I don't understand why everyone is pointing out my argument about motivation when most of the video is actually analysing personality and function of villains within the story and why they work compared to fates and Awakening. my main point is not that motivation makes a Character good. it's that it can help define them and what they are within the confines of the story, it's a prescriptive element, not a descriptive one. I mean I literally call Rinea a plot device for Pete's sake.
I just want to make a random point about types of villains: You have gameplay villains, who serve as the boss and not much else (example: Bowser), you have story villains s who interact with the charecter and actually actively antagonize (example: Kefka) and you have force of nature villains, who the unstoppable forces (example: Sauron) What's great about Echoes villains is that they're more story villians then before.
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 Dude if you define these guys as good villains based on the fact that you use awakening and fates as a comparison then these guys are the best written villains in videogames, but when you compare them with an actual villain like Zephil or Nergal then they they couldn't be any shallower and bland the only unique thing these guys have is fernand's backstory for hating plebs and berkut sacrificing rinea other than that they are as well written as the random villager you see in this game
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 I certainly like how you noted the distinction between goals and motivation, which I sometimes muddle when thinking about characters and what makes them good or bad.
I honestly had no idea Berkut and Fernand were made specifically for echoes, but I've got to say they did a wonderful job with those two! Berkut in particular, he's defo one of the top 5 best fire emblem villains.
i'd say berkut knocks nergal off my personal number 5. but yeah, they were both original characters made specifically for echoes. the other ones i know off the top of my head are Faye and Rinea, i'm sure there's more though. and nuibaba got a genderswap as well, being a hobgoblin looking dude in gaiden, compared to her more... camilla inspired appearance in echoes.
I'm contemplating whether to knock either Nergal or Sephiran off the top 5 atm, but more importantly, Faye was an original character for this game? Guess the writing department hasn't completed recovered from awakening and Fates just yet!
Yeah Faye disappoints me, they went through all the trouble of adding her just to make her a combination of Cordelia and Tharja except more narrow minded... It saddens me. 3/4 ain't bad?
Another reason that adds to Berkut as a character, at least in my eyes, is that he kind of gives us an idea of how Alm could've ended up if Rudolf hadn't given him to Mycen to raise. If Alm had been raised in Rigel, then he would've been next in line to inherit the throne, not Berkut. Part of the reason Berkut goes mad during the later part of the game is because he had believed that he was entitled to the throne all his life, and Alm's mere existance suddenly took that away from him. Also, he's got a REALLY good theme! :)
Shoot, I can't do anything now. Except if you're a Duma faithful, that means Duma controls you, meaning you are no longer ZerkMonsterHunter 4. You are Duma-MilaHunter 4, or something else actually clever
Berkut was such a satisfying villain. I can say this because I actually really, really wanted to see him SUCCEED. No joke, whenever Berkut came on screen, I hated having to defeat him because I liked him as a character so much. I wanted to see him succeed his uncle for the throne and make Rinea his empress. This is SUCH an improvement from Awakening and Fates(I started playing FE with Awakening, I'm a filthy casual). Like, I KNEW Gangrel, Whalhart, and Validar were the bad guys in Awakening and I had to defeat him for them for the greater good of the world. I couldn't sympathize with them in the slightest. As for Fates, like Garon was an obvious, poorly executed baddy. You had to knock him off 'cause he was evil and Ananakos was just a "behind the scenes puppet master character". Again, hard to relate/sympathize with them. But Berkut was both relatable and sympathetic in a way. He strives for power and strength in situations in which he was powerless, all to impress his uncle to succeed the throne. Surely we've all been in semi-powerless in a situation, desperate to prove ourselves to a superior in order to gain a higher opinion or position. Surely we've all had years of toil and work go to waste, or have it be snatched away by some random person for a piss-poor reason. I think Alm being handed these leadership positions on a silver platter is kind of stupid. Like, I know he's the protagonist, but c'mon. So understandably, as I was a little disappointed by the "plot twist" of Alm being Rudolfs son, I could understand why Berkut was so enraged. He's worked YEARS along the knifes edge to impress his uncle to take what he believed was rightfully his, only for some villager to come along and take it because, rejoice! He is the true son an heir of Emperor Rudolf! I even like his relationship with Rinea. On some forums, people have been complaining about how he's "abusive" towards her because he verbally lashed out at her. But from my perspective, I don't really see that as abuse. People tend to express their truest, rawest emotions to those they hold closest. Everything Berkut did was because he wanted to rule the throne alongside Rinea, who he believed deserved to be an empress. So from my perspective, every time he let down Rudolf, he let down Rinea. And in the end, when he ultimately sacrificed Rinea for power, it showed the true corruption of his mind and how he finally tilted off the fine edge he was walking. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, Berkut chose power over nothing else, and then offered anything he had to Duma, which ultimately became the one thing he always treasured and held to highest regard; Rinea. Finally, Rinea offered a final guiding light to Berkut, comforting him and promising that, even after death, they shall walk along the same path to find their own empire, together. If nothing else, Berkut's death became an ultimate symbol of a lust for power, which is what makes him so wonderfully sympathetic. He wanted power so bad, that he went absolutely mad for it, and in the end, lost everything. Berkut was a beautifully written character. It made me cry when he had to die, because I unintentionally was rooting for him the whole time. I knew the minute I met him I would ultimately have to kill him, but something kept me hoping beyond hope. But alas, death is death, and Berkut was lost. I can say with confidence that Berkut is one of my favorite FE characters to date, and most definitely my favorite villain. In fact, I believe full-heartedly that Berkut could make an excellent protagonist if worked correctly. He wasn't outright evil; he was trying to do what he thought was best for Rigel, trying to protect what was his. I can imagine myself playing as Berkut, and striving for victory. He's conflicted. He has a sense of justice, but is constantly being corrupted by his own need for power and ultimately, by the god that ruled the lands. He's not a righteous, goody-two-shoes noble like the other lord characters I've played as(As much as I liked Awakening and Fates and their protagonists). Sorry for the long comment. Just absolutely love Berkut.
it's interesting reading this as I share many of the same views on Lyon from Sacred Stones (which if you haven't played yet what are you doing?) and it's odd that you mention playable Berkut, as Berkut very much struck me as just a darker play on Ephraim (again from sacred stones)
This is very late, but in regards to playable Berkut: There are voice lines in the game that suggest Berkut would have been playable, as well as Fernand. However, these were dummied out, along with the "If Celica dies in battle" character quotes and other interesting lines.
I don't know why, but he seems really cool. If only the game gave him a tiny bit more build-up (not just the animation, which was sick) then he'd easily be a top villain. He's definitely one of my favorites.
But he was hyped up Look at the end of act one again, zerk. When Rudolf learns of alm's triumphs, he simply says, "Did he now?" At the end of act 4, we know what was lying behind his smile. Success. Hope for his son. Relief. Pride in his son's work.
Berkut is great just like you said. I think he works particularly well because of the dynamic between Zofia and Rigel. He's prideful because he's been taught all his life that he must rule over others and that he must be strong. He just wanted live up to his parents and uncle, and he couldn't so he gave into despair. Gave into his lust for power. I felt bad for him, something that never happened when I played Awakening or Fates. Not to mention Ian's VA was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD! You could hear all the emotion in his voice. I loved it. In short, Berkut is great.
Ian Sinclair as Berkut was a ingenious casting that voice and emoting through this role and his previous work was spot on and i pray for more Funimation Vas will be more used for Fire emblem plus Berkut would be playable in FE warriors
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 Brooke- one piece Romano- hetailia Space dandy- from Space dandy Toriko from Toriko Nile Dok - attack on Titan Toraji ishida from bamboo blade and so many more.
I do really like how things like the Memory Prisms and the Rise of the Deliverance DLC have helped flesh out characters like that (particularly Fernand in the latter case). They've made good efforts in this game to show ways to develop characters even outside the main storyline and support conversations.
They're these weird glowing thingies. You can find one which is easy to miss in the Duma Temple where Berkut does the thing with the -Dokapon Kingdom contract- with -Weber the Trickster- Duma and gives up -all his money, field magic, items and towns- his Waifu and gets -the Draco Blade- that German Mask Lance.
I *LOVED* Berkut as a villain. Expertly voice acted, great portrayal of moral gray. Though, he's no Lyon. The villains in Sacred Stones were great. They felt like real people. The villains in SoV were just a bit better. SoV, I think, is a step in the right direction. Fates... was not. You also mention the "Camus" archetype. That's Zeke, not Fernand. Fernand fits the "Orson" archetype better. That's what they are, turncoats. I personally feel Berkut falls under the "Gharnef" archetype, someone who gets corrupted after obtaining a dark power, as well as a boss before the final boss/true antagonist (evidenced by Berkut in Act 5). Lyon is in the "Gharnef" archetype as well.
Jeddah is gharnef, berkut is camus (archetype not the guy, zeke is camus, but is not a camus archetype) and yes i was referring to fernand with the orson archetype. and lyon is something all his own i'd argue, Riev fits the gharnef role much better.
All a "gharnef" is is the big bad. Some are physically corrupted by dark power (the original gharnef, nergal) but it is not a requirement, and most members of the archetype are not (jedah, manfloy, berdo, jahn, lehran, etc).
@iTz Morality the camus archetype refers to a character who can be summed up as a "nice guy" who you can identify with and should probably be on your side, but is not due to harboring unwavering loyalty for the evil empire (or whatever entity your team is fighting against). Examples of this include Eldigan, Ishtar, Reinhardt, Lloyd, Selena (from sacred stones, not fates), and, of course, Camus. Fates doesn't really have a camus, everyone who doesnt join your side in that game is either possessed, killed off by the plot, or a total shithead. The closest thing to a Camus in awakening is Mustafa, although calling Mustafa a Camus is a bit of a stretch since Mustafa is a bit early for a Camus, doesn't have the notoriety that most members of the Camus archetype have (you dont hear about Mustafa at all before or after chapter 10), and Mustafa is not loyal to Gangrel; he is only fighting for Gangrel because his family is being held hostage. tl;dr camuses never turn blue zeke turns blue therefore zeke isnt a camus
I told you Berkut was amazing same for Fernand and King Rudolf makes me have faith for FE Switch villains especially when the Echoes director is involved!
The voice actor was good, but I wouldn't go as far to say as their inclusion was "amazing" in any form. Intelligent Systems made a good decision by having them both killed off.
Yeah, Echoes may be an adaptation of Gaiden's story, but they added so much when Gaiden had so little, so there's no way that one could use the "Gaiden story template" as an excuse for the writing being good. But even then, its original villains were done super well. Fates was a misstep, but I always believed it was a fluke brought about from trying to do too many things at once (trying to tell three stories while making every playable character seem morally right, trying to adapt a non-video game draft, and trying to bend over trying to pander to both sides of the fanbase in equal extremes instead of meeting a compromise) and that if the next FE had more focus it would be a competent plot. Echoes gives me tremendous hopes.
The voice acting in echoes was some of the best voice acting i've seen in any video game. Literally i felt the personality on a lot of the characters in the game. I loved that everything was voice acted so i didn't have to read every single thing. The voice acting helped flesh out the characters and show the emotions of the scenes that happened. Giving you an actual feel of what the characters were feeling. I loved it.
Kanarasu Yeah Echoes was the first game, not the first FE game, where I truly felt head over heels for the voice acting and spent minutes in my head praising it while playing
HELL YEAH he's the best villain! I absolutely loved how they wrote his character :) and I hope they continue to make villains with depth to them in future FE games
After playing I think Berkut is sort of the perfect counterpart for Alm... He is what Alm could have become had he stayed in Rigel... and that adds a lot to both Alm and Berkut as characters
Not really, if Alm had stayed in Rigel he wouldn't have become Berkut, he would've become a corpse, courtesy of the Duma Faithful. Although I do wonder how Berkut would've turned out if he didn't grow up with all the pressure to become Rudolf's heir because Alm was around. He probably would've become Alm's best friend and supporter.
i really, REALLY liked berkut and fernand ironically, i think fernand has been much more characterized than berkut, though this last character explodes in the ending of the game there's just one thing that bothered me RINEA damn, i wanted her to be characterized more, she appeared like 4 times in the whole game! esthetically i really like her i mean, she's so cute and extremely kind, how can't you love her?!? thus i wanted to like her also for his personality a bit more anyway, the ending part is amazing, for what concerns berkut and rinea (and fernand too)
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 well, for me rudolf did his job i mean, ok, he doesn't appear so much during the game, but the characters talk a lot about him, so they explain his backstory and purpose we don't know absolutely nothing about rinea, though eh, whatever, i still like her
I was thoroughly pleased when I got to the end and found Berkut and Fernand to be good villains. For a while they seemed human, but a bit one note, that is until the last chapter (and a bit of DLC). I personally found Fernand a bit better, but they were both excellent overall. Just a word on Gangrel and Walhart, I sorta disagree that they had no motivations. Gangrel had his hatred for the Ylissians from the prior Crusade by the Exalt, and wants them to suffer and die out for the misery that was brought to Plegia. Walhart actually has a similar motivation to Rudolph, raise a powerful army through war and conquest to take down a God that threatens them, in this case Grima. Now, they're rather flimsy motivations that blur into goals granted, and I feel Rudolph is what Walhart should have been, but I can't say they lack motivations, just none of them are ever given the chance to properly flesh out these motivations.
that's true and i could have worded my statement better, but i still say they only check of 2/3 gangrel has character and motivation, but no goal other than start a war, and cause chaos. walhart has motivation and a goal, but no personality, validar just has a goal with no motivation or personality.
