Would this game have been better if it wasn't a sequel?

[Phantom037]

Basically, what I mean is would RD be better if the developers didn't put in PoR characters (that weren't directly involved with the Dawn Brigade) and instead focused on making more new characters and actually giving them personalities? This is mostly from a story/character perspective, although the DB definitely would benefit from more availability. (y'know, except for Sothe)

[darkkfan]

No, FE10 was perfect. Seriously though, how awesome was it when the Greil Mercs appeared out of nowhere halfway through the game and saved Lucia? Possibly the best moment in the whole series IMO.

Edited July 21, 2013 by Walhart

[Melonhead]

Hmm. I feel that the game might have benefited the most if part one was increased to say, 16 chapters. I don't know how you could pull of a Tellius game without making it a sequel (okay, FE5 did it somewhat well) But the idea is interesting.

I wish that part one was a bigger part of the game, or at least the Daein occupation time period. It would have given the DB more backstory when it came to part 3.

[Solareia]

Well i think the answer is a yes and no.

I would have like characters that had low availability to have more screen time.

As for your idea, if they did that then they could make support convos for the new characters.

Though if they did that they would've had to include epilogue ending in Path of Radiance.

Because there are chracter like tormod, vika, maurim and the crimean royal knights who have low availabilty, then chracters like ike and the greil mercenaries,

though Ilyana has the most availabilty, good for me cause she's one of my favourite characters along with Haar.

[Solareia]

No, FE10 was perfect. Seriously though, how awesome was it when the Greil Mercs appeared out of nowhere halfway through the game and saved Lucia? Possibly the best moment in the whole series IMO.

YESZ I LOVED that part, but yeah seriously it was awesome, ahhh they should ove made the game into modes, choose micaiah, or ike or whatever.

though one of my fave series in fire emblem along with FE4.

[Knight]

The only bad thing about the game was the 4th part, and in my opinion, it wasn't that bad at all. Since Micaiah is the root of the problem in part 4, I don't think removing Ike and the others would help.

[deleted35362]

No, FE10 was perfect. Seriously though, how awesome was it when the Greil Mercs appeared out of nowhere halfway through the game and saved Lucia? Possibly the best moment in the whole series IMO.

you mean the cliche "woman is about to get killed, and we as script writers can't let that happen so let's make up a reason for her to live so the fanboys won't boycott us". extremely stupid IMO

it's better when the games introduce a fresh new cast in my opinion but at the same time i do think it is very fair that some of the games get sequels instead of introducing a fresh new continent and cast. objectively, i do think it would have been better.

[Safyrya]

No, FE10 was perfect. Seriously though, how awesome was it when the Greil Mercs appeared out of nowhere halfway through the game and saved Lucia? Possibly the best moment in the whole series IMO.

I agree. I don't care how many people hated it, FE10 was awesome both gameplay and story (there's better stories out there though no denying it)

[Yay4Saturday]

The game was fine IMO. Just wished the game was longer.

[Rainbow Skittles]

I liked RD, it's not my fav but i liked how they integrated the FE9 chars with the new ones. I didn't have much issues with the story and seriously, people hate on Miciaiah too much. (she has a 35% speed growth, not that low). she may be a mary sue in part 1, but that changes. So no, I don't think it would have been better if it wasn't a sequel.

[Florete]

you mean the cliche "woman is about to get killed, and we as script writers can't let that happen so let's make up a reason for her to live so the fanboys won't boycott us". extremely stupid IMO

That's a long-winded cliche that I don't think is a cliche at all. I think what you're looking for is "damsel in distress." It's a trope I dislike, but in this case I'd agree with Walhart that it was pulled off very well.

I don't think the game would have worked well without being a sequel since it relied on a full game's worth of events + the backstory for the universe in general. Considering when the story takes place, merely using an all new or even mostly-new cast wouldn't have made a whole lot of sense because we'd be left wondering "where's everyone from the last game?"

Even part 1, which uses mostly new characters, only has the effect it does because it's similar to the events of PoR.

[Phantom037]

I don't think the game would have worked well without being a sequel since it relied on a full game's worth of events + the backstory for the universe in general. Considering when the story takes place, merely using an all new or even mostly-new cast wouldn't have made a whole lot of sense because we'd be left wondering "where's everyone from the last game?"

