Jedi Concepts IF Theories

[Jedi]

So after an interview http://serenesforest.net/fire-emblem-if/4gamer-interview/this one, in particular, I felt like sharing my overall feelings on how this game will proceed. There are 3 paths to cover so that's quite a bit of ground.

First off we have Hoshido, the noble, Japanese inspired country who is proclaimed as peace-loving. If you don't mind for a moment, I'm just gonna go fanboy for a moment, Hoshido's designs are incredibly slick and awesome. I love Asian designs and culture to begin with, Kozaki has made some awesome designs for this side.

*Ahem* these people are Kamui's family, and that's as much obligation to them as we get, Hoshido's route has been confirmed as The easiest of the three routes. Despite this I have a feeling it'll give people a good run on Hard and Lunatic/Lunatic+ IS did Awakenings gameplay well, complaints aside the maps were a bit simplistic, mostly being rout and defeat boss. Hoshido looks to continue this style, however with Awakening behind them, I think IS can design some more interesting maps around the 2 concepts. I remain hopeful, Hoshido also has the world map ala Gaiden, Sacred Stones and Awakening. Which will help newer players and those who just want to have fun grind up.

The story of this route, I will assume, is that Kamui chooses his/her family over their Nohr "family", which will greatly sadden them, the plot will most likely be pretty simple, it being, Nohr's emperor has gone mad with power and wishes to take Hoshido, and you aren't about to let that happen, although this would be INCREDIBLY simple, Tellius was simple and yet done incredibly well in PoR, even with moral greyness, Hoshido will probably have some hidden secrets such as, why was Kamui in Nohr? The secrets of his/her dragon blood, and tragic battles with his/her old Nohr comrades. Although the monsters seen in the trailer indicate there may be another side to this entire conflict, either that or Hoshido OR Nohr has a very dark secret.

Secondly we have Nohr, the glory seeking, European looking country. The designs are.. hit and miss to me (Camilla i'm looking at you, try a little less hard with the fanservice guys.. like I've seen DoA girl designs look more sensible). Marx, Blarth and co do look pretty rocking though.

These people are who Kamui grew up with, and likely is familiar with their customs and ways (duh). Nohrs route has been confirmed as the hardest of the three routes. This is most likely due to IS wishing to appeal more to their veteran fanbase outside of fanservice in Awakening this time around, we have various objectives and a more complicated story in this route. I think we can expect much more stage variety and hazards such as possibly the old Fog of War mechanic making a return. Hopefully the difficulty will be as good as New Mystery, Sword of Seals and Thracia. We have no world map, and this may be intimidating for the ones coming off of Awakening, although I think casual mode is returning for all routes. There is also the situation of "paralogues", I have the personal feeling that Nohr will have the older style method of gaining Gaidens, such as "win in such in such amount of turns" etc, while Hoshido will have paralogues like Awakening, open to whenever you can access them.

The story (I hope to see anyways), is Kamui in this route leading a small coup in Garons forces as he/she fights Hoshido convincingly enough to not have the Emperor be suspicious of him/her, later a civil war as Kamui discovers the truth about him/herself, and their dragonic heritage, Hoshido will be damaged by this conflict but not outright destroyed as Kamui tries to change Nohr for the "better", although he/she may have to pull some drastic moves.. Hoshido may pull some itself..

In the middle of this conflict we have Aqua a mysterious dancer, is she who allows Kamui to find out about his/her Hoshido people? Does she have some mysterious power? We still are unsure, however I have a huge feeling she is key to the plot of ANY of the three routes.

And then we have route 3, ??? as of now, all we know is It's the middle of the road. Difficulty wise. It will likely fuse parts of both Hoshido and Nohr's route. Likely this is a 3rd route where Kamui will either unite the causes of his two families against the mysterious Nosferatu or some unknown other objective. Likely we shall get a mix of Hoshido and Nohr characters and maybe some 3rd route only characters. I have a feeling Aqua will play her biggest role in this route, and be overall the "happy" ending, however I am honestly not sure, it could be the most tragic for all I know.

How the mixture of routes will apply to gameplay I have no clue, more unique objectives with a map? Among other things.

So yeah thats my personal feelings/hopes on the matter.

[Jagged Jagen]

Here are my thoughts on the Nohr path. :)

- I so want FOW to return, and I think the interactive environments could lead to Siege weapons returning too. (yay)

- I think that the difficulty will be significantly higher than the 2 routes, but I don't expect full on Thracia

- As long as Gaidens aren't SD style, I'm good.

