UnPoPuLaR oPiNiOnS
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- Опубликовано: 19 фев 2020
- Post your hot takes down below. Or your hot takes on my hot takes on their hot takes.
Twitter: / mekkkkah
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The weird thing with Robin is that outside of the S supports which are super obviously 'marry your favourite character!!!' everything else about them is fairly well defined and not particularly conducive to self-inserting. The game basically tricks the player into thinking that they are a self-insert with the opening first-person cutscene and Robin having amnesia, then pulls the rug out from under them later on when they reveal that Robin is actually a 'real' character with a background and a history and relationships. Robin proceeds to redefine themselves as a person after that because the preconceived character they're 'supposed' to be is the villain of the story, which lets you keep self-inserting if you want but breaks the illusion that they're you.
This is all conveyed with the character creation screen using the phrase 'Create an Avatar'. That's not you making a self-insert; that's you designing what the Avatar of Grima looks like. (Now that I think about it, this is EXACTLY the same twist Undertale pulls, which is hilarious.)
Damn. That line of “create an avatar” is brilliant. And the reasons you mention above are probably why we like robin so much! He’s an actual character unlike the other people
Absolutely agree. This is why Robin is generally well liked in the community.
I don't think you understand what you're talking about. At all.
@@jasonkennerson9786 What do you mean?
@@veed2170
For starters, avatars with an already define character with a background still falls under the category of self-inserts. It doesn't require to be 100% of the self-insert category. You just need enough that makes it feel like a self-insert. Don't want to be a villain, self-insert. Want to fight your evil self, self-insert. Want to have your own reactions, self-insert. And all this is on Robin the entire Awakening game.
Second, unlike Undertale, Robin was never Grima because Grima time traveled. So in that case, Robin is still the player. Also, Robin fights Grima in Awakening's end game. We don't have the whole, "fight the evil self," thing with Undertale at all after the Genocide run. And that made me think that this person doesn't know what point they (being gender neutral because I don't know the person's gender) are making when they used Undertale to prove Robin is Grima, yet didn't realize or miss remembering Awakening's story.
Mekkah: “I don’t want to pick on 13 year olds”
Ryn: “I beat up second graders”
It's not that big of a deal for third graders to beat up second graders
_That's LADY Ryn to you!_
@@sugoiboyxl8345 simp
Unpopular Opinion. Bartres speed growth is higher than 40%
bartre: growth rates are suggestions.
Dorcus has 100+ speed.
I take it you saw Bartre’s blessed speed gains yesterday on stream
It actually technically is isn't it? because of a possible stat re roll
Marty is fast
I like pre promotes more than growth units when their names are Seth and titania
@Fermín Arro seth is a paladin and is a pre promote unit. Pre promotes are units already promoted units at the start of the game. Later promoted units are just promoted units.
Yes Seth is best boy
Cough cough Catherine cough Marcus COUGH
Prepromotes are already cooler than growth units
Why do so many people ignore Dussel in fe8, he’s just a tanky, slower, Seth
The guy who didn't like FE9 because it requires sequels to get the full experience would likely have a stroke from hearing about Kingdom Hearts.
That implies a complete Kingdom Hearts experience exists.
tbh FE9's story is better if you don't play FE10
Having played Kingdom Heart 1 only, I never felt what ppl like about that series. It's dumb, and I love Disney.
FE10 is the older brother that fixes up the stuff his younger brother FE9 broke.
@@jerryborjon Yet FE10 also breaks things that FE9 did well like Laguz transform gauges and any concept of unit balance. I say this despite it being my favorite game.
"Just because it's easy doesn't mean it's bad!"
... THANK YOU!!!
My add on: just because a story feels predictable doesn't make it bad either. There are movies or books or shows that I remember where I could guess every plot point as it happened. And I still ended up liking them because predictability does not equal bad. It might feel unoriginal but the aspects that were good are still potentially strong enough to be a draw.
@@l.n.3372 That's part of why I can enjoy Echoes even on my 3rd or 4th run. I pretty much know everything that happens, but since it's presented so well I can still enjoy it. Same thing with a good movie, even if it has a twist that's important or something. But as for first time viewing/playing but still predictable, I can agree. Most Disney movies are pretty damn predictable, but one can enjoy them anyway. Obviously predictable stories can be bad, just as unpredictable stories can. Honestly I didn't expect half the shit happening in Fates, but it doesn't make the story good.
@@Awesomepelt
Funny because I can't bring myself to replay Echoes since the gameplay was just such a step backwards. Understandably it's a remake. But Shadow Dragon and New Mystery were also remakes yet they made some nice quality of life changes to the game. Echoes seemed to want to be Gaiden with a coat of paint.
Voice acting and art was great tho
Exactly why i tend to always play on easier difficulties. I love feeling powerful while destroying my foes. Life's challenging enough, so why add on more challenge that leads to no good reward? For example, maddening mode. The reward is just a yellow title screen. Jippeh.
@@l.n.3372 Echoes has some of my favorite map design. I prefer the mobilizing armies utilizing strategies I have to counter against over the maps that feel like a puzzle you have to solve. Now this isn't easy to explain. I'm not big on Awakening's open maps, I love Shadow Dragon's design, and sometimes "strategies" can turn into gimmicks themselves, but Echoes just has good design. I like when Ferdinand is charging with a group of cavaliers on my flank while I'm holding a bridge against mages and armor knights. It's a unique situation but in an open field, and I feel like I'm better for overcoming it. I don't feel anything from completing a Fates map where they really just want me to do something specific to win, like an equation rather than a strategy.
The thing about the character balance argument is that it misses the actual issue that the community sees in my opinion. Unit balance is not a crucial aspect of any fire emblem game. That, I agree with. However, the community often struggles to allow people to use the units they like without making some dumb comment about that unit's viability, when no one asked. Or too much emphasis is placed on a character's viability as a unit. Whenever someone finds out you like Wolt as a character, you're gonna be reminded that Wolt is not a good unit, and it's super annoying.
Facts
A lot of beginners/casuals struggle to distinguish personal experience and biases from more objective argumentation and I think they also have a tendency to play on lower difficulties and don't really grasp how much of a difference that makes compared to a higher one.
I say that, because for a long time that was exactly me. I was content playing at lower difficulties. Only in more recent years have I started to appreciate higher difficulty challenges in games like Fire Emblem and begun to realize how much it actually changes things once you realize how this affects what is and isn't effective and efficient.
Doesn't help I was also just bad. I was pretty confident on my low difficulty playthroughs, but I really fell into a lot of the "pitfalls" that Mekkah likes to stress and that probably is one of the reasons I was never all that compelled to try higher difficulties (falling back on my usual playing habits back then came back to bite me, needless to say, and I didn't realize why). I had a lot of difficulty accepting the logic behind Mekkah's argumentation when I first saw those videos and felt it was really elitist. Needless to say, I've come around from that...
It's a mixed bag honestly. Of course it's a game and all so "play however you want", but when people struggle with the game you're of course going to suggest using prepromotes, for example. Which then, of course, leads to people debating what makes a good/bad unit "don't use exp thiefs" "they were amazing in my playthrough" "did you grind?". And then there's viability discussions where there are definitely people who have no idea what they're talking about say a "bad unit" is actually good, with bad or no arguments/hard evidence. A factor of it really is the random growths of the games, where sometimes the best characters can become the worst and vice versa.
In most FE games in the past 10 years or so, MOST of their rosters have been at bare minimum functional for all but the absolute most insane difficulties, arguing over which characters are good or not at any difficulty below crazy hard is mostly splitting hairs.
Wolt is S tier because his face isn't mashed potato like Dorothy's
Mekkah saying "Next meme" instead of "Next opinion" shows that Mangs is corrupting him with too much meme review
@Narciso the Salad br.pinterest.com/pin/556546466420661549/
There ya go!
Popular opinion: Playing Thracia 776 blind is the worst fire emblem experience you'll ever have
Unpopular opinion Mekkah is the hottest figure in the Fire Emblem community
Agreeeed
Dem hands don't lie.
In top 3 for sure
you cant rule out chaz like this
Wil E one hundred percent Sigurd just ask Arvis
Unpopular opinion: the term “hot take” is just a hipster way of saying you have an unpopular opinion
Sometimes I use it to genuinely state that I don't have solid reasons to believe this, as a way to welcome discussion.
But I think I'm weird there, and if that's the usual understanding, it explains a lot of why I don't get more discussions on them.
Hot take: I agree
No. Unpopular Opinion is something you’ve thought through and will stand by unless significant evidence sways you otherwise.
Hot Take. Hot is used as spicy but also fresh (hot off the presses). These are usually not thought through very well.
Meh. Hot take is more nuanced than an unpopular opinion. You would use it when your opinion is unpopular, but also what you are able to say will probably generate a negative reaction.
See also: "tHaTs tHe tEa", is just Basic Bitch flavored "I'm going to say something bold with no back up and act like I'm right"
Says fates is good AND has a Faye flair. Call them who they are, but they're brave at least.
I definitely agree that an "unpopular" opinion should be something more than just blatant baiting or being facetious. If they're genuine, and aren't looking for internet cred, I'd at least acknowledge them were I to disagree.
