Why I love Base Conversations in the Tellius Fire Emblem games

Base conversations let you speak to characters, get lore, and even get rewards

While interaction between units in the Fire Emblem series has always been around in some form, an actual classic support system has only been around since the fourth entry, and the more modern style of it has only been around since the sixth entry. Changes have been made to the system over time, but it has mostly been through iteration on the support system that The Binding Blade established. Supports exist as both a gameplay mechanic that provide buffs for fielding certain units together, and as a means to flesh out a large cast of characters, and their relationships. Whilst Awakening and Fates were especially focused on the romance aspect of supports, that system was not necessarily just a waifu / husbando simulator. Some maxed supports would end up in a bromance, in bittersweet endings, family bond, or other more platonic, but meaningful conversations. Nevetheless, supports come with a limitation; you can miss them, and you usually have limited access to them. You might not see all of them in a given playthrough.

 

The disadvantage with supports is that by having these limitations, you may not be as exposed to the backstories, motivations, and banter or certain characters, and your understanding of the game’s lore will be heavily skewed towards the perspectives of a handful of favourites. I know for a fact that I have grown to like some characters more through reading their supports. Had I not read Felix’s supports from Three Houses, I would have written him off as just another Navarre type edgelord. Having read them, I grew to sympathize with his character on a deeply personal level, and he has been a mainstay in my party in every route. Still, had I not fielded him, I wouldn’t know about this, and I would not think much of him.

 

His support with Annette reminds me my own relationship

These limitations were shattered in Path of Radiance with a great narrative feature that complemented the already-present support system: Base conversations. Path of Radiance (and Radiant Dawn) has your group move around the continent, setting up camp at various locations. In between battles, you can go and check up on conversations that various characters might be having. Perhaps you get to learn more about the relationship between three bickering brothers who actually care about each other, or the weird bromance between a philanderer and a foul-mouthed archer with an attitude problem, or the scheme of a tactician, conning a merchant with dubious love advice to get a rare item while throwing his best friend under the bus. These conversations can happen between any numbers of characters, and do not necessarily have to be “one on one”. They can also be timed to be at specific moments in the story, or after a specific thing was done (like recruiting someone, visiting a house with a specific character, etc…). This allows these conversations to take into account where you are at in the story, the location you are at, and other contextual elements. This serves to flesh out character you might not be using as much, and grow to appreciate them more. This also gives the player more knowledge about the world, and the group dynamics in your army. The story might have been mostly told with still images, but it made it more believable.

 

And thus, I could never take Ike seriously ever again

Of course, there has been other attempts to rework supports into doing almost the same thing. In Shadows of Valentia and Three Houses, some supports will simply not trigger until you have reached a specific point in the story, and they can even be missed altogether if you go past a certain point in the narrative. Still, with the base conversations system, it was much harder to miss most of them, because all you had to do was go through a menu for the vast majority of them. When it comes to supports, you need to be using characters, and placing them next to each other quite a bit. Any under-used characters will just not be featured at all in any out-of-story conversations. And frankly, having to build those supports by doing activities at the monastery in Three Houses, started becoming tedious after a while. At some point, I just wanted to go back to actually playing Fire Emblem, and not have to fish, to prepare a meal, and then build support points. If I wanted to play Animal Crossing, I would play Animal Crossing.

 

All in all, I’m always a fan of ease and expediency when it comes to game design. It makes games more replayable, and lets the player indulge in the story as much as they wish to. Respecting the player’s time, and giving them the chance to experience more of a world they are engrossed in is always a plus to me. I think that supports are a great mechanic, but I also think that they can work very well in conjunction with base conversations. From a narrative perspective, this is the feature I miss the most.

The case for an open-air Star Fox game.

One of my fondest memories about the Nintendo 64 was the first game I got for it: Star Fox 64. The charm of the lovable cast, the great ambient music, the tight controls… everything about this small, but dense package was appealing to me. It was a series that I did not know anything about, and when I went back to try the original SNES game, and then ventured onto Star Fox 2, I was surprised at how forward thinking this series used to be. With the newer entries, I was starting to feel that the series was losing its identity; as if they wanted to innovate for the sake of innovation at the detriment of the game’s inherent quality. I initially felt very confident in Platinum game’s ability to make a good Star Fox experience, as the secret Star Fox easter egg in Bayonetta 2 was the most fun I have had in a Star Fox style arcade shooter since Star Fox 64. Nevertheless, Star Fox Zero may have had the assistance of Platinum Games, but with Shigueru Miyamoto at its helm, certain decisions were made to try and legitimize the use of the Wii U Gamepad. This made the game nigh unplayable for all, even if some did state that they had no issues at all, whilst footage of their gameplay showed them clumsily crashing into buildings.

 

The average response to Star Fox Zero

Still, after having fully played through Star Fox 2’s more open progression system, I have been thinking about how someone could rejuvenate the franchise in an important manner. The first thing that came to mind was to think about what people love about the series. The characters are one of them, but we seldom ever see them outside of missions. We do not get to see how they interact with people when they aren’t locked in intergalactic ship combat. Yet, I see all of these creative-looking planets, but we don’t exactly get to explore them at all. We don’t know all that much about their culture, politics, or just… day to day lives.

 

I am proposing an open-air style Star Fox game that blends the classic arcade gameplay into an explorative experience. Imagine a classic scenario where all of the Lylat system was taken over and Corneria remains as the last bastion of resistance against the attack. You begin the game pushing away an invading force, and the Cornerian army hires you as a strike force to attack from behind enemy lines as the bulk of the Cornerian army fights to defend their ground. You are literally sent to liberate planets because they just can’t spare the troops to do anything other than that.

 

As you start flying to different planets, you might stumble upon military checkpoints, bases, secrets, creatures, raiders, etc… As you perform various side missions, you can get paid for your work, and spend said credits on upgrades. These would be “different” as opposed to better. For example, maybe you can replace you default laser with a weaker, but rapid-fire kind of laser, or perhaps you could replace your charged shot with a weaker one that targets multiple enemies at once. Perhaps your charged shot could take a little longer to charge, but have a wider area of effect, or maybe you could invest in a quicker boost that doesn’t have quite as much charge. This would be an interesting way of encouraging exploration without making it mandatory.

 

As you reach an actual level, you shift into a more traditional on rails mode, and play as a classic Star Fox experience. As you begin to liberate there areas, the Cornerian army will gain some ground, and their influence will grow. These zones will become a little safer, and you will then be able to visit some of these planet’s cities and bases to go grab quests, upgrades, and interact with a colourful cast of characters. Quests could as wide as reconnaissance, battles, or assisting characters like Katt, Bill, or new faces in missions. You could even spend time in the Great Fox or in hub cities to get to know your crew a little better. in other words, progression is marked by the front-line moving farther into enemy lines. 

Star Fox in Starlink

The idea is to simulate a war where you make a difference through your direct actions. This is essentially a more… up to date interpretation of Star Fox 2’s gameplay, at a grander scale. Of course, Star Fox lives and dies by its gameplay, and this is why the transition to a rail shooter type of gameplay during regular missions is necessary. It is the bread and butter of the series for a reason; nothing beats a fully tailored on rails experience done well if you want full-fledged cinematic action.

 

A piece of history revisited thanks to the SNES Classic

Of course, I am aware that this level of risk might not be something Nintendo would like to take on. As a series, Star Fox is not exactly the highest-grossing. Still, it is fun to imagine what could be. After all, passion is a beautiful thing.