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Do you want a 4th, "true" path the provides closure for all three houses/lords/paths?


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Here's something I'm curious about. With 

Spoiler

rumors saying that each house has multiple endings,

something I'm wondering is that who here would prefer them break conventions and have each house be their own thing, as opposed to there being a Revelation-but-better situation where the three lords eventually join forces and you have the force of all the game's playable characters on your side (with "true ending" not necessarily meaning "all sunshine and rainbows ending"). My personal opinion is that I prefer the latter because I have an affinity for "true" endings because I like the closure they provide, and like having all the characters be available, but I'm interested to hear what everyone else thinks. Thoughts?

Edited by aaronarium
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Hell to the no-no.

I've seen enough anime and played enough games to know how that'll end up. The roster would become over bloated, you would overwhelm the player by giving them too many options, and it takes away from the other stories. We saw what happened in Revelations.

I feel like those kinds of endings invalidate the experience of playing through the other stories as this one is "cannon" and nothing really happened.

As long as they can resist using "THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP" I could be happy, but I doubt they won't resist that temptation. 

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No, I'm fine with the three paths being it, and there being no canon/happy ending for everyone option. I also wouldn't want the real villain to be exclusive to the "canon" path. I'd rather have three equally developed choices each with its own conclusive ending.

If there is a "best" path, then I would prefer it not to be about everyone banding together for the happy ending. I'd be fine if it was basically finding a solution to the conflict where all the lords survive, as opposed to having to kill them in the other paths, even if not necessarily as friends. But a Revelation type scenario where they just forget all their problems with each other wouldn't sit right with me.

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I'd like it from the aspect of game play and having access to every unit in one path, but doubt they could make a story that would make it satisfying.

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I'd require some very specific huge nonsensical hurdles to achieve this, if they did it.

Having an 'I get everything' ending needs some earning it, either through gameplay (low turn count battles or some such), or through story (maneuvering each house leader to fall in love/s support with someone from your house). So that to get it, it requires some managing of your choices to get there. If it's something low impact to make happen it just feels cheap.

...Unless it's innately a bad end where you go darkside and take over all three kingdoms as the descendant of a fell dragon, that's cool.

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Similar to what someone else said, the total roster would be a great concern.

Birthright and Conquest had the right amount of characters for the length of time they had, but Revelation tried mashing together in the same amount of time and it was a poorly balanced mess. 

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A finale path that closes out the overarching story could be good, but only with a few caveats. 

First, the other routes would need to stand on their own and not feel incomplete or invalidated by this 4th route. I could get behind three routes of country politics followed by a route of dragon slaying and Sothis exposition, but the three countries better not come out better off than their own routes in the process. 

Second, I can get behind anyone being recruitable, but it's boring to have everyone be recruitable. It just feels contrived. I'd rather have to pick 12 favored students to join me while the other 12 tragically fall in battle or something. I don't know, just don't be everyone. 

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If it's not being sold separately, that helps.

I'd prefer if every story had closure, though.  What was so infuriating about Fates is that the base paths' endings acted as a tease to encourage you to buy the other paths so as to figure out what was going on.  Especially in the localization; Conquest and Birthright's endings were meant to make you want to buy Revelation, and then Revelation still didn't tell you everything there is to know so that you'd be inclined to buy the other DLC that would tell you all the rest.

It being all packed into one would at least ensure the story isn't locked behind a paywall, but it'd still be annoying because what if I only intended to drop the 40-80 hours required to beat the game?

That, and it cheapens the other stories if there's a "true" ending that resolve basically every issue all the other stories had.  If there's a 4th path, it needs to not have a cut-and-dry "best" ending.

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Honestly no I don't.

After the shit storm that was Revelations I prefer each house to have its own ending then the player can decide which ending they like best. True endings make every other ending obsolete.

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I want each House to have its own ending.

What I would like though, is an alternate path that has you join the Night Crawlers or something, then you fight against the 3 Lords. I think that would be pretty cool.

Also agreed with the mentioned roster problems; I hated how many units you get in Revelations in relation to when you get them. Some of them didn't have the stats for when they joined. It was annoying.

Edited by SorrowOfAcheron
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For me as long as there's no route considered as true path e.g. Blue Lions' route ended you conquering the world regardless what you decide while Golden Deer's route has ended with saving the world, I'm okay without a one true path. 

