Fire Emblem: Awakening- Did you pair up characters for the stats? Or to fufill your otp dreams.

[Dragonbums]

Recently played and finished my first Fire Emblem game, and I must say I am very glad I took the plunge and bought the game.
Most JRPG's have bored the living socks off of me and I suspected Fire Emblem to be the same. However the game took me by surprise by having me glued to the screen for hours on end. It even took me away from Animal Crossing.
One of the things I like about the game are the characters and their burst of personality and quirks, the story, and most of all the relationship system.
While I am disappointed in the fact that you cannot do homosexual relationships.(and I have quite a few for the characters in this game.) Overall you can tell the dev team put a lot of heart into making each combination and their resulting kids and unique and interesting as possible.

I know that since each kid- depending on you married who, will not only have a class similar to the parents, but also an ability not found in said class- some people only have the characters marry another that will benefit their units.

Others like me however paired up characters based on my own personal shipping prefernces. I plan on playing the game again to see what different combinations I can get.

So Awakening owners- How do you feel about the relationship system?
If it's for shipping purposes, who is your favorite pair up and why?

 

[Eduku]

On my hard mode playthroughs, difficulty wasn't really an issue, so I paired up characters that I liked or those I thought 'fit' together nicely, despite what children they might produce.

For example, I always paired up Stahl and Sully because they fit perfectly as the 'Bull and Panther' cavaliers that every Fire Emblem game has. I also paired up Virion and Panne because their relationship reminded me of Jaime and Brienne's relationship in Game of Thrones - the stoic woman and the cocky man who turns out to have good intentions if you explore their backstory.

On my lunatic playthrough, however, I'm leaning towards more optimal gameplay pairings simply because the much increased difficulty demands it.

 

[Dragonbums]

On my hard mode playthroughs, difficulty wasn't really an issue, so I paired up characters that I liked or those I thought 'fit' together nicely, despite what children they might produce.

For example, I always paired up Stahl and Sully because they fit perfectly as the 'Bull and Panther' cavaliers that every Fire Emblem game has. I also paired up Virion and Panne because their relationship reminded me of Jaime and Brienne's relationship in Game of Thrones - the stoic woman and the cocky man who turns out to have good intentions if you explore their backstory.

On my lunatic playthrough, however, I'm leaning towards more optimal gameplay pairings simply because the much increased difficulty demands it.

I played on casual no perma-death mode.

Very glad I did.
Because if my first play trough was anything to go by- I'd probably would be down to 2 characters(the ones who can't die) within the first hour of the game.

My personal ships was Lon'quo and Cherche. Honestly I don't know why on that one. However they had a really cool looking Robin Hood kid that was all tough and brooding on the outside yet was as sweet as pie on the inside.( That wyvern Minerva is absolutely spoiled to death.)
Also both the parents had an interesting back story. Especially Lon'quo who was still suffering from failing to protect that girl from long ago.

I paired my character up with Frederick the Knight.
Chrom with Sumia. (they had the best proposal. "somewhere along the sixth or seventh pie I thought there is no other women I want to spend my life with.")

I...think I made a mistake with Vaike and Cordellia though...to be honest Vaike and Lon'quo if the game permitted would of been my gay pairing, however based on what Vaike's kid says to Cordellia in the recruit mission(which apparently I was supposed to wait for the girl to talk to the kid before I killed the general before I can recruit them.)all Cordellia ever talked about was Chrom.

I accidentally married Panne and Ricky together. I was under the illusion that their status wouldn't go past A...perhaps next time I should check before I initiate the talk option. Granted their kid was very enjoyable.

I can go on about this, but basically I just paired for personal reasons.

 

[Eduku]

I played on casual no perma-death mode.

Very glad I did.
Because if my first play trough was anything to go by- I'd probably would be down to 2 characters(the ones who can't die) within the first hour of the game.

Ha, perma-death mode isn't for everyone. I don't play on casual mode mode because I feel it cheapens my strategy, but I certainly welcome it as it's brought in a lot more new players.

My personal ships was Lon'quo and Cherche. Honestly I don't know why on that one. However they had a really cool looking Robin Hood kid that was all tough and brooding on the outside yet was as sweet as pie on the inside.

Many FE fans refer to him as Batman. You get bonus points if you pair Cherche with the right person and reclass Gerome into a Dark Knight.