Bait: I believe FE7 Chaos mode is balanced and fair
Unpopular: I believe FE7 Chaos mode is fun for how absurd enemy stats and weapons are.
@@chillstoneblakeblast3172
Wtf is FE 7 Chaos mode
@@chrisf.9595 If you want to cherish you sanity, don't ever play it
Fe7 chaos mode is an FE7 hack where units, weapons,classes and stats are shuffled to create a chaotic experience. It was created by Klokinator
@@chillstoneblakeblast3172 *gets ptsd*
I think fates birthright was actually fun and revelations was at times where fun.
Honestly, there's a goldmine of content to be made about the FE subreddit. This looks to be a fun listen.
your original video about the state of the subreddit is actually how i was introduced to you.
@@Realag666 /r/feh aggravates me to absurd levels. 70% of the sub is low effort shitposts. It's also where comments with hundreds of upvotes say "I'm interested in the series", but at the same time comments like "lol who cares about these characters [I want Three Houses banner!]" get the same amount. The memes, while I get they're memes, also give false impressions about many characters. Reinhardt's popularity really makes my blood boil because so many people think it's because he's a well written character, when really its because of memes and how overpowered he is/was.
The main Fire Emblem sub I do agree it's kinda boring with it being mostly fan art now. Even Three Houses discussions are kinda moot given how the games designed pretty for much every unit to be viable, make them fliers, and of course "play however you want". I miss the varied types of discussions there used to be even for games I never played, at the time. Now it's mostly just Three Houses.
@@korinoriz I feel with the rise of Fire Emblem Content Creators, people got alot more knowledgeable about the game so that differing opinien don't happen that often anymore.
I got into FE-Tubers arround Fire Emblem Echoes and by then everyone was still relativly small compared to now. Overall I think the Community is pretty great, look at the new Premium Arrange Soundtrack comments, very nice memes there
or how we seamlessly integrated Claud's Voice actor into our cosmos
@@korinoriz Unpopular Opinion: r/shitpostemblem is a safe haven
@@rainierdanredondo1278 I'm at the point where I assume most meme subreddits are the actual main ones
fates has the yato that´s a pretty hard mcguffin, it literally flew to corrins hand, also the chair that revealed that garron is now a slime monster
Something I learned from seeing people’s unpopular opinions: most of them are unpopular for a reason. They’re often ridiculous or just wrong. It bothers me more than “unpopular” opinions that are actually popular.
I respect people and their opinions. My issues with Unpopular opinions is that people don't even defend their opinions sometimes. The guy that likes awakening Map design never mention why he liked a map like the Mila tree, meanwhile I and many others can point out why that map sucks in our opinions (Ambush fliers that pincer your armies while you were aiming to kill thieves)
How can you have a wrong opinion?
Carson Chavez I don’t mean people saying “I like/don’t like this”, but people saying things like “Fates has excellent writing and has a better plot than every other game”. Not that I’ve literally seen this but other opinions like this that don’t really make sense.
@@romitalia3088 On a logic basis I agree you're not making sense. But intuitively I get what you mean. There's a difference between "I think Fates has excellent writing", and "Fates does have excellent writing". But hey, it's "art" which is always a mess to discuss.
@@PharaohofAtlantis a "wrong" opinion in my eyes is an opinion which was built over poor substantial data. One on the main reasons people dislike racism is because it is built over poor assumptions of a person "just because they are x color or have X features". In other words, "wrong" opinions is a popular way to say: "Bad way of thinking".
There is no true bad idea, just many bad ways of thinking.
Unpopular opinion: Mangs is great at fire emblem, his recent feat of finishing a HARD awakening iron man in only 5 chapters!!! wow if only i could be that good.
True Unpopular Opinion.
True skill is clearing challenges without even trying.
I was more impressed the Ironman ended the instant the first cutscene started. True skill.
#GiveUsTheUnilWeDeserve
another unpopular opinion: awakening is harder than all of the fe games i've played so far except conquest and radiant dawn
ive played fe 4,7,8,9,10,11,13,14(conq and some of br),echoes and 3h
@@aprinnyonbreak1290 correction, true skill is beating the game with units with broken equipment
@@theogilbert38 Radiant Dawn? The first few chapters of part 1 and 2 dawn brigade chapters in part 3 are difficult. The rest is boring and easy. Part 2 is straight-forward. Part 3 has the broken Greil Mercs. Part 4, you have a ton of stacked units. You also have a ton of stacks units endgame.
I think I remember reading that thread. Has it already been 3 years?
Lyn mode is fun and serves as a great introduction to the game and series as a whole. People who don’t like it now are just veteran players, so obviously playing the tutorial won’t be that interesting.
I'm a veteran player and still love playing through it...
If Lyn hard mode did more than just turn off tutorials, it would be much better.
I played Awakening first and Lyn mode taught me that forests gave extra avoid.
I had a friend who dropped Fe 7 because of Lyn mode. Yes, it's boring, but they only played 3DS games, so it would've been a decent segway into it. Also, they absolutely adore Lyn despite knowing nothing about her other than second hand information.
I agree with you, I think the big sticking point is that it isn’t skippable in the English version
I think 3h suffers much less from the awkward support system loop of conquering a flaw with A support and then regressing back into it with the next C. Everyone, or at least everyone in your core team, gets support points with everyone else pretty easily. So your units all tend to get C with each other at the same time if not a chapter later.
This doesn't completely solve the issue of course, but it helps sooth it quite a bit imo.
I'd agree but there are really suspect characters like Bernadetta who have the same trope built into almost every one of her supports. It's frustrating for a reason, and most of her paired endings don't show much growth either even after unlocking every support.
@@l.n.3372 With Bernadette and her paired endings, honestly, it makes sense that not all of them resolve her arc in a favorable way. Bernadetta's type of trauma isn't really something people that suffer from it properly recover from without a lot of help, or even at all. It makes sense that not everyone she can end up with is able to help her in the way she needs to become healthy again.
@@AppaTheBizon1228
I disagree completely. She shows almost no character progression when you look at some of her paired endings. That's a statement about how little they did with her character. Compare her to Marianne, who is a similar character where her entire arc revolves around 1 prominent trope. Yet she grows from it in almost every support and paired or unpaired ending. She becomes a great orator vs Bernadetta who struggles to leave her room or house post time skip or post war.
Not to mention that the game doesn't treat her condition seriously. She's basically a comic relief joke 90% of the time. To the point where her constantly screaming and running away is treated as humor.
@@l.n.3372 I know this is a year old, but I've got a relevant thing to add
I, as a shut-in with agoraphobia and trust issues caused by severe childhood trauma, definitely go through the same loop of seemingly solving my problem only to regress back into the next day, I've grown to the point that I can function, but if it's an option, I'm still going to stay cooped up all day and rarely go for any outings, so in that way, I can relate to Bernadetta and can see clear growth even though it seems she's just stuck in the same problem.
Also, despite having the exact same problems as her, I quite enjoy the comedic relief she brings and I take no offense to it.
@@valarmis
I'm glad you found some comfort in Bernadetta as a character.
I, however, did not - and I also have some similarities with her as well. I think she's a very flat, one note character whose trauma is never taken seriously, nor does she really grow from it much.
I think that Robin is a sort of blank-slate character, but done in a good way. His amnesia and early friendship with Chrom clearly lead him to define himself around the debt he feels he owes to the young lord and the responsibility he assumes over the lives of the Shepherds. He is archetypally selfless and self-sacrificing, traits that spiral out of control when it's revealed to him that his destiny is to murder the very people he's come to define his self-worth by protecting. He asks or invites both Lucina and Chrom to abandon or kill him outright on multiple occasions even before the final battle with Grima, wherein he (given the player's choice) heedlessly takes the opportunity to die (albeit temporarily) for them by himself. On the surface his is a somewhat flat arc of endless self-sacrifice, but underneath I think his tale is rife with poignant commentary on the impact of self-doubt and a lack of self-worth on a person's actions and relationships. In short, Robin is a vessel not just for the specter of Grima, but perhaps also that of mental illness as well. It is clear from his actions in-story and interactions with other characters that he chooses to always focus his attention on them even at his own detriment, assumedly because he, as a memory-less nobody, and his feelings, wants, and experiences, are worth, in his eyes, far less to the world than any of theirs. Even in his support conversations with Lucina, which stand among the legions of joke supports in the game's catalog as strikingly forward, honest, and intimate, it is always him extending his hand to support her, an act that - although not explicitly reciprocated - fully encapsulates both Robin's complete openness in regards to others and an inability to care for himself that ultimately mirrors hers. There's clear thematic power in their relationship; her presence above all deepens Robin's mental scars, driving in with every moment the cost of his failure and the final consequences of letting his determination to put everyone else before himself slip. In a better game, I think that their arc could have been the culmination of two overly selfless, cripplingly damaged individuals coming together to realize their worth not only as part of a larger world and family, and not only to each other, but to themselves as well. It could have been the ultimate story of healing, addressing the wounds we give ourselves as much as those we give each other, both physical and mental.
