Why I Hate Conquest Part 3 - The Abominable Story-line

                              So if I had to pick one aspect of the game that I felt was the weakest element of Conquest I would easily say it was the plot. In my opinion, Conquest’s story is far worse than the story of any other game in the series, including Awakening’s. Yeah, it’s THAT bad. In case you think I’m being too harsh here, I’m not the only person who’s beaten Conquest who has claimed this. Other people who imported the game and beat it were saying the same exact thing. So what’s so bad about the plot? Well there’s so many things that are wrong that it’s hard to know where to start:

• My first major problem with the plots of both games (I just recently beat Birthright) is that Hoshido can do no wrong while Nohr can do no right. Nohr is the dark kingdom where nothing grows and “only rich foreigners and idiots travel above” (to quote Shura). Meanwhile Hoshido is the land of sunshine, rainbows and unicorns. Yeah, way to go with the subtlety there writers! Isn’t it interesting that the European nation is portrayed in a game created by Japanese designers as evil, Imperialistic and aggressive while the Japanese nation is portrayed as a peaceful perfect paradise?

• It defeats the premise of a moral dilemma when one side is clearly the right one. The whole point is that each side had their pros and cons and that the decision about who you should join should have been a difficult one. The conflict was supposed to have shades of gray rather than be black and white.

                

              In Chapter 3 it’s Nohr that breaks the treaty and attacks Hoshido. There’s no reverse equivalent where Hoshido is the one who attacks without provocation. It’s always Nohr. The end of that chapter comes across as ridiculously contrived as Hans tries to kill Gunter without any valid explanation given by the game at any point in time as to why Garon ordered him to do it. The fact that Corrin’s sword throws him / her off a cliff is even more ridiculous. Then Corrin gets saved by Lilith who randomly appears out of nowhere. Boy wasn’t that convenient. This leads to the next problem that I have with the story.

• Mikoto in my opinion is Emmeryn 2.0. She’s a wise, benevolent female ruler who advocates for nothing but peace, love and all is the embodiment of all goodness. Like Emmeryn, Mikoto ultimately sacrifices herself on behalf of the main character. However, there’s a reason why Emmeryn’s sacrifice comes across as dramatic and having an emotional impact on the player (at least it did for me) while Mikoto’s on the other hand doesn’t. 
  
  
  
  
  

                             

                          THERE’S NO TIME TO GET TO KNOW MIKOTO! We’re introduced to her in Chapter 4 and then she dies at the beginning of Chapter 5. There is absolutely no time to get to know her so when she dies her death cannot leave any impact on the player. It also should not have left any impact on Corrin. Corrin even tells Mikoto straight-up that he / she doesn’t feel any connection at all so why does Corrin rage-out Dragon mode style when Mikoto dies? Corrin’s only gotten to know Mikoto for a few days (by game story time) so logically there should be no reason for Corrin to feel as emotionally impacted as he / she did.

• The next problem with this scene is when Azura tries to calm Corrin down. Remember watching that cutscene in the trailer where she tells to Pokemon!Dragon Corrin “kill me if you want, but please do it as yourself”? I got really excited about all the amazing possibilities and contexts that scene could take place in. I feel extremely let down that THIS is the part where that scene plays out. This could have gone in thousands of different emotionally dramatic directions but the one we got was lame and underwhelming. Talk about an epic waste of potential!
• Speaking of an epic waste of potential how can we not talk about Chapter 6? So the biggest reason why this chapter fails from a story standpoint in my eyes comes from the fact that Corrin doesn’t spend enough time in Hoshido to realistically form an actual connection to his Hoshidan siblings. This ultimately makes the big decision in Chapter 6 ring hollow. If this decision were to play out in real life Corrin would easily choose Nohr over Hoshido. Corrin’s actually been raised in Nohr so his / her connections with Nohrians makes sense.

                     

                       By contrast, Corrin’s only been in Hoshido for a few days. That’s nowhere near enough time to form an actual connection to the Hoshidans. Who cares if Corrin’s biologically related to them? Corrin doesn’t know the Hoshido royals! Biology aside, it’s Nohr that’s been like an actual family to him / her. Also, why do the Hoshidans want Corrin back? It’s not like they had enough time to form an actual relationship with Corrin. For all intents and purposes Corrin may as well have been a complete stranger to them while Azura was the actual family. I agree with DRP that in order for this to work, the designers should have put this scene around half-way through the story so that Corrin could actually have time to develop his / her relationship with Mikoto and the Hoshidan royalty. When it came to the decision itself I will quote the Nostalgia Critic in his Star Wars Episode 3 review: “I didn’t feel the emotions, but I got the idea behind the emotions”. 

