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How does the story of FE Fates compare to A Song of Ice and Fire?


Sånıc Bÿm
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Fire Emblem Fates vs. A Song of Ice and Fire  

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  1. 1. Which has the better story?

    • Fire Emblem Fates
    • A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones
    • It'll depend on the ending of ASOIAF/GOT.
    • They're both equally good/bad.
      0
    • I don't know.
    • Who cares?


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Note to mods: If you feel like this topic is better suited for the "Entertainment" forum, feel free to move it there.

I wanted to start this topic ever since someone asked, "How would you compare the writing and story telling of Fire Emblem to say Final Fantasy Tactics or Tactics Orge?" However, I wanted to wait until I had a better understanding of both Fates' story and ASOIAF/GOT (I haven't read all the books, I haven't watched all the episodes, and I haven't played Fates or seen a transcript or Let's Play), but other things in life got in the way (I still don't have a complete understanding of either story), but with the impending Nintendo Switch presentation (and the possibility of a new Fire Emblem announcement), I feel like this might be my last chance to speak up before Fates is overshadowed by a newer Fire Emblem.

Anyway, Nintendo seemed to really hype up the story in their marketing of Fates. If I recall correctly, in a Nintendo Direct, they said that Fire Emblem is known for its "complex story and memorable characters." When I think of a "complex story and memorable characters," one of the first things that come to mind is A Song of Ice and Fire, which seems to be the current "gold standard" for fantasy. I'm genuinely curious of what you guys think when Fates is directly compared against ASOIAF/GOT.

The most important aspect of a story for me personally is the ending. I prefer a generally bad story with a satisfying ending over a generally good story with an unsatisfying ending, unless the bad story was exceptionally bad or the good story was exceptionally good. I don't really know the ending for any of Fates' three paths, but I can safely guess the ending for the Revelations path,

All the heroes join together and defeat the True Ultimate Antagonist, and then everyone lived happily ever after. The End.

Assuming Revelations is the canonical path, if my guess is correct, then Fates, in my opinion, has a satisfying ending.

On the other hand, it seems like ASOIAF might be heading towards an ending where humanity is forced to shake hands and sing kumbayah with the white walkers. If this really becomes the ending for ASOIAF, then I'm going to be very pissed off. The white walkers have no redeeming qualities to deserve such an ending. Even the fucking Titans from Attack on Titan have more redeeming qualities (especially if you know who the Titans really are).

One might argue that the white walkers have redeeming qualities that we don't know about yet, but my counterargument is that if GRRM really wanted us to have some sympathy for the white walkers, he would have shown us some redeeming or sympathetic qualities already. And the white walkers are even more villainous in the show than in the books.

If GRRM follows through with a white walker kumbayah, then I hope David Benioff and Dan Weiss go down a different path and have Dany's dragons exterminate all the white walkers or something. I wouldn't be satisfied with anything less than the total annihilation of the white walkers, or their eternal banishment to another plane of existence (preferably a fiery Hell).

"Well, what if GRRM simply wants to teach us the lesson that humanity is simply too weak to ever truly defeat the white walkers?" Well, I've already spent too much time talking about ASOIAF (and too little time talking about Fates), so instead of answering that question, I'll end it here.

Edited by Sånıc Bÿm
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As someone who's seen part of GoT, is waiting for the last two books of ASoIaF and has only played Birthright, I'd certainly pick ASoIaF at present. Fate's worldbuilding is certainly not up to the other two, but aside from that Birthright was pretty bog standard, especially in comparison to the many stories told by the other two.

I might change my mind to picking GoT on seeing the rest of the show and the changes, but I'd doubt that Fates will have the same effect.

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Quite literally like comparing a massive pile of shit to Kobe beef. That is not an exaggeration. No matter how ASOIAF ends, it will end with better writing, better characters, and a better plot than Fates, all of it. Look, some of the antagonists are more sympathetic than Conquest Corrin. What does that tell you?

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Not a fair comparison. Fates has a bad story by already not-great video game standards, and is a game first and foremost. ASOIAF is only a story and is broadly considered a very good one. Also it's like literal thousands of pages instead of... a 3DS cartridge.

