You're aware enough with my misgivings with the Plinkett Emblem series. Poor faith criticism hiding behind the CinemaSins veneer to throw stones for stone-throwing's sake. And to your credit, the humor was probably clearer for those who created it than those who consumed it, but it felt like a fair bit of effort and work wasted on a ill delivered joke. That you went and revisited this subject with a bit more dignity is probably for the best, even if we probably aren't going to entirely see eye to eye. Reductionist views on theming and story purposes miss the mark here, even if we do agree on points of FE7's failure. Glad me ripping into FE5 for 2 hours was at least slightly productive.

Dorcas’s mutton never got poisoned. False advertising, bad game, 2.1/10

Fe7 is just a story bartre told to everyone during fe6

I'm starting to think this was all a plot to make me read the Banzai rant. I'll never get that time back.

If it was literally just a normal ass video series it would've been fine, it really was the voice changer and style that was just...yeah, hard on hearing.

imo the biggest differences between the plot failures of FE7 and the newer games are that FE7's plot holes are less obvious, and the game's solid character writing helps mask them better. As in, the plot contrivances in FE7 aren't as detrimental to the overall enjoyment of the game because other aspects of the writing are good. I think older games in general get away with more inconsistent storytelling because of how they're presented as well as player expectations. I'm going to be much more critical of a game released in 2020 vs. one in 2003 because of budgets, platforms, and overall expectations as a player at this time. While many of the criticisms were valid, the way it was presented didn't really make me sympathetic to your misgivings with them (I didn't care for the voice modulation, the style of humor, and how the criticisms were couched, to be specific). However, the Maeda video at the end was cathartic viewing and def the best part of the series. Thanks for revisiting and sharing thoughts a few years later.

Glad to know that my willing suspension of disbelief was not the only one to be tested in FE7.

Ya know I'd really like another story like Fe7 were instead of big army clashing on a field (build an army trust no one) it'd just be a group of friends goin' on an adventure.

I actually really found your analysis on FE7 fascinating, because I had always thought the plot was pretty solid, at least to the extent that the only plot hole I noticed was the name of Florina's pegasus. I did feel Lyn was vestigial in the main story, but I liked the character, so I didn't care that she was basically "along for the ride." But my favorite thing about it might be your last video where you discussed the difference in vision between the previous writer and the newer one. It explains so much, and I can see that change, even between Binding Blade and Blazing Sword, and certainly the half dating sim feel of the most recent entries shows the series leans heavily into that like it didn't used to before. I like writing, myself, and I actually find you have pinpointed a lot of weaknesses in Maeda's writing that I see in my own writing as well. I feel your review may really help me improve my own writing. Thank you for taking the time to do it!

The failure was that no voice changer can match the cadence and tremolo of Mike Stoklasa's narration

Regarding the idea about people hating on a game others like, I think people have to understand that many people criticize because they wanted things to be better. I loved 3H but I criticize it all the time because I *want* it to be better. I accept that it's flawed and wish it was stronger *because* I like the game so much. And I also think that people need to maybe develop thicker skin when it comes to fiction. Others are allow to dislike fiction you like - even if you like it, that doesn't make it flawless. Accepting that fiction isn't perfect and being able to poke fun and criticize it anyway is part of loving something. You can't really love it if you are unwilling to listen to criticism about it. That's blind nostalgia tinted love if you cannot listen to any criticism of what you love and enjoy.

I thought this was a False Swipe Gaming parody for a second

I will admit, whenever I looked back at Plinkett Emblem I kinda just disliked it more, it felt like a lot of work was wasted for the sake of a joke that wasn't delivered well - I couldn't really recommend it to people You two going into it here as your proper selves should hopefully make something more accessible

I thought Plinket Emblem had plenty of valid points, but the presentation was a huge turn off for me. The voice changes bothered me and the jokes weren’t my humour at all.

I was just thinking the other day, if Eliwood's father was able to badly hurt Nergal but stabbing him from behind then why did Eliwood had to go find a legendary weapon to defeat Nergal then?

I find things that are ambiguous tend to be interpreted differently depending on the viewer. Because it seems as if it's between a joke or something serious, people get to decide whether to take it seriously or not.

