Sounds interesting. Can't wait to see how it plays out. So I take that its more like Tactics Ogre than FFT in that regard where the stones eventually overtook the story, while TO basically meeps it purely pplitical. Its actually pretty hard for me to describe the fantasy component of my thingwithout going intoore detail, so let me just say that magic used to be more abundant in the past, has ben commodified and is basicaoly a science now but isweaker, butsomething is causing it to come back to its former level. And that's kind of the surface of hhe main plot, but we'll see where that goes
There is magic, wizards, necromancers, dragons and other fantasy beasts, but they are treated pretty commonly. My goal is to focus on the more human politics than on magic stones, ancient societies, and such not. The biggest fantasy element deals with the unique abilities of the two main characters. One was a soldier cursed with bad luck by a demon he slayed. Wherever he goes, disaster follows but he always manages to survive. The other is a knight born from common stock but adopted into the nobles after he received a blessing by their faith's goddess which granted him the power to perform miracles of good fortune at the cost of his health.
Sounds like a solid basis for a good plot. Are you planning on integrating any overt fantasy elements, or just leave it more about the historical side of things?
To be honest, a lot of my history knowledge in my younger years was through self-learning. My history teachers in High School were kind of bad about it and so I ignored lectures and spent my time reading the actual text books instead. My dad was also a history major, so it's no surprise I ended up with similar interests. My real breakthrough was in college when I actually got what I consider to be the best history teacher I ever had. He taught a world history class bust instead of doing basic "Western Europe" approach like most of them do, he actually skipped around the world and basically said "well the American Civil War started, so let's discuss how this event transformed Argentina into the country we know today; let's see how the Industrial Revolution affected India and caused the fall of the Moghul Empire" so he basically taught it more as a global impact, which is a way I usually look at history. His class on India was pretty neat as well. My story is more of a Cold War type tale. Taking place in a small country filled with political and ethnic turmoil but the real story is more about the two major empires influencing the events to gain an upper hand on the conflict with each other. While I'm mostly reading up on the Yugoslav Wars because of Tactics Ogre, it has been giving me some ideas. Though more of that is going into Soul which currently has a more developed world, but I feel the real inspirations will likely be Cuba or something from Cold War era Central America. I may even throw some Korean War elements into it. The bulk of the plot takes place in this small kingdom, but the two protagonists each hail from one of the empires exploiting the war for their own end.
I'm currently looking into some non-European history since I kind of want to make the story less conventional by having a setting not be inspired by Medieval Europe (and yet I still kinda consider it high fantasy? It's weird). Also, lots of myths and religion. I also have a character kinda sorta based on Nicholas II Romanov, who's also kind of the opposite of him at the same time? It's weird. But yeah, I can see a lot of Tactics Ogre, FFXII, and other influences in the story I have in my mind for now as well. Also, Xenogears, which I only noticed later on. But still, I've really only just started and think the story will change to the degree that the inspiration might not be visible unless you're looking for it. Hell, I'd say it's pretty different already. I'm kind of envious of the fact that you could successfully study history, tbh. Like I said, I love reading and hearing about it and I think it's super important. I just wish I actually had the opportunity to take it in properly back when I was still at a young and malleable age. But I definitely won't let my lack of historical knowledge stop me. I'll research what I need, but in the end, I don't want my faithfulness (or lack thereof) to real life history to hamper the story I'm trying to write.
I'm a history minor, so I tend to pull things from history all the time. It's a large part of why I enjoy Matsuno's titles cause we have that shared love of history. I'm actually reading up on the Yugoslav Wars now because of Tactics Ogre, and I would be lying if I didn't say it's inspiring the main conflict of my new story with bits of XII involved as well.
I did decide to take a leaf out of his book by inspiring parts of the stories on real life historical events. It's been an interesting brainstorming session, to say the least, considering history has always been one of my weakest subjects. Mostly because my elementary school teacher killed all my enthusiasm in the subject by humiliating me in front of the whole class. Which is a real shame because when I do get down to it, I love history, but learning it has always been a horrendous experience. But still, it's just fantasy
It's been interesting trying to recreate the feel of his worlds. Balancing the fantasy with the more political drama will be a delicate balancing act.
Now that I hink about it, my thing has some Matsuno ish aspects as well. No surprizes here i guess
Excellent. Tactics Ogre has made me drop my NaNo story to start developing the "sequel" story to Soul, which my collaborator and I always intended to be a very Matsuno-esque story. So I've been working on that instead of my actual novel...
