• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.

Is there really a "waifu fan service" problem in Fire Emblem?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Kylo Rey

Kylo Rey

Banned
Dec 17, 2017
3,442
User Banned (1 Week): Creating a thread with the intention of driving a bad faith debate about sexualization
I never understood this critics against FE using this.
I understand that Camilla was maybe too much, but judging some here, it's like Intelligent System is trapped in an hentai and before Awakening it was better.

Well...Remember Nailah in Radiant Dawn? Or other characters in the saga prior to Awakening?
If we judge only about the game itself, FE Fates was awesome in Conquest (maybe one of the best?), Good in Revelations...and "awakening" in birthright.

And they did a remake of FE2 which was very good with great characters design and no waifu's on it (well...maybe sonia?).
So i don't understand those critics and excuse to avoid FE Games.

As for Heroes, it's a gacha game so... i wouldn't count on it (despite the music being in smash bros ultimate)
 
GinoFelino

GinoFelino

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,234
Im not a critic, i love the gameplay, and yes, it's a problem for me. It's distracting and unnecessary to me.

I also don't understand your logic that it's not a problem because it was always bad...? I don't really understand any of what you're saying, to be quite honest. You even admit Camelia was an embarrassing design. So, I guess you sort of do identify with the criticism?
 
Derrick01

Derrick01

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
7,289
Awakening literally had a 1000 year old loli dragon that could get married and have a kid. In fact that was my first exposure to that meme so I thought it came from that.

It also had Tharja but even I can't hate on her. Everyone's got a weakness.
 
rosetherosiest

rosetherosiest

Member
Oct 31, 2017
150
United Kingdom
Yeah there were a few characters like that in the earlier games, but I think Awakening and Fates try to make too many characters appeal to certain niches which just makes their character designs a lot more 'anime looking' than they were before. I personally prefer the approach they had to character designs before Awakening/Fates, but I understand this is what made Fire Emblem actually popular so oh well.

Shadows of Valentia doesn't have that problem, yeah. I loved the designs in that game.

The thing is, you can only pick out a handful of characters like that in the earlier games. It's definitely more than a handful in Awakening/Fates.
 

Deleted member 249

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
28,828
It's fine when done in actual moderation, but Fates went overboard with it. You literally have incest, implied and otherwise, as a main plot point and gameplay mechanic.
 

Deleted member 48897

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 22, 2018
13,623
I remember listening to one of those weird touch minigames they dropped from the fates games or whatever and they started sounding like they were licking my ear or something -- and having the unstoppable, overwhelming urge to absolutely annihilate my earbuds, sources of demonic evil that they had become
 
Apollo

Apollo

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
8,090
I think Awakening and Fates lean too hard into it, yeah. And it's more than just the designs (though they are certainly part of it). The huge emphasis on supports and marriage and children naturally lends itself to shipping discussions, so it's not surprise that a lot of the discussion surrounding these games has a big focus on waifus and husbandos.

I think they're still good games though.
 
Piscus

Piscus

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,764
Running into Camilla's chest - complete with comical "boing" sound effect - was stupid af.
 
Kinsei

Kinsei

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
20,522
Kylo Rey said:
Same as FE on NES...?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
latest

latest

Yes, exactly the same /s.
 

Deleted member 249

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
28,828
Derrick01 said:
Awakening literally had a 1000 year old loli dragon that could get married and have a kid. In fact that was my first exposure to that meme so I thought it came from that.

It also had Tharja but even I can't hate on her. Everyone's got a weakness.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Same lol.
That said, on the whole, Awakening was mostly restrained with waifu pandering, Novi aside. They went overboard later.

Kylo Rey said:
Strange answer considering what is the most popular tv show in the 2010's
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Whataboutism is never a good counter-argument, just an FYI.
 
TrickyAssist

TrickyAssist

Banned
Nov 19, 2017
318
Yes, it's a problem. The difference in the older games is that they just happened to be "cute". The newer games are horribly written. Almost all of the female characters are objectified to a point where they're literally just walking fetishes where their only traits are whatever fetish they are.(Older sister, little sister, tsundere, and so on.) You'll struggle to find many female characters past FE12 who are actually well written.

I will say that 3 Houses is looking much better in this department, though.
 
OP
OP
Kylo Rey

Kylo Rey

Banned
Dec 17, 2017
3,442
rosetherosiest said:
You weren't told to marry that dragon to someone to have future babies then, though.
She was also significantly more clothed.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Because they create the support conversation on SNES (i think?). So of course...
I can assure at 100% that one of the Black Fang member on the GBA game would have a huge cleavage if the game would be remake ...
 
