BLD

@Yorumi

Not counting the clones already present, I can only really see Eirika being discounted as a clone automatically. Even then, she has a mount as an option to differentiate herself.

Alm and Celica could be made clones, but also have access to a bow and magic respectively.

Sigurd is mounted.

Lyn's technique is pretty damned distinct, and also has bows/a mount.

Hector is an axe wielder, currently unrepresented in Smash.

Ephraim wields a lance, also unrepped in Smash.

Micaiah is a pure mage.

Xander is again, mounted.

Ryoma dual wields lightning blades.

Heck, when you look at the insane potential in all the different weapons and classes represented, it becomes pretty apparent that the only reason FE has so many clones is to save development time.

@LArachelDisciple He adds Ike's up B, and possibly more. He was an easy solution to making a unique character pieced together from other moves.

@Yorum

So HW managed to scrounge up 30 chatacters, including a large amount of OCs, tons of villains, and a few joke picks.

Hate to break it to you, but even the smallest FE casts have at least 40~ playable characters. Just looking at the main characters of each entry, we could have a solid dozen, as an absolute minimum.

Marth
Alm
Celica
Sigurd
Leif
Roy
Lyn
Eliwood
Hector
Eirika
Ephraim
Ike
Micaiah
Robin
Chrom
Lucina
Corrin
Azura
Ryoma
Xander.

Did I say a dozen? Guess I meant 20. Now, nobody is clamoring to have all of these in Smash, it'd be redundant. But the potential for characters from FE dwarfs all other series barring Pokemon. Difference between those two is, FE can get more new clones/echoes a lot easier than most Pokemon can.

@CanisWolfred

Wow, that's one of the most wild things I've heard today. Besides the obvious "har har blue hair" thing, I'm not sure how you could tell Ike and Marth apart, but not Marth and Chrom.

EDIT: If anything, it would at least make some sense to confuse Chrom and Ike.

@CanisWolfred

Not sure how much you're joking, but Chrom looks to be the most distinct Echo fighter so far.

@Yorumi

First of all, We already have the main character from every single mainline Zelda title playable. His name is Link. There are 3 of him, even. Fact is, some games simply lend themselves better to more fighters.

As to your second point - I agree! They should spend more time making more FE characters with more unique movesets. Instead of just making so many of them similar to get them in quickly.

Wait, don't tell me that isn't what you want!

@Yorumi

"Deserving" according to who or what? I hate to break it to you but Awakening outsold SF Adventures, Assault, and Command combined. That's all 3 games Krystal appeared in, I believe.

Now Nintendo doesn't dictate Smash reps solely on sales, and thank god for that, but at some point people are going to have to accept that FE is a big deal now.

@TheBigK

It's fun to imagine though. Micaiah would be a fun choice. But if we're doing swords, what about at least someone mounted, like Sigurd? Hector is clearly popular and an axe fighter would be great. Camilla would be a fun pick just for the sheer salt, let alone the moveset potential of a magical battle-axe wielding wyvern rider.

@clvr

Well therein lies the problem. If the FE characters got more diverse movesets, that means more time spent on them, meaning more complaints about 'why not Waluigi' or whatever. Making many of them clones or semiclones is just a quick way to add in a bit more series representation. Believe me, Sakurai could've had the team spend a lot of time adding in characters with more diverse movesets from other FE games.

On that note, it's hilarious to me to see people - the same people - tell Waluigi fans to buzz off. "It's Sakurai's game, not yours!". Then Sakurai, an admitted fan of the series, adds more FE characters and now suddenly these same people throw a fit.

@clvr

Actually, Chrom appears to crib moves from both Ike and Roy's movsets. He's possibly the most different Echo Fighter yet.

Crazy to see the salt generated by FE characters. Fact is, the series has a massive amount of characters. Smash is really only scratching the surface, whereas 2 or 3 characters basically cover many other series.

@KingSandyRavage

You do realize that's not how it works right?
And besides, we did get 2 new characters.

I never imagined there were barbarians who pronounced it with a z sound. Why on earth?

@XenoShaun @Bunkerneath

Same.

I hate this trend. Level design is one of the most valuable arts in creating a good game. I don't mind randomization as a bonus feature, but I don't care about your "endless replayability " when I'm endlessly replaying levels that may as well have been thrown together by a monkey

Not even a huge physical-only guy but the trilogy on a cart appealed to me. But with this news what's the point? Their refusal to use high-capacity cartridges has lost them a sale.

@Whalehome

Basically the reveal at the ending involves elements being hidden from the player. As in, literally off-screen. And you're supposed to accept that every character in the game knew this thing, and that somehow you the player never knew this one element. Because the game's camera never showed you. Except you would have had to have seen this element at a few points, and somehow that's never brought up.