*Contemplates statement. *Looks at Villains. Yeah. Actually I'd agree with that statement. I mean, yeah war and chaos can be a goal, just look at the Joker, but even then, the Joker had an underlying goal that went along with it (usually to send a message), so yeah, Gangrel kinda lacked one. And while Walhart acted as an interesting philosophical look for Chrom, he himself did not have much of a personality. Then there's Validar..... yep nothing to say there. I often find the "loyal servant" type tend to lack motives half the time.
Walhart could have been a better character. In fact, his personality was made a bit more existent in the DLCs no one bought. That's something Echoes couldn't even avoid with it's DLC costing as much as the game itself.
Gangrel hates Plegia and doesn't care about the last war except as a means to control the public, so your info is wrong. ruclips.net/video/_k_BZYVHvZ8/видео.htmlm24s
The reason Berkut is such a strong villain has absolutely nothing to do with motivation or character writing. As far as that goes he's absolutely nothing special. His strength comes with the best improvement Echoes brings to FE's storytelling, the voice acting. He feels real because the voice humanizes him, rather than him just being a portrait next to a script.
The Tree's Apprentice you seem to be around here a lot lately. and I'm honestly not sure why... either way I'd argue that his defined goals, personality and having an actual Character arc. compare that to Awakening's "best" villain gangrel, who has a defined motive, bit a one note personality and no clear cut goals other than "cause chaos" gangrel makes little to no difference to the the Story, whereas Berkut takes an active role and acts as Character foil for Alm. yeah Ian Sinclair did an amazing job at portraying him but the writing is there to back the voice acting up. he's still a far cry from Lyon or Zephiel. but he trumps any villain from Awakening or Fates.
I agree, Berkut seriously isn't really anything special at all but the production value made him stand out much more than previous villains. But then again, the sheer production value of Echoes in general does this for any character, really. If Echoes was produced the same as Fates, Awakening, and the other 3DS titles, then we wouldn't be having this conversation tbh
You are gonna have to refresh me Darth, I saw a playthrough and don't remember much else besides my complaints at the axe Mirage not being who I could only assume and hope XD
Berkut never knows about Alm being a royal. His motivation is that he fights to fulfil the job that was given to him since he was born: he was born into being a ruler. He is threatened by Alm because Alm is another young male leading an army that is marching in regelian soil. It is Berkut's job to defend Regel and he fails at it.
Gonna be honest Alm's story is the better route of the two protagonists because of Berkut and Fernand and while Celica's story is at least passable the final act is where I think her character goes from okay to just generic. Jeddah is another great antagonist but I also dislike him because of Celica's stupidity in actually believing in the Duma worshipping mage. Oh and the fact he can negate being attacked 3 times and only being able to damage him on the 4th strike on him is stupid. Good antagonist but an annoying boss to fight. Also concerning Fernand and Berkut the Memory Prisms focusing on them flush out more of their backstory or at least flush out their characters which is great.
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 I can certainly agree there and also the Duma Faithful in general are just generic Antagonists in my eyes. Probably because I've seen their archtype before in animes.
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 Never played D&D and most likely never will unless it's the arcade beat'em ups Tower of Doom and Shadows of Mystara I believe was what the sequel was.
JadenXDemonMan "And the fact that he can negate being attacked 3 times and only being able to damage him at the 4th strike on him is stupid." Isn't that just a reference to the original Gaiden though, where the same thing applied? I thought it was.
I enjoyed the video, but disagree with only one thing, and that's writing off Gangrel as having no motivation. It's quite clearly laid out that(Spoilers) his motivation was revenge for the brutal Crusades the last Exalt waged against Plegia. Which makes quite a lot of sense, in effect this could be considered what Hitlers motivation was, a previous war that cost their respective Nations greatly. Of course the people they choose to wage war against are completely different, with one being a Peaceful Halidom, and other(Please don't get triggered Brits) being an Imperialistic Empire. However Gangrel did show he knew of this, hence why he tried to get Ylisse to declare war via the raiding parties. Maybe I'm just an idiot, looking to pick a fight because a character I liked was criticized, but I think I made a decent point.
Chips Dubbo the issue is that gangrel is both an idiot, a hypocrite and he has no real defined goals other than spread chaos. he's still only 2 thirds of a Character. just not the same 2 thirds as I mentioned in the video. that was poor wording on my part, but gangrel still lacks anything to do with his motivation.
Gangrel literally doesn't give a shit about Plegia or the crusade which was against the Grimleal. He says so himself ingame. Please recheck the script.
Gangrel wanting revenge is also incorrect, Gangrel actually calls his men, worthless trash, and says he was intentionally running Plegia into the ground. He even says in supports that he started the war with Ylisse out of desire for power.
I definitely thought Berkut was a fantastically written villain, especially compared to those of Awakening and Fates. Fernand was pretty good too, but Berkut stood out to me a lot more. Duma was pretty good, although his limited screen time didn't give him much time to develop, and I think Rudolf overall was pretty meh, because his actions didn't make any sense at all to me. Berkut was very very good though, and his voice actor was stupendous.
Berkut definitely was one of my favorite characters. His voice was a lot deeper than I expected it to be, but Ian Sinclair provided probably the most emotional voice acting in the game. His progression from an arrogant lord to a desperate madman was really well presented. I really wanted him to join my group though, even more so after discovering he had a complete set of voice clips for him being a playable character.
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 Yeah I wonder if there was planned DLC at some point or well I'm kind of out of the loop on the information about the DLC other than people hating on it's price because I'm unsure if the unused Fernand lines were meant for the Rise of the Deliverance prequel DLC at some point because from what I've played it's giving me mixed messages whether it forces you to play classic mode since the third map would give me a game over if the units died but the last Rise of the Deliverance map didn't care about any lost units, I mean I played on casual since Echoes is my first time playing a proper Fire Emblem game outside of a mobile game, but as I said the Rise of the Deliverance maps are confusing me whether it matters or not if you chose casual or classic I'm just kind of assuming that Fernand and Berkut's lines were meant for the DLC but since I don't know anything much about them beyond people hate it's price, along with two other things which are Rise of the Deliverance being a prequel and that there's a DLC that has characters that only appeared in a Japan-only Fire Emblem card game, yeah I don't know much else, I mean I was just assuming those unused voice clips would be for an upcoming DLC pack where they would be able to use as units.
It's important to speak about these two but it's also important to point out Jeddah which is a great villan in my opinion. In fact, I think that Jeddah's character is the only reason the last part of Celica's route is working story wise.
I don't know... Nergal Characteristics are still revolving around good and evil (he was good and turned bad) but Jeddah is pretty different. he did not became batshit crazy, he always was one. he is like some ISIS terrorist, he is a fanatic believer, but his case is a more interesting one, because he is not just a believer, but actually has a direct connection with his deity. In fact, you can say that Duma himself is more comparable with nergal, a good entity turned bad. Nergal is better character then Duma, but thats why the game doesn't focus on him, and choose to focus on jeddah. where I live you can find a lot of people that could have been jeddah, and the most cool part imo is that even celica could have been jeddah, since she acts very similarly to him, the only difference being the fact she worship a very different god.
My only problem with Jeddah is that they portrayed him as a bit too crazy and evil. However, I did like the angle they took with him talking about how they should leave humanity's fate to the gods. I would have preferred if they stuck more closely to this.
I don't think the problem is in his script. but His Design and voice and other background stuff like cutscanes make him seem way more evil then he is. a lot of people complained about how celica trusts him, but if you pay attention to what he says he is not really lying to her, and has some solid reasoning, assuming celica's goal is to save Mila
Fair enough, there's really only one line that irked me in that way. He mentions how Duma will rule the world through terror and fear. If it wasn't for that line I don't think i'd have any problems.
I knew Berkut was going to be at least somewhat sympathetic (pretty face, sad story) but I was actually really surprised with how the game handles Jedah, the token "Evil Sorcerer". He genuinely believes that fully submitting to Duma is the only viable path for Valentia; resultingly, he has grown evil and cruel to any "heretic" who refuses to see the obvious truth. This is unlike Validar, who wanted to end the world "just because", backstory be damned. I don't think the other 3DS games only had trash villains, necessarily. Gangrel had plenty of reason to hate Ylisse and want to destroy it, growing up during a traumatic "holy war". Anankos had grown bitter of humans and was degrading as all dragons do, and we're given insight into his life that paints him as something other than a monster.
Berkut is by far my favorite Fire Emblem villain so far. To me he's like a better version of Takumi. Why Takumi? Well, something I realized was despite how much importance he has in Conquest's story due to his descent into darkness and eventually becoming a puppet of Anankos is WHY Takumi acted this way. He was always competitive and felt like he was under-appreciated compared to his other siblings, but...how? With Leo it at least makes sense because of how cruel and callous Garon is, but Takumi's mother is Mikoto! The most pure and caring woman in all of Fates! So why would he ever even need to prove himself to her when there's no reason she'd not ever give him the time of day? That's where Berkut shines. He wants only one thing: for Emperor Rudolf to respect him and eventually succeed him on Rigel's throne. But Rudolf never shows him this respect not only due to his failures, but because he knows that Alm is the one that will truly succeed the throne due to his plan. After Berkut learns this as well, he reaches his breaking point, and sacrifices his own wife in order to gain Duma's power. But in the end, when even that fails, Berkut sees how fruitless all his efforts have been, and finally accepts his fate. It's even tragic since despite how hard he worked, Berkut would never have his goals met. While he was evil, he was also strong and relatable as well, which makes him my favorite FE villain thus far. Really, all the villains in Echoes were amazing, and great villains are something I feel that the modern FE games sadly lack. Save for Anankos, but you wouldn't know that much about him unless you've played Revelation, and even then it doesn't go entirely into his backstory until the Hidden Truths DLC.
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 I have not. The only older game I've played so far is Blazing Sword, which I'm 1/3 of the way through since I just finished Lyn's route.
Fernand's story could be made a play its so Shakespearian. He is great and successful, before being taken down by hubris, and is could have been avoided by better communication.
You not considering Rudolf as a villain makes sense. In fact I don't think Rudolf could be classified as one seeing as to how Alm's who story was revolves mostly around his plan. He had to do what was needed even if it meant he would be antagonized by his own people and the Zofian empire.
I also liked that there were two groups of villains; The religious fanatics (Duma Faithful) and The Empire (Rigel). Small things also, like how all Duma Faithful bosses had the ability Pact, where their HP doesn't decrease when using magic. The music was phenomenal, too (Song for bygone days
I'm glad to see that other people like Berkut! I understand that Rinea is unfortunately not well fleshed out, but I still find her end to be tragic. She didn't deserve that. I'm glad that Fire Emblem is making us feel for the characters again.
So Fernand. I really loved Fernand throughout the entire game and still do. He wasn't all that impressive in comparison to some of the things you pointed out in Berkut, but I still wanna give a shout out to my white-haired, peasant-loathing noble. SpOiLeRs ahead. Fernand dies. Berkut dies. Both were memorable and horrible and made me cry. But skipping Berkut... Fernand's death really spoke to me because I kinda relate to him on a personal level. This quote in particular stuck out to me: "I knew. I always knew. None of my misfortunes were anyone else's fault... Yet if the world is rotten, then who permitted it to be so? It's me... and no one else." These words were spoken as Fernand laid dying in his best friend's arms. A favorite term of mine in reference to Fernand is 'regretful turncoat.' And I think it's fitting, especially in this moment. His tone when saying this line drips with regret, suffering, and loss. "...if the world is rotten, then who permitted it to be so?" Ever since his parents were killed and estate destroyed, Fernand has hated the common folk. In his hate for peasants and strong sense of pride, Fernand has cut himself off to the good of the world. And we only get to see his regret for it in his last moments alive. "None of my misfortunes were anyone else's fault." Fernand doesn't blame the peasants. He doesn't rage against the dying of his light. No, Fernand just... accepts it. I realize this is kind of a mess of random thoughts, but I just want to get this out there. Anyways, that's all. Berkut for Smash and Fernand for Heroes, please. I need more of these villains in my life. Their's were too short...
It seems a lot of people got the wrong idea that Gangrel was some kind of deep villain out to help Plegia, when both the in game and out of game material depicts him as a tyrant on a power trip knowingly throwing away the lives of his subjects for his own gain. Finally the crusade by Ylisse was against the Grimleal, while Gangrel is allied to the Grimleal for power, his supports and material on the Japanese website reveal he secretly hates the Grimleal.
Fire emblem is one of the few games were I actually feel bad and start to love the villains. They come of as jerks at first but once you learn more about them and their backstory you can't stop but loving or feeling bad for them. They usually make me a little sad when they get killed off and sometimes more than the good guys actually.
about time zerk my boy. though this was worth the wait, fantastic video man, I love berkut and fernand as villains, the fact that their original characters makes it even better
I really loved Berkut in FE Echoes. He is one of the best well written villains I have seen in awhile. I still like Awakening and Fates but this game tops both of them for me. When you fight Berkut for the last time I found it clever how Berkut and Rinea were supporting each other throughout the battle. That proves their love is legit.
Never played thracia 776. I've heard mixed reviews about it and I plan to play it when I have time. Plus I've heard healers can miss...is that true? ._.
i have seen a lets play and i would say it is one of the more complex games out there (would only recommend it to a veteran). if you want details, press read more. also yes, heal staves CAN miss the only way to get more weapons is to capture enemies and take their equipment. only units with a higher build than the enemy can do that and stats are reduced when attacking with the purpose of capturing them. the interesting thing is that enemies can also capture your units, which opens up more strategies. there are also some escape missions that end once the leader bails, with anyone left behind having to be rescued in a future gaiden chapter
I honestly thought even our standard evil cult leader villain Jedah was done great in Echoes. He's not twisted looking just to be twisted looking, he's been physically corrupted by Duma's madness (though in his case its questionable how much the madness effected his behavior). And he's not cruel for the sake of being cruel, he believes that all life in Valentia will perish without at least one of the divine dragons around, and has the belief that humans shouldn't question how a divine dragon runs things.
