From my experience, chaos theory applies quite adequately to videogames. Minor uninspired decisions made at the beginning of a playthrough can pretty much expand into massive hurdles as said playthrough unfolds, totally ruining the whole experience in their wake. However, tinkering with the offending parameters can work miracles and make way for a much more pleasant playthrough. I've been copiously using that trick to great effect, from
Dragon Quest IX to
Animal Crossing, and I decided to let it work its magic once again on
Fates.
I came to realise in the last hours that despite my best efforts,
my run couldn't be salvaged. I had made too many bad decisions, taken too many wrong turns and wasted too much time on endeavours that turned out to be unproductive, ruining my whole playthrough beyond repair in the process. I needed to wipe the slate clean and start anew, and that's exactly what I did by erasing my save and restarting the game from the so-called "branch of fates" where paths diverge, choosing Hoshido once again.
My first change was to opt for a female Corrin instead of a male one. My reasoning was that the
moe-ladden behaviour of my male units would be easier to swallow if it were directed towards a female character, because it would then pass as chivalry or galantry rather than boy's love innuendos. I was also secretly hoping than the bonding scenes would be toned-down for male mates and that I would escape embarrassing kissing simulations. To my utter delight, my assumptions and estimates proved quite accurate, and that fresh new start with "Lady Corrin", as she's respectfully called by my force, totally feels like the right decision. There is also something more intangible at work there: for some unfathomable reason, I do feel that the whole story works better with a female Corrin. Granted, this may be a personal impression only; but on the other hand, I never experienced this kind of feeling with
Pokemon or
Avalon Code, whose stories flow just as naturally with characters of both sexes. I'd be curious to know if other players feel the same—because sometimes, stories
do indeed work better with a character of a given sex for a myriad of intangible reasons—or if this is really just an idiosyncrasy of mine.
Then there was the Kaze issue, which needed to be resolved at all costs. Kaze was my absolute favourite unit by a very long shot—heck, I liked him considerably more than my Corrin—and to lose him was quite a blow to my morale. I knew I had to save him during that second playthrough; and since this can be achieved through gaining A support rank with Corrin (kudos to Elisa for letting me know about this), I figured that I could as well go all the way and pair my stoic, aloof, noble-looking female Corrin with equally stoic, aloof and noble-looking Kaze. As I'm a total sucker for stoic, aloof, noble-looking characters, this was absolutely a match made in heaven; and it certainly helps that the support conversations between these two were both intense and full of restraint and thus quite fascinating to watch. This riveting dynamic is maintained during the bonding sessions, which are a glorious mix of reserve, formality, frankness and forwardness on Kaze's part. If the Corrin/Azura bonding sessions were often reminiscent of dates between teenage lovers, Corrin and Kaze's brand of bonding is much more genuinely akin to intimacy between adult spouses, which suits my tastes better. At any rate, that matter is now solved, and I can relax and indulge in the joy of fighting with my favourite unit throughout the whole game without fearing that he'll be removed from my force. Life is sweet!
Matchmaking aside, my main goal with that second playthrough is to keep things tight and
streamlined in order to preserve the game's pacing and to avoid ending
quagmired in boredom like the first time around. This implies focusing
solely on a limited number of units and ditching the rest without mercy;
and this is actually a much-needed relief, given how much of a hassle it had
proven to maintain an evenly leveled-up force during my first
playthrough. As a consequence, I will spare myself the trouble of
clearing the Paralogues—except if I have a really,
really massive
crush on the involved kid. None of the units recruited during these Paralogues were stellar anyway, and some of them were giant walking
liabilities. (I'm looking at you, Mozu. Oh, the hours I wasted
leveling-you up to no avail, because you were always so bloody weak.)
And while I'm at it, I will also skip Invasions, which means that I can
avoid wasting my food on Lilith and use it to power up my units
instead thanks to the Mess Hall. Two birds with one stone! This time
around, I will also play matchmaker more actively and let love bloom
between units, for the sake of increased performances on the
battlefield—and also a little bit for the sake of entertainment: I've
gotten used to the feature and I have to admit that it's both cute and
amusing to see units growing closer and finally tying the knot.
