Northwind

Thanks, I'll give that a listen after work.

And I can agree with what you said. The idea of the Avatar isn't bad by any means, but it should be approached differently in the future from both a gameplay and a story perspective. FE13's one wasn't all that bad, but they suffered badly from tabula-rasa syndrome and being part of a rather unwieldy triumvirate with Chrom and Lucina.

That was probably the biggest issue I had with Awakening's plot. They tried to mash together both a traditional Fire Emblem style plot and a Western RPG style character customization system and it wound up being the biggest weight on the plot. You can have one (A Fire Emblem/Final Fantasy Tactics style game where you take control of a established lead through a linear story) or the other (an Elder Scrolls/Bioware type game where the lead is customizable and the story is based on each individual players actions and interests), but both at the same time is nigh impossible barring the writer having achieved some type of enlightenment.

Going off on this, it's like if Mass Effect had you make Shepard and then planted you into a story where Ashley and Garrus were the main characters but you were still the most important person in the game, somehow. If you're going to do a character creation system in a plot heavy game like Fire Emblem, that character should damn well be the most important person in the story so that the narrative can revolve around them with the same amount of focus that the audience puts into the character. Otherwise, you're better off just eliminating the player avatar and telling a good story rather then throwing in a mechanic that throws things off.

I like to name character's after mythological/historical characters that share some trait or another with them. Janus is the Roman god of beginnings, transitions, and endings who presided over the beginning and ending of conflict. Rather appropriate for a tactician character. He's also known as the Two-Faced God, which is appropriate for various spoiler reasons that pretty much everyone is aware of at this point.

Flavius Belisarius was a general who lived in the Byzantine Empire during the reign of Emperor Justinian I and is commonly considered by historians to be one of the greatest military minds in the Empire's history. He was very important in the Empire's efforts to reconquer much of the territory in the Western Roman Empire, fighting the Vandals, Ostrogoths, and Bulgers at various points in his career. He was also known for being a victim of Byzantine court politics, which doesn't apply to the Avatar at all, but I had a course on Medieval Warfare taught by a Byzantine specialist fresh on my mind when I did this run, so I just went with it.

Kind of.

I like the idea of the Avatar more then most Fire Emblem purists do, but there are two problems with the character in terms of balance. The character is ridiculously easy to break the game with and they create a clutter in the plot, dragging it away from the main lord character. Luckily, both these things can be fixed.

For the former, I'd like to see the Avatar's power reigned in by simply limiting their ability to reclass/upgrade/gain skills based on player input at the start of the game. Put them on the same level as everyone else, but leave the selection of classes up to the player. I think an Avatar in Fire Emblem, like most custom made units, is guaranteed to be good barring incompetence/sabotage on the player's part, but it shouldn't be easy to do it at first, so skills like Veteran should be cut or at least gotten later in the game. Making class choice tied into character creation would also make each Avatar feel more unique, which can never hurt.

The solution to the later is quite a bit more radical. The best way to keep the Avatar in the plot without them butting heads for screen-time with the Lord character is to simply make them the Lord. This way you'd have the narrative and the player both focused on the same character, preventing clutter.

Now, that being said, it'd be tricky to do the above without making the character overly generic, even by Fire Emblem Lord standards. This clashes with the desires of several people here who want to see in terms of plot. That being said, the success and popularity of the Avatar system in Awakening makes me really doubtful that they'd scrap it, no matter how much it chafes some veterans, so I think the most realistic things we can hope for are more balance in terms of gameplay and a story that revolves around them as the main character completely.

Well, let's see I've done two playthroughs of the game so far:

- Janus was the Avatar on my first play-through. I decided on +Magic, -Def because I didn't want to lose any Strength and figured I'd be mostly slinging spells anyway. I ultimately ended up alternating between Dark Knight and Dread Fighter for him depending on my mood. Tons of fun, especially since I love Magic Knight type characters. Wound up marrying Cordelia due to not even remotely understanding marriage mechanics

- Flavius was my second go around. This time I went with +Strength/-Magic and deliberately tried to make a tank. Worked out pretty well all things considered. Ended up as a General, as if the name wasn't enough of a give away. Married Sully, creating an epically destructive Kjelle that made all before her tremble.

QUOTE (Fire Blazer @ Jul 16 2014, 04:38 PM)

Heyo, welcome to the forums! Which Fire Emblem games have you played?

Pretty much all the one's that were released state side. So Blazing Sword, Sacred Stones, Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn, Shadow Dragon, and Awakening. I want to play some of the other ones, but I've never gotten around to.