How Faithful should an FE4 Remake be?

Should it be like Shadow Dragon where various changes were made to its core gameplay mechanics?
OR
Should it be like Echoes; adding in a few tweaks and features but being very faithful to the original?

I am not the biggest fan of FE4’s gameplay but I do like its story, presentation and the grand scale of it.

Personally, I would like them to be as faithful as possible to the Original Story but make adjustments to the gameplay such as:

  • Making the maps and enemies more interesting/challenging
  • Give more movement to non-mounted units (while keeping ultra canto to mounted ones)
  • Being able to hand over specific sums of gold
  • Having the Pawn Shop be only used for special items such as rings and add a classic weapon trading system; all the while keeping the set weapon ranks that each character has (and gains upon promotion).
3 Likes

not at all
they should make fe4 an entirely different game

1 Like

They need to make fe4 an entire different game, I agree.
Also, they should add the child hair color variation from awakening and fates

1 Like

I love FE4. But i don’t want the remake to be just FE4HD.
The less faithful, the better.
This goes for any remake in general. I want new experiences, not old but shiny

4 Likes

While I love FE4 and I’m okay with it’s slow gameplay, I’ve gotta agree that it doesn’t fit in the modern time anymore. I’m also thinking that a remake should not replace the OG version by simple being a version with better graphics and all.

It should keep the Spirit of the original (Big Maps, Chapters that aren’t meant to be finished in one sitting, having items bound to a unit), but rebuilt in a way that it feels and play different, not to say more modern. (Allow it to regroup some units after you conquered a castle, giving NPC Castles the same benefits as a Player Castle (except Leonster in Chapter 8). Maybe add the rescue feature, as well as battalions but in a different way to give it an extra-feeling of “Big Army vs Big Army”, making Items tradeable but only in the Castle and maybe let them “Level Up” depending which unit holds them (Stat Rings give +1 on their stat on level 1 and this increases per level up, ending with +5; a weapon needs to be at a certain level to give the full Crit-Bonus based on it’s kills, maybe add shields and increase the usage of Staves per Level Up - Little Bonuses Units could gain, but if it’s traded over to another unit, that one has to Level it up on their own. These Level Up Bonuses would be transfered to the Inheritors of course. That would make it easier to trade items but still make it important to decide who should have which item.). Throwing all Gold into one pot (or making it possible to trade the money with all other units) aaaaaaand of course, even though we’ll probably get at least 1, 2 new units and since the cast is pretty small: Add Generics that can be hired for money. And make the Substitutes better.)

They could prolly make the Maps more interesting by adding more Cutscenes and Events in between the seized Castles (Like, instead of going through this loooooong, tedious forest to recruit Jamke, make it similiar to the Manga, where the Crew chills in the castle for the night, until Sigurd decides to go to the forest to search for Deirde. You could rewrite it so that he goes for her instantly, the rest decides to follow him and you could make the forest to one of those explorable areas, you like to add to your games recently, IntSys. In the end round it up with a small map where you have to defeat/recruit Jamke in SoV-Random Encounter Style. And then go back to the big map and clear a path between the forest tiles. This would be a great opportunity to make important places in the world of Jugdral… More important. And I think it’d be much more impactful or interesting to explore the Yied-Shrine for yourself, instead of just hearing that Seliph sees a drawing of a child.)

The Main-Reason why I’d love to see an FE4-Remake on Switch is that I want a retelling of the Story I grew to love with same passion that went into SoV. And new Artworks of the Cast. (Especially for the Substitutes.) The Gameplay doesn’t need to be the same for that. They should try to give the ideas of then a new Spin, not to convert Sprites to 3D-Models.

BUT… There is one thing I absolutely DON’T want to see in a Remake. Even though the meme is well known in the Community and the game is pretty old.

Spoilers for FE4 ahead... And a triggered person that cares about writing

I absolutely don’t want that the very first cutscene the player sees is a cutscene that contains spoilers again. If a new Savefile confronts you directly with a scene where someone yells “You, Dastard” and calling the name of that “Dastard”, it will destroy one of the best moments in the history of Fire Emblem. They started this Trend with Awakening, it was unnessecary in SoV, it got ridiculous in Warriors and I’m glad they decided to finally include a scene that makes actual sense at the beginning of Three Houses (only to mess it up with details about Dimitri a few minutes later, Byleth shouldn’t even know about during their first meeting).

