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randomnameless · 2 years

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To be honest, after that last interview I’ve seen a lot of negativity on my dahsboard regarding Nopes and Fodlan in general and...

TFW I couldn’t join the salt fest earlier :’(

Did IS or KT work on Nopes?

“Yes”

Well, through that interview...

I know I’ve been racking IS over the coals lately, because I’m a filthy “elitist” and I still remember the Tellius, Magvel and Elibe eras and I deeply miss them. Even if we all hate how IS seem to fall on “tried’n’true” tropes like brainwashing (especially women) so it means a character #didnothingwrongitwasntthembutmagic -

That interview, about Nopes, tries to sell the “everyone has a point and valid reasons to fight” and...

I really thought more than I should have about a stupid shitpost project I wanted to post, but I realised it might leave a bad taste in some people’s mouths and I don’t want to make anyone feel ill at ease when shitposting about this “game” but - I thought that nonsense about a “civilizing mission” is now commonly accepted to be utter nonsense, and just a stupid leitmotiv to justify conquest, imperialism and, because those two always go along, racism.

The shitpost idea was to “replace” France in this with a certain Empire and copy-paste Faerghus, Leicester, Brigid, Dagda (but not the lizards, in an ideal world they are, “finally gone” from Fodlan) - but no, it’s a real poster that really existed and displayed a mentality that also existed during dark times, and if I can shitpost with Lion King memes, I won’t do the same with that thing.

But damn if I wasn’t expecting the FE series to take the “With 79600 Men France brings peace and the benefits of its civilisation to its 60 millions of indigens” 1931 propaganda seriously, or at least portray the person who support this “opinion” as someone who has a valid point of view, clashing “ideals” with the rest of their world.

Still, who am I talking about, Supreme Leader or Clout ?

“Yes”

Adrestia wants to bring its “reforms” and “enlightened” ideas about how the world should be beyond its frontiers - that shouldn’t exist in the first place because once upon a time Adrestia encompassed the entire continent so MAGA.

Clout? Wants to “free” Faerghus and its king from “antiquated” notions like chivalry, loyalty, devotion by conquering the land, nearly waltzing on the capital and killing a beloved benevolent figure.

And so...

Why is it suddenly an issue? I mean, I love games where people fight for “reasons” and not because we need a final boss else we can’t close the route, nope.

Beyond talking about games and the messages they convey - I expect more from this “conflict” than *shrug*, *memeshrug*, *sigh* and “okay okay let’s say I agree now just please shut up I don’t want to interact more than necessary with you”.

If the conflict is based on “irreconciliable ideals”, then why don’t we see those characters argue about say “ideals”? We only get a glimpse of it in AM, and then the topic switches to sandwiches because merchandising needs to sell and Shinon can’t make people pots of earl grey or half-naked cipher cards.

In Nopes? Everyone (sort of) agree that the “Rhea Piñata” is bad and they could just get rid of it, then nothing bad will happen.

Clout drinks a Kool-Aid off-screen and no one, after some “mandatory” eye raising from Judith, even asks explanations, nope.

Nopes erased Supreme Leader’s belief that non-humans shouldn’t rule over humans because they, as a race, have no regards for human life.

And Dimitri is hit the hardest with the *shrug* + *memeshrug*, not even voicing any complains about this kool-aid because, just, let’s get over with this nonsense.

So why are they fighting?

“No U” was already used in Nopes, so here they need a Deux Ex Machina and a lot of idiot plot balls to, say, ask Supreme Leader why she wants to conquer Fodlan and remove Rhea from the surface of the continent - no sir!

Why Dimitri doesn’t kill them both the second they’re out of space, because they’re trampling his country and killing his men for no reason?

We all laughed about “no U” and thought it was something exclusive to Supreme Leader because, well, Supreme Leader and marketing means she can’t be challenged - but it was actually in this verse’s DNA!

We don’t see Clout challenge Supreme Leader when she offers Kool Aid - he drinks it off-screen.

Dimitri doesn’t challenge Clout or Supreme Leader about their invasion of Faerghus - he evens sips Clout’s Kool Aid !

Where is Elincia “You cloak your desire to rule with pretty speeches, but it is petty avarice nonetheless!” to the two persons invading a third country for, uh, reasons, or “to civilise them”?

I know I’ve been talking a lot about this game as of lately, because imo it’s a mirror of what we could have, but in TS -

When three people argue about which path to choose, “sacrifice the few for the sake of the many”, “Bootstraps!” and “sacrifice the many for the sake of the few” - those three characters argue, and shout, and fight, and defend their opinions, and ARE challenged by, well, the characters supporting the other options.

In FE16 we had “no u” and “sandwiches”.

In Nopes we have “maybe I’ll stop chasing you and trampling your country if you stop running away teehee ~”

Dimitri accepted to shelter Rhea and the Church because they requested help? “Okay okay maybe you have a point maybe they’re bad and they should be gone”. Where’s the progression between “I’ll accept to help them because even if it means war with Adrestia - provided they weren’t MAGA’ing our way no matter what we did - because that’s the right thing to do, they helped us tremendouly in the past and now, so today, I’ll help them too” to “mkay Clout you’re maybe not wrong” ??

