Fire Emblem Fates
Conquest Rewritten

My goal with "Conquest Rewritten" is to draw out the latent story potential within one of Fire Emblem Fates' versions--Conquest--and expand upon its themes so that it may be on par with the rest of the game's quality. By changing the dialogue of cutscene chapters, I aim to give Conquest the story it deserves.No major story elements will change. If a character dies in Chapter 17, they will still die in Chapter 17. Instead of rewriting their death entirely, the changes will give that death a more emotional impact, rather than it coming out of nowhere. Dialogue will be the primary focus, but the few gameplay changes suggested will be simple enough so that they could be easily implemented.

When most people hear "editing" in a writing sense they think of copy editing, going line by line and fixing grammatical errors. Line editing and Developmental editing are micro and macro levels of the same task: helping enhance a writer's story by drawing out latent potential and building upon the author's work in a constructive manner. Line focuses on moment to moment sentences and dialogue, Developmental focuses on broad story beats.All forms of editing involve a conversation between editor and author. Fire Emblem Conquest is a nearly decade old game with a unified design committee presiding over development decisions so difficulties arise in that regard. In lieu of a physical person to talk to, I am going to be in conversation with the pieces of story left on the cutting room floor due to rushed development.

• To The Video

There is a precedent for people in online fandom spaces utilizing developmental editing.
In a video by "ItsYourBoyJacob," the plot of Pokémon Sword and Shield (considered one of the worst plots in the franchise) is dissected then built upon to give its main villain, Chairman Rose, a complex and compelling motivation that matches the gravitas that the game puts on him and his battle. The video is one of his most popular, garnering nearly one million views and wide praise by the Pokémon community.Despite its flaws, I consider Fire Emblem Fates to be one of my favorite games in the franchise. I admire its attempted themes of broken and abused families. I believe that all stories, even if their authors struggled in the execution, have something meaningful and beautiful.This project is done out of love for Fire Emblem Fates and the stories it attempted to tell.

Fire Emblem is a tactical strategy franchise created by Nintendo. Stretching all the way back to 1990 with its first release on the Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System, the franchise is one of Nintendo's less popular mainline game series. The 2012 release "Fire Emblem Awakening" was threatened to be the final game in the franchise due to low sales, but thanks to an outpouring of support, the strategy battle games continue to this day.The stories of the Fire Emblem franchise typically involve Lords and Ladies fighting to protect their respective kingdoms, battling against armies, evil kings and ancestral dragons. Rather than commanding nameless soldiers, the player controls individual units with full personalities that can grow closer with one another over the course of the game. Combined with the franchise's "permadeath" system (if a character/unit dies they are no longer playable), it invites the player to grow attached and engage with the story on a personal level.

Fire Emblem Fates is the 14th installment in Nintendo's tactical RPG franchise "Fire Emblem." The series is famous for the strategy it invokes from the player and stories involving lords struggling to defend their kingdoms. Following the protagonist "Corrin,"
the player must choose between adoptive family and birth family in a growing war between two kingdoms.Three separate versions of the game were created to reflect that choice, so despite there existing "Fire Emblem Birthright/Conquest/Revelation," the three games as a collection are referred to as "Fire Emblem Fates."The game had a strong emphasis on the aspect of family, both blood and otherwise, which sets its story apart from its contemporaries. They explore themes of broken homes and the trauma that can carry over through generations.

Though the games were praised upon first release, in the modern day they are put under more scrutiny. Gameplay-wise they are considered some of the best, introducing dynamic systems which the series still uses to this day. But the story is widely considered to be one of the weakest in the franchise, some suggesting it could be ignored completely.Its core "blood family vs adoptive family" concept was strong, as a product of mismanaged development (the development team were essentially tasked to make three different games in the span of a single development cycle), they could not follow through with the themes they introduced. This results in the story of Fire Emblem Fates feeling shallow at best, and frustrating at worst.