Fire Emblem 4 - Genealogy of the Holy War: Part 1 - A Song of Ice and Fire Emblem

Nickname: A Song of Ice and Fire Emblem

                Plot: In my opinion the strongest category for Holy War is it’s story.  Since most of the people who have read my reviews have played Holy War I am going to dive into spoiler territory. If you haven’t played Holy War yet  THERE WILL BE SPOILERS DOWN BELOW!

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                             Alright I think that should be enough arrows. Holy War has the darkest plot in the entire Fire Emblem series. In fact I tend to think of it as a 16 bit Game of Thrones, hence the title ‘A Song of Ice and Fire Emblem’. Incest is a major plot point in both stories (Joffrey’s parentage leads to the War of the Five Kings while Alvis and Diadora spawn Julius, which is Manfroy’s plan) and in both stories it has disastrous consequences. Rape is also featured in both stories, although in Holy War it’s only the explanation for how Azel was born and thankfully it’s never shown explicitly. Game of Thrones on the other hand has lots of rape and that show is very explicit. The third  major similarity is that both stories feature TONS of political upheaval.

                               Political upheaval is par for the course in Fire Emblem narratives but Holy War amps this to 11. The conflict at the start of the game features Grandbell getting pissed off at random barbarians slaughtering an allied town which snowballs into a major war. Meanwhile poor Sigurd gets involved with events that go way over his head resulting in him conquering 2 countries and dealing with 2 civil wars (the second civil war involving him eliminating 2 Grandbell dukes). In terms of military upheaval here’s a sample of what I’m talking about:

• Darna gets slaughtered. Grandbell declares war. King Mananan of Isaac beheads the barbarian leader. Then Mananan gets assassinated before he can bring the head of the barbarian ruler over to Grandbell. Maricle, the crown prince of Isaac, leads the charge against Grandbell even though he knows that Isaac will be destroyed.

• Sandima goads King Batou into launching a preemptive strike against Grandbell. Said strike leads to Sigurd and co. fighting back which ultimately results in the takeover of Verdane. Meanwhile Eltoshan has to cover Sigurd’s back because Duke Elliott tries to launch a sneak attack of his own against Grandbell.

                              In just the first two chapters of the game you’ve got major political schemes and machinations going on as various dukes and kings kill each other for power. These two conflicts alone set up further conflicts which snowball and escalate into even bigger wars. That’s something I love about Holy War. The politics in the first generation are absolutely crazy!

                             Something that this game does very well is that it feels very distinctively medieval. Fire Emblem is supposed to be Japan’s take on medieval Europe but most of the series only comes across as medieval European in the way that most generic fantasies do. Holy War, by contrast, goes the extra mile to feel distinctively medieval by including some of the darker and nastier elements that were major parts of medieval Europe. Here are all the ways that for me make Holy War more distinctively medieval:

1. Incest: That happened in real Middle Ages between actual nobility. The thing is, the player could make incest happen between certain characters (for example Claude x Sylvia, Lex!Larcei x Johan / Johalva or just any version of Larcei x Shannan). Unlike Fates or even Awakening, incest is more prominent to the story and serves a function other than to allow the self insert character to have sex with more characters.

2. The emphasis on cavalry: Say whatever you will about its effect on the balance of the game (in fact I’ll be making a point about it later on in this review) but you have to admit that the huge focus on cavalry is something that makes it feel more distinctly medieval. Cavalry was a big deal in the Middle Ages. Here’s what a quick Google search of cavalry’s impact on medieval warfare brought about:

                      

                               “The speed, mobility and shock value of the cavalry was greatly appreciated and exploited in armed forces in the Ancient and Middle Ages; some forces were mostly cavalry, particularly in nomadic societies of Asia, notably the Mongol armies. In Europe cavalry became increasingly armoured (heavy), and eventually became known for the mounted knights.” (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalry#European_Middle_Ages)

                             Now to be fair, one aspect of medieval warfare that Holy War didn’t incorporate was the fact that archers actually won battles and played a HUGE role in determining the outcome of a battle. Still, that doesn’t take away from the fact that cavalry was also important in the Middle Ages.

            3.  The way kingdoms are set up: The way that the countries in Holy War are set up also feels very distinctly medieval. You have duchies that are under the control of dukes that “possessed large territory and military holdings, and exercised partial autonomy while serving under the Royal Family.” (Source: http://serenesforest.net/genealogy-of-the-holy-war/scripts/script-translation/prologue-birth-of-the-holy-knight/)

                   That’s akin to how medieval societies were set up. While the quoted script is talking about how Grandbell’s government is set up, the rest of the countries in Jugdral are also set up that exact same way. It’s because of this that I can overlook the fact that there’s only one map objective in the entire game. 

            4. People getting burned at the stake: No I’m not talking about the Massacre at Barhara. I’m talking about the background lore that involves the Loputo Clan getting burned at the stake because they were descendants of the Dark God. While the reasoning may be different that is still something that happened in the medieval times. As far as I’m aware no other Fire Emblem game does this.