You are a dev for a new FE game, what kind of story would you write and what mechanics would you introduce?

[Zerxen]

Use your imagination:

(I took this from a post I made on GameFaqs)

So there's this lord, I'll call him Vert as a placeholder name, who is the youngest child in his family. Despite being royalty, Vert has had a harsh childhood due to him being regarded as weak by his older, stronger siblings. After stopping a minor bandit raid, he gets 'some' respect and slowly develops his own army over the course of several months, which he uses to stop a nearby invading country. After besieging the nation's lord and national army, he decides to replace the preious king as himself and rebuild the country. But this is just a ruse, Vert had planned all along to create a kingdom strong enough to take revenge against his family back home for berating him throughout his life for being weaker.

If Fire Emblem ever had a story like this there should be some sort of loyalty mechanic, where a unit gains loyalty points depending on who was the "hero" of the chapter they were deployed. Those more loyal to Vert will side with him after becoming king and aid him in taking vengeance while those more loyal to the Avatar will side with him/her instead and rebel against Vert. If a unit had been equally loyal to both the Lord and the Avatar or hadn't developed any loyalty points to either one, whomever they side with is based on priority, akin to how Chrom's marriage options were prioritized.

[Kuroko]

An alternate universe of Awakening where Naga and Grima can actually kill each other. The two fight, Naga is killed. With her last breath she enchants the Falchion with part of her power. Because of her weakness, she can't perform the full Awakening, instead bestowing the Falchion the ability to seal Grima within it. Provided the Sword remains undisturbed after Grima was sealed inside of it, Grima would remain sealed for an eternity, far longer than what he normally would if he were put down by the Awakened Falchion. The Sword is sealed away and a great war breaks out over the Sword, destroying Ylisse and Plegia in the process. Several hundred years later, the land of [Placeholder] is invaded and destroyed by [Placeholder 2]. With no hope for her people except to follow the myth of the now cursed Falchion, [Protagonist] sets out to find the Sword, and use it to save her people from [Placeholder 2]. When she does so, she immediately becomes possessed by the Sword's Power, going insane and becoming a tyrannical Empress. Game then begins Gen 2 where you play as the Son of the Empress who was seperated from his mother when the Kingdom was destroyed. You are a sellsword that struggles to scrape through the day, upon hearing about the insane Empress, you create a small band of rebels to oppose the ever increasing empire, in the end, you unmask the Empress, who has become fully corrupt with Grima's power, revealing that she is your mother, and fufill her final wish of destroying the Falchion, and Grima for good.

Sounds very fanfictiony, but I think it would be pretty awesome. I liked Grima as an antagonist a lot, although really and evil dragon could work, it wouldn't have to be a carry-on of Awakening, just I chose this because it would feel more logical to me.

[Zerxen]

IMHO that storyline is far superior than the one Awakening had.

[X-Naut]

The main character is a member of a mercenary group who finds himself being hunted by soldiers; shortly after the first skirmish he is met by rebelling knights of the kingdom. They reveal that he's the lost prince of the old royal family, who'd been taken away in his youth to preserve the bloodline. Now he is charged with restoring the old order... except he doesn't care for the kingdom and these knights. He only goes along with it because the king won't stop sending troops after him, even after he sends a message saying the throne is all his. Throughout the campaign, he warms up to the idea of being king and all the perks that come with it. With strength, determination, and a bit of ingenuity to get around the elite forces, his band defeats the tyrant and he accepts the crown.

Cut to a year or two later.

Turns out letting a mercenary with no proper upbringing and a self-centered attitude run an absolute monarchy is a terrible idea, of blue blood or not. He is an even worse tyrant than the one before him, the corruption under the former king thrives under him, and he threatens not just his own countrymen, but the neighboring nations. (It should be noted that the kingdom in question is the largest and wealthiest in the immediate continental area.) The new protagonists are siblings of two of the characters in the first act, angry at him for what he's done... among them the persecution of his former comrades. This is a recurring trend: several characters will be related to the characters of the first arc, with at most one or two being actual returning (playable) characters. Their stats will be slightly influenced by what their first arc equivalents gained.

[Shadow Stalker X]

Not much of a story, but the basic idea I came up with.

The main character is an orphan from a small nation. This nation is dead center amidst six larger nations that are almost constantly at war with one another. If a war concludes between two nations, another war would start up almost immediately afterwards between two other nations. To that effect, the small nation is almost constantly the battleground of the wars between the other nations. The protagonist is basically sick of this, and wants to bring an end to the fighting.

The point I bring into this game is the number of choices you can make, which can result in a number of endings. Do you choose to be a conqueror, aiming to make the other nations bow to your whims? Do you side with one of the other nations, and let them seize the spotlight? Do you perhaps try and find another approach to end the war?

A previous idea I mentioned once before on these boards before would work well into the gameplay: Bonus Conditions, where the choices you make in one chapter, would carry consequences in a later chapter. Like say there your in a battle with one nation, but a small party from another nation is there as well. Defending the other nation's army would open up possibilities with that army down the line. On the other hand, attacking them would make them your enemy.

