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mark_asphodelI missed yesterday because I fell asleep after dinner and didn't wake 'til after midnight. Whoops.
FE4. Seisen no Keifu. When I got into FE fandom online, there seemed to be two factions-- the one that worshiped FE4 and held all Stateside-release games as inferior, and the one that worshiped FE7 and appeared to reflexively knock each successive release for not being FE7.
Now we have a Tellius faction out there on the internets, too, but the FE4 zealots haven't gone away, and you see their handiwork everything someone pops up proclaiming that Sigurd is the Best and Most Popular Lord EVAR and how it's a high crime that he's not included in SSB:Brawl like that pansy Marth and flash-in-the-pan Ike.
These people thought Sigurd would be the first DLC character release for FE13, too, and boy was my prickly heart glad when that turned out to be Starlord Marth.
Myths about FE4:
1) It's a great game.
I dunno. I'd expect a truly great game to have flawless or near-flawless gameplay, not a hodgepodge of genuinely game-breaking OP characters and useless characters. I'd expect a great game to have pleasing map design, not the truly shitty designs inflicted upon the player in CH2, Ch4, and Ch7. The true killer here is replay value, and while I've started five different versions of FE4 to maximize my pairing fun, and had some amusing variance in results, I've gotten bogged down in some of the aforementioned shitty chapters and just... don't want to keep plowing ahead. As Ammie said not long ago, once you know how to play it, you've broken it.
Notice a lot of people who L-O-V-E FE4 are playing hacks like Binary or Inflation, manipulating save states, and doing all kinds of things not offered in FE4 "vanilla" aka the actual game. Frankly, I think this game deserved the low Famitsu rating it got at the time!
2) But it has the best characters!
Eh. I find this one more subjective than map design, because tastes vary, but in many ways it's not really a step up from FE3 or even FE2 in terms of "character development" (or not). FE4 has some vividly sketched out characters, and some characters that I guess qualify for actual "development" instead of just exposition dumps. I'll use Levin as an example-- we actually see him change from the duty-shirking bard in Chapter 2 to a responsible avatar of Holsety when he reconciles with his mother in Chapter 4. After that, his re-appearance in Ch6 doesn't come as a shock. But then counterbalance Levin with the total lightweights in Gen 2 (Lester, Delmud, Scathach, I'm looking at you), and other characters that seem to be calling out for more, that something more could've been done with them (Shanan comes to mind).
Not to mention the game's character development hinges on an improbable rushed love story-- more on that later. FE4 does excel at crafting memorable and sympathetic villains as well as the usual run of ugly mugs who just need to die. That's a big point in its favor. And the FE4 characters leave a lot to the player's imagination, which IMO is great for 'fic. But despite the small number of playable characters in each Generation, it doesn't have the tight-knit cast of FE8, wherein everyone's presence makes sense. And the "everyone pairs with everyone" system allows you to theoretically do a whole run of Gen1 pairings without a single lovers' conversation between them. How's that for development? "Genealogy of the One-Night-Stands."
3) But Sigurd is the best lord ever!
OK. Sigurd is a lovely OP thing on a horse who's awesome right out the gate in terms of killing things. And really bad things happen to him. Yes. But in terms of characterization, I have to say I seriously don't get people who say they like-- really like, find appealing, find noble and tragic-- this dumbass who blunders around the continent heedlessly wrecking things before he gets framed and has to flee to Silesse. Sigurd's an example of crappy character development in that he doesn't really change; we get TOLD via Ethlin that he's changed, but we see no evidence of this. He doesn't comprehend what he's doing even when Levin calls him out on it in Ch2-- after the stated "change," even! His mistakes have actual consequences, which is nice, but often fandom-- especially forum fandom-- doesn't want to acknowledge the mistakes for what they are, or his character flaws for what they are.
But the upshot is, for six chapters you have a main character that I, personally, want to slap.
4) But Holsety is the best weapon ever!
What did I say above about OP, unbalanced gameplay? Getting a couple of weapons that trivialize large chunks of gameplay isn't necessarily a good thing, and throwing Holsety at every conceivable problem has drawbacks. I thought we were playing a strategy game? I signed up for a strategy game.
5) But it has the best plot!
