Book 3 Chapter 4 and its ending (Spoilers!)

[Arcphoenix]

I don’t think IS would care if players deploy Alfonse during the chapters. Gunnthrá was a legendary hero playable after her death after all.

And Fjorm might as well be dead at this point

Even then, IS could just set deployment restrictions on the chapter the first time you play it. Another game, Granblue Fantasy, does this where for certain chapters you can’t deploy certain characters the first time you play a chapter where it would conflict with their current story status. (Eg: Someone has been kidnapped or has left your party for sone reason)

 

Also, Geralt please don’t die in Three Houses. This trope needs to end

[Lemmy]

1 hour ago, Arcphoenix said:

Also, Geralt please don’t die in Three Houses. This trope needs to end

The trope is common because it better than the alternative, adults doing nothing while their children are in danger. There was a time where kings were expected to defend their land, as in go to the battle and fight among his people, that Gustav has done nothing against Veronica and Surtr speaks very badly of him as a King and father.  

I don't expect the dead branch comment to come in handy, generally it's symbolic of a loss, but the tree continues living. 

[Arcphoenix]

4 minutes ago, Lemmy said:

There was a time where kings were expected to defend their land, as in go to the battle and fight among his people, that Gustav has done nothing against Veronica and Surtr speaks very badly of him as a King and father.  

There’s dialogue mentioning he was leading a force of the Askran army. I don’t know about Book 1, but it was definitely mentioned in Book 2.

 

Still, we can go a story without a parent dying. Binding Blade did after all

Edited February 24, 2019 by Arcphoenix

[Ottservia]

2 hours ago, Arcphoenix said:

Also, Geralt please don’t die in Three Houses. This trope needs to end

I mean tropes are tropes for a reason. Cliche as it may be it still works doesn’t it. There’s nothing wrong with an overused trope. All that matters is it’s execution and how it fits into the narrative as a whole. So what if it’s predictable. So what if it’s overused. If it’s done well and impacts the plot and characters in a meaningful way, I don’t see the issue. We’re just gonna have to wait and see where this goes.

[Sentinel07]

1 hour ago, Ottservia said:

I mean tropes are tropes for a reason. Cliche as it may be it still works doesn’t it. There’s nothing wrong with an overused trope. All that matters is it’s execution and how it fits into the narrative as a whole. So what if it’s predictable. So what if it’s overused. If it’s done well and impacts the plot and characters in a meaningful way, I don’t see the issue. We’re just gonna have to wait and see where this goes.

Yeah, I don't mind a trope so long as it's used well. Greil is an example of it being done well. You get to know him pretty well in the short time you have with him, and his death fits well into the narrative.

On the bad side, there's characters like Mikoto who dies before you even get to the next chapter after her introduction, making her death feel pretty hollow and have very little impact on the player. Plus, her death essentially seems to matter little when Fates seems to forget plot points as fast as it introduces them.

[omegaxis1]

4 hours ago, Arcphoenix said:

Also, Geralt please don’t die in Three Houses. This trope needs to end

What about Roy and Eliwood? Both have one parent still alive.

Spoiler

And based on the Drama CD, Alm is indicated to still have a mother, as the Holy Mother is hinted to be Alm's mother.

 

[Tybrosion]

45 minutes ago, omegaxis1 said:

What about Roy and Eliwood? Both have one parent still alive.

Yes, but they're pretty much the only ones who do survive. The parents of every other lord are either both long dead by the start of the plot or one is (or in Corrin's case, both are) still alive only to bite it during the events of the game. Just because this overused and stale trope was subverted a couple times doesn't make it any less overused and stale.

[Etrurian emperor]

On 23-2-2019 at 1:14 AM, Nanima said:

I am just mad that Sharena isn't getting this kind of devrlopment at all. She was introduced as the second protagonist, yet she barely qualifies as sidekick at this point. If she does end up dead or otherwise indisposed, she'll likely be reduced even further just to give Alfonse something more to angst over. I have a feeling that by the end of the arc you could replace her with a particularly adorable lamp and the story wouldn't change one bit. Not having any higher hopes for the mom. Gustav had more development than either of them over the last two chapters.

I liked how Sharena seemed pretty shaken at the news but she and Alfonse really needed a real conversation about what was happening. They seem pretty close with each other.

Its still a shame they didn't tie the seasonals into the story of Alfonse dying. 

