Path of Radiance is a good place to start. So is Fire Emblem for GBA. Radiant Dawn should only be played after Path of Radiance, not only because it's a direct sequel, but it's more difficult, and also set up a bit differently from other Fire Emblem games.
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Fire Emblem: Awakening - Character Spotlights
- Thread starter KillerTravis
- Start date
Path of Radiance is a good place to start. So is Fire Emblem for GBA. Radiant Dawn should only be played after Path of Radiance, not only because it's a direct sequel, but it's more difficult, and also set up a bit differently from other Fire Emblem games.
Yeah I wish they'd stick with one damn design for the sword so it can actually be recognizable as 'the' Falchion. I always assumed that was just some new pair of swords, especially since it looks like the main character's sword.
And I thought the 'Marth' in this game was someone else impersonating him or something, although if that's the case I guess you wouldn't find out whether or not he's real until later in the game. NOT SPOILERS btw, I have no idea what the story is for this game. Just my own speculation.
I think the art direction is cool. I liked how they toughened up Marth's appearance in the DS remakes, but I like the designs for characters like Roy in Awakening A LOT (he's an optional, not plot-relevant DLC character, btw):
Dude wraps his cape around his ARM, what the FUCKING AWESOME. I wish there was some sick fan art out there to go along with this. I hope he is in Smash 4 just so he can have this character design.
meltingparappa
Member
I'm still disappointed that the super brief rumor of being able to marry any two characters didn't turn out to be true.Wait, no bromance?
Spring/Winter marriages?
YES.
Homosexual marriages?
YES.
Incest marriages?
YES.
(no on the last two)
Cosmo Clock 21
Banned
Well Fire Emblem isn't exactly a stranger to that last one...
meltingparappa
Member
Yes, like any good piece of fiction with a villanous aristocracy in it. Pretty dark territory to get into.
Nothing in say.... Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (the closest equivalent) comes remotely close.
chaosblade
Unconfirmed Member
DLC characters were done by different artists I think. The artwork for Micaiah is god-awful and I have to wonder what the artist (and whoever approved it) was thinking. Well, not really, it's pretty obvious what they were thinking.
You don't really need to play any particular game before Awakening, but practically every single game in the series is worth playing.
Yeah, every single DLC character with a redesign was done by a different artist (Roy was done by the Last Story person), with the exception of Katarina who was done by the Awakening artist.
Hm, did not know that. Roy always looked pretty similar to the overall designs done for Awakening. I guess that explains Ike looking very different/horrible.
NeonZ
Member
That really doesn't explain it though. Ike was done by the FE6/7 artist, so I don't know what went wrong there.
In fairness, Awakening does provide an actual reason as to why the Falchion appears different than it did before (I don't believe it's important to the plot, though), where as the Falchion getting a redesign in Shadow Dragon and New Mystery was for the sake of...I don't know? I guess Intelligent Systems just felt like changing it, I prefer the original design myself.
Marth actually shows up before you reach the title screen, even. It's obvious that Marth's existence in the story is very important, but the actual spoiler involving Marth involves Marth's secret. I'm looking forward to how GAF will handle it.
Eiji Kaneda had nothing to do with the character art of FE7, believe it or not. Despite how similar the art styles of the two games are to each other, FE7's art was done by four people and Kaneda was not one of them.
FE6 staff
FE7 staff
Funny, I've never been a Fire Emblem fan -- or rather, I've never really gotten into it, just rented a couple games, years ago -- but I'm finding myself incredibly hyped for Awakening. Can't explain it!
Might be because I was always so inundated with things to play on the DS, and I didn't know anyone else who played Fire Emblem, so I just let it slip by without taking much notice. 3DS is a different story, of course...
Armor just seems a bit slim. I can't even tell what version of Ike they were trying to go with. All the armor seems to imply he's a bit older, but his face and body type are more relevant to his younger self.
And that sword as well. He just doesn't seem to be pulling off that strong character who wields a gigantic sword. Cape looks puny but it's hard to tell if it's just the perspective. I guess the whole thing would look a lot better if it wasn't such an odd perspective.
