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Aug. 1st, 2015 11:56 pmi haven't really been into the OC scene but this story sort of formed itself in my head tonight. heavily inspired by a This American Life episode called "Abdi and the Golden Ticket," which aired July 4, 2015.
maybe a plot for the next fire emblem game. or maybe it's too close to IF (i have no idea and won't until at least 2016) so it's a plot for some kind of cool fantasy jrpg.
Protag: my first thought is a guy, because jrpg protags are always guys, but I don't see why I can't break with tradition here. people Should break with tradition. So protag could be a female. I guess essentially it doesn't matter; player can choose either but default is female because Let's shake up the system a little (/suck it, boys). A refugee in a war-torn country, trained in battle (she was conscripted I guess), trying to get to a better place. She gets there, and tries to build a rebel force to fight the enemies back home. But finds that the conflict isn't so black-and-white; her enemies have their own reasons (kare nari no riyuu ga aru to omounda)--maybe diplomacy is the answer here? Only to find that the better place people need the wars to continue...! (that last sentence is a plot twist so dont tell anyone ok)
World: There's protag's war-torn home country, and lots of warring states around it. Yeah, a fire emblem map comes to mind. There's also this shining golden land with an advanced civilization... like how elves in LOTR are or those dragon people in Xenoblade (manaketes? is it just like FE??). It's a peaceful land of prosperity and opportunity, and of course the rest of the world would love to go there but of course it's super hard to get in unless you're one of those higher being people who live there. Currently picturing men with long silver or blonde hair because i'm anime trash
Anyway, in an effort to diversify their society, connect with the rest of the world without getting too dirty with its bloody wars and political unrest and stuff, and provide opportunity to a few lucky individuals, this golden land holds a lottery each year that allows one person from each outside country to get in. (Just like the visa lottery that the US holds which the TAL episode introduced me to.)
Story:
Life used to be good for protag--happy childhood memories of family and peace. Then war breaks out, and everything changes. Suddenly every day is a struggle to survive. She learns to fight. The reason for the war, as far as it is known to her people, is your typical (dumb) reason for war: the enemy wants some kind of valuable resource that our country has; we need it and can't afford to share it; enemy Really wants it so they invade and attack our civilian populations as a show of ruthless force to intimidate our leadership into giving up the resource (it's idk the dragonballs, or the fire emblem, or triforce you get what i mean).
[gameplay: Begins with protag in soldier training. basic gameplay tutorial, can only run around hometown, practice sparring with fellow soldiers--this is so cliche LOL UGH but that's how it goes. Then flashback cutscene fills you in on her backstory and the reason for the current war.)
Thrown into such a miserable situation, protag applies for the lottery. Chances are slim, but what the heck? Guess what, she wins!! ding ding ding
Sometime between winning her ticket and her immigration date, the battlefield reaches her neighborhood and despite her efforts to defend them, most of her family is wiped out. Now it's a revenge story: she resolves to get to the golden land and find the means to fight back against her home country's aggressors. She meets other lottery winners who have also been victims of her enemy's violence. A few join her cause (dwarf/melee guy joins your party! plucky thief joins your party! etc). In the golden land, she finds access to superior arms and weapons and learns new attack skills! (it's that part of the game where up until now you've only had the basic tunic and kokiri sword or whatever, but now you got the master sword! nice!) Despite being a peaceful civilization, the golden land people seem sympathetic to her cause; they tell her they disapprove of her enemy's aggression and help her strengthen her little rebel force, provide some resources, etc.
[gameplay: control protag/mission is to go apply for the lottery. do it and there's a cutscene. run around and complete a few more basic goals, then cutscene shows lottery results and protag winning. next cutscene is the battle. control returns to player, and you fight a little until you reach the place where your family is going to be killed in such a cliche war story turn of events--cutscene of them dying, protag yells "NO" or something like eren when his mother gets eaten. control returns to player but you dont really do much, it just interrupts a string of cutscenes. then cutscene of some character interaction showing protag resolving to get revenge. next cutscene is travel. Control returns to player, you fight some enemies on your way to your voyage vessel (a ship??). then non-fighting control aboard ship where you have some cute sidequests and character interactions. when you reach the golden land, it's mostly a grinding area with an arena probably, lots of sidequests, your general big main area like kakariko village/luminose city.]
