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See title. I expy'd the idea from the Forest. Because it's fun to see what people want and compare ideas.

Here's my list:

-better writing and plot
-Fog of War
-canto
-dismounting (but retaining whatever weapon types you'd use)
-Thieves being able to steal again
-route splits! Ideally more than one
-Male Pegasus Knights.
- (playable) Soldier/Halberdier classes.
-PVP in addition to StreetPass
-postgame, for that matter. And preferably one that doesn't require spending more money on
-Rescue requiring more than an E rank would probably be for the best
-Status staves (and some status-inflicting weapons, for that matter)
-some flying class that can use swords
-Anima magic triangle. Kinda happy Light magic is gone. Unless there's a good reason to have someone with Light magic (like Slayer or something), in which case the Light/Dark/Anima traingle would be fine too.
-Class trees that don't require losing weapon types upon promotion. Or losing mounts, for that matter.
-A Dancer that refreshes multiple units again.
-greater variety of magic-based weapons
-if flying units are weak to wind and such, make anyone on a horse weak to fire (horses ARE supposed to be afraid of fire, aren't they?)

The fact that "better writing and plot" is first on your list amuses me. It's true, but I love its bluntness. Very much agreed, though.

Also agree with Rath on reviving major characters in side chapters. It gets rid of a lot of drama in the story and the characters themselves.

-If MU is in it, no more excessive MU gratification garbage
-Better pacing, more breathing time
-More challenging the main lord in the story. As much as I like FE9 Ike, even I admit that I wish he got in trouble more. And he's not the only one.
-More character focus beyond gimmicks in the main storyplot
-More map goal variety
-Maps of varying sizes
-Maps with multiple seize points and/or bosses
-Events happening during gameplay beside the player instead of just before and after
-Magic Triangle
-Fog of War
-Route Splits
-Playable Soldiers/Halberdiers
-Base conversations
-An entirely original continent
-A male dancer or a female bard. Sorry Inigo, you were a mercenary. I wish you would live your dream. Pass it on to another.
-A female barbarian/berserker
-Bowguns. Maybe even restrict it to a high level crossbow?
-Gaidens that are unlockable based on chapter requirements

Probably more to come when I think of them.

Everything about what everyone above me said. But what you also forgot to add is sidequest chapters. I do love to have some challenge requirements like FE7 in order to get sidequest chapters. >>;

EDIT: Also forgot to add this: Side effects items such as Light Runes, Dancer/Bard/Heron rings to boost the abilities when units are being danced/sang.

EDIT EDIT: I really need to stop editing my post. >>; Forgot to add this: Defend turn base. We need a chapter where we have time limited chapter.

- Base conversations
- Battle conversations (some of them giving you goodies)
- Multiple bosses and events on the same map
- Horses weak to fire. Seriously. Pegs get wind, wyverns get thunder, it's only fair that horses get the fire. It makes sense.
- Crossbows (Snipers only?)

Agreeing with some I've seen and whatnot.

Ahh...there's a lot I would like in the next FE game...

- No MU, as fun as it was, it's just eh...the story's for the Lord, it's not for you.
- With that being said, more Lord focus story wise and maybe even multiple lords
- Some more chapters would be nice too...not rushing right to the end. I like FE7's 30 .Or you can have 25 with some more gaiden/sidequest chapters that are based on the results of the last level
- "Dark" classes use dark magic
- No class change, I really don't like it at all. I mean, I got over it, but still, if I had a choice...
- With that being said, I wouldn't complain about there not being any branch class changes as well.
- Fog of war is nice
- So are "stay alive for x turns" chapters
- Seize chapters are fun as well...
- Magic Triangle
- Fire Weakness for mounted Units
- Useable Soldier and Pirate
- No more pairing up, I want my rescue back


I'm not sure if there's anything else really...I think I listed a good amount

So, I know I am a little late, but I just beat Awakening, and now I wanna talk about it. I like this topic, too.

All very good suggestions, except I liked what they did with the support system, pairing up instead of rescue. What I didn't understand is the Vaike with an iron axe joining Virion with a bow. He's two squares from the enemy. Other than that, the supports could be little dumbed out sometimes. Like, I see that topic that reads "You get a support, and... 'Huh?'" and agree, what with everyone having three supports minimum with who they got. I think some should only talk once, others can talk and be cordial, and others wanna slap slipsies. Not saying having a support rally, just... Say'ri had flippin' nothing on supports. While she wasn't the most dynamic dynast, she still had a big turn around. I just wanna see more of dat interaction.
So, in summation, perhaps a little less SUPPORT EVERYONE and see a "okay, these units hate each other." Also, what with the boosts in battle, t'would be nice to see personality specific ones, not a 10 hit for nuttin, 10 avo for C, so on and on.

