The New Fire Emblem Hero Was Created By A VTuber Designer

That explains why the design is so bad at least

Fit for a Nintendo Switch I guess, although I like toothpaste more

It’s so freaking bad. Why can’t they go back to pre-awakening’s style? More grounded looking character design?

Question : What do you think of this new character?

Me : I didn't even react. I kept my poker face. 😐

I see why people don’t like the design, but I honestly love it. The fact it’s the same artist as Bae makes it even better

@Anti-Matter You were probably just waiting for Ubisoft to bring back the Imagine series.

@LUIGITORNADO Hey, I happen to like Awakening's artstyle

And it shows lol.

Nothing against them tho, because I like there stuff, just this, this isn’t it doc. They look like anime switches. But who knows, it might grow on me.

I love it. Brings a fresh new twist on Fire Emblem's aesthetic that I'm really liking.

He looks kinda goofy but I don't really mind that much. I'm just looking forward to seeing what this game has to offer. The art style generally looks great so far.

@iLikeUrAttitude that’s what I was thinking. Yes the characters have always been a bit strange looking but this is a step down even for this series.

@HotGoomba
Yup.

Definitely looks a bit goofy (my mind immediately went to "Joy Con" instead of toothpaste, but whatever). However the art style & other character design in general looks good. Love the brighter colors in comparison to Three Houses.

I have no problem with this, It doesn't surprise me though that Nintendo fans literally find the dumbest thing to be upset about... The game visually looks striking, but ofcourse they color combination is what they're ticked off about...

@SolarisPolaris awakening fates artstyle had no expression everyone looked kinda boring and the same face wise...

When it showed up in the trailer my first thought was "Oh.... Well maybe it's another mobile entry..."

@LUIGITORNADO
Because they are fully committed to being a waifu pandering game series above all else where the focus is baiting shippers to obsesses over these characters and their relationships.

I like the goofy design. It’s fun, and the red and blue is a neat Switch reference.

Off topic a bit (apologies) but I wonder if this game will be amiibo compatible. It’d make all the sense in the world to use amiibo given that the premise of this game is quite literally “physical object manifests Fire Emblem character for combat,” which is what the Fire Emblem amiibo do in SSB and Codename STEAM. I think it’d be a sorely missed opportunity if they don’t include that.

I was thinking "damn this reminds me of T1-PP" glad to know I was somewhat on the right mindset.
But I like it nonetheless, even was thinking about it being my first mainline FE game (first, first one was a warriors style of game because I didn't know ;-; )

It never ceases to amaze me how much a significant chunk of the Fire Emblem fanbase just seems to absolutely loathe every single thing having to do with Fire Emblem.

I like his design, and my toothpaste is all white so I don't understand the toothpaste comparison lol.

'member when Fire emblem wasn't an anime dating sim? I 'member.

I think it looks great. Yeah I don’t LOVE the blue red thing, but it’s not terrible…
It’s not going to stop me from getting it. In fact, this will likely be my first Switch Fire Emblem. I like what I see so far. I’m not into the whole between battle relationship talking stuff so hoping this is focused more on battles and only some talking between.

Nintendo obviously approved this design, and I say kudos to her for getting the gig. I like that they’re in touch with those digital artists that are part of the creative voice of the social media generation.

I heard that this game uses features from the mobile game? Getting a Mario Kart Tour - Mario Kart 8 symbiosis here……

That explains the stupid hair. Wonder if we can change it?

Terrible character designs, what seems to be integrating past MCs into the story which really only works as gameplay or dlc otherwise you get god awful fan service stories like the FE Warriors stories, and some pretty laughable dialogue?

Sounds like this one's gonna rival FE Fates as one of the worst FEs in terms of story

@strollin_stu lmao I mean yea. And as a result we got three houses which I found to be a big improvement over fates. I guess they just decided to drop the ball this time around over improving further

I don’t know why people hate the vtubers this person made.
They all look pretty cute.
(Although it is kinda clear that they are more used to making female models compared to the male model)

@strollin_stu Doubt itd be bad from a gameplay perspective. Ive never played one with gameplay I actively dislike at least, but I can definitely see the story turning out to be laughable going by the trailer

OK and what is a Vtuber

The pepsi logo and toothpaste comparisons are really good haha. The hair colour choice is sure different but kind of like it. Overall I thought this trailer was great, can never have enough fire emblem.

Well that explains it. I personally don't find the design awful (I seen worse), but I'm not really feeling this one so to speak.🤷‍♂️

@karlhendrikse:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTuber

It honestly doesn't bother me as several hours into the game you get used to the design(s) either way. I am looking forward to the game.

The eye colours as well look weird

Never played any Fire Emblem games and I'm not familiar with much of its history, but when I saw the trailer I thought it was a spinoff game, not mainline. It got me a little interested though as the new motif suits my taste better. I would get why longtime fans would be upset though. Still interested in playing Three Houses sometime in the future as I've heard nothing but great things bout it!