After awhile, she's built up her force and ready to go back and fight. by then the devastation has probably gotten really bad back home. the battle immediately after leaving golden land is probably that Really Tough chapter that you have to attempt a few times. This part of the plot is a little hazy to me; I guess she goes to fight, it's tough and she doesn't make much progress, then finds out some stuff about the enemy? That the conflict is a little more complicated than she thought. Meets someone from her country's royal family; learns that your government did some shitty things too which kind of instigated the enemy's declaration of war. Her discoveries also suggest that diplomacy could be a solution......!
Protag returns to golden land (she has in & out privileges now) for some resource/aid that could help with the diplomacy goal. gets some of that aid, and returns to attempt to implement the solution. But in the middle of it she find a member of the higher race (someone she now knows) sabotaging the peace effort?!
The explanation for this is where things get a little meta. Turns out the high race people are using the warring states in some kind of game...a video game...? And what's necessary for this genre of game is war! So i'm sorry, you can't just solve things peacefully. Humans wage wars (arasoiau no wa shikatanai no kamoshirenai / maybe war is something that is natural for us), and you guys are damn good at it, so don't stop! Now the ultimate goal is not eradication of one's enemy in war, but destroying the game that we are all pawns in. She takes her fight back to the golden land, where I guess the final boss stages are.
TL;DR IN SUMMARY: protag living in a war-torn country wins a golden ticket out of there to a peaceful land with an advanced civilization. her family is killed right before she leaves, so she resolves to gather the means to fight back when she's in the golden land. builds up her rebel force, gets access to some advanced battle technology, and goes back to fight; finds out that the conflict is not so black and white and that the enemy has their own justifiable reasons. Now tries to end the war through diplomacy and peaceful negotiation between the two sides, but people from the advanced civilization sabotage those efforts just when they seem on the verge of success. Protag learns that the advanced civilization is using the warring states as units in a game, and require that the bloodshed continue. Now the protag & her allies fight to dismantle the game.
maybe a plot for the next fire emblem game. or maybe it's too close to IF (i have no idea and won't until at least 2016) so it's a plot for some kind of cool fantasy jrpg.
Protag: my first thought is a guy, because jrpg protags are always guys, but I don't see why I can't break with tradition here. people Should break with tradition. So protag could be a female. I guess essentially it doesn't matter; player can choose either but default is female because Let's shake up the system a little (/suck it, boys). A refugee in a war-torn country, trained in battle (she was conscripted I guess), trying to get to a better place. She gets there, and tries to build a rebel force to fight the enemies back home. But finds that the conflict isn't so black-and-white; her enemies have their own reasons (kare nari no riyuu ga aru to omounda)--maybe diplomacy is the answer here? Only to find that the better place people need the wars to continue...! (that last sentence is a plot twist so dont tell anyone ok)
World: There's protag's war-torn home country, and lots of warring states around it. Yeah, a fire emblem map comes to mind. There's also this shining golden land with an advanced civilization... like how elves in LOTR are or those dragon people in Xenoblade (manaketes? is it just like FE??). It's a peaceful land of prosperity and opportunity, and of course the rest of the world would love to go there but of course it's super hard to get in unless you're one of those higher being people who live there. Currently picturing men with long silver or blonde hair because i'm anime trash
Anyway, in an effort to diversify their society, connect with the rest of the world without getting too dirty with its bloody wars and political unrest and stuff, and provide opportunity to a few lucky individuals, this golden land holds a lottery each year that allows one person from each outside country to get in. (Just like the visa lottery that the US holds which the TAL episode introduced me to.)
Story:
Life used to be good for protag--happy childhood memories of family and peace. Then war breaks out, and everything changes. Suddenly every day is a struggle to survive. She learns to fight. The reason for the war, as far as it is known to her people, is your typical (dumb) reason for war: the enemy wants some kind of valuable resource that our country has; we need it and can't afford to share it; enemy Really wants it so they invade and attack our civilian populations as a show of ruthless force to intimidate our leadership into giving up the resource (it's idk the dragonballs, or the fire emblem, or triforce you get what i mean).