• So now that the decision to fight alongside the Nohrian forces has been made how does Garon react? “You’re a traitor! Xander kill Corrin”. I’m sorry, but WHAT? This makes absolutely no sense at all! Corrin just got done proving his / her loyalty to Nohr after being tempted to join Hoshido and Garon accuses Corrin of treason. Why? How does this make any sense at all? If I were Corrin I would have changed my mind right then and there and decided to choose Hoshido. You don’t call someone a traitor after they just got done proving their loyalty to you. That’s beyond retarded. One drinking game you could make is to take a shot any time Garon or Iago accuse Corrin of treason. It’s pretty ridiculous how many times they do it despite Corrin repeatedly proving to them that he / she is extremely loyal to them.

• One of the biggest reasons why I wanted to play Conquest first before Birthright had to do with the story’s premise. Hoshido’s story is too similar to the story of previous Fire Emblem games while Nohr’s story delves into new territory. I really liked the premise of changing the country from within and starting a revolution. However, there was a question that continued to nag at me: Where does Hoshido fit into all of that? You don’t need Hoshido to factor into that premise at all since you could just have it be between Corrin and his / her siblings vs. Garon and Iago. Sadly, the answer to my question came in the most disappointing way imaginable:

                         

                                The biggest disappointment for me is that the story we got completely goes against its premise. Instead of starting a revolution you’re doing everything the bad guy wants you to do. You straight-up invade Hoshido and kill thousands of innocent people. There’s no attempt to reform or change anything until AFTER everyone’s dead! What a lame story! Now if it was intentional to be a really bad guy who just wants to conquer the good guys that could have been an interesting deviation from the way that normal Fire Emblem games play out, but that’s not what we got.

                                  The narrative keeps trying to portray Corrin as “the light that shines in the darkness” but instead Corrin just comes across as a spineless wimp and a totally naive coward. I’ll go into Corrin’s “personality” and “character traits” more in a later post when I tackle the subject of the cast’s personalities. For now, I’ll just say that the narrative tries to portray Corrin one way and instead we were shown something else that’s contrary to the intentions of the story which is a sign of extremely poor writing.

                 

                   For that matter, the narrative tries to portray Corrin’s siblings as good people who just have to go along with the system despite Garon doing some pretty heinous and evil things throughout the story. Whenever Corrin reacts to the atrocities committed by Garon and Iago they just tell Corrin to shut up and put his / her head down. Being complicit in evil like this doesn’t say anything good about your morality and the fact that Corrin and the siblings just go along and destroy Hoshido paints them in a negative light. There’s a wonderful thread on serenesforest.net that discusses this very topic and there’s a neat quote I’d like to share from it:

        “The fact that the siblings hadn't even entertained the idea of killing Garon after seeing him being straight up evil and going against absolutely everything they believe in until before Kamui suggests it - right before you fight him - is beyond me. They also seem to be opposed to the idea for whatever reason, until they see that he's a slime monster, then it's okay to kill your old man.” (http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=55316&page=1)

                      Needless to say, this story driven mess makes the Nohrian cast look like tools. Also, something that I observed was the fact that Azura and Kaze seem to join you for no valid reason. They never get their motives questioned and if I recall correctly Kaze more or less tells Corrin that he’s joining Nohr because Corrin is a great person. Wow! What a swell guy. ‘Let’s go invade my homeland because I met this nice person on the enemy side!’ Speaking of Azura, why does she join Corrin? What’s her reason for betraying the side that raised her? This is something that never gets explained. Also, thanks to Chapter 15 Azura comes across as an idiot who could have turned the tide of the war if she had only told the Nohrian siblings.

                          

                         What I’m referring to is the time when Corrin winds up in the magical dimension and Azura shows him / her a crystal ball that reveals the fact that Garon is actually a slime monster. Why did Azura wait to show Corrin and not the Nohrian siblings? It would have made more sense for her to find a way to get them all into the magical dimension and then explain to them everything she explained to Corrin. That would have made more sense and would have a higher chance of ending the war. Now some people have argued that the Nohrian siblings wouldn’t have believed Azura even if she showed them the crystal ball. Well, even if that’s the case she still should have at least tried to convince them of the existence of Slime!Garon. I’ve also heard a rumor that the explanation behind why Azura could only show Corrin was due to their special dragon blood. This explanation opens a whole new can of worms:

1. 
   Why do Corrin and Azura have this magical bloodline and the others don’t? I thought Corrin was born in Hoshido and Azura was born in Nohr. Are you telling me that they aren’t?

     2.  Assuming that # 1 is the case that would mean that Corrin is not biologically related to the Hoshidans which means that the entire premise of Fates has been fundamentally botched. Way to screw that one up writers!

