Fire Emblem: A Tactful History | The Complete Story Behind the Franchise (1990-2017)

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] throughout the long and heralded history of Nintendo there have been many interesting and unique franchises that have been created by their hand each and every one of them was highly innovative in their genres with some even shaping their own The Legend of Zelda pioneered the adventure genre giving the masses a compelling story that they had never seen in gaming before Metroid would further innovate on the platformer genre adding horror and exploration elements into the mix on top of all these Santa Mario everyone's favorite plumber the character and franchise that had revitalized the platformer genre and even the gaming industry as a whole but these were just a few of their successes some franchises for a time just got left behind Fire Emblem was one of them a series that starkly contrasted with the cartoony and light-hearted characters Nintendo was known for Fire Emblem would brave new ground with a darker setting and even more devious gameplay a brutal franchise for only the most hardcore of gamers for time no one outside of Japan even knew of its existence let alone how it was created but with the series rising popularity and newly christened mainstream status maybe it's time to shed some light on the matter a story of swords dragons and one man backed by an entire company begins [Music] the story of fire emblems development takes us back all the way to 1973 in the early years of Nintendo's development as a game maker the company had decided to expand its ventures into a new frontier electronics to do so they split their newly founded electronics department into three branches R&D one rd2 and R&D 3 out of all of these though R&D one would prove to be the most prominent shigeru miyamoto the iconic Nintendo game visionary got his start here where he worked under gunpei Yokoi the eventual creator of the Gameboy several years after Miyamoto left due to the success of Donkey Kong a group of R&D 1 programmers formed their own company intelligent systems and was almost bought on the spot by Nintendo this new group under the tutelage of via COI would strive to create new games that were far different from any standard Nintendo affair their first effort was Famicom Wars releasing in 1988 Famicom Wars became the first in a long line of strategy games for the company taking control of two warring nations Red Star and Blue Moon players were tasked with fighting off the enemy faction and destroying their headquarters completely it was a standard strategy game in all but name now with their feet wet in the genre the team was bent on creating a franchise worthy of their name after Famicom Wars release intelligent systems had diverted its attention to more simulation based games they wanted to do something like Famicom Wars but with a new spin on it that was wholly original but who would craft this new masterpiece one man would answer that call a man by the name of Shozo kaga his idea was never meant to be a commercial project according to him but he still had a vision and with it a vast knowledge of game design to boot jojo quickly put the studio to work to develop his creation along with him his team would consist of game designer tow Harouna Harry no characters designed by Daisuke Zuka and the iconic music provided by composer you've got Suzy Yoko unlike Famicom Wars before it shows OHS game would add new mechanics to differentiate itself from its predecessor and other strategy games on the market combining the strategy and role-playing genres inner-workings to mold its own unique hybrid there would be nothing quite like it for some time even though it wasn't the most technically advanced game on the NES it was still groundbreaking in more ways than one and on April 20th 1992 years of hard work Japan would be the first to understand this fire emblem and cope our youth to eat curry no sugery roughly translating as fire emblem dark dragon and sword of light this was the first mainstream strategy RPG on the market beating out other titles such as Sega's Shining Force and Super Robot Tyson for acclaim fire emblem also ditched the modern military setting that Famicom Wars was known for and decided to go for an environment set in medieval times with swords magic and fantastical beasts throughout its story would follow this fantasy route to our lead protagonist was Martha a prince of the nation all taya all is well in the kingdom until the neighboring Kingdom of DeLuna attacks forcing Martha to become an exile in the nation of tellus with his sister Elise taken hostage and his father killed by the evil priest garnet Martha must gather an army to retake his homeland and find the sacred sword Falchi on and the mysterious Fire Emblem to vanquish a resurrected matthias once and for all Fire Emblem was a remarkable story for its time with few games being able to hold a candle to it games with stories were hard to come by at the time but the unique battle system that Fire Emblem had was even scare sir but it still held close to its roots in a few ways Fire Emblem system was similar to famicom wars with battles being totally automatic and decided by offensive and defensive numbers alone on a grid-based system but after that it started to branch off into its own beast battles took place against individual units instead of huge groups of troops attacking each other it was also less about building troops and sending them off to their deaths like in famicom wars and had a deeper connection to its troops fire emblems characters were unique in their own right and each and every one of them had their own purpose there were your classic mages Knights and spearmen alike but they were also Pegasus Knights and dastardly thieves to wield at your leisure nearly all of them could be promoted to more powerful classes like the Dragon Knight and leveled up with standard RPG mechanics it was an interesting system that shows oh and his team had created but these were not the things that Fire Emblem would truly be known for its difficulty would be the main reason this difficulty was the side effect of one of fire emblems creations perma death permanent death or permit as it's so affectionately called meant that when a character fell in battle he was dead for good there was no way to bring him or her back from the brink this of course affected the story tremendously with cutscenes changing depending on who lived or done with some of them not appearing at all if someone was lost funnier emblem became a