Fire Emblem: If

[Agent Proto]

What's stopping you from posting a full dump of info from you? Go right ahead when you find time!

I'm rather surprised to see Fire Emblem adopting the Amie aspect from Pokemon X and Y. I do like the idea, and I will get to see the characters up close.

[Skyblade]

What's stopping you from posting a full dump of info from you? Go right ahead when you find time!

I'm rather surprised to see Fire Emblem adopting the Amie aspect from Pokemon X and Y. I do like the idea, and I will get to see the characters up close.

Well, nothing is stopping me now, and I thank you for preventing me from having to double post.

So, we have received a LOT of new information about this game. Some of it huge, other bits minor. But all interesting, and I'll try to get through as much as I can before I start forgetting stuff.

Let's open with the new trailer from the Direct.


One of the biggest new features highlighted in this Direct is the "My Castle" feature, shown a bit more explicitly in the trailer specifically for it that Proto linked earlier.

My Castle serves as the Base hub for your army. From here you can visit shops, a battle arena, and various other features, such as a quarry to gain resources (though what they are used for is unknown). However, unlike the standard Base Menu from previous games, this one is explored in a top down view that lets you enter buildings and walk around more like a traditional RPG. It's not QUITE as awesome as the town exploration from Shining Force, but it's a definite improvement over the purely menu based systems we received before.

What's more, My Castle, being the Player's Castle, is customizable. You choose what facilities to place, where to place them, and which ones to upgrade. The buildings and their upgrades cost a special resource, the source of which is not specifically known. Upgrading shops gives you access to better items, and at cheaper prices. These facilities will be run by various members of your team.

Fire Emblem Animal Crossing.png
It seems that Pokémon-Amie is not the only outside influence that Intelligent Systems is drawing on for this game. Though comparisons have also been made to the management systems of Suikoden II.

Among the facilities confirmed for My Castle are a bathhouse, various shops, various resource gathering locales, and the StreetPass plaza.

Those of you who remember the StreetPass functionality from Awakening will find it has changed up quite a lot. You still have similar options when responding to the other teams. However, visiting the team shops no longer opens up a simple menu, but instead lets you visit their castle, and view their own facilities. So you can see how your fellow players have laid out their castles, and if your friend improved their weapon shop a lot, while you focused on the Bathhouse, you can visit their shop to buy good weapons.

The battle option has also significantly changed. Challenging a StreetPass team now makes your Castle the battlefield. And in addition to simply taking out the enemy, you will need to defend your buildings, as enemy units will attack them directly, and can destroy them, though it is not known whether this damage is permanent.

However, it is worth noting that it is very, VERY rare for player characters to attack buildings in the Fire Emblem series. Previously, enemy units could do it to shut down a village before you claimed the reward from visiting it, and that was the extent of it. Could this new gameplay mechanic translate to the campaign? Could we see full on SIEGE BATTLES, both offensive and defensive, among the new map types?!


The effect of the bathhouse is unknown, but is likely tied to Support levels, as is the new "Pokémon-Amie" like function. This is, after all, the series that gave us this:
3dee71f7d6770e1fec5ce0cce4ca26da.jpg

One additional feature of note is that there is a place in the Castle where you can get cute like Pokémon-like allies to aid you in battle. You level them up by feeding them weapons and items. Comparisons have been drawn to monster allies from Lufia II, though exact details remain unknown.

tumblr_np7pmkteSm1sd2idso2_1280.png

There are also a lot of miscellaneous weapon details known. First, weapons like Javelins and Hand-Axes, that can hit in both Direct and Indirect combat, can no longer double attack. So the almighty Tomahawks and Spears are not the only weapon to use. Another more unique trait is a weapon that doubles in power when you're being attacked, but also lowers your Avoid by 20 so that you are far more likely to be hit by an attacking enemy before you hit them. A full page built from the Direct info can be found here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...UGE/edit#gid=0

The amiibo functionality is also a part of the castle. But, unlike Code Name S.T.E.A.M., you can't just summon your amiibo allies, you must first best them in battle for them to join you. And, as the trailer showed one absolutely wrecking Kamui, they may not be too easy to acquire.


There's also lots of new character data, but it's hectic to go through. So I'll just leave this up here for now.

[Pumpkin]

Ohh the Castle thing looks excellent, kind of Dark Cloudish, and I'm super pumped for that

The umm amie thing is a bit... a bit odd

[Agent Proto]

It's not an exact copy of Pokemon-Amie, yet at least from what we know. Imagine if you could feed your characters treats.

