Exit Fate Part #1 - The Beginning

Part 1: The Beginning

The game begins with no sound other than that of a heavy rain falling.

Our story begins in a castle, where a young noble is pacing back and forth. Suddenly, a doctor comes rushing in.

Young Man: Well? How is it?
Doctor: My lord, it's most wondrous. You've become a father not once, but twice today.
Young Man: ... Twice, you say?
Doctor: Yes, my lord, a boy -and- a girl. Both appear to be in good health.
Young Man: I see... two children... That's unexpected.
Doctor: My lord... It was a terrible experience for her ladyship. She was clearly weakened by her recent illness, but even then... it was...

Doctor: M-my lord!?

---
Right, I'm sure that will never come up again. Let's get this show on the road.

Music: Destiny - Xenogears, "Bonds of Sea and Fire"
(Note: As I mentioned in the OP, Exit Fate takes its music from several SNES and PSX RPGs. For each piece of music, I will provide the title the game uses for it, as well as its original source and title.)

Music: Darkness - Chrono Cross, "Dragon's Prayer"

We cut to a picture of a blood-soaked battlefield.

The camera pans towards the only man standing, a man in a black coat with long white hair.

We catch a glimpse of a grin, and--

Music: None

These nightmares... They're becoming more frequent as of late. I guess it must be the stress. Am I worrying too much about the upcoming war?

Who is it?
Voice: It's me, Angel! Aren't you up yet?

Angel...? Wait! I-it's already this late? Hold on! I'll be there in a moment!

Music: Reinard Castle - Suikoden V, "Fortified Castle"

And with that, we have our main character, and control. Controlling Daniel is fairly simple. Arrow keys to move, confirm button to interact with things and talk to people, and cancel button to open the menu. Standard RPG fare. Speaking of the menu, let's see what we have there...

Nothing too fancy here. We can see our play time and money, and we have space for eight party members: six in the active party and two in the "entourage." The entourage does not participate in battle, but its members can be swapped in for an active party member at any time. When we have more than six characters and the ability to change our party, I'll talk about this a little more. For now, let me just give a brief rundown of what our options are here. I'll give more details on these in the next update.
Items: Lets us view and use our items.
Equipment: Lets us change our characters' equipped armor, accessories, and items.
Magic: Lets us view our stock of magic spells.
Stats: Lets us view our characters' statistics and relationships.
Formation: Lets us view and change the battle formation of the active party.
Arrange: Lets us swap characters between the active party and the entourage.
Settings, Help and Quit should be pretty self-explanatory.

Right then, I seem to recall a certain "Angel" telling us to get our butt out of bed. Let's do that, but first...

... we should drop a nice, big save. The large glowing crystals serve as our save points.

Outside, we find our friend.

Angel's eyes are always closed, even on her sprite. I'm not sure why this is.

Well, it's no wonder. You must be full of energy after sleeping that long.

Haha... I'm sorry. I'm not setting a very good example, am I?

It could be better.

I should enjoy it while it lasts, don't you think?

What a convenient excuse. But... it's true. The first battle is already looming on the hoizon. No doubt we'll be sent off in the near future.

Interesting. Seems our protagonist is a little iffy on the upcoming invasion, despite being a soldier.

Aren't you tired of hearing that from me yet? Sure, I feel strongly about these things, but there's a right time and place for protest. When I'm around friends, I don't want to ruin the mood.

The generals' meeting should be over by now. I was just on my way there to look for Jovian. Do you want to come along?

Oh right, it was this morning, wasn't it? Are you anxious to hear what they called him in for?

It's plain to see why they invited him to the meeting.

We don't know for sure yet. Besides, if it's really about his promotion, this meeting will make it official.

All right, all right. I won't spoil the moment. It's in the meeting hall at the far end of the castle, right?

Yes. Let's go.

Sweet, only five minutes in and we've already got us an ally. It also sounds like Daniel has a friend in high places, or at least is about to.

At this point we are free to wander the castle. There are several soldiers milling about, and since this is an RPG, they've all got something to say.

Soldier: We're all glad for him. Becoming a legion commander has always been his dream.

Soldier: We're some of the best soldiers in the royal army, but we'll probably never see any action.

This helpful fellow is a blacksmith.

Blacksmiths allow us to upgrade our characters' weapons. Every character has a unique weapon that cannot be changed, but it can be upgraded. A weapon has three stats: ATK (attack power), HIT (accuracy) and CRT (critical chance). Each of these stats has a level and upgrading a stat costs money, with higher levels providing exponentially better values for each stat. Since this blacksmith is listed as level 1, though, he can't raise any weapon stats beyond level 1.

Regardless, I have him do what he can to Daniel's sword, the Seraphim. This costs us 48 Arn, leaving us with a paltry 2.

Soldier: There's no one in the State Union who can outsmart General Keyser. He's undefeatable.

Now, at this point, we could try to enter the meeting hall, but it turns out Angel's prediction was a little off and the generals are still wrapping up. So we wander around the castle a bit more, and eventually...

We run into a cutscene.

Music: Suspicion 2 - Suikoden V, "Standing Firm"

What a pleasure to see you again.

He sure is lucky. He'll probably get command of the third legion. That must be good news for you.

Well, it should be pretty clear right away what sort of person Bruce is.

Daniel, just go. We don't have time for this.

Yeah, you're right.

Running away again? Fine, go ahead. Why don't you run away altogether? We're better off without people like you.