Great video. You make a lot of points about SoV's villains and writing that I agree with, and it saves me from having to make them myself, haha. I also have a video on Berkut, though it focuses more on the events that occur to him in the game than the writing mechanics behind those events. Anyway, glad to see some Fire Emblem analysis on RUclips. Keep up the good work.
Answer to video: because they have a story that makes sense, a believable and engaging background and stark and different personalities that fit them and delve deeper into their minds.
This was a nice video. You didn't shit on Awakening or Fates completely, you did praise them for some cases, and expressed that you do love them, some to a certain degree, and even vouch for some of them, but still maage to bring your point in how Echoes has done wonders in the new villains Fernand and Berkut. That really made me happy since I've read the continuous nasty comments about shitting on Awakening and Fates. I will say that the voice acting DID sell the story so much more and it was AMAZING. I seriously hope they continue this onwards, because this was just PERFECT!!! I think the reason why Berkut and Fernand couldn't be on as long as they should have is mainly because of how they are still characters that got placed in Echoes and never existed in Gaiden. They couldn't make the story involve them TOO much, but involved just enough so we can see them through. It was nice and beautiful and I really did feel for Berkut. Fernand not as much because we didn't really see his personality before his bitterness for the peasants took hold until the DLC showed me more aspects. But my god, Berkut, the emotional strain in his voice acting, the sorrow he felt, you realize that while he was strong physically, his heart/mind was incredibly weak and fragile. I do hope that they do keep up with the villains as well. Had they given Gangrel, Validar, Garon, and so forth this kind of effort, Awakening and Fates probably wouldn't get as insulted as it did. Like with Validar, maybe we could have seen him had real reason for wanting the world destroyed, like we learn that maybe he truly believes the world deserves to die because maybe it wronged him, or he believes the world has gone in the wrong direction. Maybe had they explained some of the teachings of the Grimleal religion, we could have understand. We understood the Duma Faithful after all.
Echoes has my personal favorite cast because the conversations between characters had other characters jump in to talk and it helped shape their personality better than forcing them to stand one space away for 500 turns.
I really liked how Berkut was an extension of the land he comes from too. The lust for power and conquest was driven by the Rigelian god. It wasn't just Berkut is just that way inclined like Garon or the other evil characters in the franchise. He was a product of the land and its religion he came from.
there's one line either in the DLC of awakening or a village, but it basically says "walhart lacked a compassionate queen to balance his rage like the original valmese emperor (alm) had"
Daddy Berkut and Uncle Fernand were amazing tbh. Their VAs were ingenious (especially Berkut's, god bless the man named Ian Sinclair) and they were actually villains you can sympathise with.
I didn't expect berkut and fernand to be in the front lines of the story so much don't know if the feeling was from other games, but I liked the surprise
Berküt and Fernand were absolutely just the writers getting some practice in for Edelgard. The fact that they were able to pull them off definitely gave them the experience and confidence to make one of the main characters of Three Houses the villain. I still argue with a buddy of mine over whether Edelgard was justified (spoiler alert she's not lol). But the depth of those two games was so well done. Really wishing Engage wasn't so shallow.
I liked this video! Lots of interesting points on how to make a good villian. I am also very surprised to not hear "Happy Hunting" at the end of this video. Did Fire Emblem trump Monster Hunter?
Berkut and Fernand are great villains definitely top 5 but I've got a soft spot for the king of Bern Zephiel he's such a badass, a great character, and has a great design and that godly sprite
I genuinely cried when Berkut died, that's normal when you like the character to the point when you have a merged perfect IV's for each copy except for his normal form;;;
I'm glad to hear you like this game, and as always, enjoyed your view on FE in this video😋 My concern is that the sales of Echoes is not so good in Japan (hopefully not in the US and other regions😂), and this may lead to the Intelligent Systems to make another clone of Awakening and Fates😢 though I personally like them both.
here's the pinned comment from another video of mine, should hopefully put your concerns to rest. here's the reason why you should hold up on the doom and gloom theory. it's 130k copies on a dying system, with 2 major competitors in the Japanese market (Switch and Vita) and it's a remake of a game Japanese players despise. also new mystery and Awakening both had 250k as their cutoff, in all honesty, I'll consider 750k worldwide to be a complete Victory.
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 You are probably right, but I still hope this game's sale surpass the number you mentioned, 750k globally😥, hoping another Echoes (FE remake) will be released😎
I dunno, I wasn't really a fan of Berkut. My problem with him is that his actions to support his drive are mainly told, not shown. We're told he's a great general, but we never see that. I never felt intimidated or cautious when I saw him because the game didn't make him a threat. Unlike the Black Knight, where whenever we see him, he shows a great display of power. This makes the buildup to the final confrontation with Black Knight all the more satisfying. I didn't really like Fernand either, until we got that deliverance DLC. It really showed Fernand's development as a character and made his final scene have much more impact.
Fair point, would've been nice to see him do something worthy of a noble of his status. Still, the story sold the idea of his motivation to me well enough
I really hope from the recent interview about breathing life into the characters for FE Switch means more flesh out dialogue especially with the obvious waifuing supports making them even more endearing.
Personally I was actually quite impressed with Jedah as a villain too. Because even though he doesn't get fleshed out like Berkut and Fernand, he still covers those 3 basic aspects that you talked about very well. I mean Jedahs plan to sacrifice Celicas soul to Duma and you can actually understand his reasoning here since his belief that the land will falter once Duma and Mila are dead, is actually quite plausible from our point of view(I mean in the end even your own characters doubt if valentia can survive without gods) and it makes sense that in such a scenario an insane duma would be still better than duma at all. I also found it interesting how he is almost constantly talking in half-truths to the main characters, easily mixing facts and lies equally into the conversation, which actually made it questionable what was true and what wasn't. That being said, he is of course not as fleshed out as Berkut and Fernand, I just think it is really nice how they managed to make the evil cult leader actually sound reasonable unlike the grimeal who pretty much serve grima for real reason at all.
Jeddah really suffers from an obnoxiously over the top character design, his appearance really clashes with his personality and function in the narrative since he's supposed to sound like a reasonable preacher - yet he looks like a Pontiff drunk on power
I agree with ya 100%. I like how this works for all kinds of game and I want this also within the next Fire Emblem game with an avatar. speaking of avatar: Nintendo, please make the avatar with a cup of FE12 class choice and a pinch of Dragon Age Origns background for the avatar. Either way: good writers for all kinds of characters, including avatars and villians. Villians needs that realistic elemant, regardless. Speaking of realistic elemant: I forgot to add a gallian of moral choices for the next Fire Emblem game with an avatar...
I really like how Berkut is kinda like a twisted Camus. Just something about him makes me feel like he's what a man Camus could of been if his loyalty was switched to a desire for power.
An interesting point, but I saw Berkut more as a twisted version of Ephraim. almost as if he was a thought experiment on what if Ephraim switched roles with Lyon?
Lyrics I'll be the roundabout The words will make you out 'n' out I spend the day your way Call it morning driving through the sound and In and out the valley The music dance and sing They make the children really ring I spend the day your way Call it morning driving through the sound and In and out the valley In and around the lake Mountains come out of the sky and they stand there One mile over we'll be there and we'll see you Ten true summers we'll be there and laughing too Twenty four before my love you'll see I'll be there with you I will remember you Your silhouette will charge the view Of distance atmosphere Call it morning driving through the sound and Even in the valley In and around the lake Mountains come out of the sky and they stand there One mile over we'll be there and we'll see you Ten true summers we'll be there and laughing too Twenty four before my love you'll see I'll be there with you Along the drifting cloud The eagle searching down on the land Catching the swirling wind The sailor sees the rim of the land The eagle's dancing wings Create as weather spins out of hand Go closer hold the land Feel partly no more than grains of sand We stand to lose all time A thousand answers by in our hand Next to your deeper fears We stand surrounded by a million years I'll be the roundabout The words will make you out 'n' out I'll be the roundabout The words will make you out 'n' out In and around the lake Mountains come out of the sky and they stand there Twenty four before my love and I'll be there I'll be the roundabout The words will make you out 'n' out I spend the day your way Call it morning driving through the sound and In and out the valley In and around the lake Mountains come out of the sky and they stand there One mile over we'll be there and we'll see you Ten true summers we'll be there and laughing too Twenty four before my love you'll see I'll be there with you Da la la la da da la
As someone trying to write an original story of my own **is an aspiring graphic novelist**, I might wanna take notes. I'm not a fan of villains, just in general, but this might prove helpful so I can make an antagonist that's both believable and threatening.
the best advice i can give to writing villains, is: don't make their plan convoluted but give them several avenues to reach the same end. taking the villain of my novel for example, (a goblin general who wants to revive an evil dragon) he has several avenues to a achieve this: - revive a previous host of said evil dragon - create a new host of that dragon - if all else fails, become the host himself. the issue is then what complicates him from doing each one - reviving the previous host will require sacrifice of royal blood. - creating a new host requires a scale - he can become the host at the cost of his own life that's the goals, now for the motives - gain power within the goblins - usurp the king (his abusive uncle) - feed his fetish for war and bloodshed the motives should all line up or cross over with each other. once that is done, pick personality traits that fit those goals and motives - because of his multiple back-up plans, he should be cold and calculating - because of his poor childhood and his bloodlust, he should be mentally unstable and short tempered. - because of his plans he should also be reluctant to spill royal blood outside of a ritual. hope this helps.
Okay, so here's what I've got (by the way, if the whole "monsters vs. humans" plot sounds familiar, I've been working on this story MANY YEARS BEFORE a certain other game came to be and became meme levels of famous) Aetos, one of the members of the last vidstefalk (aka, a race that consists of creatures with the head, wings, feathers, and talons of a bird, but the body structure/shape of a human (like...say...I suppose the garudas from Indian mythology) the size of a building, typically very skilled mages and scholars) colony, is a very famous and brilliant historian...however, he stumbles across documents of a war from several thousand years ago between his kind and humans, who were once friends who turned on each other out of suspicion pretty much at the same time, but the humans won, greatly reducing the number of vidstefalks, and the latter hid away in a hidden city at the highest reaches of the sky. Thus comes his motivation: his hatred and resent for humans, which eventually spirals into outright radical racism/speciesism(?), that stems for the love and pride of his people, which only grows as he reads more and more into the documents (again, he was once a very avid historian) and seeing that they must live hidden away in a tiny city above the clouds instead of roaming anywhere they please without disguising themselves freely, and his lust for revenge, which leads him to be consumed by hate and loss of faith in anything and everything, especially when his wife flees from him and both she and their son actually really LIKE humans after living with them (disguised as humans themselves because, again, vidstefalks have great magic capabilities). Essentially, his two main goals are to smite humans and then, after his family disagrees with his insane ideals, plunge the world into anarchy as he considers himself the only person he can trust, so he thinks that the whole world should be the same. He also has many ties with several powerful beasts, some can even talk, and one of them is a reverse werewolf of sorts that feigns the appearance of a wealthy woman to leak juicy bits of information that she gets from the nobles across the world to Aetos so he can plan his next move. As for his personality, he is an anarchist, consumed by hate, and kinda goes nuts around the end of the story after everything, as said earlier, so sometimes he has pretty bad mood swings. And yet he does care some for his people, especially his family until they refuse to say that they feel the same way about humans as he does, even giving his son, who was practically raised among humankind since he was a toddler, multiple chances to come to his side, as he IS his long-lost blood father. He's also very smart, even for vidstefalk standards (where the average student is pretty much Aristotle), and is quite the tactician (though some of his plans to get mankind destroyed, by fangs of beasts under his command or to manipulate them through reverse werewolves and kelpies posing as humans to destroy themselves, can be very brutal). In spite of his lust for vengeance and chaos, he does have some honor (something he vocally believes no human has, so it's a trait he decided to adopt), as he won't destroy mankind, and pretty much the world when he decides he can only trust himself and plunging the earth into a lawless mess is fair because it's all he's lived for, until his greatest adversaries give their best shot to stop him. His plans and motivation is pretty standard, probably even cliche, I know (at least humans aren't evil in this story...they and vidstefalks are both supposed to be morally gray, and it's also a jab at some things in modern society (like how it's considered "right" to hate a people/country who your folk went to war with a hundred years ago (talking about hating the people of the present time from said folk/country, not the enemies from the past), as well as how some people seem to get freedom and chaos mixed up a lot, mostly in part with their own selfish desires)), but if you do have any constructive criticism, I'd be happy to hear it. ^_^;
Ok so what is here is a good starting point. Just from reading it I can tell you are very passionate about what you have created. But if there's one thing I learned from being a DM for 2 years is that if all the interesting stuff happened before the players arrive you did something wrong. But, since this is a [graphic] novel, we have a bit more leniency with lore dumps. What I gather from here is we have a super intelligent avian with a hate for humankind due to an ancient war. Ok let's run with this. So in your description it says that he despises humans for the actions of the past, well, a super intelligent avian with Aristotle levels of intelligence would likely never arrive at the conclusion that humans are still Evil at this point if peace has been around for ages unless, one of 2 things happened to tip his scales one way - either a small minority of humans wrongs him in some fashion - or his wife falls in love with a human, which charges him emotionally against humanity. The research about the war should strengthen a preexisting prejudice, not insight it. For goals, if we're talking about an Intelligent villain, a blind and bloody crusade will likely be a last resort. Bio weaponry and magical pathogens would work better it also creates an object for the protagonists in the sense that "how do you beat a giant bird with the intelligence of a philosopher who is killing everyone through a bacterial math equation" playing a numbers game is going to be this kind of villain's MO. It's then at the point where he realizes that his perfect world is but a reflection of a menial hatred that spiraled out of control that he has a mental breakdown in the sense that his one reality: he can only trust himself is false Then he launches His crusade.
