Fire Emblem Heroes is about to reach its 7th year anniversary this year, and I'm highly expecting to see many rewards and quality-of-life changes to be added. After watching the recent FEH Channel, I'm eager to share my thoughts on the upcoming content that is announced from that video.
Introduction of Emblem Heroes & New Mythic Hero
Fire Emblem Engage's anniversary happened not long ago, and we finally see the Emblem ring mechanic getting added to the game. I can't believe it would take so long for this type of hero to be proposed while the Engage hype was active. Here, Emblem Marth is first of his type.
Basically, what Emblem heroes do is similar to Legendary Heroes with the Pair-Up mechanic, and can be equipped to any unit but themselves. But, that selected unit will have his specials enhanced instead. They can be merged to +10, and in doing so, provide a Dragonflower effect, which is +1 to each stat twice for the equipped user. With so many heroes getting powercrept shortly by the latest ones, I don't think it's wise to merge the first Emblem unit for now, as more of them will be added later, who can provide better enhancements as well as functionality for themselves.
Emblem Heroes will be incorporated as new additions into future Legendary & Mythic banners, so unless there is a consistent pattern, it becomes harder to predict the new hero type for next month. I might have to wait for a couple of months to find out.
On the other hand, I did not expect Lumera to be added again, but this time, as a Light Mythic. She's already part of the Grand Hero Battle Lineup, so why introducing her now as a mythic unit? I'm so disappointed, as design wise, she's just the same as her Grail counterpart, but now she can transform. This slot could have been used for another background unit like Soan from Radiant Dawn, or one of the Twelve Crusaders from Jugdral.
Cast my feelings aside, I'm interested of knowing what these units can do and I will go over each of them on a separate post, where I'll be reviewing the entire banner.
Choose Your Legends 8 Winners
What an unexpected twist from CYL this year, as we would have thought the imminent Engage sweep, given that Three Houses flooded through the ranks earlier in 2020. But now, not even a single unit from Engage show up as the winners, not surprising as the game is not well-received by the community. The announced winners are well deserved of getting an alt, with Bernadetta finally getting a chance to shine after Gullveig stole her position last year, where I voted her thrice.
Alfonse reaching first in the men's division is quite a shock, but it makes sense as his attention is highly received by the community. Besides, I love Felix as a unit and character since when I played Three Houses, and had voted him in the previous CYL event. I'm glad that the community has reached his presence.
Last but not least, we have female Robin earning second in the women's division. With half of her alts revolving around her fallen version, I hope she gets to redeem as herself, and not Grima (make him an literal dragon unit already).
Overall, I feel very content for the winners as well as their respective fans who receive a great treatment from their hard work of voting. I'm looking forward to knowing their outfits and designs in the next 7 months.
Anniversary Celebration Rewards
Since it's the 7th anniversary, we should expect a lot of 7's this year. However, the rewards feel quite "meh" in my opinion, as 27 orbs especially are underwhelming for a majority of the players. This premium currency is our main source of income, and why must you be stingy this time in this yearly occasion, IS? Couldn't you let players managing their free 100 orbs wisely?
Plus, I'm so frustrated that they won't give us a free Otherworld Bond this year. Binding Worlds is an event which involves playing as older heroes that are now stronger thanks to other players who are willing to spend money in search of premium skills for an ideal build. Distributing an Otherworld bond to all players (either rookie or veteran) would have provided them an opportunity to try out a particular unit, whom could have taken forever to invest without paying.
At least an Ascended Floret and a Forma Soul are much needed, but I can't fathom that they are unwilling to give out a rare item locked for whales and other spenders.
Hero Fest
The anniversary Hero Fest turns out decent, but not quite amazing or influential to spend on. Legendary Veronica remains as a great nuke, but not as an insane unit anymore as during her debut. She now requires much investment, via skills with pre-combat damage like Flared Sparrow and Occultist's Strike in order to stand out as being a great nuke.
Alfred is one of, if not the worst Rearmed unit in the game. He has a mid-tier Arcane weapon and garbage fodder, so this unit should be avoided by any cost (unless if he's your favorite).
Legendary male Robin offers great support to your allies, and if you don't have a copy of him, he's a must summon. However, you need to watch out for units with Ploy 4 skills because they can neutralize the "Grand Strategy" effect from your allies.
Lastly, Fomortiis returns once again after winning last year's AHR, now being a good save unit. He has a niche which requires him to survive enemy phase, and then, he ends the actions of the foe's nearest allies. In these days, he's struggling to survive against several powerful units that are released, so the Demon King might become worse through time if the nuke meta does not stop. Also, he has mediocre fodder and being a defense mythic makes him unworthy for merges.
Generally speaking , this banner is okay, but I recommend only spend orbs if you are still completing your merges on either of the Legendary units for Arena. Spend all tickets and skip for more better offerings.
Year 7 Special Heroes Banner
2023 is stacked when it comes to special heroes, and I can't think of which color to choose from since most of the heroes being released are great in their own right.
I could have picked red as my top pick, hoping for a copy of Winter Byleth or Summer Fjorm but it has the most demotes, making it the worst option for getting a premium unit.
