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What would YOUR Fire Emblem plot be?


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19 hours ago, This boi uses Nino said:

Interesting, so no big bad dragon is killing the world!! Dragon: Bueegghhhhhr i spit fire xd now I'm dead kek

Nah, 11 of the 15 Fire Emblem games have big evil dragons as the finalboss and many of the ones that don't have a dragon have a very similar plot structure as the ones with a dragon finalboss.

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On 6/13/2019 at 11:08 PM, vanguard333 said:

I don't have any real specifics in terms of the world or story, but I would want to write a story that deconstructs and reconstructs many a Fire Emblem trope while placing a greater emphasis on the war. 

The hero would be a prince, but he'd be far from a Marth-expy. He was never the intended heir, he has such a weak constitution that he is ridiculed as "hollow-boned", and he is a mage, not a swordsman. Campaigning and leading an army into a war takes both a psychological and a physical toll on him; one cutscene would even have him finish a battle, only to then vomit before passing out from how much he's overexerting himself. 

His elder brother, the intended heir, is a deconstruction of the Marth archetype. There are times where he admits to his brother that he's tempted to trade places, as sometimes he feels more like he's filling a mold that expected of the crown prince, rather than being the crown prince he feels the kingdom truly needs. 

It reminded a bit of the Man in the Iron mask from Alexandre Dumas in which the tyrant king had a twin brother who was the legitimate heir and he ursuped his throne.

Sibilings or not, a role swapping story in which the crown prince willingly or not, swap places with someone else who becames more suited to the role, can make an interesting story if the writers manage to make it non cliche.

Edited by Mylady
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3 hours ago, Mylady said:

It reminded a bit of the Man in the Iron mask from Alexandre Dumas in which the tyrant king had a twin brother who was the legitimate heir and he ursuped his throne.

Sibilings or not, a role swapping story in which the crown prince willingly or not, swap places with someone else who becames more suited to the role, can make an interesting story if the writers manage to make it non cliche.

I have seen the film based on that book, but that wasn't where I got the idea. 

Hm... role-swapping would be interesting. Honestly, I didn't write it with the idea of them role-swapping in mind. My first thought was that the crown prince would die rather than the king; leaving the "hollow-boned" prince to fill in his brother's shoes. But then I thought it might be more interesting if both brothers live. 

Them role-swapping could be interesting, but the idea was more a darker take on FE from the perspective of the tactician, rather than the Marth lord. 

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My ideal FE story would focus squarely on the hopelessness and futility of war. 

The story starts already in the midst of a great war as the first battle is the protagonists coming in as reinforcements to help drive out the enemy army. The lord starts off as your typical Marth archetype. Optimistic, naive, always willing to help, etc. generally all around a very idealistic person. The first several chapters exist to help set up the world and conflict as well develop the characters(which would be very important later). The army you have starts out very small and doesn’t really get any bigger for several chapters and you can only recruit new units if you lost a unit in the previous chapter.

Anyway the war itself has been going on for several years and the reason for the war has long since forgotten to be revealed to be a simple farming dispute later on. After I’d say 6,7, or maybe 8 chapters, you run into a chapter where you are not allowed to reset at all. If a character dies there will be a system in place to keep them dead regardless of if you reset or game over. The only character not allowed to die is the protagonist. This will mark the first major turning point of the story where the lord’s initial worldview is completely shattered. The chapter itself would turn into an escape chapter after a certain number of characters die which WILL happen. After that chapter, you will be given a new set of units to replace the ones you lost. The story from here would be the lord having to come to terms with the massacre that happened to them and slowly coming to accept and protect their new army as well as find the origins of the war and why it happened and of course put a stop to it.

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16 hours ago, Ottservia said:

My ideal FE story would focus squarely on the hopelessness and futility of war. 

The story starts already in the midst of a great war as the first battle is the protagonists coming in as reinforcements to help drive out the enemy army. The lord starts off as your typical Marth archetype. Optimistic, naive, always willing to help, etc. generally all around a very idealistic person. The first several chapters exist to help set up the world and conflict as well develop the characters(which would be very important later). The army you have starts out very small and doesn’t really get any bigger for several chapters and you can only recruit new units if you lost a unit in the previous chapter.

