Ten Tips To Improve the Fire Emblem Series # 10 - Help New Players without Coddling Them

                           Ever since Awakening was released there have been a huge influx of new fans coming into the series. One of the many reasons why Awakening succeeded had to do with the advertisement of Casual mode. While Awakening didn’t invent Casual mode (Fire Emblem 12 did that) it was the first internationally released game that included it and based on what I’ve heard it sounds like a lot of new people were really attracted to the idea of a game mode that took the sting out of permadeath. For reasons that I’m currently unaware of people were scared of permadeath so the idea of having a gameplay mode that took away that edge was an appealing one. Naturally, there was a backlash against casual mode among the grizzled veterans who for years had accepted permadeath as a classic element of Fire Emblem’s identity. “Permadeath is part of Fire Emblem’s identity! How dare you change that!” they said,  and ever since then there’s been this debate over whether or not casual mode helps or hurts the game. 

               The purpose of this article is not to facilitate that debate, but I do think that it is an important point because it’s a symptom of something much deeper. In order for the series to survive it has to cater to new players whose experience with the series is either limited or nonexistent. This means that changes have to be made in order to accommodate these newer players. Both Casual and Phoenix mode are prime examples of the developers trying to reach out and help newer players.  

              Take a look at this interview for example: https://kantopia.wordpress.com/2015/05/25/fire-emblem-if-famitsu-developer-interview-full-5252015/

            Here are a couple of key excerpts from that piece: (this is a part of the article that talks about why Phoenix mode was created)

Higuchi: From the start until “Radiant Dawn,” we built up the view that those games are the “ideal FE style.” But with that sort of game, one new problem was born: we reached the logical conclusion that it was always difficult for newcomers to pick up. We wanted to make a game that new fans could enjoy too. We wanted to make it even bigger than “Awakening” with this concept as the focus first and foremost. That was the beginning of the game’s development.

Maeda: A system like Phoenix Mode which lets fallen characters revive the very next turn I thought to be system ill-fitting of FE. However, it was deemed necessary for players who may think, “This is very interesting, but seems much too difficult for me. But with this mode, maybe even I can play it?” With these players in mind, this mode was born.

                   Yeah, the developers straight up admit that Phoenix mode was created for newcomers. That wasn’t the only part though that’s relevant to this discussion. The developers also talk about why they decided to remove weapon durability:

Maeda: A huge issue we thought about was ways that would be best to reduce stress and let new users who started with “Awakening” and this game to feel less stress. We figured that strategies involving which weapons to preserve and to use on which map was intimidating for beginners. We often heard of opinions regarding people preserving their best weapons so long that by the end they never even used them. As a result, we thought to eliminate weapon durability in favor of weapons that have abilities instead. Now one can use freely enjoy using weapons without having to worry about which to select.

 

                While I’m grateful for the fact that the designers of this game decided to try something new with the weapon effects I think the reasoning given by Maeda for removing weapon durability sounds kinda weak. He’s right about how many people hoard special weapons once they get them but trying to “reduce stress” in a strategy game sounds like a bad idea. When I was a new Fire Emblem player I don’t recall ever having trouble with weapon management. Is this a thing amongst new players? I’d like to hear the opinions of people who started out with Awakening on this. Was weapon/item management really that stressful for you?

               So on the one hand we have something brilliant like weapon effects being created out of a desire to help new players, but on the other hand we have the super retarded Phoenix mode being born from this same mindset as well. I can imagine that some of you are ready to jump to your keyboards with the super cliche “IT’S OPTIONAL!” argument that I hear a lot. I’ve been wanting to respond to this argument for some time because I’ve never been a fan of this response since its inception.

                One reason why I hate the phrase “It’s optional” is that it’s basically an attempt to silence someone and it shuts down conversations while simultaneously trying to discourage people from applying their critical thinking skills. Here’s my question to people who use this phrase in response to criticism about things like Phoenix Mode: Can optional content be bad? Is it possible for something that isn’t mandatory to completely suck? If you answered no, I’d like to know why. Optionality does not give content a free pass from criticism. Movies, books and TV shows are all optional, nobody’s making you watch them and they’re subject to scrutiny and analysis so why are DLC, Phoenix Mode or face rubbing an exception to this rule? It doesn’t make any sense to use this phrase.

                Another major problem why the optionality argument doesn’t work is because it fails to adequately respond to the criticism that it’s supposed to be a rebuttal against. If I say that Phoenix Mode sucks for example and you reply that it’s optional that doesn’t mean that Phoenix Mode doesn’t suck, it just means that you can ignore it. The criticism isn’t the fact that it’s mandatory, the criticism is that it lowers the bar for strategical thinking and doesn’t require anything of the players to begin with. In short, the criticism is that it exists and while it may not be mandatory, the fact that Phoenix Mode exists is considered to be a blight on the game. Whether it’s optional or not is irrelevant to the discussion. 