careful dance with death as you tried your very best to keep your favorite characters alive and kicking death wasn't the only form of difficulty however enemies were ruthless in their tactics the arena forced you to risk both life and limb for a reward you couldn't save in the middle of a chapter and the victory condition of every chapter required you to have Marth in the lead Fire Emblem was one of the most difficult games of its era and proved to be a great challenge for gamers after the game's release sales remained flat for a time a new IP had just released and no one had heard of the new kid on the block two months later with word of mouth at a fever pitch the game was a success a success that Nintendo wanted to replicate but this entry would behave like many of Nintendo's other franchises Super Mario Bros 2 Zelda 2 The Adventure of Link and many many more were all vastly polarizing compared to their predecessors you either loved them or you hated him Fire Emblem Gaiden or Fire Emblem Side Story released in March of 92 and was more of the same with a bunch of added twists instead of being a truly direct sequel it took the site of its name to heart paralleling the events of the first game Fire Emblem Gaiden follows the story of two protagonists Celsius and olive both hail from the Kingdom of Sophia in the land of Valencia that is in a constant war between the neighboring kingdom of Raguel dropped in between these two warring nations it is up to these childhood friends to build their own army save the peaceful nation of Mira and invade Raguel to finally bring peace to Valencia a complicated plot for sure but Fire Emblem Gaiden was still a proud successor of the series while many things changed some decided to stay the same comparing battles between the first two games it wouldn't be hard to mistake one for the other but a deluge of RPG elements would try to help it stand on its own instead of a whole slew of battles spread across a linear world map Gaiden introduces a navigatable world where each step represents a new location such as classic Fire Emblem battles as well as town exploration similar to other iterations of the genre the battle system changed around - with characters now being able to attain different classes difficulty was ramped up even more than before and perma death was as brutal as ever if you lost enough units at a certain point you couldn't even complete the game something that many people found out the hard way Fire Emblem Gaiden was even tougher to beat than the original Fire Emblem and that was saying something somehow even amongst all of this Fire Emblem Gaiden had managed to outsell its predecessor shaking the second game curse that had plagued many Nintendo games before us intelligent systems had a winner on its hands a company that had formed from just a group of close colleagues had grown into its own competing on the level of many of the Nintendo greats the creation Fire Emblem was innovative for its time molding the tactical RPG genre into what it is to take but it's story and characters are what helped it stand out in a crowd of knockoffs and copycats there was nowhere to go but up for this and its new proud vision it was time to go super [Music] you [Music] after the success of Fire Emblem Gaiden intelligent systems finally felt it was time to move on from the Famicom to Nintendo's brand-new Super Famicom having come out the same year as the original Fire Emblem it was a surprise that the franchise was as much of a hit as it was a testament to its quality in more ways than one since many people could have possibly missed out on the first entry let alone the entire franchise itself intelligent systems took the route that few developers take and decided to start from the ground up with a fresh take on their first outing Fire Emblem Moncho known as ol or Fire Emblem mystery of the emblem releasing in 1994 was more of the same Fire Emblem fans had come to love but with its own innovations mystery of the emblem was a remake and a sequel in one package splitting into books 1 & 2 each was developed with complete independence from one another even featuring completely different soundtracks for each other while the Super Famicom was of course a more powerful system it still didn't have the power to feature basically two complete games on one cartridge so cuts had to be made five complete chapters and six characters unfortunately had to be cut away to make room for book 2 but that's not to say that the game was lacking for content no it was actually bursting from the seams with it book 1 followed Shadow Dragons story to a tee with some exceptions of course book 2 on the other hand was a direct continuation of the story with characters new and old reuniting to slay a dragon and save the kingdom once again even though this entry compromise to the original story everything else within it's made up for that graphics were significantly upgraded from their 8-bit counterparts allowing units to differentiate themselves from one another more effectively gameplay in the end proved to be the most significant improvement of them all taking many of the ideas Fire Emblem Gaiden had created mystery of the emblem added those and its own ideas into the mix colored tiles helped the player understand where and how each unit would move in battle each weapon was crafted to look vastly different from each other adding even more personality into the story units that had a horse or Pegasus were even able to dismount from their mounts negating their weaknesses while creating new ones the first implementation of the support system also made its way to this entry in which units perform better in combat when they're near friends family or loved ones overall battles were much faster and fancier than previous iterations and it would only be improved on over time mystery of the emblem proved to be a fantastic leaping off point for the series with its popularity growing faster by the day after some time it would actually become the most successful Fire Emblem game of all time in Japan trouncing even modern injuries by selling nearly 750,000 copies a feat reserved for most mainstream Nintendo titles a feat that Fire Emblem had earned but before we could move on to the next entry the series did what many other series have done and created a few side projects the first of these were manga adaptations of the series each told the full stories of the games with added in content for context on the matter at hand there were even two separate series for Shadow Dragon at the time but with the inclusion of manga of