Should FE games have route splits?

[CocoaGalaxy]

My opinion

TL;DR if it's done well, it's fine. The trouble is that not everyone has the same opinion of well.

First factor is the "freedom" and/or option of choice, more so transparency. FE6 Chapter 10/11 is entirely determined by the village you do/don't visit, and it's not telegraphed. FE6 Ilia/Sacae, FE7 Four Fanged Offense, Pale Flower of Darkness afaik don't tell the player anything at all, so the option of choice is entirely up to reading a guide and playstyle.

Second factor is the exact nature of the split. FE6 Chap 10/11 is just two maps, but the drastic difference between the maps is quite large. Additionally the recruitable characters change as well. FE6 Ilia/Sacae split is even more drastic and longer too. FE7 on the other hand, is just one map each time, which I personally felt more okay with.

SOV also had one choice between Deen/Sonya, which I guess is less drastic.

FE7 Eliwood vs Hector, the maps are mostly the same, but hector gets some changes, so it feels just like they are reusing content while inserting a few changes. Besides it's a totally different "story" and "choice", which is quite different.

FE8 Eirika/Ephraim is quite drastic, to the point the game kind of diverges. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but at the same time since they join back my own opinion is kind of mixed. The split itself is good, but because they join back together, the lategame chapters are basically the same on both routes, but the story is slightly changed.

My overall opinion is that it's probably easier if the splits were one chapter, not huge swathes. Additionally actually having player choice would have been nice, rather than being hidden behind conditions. The longer the split, the more resources required and the more "content" there is, so it becomes more difficult to "balance".

There has been a little tradition of locking characters behind the splits, but my own opinion is mixed. FE7 Pale Flower of Darkness has a map split, but you *can* still *choose* to recruit Karel or Harken, which I feel is done better. Whereas FE6 and FE7 Four Fanged Offense had fixed characters depending on the map(s) taken.

[Corrobin]

12 hours ago, CocoaGalaxy said:

My opinion

TL;DR if it's done well, it's fine. The trouble is that not everyone has the same opinion of well.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

First factor is the "freedom" and/or option of choice, more so transparency. FE6 Chapter 10/11 is entirely determined by the village you do/don't visit, and it's not telegraphed. FE6 Ilia/Sacae, FE7 Four Fanged Offense, Pale Flower of Darkness afaik don't tell the player anything at all, so the option of choice is entirely up to reading a guide and playstyle.

Second factor is the exact nature of the split. FE6 Chap 10/11 is just two maps, but the drastic difference between the maps is quite large. Additionally the recruitable characters change as well. FE6 Ilia/Sacae split is even more drastic and longer too. FE7 on the other hand, is just one map each time, which I personally felt more okay with.

SOV also had one choice between Deen/Sonya, which I guess is less drastic.

FE7 Eliwood vs Hector, the maps are mostly the same, but hector gets some changes, so it feels just like they are reusing content while inserting a few changes. Besides it's a totally different "story" and "choice", which is quite different.

FE8 Eirika/Ephraim is quite drastic, to the point the game kind of diverges. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but at the same time since they join back my own opinion is kind of mixed. The split itself is good, but because they join back together, the lategame chapters are basically the same on both routes, but the story is slightly changed.

My overall opinion is that it's probably easier if the splits were one chapter, not huge swathes. Additionally actually having player choice would have been nice, rather than being hidden behind conditions. The longer the split, the more resources required and the more "content" there is, so it becomes more difficult to "balance".

There has been a little tradition of locking characters behind the splits, but my own opinion is mixed. FE7 Pale Flower of Darkness has a map split, but you *can* still *choose* to recruit Karel or Harken, which I feel is done better. Whereas FE6 and FE7 Four Fanged Offense had fixed characters depending on the map(s) taken.

 

What about what FE5 did? It let you choose the next two chapters, either by going to a specific escape point in an escape chapter, or doing a small secret thing that let you just make a dialogue choice to choose.