Bringing Fire Emblem and Real-World History Together

[ZessDynamite]

So I've been thinking about how Fire Emblem mechanics could potentially illustrate real life historical events. Seeing as Fire Emblem is already loosely based on the Middle Ages and closely tied with themes of war and diplomacy, there could easily be a game that plays out the events of some war or time period. Imagine an FE game where you control the armies of Oda Nobunaga in the Sengoku period of Japan, or one where you wage a battle against Napoleon at Waterloo.

What group the player controls could change throughout the game to give perspectives on all sides of an event. For example, in a game about the French Revolution, you could start out as a Parisian mob that storms the Bastille, but later change to a counterrevolutionary aristocrat trying to defend themself from the mobs and/or secret police during the radical "Terror" phase. Introducing personal stories and character arcs and showing how the historical event affects them through the support system would also add a lot to the experience.

Such an FE game could even use its mechanics to be educational. For example, in the 100 Years' War between England and France in the 14th century, England was initially able to come out on top thanks to its new invention: the longbow. An arrow fired from one of these weapons was so powerful that it was able to pierce the heavy armor of the nobles and their vassals all the way from the opposite end of a battlefield. The lords, who used to be one of the strongest units in warfare during most of the Middle Ages, had lost much of their usefulness in battle. In a FE Game about the 100 Years' War, the player could control archer units that wield longbows that would be effective against armored foes and have high range, thus enabling them to safely take out the opponent's intimidating lord units (these units would function as some sort of great knight class and not as traditional FE lords). The player would learn about how the English were able to succeed against the French in the early phases of the war, potentially without even needing any dialogue.

So how do you think a historical Fire Emblem would work? What wars, revolutions, events, or time periods would you want to play through as an FE campaign?

[Acacia Sgt]

This reminds me of a time where I did ponder something of the sorts.

A few years ago, I entertained the idea of turning Joan of Arc's story into a game, FE-style. It was going to be something of a two-fold, since it would've been based from Joan's campaign from Age of Empires II when it came to the story structure. I only did some minimal work about it, and it never really went anywhere. Oh well.

That said, to me, the idea in general is very... intriguing. Although, some things from FE may be hard to translate to IRL, and vice versa perhaps. Still... our history certainly doesn't have a lack of material when it comes down to it.

[vanguard333]

Actually, it is still disputed as to whether or not the longbow could actually pierce plate armour (also it's called the English Longbow but was actually created by the Welsh).

Nitpicks aside, this is an idea I was also thinking about, and I think it could work. It would have to be its own series that uses FE mechanics, but it could work. Obviously, no magic, and they would have to research the historical events they're portraying, but I could see it working. If Kingdom Come: Deliverance sells well, I could even see it happening, as there could end up being an increased interest in historical fiction video games.

EDIT: One historical event I can think of would be the war of Scottish Independence (there's almost no way it could be less historically accurate than Braveheart).

Edited February 12, 2017 by vanguard333

[henrymidfields]

Aside from my current LP/fanfic involving Conquest and the Pacific Theatre of World War II, I actually thought of a crossover fanfic between Binding Blade, Pokémon XY, and a 21st Century version of World War II involving the Poke-Fire Emblem version of Neo-Nazi Germany. Here is part of what I have written over at my blogs in Bulbagarden:

Basic Story

Spoiler

The basic story is pretty much similar to the original, except that it is set and interpreted in accordance to the present-day Pokémon world. Roy, Lilina are Pokémon trainers, who are in their final days in the Royal Academy in Lycia. The will be sent to flight against the far-right Draconians who usurped the republican government of Berlin (Bern in the original games). The Draconians will include Zephyr, Murdock and others, as Pokémon trainers who are the ringleaders for the coup.

 

The story would start after Satoshi [Ash] and Co would recuperate from the Team Flare uprising in Kalos, where the Draconians saw their oppourtunity to invade and occupy Kalos. Satoshi, Diantha, and their comrades had to evacuate out of the country due to the sheer speed in blitzkrieg. Kalos is overrun, and the Draconians would proceed to invade Kiloude City, and ambush the Lycian military led by Hector, triggering similar events to Binding Blade's Chapter 3.