Hmm...okay! (though I wouldn't say that there's been total peace between vidstefalks and humans, it's just that they're so far away from each other, they can't really even interact anymore unless a vidstefalk decides themselves to go to the surface world...with mixed reception because they can either take on the appearance of a human with looks that range from decent to "My gosh, what is it?!", or go as their normal giant birb selves and, because vidstefalks have faded into human fairytales like unicorns and faeries have, they'll probably be mistaken for a large, everyday monster. So yeah, that's why humans and vidstefalks haven't fought in thousands of years). I do like the idea that his prejudice may start with knowing why vidstefalks have to live in a floating city so high up in the sky that the average flying machine can't reach it, which is common knowledge, but then, I guess because his wife (trying to come up with a name for her...gonna say something meaning "white" because she has a rare color mutation where she has a sort of tuxedo pattern to her except she's lilac) is so fond of sneaking off to the surface world, maybe one day, they both go there disguised as humans, but then get attacked by particularly vicious bandits, who pretty much almost kill his wife and extremely young son (his name is Azur, by the way, he's also one of the three joint protagonists), and after escaping the attack by either the skin of their teeth or Aetos gets into his first fight (and probably freaks the highwaymen the heck out by showing his true form), he gets really miffed, studies even more vigorously on the war, and starts to go a little crazy with this newfound hate of humans. After many years of searching for his lost son and preparing for his little revenge scheme on humankind, he finally finds him...being friends among humans (well...two...kind of. Azur is the longtime best friend of the other protagonist, Rellissa, and her brother Armel doesn't really like him that much, but he's fine with him so long as he isn't doing anything remotely close to flirting with his twin sister (Armel has several problems with Azur, especially because he slightly gets the wrong idea because he's always around his sister (though she and Azur have been friends for eleven years), because Azur's really bashful/socially awkward, is not exactly the easiest on the eyes to say the least, is a bit on the weird side, built like freaking Hector so the size difference is unnerving, and has crippling and irrational cynophobia, and since Azur is kind of timid and sometimes will reflexively latch onto Rellissa's arm just because he's scared/nervous and trusts her and the like, Armel gives him the stink-eye PLENTY of times), but other than that, Azur has been bullied quite a bit because he's "ugly", but he meets a lot of nice people on the trip as well, so he really grows to have faith in humanity as opposed to his dad). After giving him (and later his mom) several chances while subtly carrying out his plot for vengeance, he eventually finds his wife again, who disagrees heavily with his ideas, especially now that he's on the verge of causing harm to the town where she's been hiding from him all these years, and the two fight until Aetos kills her out of rage over her "betrayal", and then he begins spiraling into deeper hatred and starts to trust only himself. That's when phase two of his plot begins, where he starts to try and sow the seeds of chaos in the world of mankind, to try and get them to destroy each other the same way they nearly destroyed the vidstefalks so many years ago, as well as other clever but scary things. Somewhere during the final act, something pushes him to totally lose his mind, his reason, and any sense of the once brilliant scholar he used to be, and consumed by his lust for discord and his loathing for humanity, he decides to make his final assault, challenging the main characters to fight him in some old ruin, where, if he wins, he will cast a spell that will most surely plunge the world to near destruction, and as the few live in a desolate land, everyone will claw at each other for survival, trusting only themselves as he believes is right. Of course, he loses, but then the ending is spoilers. It's a bittersweet ending to the story. Mostly bitter because it's super sad (or at least, I hope it will be), but the world is okay and life goes on in peace when all is said and done. So, how does that sound?
Sounds interesting. I like the bandit/highwayman thing. Otherwise I would just watch how Complex this story gets. Try and keep the plot and themes simple, but add Complexity in the Characters and themes.
The problem with Berkut is that he seems very weak. He has no prior achievements to the beginning of the story and seems like a whiny kid who can't do anything on its own. As a villain, he fails at being a serious threat IMO. I agree with you on the rest though. But don't you think Berkut could've been this good if the base story was different? This is something to take into account to hope for future good villains in the FE franchise.
the problem you have here is that they SAY he has prior achievements but they never say what they were. and berkut is a hard boss, at least from my experience.
Berkut was a pretty hard boss from my experience with him. I got slammed on my first 2 attempts at fighting him and the only reason I won was a crit Scendscale from Alm. He was much harder than Rudolph for me. I beat Rudolph in 2 turns (like the whole chapter.) I used warp to get Alm and Lukas up to him and just slammed him without any real trouble.
Berkut and Fernand are villains that i love to hate because i can see their mindset and where they went wrong. In awakening and fates, I never understood why the bad guys were so bad.
I don't know, BerkutxRinea came of to me as AnakinxPadme from the prequels. Berkut always shouted creepy tantrums at her and she on her blandness followed through. We even get a "You are with HIM! You brought him here to kiLL ME!" scene. They desperately needed more peaceful screentime.
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 Well at the very least they attempted to try and show a bit more with the memory prism called "the lasting promise" in which we at least get to see at least some of Rudolf's past when he pretty much had to give up infant Alm, I mean can we at least agree that's more than we can say for the Awakening and Fates villains right?
Gangrel does have motivation though. The previous Exalts Crusades on Plegia. And Emmeryn going into pacifist mode and promising peace, was likely a spit in the face for Gangrel. Its simple revenge, but yes there is motivation. Gangrel is great unless we factor in Spotpass
Gangrel didn't care about it, he calls his men worthless trash and keeps them in line by kidnapping their loved ones. In supports, Gangrel says he only started the war for power. He isn't a sympathetic villain at all.
GarbenTheBerserker I have no idea what supports you're reading, but Gangrel never once says that he only started the war for power. Hell, he actually shows remorse for his actions in his support with a male avatar while explaining his intentions.
He says he initially wanted to stop Walhart, but the power of being King went to his head and he started to enjoy war for the sake of it. Basically he was just on a power trip.
I dislike but still love fernands end. I would have loved him in my army, having conversations with his fellow allies, etc. BUT his last few words to clive were so fitting. Hes one of my favorite characters in the series :D
Important question. If Fernand is like Orson, and Fernand has feelings for Mathilda, then if General Bulldozer had executed Mathilda, would Fernand have had a *Monica* moment? Im sorry im going now
Dude i loved Berkut from the first time i saw him, cool looking guy dancing with his beautiful lover to some nice ass music then when the dancing done he looks at the camera with a cocky ass grin, so good.I also felt bad for him when Alm started f*****g up his life driving mad, then what he did at the end made me so sad and mad at him at the same time.Sucks that you can't get him to join you but if awakening is any clue as to how they write villain joining it would have went poorly.(not trying to rag on awakening i like it just has problems.)
he was pretty great. the intro to him was awesome too. i wish echoes did something like SS's creature campaign, and you could unlock the villains via weird menial requirements and tasks.
When I played it I saw villains like that looking down on farmers from on high as nobles and I thought it was kind of cool that Alm showed them that it's a mistake to dismiss people's worth based on their background and you don't need to be of high birth to kick ass. But NOPE, Alm's a Prince. Higher borne than the damn nobles, lol. Without the crown prince and princess leading the armies, those peasants would have been face rolled by the nobles. Fernand's cynical outlook on class structure was right all along.
The only problem I had with Berkut was after his death. There was a bit of a forced sadness with his passing. It wasn't as bad as Fates, and I by no means think less of him. He's still one of the better villains that we have had in a long time, I personally thought that it was a wee bit forced.
Since this is an Echoes video I just have to say this: No matter what any of you think... Rudolf is and will be my most favorite villain of all FE games. Because unlike others who had been possessed or power hungry... He just helped a prophecy come true by sending Mycen with Alm to Zofia. He never was a villain... He just played his part in the prophecy. Giving Alm a reason to become strong enough to kill Duma
![Grima: A Comprehensive Analysis [Fire Emblem Echoes and Awakening]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/8sZhjaGE0JY/mqdefault.jpg)
I don't understand why everyone is pointing out my argument about motivation when most of the video is actually analysing personality and function of villains within the story and why they work compared to fates and Awakening. my main point is not that motivation makes a Character good. it's that it can help define them and what they are within the confines of the story, it's a prescriptive element, not a descriptive one.
I mean I literally call Rinea a plot device for Pete's sake.
I just want to make a random point about types of villains: You have gameplay villains, who serve as the boss and not much else (example: Bowser), you have story villains s who interact with the charecter and actually actively antagonize (example: Kefka) and you have force of nature villains, who the unstoppable forces (example: Sauron)
What's great about Echoes villains is that they're more story villians then before.
3.14 Dragon absolutely.
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 you pronounced Berkut wrong
ZerkMonsterHunter 4
Dude if you define these guys as good villains based on the fact that you use awakening and fates as a comparison then these guys are the best written villains in videogames, but when you compare them with an actual villain like Zephil or Nergal then they they couldn't be any shallower and bland the only unique thing these guys have is fernand's backstory for hating plebs and berkut sacrificing rinea other than that they are as well written as the random villager you see in this game
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 I certainly like how you noted the distinction between goals and motivation, which I sometimes muddle when thinking about characters and what makes them good or bad.
Let's face it- Berkut wouldn't have been half the character he was without his VA's incredible delivery.
Paulhorne Schillings Ian Sinclair did do a phenomenal job.
For real!
Yeah I was shocked that this was a fire emblem game. How he didnt win an award in his category destroys me
The character was already great, you’re just adding 100% to another like 80% by having a great voice actor
I honestly had no idea Berkut and Fernand were made specifically for echoes, but I've got to say they did a wonderful job with those two! Berkut in particular, he's defo one of the top 5 best fire emblem villains.
i'd say berkut knocks nergal off my personal number 5. but yeah, they were both original characters made specifically for echoes. the other ones i know off the top of my head are Faye and Rinea, i'm sure there's more though. and nuibaba got a genderswap as well, being a hobgoblin looking dude in gaiden, compared to her more... camilla inspired appearance in echoes.
I'm contemplating whether to knock either Nergal or Sephiran off the top 5 atm, but more importantly, Faye was an original character for this game? Guess the writing department hasn't completed recovered from awakening and Fates just yet!
Yeah Faye disappoints me, they went through all the trouble of adding her just to make her a combination of Cordelia and Tharja except more narrow minded... It saddens me.
3/4 ain't bad?
Well you know what they say, you can't win them all, besides I think good villains were important than good supporting characters at this point
I agree. But they nailed the other villagers. Even atlas.
Another reason that adds to Berkut as a character, at least in my eyes, is that he kind of gives us an idea of how Alm could've ended up if Rudolf hadn't given him to Mycen to raise. If Alm had been raised in Rigel, then he would've been next in line to inherit the throne, not Berkut. Part of the reason Berkut goes mad during the later part of the game is because he had believed that he was entitled to the throne all his life, and Alm's mere existance suddenly took that away from him.
Also, he's got a REALLY good theme! :)
his theme is excellent, the remix of it that plays when he dances with rinea sounds a lot like a dark souls boss theme IMO.
Great video, but you pronounced Berkut wrong, so I guess I have to shank you in accordance with Rigelian law
the faithful answer only to duma.
Shoot, I can't do anything now. Except if you're a Duma faithful, that means Duma controls you, meaning you are no longer ZerkMonsterHunter 4. You are Duma-MilaHunter 4, or something else actually clever
i sold my soul because i wanted the gradivus.
I couldn't think of a better reason to sell your soul to Duma. It's probably still is a bad choice in the end though.
Darth R0xas and that's ZerkMilaSlayer 4 to you.
I really liked how these two felt like actual people rather than cartoonistic characters.
agreed.
To this day fates was wasted potential to show that grey morality. Especially King Garon.
@@espio329 and then Three Houses came along and did that right
Berkut was such a satisfying villain. I can say this because I actually really, really wanted to see him SUCCEED. No joke, whenever Berkut came on screen, I hated having to defeat him because I liked him as a character so much. I wanted to see him succeed his uncle for the throne and make Rinea his empress. This is SUCH an improvement from Awakening and Fates(I started playing FE with Awakening, I'm a filthy casual).
Like, I KNEW Gangrel, Whalhart, and Validar were the bad guys in Awakening and I had to defeat him for them for the greater good of the world. I couldn't sympathize with them in the slightest. As for Fates, like Garon was an obvious, poorly executed baddy. You had to knock him off 'cause he was evil and Ananakos was just a "behind the scenes puppet master character". Again, hard to relate/sympathize with them.
But Berkut was both relatable and sympathetic in a way. He strives for power and strength in situations in which he was powerless, all to impress his uncle to succeed the throne. Surely we've all been in semi-powerless in a situation, desperate to prove ourselves to a superior in order to gain a higher opinion or position. Surely we've all had years of toil and work go to waste, or have it be snatched away by some random person for a piss-poor reason. I think Alm being handed these leadership positions on a silver platter is kind of stupid. Like, I know he's the protagonist, but c'mon. So understandably, as I was a little disappointed by the "plot twist" of Alm being Rudolfs son, I could understand why Berkut was so enraged. He's worked YEARS along the knifes edge to impress his uncle to take what he believed was rightfully his, only for some villager to come along and take it because, rejoice! He is the true son an heir of Emperor Rudolf!