52:40 That's why I love the dawn brigade. Daein is weak after the war and they only win due to micky's gift. You really feel the difference in power when playing as micky's group and then switching to the power house that is the greil mercenaries. It adds to the desperate feeling micky has and why she hasty makes bad decisions due to pressure. It also translates well and adds a middle ground with elincia's chapters as you don't feel weak like micky's group but you also can't brute force it like Ike's group. (except the god HAAR!)

it's not often i get excited for new, hour-long uploads, but this has me genuinely excited

The terms you guys are looking for are usually referred to as Passive/Active reading. Probably a good idea to avoid rant styled criticisms in the future. Unless you're with a small group of close friends they usually just make a lot of people mad rather than influence opinion in a constructive manner.

I really enjoyed Plinkett Emblem, because I personally always felt unsatisfied with FE7's plot but never really thought about *why* that is. Plus you had an entire episode on how Nergal is just store brand Gharnef, and any Gharnef appreciation makes me happy because he's FE's most underrated antagonist. Also, the phrase Irysa is looking for to describe Thracia is "story-gameplay integration". Thracia's story and gameplay are closely intertwined to make you more invested in both of them, while FE7's story and gameplay are constantly at odds with each other.

I just think it’s an entertaining story, not necessarily a great one

I appreciate the discussion about themes presented at the end. It connected me back to my high school AP lit class where we said a major theme of a work of literature should have a concrete sentence that has arguable merit, rather than just a single vague word, like "loss". Also from the perspective of someone who likes the characters in FE7, I think the supports and stuff around characters like Nino, Legault, Renault, and Raven are really interesting at ways to cope with loss as a theme - probably why I didn't have strong feelings about FE7 while playing it, but I felt much more emotion while watching Ghaast's support science videos

My assumption is that Ephidel actually does kill Hausen (or mortally wound him) and then Leila is just like "yeah Lyn your grand dad is fine back there uh but don't go in there you better go to the Dread Isle now" which I back up with her then saying "Hey Lyn tell everyone who asks that Lord Hausen is dead" so there's never an awkward moment where Lyn says her grandpa's alive and the other person is like "I was at his funeral though" or something

I remember the Banzai rant. That thread became such a cesspool lmao

I'll be happy if I never have to hear the Meklett "whaghhgghghghgght" again, that's for sure

Like with Revelation, I find myself ping-ponging back on FE7 ("do i like it? or is it not as good as i figured"). It's still a game I have a lot of fondness and nostaglia for, but at the same time, the review was good at highlighting all the weird errors and inconsistencies of the the story that most don't see or grasp at their first, second, or even third playthroughs. Largely because for a lot of us, we have that 2003 beginning-of-fe-in-the-west fondness so we haven't so hard about it. Imo it took me a while to get used to Plinkett Mekkah, but I had really enjoyed the series....and when I watched it, it was a really difficult time for me personally, so I thank you for that. I think the only part of it that I disagreed with is the whole part with Fates and Maeda. For me it felt more like a retroactive bias thing, like "see! fates was bad because of this guy and this guy worked on fe7 so that cements it!". I know that's not what you said explicitly, and while you can draw a pattern because he took a directoral role in THE divisive game in the series, I just felt the logic was flawed. Back to FE7, it's a game that has a lot of dumb stuff but....it's still a game I can play like, whenever. It's not like Thracia or Radiant Dawn or Three Houses where I kinda have to be in the right mood to get situated with its mechanics or more difficult parts.

I would actually just listen to more videos like this discussing fire emblem, it's very interesting tbh

I'm surprised at how mixed the feedback was because FE7 was one of my first FE games, and even as much as I liked it, I watched the Plinkett series like "wow, FE7 was really this bad??? lmaoooo," especially when it came to points like Ursula having "more important shit to do," Ephidel not teleporting out, the unnecessary Araphen fire, etc. and it was a lot of stuff I glossed over when I played through it a few times way back because I cared more about the gameplay. Not to say I skipped the story, I just didn't note all the weird silly shit like "Ursula has something more important to do than kidnap Ninian and Nils" and Desmond's "I'm gonna fuck over my son's ceremony but also kill him before the ceremony comes." That said, the Plinkett series was very amusing. Its creation very much epitomized being able to enjoy something (which is why I'm guessing you've done some FE7 draft races) while also being able to acknowledge its (many, MANY) flaws.

