Monday, February 27, 2017

The First Half of Netflix Holy War Season 2

                                     Season 1 consisted of the Prologue and Chapter 1. Season 2 ideally would consist of Chapters 2 & 3 of the game, but they may need to get split up due to how much goes on in each chapter. I ended up writing way more than I initially intended but there’s so much story going on that I felt like it was necessary.

                            I’m unsure if this should be an entire season or simply just half of one. I’d prefer it to be half of one but I’m open to feedback. For now at least, here is the first half of Season 2.

  • Season Opening: Season 2 opens with Cuan, Sigurd and Eldigan sparring against each other back in Evans Castle. This is supposed to be a light-hearted scene and we can have some witty banter between these guys. Eventually Eldigan gets hit in the head, Cuan gets his lance taken away and poked with it and Azel interrupts the spar by accidentally setting Sigurd’s robe on fire. After they successfully put the fire out the three laugh it off, drink some wine and once again reminisce about their time in the Academy. We can even have a story about how Cuan and Ethlin met and Sigurd can introduce Eldigan to Diadora.

  • Meanwhile Ayra’s off in a different arena wrecking virtually everyone who comes in her way. Holyn is the only one who actually puts up a legitimate fight. That being said even he loses to her. Since Ayra’s the first fighter who’s beaten him he decides to join her.

  • We also see Shannan and Oifey fighting with wooden swords. Despite Oifey being taller and bigger Shannan wins. Ayra comments on how Shannan’s skilled for his age. Shannan mentions how he’d like to be as skilled as his aunt one day. Even Diadora drops by and teases Shannan about becoming her “bodyguard” in the future. I’ll come back to this later on in the post so pay attention. 

                            Eventually we get a rider from Augusty who informs Eldigan that King Chagall is building up his military in an attempt to prompt a war with Grandbell. Eldigan reluctantly marches off explaining to Sigurd and Cuan that he’s going to do his best to convince the king not to do this. While Eldigan rides off we get another rider who carries a message to Sigurd. Sigurd’s request to have Jamka on the throne of Verdane was denied. Despite helping Sigurd and company out King Azmur and the other Grandbell dukes still don’t trust Jamka. They perceive him as an opportunist who only chose to side with Grandbell when it was convenient for him to do so. Jamka’s upset when he hears the news but Sigurd brings up how lucky Jamka is to even still be breathing since he is the prince of an enemy nation.

                                    Meanwhile Ethlin and Diadora are having the conversation that they had in the game where Diadora gives Ethlin the Light Sword. Note that this is the Light Sword that will eventually get passed down to Leif. Other elements of this conversation include Ethlin’s observation that Sigurd and Diadora are falling in love. Again, they are not married by this point but they like each other a lot.

                     Eldigan now makes it to Nordion where Lachesis tries to persuade him not to go. This is basically the conversation these two had in the beginning of Chapter 2 of Holy War. Eldigan doesn’t listen to Lachesis just like in the game and takes off leaving behind the three knights for her that he left in the game. Eldigan reaches Chagall, tries to convince him not to build up the military and then gets imprisoned by his idiot king.

                             Then Manfroy shows up, like he did in the game, and these two have their conversation. Chagall tells Manfroy that he assassinated his father just like Manfroy told him so. Manfroy tells Chagall to prepare to attack Grandbell. Chagall mentions that they’ll need more money to do so and decides to order Macbeth to ransack the villages in order to cough up the gold needed to buy more mercenaries. He then gives Elliott permission to put Nordion under siege and tells Elliot “that he may do whatever he pleases to Lady Lachesis”. And that is where the first episode of Season 2 ends off: With Eldigan in jail and his sister about to be attacked while Chagall prepares Agustria for war.
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  •                     Alva, one of the knights Eldigan left behind to protect Lachesis, brings her news that Eldigan has been imprisoned by Chagall and that Elliot is about to burn Nordion to the ground and take Lachesis away to be his wife. Lachesis calls on another knight to request aid from Sigurd. The knight leaves just as Lachesis mans the castle’s defense and prepares for war. Sigurd receives the news and rushes toward Lachesis’s aid with his army in tow.