I...think I made a mistake with Vaike and Cordellia though...to be honest Vaike and Lon'quo if the game permitted would of been my gay pairing, however based on what Vaike's kid says to Cordellia in the recruit mission(which apparently I was supposed to wait for the girl to talk to the kid before I killed the general before I can recruit them.)all Cordellia ever talked about was Chrom.

No matter who you pair her with, Cordelia will still always talk about Chrom. She's a 'Catria' archetype, named after the pegasus knight who was in love with Marth, but could never be with him, hence why Cordelia can never support with Chrom.

 

[sextus the crazy]

So Awakening owners- How do you feel about the relationship system?

I'm glad that they brought it back, even if only for this game. It's a cool aspect and it's better balanced than FE4's was (just ponder that for a moment). Plus having unlimited A supports makes accessing all of the games plot content more convenient.

If it's for shipping purposes, who is your favorite pair up and why?

Cynthia X Owain. Really, it was fucking obvious. HEROES 4 LYFE

 

[hazabaza1]

Okay, as someone who's never played Awakening, this whole kids thing confused me. Do you play some kind of medieval matchmaker? Do certain characters have particular chemistry? Is it possible to put any heterosexual pair together? When they have kids, do you have to raise them, or do they just pop out as adults ready to wreck shit? Are the kids unique characters too? Can they fuck?

 

[Eduku]

Okay, as someone who's never played Awakening, this whole kids thing confused me. Do you play some kind of medieval matchmaker? Do certain characters have particular chemistry? Is it possible to put any heterosexual pair together? When they have kids, do you have to raise them, or do they just pop out as adults ready to wreck shit? Are the kids unique characters too? Can they fuck?

If you've played a Fire Emblem before, you'll probably be aware of the support system, where characters become friendlier with each other the longer they fight in adjacent spaces in battle. Awakening basically has an expanded version of that - characters have the usual A, B, C support levels with certain other characters. But some can go to S support level with certain characters of the opposite gender, which is basically marriage, meaning that they will have a child. The child is a separate unique character who inherits certain stats and class options from the parents, meaning that they can end up having very powerful skill, stat and class combinations if you pair them up right.

As for how it works in terms of the storyline, I can't completely explain because of spoiler reasons, but

Spoiler

it involves time travel.

 

[hazabaza1]

Okay, as someone who's never played Awakening, this whole kids thing confused me. Do you play some kind of medieval matchmaker? Do certain characters have particular chemistry? Is it possible to put any heterosexual pair together? When they have kids, do you have to raise them, or do they just pop out as adults ready to wreck shit? Are the kids unique characters too? Can they fuck?

If you've played a Fire Emblem before, you'll probably be aware of the support system, where characters become friendlier with each other the longer they fight in adjacent spaces in battle. Awakening basically has an expanded version of that - characters have the usual A, B, C support levels with certain other characters. But some can go to S support level with certain characters of the opposite gender, which is basically marriage, meaning that they will have a child. The child is a separate unique character who inherits certain stats and class options from the parents, meaning that they can end up having very powerful skill, stat and class combinations if you pair them up right.

As for how it works in terms of the storyline, I can't completely explain because of spoiler reasons, but

Spoiler

it involves time travel.

I played Radiant Dawn. I don't remember making people stand next to one another, but I do recall some kind of optional mid-mission dialogue or somesuch.

As for the spoiler

Spoiler

Well that makes a bit more sense.
That's all I need to know, thanks. I'll save the rest for when I get it.

 

[Dragonbums]

Okay, as someone who's never played Awakening, this whole kids thing confused me. Do you play some kind of medieval matchmaker? Do certain characters have particular chemistry? Is it possible to put any heterosexual pair together? When they have kids, do you have to raise them, or do they just pop out as adults ready to wreck shit? Are the kids unique characters too? Can they fuck?

I'll try to explain this to you, but keep in mind to talk about the children aspect of the game I will have to spoil the story a bit.

Basically the relationship system is like this:

When in battle if you put two people together as a team constantly(aka a unit) said characters will begin to form a relationship with each other. The average range goes like this from lowest to highest- D C B A S.(for heterosexual couples only everything else only goes up to A) The higher in rank characters are to each other the more benefits they have in the field like +10 dodge or +5 strength. When two characters reach S rank they will get married.

This is the SPOILER WARNING so be wary.

In the game you do not have to take care of the children you produce in marriage. In fact, in the current timeline you play in- none of the characters have had children yet. The children you find in game have come from a grisly dark future, that came to the past in order to find their parents and prevent the chain of events that lead to their horrid future.

