One consistent criticism of the Fire Emblem series that I’ve seen from fans and non fans is the lack of multiplayer options. Sure Link Arena exists and Shadow Dragon tried something different, but even these multiplayer modes were lacking something. I recently came across a beta Fire Emblem multiplayer online project that recently said this:
“Previous official Fire Emblem multiplayer modes have been lackluster. The Link Arena had limited functionality, only simulating battles between units without the tactical aspects of army movement; while the multiplayer mode from Shadow Dragon, while fully featured, forced the player to use units from their Single Player campaign, only had one game mode, and had the unfortunate characteristic of being partnered with a terrible game.” (http://chudooder.github.io/FEMultiplayer/)
Now obviously I need to address the elephant in the room: Yes I’m aware that Fates has multiplayer options that are supposed to be better than the multiplayer of previous installments. Until I’ve played the game for myself I cannot comment on how well Fates does this. Based on what I’ve heard it’s mostly online matches that are 5 vs. 5 death-matches and that’s about it.
So moving on, I have some ideas on how to improve the multiplayer in Fire Emblem. For starters, I think we need multiplayer that can retain the strategical aspects of Fire Emblem and we also need something that’s a little more nuanced than just player vs. player death matches. So what am I suggesting?
- First Player Co-Op Mode: Here multiple players take control of equal numbers of characters and share the Player Phase. In order to make this work it would have to be game over if any unit died and you would have to make each and every level force the player to use a number of characters that’s divisible by the number of players playing. Easier said than done, but I think it would be worth it.
- Scenario Battles: Here you would be able to pick different scenarios and mission objectives to complete. One player could have the objective to seize a castle while the other player has to defend it. In a different scenario one player has to escape to a different point on the map while the other player has to rout all the escaping player’s units while protecting the seize point.
This idea isn’t merely limited to having players clash with each other, sometimes it can be multiple players trying to achieve the same objective against a powerful enemy AI. Add a Map maker to this along with a long slew of objectives to choose from and this idea could greatly enhance the multiplayer options for the player.
3. Online Draft Mode: For those of you who don’t know what a draft is here’s a quick run-down: A draft is when multiple players pick and choose different characters in a Fire Emblem game and they compete against each other using only the characters that they picked. The object of a draft is to beat the game in the lowest number of turns possible. The player that does this is the winner.
Online draft mode would be able to facilitate a draft by keeping track of the player’s turn count and by giving an award to whoever completed the draft first. Since Fire Emblem fans are already doing it, why not make it easier and more appealing by providing cool unlockable stuff?
So let’s take the concept of an online draft idea one step further. Remember earlier when I talked about first player co-op mode before? Well, combine that with online drafting here. So let’s say that you have 4 teams of 4 people drafting (that’s 16 people total). Each team picks a character like a normal draft, but then plays the draft out like a normal first person co-op mode. Now you’ve got 16 people competing in a low-turn count race to the finish. In theory you could have upwards of 64 people (8 teams of 8 people competing against each other) playing against each other in an 8 team draft competition. I realize it would be WAY easier said than done (you’d have to have a really big cast of characters in order to pull that off) but it would dramatically increase the scope of what multiplayer Fire Emblem can do.
If that last bit didn’t make sense to you just say so and I’ll try my best to explain it further.
4. Provide Achievements: So I realize that this is more-or-less the Fire Emblem equivalent of what Xbox already does, but I think it’d be cool to have unlockable items, achievements and such. It could provide the player with additional ideas for future playthroughs. Provide unlockable characters, unlockable items, unlockable non-dlc levels, etc. and you’ve given the player additional incentives to go back through the game and replay it over and over again. Ideas for achievements include but are not limited to:
- Beat the game in X number of turns or less (or X number of hours of total game time in one playthrough)
- Complete the game with only female characters
- Attain all treasures and dropped items
- Beat the game with only (insert class here or it could be with only one specific weapon type)
- Complete and win 4 drafts
- Have 10 characters be at max level
- Your endgame party must have half of their stats maxed out
See where I’m going with this? There’s a long list of things you could do that could give the players ideas for future playthroughs. Here’s a few ideas for things to bring back from past Fire Emblem games that would make for fun unlockable stuff:
- The Rainbow Potion from Fire Emblem 12
- Reverse Lunatic mode from Fire Emblem 12
- The Growth / Maturity Drop from Fire Emblem 12
- Paragon Mode from Fire Emblem 5
- The Supreme Emblem from Awakening
And that’s just the stuff I’d bring back. That says nothing about some of the new things I’d want to make unlockable. So I know this doesn’t have as much to do with multiplayer mode, but I wanted to talk about it and I needed somewhere to bring it up so I decided to put it here.
We can still keep the player vs. player fights too although I’d add DRP’s suggestion of including 4 player free for alls and 2 vs. 2 battles. I’d like my ideal Fire Emblem game to be on the Wii U or the PC so that you could involve more people which would leave the possibility for an 8 person free-for all or a 4 vs 4 / 2 vs. 2 vs. 2 vs. 2 slug-fest.
So my overall point here is that Fire Emblem has a lot of room for potential and by improving the multiplayer aspects of the game you could appeal to a broader audience while simultaneously creating tons of new quality content for experienced players as well. The sky's the limit and the possibilities are endless. You just need think outside the box a little more.
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