  •                       Lachesis does what she can to hold Elliot off but eventually he breaches the gates and starts killing her men. Lachesis and Elliot get a duel with Lachesis eventually driving Elliot back and even getting to cut him. Eventually Elliot’s men come to back him up as he prepares to take Lachesis away. Sigurd arrives in time and his army starts killing off Elliot’s army. Sigurd and Elliot face off and Sigurd decapitates him.

  •                       Sigurd asks Lachesis where her brother is and she informs him that Eldigan has been imprisoned by Chagall. Sigurd wants to rescue Eldigan but Cuan and Oifey point out that Eldigan is being held prisoner in the capital itself. It’ll be heavily guarded by men who are hostile to Grandbell. Any chance Sigurd may have of rescuing Eldigan is next to none. Plus Sigurd just intervened in an Agustrian affair and killed an Agustrian noble. He basically just declared war on Agustria. Lachesis will be deemed a traitor just by defending herself and Nordion which means that all of Agustria will be coming down on her. That first attack will only be the first of many soon to come. 

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  •                       Meanwhile Macbeth lets his soldiers loose on Agustria’s villages in an attempt to loot as much as they can from the commoners. Enter Levin and Sylvia. We see Levin and Sylvia entertain a group of villagers. Levin sings while Sylvia dances. The crowd cheers them on when some terrorized villagers interrupt them. The terrorized villagers came from the next village over where Macbeth’s troops ransacked them. The owner of the inn that Levin and Sylvia are staying at decides to let them in. Levin offers a wounded child his room and offers to entertain the beleaguered villagers for the night.

  •                    Macbeth’s troops enter that night. They go through different homes snatching people up and holding citizens “under arrest”. Levin does what he can to try and stop them but he’s only one guy. He saves a few people, but most get taken off. Levin goes after them only to find that Macbeth’s troops held these villagers under arrest for being “in league with the Dark Lord Loptyr”. Levin calls bs and tries to save some more people and while he saves a few he’s unable to fight off most of the army. Levin watches as Macbeth’s troops burn the villagers alive. Levin continues his fight, but gets beat up and almost dies from the attempt to rescue the people. Levin leaves wounded and demoralized.
  •                    Levin gets back to the inn bloodied and wounded. He tells the villagers about what happened and that he couldn’t save the rest. The villagers mourn the dead and one of them even shouts some of his lines from the game (or at the very least something similar to these lines): “I wonder if there still are any blood relatives of the Dark Lord Loputousu around…Each year big towns like Agusty and Mackily hold witch hunts and arrest a ton of people. Then they burn ’em at the stake for doin’ what? Absolutely nothin’! Is that nuts or what!?”

  •                    While Levin recovers we hear the villagers gossip amongst themselves. Some villagers express their disgust at Chagall’s attempt to wage war on Grandbell and they’re especially pissed about Eldigan getting imprisoned. Some of them even express a desire for Eldigan to sit on the throne. One of the villagers brings up a rumor that he heard where the reason that Macbeth’s men are running around pillaging the villages is because a Grandbell knight named Sigurd attacked Prince Elliot of Heirhein. Some of the villagers grumble while others express how they’d rather have a Grandbell knight ruling over them than Chagall and his cronies.

  •                   Macbeth’s knights pillage the village just as Levin recovers from his wounds. They ransack the village and even burn down the inn. Once again Levin tries his best to save the village. This time around as Macbeth’s soldiers are about to head towards Anphony Sigurd and co rush in and kill some of the soldiers off. Some of the soldiers get away with their loot in tow but a good portion of them are dead and Sigurd and co manage to return whatever they can.



  •                   This is where Sigurd and Levin can have their conversation from the game. Levin points out that Sigurd’s actions have had unintended consequences which have resulted in the Agustrian villagers getting screwed over. Sigurd feels bad and tells Levin that he and his army are going to try and resolve the situation with Chagall peacefully and that he intends to leave Agustria as soon as he can. Levin says that this would be a bad move that would also result in people getting screwed over. However, Levin appreciates Sigurd’s sincerity and his desire to help out the villagers. Levin figures that joining Sigurd would be the best thing to help out the citizens of Agustria. Plus Sigurd is the only one who could possibly put a stop to douchebags like Chagall and Macbeth which makes Levin want to join Sigurd even more.

