In case anyone's not familiar with the general rules for a Pokemon Nuzlocke, they are as follows (summarized from Bulbapedia for brevity):
- Any Pokémon that faints is considered dead, and must be released.
The player may only catch the first Pokémon encountered in each area, and none else. Pick whichever you want with double/etc battles. If the Pokemon faints/runs, it still counts.
Everything you catch gets a nickname.
It's generally suggested to not use traded Pokemon, but gifts from NPCs are acceptable.
Don't reset the game if something goes wrong.
If you white out, game over.
There are other optional rules, such as allowing extra chances to catch Pokemon in case of duplicates or not allowing item use and thus only restricting healing to the Pokemon Center, but those are mostly for flavor.
So, what if we did this with Fire Emblem? A general set of rules would go like this:
- If a character dies in battle, you must proceed without them.
If your Lord falls, game over.
If you have more than one character introduced in a chapter, the first one to be recruited is the one you keep. If you start with more than one Player unit or have more than one unit introduced on the same Player or Ally phase simultaneously, select one via random number generation. If multiple units are introduced as a mixture of Player and Ally, keep the Player unit if only one Player is introduced with the Ally units, and do the same as 2+ Player units if there are multiple Player units and multiple Ally units simultaneously. If one is a Player and one is an Enemy unit, keep the Player unit. If both are Enemy units, generate a random number. If one is an Enemy unit and one is an Ally, keep the Ally unit. In short, priority goes Player > Ally > Enemy. If the highest priority unit type has more than one unit introduced on the same Player/Ally phase simultaneously, generate a random number to decide who gets to stay.
Ex: In FE8, Chapter 4, Artur and Lute are recruitable. Artur is available from the start, Lute requires visiting a village or keeping said village safe until the chapter ends. Artur is playable, Lute is not.
Chapter 5, Natasha and Joshua are recruitable. Natasha is available from the start, Joshua is recruited from the enemy by Talking to him with Natasha. Natasha is playable, Joshua is not.
Chapter 8, Ephraim, Forde, and Kyle become available in Chapter 8 from turn 2. Ephraim is a Lord, and is free. Generate a random number for Forde or Kyle.
Chapter 10 Eirika route, Gerik, Tethys, Innes, and Marisa are available. Gerik, Tethys, and Innes are NPCs. Marisa is an Enemy unit. Generate a random number for Gerik, Innes, or Tethys.
And so on.
If a unit you randomly select to recruit on a chapter requires speaking to with another unit that is not recruited, then you must select someone else to recruit. If they are recruitable by simply keeping alive until the chapter ends, then you may still recruit them.
Lords are excluded from determining which Player unit to keep. (eg: Eirika and Seth are introduced in the same chapter. They are both usable.)
No leveling up outside of story chapters, for games with available battles outside of the linear story.
No glitch exploitation.
You may not Rescue units you cannot recruit.
As for other games specifically:
- FE6: You must unlock Chapter 23~Final. Therefore, you must obtain all of the Legendary weapons and not deplete them before Ch 23~Final.
FE7: Obtain all gaidens, save for 19xx and 32x, which are optional. Lyn Mode must be played on Hard, but Eliwood or Hector Mode can be chosen at the player's discretion, as well as whether to play on Normal or Hard.
FE8: No Ruins, no Tower. Chapter 5x is not included for determining which character to keep in your party. Choose whichever route you'd like.
FE9: Use of bonus EXP is not allowed. Use of stat rings on Hard mode is allowed. Bonus: Obtain the Knight's Ring and/or Ashera's Staff.
FE10: Use of bonus EXP is not allowed. The Black Knight is free for the few chapters he is playable in.
FE11: Obtain all gaidens.
FE13: No DLC/Spotpass, no map combat, no use of Reeking Boxes. No Casual mode. You may only recruit the kids of characters whom you are allowed to fight with. You may not play the Paralogue chapters of children whose parents you cannot fight with. Lucina is free. MU is also free. No Pair Ups with unrecruited units. Bonus: No reclassing, Master Seals only.
Obviously the list isn't hard-and-fast, and additional rules can be added on your own, but the general gist is to limit who you recruit and how you go about playing the game. Certainly would change how cautiously you play.
If enough people are interested, maybe we can make a game out of it, especially if everyone would want to use the same game? Whoever wins (or wins the least amount of turns) gets a prize or something. And if the rules need to be adjusted, please tell me! I haven't been contemplating this that long and I'm sure aspects need to be adjusted. Or if you wanted to weigh in on FE1-5/12, then go ahead, as I've never played any portion of those.
This is not because I started a Pokemon Black Nuzlocke tonight, nope not at all