Even part 1, which uses mostly new characters, only has the effect it does because it's similar to the events of PoR.

I see where you're coming from, but with the support conversations being removed, I still feel that something should have been done to make units like Aran or Vika feel more like characters than placeholders

[Florete]

Of course, and the solution is easy: support conversations. Data in the game already suggests that, while characters could support any other, they'd have full conversations with specific ones. These conversations just didn't make it into the final game. Well, it's also possible they were planning for the normal support structure but replaced it with the current one and just left some of the old data in.

[darkkfan]

you mean the cliche "woman is about to get killed, and we as script writers can't let that happen so let's make up a reason for her to live so the fanboys won't boycott us". extremely stupid IMO.

Umm... the game forced your main lord to kill Pelleas (a character who you almost end up feeling sorry for and whose motivations are much deeper than Lucia's) in cold blood. I think any "we can't let anyone die or else think of the FANS" argument is out the window.

Not to mention the fact that Ike and his mercs hadn't appeared thus far at that point in the game, so it wasn't impossible that they were waiting for the right moment to strike. If you want a crappily executed "Deus Ex Machina" plot incident, look at FE9 chapter 2 when Shinon shoots that stupid arrow that saves Rolf and Mist and condemns Ike to eternal annoyance at the hands of those whiny brats.

I still feel that something should have been done to make units like Aran or Vika feel more like characters than placeholders

This is actually a decent point and probably the only thing that I can believe is a flaw in FE10. Aran especially and a few others were pretty generic. Of course, I don't have a problem with generics by a long shot, but some people don't like how some characters (Kyza, Aran, Vika, Lyre, etc.) are very underdeveloped and I can understand that.

That being said, I think the majority of the characters in FE10 were handled extremely well, and while some were a bit bland compared to FE13 (others like Soren had spectacular character development), I think it is for the better since they were much more realistic in FE10 than Awakening's flamboyant, gimmicky, and one-dimensional "eats candy at impractical times" or "has the best body in the army" or whatever.

Edited July 22, 2013 by Walhart

[1% critted]

RD SHOULD have been a sequel. PoR had a lot of unanswered questions and explanations. RD fleshed out the world more.

[Jedi]

FE10 did plenty well as a sequel to FE9. I don't see what the problem with it being a sequel is. Red Fox and Walhart have spoken my mind pretty much on it as well so I have very little to add lol.

[Sunwoo]

Radiant Dawn wasn't perfect, but I actually liked that it was a sequel to PoR. I haven't played anything before FE7 and I haven't played FE12, so bear with me if I'm wrong, but rarely do we see what happens in these war-stricken places shortly after the war ends. In FE7 and FE8: character endings say that pretty much all the nobles/royals led their country to a great era. FE13: same, and we don't really know what happened in Plegia or Ylisse or any other country involved in the war during the 2-year timeskip.

RD took place 3 years after PoR. Long enough after the war, but too soon for the countries to have recovered fully. We see that Begnion is oppressing Daein and that there are power conflicts in Begnion and things aren't so rosy there. We see that the nobles of Crimea are giving Elincia a hard time and her rule is not so peachy. I actually liked this, and I actually liked part 4 because of the whole "your history was a lie" thing.

My only complaint is the lack of characterization (and part 1 needed to be longer to give more focus to the Dawn Brigade, plus stuff about Micaiah's characterization I am not going to touch), but I think it did well enough as a sequel.

[deleted35362]

That's a long-winded cliche that I don't think is a cliche at all. I think what you're looking for is "damsel in distress." It's a trope I dislike, but

no

Umm... the game forced your main lord to kill Pelleas (a character who you almost end up feeling sorry for and whose motivations are much deeper than Lucia's) in cold blood. I think any "we can't let anyone die or else think of the FANS" argument is out the window.

...you just proved my point, because pelleas isn't a woman. there are plenty of times in games and media and stuff when men die, but women who is completely helpless survives just because. not a "damsel in distress" thing. they avoid killing female characters. this would be just fine if they just made these female characters actually capable of getting themselves out of dangerous situations regularly like they were batman or something, but no. this is plain old fashioned "we can't show woman characters getting killed onscreen in the story". or you could just pull and FE7 and have the woman character just get brought back to life later.

