FE switch story predictions & hopes

[SuperNova125]

So Fire Emblem for the switch will be out this year (propably) so, I think that pretty much everyone has in mind some thing about the gameplay but I don't see many people talking about the story. I would like to hear what people think about stuff like the protagonist, the characters, the villians/antagonists, the world, the lore and the plot (I mentioned way too much but it doesn't matter).

[Corrobin]

Have good writing.

Have interesting characters.

Use cliches in an interesting way.

[SoulWeaver]

Hopes: That it won't suck.

Predictions: That at least half of it will suck.

[Watchman]

Be a good standalone story that doesn't rely on referencing  or using borrowed story elements of past games.

[thecrimsonflash]

13 minutes ago, SoulWeaver said:

Hopes: That it won't suck.

Predictions: That at least half of it will suck.

I take your pessimism and raise it

Hopes: It will be vaguely tolerable when I'm in a particularly good mood

Predictions: Will prove that fire emblem has no right to have a story all writers will be sent to north korean work camps to atone for their sins

All I want at this point is insest, unapologetic cringeworthy insest, no names are spoken, only referring to each other as brother and sister, perpetual reminders of what this relationship is and constant insinuation that they have in fact "done it", maybe some beastiality thrown in for good measure, did anyone want to marry corrin purely on account of corrin being part dragon, because if not that was a lost opportunity if you ask me. I've got no clue where I am going with this.

[Ivy Wife Supremacy]

Very early for this topic especially knowing literally nothing but just saying "hope its good" and expect it to be half good to some people's expectations.

Edited February 7, 2018 by Blade Lord Lyn

[SuperNova125]

1 hour ago, Blade Lord Lyn said:

Very early for this topic especially knowing literally nothing but just saying "hope its good" and expect it to be half good to some people's expectations.

Well that may be true but I had in mind basic stuff like the lord or the antagonist/dragon final boss. And we can at least dream since ninty hasn't shown anything.

[Etrurian emperor]

I predict the villains will actually be good this time around. The fact that the villains from Awakening and Fates failed can't have been missed by IS and they just don't gain anything by making the villains stay like that. It makes sense to fix it so I'm going to assume they will. Echoes didn't have the best villains of the series but it was certainly a step up which might point to villains making a comeback in the next game. 

Its also worth noting that the villains of Fates and Awakening might also have been victims of circumstances rather than design. If you fill a game with at least three big villains that all have a very short lifespawn than of course they won't be very good and I find myself wondering if Fates villains were so lacking because the siblings were supposed to be the recurring enemies which left less of a need for deep villains in the eyes of the writers. 

Edited February 7, 2018 by Etrurian emperor

[Hawkwing]

I believe we've already had quite a few story threads before, but I'll give my general (and optimistic) expectations anyway:

• They'll put more effort into the world-building.
• The characters will be less one-note/gimmicky and instead be more grounded and likable. Essentially less like Fates and to a lesser extent Awakening and more like Echoes.
• The character's will also have legitimate reasons for joining the conflict, will have the war take a toll on them, and their quirkiness will never get to the point where you wonder how they're still in the military. The cast will also be older and/or the age range between characters will be more varied.
• We'll see a combination of paired endings with the "X characters death affects Y's ending" from Gaiden/Echoes.
• The lord class won't be exclusive to the main character: It will be reserved for characters who are legitimately lords in the story (with obvious variances between them, of course).
• If the game doesn't have an avatar, a character with their own personality will still fill their role in regards to world-building.
• If the game does have an avatar, they'll be a minor lord in a much larger conflict, being important enough to have a reason to be in the story, but not important enough to be a main character. It will also be the player's choice about how involved they wish to be in the plot (from being as unremarkable as FE1 and 2's entire cast to forcefully supplanting the role of the actual protagonist to being the hidden mastermind of the entire plot to being a minor player that is nothing more than a sidenote in the world's history)
• The main villain/final boss won't be a dragon, but one may be one of the last bosses you face, and will probably serve the role of the dragon (I can't tell whether or not that pun was intentional or accidental on my part).
• The villains will be more morally grey than obviously evil, and/or most of them are fighting you because it's their job. That, and bandits will have understandable, if not always sympathetic, reasons, for robbing others. Similarly, not all the heroes will squeaky-clean, but neither will the ones who are virtuous (without being mary stu's) be ineffective.
• We'll see old and middle-aged looking Manakete's of both genders. If there one is a little girl, it'll be the only one in the story and only there for traditions sake.
• The fanservice will be optional and/or downplayed, and it won't have any place in the story itself.
• There won't be any plot armor, and all deaths will be final.
• Memory Prisms will return, and a select few will be playable.
• It'll be a deconstruction/reconstruction.
• The game may have multiple endings, but it won't be the "make a choice at the last second" kind. How you handle certain objectives and some choices made during the story will. The differences can be subtle, but I'm not asking for (nor am I expecting) a hundred page script for every action you take.

