The Two Mechanics That Need To Die

The Two Mechanics I Never Want To See Ever Again in Fire Emblem:

My Unit

                  Back when my blog was first starting out I made a post specifically about why I do not like My Unit as a mechanic. You can read it here: http://thecrusadergrant.blogspot.com/2016/03/my-unit.html

                    While I still hold those sentiments for the most part there is something else I would like to add to that. My Units are also bad for the gameplay of the games they’re in. They’re always dominant on the battlefield, so much so that everyone else more often than not look pretty scrubby by comparison. Robin is usually put in the same tier as Sigurd in terms of being disgustingly overpowered. Kris (the My Unit of FE 12) is usually pretty close to Robin in terms of sheer dominance and Corrin is also ridiculously good. So basically, My Unit is a travesty to the storytelling, characterization and gameplay of whatever game they happen to be in.

S rank supports and the Second Generation Mechanic

                 The other mechanic that needs to die a thousand deaths are the S rank supports and the Second Generation Mechanic. S rank supports are usually poorly written to the point of being comical or jarring and can have the effect of reducing the cast to fetish fuel. One moment two characters will talk about pies, the next moment they’re getting married. Supports were better when they were limited. That way the writers didn’t have the burden of having to write anywhere near as many lines of dialogue so they could focus more on character building. Then you add the fact that My Unit, the character who is supposed to be the player, can bang virtually any member of the cast and it turns into something that resembles the remains of Edward and Alphonse’s mother after their failed transmutation of her.

                             As far as children go, Holy War is the only game that did it right. In Holy War the children have a valid, justifiable reason to exist in the narrative of the game and the mechanics are even better too since your choices matter a great deal more than in Awakening or Fates. In Awakening you could argue that there’s at least some justification for having children since time travel is a thing. Unfortunately this causes problems but that at least makes A LOT more sense than the stupid hyperbolic time chamber that Fates brought up. It seems like the only reason why Fates implemented the children mechanic is because Awakening had it and people liked that about Awakening.

                              At this point I’m not sure how else you could implement the children mechanic without copying a different game. The only thing I could think of is to have a timeskip similar to how Holy War did it where both generations coexist. This would cause a lot of balancing issues though and even then it still would be really similar to how Awakening did it. While it’s fun to come up with optimal child builds it can get old after you do it enough and generally speaking I think there are more interesting mechanics to explore.