In its first few arcs, smash-hit manga and anime Attack on Titan portrayed a straightforward struggle between the remnants of humanity and the enormous Titans. While at times a gruesome and depressing journey, this struggle was undoubtedly compelling. That straightforward nature of the conflict especially benefitted the transition to the most recent Attack on Titan video game, Attack on Titan 2: Final Battle. Players created their own character to explore cities, and it wasn’t hard to establish the custom character’s motivation. Like everyone else, players were driven by the goal of reclaiming the world from Titans and avenging their loved ones.
However, with the most recent anime and manga installments, Attack on Titan has moved into more morally ambiguous territory. This has caused a dramatic tone shift, and if the developers of the video games decide to make a final game covering the story’s final arcs, it will be harder to integrate a custom protagonist, as that character will be at wrenching moral crossroads. In this sense, such a character would have a lot in common with Byleth, the protagonist of Fire Emblem: Three Houses. By comparing the two franchises, it will become clear why integrating a choice-based narrative will be very difficult in a future Attack on Titan game, and should not be a priority.
WARNING: Spoilers for the Attack on Titan anime and manga are found below, up to the most recent manga chapters.
While the tone is quite different, the mechanics of Attack on Titan 2‘s story mode bear a strong resemblance to those of Fire Emblem: Three Houses. The military barracks operate in a very similar fashion to Fire Emblem: Three Houses’ Garreg Mach Monastery. The player builds bonds with canon characters, which improves their efficacy in battle. To do so, the player can invite others on missions, give them gifts, and so on, unlocking vignettes that show the characters’ bonds deepening.
Where the two stories diverge is how the player’s relationship with fellow characters evolves. Like their fellow Survey Corps members, the original character wants to see what is beyond the walls. To that end, the character ultimately sacrifices themselves for a heroic last stand against a surge of oncoming Titans so their allies can live. On the other hand, Byleth discovers that several of Garreg Mach’s students have irreconcilable ambitions for the future of their continent, meaning Byleth must choose who to side with in a massive four-party civil war that ravages Fodlan.
In the final arcs of Attack on Titan, the island of Paradis finds itself the target of an imminent global invasion. In the chaos, the Survey Corps splits into two main factions. One is the militant Jaegerists, who support Eren Jaeger’s cataclysmic Rumbling, killing every living thing outside of the island to ensure the island’s inhabitants will finally be safe. The other is an alliance lead by remaining Titan Shifters like Armin Arlert, who want to stop Eren’s plans. While the manga’s narrative principally follows and supports Armin and his allies, a video game could allow the player to support Eren and explore an alternate plotline.
If the player character could align with Eren, this would be similar to one of the most striking moments from Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Namely, this would be the moment when Byleth can choose to align with newly-exposed shadow agent and revolutionary Edelgard, unlocking a story route called Crimson Flower. While Edelgard’s actions are framed as villainous on any other story route, this changes in Crimson Flower; Byleth’s involvement helps to temper Edelgard’s more sadistic tendencies. Edelgard’s war is still very destructive, but with Byleth’s counsel, she refrains from the needless violence that condemns her to an untimely death in every other story route.
To be fair, there’s a major difference between Byleth joining Edelgard, and a player-created character joining Eren. Edelgard wishes to create a meritocratic society free of its current obsession with family lineage. Even if she must take down armies and a theocracy to succeed, this is only incidental to her goal. For Eren, however, his endgame is to activate the Rumbling and kill the vast majority of all life on the planet. There is no way for Eren to be merciful en route to his goal, as his goal is to cause death. This almost by nature precludes the possibility of a satisfying ending for this route, unlike Crimson Flower and other classic Nintendo stories.
While the role-playing aspects of a choice-based narrative for an Attack on Titan character may be exciting, it is probably more satisfying to just align the player character with Armin’s anti-Rumbling alliance. By the time Armin and his allies confront Eren, almost every surviving major Survey Corps member and Marleyan military member is working together. This would give the player the chance to experience iconic moments first-hand next to iconic allies. Given how elaborate the manga’s climatic set pieces become, it is probably better to focus on one route, rather than split development time among multiple routes.
Plus, any route aligned with Eren would be difficult to populate with meaningful allies. Eren’s role in the series becomes much smaller after he activates the Rumbling, so he himself would probably not be playable. While some important characters do become Jaegerists, like Floch Forster, they simply aren’t as iconic as the alliance that forms to fight Eren. Plus, any opportunity to play as Eren in his final Founding Titan form would introduce the chance for him to lose. While there’s no guarantee Eren’s plan will prevail at the end of the series, dying prematurely due to player error would be a pathetic way for any villain to go.
Although pre-existing Attack on Titan games adhere to the pattern of Fire Emblem: Three Houses in regards to building bonds between characters, it’s probably best for a hypothetical Attack on Titan 3 game not to adopt a choice-based narrative. Even if the player could justify their original character joining the Jaegerists and aiding Eren in world annihilation, it simply wouldn’t be a satisfying experience. The series has so far produced some great video game gems, and it’s not worth risking a sour conclusion just to offer fans a Three Houses-style branching progression system.
Attack on Titan 2; Final Battle is now available for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PC.
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