- I think that the plot will be one of political intiguige and the bulk of the conflict will be convincing your siblings of Garon's corruption. Wouldn't be too outside Mr. Kobayashi's comfort zone.

- Not sure about Casual Mode, a part of me thinks the adjustable difficulty is there to compensate for its absence.

- I do wonder if we can choose an initial difficulty for Nohr.

- I also wonder exactly which side Felicia and Aqua will take, as well as if we can convince Hoshidan forces to change sides.

- I wonder if Kamui's draconic heritage has ties to both sides

- Perhaps Garon is not evil, but rather under the controll of a greater force.

- Aqua is Ninian because, even though I dislike fanservice, it's Ninian. Ninian > Fanservice

- I'm excited for the Nohr path but think Hoshido requires elaboration as it currently sounds inferior.

Just my 2¢

[Soapbar]

Kamui's Dragon Power seems to be uncontrollable (As shown when he, in his dragon form, tries to drown Aqua in the first trailer and that indeed his dragon form in the second trailer is the exact same as the one drowning Aqua).

Also I have a feeling that the Nosferatu will be some sort of parasite, given the origins of their name (The old Nosferatu film about good ol' Count Orlok also Nosferatu as a word legitimately means "Vampire") Then again I could be wrong as many series take words for names simply for sounding cool.

Actually...

Consider that Nosferatu is presented as an archaic Romanian word (possibly derived from "necuratu" or "nesuferitu") and that Nohr definitely remembers a medieval Europe, we can safely assume that Garon is responsible for the Nosferatu, maybe because he's possessed by a demon or an evil wizard of some sort.

Or I could be just over thinking things in an attempt to spoil the plot early but most pre-release theories are like that.

[Jedi]

Here are my thoughts on the Nohr path. :)

- I so want FOW to return, and I think the interactive environments could lead to Siege weapons returning too. (yay)

- I think that the difficulty will be significantly higher than the 2 routes, but I don't expect full on Thracia

- As long as Gaidens aren't SD style, I'm good.

- I think that the plot will be one of political intiguige and the bulk of the conflict will be convincing your siblings of Garon's corruption. Wouldn't be too outside Mr. Kobayashi's comfort zone.

- Not sure about Casual Mode, a part of me thinks the adjustable difficulty is there to compensate for its absence.

- I do wonder if we can choose an initial difficulty for Nohr.

- I also wonder exactly which side Felicia and Aqua will take, as well as if we can convince Hoshidan forces to change sides.

- I wonder if Kamui's draconic heritage has ties to both sides

- Perhaps Garon is not evil, but rather under the controll of a greater force.

- Aqua is Ninian because, even though I dislike fanservice, it's Ninian. Ninian > Fanservice

- I'm excited for the Nohr path but think Hoshido requires elaboration as it currently sounds inferior.

Just my 2¢

Thracia is only really difficult on a first run, I'm talking difficulty that sticks.

Difficulty will probably be selected at the start. Like before.

I kind of doubt Garon is controlled by an outside force, i'd be highly disappointed if he was. I have a huge feeling Nohr's story is going to be highly political. Like you do

Also wasn't it confirmed Aqua is gonna follow you no matter what?

Kamui's Dragon Power seems to be uncontrollable (As shown when he, in his dragon form, tries to drown Aqua in the first trailer and that indeed his dragon form in the second trailer is the exact same as the one drowning Aqua).

Also I have a feeling that the Nosferatu will be some sort of parasite, given the origins of their name (The old Nosferatu film about good ol' Count Orlok also Nosferatu as a word legitimately means "Vampire") Then again I could be wrong as many series take words for names simply for sounding cool.

Actually...

Consider that Nosferatu is presented as an archaic Romanian word (possibly derived from "necuratu" or "nesuferitu") and that Nohr definitely remembers a medieval Europe, we can safely assume that Garon is responsible for the Nosferatu, maybe because he's possessed by a demon or an evil wizard of some sort.

Or I could be just over thinking things in an attempt to spoil the plot early but most pre-release theories are like that.

I think the Dragon thing will be more elaborated in Hoshido while it'll be more a mystery in Nohr. Also your thoughts on Nosferatu are interesting.

[Soapbar]

Thracia is only really difficult on a first run, I'm talking difficulty that sticks.

Difficulty will probably be selected at the start. Like before.

