Is there another game that's as unshowily well-written as Fire Emblem Sacred Stones?

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Don't say Planescape or Fallout or Spider & Web or whatever - those are all about the text, which is totally different. Whereas Fire Emblem's is just so... undeservedly humble? It's not trying to be literature or anything, it's just humbly backing up the Advance Wars-a-like-ness with stock J-rpg tropes. Only, it's interesting and engrossing and varied and kind of brilliant? I don't even know how you write text like that!

Are there other games like this?

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Friday, 14 April 2006 21:38 (twenty years ago)

I really like the writing on Shadow of the Colossus, but I'm not sure if it would be considered showy or not. There's a fair number of grammar errors, and the writing is ultra serious in a way that borders on hamfistedness, but I love its sparseness and general lack of bullshit.

I'm not sure Psychonauts would work without the excellent writing. The Katamari games both feature great writing. These might be a bit more showy, though.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Friday, 14 April 2006 21:51 (twenty years ago)

polyphonic OTM entirely.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Saturday, 15 April 2006 01:34 (twenty years ago)

I think it's a great credit to the QA & project mgmt folks at Nintendo Intelligent Systems that when they finally brought the FE series over, they made sure to apparently hire absolutely topnotch writers for the localization. The dialogue all fits in the space, it's obviously been pored over by a knowledgeable editing team, it flows like Medieval Drama English seems like it ought to, and for as far as I've gotten and what I've seen of any of the games there's absolutely no Square-Enix type moments where you go "huh, well, there goes an idiomatic expression under the rug."

I guess to summarize, I think the thing that really sets it apart is attention to detail, more than anything else. It's so consistent, as if they have a Fire Emblem (E) Style Guide for all of them.

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Monday, 17 April 2006 16:34 (twenty years ago)

gravel & tom otm.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 17 April 2006 16:38 (twenty years ago)

three weeks pass...

Playing it again on hard - full of nice little jokes you only get the second time.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Saturday, 13 May 2006 21:49 (twenty years ago)

two years pass...

i have found i really love this game

that you get told there's a ghost ship blocking the harbour and no one can charter sea passage and they need someone to drive it away, then immediately go "huh, well, guess we take the overland route then" is pretty neat

― thomp, Monday, 28 July 2008 15:17 (seventeen years ago)

fire emblem ds be coming

― s1ocki, Monday, 28 July 2008 21:02 (seventeen years ago)

oh awesome yes

i am actually kind of hacked off at game right now because i have been trying obsessively to have everyone survive and this one boss seems to have almost certain one hit kills, which makes me sad

allowing ppl to die is kind of awesome in terms of the I R Serious Gamer type's usual complaint that jrpgs don't let you do anything meaningful i think

― thomp, Tuesday, 29 July 2008 17:42 (seventeen years ago)

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