Silent Dragon ~ Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation

After playing all three components of Fire Emblem Fates back to back, I'm more than a little weary of the game, but I'm still glad that I had the chance to take in the whole experience. Birthright and Conquest are of course the principal halves of Fire Emblem Fates but in Revelation, available as DLC, the two warring countries of Hoshido and Nohr are forced to band together to confront an even greater threat lurking beneath them. As with the previous iterations of Fates, the first 5 chapters are identical and serve as an introduction to the opposing sides and their motivations, to the fearsome Disney villain King Garon, and the noble samurai warrior of Hoshido, Prince Ryoma. In both Conquest and Birthright, the protagonist is given a choice during chapter 6 on whether to support his or her biological family in Hoshido or to side with the family he or she grew up with. If Revelation is present on the Nintendo 3DS system, a third option is available, which allows the player to choose to decline to side with either faction. If this had been an option initially, I feel pretty certain that's the choice I would instinctively pick!

King Garon of Nohr

Still, Revelation serves as context for those who have already played both sides of the conflict and essentially becomes the true storyline of Fire Emblem Fates. The endings for both Birthright and Conquest are bittersweet because it's clear that the choice the player makes directly results in a lot of loss and bloodshed. In Revelation, the protagonist seeks to convince Nohr and Hoshido to work together against a common enemy. Interestingly, this enemy is very seldom alluded to in the main game, although it's clear a lot is uncertain about the motivations of certain characters, particularly Garon and Azura. As a result, both Birthright and Conquest are lacking in closure. Revelation goes a long way toward expanding on this, but I feel conflicted on how the whole package was presented.

Prince Ryoma of Hoshido

For a game with such an ambitious and intricate setup for its plot and characterization, Fire Emblem Fates is certainly disappointingly lacking in its writing. Many plot points are depressingly shallow and characters one-note, especially when it comes to villains. The principle villains in Revelation are alarmingly evil with no sympathetic or human qualities whatsoever. I found myself missing the moral conflict of the previous iterations of the game where I was forced to fight against family simply because I'd had to make an impossible choice in an effort to end the war. There is conflict in the early stages of Revelation when the protagonist must convince the warring factions to cooperate but these characters who have been at odds with each other for their entire lives fall into rhythm laughably quickly. I'm willing to suspend my disbelief a bit and praise the Fates protagonist for his or her outstanding mediation skills--to a certain point--but it would have made a lot more sense to put more emphasis on the struggle for these disparate characters to not only get along but to communicate at all without open hostility. The plot of Revelation is as feasible and as simplistic as fanfiction.

Hoshido and Nohr stand together.

Where Fates continues to succeed is of course in its gameplay. My fear before starting Revelation is that it would recycle a lot of content from Birthright and Conquest, that it would feel like a depresing cashgrab from one of my favorite developers. Although the storyline takes a step down from what was already subpar, the gameplay is as tight and solid as ever--and although there are a number of maps reused from the other two campaigns strictly for the sake of continuity, there are still plenty of inventive maps on display. Honestly, I'd say it finds a happy medium between the two campaigns in terms of overall fun level and design. There is no map in Revelation as annoying as Conquest's Chapter 12: Bitter Intrigue with its breakable poison pots, but still doesn't put too much reliance on vanilla "rout the enemy" objectives like in Birthright. There are maps that make use of fog of war, trick doors, movable platforms, and several maps that require you to divide your forces to tackle different objectives simultaneously. I never found myself bored with the variety of missions Revelation has to offer, except perhaps for the optional child-recruitment missions, which all return. And yes, I did all of them.

Because Revelation allows you to field every playable character of Fire Emblem Fates, regardless of faction, there are dozens of new character interactions available in support conversations. I made a point of pairing Hoshido and Nohr characters together if I could because I thought that might lead to some interesting conflict. Of course, since Revelation places so little emphasis on the fact that these countries hated each other for years and years until the Fates protagonist told them to maybe not do that, these interactions are less interesting than I might have imagined. As usual, I was not impressed overall at the writing in these support conversations--but that's not to say that there aren't a few gems scattered around. Several of the quirky/humorous conversations are fun to read, but none of the more serious ones are particularly interesting or have any real depth. It's possible I harp on this kind of thing too much, but it's particularly jarring when so much emphasis is put on these conversations for gameplay purposes. When they're not well written, it does detract from the experience!