I kind of doubt Garon is controlled by an outside force, i'd be highly disappointed if he was. I have a huge feeling Nohr's story is going to be highly political. Like you do

Also wasn't it confirmed Aqua is gonna follow you no matter what?

I think the Dragon thing will be more elaborated in Hoshido while it'll be more a mystery in Nohr. Also your thoughts on Nosferatu are interesting.

Yeah that seems like the logical conclusion, seeing as how Hoshido seems to have a hard-on for fire-breathing winged lizards.

[Jedi]

Yeah that seems like the logical conclusion, seeing as how Hoshido seems to have a hard-on for fire-breathing winged lizards.

It'll probably be used against Kamui, in the Nohr path now that I think about it. Hoshido may have a way to use it against him/her.

[RandomSwordmaster]

It'll probably be used against Kamui, in the Nohr path now that I think about it. Hoshido may have a way to use it against him/her.

That or some weird artifact that saps his power or something.

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

Aqua will be the true final boss who's manipulating you behind the scene's

[goodperson707]

Thracia is only really difficult on a first run, I'm talking difficulty that sticks.

what do your mean difficulty that sticks. most strategy games inherently get easier as you play them and ones with variable stats and units with different attributes like this one mean that you are most likely never to have two people who have the exact same team plus nearly every game has ways to negate difficulties, be it grinding exp more than intended, warp/rescue skipping, powerful weapons gained early on, the chance of amazing stat rolls, or just plain being lucky, it is near impossible for every person to have the same level of difficulty IMO unless you get rid of all or nealry all variables which then you dont have fire emblem anymore.Crystal also seems to be completely self absorbed despite being a follower and also has a complete lack of empathy, i mean she doesn't even seem to understand that haley might not like it if she kills gnomes for fun. not doesn't care, I'm not even sure if she knows, even belkar seems to know that people don't like that he kills people. Edited April 30, 2015 by goodperson707

[goodperson707]

Opps accidental double post.

Edited April 30, 2015 by goodperson707

[falcoknights]

Aqua will be the true final boss who's manipulating you behind the scene's

i can't tell if you're joking or not, but... i can totally see her pulling something like that, to be honest.

[Tsunami922]

Aqua will be the true final boss who's manipulating you behind the scene's

This is something I've been saying all along. Watch it actually happen.

[Jedi]

what do your mean difficulty that sticks. most strategy games inherently get easier as you play them and ones with variable stats and units with different attributes like this one mean that you are most likely never to have two people who have the exact same team plus nearly every game has ways to negate difficulties, be it grinding exp more than intended, warp/rescue skipping, powerful weapons gained early on, the chance of amazing stat rolls, or just plain being lucky, it is near impossible for every person to have the same level of difficulty IMO unless you get rid of all or nealry all variables which then you dont have fire emblem anymore.Crystal also seems to be completely self absorbed despite being a follower and also has a complete lack of empathy, i mean she doesn't even seem to understand that haley might not like it if she kills gnomes for fun. not doesn't care, I'm not even sure if she knows, even belkar seems to know that people don't like that he kills people.

Nah I'm just asking for intelligent map design that makes you think, Sword of Seals HM has this, New Mysteries Lunatic does as well, FE always has those maps that are interesting to tackle regardless of your team with various ways to do so. I'd like to see a full game or two of it. Thracia has some of it, but its mostly dickish they won't see this coming design. Thus why I said it.

[goodperson707]

Okay that makes sense sorry for the mini rant about difficulty, but difficulty that sticks, just seems like a nebulous definition. especially since difficulty is relative and you seem to be talking more about how you get the difficulty ie, it makes you think about what your doing, not oh you died cause you didn't see cause of fog of war that we just brought in a group of dark-bishops with rewarp staffs, Too Bad. Not sure if that actually happens, been awhile since i played thracia. only got to chapter 22 anyway i think all my good staff users and best units are exhausted and i didn't feel like tackling it like that.

Edited April 30, 2015 by goodperson707

[IceBuster573]

Well, if always being near a body of water during cutscences wasn't an indication, then Aqua's official art showing water droplets around the lower half of her body should say something about her extremely strong association with water. I don't what to think about this and I especially don't know if this is suppose to connect to Hoshido's floating islands.

Edited April 30, 2015 by IceBuster573

[Ryo]

Since water suppresses fire, perhaps she was entrusted with the Fire Emblem to keep it under control, due to her natural connection/association/affinity with water.