I'm not expecting all of these to take place, but I tried to be as optimistic yet realistic as I could.

[BZL8]

Pretty early posting this, topic creator, as we don't know anything about the story. Anyway:

Narrative-wise, I don't want anything that feels derivative of any of the previous games. Some people want something like "PoR" or "RD", others like "Genealogy", and some like the newer games; I am not one of those people. Personally hoping for something that doesn't feel like treading on the same grounds. I don't care if the story is simple. If the story of FE16 can distinguish itself from past FE titles and be executed well, I am in Day 1. Copy pasting a post I made on the TV Tropes forum:

Quote

...I am personally hoping for a narrative that is a Cosmic Horror Story initially disguised as a typical Fire Emblem story. Two kingdoms quarreling with each other inadvertently unleashes a Sealed Evil in a Can: a powerful Eldritch Abomination which proceeds to unleash the incomprehensible and horrific terrors that cripples both kingdoms. Both kingdoms and their people must deal with a raging abomination beyond their comprehension as well as reflect upon their own issues that led up to the unleashing of the abomination.

 

[SuperNova125]

This is my first topic so please forgive me if I' ve done any mistakes. Oh and I know it is too early for such things but when creating this topic I did not want to predict seriously but for fun.

[Sentinel07]

8 hours ago, SuperNova125 said:

This is my first topic so please forgive me if I' ve done any mistakes. Oh and I know it is too early for such things but when creating this topic I did not want to predict seriously but for fun.

There's nothing wrong with a little early talk. :)

I mean, there's not much else to talk about. I'm honestly surprised at how tight-lipped they are about this game, even after a full year since they name-dropped it. Frankly it makes me wonder why they bothered mentioning it if they were going to go silent.

It's not like they built any real hype for it. Most people outside the core fanbase seem to have forgotten about it as they're too busy foaming at the mouth for Metroid Prime 4 and Pokemon Switch.

[Ivy Wife Supremacy]

8 minutes ago, Sentinel07 said:

I mean, there's not much else to talk about. I'm honestly surprised at how tight-lipped they are about this game, even after a full year since they name-dropped it. Frankly it makes me wonder why they bothered mentioning it if they were going to go silent.

It's not like they built any real hype for it. Most people outside the core fanbase seem to have forgotten about it as they're too busy foaming at the mouth for Metroid Prime 4 and Pokemon Switch.

That's what bother me especially when this game is for sure coming this year while the other 2 aren't guaranteed at all. I get Pokemon is very hype compare to FE no question but they should at least do some more talk about this game even some more PR talk. The silence is slowly killing the enthusiasm of the wait for this game even though like you said no one outside some core fans still remember this exists.

[Watchman]

5 minutes ago, Blade Lord Lyn said:

That's what bother me especially when this game is for sure coming this year while the other 2 aren't guaranteed at all. I get Pokemon is very hype compare to FE no question but they should at least do some more talk about this game even some more PR talk. The silence is slowly killing the enthusiasm of the wait for this game even though like you said no one outside some core fans still remember this exists.

Makes me feel like the game wasn't even in pre-production when it was announced. Or maybe because they felt what they had been working on wasn't working out so they decided to start over from scratch. Or they know whatever they're working on is going to piss off the core and/or old fans and trying to keep this quiet as long as possible.

[Sentinel07]

27 minutes ago, Watchman said:

Makes me feel like the game wasn't even in pre-production when it was announced. Or maybe because they felt what they had been working on wasn't working out so they decided to start over from scratch. Or they know whatever they're working on is going to piss off the core and/or old fans and trying to keep this quiet as long as possible.

Well, we know for sure it had to have been past pre-production at that point. The director of Echoes said FE Switch was in development before they even began work on Echoes. And I doubt they would have teased 2018 if it was only in pre-production at that point because it would be impossible to make that a reality.