Lucia's execution. perfectly ready to execute her. they stall time. "oh nothing's going to happen, let's just sit around for 10 minutes and hope nobody does anything to stop this". ike's team shows up. by the way, ike's team would get their butts kicked if they just jumped into a million soldiers like that. except they don't, because the soldiers stand still waiting for the next party member to attack instead of striking ike down right then and there. are these hesitant idiots the kinds of people who get hired to be guards? did they just think haring some magic users as guards was a bad idea? archers? no? while ike and gatrie block soldier's attacks, why can't another soldier strike them in the face? at this point, they should already be regarded as a threat.

praise the game on other merits just fine, but there's is no reason to call this stupid scene "the best moment in the series" for reasons other than "i like these people" and "flashy screen action ftw". lucia's only excuse for continuing to live is "thank goodness the soldiers are so stupid". that's a very poor excuse, by the way.

Edited July 22, 2013 by Boney

[Loki Laufeyson]

Radiant Dawn wasn't perfect, but I actually liked that it was a sequel to PoR. I haven't played anything before FE7 and I haven't played FE12, so bear with me if I'm wrong, but rarely do we see what happens in these war-stricken places shortly after the war ends. In FE7 and FE8: character endings say that pretty much all the nobles/royals led their country to a great era. FE13: same, and we don't really know what happened in Plegia or Ylisse or any other country involved in the war during the 2-year timeskip.

RD took place 3 years after PoR. Long enough after the war, but too soon for the countries to have recovered fully. We see that Begnion is oppressing Daein and that there are power conflicts in Begnion and things aren't so rosy there. We see that the nobles of Crimea are giving Elincia a hard time and her rule is not so peachy. I actually liked this, and I actually liked part 4 because of the whole "your history was a lie" thing.

My only complaint is the lack of characterization (and part 1 needed to be longer to give more focus to the Dawn Brigade, plus stuff about Micaiah's characterization I am not going to touch), but I think it did well enough as a sequel.

Pretty much. There were flaws and glaring ones, but overall, the game was a decent sequel. There were aspects of it i just loved. Like the Begnion Senate arc and Sephiran's little gambit. (which was heavily foreshadowed in the final dialogue scene of FE9.)

But problems lie in some areas of character development. Ike could have used some more, Micaiah's was a trainwreck in the final arc of the game, Sothe's was ass, etc. While guys like Elincia and Sanaki got some pretty great character development, i felt like a lot of guys got the shaft. Lack of actual support conversations hurt pretty bad.

Come on, who wasnt stoked about playing as the Greil Mercenaries again?

[Florete]

no

At this point I think the only response for you is "opinions."

It may be common, but that doesn't automatically make it wrong and sexist to use it. It's all in the execution, and this was executed very well.

flashy screen action ftw

Yeah come back when action scenes in any kind of entertainment are consistently realistic instead of flashy.

[BrightBow]

This is a difficult topic.

On one hand, I disagree with the topic title. I think that some vital original ideas are poorly executed (Blood Pact) and that it only works because it's a sequel and delivers on all the foreshadowing and open questions in PoR.

But it's a different thing with the opening post.

I do agree that the old cast took way to much attention and made the new characters feel odd out of place. And Ike is this big hero now, so he is kinda boring.

But I don't think that the first point leads necessary into the second. Just because the established cast still exist, doesn't mean they have to steal the show. Telius is a big place after all.

For example, imagine Ike and Skrimir switched places in part 3. The story could focus on Skrimir while Ike is the one to act as an allied NPC.

Skrimir has actually character development to go through, so focusing on him would be more interesting anyway. With his attitude, he could learn a lot from the mercs.

And during encounters between several armies, you might as well play another side.

You could play Daein in 3-6 and Micaiah would defeat the mercs in 3-6 (they are an actual army after all) just to find out that they were only stalled and are about to be crushed.

You could play as the Crimean army in 3-10. Heck, they put in every single Crimean PC as allies on that map anyway.

So in short, I think the game would only be worse off by not being a sequel.

[Phantom037]

This is a difficult topic.