Anyway the war itself has been going on for several years and the reason for the war has long since forgotten to be revealed to be a simple farming dispute later on. After I’d say 6,7, or maybe 8 chapters, you run into a chapter where you are not allowed to reset at all. If a character dies there will be a system in place to keep them dead regardless of if you reset or game over. The only character not allowed to die is the protagonist. This will mark the first major turning point of the story where the lord’s initial worldview is completely shattered. The chapter itself would turn into an escape chapter after a certain number of characters die which WILL happen. After that chapter, you will be given a new set of units to replace the ones you lost. The story from here would be the lord having to come to terms with the massacre that happened to them and slowly coming to accept and protect their new army as well as find the origins of the war and why it happened and of course put a stop to it.

Interesting. I do like the idea of a protagonist that starts out Marth-like and slowly gets deconstructed. That's kind-of like my two brothers idea. I also really like the idea of the major turning point in the story being a hopeless battle where the player characters have to retreat. 

 

Personally, for my FE plot, I would want to focus not on the hopelessness and futility of war, but on the horrors of war. It would take the classic FE mold and archetypes and present a darker take on it that deconstructs many of those classic FE archetypes and tropes. I would start with two protagonists: the Marth lord and his younger brother (the "hollow-boned" prince). Their kingdom gets invaded and they get involved in a war that spans an alliance of multiple kingdoms vs an evil empire. They then lead a very special campaign to strike back at the evil empire. 

This game would place a heavy emphasis on the logistics involved in warfare: the environment, supply lines, etc., and it would especially dive into Medieval Warfare: sieges, skirmishes, chevauchee tactics (basically pillaging and burning), and the war would push the heroes to further and further extremes as they constantly teeter on the edge of defeat. I would have one mission where the protagonists reluctantly find themselves having to raid a village for supplies, as their supply lines have been cut and their army's on the verge of starving. Despite the efforts of the protagonists to keep this as... civil... as possible, things spiral out of their control. 

I would involve Manaketes and the prejudice against them by human kingdoms. I would make it that they're treated like second-class citizens in human kingdoms, and, in the empire, their only escape from that life is by joining the military and acting as a living weapon of war. At this point, I would involve the Tiki archetype and deconstruct it. She's still fighting for the good guys, but the reason she's in the army is very different from normal. This little green-haired dragon girl is mentally and physically a child, regardless of the whole, "really 300 years old", and her use in warfare essentially amounts to the use of a child soldier, and this is brought up by the protagonists. 

Furthermore, I would present those allied kingdoms as not being particularly trustworthy. Some turn traitor and sell out to the empire out of fear, and others become well-intentioned extremists; willing to do anything to win. Finally, one of the kingdoms intends on using the war to keep everyone busy while they conquer the remaining independent kingdoms. The heroes joined the alliance to save their kingdom from the evil empire. But can they really keep going when said alliance isn't much better?

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There are some really good ideas here.

One idea I've always wanted to see played out in greater depth is the Suikoden 2 idea of having your main characters be deserters from the empire.

Following the character arc of going from loyal soldier -> questioning the morality of your choices -> making a stand -> becoming an outcast -> becoming a leader -> becoming a hero has always really interested me.

The big parts of the plot I'd want to explore in detail are the idea of the hero finally breaking and refusing to do something they know is wrong, even though they've done other bad things. This I felt was lacking in Suikoden, in which the hero never got the chance to choose for themselves, they were forced to flee. I also loved the tactics ogre idea of leading the player to make bad choices and then showing them the consequences. Since it's a game, I think the punches hit harder if you let the player choose them.

Additionally, the whole segment of the game where the hero is essentially a nameless refugee also fascinated me. I'd like to explore that as well. There's a large part where you're not even trying to fight back against the empire, you're just trying to not die, and that also I found really interesting.

Taking inspiration from Thracia, I'd really love to push the mechanics of the game to demonstrate these themes. SRPG studio is a fantastic tool for prototyping, I'm really loving it so far.

