Fire Emblem used to be a series all about permadeath, but with recent installments, things have eased up a bit. You can set the difficulty level to have fallen soldiers come back at the end of the level. There’s also a new Divine Pulse mechanic in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, which allows you to turn back time and redo your choices. So if you let someone die-die in the game, you are either a hardcore tryhard, or you don’t actually like the character in question.
While I’m not done with my playthrough yet, someone is already gone from my battlefield. Early on, I forgot that I was playing on Classic mode, so I didn’t think twice when Dedue fell in combat. The thing is, once I realized what had happened, I couldn’t be arsed to redo the entire fight — it just seemed like too much work. And, embarrassingly, I also thought to myself, “I don’t really like Dedue’s haircut much.”
Does that seem petty? Maybe. But, really, a lot of Fire Emblem’s culture comes down to character design. Edelgard, for instance, finds herself topping the most popular house largely because she looks like a cute anime girl. Plus, why use a character that you don’t like when there are tons more to recruit and replace them? I have no regrets about Dedue. Sorry, Dedue! Though it probably helps that he’s still present in my story even if he’s not selectable in battle.
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