On one hand, I disagree with the topic title. I think that some vital original ideas are poorly executed (Blood Pact) and that it only works because it's a sequel and delivers on all the foreshadowing and open questions in PoR.

But it's a different thing with the opening post.

I do agree that the old cast took way to much attention and made the new characters feel odd out of place. And Ike is this big hero now, so he is kinda boring.

But I don't think that the first point leads necessary into the second. Just because the established cast still exist, doesn't mean they have to steal the show. Telius is a big place after all.

For example, imagine Ike and Skrimir switched places in part 3. The story could focus on Skrimir while Ike is the one to act as an allied NPC.

Skrimir has actually character development to go through, so focusing on him would be more interesting anyway. With his attitude, he could learn a lot from the mercs.

And during encounters between several armies, you might as well play another side.

You could play Daein in 3-6 and Micaiah would defeat the mercs in 3-6 (they are an actual army after all) just to find out that they were only stalled and are about to be crushed.

You could play as the Crimean army in 3-10. Heck, they put in every single Crimean PC as allies on that map anyway.

So in short, I think the game would only be worse off by not being a sequel.

I do agree that the title was rather scrapped together, but it was the only one sentence summary I could think of. As for the rest of your statement, to my knowledge, you can't switch perspectives (check my signature for disclaimer). But I guess my main problem with RD is the fact that it gushes to no end over the GMs and what I'm basically saying is I wish the game gave more love to the Dawn Brigade than it did. (balancing,character development,etc.)

[Quintessence]

Imo, RD was gr8 as a sequel. Won't extend myself because the others have already said it.

The issues I see with the game were:

- Lack of consistent support conversations.

- Greil Mercs were pretty much the protagonists of the game, they stole protagonism from the DBs. I'd love the DBs to have a longer story or at least, get a better character development. I mean, Nolan, Edward and Leo just participated from prologue to 1-4, Laura participated on 1-2 and 1-3, Ilyana got a few lines on 1-3, same as Aran and Meg (lol info convos). Volug, what can I say about Volug lol, he acts as Micaiah's bodyguard, what about Tauroneo, Zihark and Jill? They participated in 1-5 and 1-6, though Tauros is an exception. But then Fiona, I see potential on her story-wise if only she got more chapters. These characters would've benefit more from extra chapters.

Thing is, characters important story-wise roflstomped those secondary chars. Sothe, Tauroneo, Geoffrey, Lucia, Soren, Titania, Ranulf, Skrimir, Sanaki, Elincia, the Royals, between others are some examples. What do you guys think of chapters were secondary characters play the role of main ones? Like the Crimean Royal Knights, imagine a chapter where Ranulf and Kyza command a small laguz army during the war? or a chapter where Nolan commands the DB along with Tauroneo leading Jill and Fiona, and Aran and Zihark helping Laura, Meg and Ilyana? It would've made the story much more rich and enjoyable, because there's a certain point that main lords saturate the story.

[hauteclere]

I played RD without playing PoR first. It was incredibly confusing, to the point where I had to research PoR's storyline in detail and read a good amount of support conversations to actually understand what was going on. Honestly, I like that RD was a sequel, mainly because the Tellius storyline is too...large to fit into one game. Though I really wish they had support convos for the newcomers in the Dawn Brigade. I understand why the Greil Mercenaries didn't have support convos with each other, but some of the DB characters with a lot of potential ended up being generic placeholders.

wait is kyza playable i don't remember him being playable

EDIT: HE IS PLAYABLE WHAT IS THIS. I THOUGHT HE WAS AN NPC.

Edited July 30, 2013 by hauteclere

[darkkfan]

I played RD without playing PoR first. It was incredibly confusing, to the point where I had to research PoR's storyline in detail and read a good amount of support conversations to actually understand what was going on. Honestly, I like that RD was a sequel, mainly because the Tellius storyline is too...large to fit into one game. Though I really wish they had support convos for the newcomers in the Dawn Brigade. I understand why the Greil Mercenaries didn't have support convos with each other, but some of the DB characters with a lot of potential ended up being generic placeholders.

wait is kyza playable i don't remember him being playable

EDIT: HE IS PLAYABLE WHAT IS THIS. I THOUGHT HE WAS AN NPC.

Yeah kyza's genericness is almost to the point where it is amusing.