Yo idk if youll see this but this was one of my favorite series ever I watched it about four times and it also got me into RLM reviews, which I also love a lot so thank you I appreciate you putting in all the work

Aside from the voice modulation thing, I didn’t really realize how much people weren’t into Plinkett Emblem. Maybe I’m just a big sucker for deep, almost nitpicky analysis of storytelling but I love examining all forms of media through a critical lens. I feel we should be thinking more critically about the media we consume, including games. Which is all to say I enjoyed the Plinkett Emblem videos and this one and would be very into seeing more thorough analysis content in the future.

I'm replaying FE7 right now and just got passed the Dread Ilse part of it, so the story's fresh in my mind right now. About Ephidel in specific, my take away was that he was keenly aware that if he fought Eliwood's army, he would lose, and that he has no use for the chumps that Eliwood could defeat anyway. I will say that he doesn't seem to be doing anything substantial, and doesn't have a personality, even if that's on purpose it's bad, but calling him out on making a mistake over and over again doesn't make sense. His big mistake, to me, was that he was overestimating Eliwood's army, and that he did not want to die. I won't say anything about after his death, since I haven't made it that far in my replay yet, but Ephidel doesn't seem as bad as you guys are saying.

The sequel no one asked but everyone wanted too anyway.

NO VOICE CHANGER, THANK GOD

I remember someone in the comments mentioned the Bonzai post on SF. I read through it and got some migraines.

you really ought to just play Xenoblade DE sometime with all the music you use, haha Great vid, loved to see retrospective of such a big project

The feeling I got watching the whole series was pretty much what you've said here; it felt like a project some friends had worked on for a very long time that was probably a lot funnier to the people who made it because of that experience. I still enjoyed it, but a lot of the humour missed for me and I do think because so much of it was staged in the ridiculous people were bound to be unsure what was serious criticism and what was poking fun. As far as the voice goes, it isn't that I was used to your voice - it just wasn't a great voice. Really grated on the ears. Yeah, I got used to it too - but that was honestly more because the high pitched voice was even worse and I was in deep enough to welcome the return of the deeper one.

I personally did not really enjoy how the story of FE7 was more of the adventure/quest fantasy genre as opposed to the usual military fantasy stories of other games in the series. It bothered me how there was never an army to fight since fighting a battalion "assassins" (that includes the likes of armor knights, cavaliers, generals, axe fighters and wyvern riders of all things) feels far less epic than facing down the army of Bern, even if the maps and enemy compositions are identical.

I found this video insightful as far as the though process for the series goes. But neither of you elaborate on the claim about thinking that you were too harsh on some parts of the story. So, would you mind saying what parts you meant?

It's very funny you made this video because in the last couple of days I've been reading through the Banzai thread for the first time. Although in the last few pages the quality of discussion was pretty poor and probably not worth the time it took to read.

I love the characters in FE7. What? You want to know about the story? It's..... it's, uh... It's there.

LOL I remember that banzai thread. I agreed with him pretty hard after reading it, though I was too much of a lurker to voice it.

Holy crap, that was a year and a half ago?!

I thought it would be a crossover with False Swipe Gaming because of the video title :(

My last full playthrough of FE7 didn't care too much for the plot, I thought the second half of the story was pretty weak. But I didn't realize how messily the plot was written actually. I usually play in bursts of 2-3 chapters at a time, so in between new story beats I forget how roughly written the last one was