Not a fan of the hair, for sure; it feels a little too "contemporary" not to be a distraction in a SRPG series with a typically pseudo-medieval setting. I pre-ordered the game nonetheless as I really enjoy Fire Emblem as a franchise.

I don't know, the design starts growing on me.
But are we just gonna ignore that the protagonist actually talks now!?

The toothpaste memes got a good chuckle out of me but I honestly couldn't care less about the hair color(s).

I'm more interested in the story and the hero summoning mechanics. At least Engage looks like a big visual improvement over Three Houses, with decent texture-work and a vibrant artstyle.

Yeah I really struggle to get over this character, they look like a YouTuber and Vegas Magician had a baby. A shame because in other ways the game was looking more appealing than Fire Emblem has in a while to me.

The design is growing on me. The My Unit is a divine dragon supposedly so looking inhuman makes sense. The dragons in fates and 3houses blended in a little too well. And that worked for those stories but it seems the story has cast this my unit as the savior from the start so visually standing apart from everyone else makes sense. Since the rest of the cast looks normal this is more of an indication that the My Unit is inhuman rather than colors for the sake of colors.

Thats why my beloved fire emblem series looks so friggan horrible now. Im still gonna buy it. But why

@westman98 it looks identical graphics wise but with a lot more unnecessary colour.

I think its fine honestly, byleth looked really cool but not every character should look the same

Well, that explains a lot. I am not a fan of the designs at all. Thankfully the rest of the game looks very promising

That explains the similar look to Baelz.

Ahh joy another bland ugly weeb hero that looks like it was designed by a 7 year old who just got their first box of crayons.

People were expecting new Three Houses, but they getting new Fates.

I'm still excited for the game and everything else looks great about it...but yeah he looks terrible 😄. It's not even just the hair but just the entire design from head to toe looks like he is trying to be a clown or something. The female variation looks a bit better but the hair and eyes still just look so goofy!

Terrible-laziest effort to make an interesting design of a character- switching half hair and eye color? That’s like elementary school design work. That feels like a joke to put this in a big IP.

I feel bad knowing some people are taking their distaste of the art and conveying it directly towards the artist. I may not be a fan but uploading a condescending tweet response to the illustrator is just rude.

Other than that I hope FE devs in the future consider taking a more mature looking route when it comes to art design. The previews exerted a very bright atmosphere that just seems more akin to contemporary anime stuff as opposed to a medieval war epic. Will definitely keep an eye out to see what it has in store though.

@danemord Byleth being a silent protagonist seems to have been a one-time thing as Three Hopes goes back to having a protagonist that talks and has their own personality like Corrin and Robin.

@Kirbo100
One of many things that I like about three hopes!

So did the past games have a talking protagonist? (Haven't tried anything before three houses)

It does seem slightly out of place for a Fire Emblem character. That design would have been a better fit for a vtuber model.

@LUIGITORNADO Please god no.

I love Lyndis & co, but Awakening and Fates had top tier character design. Fates fell short elsewhere but yeah. Three Houses was a step back, and despite the blandness of Pepsiman and Pepsigirl, some of the other characters look great and like a return to Awakening/Fates style.

I’m sorry, and I’m sure the artist is great, but this particular work doesn’t look as belonging to FE at all; also the “screaming” colouring is unfortunate to say the least.

I'm glad that I'm not the only one who absolutely loathes the character design. It's tackier than a windbreaker from 1990. I bet the game is fun though. I will never pass up on a good Fire Emblem.

I like the designs!

But mostly because every previous Fire Emblem protagonist is practically a Marth clone. Alear looks different at least

To the people blaming Mika for the issues with the design, you do realise that the artists don't just come up with them on their own? The devs tell them what they have in mind for a character's look (for example "we want a tall, refined girl with long black hair, and regal attire like a princess") and their personality and the artist draws what they're told.

They go back and forth with the devs adjusting the design until they settle on what the final version will be. The toothpaste hair colour and heterochromia was most likely part of the original design request, and the devs and Nintendo both approved it so it's not really fair to blame the artist if you don't like it.

@SalvorHardin

That's a shame. I'd buy a game inspired by the older aesthetic 100x over. Especially if it had a more mature story, and less tea parties.

@Lizuka yes! I will never understand that mentality in any fandom! Marvel "fans" hate Marvel, pokémon "fans" hate pokémon. Fans: you keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

At least it's original design. Makes it more memorable.

@danemord You can choose the genders of Robin in Awakening and Corrin in Fates but they had their own personalities and interacted with the members of their army.

Games that didn't have an avatar character like the newer games had protagonists that talked and had personalities as well.