I've been following these new guidelines for a couple of chapters now and I'm having quite a blast. Battles are much more interesting and thrilling now that there are less of them and that my crew is tighter and not overleveled anymore, and I love catering to my favourite units and molding them into ultimate soldiers. This revamped run of
Fates/
Birthright is the absolute treat and proves yet again that every game deserves a second chance. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a fiery battle/matchmaking session to attend. More news of my exciting brand-new run soon! Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!
Glad to know this run is going much better for you! Oddly enough, while I can't comment on it on Fates, I think a female protagonist also worked better in Awakening. Mostly because the other main character was Chrom, whom you had to get married by the half of the story, and the main character was the only wife who remained relevant after the marriage. Not to mention the story relied so much on their deep bond, even if you choose a male character there are still lines about how much he loves Chrom. The most relevant female character also works better if the protagonist is their mother, there are DLCs which have special events if Chrom marries the protagonist, but not any of his other wifes, etc. It just feels better overall.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Fire Emblem is leaning towards female protagonists? I thought that a male character would have more focus this time around, since the game's co-protagonist is female, but apparently not. Of course, this might be because of bias and personal impression.
The presence of Azura as Fate's co-protagonist is one of the reasons that initially prompted me to choose a male Corrin. I was planning to marry her and see where it would go from there, and I was expecting interesting developments.
DeleteThe problem is, Azura is painfully transparent on top of being a crappy fighter. Far from playing an important role in the narrative, she is (at least so far) reduced to occasional cameos that more often than not fail to make an impression. And her overall immature behaviour and sloppy looks certainly don't help her case. I expected a goddess-like mysterious woman full of poise and dignity, and what I got instead was an infantile slob who cannot comb her hair properly and constantly looks like she just woke up from a nap. That was quite a disappointment, I can tell you that.
Really, it's not a coincidence if I ended up valuing Kaze considerably more than Azura: not only is he stellar in battle, but he gets as much screen time as Azura and more character development than her.
Really? I was totally not expecting that to be the case. I though anyone other than Azura and the royal families would get shafted for screentime and character development. Especially considering Azura is with you in every route. I know so is Kaze, but I wasn't expecting the shared characters to be more than battle fodder. This is excellent news.
DeleteI'm betting Azura will be more important in the revelations path. But since you don't like her, I guess it won't matter much :p Chrom sounds way better than her: even if you don't like his personality, he was awesome in battle and was deeply involved in the story.
I think you're going to like Birthright then, because the royal family doesn't really get that much spotlight. On the other hand, plenty of shared characters get a decent chunk of screentime, including your butler/maid, Rinkah, Silas, and of course Kaze. Overall, the game tries its hardest to give every character its 15 minutes of fame, which is great.
DeleteSo Kaze is in every route? How awesome! I'm curious to see how he will be included in the Nohr route; because from what I remember, he was persona non grata in Nohr... :P
The way I see it, Azura's role in the story is both too conspicuous and too inexistent. I mean, it's pretty obvious that she's some kind of goddess/magician/whatever with the ability to foresee the future and to travel between parallel universes to monitor and/or influence events, which makes her a tremendously important character. But on the other hand, her actual actions in the story are pretty limited, making her more of a silent observer than anything else. She'll probably end up being a deux ex machina at some point, which is not something I'm looking forward to.
So I've finally started the game myself, and I'm only a couple of hours into it. Here's my thoughts on it so far, I'm 6 chapters in, just before I have to choose my route:
ReplyDelete- Phoenix difficulty option heck, yeah! FE is not the game I enjoy being too punishing. It's the reason I can't play the older titles at all, I hate restarting battles 2 billion times so my characters don't die.
- The customizing menu is awful. If you're gonna present us with a traditional menu at the end of the process, why bother with the gimmicky and less effective version in the first place?
- Game, the 3DS has a bottom screen. It'd be nice if you could use it to give us some descriptions about the classes, strengths and weaknesses. Most are obvious, but what is the difference between "sickly" and "fragile" for example? What bonuses does "dragon" give?
- Man, 5 seconds in and I already don't like Takumi. Which means the Nohrian path, that has him as the main villain, is gonna suuucckkk. But on the other hand, I feel no connection to the Hoshido family, and I definitely don’t wanna help jerk Takumi. Birthright is easier than Conquest, but what if I find Birthright so boring I never wanna go back and do the other routes? And the phoenix difficulty could make conquest easy anyway…but what if I then never chose Hoshido at all, should I just get it out of the way even though it will probably be boring? Ugh, I don’t know what to choose!!
