Top Eleven Fire Emblem Characters (4)
Feb. 23rd, 2012 05:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mark_asphodelI'm so glad I waited to write this one.
I was having second thoughts, you see. Spending a great deal of time comparing the merits of "favorites" and the reasons why they rank can lead to second-guessing. I was starting to wonder if poor Leaf really belonged "below the cut," down at #12, and if I shouldn't rearrange a few other things while I was at it. But then, something happened yesterday that affirmed that yeah, I really do adore this character.
#4: Marth
Remade, retconned, and redesigned. Trotted out to represent the franchise in two installments of Smash Bros, not to mention a failed anime and a screwball manga. And now, apparently, being subjected to Very Weird Things in FE13... which would mark his fifth appearance in an FE game if he really is the kid in the butterfly mask.
Marth kind of escaped being a character, or even a franchise mascot, some time ago. He's been re-imagined and re-purposed enough times that he's pretty much the real-world equivalent of a mythical founder in an FE game. We've got the basics of what he looked like and what he did, but the details change every time. The very fact that FE13's trailer is taunting prospective players with glimpses of a slim young swordfighter sporting a shield-shaped brooch and a tiara says something powerful about his status in the eyes of his creators, IMO. Marth expies are few and far between, and this is one stunt they've never pulled before. Sorry, Stateside fanbase-- Intelligent Systems puts a great deal of stock into the idea that you, the player, really like Marth. You want him in your life. You want to be his special friend. You will sit up and take notice over this.
And a lot of you don't-- that comes across loud and clear in the fora and elsewhere.
But too bad. I do. Well, I don't want to be his special friend, and there are rather a lot of things about Marth in his various incarnations that I don't like, but IS did the one thing they could possibly have done that converted my feelings regarding FE13 from "meh" into an adrenaline rush of "I NEED THIS GAME!"
Best Lord? I won't claim that. Most likable Lord? No. My favorite representative of the Lord class in FE history? Oh, yes. Oh yes.
There's a reason there's no "Marth" tag on this journal. In the end, it's all really about him.
I was having second thoughts, you see. Spending a great deal of time comparing the merits of "favorites" and the reasons why they rank can lead to second-guessing. I was starting to wonder if poor Leaf really belonged "below the cut," down at #12, and if I shouldn't rearrange a few other things while I was at it. But then, something happened yesterday that affirmed that yeah, I really do adore this character.
#4: Marth
Remade, retconned, and redesigned. Trotted out to represent the franchise in two installments of Smash Bros, not to mention a failed anime and a screwball manga. And now, apparently, being subjected to Very Weird Things in FE13... which would mark his fifth appearance in an FE game if he really is the kid in the butterfly mask.
Marth kind of escaped being a character, or even a franchise mascot, some time ago. He's been re-imagined and re-purposed enough times that he's pretty much the real-world equivalent of a mythical founder in an FE game. We've got the basics of what he looked like and what he did, but the details change every time. The very fact that FE13's trailer is taunting prospective players with glimpses of a slim young swordfighter sporting a shield-shaped brooch and a tiara says something powerful about his status in the eyes of his creators, IMO. Marth expies are few and far between, and this is one stunt they've never pulled before. Sorry, Stateside fanbase-- Intelligent Systems puts a great deal of stock into the idea that you, the player, really like Marth. You want him in your life. You want to be his special friend. You will sit up and take notice over this.
And a lot of you don't-- that comes across loud and clear in the fora and elsewhere.
But too bad. I do. Well, I don't want to be his special friend, and there are rather a lot of things about Marth in his various incarnations that I don't like, but IS did the one thing they could possibly have done that converted my feelings regarding FE13 from "meh" into an adrenaline rush of "I NEED THIS GAME!"
Best Lord? I won't claim that. Most likable Lord? No. My favorite representative of the Lord class in FE history? Oh, yes. Oh yes.
There's a reason there's no "Marth" tag on this journal. In the end, it's all really about him.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-24 12:35 am (UTC)Is it that catering to Japan is more profitable, or that our fanbase is somehow more incoherent?
no subject
Date: 2012-02-24 02:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-24 02:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-24 02:35 am (UTC)If VG Chartz is to be believed (yes, I know), FE11 sold roughly the same in the US and Japan (0.25 M and 0.27M respectively) and a mere fraction of that in Europe. And now Europe gets FE13 confirmed before the US.
Maybe those numbers are totally bogus, but if they're true, IS has to be looking at other factors besides units sold.
I also suspect our fanbase is deeply incoherent. And I don't care what any Ike partisan says-- I read, with my own eyes, an article detailing Nintendo's disappointment with how FE10 sold and the profit margin they got out of it. And no amount of "Ike is FE's ambassador to the world!" is gonna change that. The "voice" of FE fandom circa 2008 was making shit up and coming up with reasons to justify their particular version of reality, and they're still doing it.
And the evidence I see before me says their version of reality is skewed.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-24 02:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-24 03:17 am (UTC)FE fandom as we know it isn't really a good indicator of Western buyers as a whole, I don't think. And, counterintuitive as it is, the success of a lot of JRPGs tell me the common wisdom of "Americans don't want bishies" isn't necessarily true.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-24 04:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-24 04:04 am (UTC)Mind you, that doesn't explain the lack of interest from female fans. And FE3 was clearly marketed at female fans.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-24 04:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-24 04:20 am (UTC)Imagine you're a dude.
You could be Hector. Or Ephraim. Or Ike. Or Steroid!Ike. Or FE11!Marth.
I think FE11!Marth loses. He's still got his precious little coronet on.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-24 04:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-24 04:33 am (UTC)Seemed to be a pretty common reaction. I mean, I wouldn't want to date him, either, and I think people who were interested in him because of Melee and Brawl were pretty... appalled.
So chicks don't dig him, and dudes don't want to identify with him
to pretend they're banging Caeda. Yeah, that's a problem.no subject
Date: 2012-02-24 04:35 am (UTC)FE12 Marth is nice to look at!
no subject
Date: 2012-02-24 04:39 am (UTC)CGs and in-game portrait, hell yeah. I resent the child-like look he has in the box art. I expected better from an ADULT hero.
And FE13!Marth-type-person evokes the SSB version than anything else.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-24 04:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-24 05:01 am (UTC)I think my tastes have changed in the last couple of years. I am certain I would not have had a problem of any sort with FE12!Marth a few years back. Now, I look at the box art and go... "Oh, what a child." And then I go look at the art for Samson to feel happy again.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-24 07:05 am (UTC)Man.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-24 08:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-24 03:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-25 02:17 am (UTC)I couldn't agree more.