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43 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

Interesting. I do like the idea of a protagonist that starts out Marth-like and slowly gets deconstructed. That's kind-of like my two brothers idea. I also really like the idea of the major turning point in the story being a hopeless battle where the player characters have to retreat. 

 

Thanks I like your idea as well. Really what I wanted to focus on was the horror of what war is and how hopeless and pointless it really is. Cause with the protagonist having seen what War can do firsthand they are determined to figure out why this war started in the first happened in the first place and when they find out the cause of all their suffering is something so petty and inconsequential, they will go completely ballistic and lose what little optimism they once had. I like making characters suffer honestly.

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Something from a roleplay I created with someone else.

Fire Emblem: Struggle Between Light and Darkness

In the continent of Midgard, there exists three nations: The Kingdom of Geri in the East, believers of the Holy Dragon Astra, The Empire of Muninn, believers of the Shadow Dragon Lumina in the westand finally in the middle surrounded by a ring of dangerous uninhabited lands only ruled by monsters, beastfolk and dragonfolk is the Confederation of Vaettir, a collection of smaller united nations. Vaettir contains both churches and believers of the Shadow Dragon and the Holy Dragon.

Muninn and Geri while have some full scale wars, recently in the last few hundred years are basically small skirmshes.

You play as a group of mercenaries with a long and proud history originating from Vaettir.

The Central Theme is about how humanity, even in their weakness and despite their constant tensions, are still able to come together under one banner to challenge whatever they must, be it a simple bandit tribe or the gods themselves.

As for the beginning, essentially, the band of mercenaries is hired by the Holy Nation to make war on the Dark Nation. Cue Ch 8, the mercenaries are betrayed by their employees alongside a province of Vaettir due to Minerva archetype shenanigans. It also turns out the the Deity Dragon, Astra is corrupted and evil and is manipulating events to blame calamities, war and disasters on the Dark Nation of Muninn and its Deity Dragon, Lumina who is actually a benevolent Dark Dragon. And of course it sees the mercenary band as a huge threat to its plans.

Both Lumina and Astra are disguising themselves as ordinary beings, with Astra of course manipulating events and Lumina staying hidden.
 

 

Edited by thetiger39
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On 9/27/2019 at 10:12 AM, Ottservia said:

Thanks I like your idea as well. Really what I wanted to focus on was the horror of what war is and how hopeless and pointless it really is. Cause with the protagonist having seen what War can do firsthand they are determined to figure out why this war started in the first happened in the first place and when they find out the cause of all their suffering is something so petty and inconsequential, they will go completely ballistic and lose what little optimism they once had. I like making characters suffer honestly.

You're welcome, and thanks for the feedback. 

Yeah; I can see trying to work with that. Though I'm not sure if futility and/or pointlessness of war is a good idea for a video game; a medium that requires interaction and involvement. Don't get me wrong; I think it can be done well as a theme to explore... I think one of the Metal Gear Solid games may have explored that concept... the third game; I think? I don't know; I haven't played any of them. But it can be very difficult to get right, because you still have to keep the player motivated to keep going. 

Take Shadow of the Colossus for example: the whole point of that game is that the player ends up sympathizing with the Colossi and it gets the player to think about what they're doing and maybe feel some remorse for doing so, but the player is still motivated to finish the game because of Wander's determination to revive Mono. I'm pretty sure none of what I just said is a spoiler, since it's the premise of the game, but if it a spoiler, please let me know. 

Anyway, I like your idea, but I feel that, for it to work, it does need that additional thing that keeps the player motivated to keep going. Otherwise, you get darkness-induced audience apathy: when things are so dreary that the player can't be bothered to keep going. 

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13 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

You're welcome, and thanks for the feedback. 

Yeah; I can see trying to work with that. Though I'm not sure if futility and/or pointlessness of war is a good idea for a video game; a medium that requires interaction and involvement. Don't get me wrong; I think it can be done well as a theme to explore... I think one of the Metal Gear Solid games may have explored that concept... the third game; I think? I don't know; I haven't played any of them. But it can be very difficult to get right, because you still have to keep the player motivated to keep going. 

