At the end of Fire Emblem Path of Radiance, our hero boy Ike looks over what his team has accomplished. Over the course of the thirty hour game, his mercs have journeyed across the world. They’ve allied the opposing Laguz tribes, they’ve dismantled the corruption in Begnion, they successfully reinstated the Crimean Princess onto the throne, and finally overthrown the Mad King Ashnard of Daine. With everything solved, Ike decides the best move now is to disband the Greil Mercenaries. They’re too famous now. Too connected to the royals. It would be impossible to avoid political independence at this point. A single team of mercs taking down several empires is too dangerous to exist in the world responsibly. The best thing to do is to end the team now, let everyone go their separate ways, and hopefully prevent any nation from gaining too much power in the process.

Vision Quest opens with the continent of Yaska. Its home to six nations, but all operating under the greater empire of Nevan.

The story centers on the state of Belaro, one of Nevan’s vassals. Lord Gradin, in the effort of serving Emperor Festan, has raised taxes to an astronomical amount. The nation is barely surviving as the poor are arrested for their failure to pay. The protagonist of Vision Quest is a farmer named Storch. Struggling to survive, he and his friends have become bandits, robbing wealthy districts to support their families. After being identified by a general, the crew is forced into hiding. In the process, he allies with Lord Titus in launching a rebellion to take down Lord Gradin.

In chapter 12, the heroes finally defeat Gradin and Belaro enters a state of peace. At Titus’ request, Storch decides to keep working with the state’s new ruler to transition towards a healthier status quo.

Thus ends Act 1. There are two dozen more chapters.

It takes a long time for the real purpose of Vision Quest to reveal itself. But once the realization clicks, the entire rom hack falls into place.

What would have happened if Ike never disbanded the Greil Mercs?

The titular “vision quest” occurs in the middle of Act 2. Titus has continued to pay Storch for his support, even as Storch looks to return to normal farm life. As they journey to the neighboring country of Mahala, fighting off the evil conspiracy running around, Titus is offered a glimpse of his future. Emperor Titus, ruler of Nevan, all the power he’s ever wanted.

He just has to ensure that vision becomes reality.

While Act 2 and 4 involve examining Emperor Festan’s corruption and launching a proper rebellion on the surface, the undercurrent is how Storch and Titus’ relationship is straining. Their bond in Act 1 is as strong as any Royal + Hero Boy dynamic within Fire Emblem. United in a common good, ready to bring peace to the throne once more. But because Storch doesn’t cut his losses, doesn’t disband his merc squad like Ike did, the game unravels how fragile that bond really is. Titus needs Storch’s fame to cement his own rule, to be the leader that garners support. Other nobles take swipes at Titus and note how Storch seems to be the real leader of the army. It's a slow burn to the end of their friendship, with broken promises and half-truths peppered along the way.

Act 3, the mercifully shortest act, is really striking for its unique presentation. Act 2 presented the upcoming conflict as a war against the people of Kuching, frequently derided as a country of “bandits and barbarians,” who have killed a noble’s daughter. As Storch and crew move to invade Kuching, the perspective switches to the supposed dangerous leader. Act 3 has you lose your entire squad and start from the ground up with Chief Waluyo and his tribe. They’ve never heard of this noble daughter, much less killed her. You’re placed in control of his group as they fight off the Empire’s imperial arm. Its filled with really impressive world-building, countering all the propaganda you’ve heard for 25 hours with the realities of Kuching and the inner politics of this region. Act 3 ends with Storch and Waluyo teaming up to take on the Emperor, which gives Titus a great excuse to build a rebellion with them and create his own empire.

The character dynamics are rife with this fascinating tension. Class plays a major role in all the best relationships. This is best demonstrated in Titus’ personal retainer, Helga. She puts on a cool appearance, but there’s an arrogant and bloodthirsty center to her actions. She’s pleasant enough to Storch in person, but she privately grouses how much she despises “cowardly farmers who whine about entering battle.” She gains a certain respect for him, even friendship, but her priorities are always to the existing status quo.

In Act 1, the heroes are pursued by General Lesley. She’s loyal to a fault to her corrupt master Lord Gradin, an unrelenting threat to the heroes for eleven chapters. Even when surrounded by all sides, even when her own sister Zoya has turned against her, Lesley maintains a calm, dismissive air towards all her enemies. Nothing phases her dedication to her Lord.