15:21 I checked this one. Nergal says エイ...ル. Note: Aegir and Aenir (エーギル and エイナール). On a lay level that seems rather clear to me (エ...ル would be unclear) but perhaps I missed something (and I like the idea of it being either). Still, to be constructive on what the localisers should have done for Nergal's wife. Keep Quintessence and rename Nergal's wife something like Quentina (for the connection). If you want ambiguity his special death line reads Quen...ence instead. But I doubt very much NOA were given a memo explaining the whole Aegir/Aenir so it relied on the team seeing the connection and they did not (it probably doesn't help that you had multiple people working on it). I know that is off-topic from the criticism of needing to play in a specific mode, and doing an optional map that has twisted joke requirements to reach in order to even see that line said. Still Aegir/Aenir in general gives me Canto vibes: two similar things becoming one and mixed up...in the case of canto that's 'move again' and 'act again' being treated as the same term. Canto (referring to chanting) makes sense as flavour when 'act again' is triggered via a song but for mounted units moving again you get into mental gymnastics of 'it's like cantor or something' to justify what seems like an error. Before you ask the first time 'move again' was referenced in an English FE game was in fact FE7 in some village or other. I'll admit I zoned out on this series pretty early on. Still when it comes to game development in general sometimes some bits of script are shoehorned in lategame and continuity is not being checked on them (we see that a few times with gameplay too, for example Sonia and Limstella being less bulky in Hard than Normal due to using the wrong class). I suspect Ephidel might be like this but more mid-development to try and duct tape Nergal schemes onto everything but since it had to work with the existing foundations it was ineffective and irrational. tl;dr Ephidel is anime filler arc villain.

Haven’t we been here before?

I'll be honest, I really enjoyed the Plinkett style review. I know the popular opinion is that the style chosen was poorly received, but having watched Plinkett before this, I quite liked it myself. As for whatever nitpicks you guys had, I think it's perfectly fine to point them out and poke fun of them as long as they're accurate and you don't try to sell these nitpicks as the core problems of the narrative (which you didn't do at all). I definitely laughed at the superpower jokes about Florina and Eliwood for example. Of course you guys are free to do as you wish, and if the majority of your fanbase prefers more serious critiques that's fine, but I'd love to see a return of Plinkett Emblem some time in the future.

I've realized what I truly hate isn't plinkett fans, the other fire emblem games, or fe youtubers. Its FE fans themselves lmao

Where is Irysa from? I keep thinking I have his accent nailed down but it feels like it keeps changing.

Me having to rewind the video to catch points I missed because I was too busy listening to Xenoblade ost:

I feel like 7 poorly handles nods to 6. Like karel is well done, this is exactly how his Noah support went. You’re utilizing the info we already had and making that a thing for a game exploring the past. But so many do a bad job. Bartre needs to be a level 5 warrior and tie karla to get her, but Bartre was only level 2 in 6, which hey being fair Douglas loses 2 levels when he joins you so glass houses, but Bartre literally says she only started journeying with him after she won three times in a row with him putting up no fight, and to top this off this is their second bout. It feels they desperately wanted to have this character but didn’t consider just giving you the unit under like a cutscene that actually fit the story told. Or how about the stupid bit where armads has magic curse powers out of nowhere? Exclusively the axe. Why? Well OBVIOUSLY because hector dies and we wanted to reference that. Lets ignore how any fe6 axe user contradicts this particularly Garret who never dies in combat after wielding it. Or Hector memeishly being the over protective dad of Lilina in a dream because they get together even though Hector in his dying moments wanted Roy to be there for his daughter. Just about every shout out to 6 again ignoring karel and Marcus if we ignore him not talking with merlinus at all in 6, grossly misses the point of the original thing or just flat out ignores it when it feels like it (igrene sure didn’t mention knowing athos, and athos definitely didn’t explain to them the legendary weapons caused global warming and shouldn’t have been used, also conveniently the guy who can teleport everywhere can’t just grab these immediately in preparation if they matter etc) so it feels like mess when ever it does try to tie things back.

I feel like my opinion on fe7 is different from most people's. It might be nostalgia for my first fe talking, but it's one of my favorites along with fe6 and fe9, and it has my 2 favorite characters in the series Eliwood and Florina. Also I somehow really enjoy the gameplay and maps.

I’m feeling nostalgic from the Xenoblade Chronicles X music. Never made it to chapter 7, but I had fun just exploring the world and fighting stuff

Interesting maneuver

Ephidel dies a pathetic dead because in your own words “he’s a failure” this was intended. Ninian is slayed by eliwood to capitalize the last scene of nergal. Nergal tried all his life to acquire the dark power of resurrection to no avail and when you finally kill him he asks why and did he loose himself. Right after nergals death Bramimond resurrects ninian…. The story is a master piece and it’s a shame the van wagon got so big.