Hmm. Well, it certainly has a good central plot twist. I've complained before about the falling action in Gen2 being dramatically weak, possibly because there was supposed to be a Gen 3 and therefore the Gen 2 plotline we got isn't what we were supposed to get. The real killer IMO is that so much of FE4-- from the reason Sigurd is framed to Seliph's right to the throne of Grannvale-- comes back to that improbable love-at-first-sight "romance" between Sigurd and Deirdre. It's not like IS can't write couples-- hell, right there in the same game we have Cuan and Ethlin, a totally believable married couple. It's not like IS can't write unrequited love, or longing, or courtships. But man, the central pairing in this game is a black hole of not-working-for-me. And I'm hardly alone on that one.
So is this really a bad game? No, not at all. There are elements to SNES gameplay, like the role of the dancer and some of the staff magic, that add a lot to playing. I love the FE4 arena and the weapon repairs (jury's out on the pawn shop). The lack of vulneraries and elixirs means you have to take different healing strategies into account. The various skill rings are a fun thing to play with because they aren't one-use-only. And the long chapters means you get caught in an endless sweep of gameplay that makes it hard to break away for the night.
Bonus myth: Seliph is a loser character
Actually, he's not that bad. He's smarter than his father and seems to know his own limitation, so props to him. I don't love him, but he's a solid Acceptable as a main character.
FE4 makes different demands on your attention span, your weapon-allocation strategies, and your deployment methods than "normal" FE. At this point it may well be the franchise oddball, given that world maps and zombies are now a running thing. But I do have to wonder if people who claim this is "the best" FE have played it-- not a hack, not an expansion, not some lulzy saved file, but the actual game. And then I have to wonder if they've played any of the rest.
FE4. Seisen no Keifu. When I got into FE fandom online, there seemed to be two factions-- the one that worshiped FE4 and held all Stateside-release games as inferior, and the one that worshiped FE7 and appeared to reflexively knock each successive release for not being FE7.
Now we have a Tellius faction out there on the internets, too, but the FE4 zealots haven't gone away, and you see their handiwork everything someone pops up proclaiming that Sigurd is the Best and Most Popular Lord EVAR and how it's a high crime that he's not included in SSB:Brawl like that pansy Marth and flash-in-the-pan Ike.
These people thought Sigurd would be the first DLC character release for FE13, too, and boy was my prickly heart glad when that turned out to be Starlord Marth.
Myths about FE4:
1) It's a great game.
I dunno. I'd expect a truly great game to have flawless or near-flawless gameplay, not a hodgepodge of genuinely game-breaking OP characters and useless characters. I'd expect a great game to have pleasing map design, not the truly shitty designs inflicted upon the player in CH2, Ch4, and Ch7. The true killer here is replay value, and while I've started five different versions of FE4 to maximize my pairing fun, and had some amusing variance in results, I've gotten bogged down in some of the aforementioned shitty chapters and just... don't want to keep plowing ahead. As Ammie said not long ago, once you know how to play it, you've broken it.
Notice a lot of people who L-O-V-E FE4 are playing hacks like Binary or Inflation, manipulating save states, and doing all kinds of things not offered in FE4 "vanilla" aka the actual game. Frankly, I think this game deserved the low Famitsu rating it got at the time!
2) But it has the best characters!
Eh. I find this one more subjective than map design, because tastes vary, but in many ways it's not really a step up from FE3 or even FE2 in terms of "character development" (or not). FE4 has some vividly sketched out characters, and some characters that I guess qualify for actual "development" instead of just exposition dumps. I'll use Levin as an example-- we actually see him change from the duty-shirking bard in Chapter 2 to a responsible avatar of Holsety when he reconciles with his mother in Chapter 4. After that, his re-appearance in Ch6 doesn't come as a shock. But then counterbalance Levin with the total lightweights in Gen 2 (Lester, Delmud, Scathach, I'm looking at you), and other characters that seem to be calling out for more, that something more could've been done with them (Shanan comes to mind).