Edited February 8, 2018 by Sentinel07

[Zapp Branniglenn]

15 minutes ago, Sentinel07 said:

Well, we know for sure it had to have been past pre-production at that point. The director of Echoes said FE Switch was in development before they even began work on Echoes. And I doubt they would have teased 2018 if it was only in pre-production at that point because it would be impossible to make that a reality.

I believe you are mistaken. Echoes was given the go ahead because it was still too early to begin development on a Switch game back in 2015. This is the interview

Spoiler

 

Mr. Hitoshi Yamagami (from now on: Yamagami): After the completion of Fire Emblem: Fates (from now on, just Fates)’s development, I started thinking of a game for the Nintendo Switch. However, it was still too early to begin development of titles for that system. While thinking of what to do, several people from Intelligent Systems approached me saying: “There are many things we could not do in Fates[that we wish we could have]. We wish to implement them in a remake for Gaiden.” Gaiden had not been featured much up until now, and I figured if we got started on development at that time, we would be able to release the game before the new Nintendo Switch would come out. So, we began development.

Q: To be more specific, around when are we talking?

Mr. Masahiro Higuchi (from now on, Higuchi): This is back in 2015.

Yamagami: Back then, we thought: “Okay, let’s do this in a year and release it September 2016.”

Higuchi: But there was no way I could meet that deadline while ensuring ultimate player satisfaction. (Laughs awkwardly).

 

This interview also worries me, because I assume their development team was split between Echoes and Heroes for all of 2016. So FE Switch may have only begun real development as late as early 2017. And I don't think I want to play a game that took less than two years to make. Echoes can do that because it's a remake of an existing game that has years of assets on the same hardware to reuse. 

But back on topic. I'd like lots of politics in this one. The nature of being the owner of land and people lends itself well to conflict with others of a similar status. I think they're really handicapping themselves when they rely on evil dragon gods and possessed/brainwashed villains. Furthermore, class-ism lends itself well to good conflict and good characterizations. I feel like Echoes is the only game that addressed the very real truth that common folk became soldiers so that they could climb the social ladder and earn real status.

[the16bitcomposer]

7 hours ago, Sentinel07 said:

I mean, there's not much else to talk about. I'm honestly surprised at how tight-lipped they are about this game, even after a full year since they name-dropped it. Frankly it makes me wonder why they bothered mentioning it if they were going to go silent.

It's not like they built any real hype for it. Most people outside the core fanbase seem to have forgotten about it as they're too busy foaming at the mouth for Metroid Prime 4 and Pokemon Switch.

I think they mentioned it because at the time, there was no guarantee that the Switch would be a success. If the Switch ended up being another Wii U, Nintendo would've been in trouble. So Nintendo decided to prematurely announce FE to get people to buy the Switch. I think the same reasoning applies to the timing of the announcements of Metroid Prime 4 and Pokémon Switch. We don't know anything about those games other than that they exist. Now that the Switch is a success, Nintendo probably feels less pressure to announce more news (although if the Feb. direct rumor is true, FE may be talked about there).

[nhaer042]

I would like a villain in a similar vein to Fernand to be the main antagonist. Someone who used to be considered a hero before he lost everything. It could make for an interesting story especially with the right protagonist. Anything but another evil wizard, corrupted god, or crazy dragon as the villain would make me happy at this point.

[The Lazy Tactician]

Well I bought the Switch prematurely because of that small FE announcement.Now all that remains is to see if I made the correct choice.So yeah nintendo how about you finally give us that FE switch reveal,huh?

[Hawkwing]

7 hours ago, Glennstavos said:

I believe you are mistaken. Echoes was given the go ahead because it was still too early to begin development on a Switch game back in 2015. This is the interview

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Mr. Hitoshi Yamagami (from now on: Yamagami): After the completion of Fire Emblem: Fates (from now on, just Fates)’s development, I started thinking of a game for the Nintendo Switch. However, it was still too early to begin development of titles for that system. While thinking of what to do, several people from Intelligent Systems approached me saying: “There are many things we could not do in Fates[that we wish we could have]. We wish to implement them in a remake for Gaiden.” Gaiden had not been featured much up until now, and I figured if we got started on development at that time, we would be able to release the game before the new Nintendo Switch would come out. So, we began development.

Q: To be more specific, around when are we talking?

Mr. Masahiro Higuchi (from now on, Higuchi): This is back in 2015.