I think I suscribed to your channel because of that series, I really enjoyed the jokes and critisism

The Xenoblade music makes this perfect

The Xenoblade 2 music made me enjoy this 100% more.

There is something to be said about framing and delivery that can effect how receptive people are to criticisms. I feel like if instead of Plinkett Emblem you had released a video similar to the Three Houses videos more people would've been open to it (not necessarily agree).

I would just like to mention i played fe7 when it was first released in the west, and i give credit to the fact it got me into fe. However: even 10 yr old me could tell things were off, though i didnt know how. I think my thing was it just sounded...off. I loved to read books, so the story just felt weird. I might have to take a look see, but maybe sentence structure was weird too for some of it? I still enjoy the game as a whole, but it is ok to be critical of things we enjoy

I've never seen the phantom menace review but i liked Plinket Emblem. I've watched it a few times

I actually go back and watch Plinkett Emblem every once in a while. I never liked FE7 for different reasons than you outline both here and in the series, but it was really gratifying and fulfilling to have someone else express quite clearly their problems with the game. I definitely understand why people like it, and, like you two, I've mellowed out over my distaste for the game. Still, Plinkett Emblem is a fun, comforting series to watch.

Name a more iconic duo, Mekkah and Xenoblade ost lol I had a great time when you were tearing through FE7 and I found it pretty funny.

I somehow missed this upload, but I'm seeing it now. It's interesting to hear especially about the criticism. I've been a fan of Redlettermedia, especially Mr. Plinkett, so I at least understood the humor. A lot of FE7 falls into the "you didn't notice it, but your brain did" category that Plinkett tends to do so well. For me, it was really nice to hear someone say that they noticed the massive problems with FE7's plot. I sometimes have felt like I'm taking crazy pills with all of the praise that I've heard of the game's story. I really liked the series and this behind the scenes episode is good to see too.

Mekkah, play Xenoblade! Also, you're discussion videos are my favorite Mekkah content. Always interesting.

What makes FE7 a favorite for many even though the story sucks ass? Well , compared to Fates were the story was beyond shit , FE7 have charismatic characters that makes you forget how bad the story is, while Fates........

I personally always liked FE7's story and characters. But that's probably because It was my first FE game

Maybe it's my wide range of content watching, but I never had a problem with Plinkett Emblem. I did notice the dislike, but didn't think it was all that much. Guess the presentation got to people. Which I guess I can see. I usually don't have a problem with presentation just whether the content is boring or not. I watch hour videos with varying humor and presentation over games and series and stuff I might have or haven't played just cause it intrigues me enough. To be fair I'm weird outside of just this I don't have issues with bad animation in animated series or cgi. My philosophies about life and the world are also very not normal.

The voices were a bit painful but it was worth watching.

I actually appreciated plinkett emblem, mainly because of my mentality towards another game - fates. The story in fates was so blatantly bad to me that I couldn't bring myself to play it past chapter 5. At the same time I had loved fe7, and thought it was well written without properly looking at its flaws. This helped my look at both the story and characters of the fire emblem games I play more critically, allowing me to enjoy them more, regardless of good or bad - but it also gave me a new perspective on fates - the story was always what I blamed for fates being bad, and because of that, I never acknowledged the real reasons I wasn't enjoying the game, which was that the stage design and characters had issues separate of the story. The problems with fates were simultaneously smaller and larger than i thought, and so now I fell better giving it more of a chance on other fronts, whether or not it resulted in a worse view of the game.

I'm actually playing through FE7 right now as I never finished it when I was younger. I honestly think the Lyn story works better than the main campaign simply because when it comes to storytelling mechanics, the parts are more consistent in spite of its flaws. It has very noticeable Second Act Sag where the inconsistencies and nonsensical moments become most apparent, but the plot is carried on solid character interactions for a 2003 Nintendo game and an easy to understand core story. Eliwood/Hector's story however doesn't have this baseline consistency in its core story, but it's easy to ignore because there's still solid character interactions. Planting and payoff is a pretty big problem with the overall plot when you apply any scrutiny to it and really drags down the tension. Weirdly enough I think the conflict within Bern's monarchy, King Desmond's envy towards Zephiel, and his actions that are motivated by it, is one strongest bits of writing in the game for how brief it is (excluding how it ties to Nergal). At the very least it draws from historical fiction, which is when FE writing tends to shine in comparison to the anime tropes used imo. Idk if I'll play the game once I finish it, since the plot has good ideas, but very messy and inconsistent execution. Overall the plot feels like it was pantsed (written as you go) and they didn't have enough time to go back for more in-depth editing to tie things together with deadlines.