The reason why I like interactive fiction because each route is your own true path. 

Edited by Ririn
Added some more info.
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I had a discussion with a friend once who's making his own multiple-ending story, and I really liked his idea of there not being any one canon ending. It leaves it more ambiguous as to which choice was the best one if the story was done well. I think I appreciate that more than one happy and objectively best ending for the sake of having something to discuss and ponder over, even if the ending itself isn't something with a lot of good feels

Edited by Arcphoenix
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Happy to see like-minded individual. 😛

Seriously, why would you want a 'true path' ? Why would you want something that invalidate the concept of the game ? Why would you want to piss on every other paths and their experiences ?  You already got the closure, it's called the ending in those houses. Have the capacity to freaking assume the choices made, for good taste's sake.

There's SMT too, but their neutral faggotry is a poor example,  there's also Revelation but it's a worst example.

And if there's a 'true' ending in those three houses, I'mma gonna have an aneurysm.

Edited by B.Leu
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I think it's a bit premature to say one way or the other right now. I'd like to see how all three routes play out first before saying whether I want a fourth 'true path' or not. As is, we have no idea what causes the split/conflict between everyone to begin with, and therefore have no idea if there is any conceivable way to reconcile everyone's grievances with each other.

 

If there is a good explanation/reason for why they could all make nice with each other, then sure, go for it. Give us a fourth route. But until I have played through the game, I can't say whether I would prefer it or not. Because maybe the story simply works better if we don't ever get the reconciliation between the three houses. Nobody knows at this point.

 

Although, if the game is really successful and the fans love it, it might behoove IS to make a fourth path so that they can make a direct sequel to this game (at least from a business perspective)...

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Nope. Not JUST because it would make the other three paths feel super extra, but because the countries are at war for a reason and as twisted as this may sound outside of the context of a video game it'd be unsatisfying if it turned out there was an easy out where the world's troubles were to be blamed on a single common enemy that they all band together to take down and promptly forget all of their problems because "we want a happily ever after dammit". It's cheap, lazy and pointlessly undermines the rest of the story.

Not to mention writing a story with the intent of a "hidden true antagonist pulling the strings" can cause a ripple effect that can mess with the rest of the story. (Takumi's mind control, Garon's true nature, Corrin's TRUE heritage, Valla in general).

blah blah Fates Bad blah blah ya dig?

Edited by TheDreamReturns
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More options = more good, but all options should be weighed equally, instead of it being some "better" idealistic outcome you engineer, especially if it requires prior completion of other routes.

One thing I'd love to be explored is maintaining the neutrality of the academy. No, not the weaksauce "I don't want to fight anyone" sort of neutrality, but aggressive neutrality where you take up arms to prevent the institution being co-opted by the bigger powers. Switzerland is known for their neutrality, but the reason they could do so in the first place was by being prepared to fight for that principle.

I don't know how the act of joining a house works in-game from a narrative perspective, and by that I mean sure, you choose who to teach, but that doesn't necessarily translate into fighting for them militarily five years later. Just because you teach someone doesn't necessarily mean you share their values or am prepared to lay down your life for their cause. That's a complete non-sequitur. Fight all three and destroy all of these warmongers for the good of the realm.

Edited by Humanoid
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I'm going to jump on the 'it was a disaster in Fates so no' bandwagon.

I think it would be interesting if there was a route where you got to use all three lords, the Pokemon Yellow to Pokemon Red/Blue, but you would have to be VERY careful that you don't derail the established threats/conflicts in the other stories. Hiding the biggest bad behind DLC and then writing some contrived excuse for why they didn't show up before would hurt every other route in the game. At the very least, the 4th route ought to have equivalent weight to the other routes, such as several characters being unplayable/getting killed. It should be an option, not the clearly superior route to play.

I don't think IS could pull it off, personally.

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But...

I really like all the characters!

I want all of them to live!

I like happy endings, dammit!

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I'd only want to see a "true" path as available after clearing the three house paths first, and definitely not as DLC like Revelations.

Since there's time-travel in the game, I'd envision it as a sort of Chrono Trigger-like scenario where you can only figure out how to make the right decisions and maneuver yourself onto the true path after having made the mistakes and seen the outcomes of each of the three other paths. In that way it would feel more like earning the happy ending (rather than just purchasing it).

However, that's probably an unrealistic expectation to have.

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