Historical Lore: 1.5 / 10
Yeah, Gaiden’s historical lore is pretty lacking. While Gaiden does have a timeline (see here for more details: https://fireemblemwiki.org/Timeline_of_Archanea,_Valentia_and_Jugdral) it doesn’t really add anything to the events of the game. We don’t know how long ago the events of Mila and Duma’s conflict were or whether or not there were prior events to what goes on in the game. While the explanation for how these nations came to be is sufficient there aren’t that many details which leaves the game’s lore feeling barely existent (if it even exists at all).
Politics: 0.5 / 10
Valentia has politics? WHAT IS THIS MADNESS? On a more serious note I do consider Valentia to be the worst in this category. For the duration of the game you go around killing monsters and beating down the bad guys in the most straightforward manner possible. There’s no complexity nor nuance. It’s basically Alm playing Whack-A-Mole with a bunch of scrubs. The only reason why Valentia’s getting half a point is because in order for the events of the game to even occur at all there had to be some politics going on. They barely exist but they’re there.
Family Tree / Relationships 1.5 / 10
Another abysmal category for Valentia. This continent doesn’t really have a fleshed out family tree like the other ones do. Rigel’s family tree mostly just consists of a father and a son and Zofia’s family tree is hardly better. Some characters do have some type of relationship to each other but it only comes in small amounts and most of the time it doesn’t add up to much. We do get the Whitewing Pegasus Knight sisters from Archanea (Palla, Catria and Est) back and Alm and Celica know each other, but outside of some brief highlights here and there this category is borderline non-existent in Valentia. Heck, we don’t even know what Alm’s relationship is with the other villagers in Ram Village at the start of the game. Are they his friends? Are they people that just happen to live together? We never learn and that kind of “relationship” is pretty common in Valentia.
Nation Development 1 / 10
What development are we talking about again? We never get to see what kind of military Zofia has because it’s already been crushed by the time that the game starts. Rigel’s military composition doesn’t seem terribly memorable either. Even Fates had countries that had distinct militaries. Valentia doesn’t even have that going for it. We’re told about the distinct differences in how these countries were brought up thanks to the game’s historical lore and it does come into play later on in the game. With that being said the information on these countries is incredibly scarce which hurts Valentia in this category tremendously.
Geography 10 / 10
^ Here’s the world map of Valentia. It is by far the most developed world map in the series bar none.This highly developed world map is a huge reason why Valentia is ranked as having the best geography in the series. The first thing you may notice is that there is an extensive number of locations and notes listed in there. I count over 60 different locations. Not only does Valentia have a lot of locations, it also has a lot of distinct locations too. Need to promote a unit? You go to a shrine that’s inside of a cave filled with monsters. There are also times where you’re fighting in a graveyard, which isn’t something you see all that often. There’s also a handful of locations that have to deal with the sea, which again is something that is almost never done in Fire Emblem. Valentia has all the major types of terrain covered. It has deserts, swamps, forests, plains, a volcano and valleys. This is what I’m looking for when evaluating geography. Castles and villages also seem to stand out more on this world map as well.
Magic Critters 8.5 / 10
Valentia has a ton of monsters and magical creatures. Revenants, entombed, gargoyles, dragons, zombies and floating eyeballs. It also has these things in spades. There are whole maps and levels where the enemies consist of nothing but monsters. There isn’t much of an explanation given for them (I think the assumption here is that they’ve always existed in this world?) so Valentia does lose a point for that. Another interesting note is that Valentia is the only continent in the series where wyverns don’t exist at all. I’ve already subtracted half a point from Valentia for that. Even with all that taken into account Valentia still deserves a very high score in this category. An 8.5 in this category equates to third place because I can think of two other continents that deserve a higher score here. In comparison to how it’s been faring in other categories this is a big step up for Valentia.
BONUS CATEGORIES
Connections to Other Worlds + 4 points
Valentia exists in the same universe as Archanea and Jugdral. Some of the members of the cast originated in Archanea (Palla, Catria, Est and Zeke). It also has the added benefit of Awakening existing which does wonders for Valentia in this category. When you factor these things in is it any wonder that Valentia has the score that it does in this category?
Presence of Female Rulers + 0.5 point
Celica exists. Considering the fact that she one of the main characters and spends the entire game kicking butt and taking names I’d say that counts for something. Unfortunately I can’t think of any other female character that leads armies or rules. It’s possible that I’m missing someone but as far as I’m concerned Celica is really all that Valentia has going for it.
Only Two Countries - 4 points
Having only two countries for one continent is pitiful. There aren’t as many countries to interact with and it makes Valentia feel like less of a fully fleshed out world.
Overall Score: 23.5 / 60. I only consider Gaiden’s world-building to be marginally better than the world building in Fates. The difference here is that Fates has no valid excuse for its world building flaws while Gaiden does. Fates has 3 installments in a modern handheld device. It could have easily made a well developed, fleshed out world. Gaiden by contrast had only one game until recently and it was on an archaic console. It’s not surprising that Gaiden’s world building would feel a little shallow.
Valentia’s world suffers from very vague lore and non existent politics. Only having two countries means that it’s shooting itself in the foot and it doesn’t give way to develop meaningful political interactions. I’m really curious to see what Echoes: Shadows of Valentia will do in this department. It’s border-line impossible for Echoes to screw things up because Gaiden doesn’t have much pre-existing lore to screw up. Only time will tell what Echoes does. That being said Echoes hasn’t been released yet and until it does the old school game is all I have to go off of. Here’s to eagerly awaiting the new release of Echoes. #Echoeshype
Well hey, at least Valentia has a damned name. Even if its age shows.
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