[gameplay: Begins with protag in soldier training. basic gameplay tutorial, can only run around hometown, practice sparring with fellow soldiers--this is so cliche LOL UGH but that's how it goes. Then flashback cutscene fills you in on her backstory and the reason for the current war.)
Thrown into such a miserable situation, protag applies for the lottery. Chances are slim, but what the heck? Guess what, she wins!! ding ding ding
Sometime between winning her ticket and her immigration date, the battlefield reaches her neighborhood and despite her efforts to defend them, most of her family is wiped out. Now it's a revenge story: she resolves to get to the golden land and find the means to fight back against her home country's aggressors. She meets other lottery winners who have also been victims of her enemy's violence. A few join her cause (dwarf/melee guy joins your party! plucky thief joins your party! etc). In the golden land, she finds access to superior arms and weapons and learns new attack skills! (it's that part of the game where up until now you've only had the basic tunic and kokiri sword or whatever, but now you got the master sword! nice!) Despite being a peaceful civilization, the golden land people seem sympathetic to her cause; they tell her they disapprove of her enemy's aggression and help her strengthen her little rebel force, provide some resources, etc.
[gameplay: control protag/mission is to go apply for the lottery. do it and there's a cutscene. run around and complete a few more basic goals, then cutscene shows lottery results and protag winning. next cutscene is the battle. control returns to player, and you fight a little until you reach the place where your family is going to be killed in such a cliche war story turn of events--cutscene of them dying, protag yells "NO" or something like eren when his mother gets eaten. control returns to player but you dont really do much, it just interrupts a string of cutscenes. then cutscene of some character interaction showing protag resolving to get revenge. next cutscene is travel. Control returns to player, you fight some enemies on your way to your voyage vessel (a ship??). then non-fighting control aboard ship where you have some cute sidequests and character interactions. when you reach the golden land, it's mostly a grinding area with an arena probably, lots of sidequests, your general big main area like kakariko village/luminose city.]
After awhile, she's built up her force and ready to go back and fight. by then the devastation has probably gotten really bad back home. the battle immediately after leaving golden land is probably that Really Tough chapter that you have to attempt a few times. This part of the plot is a little hazy to me; I guess she goes to fight, it's tough and she doesn't make much progress, then finds out some stuff about the enemy? That the conflict is a little more complicated than she thought. Meets someone from her country's royal family; learns that your government did some shitty things too which kind of instigated the enemy's declaration of war. Her discoveries also suggest that diplomacy could be a solution......!
Protag returns to golden land (she has in & out privileges now) for some resource/aid that could help with the diplomacy goal. gets some of that aid, and returns to attempt to implement the solution. But in the middle of it she find a member of the higher race (someone she now knows) sabotaging the peace effort?!
The explanation for this is where things get a little meta. Turns out the high race people are using the warring states in some kind of game...a video game...? And what's necessary for this genre of game is war! So i'm sorry, you can't just solve things peacefully. Humans wage wars (arasoiau no wa shikatanai no kamoshirenai / maybe war is something that is natural for us), and you guys are damn good at it, so don't stop! Now the ultimate goal is not eradication of one's enemy in war, but destroying the game that we are all pawns in. She takes her fight back to the golden land, where I guess the final boss stages are.
TL;DR IN SUMMARY: protag living in a war-torn country wins a golden ticket out of there to a peaceful land with an advanced civilization. her family is killed right before she leaves, so she resolves to gather the means to fight back when she's in the golden land. builds up her rebel force, gets access to some advanced battle technology, and goes back to fight; finds out that the conflict is not so black and white and that the enemy has their own justifiable reasons. Now tries to end the war through diplomacy and peaceful negotiation between the two sides, but people from the advanced civilization sabotage those efforts just when they seem on the verge of success. Protag learns that the advanced civilization is using the warring states as units in a game, and require that the bloodshed continue. Now the protag & her allies fight to dismantle the game.