Back to this interview, it finally appeared clearly -

FE16 and Nopes - Fodlan - isn’t a traditional FE verse.

IS worked with KT to make FE16 and Nopes (maybe Nopes is more KT’s bby than IS’s).

Water’s wet, what of it?

From what I could read around, and from a friend who played more Musous games than I did - Musou games aren’t supposed to tell a story with a “complicated” or “serious” plot, it’s a beat them all where you combo randoms with the units you like the most. No earl grey, it’s just to have fun!

FEs... are T (or S?) RPGs, a story based type of games. There is a verse, characters, relationships between those characters, etc etc. Earl grey can exist, because characters are written in a way to make them “interesting” to the player who’s supposed to interact with them in their world.

So what is Fodlan? A Musou or a FE verse, or the worst of the two?

We have a conflict where people will always fight (FE?) so you have to pick a side (FE+Musou?) to see where/how the story is going to end (FE)?

But contrary to “traditional FE”, the characters in Fodlan leading the factions... don’t interact. There is no opposition between them à la Elincia v. Ludveck or even Chrom v. Gangrel, we only have “no u” or “teehee~”.

Why?

Why ???

Because the 3 factions have to be different and refuse to side with each other, even if it is super artificial (FE16′s Gronder Battle v.2 says hi) ? And this artificial “opposition” is even more important than the plot? So even when a Red Emperor does Red Emperor things, for this reason we will still have 3 factions?

To still have the choice to pick “your faction” to “beat the others”?

FE16 tried to cook up and come with an explanation, even everyone hated Clout’s myopia in Gronder.

Nopes drops all pretenses, all leaders have “reasons” and their routes are just “their POV” about how to change things.

Even if those reasons are really reminiscent of Paris’s 1931 Colonial Exposition.

It wouldn’t be an issue if Nopes was an usual musou game (Ganon does Ganon things!) but since Nopes wants to be a FE game?

It is an issue. In FE Giffca roasts Ashnard, in FE, when Lundgren offers Kent a chance to surrender Lyndis to become one of his knights, Kent (tries to) kill him. When Nergal/The Black Fang ask Eliwood to abandon Ninian to them and they promise they will let him leave? Eliwood draws his sword.

No U doesn’t work. In FE, where those things are said, usually, it doesn’t work well because the Lord/Hero/someone you’re playing as gets rid of the person making those outrageous claims.

Ultimately, we’re left with people who have to fight against each other, but who can’t... really hold any animosity against each other, leaving the illusion of a posibility where they could have talked (and not warred... for an artificial reason). Does this feel foggy enough?

Tl ; Dr (because this is already long enough) : Sorry to Pat, but FE16 (and Fodlan?) has always been thought as a nod to FE4 and Belhalla’s Academy, i.e. how Sigurd, Quan and Eldingan used to go to the same school together and became friends. And how tragic it is that they have to fight against each other.

However, FE4 built up this conflict, and... Quan sided with Sigurd.

In FE Fodlan? People oppose each other for... reasons that aren’t built upon and we’re supposed to be sad that they fight each other? Why? Did we hear about past history between them when they were friends? Or saw it on-screen? Why should it be a tragedy?

FE16 tried to give an answer, and it wasn’t convincing.

FE Nopes... per the devs, doesn’t even try. It’s just here, they all have their POVs and reasons, and they fight because they fight, and it is sad that they have to do so because. Look, they could have been friends under other circumstances (maybe if one of them didn’t try to invade the world to MAGA, or if the other didn’t start a war on the other with a third party involved but we’re not going to talk about that) but it doesn’t so here you go.

So while I wanted to say Nopes is a 66% KT product and the “two writers” meme could really imply that IS wrote AG (and AM in FE16) while KT wrote SB and GW -

At its core, FE Fodlan is not a FE verse, but a hybridation of KT’s approach to games and stories with FE’s approach, and just like a liger, it spectacularly failed.

Why, it’s not wonder so many people actually liked the Fodlan cast in FEH (or in their first apparitions) there was no pretenses or illusory conflicts/friendships to be had, Supreme Leader’s words and “ideals” could and are challenged, something that never happened in FE Fodlan.

Could FE Fodlan have been something really nice/good with IS being only dev ?

...

Ultimately, I don’t think so, FEH is... imo, the best window we have on IS and... well. The writing sucks, but moreover... IS wants to make money through this gacha game.

Some people already wrote a lot about it, but Supreme Leader’s partly designed to sell alts in FEH. So, judging by how everyone hated Supreme Puppet and her “Deedee?” - I’m not sure FE Fodlan, made exclusively by IS, would have been a better thing.

----

Real Tl;Dr : If KT works on the next FE game, I’ll seriously consider not buying it because, for me, this crossover was an utter failure.

If IS releases a new FE game right now, I’m still going to be doubtful and wait to see if people have a good opinion on this game.

To be clear, the only FE game I’m going to buy with closed eyes at the moment is a remake.

#idk what i'm writing lol #i think i forgot what i wanted to say #FE16 #3 Nopes #FE series #i want to avoid tasteless memes #but damn at times when you consider #in your beloved franchise this appears? and it's played straight?#We're not playing GTA here #the FE series has a history #and themes #you can play with them #but not burn them to make money in a gacha game

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