Fire Emblem: African Edition

[NyanKitteh]

I don't quite remember how, but a while ago, I started thinking that it might be a neat idea if the Fire Emblem series, being a series that takes place in many different worlds of characters, decided to take a different style of setting rather than the traditional Medieval European setting it has; namely, an African-themed setting that had nations based upon the different regions of real-life Africa, i.e., the Central African Rainforest region, Ethiopia/ the Horn of Africa (which would probably be home to many priests and pirates), Egypt, the Maghreb region, West Africa, South Africa, Madagascar, etc. There would be countries loosely based off of the following countries/ their regions:
Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Egypt, Sudan, Morocco, Mali, Nigeria, South Africa, Madagascar.
The main nation of the player would be the Congo-based nation, but would eventually gain support from other nations against other enemy forces.

I think that this would be an interesting idea for several reasons:
-It would finally give the Fire Emblem series a different type of setting than it has had for the rest of its existence.
-Being based more directly on an actual place and actual regions, it would make the game's different countries be more distinct from each other, and would make you feel like you were actually traveling across a large continent.
-It could allow for new gameplay innovations and new classes,; i.e., camel knights, more uniquely African-based classes, etc., while renovating the old classes; i.e., thief, archer, fighter, soldier, myrmidon, etc.
-It could be somewhat of a social breakthrough in video games in that it would involve a largely black and almost entirely non-white cast, and it would take place in an African-themed setting that is truly researched and looked into.
-It would show an independent African setting unaffected by colonialism.

The game would still have normal Fire Emblem gameplay, but the settings and characters would be different, along with several gameplay mechanics. There would be many ways that the game is similar to the standard Fire Emblem games, but many ways that it would be different.
-Some stages might have you in the wild fighting wild animals, and some may place you against both humans and animals, although in either case, some animals would attack certain other animals.
-There would be a branched promotion tree with third-tier units.
-The three original main characters would be a magic-using male lord (probably using dark magic for a change), his father the king, and a player-created Avatar character.
-There would be a training prologue containing 10 relatively short tutorial chapters before the actual chapter 1 began; this might be optional on harder difficulties.
-Wyverns might be replaced by flying crocodiles.
-Staves would be able to be used to deal slight magic damage at a 1-2 range, although their base would probably often be negative, 0, or very low.
-Water magic would be an introduced weapon type, having the lowest power but the greatest accuracy out of all of the magic types; it would be exempt from the magic triangle.
-There would be several new unit classes, including camel knights, crocoknights (crocodile-riding knights which had high strength and could move just as easily on water as on land), possibly a fighter/thief combination that could use both axes and knives, and a water magic-using class that could travel across water easily.
-There would be a large amount of post-game content, including trial maps, post-game levels, DLC maps, and pretty much all of the bonus content from Fire Emblem: Awakening
-The game would also include: Casual/Classic mode, support conversations, second seals, automatic level 21 promotion, a world map, marriage, children from the future and their own paralogue levels, and many other things.

So, what do you guys think about it?

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Really Late Edit!: I realize that some of my old ideas seem stupid now. There wouldn't be any zebra mounts or okapi mounts. Even though I love okapis. :) <3

Edited February 6, 2014 by NyanKitteh

[Agro]

if it doesn't feature a sassy blaxploitated woman i'm not interested

[Ansem]

fire emblem with black people

yus

[Doga]

We need pyramids.

[Book Bro]

You know what... this is actually a great idea! Probably will never happen though... I'd guess the most we could hope for would be an Africa-inspired continent where some, but not all, of the story would take place. I would love to see more diversity in future FEs though! Also: bring on ancient Latin American, Egyptian, and Indian inspired countries/continents. These would all kick ass.

Edit: D'oh, Egypt would be in Africa

Edited April 2, 2013 by Owain Dark

[LycopolisKing]

Wow.

Certainly quite a lot of thought has gone into this scenario.

The concept of changing the setting of Fire Emblem was actually considered by the designers before work on Awakening started. They were actually considering the present day, and Mars, of all things. A game based on historic African culture, by comparison, is actually quite a tame idea.

I frankly wouldn't mind seeing a change of pace in Fire Emblem, especially if the designers are looking for something of the sort. The way you have the classes redesigned, yet keeping with the traditional Fire Emblem spirit is impressive in itself. The biggest barrier to this design would be whether the publishers would be willing to take a "risk" on a non-white, non-token protagonist, which, seeing as Fire Emblem - correct me if I'm wrong - has about a grand total of 4 playable units that appear black (Devdan/Navded, Fiona, Basilio, Flavia) may be a bit of a stretch. And let's just be honest - only Fiona isn't completely token, and she is nigh impossible to use on any mode besides Easy. That being said, the "risks" publishers in recent years have taken have proven their fears groundless with games like 'Mirror's Edge' and Assassin's Creed, so this idea, once again, isn't that big of a stretch. I'd say prune and polish it a bit more, and try to get a pitch or hype-train going. Of course, Nintendo never takes ideas by direct contact from singular fans, but Japanese polls do seem to have some sway, especially in games like SBB and Fire Emblem.