Each kid is very unique, and will either acquire a class from one of the two parents or in the case of the very few- have an entirely different class.
You can even go as far as to have marry said kids to either other adults in your unit that are not their parents or have them marry one of the other kids.(Keep in mind said kids are about the age of the main characters when they go to your time so it's not like they are children or anything.) Once you marry them though they WILL NOT give you a kid.
Each also have a different back stories depending on who you shipped who with.
They each will also have unique dialog regarding their parents and building their relationships. The basic premise usually is that (SPOILER ALERT) in their horrid future, all the main characters have been killed in some way or form and all the children have very little recollection of them aside from a ring the parents gave each other when they married.

Also there is no fucking.

 

[Dragonbums]

So Awakening owners- How do you feel about the relationship system?

I'm glad that they brought it back, even if only for this game. It's a cool aspect and it's better balanced than FE4's was (just ponder that for a moment). Plus having unlimited A supports makes accessing all of the games plot content more convenient.

If it's for shipping purposes, who is your favorite pair up and why?

Cynthia X Owain. Really, it was fucking obvious. HEROES 4 LYFE

I am now a Fire Emblem fan thanks to this game.(My first FE game)

Also,I had no clue they did this before. I guess the reason why they didn't do it up until now because this was supposedly the last FE game before the franchise gets shut down if they couldn't sell 250k copies of the game worldwide.
So they really put their hearts into it and did what they always wanted with the game.

 

[hazabaza1]

Okay, as someone who's never played Awakening, this whole kids thing confused me. Do you play some kind of medieval matchmaker? Do certain characters have particular chemistry? Is it possible to put any heterosexual pair together? When they have kids, do you have to raise them, or do they just pop out as adults ready to wreck shit? Are the kids unique characters too? Can they fuck?

I'll try to explain this to you, but keep in mind to talk about the children aspect of the game I will have to spoil the story a bit.

Basically the relationship system is like this:

When in battle if you put two people together as a team constantly(aka a unit) said characters will begin to form a relationship with each other. The average range goes like this from lowest to highest- D C B A S.(for heterosexual couples only everything else only goes up to A) The higher in rank characters are to each other the more benefits they have in the field like +10 dodge or +5 strength. When two characters reach S rank they will get married.

Trying to avoid major spoilers so I didn't read the rest, but I think I get the gist of it now. Interesting mechanic, to say the least.

 

[Dragonbums]

Okay, as someone who's never played Awakening, this whole kids thing confused me. Do you play some kind of medieval matchmaker? Do certain characters have particular chemistry? Is it possible to put any heterosexual pair together? When they have kids, do you have to raise them, or do they just pop out as adults ready to wreck shit? Are the kids unique characters too? Can they fuck?

I'll try to explain this to you, but keep in mind to talk about the children aspect of the game I will have to spoil the story a bit.

Basically the relationship system is like this:

When in battle if you put two people together as a team constantly(aka a unit) said characters will begin to form a relationship with each other. The average range goes like this from lowest to highest- D C B A S.(for heterosexual couples only everything else only goes up to A) The higher in rank characters are to each other the more benefits they have in the field like +10 dodge or +5 strength. When two characters reach S rank they will get married.

Trying to avoid major spoilers so I didn't read the rest, but I think I get the gist of it now. Interesting mechanic, to say the least.

It is quite enjoyable.
Especially considering how each character is unique to the parents. Which I'm very certain involved countless hours and countless combination possibilities to take into consideration.

 

[Eduku]

Okay, as someone who's never played Awakening, this whole kids thing confused me. Do you play some kind of medieval matchmaker? Do certain characters have particular chemistry? Is it possible to put any heterosexual pair together? When they have kids, do you have to raise them, or do they just pop out as adults ready to wreck shit? Are the kids unique characters too? Can they fuck?

If you've played a Fire Emblem before, you'll probably be aware of the support system, where characters become friendlier with each other the longer they fight in adjacent spaces in battle. Awakening basically has an expanded version of that - characters have the usual A, B, C support levels with certain other characters. But some can go to S support level with certain characters of the opposite gender, which is basically marriage, meaning that they will have a child. The child is a separate unique character who inherits certain stats and class options from the parents, meaning that they can end up having very powerful skill, stat and class combinations if you pair them up right.

As for how it works in terms of the storyline, I can't completely explain because of spoiler reasons, but

Spoiler

it involves time travel.

I played Radiant Dawn. I don't remember making people stand next to one another, but I do recall some kind of optional mid-mission dialogue or somesuch.

