u/gorremu

After almost 6 months playing... I reached the Endgame. I am so happy with my run. The Jugdral series and particularly this game have immersed me in a story like few other games (or stories for that matter) had. I've said it in previous posts... this game is a great example of videogames as an artform.

The story is not perfect in itself (whether it's because of the translation or the original story is irrelevant) but through its gameplay it allows you to immerse yourself in it. The story is not just dialogue and exposition, its very deeply embedded in its gameplay and as such allows me to build my own narrative using the game's assets. I can't think of many games capable of such a feat (happy to hear some examples!). My most obvious example: when selecting the two accompanying units to Leif, Nanna and Finn were the choices due to their supports. But when I saw the character sprites... it moved me to see they were facing on opposing sides and that I had the same three units together just like when you first meet Leaf in Fire Emblem IV. It made me think about their journey together and how all throughout it, being close to each other literally made them better units, at some points having them together was necessary for survival.

Tell me your stories, what stories did you tell when you played this?

My final rooster:

- Finn / Leif / Nanna

- Safy / Osian / Tanya

- Ced / Tina / Asbel

- Lara / Dermott / Linoan

- Homer / Perne / Sara

- Galzus / Eyvel / Mareeta

It kinda permeates a lot of games in general but I wonder what your opinion on it is.

I think it sucks that most games validate leadership through blood, therefore reinforcing the idea that you are entitle to stuff just because you were born into it. I like that FE5 discusses the subject but in the end Leif triumphs because he is of Crusader blood as much as the fights he engaged in with his army.

Do you know where I can read/see more on this subject in videogames? It really extends to A LOT of videogames and franchises.

I wanted to recruit him so bad :(

Last time I posted I was on Chapter 6, barely escaping Manster after the prison break. It has been a long a difficult ride, with many restarts, many save states (I'm sorry but Chapter 18 was just too much and I HAD to recruit Xavier because reasons) and one captured unit (Shannam, strategically let him get captured to access ch 21x as well as to allow me to escape during chapter 19... recruiting Conomor was a pain in the ass as well since I had no more Warps and had to rely on luck for Miranda to be able to talk to him).

I am going to gush now please bear with me (this is my personal opinion!). I am still in awe at this game's beauty. Unlike the GBA FEs (and I'm guessing, all those that came afterwards) the blend of gameplay and story is excellent. I dare say this is one of those games I like to categorize as artworks and take them as personal reference for thinking, criticizing and creating art, particularly how videogames can become works of art as well as a fun thing to play.

All throughout the game you are constantly on the run, as a commenter mentioned on my last post, the game becomes very inmersive in making you feel like you're a weak and disadvantaged army compared to the Empire's. But it's not just the infinite reinforcements and the perceived weakness, it's also when you compare your units to the ones in FE4 and how they all have so many special skills your units lack. It's a subtle way of the game saying "your army consists of mostly regular folks that have risen up under Leif's leadership, there's no holy blood that helps you here".

Capturing and rescuing units is a wholly different deal here than in the GBA FEs. Whereas when I played the GBA FEs I almost never rescued a unit, I had to do it here often, making it a very important game mechanic. Moreover, you HAVE to capture enemy units to get weapons, at least during the early game. But if you want to get good weapons you have to constantly capture them. Capturing presents an important moral dilemma: the game explicitly tells you most soldiers are villagers (maybe forcibly) recruited by the Empire to fight you, but you just can't capture them all: as in war, casualties are inevitable. But you become a different leader and you can even recruit characters if you capture instead of kill indiscriminately.

Leadership stars. In FE4 it was just a nice game mechanic that was bestowed on enemy leaders and your lords, but here you have generals. And it's an excelent blend of gameplay and story: when you recruit or kill a leader, their leadership bonuses vanish... so storywise it's the equivalent of seeing the troops become completely demoralized after seeing their Commander fall on the field. Likewise, bringing your generals to battle moralizes the troops, helping them dodge better and attack more accurately. The leadership doesn't rest solely on Leif.

Unlike in FE6 and 7, supports are not just more than getting neat conversations and putting your units next to each other. Since they are fixed, the relationship between the characters are not just plot relevant but also gamewise important: some units encourage others to fight better and the fact that it's mostly one sided supports just makes it that much more interesting. Miranda, being a weak unit herself, supports Connomor and together they can be very powerful, just to give an example.

Most missions push you into dealing with them in a specific way, like another commenter mentioned in my other posts, it's like a puzzle you have to solve. But more than that, unless you're cheesing the missions (which is valid but not the first choice and I personally have been avoiding that most of the game), these are arranged so that how you move and engage with the enemy becomes part of the story... the best examples being Ch19 and Ch20... 20 is a very interesting example because you know Celiph's Army is coming but the reinforcements don't stop and they start trashing the castle... until they stop. And the music is so encouraging you just KNOW that Celiph is out there conquering Manster and that's why the reinforcements have finally stopped coming.

Of course there are some slow missions... a good chunk between Ch7 and Ch16 is kinda forgettable, with your army just dealing with the "bad guy of the week" thing.

There's so much more I want to say but I haven't finished the game yet. But I'll continue to make notes as there is so much more to learn on good storytelling from this game.

Share your thoughts! Cheers :)