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                         In case you’re wondering why I’m doing what I’m doing here’s why: The bolded text from the villager is what that villager actually says in the game so child hunts happened in Agustria, we just never got to see one. By actually showing this we see how messed up the Agustrian nobility are it also sets up for later when Alvis is carrying out Manfroy’s dirty work. Manfroy blackmailed Alvis by threatening to reveal to the world that Alvis is a descendant of Loptyr unless Alvis worked with him. If someone who was thought to be a descendant of the Dark Lord (while not necessarily being one) gets burned at the stake what would happen to an actual descendant? This helps to impress upon the viewer’s mind what the consequences are and why that would be a big deal.

                          It’s also stated in game that Levin helped out the villagers and when we first see him and Sylvia in Chapter 2 they’re right there in the villages fighting off bandits so having Levin help out the villagers is in character for him. Finally the conversation that he has with Sigurd also happened in the game and it works in that somebody is actually calling Sigurd out on what he’s doing.

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                          Despite Levin’s protests Sigurd still tries to convince Chagall to end the fighting. Sigurd also tries to get Chagall to release Eldigan. Chagall refuses both offers and points out that Sigurd is the one who intervened in Agustrian business. Chagall demands that Sigurd and his forces lay down their arms and surrender or else face the wrath of the Agustrian military. Chagall also demands that Sigurd release Lachesis into his custody. Sigurd refuses Chagall’s offer saying that if he gives Lachesis up Chagall will either kill or imprison her. Sigurd also tells Chagall that a refusal to back down will result in further casualties and a completely unnecessary loss of life. Chagall refuses to listen and sends Sigurd away.

                          While Sigurd departs Fury and her Pegasus Knight squad enter Agusty castle. Fury tells Chagall that he claimed to know Prince Levin’s whereabouts. Chagall tells Fury that Levin is in Evans castle and is about to be executed (like he did in the game). Fury believes him and heads toward Evans Castle. Chagall hopes to use Fury to distract Sigurd while his main forces approach Sigurd from the other side causing Sigurd to fight a war on two fronts.

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                          Before the battle ensues a messenger named Filat from Barhara approaches Sigurd. Filat asks Sigurd about the state of the war in Agustria. Sigurd tells him that his negotiations with King Chagall failed and that a full scale war is brewing. Filat informs Sigurd that the Issach campaign was a success and that an advance party has already agreed to help reinforce Sigurd’s troops in holding the border between Grandbell and Agustria. They expect Prince Kurth to be on his way home from the battlefield. Sigurd is delighted at the news, but Filat informs him that he has also come with bad news.


                              Filat informs Sigurd that there are nasty rumors circulating around the court that he, Cuan and Eldigan are conspiring against the king. He claims that Langobalt and Reptor started these rumors and warns Sigurd to watch his back. He then informs Sigurd of their haste to find Prince Kurth a bride and of the story behind Cigyun and Duke Victor. (We’d see all of this in flashback while Filat’s voice is narrating)                              After Filat finishes the story he departs promising Sigurd that reinforcements are soon coming.
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                           Meanwhile Macbeth uses the money that he looted from the villages to hire mercenaries (Voltz being the leader and Beowulf being one of them) in order to bolster his army that’s about to attack Sigurd. Boldor prepares his troops to engage Sigurd’s army. Bishop Clement plans on sneaking behind Sigurd and sniping his troops from a distance or using the Sleep staff on him.

                          Thus begins our epic battle of Agustria. Sigurd has to take on 3 Agustrian lords while Fury sneaks up to him from behind and tries to take out his base of operations. Sigurd’s army first clashes with Boldor’s (Elliot’s dad). The battle seems to be going in Sigurd’s favor but then Macbeth’s troops show up to reinforce Boldor and soon the fight goes in favor of the Agustrian lords. Then Sigurd calls for reinforcements and now the battle is even again. Then Bishop Clement places ballista and bishops with Sleep Staves behind Sigurd’s forces in Nordion and ultimately the Agustrian lords have the upper hand forcing Sigurd and co. to retreat. As soon as they retreat back to Evans Castle they find Fury’s troops attacking it. Levin recognizes Fury and gets her to halt the attack. Levin explains the situation to her and gets her to realize that Chagall duped her. The night is a long one. 