[goodperson707]

A fire emblem that has actual fire? Now that is a novel idea. I like it.

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

i can't tell if you're joking or not, but... i can totally see her pulling something like that, to be honest.

i am totally for serious, honestly i want to be right just because it'd be a bigger twist on the whole "imma innocent dancer girl i swear guyz"

This is something I've been saying all along. Watch it actually happen.

i'm waitin on it brother

[Meltlilith]

I was thinking Aqua's heavy association with water could be thematic balancing? We have Hoshido, with floating islands all around that seems to be on a mountain - or at least a location elevated enough to be above the clouds - an obvious association with the air, and Nohr, that seems to exist in a basin (at least, from what little we see of the surround land, the area inside the walls seems sunken in) with extremely thick stone walls, giving it heavy association with the earth. Aqua would complete the standard trinity by being linked to water.

[Thane]

Aqua will be the true final boss who's manipulating you behind the scene's

I've been thinking about this myself, and considering my favorite villain in any video game does exactly this, I wouldn't mind it.

I've also been thinking about Nohr's motives, and whether or not Hoshido will be pure as the driven snow. I don't expect much complexity from a Fire Emblem game, but I would like it if there were SOME gray areas involved here.

[Mayus]

I've been thinking about this myself, and considering my favorite villain in any video game does exactly this, I wouldn't mind it.

I've also been thinking about Nohr's motives, and whether or not Hoshido will be pure as the driven snow. I don't expect much complexity from a Fire Emblem game, but I would like it if there were SOME gray areas involved here.

Ever play Warcraft 3? The Scourge, one of the playable factions in it is an army out to wipe out humanity. But you can see how characters would willingly serve the Lich King. Arthas was put in a position to be the conqueror he was born to be. Kel'Thuzad was an Archmage who left the Kirin Tor and sought the Lich King, seeking to study necromancy. Etc.

I say that not all of the factions have to be ''gray'' if the example I used isn't.

Edited April 30, 2015 by Mayus

[Thane]

Ever play Warcraft 3? The Scourge, one of the playable factions in it is an army out to wipe out humanity. But you can see how characters would willingly serve the Lich King. Arthas was put in a position to be the conqueror he was born to be. Kel'Thuzad was an Archmage who left the Kirin Tor and sought the Lich King, seeking to study necromancy. Etc.

I say that not all of the factions have to be ''gray'' if the example I used isn't.

Warcraft is a dreadful example of gray morality, since most villains' reason for turning evil usually ends up being "insanity" or something similar. Sadly, the characters lack depth and now even logic and reason considering they have to make sure both sides are equally favored in the MMO. That's why the Alliance decided to help the Horde, while they were at war, when they could've re-conquered Lordaeron while the Orcs, Trolls and Tauren were killing themselves.

If you want a truly gray character, then I'd say Kreia from Knights of the Old Republic II fits the bill perfectly, and she's probably the single most interesting character in gaming.

Anyway, what I meant was this: Fire Emblem's overall writing is pretty average and often too simplistic; motives and background usually play little if any part at all. Some people like it that way, and a lot of people don't care about the story in any video game, but I do, and I want a bit more complexity to it than that. That's why having yet another power-hungry king set out to take over would be very boring. Granted, it seems the Nohr path will avoid this, but that doesn't automatically make the story interesting, especially if the Hoshido remain unquestionably good.

[Mayus]

Neither Arthas or Kel'Thuzad serving the Lich King can be framed as ''IRINSANE'' (see Illidan), as they call it. At least not in WC3.

[Thane]

Neither Arthas or Kel'Thuzad serving the Lich King can be framed as ''IRINSANE'' (see Illidan), as they call it. At least not in WC3.

Do you recall the ending of the Human campaign in Warcraft 3? Here's the full text of the message that comes after Arthas slays Mal'Ganis:

"After taking his vengeance on Mal'Ganis, Prince Arthas wandered off into the frozen wastelands of Northrend.

Tormented by Frostmourne's maddening voice, Arthas lost the last vestiges of his sanity.

Now, driven by the sword's dark will, Arthas plans to return home to Lordaeron and claim his just reward..."

So, sadly, you're wrong. I don't recall Kel'Thuzad's motives, and I don't plan on reading through the entire short story if I could even find it, but mindlessly serving the Lich King is not what I would call gray morality by any means.

[tuvarkz]

Also, right before completely swearing loyalty to the Lich King, KT had an instant of regret, he just happened to find himself in a position where he couldn't say no.