Take Shadow of the Colossus for example: the whole point of that game is that the player ends up sympathizing with the Colossi and it gets the player to think about what they're doing and maybe feel some remorse for doing so, but the player is still motivated to finish the game because of Wander's determination to revive Mono. I'm pretty sure none of what I just said is a spoiler, since it's the premise of the game, but if it a spoiler, please let me know. 

Anyway, I like your idea, but I feel that, for it to work, it does need that additional thing that keeps the player motivated to keep going. Otherwise, you get darkness-induced audience apathy: when things are so dreary that the player can't be bothered to keep going. 

Interesting point which is why I keep the the cause of the war a mystery for most of the game. It’s there to give the player a motive. Take advantage of a video game’s greatest strength as a medium. The player and the lord have just suffered a huge loss and now toil in despair. It’s this loss that drives them to keep moving forward to figure out the reason for all this bloodshed and suffering and hopefully put a stop to it. While also making some new friends along the way and learn to love and accept their new platoon. 

Honestly the biggest inspirations for this idea were madoka magica, fate/zero, and Naruto. So yeah the audience apathy thing makes sense at least in regards to the first two.

Edited by Ottservia
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11 hours ago, Ottservia said:

Interesting point which is why I keep the the cause of the war a mystery for most of the game. It’s there to give the player a motive. Take advantage of a video game’s greatest strength as a medium. The player and the lord have just suffered a huge loss and now toil in despair. It’s this loss that drives them to keep moving forward to figure out the reason for all this bloodshed and suffering and hopefully put a stop to it. While also making some new friends along the way and learn to love and accept their new platoon. 

Honestly the biggest inspirations for this idea were madoka magica, fate/zero, and Naruto. So yeah the audience apathy thing makes sense at least in regards to the first two.

Interesting. That could work. I'm not sure if the mystery alone is enough, but if tied to the main characters' goals and motivations, it could work. 

I must admit that I have not watched any of those. I'm not really an anime person. I've only really seen five: One-Punch Man, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Violet Evergarden, Granblue Fantasy, and Code Geass. Even then, for that last one, I stopped watching after a certain event late in season 1...

Spoiler

When Lelouch accidently uses his geass on Princess Euphemia. That scene was so forced and contrived and just made no sense except as a case of the writers believing they had written themselves into a corner and couldn't think of any other way to keep the central conflict going when there were plenty of other ways they could've done so without creating such a contrived disaster. Never before had one moment completely killed my interest in a series I had been enjoying. 

 

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On 6/15/2019 at 4:59 PM, Etrurian emperor said:

Rather than the Emperor being manipulated by the evil cult he's the one manipulating them. He makes use of them before being the one to doublecross the cult and subjugating its dark god for his own benefit.

Spoiler

This feels like what Edelgard tried to do, honestly. Using TWSITD as extra soldiers and helping to create weapons of war in the demonic beasts. There is also support from Lord Arundel, aka Thales.

As for my story, right now I simply have two ideas to play with: the platoon stuff from towards the beginning of FE12 and the psychology of war that Three Houses touched upon.

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14 minutes ago, Azure, Roundabouted Out said:
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This feels like what Edelgard tried to do, honestly. Using TWSITD as extra soldiers and helping to create weapons of war in the demonic beasts. There is also support from Lord Arundel, aka Thales.

As for my story, right now I simply have two ideas to play with: the platoon stuff from towards the beginning of FE12 and the psychology of war that Three Houses touched upon.

I noticed that too and quite liked it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'd like a Fire Emblem in which the main characters are revolutionary street urchins, they are commoners fighting against the corrupted royalty to install a democracy. They are part of a mercenary guild, their headquarters can be an tavern  in which they take works for money and make strategies. The initial characters of the group can be maid/bartender, songtress or bard, mercenaries, blacksmith, a mage, an outcast shapshifter and thief.  Obivously through the story they will meet some nobles that share the same ideals and bank their campaign. 

