History YMMV / FireEmblemTheBindingBlade

** There's also quite a bit of disagreement on how the cast is handled in terms of gameplay. The various units you get are all over the place in terms of usefulness. Some, such as Rutger or Miledy, are '''insanely''' good while others, such as Wolt or Wendy, are just flat-out bad. To some, this leads into a nasty case of ComplacentGamingSyndrome where players will find themselves using the same handful of units. To others, the unbalanced nature of the cast allows each unit to feel unique, making [[ReplayValue subsequent playthroughs more fun]].

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' has faced backlash for giving Byleth, Manuela, and Hanneman (All of whom are professors) the option to romance playable students[[note]]Even when most of them have reached their 20's post-timeskip, and a few are already adults[[/note]]. However, many haven't realized/noticed that this isn't a new problem; it actually traces all the way back to ''Binding Blade'', with Roy having the option to marry his teacher Cecilia... in a Game Boy Advance title that came out in the year '''2002'''... except it's done in an ''[[{{Ephebophile}} even worse manner]]'' than in ''Three Houses'', despite the latter having more supports that exaggerate this issue further. It's especially odd, considering that all of Roy's supports with his teacher are platonic at best and have little to nothing to contribute to the problem.

** Lilina is often considered the one running the pants in the relations with Roy due to her immense magical power and being the daughter of Hector, who was widely known as a massive ass-kicker that she inherits his ass-kicking genes. It also helps that Roy is often seen as a LowTierLetdown during the game's run, so Lilina is often the go-to character to carry the game (between the two anyways) once Roy hits Level 20 and has to wait until near end game when he gets the Binding Blade. And so, at times, Lilina is often seen as a ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend (in canon, she's actually much more meek).

* NoYay: Doubles as {{Squick}}. The ending of Roy marrying Cecilia has garnered significant amounts of backlash, due to a mix of Roy being a teenager (15)[[note]]Although the ending does not specify how old Roy is when he actualy marries her[[/note]] compared to Cecilia being an adult (mentioned to be in her 20's), and the fact that [[TeacherStudentRomance a teacher falling in love with their student]] is something that's been [[ValuesDissonance widely frowned upon nowadays due to the unhealthy and traumatic consequences of it]]. It doesn't help that while their support conversations don't contribute to this issue, their paired ending essentially comes across as Cecilia [[TheJailBaitWait grooming her own underaged student into getting married]] and become the ruling couple of Pherae. This often leads to players pairing Roy with his other marriage options (i.e. Lilina and Shanna), all of which are or look at least around his age. Unfortunately, this only managed to get worse in ''Heroes'', when Cecilia got a bridal variant which, while fine on its own, [[MemeticMolester only damaged her reputation further]], as the banner she's featured in is themed around Roy's marriage options.

** Though this lessened since the late 2010's, fans criticized most, if not all, of Eiji Kaneda's character art for having NoodlePeople proportions, poses coming off as too stiff and lanky, the eyes on younger characters appearing glossy and doll-like, and the aesthetic of the art feeling very dull in comparison to those of the previous game.

** Larum's [[NoSenseOfPersonalSpace clingy relationship]] with Roy was PlayedForLaughs. Their supports showed Larum trying to invade his personal space, despite the fact that it only makes him extremely uncomfortable, to the point where he's telling her to stop. The B and A supports aren't any better, since Larum also broke Roy's emotional boundaries in the former, and in the latter, he's already emotionally drained to the point where they eventually married. Given that this game was released in the early 2000's, clingy relationships were still regarded as [[ComedicSociopathy "funny"]] during that time, but in recent years, Larum is now seen as being physically and emotionally abusive towards Roy.

** And by extension, Roy. In Japan, he's one of the most popular characters in the entirety of ''Fire Emblem'', while in the west, though he does have his fans (particularly the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' crowd), he's usually regarded as a BaseBreakingCharacter at best.

** The ending with Roy marrying Cecilia was treated as a normal thing since the current Japan age of consent was 13 at the time the game was released, but with the announcement of that age being bumped to 16, the marriage will be considered immoral by current Japanese standards, especially when ignoring the concerns surrounding TeacherStudentRomance. However, because Japan had the lowest age of consent during that time, a marriage like this would not sit well with most countries with an age of consent that's higher than that, especially in the west.