                   As another point of consideration, have you ever witnessed how some new players react just to the idea of removing Casual mode? It's not pretty. The worst reaction I saw happened on a different forum where the new player threw a temper tantrum. Anyone who wanted Casual mode gone was an evil elitist prick in his eyes and he wouldn't shut up about it. He was angry and he insulted anyone who disagreed with him. What's worse is that he wasn't alone in feeling that way. I'm not advocating that Casual mode be removed, (I'm okay with Casual mode continuing to exist) I'm just listing this experience as an example to illustrate a point. The point is that some people got so attached to Casual mode that even the mere thought of its removal caused some people to throw temper tantrums. The same thing could happen to Phoenix Mode, face rubbing, or any other new feature. I realize that this is speculation, but it is possible that some people will get so attached to stuff like face rubbing or Phoenix Mode that if the developers try and cut it out of future installments it could lead to a backlash.

                  The next argument one might make is that Phoenix Mode is designed to help new players start out. This argument makes more sense and to that I would respond that this is why this post is here. It’s obvious that in order for the series to survive we have to help new players come along, but I think we can do better than Phoenix Mode. I see this attitude all over that introducing or reintroducing certain mechanics would be too hard on new players and that it would scare them away. This type of mindset infantilizes new players, discourages thinking and limits the type of things we can do with the series. So how do we help out new players without coddling them?

1. Tutorial modes / prologue chapters: For all the crap I may have given Lyn mode, the one good thing about it is that it is brilliant as a tutorial mode. It does a great job of helping newcomers learn more about the series and get adjusted to how Fire Emblem plays out. I would be totally okay with bringing something like this back to future installments. If you do want to bring it back, make sure that the tutorial mode ties into the game’s story-line and that the main character of said tutorial mode is actually relevant to the plot of the main game’s story-line.
   
   
   
   
   

                                  Another game in the series that did an absolutely fantastic job at this is Fire Emblem 12. Here, you have 8 prologue chapters in which My Unit, along with several other units in the game like Luke or Rody, can receive valuable experience. By the time the main story comes along you’ve already got some well trained characters that can deal with the enemies of the main story. If future games want to go down this route my suggestion would be to make sure that prologue enemies aren’t ridiculous like they are in Lunatic and Reverse Lunatic and to also ensure that every character at the player’s disposal can be used in the main game’s story as well.

2.  “Strategy puzzles”: Something that I really like about Starcraft 2 are their single-player challenges. In the challenges the game has scenarios where you have a limited number of units and you have to get said units to defeat the enemy. The purpose of these challenges is to get the player to utilize the units strengths and weaknesses. They’re not perfect, but they’re helpful and they’re designed for new players.

                    I figure that Fire Emblem could try something like that as well. You could give newcomers a scenario that teaches them about rescue chains in games where rescuing is a thing. You could have different scenarios teach a certain aspect of the game to help speed up the learning process. This way actually encourages the new players to get better at the game and would give them incentives to do so unlike Phoenix Mode.

3. Increase the number of resources at the player’s disposal: One way to make a Fire Emblem game really easy is to increase the number of resources that would be at the player’s disposal. Increase the number of stat-boosters, increase the number of powerful weapons and giving them more money would all be ways that would help new players acclimate to the game and then as the game gets progressively harder and harder the player would have to learn more about item and resource management.

                  Before I close I would like to share something with you that I’ve been thinking about. It’s obvious that the Fire Emblem series is undergoing a change in its identity. Some people feel like this is a bad thing while others embrace the change, but for better or for worse Fire Emblem is changing. This would not be the first time that this has happened to the series. Compare and contrast Fire Emblems 1 - 5 with Fire Emblems 6 - 11 and I think you can tell that there are some major differences. Personally I think Fire Emblem 12 ushered in a new era for the series and Awakening has only catapulted that change and Fates is giving us the biggest mechanical shake-up that this series hasn’t seen for a long time. 

                  Some changes will be good while some will be bad. My philosophy is to examine each change on it’s own merits. I do like a good number of the changes that Fates is introducing to the series. So far the weapon effects look great, Hidden weapons look awesome and the personal skill system seems really neat. On the other hand there are some other new ideas and concepts that I think are simply retarded.

                  The important thing is to be open-minded to each and every new change that comes out. I don’t agree with the idea that the franchise is going downhill, but there are a lot of stupid changes and I think that many of the criticisms leveled at Awakening and Fates are valid. For example, the last time a Fire Emblem game had a good story in my opinion was Radiant Dawn. Some people would argue that Radiant Dawn’s story is bad and that Path of Radiance was the last Fire Emblem game to have a good story. Another major problem is the fanservice, which I’ve recently discussed. There are other changes too, but with that being said there are good changes that are happening too and Fates is proof that the designers seem to be experimenting now and shaking things up which can lead to better games.  

                  Whatever comes our way, I’m still a Fire Emblem fan through and through and even if the devs can’t make a game that I like, I can always make one myself. If you don’t believe me ask Daniel Robert Payne, Ronaldo Villanueva or Cristian Diaz about what I’m talking about.