The protagonist is a of vassal or butler for the king or queen, and acts as a spy for the revolutionary group he is part. At some point the main character double life is discovered and he is imprisoned and sentenced to death, so the story unfolds from there. I'm a bit surprised that there's no inn or tavern in Fire Emblem, its the perfect set to function like a church/my castle feature. 

Edited by goldenwarrior
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Mine would go something like this:

The protagonist is the second prince of a wartorn nation (let's call it Marsabel), that has been at war with the neighbouring kingdom of Volkrel for generations, over religious disagreements. The protagonist, plain and simple, is a prick. Think someone like Fernand from Echoes. After a prologue battle/another chapter or so to set the scene, the entire royal family (including the protagonist's older brother, the heir, and their father, the king of Marsabel) and a great deal of the servants/staff is slaughtered in a shockingly well planned assassination attempt. Only the protagonist survives, though he is critically injured and barely escapes. Found by an underground rebel movement, they capture him in the hopes of using him for ransom, but when they realise that they're being blamed for the assassination, and the prince is being framed as having conspired with them, they all flee the country to avoid persecution.

Initially reluctant to trust each other, the prince (and the few retainers that survived the attack) and the rebels are forced to work together to clear all their names, and they decide to investigate the nation of Volkrel, believing them to be behind it. The prince re-evaluates his opinions of commoners as the story goes along, and slowly grows out of his prick-ishness. The rebels, on the other hand, develop a bit of respect for the protagonist as his military and political expertise helps them out of a few rough spots, and as his attitude towards them changes.

The prince stumbles upon some evidence that his brother may still be alive, and his suspicions grow when they reunite around the halfway point of the story. Flashbacks a la Sacred Stones show the two interacting before the events of the story, his compassion toward the protagonist and people in general, and his worries that he lacks the charm/charisma to rule Marsabel, especially considering the unrest rife within the country. This is contrasted with how he is now, aloof, cold, and distant.

Eventually, through standard Fire Emblem logic, their army grows strong enough to challenge the King of Volkrel directly, as retaliation for the assassination. Slain on the field of battle, the king tells them that he had absolutely no involvement in the assassination. Unfortunately, his death stirs the people of Volkrel into a fury, and their armies rally for one final assault on Marsabel. Meanwhile, the protagonists's brother suddenly retakes the throne, claiming that he actually did die, and was revived as the mouthpiece of the goddess that Marsabel's religion follows. Turns out that his mounting insecurities about his inability to rule effectively plus the pressure of fighting a bitter, never-ending war slowly eroded his sanity until he became convinced that the only way he could control the people was through religion. After that, he commands his subjects against the invading force of Volkrel just to prove to himself that he has actually gained the authority so that his subjects are willing to fight- and die- for him. Both Marsabel and Volkrel clash in a bloody and frenzied battle until the protagonist and his party intervene, killing the hastily installed regent of Volkrel and the brother-turned-alleged-God of Marsabel. Gameplaywise, it'd be a three way battle, where the objective is defeat the enemy commanders, but if one of the enemy armies is completely routed, you lose.

Happy endings all around, democracy yada yada, and I just realised I didn't mean to write a whole plot here lol.

Anyway, tl;dr, a story where a noble is forced to work with commoners to clear his name, and eventually learns to trust and respect them like a more typical "peace and prosperity for all" type lord.

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Ask me on any day of the week and I'd probably give a different answer. But I think for the sake of being something new, I'd write a plot involving terrorism. Set in just one country (though with neighbouring countries that have some influence like Three Houses) with the heroes being the resident Kingdom and the enemies being a terrorists organisation. We've had paramilitary groups influencing politics in many fire emblem games but they've always been just one element. There's never been a true focus on terrorism, why people resort to it, it's actual effectiveness and how crazy hard it is to combat. The closest we've really seen to anything like this is the black fang and a few shades of the civil war in Radiant Dawn part 2. I think it's some good untapped potential to tell a new and interesting story.