                                      Sigurd and Cuan realize that they don’t have the numbers to take on all the Agustrian lords head on. They realize that they have to beat the Agustrian nobles through superior strategy. That’s when Lachesis and Diadora come to them with their various plans. Diadora comes up with an idea in order to deal with Bishop Clement while Lachesis recognizes the mercenary troop Macbeth hired and plans on using them against him. Lachesis walks into the enemy camp and speaks to Voltz, their leader. She asks him how much Macbeth is paying them and then offers to pay him double that rate. Voltz initially disagrees stating that he shouldn’t turn on his employer until Beowulf steps in and intervenes.

                        Beowulf, who’s been listening in on the conversation the whole time, recognizes Lachesis and strikes up a conversation with her. He mentions how he knew her brother from “way back” and how her brother spoke so highly of her. Beowulf, who’s been listening in on the conversation the whole time, recognizes Lachesis and strikes up a conversation with her. He mentions how he knew her brother from “way back” and how her brother spoke so highly of her. Beowulf convinces Voltz to go through with the deal. Lachesis nearly empties her family fortune in order to do it, but she manages to get them to turn.

                          They proceed to kill off Macbeth’s forces in their sleep. By the time that either Macbeth or his shoulders figure out what’s going on Sigurd’s forces have nearly routed them all. Levin proceeds to destroy Clement in retaliation for what his soldiers did to the villagers.
                                    
                              Meanwhile Diadora sneaks up on Clement and uses her Silence staff on him. Clement is surprised to find out that he cannot call out for help or use his staff against their army. Ayra sneaks up on him and stabs him repeatedly until he’s dead. Then they lower the castle’s drawbridge and Sigurd’s forces rout Clement’s. By the time Boldor’s forces wake up, they learn to their shock and horror that Macbeth and Clement’s forces have been eliminated. He puts up a fight but Sigurd’s troops now outnumber his (he took the majority of the losses during their previous battle) and it’s only a matter of time before Sigurd finishes him. With this battle done Sigurd has effectively conquered Agustria. 



                               Chagall freaks out as Sigurd’s forces march on Agusty. Manfroy convinces him to let Eldigan go and give him a formal apology. Chagall does this, but Eldigan seems like he’s not going to accept Chagall’s apology.

                                 Sigurd’s forces march on Agusty and it’s obvious that Chagall’s remaining soldiers are no match for Sigurd’s. Sigurd’s forces put Agusty under siege. Eventually the castle’s forces break and Sigurd and co hack and slash their way through Chagall’s men. Sigurd and Chagall face off with Sigurd effectively destroying him. Before he can deliver the final blow Eldigan rushes in to save his king. He holds Sigurd at bay, cuts his way through many of Sigurd’s men and flees northward to safety. Sigurd and Cuan are astonished that Eldigan would still be loyal to his king after being unjustly imprisoned by him. That being said, the battle for Agusty is over and Sigurd has won.

                                Little does he know that his troubles are only just beginning….
              

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Netflix Holy War Season 1 - The Prologue and Chapter 1

  

                                    So if I were to adapt a Fire Emblem game and turn it into a different medium what would I do? The first thing I’d do is make it a TV show. It seems easier to adapt a Fire Emblem game into a TV show because a TV show can be broken up into episodes in a similar way that a Fire Emblem game is broken up into different levels. This also lets me take my time in developing the characters. I would also take massive liberties with the source material. Why? Well I’m going to be making posts like this for every Fire Emblem continent and there are many Fire Emblem games that have mediocre to terrible story lines. If I were to make a carbon copy adaptation it would not be a very good product. So when it comes to me “adapting” Awakening and Fates I’ll be straight up reinventing their stories.

                           The first Fire Emblem games I’d like to adapt are the Jugdral games. Holy War has the best story in the series and Thracia has a pretty decent story overall. So how would I adapt Holy War? Well first, I would like to borrow certain scenes from the Holy War manga that was created by Osawa Mitsuki. The main reason being is that I actually like some of the stuff that’s present in said manga. You can read the manga chapters here for any of you that are curious. I’d also prefer to be on Netflix too so that I’d have the artistic freedom to make my content however dark I needed it to be. I’d also probably make each season between 10 - 15 episodes as that’s what would be needed for the story. Also, I’d make it like an anime since that’s clearly the kind of style that Fire Emblem is based off of.