** Chapter 7 in particular is infamous for being a LuckBasedMission in that it is nearly impossible to guarantee that all the NPCs survive to be recruited and all your units survive the onslaught of enemies, especially the [[DemonicSpiders tanks-on-wings]] known as Wyvern Riders. The worst part is that shaky hit rates for most of your army means that you really need all hands on deck to gang up on and kill tough enemies, even some of the useless units, or they'll survive to either rush back to be healed by the two Physic priests or kill one of your own units you need.

** Chapter 7 in particular is infamous for being a LuckBasedMission in that it is nearly impossible to guarantee that all the NPC's survive to be recruited and all your units survive the onslaught of enemies, especially the [[DemonicSpiders tanks-on-wings]] known as Wyvern Riders. The worst part is that shaky hit rates for most of your army means that you really need all hands on deck to gang up on and kill tough enemies, even some of the useless units, or they'll survive to either rush back to be healed by the two Physic priests or kill one of your own units you need.

* FanPreferredCouple: Among old-school parts of the fandom, [[LadyAndKnight Melady/Guinivere and Perceval/Elffin]] are quite popular, and tend to show up together. Both Melady and Perceval are [[LadyAndKnight heavily devoted to their noble,]] and many of their supports deal with their relationship and their HurtingHero nature, and Perceval adds the dynamic that his noble is in disguise and has to play around it. The characters are also extremely popular in their own right due to their [[GameBreaker great power]] and good designs. Melady cannot support Guinivere (as Guinivere can't be deployed in the campaign) and has a boyfriend, but as said boyfriend [[MurderTheHypotenuse dies]], it doesn't much impact [[SecondLove the ship]]'s popularity.

* NoYay: Doubles as {{Squick}}. The ending of Roy marrying Cecilia has garnered significant amounts of backlash, due to a mix of Roy being a teenager (15) compared to Cecilia being an adult (mentioned to be in her 20's), and the fact that [[TeacherStudentRomance a teacher falling in love with their student]] is something that's been [[ValuesDissonance widely frowned upon nowadays due to the unhealthy and traumatic consequences of it]]. It doesn't help that while their support conversations don't contribute to this issue, their paired ending essentially comes across as Cecilia [[TheJailBaitWait grooming her own underaged student into getting married]] and become the ruling couple of Pherae. This often leads to players pairing Roy with his other marriage options (i.e. Lilina and Shanna), all of which are or look at least around his age. Unfortunately, this only managed to get worse in ''Heroes'', when Cecilia got a bridal variant which, while fine on its own, [[MemeticMolester only damaged her reputation further]], as the banner she's featured in is themed around Roy's marriage options.

** Despite playing a key role in Idunn's creation, Jahn ends up being a MinorMajorCharacter and has hardly any appearances apart from [[MrExposition giving a lengthy infodump about Idunn's backstory in the first part of the final map]].
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: The relationship between Guinivere and Zephiel is underused in the game's story. They interact once, and Guinivere spends most of the game wanting to stop him without doing much to convince him otherwise. As a side effect of this, the game's attempt to make Zephiel look like a TragicVillain ends up being wasted as despite Guinivere telling Roy their backstories, nothing is done with it and Zephiel remains just a fairly straightforward villain.

** After first appearing in ''Heroes'' in his bridal variant in 2021, Saul became quite popular amongst fans, with many enjoying the fact that he takes his job as a priest seriously (such as being tasked by Yoder to fulfill serious tasks and successfully finishing them), which some found to be surprising despite [[CassonovaWannabe his tendency to flirt on women only to be met with failure]]. That, and there are also people who make ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' or affectionately call him [[FanNickname Saul Goodman]] due to sharing his name with the lawyer of the same name.

** [[MysteriousWaif Sophia.]] She's infamous among players as a [[TierInducedScrappy Tier-Induced Scrappy]], but she's been shown to have quite the fanbase, as she retains rather high positions in popularity polls concerning ''The Binding Blade'' characters, so people either find her one of the most interesting characters despite her flaws, or just a waste of space in the roster.

** Lilina is often considered the one running the pants in the relations with Roy due to her immense magical power and being the daughter of Hector, who was widely known as a massive ass-kicker that she inherits his ass-kicking genes. It also helps that Roy is often seen as a TierInducedScrappy during the game's run, so Lilina is often the go-to character to carry the game (between the two anyways) once Roy hits Level 20 and has to wait until near end game when he gets the Binding Blade. And so, at times, Lilina is often seen as a ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend (in canon, she's actually much more meek).

