DS games response to enemy portraits. Personally I wouldn't mind if the enemy portraits went back to the class art.

[NekoKnight]

I think some of OPs ideas are unrealistic but I like a lot of the ideas.

Aesthetic choices can help worldbuild, such as outfit designs, class choices gender ratios. One idea I had was each faction having their own class sets (each group would have a basic sword user, axe user, etc), which could inform the player about which groups are participating in a battle without it even being spoken.

Concerning the issue of blood, I don't need my game rated Edgy/10, but seeing no blood when you should is painfully jarring. Take for example a certain character being impaled on a sword in SoV. There was no blood on the sword and a... mysterious white liquid dropped on the ground between her legs. If that sounds ridiculous and lewd, that's because it is. Treating heavy scenes with kiddy gloves creates a mockery of it (also, look at a certain suicide in Fates). Again, it doesn't need to be gratuitous, just present.

[colossus86]

I agree, even though it might be alot of work depending on if they have any Second Seal type mechanics, i would love to see character portraits change with class change. It always bothered me a bit seeing Ross' boyish picture when he was a burly lvl 20 Berserker one shotting everything in his path

[Morian]

I would like if the sprites resembles the units actual outfit colors than just the traditional blue for your goodies, red for baddies and green for allies/neutrals. The Tellius games did a good job on that, mostly because the characters on the map are 3d models.

[Altrosa]

SoV has spoiled me with this, but I want units to retain their color scheme in all of their accessible classes. Even if we have some limitations with this, I'm just sick of half my army being blue. Maybe only 10 color schemes in total that character models grab based on the dominant color in their base design. If we have an avatar, we can choose a favorite color as part of the building process.

Instead of static portraits, we could have the 3D model emote during scenes. The best example I can give of this is Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny, which uses a nigh identical dialogue format as FE has. 

The Switch is HD, so it can handle this fine, plus it would show any class changes if you do decide to make a unit run a non-cannon job for skills or better stat use.

Secondly, if we lose static portraits, let the detailed sprites return to show characters within menus. (I'm indifferent on sprites, TBH. I just think people would really miss them.)

I don't want blood. Gore doesn't give weight to anything if it's everywhere. Lethality's censored blood hits so much harder because gore is non-existent otherwise. Same with SoV's death mentioned, up there. It sends a bigger hint that this character is royally screwed because this injury is bad enough for it to bleed.

Coming off of that, crits and skills need to have all the punch they can get. They need to shock the player and feel great when you unleash one on an enemy. I feel the way SoV drags crits out verses Fates's crit's brevity hurts the emotional impact. The lightning bolt-flash-quote-attack-death is great, just don't sit on one of these for more than second.

I also really like the idea that different kingdoms that use the same classes showing aesthetic differences based upon the background of the unit. Like, the snowy kingdom has more insulated looking armor. I like the generic enemies being a bit randomized in their appearance, too.

But mostly. Please, IS, stop it with the mass model clipping. Hair, loose clothing, and weapons should not pass through the limbs, heads, and torsos of the main model while in motion. It looks terrible, and the Switch has the power to handle the physics required to prevent it. Animate as needed. Please.

 

 

That's all I can really think of right now.

[TheSS]

I personally want a larger variety of animations so things don't feel quite as samey whenever a unit attacks. Right now they have two normal animations and two critical animations. One for finishing blows and one for ones that don't kill. A wider variety would spice things up.

I like how they zoom into map and have them fight in THAT part of the map. It would be even cooler if the other units were in the background in their parts of the map. Possibly clinking weapons with the enemies near them as opposed to just standing around.

Finally, it'd be cool if they managed to make characters attacking from far away be farther away during the combat scenes, and have the combat scenes better reflect what's going on if possible. For example, if your archer is on top of a wall, and they strike a unit below them, show that happening.

If that happened, I think it would make the moment to moment gameplay a lot more impressive to watch.