I even like his relationship with Rinea. On some forums, people have been complaining about how he's "abusive" towards her because he verbally lashed out at her. But from my perspective, I don't really see that as abuse. People tend to express their truest, rawest emotions to those they hold closest. Everything Berkut did was because he wanted to rule the throne alongside Rinea, who he believed deserved to be an empress. So from my perspective, every time he let down Rudolf, he let down Rinea. And in the end, when he ultimately sacrificed Rinea for power, it showed the true corruption of his mind and how he finally tilted off the fine edge he was walking. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, Berkut chose power over nothing else, and then offered anything he had to Duma, which ultimately became the one thing he always treasured and held to highest regard; Rinea.
Finally, Rinea offered a final guiding light to Berkut, comforting him and promising that, even after death, they shall walk along the same path to find their own empire, together. If nothing else, Berkut's death became an ultimate symbol of a lust for power, which is what makes him so wonderfully sympathetic. He wanted power so bad, that he went absolutely mad for it, and in the end, lost everything.
Berkut was a beautifully written character. It made me cry when he had to die, because I unintentionally was rooting for him the whole time. I knew the minute I met him I would ultimately have to kill him, but something kept me hoping beyond hope. But alas, death is death, and Berkut was lost. I can say with confidence that Berkut is one of my favorite FE characters to date, and most definitely my favorite villain.
In fact, I believe full-heartedly that Berkut could make an excellent protagonist if worked correctly. He wasn't outright evil; he was trying to do what he thought was best for Rigel, trying to protect what was his. I can imagine myself playing as Berkut, and striving for victory. He's conflicted. He has a sense of justice, but is constantly being corrupted by his own need for power and ultimately, by the god that ruled the lands. He's not a righteous, goody-two-shoes noble like the other lord characters I've played as(As much as I liked Awakening and Fates and their protagonists).
Sorry for the long comment. Just absolutely love Berkut.
it's interesting reading this as I share many of the same views on Lyon from Sacred Stones (which if you haven't played yet what are you doing?)
and it's odd that you mention playable Berkut, as Berkut very much struck me as just a darker play on Ephraim (again from sacred stones)
Yeah,I'm in the exact same boat.
Note that Berkut is probably what Alm would have become without the brand and raised on rigelian soil ! (late comment i know)
This is very late, but in regards to playable Berkut:
There are voice lines in the game that suggest Berkut would have been playable, as well as Fernand. However, these were dummied out, along with the "If Celica dies in battle" character quotes and other interesting lines.
Couldn’t agree more here!!
I truly loved Rudolph now, he's just an anti hero, he wanted to save the land though he knew all the shit his son would go through.
my only issue is that he's barely in the game.
I don't know why, but he seems really cool. If only the game gave him a tiny bit more build-up (not just the animation, which was sick) then he'd easily be a top villain. He's definitely one of my favorites.
But he was hyped up
Look at the end of act one again, zerk.
When Rudolf learns of alm's triumphs, he simply says, "Did he now?"
At the end of act 4, we know what was lying behind his smile. Success. Hope for his son. Relief. Pride in his son's work.
Rudolph is awesome, don't get me wrong, I just want more of him.
When Rudolf is seen on a Memory Prism, he's a green unit.
8:16 "...make every villain Berkut and Fernand."
*Makes every boss in FE Switch either Berkut or Fernand*
I really liked these two. It felt nice to see a villain that you could feel sympathy for.
indeed it did.
I felt sympathy for Garon. You ever had a sudden affliction of groansofdiscomfortus? Shit hurts, man.
@@emblemblade9245 Oof, you're right 😔
Berkut is great just like you said. I think he works particularly well because of the dynamic between Zofia and Rigel. He's prideful because he's been taught all his life that he must rule over others and that he must be strong. He just wanted live up to his parents and uncle, and he couldn't so he gave into despair. Gave into his lust for power. I felt bad for him, something that never happened when I played Awakening or Fates. Not to mention Ian's VA was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD! You could hear all the emotion in his voice. I loved it.
In short, Berkut is great.
completely agreed.
Ian Sinclair as Berkut was a ingenious casting that voice and emoting through this role and his previous work was spot on and i pray for more Funimation Vas will be more used for Fire emblem plus Berkut would be playable in FE warriors
who else has sinclair voiced? his work with berkut has made me curious.
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 Brooke- one piece
Romano- hetailia
Space dandy- from Space dandy
Toriko from Toriko
Nile Dok - attack on Titan
Toraji ishida from bamboo blade
and so many more.
Huh.
He also voice Whis in recent Dragon Ball movies/DBS and Rashid in SFV.
In addition to those, he did Rajendra in Arslan.
I do really like how things like the Memory Prisms and the Rise of the Deliverance DLC have helped flesh out characters like that (particularly Fernand in the latter case). They've made good efforts in this game to show ways to develop characters even outside the main storyline and support conversations.
i have gotten nowhere near all of the memory prisms, frick i need to do some searching.
They're these weird glowing thingies. You can find one which is easy to miss in the Duma Temple where Berkut does the thing with the -Dokapon Kingdom contract- with -Weber the Trickster- Duma and gives up -all his money, field magic, items and towns- his Waifu and gets -the Draco Blade- that German Mask Lance.
The memory prisms were a fantastic addition, especially when they're dropped right after the character it's about just died.
I *LOVED* Berkut as a villain. Expertly voice acted, great portrayal of moral gray. Though, he's no Lyon. The villains in Sacred Stones were great. They felt like real people. The villains in SoV were just a bit better. SoV, I think, is a step in the right direction. Fates... was not.
You also mention the "Camus" archetype. That's Zeke, not Fernand. Fernand fits the "Orson" archetype better. That's what they are, turncoats. I personally feel Berkut falls under the "Gharnef" archetype, someone who gets corrupted after obtaining a dark power, as well as a boss before the final boss/true antagonist (evidenced by Berkut in Act 5). Lyon is in the "Gharnef" archetype as well.
Jeddah is gharnef, berkut is camus (archetype not the guy, zeke is camus, but is not a camus archetype) and yes i was referring to fernand with the orson archetype.
and lyon is something all his own i'd argue, Riev fits the gharnef role much better.
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 Hmm... I've only gotten to Chapter 12 in SS. So I apparently haven't seen as much to get the whole story.
Colton Zuspan zeke is camus tho
All a "gharnef" is is the big bad. Some are physically corrupted by dark power (the original gharnef, nergal) but it is not a requirement, and most members of the archetype are not (jedah, manfloy, berdo, jahn, lehran, etc).
@iTz Morality the camus archetype refers to a character who can be summed up as a "nice guy" who you can identify with and should probably be on your side, but is not due to harboring unwavering loyalty for the evil empire (or whatever entity your team is fighting against). Examples of this include Eldigan, Ishtar, Reinhardt, Lloyd, Selena (from sacred stones, not fates), and, of course, Camus. Fates doesn't really have a camus, everyone who doesnt join your side in that game is either possessed, killed off by the plot, or a total shithead. The closest thing to a Camus in awakening is Mustafa, although calling Mustafa a Camus is a bit of a stretch since Mustafa is a bit early for a Camus, doesn't have the notoriety that most members of the Camus archetype have (you dont hear about Mustafa at all before or after chapter 10), and Mustafa is not loyal to Gangrel; he is only fighting for Gangrel because his family is being held hostage.
tl;dr camuses never turn blue zeke turns blue therefore zeke isnt a camus
I told you Berkut was amazing same for Fernand and King Rudolf makes me have faith for FE Switch villains especially when the Echoes director is involved!
definetely looking forwards to it!
The voice actor was good, but I wouldn't go as far to say as their inclusion was "amazing" in any form. Intelligent Systems made a good decision by having them both killed off.
Yeah, Echoes may be an adaptation of Gaiden's story, but they added so much when Gaiden had so little, so there's no way that one could use the "Gaiden story template" as an excuse for the writing being good. But even then, its original villains were done super well.
Fates was a misstep, but I always believed it was a fluke brought about from trying to do too many things at once (trying to tell three stories while making every playable character seem morally right, trying to adapt a non-video game draft, and trying to bend over trying to pander to both sides of the fanbase in equal extremes instead of meeting a compromise) and that if the next FE had more focus it would be a competent plot.
Echoes gives me tremendous hopes.
Not just them, I think jedah a good villain too.
Three houses villains (TWSITD) don’t compare to echoes. But the antogonists of the second half are so morally grey you can’t consider them villains
The voice acting in echoes was some of the best voice acting i've seen in any video game. Literally i felt the personality on a lot of the characters in the game. I loved that everything was voice acted so i didn't have to read every single thing. The voice acting helped flesh out the characters and show the emotions of the scenes that happened. Giving you an actual feel of what the characters were feeling. I loved it.
agreed.
Kanarasu Yeah Echoes was the first game, not the first FE game, where I truly felt head over heels for the voice acting and spent minutes in my head praising it while playing
I'm very happy with berkut after the disappointment that was king totally not a villain garon.
Agreed.
I do miss the Garon smile though. That was his whole character arc.
Douglas Dragon That smile is legendary
HELL YEAH he's the best villain! I absolutely loved how they wrote his character :) and I hope they continue to make villains with depth to them in future FE games
Exactly. Glad you enjoyed the video.
Uh no, Duma is the best Villain.
whoa! i make videos? when did that become a thing?
Since the dawn of time! Since before the gods were born! Since before the world was created!
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 i dont know
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 liked your own comment. gg.
After playing I think Berkut is sort of the perfect counterpart for Alm... He is what Alm could have become had he stayed in Rigel... and that adds a lot to both Alm and Berkut as characters
Definitely an excellent Character foil for sure
Not really, if Alm had stayed in Rigel he wouldn't have become Berkut, he would've become a corpse, courtesy of the Duma Faithful.
Although I do wonder how Berkut would've turned out if he didn't grow up with all the pressure to become Rudolf's heir because Alm was around. He probably would've become Alm's best friend and supporter.
i really, REALLY liked berkut and fernand
ironically, i think fernand has been much more characterized than berkut, though this last character explodes in the ending of the game
there's just one thing that bothered me
RINEA
damn, i wanted her to be characterized more, she appeared like 4 times in the whole game!
esthetically i really like her
i mean, she's so cute and extremely kind, how can't you love her?!?
thus i wanted to like her also for his personality a bit more
anyway, the ending part is amazing, for what concerns berkut and rinea (and fernand too)
yeah rinea was underused, much like rudolph
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 well, for me rudolf did his job
i mean, ok, he doesn't appear so much during the game, but the characters talk a lot about him, so they explain his backstory and purpose
we don't know absolutely nothing about rinea, though
eh, whatever, i still like her
Rinea was hot though, hotter than Sigurd and Flora.
+Douglas Dragon could not resist, huh?
No, I have a burning passion for that, like my bad poetry.
I was thoroughly pleased when I got to the end and found Berkut and Fernand to be good villains. For a while they seemed human, but a bit one note, that is until the last chapter (and a bit of DLC). I personally found Fernand a bit better, but they were both excellent overall.
Just a word on Gangrel and Walhart, I sorta disagree that they had no motivations. Gangrel had his hatred for the Ylissians from the prior Crusade by the Exalt, and wants them to suffer and die out for the misery that was brought to Plegia. Walhart actually has a similar motivation to Rudolph, raise a powerful army through war and conquest to take down a God that threatens them, in this case Grima. Now, they're rather flimsy motivations that blur into goals granted, and I feel Rudolph is what Walhart should have been, but I can't say they lack motivations, just none of them are ever given the chance to properly flesh out these motivations.
that's true and i could have worded my statement better, but i still say they only check of 2/3 gangrel has character and motivation, but no goal other than start a war, and cause chaos. walhart has motivation and a goal, but no personality, validar just has a goal with no motivation or personality.
*Contemplates statement.
*Looks at Villains.
Yeah. Actually I'd agree with that statement. I mean, yeah war and chaos can be a goal, just look at the Joker, but even then, the Joker had an underlying goal that went along with it (usually to send a message), so yeah, Gangrel kinda lacked one. And while Walhart acted as an interesting philosophical look for Chrom, he himself did not have much of a personality.
Then there's Validar..... yep nothing to say there. I often find the "loyal servant" type tend to lack motives half the time.
Walhart could have been a better character. In fact, his personality was made a bit more existent in the DLCs no one bought. That's something Echoes couldn't even avoid with it's DLC costing as much as the game itself.
Gangrel hates Plegia and doesn't care about the last war except as a means to control the public, so your info is wrong.
ruclips.net/video/_k_BZYVHvZ8/видео.htmlm24s
UNCLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
The reason Berkut is such a strong villain has absolutely nothing to do with motivation or character writing. As far as that goes he's absolutely nothing special. His strength comes with the best improvement Echoes brings to FE's storytelling, the voice acting. He feels real because the voice humanizes him, rather than him just being a portrait next to a script.
The Tree's Apprentice you seem to be around here a lot lately. and I'm honestly not sure why... either way I'd argue that his defined goals, personality and having an actual Character arc.
compare that to Awakening's "best" villain gangrel, who has a defined motive, bit a one note personality and no clear cut goals other than "cause chaos"
gangrel makes little to no difference to the the Story, whereas Berkut takes an active role and acts as Character foil for Alm. yeah Ian Sinclair did an amazing job at portraying him but the writing is there to back the voice acting up.
he's still a far cry from Lyon or Zephiel. but he trumps any villain from Awakening or Fates.