That is, excluding Helga. Should Helga approach Lesley in the General’s boss fight, Lesley will suddenly go into a frothing rage at the sight of the wyvern rider. Her collected demeanor just shatters as her sharp wit descends into petty, base insults. It's only in Helga’s support with Zoya that the broad backstory between those two characters is revealed. Helga has always looked down on Lesley as an “inferior” member of the Knights Academy, to which Lesley was happy to retaliate with career sabotage. Lesley was a poor orphan who was able to gain power through Gradin’s support. Helga, raised under more stable conditions, delighted in tormenting anyone with a “weakness” like that. Even when Helga ends up forming a kinship with Zoya, her instinct with everyone lower on the hierarchical totem pole is to hurt them.

The average player could miss this Helga-Lesley rivalry entirely and there’s numerous small stories with that same level of care. It's dedicated to making these connections and histories feel well-realized. It's hard not to compare it to the modern state of Fire Emblem, where a lot of Three Houses supports tend to cover the same character beats again and again. There’s so much variety and detail to these characters. It's just incredible writing.

Helga kind of ends up one of the most fascinating characters for me because of where she ends up by the end. I don’t know for certain if she ever becomes a “good” person. But you can gradually see her realize that at the end of the day, she doesn’t factor into Titus’ plans. He will never reward her for her loyalty. All her work gets her nothing. Both Helga and Storch end their journey by metaphorically leaving out the same door, even if their motives for leaving and which direction they’ll be going are completely different.

And Zoya? Zoya takes Helga’s place as Titus’ retainer, becoming just like her sister, ridiculously loyal to a man who does not deserve it. The cycles of history keep spinning.

I feel weird recapping the plot of the entire game, but with something this large and so unknown it's sort of necessary. I’m no stranger to over-ambition when beginning a project. I’ve tossed my hat into numerous writing or game dev experiments. Homemade Ace Attorney cases, banging my head again rpg makers, the whole she-bang. Even if I didn’t finish those projects, I still hope to get back to them one day. I’m still passionate about my 100,000 word Smash Bros fics I’m getting back to. (at AO3 (Always Be Closing Bay-be!!!!))

Still, it's important to understand scale. Nearly every single failed fan project out there has failed because the concept in people’s heads simply can’t match up to implementing it into reality. It's just impossible.

What makes this particularly difficult is that the scale of this game is already HUGE. 33 main story chapters + 9 optional sidequest chapters. 62 playable characters, gameplay designed for hardcore Iron Man runs, but providing easier modes for the less mechanically inclined. It's a truly stunning work of art.

It's just kind of sad that the game does end with a sequel hook that the team never followed up on. But how could they? Their ambition, their imagination, it just couldn’t be formed in reality.

As much of a bummer as that is, the final denouement that the game does offer is sort of brilliant in its bittersweet presentation. It's a bit of a cliche that these fan projects can get a bit silly with gratuitous swearing. Just look at that whole ProZD video about fansubs. Vision Quest generally avoids falling into this trap, with generally clean-cut language and straight-forward dialogue.

Which is why Storch’s realization before the finale, his epiphany that this final war is all Titus’ power grab, is so striking. When he’s informed that Titus is going to take Festan’s place as the emperor, he utters two statements that zooms right past cheesy into a masterstroke.

“That’s been your goal this entire time? To become the fucking emperor?”

It's the only fuck in the entire game. It's like the game is operating on PG-13 rules. And the devs found the laser precise perfect moment to drop that fuck in there. It's a build up of forty chapters, forty decisions on Storch’s part to keep fighting, to keep aiding Titus’ rise to power, even as Titus is no longer the kind-hearted hero he was at the game’s start. The moment Storch finally, definitively goes “time to hit the bricks” lands because you’ve felt that frustration too. It’s not a traditional heroic ending, but it's the only path left after all the political nightmares Storch was forced to navigate. It was the ending he needed to have.

And then there’s Lord Titus.

Even when he’s finally in charge, the game makes it clear that Titus will be put in the same position eventually. He’ll be obeying the same systems of corruption that he spent so long trying to dismantle. He got his power and he lost everything for it. He lost Storch and Helga’s respect, he lost comrades in arms, and he lost the chance to meet the daughter he unknowingly worked with this entire game. The whole war wasn’t for freedom or justice. It was for him. And now all he has is himself.

The game's final shot is of Titus's blue "controllable player character" colors shifting to "enemy combatant" red.

Vision Quest is a fascinating, introspective work of fan modding. It isn’t as interested in making a cathartic experience as it is interested in examining why the powerful go to war and who gets caught in the crossfire. I don’t think it’ll ever extend outside the hardcore FE forums, mainly because I can’t name many fangames that ever stretch outside its own obsessive corner of fandom. But I think it does deserve to be appreciated and absorbed for the sheer passion and thoughtfulness behind it. Its length can be daunting, but it's justified by some of the most purposeful plotting ever crafted. It's incredible. If you’re willing to commit two months to banging your head against classic FE era stuff, a high recommendation.