course came anime created in 1996 this OVA coming out with only two pilot episodes would tell the story of the original Fire Emblem all over again but with added flashbacks to flesh out Martha's origin story even more oddly enough with literally no word of mouth and an international release of Fire Emblem not even considered yet these short few episodes made their way over to America exposing an entirely untapped audience to the series something even stranger than this was fire emblems first and most bizarre spin-off title vs fire emblem or fire emblem akane a saga releasing in 1997 for the equally baffling settle of view which was an add-on for the super famicom this complex little device allowed the Super Famicom to receive satellite signals from the wow wow' station in Tokyo and with a monthly subscription fee you would be allowed to download new games right to your console fire emblem akane a saga took advantage of these by giving players four new maps to choose from taking place in between the events of fire emblem shadow dragon players were given even more fire and l'm content than they could ask for this was only to satiate to the crowds hunger for a new mainland Fire Emblem title however that would come soon enough but the creator of Fire Emblem Shozo kaga wanted to try something different for the next entry he wanted to break away from the RK nian setting to something new with the series similar yet contrasting with Gaiden one of kagaz primary aims while crafting the scenario for the project was to produce a sweeping historical epic where the world undergoes great change over periods of time kaga wished to convey how many historical events and behaviors are unpalatable by modern standards as a key theme and to a lesser extent how people's mistakes ended up changing the world in this he was determined not to whitewash history and sought to present a medieval drama reflective of the true nature of the era and to present both the heroes and the villains of fighting for their own justice to emphasize the dangers posed by branding a conflict a holy war on either side this holy war turned out to be the name to fire emblem say cynic a fool or fire emblem genealogy of the holy war releasing in 1997 was by far the most innovative Fire Emblem title in history taking the sweeping historical epic to heart the game's story while originally meant to be split into three parts was made into two chapters genealogy of the holy war is sent on jugged Rahl a land whose rulers bare the holy bloodlines of the twelve Crusaders the game is split up into two halves each separated by the timespan of a generation in the first generation while most of his nations army is off to war in the Eastern nation of his sock Lord scissored defends the duchies of Grand veil from a sudden invasion by the neighboring kingdom of Verdun but is rapidly embroiled in a conspiracy against his father vile on in the events which ultimately lead to the birth of the grand veil Empire and in the Mokka nations of the lopped Aryans to create a human vessel for their Dark Lord LUP der the same tyranny fought by his sons I left 17 years later in the second generation this was the two genealogies story in the first generation each of the units save a few is able to pair off with each other to have children that would go on to be the protagonists of the second generation being able to pair off each unit also factors into the child's abilities depending on the father different combinations yield different results above all you had to make sure each character survived until the end otherwise a substitute character would replace their offspring the idea of lineages and offspring changed how you play at Fire Emblem ever-so-slightly one of the core tenets of genealogy was the legacy of the twelve Crusaders famous fighters from a time gone by these people of course have their own descendants with the ability to wield a holy weapon associated with them coming in two forms minor and major Bludd both offered significant stat boosts to a character gameplay was at the forefront of all of this and Shozo kaga did much to relate this with the scenario he had planned genealogies maps were made into huge sprawling Affairs in an attempt to change the impression delivered by prior games that the conflict was being fought on a small scale instead it emphasized the game's events as a massive world changing conflict and while the maps became bigger and better the combat system also improved along the way genealogy introduced skills into the mix abilities processed by units that could change the course of a battle you could even pass them down to the children adding further customizability weapons had a general durability of 50 uses after this they break however while in other Fire Emblem games you would never be able to use them again this time around you can repair them for a fee this fee and well money in general is unique to each unit in a bid to force players to balance out their characters everyone earned their own keep weapons were also a rarity and without maintaining and trading them around like this you could run out of them last but not least the weapon triangle system completely revolutionized and changed how you played a rock-paper-scissors mechanic it consisted of two triangles one for physical attacks and one for magical attacks swords be taxes axes beat Lance's Lance's beat swords you always had to pair up the right weapon with the right opponent otherwise you could suffer disastrous results fire emblem genealogy of the holy war was and still is according to many the greatest fire emblem title ever made its gameplay innovations with the weapon triangle system skills and much more along with the sweeping historical drama scenario that Kaka had made formed together a quite formidable entry to improve on this seemed like an impossibility to say the least but kaga and his team would try their very best their answer would come not two years after genealogies release Fire Emblem three Xie 776 releasing originally in 1999 through Nintendo power and later in 2000 as a formal cartridge this entry would take advice from Gaiden and tell its own side story featuring lief one of the many possible children fray sia 776 takes place between chapters five and six of genealogy and we won't say anything else because they would spoil the story of genealogy but we do recommend playing it anyway back to the topic at hand we're three SIA innovated the most was like genealogy its gameplay while skills end of the weapon triangle remained three SIA added weapon ranks previously