Tried looking at the in-game character model but it looks like it's just some generic unit recolored.
Those are the best ones, Lynn has an awkward pose but I like her clothes. Same goes for Ike and his odd small feet.
Honestly I like the armor's style but I can see what you're saying. I guess I enjoy the overall aesthetic of his armor but I agree with you that the redesign seems to be confused about where they wanted to go in terms of how Ike comes across. Also the pose/perspective doesn't help things.
Warrior_Keoni
Member
Est's new "look" just cracks me up every single time. It's like she took one too many vulneraries.
Yeah, that's part of Kozaki's style. Everyone seems relatively pale in their skin tone, you can see this with No More Heroes and the more recent Liberation Maiden, both of which Kozaki did the art for. Personally I really like it, though.
All we know is that DLC will be coming. I highly doubt that they'd actually release them all at once.
NeonZ
Member
Huh... you're right. I had thought that the small differences of the FE7 art compared to FE6 came just from his style maturing a bit.
The armor is just the standard "Hero" armor from FE13. So, he was likely based on the younger Ike, although the technicals problems of that drawing kind of hurt any impression left by it.
Yeah, I believe that all of the redesigns were bound to the class designs set forth by Kozaki in the game (or, rather, they all used Kozaki's class designs as their basis for redesigning), which explains why they're all consistent with what classes the characters actually come in as. Some of them like Micaiah's are really obvious where as others are a little more subtle.
Reluctant-Hero
Member
Pulled the trigger on the Blue XL with MK7 bundle last week just for this game. Can't wait to run (literally, it's around the corner from my house) to GameStop on 2/3/13 to pick up my copy and art book.
Big criticism on your part or big criticism in general? The latter would not be true; it's always a vocal minority expressing the fact that they don't like the new art style/designs. Most who are familiar with the game have taken to it by now. In any case, the "reinvigoration" of the art is partly accredited to the series' revival (sales-wise), so you can expect Kozaki to stay for a while.
*I hope Kozaki stays for a long, long time.*
Cosmo Clock 21
Banned
Any news about whether we'll get character DLC from Fire Emblem games not released in the US?
NeonZ
Member
DLC is unknown. We know that they still kept the weapons named after character from Japanese games though, and still kept their names there, rather than renaming them to reference characters from American games.
The DLC appears to have dozens of old characters (not just the ones with new character artwork). There probably isn't a single pack of DLC that consists of characters only from games we've received in America, so I doubt they limit it.
No reason not to either. They're just characters with names. Localize the names (officially), translate the dialogue, presto.
RPG_Fanatic
Member
So glad that this game is about a month away. In anticipation I have beaten FE: Shadow Dragon, and FE: Path of Radiance. Currently in part II of Radiant Dawn. I'll get around to beaten my ambassador copy of Sacred Stones hopefully soon.
No, not yet. We'll probably only see shots of it by the time the game's out.
I really like Catria personally, but I agree that most of the DLC art is pretty weird because it doesn't clash well with the game's style.
Well apart from Katarina obviously
Well apart from Katarina obviously
At least miss on the the more awesome stuff like this
At least miss on the the more awesome stuff like this
bzzt
Hours Left
Member
Ike's DLC artwork is an abomination. (Not the quality of the artwork, but the interpretation of the character.)
I've heard people talking about how they don't like it ever since the game was shown. I admit that I'm not a fan of it compared to the art from the GCN/Wii/GBA eras. It could be worse I guess, everybody could look like Micaiah's redesign.
grandjedi6
Master of the Google Search
The interpretation is just PoR Ike. The chosen artist's style just doesn't match up well with Ike.
Now Micaiah, that's the abomination. Granted the artist was severely handicapped by the already crappy Dark Mage outfit, but still!
That and whoever decided Eirika should be a healer/priest or whatever. The drawing is fine, only she is supposed to be a swordfighter!
The Awesomest
Member
There is no light magic, and no light mages in this game. So, Micaiah had to be redesigned as a dark mage. And that is the dark mage outfit, unfortunately. I don't know why she couldn't have been a regular mage instead, or a healer, but then I guess she would've had a pointy witch hat or a horse or would wield axes.