Fire Emblem Too Mainstream?

[WyvernSlayer]

To be fair, they really should have seen FE12 coming. Shadow Dragon DS got lukewarm reviews as it was. Following it up with Bord & Cord's Excellent Adventure (and with no updates to the much-maligned graphics) was sure to be a bust.

My fiancée is a FE fan. She started with Awakening after she saw me play it. (I was acting out the support conversations - the Gregor impression gets her every time.) If she didn't have Casual mode available to her, it definitely would have been a barrier to her enjoying the series. So I don't think Phoenix Mode/Casual Mode are bad for the franchise. Us old farts can still scoff at how easy the kids have it while we play through Hector Hard Mode.

What REALLY bothers me is how the franchise seems to be taking a page from Pokémon with some of their design decisions. And the kids... dear god, the kids. IS, please just put a FE Waifu Simulator in the Nintendo eShop and stop forcing it into the rest of your games.