A coward, Bruce? Are you calling me a coward? You were there with me, weren't you? Eight years ago. We fought together. Tell me now, was I ever a coward? Did I ever run?

Grow up, Bruce.

Shut up! Just shut up! Don't treat me like I don't know anything! This is an army! We're here to fight! If you don't like it, get out!

Music: Reinard Castle - Suikoden V, "Fortified Castle"

No excuses! I'm personally responsible for your behaviour. As long as you're under my command, you follow my orders. If you get riled up so easily by one of our own officers, what will happen if you're taunted by the actual enemy? A commander who's easily swayed by emotion is a liability on the battlefield. You should know that.

But hey, let's make this Bruce guy a colonel, anyway. That'll work out great.

As for you, Colonel Vinyard... You should know better than this. I don't want to see a scene like this again.

I took it too far. I apologize. You'll accept my apologies too I hope, Bruce?

Hmm? Oh, yes. The meeting's been over for a while. The others stayed behind to discuss some other matters, but it'd be okay for you to enter now.

So Jovian's still inside?

He was speaking to General Eander when I left. If you hurry you can still catch him there.

Thank you, sir. Let's go, Daniel.

Yes... We've wasted enough time here.

Daniel is right, we've wasted enough time. So let's waste some more time by talking to the people in the castle we haven't spoken to yet.

Soldier: An offensive war is a whole different matter. You're going to be a lot further from home, in unfamiliar territory.

We've been seeing a lot of references so far to the invasion by the Almenga Empire eight years ago. As a quick reminder, Almenga is not involved in the current conflict. Instead, the kingdom of Kirgard (us) is planning to invade the State Union of Zelmony.

Anyway, that's everyone, let's head for the meeting hall.

As we try to enter, we run into a new face.

You are... some of the division commanders who used to serve under General Russel, aren't you?

Yes, we are Colonel Vinyard and Colonel Windsor, third legion, second and first division respectively.

Ah, I see... You must be here to see Jovian Knight then.

Is he still inside?

Oh, yes. He is.

He's still so young, and reckless to boot. Maybe in ten years, once he'd matured some, he could be a good general, but now? I would've rather seen someone more experienced get the position. It seems my concerns are ignored as usual, though. *sigh* Whenever the other generals have already made up their minds, it's pointless to argue with them. They just won't listen.

Uh... well then. We're just going to slowly back away now...

Thank you, Daniel, for so eloquently putting the player's feelings into words.

Oh, uh... Yes. I'm sorry. Please excuse me.

Music: Kirgard - Suikoden V, "Harbor Town by the Lighthouse"

Hey, Jovian.

Well, Jovian? How did it go?

Heh... Guess what, you two?

Congratulations, Jovian! That's incredible!

Yeah, you finally made it. Well done.

He has only four weeks to adapt to his new position and ensure the third legion is ready for battle.

For reference, Eander is the fourth and last of the Kirgard generals. The other three include Jovian, obviously, as well as Keyser and Leonius, who we've both already seen.

Four weeks... So the exact date has already been decided?

Not just that. The plans for the whole invasion are all ready. They've been prepared in secret over the past few months.

And of course this battle is going to go swimmingly, ominous prediction of the prologue text notwithstanding.

After the island has been conquered, General Keyser will join you to prepare for the assault on the Zelmony mainland.

But that's still far off. You'll hear all about the rest of the plans next week, together with the other division commanders.

Jargo Port City is the first target, huh? It'll be easy to take them by surprise, so that means... the Kelsinger pass will be the first major battle.

We'll save this discussion for another time. Right now, I want to celebrate my promotion! Let's go somewhere else! I know just the place! See you, General.

One fade to black later, and...

Music: Reflection - Chrono Trigger, "At the Bottom of the Night"

Don't you remember? We've been here before.

We have? Hmmm... It does look a little familiar.

Oh, I remember now. We went into this forest to play.

See! You do remember! Those were the days, huh? We didn't have to worry about anything.

As is probably obvious by now, Daniel, Angel and Jovian have known each other for quite awhile.

Jovian...

Sprite Daniel closes his eyes here, it's a nice touch.

Not now, Daniel...

It's all right, Angel. He's worried about the war. As he should be. We all should be. But Daniel, this has always been my dream. You know that.

I know you don't want this, so why haven't you left the army? Is it for our sake that you're still here?

No, it's nothing like that. Jovian, you remember how it all got started. We joined the army eight years ago, when the Almenga empire attacked us.

But this is different. There's no need to attack the State Union.

It's not that I'm a hypocrite. Well, maybe I am, but... I'm a colonel here. I have influence, even if it's just a small amount. There's a chance I might change things. If I left the army, what would I have left? The war would go on regardless.

But that goes both ways. Kirgard and Zelmony have always been fighting over small plots of land. They've grown too far apart for reconciliation. I'm sorry to say this, Daniel, but it's not going to change no matter what you tell them.

Another nice touch here: sprite Daniel sits up to emphasize his point.

Listen, Daniel. We both want the same thing. We want a place where we can all live in peace. I wish that we could do it your way, but it's impossible. The people are too stubborn. There is no way we'll ever achieve stability as long as both countries exist. We have to bring down the State Union and create a single, strong empire instead.

Jovian stands up.

It's wrong, but I'm willing to do the wrong thing to achieve my ideals. Someone has to make that sacrifice for it to end. I don't want this war to be another temporary measure. We have to go all the way. I can't hesitate, and I can't turn back.