Hey everyone! A while ago I made a survey about classes, skills, and overall design in Fire Emblem games, with a total of 19 questions.
A total of 90 people replied to the survey! I wanted to get to 100 people, but there wasn’t enough interest. But still, I’m glad so many of you took the time to reply.
And now, I’ve compiled the results, and I’m sharing them with all of you here.
Without further ado, here are the results:
.
The following 2 were optional questions with text answers. I will add only the most relevant answers here. These responses were submitted anonymously.
(OPTIONAL) Based on your previous answer (Which do you think is the best weapon type for a lord to use)… WHY do you think the weapon type you picked is good on a Lord-type unit? Please specify the weapon type in your answer
Swords. I think it comes down to how fire emblem design in general where axes and swords feel more abundant than lances, so your lord will rarely be fighting at a disadvantage. But even uf they are, those enemies are likely to be knights or cavaliers which the rapier can deal with
I picked sword because I’m used to it lol. It feels like the classic starting point and I’m used to taking it into account during deployment. It’s definitely great if they earn access to another weapon, even if it’s promotion locked but not a necessity.
Staff Lord would be funny, and probably make for a unique gameplay experience, needing a particular character who can’t fight to do things like Seize or be force-deployed on all maps. They should probably get a real weapon type upon promotion, though, or it’d probably be okay for them to even have a second weapon type at base, but still, I’d like to see a Staff lord.
Lances- It’s a good weapon for all rounders, Axe users struggle to hit and sword users struggle to do dammage and can’t attack at 2 range most of the time. A lance lord is a soldier with all the bad points removed.
Light tomes hit a typically lower res stat and commonly have critical built into them. Makes a nice clutch factor. Kinda why I made the lord in my hack have that.
Dark tome has high dmg and also tome in general have a built in 1-2 range so they can counter archers and other mages (unlike other sword, lance and axe lords who need different wepons to do a 1-2 range attack)
Tomes in general, while already having the flexibility of innate 1-2 range that targets resistance by default, can also be tweaked and twisted around in a variety of ways to make a main character have interesting and unique functionalities. Such flexibility for creative design choices can also help complement a variety of different intended stat spreads for the lord, ensuring they can actually feel good to use on the battlefield and not just an eventual liability/seize bot.
Axes: 1-2 range, strong. Lord usually has many quick supports which can offset any hit issues quite fast.
.
(OPTIONAL) What changes to the class system would YOU make? Elaborate below
I am just a big fan of 3rd tier classes! Its always great to still have a change mechanism by the end of the game and new animations, keeps everything fresh! Was one of the best things in Code of the black knight for me
Engage’s class system is basically my optimal class system, just prefer more skills to be gained from them like Fates.
Having a variety of classes that are able to stand out with their own unique distinct traits, be it through stat caps differences, weapon options available, etc. “Reduidant” classes (functionally identical to certain regular classes, just with fancier names/animations) should be done very sparingly and only for very specific, plot relevant characters; having class bloat for the sake of it leads to unneeded redudancy. Class stats should play in a way to support their weapons of choice to a good extent; knowing the strengths of each weapon type greatly helps in deciding the class’s strengths and weaknesses. Giving special quirks/features (access to special weapon types, skills etc) to classes that might otherwise be outclasses by other classes with superior stats/caps also helps make sure that particular units don’t feel bad to use because of their choice of class.
Cavaliers are weird, I feel like they should have Tellian Canto but shouldn’t be able to double in exchange.
The class system is fine. Keep it simple. What the heck does personal or class skill mean? Personal skill is Fates personals? Or just skills that come with a character? Class skill is skill that come with a class? Or a skill learned through level up while in that class? What kind of skill would one gained from an event or consumable item be? I would keep skills to be things that are unique traits of a character. Skills that are just basic attributes of a class (such as Canto, Steal, Dance, …) don’t need to be skills.
Free reclassing homogenizes the cast, which ends up pretty boring
In general I think the GBA (Particularly FE8) handled classes and promotions pretty well, I don’t like the recent trend of infinite customizability. However, I recently played through Dark Deity, and the one aspect of their class system I really liked was having classes change growths (this might be something in the more recent FEs, can’t remember though). I don’t know how that’d be implemented, though.
I also don’t like promotion items all that much, even the Master Seals. I think the ideal way to do it would be to make promotions free, and at lower levels, in case benched units need to be brought up to speed, and something that’s handled at a base or in the prep screen rather than in-combat.
…
And that concludes the results of the survey! If you didn’t vote on the initial survey, what do YOU think about these questions?
I fully encourage everyone to continue the discussion in this thread, and you can also ask me any questions about the survey process itself.
And thanks to everyone who submitted their answers!