I agree, Berkut seriously isn't really anything special at all but the production value made him stand out much more than previous villains. But then again, the sheer production value of Echoes in general does this for any character, really. If Echoes was produced the same as Fates, Awakening, and the other 3DS titles, then we wouldn't be having this conversation tbh
Ah Orson... how I long till we can be as dark as FE8 was again XD
Wesley Darnell We already got there, with Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE.
yeah... berkut comes very close...
You are gonna have to refresh me Darth, I saw a playthrough and don't remember much else besides my complaints at the axe Mirage not being who I could only assume and hope XD
Wesley Darnell Well you see, TMS is way darker than Sacred Stones could ever be, because it has MEDIOCRE JAPANESE SINGING!
Really?
Berkut never knows about Alm being a royal. His motivation is that he fights to fulfil the job that was given to him since he was born: he was born into being a ruler. He is threatened by Alm because Alm is another young male leading an army that is marching in regelian soil. It is Berkut's job to defend Regel and he fails at it.
Gonna be honest Alm's story is the better route of the two protagonists because of Berkut and Fernand and while Celica's story is at least passable the final act is where I think her character goes from okay to just generic. Jeddah is another great antagonist but I also dislike him because of Celica's stupidity in actually believing in the Duma worshipping mage. Oh and the fact he can negate being attacked 3 times and only being able to damage him on the 4th strike on him is stupid. Good antagonist but an annoying boss to fight.
Also concerning Fernand and Berkut the Memory Prisms focusing on them flush out more of their backstory or at least flush out their characters which is great.
yeah i certainly enjoyed alm's route a lot more than celica's, these two being the main reason.
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 I can certainly agree there and also the Duma Faithful in general are just generic Antagonists in my eyes. Probably because I've seen their archtype before in animes.
Anime. Psssh. Try playing D&D there's basically a new evil cult every other week.
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 Never played D&D and most likely never will unless it's the arcade beat'em ups Tower of Doom and Shadows of Mystara I believe was what the sequel was.
JadenXDemonMan "And the fact that he can negate being attacked 3 times and only being able to damage him at the 4th strike on him is stupid."
Isn't that just a reference to the original Gaiden though, where the same thing applied? I thought it was.
For Fire emblem heroes There should be a Fallen Berkut
all of my yes.
I enjoyed the video, but disagree with only one thing, and that's writing off Gangrel as having no motivation. It's quite clearly laid out that(Spoilers) his motivation was revenge for the brutal Crusades the last Exalt waged against Plegia. Which makes quite a lot of sense, in effect this could be considered what Hitlers motivation was, a previous war that cost their respective Nations greatly. Of course the people they choose to wage war against are completely different, with one being a Peaceful Halidom, and other(Please don't get triggered Brits) being an Imperialistic Empire. However Gangrel did show he knew of this, hence why he tried to get Ylisse to declare war via the raiding parties.
Maybe I'm just an idiot, looking to pick a fight because a character I liked was criticized, but I think I made a decent point.
Chips Dubbo the issue is that gangrel is both an idiot, a hypocrite and he has no real defined goals other than spread chaos. he's still only 2 thirds of a Character. just not the same 2 thirds as I mentioned in the video. that was poor wording on my part, but gangrel still lacks anything to do with his motivation.
Gangrel literally doesn't give a shit about Plegia or the crusade which was against the Grimleal. He says so himself ingame. Please recheck the script.
Gangrel wanting revenge is also incorrect, Gangrel actually calls his men, worthless trash, and says he was intentionally running Plegia into the ground.
He even says in supports that he started the war with Ylisse out of desire for power.
Burkut for Smash
yes please.
Daddy Berkut. Just, be careful, I hear his ex girlfriend was pretty HOT
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 oH MY LORD YOU DID NOT
Berkut for FE Warriors
I just realized that Berkut is Echos' version of Takumi.
meh kinda.
Except I actually like Berkut
Absolutely. Hates the main character, goes crazy, gets possessed by a dark god
Don't insult our Lord and savior by comparing him to whiny emo kid
I definitely thought Berkut was a fantastically written villain, especially compared to those of Awakening and Fates. Fernand was pretty good too, but Berkut stood out to me a lot more. Duma was pretty good, although his limited screen time didn't give him much time to develop, and I think Rudolf overall was pretty meh, because his actions didn't make any sense at all to me. Berkut was very very good though, and his voice actor was stupendous.
Berkut definitely was one of my favorite characters. His voice was a lot deeper than I expected it to be, but Ian Sinclair provided probably the most emotional voice acting in the game. His progression from an arrogant lord to a desperate madman was really well presented. I really wanted him to join my group though, even more so after discovering he had a complete set of voice clips for him being a playable character.
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 Yeah I wonder if there was planned DLC at some point or well I'm kind of out of the loop on the information about the DLC other than people hating on it's price because I'm unsure if the unused Fernand lines were meant for the Rise of the Deliverance prequel DLC at some point because from what I've played it's giving me mixed messages whether it forces you to play classic mode since the third map would give me a game over if the units died but the last Rise of the Deliverance map didn't care about any lost units, I mean I played on casual since Echoes is my first time playing a proper Fire Emblem game outside of a mobile game, but as I said the Rise of the Deliverance maps are confusing me whether it matters or not if you chose casual or classic I'm just kind of assuming that Fernand and Berkut's lines were meant for the DLC but since I don't know anything much about them beyond people hate it's price, along with two other things which are Rise of the Deliverance being a prequel and that there's a DLC that has characters that only appeared in a Japan-only Fire Emblem card game, yeah I don't know much else, I mean I was just assuming those unused voice clips would be for an upcoming DLC pack where they would be able to use as units.
There are full level up quotes and reclass quotes, that's what has folks talking
I just want to say that Alm's Falchion is the best looking Falchion in the series.
SonicGamer I squeed when I saw it in the anime cutscene it looked so good.
It's important to speak about these two but it's also important to point out Jeddah which is a great villan in my opinion. In fact, I think that Jeddah's character is the only reason the last part of Celica's route is working story wise.
Jeddah was pretty good. Not the best gharnef archetype, (that's nergal) but he was a good second place.
I don't know... Nergal Characteristics are still revolving around good and evil (he was good and turned bad) but Jeddah is pretty different. he did not became batshit crazy, he always was one. he is like some ISIS terrorist, he is a fanatic believer, but his case is a more interesting one, because he is not just a believer, but actually has a direct connection with his deity. In fact, you can say that Duma himself is more comparable with nergal, a good entity turned bad. Nergal is better character then Duma, but thats why the game doesn't focus on him, and choose to focus on jeddah. where I live you can find a lot of people that could have been jeddah, and the most cool part imo is that even celica could have been jeddah, since she acts very similarly to him, the only difference being the fact she worship a very different god.
My only problem with Jeddah is that they portrayed him as a bit too crazy and evil. However, I did like the angle they took with him talking about how they should leave humanity's fate to the gods. I would have preferred if they stuck more closely to this.
I don't think the problem is in his script. but His Design and voice and other background stuff like cutscanes make him seem way more evil then he is. a lot of people complained about how celica trusts him, but if you pay attention to what he says he is not really lying to her, and has some solid reasoning, assuming celica's goal is to save Mila
Fair enough, there's really only one line that irked me in that way. He mentions how Duma will rule the world through terror and fear. If it wasn't for that line I don't think i'd have any problems.
I knew Berkut was going to be at least somewhat sympathetic (pretty face, sad story) but I was actually really surprised with how the game handles Jedah, the token "Evil Sorcerer". He genuinely believes that fully submitting to Duma is the only viable path for Valentia; resultingly, he has grown evil and cruel to any "heretic" who refuses to see the obvious truth. This is unlike Validar, who wanted to end the world "just because", backstory be damned.
I don't think the other 3DS games only had trash villains, necessarily. Gangrel had plenty of reason to hate Ylisse and want to destroy it, growing up during a traumatic "holy war". Anankos had grown bitter of humans and was degrading as all dragons do, and we're given insight into his life that paints him as something other than a monster.
Except any characterization of Anankos is locked behind DLC...
But I do agree Jedah was handled correctly as well.
Berkut is by far my favorite Fire Emblem villain so far. To me he's like a better version of Takumi. Why Takumi?
Well, something I realized was despite how much importance he has in Conquest's story due to his descent into darkness and eventually becoming a puppet of Anankos is WHY Takumi acted this way. He was always competitive and felt like he was under-appreciated compared to his other siblings, but...how? With Leo it at least makes sense because of how cruel and callous Garon is, but Takumi's mother is Mikoto! The most pure and caring woman in all of Fates! So why would he ever even need to prove himself to her when there's no reason she'd not ever give him the time of day?
That's where Berkut shines. He wants only one thing: for Emperor Rudolf to respect him and eventually succeed him on Rigel's throne. But Rudolf never shows him this respect not only due to his failures, but because he knows that Alm is the one that will truly succeed the throne due to his plan. After Berkut learns this as well, he reaches his breaking point, and sacrifices his own wife in order to gain Duma's power. But in the end, when even that fails, Berkut sees how fruitless all his efforts have been, and finally accepts his fate.
It's even tragic since despite how hard he worked, Berkut would never have his goals met. While he was evil, he was also strong and relatable as well, which makes him my favorite FE villain thus far.
Really, all the villains in Echoes were amazing, and great villains are something I feel that the modern FE games sadly lack. Save for Anankos, but you wouldn't know that much about him unless you've played Revelation, and even then it doesn't go entirely into his backstory until the Hidden Truths DLC.
awesome, well said, just one question: have you played sacred stones?
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 I have not. The only older game I've played so far is Blazing Sword, which I'm 1/3 of the way through since I just finished Lyn's route.
Crono Sapien put SS on your radar. After you finish blazing Sword of course.
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 'Kay, I'll be sure to do so.
Fernand's story could be made a play its so Shakespearian. He is great and successful, before being taken down by hubris, and is could have been avoided by better communication.
You not considering Rudolf as a villain makes sense. In fact I don't think Rudolf could be classified as one seeing as to how Alm's who story was revolves mostly around his plan. He had to do what was needed even if it meant he would be antagonized by his own people and the Zofian empire.
I also liked that there were two groups of villains; The religious fanatics (Duma Faithful) and The Empire (Rigel). Small things also, like how all Duma Faithful bosses had the ability Pact, where their HP doesn't decrease when using magic. The music was phenomenal, too (Song for bygone days
Berkut is my favorite villain of this game, everything about him is great, specially his voice acting
Best villain is wrys
I'm glad to see that other people like Berkut! I understand that Rinea is unfortunately not well fleshed out, but I still find her end to be tragic. She didn't deserve that. I'm glad that Fire Emblem is making us feel for the characters again.
absolutely
So Fernand. I really loved Fernand throughout the entire game and still do. He wasn't all that impressive in comparison to some of the things you pointed out in Berkut, but I still wanna give a shout out to my white-haired, peasant-loathing noble. SpOiLeRs ahead.
Fernand dies. Berkut dies. Both were memorable and horrible and made me cry. But skipping Berkut... Fernand's death really spoke to me because I kinda relate to him on a personal level. This quote in particular stuck out to me:
"I knew. I always knew. None of my misfortunes were anyone else's fault... Yet if the world is rotten, then who permitted it to be so? It's me... and no one else."
These words were spoken as Fernand laid dying in his best friend's arms. A favorite term of mine in reference to Fernand is 'regretful turncoat.' And I think it's fitting, especially in this moment. His tone when saying this line drips with regret, suffering, and loss. "...if the world is rotten, then who permitted it to be so?" Ever since his parents were killed and estate destroyed, Fernand has hated the common folk. In his hate for peasants and strong sense of pride, Fernand has cut himself off to the good of the world. And we only get to see his regret for it in his last moments alive. "None of my misfortunes were anyone else's fault." Fernand doesn't blame the peasants. He doesn't rage against the dying of his light. No, Fernand just... accepts it.
I realize this is kind of a mess of random thoughts, but I just want to get this out there. Anyways, that's all. Berkut for Smash and Fernand for Heroes, please. I need more of these villains in my life. Their's were too short...
It seems a lot of people got the wrong idea that Gangrel was some kind of deep villain out to help Plegia, when both the in game and out of game material depicts him as a tyrant on a power trip knowingly throwing away the lives of his subjects for his own gain.
Finally the crusade by Ylisse was against the Grimleal, while Gangrel is allied to the Grimleal for power, his supports and material on the Japanese website reveal he secretly hates the Grimleal.
Fire emblem is one of the few games were I actually feel bad and start to love the villains. They come of as jerks at first but once you learn more about them and their backstory you can't stop but loving or feeling bad for them. They usually make me a little sad when they get killed off and sometimes more than the good guys actually.
Legendary Dragon Lyon from FE8 embodies this for me.
about time zerk my boy. though this was worth the wait, fantastic video man, I love berkut and fernand as villains, the fact that their original characters makes it even better
it certainly does, glad you enjoyed!
Of course, also and I'm just shooting in the dark here, but are you gonna make a video addressing the direction of FE warriors?
Dunno. Whenever we get a new trailer
That's fair, guess we don't have enough info right now
I still think Gangrel had a great motivation. Yllise ruined Plegia and he is taking revenge. He should have been the main villain over Validar
he ticked off two boxes, motivation and personality, dude just had no clear goals other than "do what the plot demands"
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 Good point, that's why it frustrates me he only got a third of the game while Validar got the whole thing
That was NOT Gangrel's motivation. He calls Plegians, human garbage, and says in supports he only started the war because he wanted the power.