                              Now that we got that out of the way let’s start with the types of pairings that I’d do for the story:

  • Ayra x Lex: It would be interesting to have Ayra start off as a character who hated Grandbell to realizing that not all Grandbellians are evil to eventually marrying one. Both Ayra and Lex have a connection with Langobalt, Lex’s dad, so having them paired would make their encounter with Langobalt interesting. Not only that but it also sets the stage for an interesting interaction between Larcei and Johan / Johalva since they’d be related.

  • Fury x Levin: Thracia 776 basically confirmed this pairing and I don’t see a reason to change this. Plus it’s cute having Fury be a gullible girl with a heart of gold while Levin’s a total pimp.

  • Azel x Tiltyu: They’re childhood friends who eventually become lovers. Makes sense to me.

  • Lachesis x Beowulf for Delmud, Lachesis x Finn for Nanna: Thracia 776 heavily implies this which why I’m going in this direction. Delmud can use the Beo Sword while Nanna can’t. The only other character in that game who can use the Beo Sword is Beowulf’s other son, Fergus. Nanna also refers to Finn as “father” which would make more sense if Finn were her actual father.

  • Aideen x Mideel: We see Mideel try to protect Aideen at the beginning of the prologue and if you look at his conversation with Aideen in Chapter 1 after you get her back it’s clear that they have feelings for each other. It’s easier to set up in story than Jamke x Aideen so I’m running with that.

  • Briggid x Dew: This might seem like an odd choice, but Dew is the same class as Patty plus it seems like a thief and a pirate would be able to relate to each other rather well. One liberty I’d probably take is aging Dew up a bit so that it seems more appropriate.

  • Sylvia x Claude: Sylvia’s not getting paired up with Levin and the only other potential lover that she had an in-game conversation with prior to Chapter 5 was Claude (they have a conversation in Chapter 4 that gives them 100 lover points) so it seemed obvious to make this pairing happen. 

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                     Prologue: Rather than start out with a text crawl like the game I would start the Holy War show with a similar intro to the one in The Fellowship of the Ring. I’d have a dramatic voice-over while narrating the major events of Jugdral’s lore. I’d show the Loptyr Empire first and then the Crusaders doing battle with them. The Crusaders would be driven back to Darna before the dragon gods intervene and give them their Divine Weapons. The Crusaders would miraculously defeat the Loptyr Empire and would go on to create the nations of Jugdral.

                           Then afterwards narrate the war that sparks the conflict in Holy War. Show Rivough barbarians attack Darna and show innocent people getting killed. There’s a part of me that wonders if there should be a Galzus  cameo here since Galzus is the Prince of Rivough and would most likely have been there during the conflict. Anyway, show the attack and then show Grandbellian outrage and the prelude to the war while Sigurd gets left behind. Also explain the non-aggression pact that Grandbell had with Verdane and explain that Verdane chose to violate said pact.

                             So why start with the Crusaders? Well this is an extremely important part of Jugdral’s lore and backstory. The Crusaders get brought up a lot so it’s important that the audience understands who the Crusaders were and why they’re so important to the characters in Jugdral. Plus who doesn’t want to see an epic intro?

                            
                        Moving back to the story the events unfold similarly to when they did in the game. The only difference is that Gandolf takes out Mideel first before we pan over to Sigurd and co. After Gandolf drags Aideen back to Verdane I would have the Verdane army be so massive that Chalphy is put under siege. Why? Well I feel like this would make Verdane seem more threatening and powerful. Plus I never felt like there was an adequate explanation for the Lenster Trio showing up as fast as they did. It’s not like Jugdral had e-mails or instant messaging. So instead I’d put Chalphy under siege and have Sigurd send a dispatch rider requesting aid from Cuan. This would act as a better explanation for why the Lenster Trio is here. I’d also have Sigurd try to request for aid from Barhara which could explain why Lex and Azel showed up. So after Sigurd’s friends show up and help him drive off Verdane we push toward Jungby and save Mideel. Hooray!

                          The next big point is Alvis’s introduction. I’d have Alvis save Sigurd’s life and kill some random barbarian who comes close to killing Sigurd. This makes Alvis seem like a nice guy and it sets up as a major contrast to the end of the first generation when Alvis later takes Sigurd’s life. We then have Alvis and Sigurd talk to one another. We can even have Azel talking to Alvis and Alvis express concern over his younger half-brother. Alvis gives Sigurd the Silver Sword and then departs. The rest plays out like it did in the game so let’s move on to Chapter 1.

