Alright, this topic has been a long time coming. Whilst this may come across as ranty, I do want this to be a comprehensive discussion about the current state of summoning, the issues with recent trends and why these trends are happening. I do not want to parrot the most common collective complaints from the community, however it is important to recognize these complaints and understand why they’re occurring. I know this is long and would greatly benefit from a ‘TLDR’, however I feel like the discussion is important enough that it should be read in its entirety and I hope to at least make it an engaging & concise enough for everyone. To briefly summarize:

• The general summon pool: The current summon pool has become incredibly stale. With not a single addition to the 3★ summon pool since the games inception, the current 3★ pool is still riddled with toxic wastes including Stahl, Raigh, Est, Sully, Donnel, Bartre, Beruka, Arthur and so on.

  This is none more apparent than in the colourless pool, with a grand total of four units having meta relevant skill inheritance that isn’t easily found elsewhere (Matthew with Hone Spd 3, Setsuna with Bowbreaker 3, Klein with Death Blow 3 and Sothe with Life and Death 3). As healthy as demotions like Klein and Sothe were to the colourless pool, it’s still an irredeemable orb sink with the fundamental issue left unresolved.

• The overinflation of 5★ bases: As of right now, 5★ exclusives compose a staggering 59 out of 162 summonable units, making up the largest summoning pool in the game.

  There are 49 units available in the 3-4★ pool.

  There are 51 units available in the 4-5★ pool.

  There are 59 units available exclusively at 5★.

• Oversaturation of ‘alternates’ of popular characters instead of introducing new characters into the game: Initially, Choose Your Legends and Seasonals were the only cases where we were getting alternate versions of popular characters. However, with the introduction of Legendary Heroes and well… just regular summoning banners (Sacred Memories, Fallen Heroes and The Branded King), alternatives have become so oversaturated to the point that it’s more of a surprise when we don’t get an alternate version of a character in a new banner.

With all that out of the way… Let’s look into the recent trends of new banners and why we’re getting an inflation of alternative characters.

Since the ‘Dauntless Crimeans’ banner, every following banner that introduced a new set of units (sans seasonals) has only had a total of 3 new units being introduced, with extra units being slapped on secondary banners with pre-existing units (Ayra, Rhajat) or are free rewards (Joshua, Marisa, Gerome). Prior to the Dauntless Crimeans banner, The Sacred World’ banner featuring Tana, Innes, Amelia and Seth was the last banner to introduce four units at once. I’ve chosen to ignore Choose Your Legends here, as it’s more aligned with seasonals as a celebratory event and shouldn’t be held to the same standard as regular banners.

After the release of The Sacred World banner, as many noticed, the only unit that got demoted from that group was Seth – the ‘dud’ of the banner. This left a lot of people upset at the exponential growth of the 5★-exclusive pool, Intelligence Systems decision to break the arbitrary trend they previously followed (half of new banner units will be demoted) and Intelligence System’s reluctance to demote units. Because of the backlash, they haphazardly began cutting down banners to only introducing 3 new units instead of the usual 4, with a single demotion typically occuring out of the three new units.

I personally despise this new trend they’ve adopted. Even ignoring the situation involving Ayra and Rhajat, Intelligence System meticulously crafted a way to lower the number of demotions that occur each banner and arbitrarily lowered the main reason I play this game: to see my favourite Fire Emblem characters come to life with updated art and voice acting. Personal preferences aside, it’s important we realize the facts. A large majority of the popular characters are already in the game. Sure, there are a few exceptions such as Owain or Selkie, but ultimately the reason we’re getting alternates is simple. Money. The reality is, even though there are Knoll fans out there, he isn’t and won’t ever be as popular as Eirika. Knollrika will make infinitely more money than Knoll ever would, even if they were provided with the same kits and artist. Of course, that doesn’t mean all hope is lost for Knoll fans… But, at the very least, it doesn’t look promising. The same goes for a large majority of the cast.

Sadly, a fourth Ike will sell more than Jill, Marcia, Boyd, Shinon, Volke, Astrid and so on. And that’s even ignoring characters like Aran, Vika and Tormod who don’t hold a candle in popularity to the aforementioned characters. Obviously, Intelligence System has realized this, they can’t keep bringing out characters with little significance to their own games, let alone the franchise as a whole. I’m sure nothing would feel worse than investing in a Legendary Hero Dhegnesia and earning no money since very few people care about his character, despite being a living legend within the Tellius universe.

Now, to tie it back within the original topic… Whilst popularity is definitely a detriment to “lesser” characters of the series, the reality is, with how banners are currently structured, they offer little room for new characters to be introduced. With a grand total of 3 new units being introduced each banner, character slots become extremely competitive. Since only one unit will be demoted, they only have leeway for one unit to be mediocre (of which, they often choose less popular characters like male Morgan, Tailitu, Oscar and so on), with the other two “having” to bring some sort of unique mechanic or skills, of which are often preserved for popular characters. Since most popular characters are already in the game, they’ve decided to mitigate this issue by creating alternative versions of pre-existing characters.

This ouroboros-like issue brought by the pre-existing banner restrictions Intelligence System has brought forth absolutely needs to change. Although this boils down to opinion and will vary from person to person, the reality is, we’ll never see the likes of Canas, Rath, Pent, Jill, Gatrie, Rutger, regular Charlotte, Kaze, Lex, Dieck, Neimi, Gerick, Cormag and I could go on and on and on... And that is a sad reality to face.

To put it in perspective, look at this whole month. This month was the month of Awakening, finally we’re getting a new Awakening banner that isn’t limited to seasonal units… and who did we get? The missing Shepherds? No, we got Female Morgan (sought after), an alternative Chrom (because he’s popular) and male Morgan (as the ‘dud’ unit of the banner). This is absolutely asinine. For one of the (in my opinion) worst banners since this games existence, there was almost no backlash due to this disheartening trend. Where’s Vaike, Ricken, Maribelle or Say’ri? Or, most obviously, Sumia? Why the hell should we keep playing second-fiddle as so many characters get shafted? Now that “Awakening’s time to shine” is over, how long is it before we cycle over through other series before getting the new Shepherds? It’s become ridiculous. With how much money this game makes, there’s really no excuse they can’t throw a Vaike in the 3★ pool with some nice fodder like ‘Firesweep Axe’ or a 4★ Miriel with ‘Bluetome breaker’ so the skill becomes finally available in the permanent summon pool.

Whilst my discussion got a bit messy (and maybe too emotionally driven) by the end of it, I personally believe things need to change. Intelligence System has really dropped the ball and needs to start making changes. If you got this far, my apologies for not articulating my thoughts better but I appreciate any time you may have spent reading.

Many regards!