What were they thinking when they made FE7?

[Oisín]

A lot of solid points have been made here which I'm going to try to avoid rethreading but it's worth remarking;

Blackfang was a new addition as villains but arguably, it was done so that the protagonists could actually, you know, succeed. Obviously, it's sort of disappointing that the damage they did isn't alluded to in 6, but I mean, I think we can all accept that it wasn't a planned prequel.

FE 7 does add some world building and explore new places but it's a smaller scale game, I suspect that is in part because FE 6 alludes to a relatively peaceful balance of power. It's dedicated to exploring Lycia deeper, with Lyn (and others) tying the story a bit to Sacae.

I think that the people who are arguing against it are trying to view FE 7 as an expansion on the tale of 6, which it doesn't really seem to be trying to do. On the other hand, I think it does a good job at using the setting as it is world built to tell a different tale; it's maybe it's unique because it's not a multigenerational saga against some great and unbeatable foe, but personally I like it because it makes a good collection of different tales with varying degrees of overlap but different goals and ultimate foes.

Over all, I can get why people might be disappointed that they're not getting a huge Saga but no one has really pointed to any gaping plotholes or wierdness (which I think it's common concensus that Awakening is guilty of). So, at worst Blazing Sword still seems harmless but slightly tacked on, but I think that only holds up if you're demanding a massive Saga, rather than a world which can be used as a setting for stories.

Personally I'm pretty cool with playing "Canasstien and Rosenkarla are Dead" which plays with and ties to the main story, showing the lives of characters who were alluded to or shown but didn't actually participate much and casts them as Heros of their own stories, rather than forcibly shoe horning them into a stand alone.

Scouring meanwhile seems far more tangental, even if it has potential as a plot. Without FE 7, the only characters we meet with ties would be Yahn and Idoun and the relatively vague eight heroes. That'd be kind of cool to see sure, but if I got the chance to have another game for Elibe? I'd like to see another prequel which (even as side missions or cameos) showed us the beginning of Blackfang, the fall of Cornwell and Madelyn's departure from Caelin...

Edited April 11, 2015 by Oisín

[gbafreak]

I think the fact that it was first released in the West had a lot to do with it. While for most of us it was a sequel to one of the best series ever, it was the first time it was released in the west / worldwide and while it was a prequel for us, it was for many a brand new game and one that I am sure many new gamers at the time hadn't played before in the western markets.... so it had to introduce itself as a stand alone game as well as a prequel for those of us that had been part of previous releases. I think I would have done a few things in FE7 differently if I were part of the team, but for the most part it worked as a prequel, if you took in to consideration that it was the first introduction of the game world wide. I think FE6 would have been waaaaay too hard for most as a first introduction to the series and the characters.