[Skyblade]

It's not an exact copy of Pokemon-Amie, yet at least from what we know. Imagine if you could feed your characters treats.

Fire Emblem Amie.jpg

We haven't seen all the features of it yet. I'm guessing we also won't see characters bouncing yarn balls off their heads. But the comparisons are still there to be made.

[Fynn]

Why am I so disturbed by the feeding pictures...?

[Skyblade]

Why am I so disturbed by the feeding pictures...?

I'm pretty sure you answered that question here:

Your units aren't your pets, for God's sake!

[Fynn]

Am I the only one not excited for this feature?

[Pumpkin]

I'm not really

[Fynn]

Now that I think about it, it might be cute if it's reserved for romances...


...

But then again, it reminds me of this:



And like the entirety of tumblr is screaming with joy about this and I'm like

[Skyblade]

Am I the only one not excited for this feature?

So don't use it. Heck, we don't even know what it really entails, we're just making wild assumptions at this point. Because it's fun, and it leads to all the awkward reactions. I'm guessing it is only for characters you romance, but who knows?

But there's still plenty more to get excited about! I mean, the Castle building looks fantastic. I love that sort of planning and management simulator, but they are rarely enough to base a game off of. But using one to boost my abilities in Fire Emblem? That'll be grand. I'm super curious to learn what the quarry gets you, or what sort of customization you have in how you upgrade shops.

The new weapon system sounds fantastic. It'll get away from the hoarder's syndrome that has plagued the series. "Oh, I shouldn't use this Brave Sword now, because I'll need it for the boss later". Then by the end of the game you have a full arsenal of super weapons and you mow it down easily.

The infinite durability system seems to be adding a bunch of situational usage to the weapons. "Ok, I don't want this character getting hit this turn, so I'll have him equip this weapon that boosts dodge, even though its really weak", or "I need to mow down this enemy before it attacks, so I'll use my powerful Silver weapon, even though it means I'll be weaker next turn, it'll be worth it to get rid of this guy". There's a ton of tactical options it opens up.

I'm also really psyched for the possibility of siege battles. Getting to actually tear down buildings will be awesome, and I hope that becomes a mechanic in the main game, not just StreetPass battles.

[Fynn]

Hey, I'm not hating and I'm not saying I won't use it. It's just a pretty bizarre idea, 's all I'm say in'

But yeah, the game does look pretty interesting.

Wonder if they can fix some of my pet peeves. Think the portraits will match up with class changes? What are the chances of gay relationships? Is support making a comeback at all?

[Skyblade]

Hey, I'm not hating and I'm not saying I won't use it. It's just a pretty bizarre idea, 's all I'm say in'

But yeah, the game does look pretty interesting.

Wonder if they can fix some of my pet peeves. Think the portraits will match up with class changes? What are the chances of gay relationships? Is support making a comeback at all?

Support is definitely making a comeback, it's been part of the series since long before Fire Emblem even came to the West, with its first incarnation stretching back to the third game in the series. It'll be there, don't worry about that. You can even see the hearts indicating building Support in the battle scenes.


You reminded me of a couple of things I forgot to mention:

First, each character has more limited class options. In Awakening, each character could choose from three base classes. In If, they can only choose between two. This means that each character is a little more focused, and there are also less options for them overall, so the possibility of changing portraits would be easier to implement.

The trailer also shows that we have far more in depth character customization for Kamui than we had for Robin in Awakening, and one of the buildings in My Castle is a place where you can customize Kamui further at a cost of items (which seem to include some of the resources that you get at the quarry, among other items). The video also shows placing a Jester's hat on one of your other units, so this is likely available for everyone. But we don't know if it changes portraits yet.

[Del Murder]

Interesting that each scenario is it's own game, but doesn't that require the consumer to know about that choice before making the purchase? I don't know if that model would work as well in the US. Hopefully we get this game (because it sounds really cool) and it includes all the scenarios!

[Skyblade]

Interesting that each scenario is it's own game, but doesn't that require the consumer to know about that choice before making the purchase? I don't know if that model would work as well in the US. Hopefully we get this game (because it sounds really cool) and it includes all the scenarios!

Oddly enough, the same Direct which, in Japan, revealed that there were two versions, only referred to a single copy in the US. As such, there has been speculation that the US may not have the two version mechanic, though the third path is still assumed as DLC only.