I just woke up and had this random question so I’ll probably rant a bit, but here we go.
As a recap, Gaiden chapters were introduced in Thracia as a way of giving skilled players extra content. They’ve since appeared in FE6, FE7, FE11, and FE12 before being replaced by Paralogues in more recent entries. But I’m not here to talk about Paralogues (Although you can if you’d like). My main focus is more on implementing Gaiden chapters in fan games.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Extra content (More story, new maps, sometimes even new characters)
Rewards skilled players
Cons
Harder to balance around (More experience and extra items makes it tougher to know the strength of the player. If it’s too hard, players who miss Gaidens may be punished heavily. If it’s too easy, players who go to Gaiden chapters may snowball and destroy the game’s balance.)
Obtuse entry requirements (EX: You need certain characters alive or certain events to occur, but it’s not clear. There’s a 20 turn limit in the previous chapter, but the game doesn’t tell you until after you fail. Looking at YOU FE6… )
Personally I think Gaiden chapters are a great way to add more to your game, but implementing them well can be a challenge. One of my ideas to fix potential balancing issues is to make Gaidens actual side stories that just give further context to the game.
Using a pre-existing game, during Chapter 4 of New Mystery, Ogma must defend Yumina and Yubello while the rest of the army makes their way north to save them. Ignoring the fact that there is already a Chapter 3x, what if you played as this small group of characters fleeing for their lives in a Gaiden Chapter? It would be a good chance to level up these characters without making your main army too powerful.
Obviously this isn’t the best example since the game wasn’t built around this idea, but it could totally work for a fan game! (On further thought, this could also work for “Noble Lady of Caelin” in FE7 to give you a chance to level up Lyn’s Legion before Hector/Eliwood arrive)
With that out of the way, what do you think of Gaiden Chapters? Do you even have Gaidens in your fan game? If so, how did you implement them?