Yamagami: Back then, we thought: “Okay, let’s do this in a year and release it September 2016.”

Higuchi: But there was no way I could meet that deadline while ensuring ultimate player satisfaction. (Laughs awkwardly).

 

This interview also worries me, because I assume their development team was split between Echoes and Heroes for all of 2016. So FE Switch may have only begun real development as late as early 2017. And I don't think I want to play a game that took less than two years to make. Echoes can do that because it's a remake of an existing game that has years of assets on the same hardware to reuse.

I've read and reread the first part of that interview, and I'm curious if they mean that they didn't start any development on the switch game until Echoes was far into production, or if the Switch game was beginning the ideas/development phase (creating the story and characters, designing the maps, making concept art, etc.), but they couldn't actually get work done on building the game itself until the switch was ready. Because if it was the latter then it would have made sense why they announced the game a year ago but couldn't provide us with any news on the game itself.

Anyway, I don't think Fire Emblem games take too long to create, so it not taking a full two years doesn't worry me too much. That being said, I wouldn't be surprised it the release date is revealed to be on the latter part of the year, both to give themselves more production time and/or the game will be huge and requires the extra time.

[SuperNova125]

7 hours ago, Glennstavos said:

But back on topic. I'd like lots of politics in this one. The nature of being the owner of land and people lends itself well to conflict with others of a similar status. I think they're really handicapping themselves when they rely on evil dragon gods and possessed/brainwashed villains. Furthermore, class-ism lends itself well to good conflict and good characterizations. I feel like Echoes is the only game that addressed the very real truth that common folk became soldiers so that they could climb the social ladder and earn real status.

It would be great if it worked as a combination of Echoes and the Tellius games (Tellius did racism with the laguz so just have humans this time around). We could get antagonists similar to Berkut, Fernand and Alvis. A great protagonist could come too. Also evil dragons are getting borring a bit, would like someone like Ashnard (beorc/human) as final boss, or Ashera (she is a goddess not a dragon and though gods are very usual in other rpgs for fire emblem it would be the second time).

[Corrobin]

Idea I've had for a bit.

You guys see my profile pic?

What if the big bad guy (either the Hardin archetype or the Gharnef one) and the big evil dragon were one and the same, like the guy in my profile pic, a humanoid dragon?

[Morswo]

I hope that they do something like the old Mass Effect games, your decisions can influence heavy the story. Something like three endings and many well written dialogues. The gameplay shouldn't come too short, the system of Fates was very well, except bow and magic. These weapons should'nt be a part of the weapon triangle.
All in all I hope for a better written story than Fates and a good gameplay, maybe they can create a good cast of characters.

[Icelerate]

21 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I predict the villains will actually be good this time around. The fact that the villains from Awakening and Fates failed can't have been missed by IS and they just don't gain anything by making the villains stay like that. It makes sense to fix it so I'm going to assume they will. Echoes didn't have the best villains of the series but it was certainly a step up which might point to villains making a comeback in the next game. 

Its also worth noting that the villains of Fates and Awakening might also have been victims of circumstances rather than design. If you fill a game with at least three big villains that all have a very short lifespawn than of course they won't be very good and I find myself wondering if Fates villains were so lacking because the siblings were supposed to be the recurring enemies which left less of a need for deep villains in the eyes of the writers. 

Which FE games do you think had good villains? I think FE10 has great villains and from what I've read FE4 does as well. FE7's and FE8's are decent but I felt FE6 and FE9's were weak. 

[Etrurian emperor]

2 minutes ago, Icelerate said:

Which FE games do you think had good villains? I think FE10 has great villains and from what I've read FE4 does as well. FE7's and FE8's are decent but I felt FE6 and FE9's were weak. 

My standards aren't to high so I'd say the majority of the Fire emblem games have good villains. Genealogy and Sacred stones have villains of all flavors which is great, Blazing sword's villains have a more personal conflict with the heroes which I really like and the fact that even the most minor bosses of Tellius has a boss conversation really helps flesh out their roster. The Daein enemies have a recurring trend of being either racists or honorable/battle loving warriors while Begnion keeps displaying an amusing combo of arrogance and snobbishness. 

I'm not a fan of Binding blade's villains but since they got mighty Narcian they are at least okay. 

The only games where I dislike the villains are Awakening were there are far to many, Fates where they are a train wreck and the Archenean villains because the format ensures they barely appear and never do or say anything interesting.