I got the chance to play FEW yesterday, I played about 4 or 5 maps but it gave ne enough to talk about it.
I've put some serious time in it by now and wanted to say - pretty much wholeheartedly agree with your criticisms. I love the game, but its roster got some serious issues.
Didn't want to quote the whole post because it's kind of a monster. Did have a few more bits to add though and I'll quote those:
Because the clones are literal 1-by-1 clones: they don't have different strong attacks or even different stats, they all control the same. Hell, Sakura even had a wind based attack from Takumi and Lucina felt just as heavy as Chrom. Only their A-Special was different but that doesn't mean much. I didn't play with Leo or any of the Pegasus but I'm willing to bet they're the exact same.
If they're on a non-flying horse, they got a whole different feel. Frederick, Xander, and Leo all play pretty differently to anyone else sharing their weapon type.
The pegasi, on the other hand, felt interchangeable. Kind of the same vibe you were getting from Sakura/Takumi and Lucina/Chrom, I got from Hinoka/Cordelia.
It also becomes a headscratcher because if they're just gonna clone half the roster, why couldn't they add more characters and separate them by class?
I'm guessing some mix of story focus, cost of modelling and animating assets, paying VAs. Maybe to keep some kind of tension in the roster? Losing a character has a little bit of weight to it, even with so many redundancies.
There's probably some reason; I don't see a
good one really other than perhaps the almighty dollar dollar bill.
Also, even with the stupid DLC, we still don't have a single armored unit, no mounted lances, no Fighters, no Mercs, no Assassins and not a single villain.
Lot of holes here but I'm real cynical about any of them actually getting filled.
No armor might stem from how those units tend to get treated in FE as bulky, slow monsters. Think that'd feel awkward in a musou, although it doesn't stop NB from speeding them up anyway.
No fighters or mercs may have been a product of focus. They're mission critical to most FE games but they don't get actually get a lot of limelight with the major plot of most FE stories outside of a map or two. With the stories they're focusing on they don't even have major characters to work with in those departments - they're usually just some kind of footsoldiers that have their own little stories but work for the primary lord. And while you could argue that this didn't stop Oboro or Jakob, it's hard to argue in favor of any of the fighters or mercs in Fates in a similar breath. I mean I'd love it if Arthur got in too, personally, but I know my odds.
Mounted lances are pretty similar, except that we have some slightly bigger names in the plot. Frederick is a thing, but he's got an axe. I guess Jagen, Marcus, and Gunter fill similar roles in games we've got characters for. But I'll believe they're even
thinking about those three when I see a gameplay trailer.
Let's be real here. No Assassins really just means no Jaffar. If there ain't no Hector, there
won't be no Jaffar.
Not a single villain baffled me too, but I guess I'm coming off of HW as the only other musou I've played for any length and we got all of em there. Couldn't tell you if that's usual or not.
And honestly I think Olivia and possibly Minerva will get new movesets. There's really no character on the roster who'd fit Olivia's sword style, for example.
I'll agree on Olivia, but I feel it's way more likely than not that Minerva will crib from Camilla.
