FE4 is just inherently really optimistic, and its dramatic structure follows accordingly. First things go wrong. They go really wrong. And then they get better.
I almost made a reference to the Divine Comedy in the OP re: how everyone likes Inferno and almost no one actually wants to read Paradiso. But yes, FE4 is structured as a comedy.
ETA the second: Sigurd's part has its own "classical" tragic structure, though, with a climax in Chapter Three (Elto dies, Dierdre gets 'napped, Sigurd & Co are banished). Celice's is more of a mess because of three huge plotlines being juggled-- the Julia/Julius plotline, the Thracia stuff that takes 2.5 chapters, and then the Freege family mess which comes up in a whopping 5 chapters out of the six we spend with Celice. Honestly, Chapter 8, wherein we meet Ishtar for the first time (and kill her father) was probably supposed to serve as a climax given Ishtar is our tragic Camus-type, but Ch 8 didn't work for me.
If I were to fix FE4 without changing its spirit, I would probably do so by somehow shortening the second generation, Radiant Dawn style.
That could work... though I think the player would end up caring even less about the Second Gen characters. I mean, it wouldn't change things like "Johan vs Johalva, who gives a fuck?"
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I almost made a reference to the Divine Comedy in the OP re: how everyone likes Inferno and almost no one actually wants to read Paradiso. But yes, FE4 is structured as a comedy.
ETA the second: Sigurd's part has its own "classical" tragic structure, though, with a climax in Chapter Three (Elto dies, Dierdre gets 'napped, Sigurd & Co are banished). Celice's is more of a mess because of three huge plotlines being juggled-- the Julia/Julius plotline, the Thracia stuff that takes 2.5 chapters, and then the Freege family mess which comes up in a whopping 5 chapters out of the six we spend with Celice. Honestly, Chapter 8, wherein we meet Ishtar for the first time (and kill her father) was probably supposed to serve as a climax given Ishtar is our tragic Camus-type, but Ch 8 didn't work for me.
If I were to fix FE4 without changing its spirit, I would probably do so by somehow shortening the second generation, Radiant Dawn style.
That could work... though I think the player would end up caring even less about the Second Gen characters. I mean, it wouldn't change things like "Johan vs Johalva, who gives a fuck?"