With the hotspring paralogue Sharena could drag her brother to the hotspring, fully convinced its healing properties could help Alfonse. At the end of the mission Sharena would tearfully reveal she just wanted one last carefree day with Alfonse and that she feels awful about wasting a day they could have spend looking for a cure until Alfonse assures her he really needed one last happy day with her too. 

It would address the goofiness of the team visiting hotsprings and celebrating Valentine despite Alfonse dying and it would show the devs are willing to put some effort in book 3. Book 3 started strong but I fear the storytellers will fall back into bad habits. The Greil paralogue was nice but the hotspring one barely had anything happen, not even wacky filler scenarios and last story chapter was kinda pathetic with Hell just saying ''Oh you'll die in 9 days'' and everyone just ignoring it to go visit the hotsprings.

However I still kinda like the chapter we ended up getting and I liked Gustav. He's not particularly cuddly but delving into the Askr family situation was something the plot needed and he works as a strict dad, for Alfone at least. sharena could gain something too out of this. Maybe she's also so happy and eager for friends because it allows her to get the attention her parents don't give her.

[TheTuckingFypo]

On 2/21/2019 at 8:22 PM, Anacybele said:

You still didn't answer my question. It seems to always be a parent. Not a close friend or sibling or something else. A parent. Why?

Ahem.

Spoiler

Emmeryn, Berkut, Xander, Elise, Ryoma and Takumi. Oh, and Lyon. And Darios.

Also Gunnthra if we want to count Fjorm as a lord.

And if we REALLY wanna stretch it, Alm loses Celica, even if only temporarily. That boy was so grief stricken he became a meme.

Then we have Robin, provided they deal the final blow. For a game that HEAVILY implied... no, literally screamed "Our bonds give us strength!" at us, I'm pretty sure that Chrom and Robin had to be close. 

Not just the parents. 

Why? Character Development.

While I too find this plot device overused, it works. Besides, there really isn't much else developers/writers can really do to develop a character in Fire Emblem. The only other option is betrayal. 

I mean, a third option would be to have the lord kidnapped, enslaved, and tortured in as many different ways you can think of. But they won't do that. Not in current times. It's Intelligent Systems and Nintendo, companies known for games targeted mainly at kids and teens (and families). 

It would be a nice change of pace. Give me an M rated Genealogy of the Holy War remake, please. 

-----

Anyways, I like that Alfonse is getting some character development. Gotta feel bad for the bench lord; Daddy dearest even wants him to be one with the bench. I'm curious how he'll grow.

It was predictable that Gustav pulled a Mikoto. Cornelius archetype confirmed. Lame death. Honourable, but lame.

At the end of the day, FEH IS a MOBILE game, so I don't expect it to have a revolutionary plot. 

 

What i'm really concerned about though, is what Int.Sys. plans to do after Book 3. Will that be it for story? What can they do to top this? They are LITERALLY at war with the embodiment of death itself. If Book 3 is actually half decent, I expect that arc to be the best game arc.

[GreatKnightEcho]

I kinda liked this chapter. Sure the beasts were shoehorned in, and Gustav dying is really predictable, but it gave Alfonse plenty of development. Plus, it shows that Gustav's kind of a badass, as he not only fucks with the plans of DEATH ITSELF, but he takes like 3 hits before kicking the bucket.

[Ice Dragon]

On 2/25/2019 at 4:06 AM, Etrurian emperor said:

and last story chapter was kinda pathetic with Hell just saying ''Oh you'll die in 9 days'' and everyone just ignoring it to go visit the hotsprings.

I'm pretty sure this is because Paralogues do not necessarily happen in chronological order relative to the release of story chapters. Some will match up, but the majority of them (and probably all of the seasonal ones) will not.

 

On 2/25/2019 at 7:45 AM, TheTuckingFypo said:

At the end of the day, FEH IS a MOBILE game, so I don't expect it to have a revolutionary plot. 

The form factor of a game does not determine the strength of its storywriting in any way. "Mobile" is a platform, not a genre. You can have console or PC games with far less story (Monster Hunter, for example, is almost entirely gameplay-driven) and mobile games with far more (Fate/Grand Order, for example, is first and foremost a visual novel and waifu simulator).

The simple matter is that Heroes is just not designed to be a story-driven game. It's a game with story elements, not a story with gameplay elements. The fact that it's a mobile game is irrelevant to that fact.