How would you react to a FE game where you played as a villain?

[NekoKnight]

I think rather than play as mustache twirling villains who eat puppies and hate laughter, I'd prefer to play a game where you are ruthless. You would still have a understable goal, like securing absolute power (as opposed to something meaningless like destroying the world), but you would kill, lie and cheat to get to the top. It would be like playing a game as the Lannisters.

[henrymidfields]

Alternately, you are a head of the monarch who legitimately recognize that the religion of evil or the enemy who historically wronged you before would become a problem and you try to put a stop to it. Except that the ways you do it are indiscriminate and draconian, resulting in innocent parties caught in the crossfire, pissing off enemy civilians or driving the cult slaves mad, and alienating your former allies (both inside and outside your kingdom) who now see you as a bigger threat to peace. And now you have to fight all of them as an anti-villain. Bonus points if the basic story is inspired from any of the following:

• Witch Hunts during the Black Death,
• the Soviet counteroffensive against Nazi Germany,
• French occupation of Saarland and the Rhur after both World Wars (except that the colonizers/occupation is more brutal in the hypothetical game)
• Joseph McCarthy's Red Purge
• the War on Drugs
• the War on Terrorism

Edited June 21, 2018 by henrymidfields

[Soviet Cut]

If I'm playing as the bad guys I want to be able to control and use ambush spawns, the most evil thing ever in any Fire Emblem game

[AnonymousSpeed]

I'm interested in the idea, conceptually. OP's idea of playing as a straight up maniacal psycho could make for a good character study, or be used to teach...some sort of lesson, I guess. Evil is not glamorous, sometimes bad people win, "some men just want to watch the world burn," etc.

Most people responding have indicated that they'd like a story where you play as a character who is more sympathetic than that, and I can see why. Fire Emblem is a series which feels like it has themes of moral ambiguity and your enemies also possessing humanity, when it never really does, and flipping the perspective could help that actually be accomplished, so the appeal is understandable.

I personally would like to see you play as some random bandits if anything though, those guys are always just mowed down. I'm not someone who thinks crime happens entirely due to circumstances people find themselves in, but they are the entities treated as most disposable and so it might be nice to try and humanize them somewhat, because real raiders are still people and all that.

[DiogoJorge]

Only if it was optional. Otherwise I would pass, I prefer to play as the hero.

[nosef]

I Don't like it,  because i will end up wanting my character to fail wich is not really good in a game. (looking at you conquest when i felt Nothing about the end because it was so wrong and dumb). However it could be interesting , but not for me. I prefer Something like Eliza from immortal sword when she take bad decission but try her best.

[Zkitty8]

I really like the idea of playing as the bandits like @Hawkwing described. That sounds like it could make a fun spin-off game.