However, thinking back on it I feel that, as with other FE games, the writers didn't really catch on to what they might have had and thus failed to satisfyingly deliver on this possible subtext. In the end, Robin's sacrifice is rewarded with his revival, and, though the other characters come together to voice their care and appreciation for their tactician, he himself never explicitly has the chance to realize that his apparent lack of self-worth was, in fact, harmful. Though I haven't played the game myself in a couple years, I don't think we ever get to see Chrom or the Shepherds or - most importantly for my idealized version of the story, Lucina - reach out back to him and express that his openness to sacrifice himself was not merely just unacceptable from their perspective as his friends, but indicative of a long-standing issue birthed from his lack of memory and self and his excess of responsibility.
Though I really hadn't thought as much about this before, I suppose - to put it shortly - I find Robin's selflessness tragically resonant and psychologically interesting to analyze, and his relationship with Lucina a great attempt at (perhaps inadvertently) centering a story on the multifaceted dynamic between two characters at once opposing and alike. The game itself, I think, fails to deliver on a lot of what I tried to put forth here, but I think that many viewers got this same impression, at least judging by the great number of high quality fan-written works that serve to elaborate it into something a bit more cohesive and explicit.
How the fuck is Robin's sacrifice selfish? If he doesn't do it, the dragon comes back to kill many more in a matter of time. He chose to prevent all that needless bloodshed by sacrificing himself. Sure, you could argue that Grima's followers could revive him somehow, but I'd imagine it'd take a lot longer and be a lot harder to do than to simply unseal or awaken him.
I like your explanation otherwise though.
I'm not going to say that you're wrong since you obviously put a lot of thought and effort into analyzing Robin, but I think you put a bit too much of your personal perceptions onto Robin which made him/her a deeper character than he/she really is.
Fire emblem isn't usually a very subtle series and the writers usually spell out things for the players even if it would be better left alone, so Robin's mental issues are IMO more the flaw of the writing for failing to properly flesh out a character rather than being a hidden detail. Of course Robin does have a lot of potential, but it can't be fully realized in Awakening since a self-insert can't have too much personality. It's not very suprising to hear that Robin is much better in things outside of Awakening
Unpopular opinion: amnesia is a shitty, overused writing device that only serves as an excuse for a character to be as ignorant as the reader about the world they live in
@@alxjones That's not unpopular, MANY people think amnesia is a shitty writing device.
@@korinoriz Most people honestly, I hate the amnesia trope so much.
Unpopular opinion: FE fans don't hate FE, we are just more willing to criticize these games cause we like them so much
That goes for every fandom. No one hates Pokemon like Pokemon fans. No one hates Star Wars like Star Wars fans. No one hates Yu-Gi-Oh! like Yu-Gi-Oh! fans, etc.
Unpopular fact, I swear Mekkah and Mangs said this exact thing in other videos
This is a popular opinion :)
@Wil E
Careful who you calling trash mate
Shadow Dragon is awesome
unpopular opinion: archers/snipers are fun to train and use because they bring diversity to your cast of units rather than just having an entire army of 1-2 range hand axe/javelin guys and fast sword guys
Especially in Fates where you have to beat a fairly difficult map to be able to hit Adjacent foes.
Vera Vera Veradisia I definitely agree. I always try for at least one archer on my team because they provide a specific tactical niche in my teams
Shadow Dragon is mad underrated imo. That game gives me nostalgia.
I recently beaten Shadow Dragon a few weeks ago and I had a lot of fun
Unpopular opinion: FE7's plot has some really good moments and sub-stories in the plot
Canas being Niime's child is the best part of FE7, imo, and makes him so much cooler than the guy who kills the fire dragon for hipsters.
Geitz's ongoing struggle to extract a meaningful relationship from other people while struggling with his 30 minute attention span was the finest writing in the series
dodge tanking character: *exists*
low hit gambit: imma end this man's whole career
Unpopular opinion: Having fun is more important than playing optimally.
Also, I've seen some people call personal weapons a crutch for some units and I honestly don't get it. The way I see it, that weapon or item is part of that character, and should almost always be seen as a boon. Like the Pugi for example. Part of what makes Orsin so good is his exclusive access to the Pugi in all it's glory. This is how all prfs should (for the most part) be treated, as part of that units function, and nothing but a boon to them.
Mekkah: "The only wrong way to play FE, is to not have fun while playing it."
Also while the personal items argument is definitely silly, to quote DonDon, Orsin wouldn't be anythig special without pugi (vouge) + wrath, now of course he will always have this tools available to him, but it's fine to call out a character that's only good because of spesific circumstances (like Rutger in FE6) as long as they admit that they're still good characters because of them
Extremely popular opinion alert
On the variable growths for map design part: Having more static parameters makes a lot of maps more static, which means you'll tend to play them the same way on your future playthroughs. Giving more options for characters, items and growths etc is appealing because you don't feel like you're just doing the same thing again. Although, Three Houses for example couldn't exactly escape that considering how many maps get re-used on all routes, as well as stats benchmarks being kinda wide. What's the variation in using a Knight Dimitri or a Knight Bernadetta on a given map if you're tanky enough to handle it solely on account of being in the Knight class? Variations don't immediately mean "better or better-varied possibilities" , sometimes it just means more possibilities, whether that's good or bad. A lot of game design info can be taken from this, but I can see it go both ways. It's best to have both static and less static situations imo.
Totally different game but the best difficulty oriented pokemon hacks manage to up the difficulty both by seemingly limiting your options(most strong potential mons are pushed back to middle/late game). However it only highlight the variety of the ones you have left, since you end up using mons you may otherwise never bother with because your lack of power forces you to be more imaginative. It doesn't hurt that they also have better ai.
Three house try to do that with professor level since it limit the amount of customization you will be able to do, or at least the speed at which it occurs. Of course fishing exist but i would honestly not expect the average player to grind it to absurd level. But FE is a game where you almost always know all the information so oce you figure out the solution its over.
Hit and growth rate are the one thing that keep the games replayable aside of routes/challenge runs, because as you said a winning strategy would work every time the exact same way. It also help maps feel like "battles" since aside from the map gimmick and design you have to account for impromptu events.
Personally I love FE7's plot despite how poorly written it is because of how compelling I find the characters.
I really like all of the main lords, the dragon twins, and even though Nergal is a pretty bad villain I like the idea of a dad losing himself to evil and trying to use his kids for power. It's really tragic in a way and I wish they did more with it. The way that Eliwood and Ninian and Lyn and Hector are developed as relationships over the story is also super cool to me. But yeah the writing and especially the localization is pretty bad.
23:54 Oh thank God I'm glad I'm not the only one who realizes how much of a Gary Stu Ike is. And even though I like Robin personally despite that, I think all 4 of them just exist to be the perfect heroes the plot needs.
Ike is written to be a person you want to jerk off as opposed to the avatars who exist to jerk you off. Still terrible imo.
Anotha one: Conquest story actually has a great beginning and an end. Changing things from the inside, doing things your own way (like letting the rebels live), gathering support and building your own army is an intriguing start. Having to fight against your "real" family could be interesting if it makes sense to do so. Turning against Garon and taking him down is a fitting end and very satisfying. They just had no freaking idea how to connect these things and in the end very little makes sense and it's a goddamn disaster.
Ngl, if chapter 12 was 2 chapters where you take out Hans after Scarlet, there would be a massive improvement; no orders from Garon, he just felt like slaughtering every rebel and starts small. You tell him to stop, and he disregards you, thinking he has Daddy Garon to save him. You get to kill Hans early on and I like that. Maybe you have to protect green units (without weapons) from Hans’s squads, but that seems like a lot tbh, and you can’t really fit good rewards in there due to the balance of obtaining items in Conquest.
Afterwards, you have the option to recruit Scarlet, convincing her that you want to end the war and free Cheve, or kill her for an Energy Ring. Similar situation to Shura, except Shura is now a recruitable unit in Ninja Hell, who has come to avenge his clan (you get the boots if he kills the boss).
Past that, Corrin plies their pacifism to middling success, does NOT see Garon in the magic bullshit orb, and makes the choice on their own that Garon needs to die and cannot be spared. It neatly ties their naive pacifism with realistic exceptions as time goes on; Zora, Kitsune and Ninja Hell, they slowly realize they can’t always spare their enemies, and maybe shouldn’t.
Unpopular opinion: You should bench all the royals in your Revelations letsplay and make it Silas/Corrin solo.
I totally buy that Silas and Azura were meant to be another set of same sex romance options. Silas is always worshipping the ground you walk on Faye style.
Is that not the speedrun strategy?
@@goldencyclone4984 Yeah them being one of the few units available in all routes and being really attached to Corrin makes me think so too. Nintendo were most likely not ready to make more major characters bi and that is why they scrapped the idea.
Unpopular Opinion: Lunatic Conquest is best played with the Prisoner Bosses and Some Generics throughout the routes with uncommon skills.
@@dingousoop64 Like I feel they did the same with Claude and Dimitri in possibly scrapping :'(. Seriously they should have just changed dialogue even in subtle ways if they didn't want to bait a lot of us... It hurts seeing things play out exactly the same as Female Byleth and Male Byleth for Claude and Dimitri's stories especially when you got scenes involving warm hands in the rain, ballroom dancing, and introducing your "professor" to your "Probably not/Maybe" Dad retainer "Nardel", etc.