As far as other things I would do, I'd bring back Light Magic, but make it strictly a long-range weapon. Of course, it would be balanced properly, so it wasn't overpowered. I'd also bring back affinities from the older Fire Emblem games. I liked it more when a support with a character gave certain stats a boost, rather than generalize the boosts for everyone. Though I'd likely make the affinities randomly generated at the start of a playthrough, to keep any one affinitiy from being overused.

[Nukemind]

Play both sides. It's actually something I have always wanted, Fates does it somewhat. For instance, take Sacred Stones. At certain points in the game, kinda like chapter 5x, you would play a map as Grado. Why? It lets you see both sides. Just like Lyon was (to me) either a Tragic Hero or a Sympathetic Villain, we could see what it's like on the other side, how "your team" is viewed, etc.

It might also be nice if we need the heroes to lose a battle. Suddenly you are put in charge of the Grado/Valmese/Begnion/whathaveyou troops, and route the heroes. Heroes then regroup. It annoys me that we win EVERY SINGLE BATTLE. Even the best Generals lost at least once. So those are my mechanics. I would love alternating chapters/sides until say chapter 20 when the armies join vs a greater evil.

Story Wise... Magvel, 20 years post Sacred Stones. Grado has fallen on hard times- despite the best efforts of heroes the people starve, cities lay in ruin. Recovery from the Earthquake is hampered by the fleeing of people to other regions.Eventually, however, new lands are discovered. The Lands of Valm and Archanea are discovered. Valm, on the recovery, launches an invasion of Magvel.

Out of Story: We know, or at least by the wiki it says, that Jugdral, Archanea, and Valm are all connected. Basically because of Camus iirc and his amnesia. And Valm and Archanea are Definetely in the same world. I would love to see all the worlds really be one- after all Manaketes are all in one. Except Tellius. And Tellius doesn't fit in, imo, only because it has the two Godesses. Despite the Demon King I do feel Magvel would fit in- it has Manaketes, and all the staples.

[Irony]

There's not much of a story thus far here, but here goes:

The story has 5 Acts, and the first 4 acts has 15 chapters. The final act has 20 chapters.

Act I is called 'The Knight's Tale' and it stars a Knight named Roland, who has been tasked with slaying all of the Dark mages in the land. He ends up in a small region of [Placeholder country] called Ashford, where a Dark witch named Babayaga who is trying to take over the region.

Act II is called 'The Vagabond's Tale' and it stars a Mercanary named Blade. Blade is a solitary figure, who travels across [Placeholder country] doing jobs and missions in return for money. His latest mission takes him into another region, known as Dewford, where a small band of Royal Knights (led by a man named Octavian) is trying to overthrow the Royal Family and create a Republic.

Act III is called 'The Princess' Tale' and it stars the Crown Princess, named Morgana. Morgana is a Dark Mage, who is on the run after her powers were discovered. She starts a movement, known as Liberte, in an attempt to end the anti-dark Magic laws by overthrowing the very Prejudiced King Marcus III and installing Morgana's kind younger brother Prince Uther.

Act IV is called 'Chaos'. Prince Uther and King Marcus are dead, and a power struggle has developed between the Royal Knights and Marcus' brother Duke Pendragon. Both sides want control over [Placeholder country] Roland is backing the Royal Knights. Blade is backing Duke Pendragon. Meanwhile, dark forces are brewing, and Morgana is forced to make a choice- a terrible choice that could spell the end of [Placeholder country].

At the end of the 'Chaos', Morgana is forced to make one of 4 choices:

1) Back the Royal Knights

2) Back Duke Pendragon

3) Back the 'Dark forces'

4) Back nobody, and attempt to seize power for yourself.

This will then decide which of the final acts you will see.

If you back the Royal Knights, the final Act you will experience is called 'Sacred Light'. Here, Morgana sides with the forces that persecuted her in the past, which includes Roland and his allies, and sides against Duke Pendragon. This is the easiest of the Final Acts, and the final Bosses are Blade and Duke Pendragon himself (both of whom die).

This route ends with the Royal Knights installing Morgana as a puppet Queen, who has no say in how the country is run. The Royal Knights are the ones who hold true power in [Placeholder country]. [Placeholder country] ends up being a military dictatorship, with desires to expand into neighbouring countries.

Roland, on the other hand, becomes obsessed with the power that his position holds. He eventually starts hiring assassins to kill his rivals, so that he can continue to run the country. Eventually though, he is ousted and executed by his subordinates, who are angry over what he did.

If you back Duke Pendragon, the final Act you will experience is called 'Revived Nobility'. Here, Morgana sides with her uncle's forces, which include Blade and his allies, and sides against the Royal Knights. Unlike the first route, where you engage Duke Pendragon's forces in a straight battle, you are attempting to infltrate the Royal Knights and destroy them from within. The final boss is Roland and the leader of the Royal Knights, Sir Arthur (both of whom die.)

