My Mechanics List Part 6

10 Mechanics That Should Be Gone in Future Games List

# 6 - Reclassing

I’m going to switch things up a little bit in this post and start with the mechanic I want to see gone first. The reasoning behind this will be made clear in a moment. So...reclassing. Reclassing is a mechanic that is often hated by a large number of Fire Emblem fans and often for good reason. Reclassing does not have a good effect on the games it’s in. For one thing it homogenizes units to the point where unit uniqueness tends to fall by the wayside. Another problem with reclassing is that in Awakening it turned the game into a grindfest, encouraging the player to prioritize skills and stats over tactics and strategy. Reclassing in Fates suffered a similar problem to Awakening, although not to the same degree. One problem unique to Fates was how convoluted it was. First you have the Master and Heart Seals. Then you have a  Friendship Seal, which lets you “change to your A+ Rank partner’s base class”.The Partner Seal is the S rank equivalent of the Friendship Seal (why couldn’t these seals combine?) Then you have an Offspring Seal which let your children promote and adjust their stats. Personally, I think Fates should have just stuck to the good ole Master and Second Seal bit that Awakening had going for it. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.   

                                    Another problem with reclassing was its negative impact on the balance of the game. It either breaks the game due to being able to reclass to a powerful class, or being able to get powerful skills that the game isn’t ready for, or the difficulty designs itself around reclassing and the end result is that reclassing becomes a necessity so the player is practically forced to use it. Either way it made the game less fun to play.

To be fair, there are people who argue that reclassing has strategic value. Some people will say that in the DS remakes the different weapon ranks, base stats and growths were enough to keep certain units different from one another. Another point I’ve seen made in reclassing’s favor is that units can “ fulfill roles that you wouldn't have been able to do in the original games.” (Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/4e1oxj/what_are_your_opinions_of_reclassing_in_fire/#bottom-comments)

                               Bytheway, that last quote was made by dondon151. Yeah, dondon likes reclassing. At the very least he likes how reclassing was implemented in FE 11 & 12. I’m not sure if he’s played Awakening and Fates though. I’m not entirely convinced by the arguments made in reclassing’s defense, but I have to admit there may be some truth to reclassing’s merits when it comes to the DS remakes. The way reclassing was done in the 3DS games is enough to get me to really dislike it though, hence it’s inclusion on this list at # 6. However, I can think of 5 other mechanics that are far, far worse than this one. You might be asking what I’d use as an alternative to reclassing. Well I’m glad you asked because my alternative would be…

# 6 - Branched Promotions

Yep. Branched Promotions is my alternative to reclassing. Another major defense some people may bring up when discussing reclassing is that it adds replayability. Branched promotions can offer replayability too without any of the drawbacks caused by reclassing. In the link I posted (or was it the other FE Reddit thread? I forget) Branched Promotions were criticized on the basis that one class is usually better than the other which then makes the choice relatively moot. While there is some degree of truth in here, the problem is that I could say the same thing about reclassing. In general there’s a better class to reclass to for most units then they’re other options so that’s not a point that’s unique to branched promotions. Also, branched promotions don’t have the baggage and drawbacks reclassing does so I’d still consider branch promotions to be a superior mechanic. There’s also another solution when it comes to branched promotion: Find a way for each class to contribute something and make the unit worthwhile in all of them. Think Tobin and Kliff from Shadows of Valentia, but on a bigger and better scale.

Personally I’ve been interested in combined third tiers and branched promotions and seeing what comes of that. Ideally every unit gets 3 choices for promotion and whatever second tier they choose they get that third tier option when the time comes of that. Or if you want to get more complicated you could still add branches to the second tier class, which could make for some insane replayability options. Either way, it’d be really cool to see.

                                  So to sum it up: Branched Promotions give you replayability value while remaining far more balanced than reclassing. I would also argue that the player’s choices tend to matter more with branched promotions because you’re forced to stick with whatever choice you make, as opposed to reclassing which can be changed at virtually any time the player wants the change to happen. If you want to spice things up even further give every unit 3 “branches” to promote to and add third tiers and now you’ve got something going.