I don’t know who keeps thinking that it’s a good idea to spoiler the most climatic moments and surprises of a story at the beginning of a game and then expects people to be… well, surprised and flashed by those Plottwists when they happen. Even that one scene with Elise in Fates Birthright throws everything out of the window seconds before it happens. Fates Writing is bad. But that moment in particular was even worse than anything else said in this game. It was an opportunity to make a(t least a small) impact on those who care about Elise. And they couldn’t stay silent even for that.

Whoever is responsible for that re-occurrence. That person should be replaced with someone that has common sense to learn how to execute a surprise. And I don’t say that this element doesn’t work in general - It was used wisely at the beginning of Awakening. It made sense to show something that happens in the Future in a game that is about Time Traveling later on. Especially since this scene was created with the story in mind. You could argue about Fates, and how much sense that made. At least it didn’t spoiler anything. But SoV? What would’ve changed if you didn’t saw that scene first? Nothing at all. Did it serve the plot, regardless if it’s good or bad? No. If it doesn’t make sense, don’t do it. And if you want to attract your player with cool scenes, convert the Infodump at the beginning of FE4 into a cutscene where we see the characters you read about shortly and where Grandbells Army marches against Isaachs Army. Thank you.

6 Likes

In most instances, my standpoint would be “If you want to make a product that isn’t effectively just a port of the game that already exists, why wouldn’t you make changes to improve the experience? If people want to play the original, then let them play the original.”

Now, obviously, for the vast majority of us, we can’t exactly play the original legally (or, for those that would have the hardware and cartridge necessary to actually play an import, the ability to play the original with local language text) and in cases of other desired remakes (FE9/10, etc.), it’s crazy to tell someone that if they want to play the original (legally), they have to fork over a ton of cash in order to do it. And, really the answer here falls on Nintendo to do more of what they did (minus the limited duration) for FE1 and make the original versions available on newer hardware, though they often don’t like to do that.

But, by actually doing this, the remake can be a remake with improvements and changes and not carbon-copying aspects that should have been left behind from the original games (FE2’s map designs (or at least the barren feel of them - can keep the overall flow and placement of things but make them better), FE1’s lack of characters being involved in the story, etc.).

My biggest issue with FE4 is the lack of the Trade command. Look, I get it, it prevents swapping +Crit weapons around and cheesing the game (but yet Forseti is completely okay to cheese things?) and it means that you have to plan for inheritance and such, but, logically, if I was Sigurd standing next to Beowulf, why exactly couldn’t I just hand him a sword? If the kill counts on weapons are an issue, take a page from the topic about “Battle EXP” that was posted on here and either have the kill counts only be counted as a Unit + Weapon pair or simply move them away from the weapons entirely and have it be tracked as a unit stat and have 50 kills (or some other number if changing it for balance) unlock a non-inheritable Critical skill on the unit.

4 Likes

I love FE4 but damn are there things that need improvement on that game. I hope they don’t try to balance mounted units by giving them worse combat stats and instead give an option to fix the move of your infantry units

3 Likes

The only things they should do:
•add more conversations on the map (supports are unnecessary here, they can make them based on what castle you’ve siezed)
•add more dialogue in general
•choose how much gold you want to give
•maybe alter a lot of the boxy enemy formations

There’s no point in an FE4 remake if they just strip it of things that made FE4 unique. A remake should add onto the original experience and enhance it, not alter it beyond recognition.

2 Likes

The maps need to be changed to be smaller or faster paced.

1 Like

Let’s put it like this: I’d much rather they change too little than too much. To respond to the OP, I say do it like Echoes: keep the game largely the same, but improve on things like the presentation. The ideal FE4 remake would be as FE4 stands but with the various dev notes integrated into the game in some way.

