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Let's Talk Side Chapters


Jotari
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Side quests, gaiden chapters, paralogues, Chapter X, whatever you want to call them. They've been in a few Fire Emblem games and the idea is interesting but what way was it implemented the best? What criteria should you need to fill to reach a side chapter? Should it be purely story based? Should you always have access to them like in Awakening? Was Shadow Dragons low army count actually a good idea? Tell me your feelings on side chapters. What should be in them, should they be plot relevant, how to access them etc.

Edited by Jotari
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i think the optimum way to access them would be 2 conditions

1. lots of your units are dead

2. you meet a turn limit

depending on the critetia you meet you will either get an easy version of the chapter or a hard version of the chapter

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It might be nostalgia, but I liked them best in FE6 and FE7.

Granted, some of the conditions were a bit arbritrary, but they could always give more gameplay hints (like characters saying "hurry up Roy!").

FE11's implementation was interesting, but totally annoying.

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I disliked FE11's requirements, as I normaly try to keep everyone alive, and reset if someone dies, making it hard for me to access those chapters. Awakenings were Okay, but Donnel isn't that good if you recruit him after Inigo for instance. I liked FE7's side chapters best, as you had many different requirement for unlocking them, but had to do them right then and there.

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It might be nostalgia, but I liked them best in FE6 and FE7.Granted, some of the conditions were a bit arbritrary, but they could always give more gameplay hints (like characters saying "hurry up Roy!").FE11's implementation was interesting, but totally annoying.

This^

I loved FE7's sidequests, especially the xx sidequest, although its conditions were a bit of annoying (because ltc lol).

FE11's meeting criteria was lame, imho. Letting your army be practically halved to recruit sort of reinforcements was, perhaps, one of the motives that made me dislike a bit the game.

I'd like sidequests in next fe's. Like making them sort of a break from the general/main story, yet, try to be a complement of it.

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I didn't enjoy none of the side chapters, except paralouges, but that's a whole different story. I didn't enjoy the requirements to access them (visit the village with Merlinus comes in mind) but I didn't mind the ones in FE5 where you have to capture the bosses.

Personally, I'd like to see more story related side quests and whatnot. Like for example

Advisor: Milady/Milord, we should make haste to clear away these bandits

Lord: Obviously. The more we wait, the higher the risk of the villages being burnt down.

Advisor: That is true, but there are several more villages to save and we can't risk losing them if we stall too much.

Lord: Hmmm...

Scenario 2:

Enemy Boss: Nigel, I need you to stall the enemy as long as possible. I still need to make the final preparations to evacuate all the treasure here.

Nigel: As you wish.

This one would open an opportunity to pilfer all the treasure in the castle and mortally wound the boss if you complete the chapter fast enough.

Just some personal suggestions.

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Bookoo:

At first, I read that as there being a decision for the lord to either rescue the villages or chase down the treasure. Granted, that's something else I'd like to see.

Having story driven timed events is something I support.

EG: Reaching the legendary weapon caves before they were sealed up in FE6, or recruiting the few characters who'd know their location.

In my hack, there are a number of enemies that escape and come back later, and small timed events like a dragon summoning ritual. If the party stops all of these, they approach the final battlefield ahead of schedule and get time to pursue some more personal agendas.

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I never liked any of the game's requirements for them.

FE6 had some pretty weird requirements.

FE7 had some requirements that you'd never ever miss tbh so they might as well be forced.

FE8's 5x is forced.

FE11's was so dumb. No one likes killing off their army just to access side chapters. I can see why they did that though. They probably wanted gaidens to be some sort of help for newer players that lose a lot of their army to carelessness.

FE12's were like FE7 in that the requirements might as well make them forced.

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FE12's requirements were so generous it was weird.

Sometimes I wonder if they made a programming mistake and the requirements were supposed to be X and Y, not X or Y.

There's definitely precedence for coding oversights, like Hector mode using Eliwood mode data for rankings, or EHM Fargus getting crazy stats. More recently, there's the trick that lets you recruit Nagi and Tiki that they missed (or is this one actually intended?).

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I think FE5 handled side chapters really well, and I liked how their requirements were somewhat unique.

EX: Capture the boss and seize, protect all of the villages, free the prisoners, etc.

In future FE games I would like to see side chapters that focus on side characters and can only be accessed if all of the characters they focus on are alive.

Edited by Virion
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I think FE5 handled side chapters really well, and I liked how their requirements were somewhat unique.

EX: Capture the boss and seize, protect all of the villages, free the prisoners, etc.

Ditto. FE6's were reasonable, but rather one-dimensional and generally easy to accomplish (yes, that includes 16x's) and I'm partial to them all being necessary for the true ending. FE7's were more diverse, although the Nils grinding for 19xx was dumb and could have been replaced by visiting 7x and/or Nils surviving Lyn mode, also locking it to Hector mode was dumb. Can't say anything on the DS games (haven't played them), although killing characters en masse ought to be punished instead of rewarded.

Personally I'd like to see two types of gaidens: the standard plot-related ones and little side chapters that focus on other characters. The plot gaidens would have requirements that challenge the player or make them think a little and would be mandatory, while the side chapters have simpler requirements and would be optional. I wouldn't mind if plot gaidens were required for the best ending, but I'd rather only some of them be required like, say, a little more than half.

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I feel as if they wasted a lot of opportunities with Shadow Dragons side chapters. They already gave you extra characters if your army got too small meaning there was no excuse for beginners. Veterans to Fire Emblem (and especially those who played the first game) are the ones who want to see that extra content the most. They should have used it to develop the preexisting cast. Like having a chapter that expands on a group of characters if all of them are alive by a certain point in the game. And if you want to go down the dead character route having one or two dead characters would suffice like losing Tiki for the last side quest.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I always visit every gaiden chapter even if it's like chapter 24x in Thracia or if they have a difficult requirement for them. Even though it's optional, I feel they should be played on every play through for the full experience of the game.

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