Oh, Radiant Dawn had a very barebones version of the support system compared to other games, it was one of the main complaints of the game. In a lot of other versions, characters will have full conversations with each other if they fight next to each other enough times, which is one of the primary ways that you actually find out about their backstories and personalities. I'd explain the nuances of it, but it seems that's already been done for you anyway.

 

[Eduku]

It is quite enjoyable.
Especially considering how each character is unique to the parents. Which I'm very certain involved countless hours and countless combination possibilities to take into consideration.

Just a heads up, every child character is unique only to their mother, so they will stay the same no matter who their father is, so don't be expecting a completely different child if you pair a female character up differently on another playthrough - Cherche will always be Gerome's mother no matter who the father is. The children do inherit their father's hair colour though (with the exception of female Morgan, who has her mother's hair colour).

 

[Dragonbums]

It is quite enjoyable.
Especially considering how each character is unique to the parents. Which I'm very certain involved countless hours and countless combination possibilities to take into consideration.

Just a heads up, every child character is unique only to their mother, so they will stay the same no matter who their father is, so don't be expecting a completely different child if you pair a female character up differently on another playthrough - Cherche will always be Gerome's mother no matter who the father is. The children do inherit their father's hair colour though (with the exception of female Morgan, who has her mother's hair colour).

My bad. I guess I was under that assumption because my characters kid is nothing really like a tactition and Sully and Virion's kid are an entirely different class. (I'm assuming in the upgrade you can make her a mount?)

 

[Kaxbe]

I did two "ship" playthroughs. One with the female MU and the other with the male MU. On my third and fourth playthroughs I went a more insane route going more for stats and skills.

For example, in my first playthrough with the male MU, I had him marry Panne and Chrom married Sumia. I would reach A rank with in as many combinations as possible before deciding on an S rank for each female character. This had me ending up with the following combinations as my favorites:
Olivia and Virion
Maribelle and Ricken/Gaius
Cordelia and Lon'qu
Lissa and Henry (Henry paired with Cordelia on second playthrough)
Tharja and Libra/Gaius
Miriel and Frederick/Lon'qu
Nowi and Gregor/Henry
Panne and Gaius

 

[sextus the crazy]

I played Radiant Dawn.

If that's the only one you've played, as a Fire Emblem enthusiast, you have my condolences.

I am now a Fire Emblem fan thanks to this game.(My first FE game)

Also,I had no clue they did this before. I guess the reason why they didn't do it up until now because this was supposedly the last FE game before the franchise gets shut down if they couldn't sell 250k copies of the game worldwide.
So they really put their hearts into it and did what they always wanted with the game.

You're not the only one. Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War (FE4) was only released in Japan, so most people don't know about it. Awakening (FE13) actually combined a bunch of elements from various games in the series. It brought back the world map (FE2,8), My unit/Avatar (FE12), the barracks (FE12), Children units (FE4), split promotion trees (FE8), and prolly some other stuff I forgot. In addition, it brought triple weapon effectivity damage (as apposed to double in foreign releases) and Ambush spawning (enemies spawn at the beginning of their turn) on hard/lunatic from the japanese versions.

Because Shadow Dragon and New mystery of the emblem (JP-only) had weak sales, this was a great last ditch effort on IE's part. Therefore, they brought every thing fans liked from the games to awakening to attract sales and added DLC to improve the profit (believe me, the Japanese get fucked on the pricing).

BTW, if you're a fan. I'd check out Fire Emblem (GBA 2003, also known as FE7, or Fire Emblem: Blazing sword/ Rekka no ken), Path of Radiance (GC), and after some experience, Geneology (FE4) and the balls-hard Thracia 776 (FE5, Geneology's midquel).

Also, go to serenesforest.net for an excellent resource.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

I paired people up for shits and giggles rather than stats. My pairings went as thus.

Spoiler

Chrom and Sumia - Almost certainly canon. Heck, the opening CG cutscene obviously is showing Sumia with an infant Lucina. even Lucina supports with Cynthia seem to hint more strongly towards them being siblings than most.

Avatar and Tharja - Probably also extremely close to canon. Tharja is also utterly hilarious. With the confession especially I couldn't help but wonder if my Avatar was thinking "Should I run in terror or just tie myself to the bed?" Plus I'm also a fan of her voice actress.

Lissa and Lon'qu - Actually the closest I believe to being canonical, mostly due to the obvious Navarre and Lena archetype going on

Sully and Virion - He hits on her within SECONDS of meeting her. How can I deny the archerest of archers his goal?