Alright, if we're talking about our 'unpopular opinions' then-
One note characters are not a problem and are honestly a good way to create a wide and varied cast. If the character only has a few lines of dialogue + supports, then building them around a single idea is a good way to convey who they are. This can be hit or miss and is guaranteed to create characters that you really hate, but it's not a bad way of creating characters.
Plus steps has been made to add more depth to these characters, despite all its flaws, the supporting cast of Three Houses have a lot more depth to them then most previous characters. Things like Sylvain, Felix, Petra, are all characters that appear to be based around one trope or design, but have more going on in the background.
Even before supports, I was able to analyze Felix's logic and it made sense why he got moody, because certain things literally disgust him and piss him off that much.
It's not like Severa from Awakening, a stereotypical Tsundere who is just a bitch for the lols and has no story reason to be that way, although the "If you died, I'd be...annoyed" line definitely seems a little pandering.
Side characters in media have a hard balance to maintain, they need enough focus so they don’t feel like a cardboard cutout, but too much focus and you start taking away focus from other areas that need it
I'm not going to pretend Awakening is the pinnacle of character writing, but so long as we're talking about unpopular opinions...
A) I think the discussion of Japanese (or, let's be honest, ANIME tropes) is exceptionally reductionist and unfair to the cast of Awakening as it downplays many of the interactions the cast has with one another that isn't tied to "gimmicks" while also being an argument that can be applied to the majority of the series when the writing is just bland at best or garbage at worst. (And believe me, I would push back against that argument anywhere in Fire Emblem. I think that kind of thinking just plain sucks.)
It's just a horrible way of looking at characterization when you apply meta-commentary only the player can understand and only if they've made themselves savvy to those tropes. Obviously something can be a cliche and annoying because of it, but the way the Fire Emblem fanbase uses cliches and tropes to simply reduce characters to their personality tropes as a way to dismiss them is just so backwards when the same people spend hours convincing others of the hidden meanings and character traits a character like Sigurd can have because of "read between the lines" type arguments. (That isn't to say I hate Sigurd, no, he's great. It's just an example.)
The support system being a convolted mess and constantly resetting topics is just an inherit fault of the system itself as I think it's pretty obvious the developers intended you to unlock most of the supports at the same time as others as you progressed through the game.
B) Likewise, I fee like Robin as a character is woefully underestimated. While he still has some of the trappings an Avatar tends to have, Robin is a much more independent and well-rounded character than most give them credit for and they do have defined characteristics that are unique to them that the supports and the story show that they do have. It isn't perfect, every character still pines for him if he dies in the ending, but the reckless sucking off of Robin happens far less than most people would have you imply, especially in supports.
Heartnet OMG you put my thoughts into words better than I could.
I don’t hate “tropes” with characters per se, but I just kinda hate when I look at two supports from...(looking for random character)... Bernie! It just feels like I could watch two of her supports and get the same thing out of them. It’s not a problem with the character for me, but just with the supports themselves
"All fire emblem characters have 1 trait that prones them to violence"
If the characters have so many supports they start repeting the flaws they overcame in other ones, then the support system needs reworking, even FE6 the first game that didi this was smart enough to have different topics. Also while it is true that most of Awakenings cast os deeper than they seem, because the game has sooooo many supports people mostly notice the repeating character traits and just end up considering the cast more shallow than it is. But that too is a flaw of the game for not giving the characters more distinct supports.
Also comparing Robin to other bad characters and saying they aren't bad in comparison is silly and doesn't stop Robin from still being an overall bad character
I can't understand your reasoning behind this, how is comparing a character to tropes a bad way to look at characterization? What's wrong with meta commentary only the player can understand? Who other then the player needs to understand meta commentary? People hate tsundere characters for being an overused/obnoxious trope, not because the other fictional characters don't understand what a tsundere is. Apologies if I'm misunderstanding what you're trying to imply with the "only the player can understand" part.
45:25 Counter argument, all characters are made of/fit into tropes and that's not a bad thing. Tropes are tools. Awakening's cast often does fit into anime tropes, and so do many characters from earlier games. The only difference is that more of them feel like they didn't get their tropes from anime (which apparently makes them infinitely better). If you wanted to, you could summarize most Camus's with the trope "Honor Before Reason" or "Love Before Reason" in a few cases.
Yeah I find it kinda funny that people complain about awakening cast for being too anime despite how fire emblem series itself is very anime itself.
I think another thing people overlook is what type of anime are popular at the time. Path of radiance came out in 2005 while awakening came out in 2012 during which popular anime changed dramatically. For example the tsundere boom occurred in this time frame.
Awakening came out around the same time Sword Art Online got its adaptation I think.
Having both good and bad units is a great design both in gameplay and narrative perspective. For example, in Thracia, Leif is recruiting a literal fisherman, so it makes sense that he'd be crap as a unit (I still love you, Ronan). Story to gameplay integration is something that was pretty much dropped in later games for the sake of accessibility and "gameplay balance". If a unit is shit in gameplay, but has narrative reasons to be shit, then that's a well designed unit. Also, if a unit is great in gameplay, and has narrative reasons to be great, then that's also a well designed unit. It makes sense that Roy sucks in combat most of the time, and becomes a liability later down the line, because he's just a kid.
FE4 is a great example of OP units that make sense. It's basically tied to the story that people with holy blood are extremely powerful individuals, so it makes sense that they are very powerful in game, especially people with major holy blood.
People whining about "X unit is bad and should be buffed" most of the time ignore the actual story - just like IS has been ignoring it in the later games, all for the sake of "A player might really like this character, so we better not upset them by making them a bad unit". Character individuality is important, and being a bad unit is a part of their character. Otherwise, they'd just be a set of numbers with a name tag on them.
That's really great take on the issue, I must say. Even as an FE veteran, I never considered that. Kind of embarrassing, honestly.
My biggest confusion in 3 houses is why is flayn a medocre unit on your team but as an enemy she is an orbital nuke launcher
@@fatcthulhu4904 Pretty much. My theory would be that she's still hiding her true identity while in your party, which is why she doesn't have her "real stats", but is an orbital nuke when you're her enemy. Still, at least in Church Route she should have been herself. But then again, I'm probably giving IS too much credit, they probably just wanted to make a strong boss, and didn't care.
Also I think using and training bad units can be fun in a way.
I like the idea, but even in the games where IS tries it, they tend to be inconsistent about it.
Path of Radiance also time gates supports, allowing for them to better integrate plot elements (in the same way base conversations do).
Like, Lethe and Jill's A support can't happen until after Shiharam's chapter, which in turn allows it to actually talk about that.
3H does that to a lesser extent and I really think the series should lean into that more... though it also risks having Supports get missed like what 3H did.
3H does that too, and on a much wider scale
Unpopular opinion: Mekkah's voice is way easier to listen to than Chaz's.
Popular opinion: Lysithea is one of the best characters in Three Houses.
Yeah, I had to do it. ;)
Mekkkah doesn't sound like he's trying to terrify me and seduce me at the same time, definitely easier to listen to than Chaz.
@@ahumblemerchant241 I agree with all these points, but even as a straight dude it never really put me off. Wish I could explain better but I really can't.
@@asianbronyman (I'm mostly meme'ing, I actually find Chaz pretty entertaining, though I prefer Mekkkah's calmer voice.)
Mekkah doesn't make you cringe like Chaz. That's why.
Here's my "unpopular opinion", Reddit is an abysmal website that encourages toxic behavior to everyone involved
Literally no one except a very small amount of people obsessed with reddit will disagree
Unpopular Opinion:
There's a character named 'Kellam' in Awakening.
Seriously, it's not a troll.
Is that an alternate name for Grima?
He’s a green unit!
A character named ________? Why didn't you fill in the name man?
he's likely the only person who survived the bad timeline of awakening since nobody notices him (if he's unpaired)
How is that an opinion
Unpopular opnion: Fates' story is actually pretty good...if you do one simple trick ;)
Corrin learns perfect shielding in the afterlife and proceeds to dunk on a Hoshidan pineapple
Start Button OP
Replace what's in the the cartridge with literally any other FE game?
The trick is to slap the start button as soon as any cutscene begins like it's a mosquito on your wrist
Unpopular opinion: Fates story is actually good
This is probably a popular opinion but the female Robin and Chrom support is one of the worst supports ever. I know that Awakening was very anime but the Guy accidentaly sees the female character naked, therefore she must hurt the male character trope is annoying and is the most overdone thing in anime. The part that bothers me is that people ship them together because of that cringey as hell support. The male support is objectively better.
You can rest easy. It's popular. There is a reason why the M!Robin and Chrom is more shipped in the fandom (at least afaik)
Love your use of Echoes soundtrack as your background music in these discussion videos, it's great.
hot takes : sigurd
Unpopular opinion:
Use the units you like and play the way that's fun for you.
Obviously, there's no issue in that. It's when people start going into unit discussions it becomes an issue.
I think the issue is that most of the time when people say it's unpopular it's actually controversial, people get the two mixed up pretty often. Just because your opinion has a lot of people that disagree with you, doesn't mean that there aren't a lot of people that also agree with you.
I mean, people are free to interpret the word 'popular' differently than you. Yours isn't incorrect and neither is theirs.
Okay so, I have an opinion that'll probably ruffle all the feathers:
Byleth is actually worse from a writing standpoint than Corrin.
