Shattered Destines) Premise, Big Bad, and Home Base

Spoiler warning for Live A Live, the Dragon Age franchise, and Final Fantasy VIII

Releasing in Japan in 1994 as a Super Famicom exclusive, Live A Live puts a unique twist on the RPG genre. You begin with a choice of seven different characters, each in a different time period ranging from prehistory, the wild west, present day, and the far future. Each of these time periods sees us take control of different, unrelated characters, each with their own stories, allies, and goals, as well as unique gameplay mechanics that help each era feel distinct. While in prehistoric times we use our sense of smell to find objectives, while in the Edo period of Japan we rely on stealth to infiltrate an enemy compound, and present day has us playing what is essentially a turn based Street Fighter game. Each of these scenarios take a few hours to complete, and the one commonality they share is that they culminate with a boss battle with a foe whose name always seems similar. In prehistory, we have a dinosaur named Odo. In present day, we have a ruthless fighter named Odie O'Bright. The distant future sees an AI gone rogue known as OD-10. Similar names causing havoc across time. Once we complete all seven stories, we unlock an eighth one set in the middle ages. It's here, with our eighth protagonist, Oersted, that we actually get answers as well as the setup for the game as a whole.

Unlike the other characters, Oersted seems like the most straightforward and traditional RPG protagonist. He's a respected knight who embarks on a quest to save Princess Alethea from a resurrected Lord of Dark alongside his friend, Streibough, and some heroes of old. Things go awry, however, with one of the champions falling ill and the rest of the party forced to flee from a trap that seemingly kills Streibough. Returning in failure, Oersted awakes to visions of the Lord of Dark resting on the king's throne. He kills the the fiend, only to find that he had actually killed the king. Horrified, he flees the castle and is exiled from the kingdom. He is captured and thrown in the dungeon, only to be rescued and told to seek out Alethea for redemption. He returns to the Dark Lord's lair, where he finds Streibough, who had faked his death and tricked Oersted into killing the king. Streibough had always been jealous of Oersted, and after we kill him, princess Alethea emerges and condemns Oersted for his actions, professing her love for Streibough. In a fit of grief, she takes a dagger and takes her own life. Utterly hated and with nothing to believe in, Oersted succumbs to despair, giving in to hatred and proclaiming himself Odio, the Lord of Dark.

His hatred for humanity and desire to destroy all life is so strong, that he sends incarnations of himself across time, manifesting in the enemies we defeated previously. At this point, the other characters are drawn in as time seems to collapse, banding together to defeat Odio once and for all. It's a fascinating set up for the final act, and allows us to assemble a team from across time.

Extrapolating from this idea, I believe we can set up the premise of Shattered Destinies pretty well. What if Oersted's hatred was strong enough to shatter reality? It serves as the perfect inciting incident to explain why characters from different universes come together, giving us not only a solid, multiverse level threat, but also setting up other boss encounters. Although it's never fully explained in Live A Live, one can make the logical leap that Odio can possess those who have a significant level of hatred in their hearts. Imagine, if you will, characters becoming corrupted by Odio's influence, gaining more power and succumbing to their most base desires.

This gives us our primary antagonist along with setting up a myriad of other bosses for us to face. It gives us a solid explanation of why universes are merging and collapsing. The next question is where do our heroes set up base? We need a place for our characters to meet, strategize, have down time, and a place that, over the course of the game, we can expand. My vision is for their to be a solid core party, a group of characters to go out, fight, and explore, but there's no reason we can't recruit even more characters to offer us different things in our home base. Drawing inspiration from the Suikoden series, I see a base that, over time, expands, offering new utility as well as side activities.

The Lighthouse from Dragon Age: The Veilguard immediately comes to mind. Originally used by Solas, it acts as a central hub that, using Eluvian mirrors, allows our party to quickly traverse across Thedas and, as it's in the Fade, it changes and reacts to those who reside in it. There's no reason, to my mind, that the Eluvian wouldn't be able to traverse to other dimensions or universes. Thus, it can still serve as a central hub and naturally expands with our party. The Lighthouse was one of my favorite things in The Veilgaurd, and I think it can serve our purposes here as well. However, the merging of universes has caused it to collide with something else, something that restricts access to the lowest points of the Lighthouse until we recruit either a certain number of allies, or possibly a specific ally or two. At a certain point in the game, we finally get access to whatever it is it collided with...

Balamb Garden from Final Fantasy VIII is one of, if not the most criminally under-utilized and absolute coolest places in all of Final Fantasy. It serves, initially, as the academy that Squall and friends attend, and as such, it is equipped with classrooms, a library, a ballroom, dorms, a cafeteria, and an infirmary, as well as a place for students and faculty to park. It's also equipped not only with shields and weapons, but is also capable of transforming and being used as a vehicle. This offers us so much in terms of options and side activities, allowing us to recruit a full blown army of characters to work, maintain, and enhance our base.

So, in summary, we have Odio, a being of pure hatred, who has spread his influence across the RPG multiverse, causing universes to collapse and collide as well as potentially overtaking and enhancing those that succumb to hatred. Our heroes discover and utilize The Lighthouse as a home base, eventually discovering it has collided with Balamb Garden, at which point a whole host of new options become available, with new features being enabled as we progress.

I think that's a pretty solid introduction to the world of Shattered Destinies, setting up the primary antagonist and establishing what's at stake. As we continue this journey, I'll be focusing on our primary cast of characters as well as some of the characters that have become possessed by and enhanced by Odio.