GinoFelino

GinoFelino

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,234
Kylo Rey said:
Seeing a cleavage distract you? :o
So what now? Every characters need to be Tanith? (and i like Tanith)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Neah, don't use that defense trope. But most of the characters in Fire Emblem are designed for male consumption, and such blatant fan service is, to me, out of place in Nintendo's best tactical RPG series.
 
daybreak

daybreak

Member
Feb 28, 2018
2,415
The GBA Fire Emblem titles are some of my favourite games of all time. Awakening was okay provided I ignored all of the marriage/kids stuff, but I couldn't even get an hour into Fates.

My biggest wish is that the titles would go back to the artstyle and character design of the GBA titles and focus on tactical gameplay, rather than fanservice character designs and weird marriage/kids functionality.
 
OP
OP
Kylo Rey

Kylo Rey

Banned
Dec 17, 2017
3,442
TrickyAssist said:
Yes, it's a problem. The difference in the older games is that they just happened to be "cute". The newer games are horribly written. Almost all of the female characters are objectified to a point where they're literally just walking fetishes where their only traits are whatever fetish they are.(Older sister, little sister, tsundere, and so on.) You'll struggle to find many female characters past FE12 who are actually well written.

I will say that 3 Houses is looking much better in this department, though.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Lucina is a great character and the main face of FE now... (i think?).
 
Disclaimer

Disclaimer

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,467
Yes.

Heroes fetishizes minors in wedding dresses, for god's sake. With any luck, those impulses are quarantined to Heroes with Maeda in charge there.

Women and minors were pervasively objectified in the 3DS era of the series. Not only in their outfits, which were laughable, but in game mechanics as well, allowing you to wed fully grown adults to children. It's disgusting and unnecessary.

Three Houses' designs are blessedly respectful so far — hopefully they remain so.
 

Deleted member 249

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
28,828
The weird thing is, something like Echoes shows us that you can have in game romances in a modern Fire Emblem game without the gross excesses of Fates. Sadly I don't know if they will go for something like that, given how much more popular Fates is.
 
Hu3

Hu3

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,577
yes op it has a waifu problem its literal pandering in the latest fire emblem games. if you don't believe it is because you don't want to see it. that's a line where clearly you can divide new and old fans. new fans are drawn in because of the waifu pandering, and the promise of "shipping" characters together also you can have children with the npcs if I am correct.
 
Rayman not Ray

Rayman not Ray

Self-requested ban
Banned
Feb 27, 2018
1,486
It's bad storytelling plain and simple. It detracts from your ability to take the narrative seriously. It's at odds with any attempt to tell a war story. And it's 100% gotten worse.
 
Jintor

Jintor

Saw the truth behind the copied door
Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,407
I'm less dismayed by the waifu pandering than I am that characters largely feel... not interchangable, but kind of compartmentalised?
 
Axisofweevils

Axisofweevils

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,836
Nope. It's why the game came back from the brink. Fire Emblem was a dead series until then. Awakening was the last chance. The fan service saved the series.

This isn't rocket science. Just look at who keeps topping the fave character polls.
 

Deleted member 5545

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
942
I'm not really sure what drives the desire and enjoyment in shipping characters anyway. Like, I literally don't get what's fun about that

Just seems so divorced from why I play video games
 
OP
OP
Kylo Rey

Kylo Rey

Banned
Dec 17, 2017
3,442
Hu3 said:
yes op it has a waifu problem its literal pandering in the latest fire emblem games. if you don't believe it is because you don't want to see it. that's a line where clearly you can divide new and old fans. new fans are drawn in because of the waifu pandering, and the promise of "shipping" characters together also you can have children with the npcs if I am correct.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I play FE since GBA.

Peff said:
So... you do agree that modern FE has a problem with sexualization?

Is this a work?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Well...irf you want me to be clear, i'm against the trope on resetera that 3 Houses will be ignored because Fates was oversexualised. i'm against that false assumption about FE being an "hentai tactical game" given how FE Echoes was.
 

Syril

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,895
I certainly don't know of any character designs pre-Awakening that are sexualized to the degree they are currently.
 

Deleted member 8593

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
27,176
I mean I really like Fates but aside from the fact the fact that the story is complete nonsense, it has a lot of family/relationship stuff that sort of gets in the way of the larger narrative...

...and it has stuff like this:

irruWJC.jpg


With extremely annoying pandering. Conquest was one of the best entries they made in a while and it felt like they went out of their way to make that entry as obnoxious as possible. The designs of the female characters are actually mostly fine. It's just that these outliers drag down the experience considerably.
 
Schnee

Schnee

Member
Oct 25, 2017
649
I hope they take more from SoV and don't have a bunch of forced marriages when maxing supports.
Men and Women can have a strong relationship without actually marrying.

Rayman not Ray said:
It's bad storytelling plain and simple. It detracts from your ability to take the narrative seriously. It's at odds with any attempt to tell a war story. And it's 100% gotten worse.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

It worked in Awakening, because time travel and changing the future was an actual plot point.
But Fates was just stupid with the Hyperbolic Baby Dimension crap.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.