birthright autopsy
okay is this fair:
as i approach endgame it feels more and more like, intsys wrote birthright, intsys had a very clear vision for birthright, birthright was "the" fates story which fwiw is completely congruent with my memory of how fates was discussed pre-release and advertised on launch. birthright is the game as its meant to be played, conquest is the optional challenge mode that intsys never seemed confident that anyone would really be interested in
and that's why half the story beats in conquest don't make any fucking sense. they weren't written for conquest, they were written for birthright. birthright's development time was spent on the story and all the unique cutscene CGs and all the riveting characters like, uh, yukimura, i guess. conquest's development time was spent on the maps and when both teams were done they were what, 70% through the dev cycle and had to scramble to patch the two together
why does lillith die out of nowhere for no reason in cq? she dies in br, killed by hans while protecting corrin as corrin and their hoshidan army enter the nohrian royal palace. why does leo murder iago in cold blood in cq and everyone watches him do this like "okay 🧡 yay 🧡"? because leo kills iago in birthright at the end of corrin's attack on the nohrian royal palace to both keep corrin's hands clean (because corrin is fighting a virtuous war, where no one dies, because hoshido are The Good Guys) and to reassert 'righteous' nohr over garon's 'corrupted' nohr. they just didn't give a shit about conquest's story beyond getting you from one map to the next and it's still better than birthright
birthright is so, so heavy handed, so intellectually half baked, so tediously derivative that it's never actually entertaining. i had no reason to care about the hoshidan royal family when i started br and i have no reason to care about them now. despite everything it's still corrin's story and everything else bloating the cutscenes - takumi's feelings of inferiority, azura's relationship with the people who kidnapped her as a child and have been holding her hostage, ryoma's grandiose statements about the future after the war - they're ultimately meaningless, because nothing happens without corrin's involvement. and it drags on and on and oooonnnnnnnnn
pre-release i was not wowed by the prospect of a japanese company telling a war story in which the japanese side is inherently more noble, just and correct than their non-japanese enemies and unfortunately birthright repays my scepticism in full. and it's not even fun. i really can't stress enough that it's not fun. it's not fun to play, it's not to fun to get through the story, it's not fun to read the supports. you do not, under any circumstance, "gotta hand it to" fire emblem "here's yet another cutscene of corrin sexually objectifiying their sisters for the delight of you, the player" conquest. but it is at least stupid and fun
and yet. at the back of my mind. the painful reminder: birthright isnt even the worst route