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Chapter 1: I don’t feel like there’s enough story with the Prologue for it to warrant it’s own season so Season 1 of Netflix Holy War would consist of the Prologue and Chapter 1. The first scene here would be Sigurd, Cuan and Eldigan chatting with each other. In the game it was just Sigurd and Eldigan but since Cuan also went to the same Academy as Sigurd and Eldigan it makes sense that he would be here too. We can have them reminisce about the good ole days and have them swap stories. Basically the point is to show that these guys have an actual friendship and that they know each other. Eldigan warns Sigurd about the anti-Grandell tension happening in Augustria and promises Sigurd that he’s got his back and then departs.

                      The next scene would be Ayra and Kinbois talking. The conversation would be tense like it was in the game. However, I’d probably make it just a little bit longer than it was in the game and I’d have Ayra come across as more intimidating and threatening. Plus I’d have her stab one of Kinbois men (in a non-lethal place) just to get the point across that she means business.

                      From here Sigurd and co. fight Kinbois’s army and it basically goes similar to how it would in the game. We can have Lex and Ayra exchange witty banter as they fight each other (and start their relationship). After Sigurd recruits Ayra we cut back to Jamka, Aideen and Dew. 


                      Here’s an excerpt of the in-game script when Sigurd and Diadora meet each other:

Diadora:
“No, I’m fine. Thank you very much… Sigurd.”

Sigurd:
“Er? You know who I am?”

Diadora:
“Yes, I met a woman here in the castle a little while ago named Adean.”

Sigurd:
“Adean said something about me?”



                         So Diadora in the game basically says that she met Aideen and learned Sigurd’s name from her. So, I would basically show that. Actually one major liberty I’d take is that I’d make Diadora a more proactive character. In addition to having her meet Aideen I’d have it so that when Jamka decides to free Aideen and Dew he’s also having Diadora lead them to Sigurd. Jamka mentions that Diadora can help Aideen and Dew navigate the forest and that Diadora’s a capable shaman. The main reason here is that Diadora being more proactive makes her a more interesting character. Another change is that Gandolf is now leading the charge to get Aideen, Dew and Diadora. We can show Diadora guiding Aideen and Dew through the forest while also having to fend off some of Gandolf’s soldiers. Eventually Gandolf and his forces are about to overtake them when Sigurd and his army come to their rescue. I’d probably have Mideel kill Gandolf as a form of sweet revenge against Gandolf nearly killing Mideel back in the prologue.

                         This can be Sigurd and Diadora’s first meeting. Instead of falling in love at first sight they can simply like each other. Sigurd can express his gratitude to Diadora for helping Aideen and Dew and Diadora can express her gratitude at Sigurd saving their lives. At this point our heroes rejoice since Gandolf has been slain and Sigurd has successfully rescued Aideen. Since there’s a lull in the action we can have some of the conversations that took place in-game right about here. What conversations you ask? Well…

  • Cuan and Ayra: The conversation in the game discussed the politics between the Manster District and Isaach. Ayra mentions how the real culprit behind the slaughter of Darna did not come from Issach royalty. It instead came from Rivough. She can mention how her father killed the Rivough king and was about to present his head to King Azmur and Prince Kurth when he was assassinated on the way there. You can even show all of this too with Ayra’s voice speaking over the events. Considering how important this is to the war that started everything I think this should definitely be in there.

  • Sigurd and Aideen: This in-game conversation explained why Aideen became a nun. It also foreshadows Briggid’s place in the story.

  • Mideel and Aideen: While the conversation wasn’t long this can help to further cement their relationship. 

                             
                                 We can have Sigurd and Diadora have a conversation. Diadora’s  excited about these newcomers from a land outside Verdane. We can see “sparks” go off as the two like each other. Eventually Diadora’s guardian finds her and tries to get her to leave. The main reason for this is that rather than have Diadora instantly fall in love with Sigurd I’m changing her reason for joining him to be that she wants to leave the confines of her home and rebel against her guardian. This way we can avoid love at first sight and give their relationship at least a little more time to develop.