 

Things will go from bad to worse, with Sakaki [Giovanni] eventually following suit, in which he and his far-right Team Rocket would stage a coup at the National Diet in Yamabuki [Saffron] City, take Emperor Akihito (yes, the emperor from RL!Japan) and his family hostage, and declare the revival of the Empire of Shoyo (大昇陽帝国), a government which was overthrown by anti-fascist rebels during the Pokeverse version of WWII, and replaced with the post-war parliamentary democracy. Sakaki and Zephiel would team up to basically start World War II all over again, in the hopes that their supremacies will succeed.

 

For the characters: The Fire Emblem characters will be reinterpreted to become Pokémon trainers, and will wage war alongside the Pokémon characters. I hope that I can include all characters from Binding Blade, plus certain characters from the Blazing Sword generation. In addition, I hope to incorporate a couple of characters from other FE entries.

The Nations

Spoiler

There will be a huge amount of reinterpretation from the original Elibe continent into a Pokeverse version of Europe:

Lychia (Italian), or Lycie (French) will be transplanted into Poke-Southern France, bordering Kalos on the north, and Etruria on the east. It was part of the Kalosian metropole, but years of internal colonialism by Kalos prompted the region to declare independence after the Pokeverse version of World War II. Aspects of Southern France, Andorra, and Monaco will be incorporated. Because of this history, there is still a lot of mutual distrust between the two - not unlike, say, real-life Japan and South Korea, for example. Also, Kiloude City is an international city jointly governed by Kalos and Lycia.

The Kingdom of Etruria (Regno d'Etruria (Italian)) will occupy roughly where the Italian peninsula is in real-life, and would also be the equivalent of Italy, socially and culturally.

Ilia may either be Switzerland due to the large number of mercenaries in the original games, or I might make it into post-Cold War Russia, with an economy in even bigger shambles than in real life.

The Western Isles in the original Binding Blade would be reinterpreted as the Kingdom of Iberia (Reino de Iberia (Castilian Spanish); Reino da Iberia (Portugese)), being the equivalent of Spain and Portugal in a even worse financial crisis than in real life. Both the Western Islands and Iberia are under foreign administration with it's colonial-related problems. While the original Western Isles are colonies of Etruria, Iberia is under administration of the Erebian/European Union because of Iberia's inability to settle it's external debts. While it may have been necessary, the utter corruption of the administration and the human rights violations makes this deeply unpopular.

The villain nation of Bern from the original will be Berlin, which is essentially Germany. Originally being the Berlinian Federal Republic (Bundesrepublik Berlin (German)), it is overthrown by the far-right Draconians to establish the Draconic Kingdom (Drakonischereich Berlin (Ger)): a Neo-Nazi-equivalent militant group that wants to revive ancient Dragon-types. Due to the Draconians' use of some of the ancient and powerful dragons, and their ruthlessness in taking over the cities and seats of governments, the military were powerless to stop them from eventually taking over the federal government, and the republican government went into exile in United States of Columbia.

The Kalosian Republic (Republique du Kalos (Fr))will also be incorporated into this crossover, being the Pokémon equivalent of the French Republic. So far, it is also the only nation in this crossover-Elibe/Europe originating from Pokémon. And yes, there will be a Neo-Vichy regime during the Draconian's occupation.

 

There are also other countries included. Two are:

The United States of Columbia, being the USA equivalent. Unova, Orre, and Alola would form part of Columbia as the Pokeverse equivalent of New York, Arizona/Southern California, and Hawaii, respectively.

Shoyo (昇陽国; しょうようこく; Shou'youkoku (Japanese)) would be Poke-Japan, with Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh being four of the nation's regions. While in many ways similar to real-life Japan, there are also some important differences. For this crossover, however, references to Hoshido from Fire Emblem Fates will also appear.

 

Edited February 13, 2017 by henrymidfields