** Good lord, Wolt. Despite him being Roy's milk-brother and showing up very prominently on the packaging, due to his [[TierInducedScrappy really poor base stats and merely OK growths]], Wolt is a character who usually becomes really irrelevant really quickly, especially compared to other archers, [[AdvertisedExtra and he has zero presence in the story outside of a single line of dialogue in the first chapter]]. He is almost always considered the worst character of the [[RecurringElement Gordin archetype]].

** Some of the more positive opinions on Roy amount to this. His supports hint that despite his savvy, intelligent nature and down-to-earth personality, he struggles with being the leader of an army at such a young age, and that he has an inferiority complex about being unskilled and inexperienced in combat (something that would logically tie in to his [[TierInducedScrappy weakness as a unit]]). Unfortunately, this angle of his character isn't explored very much either in the main story or his supports.

* ClicheStorm: Evil nation invading the land, the ruler turns out to be a DiscOneFinalBoss with darker forces at work, and the game's cast largely follows archetypes set by the very first ''Fire Emblem'' title to a T. That being said, the game does play a bit with some of ''Fire Emblem'''s most conventional tropes, most notably [[spoiler:the dynamic between Zephiel and Idunn being a complete reversal of the usual human conqueror/royal + supernatural benefactor pulling the strings[[note]]i.e. [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones Lyon & Vigarde/Fomortiis]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Validar/Grima]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemFates Garon/Anankos]], etc.[[/note]] since Zephiel is the real BigBad while Idunn is just a puppet to him; furthermore, he's not really "cruel" to Idunn or out for personal power or whatever - he really is just ''that much'' of a nihilistic misanthrope, but by that token he sees no reason to be "unnecessarily" cruel, especially to those who can help him.]]

* HesJustHiding: [[spoiler:In ''The Binding Blade'', Sacae was invaded by Bern, and most of the populace in Bulgar was massacred in the process, which led to a lot of casualities in that city. While not explicitly mentioned (Given ''Binding Blade'' was developed and released first), this implies that [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade Lyn]] was among those people who were killed there, though depending on who she marries at the end of ''The Blazing Blade'', she may have also died from giving birth and might never get the chance of witnessing the Disturbance nor the Bulgar massacre. However, some fans doubted that she died somehow, and was either simply just hiding somewhere, most likely somewhere safe in Sacae, or dealing with Bern's army on her own.]]

** The TrueFinalBoss, [[spoiler:Idunn]], is barely any stronger than the boss that just preceded her, has ''less'' HP than said boss on Normal mode, can't do ranged attacks, and the Binding Blade destroys her so utterly that a moderately trained Roy can one-round her... and an ''un''trained Roy, at his base stats with no more than promotion gains, still kills her in three hits. The nicest thing most players can say about this battle is "At least she's not as bad as [[VideoGame/FireEmblemThracia776 Veld]]." [[note]] the final boss of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThracia776'', who is otherwise just an upgraded {{Mook}}.[[/note]]

** Roy is ''incredibly'' notorious among the fanbase for this. He has poor base stats, growth rates that are good but aren't enough to make up for his bases, and a REALLY late promotion even by ''Fire Emblem'' Lords standards. While his promotion also gives him an amazing EleventhHourSuperpower in form of the Binding Blade, it does not stop him from being mediocre for the majority of the game. He is at least somewhat effective in the early game, due to his accuracy being good and his rapier letting him deal decent damage to cavaliers, but past that point, there's a reason he's earned the nickname "Backpack Lord."
** Sophia. She's next to ''impossible'' to train since she joins at a point where virtually every enemy will kill her in one round. And unlike many other late-joining high-growth characters, the result isn't all that worth it as her final stats are near identical to Lilina's, who joins ''far'' earlier. What makes players really hate her though, is that you're ''forced'' to use her in the chapter she joins... which happens to be a Fog-of-War Desert map with tons of flying enemies, and she has to survive to unlock the sidequest chapter, turning the whole thing into an annoying EscortMission. Thankfully, she has full movement in it, but she's still an easy liability.
** Then there's Gwendolyn, who some consider even WORSE than Sophia despite joining earlier. She's very fragile for an Armor Knight and in fact can be one shotted in her joining chapter, with it being difficult to give her the levels she sorely needs due to her being limited to lances (until promotion) having the usual Armor Knight movement and coming before a very axe-heavy portion of the game. Even once trained she still has the movement issue that Generals suffer from and isn't very practical to use thanks to the constant seize format of maps in the game. Thankfully, she isn't necessary to keep alive like Sophia, but she still has little going for her. Tongue-in-cheek debates over which one is worse are common.