                             Once Diadora leaves we can have the village elder from the game speak to Sigurd about how Diadora is forbidden from contact with the outside world. Sigurd can respond just like he did in the game and blow the old man off. Another change I’m making here is to have Sigurd notice the birthmark of Naga on Diadora’s forehead. He asks the village elder what it means and the elder can basically tell Sigurd the story of Cigyun that he tells in the game. This villager conversation in the game is the explanation for why Diadora wound up in Verdane and is the first time the player hears about Diadora’s lineage being from Maira, and thus Loputo. Considering how important that is to Manfroy’s overall goal I figured that it would be important enough to include here.

                           Meanwhile Prince Elliott of Herhein decides to march into Grandbell while Sigurd’s been having his adventures. Eldigan and his Cross Knights stop Elliott much like they did in the game. Eldigan’s Cross Knights pwn Elliott’s and Eldigan wrecks Elliott. All of Elliott’s men die and he swears revenge on Eldigan as he leaves wounded and bloody.

                            The remaining events here play out similarly to how they played out in the game. Jamka tries to convince his father not to attack, Batou almost agrees but then Sandima screws it all up. Jamka leaves, Sandima stabs Batou in the back and Manfroy appears. Manfroy and Sandima discuss Cigyun’s daughter and the potential resurrection of the Loputo Empire. There is one more liberty I’d like to take. In the game it’s never explained very well why Manfroy had Verdane or Augustria try to invade Grandbell. Here what I’d like to do is provide a clear cut explanation. Here the explanation is that Manfroy is forcing Grandbell to subjugate kingdoms that it wouldn’t otherwise conquer. The reason for this is that Manfroy is planning on turning Grandbell into the Loputo Empire 2.0. After their discussion Manfroy leaves. 


                        Jamka launches an attack upon Sigurd right before he was about to leave Verdane, Aideen intervenes and recruits Jamka and convinces him to talk to his father one more time. Jamka makes it to the Castle with Sigurd and Aideen in tow when Sandima forbids him from entering. Jamka demands to know what happened to his father and Sandima simply says that Batou has “fallen ill” (which is what he told Manfroy he could say to his soldiers in the game). Jamka calls him out on his bs and a fight ensues. Sandima’s a powerful sorcerer so he and his soldiers manage to hold them off.

                  Meanwhile Lex tries to rendezvous with Sigurd and his troops after noticing that Sigurd has been gone for a while. Lex drops his axe and the lady in the water eventually gives him the Hero Axe. On the way there he meets up with Diadora and one of Sigurd’s wounded soldiers. The soldier explains to Diadora that Sandima prevented Sigurd and Jamka from talking to King Batou and that Sandima is a powerful sorcerer. The soldier dies of dark magic poisoning and Diadora whips out her Silence Staff following Lex. Diadora shows up just in time to silence Sandima, preventing him from using his spells and Jamka proceeds to turn Sandima into a pincushion.



                  After Sandima dies Sigurd and Jamka talk to a dying Batou who tells them the same things he tells them in the game. Afterwards he dies. Sigurd once again enthusiastically thanks Diadora for saving their rear ends and asks her to join him and his army. Despite her guardian’s protests Diadora happily accepts to join Sigurd and on that happy note is where Season 1 ends.

                 In a way it’s similar to the victory in “The Phantom Menace”. The good guys think they’ve won the war when in reality they’ve just won only a relatively insignificant battle in the grand scheme of things.  

Friday, February 24, 2017

What Makes A Fire Emblem Game Balanced?

        
                        Believe it or not this was the part of unit balancing that I was most excited for. I want to know what makes a Fire Emblem game balanced and what makes a Fire Emblem game unbalanced. There is no magic “one size fits all” cure for unit balance but there things that one can do in order to make a Fire Emblem game at least more balanced. The crazy thing is that the more I thought about it the more I realized just how intertwined unit balance is with other aspects and mechanics of the game. For example….

  • Weapon Balance: Generally speaking there are going to be weapon types that are considered better than others. It tends to vary based on the game, but the principle is the same. Bows have traditionally gotten the shaft which has often been a reason why archers aren’t considered as good as other classes. Axes are considered to be very good in the Tellius games so characters who use them in those games have an advantage. One way to make a Fire Emblem game more balanced is to try and balance the weapons so that being locked to a single weapon type doesn’t screw over certain members of your army. 