FE7 has the best story in my opinion because it has Matthew in it and thats the only thing that matters to me. But yeah the plot sucks.

According to Kantopia, Nergal actually DOES specifically mean Aenir, because both names are written slightly diffrently and the shared parts in his deathquote use the Aenir-rendering. Anyone care to clarify regarding that?

Not gonna lie when I first played FE7 around the time Fates came out, I was a bit disappointed by it. Although that mostly had to do with me expecting it to have a grander narrative than both of the Tellius games combined (which were the only FE games I played at the time) due it's reception from some people I know calling it the best Fire Emblem game ever made.

wait was plinkett emblem that long ago

Mekkah used chill Octopath music, and now he's gonna play that game. He also uses chill Xenoblade music. I don't know if I can take Mekkah playing Xenoblade Chronicles.

Fe7 always had its own feel for me, it felt different from every other game somehow Maybe it’s nostalgia? I’m not sure.

I like this for Utawarerumono ost. This is cultured

Funny. I actually almost finished Plinkett Emblem by the time this video came out.

while watching plinkett emblem i found myself going crazy along side the narrator too it was fun

How Ironic. I was just rewatching that playlist.

There was a point where I recognized the Xenoblade X music and I stopped listening to the voices and was carried away by the music. Oops. The Sylvalum theme just does that to me.

i joined recently so i am catching up with this Plinkett Emblem thing, it's funny but too long, Fire Emblem games never had a strong storyline to begin with and there is only so much you can ramble about..... now that i think about it, i think Final Fantasy Tactics might have more lore and complexity than all the fire emblem games combined, it's not a burn really, sometimes being just dumb is fun too, i love Super Robot Wars OG and you can't get dumber than that.

On the voices, I actually liked the voices lol. Even the high-pitched one. I think a lot of people took it too negatively for no real reason. It wasn't like, way untolerable or anything.

I liked Plinkket Emblem, it was some of your best videos.

Wait, the high pitched voice wasn’t mekkah? I had no idea.

I like the Plinkett Emblem series for what it was, a mix of comedy and review. While it does has some serious points, it was meant to be comedic and not to be taken too seriously. You can see this in the original Plinkett reviews where the guy doing the review was (in character) a mass murdering psychopath who at the same time has a very sophisticated understanding of of film theory/writing. I think if Plinkett Emblem had come out 5-10 years earlier it would have been received much more positively. This style of "comedy review" was big back then with guys like Nostalgia Critic or Spoony. By now, people are tired of these kinds of "reviews".

Finally I understand why that voice was used

Huh! Plinkett Emblem was fun and entertaining. Of course some things I disagreed with. It's a fairy tale, it's just par for the course there's plot holes, etc. The characters are simple archetypes (within FE archetypes). In my humble opinion, that's the kind of fun, aloof content that made this channel fun, amidst the good gameplay advice. Now everything's kinda serious around here these days. I've been here since you took off with 'Pitfalls' way back when. I hope you someday regain the ability to make plinkett-like series again.

If you listen to Plinkett Emblem at 1.5x speed it almost sounds like your regular voice, so no need to redo it imo

WOOOOOOOO XENOBLADE MUSIC

Video title at 21:00

Honestly, I get it. Seeing people praise something to no end, something that one even thinks is good, just not Perfect(tm) can get pretty frustrating. At one point people just get salty. And salty criticism is never perfectly well-received, so we should strive to be more diplomatic in our criticism, but on the other hand... people really shouldn’t take criticism, especially criticism in joke format, so personally. Plinkett Emblem really wasn’t my cup of tea in terms of humor, but I did appreciate multiple things you guys pointed out, especially the translation errors. Especially when, a few years back when I first discovered Fire Emblem, FE7 was hailed as the non-plus-ultra of all FE games. Really appreciate this follow-up.