Not to mention the game's character development hinges on an improbable rushed love story-- more on that later. FE4 does excel at crafting memorable and sympathetic villains as well as the usual run of ugly mugs who just need to die. That's a big point in its favor. And the FE4 characters leave a lot to the player's imagination, which IMO is great for 'fic. But despite the small number of playable characters in each Generation, it doesn't have the tight-knit cast of FE8, wherein everyone's presence makes sense. And the "everyone pairs with everyone" system allows you to theoretically do a whole run of Gen1 pairings without a single lovers' conversation between them. How's that for development? "Genealogy of the One-Night-Stands."
3) But Sigurd is the best lord ever!
OK. Sigurd is a lovely OP thing on a horse who's awesome right out the gate in terms of killing things. And really bad things happen to him. Yes. But in terms of characterization, I have to say I seriously don't get people who say they like-- really like, find appealing, find noble and tragic-- this dumbass who blunders around the continent heedlessly wrecking things before he gets framed and has to flee to Silesse. Sigurd's an example of crappy character development in that he doesn't really change; we get TOLD via Ethlin that he's changed, but we see no evidence of this. He doesn't comprehend what he's doing even when Levin calls him out on it in Ch2-- after the stated "change," even! His mistakes have actual consequences, which is nice, but often fandom-- especially forum fandom-- doesn't want to acknowledge the mistakes for what they are, or his character flaws for what they are.
But the upshot is, for six chapters you have a main character that I, personally, want to slap.
4) But Holsety is the best weapon ever!
What did I say above about OP, unbalanced gameplay? Getting a couple of weapons that trivialize large chunks of gameplay isn't necessarily a good thing, and throwing Holsety at every conceivable problem has drawbacks. I thought we were playing a strategy game? I signed up for a strategy game.
5) But it has the best plot!
Hmm. Well, it certainly has a good central plot twist. I've complained before about the falling action in Gen2 being dramatically weak, possibly because there was supposed to be a Gen 3 and therefore the Gen 2 plotline we got isn't what we were supposed to get. The real killer IMO is that so much of FE4-- from the reason Sigurd is framed to Seliph's right to the throne of Grannvale-- comes back to that improbable love-at-first-sight "romance" between Sigurd and Deirdre. It's not like IS can't write couples-- hell, right there in the same game we have Cuan and Ethlin, a totally believable married couple. It's not like IS can't write unrequited love, or longing, or courtships. But man, the central pairing in this game is a black hole of not-working-for-me. And I'm hardly alone on that one.
So is this really a bad game? No, not at all. There are elements to SNES gameplay, like the role of the dancer and some of the staff magic, that add a lot to playing. I love the FE4 arena and the weapon repairs (jury's out on the pawn shop). The lack of vulneraries and elixirs means you have to take different healing strategies into account. The various skill rings are a fun thing to play with because they aren't one-use-only. And the long chapters means you get caught in an endless sweep of gameplay that makes it hard to break away for the night.
Bonus myth: Seliph is a loser character
Actually, he's not that bad. He's smarter than his father and seems to know his own limitation, so props to him. I don't love him, but he's a solid Acceptable as a main character.
FE4 makes different demands on your attention span, your weapon-allocation strategies, and your deployment methods than "normal" FE. At this point it may well be the franchise oddball, given that world maps and zombies are now a running thing. But I do have to wonder if people who claim this is "the best" FE have played it-- not a hack, not an expansion, not some lulzy saved file, but the actual game. And then I have to wonder if they've played any of the rest.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-03 06:45 pm (UTC)I like that Sigurd's actions have consequences, but I don't understand how he is hero-worshiped in that case. He rushes into things. Was it REALLY a good idea to aggravate an already tense political situation by rushing off to rescue Adean instead of waiting for help? (I just realized that this statement comes off as rather callous, but from a political perspective...)
Yeah, SigurdxDiadora does not work for me. However, I like to pretend that they're Marius and Cosette from Les Miserables (a ship I am neutral about) because they also have the "cheesy love at first sight" dynamic. And "In My Life" works surprisingly well for Diadora!
no subject
Date: 2013-02-04 04:42 am (UTC)Yeah. No, Ethlin's right when she calls him a careless slob. She's just wrong when she alleges he's grown up any!
(Mind you, Ethlin made things plenty worse on her own by dragging Cuan into it.)
no subject
Date: 2013-02-03 09:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-04 04:41 am (UTC)