Kaden the Kitsune and Keaton the Wolfskin

I've expressed many times on this blog that I'm a huge fan of crossovers and the kinds of games that emulate the feel of crossovers. Revelation seems that way to me because it combines the disparate characters from both Birthright and Conquest--but as is so often the case in crossovers, a lot of the potential inherent to the concept is wasted. This is partially because the material Intelligent Systems was working with was substandard in the first place, of course, but it's still pretty clear to me that the game could have been implemented better. Fortunately, the gameplay itself is still highly addictive and well designed, with few truly negative qualities. As I've discussed before, the systems in place in Fates are mostly a step forward for the series, particularly when it comes to the removal of weapon durability and the balance of stats and characteristics between classes. Balance gets a little wacky when you throw in an online market for skills (which of course is already replete with hackers), but I tend not to judge games on the availability of optional online content if I can avoid it. Fire Emblem Fates is flawed, but still a very good, enjoyable game. Even so, it's probably unnecessary for the average player to play all three parts of the saga like I did.

An Island of Dogs

Since acquiring full time employment recently, I've had a bit less time for games, but I'm still plodding away doggedly at the final path of Fire Emblem Fates. I'll have plenty to say about Revelation once I've finally finished it, despite the considerable Fire Emblem fatigue I feel has overcome me. I'm perhaps more excited about returning to a slew of games I abandoned before embarking on a journey to play all three chapters of Fates, including Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel, Yokai Watch, and Transistor. I'll be getting back to those soon, but in the meantime my girlfriend and I have managed to complete a quirky little Wii game by the name of The Dog Island in three different sessions over the course of a few weeks.

"The Dog" is a line of artwork and merchandise initially popular in the mid 2000s featuring dogs photographed with a fisheye lens, lending them cartoonish proportions. These adorable puppies were featured in calendars, on folders, and notebooks. Of course, this franchise came straight from Japan--and for whatever reason the brand's popularity led to the creation of a couple of video games, one of which is The Dog Island for the Nintendo Wii. It's easy to dismiss the game out of hand as "shovelware" created in an effort to market a line of doggie plushes--and admittedly this might be a large part of why the game was created. Even so, Japanese developer Yuke's put a lot of care into a game about a bunch of cutesy big-headed dogs.

The Dog Island could best be described as an adventure game with RPG elements not entirely unlike The Legend of Zelda. Unlike more traditional offerings of the genre, it has very little emphasis on action or combat. Although your dog protagonist (one of many different breeds, chosen by the player at the beginning) will find him or herself beset by poisonous cobras, buffalo, and bears, you won't be tasked with defeating them. It is frequently necessary to run from or to avoid these foes, but in some cases you can simply sneak up on them and bark at them to stun them for a time. You might even receive a special item from some enemies.

The majority of the game's thrust comes from its many quests, in which the Dog will solve the many and varied troubles of the canine inhabitants of the Dog Island town of Pupsville, Gigili Village, and others. Although his initial goal is to cure his ailing sister, the game's scope gradually broadens beyond that as he discovers that he'll have to become a Sniff Master by uncovering the game's dozens and dozens of unique scents. The majority of quests in the game will involve the Dog sniffing out particular items that must be returned to an NPC or used in other ways to solve problems. In some areas, it is necessary to bait elephants or alligators into spots so they may be used as stepping stones to reach previously inaccessible locations.

The breadth of exploration in The Dog Island surprised me. I was expecting it to keep us occupied for just a few hours, but we found ourselves trying to beat the heat in the desert, braving the cold in an icy tundra, exploring a deep ruin and sniffing for clues, putting together a circus troupe, bribing giraffes into carrying us onto high ledges, and running countless errands for a particularly pushy pooch named Henry. It's a surprising gem not only because of the subject matter but because the developer is primarily known for wrestling games.