I'm not watching this video cause I really liked blazing Sword and I'm not letting you steal my excitement XD

To add on to the "Maeda writes almost like a fanficiton author" and all of that. Not necessarily a bad thing for some probably, but something that always stuck out at me was how inconsequential FE7's plot is in the grand scheme of things. It's been awhile since I've read it, but from what I remember, nothing really happens here that affects FE6's plot (more than the obvious) except for stuff pertaining to Zephiel, and that's only a tiny part of the story. Like a fun little reference, not unlike being able to see Sophia in one of the visitable ruins. All of the would-be important characters either don't show up (mostly Lyn), or have to die either on screen or off. To me, it feels less like a story prequel to set up events, and more like just a fun side chapter before the main event. It just offers some more looks into certain characters and then leaves. If that was the intention, to highlight a point in Elibe's time that was less uneventful, then I think they nailed the idea (if not the execution), but if they wanted to make a true prequel... I think it does fall flat due to how irrelevant it is to the story of Roy. I also think FE7's plot has a very different feel to it (since it feels more like just an adventure), and it took me a little while to realize something - FE7 is the only game in the series that never has a formal war between countries or territories take place during its story. I guess you could say the minor scuffle with the Black Fang could be considered a type of war, but I'd personally disagree. It's more like just... a JRPG story. Not a bad thing, just always thought it was interesting.

I am glad you made Plinkett Emblem, because of this i feel like more people have a greater understanding of fe7’s story, and the flaws with it. While i think this resulted in a lot of people basically 180ing to hating fe7, at least from my experience, but i still think this was necessary. I feel like criticism of the series as a whole is something the community needs more of, as it just bugs me when people worship games like fe4 and 3H, denying the glaring flaws they have in gameplay and story, yet shit on conquest or now fe7 for having bad stories. I’m not saying there’s a magic game immune to criticism, my favorite game fe5 can be fairly judged for being quite skippable with warp staves. But i think, for everything not just fire emblem, communities can have trouble addressing the good and the bad in what they like, because, well they like it. I don’t know what i’m getting at but tldr I hope to see more things like Plinkett Emblem and just general criticism of the series.

I stopped about 30 seconds into the plinkett emblem videos cuz of the voice, but i have always thought fe7 story was basically cliche fe6 fanfic lmao

I actually do have a disagreement on the point made in 56:45 While I agree that this plot point could have been done better, I dont agree with Athos and Brammimond being merged into one character because it removes all of the importance of what Brammimond brings to the story. Brammimond is essentially what Nergal strived to be but failed in doing and that part is important because it shows what Nergal could have been and it also has alot of importance to the dark magic plot point that Canas, Pent, Nergal and even Canas's mother in FE6 had which was the consequence of dark magic, the never ending desire for knowledge that drives Canas and what the price is to achieve that and when achieved, what that really looks like. Brammimond is an individual that sacrificed everything and surrendered it to learn the heart of dark magic, master it and become probably the strongest mage in existence. Removing him from the story creates a hole in alot of character motivations and also takes away from FE6-FE7's most interesting plot point which is the theme of dark magic, how its not really evil but punishes those with weak minds indiscriminately, how it can be used for good and evil and how it can take a person's very personality from them in exchange for ultimate power, and if thats even worth it. I personally think Brammimond's story and his existence in the game gives it this added depth that it otherwise would not have had if he never existed and only Athos did. Thats because Athos does not have those characteristics to do what Brammimond did and would not work if he just took those aspects of Brammimond's character since it contradicts alot of Athos's own character.

the voice changer gave me a migrane when i tried watching it so i never got very far- though my main problem with the review was the scapegoating of maeda. maeda isn't listed as a director/supervisor/producer, so it wasn't as though he was a figure of authority on the project,, he's just one of three scenario writers. while fe7 does have its problems, it's impossible to tell where maeda played a part and where he didn't. It made the review come off as an excuse to rag on him and some clarity on that decision would be nice

I want Yasumi Matsuno to write at least one Fire Emblem.