Then allow me to explain myself again, because I'm not sure my point is coming across.

The reason why what was brought up earlier on is revelant is because much of our expectations of the game are formed by the trailers we watch throughout the entirety of the development process. You act like what we form expectations on is simply just what we know about the game at launch, but that's simply not true. It's entirely possible for a game to show us one thing in an early trailer, show us something else in another trailer, and to be disappointed that what was shown or suggested in the aforementioned earlier trailer is not in the game. Mighty No. 9 is arguably the best recent example of this; by the time the game's final trailer was shown off, pretty much everyone expected it to be a mediocre game at best. But that still didn't stop people from being disappointed in it, because of what was shown off in other trailers was so much better than what was shown in the days leading up to launch. That's what I'm largely getting at.

Secondly, though, even if they hadn't suggested some sort of moral dilemma in early trailers, my entire OP would still be just as valid, because the point of the OP is not "Intelligent lied to us and I'm upset at them," but rather "Intelligent missed an opportunity to do something cool and that's kind of disappointing." Even if making a complex moral dilemma had never been the intention or advertised in any way, shape, or form, it can still be a shame that an interesting and unique take on a relatively underexplored concept of storytelling wasn't taken advantage of.

Lastly, as for the point of sale thing, you'll note that I put "if you're an FE fan and plan on playing both routes anyway," which is largely what this would appeal to and what I'm talking about in the first place. In other words, for the target audience, the version you purchase is largely irrelevant, as they were going to play both versions anyway.

I'd argue that if the bolded was intended to be the point, it should have been elaborated on earlier in the game. Honestly, that would've made for a really interesting moral dilemma had it been given to the player ahead of time, a question of whether it's preferable to compromise morals for the sake of saving lives. Problem is the game doesn't even remotely suggest that to the player ahead of time, so it cannot possibly be the decision you make. Nothing is stated about the amount of bloodshed that would be required if you join Hoshido, or that you could save more lives if you joined Nohr. The very fact that the player doesn't realize it until "the next few chapters" shows pretty definitively that that is not the choice you are making at the time, even if the amount of bloodshed winds up being the biggest ramification later on.

Mighty No. 9 was a whole different stroy, where people many actually paid for the game up front.  They actually had to choose whether or not to buy it based on the initial batch of data they were given.  Also, people weren't disappointed because they were expecting something unrealistic.  They expected a good game, and they didn't get it.  Perfectly justified disappointment.

I understand that you think it would have been better that way.  If the point is just that you would have liked a moral choice system in the game, fine.  But it's a bit odd to complain about a feature that wasn't promised or really necessary.  And, this game was being made for everyone who would buy it, not just those who would purchase both versions.

I don't know if maybe they're talking about the Japanese release, but I have the US version of Birthright, and I was locked into the choice unless I wanted to pay for the DLC.

I removed it because I already addressed that part of the post in several other messages. The player does make a choice dependant on exclusively on gameplay reasons, and that is what I find disappointing, because there was room to do something with both story and gameplay.

The digital download version of Fates is the only one what lets you make a choice, because at that point it would download the corresponding choice for you locking it in so in future files you are stuck with just that choice unless you download and purchase one of the other paths as DLC.

While the story in all sides suck or at best heavily flawed, as a Fire Emblem fan, I never go in expecting Shakespeare or Final Fantasy Tactics/Tactics Ogre. Much like a Tales of game I expect solid story and interesting likeable characters. With Fates depending on your personal tastes most agree the characters are likeable and interesting. But really, the idea that this couldn't all be sold as one game is very disappointing to me since such things have been done in other games since the SNES. I hope there will be another Fire Emblem that allows you to choose multiple paths in the future but done in a better and more fair way then we got with Fates.

This is absolutely intentional, lol.

Why would they try to make you regret buying the version you chose?

That's not at all the argument I'm making, but even if it was, making a customer regret the version they bought would be a good business tactic, largely because that would encourage the customer to buy the other version. Not a particularly morally upright tactic, perhaps, but a sound one nevertheless.

Fates was a disappointment.

I haven't even finished Birthright and i am sick of it. The story flows at a snails place (with lots of those moments where when someone asks a pertinent question is interrupted by some random unimportant event just to try and keep things a bit misterious), much like a really bad anime. I feel no connection to the characters. The main character himself is as bland as can be. I also have been skipping the conversation between characters because they are so bland and uninteresting.
My favorite characters in the game are my Ike and Marth amiibo's who look cooler than all the other characters even though they don't even say a word. I also don't like how they recycled the children thing again. With Awakening they started turning the series into a grind fest, and it only gets worse on this title. I also would like to see the pair up system go.

My problem is that they saw Awakening do well and thought that they should just use that for the rest of the series. Maybe they are right, but they did lose me with this.

The worst part is that the trailers promised a story rich game, but in truth deliver something very poor.

Sad, but i'm not interested in this type of FE formula. I want the story driven games with proper charact back.

I also want to mention how the sprite for ryoma dual wields 2 swords but the 3D model only has one. Mind blown at that lack of care for the presentation.

Please stay on topic. You're welcome to hate Fates and/or love older FE games as much as you want, but the purpose of this thread is to discuss a specific story aspect of Fates, and not to bait out yet another flame war between the various styles of FE titles. I'd rather not have my thread dissolve into another screaming match, as is now the case all across the community.

Like... 75% of the post was about story elements, but fair enough.