The FE12 Lord Promotion Rant

[mark_asphodel]

As soon as FE12 was announced, the whining commenced.  Marth, it seems, needs a promotion this time.  Or Ike's stat caps from FE9, whichever.

Uh, yeah.  How 'bout not?

Now, if it were purely an issue of weaponry, I could get behind it.  Marth is at a disadvantage being locked to swords, and in FE11 his terrible MAG growth made him darned near incapable of getting use out of the Levin Sword, which meant he was locked to Melee combat.  Er, melee combat.  So allowing him to use something else-- I don't care if it's STAVES-- would be a boon.  Bows, lances, the Star Rod from the Kirby games... yeah, I can see the advantage.

But no, people appear to be obsessed with the idea of promotion in and of itself.  That, and the damned horse.

Yet, a quick scan of FE Lords from the past demonstrates that promotion is not, in fact, an inherent virtue.  What's the biggest gripe that one reads about Roy?  Late promotion.  Too late to serve any good.  Well, what about a Lord who promotes closer to mid-game?  In Ephraim's case, I believe the most pithy phrase I've seen was "garbage from the minute he got on a horse."  Huh.  So what's the fixation on the promotion dealie? Whether or not it does any good appears to depend on a delicate combination of the timing of the promotion, the class stat caps, and the growths for that particular Lord... ooh, hold that thought.

Now, Intelligent Systems recognized-- and fixed-- a massive problem with Marth in FE11.  See, for some reason, back in the day IS didn't assume that the Lord had to be the most beastly dude on the battlefield, so FE1 Marth topped out at Level 20 and was frankly not so hot with the stats.  Which, honestly, has some logic behind it-- he's sixteen.  He's not the greatest warrior alive (that would be Camus the Sable, dearies).  He has knights to fight for him and protect him and stuff.  But in gameplay terms, it's a bitch.  I did a Normal Mode runthrough of FE11 wherein I timed Marth's level-ups so he never got beyond Lvl 20, and everything from the Camus chapter on was murder.  He couldn't do squat by Endgame.  But IS recognized that this would make the game pretty hateful and so they allowed Marth and other non-promotable characters to top out at a more serviceable Lvl 30.  This mostly does the trick.

Now, I expect him to have better stats in FE12 (FE3 Book 2 Marth is acknowledged as a considerable improvement over the earlier/younger version), but if anyone's expecting Marth to come off like Hector or Ike, they're pretty crazy.  (Seriously, just LOOK at the latest makeover of Marth-- I'm not exactly seeing raw power there).  In the best case scenario, expect lots of crits and lots of dodging.  Don't expect him to dominate the field, and don't expect him to be able to take a lot of damage.  Believe it for not, IS appears to take aesthetics into account when designing their Lord skillsets.  Ephraim?  Better than Eirika.  Hector?  A beast compared with Eliwood and Lyn.  Lyn seems to be a love-her-or-hate-her deal gameplay wise, and as for Eliwood, he frustrates the hell out of people.  Even if you get your 40-level promotable horse-riding lance-toting Marth, he's more likely to be the Second Coming of Eliwood than Ike in a tiara.  That's how things shake out, people, so be careful what you ask for.  Even on a "badass horsey-horsey" he's still going to be Marth.

Don't believe me about IS taking aesthetics into account?  Here's a snippet from the designers regarding Celice and his horsey-horsey:

Q: Is there any special reason for Celice's ability to dismount [in FE4]?

A: The reason for that is a simple one that I'm a little embarrassed about, which is for "aesthetic purposes."  At the beginning we guessed there would be many female fans who see Leaf, for example, and think "he looks so handsome in battle, I don't want to promote him!"

Got it?  The FE4 crew thought that the whole horse business acted as a detriment to the look-- the sword-dancing, cape-swishing, agile look-- that female players expected from their FE heroes.  Now, where do you think those expectations CAME from?  Yes, FE4 was a very long time ago, but it's one more little bit of evidence that promotion is not, was never, and ain't never gonna be in the cards for Marth.  It's never been about utility, never been about being badass, and definitely never been about soloing the battlefield on anything beyond Loser Mode.  He's going to run about on foot, swishing his cape, being cute, and he never will learn to pick up anything besides a sword.  If you want him to do something different, play Smash Bros. and give him some bombs or a ray gun to play with. 

Frankly, I don't care whether Marth can promote to Falcoknight as long as the characterization is good.  Though even the FE4 designers would have to admit he'd look pretty adorable on a winged unicorn.... 


Comments

[samuraiter.livejournal.com]

*chuckles*

This is a good rant. *stamps* 2010

– The thing that concerns me about Roy is that the FE6 enemies make a beeline for him. No matter how strong one is, getting dogpiled by every enemy on the field sucks. (Hence the difficulty of FE6.)

– Hector is, to my knowledge, the strongest Lord in the series, possibly excepting Ah-nuld Ike.

– IMO, the revised Level 30 cap is a good idea. I do not need my Lord to promote. I only need her / him not to die. :-)

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

No matter how strong one is, getting dogpiled by every enemy on the field sucks.

Ow. That would be bad. Again, there's a certain amount of logic to that-- that's why Lords would have knights for protection. :)

Hector is, to my knowledge, the strongest Lord in the series, possibly excepting Ah-nuld Ike.

That's what I've heard, yeah. Unfortunately, a certain percentage of fanboys appear to think that Hector is what the Lord class is supposed to be about, and FE history says they're off base. I think Sigurd (a pre-promote) is considered the best Lord of the pre-GBA games, with some heated debate over whether Celice or Alm comes in second. So statistically, you're only getting a really awesome Lord about every other game. But there's a difference between "really awesome" and "OMG sucks" and I'll settle for "just get the job done, please."

Digression: Around the time SSB: Brawl came out, some stat-nut sat down and calculated that if a maxed-out FE3 Marth armed with the Mercurius (NOT Falchion) went up against a maxed-out FE9 Ike armed with Ragnell, he'd inflict ONE point of damage on Ike. People immediately disputed this, of course, but it strikes me as "truthy" enough to pass.

IMO, the revised Level 30 cap is a good idea. I do not need my Lord to promote. I only need her / him not to die. :-)

Same here. Something did have to change in FE11, and the extra ten levels is a fine compromise to me.

[samuraiter.livejournal.com]

IIRC, FE6 has enough Knights – including Wendy, one of my favorites – to give them a unique Triangle Attack, but this is balanced by the fact that there are almost no characters that the player can get that have great stats.

Hector is very strong, but, in terms of his character, I find it appropriate that the story makes him bad-tempered, politically impotent, and socially graceless. It seems like a balance, and it means that the FE6 version of him meets his fate for a reason (i.e. the aforementioned faults).

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

I find it appropriate that the story makes him bad-tempered, politically impotent, and socially graceless.

This seems like a very sane reading of his character; unfortunately, it seems at times that the same fanboys who worship Hector for his stats take all the above as virtues. Witness the hate for Eliwood, by contrast.

But, yes. FE presents us deliberate examples of failed heroes, and Hector appears to fall easily into that category.

[sailorvfan10.livejournal.com]

Frankly, I don't care whether Marth can promote to Falcoknight as long as the characterization is good. Though even the FE4 designers would have to admit he'd look pretty adorable on a winged unicorn....

...

I want Marth on a pegasus now. I wish I could draw or I'd totally make that happen.