Corrin is stupid? Byleth's inability to remember they have the power to REVERSE TIME drives the plot regularly. Stop the Flame Emperor from escaping Remire, stop Edelgard from escaping the Holy Tomb, save yourself before the dark dimension snares you, save yourself from falling down a cliff, save Rodrigue, stop Thales from launching the nukes.
Corrin is a mary sue? Literally everybody who's not a villain loves Byleth. The three lords continue to deeply respect Byleth even if they aren't their professor. Edelgard even in Azure Moon says to herself that she feels weak facing down Byleth in the final battle. Byleth has a mercenary background yet becomes an esteemed professor at a military officer's academy. Byleth becomes a literal god, and the sole ruler of Fodlan in 2 endings and the new head of the church in the 3rd. Byleth is not only peerless in personal combat, but they're also an amazing military strategist. Nobody ever talks down to Byleth or calls their decisions into question.
As a unit, Byleth has zero customization options beyond their gender and birthday. You can't change their appearance, you can't modify their base stats, their growths, their skill proficiencies, their spell list.
Byleth feels like IntSys got upset at how negatively Corrin was received so they over-corrected to the point that they made a character who takes zero risks, and yet is still bad.
I dont think it's fair to punish byleth for the existence of divine pulse. They put it in the game and tried to fit it into the lore. If they just always divine pulsed everything it would literally be impossible to tell a compelling tragic story. Besides I dont see people ragging on alm for not using the turnwheel to prevent his own murder of his father
@@busbee247 It can't be helped, IntSys wrote themselves into a corner when they made Divine Pulse an element within the lord of Three Houses.
@@MetalGearRaxis even still I see this arguement about hurrdurr why doesnt byleth just divine pulse everything, while alm and celica get a free pass on ignoring the turnwheel. People just need to accept that rewind mechanics now exist for the sake of gameplay and just ignore any story implications
busbee247 here’s the thing. Milas Turnwheel was never contextualized in universe as a time rewinder device at all. It shows Alm visions of a terrible future and is used as a key to unlock the final room in the last dungeon. The time rewinding does not happen in universe and is purely for player connivence. This isn’t the case in 3H where it is established as a time rewinder. Perhaps it would be more forgiven if it was shown only story wise for the tutorial as a must but its also shown when Byleth tries to save their father. Therefore it begs the question why didn’t Byleth use it in other times when they should. The moral is don’t establish time powers as an in universe thing if you aren’t willing to write them in and instead just ignore them because you need x thing to happen
@@DigitalStarry All of this.
Not sure if this is unpopular or not: but I think that re-classing should be removed from every Fire Emblem game going forwards and they should bring back split promotion trees from Sacred Stones. I feel the re-classing takes away a lot of what makes character, characters.
Why? Is it really a big difference if Sylvain is an archer instead of a cavalier?
@@vanjagalovic3621 yes, it is. And it makes it impossible for other characters in supports to actual talk about anything besides random shit or their tropey one note personality. With a character having a specific skillset you can play off that. It also makes them easier to write without shit seeming weird. For example. Effie in fates is all about being tough and tanky and physically strong in her supports. Then you make her a preistess. Makes no fucking sense for her character, and by extansion weakens her character. It also makes EVERYONE less unique. Because instead of taking that one unit because hes THE armor knight on your team and getting to know him. You just pidgeon hole a character that you like but doesnt really fit the role into the armor knight class. A backstory, skillset, experience, are incredibly important to making a good character, with massive variability like in the new games you have none of that, or if you do you risk MASSIVE inconsitincies between the charcter they are supposed to be, and the character the player has turned them into.
@@johnathanera5863 I meant more 3H characters since their cannon classes rarely come up in conversations (besides a few exceptions like Felix), of course I agree that it does stop some characters from talking about certain things, but reclassing is more gameplay oriented than story oriented, like how the conflict in FE7 is supposed to be small scale, but some of the battlws rival the biggest ones in FE6. It ultimately depends how much it will bother you individualy, but I agree that it can limit the amount of things certain supports can talk about
Unpopular opinion: This argument is bullshit.
Unpopular opinion: Danved fights like 9 men
Ur an fucking idot
yes
Here is how it goes :
2 Danved = 1 Ronan
2 Haar = 1 Danved
10 Kyza = 1 Danved
9 normal men = 1 Danved
it fits
This is blasphemy. I can't believe you would say that. I'm shaking and crying rn.
@@BluBoulzor 2 Ronan = 1 Wendy
Robin is the best avatar. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean much
Robin's only saving grace is that the game acknowledges that they are a neurotic, obsessive weirdo.
@Wil E? Nosferatu mages are the most busted things in that game tho..
Wil E Isn’t magic busted in Awakening? I think that’s Fates where magic is pretty bad.
@Wil E Next you'll say fliers in 3H suck
@@AkameGaKillfan777 then he’ll say mounted units are worthless in FE4
44:00 I actually disagree with this. Every installment in a series should feel complete to be a good product individually (even if progress is minimal), otherwise you end up potentially never finishing the story at all. They should feel good as both an individual product AND as a part of the series, because it's by no means guaranteed that you'll buy and play both of them.
Future installments should build on top of foundation that's solid, like a house, not on top of incomplete segments. Harry Potter stories have complete arcs with a beginning, middle, and end in every single book, even if there might be potential to expand on it in future books.
What happens if sales of your first game are terrible and your second game is canceled? Or if your company goes through financial trouble? Then you just end up with incomplete stories and cliffhangers / unfulfilling sequel bait.
Unpopular Opinion: Mangs is the pinnacle of optimal Fire Emblem gameplay
Only on lunatic mode offstream.
It's not an opinion if it's factual.
Doesn't even count shield gauges, smfh.
Indeed
Optimal fire emblem gameplay
Optimal for my enjoyment
43:46 I think you might've slightly misconstrued this comment. I don't they're saying "Everything part of a continuous series is bad". If so, that's ridiculous, as you point out. I think they mean that a story shouldn't use the presence of a sequel as a crutch, or an excuse to not be satisfying on its own, which I honestly agree with. A New Hope is a fully fleshed out story with several interesting characters that have arcs with satisfying resolutions within the movie (Thinking primarily of Luke and Han), and ends itself in a fittingly climactic place while also setting itself up perfectly for The Empire Strikes Back. Even if Empire was never actually made, it'd still be a great story. Saying "It's a sequel" is kind of a weak excuse to me. If nothing else, given that video games are £50 a pop, it better be satisfying or I'm sending that sucker back. That said, I actually do like FE9's story so I don't really agree with their comment lol
29:52 I think the support system in echoes is really good. Since some of them unlock only after certain acts the supports always feel relevant, plus there's base conversations that change after each act as well. Path of radiance is also kind of solves it by making supports build per map instead of per turn, so the writers know when's the earliest they can be unlocked and plan accordingly. Echoes characters don't get that many supports though, for exanple Genny only has Sonya, and I don't think everyone supporting everyone else is bad, they're all in the same army, they'll have something to say to each other.
To be honest the supports themselves in echoes aren't that great but I really like the system.
I think that "Unpopular Opinion" is a defensive strategy for people who don't want to clarify or argue their opinion, and it reinforces those positions.
If I say
Unpopular Opinion: Meg is the best unit in the series,
You can't really argue with me.
You can tell me I'm wrong, and give me a blow-by-blow as to why, but declaring my opinion unpopular means I'm kinda directing all sound arguments to the contrary as the popular opinion to begin with.
What's more, it makes me sound like I have some knowledge about Meg that you don't, and kinda pre-emptively poisons the well of arguing with me. By arguing that Meg isn't actually the best character in the series, you're one of those mainstream sheeple who can't go against the grain. It also seems to imply a certain degree of elitism for coming to this opinion, whether this opinion is well grounded or not.
In my mind, it's similar rhetorically to "Change my mind". It's declaring a stubborn position that you aren't going to change your mind on, but want attention for having it.
I do not like unpopular opinions.
I do like unusual or interesting conclusions reached with defined arguments that might go against the grain of common understanding, or rely on well defined parameters.
Saying
Unpopular Opinion, Meg is the best unit in the series does nothing to further the discussion surrounding Meg, or the series as a whole, and is just a statement that is saying "please notice me, but no bully".
Saying I think Meg is a character that really capitalizes on the strengths of Path of Radiance, in making even awful units have a niche because you never know who is going to be available, and encouraging the use of every character is an argument that can be unpacked, used to further awareness of both the character and the series whether you agree with that or not. It's an invitation to a discussion that hopefully helps everyone involved.
Credit where it's due, at least Unpopular Opinion acknowledges the belief as an opinion, not objective fact, and that's a milestone.
Ok but Meg is the best unit in the series
@@zant2146 Truly a wise position.
Meg, Amelie, and Wendy make up what I call the triforce of Fire Emblem.
If you have the power, wisdom, and courage to use these units, to rely on them, you can have any wish granted.
HoT tAkEs: Leo is the best Nohrian Royal character wise.
Azura is a well done character and isn't talked about anymore.
People use their hearts too much when arguing about Edelgard and why she does what she does. Literally none of us have been in the same situation she's been in.
Radiant Dawn and Path of Radiance are both overrated games with overused character tropes.
I think many people agree that Leo is one of the best characters out of the Royals, if not of the entire game.