Edited by Parrhesia
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I came into this thread thinking of writing a clever little comment, but I'm just going to be serious and say that while I've only watched the first season of Game of Thrones, I can safely say it's a completely different story with such a massive difference in writing that comparing the two is fruitless.

Fates is, without exaggeration, the worst written video game I've ever personally played. Conquest has amazing gameplay, the soundtrack is stellar, a few characters are really good, and I know there's worse writing out there in the industry, but saying "there's worse" is not a glowing recommendation. if you care about the writing, Fates will at the very least baffle and irritate you. That much I can almost guarantee.

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Kind of a silly topic to be honest. You want to compare some of the best fantasy literature with some of the worst video game writing? Why are you even bringing up the topic if you haven't played Fates or watched/read all of GoT?

Anyway, there is nothing definite to say ASOIAF is heading towards a "singing kumbaya with the white walkers" ending. ALT Shift X makes good analysis videos but they are merely speculation and should be taken with a grain of salt

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Eh Fates story is awful and ASOIAF/Game of thrones are very well regarded. Game of thrones does have the godawful dorne arc though so maybe Fates and that single arc can compete about which of the two is the worst.

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As someone who has never read/seen ASoIAF or its adaptation, even I know this topic is pointless. Like, I think just googling "Fire Emblem Fates Story" will lead you to a general consensus that it's pretty bad. As far as I know ASoIAF is relatively well regarded.

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Are we just basing this on plot, or do we factor in characterisation as well? Because, if it's the latter, as someone who's 100%ed Fates and read all the ASoIaF books... I'm gonna go with Fates. I agree that GRRM's worldbuilding is marvellously detailed, and I can't really say how the plot is before it finishes (although I hope to all the Old Gods it doesn't end the way OP predicted, I agree that'd be really stupid and dissonant with the overall tone of the series); but - and, again, I've only read the books, the show may handle the characterisation better - I feel like Fates has a much better handle on how to make a wide cast of characters three-dimensional and sympathetic (probably because they had an entire team of people writing these characters instead of just one guy, but eh). Particularly its female characters; I'm told they're a lot better handled in the show, but reading the books, I kind of felt like the only ones who weren't interchangeable with each other were Arya and Brienne (i.e. the "mannish" ones); whereas in Fates, everyone - even characters who, from a narrative standpoint, are only there to get redshirted - has a unique personality, motive, outlook on life and turn of phrase. And every one of them is sympathetic: you grow to like Saizou even though he acts like a jerk at first, you grow to like Charlotte even though she's a gold-digger, you grow to like Felicia even though they could so easily have just made her a generic "moe dojikko meido". Whereas I feel like the books would have worked better if the whole thing had focussed on Tyrion: he's easily the most complex and sympathetic character in there. The others felt to me like they could be interesting characters with just a bit more thought put into them, but it was kind of obvious which one he was mainly focussing on.

Again, I don't hate ASoIaF, and I feel like Fates has a lot of problems (if we're basing this on plot, I feel like GRRM would win handily unless the next book really goes off the rails), but yeah I'm going to shut up now before I infuriate the entire internet

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I've only read the books, the show may handle the characterisation better

As someone who has watched every released episode of GoT and am working my way through the books, I find the TV show a lot easier to follow and form opinions on the characters than the books. It's interesting in its own way, to follow the story through the perspectives of individual character but a part of me likes the all-encompassing world/story view of the show better. It's definitely worth a watch.

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As someone who has watched every released episode of GoT and am working my way through the books, I find the TV show a lot easier to follow and form opinions on the characters than the books. It's interesting in its own way, to follow the story through the perspectives of individual character but a part of me likes the all-encompassing world/story view of the show better. It's definitely worth a watch.

That is what a lot of people tell me, yeah :) I did watch the first episode, and it was pretty good. Again, I'm thinking maybe the fact that both Fates and the show have a team of writers, rather than just the one, working on it gives them an advantage; in which case I'm maybe being a little harsh XD

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ASOIAF is definitely a better story. I would hope so since that's all it is.

Fates is a game and while games can have great stories that is not the main focus. Comparing Fire Emblem games to Tactics games will have much more varied opinions because they share the game aspect. Comparing Fire Emblem to GoT is like comparing apples to steak.