This route ends with Duke Pendragon seizing the throne. He then orders Morgana's execution, as she is a powerful threat to his rule. [Placeholder country] ends up being a dictatorship as well, but it instead isolates itself from the rest of the world. [Placeholder country] ends up being heavily in debt, as Duke Pendragon borrows a vast amount of money in an attempt to support his extravagant lifestyle.

Blade, meanwhile, vanishes as he is angry over what Duke Pendragon has done to [Placeholder country]. Nobody ever sees him again.

If you back the 'Dark forces', the final Act you will experience is called 'New beginnings'. Here, Morgana sides with the Order, who are a group of Dark mages who banded together to protect themselves against the Royal Knights. Led by Merlin, the Order is attempting to destroy the Royal Knights and the Monarchy for two reasons:

1) To bring democracy into the country.

2) To end the prejudice against the Dark Mages.

The final boss of this route is Merlin, who is driven insane by overusing his dark magic. You have to team up with Roland and Blade in order to bring Merlin down.

This route ends with a democratic Republic being created in [Placeholder country] and the prejudice against Dark Mages is on the decline. However Morgana, realising the dangers that Dark magic holds, kills herself instead of allowing herself to be a danger to her beloved country.

Roland, on the other hand, later becomes the leader of the Royal Knights, and he restructures the Royal Knights so that they can thrive in this new 'Golden Age'. Blade, meanwhile, is arrested for crimes that he committed whilst serving under Duke Pendragon. He dies, three years after entering jail due to illness.

If you decide to back nobody and seize power for yourself, the final Act you will experience is called 'The Dark Queen'. Here, Morgana and her allies decide that they are going to do it alone, by attempting to seize power for themselves. This is the hardest of the four routes, as the Order, the Royal Knights and Duke Pendragon's forces are all opposing you. The only way that you can win is by persuading others to join you side. The final bosses are Sir Arthur, Duke Pendragon and Merlin- and you have to kill all three of them in order to succeed.

This route ends with Morgana being crowned as Queen Morgana I. However, she has been driven insane by overusing her Dark magic. She nearly causes [Placeholder country] to end in ruin, but she is eventually overthrown and executed for her crimes.

Edit 1: To clarify- Roland and Blade die during 'The Dark Queen' so they don't get an epilogue.

Mechanics- Light magic will return. Split paths. Supports will be unlimited, like in Awakening, but there will be no S-supports and there will be an equal mix of same-sex and opposite-sex supports. Guest star Party members will appear. Some new classes will appear. I dunno.

Edited July 3, 2015 by Fantasia

[Shrouded In Myth]

The game will take place in a world disconnected from the other games, the story will focus on nations based heavily on Spain, Mesoamerica and the Philippines. I think you see the direction of this story.

The lord is one of mixed descent and the story mostly revolves around trying to stop the conquests and live peacefully together since they're are all his family. When he realizes that this isn't going to happen he then have to make a choice on who to side with. The Philippines and Mesoamerica route will have a depressing ending to rival FE4 1st gen.

Anyways this new setting would allow for a distinctive style from the FE games, with a large change in the Mesoamerica and Philippines nations and a familiar but still unique style to the Spanish nation.

New gameplay mechanics would make it more similar to Berwick Saga, such as hexed based, buyable horses that can die, shields that negate damage, armor that reduces damage and the formulas and weapons of that game. There will also be a completely reworked magic system, based on the mount system. Very few people can use magic naturally, but some units can "mount" a spirit called guardians. They improve your stats and change your movement type and may give a skill, but in order to use magic they need to give that up to summon them physically. Magic costs the guardian HP and there are very little opportunities to heal them. Units who can use guardians will often be very weak without them, so you will have to keep them safe if they decide to summon.

[kaldson0]

The lord is the throne when it gets taken you lose the story what story?

[Knight]

Okay, time for me to finally make this post. I've been thinking of this one for a long time.

My game is a 40+ chapter extravaganza with sidequests and alternate chapters with no less than 50 characters and we're not accepting a shit-ton of endgame units just for the hell of it. This game is gonna have political tension, legends and heroes of myth, long-lost magic swords, morally ambiguous side characters, some plot-twists and a big final fight against a dragon and not a guy on top of a dragon. But don't worry, there's some new twists on the typical FE story.