The prequel games had crazy elements too of course. But they were always meticulously justified and foreshadowed. Sure a lot of those tricks they used to conceal certain facts were contrived, but it felt like a puzzle you could have pieced together yourself. ZTD though, it lies to you and steals your puzzle pieces.

That's without getting into how this final puzzle piece, offscreen or not, totally jumps the shark. Or how many plot threads are just left hanging, including elements from previous games.

And although the game's structure up to that point was unique, I didn't find the story up to that point compelling. The gameplay puzzles felt weak. And the cutscene models and acting were incredibly stiff and low-budget.

I'm interested but cautious, remembering how awful Zero Time Dilemma was.

I honestly found this a bit tougher than most of the main game, but that's likely because I did a good job building a team for that.

This has got to be the laziest article. You post a totally baseless rumor from some trashy forum, and mention a screenshot which you couldn't even be bothered to show in the article.

@HobbitGamer

It says they felt like commenting on something they took issue with?

@MattFox

To each their own, but personally without the two screens the game loses most of its appeal to me.

The original was a game about juggling between 2 characters on 2 screens. At first it was cumbersome, unintuitive, frustrating. But that learning curve was what made falling into the rhythm of combat so enticing. You were improving your own skills alongside rpg stats.

It made you really feel more connected with your partners too, who have basically been demoted to power-ups in subsequent ports. Several gameplay mechanics have been scrapped entirely, and a few bosses have been retooled (read: dumbed down) to accommodate a single screen.

@LordGeovanni

Forget KH, look at this game alone.

The port on phones teased this game at the end.

They literally used a port to hype up another port of the same game.

@Shard1

I wonder what they plan, too. Didn't they just say the other day they were dedicated to making multiplayer a level playing field in the face of the upcoming paid online?

I don't know how they plan to implement paid multiplayer content without doing just that. Unless it's just cosmetic.

Also I love how Heavyarms argument is basically that I'm not allowed to like or comment on anything Nintendo because I dared criticize their online. Apparently blind adoration for every decision Nintendo has ever made is a prerequisite for posting here. Pointing out the facts makes you "PC Master Race" now.

@Heavyarms55

Wait can you please explain to me how the cost of a PC is at all relevant? Do you honestly think the Overwatch devs or whoever see a dime of that PC cost?

And yet somehow that game is free to play online. Interesting how that works!

@sashj

YOU GOT HIM!

How dare that IDIOT think he could play an online video game online, on a team with friends, in 2018? Truly he is the fool here, and definitely not the company who made these asinine decisions.

@Heavyarms55

That's funny, because I play Overwatch and other games on PC online with way better features than Nintendo provides, for free!

Really makes you think...

@Pod

Um... you CAN turn off items though...

@OctoInk20

Crazy how you can go on a vicious tirade attacking fans of a series over uncited allegations that a separate group of fans haraased someone, while unironically and without a modicum of self-awareness calling them out for 'toxicity '.

Great journalism is, as always, backed by a single tweet by some rando on Twitter.

@Ernest_The_Crab

The fact that those games are loved is largely in spite of Treehouse, not because of them.

For everybody excusing Treehouse's awful localization on account of Fates already-bad story, let me remind you of Treehouse's history with the series. They removed the hardest difficulty from Path of Radiance, and removed an extended script with ~10% more content from its sequel. Fates was just the continuation of their blatant disrespect for the series. And don't get me started on their changes to TMS that they tried to blame on Atlus.

I don't care how much they may have improved or the work they do on other games. I don't trust them to work on a series they've continuously screwed up.

Oh boy I can't wait to be drip-fed ancient games at a snail's pace for the 4th time! But it's ok this time because its a rental service which makes it better somehow!

@OnBeingHuman

Oh boy, I sure can't wait to be drip fed the same 30 year-old games again! How long til we get SNES games, let alone GBA titles? Wil we have to pay a higher subscription fee for those?

This is some hot garbage. The swap to an online sub service is understandable, but the fact that they only offer a paltry selection of NES games beggars belief.

I just wanted to play my favorite old Fire Emblems and Metroids on Switch. Was that really so difficult? Was this really what we waited a year and a half for?

@PuppyToucher Disgaea games are more complex, but they focus more on grinding to unlock new classes, abilities, and postgame content. So you don't really have to worry about learning all the intricacies, since the games aren't nearly as punishing as FE. When they're hard, it's often more statistically, rather than the tough positioning and careful strategy you might employ in Advance Wars.

While no other SRPG seems to replicate the simplicity, pace, and challenge of FE or AW for me, Disgaea is still a good time-waster IMO. Just don't think of it as being like FE. They're on opposing ends of the same genre.