I personally would like to this idea expanded upon, in writing at the least. Good job!

^{My major is showing. I apologize.}

[secondworld]

I want to see this happen just for the Crocoknights.

[Party Moth]

If you can convince them it'll make more money than Awakening's fanservice route, I'm sold.

[Baldrick]

Fire Emblem - correct me if I'm wrong - has about a grand total of 4 playable units that appear black

Not that it detracts from your point at all, but there are actually 5. You forgot Danved. People often make that mistake.

The idea sounds interesting, but it'd have to be extremely well designed to not come off as a gimmicky publicity stunt.

Edited April 2, 2013 by Baldrick

[NyanKitteh]

Thanks everybody for all of the support! As for expansion on the idea, I have quite a few other ideas about the game. Let's just see where this thread goes.

[Dragrath]

Zebras can't handle the weight of a human... sadly not even a small one :(

Interesting Idea though it probably wouldn't happen...

[Renall]

Africa does have horses though, you know. And donkeys, which are actually native to Africa. I just worry that while "zebra mount" sounds cool, it also is potentially somewhat exploitative-looking, and I don't think the goal is to be offensive. Horses that look like crossbreeds might work though, although I don't think zebras have the build to make competent warhorses regardless.

It might be interesting to have the Malinese/Songhey nation serve as the villain, as there are a number of historical reasons why this might be the case (due mainly to their vast wealth from gold and salt, foreign trade, and military and economic advantages, all of which would make them a good choice for an encroaching empire). Then again, you could go for an "evil Egyptians" kind of thing, and that would fit into the notion of magic existing in the world (other African nations were about as captivated with the ancient Egyptians and their achievements as Europeans and Arabs were), and it wouldn't be too offensive given Egyptian mysticism in general. A culture that had a death cult certainly makes sense for strange magics, at least.

Just need to avoid the notion of savagery, which was largely manufactured in the colonial era after most of the actual nations in the region had been overrun or were in a coincidental period of upheaval. Certainly there were lots of unsettled areas that were mostly home to wanderers, but that's true for the same reason it's true everywhere: Settled people need better land and better water access, and the rougher parts of Africa didn't have that. It was rarely a huge problem in west Africa, for example.

[Catt]

Why not make the Europeans the villains? Colonialists have often been villains in FE games, the Etrurians in the Western Isles for example. And racism was addressed in FE9/10. The main character could navigate between two or more competing empires of sliding scales of evil while trying to liberate their homeland. Then again, maybe that's a good reason not to do that, its been done before.

Either way if it was based too closely on real history it would stop being FE, imo. Elibe sort of resembled Europe but not really, a similar thing would probably be done if they did make this.

[NyanKitteh]

Africa does have horses though, you know. And donkeys, which are actually native to Africa. I just worry that while "zebra mount" sounds cool, it also is potentially somewhat exploitative-looking, and I don't think the goal is to be offensive. Horses that look like crossbreeds might work though, although I don't think zebras have the build to make competent warhorses regardless.

It might be interesting to have the Malinese/Songhey nation serve as the villain, as there are a number of historical reasons why this might be the case (due mainly to their vast wealth from gold and salt, foreign trade, and military and economic advantages, all of which would make them a good choice for an encroaching empire). Then again, you could go for an "evil Egyptians" kind of thing, and that would fit into the notion of magic existing in the world (other African nations were about as captivated with the ancient Egyptians and their achievements as Europeans and Arabs were), and it wouldn't be too offensive given Egyptian mysticism in general. A culture that had a death cult certainly makes sense for strange magics, at least.

Just need to avoid the notion of savagery, which was largely manufactured in the colonial era after most of the actual nations in the region had been overrun or were in a coincidental period of upheaval. Certainly there were lots of unsettled areas that were mostly home to wanderers, but that's true for the same reason it's true everywhere: Settled people need better land and better water access, and the rougher parts of Africa didn't have that. It was rarely a huge problem in west Africa, for example.

I did know that Africa has horses, although I didn't know about which regions traditionally have had had them other than North and West Africa. The zebra idea isn't final, though, but I do think that both ideas could be considered. And as for the "savagery," I was intent on avoiding that, except for the usual Fire Emblem brigands/ruffians, or course, who are already portrayed as savages in Fire Emblem. I think that this game might actually be able to do a good job in decreasing the view of Africa as a savage land for those who play the game.