Agree on Azura! Her supports are really interesting to me, especially on the fact that you can get the fact she's very aloof and stoic and wants to be left alone, but at the same time she likes good company, which is definitely something I identify with lol. But the fact that in the main story she's just an exposition machine and people are rather sick of Lost in Thoughts All Alone doesn't help her case much.
@@Chosen_Din I actually talked to one person and they said he's bland? I was so confused. But yeah, Azura was literally a plot device in every route.
@@veiledmystery7219 It's honestly understandable that people think she's bland, since like you said in the story she's just there to explain the plot, give you stuff (Corrin's dragonstone, the magical ball thingamajig, etc) and to sing that song a million times lol. They probably don't read into their supports like with other Awakening/Fates characters (not that I'd blame them sometimes, especially for Fates).
@@Chosen_Din Yeah
Unpopular Opinion : The FE sub-reddit is a worse Swamp than the FE wiki .
Love me some 40000000 F!Byleth x Edelgard fanart
Three Houses release caused so many more people to join it and it's flooded now with people who love 3H and only post fan art of it, and have probably only played 3H. I don't think it's a bad thing to like 3H, but I think it's bad to blindly praise the game when all you care about are the character interactions and support/teatime.
@@coppypock8399 I personally dislike the game but I can handle some content about it. On the subreddit however, if you try to make a post that isn't three houses fanart you get ignored or even downvoted
@@ninenineninenine407 On the bright side, this is probably the peak for FEs popularity. Probably wont get much worse
@@-lord1754 This comes at the cost of many of the better games getting completely ignored in favor of newer and worse games. I preferred the smaller community when I could post asking about your favorite fire emblem units without getting downvoted.
“No one plays fe4 on the snes” you forgot about me
I wish you and Mangs did more character guides. I really enjoyed the ones you both did. I just wanted to let you know that. Very informative and entertaining. I just like hearing you discuss things.
Unpopular opinion: Crimson Flower ruins (mainly via avatar adoration) Edelgards characterization of being strong-willed, independent, and determined and these traits are more profound and well used in literally every other route.
Edit: Just to clarify before people misinterpret this as "Edelgard Bad". I think Edelgard is a great character with realistic motives who has fantastic writing in routes that are not her own and her writing is arguably worse in her own route due to her over-reliance on the avatar.
I actually really like the Conquest map design and the math/calculation/complexity is part of what I enjoy about it. It feels like a much bigger puzzle to me and I enjoy planning it out a lot.
Honestly I like fates in concept. I like the idea of branching paths based on who you side with. I like the idea of you having to choose with family you stand with and I like the idea of there being a secret hidden 3rd path that lets you save both. I'm super disappointed they didn't do these ideas well.
Ok, so it's interesting because I heard Mangs speak of unit balancing recently, and he shares your general stance(also taking FE6 as an example). Here's my take; uneven unit balancing isn't bad design by default, I can completely agree, it just accomplishes different things. However, the moment you (both)push this into "that's actually the RIGHT way to balance FE", you lose me. No, proper balancing isn't perfect, as you say it can get repetitive, but similarly, it accomplishes other things, such as giving the player more options at diverse points in the game, potentially homogenizing the map design, making "serious" playthroughs not always rely on the same 5 units or so...
And about self-imposed challenge, I think when it comes to any FE, most would agree that good difficulty is the preferable option... what's so different about units? It's not like we'd be incapable of finding our own ways to challenge ourselves in a properly balanced game, either.
I believe that is the best stance. I hate having a bunch of dead weight units that the game actively punishes you for using. Why are the even there? I don't buy the whole replacement thing, either. Yes, some units should be inherently better, but others shouldn't just start off at level one in chapter 15 with a base total of 10 (looking at you, Sofiya).
Unpopular Opinion: Three Houses OST is decent. All final map themes are okay, I had higher expectations, which means I'm not on that God Shattering Star hype train, that is cruising around.
BONUS: I'd rather play the original Gaiden once more, than finishing my Revelations run, where I'm stuck at CH20.
BONUS BONUS: All paid FE DLC is way to overpriced & only 20% of it can be considered "qualitiy content".
Last one isnt unpopular at all
Yup. Awakening DLC was basically just there for grinding, and the only worthwhile bit of Fates DLC was Heirs of Fate. Ironically, Heirs of Fate was probably the best story in all of Fates.
I have not played Gaiden, but since I essentially stopped playing Revelations around that very same point until I basically forced myself to complete it just to be done with it when three houses released, I can totally understand that second point.
Last one is not unpopular
Last two ones aren't unpopular at all I feel
Opinion: Ike in Radiant Dawn is far inferior as a character than in PoR, and Micaiah is superior from a characterization standpoint
I can see where you're coming from. Though I still thoroughly enjoy Ike in RD, I will agree not much happened to him at that point. The best moments of his character growth all stem from PoR. RD just serves to show us his full maturity into heroism, I suppose.
@@alextankersley5838 I suppose that's a good way of looking at it. I wouldn't mind so much if EVERYONE didn't love him so much.
@@MetalGearRaxis Micaiah doesn't, at least.
@@Feraligono That "father of Sothe's children" moment was when I knew I loved Micaiah, lol.
I love both of them but I do agree. Por ike is really good and while Rd ike isn't bad I believe that he does fall off and allow micaiah to take the spot (I say that with a micaiah pic lol)
I love your "Fireside Chats with Mekkah" type videos. (Especially the ones with the classy background music.) Please keep your unscripted topic videos coming.
Weird to say this, but respect for not going after serenesforest users due to mostly finding 13 year olds. Funnily enough, as obvious as it may be, that's standards that are rare to find in the internet.
Unpopular opinion: Conquest's final map is maybe the best Fire Emblem map. It perfectly plays out as the desperate climactic battle on your first blind attempt. The final boss is threatening from the beginning, forcing you to hide from his attacks or get punished hard. As you make your way down clearing out enemies, you will soon find yourself getting overwhelmed by the reinforcements. You realize your only chance to win is a mad dash towards the boss with your strongest units, sacrificing and leaving behind who you must. Meanwhile, blasting in the background is one of the best final boss themes ever.
It's awful without some sort of cheese on Lunatic though
It's definitely the best final map of any FE. It's hard to make good boss fights in a strategy game.
Aaaaaaah huge disavow
Unpopular Opinion: the way classes are handled in Three Houses is less fun than in classic, "this is your class, this what you promote to" fire emblem. For some styles of play, it can definitely be more interesting. If you're like Mekkah, you can make every unit a Wyvern Lord and LTC maps with an unstoppable dragon flock to your heart's content. If you're in it for the memes, train Lysithea into an unstoppable armor knight.
But for me, a typical Fire Emblem character's look, personality, and presence are intrinsically tied to their class. I like seeing what a new character is naturally capable of, not shoving them into a mold to create another cookie-cutter flyer. It's a lot less exciting for me to see a new sprite or portrait pop up on screen when I already know, "Screw mages, I'm going to turn you into my fifth Paladin." Admittedly, I feel like some of this opinion may just stem from how characters are introduced in Three Houses, with one huge dump at the beginning and then a few staff members making themselves available in later chapters, but I just don't find as much joy recruiting a new student and choosing a training path for them as I did finding Stefan hiding in a hole in the sand, even if he was a sword-locked weirdo that I would just end up benching.
TLDR; I miss the old days when a swordmaster was a swordmaster, and a paladin was a paladin. Also fuck avatar characters like 94% of the time.
What's the other 6%?
@@V.G.Boy.. Byleth's mid-game cutscene from 3H. That was anime as hell and I'm here for it.
I mean, you can make units all of their canonical classes and bypass the class system considering it is easy to just go through most classes outside of Master Classes. It is just in your benefit as a player to allow you to chose where your units are going to end up or skills like "Death Blow". I think it is always more fun to be allowed that creative freedom in "character builds".
@@GreyWandererXD Agreed, and that's typically what I've ended up doing on my 3H playthroughs, training each character in what they're good at and going from there in terms of classes. I think the one issue I still have with it is that some "builds" are clearly more favored than others by the game. I think the mastery classes are too limited and don't fit every character.
Like, what can you do with Linhardt past his advanced class other than train him in riding and lances, since gremory is female-only? Characters like Felix and Caspar have very clear, "canonical" pathways in the Mortal Savant and the Warmaster, but what do you do with your high-level assassin Ignatz when you've spent the whole game just ranking up his Sword and Bow skills? I know the increased freedom is a lot of fun for most people, and in some ways it is for me as well. But I hate that when I look at a 3H character, the first thing I think is "What two skills do I NEED to train to get them where I want them?" rather than "Oh, cool design. Nice, a paladin. Any skills?"
Maybe micromanaging just isn't my thing, or maybe like I said before it's just the way 3H presents its characters, rather than trickling them out like your typical FE game.
At least you can make them the classes they're supposed to be as a handicap if you want, for example, you have to make felix a swordmaster and make edelgard a fortress knight/ unique class. Petra has to be a swordmaster and healers have to be their advanced classes. No master classes and few wyverns.