Jesus, what is wrong with some of you? I don't often agree with @sligeach_eire, but all they did was predict that Nintendo would advertise Labo soon, and make the most mild joke I've ever seen at someone else's typo. Apparently some of you see this as grounds to "ban that clown".

@MarcelRguez

More Fire Emblem Fates, less FE Echoes.

For all the crap Fates gets, people seem to downplay the fact that the base game was more robust than any FE game before it (with only Awakening arguably rivaling it).

Then for 20 bucks you got an entirely new path. Half the price for a full-sized game, only sharing the introductory chapters. You got somewhere around 30 new characters and maps.

That's more than even Mario Kart offered you for your 20 bucks.

@Heavyarms55

Samus CAN be the only one with a suit like that, actually.

That said, what you described is very similar to Prime Hunters on the DS.

@Knuckles
It worked with Prime, it worked pretty well with SR.

Not at all for Other M and Fed Force, though.

We're at about 50/50, then.

I can't recommend the first game (available on Steam and PS3, with a PS4 remaster too I think) enough.

It's got some balance problem, but it's just a joy to play. The game looks and sounds amazing, with a very distinct visual style that makes it look like the game's literally leaping out of the textured pages of an old, weathered history book.

The gameplay is strictly turn-based, but you directly control the units, swapping between a top-down view and going into a third-person view (this is where the S.T.E.A.M. comparisons come in).

The story has a lot of cliche anime moments, but also manages to feel oddly authentic at times. It draws heavy parallels to the actual real world WWII, both in naming (Literally the continent is called Europa, for instance) and themes (racism and the dawn of an uber-destructive, "new" type of weapon).

It's a game that very much puts strategy first, with the RPG and RNG elements being secondary. While an element of luck is sometimes involved in that your shots have spread, you're clearly shown the range in which your shots might land. So there's a very nice aspect of risk vs reward. Should you move in closer and risk enemy fire to ensure a headshot for the kill? Or hang back with your snipers and let them come to you?

I think that, as you get late-game gear, you'll find the former answer is generally the better one, due to some class imbalances. But still, I cant' say that's not generally the more fun option anyway.

Valkyria Chronicles isn't a perfect game, but it's a beautiful experience that is very much unique, even from the sequels (no offense to them, they're still fun, but being on PSP really limits the experience. It's like Prime vs Prime Hunters. The latter is a real technical showcase, but it can't capture the original's atmosphere.)

It looks like a mash-up of Metroid and Castlevania environmental elements, with some Contra-like gameplay and nods thrown in. The cave areas look straight out of Metroid, the tower with gears is Castlevania's clock tower, and the helicopter looks straight out of Contra.

None of that is a bad thing at all. WayForward has proven themselves more than capable of making both Contra and Metroidvania titles, so I'm excited to see what they can do combining these different elements.

I'm one of the people who really didn't like it that much. The environments never hooked me. There's too much dialogue in the game to ever truly elicit the same feel of isolation I prefer in Metroid-like games, yet not enough to really intrigue me either.

The level designs felt middling at best, but the worst part IMO was definitely the boss battles. They felt really slapdash to me.

Not to say it was an awful game by any means - I'd at least keep an eye out for any sequels or future projects. But I'm not chomping at the bit to buy it again either.

@AlexOlney

If we wanted to watch a video, we've already got the actual Nintendo Direct...

I am actually not buying this game any more, because of this.

I was borderline from the beginning - it looked fun, but kinda more of the same, in a world where Overwatch now exists and fills my team-based shooter needs.

But a PVE mode? That seems novel enough, that seems fun. And it looked challenging too, in the E3 videos.

But now you're telling me that, if me and my friends, who struggle to coordinate our own schedules across several time zones, can't also happen to meet up during whatever times Nintendo allows, we don't get to play together online? Because we don't live in GLORIOUS NIPONLAND where everybody lives close together like a bunch of sardines in a can?

If the concern is in-game loot or something, why not just allow us to play the game normally for some meager currency reward, and then make special time-limited "jobs" for better loot?

Go ink yourselves, Nintendo.

@RaphaBoss

They've already (somewhat indirectly) confirmed that pegasus riders, or at least fliers of some kind, are in the game and will be weak to bows, just like normal FE.

They've also said that this game has the largest playable roster of any non-sequel spinoff Musou game, so that's neat.

Why did it take them so damned long to get Pikmin 2 on Wii U? This is the most exciting thing to happen to Wii U in months, why the heck did they wait until after the Switch came out to do this?

OK but is JonTron in it?

It seems a bit cheap to me that the multiplayer - which was a core component of the game's pre-release advertising, and has been absent for over a year since the PC release - will be coming to Switch first.

I mean, I'm happy that Switch gets a neat thing, but that just seems very unfair to those who are already supporting the game.

@AcesHigh
I was way more hyped for Wii U, because it had a better launch lineup than Switch.