Casual Mode

 

Casual Mode: A Fire Emblem: Awakening, Creepypasta
Hi there, my name's Justine! And i'm here to tell you about my recent

experience with a new game series i got into.

I'm sure a lot of you, or even most of you have at least heard of Fire Emblem, if not played it,  Well

its one of those series I had been meaning to play for a long time, but,

just never got around to sadly. It always looked really interesting and

one of the things that looked appealing to me was the focus on the story

and characters. I obviously knew about characters such as Marth, Roy

and Ike, from playing Super Smash Bros. Melee and Brawl, but i was still

never inspired enough to play the games, mainly because i had never

really seen the DS adaptations at  my local game store. And there was always something I wanted instead.

What finally got me to play them was my

boyfriend, I knew he loved Fire Emblem and often listened to his rants

about it, and I enjoyed what I heard. He even loaned me Shadow Dragon

for the DS, i started it, and liked it alot! But sadly he wanted it back,

and i kind of forgot about it for a while. Then, just a few weeks ago,

i finally was able to borrow the latest installment to the series from

him, Fire Emblem Awakening for the 3DS! I was really excited to start playing

it, You see he was obsessed with it for about a month when he first got it last

year, Its all he could talk about, When on the phone with him, he would

always tell me about the array of interesting characters, his battle strategies,

the new classes he would give his characters, and just the fun he was having

in general. And while it was fun to hear him talk about it, i was kind of

jealous that i couldn't be playing it too. Of course, I could have bought it,

i just didn't have the money at the time, and there were other games that were higher on my priority list. But, after a while, I was finally able to play it!

He told me that he was busy with other games, and that he would be happy

to loan it to me. He was excited that i was finally getting into it.

The next day when he gave it to me at school, First period of the day,

I pulled my 3DS out and excitedly put the cartridge into it! Even though I had

already seen the intro, due to seeing it in the free demo on the eshop,

I couldn't wait to see the stunning anime visuals the game had to offer!

The game started as i remember it from the demo, the beautiful, bright and

charming intro played, With my favorite part

of course being Chrom and Marth fighting!

After being satisfied with seeing the intro, I pressed start and entered the

menu. I created a new save file and chose "Casual Mode". For those of you

who may not know, there are two modes, Casual and Classic, basically in

Casual mode in battle, if a character dies they don't die forever, they just

die for that battle, then come back after the battle is over. In classic,

If they die. They're gone for good!

I chose casual because i preferred to play without having the weight

of my characters lives on my shoulders, i just wanted to play without having

to worry about losing anybody for good, and wanted to be able to always

have my favorite characters! I understand why people choose Classic, because that’s how the original games were played. And it offers more of a challenge, but I thought for me, I thought Casual would be best, because that’s how I wanted to play it. Casually.

After making my decision, i eagerly awaited the character creation screen,

I made my character to look as much like me as possibly, after being

satisfied with my decision, i finally began the game.

I went through the opening, where Chrom, Lissa and Fredrick find the

main character, you, out in a field, with all memories lost.

I quickly made it through chapter one, and got familiar with the controls

fairly quickly, and Chapter one was normal, nothing out of the ordinary at

all. However, things started changing rather quickly, when chapter two began.

Chapter two begins with your character being introduced to some of the other

characters, when Lissa introduces you to Maribelle, Sumia and the rest, she

usually says something along the lines of "Chrom made her our new tactician!

You should see the tricks she has up her sleeves". But instead she said,

"Chrom made her our new Tactician. She won't let anyone die like our last

tactician did!"

Even though i didn't know any different, I felt like this was a

bit odd, I thought I was their only tactician... ever. What was Lissa talking

about? Well, i decided to press on, still thinking about it in the back of my

mind. As more dialogue came, a young Cavalier by the name of Stahl was

introduced, and after some more dialogue, my next battle began,

I quickly teamed myself up with Virion, since i had already decided i wanted

to marry him, i also teamed up Frederick with Chrom, and made a few other

teams.

As the battle began, the Risen began attacking Lissa, which i knew would

be bad news, as my boyfriend always says "PROTECT THE WHITE MAGE", Since most classes that center around healing, can’t take many hits before their down and out. And

so I did, I tried everything in my power to keep her alive, I really wanted

to get her a good amount of exp. this battle, but sadly, during the enemies'

turn, all of the enemies within her range went for Lissa,

and she couldn't hold up with that many attacks against her, and she fell for

this battle, or at least that’s what i was expecting. After her last point of

HP was taken from her, and the slow and sad animation of her falling to the

ground was played, a box of dialogue came up saying.