introduced in genealogy as static and based on a class three SIA implemented the version that would become the mainstay of the series ranks that increase through newfound weapons and buy weapons gaining their own separate experience the game also introduced a couple other systems rescue capture and fog of war it allowed higher ranked units to rescue others from harm or have them leave the battle entirely at the cost of some penalties to their stats exclusive dothrae sia and a more recent Fire Emblem venture is the capture mechanic an offensive version of rescuing in which units can overpower and seize enemies rather than killing them outright you could then steal their weapons let them go or simply hold onto them to possibly recruit some extra units another mainstay mechanic became the fog of war a weather state that hinders your visibility of the battlefield when it is in full effect allied units have a limited range of vision and can't see anything outside of it creating a sense of uncertainty and caution as enemies are invisible until they walk right into your path fatigue also contributed to this sense of caution you've required every time a unit performs an action they gain fatigue use them too much and they won't be available for the next chapter speaking of chapters there were concepts for those too Gaiden chapters were side stories that you could only get after fulfilling certain conditions and escape chapters forced you to flee while fighting for your lives these helped along with three CS 776 would be famous for hailed by many as the most difficult Fire Emblem ever created the game would show you no mercy whatsoever enemies and their tactics were brutal and execution forcing you to carefully plan out each of your moves and have your tactics at near perfection some other difficulty racers include some of the most intricately crafted maps in franchise history dismounting proving to be a hinderance rather than being helpful and the game flat-out not telling you anything in the end this was a game meant for the fans combined with a release far exceeding the lifetime of the console alluded to the fact that this would not sell that well at all in fact it may just be the worst selling entry in the franchise period it may have even led to the departure of Shozo kaga who had guided the hand of the series from the very beginning it all started with the release of the Nintendo 64 back when everyone was getting hyped up for this new console and Fire Emblem genealogy of the holy war had just released fans were clamoring for an entry on Nintendo's shiny new console kaga would deny the claim wishing to continue on with the Super Famicom system and return to a Kania with the higher level of strategy in tow however not a year later Shigeru Miyamoto would announce that a game would release on the console in 1998 the following year kaga revealed that his plans for a proper return to a Kania had fallen through if it had properly been released Fire Emblem 64 would have been renamed fire emblem on cocoon amico or Fire Emblem maiden of Darkness for the now failed nintendo 64dd his plans falling through among many other unknown reasons would force kaga to leave his beloved franchise behind forever he would then form his own company turn an UGG and create his own true successor to fire emblem emblem saga but with its creator gone and a triple-a status at risk the future looked grim for the Fire Emblem series and Shozo Koga wasn't out of this mess yet you [Music] after his departure from the Fire Emblem series Shozo kaga founded his own company turning out and with it created his latest masterpiece the then titled emblem saga it was his spiritual successor to the franchise one with similar turn-based gameplay graphical and musical tones and even an interface that seemed a bit too similar to Fire Emblem the story was also very similar to kagaz previous work on Gaiden following two protagonists with two different armies of their own and that intersect at a few points during the game it was a return to old-school Fire Emblem a return that was too comparable to the original in the eyes of Nintendo this was because emblem saga wasn't due for a release on a Nintendo console but rather Sony's shiny PlayStation being a direct competitor and market rival to the Nintendo 64 Nintendo did not want a series to go against fire emblem and possibly succeed in the long run prior to its 2001 release Nintendo put legal pressure on turnin Ock as they were unhappy that cago is making an extremely similar game with an extremely similar title stating they felt that this was used deliberately for promotional purposes and would bring false recognition to users essentially Nintendo was worried that gamers would think that this was the next Fire Emblem game not wanting to get into a legal battle Koga agreed to change the game's name to tear ring saga and removed any and all Fire Emblem references a month before release but Nintendo still wouldn't have any of that and in the end still sued Ternan OGG and its publisher inter brain for copyright infringement to the tune of 2 million dollars at the time they then went through a legal battle that lasted for nearly four years at first ending in a win for Koga but then into a loss forcing the company to pay nearly seven hundred thousand dollars by the end of it the legal issues seemed to ruin kaga and his dream at a new franchise after releasing a sequel to tearing saga in 2005 called berwick saga the franchise and kaga himself seems to have disappeared from the public eye good unless his new project which is currently slated for a 2016 release the Styria saga has anything to say about that but even with Shozo kaga out Fire Emblem wasn't done yet oh no it was on the rise from here this rise was propelled by the series entrance into the ever-popular Super Smash Bros franchise a fighting series that pits Nintendo's greatest against each other the iconic Marth had been considered a prime candidate ever since the original Smash Masahiro Sakurai the franchise's creators sought to add him from the beginning of development of their new game super smash bros melee intend him with this the team also added a clone character of Marth Roy the star of the recently canceled Fire Emblem 64 and the star of the next project that was forthcoming their inclusion in the series would shake the foundations of the entire Fire Emblem franchise but the aftershocks wouldn't be felt for years to come before we learned of what would come of that the next entry in the series came around forms together by the recently canceled Fire