Story:

For the first few chapters, we'll focus on one of two main lords. His name is something that sounds heroic, and he has a couple of knights that'll help him out, in fashionable red and green. You're main character has a father and two brothers, one brother who's really nice and loyal to his dad, the other is a bit reckless and not necessarily pleasant. The main lord is attention-seeking and a bit rowdy, but he wants to make his father proud and so the brothers and the main lord's two royal knights lead a charge against the evil nation of something cool sounding to retrieve the Fire Emblem because your father needs it. You have some fun, killing the bosses that make up the standard first few chapters crowd, but then around chapter 4-5, you meet the princess of the enemy nation, she's our second lord. The two characters meet and the princess tries to convince the other main lord that his father is evil and desires the Fire Emblem because it's the only tool that can unseal the evil ice dragon, Nero, but our main is not so easily convinced. The game then splits into two, much like Radiant Dawn, you'll control one nation some of the time, and the other one another bit of the time. The Princess's chapters focus on her trying to evade capture from the other lord's nation and his brothers, finding themselves in all sorts of places, in other countries that she's not so sure are friend or foe. The other main lord is in hot pursuit, but he also has doubts, and will try to figure out the truth about his father and who the real orchestrater is along with his loyal knights, but avoiding suspicion from his brothers. In the last quarter of the game, for reasons, the two main protagonists will join forces to stop the true evil, whoever and wherever that may be. There will be many characters, even ones you have recruited, who you are unaware of their true allegiance.

Gameplay:

First things first, let's bring back some stuff that needs to come back

-Stealing will return

-Sidequests will require you to achieve certain objectives in a chapter to unlock

-Houses return in addition to villages, these will give useful info that might help you unlock characters and sidequests

-The Magic triangle will return with a vengeance, in either it's GBA or RD form, I have no preference

-Shoving and rescuing will return

-RD skill system will return, but not OP special moves

-On that note, moves like Astra and Luna are tied to a class, so a reclassed unit can't have a bunch of op moves, all classes have an exclusive skill

-Defence chapters, escape chapters, hold the line, all that good stuff returns, with more

-All the gimmicky siege weapons will have some time to shine, ballistas, onagers, and even boulders, I got some new ideas too, just wait

-Base conversations before chapters return

-Weapon uses return

To be removed (sorry if any of you guys like these features, but this is my game so...)

-Children, I think we're all quite sick of em, S-ranks stay, but the characters only marry in the ending credits and not everyone has marriage options.

-I'm considering removing the avatar feature, but it might stay, and the player will have to create both the princess and the prince. I like the idea as a gameplay and design thing, but since these characters are hardly gonna have player input anyway, it might be just pointless. If it stays, then both characters can S-rank any opposite gender and more same-sex options will exist, but not everyone since it doesn't make sense contextually for everyone to be bi.

-World Map and grinding. DLC chapters will be done on a completed save file and they'll all serve to be a bonus challenge rather than grinding exploitation.

-I don't care for the fanservicey FE Amie stuff, it's not something that will appear in gameplay, so I won't touch on any of that, if you want it, want it

NEW STUFF!

-Emotion system, individual units will have emotions, things like skills and supports will affect them. Wrath will give the anger emotion when at low HP as just one example, giving critical, and when a character dies while other units are near (classic or casual), they may suffer sadness, which will impede on their ability like avoid. Other things may affect emotion too, even weapons and some stuff I'm yet to mention.

-Revamped My Castle; Mein Kampf, My Camp. It makes more sense contextually. Here you'll view base convos, supports, walk around and talk to your units as the lord your currently playing, buy things for the camp, all the fun stuff. You cannot grind in any way here, nor improve relations, but you can do things that will affect your characters' emotions, such as engage in conversations where, if you don't say the right things to help "boost morale" the character might get some negative emotions. Saying the right thing in dialogue trees, buying the right gift from the shop, or improving the camp will improve emotions. Left untouched, most characters will remain at neutral emotion. I mentioned earlier that some units of yours might be morally ambiguous, and here's when another new thing comes in...

-Convincing your units. A few units collected throughout the game will run the risk of betraying you later, or just leaving. Some units might be spies, some might just feel that fighting for the enemy country isn't right. You'll always be aware of when a unit might be suspicious, characters that will never betray you will always be marked as such. This can be a good thing though too, as sometimes units might switch to the other lord's side, mixing up how you play the game. To prevent betrayal, you'll need to enter dialogue with them and keep them happy. Buying certain things for your camp might make them feel more at home. There will always be a way to find out how to persuade these characters, houses, villages and base convos might give clues. This is a highly experimental game mechanic, but I think it might add some fun. I might give a player the option to turn it off, at least on repeat playthroughs or new game+.

-Battering Rams and Siege Towers, these will be used in some chapters. There might be a chapter where you have to push a battering ram to a gate, or destroy every siege tower before it reaches a wall, fun stuff like that. The battering ram might require some characters to push it, and you must defend it as it makes its way across a map. Siege towers could also be portable enemy spawners.