  • Class Balance: Another way to balance out a Fire Emblem game is to try and balance out all the classes in that game. Usually high movement classes have an advantage because moving long distances in a short amount of time is immensely valuable. Other classes are inherently screwed like Armor Knights who usually can’t double attack and have low movement. Class imbalances often lead to a major gap in unit performance as some units will have natural advantages just for being a certain class while other units have to overcome certain disadvantages just for being a certain class.


                                    If these two points sound familiar to you it’s because I’ve made posts about this topic before: 



                               ^ If you haven’t read them before I highly recommend doing so since I went into a lot more depth there.


  • Enemy Unit Composition: This is another major factor that should be taken into account when it comes to unit balance. If the majority of the enemies are magic users then having high resistance is going to become a priority. If lots of enemies have a certain weapon type in a game where the weapon triangle exists one unit will have a lot of weapon triangle advantage while the unit with weapon triangle disadvantage isn’t going to fare as well.
                                      
                               Playable characters with weapons that deal effective damage against hordes of enemies are going to be considered really good. Marth in Fire Emblem 1 and Caeda in Shadow Dragon are premier examples. Palla and Catria being able to deal effective damage against monsters in Gaiden is another really good example of this. The bottom line is that one way to affect unit balance is through what kinds of enemies the player has to face. If there are too many of a certain kind of enemy that might affect unit balance negatively because some units will be able to easily destroy certain types of enemies while others will not. Perhaps being able to provide a mixed variety of enemies could solve this?                                                      


                               I also tried looking for patterns between games that were towards the top of my list in terms of unit balance and games that were on the bottom end of my unit balance list. I came up with a few observations.

  • Give the player lots of resources. Thracia 776, Mystery of the Emblem and Birthright are pretty generous with the kinds of resources available to the player. Thracia and Mystery both have growth altering items. This makes it easier to get weaker units up to speed. Birthright has Pair-Up bonuses, dirt cheap tonics and forges along with giving the player tons of money. Giving lots of resources to the player means that there’s less competition for resources so the player can spread them out to whoever they want. 

                         Gaiden does something interesting where they only let each individual unit have only one item which means that you pretty much have to give other units valuable items. This is a really interesting way to approach resource management but it works. One word of caution though is giving out more resources can lead to Holy War Syndrome where you can stuff one unit to the gills with powerful items and watch them wreck the game. So if you’re going to give resources there needs to be a way to prevent the player from giving tons of resources to their best units and watching them go ham on the rest of the game. 

  • Cast Size: One similarity that all the games towards the bottom of the unit balance list have is that they have huge rosters. The more characters a Fire Emblem game has the harder it is to give them a niche. The harder it is to give them a niche the more difficult it becomes to give that character a way to make a meaningful contribution. There are only so many roles to go around and you only need so many characters to achieve a certain task. Having a higher character roster makes it likely for 3 or 4 units to able to do the same job as you but better.
                                          
                 Likewise, the reverse can also be true. Conquest, Birthright, Gaiden and Holy War have a small roster of characters which makes it easier to make them all unique. Having a small roster doesn’t automatically mean that your game will be balanced but it certainly helps.


  • Base Stats: If you want to make your game balanced you need to make sure that every character has at least decent base stats for their join time. This is what often makes the bottom tier games bad: They give you tons of weak and unviable units. Granted, not every character needs to have super amazing base stats upon join time but they should be good enough to be usable without tons of effort or investment. 

                                   Since I know a lot of people like that element of raising a unit to greater heights I will add that Est type characters need something to balance out their weak starts. This can be done in a variety of different ways like giving them an amazing class to promote to (Narron in Tearring Saga and Lachesis say hi), giving them Paragon so they level up quick, or give them a powerful prf rank weapon that boosts their stats. Ronaldo recommended giving them growths similar to Karel’s in Fire Emblem 6 and I’d like to see that. However you want to go about doing it you should make sure that there’s a powerful plus to balance out a powerful minus.

                                  Before I end this post series I’d like to say this. There are two principles a Fire Emblem game should adhere to if they want to at least have a semblance of balance:

  1. Make sure that your best units cannot solo the game.

  1. Make sure that your worst units are not garbage.

                            If you do at least those two things your game will be more balanced and strategic.