Emblem 64 it would take a new direction from the one that kaga had led first they needed to find a new director to lead the franchise and they found him in tow who now a hero a veteran programmer who had been with the franchise from the very beginning with their leader settled on the team decided to choose a new platform for their next venture no longer would Fire Emblem be stuck in the past and stay on consoles that have long since lost their luster now fire emblems new home would be in the palm of your hand the Game Boy Advance releasing in 2002 as the newly titled Fire Emblem Phooey no sugery or as it's officially called Fire Emblem the binding blade this would be a return to the more simplistic storytelling of the originals following the exploits of the titular Roy the game is set in a new and separate world from its predecessors the continent of aleem a land once wrecked by a fierce war between humans and Dragons 1,000 years after the conflict the misanthropy kings are feel of the militarists nation of bern has freed the infamous demon dragon and engaged the rest of Aleen in a full-scale war with the intent of freeing the world from mankind and returning it to its rightful Dragon owners in response boy the young heir of pherae leads the forces of Lycia in combating burn in lieu of his ill father marques eliwood while fire emblem was no longer helped by the series visionary Shozo kaga it's and its subsequent iterations were still able to tell a story that resonated with the fire emblem faithful in large part because of one of its leading design ideas was to feel similar yet distinct from the original Arcania series of games this can be seen in its map design handful of characters and even the motivation of the main villains kagaz use of a relatively gray moral setting with no clear-cut village of good versus evil was still at the forefront even though the series had changed hands however the differences are what really made the binding blade stand out from its predecessors rather than its similarities whether it was a step back or step forward in the franchise was ultimately up to the players and ultimately the fans opinions as a defining example the franchise's trademark strategy gameplay differed from its predecessor while Thrace es 776 had one of the greatest difficulty curbs in all of Fire Emblem binding blade didn't have as much complexity in comparison whether it be in terms of storytelling or gameplay while it is considered one of the more challenging games in the Fire Emblem series in the modern day despite its simplicity its latest predecessor left a huge chip on its shoulder for longtime fans but it did do some things right mostly a hidden mechanic until this entry the support system was brought to center stage equivalent to the love system without the love supports happen in a similar way when characters talk to each other on the battlefield each support grants certain bonuses to your units and as they grow up in support rank they can eventually get married like in genealogy but without the children this system allowed for a greater level of insight and depth into your army members of lesser importance and made them all the more memorable compared to prior installments where they were by and large left flat and unflushed out the flow of the battle also differed from previous entries certain stat changes and reworks were made and an affinity system each unit one of seven elemental affinities to dictate what support bonuses they would give to their partner the weapon triangle was also tinkered with ever so slightly leaving the physical triangle alone their focus was on the magical triangle where they combined fire thunder and wind magic into anima magic while keeping light and dark the same creating the trinity of magic that was used for many years Fire Emblem the binding blade was also the first in the series to include a rudimentary form of multiplayer where you could fight against another players army incidentally this feature had been one that shows Okada had wanted to include from the very beginning this and much more is why the binding blade is considered today to be the game which codified the general structure and gameplay flow that almost all subsequent Fire Emblem games had many considered this to be the turning point in the down spiral but no one can deny the influence this one game had on the future of the entire franchise while bringing it back from the brink if only the next entry could rectify its mistakes but the world had plans for Fire Emblem big ones when super smash bros melee was being localized in the West their team was faced with deciding whether or not Marth and Roy should come with the game no one in the West really knew about the franchise and since they spoke Japanese no one would even be able to understand them but they saw no harm in the matter and let them stay in this would unknowingly change the fate of Fire Emblem forever fans of Super Smash Bros flocked to these characters wanting to know who they were and where they came from the popularity of Marth and Roy was large enough that Nintendo felt it was high time to release the series globally but Super Smash Brothers wasn't the only reason another came with the long-forgotten title that started it all Famicom Wars now releasing as the brand new advanced Wars globally Nintendo was excited by this and felt that strategy games truly had a place on their new handheld greenlit for release a new Fire Emblem title was incoming and the whole world was going to play it Fire Emblem raike anokhin or Fire Emblem blazing sword releasing in 2003 and later that year as the aptly titled Fire Emblem this time around the story told would be a prequel of sorts to binding blade set on the same continent of a liebe 20 years prior to its predecessors events it stars three main characters eliwood and Hector the fathers of the binding blades Roy and lalena and a completely new character Lin the game is divided into two segments the first segment stars Lin and revolves around her quest to save her grandfather from his treacherous brother acting as a tutorial mode for the game the longer second part stars eliwood Hector and Lin as they oppose the schemes of the sorcerer Nergal who wishes to summon the long banished dragons back to a liebe the player was given a role in the story as a tactician while you yourself don't participate in battle you instead are the one that helps guide the armies of Lin along with Iliad and Hector to victory as an introduction for an international audience the world of Fire Emblem blazing sword was on