-Some other new stuff, I dunno, whatever

And finally, graphics and aesthetics:

If it's on the 3DS, I'm fine with it using the Awakening style of graphics and stuff, but I have some aesthetic suggestions. This art style will go for realistic armour and clothing, even more so than games all the way back to FE1. This is not out of spite of fanservice, at least not entirely, fanservice can exist with characters where it makes sense, like dancers, some mages, or at least in classes where it doesn't look dumb like pantsless female knights. Some more muted colours as a change of scenery, traditionally colour-coded armour will always be metallic colour, but some subtle hues or something that might identify a character with a specific nation would be good, like a red-coloured cape or something (I dunno, I'm not a designer). I actually like the way faces and hair in Awakening/Fates looks, so that can stay, but I wouldn't object to something new either. If it's on Wii U or the NX, I dunno what they could do, but with HD they can make it look really nice, so I'll just say do that. I want this game to have a standout art-style, and I really do adore the medieval aesthetic, so I think something that's very faithful to medieval looks and is realist would be cool and a neat change of things. Art style is a very subjective thing, a lot of different art styles can work, and this isn't necessarily the best one.

Geez, that took forever.

Edited July 10, 2015 by Knight

[sithys]

Hmm. As a software engineer I tend to approach design problems through the lens of technology. Story and mechanics decisions are really only made by the creative director or design leads, so I am assuming that in this context if I would have access to the vast resources of a moderate sized studio. I would delegate the details of the story to my writers and only give them an emotional experience as a goal. I would also provide the following design pillars for my game designers:

1. Varied Experience: Every level being in the same format makes the game feel boring after playing it for a while. A player should be able to play the entire game from start to finish without getting bored with the scenario gameplay.
2. Dynamic Difficulty: The engineering and design teams will be explicitly instructed not to rely on modes, difficulty levels, or other gimmicks to create a good player experience. There must be an AI which is independent from the enemy AI that is responsible for creating a good player experience. It must be very subtle, invisible to the player.
3. Fairness: Mechanics must be fair, and what is expected of the player must be fair. The AI should not be able to ambush spawn, and the game should not trick the player or introduce novel mechanics late into a level that will likely cause player deaths. The player gains nothing replaying unchallenging content as a result of the challenge being at the very end of a long level.
4. Discovery Over Probability: Players should be incentivized to really theorize about the rules and try to discover the best way of playing the game. It isn't a good experience for the player to need to learn probabilities as the exclusive strategic interaction. Rules can be spatial (movement-related) or mechanical (ability-related).
5. Triangularity: Jesse Schell talks about Triangularity in his book on game design. Trangularity is when the player is given a choice between small short-term rewards and bigger long-term rewards. For example Triangularity appears in Fire Emblem games in the form of enemy thieves or bandits that steal treasure or destroy villages, but this philosophy can be expanded to include many more aspects of the game.

Playtesting would reveal additional design issues and the pillars would need to be re-evaluated frequently.

[Jave]

No idea of a story, but I would love a Fire Emblem game that plays like this: You move around in a world map and can choose paths that change the outcome of various events and affects the game's ending. The Final Boss is available to fight from the very beginning and you can fight it to beat the game at any point and depending of the choices you've made and the point in the game you're in, the ending is different.

Basically Chrono Trigger!Fire Emblem.

[Anacybele]

If I got to develop an FE game? I'd be making this into one, of course. :P I started writing it back in 09, though back then, it wasn't originally planned to be a long fic. But then I decided to change up things and turn it into a bigger story. Stars a sole female lord named Azura (OBVIOUSLY, she was named way before Fates existed), who keeps her spotlight throughout the story. Well...almost. Two male leads get some attention for a couple arcs, but Azura gets her spotlight back after that and everybody is under her command.

Since it's an RD sequel, it would take a lot of RD's mechanics, but use a better support system. New mechanics:

- Sparring mechanic. Between battles, units can spar with each other to gain more exp. Although they can only spar with units that they can also support with. Sparring itself builds up support too. Sparring becomes available as soon as two units share a C support. They can only spar a certain number of times between battles, but this increases with each support level gained. This is to prevent the mechanic from being broken and grinding making the game too easy.

- Laguz promotions. They're not automatic like beorc promotions are, but they'd be there. They'd use a new item called the Satori Symbol to do it.

- New Wagon class. Promotes to War Wagon. Wagons attack by charging forward, and they can function like Merlinus in FE7. When they promote to War Wagon, they gain bows. Are very tanky, but also very slow and weak to fire magic.

- Assault Towers, a new map mechanic. See explanation here. Saves me from making this post very long. :P

- FE3 and FE5's dismount mechanic would return, though only in certain circumstances, like having a mounted unit enter an Assault Tower. I know this isn't technically new, but it would sorta be for western players. :P

I know, I didn't think of many new things to add, at least not yet. I guess I just feel that RD's gameplay doesn't really need too many additions/changes. Don't fix what isn't broken, after all.

Edited July 10, 2015 by Anacybele

[Knight]

- FE4's dismount mechanic would return, though only in certain circumstances, like having a mounted unit enter an Assault Tower. I know this isn't technically new, but it would sorta be for western players. :P

Just a minor nitpick, dismounting was in FE3 and 5 actually. I like wagons.

[Sire]

Here's what I managed to create in an hour or two. I guess it wastes time away when I'm waiting for Fates to be localized...

