I compare FE (GBA) to Awakening a lot. One thing that came with the 3DS was Nintendo's better localization teams. I don't know if they're connected, or just part of a trend, but I find almost all dialogue on 3DS and newer games to be insufferable. Old Fire Emblem was stiff, serious, and dour in tone. The newer games are a lot less serious, and I can't help but think that is just better translation.
That's a minor gripe I have compared to my complaints about gameplay. But...
in Awakening, Chrom's sister dies via self-sacrifice or whatever. Like minutes later, there is a goof from Chrom's other sister of being hungry. Comic relief should not come from someone who just watched their sister die, and honestly the whole scene lacks any impact anyway.
The games definitely feel like they underwent a tonal shift, and it's especially noticeable in the characters. Before Awakening, we had simple, relatively grounded characters who didn't try too hard to stand out in a crowd. It was easier to get attached to them for their gameplay value in these older games, though if you were willing to delve into support conversations, there was still some character development and fun to be had.
After Awakening, it felt like everyone had to have some kind of stupid trope or quirk attached to them that defined their entire character. "This guy is super huge but nobody ever notices him!" "This kid is really competitive with his older siblings!" "This girl is just... really creepy!" It was fun for about ten seconds, until I realized that they were all actually really boring because they had no depth.
Then Three Houses came along, doing the same thing, but tried to reconcile it by giving everyone some kind of tragic backstory. I just... couldn't. As much as I wanted to like the characters in that game, none of them felt genuine at all. Because in reality, most people are not super quirky and weird all the time; they're relatively normal, and you get to know their little quirks the more time you spend around them.
Shadows of Valentia, as a remake of an older game, felt like the best of both worlds to me. The characters were a bit silly and more colorful, with some great voice acting that really brought them to life, but they were still way more grounded compared to the rest of the 3DS fare. Most of them behaved they way people would, and a lot of them actually commented on the goings-on of the story if you bothered to chat with them during spare moments, so they felt more like genuine companions than just... accessories for your lord and the few who are deemed important by the story.
Except Faye. But guess what? Faye was chucked into Shadows of Valentia as an extra--she wasn't in Fire Emblem Gaiden originally. It's actually not all that surprising that she ended up being the most unbearable character in that game; she was a walking trope in a band of far more realistic characters.
... Not that Shadows of Valentia had a script with any kind of emotional heft, either. In fact, the most powerful storytelling moment in the game for me was actually in the midst of gameplay...
When you finally reach Rudolf, the emperor of Rigel (read: bad guy nation), there's a decent chance you'll end up fighting him with Alm. If he does end up in combat with Alm, he won't attack. He won't counterattack if you engage with Alm, either. There's even a prompt for it: "Rudolf isn't attacking for some reason."
Bewildered, Alm comments after the engagement: "What's going on? Why won't you attack? What are you planning, Rudolf?!"
When you strike him down in battle, his defeat quote is, "This is... as it should be..."
And then, y'know, he reveals that he's actually Alm's father. Which probably isn't too hard to see coming. But it's still really cool that he straight up won't hurt Alm in-game.
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Topic: What are you currently playing? (Read 178913 times)