par with its predecessor weaving a similar story but one that was all the more memorable however blazing sword had the shortest development cycle in series history so it never had the time to truly set itself apart from binding blade in several regards much of its gameplay and assets in general were reused and remade however that doesn't mean they didn't try and as many players in the West first vision of the series it left a big impression on to what fire emblem should be a strategy game that could develop strong side characters while also giving an entertaining story that would grasp your attention and always has a little something more tucked underneath the little tidbit for the game was with the Japanese release for the first time in series history you were able to link blazing sword with binding blade allowing for certain features to be unlocked in the new Fire Emblem 2 epilogue scenes were unlocked from the second you beat the game otherwise you would have to play through at nine to eleven times more important than either of these however was the ability to skip Lin's story basically a bonafide tutorial mode that you're forced to go through it really had no bearing on the story at large and was certainly skippable it was Nintendo's old philosophy rearing its ugly head again believing that international gamers couldn't handle the difficulty at first but players still plowed through to find an amazing story hidden underneath and after selling nearly 1 million copies worldwide the franchise was officially solidified globally that it was time to innovate once again innovation came with their next entry fire emblem Simon Okazaki or fire emblem the sacred stones releasing in 2004 and 2005 globally sacred stones is the only completely isolated title in the series set in a completely different world from all the others mag ville it stars Erica and Ephram twin heirs to the kingdom of Rene's as they combat the sudden aggression of their southern neighbor grotto and investigate the dark forces that have caused their former ally to swiftly turn on them and the rest of the continent and save the sacred stones from destruction sacred stones was a return to Gaiden like storytelling with separate characters working for their own goals until they meet in the end but the hero's connection to the villain is what really drives the story forward while the villains and past games have always had more depth to them than we realized the villain of this story has two very contrasting personalities depending on which route you choose to take during the middle of the story what makes this fascinating to many players is that his character still seems consistent even when you compare his identity side by side making the dynamic between him and the heroes all the more stronger this and the close connections between the cast of characters at your side leads to many pointing to the writing as its biggest strengths and foursome as some of the best Fire Emblem has to offer information from the series past also influenced the gameplay several units started as a trainee class a stage even lower than normal units in turn they gain experience quickly and after reaching level 10 they can choose between two standard classes and become normal units during the subsequent chapter this basically allowed those units to become a completely different class given some time giving you further customizability then ever before stirrers had a bigger presence within Sacred Stones all of them had their own classes and rhe classes just like your own units but in general they usually had inferior stats to go along with that Fire Emblem Gaiden there was a world map that the player could manually traverse through random skirmishes with monsters and town plenty for you to use at your leisure for shopping and extra experience to was completely changed and every unit has an infinite amount of experience they can gain from drastically decreasing the difficulty of the game in fact because of this and much more Fire Emblem the Sacred Stones may be the easiest Fire Emblem game ever made with this change in attitude could the franchise continue to stand the test of time or was this path just not in the cards you [Music] after the release of Fire Emblem the sacred stones many fans and critics began to complain about the series lack of innovation every entry in the series Game Boy Advance era filt remarkably similar to each other for better or worse and because of this it seemed that interest in the franchise was waning once again luckily enough for fans of the series and newcomers alike when sacred stones was announced a second Fire Emblem game was revealed along with it intelligent systems decided that they should bring the series to home consoles once again to the Gamecube to be specific they felt that this would be the shot in the arm the series needed so desperately while also giving them room to try things the series had never done before they would call it fire unplugged so in no Kiseki or Fire Emblem path of Radiance worldwide releasing in 2005 path of Radiance changed many aspects of the Fire Emblem series for one the power of the console allowed the franchise to fully enter the third dimension with 3d character models and environments spread throughout transitioning from 2d graphics to 3d graphics was one of the biggest challenges during development especially since the classic tilted overhead view was to be replaced with the unit to unit battle in third person the team even used motion capture while still making the character's motions feel a little over-the-top to keep that fantasy feel intact path of Radiance also had the series first real cutscenes fully animated by Japanese animation house digital foundry but these would never had worked without introducing voice acting into the foray for the past eight Fire Emblem titles dialogue had always been text-based there was something missing voice acting was it path of Radiance even featured the franchise's first vocal song life returns which was of course provided by the series iconic composer Yuka sue gioco all of this combined helps to create a fantastic Fire Emblem game but there's still so much more to it than that path of Radiance story takes place on the continent of telly Asst yet another land that is separated from the whole of Fire Emblem lore unlike previous injuries however path of Radiance doesn't follow a lord as its main character but a mercenary like was his name and what roy if the binding blade was originally called his adventure begins with his entrance into the Grail mercenaries a