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Mine would be what if dragons/manaketes could coexist with humans, but there are those that think that humans trusting dragons will be the end of humanity. There is the Aeterna Empire which is where humans and manaketes reside and are ruled by the mysterious Empress Maeve. The Three Gods Church which is lead by the Archbishop Iset(this is a dude) who also provides missions to the students at the Imperial Training Knights Academy. There are 12 kingdoms that make up Banbha's land and the islands that surround it Perea, Achaea, and Judea(the border island between Fodlan and Banbha). Most people in Banbha worship the Three Gods: Anath - The Mother of All Life, her very breath brought life to the land. Isis - The Lady of the Skies and Stars, moved the stars to guide the lost and blew winds to send them home. Vulcan - Father of Weaponry and Fire, forged weapons for men and was even said to have forged the Hero Relics of Banbha.  While others worship Thoth- The Father of Magic(Anima and Dark), it is said that he taught magic to humans. I plan on writing this into a novel or fanfiction.

 

 

Edited by PeonyofLeosa Dreamworld
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I think something inspired by the Spanish conquest of Mexico would kick ass.

Could be a story where one region/tribe has a power grip on the continent and so rebellion breaks out among other regions/tribes as the foreign invaders also arrive, leading to a shaky alliance with them and eventually leading to an endgame where you've toppled the first unjust ruler but must now also fight your former allies as they take on the role of oppressive rulers. Maybe a time skip would make sense here. Haven't really thought of the story details, basically I just want Aztec aesthetics and feathered serpent/jaguar shapeshifters.

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7 hours ago, Book Bro said:

I think something inspired by the Spanish conquest of Mexico would kick ass.

Could be a story where one region/tribe has a power grip on the continent and so rebellion breaks out among other regions/tribes as the foreign invaders also arrive, leading to a shaky alliance with them and eventually leading to an endgame where you've toppled the first unjust ruler but must now also fight your former allies as they take on the role of oppressive rulers. Maybe a time skip would make sense here. Haven't really thought of the story details, basically I just want Aztec aesthetics and feathered serpent/jaguar shapeshifters.

Just to clarify, you'd be playing as a native group in this story, and the conquistadors would take on a Begnion-esque role? That could be interesting.

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52 minutes ago, Arachnofiend said:

Just to clarify, you'd be playing as a native group in this story, and the conquistadors would take on a Begnion-esque role? That could be interesting.

Yeah exactly. I definitely would want to avoid framing the conquerors as the good guys/saviours, but it could also be interesting having two perspectives of the story. One that more closely mirrors actual history with the conquerors claiming the land, and the other as I described with them being pushed out.

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10 hours ago, Book Bro said:

I think something inspired by the Spanish conquest of Mexico would kick ass.

Could be a story where one region/tribe has a power grip on the continent and so rebellion breaks out among other regions/tribes as the foreign invaders also arrive, leading to a shaky alliance with them and eventually leading to an endgame where you've toppled the first unjust ruler but must now also fight your former allies as they take on the role of oppressive rulers. Maybe a time skip would make sense here. Haven't really thought of the story details, basically I just want Aztec aesthetics and feathered serpent/jaguar shapeshifters.

If you want the Aztec aesthetic you can get that without necessarily having a Central/South American inspired plot. You can just have the aesthetic and a completely original or inspired by somewhere else. I don't think the Hoshido Nohr conflict takes any inspiration from any Japanese history. And you can have the Aztec plotline without the Aztec aesthetic at all either. Basically they don't have to go hand in hand. Nothing wrong if they do also of course. Though it does leave things more open to nitpickers.

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I am not being cynical when I say that I prefer a plot as deep as that of Super Mario World, as long as the gameplay and map design are challenging and interesting.

I do not want a “balance” between story and gameplay. No, I want a minimal, well executed plot with a rich, memorable and smart gameplay.

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1 hour ago, starburst said:

I am not being cynical when I say that I prefer a plot as deep as that of Super Mario World, as long as the gameplay and map design are challenging and interesting.

I do not want a “balance” between story and gameplay. No, I want a minimal, well executed plot with a rich, memorable and smart gameplay.

Sounds like Sword of Seals.

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