What's really annoying is when reinforcements just pop up out of nowhere, the reinforcements on stairs I can plan around, even when they're same turn
We need a video of Mekkah and Mangs debating about FE5
Since this vid is about unpopular opinions, let me leave one right here: Birthright is good, really good. It doesn’t have incredibly challenging or even well designed maps, but what it excels in is fun. Being able to customise your characters to such an insane degree breathes so much life into that game, the class system is my favourite in the series, being able to do whatever you want with each character is such a refreshing feeling, even more so when the game first came out. The map design is clearly based around the fact that you’re supposed to break the game in two, throw in your mage Oboro and watch her demolish an entire map, send in your general Sakura and see how she demolishes the enemies. It’s built around how you can destroy it, and that, to me, is so much fun.
48:31 Unit balance does not literally mean "every unit must be as good as the next one" it can be that, it can also not be that.
When people complain about balance, i would assume they are complaining about such things as high movement units being superior to unmounted units in most games, by having equal or better stats than non mounted units and almost no drawbacks to compensate, armored units being garbage, since most games do not have an use for their archetype and even then there are aforementioned high movement units that have equal if not better bulk than armored units, since these units have speed and armored units do not, bows being either terrible or overpowered with no in between spot, etc...
Three houses is a good example of this. Physical units are better off becoming either fliers or archers, because that is the optimal thing to do. Wyvern riders are absurdly fast, matching swordmaster's speed, super canto, and they can use any weapon other than magic or brawling, inlcuding bows, which have a weapon art that allows you to attack from three tiles away and then go elsewhere with canto. It is also very easy to get, and even characters with a weakness in bows can get it quite easily.
Magic users on the other hand get shafted if they happen to be male for no good reason. They lack access to gremory, valkyrie and dark flier, making them immediately inferior based on their gender and no balancing or character related reasons.
But, let's assume that when people say they want good unit balance they say that they want their units to be equally viable, as opposed to having really bad units and really good units. (this is a false dichotomy, but let's run with this for the sake of the argument) Would this be objectively bad game design, or just a matter of preference? I can't say this would be objectively bad. It depends on the context. The game could be designed around this idea, and it could be well or badly done. It could add or detract from the game or even have no particular effect on it.
If you take the examples of fighting games some characters are higher tiered than other. But most well done one have at least most characters fun on a casual level.
Using wyvern is optimal, sure but aside from maps like eldegard/hilda paralogue, there is no maps where you feel like you are just downgrading characters for not having them into that (at least combat wise) so it doesn't really bothers me.
As long as you lay down concistent rules you will certainly find an optimal course of action in any game so i don't think thats where balance should be decided
I just want units that don't suck, and have at least one role they can excel in without me having to babysit them, like Donnel, Hayato, Lorenz, etc.
Unpopular opinion. Mekkah content good. Fite me.
how can you be so controversial yet so brave
Have you seen his hands. No way someone with hands like that can make good content...
You think you're going to kick my ass?
Unpopular opinion: Mekkah is just okay at Fire Emblem games outside of Jugdral and the GBA entries. For example, reducing the difficulty of Conquest due to enemy skills, and still didn't fully get the shield mechanic even at the end. He also appeals to pseudo-elitists and is occasionally is one himself. Otherwise, is a good FE e-celeb.
Like, i kinda get where your coming from, but isn't the fact that Mekkah is good at the games he is mean he is a good player? By excluding Jugdral and the GBA entries, doesn't that mean a third of the franchise is just being ignored? Let's take a comparison, say if there's a mathematician who's excellent at algebraic problems and calculating probabilities and all that, but he's only alright with other parts of maths, would you count him as an average or above average mathematician. Isn't the very fact that he's quite proficient with those five games indicative of his overall skill in the series? Either way I could just be misunderstanding some aspect of your point, but in my personal experience I've always found him to be quite good with the series on the whole.
@@stinkogresupreme8165 Well yeah, he's not bad or anything. He still hasn't really played 1 or 3 and hasn't played the 3DS games much so it's probably a matter of experience. It's just a little grating when he is treated like the expert of everything FE or when he makes an obvious observation and acts like it's pure brilliance. I still enjoy most of his content regardless.
@@TheRazormoon Ah ok I getcha, I guess I agree when you put it that way, some of the things he says sometimes are a bit blatantly obvious but are treated as hidden knowledge. You make a good point.
Not sure if this is popular or not but, I love Radiant Dawns plot. Worldbuilding is awesome and villans like Sephiran and even Jarod are awesome. Bloodpacts couldve been a bit better but for the most part, it was implemented well I think.
Bloodpacts make pretty much everything Ashnard did inconsequential. Imagine if another game just made the main villains actions through the game just a silly distraction at best, oh hey there FE7
@@vanjagalovic3621 Elaborate please
@@-lord1754 Ashnard used the Blood pact to become the King of Dain, so all he needed to do is disobey the senators so that the citizens would die and there would be enough chaos to wake up Juno and Ashera
@@vanjagalovic3621 Full out war in PoR wasnt enough i doubt,that wouldve awakened her
Three houses's biggest flaw is the lack of new characters throughout the story and the ability to use the ones you do get without benching units you've wasted tons of resources on
Non cf versions of chapter 13 punishes you for not using your house students. What if i only use 3 students from my house?
I, for one, _hate_ the writing around Greil's ultra-exclusive fighting style. I guess it's just a pet peeve of mine, but it really bothers me when works of fiction give their protagonists some special all-powerful martial art that's better than all the others because We Said So(tm), especially when they try to say it's somehow both wild and skillful at the same time. It's not cool, it just shows that you know nothing about how fighting works. I could probably go on an entire rant about this, but this is probably too long already.
At least it makes him fun to play in Smash, though
Huh, never really seen this opinion before but as a FE9/10 lover I have to say your not wrong. Thing is, do Ikes animations ever even look that wild or crazy?
Hell, his Lord and Hero/Vanguard animations look anything but wild, they look like controlled, powerful strokes only. And his Ranger animations are just a fighting style that I believe is better for people in training since he can easily guard that way.
@@EZog58 His posture as a ranger is fairly unique within the series, to my awareness, but otherwise, I can't really disagree.
I'm no expert in martial art(only did fencing) but I guess i could buy grail fighting style as being unique if it was some kind of refined mix like mma. But its not like any effort will be put into actually explaining/showing smething like that which is a bit irrelevant to a strategy game aside of rule of cool.
I love Thracia fatigue system. It stop you from rellying too much on snowballing, + the indoor system is amazing, it make infantry usefull, keep most of your cavaliers fresh from outdoor map and make them rest during indoors maps.
Jokes on you i use infantry outdoors all the time
Conquest was my first FE game and I really enjoyed it. Fates brought me into the series and made me a fan! I realize it has its flaws but I still love fates because it was good enough to draw me in.
My hot take is Byleth good
I agree the most with the guy who says fe4 is boring, it feels so much like a bunch of hallways with boring enemy placements. I guess the whole deciding who gets what item and planning the 2nd gen can be fun but that ends up not being my thing I guess, I always prefer strategy with just seeing what I can do with the map I'm given
I think fatigue works pretty well in fe5 because of the super small scale of the stats, it's designed around the fatigue mechanic so you don't need your mains to get through chapters
Fe4 was my favorite game ever as a kid
But now that I am all grown up Fe5 and Radiant Dawn are the best fire emblem games period, Fe4 is too empty for its own good.
You advance with your army of uber Chads including God Emperor Sigurd, kill 5 ennemies then start to advance again.
Occasionally you have a fuck ton of ennemies to fight, they all gang up on your weakest character and you have to reset.
Rinse and repeat.
Fe4 has the best story of them all but as we get older we look more for gameplay and fe5 has the best gameplay.
Radiant Dawn is just the best made fire emblem game period. Graphics are still the best of the entire series, plot is ok.
Characters are completely unbalanced and funny but no game is perfect. Like FailBrigade vs Chad mercenaries.
Funny shit like Shinon being best tank despite being an archer, the game being about Micaiah but once Ike appears it's all about Ike etc.
@@MrRaven-dh9oj Genealogy's story in my opinion is not good enough to justify having to sit through the slog that is it's gameplay. It's not that I need games to be instantly satisfying, it's that Genealogy is not satisfying, or even fun to play at all.
@@MrRaven-dh9oj Multiple events in a map don't prevent Genealogy's greatest problem. For a great deal of time you're basically just moving units from one place to another; which leads to another problem. The complete and utter trivialization of infantry units. There is literally no reason to use units without horses if you don't plan on turtling.
I never talked about the inheritance mechanics because the game never convinced me to play that far, but I really don't see how the pawn show allows you to make wacky units builds. The pawn shop is literally trading made harder for no reason. The items are what allows you to create cool moments in the game, the pawn shop literally does nothing to aid that.
Not going to disagree from a gameplay perspective, because you make a good point. What I love about FE4 is that its large maps makes it feel like an actual war is playing out. Most FE games just feel like a sequence of battles, and not like a proper war. I also love how all the maps connect together, it makes the world feel more tangible as opposed to chapter maps simply being interspersed locations in a region.
Unpopular Opinion: Warpskipping a map doesn't magically make a Fire Emblem's map design good because you can skip a map that you dislike.
Unpopular Opinion: Fire Emblem would be better off without the warp staff.
This video reminded me I need to listen to echoes ost again. It's just that good, my popular opinion.