Gameplay changes should be strictly restricted to basic things such as toggling enemy range or allowing variation in gold exchange. Minor tweaks such as alleviating the hike to Yied Shrine I could accept, but any breaking up of the maps I will not accept. The game’s balance is flawed, I won’t deny that. But I’d be cautious when it comes to rebalancing, and I would not be pleased if the holy weapons were nerfed.

Story-wise, keep things as is. As I’ve mentioned, fill in details from Kaga’s notes where necessary and add in additional talks where necessary. I’d be sceptical towards adding in FE5 characters and towards general roster expansion. Still, I’d take playable Cyas over playable OC. Speaking of, absolutely no avatar. The last thing the game needs is Kris the Perfect reflecting every meteor aimed at him during the end of Chapter 5. And of course, absolutely no removal of the ugly bits. They’re part of the story and must remain there.

Designs? I like the giant hairdos and little sprites. But realistically, we’d get 3D models and probably fancy redesigns for the main cast. Just keep everyone recognisable from 1996 and I’ll probably be happy enough. Echoes could radically change character designs because nobody had consistent designs in the first place, but things became more consistent on the SNES.

And one last thing: translate it! Don’t pull an FE12. Freezes during the ending are optional.

6 Likes

As faithful as Gaiden remake should be a good measure, although from gameplay side, maybe amp up the enemies to provide more challenge and don’t add stuff like combat art unless the enemies can use them as well. Support convos should be the determinator of lover status as the classic love system may accidentally cause a pair to become lovers.

And the most important of all:
Never take away or nerf the regalia bonuses.

1 Like

I agree to some of replys on here. There should be some changes on FE4. The gameplay should definitely be a top priority considering how long it can be with the maps, like with the hack that remade Fe4. depending on the maps they could split while Routing some enemies, Seizeing Castles or even defeating the bosses.

Trading and Convey could be a thing so they could take or take out weapons, items or even rings. and shops could be have new stuff that you could get to repair items or buy new ones. another thing I have in mind that Three house did is they could limit how much weapons or items you could get on a difficulty if you want to play classic FE4.

I also like the other idea that someone(s) said about second gen having different hair colours depending on the father.

2 Likes

I’ve already beaten and loved FE4, I don’t want it again but with prettier graphics. I want a new take on FE4’s campaign that actually plays differently.

4 Likes

I am onboard with them changing children’s looks depending on the parents…because that was actually a thing they planned for the original game, but couldn’t do.

When it comes to everything else, I just want to see the world burn, so I would enjoy it if the story was changed to enrage the fanbase. So I am probably not the person that should be asked.

3 Likes

Not what I would like but I still had a good laugh with your response xD.

Them changing certain aspects of the story though are…things that I could see happen.
The incest and the child-hunts are aspects that I would not be completely surprised if IntSys skipped over with how controversial they can become especially in our generation where people like to complain about everything.

I could imagine that they’ll censor the Incest Part (despite making it possible to ship Corrin and Azura with different Support Conversations in all three games), even though it’s already in Heroes. That would be doable without changing to much honestly.

I could even imagine that they change all names right before they release the Remake.

But in general I’m not found of censorship unless it’s changed in a way that makes it look like it isn’t even censored anymore. Unfortunately many developers go the short and quick route even though it is obvious that it should be different.

1 Like

They’re not going to censor the very plot-relevant instance of incest that happens, and frankly I don’t even think any of the possible cousin relationships will be removed, besides maybe Nanna x Ares since their conversation is…pretty explicit about it, and I don’t think anyone would notice it’s gone. Things like Lex!Larcei being able to get with Iuchar/Iucharba will probably just be left alone since it’s only one possibility and 99% of players won’t even realise “oh shit theyre related?”.

1 Like

it should be the echoes type of remake, keeping it faithful to the original but adding a few things.

2 Likes

Overhauling the skill system might be a good idea, and is likely the most glaring change they’d make since the skill system in 4/5 is the most irritating aspect. Only in these two games is the ability to double a skill that several characters prohibited from having.
At some point it needs to be understood that some of Kaga’s ideas were anti-fun. Almost to the point of seeming to try to sabotage the gameplay loop.

1 Like

not in 5. Only in 4.

1 Like