Same. I've played all 3 paths alreqdy and Revelation is the best one in my view. 

I know what you meant. I'm simply pointing out that that would result in far and away the most content they've ever created for a single Fire Emblem title, so chances are they would have never made two/three game's worth of content in the first place. At best, we'd be looking at Sacred Stones 2, where the two paths are about half identical, and the total unique content would have been a bit over half of what we we wound up getting.

Noname is right, and there's another reason why it's very unlikely for Intelligent Systems to make a game of Fates' size as a single game. They did it once before, and that was very nearly the end of the franchise.

Outside of FE7, every Fire Emblem game from Thracia 776 (FE5) to Path of Radiance (FE9) had had main campaigns of roughly 25 maps. (FE7's was 31). Then, Radiant Dawn was 42 maps long, and by far the grandest game in the franchise.

And it sold horribly. It also reviewed quite poorly.

Where can you take the series from there? As a niche series, you can't "one-up" the scale and make something grander, because it simply was not financially viable to make a Fire Emblem larger than Radiant Dawn. On the other hand, if you make a smaller game, then you're releasing a Fire Emblem game that's a smaller version of a game nobody bought, and that reviewed poorly. That's not really a good option either.

Intelligent Systems went with the latter, by making two cheap remakes, before partly having to reinvent the series with Awakening as a final chance for the series.

Awakening performed extremely well, but was also a game the size of Radiant Dawn. If they made all versions of Fates together, that would be an even larger game. Imagine now, that this massive Fates failed to live up to Awakening's sales and reception.

They'd then have set a precedent of games being 50 and 60 (ish) maps large - more than twice than what was the precedent 10 years ago. They couldn't after those two games make a smaller, 30-map game, without it being looked at as ridiculously small. Furthermore, since Fates would have been considered inferior to Awakening, the general opinion would be of Fire Emblem as a series in decline - first it sells less, and then it's downscaled.

From my perspective, Intelligent Systems only had two options after Radiant Dawn and Awakening.

1) Downscale the size of the games now, back to a FE7-size game

2) Forever make massive games and hope that the popularity remains.

I considered #1 to be the most likely, because #2 would be more risky, and quite contrary to how Intelligent Systems usually makes games.

Instead, they went with a third route, that seems to be better. They're making a larger game, but it's also split up and more expensive. It's thus possible for the next game in the series to be smaller FE7-size game, and thus be a "return to normal size" game, rather than being a small version of the old game.

I don't see the Fates model as a cash crab in any sense, but rather the best and easiest way for them to make a large-scale Fire Emblem without potentially jeopardising the future of the franchise.

Then your beef is with the way the retailers handle it, not Nintendo, because distribution is done entirely via retailers. Though even there I don't think there's too much room to blame the retailers because they have so little supply to work with. What would the alternative to calling up those with regular preorders and asking them if they'd like to upgrade? Going the NA route and putting up the special edition online, and then having it sell out in 30 minutes? Either way, plenty of people who want it get shortchanged.

All of this revolves around not some sneaky underhanded business practice; neither Nintendo or retailers have anything to gain from making things needlessly obtuse. They're simply working with the situations they're given; Nintendo and game stores have to satisfy increasingly worried shareholders, and in this case, at least one party estimated too conservatively. The result is an unfortunate scenario where inevitably, people will get screwed over. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less.

Honestly, the only way the situation is likely to improve for the next Fire Emblem game is if Fates sells really well (which it has thus far). High sales communicate an increased desire for special editions, so Nintendo/retailers are likely to supply them more. With greater supply, they're likely to spend more on advertising and explaining how to get them.

I not getting it because they removed the waifu petting in the western version. Damn it that was a major selling point for me

It's still there, just modified so that you can only access it by getting an S rank with your possible spouse.

Nah Nintendo should have given us the information. Retailers didnt know anything about it until they actually did. I mean i asked about the limited edition the moment the game was out for pre-order and they didnt know anything about it.

I think the way to fix this is for people to be really vocal about it to Nintendo. But i actually have heard these complaints before and its very sad to see them not taking action (i hear it happens with amiibos alot).

What would you even have Nintendo say, though? They have no idea how the retailers will handle distribution. Just have Nintendo give you their best guess on how the retailers will divy up the few special editions they have? The retailers are the only one with a hand in the actual selling to consumer process; Nintendo has no say in whether the special editions are given to those with existing pre-orders or just stuck online for five minutes before they all immediately sell out.

SE will be available at retailers after this ND... or at day X... or even during month Y. Nintendo does determine how many copies each retailer gets. They themselves said that. They said that Nintendo alocates a number of SE's per country and each retailer on that country gets a certain share. So, its not about number of pre-orders each retailer has or anything.

As for giving to pre-order or making it available you are right. As there were both. But it was a situation created by Nintendo for having withheld the availability of the SE's when they announced them nor giving any sort of estimate on their availability.

I'd be interested in getting a source on Nintendo determining how many copies each retailer gets, because that's usually not the case with SEs.

Regardless, announcing the limitedness of it would probably have made things even worse. Would have encouraged scalpers along with the usual frenzy of buyers.