** The route-exclusive characters Juno and Dayan are the very embodiment of LateCharacterSyndrome, with poor stats and growths with very little room to grow as well as being outshone by their competition in their fields. The only saving grace they have is that they can make for good rescue-chaining, Juno has the Triangle Attack (though that in itself is AwesomeButImpractical), and Dayan comes with an A-rank in bows right before the wyvern-infested hellhole that is Chapter 21.
** Wade, as far as axe users go, is by far one of the worst in the series. His lack of speed and strength will get him doubled, then likely killed by the enemy. In a game where {{Permadeath}} is enabled, using him is just asking for trouble, particularly when there are better axe users to use, such as Gonzalez.

* TheScrappy: Merlinus is grumpy and bitter for good reason, but many fans found him to be an asshole who took up way too much screen time before the real meat of the plot kicked in. Gameplay-wise, he takes up a spot on your roster rather than the game asking if you want to deploy him, and if his HP reaches zero at any point you lose all the items he was holding for you. Luckily, unlike in [=FE7=], you don't have to bring him out to send items. In recent years, he has also started earning a lot of ire for being seemingly the reason most of the cast (particularly Lilina) gets shafted, due to him being Roy's adviser and the just about only person he interacts with in the story, whereas fans feel other characters such as Lilina, Marcus, Klein, Cecilia, Perceval, and Douglas were more deserving of his role while characters like Elffin and Guinivere (both who occasionally chime in) could use a little more screen time.

* {{Squick}}: Pairing Eliwood with Fiora and Hector with one of Fiora's younger sisters in ''The Blazing Blade'' could potentially result in Roy's paired ending with Lilina becoming incestuous (should the player also pair them up), due to the fact that they can potentially become direct cousins if Eliwood's wife is Fiora and Hector's is one of the former's sisters. Avoiding this is doable, though.

* NoYay: Doubles as {{Squick}}. The ending of Roy marrying Cecilia has garnered significant amounts of backlash, due to a mix of Roy being a teenager compared to Cecilia being an adult, and the fact that [[TeacherStudentRomance a teacher falling in love with their student]] is something that's been [[ValuesDissonance widely frowned upon nowadays due to the unhealthy and traumatic consequences of it]]. This often leads to players pairing Roy with his other marriage options (i.e. Lilina and Shanna), all of which are or look at least around his age. Unfortunately, this only managed to get worse in ''Heroes'', when Cecilia got a bridal variant which, while fine on its own, [[MemeticMolester only damaged her reputation further]], as the banner she's featured in is themed around Roy's marriage options.

* NoYay: Many people are grossed out by the Roy X Cecilia ending due to their age gap[[note]]Cecilia is canonically in her 20's, likely later twenties to how she talks and is written, and Roy is 15[[/note]], and the fact that it's a TeacherStudentRomance. While their support conversations don't contribute to this issue, their paired ending essentially comes across as Cecilia grooming her own student into getting married and become the ruling couple of Pherae, which also doubles as {{Squick}} due to age gap. The majority prefer to pair Roy with his other potential love interests instead, since all of them are around and look his age. Luckily, this can easily be avoided in-game, but this only managed to get worse in ''Heroes'', when Cecilia got a bridal variant which, while fine on its own, [[MemeticMolester only damaged her reputation further]], as the banner she's featured in is themed around Roy's marriage options.

* NeverLiveItDown: Jokes about Hector becoming an ''insanely'' OverprotectiveDad who will do many not-nice things to Roy if he does ''anything'' romantic with his daughter Lilina. Truth is, he is barely in ''The Binding Blade'' (he dies about an hour into the game and his last plea to ''Roy'' was to keep his daughter safe) and thus has little to no characterization. And while fully playable in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'', that was only ever acknowledged in his B-support with Eliwood, and even then, this was before his daughter (or Roy) was born. And while some interaction ''does'' shows up in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes'', Roy's romance (or not) with Lilina is only slightly hinted and although Hector knows, he doesn't mind. The [[https://fire-emblem-heroes.com/ja/manga/part/index.html#part67 67th chapter]] of ''Webcomic/FireEmblemHeroesADayInTheLife'' does show Hector angrily chase Roy (who was with Lilina) down a hallway, while Eliwood tries to calm him down, but given this is from a GagSeries spin-off, it's not considered canon.

