What kind of story do you want to see?

[OakTree]

2 hours ago, Corrobin said:

...sometimes, I feel like I'm the only person who thinks that something big as a final boss is needed. It provides a sense of scale, like how Dhengis-whatever from Tellius had a special layout to emphasize his size. If all you fought were dudes, dudes on horses, dudes in armor, dudes on pegasi, dudes on wyverns and dudes in robes as bosses, yeah, it'd get old! The reason that we have Big Evil Dragons is so that you can quake in your boots as your Navarre, who's been kicking ass all game, suddenly looks like a little fairy compared to the Demon Dragon Whatever he's fighting against.

 Of course, it doesn't have to be a big Evil Dragon Thing. Maybe it's a mechanical creation, created by the main bad! Maybe the main bad and the Big Final Boss with Massive Huge Stats fight together, one actually moving around while the other has ranged attacks and gimmicks like shockwaves that damage a group? Or maybe have the second to last chapter be the Evil Dragon Thing... and then the final chapter be the actual evil human

You don't need a monster for the final boss to feel epic, Zephiel was a far more epic final boss than Idoun and so was Ashnard in comparison to Ashnerah. Really, just like how writing is far more about actual writing rather than plot ideas and events, perceived scale is far more about presentation than actual ideas, a final battle against a human can feel far more like an epic, myth-like clash with the right tone than a typicial dragon baddie.

Edited November 28, 2017 by OakTree

[Midnox]

On 11/9/2017 at 3:46 PM, TheGoodHoms said:

I don't really buy the leaks, but a Gothic Horror setting actually sounds really cool because when I envision it like a Fire Emblem meets Castlevania and I would throw a TON of money at something that sounds that awesome(at least in my head).

Another route I'd like to see the series take is a story with less emphasis on magic dragon demons and a more of a realistic political drama between competing nations because it would be the best scenario to have a meaningful commentary on the harsh realities of war(something the series nods at, but never fully explores).

Well, it'd be a nice change of space if we see demons instead of dragons as the main antagonists. Only Sacred Stones and the Tellius games are the only ones where dragons are not central to neither the current, nor the backstory

[Hawkwing]

I'll echo what others have said and ask for a more grounded, human-focused conflict, with politics and the effect the war has on all sides being properly analyzed. I don't see much I can really add that other's haven't already. That being said, I wouldn't mind if dragons were still a part of the story, participating in both sides of the conflict for their own reasons, without undermining the story. Heck, I always though that having a dragon character serving the role of... well, the dragon, similar to Darth Vader, and having them be the SECOND-to-last boss of the game would be interesting to see.

Anyway, I'm copy-pasting an idea I posted in another thread (Side Character Ideas, to be specific), and thought that it would fit equally well here, so...

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Admittedly [these ideas] aren't entirely my own, but I always thought that the "Claimant and Ruler" situations in Mount and Blade could work very well in a Fire Emblem game. There's always a preset ruler to each kingdom, and a claimant to the throne, with both characters having their own balanced reasonings for why they should be in charge, with the player ultimately deciding which side to support. You can check out the tv trope page here, but as for the ones I think would work best in a Fire Emblem game:

(A few notes beforehand. 1. I haven't played the game enough to see every single conflict, so I have to go of TV Tropes and secondhand knowledge here to fill in the details. 2. Some details were added by me to insert more drama and grayness to the conflict. 3. As I said earlier, these are not my own ideas. They came from the game Mount and Blade. I just think they would work especially well in a Fire Emblem game. One can have similar ideas while still being unique from one another.)

• In a warrior nation, the claimant is a scholar who wishes to guide the nation towards more scientific activities, making sure the nation is balanced in both strength and intelligence. However, the current king disposed of him by claiming that their nation needs to be lead only by strong warriors. However, said king is a very reasonable leader, willing to listen to ideas that are not his own, and he takes criticism gracefully. We's also willing to listen to even lowly mercenaries if they prove their martial prowess. The claimant has all the virtues (and flaws) of a character who you'd expect to rely more on intellect and tactics than simple strength, although he is a fine warrior in his own right/way.
• When the king died, it left two (half-)brothers in line for the throne. Knowing that the inheritance laws of the nation would inevitably lead to an unneeded and most likely bloody civil war, one of the brothers declares himself king while the other is out defending the border, partially because he believes that he's the better ruler of the two, but also because he does not want to have his brother killed. However, the other brother claims that the decision was unfair, as he was defending the border when he heard of his fathers death, and thus had no say in the matter. He also claims that he did more of the nations leg-work than his brother did, and it could have been possible to avoid a civil war if the two simply talked about the matter.
• A generation earlier, the king was usurped by his brother, forcing the king and his child to go into hiding, while the brother lead a tyrannical reign until his death. His son, though bluntly admitting that what his father did was immoral and thus has no pride in him, refuses to give up the throne to his cousin, the rightful heir since the king had died in the meantime, and wishes to use the use the power that he's been given to undo the damage of his father. As for the claimant, even though their journey is similar to previous lords, their personality could vary wildly, having both great strengths and virtues, but also considerable (and potentially fatal) flaws.
• In a kingdom that allows slavery, there is a slave girl working for the royal family. Greatly impressed by her intellect, wit, and managerial (and potentially combat) skills, and the fact that they have no children of their own, the King and Queen adopt her, much to the ire of another royal family, who had toiled greatly for years on end, even having lost some close friends and family to war, to become worthy of being the Kingdoms successor. When the fatal day came that the king and queen died, both sides took actions to ensure they would be come the kingdoms successors, and with the noble family appearing to have succeeded. However, both sides had gained support throughout the years, with the slave girl impressing many people with her intellect and leadership abilities, and for being a hope to many of slaves and common folk alike for having a ruler who wasn't of noble birth, while others would remember the great deeds, accomplishments, and sacrifices of the noble family that they can't help but admire them or feel as if they are indebted to them, which leads to a large scale conflict.