- The story feels much more immersive compared to awakening. The cutscenes using the 3d models are actually done well. Other than the fact that the PC sleeps in full armor that is.
- That said, I don't like how the story is being presented. For a game that is supposed to represent duality, it leads heavily into "Hoshido is the bestest most peaceful country ever, and while Nohr may have good people, it's still inferior and evil compared to Hoshido". Given that Hoshiso=Japan and Nohr=Europe, that does not sit well with me at all. I foresee many things about the plot irking me to no end. Also the pacing so far feels extremely rushed, much worse than the pace in Awakening.
- The dragon veils are a very nice addition to the combat.
- I like that the weapon weakness/advantage system now has a colour scheme to go with it.
- Lilith is very cute, I like her a lot. And I have a terrible feeling about her fate, she's too precious to be left alone. Be honest with me, is she going to die? And in a terrible way?
Btw, other than having trouble picking my route, I’m also having trouble picking my husbands. I've been thinking of marrying the PC's most loyal men in my playhroughs, because I'm weak to devoted men. I already like Jakob and I have a good impression of Kaze from your own playthrough. But I'm doubtful over Silas, who I haven’t met yet, and think maybe I should marry Leo or Xander instead in the Nohr route (Kaze is for Hoshido, Jakob is for revelations). You married him to someone in your playthrough, how was he as a husband?
Though knowing me, I’ll probably grow attached to my first husband and be unable to pick anyone else in other routes. It’s what happened in Awakening, though it didn’t help that that game forced Chrom to marry and I didn’t like any of his other wives (with him that is). At least in this game, I can keep my previous lovers unmarried, but still. This makes my route choice even more important, and the chapters were so short I couldn’t get attached to anyone yet! I get that the games wanted to get to the branching point fast, but how am supposed to choose with so little info and context?
After spending the last hour thinking about which route to choose, I decided to spoil myself a bit on the story (I really never care about spoilers, it doesn't affect my enjoyment) and now I don't wanna play neither Birthright OR Conquest. I mean, what's the point really? Everyone knows that the Revelations path is the canon and most fulfilling one, even without spoilers. Why the heck should I go through 2 clearly wrong paths that not only will not give me all the answers to the plot, but will be filled with deaths (a cheap way to bring emotion into a story) and pointless conflicts that could be avoided and will make me rage?
DeleteThe more I think about it, the less point I see to this being split into 3 stories. It just doesn't have enough nuance to be able to work. In most SMT games, the three paths work because none of them are truly the right option, a lot of people die in every path and each path has different consequences to the player. It truly is up to the player's morality to decide with path is the best, but none of them truly are the best in the long run, not even neutral. Now that is how you make a good game with multiple paths. Fates doesn't work because revelations is clearly the right path, it gives the most answers, makes the most people happy and ends with the most characters alive. There's no point in playing the other paths unless you want to torture yourself with a weaker plot and character killing. And I hate killing other characters. I don't want to have to kill half the cast in these 2 routes, no story is worth that, there's no point.
Well, no point besides getting your money's worth. But the plot really, really doesn't work, and it makes Conquest and Birthright feel worthless compared to birthright. Nintendo should have not split the game in 3, it was a weak way to make more money at the cost of fan's enjoyment. Ugh, and since I paid for the "3" games, I feel I should play all routes, but at the same time I KNOW I won't enjoy them and will want to drop the game.
Gee, I just found these massive comments of yours by happenstance! Guess I should check older posts more often. ^^
DeleteTo answer your question regarding Silas, I'd say he's good husband material. Despite being a bit dubious at first, he's a honest and devoted guy without a bad done in his body. In fact, maybe I'll pick him up as a husband if I play Conquest or Revelations with a female Corrin.
And yes, a million times yes, the decision to split the game in three was downright counter-productive and dishonest, and a giant diss to Fire Emblem fans and collectors. It still boggles my mind that Nintendo managed to get a free pass regarding that whole swindle and that no reviewer pointed out the fact that Birthright and Conquest are basically unfinished games and thus complete rip-offs. In the end, the so-called "Collector Edition" I own, with all three games on a single cartridge, is the genuine comprehensive version of Fates. The game should have been sold that way with a price tag of 40 to 50€, period.