company of mercenaries led by his father great for a time they operate normally within the borders of Crimea a nation of humans that just rests north of Gallia a state comprised of a new race to the Fire Emblem series called the lagoons humanoids capable of transforming into animals all seems well for a time until the neighboring Kingdom of Dane invades soon after Ike comes across an unconscious woman in a forest that turns out to be the princess of Crimea elincia escaping to Galia and losing his father to the Dane general the Black Knight in the process Ike must now gather an army of his own to take back Crimea and defeat Ashe NART king of Dane interestingly enough path of Radiance had one overarching theme throughout racism before all of the squabbles in the Fire Emblem series were against nations of the same race but this time there were the lagoons and the nation of Danes Barack who were always at each other's throats it was up to like to break these long-held grievances and pull the world together to fight their true enemy Ashe nard but as with everything up until this point path of Radiance trade it's best to tweak the gameplay to its own liking the new races were the first concepts to take center stage in battle the lagoons changelings had the ability to transform into various animals from tigers to hawks after their transformation gage was filled they would turn into their animal selves losing the ability to use standard swords axes and armaments while switching to their more animalistic ones like claws and beaks your units biorhythm also became another important mechanic for you to maintain a stat that effects a character's hit and avoid statistics biorhythm would fluctuate between chapters either hindering or refining a unit even further other slight additions to how you changed classes and leveled up were also made letting characters automatically change classes at level 21 and awarding bonus experience depending on how well you did in a chapter the skill system along with this was created anew with each character having a capacity gauge that allows for mastery of skills the space of the capacity gauge varies between classes and characters and any unit could learn any skill although with some exceptions path of Radiance introduced weapon forging to the series letting you improve weapons change their colors and even give them a unique name the support system also made a comeback but not in the way it had previously been portrayed support level used to be raised by putting units next to each other however path of Radiance altered this by having it be determined by the number of battles two units had been in together conversations now take place at Mike's home base a feature that had been added at the behest of the development team as they wanted a place where characters could interact separately from the battlefield to go along with this conversations now had a secondary version instead of just the standard support based ones these new info conversations provided crucial hints on the story ahead and were marked by three stars one star denotes conversations that provide story background two stars mark conversations that provide hints on how to proceed in the coming battle and three stars indicate that the conversation may heal the special ability item or new playable character with all this combined you'd think that path of Radiance would have sold like hotcakes back in its home country of Japan but you'd be wrong on that front in fact to this day Fire Emblem path of Radiance is one of the three worst sellers of the entire franchise in Japan even beating out the infamous three CS 776 even series producer todo nada hito thought the game was 70% complete the product of a somewhat rushed development cycle with incredibly positive reviews and the series still selling well overseas there must have been something wrong that just didn't click with intelligent systems original audience starting off their return to consoles on one of Nintendo's least successful efforts probably wasn't helping either so the team thought that returning to it would be futile in the long run having created Fire Emblem titles for the past four years at a non-stop pace perhaps it was time to take great care in making the next entry returning to the Gamecube was not an option but Nintendo already had a new console in development codenamed revolution seeing this as their first opportunity to actually boost the sales of a fledgling console instead of riding on the coattails of its success intelligent systems went right to work on their next entry Nintendo was even in support of this increasing their staff from 100 to 200 members with many of them coming from path of Radiance with all of this support behind their backs there was no telling what would await them on release their combined efforts resulted in fire emblem Akatsuki no Megami or fire emblem radiant dawn releasing in 2007 and 2008 worldwide for the Nintendo we a continuation of Fire Emblem path of Radiance in more ways than one the 3d environments and cel-shaded full motion video were back once again with an upgraded engine and even grander scale with hundreds of characters on screen at a time and over 100 unique animations per character taking place on tele us once again radiant dawn was divided into four parts each of these is structured similarly beginning with a prologue chapter that introduces the situation followed by a series of chapters that is resolved with the classic end game fort one deals with Dane a nation in shambles due to its war with the world with many of its people being oppressed by the occupying forces of the beg nian Empire this is where the game's new protagonists mkhaya comes in who along with her dawn Brigade set out to liberate the country from tyranny subsequent parts involve elincia and the state of Crimea the return of Ike and the Grail mercenaries and of course a finale that brings a close to the Telia series as a whole with the deep story just like its predecessor there was much to love about this new entry however what truly helped it further stand out from the Fire Emblem crowd was its exploration of the aftermath of a war and how the winners don't always come out on top there was no true victor in this conflict only casualties which made for a thought-provoking journey that truly fit in with the Fire Emblem ethos that had been held up throughout the years however combat was still the same as ever but what they didn't change they refined human characters could now promote twice resulting in three tiers of character classes with the