I think the only other game to have a silent character was Mark in Blazing Blade but they were not the main character and was more of a vessel for the player that the main characters interacted with.

graphically looks so much better than Three Houses can't wait till play the second REAL Fire Emblem game on Switch

I’ve been playing FE since Sacred Stones and I’ll get this day one, but I’ll definitely be turning off VA or playing on mute. I couldn’t handle the few seconds of spoken dialogue in the trailer. The main character looks bad and sounds generic but as with all things of this sort it probably feels less ridiculous on the girl main, so as usual I’ll just play that option and hope for the best.

He looks like Marth and Roy merged...

I liked Mika Pikazo colorful art style, so I'm happy to see this... My most favorite FE art style is still the GBA era though, but this bring a pretty fresh look.

I've only played part of Shadow Dragon, and am not really interested in tactical RPG's but the visual style for this game looks more appealing than the previous games for some reason. I do like the design despite being that sort of 'Mary Sue' look. I'm over it being cringe at this point. Down with cringe. Not a day one purchase but maybe at some point.

Not into FE but I have to say this is looking pretty sharp and fresh

I'll buy it but I think this main character looks hideous...

@KnightsTemplar
Really? I thought Three Houses had some really poor textures at times, which Engage seems to avoid.

@Lizuka

Disliking the character design = disliking everything?

Aside from the early famicom versions, I've loved every Fire Emblem game I've ever played. But I guess that critiquing the questionable character design means I hate all of it. You do you, bro. I tell you what though, if this new protagonist spends as much time on their sword play or magic skills as they do their hair, the rest of the FE universe doesn't stand a chance.

@Pat_trick Can we please stop calling post-Awakening games, dating-sims?
I've seen what actual dating sims are like, and while there are some elements FE games take from them, they are nothing close to what FE does.

You get like 4 support conversations with a character, a large number of them not romantic or suggestive in the slightest, and then you get a extremely short cutscene where you marry that particular character. That's it.

You can argue that the Teatime mechanic is dating, but I disagree. You only pick 3 correct responses and then you can give them a gift. There is no dialogue pertaining to relationships, they just give the exact save phrases over and over like a robot.

The only reason people call them dating sims is because of their annoyance of the fandom shippers outside the games. Plenty of other franchises have these shippers and you can't control them

@LUIGITORNADO I honestly love it. The main character maybe not as much (don't mind them tho), but all the other characters, and especially the art style as a whole - I ADORE it!

I know it's not what the "og FE fans" fell in love with the series for, but I love it going full anime.

@danemord I mean, it's not the first time, really. Robin and Corrin had a lot of dialogue of their own, may most of it be text only, and older Lords were always fully fledged og characters that talked. Only Byleth got the "silent protagonist" treatment, as far as I remember.

@SolarisPolaris Exactly. I think most people have just seen the outcry when Fates had that, admittedly actually somewhat questionable "touching" mechanic with the characters, that was cut from western releases, and just assume that everything else in FE is on that same level.

@SolarisPolaris No problem. From now on I'll call it a shallow dating sim with superficial relationships and characters. More accurate.

One of the worst character designs of all time. Right up there with Rex and Tidus.

Donno where IS keeps finding these has beens to do their character designs, Fire Emblem used to have such nice, clean anime art, ever since Awakening it's just been all so over the top and ugly. (with exception of Shadows of Valentia, that one had a really nice style).

I actually really love Engage's art style compared to Three Houses!

Maybe it's just the dragons, but the promo art is somehow giving me extreme Dragalia Lost vibes, and I have a super soft spot for Dragalia Lost's art design.

I honestly don't mind it too much even though the main character looks hilariously bad. I'll get over it but I can see why people hate the look.

Couple of comments,

I don’t mind the design, though the toothpaste comparisons are obvious and Nintendo needed to factor that in.

I notice that Koei aren’t mentioned on the trailer and previously Intelligent Systems had said that without them Three Houses wouldn’t have got made. It was inferred that basically half of everything in that game was done in partnership with Koei Tecmo.

The UK collectors edition is already up and sold out. That’s some weapons grade b***s**t. I don’t check the site for 1/2 a day and it’s gone already? This is after I got stiffed by being 20 mins late for the God of War: Ragnorok Jotnar Edition. Companies need to do better at judging demand for these things. It’s not like they’re not incredibly profitable for them.

I was only thinking about the neon Joy-Cons there.

Wow! No wonder he looks so horrible!

No wonder it kinda felt like I was witnessing a mobile game at first. Why didn't they go to a manga artist like they did with FE ECHOES.

@Pat_trick Now I'm confused. Did you actually want a dating sim and were disappointed by FE lol?

I played these game and not once did those aspects matter in the slightest. I'm sorry you couldn't have fun with any post Awakening game because of fandom shippers.