[spoiler=Story]A classic story between the dragons of light and darkness and two opposing kingdoms, this Fire Emblem game focuses on a minor noble caught up in the conflict as she attempts to survive the onslaught.

However, the war is more than just the simple ambition of mortals. Both dragons seek to annihilate the other in this ultimate showdown, and unleash their own minions to assist their respective kingdom. Monsters, divine creatures, and hellfire join the fray between this war of ideals and divinity.

With all this conflict, one wonders if there is something greater than even the two dragons themselves that might awaken from its slumber…

* * * * *

This game follows multiple paths. The two normal paths are following the forces of Light and Dark respectively, while the third and fourth delve into the slumbering creature that awakens due to the conflict. This creature is shown to be yet another dragon, in fact the father of the two warring dragons, and is disappointed with the way of the world and his offspring’s bickering. So, having created the world, this third dragon seeks to destroy it to create a new one. The third choice is refusing the Dragon’s offer to join him and attempt to save the world, while the final choice is accepting the offer to remake the world and joining up with the godlike dragon.

The third and fourth choices are hidden ones. In order to even pick those choices, the player must have already pledged allegiance to either Light or Dark and complete Gaiden chapters in order to unlock the mystery of an ancient Dragon Temple. Upon entering and delving into the depths will the player reveal the First Dragon and presented with the choice. After making the decision, the player will be locked to the new path.

[spoiler=Characters] Protagonist (Noble, Swords)

- A noble on the lower end of the hierarchy, the Protagonist of this game is female. She lives a relatively quiet life on the outskirts of one of the kingdoms, but is thrust into action when war is suddenly declared…

- The Noble class wields swords and can be considered more of a myrmidon, relying on speed to dodge and outmaneuver her enemies (Think Erika from Sacred Stones). The promotion, in addition to normal benefits, gives the protagonist a good boost in defense.

Avatar (Champion, Weapon Type Chosen at Creation)

- The Avatar here is mainly a glorified generic unit with customizable artwork and access to an exclusive class, but the Avatar’s role in the story is minimal. He / she is mainly just the Protagonist’s champion that protects her, and not much else.

- The Champion class is a special one in that it does not promote. Instead, as the Champion gains levels, in addition to learning skills, the Champion can also learn a new weapon type. When capped out, the Champion is capable of wielding nearly any weapon in the game.

Advisor (Sage)

- Essentially the Jeigan of this game, the Advisor is essentially the caretaker of the Protagonist and advises her on any course of action.

Castle Soldier (Soldier)

- Bringing back the foot lance class outside of Knights, this Castle Soldier is a relatively fresh recruit to the Protagonist’s estate and tries to improve his skills whenever possible.

* * * * *

Light Dragon (Light Dragon)

-The dragon of Light, this creature is locked in eternal conflict with its counterpart, the Dark Dragon.

Dark Dragon (Dark Dragon)

- The dragon of Dark, this creature is locked in eternal conflict with its counterpart, the Light Dragon.

First Dragon (First Dragon)

- The creator and essentially god of the world, this dragon has awakened to see its offspring fighting each other and the world of mortals at eternal war. Disappointed with his creation, the First Dragon seek to destroy the world and create a new one.

Cosmic Dragon (Cosmic Dragon)

- The mate of the First Dragon and mother to the Light and Dark Dragons. She has not really been seen, save for the constellations in the sky…

[spoiler=Mechanics]

Return of Base Conversations

- I really enjoyed this feature from the Tellius games. While the ‘modern” titles have a feature similar to this in terms of generic conversations, Base Conversations were not generic and added extra character and world development the player might not have seen during normal story missions. Also, an excuse for free stuff!

Tweaked Support System

- I wish to retain the C-S support system, but S supports now mean a paired ending instead of marriage. Thus, you can have two best friends having a paired ending, mentor and apprentice ending, the classic married ending, and so on and so forth. In addition, make the support conversations between characters that make sense and not for the sake of supporting everyone (or just get better writers!)

A Note on Children

- Children are not intended to return in this particular title. However, if the children have to absolutely, positively, have to return, then the mechanics for kids will work somewhat differently.

1: Children are still tied to S supports for availability.

2: Not all characters will produce children, and some characters may produce more than one child.

3: If the S support is between a male and female, the child will inherit the spouse’s hair color. This is even the case if both characters are capable of having kids. Otherwise, the child will appear with a default hair color.

4: Child stats, inheritance, and so on are still determined by the classic formula ([Parent + Child + S Support] / 3), even if the S Support is platonic. That character probably had a large impact on the kid anyway!

5: As for justification, figure that out on ye own.

Separation of Battle and Map Music

- While Awakening and Fates has good music, I would like to see Map themes and battle themes separate again.

Return of “My Castle”

- The protagonist starts off on the lower end of the noble hierarchy, but still has access to her own estate. The “My Castle” feature can return here as the player improves her estate. As the game progresses, the player can move estates (“different tilesets”) for further customization.