[Dandy Druid]

Just a good one. I wouldn't mind a story that's inspired by how WWI was triggered (secret alliances and assassinations- nations and secret covert groups in play) or the Crusades that actually happened in medieval times (wars of ideologies/religion).

On 11/9/2017 at 12:52 PM, Duster said:

One that draws similarities to Macbeth. That's all i could ask for.

I'm ok with it being inspired by Shakespeare as well. Macbeth would be the best, since the concept of gray morality is very present and the shifts in power could be a cool thing to witness our cast go through. Julius Caesar or The Tempest may also be good ones to take themes from. I would also like a character like Bianca from Taming of the Shrew- a poised and elegant individual, until you get to know her.

[edgelordweeaboo]

something a bit darker and more real i guess, like fe4 or fe5. needs better characters, story, worldbuilding, and politics. the nations in conflict need better and more real reasons to be fighting and there should be more depth to the conflict. 

[kratoscar2008]

Something about a brother and sister that have diferent opinions of how to rule a kingdom. The sister kill her parents and exiles her brother to govern the kingdom and build it as the strongest kingdom in the continent. The Lord (Her brother) doesnt likes how ruthless she is so he tries to take his kigdom back by enlisting the avatar mercenary group (Who happens to have a debt left to pay to the lord, probably similar to Robin). They succeed. Later a huge empire from another country invades the continent in order to spread their dark God religion (The Dragon of this game). A nice twist would be that you defeat the Dragon and it turns out the emperor was using him all along to earn himself its power.

 

Like in Der Langrisser where despite there being the whole Lushiris (The series Naga) vs Chaos (A recurrent Grima) war the focus point is the Empire and how they want to conquer the continent to bring order and get rid of war and the bad guys (The demons and Boser, a servant of Chaos) play second fiddle and they are even played by the empire. Other than the female general Imelda all the imperial characters are not evil, they just take rather drastic measure to ensure peace through order.

[EdeaCreamer]

1) A memorable primary villain. Said memorable primary villain needs to be established early and REMAIN THE PRIMARY VILLAIN for the entire game. Enough with the sad attempts at pulling Shyamalans and bringing forth space fleas from nowhere near the end of the story while leaving the behavior of the 'puppet' relatively ham-fisted and forgettable (Garon was trash. I...don't even remember the name of Robin's dad).

2) Enough with the dragons being bad or going nuts, and really just draconic mystification in general. We get it, they live forever, have crazy magic powers, and humans are hopeless without them. If the next game has dragons in it, they'd better be completely ordinary in the context of the setting and perfectly integrated into its society-at-large, maybe as merchants or something.

3) A genuine commoner's perspective from start to finish. There's good reason IS hasn't done this, though, as it's really hard to pull off; Fire Emblem's M.O. depends on having a large, roving army of characters in various jobs to deploy strategically for dealing with a given map's enemy placements. Why would said army even be gathered in the first place, if there's not a Lord commanding them? We've had a commoner become a Lord type already (Ike), and we've had the 'Lord is technically a supportive character in his own game' already (Chrom). So I'm not saying this is a realistic expectation, far from it. Still, it's certainly something I'd like to see attempted. The most obvious tack to attempt is to have said commoner unwittingly be a MacGuffin (perhaps even the literal Fire Emblem of that setting), and then having the game introduce a large number of disparate nations fighting over who's going to successfully take them into custody (perhaps in some cases for use as a bioweapon). I find myself having a blasé reaction to the idea, as it's too similar to FF6's Terra, but coming up with a feasible plotline where the commoner MC isn't either simply absorbed into the Lord's group or ends up being a proxy-Lord themselves is challenging.

4) I think I'd like to see the tech level go up. Not saying they need to start using phasers or anything at that level, but steampunk/industrial revolution era would be super-interesting to me (and of course, we'd get guns as a potential weapon category). Maybe magic is also starting to die out, and that could even be part of what's causing the conflict driving the game's plot forward (though again I'm getting FF6 vibes, here, so I'm wary about that last part despite liking it).