Blue has some nice picks, as I don't have Ninja Zelgius and Young Mark in my barracks. Tea Sigurd is fine for AR-Defense, but he may be outclassed by Legendary Sigurd's potentially amazing refine on May.
Green is amazing for fodder, but chances for a green orb to show up are the lowest among all colors, so I expect this to happen.
And finally, colorless has the least amount of units shown, with only 2 demotes like green. It has better odds of giving a specific unit you want.
After a rough analysis, I have decided to pick colorless for another copy of Valentine's Elise or Winter Yunaka. Perhaps I might get Wind Tribe Kagero as a solid hit-and-run option. Otherwise, red will be my second pick due to Halloween Seadall, who is the only Engage unit I don't have.
4-Star Special Heroes Special Rate Update & Banner
The 4-star Special Rate pool exclusive to special heroes is updated to feature everyone from Ver. 4.2 to 5.1. A free-ticket only banner gets released as part of the event, yet I feel like its purpose is to fill out the catalog a bit, as none of the players would bother summoning for them and many of these additions are awaiting their refines this year. For me, I'll snipe on colorless for Bridal Micaiah or Winter Marth. Some decent options include Ninja Lyn and Plegian Dorothea, with the former being very good due to many inheritance options, and whom I recommend merging for Arena.
Special Hero Revivals
Heroes from the Khadein to Wind Tribe banners are back, but this time divided in a 12-unit banner akin to Legendaries & Mythics. Again, the 8% chance for a 5 star focus is still terrible, especially if you're aiming for a particular unit because there will be 3 units for each color. Even the tickets provided for the banners won't mean any value at all. The Double Special Heroes banner is way better than this, and it should return next month, with Wind Tribe Claude color-sharing with Halloween Anna as my bet.
A Hero Rises 2024
As expected, A Hero Rises event for this year is now open for everyone to vote for some of the most powerful heroes in the current meta. I'll be discussing my top picks in an another post, after I've completed my Double Hero banner review. Again, limited-time heroes should be in top priority, including Special, Duo/Harmonic, Rearmed, Attuned, Legendary and Mythic Heroes. And seriously, for the love of Askr, please STOP voting for Fallen Edelgard already! I ABSOLUTELY cannot stand her being one of the top 8 twice in the previous events. If the community believes that Edelgard needs to be part of this, why not Winter Edelgard instead who does 10 times better?
Status Effects Box
A nice quality-of-life addition to make devising strategies easier, in which every status effect active on a unit will be displayed inside a pop-up during battle. This reduces the need for players to skim through the description from each unit who inflicts that particular effect, so much time is saved.
Hall of Forms Skill Cleanup
This is a much-needed implementation for players who are searching for more premium/high-cost skills to create optimal builds without relying on luck. Good job IS for saving us a ton of forma torches from those rubbish non-shiny skills.
New Arena Maps
Just some more new maps getting added to the Arena, which are nothing to talk about.
More Summoning Pool Demotes
As usual, Book 5 pity breakers released from March to CYL5 will be shifted to the 4-Star Special Rate pool as well as Weekly Revivals, meaning that it's even more bloated than before. I wonder how would they handle the first Ascended Heroes in the future? This is not a good sign if you want copies of a specific hero because now it seems two Weekly Revivals per week are not enough, and you have to wait for nearly a year before summoning that hero. I'm utterly desperate for a complete overhaul of the summoning pool in its entirety, including demotes especially.
But hey, at least Fallen Edelgard is in the batch. I hope this will be the time where this absolute MONSTER meets her ultimate demise once and for all as she will be kicked out of the ranks in AHR.
Skill Inheritance Expansion
This change is highly in demand from almost everyone as we're getting new skills such as Gambit and Prime that don't have Tier 3 versions of themselves. Even though FEH is selfish to expand one more inheritance slot, it is better than no expansion at all, and we're all very excited about that because there is no need to sacrifice more premium heroes/manuals merely for one skill type alone. I have Ascended Fir and a spare Legendary Alear left for fodder, and now it's the best time to offer them to some of my units.
Teaser to Mythic Hero Remixes
As February is approaching, Reginn and Triandra are in line of receiving their remixes. Starting with Reginn, her enhanced special: "Seidr Shell+" doesn't look quite impressive to me, as it basically offers damage calculation and -3 Special cooldown on turns 1 and 4. What's more, she gets "Panic Smoke 4", a decent fodder option if you have spare manuals of her. Personally, I prefer Flared Sparrow given the prevalence of pre-combat damage meta as of now.
Triandra, on the other hand has "Frightful Dream +" as her enhanced refresh skill, which now inflicts "Omni -5" & "Discord" as an additional status effect on enemies. Firestorm Dance 3 is a nice replacement for her B skill, since her spring counterpart is the only one with it. If you have spare Triandra copies, you can provide this to your refreshers.
Both of their preferred skills feel kind of underwhelming, still we have yet to know their weapon refines which should be released after the next update. I hope they give Reginn a DR-piercing effect in her weapon, or something else to make her stand out as a great hit-and-run Astra mythic.
Conclusion
This is a good FEH Channel, but since it's a special occasion, I'm expecting even more announcements from IS. From what I looked on social media, many players have considered it the best FEH Channel they have ever gotten, due to the CYL results and Skill Inheritance changes, with the latter truly a significant game changer.
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