Party Moth

If you are interested, I could post an outline tomorrow since I don't have the time to right this second. The outline itself would be quite lengthy as there are three separate stories to cover like the game.

I considered dabbling in some fic for this, but honestly there isn't much of a point. To fix Fates, you would have to destroy two thirds of the plot and revise it completely. Hoshido can remain relatively unscathed (albeit with some rather troubling editing), but Nohr is nigh unworkable as is and the 3rd Path DLC carries with it so many plot inconsistencies and contrived situations that you have to wonder if these three stories really take place in the same Outrealm or not. Then there's the issue of the children, and the issue of the supports and their quality. Then there's the issue of My Castle and how one could properly integrate it, as it comes across as a rather jarring plot device and an excuse for babies and face rubbing in the current game. Then there's the issue of aesthetics, culture, and worldbuilding, most of which is quite one dimensional and cardboard cut-out in nature. And this is all just the tip of the iceberg. Everything in Fates, down to its story, features, characters, fanservice, and music, suffers from the same problem of wanting to have its cake and eat it too. It tries to do so many things that it accomplishes none of them effectively. The director has learned nothing. The writers have learned nothing. The composers have learned nothing. It makes me hesitant to devote time to fixing it the way I've dedicated time to Awakening's issues. I do have an outline of what I would do if I gave it the time of day, but I doubt anyone would be interested in reading it. Fan fiction in general suffers from the same lack of quality most media does nowadays, but to a greater extent that attracts poorer reading comprehension. Also, unlike my current Awakening project, my take on Fates is a tad more malicious toward the fan base and the game concepts itself (hence why no one would be interested in reading it). I just can't see a good rewrite or fix-it fic coming out of this game. Over 70 retellings of Awakening exist, but the ones that are worth reading are less than the fingers on my hand. And that game is insanely easy to fix in comparison to Fates.

IS hasn't made a mature story in years. Fates is not the game to break that trend.

Fates falls into the same pitfalls and advantages that Awakening's soundtrack does, though I have to admit that the quality of instrument samples between tracks is surprising in how it varies. Some tracks sound the best the series ever has, and others have clarinet samples that are about as convincing as the MIDI in Path of Radiance. This is a step down from Awakening, which was mostly consistent in its samples and scoring. One of Kondoh and Morishita's quirks involves theme and variation on a primary identity. Awakening gave three primary Ylissean identities and then drowned the rest of the game's motifs beneath these identities. Aqua's theme is, unfortunately, taken a step further and does the same job with only one motif instead of three. It doesn't help that her theme is rarely given retrogrades or inversions, making it a conspicuous and distracting feature to tracks it shouldn't necessarily appear in. As for the final map theme... All in all, the cultural difference between Nohr and Hoshido is appreciated, but unlike Awakening I feel that this soundtrack does not suit the Fire Emblem series. When the Fire Emblem theme enters near the end of the game, it carries with it a style and character long forgotten by this game, and it clashes with the compositional character of the new composers. Tsujiyoko's removal from the compositional process to sound supervisor is felt here more strongly than it is in Awakening, and ultimately not even Aqua's theme taking inspiration from Gaiden can bridge the gap.

You realize Urobuchi wrote the original Fate/Zero light novel, right? If you think the Urobutcher is pretentious, I wonder what you think of shows such as Ergo Proxy and Serial Experiments Lain... That said, I've discussed the what-if of Urobuchi writing a Fire Emblem script before with others, and I ended up coming to the conclusion that it would be interesting, but only if post-Madoka Urobuchi tackled it. Pre-Madoka Urobutcher could never instill hope to the player, something that is a necessity for Fire Emblem.

Depends on your definition of "dark." If you mean "dark" as in "characters' lives are at stake and there is an overall bittersweet tone to it," then sure, it's somewhat dark. If you mean "dark" as in "explores the deepest darkest recesses of the human psyche and we might not work our way back out"? Nah, not particularly from what I can see. Someone mentioned Madoka Magica earlier a page back. I'd say that show is far darker than the whole Fire Emblem series combined, and not because "people die and it's sad."

I lucked out with an AP European History Teacher actually from Europe. Really engaging course, fair in its presentation of world powers and even the Middle East (which we occasionally dabbled into ), made me really become invested in world culture and history. I shudder to imagine what it would have been like if I had gotten a teacher like any of my American History professors. Anyway, all of the above suggestions are fantastic and I fully endorse a Fire Emblem game that incorporates these for a nation/game and approaches the pros and cons properly.

This could only end with intriguing character studies and what ifs, or glorified fanfiction that's poorly executed. Either way, I'd like to potentially see something like this as DLC for If.