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Well game of thrones is pretty much standard post-dune fare polifan, but long winded, needlessly comvoluted poorly writen, and emo as fuck. Seriously the books are worse than terry goodkinds sword of excessive ragey rape and take the same level of horrified masochism to finish. The series is noteworthy for showing a lot of tits on Tv and winding back the entire genre about 30 years.

Seriously GoT is bottom shelf fantasy at its worst. We outgrew stupid as a plot engine into fucking Deus ex machina a long time ago. I would praise the character development in this series but for some reason everyone but Ally reqires a fucking opereic twist of fate to stop making the same poor life choices over, and over, and over.

So I'll say fates. At least it's just another EFP,and you can skip the obnoxious parts at will. Also it follows the vital law of post charles fantesy. Monsters exist, and can be killed.

For reference Glen Cooks short story "Soilder of an empire unaquanted with defeat" tells a story on a much grander scale than the entirety of GoT, has the real human interaction and howling throwaway lines you expect from that writer. Has all the violence, forbidden love, and political intriuge of GoT. It's also readable in a single sitting. (Though the Empire world as a whole is quite expansive.)

There are dozens of writers and thousands of stories within this style of "post tolkien fantesty". Let's collectively put on the big boy reading panties and treat GoT for what it is. Tits, violence, and dragons. Not well written or compelling storytelling.

Edited by joshcja
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I think Fates story is somewhat overhated here (well, Conquest anyway; I generally agree with the complaints about Revelation), and while I like ASoIaF overall I do have some serious issues with it which keep it from being top-tier fantasy literature to me (Martin is a genius at creating a political setting but only so-so at other aspects of a story, and stuff involving the north and the frost zombies put me to sleep), and yet evil I feel that if we're going to compare them on story obviously ASoIaF wins very easily.

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I think Fates story is somewhat overhated here (well, Conquest anyway; I generally agree with the complaints about Revelation), and while I like ASoIaF overall I do have some serious issues with it which keep it from being top-tier fantasy literature to me (Martin is a genius at creating a political setting but only so-so at other aspects of a story, and stuff involving the north and the frost zombies put me to sleep), and yet evil I feel that if we're going to compare them on story obviously ASoIaF wins very easily.

I agree, I swear the people who complain about the story in fire emblem (which I've only started seeing pop up in increasing frequency since Awakening's release) are only in it to play matchmaker. It's a puzzle game with a story crammed into 28 chapters that you're comparing to a critically acclaimed modern literary spectacle hundreds of chapters long with a world expanded on through the eyes of dozens of different characters. Fire Emblem's main draw has always been the gameplay until recently when the more customizable features were added in (which I have absolutely no qualms towards), but the story has always been the typical young lord coming of age to fight an invading kingdom, as well as figuring out the greater evil that was pulling the strings along the way. I love both series to death, honestly.

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They really aren't comparable.

First off, Game of Thrones has the advantage of having YEARS of development across multiple books. It also has had more time with the tv show.

Fates was rushed. It had a professional writer write a very, very large script and then when IS realized it was too big, they butchered it. They took what needed surgical precision to cut down a story and took a butcher's knife and chopped it up. It had maybe a years worth of development for its story and gameplay.

The two are not comparable at all. This is an apple and oranges situation. It's like comparing Mass Effect and Call of Duty for their story. One is an epic space drama spread across 3 full length rpgs, one is an online shooter with a couple hour long story mode.

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I don't even especially like A Song of Ice and Fire and I've only seen a few bits of a few episodes of the TV adaptation of it but I can say with absolute certainty that even just on a purely-technical level it is far and away better than Fates' story.

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A song of Ice and fire. Definitely. The books though, not the show, which is a completely different entity at this point. If it's Fates versus ASoIaF though, ASoIaF wins by a landslide.

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If you were like me and expecting this game to be A Song of Ice and Fire Emblem, time to get hit with the Reality Tuna cuz it aint anything like that. This game's story is really anime, but also skimpy on character development and world building is almost non-existent. It doesnt even have the justifications ASOIAF has for shit going down. Nohr and Hoshido hate each other because...why again? Something about resources but the game literally doesnt go into detail. Any incest that happens happens because Corrin isnt really blood related to anyone. Hell, we dont even know what religion is present in this world.

That said, its still a fun game and the story has some hilarious moments and touching ones. Its worth playing. Just dont go in expecting a Westeros style story

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