"C-Chrom, please don't blame me for this... I know I could be stronger, but

its not my fault, blame Justine for her carelessness...". I just stared at the

screen for a few moments, wondering what I was reading, I mean, why was

she talking like she was going to die? This was casual mode after all.

From what my boyfriend told me, they have different dialogue for when they

die in casual mode, they just say something along the lines of that they have

to pull back or get to safety. But this was weird, not only was she talking

like she was dying, but she blamed me for it! i started to feel a little bad...

This was why I chose casual mode to begin with, I didn't want my characters

to have to die. Yes, I know that’s not very realistic, in war, people dont just

back out when it gets tough, but this is a game after all, i was not playing

it for realism!

I finally got my thoughts together and pressed A, When returning to the map,

Lissa disappeared and i expected the battle to continue on, but Chrom and

a text box appeared, saying

"J-Justine! How could you let my sister die! She...She was all me and Emmeryn

had..."

At this point, I felt even worse, I really felt the weight of Lissa's death on my

shoulders...

I went on through the battle, everything else was normal, and I made sure that

no one else died. After the battle, I went to check the menu, to see if i got

any new support conversations or if anything was going on in the barracks,

I noticed that i had some new support conversations, and excitedly went

to check them out, I had a new one between myself and Virion, but that wasn't

all. I noticed that Lissa was gone... her avatar and menu was completely gone

from the list of characters. I was shocked, i thought i chose casual mode!

I checked my save file, and it even said next to it "Casual Mode/Normal"

Well, what was going on? I moved on momentarily to check out my new

support conversation, when i went to the menu for what conversations I had

I was startled to find that I had attained a support conversation with Lissa,

how could I have? She was dead, and I had never even worked with her in

the couple battles we had fought. I reluctantly selected her C level support.

When it began, Only Lissa's avatar was seen on screen. And quickly, a text

box appeared saying only this "You now carry a heavy burden. One that

you won’t get rid of easily."

Then it ended.

I Began to feel sick, why was this getting to me?

I mean, it wasn't that bad. Its not like there was blood anywhere or anything

ultimately disturbing or anything like that... but I felt so awful...maybe it was

my fault... I... I could have done something to save Lissa, I could have not put

her at the front lines, but I didn't care... I just thought to myself "Oh, even if she

does die, she'll just be back again, and I'll get her leveled up

eventually!" But that wasn't true.. She was really gone, and the people in the

game knew it too... i decided to go check the barracks and there were a

couple new events added, I decided to check them out.

All of them were about Lissa, but Chrom's was the worst.

He said as he walked around the room "Why...Why did she have to die...

Letting Justine join us was a mistake."

After this, I quickly shut the DS off and just sat there for a moment thinking.

Was that supposed to happen? Bit couldn't right? Why would it be like

that? Why would Nintendo make it so the characters hold a grudge

against you, I mean it was a tad realistic, but... Well, maybe that

was it...maybe it was supposed to be realistic...Maybe it was meant to make

you feel bad...but if so, why would people like this so much?

I decided to begin playing again, I also thought about telling my boyfriend

about it, but i thought maybe he wouldn't believe me.. I thought it would

be best to get more proof that this was out of the ordinary before going

to him with my concerns, besides, he was at his grandma's house today

anyway, so I wouldn't be able to get a hold of him until later tonight.

Anyway, I loaded up my save file and went to check my team, and I was

shocked by what I found, Lissa was back! And i know what you're thinking,

that when i shut if off, it didn't save the last battle. Well i saved after I lost

Lissa!... So what did this mean? I decided to continue and oddly enough,

everything seemed normal again, and I didn't have any support conversations

unlocked with Lissa, It was like it never happened! So, was the game just trying

to scare me or something? Well, I know that sounds silly, but I don't have any

other explanation.

Well, maybe it wasn't trying to scare me, maybe it was trying to teach me a

lesson...By me choosing casual mode, I was, in a way, not valuing the life

of my characters, I was just kind of 'casually' going through the game,

not caring whether they died or not. Because I knew they would be back.

Well, i'm still playing the game, and I'm loving it so far! But, to be honest,

I have not let a single person die! Even though this is 'casual' mode. I

understand now that my teammates lives are truly worth something, and

as their tactician, I won’t let anyone die on my watch!

 

Not anymore.