Luckily, there's no way Aqua can be as contradictory as Inori (but like you said we can save that for another forum, another time).

She is the one singing it. It could easily be the other way around, but we have no way of telling at this point. Nonetheless, expect it to dominate the entire soundtrack the way Awakening's themes did.

"Id" was material for the self-insert Avatar unit in Awakening, and was generally subservient to the primary Ylisse identities (see "Omen," Awakening's main theme for a statement of that identity that has been around since the trailers). Seeing as the composers for Awakening are returning for this game, I expect Aqua's material will serve as the equivalent to the Ylisse identity whereas Kamui will receive a more minor accompanying theme. So expect 35 tracks that all reiterate Aqua's theme and little-to-no material for any sort of antagonist in the game.

If the characters are handled the way Spotpass/DLC was in Awakening, I'd rather have none at all. I would take 10-15 characters with supports/dialogue over 120+ mutes any day of the week.

Basically this. There is some great potential here, and it completely depends on how she is written.

The whole Renka thing puts a bad taste in my mouth (reminds me of the whole idol bs of Guilty Crown), but other than that there's simply not enough on her as a character to decide at the moment.

Typo? Really diggin' Rinka and Harold.

I fear for poor storytelling and characterization. Everything else seems pretty solid (minus a few odd character designs here and there).

Japan has two separate physical copies, each of a different game, a digital copy that lets you choose one version and locking the other path, and a special edition with both games/DLC. Any routes not unlocked can be purchased through DLC. This is just purchasing the game. Now, assuming that Lunatic+ or some equivalent is returning, there are about 9-12 modes: Normal/Classic, Hard/Classic, Lunatic/Classic, Normal/Casual, Hard/Casual, Lunatic/Casual, Normal/Phoenix, Hard/Phoenix, and Lunatic/Phoenix plus any possible Lunatic+ modes. That's a lot of options for the player; how is a newcomer going to know which one will suit them best? How are the levels going to be designed to accommodate for 9+ modes? Mind you, I'm still somewhat looking forward to the game, but ever since the reveal of the split versions in Japan I can't help but feel that If is trying to please every crowd by spreading itself thin.

People aren't dumb, but If is getting more convoluted by the day. I appreciate the sarcasm. Last thing I have to say is that there is a reason mobile gaming has been picking up over the years, and while addictive gameplay is a part of that, simplicity is also a factor. My point in all of this was not to say that people are dumb, but to point out that more options is not always the best choice, which is something I haven't seen anyone point out here and thought it was worth mentioning. I think Casual Mode does the job in regards to picking up a new fanbase and that to push further than that yields diminishing returns. There should be better ways to integrate new players than simply creating a new mode every time someone refuses the previous eight.

The more options/modes the game provides, the more likely it is that entry-level players who would benefit from such modes will become confused because there are so many modes. We are looking at Normal, Hard, and Lunatic modes at least with Classic, Casual and Phoenix mode variations as well as potentially two separate games that might have to be purchased independently from one another. Except you can possibly buy both games as one version as well. Does this not sound like a confusing clusterfuck in the making?

I know this might seem counter-intuitive, but more options do not always make a better game.

Doubt it's intentional.

Physical, because I'm adverse to digital copies of things. I like having physical representations of games I own and everything digital I touch dies in the same manner I lost three computers in two years. That said, if the game's physical copy is released in two versions over here with no option to make the route split choice ingame, I won't get it at all.

These all look absolutely glorious. I hope every game in the series gets this level of love and care put into them as expansions.

Through my own tonal harmonic analysis of the show's soundtrack. Classical music up until the 20th century carries with it tonal relationships between keys, intervals, and motifs built off of centuries of studying what the previous guys did before. The tritone situation is probably most well known as being the very basis of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde: Tristan is in F minor, and Isolde in B major. Their love is forbidden, for if one jumps to the tritone of the other, they will die. The very musical world around them cannot support their relationship (Wagner tackles this with them trying to meet up midway with an augmented sixth), and that is played off as tragic. Homura is not immune to this in Rebellion: in "The battle is over," a piano and cello duet in Eb major plays as the girls are gazing off into the sunset. This is a tritone away from Homura's imminent key, A minor. At the final cadence of the piece, if you look onscreen during the movie, you can actually see the cadence force Homura awake as if she's unaware of where she is. The focus is directly on her face when it happens. Eb major is not a key that really exists in tv series!Madoka, and this leaves Homura disconcerted from then on out. She's primarily the tonal focus of the movie, much as she is the primary character of it. Kajiura's father was an operatic aficionado and she spent a number of years actually growing up in Germany and being directly exposed to German opera. It's been a fascination of hers and I don't doubt that these progressions are intentional. The show is just simply so in-depth everywhere else.