Should Fire Emblem Do Japan Again?

[henrymidfields]

On 7/18/2022 at 7:36 AM, Sunwoo said:

Actually, while we're on that topic, one thing I'd be interested in seeing for a new continent is how different cultures may accept or not accept certain rulers and maybe that could be the root of conflict in the game. 

Wouldn't it be interesting if a new continent's opinion on women in power weren't all at the same place, like how it is in reality? Like ... we could have a world where a female ruler from a country that's more or less gender equal comes to power and you get war from one of their neighbors, a culture that doesn't believe women should be in power at all. Or something like that.

A bit late to the conversation, but I've actually wrote one down as a plot-idea excersise we had that is both based on Maria Teresa's history and also on the current situation on Japan's imperial succession. Alongside a couple of other things. I'll see my past posts and try to find it.

EDIT: Here it is.

Spoiler

On 6/13/2019 at 10:38 PM, henrymidfields said:

I would make a succession crisis based on the debate of the Imperial Family in Japan in the present day, as well as elements from Elizabethan Britain and Austria during Maria Teresa's days. The royal family has a crisis - while the family itself has a young princess (the protagonist), and an only child, currently the only possible heir to the monarch. However the extended relatives and their supporters are not too happy about that, and points out any of the male descendants from the other branches would rule the kingdom just fine.

Furthermore, the neighboring kingdoms, who fought against the protagonists' homeland previously, were looking for any excuse to sack the latter, having fought in a bitter war that nearly led to a societal breakdown. And just if you think they were the agressors, it's actually the protagonist's grandfather that started the whole mess  - so it's not as simple as a typical FE game either. And the effects are still seen in the present - many people from those countries live impoverished, and their governments have only recently started keeping law and order in control. The protagonist's parents, ashamed at their own parent's past, are doing their best to renew the royal family and break away from the warmongering past, but it's not so easy when the old aristocrats, wealthy merchants, and anyone else who supported the grandfather are bitter about being ushered into a new era.

The whole situation could come to a boiling point where some of the opposing vassals/local lords would plot an assasination against the protagonist's family. The protagonist is safe, but her parents were not as lucky. And with it, a civil war ensues - a struggle between the old values and the new, a struggle for the protagonist's rightful place as ruler, and a struggle for her voice to be heard in a world where kings and emperors ruled in the past.

The final bosses would be a family from one of the branches and their supporters, and different endings will play out depending on how many of the supporters you managed to convince to switch sides/surrender. The more people surrendering, the better the Protagonist's/Princess's/future Queen's political outcome. The least favorable case would be if the protagonist's army killed most of the enemy units throughout the final chapters, in which the protagonist who is now the new Queen gets assassinated several years later in a coup d'etat. The most favourable case is when the protagonist's army convinced at least 60% of the people to lay down their arms and even convinced some of the final antagonists's cousins to reconcile, in which the Queen would realise a new Golden Age during her reign, and would lead to another of her female descendant take the crown. Much of the supernatural would be downplayed, with dragons only being used for warfare like Pokemon, and the final bosses are all normal humans.

I know Fates is considered to have multiple dumpster fire moments (a commonly-held view which I agree with), but Pokemon Legends Arceus, another fictional version of a pre-modern Japan setting (well, at least the closest thing we have for the Pokemon series outside of Pokemon conquest) did a good job, so the aesthetics themselves aren't the problem.

 In fact, why not a story that features a late 18th-early 20th Century "changing of the guards" type of story with a conflict between a declining group of nations such as expies for Spain, Italy (Yes, I know Risorgimento is a thing, but let's face it, WW2 Italy's laughingstock meme exists for a reason.), Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, or China, versus emerging ones that are expies of USA, UK and France (Yes, for once let's prioritize actual France instead of the cheese-eating-surrender-monkey version.) and their modern colonies, Germany, or Japan? And steampunk being the theme? And in this FE!Japan/FE!China's case, how traditionalism vs modernization or Europeanization plays a role in the conflict?

Though I'd still rather incorporate TMSFE, Persona, and SMT characters into my Poke!Japan in my Pokemon x Fire Emblem x Atlus story than Fates characters lol.

Edited October 7, 2022 by henrymidfields