Unpopular Opinion: I'd like an avatar that isn't entirely integral to the plot
@@nirogo4508 mark is just pointless though. I mean I suppose mark is an avatar but they aren't a unit, cant get supports, dont even have a portrait and only has a super minor effect on the game
That's exactly what Kris is, an avatar with no larger story importance and is just there to support the main character.
@@JoelBurger True but I was thinking more along the lines of like a villager Avatar. One that has potential to rise up in rank but doesn't immediately gameover should they die.
What about a customizable avatar that doesn't exist in the story, just a unit you can be a bit more sandboxy with?
Personally i feel like Robin is infinitely better than Corrin. Robin just seems to feel like a better Avatar character to me since while the plot DOES revolve around him, he doesn't feel as shoehorned into the plot as Corrin, Or rather Corrin feels like he was over involved in the plot and just gifted a leadership position. Whereas Robin has a past and current reputation as a tactician.
Unpopular opinion: Seth is a useful unit in the fire emblem
Literally no one will argue with you on that
Warning: big post defending awekening's map desing.
Awekening looney mode reminds me of shadow dragon's H5. A mode that expects you to know your shit and not being afraid to throw you in the deep end. One way this manifest is in that about (only) third or so of the maps have meaningful terrain. This is fine on normal which is super noob friendly as Mekkah said. As for on the Lunatic mode it is the game telling you, yes you learned some nice forest/fort strats in GBA, they are neat and you get to use them some, but not all the time. Those tiles still exist, they are just not like almost 45% of turn to turn strategy like on gba.
Instead on like on solid fourth of the maps the gimmick is untraversable tiles. Those are a massive tool on looney mode. This starts from the very first map, where enemies being blocked from ganging you up with the market stands is how you survive. Or the Mustafa map with the dragonbones. The big one for me was the first map of valm arc (ferox harbor where cherche joins). That map is full of these little squads of 1 super scary promote and couple of unpromotes attacking you with massive movement ranges. Not too differently from FE12's final prologue, you funnel those fuckers in at a manageable bits, only taking as much as you can chew on one turn as your units scrape together KO's as your portable light runes (bulky units) block passage from rest of their overwhelming force.
The game gives you so many tools in forges, pair ups, dual strikes, reclasses and such to even the odds with the insane stat blobs of looney mode, while in something like fe7 your tools are way more limited (marcus and terrain tiles). The maps are more pale so you use those tools on lunatic rather than just strategically positioning your hard hitters.
Mangs has made the Mila tree map infamous for its horrible desing, which is a shame when it has some incredibly solid desing. Lets look at why I would make such a relatively bold claim. It is one of those maps with no terrain (only strategy mangs knows) but a lot of untraversable tiles. A good 60% of this map does not matter for a clear and is sectioned away by these tiles untraversable by all but fliers. You can choose to ignore them for the most part, but they include some thieves with fantastic loot if you can spare some mobile units that can get out of there without being destroyed, or just some portable light runes you manage to rescue-drop, snipe the goods and live the enemy phase. Or just ignore the thieves or do them on the last turn with mobile units.
Now the main draw of this map is the middle section. Mere 20 to 23 tiles (3 turns of cavalry going full move) from your starting location is the boss Cervantes. He is a relatively one-roundable General at 75 hp and 15 res and 20 spd and 35 def if you can get some mages up to him (the avatar for one is a tactical nuke to such magical bulk) and cherche just gave you a hammer 4 maps ago. Base level Anna with a levin sword does like 25 dmg to that slugger and if you have a base level Anna with no bonuses here representing any kind of dmg benchmark for your team you're objectively bad at Awekening (hi mangs).
Now why does this matter? Because the number one bullshit in this "wide open" map are unfair ampush spawns. On looney, 6 (4 on hard) falcon knights spawn on turn 5 at the edges of the map surrounding you and move in manhandling any unit in their range even half squishy. These buggers are so dangerous they easily one round slower units even on regular hard mode. Truly an unfair challenge you cannot possibly prepare for, causing reset after reset... That the boss warns you about 2 turns prior... Boss you can reach in 3 turns ignoring dancers, rescue staves (that you can buy) and movement boosters beyond cavalier's base movement... That is relatively suspectiple for a boss snipe... In a bosskill chapter...
This map is the single best warp-skip chapter in theseries, and there is no warp staff! It specifically gives you tempting side objectives and absolutely murders anyone trying to turtle it. Of COURSE there is no terrain to meet the ambush spawns, you're supposed to never see them on a succesful run. Such terrain would only serve to incentivice doing it the stupid way. It's a puzzle of getting your magical might there and ending the poor bastard before the ampush spawns, while trying to do those lucrative side objectives at the same time.
Just now writing this I schemed a rough idea of a 1 turning it with the relatively reasonable set-up of promoted magic user Avatar and level 5 promoted griphon rider (Sully/Lonqu/Panne) managing to one round the boss in quad hitting brave tome and hammer dual strikes at 30ish proc rate and existing crit in what might be a 2 turner in practice but still.
One more example is the first Walhart map. It gets huge flak for being an open map full of promoted cavalry and no terrain to use (has like 20% of all the forts in the game). It's a 2 turned boss snipe with a competent team.
Awekening has much more dept than hurr durr no forest tiles gives it credit.
The first few pirates in SD chapter 1 having crit on Jagen is good game design.
Now just because Lunatic expects you to know the game already doesn't excuse the fact the only reasonable way to complete it is by using Frederick at the start and feeding every kill to Chrom & Robin. It's probably why for so many people Awakening maps are quite forgettable, it's just watching Robin crit and kill everything over and over. Though the maps aren't completely awful they aren't that great overall
@@vanjagalovic3621 Well yes, the lil crit on jagen is quite useful as it makes him a preferred target over draug, making it a huge tool for enemy manipulation.
Just because investing to robin is a huge tool, doesnt make it the only way. You can second seal miriel to nosferatu tank, you can turn lon'qu or panne into super strong wyverns. Robin abose is no more the only way than Marcus spam in hector hard. By far the most practical but not strightly a necessity. Stop being so rigid, it only shows lack of game knowledge with wokening looney mode
Unpopular/controversial opinion: just because you have the power to ship in the game that doesn't mean that there arent canon ships =]
Damn skippy. Chrom/Sumia and Robin/Lucina.
What's the "What lies at the End" remix used in this video?
Unpopular opinion
Fire Emblem is a tactical turn based strategy game
I know I've said this before...
But I don't want to watch your Plinkett Emblem series because because of the awful voice changer. If you uploaded a version without it I'd consider it, but with it is just so damn annoying.
Unpopular Opinion: I want a fire emblem starring the most scarred and rugged mercs cuz Ill find it amusing a bunch of Bearded murderhobos from 10th century europe fighting anime girls on flying horses and dragon girls.
13:38 Path of Radiance had a fixed level ups mode right? I always thought that was an idea that should be revisited. The way fire emblem games have historically been designed there's just so many variables that can't possibly be accounted for.
I've heard in Fates, all level-ups on Lunatic are fixed. At that point, just do it for every difficulty though.
Another one:
Fates is better than Awakening.
I agree tbh
I cannot agree with this...
If It's Conquest then I agree.
Migu Well yeah that’s fair enough. So 1/3 of Fates is better than Awakening
Nah I have to disagree, Fates' plot is awful, and while I like the pair up system more there then on Awakening, fates' cast is really forgettable while Awakening has one of the best cast in the entire series imo
Also, another thing that I hate of fates is how the developers have been lady with the animation. There are classes that uses tomes like spears, it's terrible to see (for exemple: Basara, Corrin's Nohr class evolution)
Unpopular opinion:Bring back the weapon triangle
Play maddening if you want the weapon triangle.
Unpopular opinion: the weapon triangle isn't neccessary, but 3 houses should have kept it because of the unrestricted weapons
I don't mind that it's gone, but I think I was one of the few people upset right when I first heard of its removal
It gave Fire Emblem it’s identity imo and it just makes sense to me although I’m not sure if it actually does ik there’s a video about it but that’s besides the point lol
@@starburst9132 The weapon triangle didn't exist until FE4
"I think almost no one plays FE4 on cartridge."
Callin' me out Mekkah, huh? I'm playing right now! haha
"I don't know, I will have to list them sometime"
We are still waiting, Mekkah. 50K special maybe?
With swordmasters it's quite telling that they became more strength+speed focused in recent games, and even assassins trend more towards ''really average'' strength, and half of the time there's something else/reclassing going on.
for a increasing amount of classes IS seems to want to patch up classic weak spots.
Ah yes, the fabled "improved support system" of Three Houses. Especially shines on the Golden Deer route - or, as I call it, "marriage proposals collect-a-thon".
Revered is pronounced 'reveered'. The second 'e' is a long sound.
Good video!
I hate how ambush reinforcements give you no preparation as long as I have at least one turn of prep I'm fine
Tbh I like characters for their design. Some times I'm okay with characters that aren't the best and classes too. Fe8 being my favorite game, Marisa and Amelia are good characters personality and design wise. I also like the utility of the mounted knight class on Franz over paladin. Call it a pitfall or what not, I like what I like. I don't really "need" optimization on a single player game. I'm okay with the difficulty being a bit more due to not using optimal strategies or characters.