* NoYay: Many people are grossed out by the Roy X Cecilia ending due to their age gap[[note]]Cecilia is canonically in her 20's, likely later twenties to how she talks and is written, and Roy is 15[[/note]], and the fact that it's a TeacherStudentRomance, both of which are UnfortunateImplications. While their support conversations don't contribute to this issue, their paired ending essentially comes across as Cecilia grooming her own student into getting married and become the ruling couple of Pherae, which also doubles as {{Squick}} due to age gap. The majority prefer to pair Roy with his other potential love interests instead, since all of them are around and look his age. Luckily, this can easily be avoided in-game, but this only managed to get worse in ''Heroes'', when Cecilia got a bridal variant which, while fine on its own, [[MemeticMolester only damaged her reputation further]], as the banner she's featured in is themed around Roy's marriage options.

** The ending with Roy marrying Cecilia was treated as a normal thing since the current Japan age of consent was 13 at the time the game was released, but with the announcement of that age being bumped to 16, the marriage will be considered immoral by current Japanese standards, especially when ignoring the concerns surrounding TeacherStudentRomance. However, because Japan had the lowest age of consent during the time, a marriage like this would not sit well with most countries with an age of consent that's higher than that, especially in the west.

* UnderusedGameMechanic:
** The legendary light tome Aureola. In the [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade prequel]], Aureola is obtained very late in the game, but any character with an S-Rank in Light Magic, as well as Athos, are able to wield it immediately. However, in this game, it is obtained earlier, but with the absence of monks due to EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, it would almost never see use in the main story, as there are only two priests and a prepromoted bishop recruited in the entire game. Here's the catch, though; Elen and Saul aren't considered very good for combat and the Guiding Ring is extremely rare, while Yoder is only one rank away from using it, and can be trained if the former two didn't have an S-Rank in Light Magic, but he joins very late and has barely any use outside of that and being another healer. The only character to have full access to Aureola is Guinivere, and that's ''only'' if she's unlocked for use in the trial maps.
** The tutorial from the extras menu can be overlooked very easily, since it never shows up anywhere else nor is it forced upon, even if a new save file is created. However, compared to the Lyn chapters from ''The Blazing Blade'' and easy mode in ''The Sacred Stones'', it only takes place on a separate map designed around it, and is narrated by a specific character (in this case, Cecilia). Unfortunately, upon starting the tutorial, no save file is created at all, therefore resulting in the valuable experience points obtained from it to be lost.

%%This entry doesn't explain why it's problematic outside of Japan but not in Japan.
%%** Even before ''Three Houses'' was released, which had the controversial TeacherStudentRomance support endings exaggerated, Cecilia being a romance option for Roy despite the age gaps wasn't received very well by fans, and is still subject to criticism. The support chain tends to be more well liked, but the ending itself had absolutely nothing to do with how they're written, which makes it look like it just came out of nowhere.

** Even before ''Three Houses'' was released, which had the controversial TeacherStudentRomance support endings exaggerated, Cecilia being a romance option for Roy despite the age gaps wasn't received very well by fans, and is still subject to criticism. The support chain tends to be more well liked, but the ending itself had absolutely nothing to do with how they're written, which makes it look like it just came out of nowhere.

** The FinalBoss, [[spoiler:Idunn]], is barely any stronger than the boss that just preceded her, has ''less'' HP than said boss on Normal mode, can't do ranged attacks, and the Binding Blade destroys her so utterly that a moderately trained Roy can one-round her... and an ''un''trained Roy, at his base stats with no more than promotion gains, still kills her in three hits. The nicest thing most players can say about this battle is "At least she's not as bad as [[VideoGame/FireEmblemThracia776 Veld]]." [[note]] the final boss of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThracia776'', who is otherwise just an upgraded {{Mook}}.[[/note]]

* CommonKnowledge: [[spoiler:No, Zephiel did not fight Hector directly, he merely left him to die. Narcian and Brunnya were responsible for the mortal wounds he received.]]

** [[spoiler:Idunn]] is barely any stronger than the boss that just preceded her, has ''less'' HP than said boss on Normal mode, can't do ranged attacks, and the Binding Blade destroys her so utterly that a moderately trained Roy can one-round her... and an ''un''trained Roy, at his base stats with no more than promotion gains, still kills her in three hits. The nicest thing most players can say about this battle is "At least she's not as bad as [[VideoGame/FireEmblemThracia776 Veld]]." [[note]] the final boss of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThracia776'', who is otherwise just an upgraded {{Mook}}.[[/note]]

* CommonKnowledge: [[spoiler:No, Zephiel did not fight Hector directly, he merely left him to die. Narcian and Brunnya were responsible for the damage he received.]]