Return of “Monsters”

- I loved Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones and would love to see more mythological creatures and monsters appear in Fire Emblem games. In this particular title, I can see demons, the undead, and divine beings appearing to partake in the war.

Postgame Content

- Postgame content is available for the first two choices. The third and fourth paths still have some endgame content, but it has to be done before the final chapter due to plot reasons.

- The first two choices revolve around the emergence of the First Dragon, which happens after the player completes the Final Chapter of the Light or Dark paths respectively. The World Map is opened up and skirmishes can be fought against the First Dragon’s forces, with the First Dragon’s encounter essentially being a superboss.

- The third path, as it revolves around handling the First Dragon as part of the story, has its endgame content before the final chapter. Endgame here is mainly just skirmishes, SpotPass, and DLC with a different superboss present (The mate of the First Dragon, the mother of the Light and Dark dragons.)

- The fourth path also has endgame content before the final chapter because the objective is to remake the world. Besides the usual endgame content, the superboss here will be both the Light and Dark dragons teaming together to fight against the player.

Return of Light, Dark, and Anima Magic

- The magic triangle still applies!

Return of Fates Weapon System

- With some modifications of course, considering this title goes back to using mainly one main set per weapon (save for Magic.)

- Hidden Weapons have Daggers and Knives, respectively, similar to the Tellius games. Kunai also make a return as debuff weapon.

- Crossbows also make a return with different effects.

Return of Skills

- Personal Skills too!

[spoiler=Random Notes]Original numbers from Radiant Dawn, actual and edited values are not meant to be accurate.

Name Rank Mt Hit Crit Rng Effect

Meteor C 20 70 0 3~10 Ignores MAG stat

Bolting B 8 60 10 3~10 Cannot double

Blizzard C 7 75 - 3~10 Cannot Critical

Purge B 8 80 0 3~10 After battle, Magic halved for next attack

Eclipse B - 30 - 3~10 -5 Def, Res // Halves Enemy Current HP

[Anacybele]

Just a minor nitpick, dismounting was in FE3 and 5 actually. I like wagons.

Oh, oopsie. :P And yay!

[Jagen]

As wierd as it sounds, i'd want a game similar to something like Metal Gear Rising staring Anri. We know he had to do most of his work alone, so a normal FE style game just wouldn't work for him. Also I just want to be able to cut things with Falchion.

[Sentacotus]

Man I'd have to come back to this topic later and see what I can draft up. For mechanics I'd like to see the magic triangle return and give main lords unique abilities kinda like AW's super powers but not as overpowered. Think things like Rally, heal adjacent allies, damage adjacent allies etc...I'd also want to include a post game to add to replayability.

[Knight]

Oh, one more thing to return in my FE game concept. S-rank will return as a weapon level, and it and all stat-caps will be displayed in stylishly bright and shiny, Flashing Green.

[Shrouded In Myth]

You know one mechanic I really want to see expanded on is fog of war. Like I was thinking that enemies will be affected by it to, so units they can't see won't factor into their actions. Certain terrain such as forests and houses can hide sneaky units like archers and thieves, like in Berwick Saga. Overwatch from X-Com will be in it so archers can have enemy phase and fog of war can make it so that enemies walk right into their overwatch range. There could a cone of vision and facing mechanics so that you can surprise attack enemies from behind, maybe it prevents them from countering? It would also be cool if thieves can only steal if they are not spotted and if assassins get a crit bonus or activate Lethality if they're not spotted when they attack.

[IGdood]

If I got to develop an FE game? I'd be making this into one, of course. :P I started writing it back in 09, though back then, it wasn't originally planned to be a long fic. But then I decided to change up things and turn it into a bigger story. Stars a sole female lord named Azura (OBVIOUSLY, she was named way before Fates existed), who keeps her spotlight throughout the story. Well...almost. Two male leads get some attention for a couple arcs, but Azura gets her spotlight back after that and everybody is under her command.

Since it's an RD sequel, it would take a lot of RD's mechanics, but use a better support system. New mechanics:

- Sparring mechanic. Between battles, units can spar with each other to gain more exp. Although they can only spar with units that they can also support with. Sparring itself builds up support too. Sparring becomes available as soon as two units share a C support. They can only spar a certain number of times between battles, but this increases with each support level gained. This is to prevent the mechanic from being broken and grinding making the game too easy.

- Laguz promotions. They're not automatic like beorc promotions are, but they'd be there. They'd use a new item called the Satori Symbol to do it.

- New Wagon class. Promotes to War Wagon. Wagons attack by charging forward, and they can function like Merlinus in FE7. When they promote to War Wagon, they gain bows. Are very tanky, but also very slow and weak to fire magic.

- Assault Towers, a new map mechanic. See explanation here. Saves me from making this post very long. :P

- FE3 and FE5's dismount mechanic would return, though only in certain circumstances, like having a mounted unit enter an Assault Tower. I know this isn't technically new, but it would sorta be for western players. :P

I know, I didn't think of many new things to add, at least not yet. I guess I just feel that RD's gameplay doesn't really need too many additions/changes. Don't fix what isn't broken, after all.