These new class trees-- I like the class changing. But I don't like too much of it. Having the characters in specific trees with specific skills is fine, but why is something like Galeforce limited to Dark Fliers? Mounted units had the option before, why only Dark Fliers? Maybe if some learning system was in place. I dunno, the skills escape me as undependable-- like criticals. They're nice, but not always there. (That's a lie, Donnel had armsthrift with 48 luck endgame, booyah)

But onto the trees themselves, there was a lot of "what the heck am I gonna do with you" for me. After I plunged, I regretted a lot of promotions, and went back, and then training those units was kinda difficult due to the exp gains, so I ended up using the children characters. ******** griffons.

DECESITIONS THAT MATTATER YES
"Let Emmeryn die?" "No" "Too bad"

And also yes, the whole piggybacking is something games have done a lot recently. I understand you can only do so much, but come on, please don't pick up another and give it a sequel. Link Between Worlds was decent storywise at best, don't go down that road.

So we want a game that enterprises all the elements we know and love: the weather hating us, the chapter's deft completion having a reward, more dark magic users(hoarding it all in two classes?) the goal being something other than "CRAP, CRUD, DUH, KILL EVERYTHING", more classes and more weapons making sense to previous classes, and better pacing.

I'm actually just fine with the story being near awful in comparison, as long as the characters and gameplay make up for it. Yes, it would be a little stupid to have say, a game with Owain as a Lord and his story being told, but as Sacred Stones took a hit to the stones with its story, in comparison, I wouldn't mind seeing a multiple boss excursion with duality being its main arc.

Just not "Oh, the bad dude has cronies, a lot, like holy cow, look at them" and you have to kill him, but he was merely a puppet, and you have to kill the real boss twice but wait there's more, you need to do this now.

here's my pocket change.

• honestly, i'd like to see them not return to marth for a while -- he is pretty much the mario of fire emblem, yes, and the fact that he was in some way in awakening may have helped sales (and boy, did they need sales), but now i think he needs to be out of the spotlight for a while. the past three games have featured him in some way (and i bet you anything that he'll have a decent cameo in smtxfe).

• friendship endings. it'd be nice to see paired endings that weren't just "[male character] and [female character] spent the rest of their life together and they were all lovey-dovey".

• on that note, openly queer characters who can have endings with characters of their preference. or characters with different gender identities. it's really wishful thinking, wanting decent representation, but please.

• female characters in more practical outfits and, like mallow said, not getting fridged for the sake of male tragedy. as much as i like awakening's character designs there were a lot of awful choices made for the sake of sexual appeal (looking at you, cherche. and noire. and tharja. and a lot of others).

• a better male:female character ratio in general. awakening had a near even split, but that was because of the whole "get married have babies" aspect of the game. in fire emblem 7, there were thirteen playable females out of a total of forty-four. fire emblem 8 was worse.

• more lord diversity. i'd love a lord that didn't have blue hair (though that's a shout-out to marth, i realize) and didn't use swords. how about a female lance-wielding lord? or a male bow-using lord? or a genderqueer axe lord!

• off of that, more classes/characters that used weapons other than swords in general. i love my swords but there's more than just swords available. as much as i didn't like the look of the bride class i really liked how it combined lances and bows.

• i don't know how to formulate this thought into words, so i apologize -- say you have two mercenaries. upon promotion, you decide what class to promote them to for the skills, and then their additional weapon. so you could have two heroes, one who could use swords and axes and one who could use swords and lances. something like that.

• seconding "decisions that matter" so hard. if permadeath happens, why can't other things? even if the obviously "wrong" decision (giving up the fire emblem early on, for example) leads to an early alternate endgame or a game over, it still would be something.

• otherwise just a lot of seconding what's been said -- horses weak to fire, fog of war/weather conditions, less (or no) gender-exclusive classes, more map goal variety, some sort of turn number pressure (it being related to the goal or unlocking something), and status effects.

The problem is that Staves>>>>>>>>>Knives in the instance with mages, so the choice was kinda lame, but it was greatly executed with the Cavaliers. I think what Nils is asking for that's distinct from FE9 is picking not just your weapon, but which class skills you'd get as well.

Taking the 2 mercenaries, example, say one promotes to Hero because you want Sol but also picks Bows instead of Axes, while the other promotes to Ranger because they'd rather get those skills but also picks Lances as the second weapon.

It's an interesting idea, but it would REALLY require skills being about equal in value. and classes being about equal, which is very difficult.