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.