   3. Why wasn’t this explanation in Conquest? If you’re going to tell me that it’s in Revelations or in a DLC then my response is just “NO!” I shouldn’t have to play through supplemental material in order to find out stuff that SHOULD BE IN THE MAIN STORY! “Oh but Revelations is the true ending” you might say. Well, once again, I shouldn’t have to play Revelations in order to understand everything that’s going on in Conquest. Conquest’s story should be able to stand on its own. If it can’t that means it’s not a good story.

  4. Even with all of that taken into account why don’t Corrin and Azura try to kidnap Garon and force him to sit on the Hoshidan throne? I realize that this is pretty far-fetched and extremely dangerous, but at least it’s a morally superior option to annihilating Hoshido. Honestly I feel like this could have pulled the story in an interesting direction. The Nohrians are trying to chase Corrin and Azura while the Hoshidans would be curious about Corrin handing them the king of Nohr on a silver platter. Once Corrin and Azura explain the situation they can prove their explanation out to everyone by forcing Garon to sit on the throne which could cause the Nohrian siblings and the Hoshidan siblings to unite against the stupid slime monster and talk of a peace treaty could be in order. Or they could just kill him. That action might come with nasty consequences but at least Hoshido wouldn’t be destroyed and their consciences would remain intact.

      5. I heard from someone that Leo could see the crystal ball. I haven’t confirmed this information yet, but assuming that its true that would make convincing Xander, Camila and Elise that Garon is a slime monster all the easier.

                     

                    Also, the crystal ball and magical dimensions shenanigans is pretty stupid and a plot contrivance that makes the blood pacts in Radiant Dawn look good. To repeat myself from before Corrin and Azura’s main plan is to invade Hoshido in order to get Garon’s butt on the throne. That has got to be the stupidest idea that a main character has ever had!

                     For some strange and poorly explained reason it’s revealed that Takumi was possessed. Why this is the case? Why didn’t Conquest explain anything? If this is explained in Revelations or a DLC then that doesn’t count because Conquest’s story shouldn’t NEED that. It comes across as ridiculous, laughable and out of nowhere. It’s even more ridiculous that Takumi forgives Corrin long after Corrin aided in the destruction of his homeland and in the death of his retainers and in the capture of Sakura and Hinoka and in the death of Ryoma. It also serves to make Corrin look even more like a Mary Sue.

                        Prediction # 7: Having only two countries in the story would mean that there wouldn’t be a lot of world-building in the story.

            Here’s what Blazer said about that:  “There's no real sense of the "countries" outside of the royal families and their confidants; there's little politics, there's little in the way of "other forces" involved... like I said earlier, it's just very straight-forward and uncomplicated. For a game that was supposed to be about fixing Nohr from the inside, it felt more like I was just a part of the inside, but not really fixing anything. When there was someone else in the inside messing things up, I wasn't really given a choice to do anything, and had the important decisions—or at least, decisions I'd like to have made given that the game was trying so hard at points to make me actually feel like Corrine—made for me.

                Another problem with the story is that it doesn't feel like it means much. I had little sense of how much the war affected people, how much the lives of the soldiers and families meant, how big the kingdoms were... the characters are mostly people that follow one kingdom or the other, with a few rare exceptions, so they felt somewhat detached from the problems, especially due to how characters are written. This ties into the atmosphere and characters as well, but with people going to My Castle and chilling, having silly support conversations, and being touched and played with by their commanding officer in his treehouse or whatever, I had a little bit of a hard time taking the plot seriously—and I did my best to avoid such elements. The characters didn't really seem affected all that much by the war or the events going on, they were just sort of people in the army related to the royalty who happened to be involved, each with their own personality; meaning the characters didn't add much depth to the story as a whole, with only one notable exception to this popping up in my head (but I won't spoil it).” (http://www.feshrine.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=8470)

                       I also felt like all of the supposedly “dramatic” moments in the story fell completely flat. Ryoma’s suicide didn’t affect me, the massacres of random people by Iago and Hans rang hollow and I wondered why the writers even bothered to have Lilith sacrifice herself to save Corrin. Was that supposed to be an emotional moment? If it was, it failed to leave an impact on me. Why should I care if a random My Castle character dies? What did Lilith ever do to win my love and sympathy?

                           

                     Here’s another question: Why did Nohr invade Hoshido? I don’t remember a single time in the game where this was explained. This is a pretty big deal considering how important the conflict between the two countries is. Even the weaker stories in other Fire Emblem games understood this important aspect! I just went on Fire Emblem wiki to try and see if I missed out on something and even that couldn’t explain why Nohr and Hoshido hate each other. The lack of an explanation for why the war is happening is also a MASSIVE negative. Once again, you can’t use Revelations as a defense. If Conquest can’t explain the reason and nature behind its conflict then it should be punished for it.

               Overall, I am giving this atrocity of a game the score of:

F -

                 

                       This game’s plot is so atrocious and so easy to tear apart that it ruins my enjoyment of the game and not even Conquest’s mechanics can save it.