I really loved Berkut in FE Echoes. He is one of the best well written villains I have seen in awhile. I still like Awakening and Fates but this game tops both of them for me. When you fight Berkut for the last time I found it clever how Berkut and Rinea were supporting each other throughout the battle. That proves their love is legit.
game theory: berkut and rinea invented s-supports?
but yeah is is a great character for sure.
reminds me how in thracia 776, olwen and reinhardt support each other despite being on opposite sides
Never played thracia 776. I've heard mixed reviews about it and I plan to play it when I have time. Plus I've heard healers can miss...is that true? ._.
i have seen a lets play and i would say it is one of the more complex games out there (would only recommend it to a veteran). if you want details, press read more. also yes, heal staves CAN miss
the only way to get more weapons is to capture enemies and take their equipment. only units with a higher build than the enemy can do that and stats are reduced when attacking with the purpose of capturing them. the interesting thing is that enemies can also capture your units, which opens up more strategies. there are also some escape missions that end once the leader bails, with anyone left behind having to be rescued in a future gaiden chapter
I honestly thought even our standard evil cult leader villain Jedah was done great in Echoes. He's not twisted looking just to be twisted looking, he's been physically corrupted by Duma's madness (though in his case its questionable how much the madness effected his behavior). And he's not cruel for the sake of being cruel, he believes that all life in Valentia will perish without at least one of the divine dragons around, and has the belief that humans shouldn't question how a divine dragon runs things.
Ryodraco Yeah, Jedah being good really threw me for a loop. Sacred Stones had great villains, but Jedah>>>riev
Great video. You make a lot of points about SoV's villains and writing that I agree with, and it saves me from having to make them myself, haha. I also have a video on Berkut, though it focuses more on the events that occur to him in the game than the writing mechanics behind those events. Anyway, glad to see some Fire Emblem analysis on RUclips. Keep up the good work.
The Jorlosopher thanks! glad you enjoyed.
Answer to video: because they have a story that makes sense, a believable and engaging background and stark and different personalities that fit them and delve deeper into their minds.
This was a nice video. You didn't shit on Awakening or Fates completely, you did praise them for some cases, and expressed that you do love them, some to a certain degree, and even vouch for some of them, but still maage to bring your point in how Echoes has done wonders in the new villains Fernand and Berkut. That really made me happy since I've read the continuous nasty comments about shitting on Awakening and Fates.
I will say that the voice acting DID sell the story so much more and it was AMAZING. I seriously hope they continue this onwards, because this was just PERFECT!!!
I think the reason why Berkut and Fernand couldn't be on as long as they should have is mainly because of how they are still characters that got placed in Echoes and never existed in Gaiden. They couldn't make the story involve them TOO much, but involved just enough so we can see them through. It was nice and beautiful and I really did feel for Berkut. Fernand not as much because we didn't really see his personality before his bitterness for the peasants took hold until the DLC showed me more aspects. But my god, Berkut, the emotional strain in his voice acting, the sorrow he felt, you realize that while he was strong physically, his heart/mind was incredibly weak and fragile.
I do hope that they do keep up with the villains as well. Had they given Gangrel, Validar, Garon, and so forth this kind of effort, Awakening and Fates probably wouldn't get as insulted as it did. Like with Validar, maybe we could have seen him had real reason for wanting the world destroyed, like we learn that maybe he truly believes the world deserves to die because maybe it wronged him, or he believes the world has gone in the wrong direction. Maybe had they explained some of the teachings of the Grimleal religion, we could have understand. We understood the Duma Faithful after all.
completely agreed, glad you enjoyed the video.
i loved berkut since the begining anyone else?
Echoes has my personal favorite cast because the conversations between characters had other characters jump in to talk and it helped shape their personality better than forcing them to stand one space away for 500 turns.
Lmao reading the comments while listening. And someone says Berkut is being mispronounced and I'm here thinking, "Bur-cut?"
I feel Berkut fits better with either Michalis & Julius Archetype.
This entire comment section is, for the most part, a Berkut circle jerk...
I BELONG HERE, AND I AM NEVER LEAVING
I forgot who said it, but the way to write a villain is to write them as if they were the hero. The echoes villains truly embody this.
I really liked how Berkut was an extension of the land he comes from too. The lust for power and conquest was driven by the Rigelian god. It wasn't just Berkut is just that way inclined like Garon or the other evil characters in the franchise. He was a product of the land and its religion he came from.
yeah, it's really cool, especially how you can see a lot of alm in him too
Walhart had life goals, and reasons. Even though one could have given him more of a past.
there's one line either in the DLC of awakening or a village, but it basically says "walhart lacked a compassionate queen to balance his rage like the original valmese emperor (alm) had"
Berkut doesn't know Alm was prince. He just wants to be the strongest because that's what he was raised up to be.
He learns by the end.
Daddy Berkut and Uncle Fernand were amazing tbh. Their VAs were ingenious (especially Berkut's, god bless the man named Ian Sinclair) and they were actually villains you can sympathise with.
Yuri Nakamura agreed
I didn't expect berkut and fernand to be in the front lines of the story so much
don't know if the feeling was from other games, but I liked the surprise
berkut and fernand are portrayed in a similar fashion to the generals from FE6
Berkut is my favorite character in the whole series
I can respect that.
Berküt and Fernand were absolutely just the writers getting some practice in for Edelgard. The fact that they were able to pull them off definitely gave them the experience and confidence to make one of the main characters of Three Houses the villain. I still argue with a buddy of mine over whether Edelgard was justified (spoiler alert she's not lol). But the depth of those two games was so well done. Really wishing Engage wasn't so shallow.
Actually three houses and echoes had completely different writing staff! I do agree we got a real string of bangers from it though.
I liked this video! Lots of interesting points on how to make a good villian.
I am also very surprised to not hear "Happy Hunting" at the end of this video. Did Fire Emblem trump Monster Hunter?
nah i just left it out of the script for some reason, glad you enjoyed and it's good to be back.
Berkut and Fernand are great villains definitely top 5 but I've got a soft spot for the king of Bern Zephiel he's such a badass, a great character, and has a great design and that godly sprite
Well, Zephiel is my second favorite villain in the series, after Lyon of course.
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 those seem to be the unanimous top 2 best for everyone and rightfully so Lyon would be second only to Zephiel
I genuinely cried when Berkut died, that's normal when you like the character to the point when you have a merged perfect IV's for each copy except for his normal form;;;
I'm glad to hear you like this game, and as always, enjoyed your view on FE in this video😋
My concern is that the sales of Echoes is not so good in Japan (hopefully not in the US and other regions😂), and this may lead to the Intelligent Systems to make another clone of Awakening and Fates😢 though I personally like them both.
here's the pinned comment from another video of mine, should hopefully put your concerns to rest.
here's the reason why you should hold up on the doom and gloom theory.
it's 130k copies on a dying system, with 2 major competitors in the
Japanese market (Switch and Vita) and it's a remake of a game Japanese
players despise. also new mystery and Awakening both had 250k as their
cutoff, in all honesty, I'll consider 750k worldwide to be a complete
Victory.
ZerkMonsterHunter 4
You are probably right, but I still hope this game's sale surpass the number you mentioned, 750k globally😥, hoping another Echoes (FE remake) will be released😎
I dunno, I wasn't really a fan of Berkut. My problem with him is that his actions to support his drive are mainly told, not shown. We're told he's a great general, but we never see that. I never felt intimidated or cautious when I saw him because the game didn't make him a threat. Unlike the Black Knight, where whenever we see him, he shows a great display of power. This makes the buildup to the final confrontation with Black Knight all the more satisfying. I didn't really like Fernand either, until we got that deliverance DLC. It really showed Fernand's development as a character and made his final scene have much more impact.
Meh understandable. Chock it up to Echoes strange pacing
Fair point, would've been nice to see him do something worthy of a noble of his status. Still, the story sold the idea of his motivation to me well enough
Can't wait to play Echoes then. You know I love a good villain.
I really hope from the recent interview about breathing life into the characters for FE Switch means more flesh out dialogue especially with the obvious waifuing supports making them even more endearing.
it's possible, i hope. please, this better happen.
Too true
Personally I was actually quite impressed with Jedah as a villain too.
Because even though he doesn't get fleshed out like Berkut and Fernand, he still covers those 3 basic aspects that you talked about very well.
I mean Jedahs plan to sacrifice Celicas soul to Duma and you can actually understand his reasoning here since his belief that the land will falter once Duma and Mila are dead, is actually quite plausible from our point of view(I mean in the end even your own characters doubt if valentia can survive without gods) and it makes sense that in such a scenario an insane duma would be still better than duma at all.
I also found it interesting how he is almost constantly talking in half-truths to the main characters, easily mixing facts and lies equally into the conversation, which actually made it questionable what was true and what wasn't.
That being said, he is of course not as fleshed out as Berkut and Fernand, I just think it is really nice how they managed to make the evil cult leader actually sound reasonable unlike the grimeal who pretty much serve grima for real reason at all.
Jeddah really suffers from an obnoxiously over the top character design, his appearance really clashes with his personality and function in the narrative since he's supposed to sound like a reasonable preacher - yet he looks like a Pontiff drunk on power
Also Sonya is the daughter of Jedah and she holds resentment for him for sacrificing her sisters to Duma
I also believe the rise of the deliverance pack really helps on making Fernand lovable as all hell and really makes his actions even more justified.
still need to play that
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 yeah If you liked Fernand now prepare to absolutely LOVE him after playing the DLC pack.
I agree with ya 100%. I like how this works for all kinds of game and I want this also within the next Fire Emblem game with an avatar. speaking of avatar: Nintendo, please make the avatar with a cup of FE12 class choice and a pinch of Dragon Age Origns background for the avatar.
Either way: good writers for all kinds of characters, including avatars and villians. Villians needs that realistic elemant, regardless. Speaking of realistic elemant: I forgot to add a gallian of moral choices for the next Fire Emblem game with an avatar...
great points. i do agree.
I really like how Berkut is kinda like a twisted Camus. Just something about him makes me feel like he's what a man Camus could of been if his loyalty was switched to a desire for power.
An interesting point, but I saw Berkut more as a twisted version of Ephraim. almost as if he was a thought experiment on what if Ephraim switched roles with Lyon?
Lyrics
I'll be the roundabout
The words will make you out 'n' out
I spend the day your way
Call it morning driving through the sound and
In and out the valley
The music dance and sing
They make the children really ring
I spend the day your way
Call it morning driving through the sound and
In and out the valley
In and around the lake
Mountains come out of the sky and they stand there
One mile over we'll be there and we'll see you
Ten true summers we'll be there and laughing too
Twenty four before my love you'll see
I'll be there with you
I will remember you
Your silhouette will charge the view
Of distance atmosphere
Call it morning driving through the sound and
Even in the valley
In and around the lake
Mountains come out of the sky and they stand there
One mile over we'll be there and we'll see you
Ten true summers we'll be there and laughing too
Twenty four before my love you'll see
I'll be there with you
Along the drifting cloud
The eagle searching down on the land
Catching the swirling wind
The sailor sees the rim of the land
The eagle's dancing wings
Create as weather spins out of hand
Go closer hold the land
Feel partly no more than grains of sand
We stand to lose all time
A thousand answers by in our hand
Next to your deeper fears
We stand surrounded by a million years
I'll be the roundabout
The words will make you out 'n' out
I'll be the roundabout
The words will make you out 'n' out
In and around the lake
Mountains come out of the sky and they stand there
Twenty four before my love and I'll be there
I'll be the roundabout
The words will make you out 'n' out
I spend the day your way
Call it morning driving through the sound and
In and out the valley
In and around the lake
Mountains come out of the sky and they stand there
One mile over we'll be there and we'll see you
Ten true summers we'll be there and laughing too
Twenty four before my love you'll see
I'll be there with you
Da la la la da da la
You are my new favorite person.
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 thank you
Berkut was almost playable. Also Fernand's voice actor is Ray Chase, aka Noctis Lucius Caelum.
i wish berkut was playable... creature campaign pls. and it's cool that fernand has the same VA as edgier cloud.
As someone trying to write an original story of my own **is an aspiring graphic novelist**, I might wanna take notes.
I'm not a fan of villains, just in general, but this might prove helpful so I can make an antagonist that's both believable and threatening.
the best advice i can give to writing villains, is: don't make their plan convoluted but give them several avenues to reach the same end.
taking the villain of my novel for example, (a goblin general who wants to revive an evil dragon) he has several avenues to a achieve this:
- revive a previous host of said evil dragon
- create a new host of that dragon
- if all else fails, become the host himself.
the issue is then what complicates him from doing each one
- reviving the previous host will require sacrifice of royal blood.
- creating a new host requires a scale
- he can become the host at the cost of his own life
that's the goals, now for the motives
- gain power within the goblins
- usurp the king (his abusive uncle)
- feed his fetish for war and bloodshed
the motives should all line up or cross over with each other.
once that is done, pick personality traits that fit those goals and motives
- because of his multiple back-up plans, he should be cold and calculating
- because of his poor childhood and his bloodlust, he should be mentally unstable and short tempered.
- because of his plans he should also be reluctant to spill royal blood outside of a ritual.
hope this helps.