I was thinking that the Sudan-based country might make a good villain country, being sort of a bridge between different cultures and countries in the game, and thus, making a good central villainous country. It could also have some of the Egyptian-style mysticism mentioned above. But now that you mention it, the Mali-based country could be a good central villain for the reasons you mentioned, as well as the fact that it would avoid using a "blacks vs. arabs" type scenario like Egypt or Sudan might do.Plus, it would be kind of a shame for some reason to see Egypt as the villain country.

[Momo]

Why not make the Europeans the villains? Colonialists have often been villains in FE games, the Etrurians in the Western Isles for example. And racism was addressed in FE9/10. The main character could navigate between two or more competing empires of sliding scales of evil while trying to liberate their homeland. Then again, maybe that's a good reason not to do that, its been done before.

Either way if it was based too closely on real history it would stop being FE, imo. Elibe sort of resembled Europe but not really, a similar thing would probably be done if they did make this.

If a game was based in Africa, I would want all the characters to be African, including the villains.

I think you guys are thinking a little too hard about particular countries though.

[Gold Vanguard]

And not only will the game take place in Egypt but it will also feature people fighting to death in a children's card game.

[Chiki]

I don't think it'd sell well at all. Whites and Asians wouldn't be able to identify with it even a bit.

[NyanKitteh]

But the Japanese still fell for the European-style settings of the other Fire Emblem games. It might be an rather unlikely idea, but it would still be a pretty cool idea, though.

Edited April 3, 2013 by NyanKitteh

[Momo]

I don't think it'd sell well at all. Whites and Asians wouldn't be able to identify with it even a bit.

It's all about the advertising. Lots of people didn't want to play as a black guy in GTA: San Andreas, but it's still the highest selling PS2 game.

What I'm saying is Carl Johnson should be a Fire Emblem unit.

[Thor Odinson]

And really this is a concept anyway it's not like any of us works for IS who the fuck cares about selling

I like the concept btw, would definitely be great to have less whitewashed games in general, and a non-stereotypcial (and hopefully accurate) portrayal of African societies sounds interesting. Would support.

Would buy if IS made this. Would identify with characters solely based on personalities.

Edited April 4, 2013 by Thor Odinson

[Chiki]

But the Japanese still fell for the European-style settings of the other Fire Emblem games. It might be an rather unlikely idea, but it would still be a pretty cool idea, though.

Japanese culture is used to that sort of thing.

[NyanKitteh]

Japanese culture is used to that sort of thing.

Yeah, now that you mention it. But it would be cool to get westerners more interested in Africa.

[Paper Jam]

An interesting idea. I don't think they'd change the core combat mechanics, so we'd probably still see swords, lances, axes, and bows, but the religions practiced in Africa could put a fresh twist on the magic-using classes.

I'm starting to think of what the various regions would be. Going by real life, let's call them Egypt (northeast), Mauritania (northwest), Congo (center), Dahomey (west), and Zimbabwe (south-southeast).

I envision the Egypt equivalent as being a theocracy like Begnion. It would probably be best known for its priests or other Light magic users.

Practically everything I hear about central Africa nowadays is about how violent the region is, so I couldn't think of the Congo equivalent as being anything other than extremely militant. Most characters from such a region would probably be Fighters and Mercenaries.

Vodoun (from which Voodoo is derived) originally came from western Africa, and it seems to be focused primarily on elemental spirits, so I'd say that the Dahomey-equivalent would have the largest concentration of Anima magic users. But they would probably cast their spells from charms of some sort rather than tomes.

I'm afraid I don't know enough about the northwestern or southeastern regions of Africa to make suggestions as to what characters or classes might hail from there.

And if anyone is offended by my gross generalizations, I'm open to alternatives.

Edited April 6, 2013 by Paper Jam

[NinjaMonkey]

Africa does have horses though, you know. And donkeys, which are actually native to Africa. I just worry that while "zebra mount" sounds cool, it also is potentially somewhat exploitative-looking, and I don't think the goal is to be offensive. Horses that look like crossbreeds might work though, although I don't think zebras have the build to make competent warhorses regardless.

I'm pretty sure that camels are used in place of horses in Africa...

An interesting idea. I don't think they'd change the core combat mechanics, so we'd probably still see swords, lances, axes, and bows, but the religions practiced in Africa could put a fresh twist on the magic-using classes.

Vodoun (from which Voodoo is derived) originally came from western Africa, and it seems to be focused primarily on elemental spirits, so I'd say that the Dahomey-equivalent would have the largest concentration of Anima magic users. But they would probably cast their spells from charms of some sort rather than tomes.

Bringing real-world religions in to any game, let alone a Fire Emblem game, seems to me to be a very bad idea.

[WyvernSurfer]

Would be a nice break from the usual European fantasy setting. It can turn out to be a washed-up gimmick or a well-executed concept.