If you want to play new "old-school" Fire Emblem, there are some good GBA romhacks out there

My heart sunk the entire time this game was shown. It looks like the mobile game is inspiration, and not Three Houses. Which is a major bummer for me. The environments look like the new DLC for Mario Kart 8 — blurry, flat-toned, and too colorful.

Game looks good but yea I agree with most here, the protagonist looks gross. Some kind of clown warrior or something

@SolarisPolaris No I definitely didn't want it to be a dating sim. They added something incredibly superficial which takes over almost half of the game.

Also the school settings and the characters are all straight from a teenage drama. I much prefer when the story was about characters like Marth who acted like adults and where concerned with the future of the kingdom.

So I disagree with the "shippers" are the problem with the game. I think the weak attempts into the transforming the game into how cute or quirky the characters are brought down to overall story a lot.

Not a fan of the hair/eye red/blue combination, but don't mind otherwise. The title of the game is worse in my opinion, sounds like a mobile game.

@LUIGITORNADO because Pre-Awakening almost killed the series. Doubt they will go back to dated anime designs for the modern audienc outside of cameo nostalgia appeal

Maybe if more people bought the FE games like Radiant Dawn there would be more sway.

@iLikeUrAttitude My thoughts exactly. I saw the trailer and instantly knew I won´t buy. Totally opposite feelings than what Three Houses trailers managed.

I am sorry Mika but this is not the way. Why does the character have eyes of different color? Is there a practical reason for it? And if so, why to cover the face with a strange X hair mark? Also, from what I googled, it looks like you really like the blue/red combination which is ok for some instant-catchy designs and pamflets but for a playable character it is not a good choice at all. Better to use archetypal complementary palette which fits to character design somehow imo. I will wait if there is any reasonable explanation for the use of colours and a strange parodic design, then I will see if I buy it. I am very sad with this one.

@Arawn93

I think PoR and RD being on a straight console didn’t help.

Just not digging Engage. It looks too colorful. Too clean. It reminds me of that lame gatcha weeb game that people are playing.

I would kill for a FE game that had the art design of a western fantasy with a more mature story / political intrigue. Something that doesn’t tip toe around sex and relationships with tea parties and fully explore it. No more or less that BioWare does.

That game wouldn’t be made by IS. So I shouldn’t bother. Just not really overall excited for this.

That explains why I like the designs and colors.. and I don't even play this series, lol

@MetalMan DmC reference? Lol

The protagonists are quickly growing on me honestly. Looking through her twitter page really helps me like her artwork more and more, and there are a couple of in-game screenshots on Nintendo's webpage that sealed the deal. Obviously the closeups of the face still look a little funny with contrasting red/blue's everywhere, but when you see the whole character model in screenshots, it really makes you realize the character as a whole was well designed.

Not to mention, I'm really loving Engage's overall art design, which somehow feels like vintage FE even more than Three Houses, mixed with Dragalia Lost.

@Arawn93 Like you said, pre-Awakening is just 90's era anime, as opposed to post-Awakening's modern anime style. It's like people complaining about Pokemon transitioning away from Sugimori's illustrative style, when in fact his style was just utilizing older conventions of the time for graphic design.

@Pat_trick I disagree a bit. I don't think adult themes matter to make a story engaging and enjoyable. I've seen my fair share of games that went in both directions and suffered for it.

I'm a huge Fire Emblem fan and all for giving artists their time to shine, but for f*** sake is there no quality control by the director??
How did that horrific hair style make it into production? Whatever, as long as the hairstyle doesn't interfere with gameplay.

@SolarisPolaris It is true that being more mature doesn't mean it can't be bad.

I think I wasn't very clear with what bothered me. I'll try to clarify with an example.

While in the original Fire Emblem Marth is trying to restore his kingdom due to betrayal, in Fire Emblem you have to talk to a character that is afraid of leaving her room. There's a huge difference in tone and I gravitate much more to the former.

A lot of the characters in the new Fire Emblem games act like unidimensional stereotypical characters of animes. Meanwhile in the old games, even though some characters were shallow the focus was always on the plot.

There are other minor examples that build on the idea that the game is focused on teenage drama, like the setting being on a school, the characters being mostly teenagers, part of the game being daily activities that can actually affect the story of the game.

To me the new Fire Emblem games focus a lot on the fluff while barely improving on the main part of the game which is strategy.

Still, I understand if you disagree with me.

I like the CHESS BATTLE about Fire Emblem.

I don´t care about characters, background story....and i don´t like these things. I don´t read the story....the only thing that matters to me are the battles....nothing more.

So..if this game has many epic battles....it´s a YES for me.

But if this game is like Triangle Strategy....10-12 battles and 15 hours story driven game without any relevant gameplay..it´ll be a NO for me.

@iLikeUrAttitude It still has to be approved by Intelligent Systems, so blaming the artist is ludicrous. The final decision is theirs.