I like your wagon idea. I had a similar one with chariots a long time ago too :D

[Rapier]

Slightly inspired by other works (Blizzard's games and the Chronicles of the Sword mode from Soul Calibur), I think I'd like to see a FE where you start as a commander who serves under a superior figure, preferably a lord, who wishes to overthrow a corrupt kingdom or empire. For the first part of the game, the story revolves around fending off against the corrupt kingdom/empire, making alliances with the surrounding kingdoms and factions, and standing out as a capable rebel faction which strengthens itself enough to take the capital and overthrow the king/emperor through many sacrifices and hard victories. The leader of the rebel faction then uses his claim to the throne to legitimate his reign, ending the corrupt leadership. Standard Fire Emblem stuff.

The second arc of the game is centered around keeping the kingdom/empire alive from the predators around it, during a time of succession crisis and turbulence from inside the kingdom/empire. When the crisis diminishes enough, the kingdom/empire strikes back against its enemies, going so far as starting a conquest and subjugating all opposition they manage to overpower. In a few years, the kingdom/empire adopts a policy of maintaining order by making the opposition bend its knee, which -does- bring a long time of peace, at the cost of totalitarism and prejudice. Refusing to cope with the government, the protagonist is tagged as a rebel again, imprisoned and sent into exile.

The third arc is also the last one, where the protagonist is saved by a foreign kingdom's army and recruited into their ranks, to overthrow the king/emperor who threatens all other nations. Being a strong and influential figure in the kingdom/empire, the protagonist manages to rally citizens and soldiers into rebelling and joining his forces in taking the capital and finishing off its leader for good. In the end, the kingdom/empire is put at a regency, where the protagonist is elected to hold the throne until the late king's heir and infant, the only one with a claim to the throne, is of age. There's a choice the protagonist can make between raising the heir to be a proper, honorable and competent ruler, or give him the same treatment he gave to his father and establish a military dictatorship in the kingdom/empire, successfully becoming the new tyrant. Cue credits.

Yes, I'm not a great storyteller. As for mechanics

- The protagonist is a custom character, like MU, but the rest of the cast has more plot importance than him for half of the game.

- A Reputation system for how the missions are cleared. Too many casualties or failed side quests will hinder the protagonist's Reputation. Doing side quests and clearing missions on the hard way when there is more than one way available increase his Reputation. It affects the ending of the game, dialogue, recruitable characters and Gaiden maps.

- Maps have multiple ways of being cleared. A defense map (these maps where you have to hold for X turns) may be also cleared by defeating all enemies, giving different prizes and changing the dialogue. Side objectives can be used to help clear the chapter more easily, but require money or specific items for its requirements to be fulfilled (for example, a side objective where you can send an unit to hire mercenaries for X gold, who will flank the enemy in 2 turns, slay their most fragile units and aggro)

- No shops or armories located in the maps, save for special or secret shops. On Base, an unit must be sent off to buy items, where they will spend a whole chapter on, being undeployable until the next chapter. Some units have the Bargain skill that allows them to buy things at a better price, while others have another skill that allows them to sell items for slightly more gold than usual. Others have a Pickpocket skill that gives them a X% chance to bring an extra copy of a chosen item, which they supposedly stole without anyone seeing.

- No regressive reclassing, and no resetting levels after using reclass. A Paladin can't become a Cavalier again, and upon being reclassed to Great Knight, they will stay with the same level. There's a distinction between class level, which unlocks skills, and character level, which is as the name says.

- Some characters require specific conditions to be recruited. Some are simpler, like paying a X sum, or completing a side quest. Others exclude each other upon choosing, like Aran and Samson. Others depend highly on the protagonist's Reputation.

It sure is good to brainstorm. I might think a bit more about this later.

[Anacybele]

I like your wagon idea. I had a similar one with chariots a long time ago too :D

That does seem to be one of my more popular ideas. ^^

I kinda wish people liked my Assault Towers and sparring mechanic just as much though... lol I really had fun coming up with them and I still like them a lot. :P

Edited July 12, 2015 by Anacybele

[IGdood]

That does seem to be one of my more popular ideas. ^^

I kinda wish people liked my Assault Towers and sparring mechanic just as much though... lol I really had fun coming up with them and I still like them a lot. :P

Sorry I was on my phone and missed the Assault Tower part. Heh, kinda reminds me of artillery units + garrison mechanics in strategy games, and I really like it. Actually, it really reminds me of Forts in the Total War series where your armies can deny areas from an enemy by building a fort. I like it! It could also give rise to classes that specialize in knocking down towers/assaulting towers!

[Anacybele]

Ah, cool! :) I actually got the idea from the AoE games, where the towers you build there can house a bunch of units and even let them heal. I just put my own spin on them to fit them into the FE verse and to make them a little unique there.