Vaike and Panne - Kinda made sense since Vaike was never one to give a shit about people's standing or even race.

Miriel and Kellam - Dear lord, Miriel can analyze ANYTHING

Maribelle and Frederick - Fewer things are funnier than seeing Frederick try to gauge Brady.

Cordelia and Stahl - Actually very touching due to Stahl trying so hard to get her attention by learning to play music with her

Nowi and Donnel - This one was more due to Donnel absolutely INSANE skill that gave him incredible growths. Nah was a BEAST on the battlefield because of it.

Olivia and Gaius - HILARIOUS, plus considering Gaius totally macking on Olivia in this pairing it actually makes logical sense that Inigo would inherit that.

Cherche and Libra - Very funny one due to Libra trying to communicate with Cherche's wyvern.

 

[Dragonbums]

I played Radiant Dawn.

If that's the only one you've played, as a Fire Emblem enthusiast, you have my condolences.

I am now a Fire Emblem fan thanks to this game.(My first FE game)

Also,I had no clue they did this before. I guess the reason why they didn't do it up until now because this was supposedly the last FE game before the franchise gets shut down if they couldn't sell 250k copies of the game worldwide.
So they really put their hearts into it and did what they always wanted with the game.

You're not the only one. Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War (FE4) was only released in Japan, so most people don't know about it. Awakening (FE13) actually combined a bunch of elements from various games in the series. It brought back the world map (FE2,8), My unit/Avatar (FE12), the barracks (FE12), Children units (FE4), split promotion trees (FE8), and prolly some other stuff I forgot. In addition, it brought triple weapon effectivity damage (as apposed to double in foreign releases) and Ambush spawning (enemies spawn at the beginning of their turn) on hard/lunatic from the japanese versions.

Because Shadow Dragon and New mystery of the emblem (JP-only) had weak sales, this was a great last ditch effort on IE's part. Therefore, they brought every thing fans liked from the games to awakening to attract sales and added DLC to improve the profit (believe me, the Japanese get fucked on the pricing).

BTW, if you're a fan. I'd check out Fire Emblem (GBA 2003, also known as FE7, or Fire Emblem: Blazing sword/ Rekka no ken), Path of Radiance (GC), and after some experience, Geneology (FE4) and the balls-hard Thracia 776 (FE5, Geneology's midquel).

Also, go to serenesforest.net for an excellent resource.

I will def check those out.
It's very hard to get me into JRPG and FE not only interested me, but got me hooked day in and day out until the end of the game.
On that note I really wish e-shop will cater to GBA games. Those were my real nostalgia pieces there.

 

[Dragonbums]

I played Radiant Dawn.

If that's the only one you've played, as a Fire Emblem enthusiast, you have my condolences.

I am now a Fire Emblem fan thanks to this game.(My first FE game)

Also,I had no clue they did this before. I guess the reason why they didn't do it up until now because this was supposedly the last FE game before the franchise gets shut down if they couldn't sell 250k copies of the game worldwide.
So they really put their hearts into it and did what they always wanted with the game.

You're not the only one. Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War (FE4) was only released in Japan, so most people don't know about it. Awakening (FE13) actually combined a bunch of elements from various games in the series. It brought back the world map (FE2,8), My unit/Avatar (FE12), the barracks (FE12), Children units (FE4), split promotion trees (FE8), and prolly some other stuff I forgot. In addition, it brought triple weapon effectivity damage (as apposed to double in foreign releases) and Ambush spawning (enemies spawn at the beginning of their turn) on hard/lunatic from the japanese versions.

Because Shadow Dragon and New mystery of the emblem (JP-only) had weak sales, this was a great last ditch effort on IE's part. Therefore, they brought every thing fans liked from the games to awakening to attract sales and added DLC to improve the profit (believe me, the Japanese get fucked on the pricing).

BTW, if you're a fan. I'd check out Fire Emblem (GBA 2003, also known as FE7, or Fire Emblem: Blazing sword/ Rekka no ken), Path of Radiance (GC), and after some experience, Geneology (FE4) and the balls-hard Thracia 776 (FE5, Geneology's midquel).

Also, go to serenesforest.net for an excellent resource.

On that note, I am curious as to why so many FE fans were upset about Nintendo thinking of shutting down FE permanently.
As you said, the games were selling less and less, and they were becoming of lesser quality.

And honestly, if a game cannot even meet the low bar goal of 250k worldwide, then I too would think about closing down the franchise for good.