Okay, so here's what I've got (by the way, if the whole "monsters vs. humans" plot sounds familiar, I've been working on this story MANY YEARS BEFORE a certain other game came to be and became meme levels of famous)
Aetos, one of the members of the last vidstefalk (aka, a race that consists of creatures with the head, wings, feathers, and talons of a bird, but the body structure/shape of a human (like...say...I suppose the garudas from Indian mythology) the size of a building, typically very skilled mages and scholars) colony, is a very famous and brilliant historian...however, he stumbles across documents of a war from several thousand years ago between his kind and humans, who were once friends who turned on each other out of suspicion pretty much at the same time, but the humans won, greatly reducing the number of vidstefalks, and the latter hid away in a hidden city at the highest reaches of the sky. Thus comes his motivation: his hatred and resent for humans, which eventually spirals into outright radical racism/speciesism(?), that stems for the love and pride of his people, which only grows as he reads more and more into the documents (again, he was once a very avid historian) and seeing that they must live hidden away in a tiny city above the clouds instead of roaming anywhere they please without disguising themselves freely, and his lust for revenge, which leads him to be consumed by hate and loss of faith in anything and everything, especially when his wife flees from him and both she and their son actually really LIKE humans after living with them (disguised as humans themselves because, again, vidstefalks have great magic capabilities). Essentially, his two main goals are to smite humans and then, after his family disagrees with his insane ideals, plunge the world into anarchy as he considers himself the only person he can trust, so he thinks that the whole world should be the same. He also has many ties with several powerful beasts, some can even talk, and one of them is a reverse werewolf of sorts that feigns the appearance of a wealthy woman to leak juicy bits of information that she gets from the nobles across the world to Aetos so he can plan his next move.
As for his personality, he is an anarchist, consumed by hate, and kinda goes nuts around the end of the story after everything, as said earlier, so sometimes he has pretty bad mood swings. And yet he does care some for his people, especially his family until they refuse to say that they feel the same way about humans as he does, even giving his son, who was practically raised among humankind since he was a toddler, multiple chances to come to his side, as he IS his long-lost blood father. He's also very smart, even for vidstefalk standards (where the average student is pretty much Aristotle), and is quite the tactician (though some of his plans to get mankind destroyed, by fangs of beasts under his command or to manipulate them through reverse werewolves and kelpies posing as humans to destroy themselves, can be very brutal). In spite of his lust for vengeance and chaos, he does have some honor (something he vocally believes no human has, so it's a trait he decided to adopt), as he won't destroy mankind, and pretty much the world when he decides he can only trust himself and plunging the earth into a lawless mess is fair because it's all he's lived for, until his greatest adversaries give their best shot to stop him.
His plans and motivation is pretty standard, probably even cliche, I know (at least humans aren't evil in this story...they and vidstefalks are both supposed to be morally gray, and it's also a jab at some things in modern society (like how it's considered "right" to hate a people/country who your folk went to war with a hundred years ago (talking about hating the people of the present time from said folk/country, not the enemies from the past), as well as how some people seem to get freedom and chaos mixed up a lot, mostly in part with their own selfish desires)), but if you do have any constructive criticism, I'd be happy to hear it. ^_^;
Ok so what is here is a good starting point. Just from reading it I can tell you are very passionate about what you have created. But if there's one thing I learned from being a DM for 2 years is that if all the interesting stuff happened before the players arrive you did something wrong.
But, since this is a [graphic] novel, we have a bit more leniency with lore dumps.
What I gather from here is we have a super intelligent avian with a hate for humankind due to an ancient war.
Ok let's run with this.
So in your description it says that he despises humans for the actions of the past, well, a super intelligent avian with Aristotle levels of intelligence would likely never arrive at the conclusion that humans are still Evil at this point if peace has been around for ages unless, one of 2 things happened to tip his scales one way
- either a small minority of humans wrongs him in some fashion
- or his wife falls in love with a human, which charges him emotionally against humanity.
The research about the war should strengthen a preexisting prejudice, not insight it.
For goals, if we're talking about an Intelligent villain, a blind and bloody crusade will likely be a last resort. Bio weaponry and magical pathogens would work better it also creates an object for the protagonists in the sense that "how do you beat a giant bird with the intelligence of a philosopher who is killing everyone through a bacterial math equation" playing a numbers game is going to be this kind of villain's MO.
It's then at the point where he realizes that his perfect world is but a reflection of a menial hatred that spiraled out of control that he has a mental breakdown in the sense that his one reality: he can only trust himself is false
Then he launches His crusade.
Hmm...okay! (though I wouldn't say that there's been total peace between vidstefalks and humans, it's just that they're so far away from each other, they can't really even interact anymore unless a vidstefalk decides themselves to go to the surface world...with mixed reception because they can either take on the appearance of a human with looks that range from decent to "My gosh, what is it?!", or go as their normal giant birb selves and, because vidstefalks have faded into human fairytales like unicorns and faeries have, they'll probably be mistaken for a large, everyday monster. So yeah, that's why humans and vidstefalks haven't fought in thousands of years). I do like the idea that his prejudice may start with knowing why vidstefalks have to live in a floating city so high up in the sky that the average flying machine can't reach it, which is common knowledge, but then, I guess because his wife (trying to come up with a name for her...gonna say something meaning "white" because she has a rare color mutation where she has a sort of tuxedo pattern to her except she's lilac) is so fond of sneaking off to the surface world, maybe one day, they both go there disguised as humans, but then get attacked by particularly vicious bandits, who pretty much almost kill his wife and extremely young son (his name is Azur, by the way, he's also one of the three joint protagonists), and after escaping the attack by either the skin of their teeth or Aetos gets into his first fight (and probably freaks the highwaymen the heck out by showing his true form), he gets really miffed, studies even more vigorously on the war, and starts to go a little crazy with this newfound hate of humans. After many years of searching for his lost son and preparing for his little revenge scheme on humankind, he finally finds him...being friends among humans (well...two...kind of. Azur is the longtime best friend of the other protagonist, Rellissa, and her brother Armel doesn't really like him that much, but he's fine with him so long as he isn't doing anything remotely close to flirting with his twin sister (Armel has several problems with Azur, especially because he slightly gets the wrong idea because he's always around his sister (though she and Azur have been friends for eleven years), because Azur's really bashful/socially awkward, is not exactly the easiest on the eyes to say the least, is a bit on the weird side, built like freaking Hector so the size difference is unnerving, and has crippling and irrational cynophobia, and since Azur is kind of timid and sometimes will reflexively latch onto Rellissa's arm just because he's scared/nervous and trusts her and the like, Armel gives him the stink-eye PLENTY of times), but other than that, Azur has been bullied quite a bit because he's "ugly", but he meets a lot of nice people on the trip as well, so he really grows to have faith in humanity as opposed to his dad). After giving him (and later his mom) several chances while subtly carrying out his plot for vengeance, he eventually finds his wife again, who disagrees heavily with his ideas, especially now that he's on the verge of causing harm to the town where she's been hiding from him all these years, and the two fight until Aetos kills her out of rage over her "betrayal", and then he begins spiraling into deeper hatred and starts to trust only himself. That's when phase two of his plot begins, where he starts to try and sow the seeds of chaos in the world of mankind, to try and get them to destroy each other the same way they nearly destroyed the vidstefalks so many years ago, as well as other clever but scary things. Somewhere during the final act, something pushes him to totally lose his mind, his reason, and any sense of the once brilliant scholar he used to be, and consumed by his lust for discord and his loathing for humanity, he decides to make his final assault, challenging the main characters to fight him in some old ruin, where, if he wins, he will cast a spell that will most surely plunge the world to near destruction, and as the few live in a desolate land, everyone will claw at each other for survival, trusting only themselves as he believes is right. Of course, he loses, but then the ending is spoilers. It's a bittersweet ending to the story. Mostly bitter because it's super sad (or at least, I hope it will be), but the world is okay and life goes on in peace when all is said and done. So, how does that sound?
Sounds interesting. I like the bandit/highwayman thing. Otherwise I would just watch how Complex this story gets. Try and keep the plot and themes simple, but add Complexity in the Characters and themes.
The problem with Berkut is that he seems very weak. He has no prior achievements to the beginning of the story and seems like a whiny kid who can't do anything on its own. As a villain, he fails at being a serious threat IMO. I agree with you on the rest though. But don't you think Berkut could've been this good if the base story was different? This is something to take into account to hope for future good villains in the FE franchise.
the problem you have here is that they SAY he has prior achievements but they never say what they were. and berkut is a hard boss, at least from my experience.
Berkut was a pretty hard boss from my experience with him. I got slammed on my first 2 attempts at fighting him and the only reason I won was a crit Scendscale from Alm. He was much harder than Rudolph for me. I beat Rudolph in 2 turns (like the whole chapter.) I used warp to get Alm and Lukas up to him and just slammed him without any real trouble.
I didn't remember it, my bad.
fun drinking game: take a shot everytime Zerk says he Quite likes something
Best drinking game is watching my timeline video and taking a shot for each new pronounciation of "Judgral"
Echoes was just...
A *FANTASTIC* game.
In my opinion, it GREATLY surpassed Fates and Awakening. I'm quite excited for the next remake in the series.
agreed.
#BerkütDidNothinhWrong
Berkut and Fernand are villains that i love to hate because i can see their mindset and where they went wrong. In awakening and fates, I never understood why the bad guys were so bad.
I don't know, BerkutxRinea came of to me as AnakinxPadme from the prequels. Berkut always shouted creepy tantrums at her and she on her blandness followed through. We even get a "You are with HIM! You brought him here to kiLL ME!" scene. They desperately needed more peaceful screentime.
watch their memory prism, "may I have this dance?" but now that you mention the connection, i can no longer unsee it.....
Sorry Zerk.
maybe she knows that is completely unlike berkut and is trying to snap him out of it. they are fiances after all
I'm not too sure about him as a villian but my overall favorite villian for this game was Emperor Rudolf. What was your take for him Zerk?
he's awesome and respectable. but sadly he's not in the game too much.
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 Well at the very least they attempted to try and show a bit more with the memory prism called "the lasting promise" in which we at least get to see at least some of Rudolf's past when he pretty much had to give up infant Alm, I mean can we at least agree that's more than we can say for the Awakening and Fates villains right?
Gangrel does have motivation though. The previous Exalts Crusades on Plegia. And Emmeryn going into pacifist mode and promising peace, was likely a spit in the face for Gangrel. Its simple revenge, but yes there is motivation. Gangrel is great unless we factor in Spotpass
Gangrel didn't care about it, he calls his men worthless trash and keeps them in line by kidnapping their loved ones.
In supports, Gangrel says he only started the war for power. He isn't a sympathetic villain at all.
GarbenTheBerserker I have no idea what supports you're reading, but Gangrel never once says that he only started the war for power.
Hell, he actually shows remorse for his actions in his support with a male avatar while explaining his intentions.
He says he initially wanted to stop Walhart, but the power of being King went to his head and he started to enjoy war for the sake of it.
Basically he was just on a power trip.
Gamgeral does have a movation. He wants to make Yillese suffer for what Chrom’s father did to Peligia
I dislike but still love fernands end. I would have loved him in my army, having conversations with his fellow allies, etc. BUT his last few words to clive were so fitting. Hes one of my favorite characters in the series :D
Timmbonator 03 it's a shame we didn't get a final. confrontation with him. but his bittersweet end was well written, so I'm not sure how to feel.
Important question. If Fernand is like Orson, and Fernand has feelings for Mathilda, then if General Bulldozer had executed Mathilda, would Fernand have had a *Monica* moment? Im sorry im going now
no, that'd be interesting actually
Dude i loved Berkut from the first time i saw him, cool looking guy dancing with his beautiful lover to some nice ass music then when the dancing done he looks at the camera with a cocky ass grin, so good.I also felt bad for him when Alm started f*****g up his life driving mad, then what he did at the end made me so sad and mad at him at the same time.Sucks that you can't get him to join you but if awakening is any clue as to how they write villain joining it would have went poorly.(not trying to rag on awakening i like it just has problems.)
he was pretty great. the intro to him was awesome too. i wish echoes did something like SS's creature campaign, and you could unlock the villains via weird menial requirements and tasks.
I think Arvis still takes the cake as the most despicable yet tragic villains in the series. :I
I haven't finished the game yet but I absolutely love Fernand's character
his ending is pretty bittersweet.
I wish they explored his relationship with Fernand more.
When I played it I saw villains like that looking down on farmers from on high as nobles and I thought it was kind of cool that Alm showed them that it's a mistake to dismiss people's worth based on their background and you don't need to be of high birth to kick ass. But NOPE, Alm's a Prince. Higher borne than the damn nobles, lol. Without the crown prince and princess leading the armies, those peasants would have been face rolled by the nobles. Fernand's cynical outlook on class structure was right all along.
The only problem I had with Berkut was after his death. There was a bit of a forced sadness with his passing. It wasn't as bad as Fates, and I by no means think less of him. He's still one of the better villains that we have had in a long time, I personally thought that it was a wee bit forced.
Rushed and short is more like it I think.
Since this is an Echoes video I just have to say this: No matter what any of you think... Rudolf is and will be my most favorite villain of all FE games. Because unlike others who had been possessed or power hungry... He just helped a prophecy come true by sending Mycen with Alm to Zofia.
He never was a villain... He just played his part in the prophecy. Giving Alm a reason to become strong enough to kill Duma
1. What are their goals?
2. Why do they have those goals?
3. And what is their personality type?
Wow, never thought about it like that.
something i picked up on as a writer myself.
What have you writte so far?
A manuscript.
ZerkMonsterHunter 4 I hope it turns out well.
It's in editing stages right now
Even though I love awakening and like fates, I won't argue that it had some majorly flawed villains.