third being incredibly powerful each has access to their classes a cult or ultimate skill which further increases their usefulness the lagoons from path of Radiance also made a return now they can use a new weapon called strike to counter-attack their foes although they would be relatively weak in this state a new lagunes tribe in turn was also created called the Hatari adding wolves into the mix the weapon system was modified as well knives became classified as full weapons matching swords axes bows and lances new low tier bronze level weapons were introduced as well and while they did the least amount of damage in the game and couldn't perform critical hits they were less expensive and allowed the most uses and bowmen were given more to play with like crossbows and bow guns elevation and terrain became crucial aspects of the battlefield characters can climb to higher levels with higher levels increasing accuracy and damage and lower levels decreasing it conversely for marksmen like classes changing the support system had been a crucial part of each entry and radiant town was no different it features two types buddy supports and bond supports buddy supports increase their characters battle stats dependent on the elemental affinity and the support level of both buddies unlike in previous games characters can be buddies with any other character but can only have one buddy at a time bond support switch also appeared in path of Radiance R between two specific characters and are always present because any character can form a support relationship with any other character the conversations themselves have been simplified and are based on templates in which the initiating character makes a stock statement while inserting a recipients name and the recipient will respond with the general acknowledgement the more colorful dialogue that typifies the support conversations in previous installments has been for the most part transferred to the info conversations that take place between battles dealing with path of Radiance you could transfer over save data from that injury this would help boost the stats of any recurring characters to their old counterparts making them all the more useful and at times you needed it to even have a hope of surviving as radiant dawn is possibly one of the most difficult Fire Emblem titles but none of the likes of Thrace es 776 this difficulty stems from multiple things from map designed to AI brutality but many points to the various modes you could play through as the culprits you see generally Fire Emblem games have three difficulty settings normal hard and lunatic those who weren't the most hardcore of fans would choose the normal difficulty and go through the game easily enough however due to a translation error in english-speaking countries they were changed to easy normal and hard unless you knew what was going on most would choose to go for the normal difficulty and end up frustrated by playing the actual hard mode artificially making radiant dawn out to be more difficult than it was this translated into poor reviews for the first time in series history with many not knowing of the changes it was still a very challenging game mind you and most decided to ignore it because of that wears holding and reading it done becoming the franchise's worst seller in Japan the story was definitely a compelling one that expanded on what path of Radiance had laid the foundation for and the battle system too was further refined to its sharpest edge but the legacy that this title left behind would continue to help shape the series as it went along even if no one was playing it something was wrong with the Fire Emblem series and intelligent systems just couldn't pin it down was it the gameplay the story the characters the series itself at first they saw only one way to solve their problems to try something more radical and changed the very foundation of the franchise to a new and original venture only known as the elusive we title intelligent systems had tried to prototype a new entry in the months after radiant Dawn's release intelligent systems had thought fire emblem was too neesh of a franchise and they needed something that would bring in a wider audience in order to stand out from the crowd they decided to rip out the strategy RPG roots that had previously been the very core of the Fire Emblem series and replace it with a combination of traditional RPG and realtime strategy elements you could even roam around in fields towns and dungeons unencumbered by the grid based system of old with enemy encounters happening in real time the elusive we title might have been the most ambitious Fire Emblem entry since genealogy of the holy war but that wasn't meant to be its fate it was an experimental project through and through and was only killed off because of their loss of motivation after finding that they had no true a more objective once it was shelved intelligent systems was told to forego console based Fire Emblem titles for good and try something a little different for them looking back to their very origin was the answer you [Music] with their efforts on consoles deemed a failure in the eyes of Nintendo intelligent systems had to prove themselves once again if the Fire Emblem series kept failing financially time and time again it was possible the plug would be pulled for good so since the Game Boy Advance titles had sold so well the team thought it would be best to return to handhelds and turn their heads to the brand-new Nintendo DS before anyone could answer that however fire emblem once again made its triumphant return in the Super Smash Brothers series with Super Smash Brothers Brawl Marth came back as the series titular character of course but Roy was nowhere to be seen instead the more recent hike was added and given his very own moveset that made him less of a simple clone to Marth even though the rest of the world's love of Fire Emblem was waning director of the Super Smash Brothers series Masahiro Sakurai still had great admiration for the franchise after all these years Fire Emblem was now a mainstay of the series but it was still unknown if this would at all help the franchise's diminishing returns but what direction should they take the series in should they try to innovate and change their very nature like they thought to do with the elusive we title or was a reboot in order in actuality it turned out to be a return to what made the series what it is today franchise producer Tarun our hero thought it would be best that they should remake the original Fire Emblem from the ground up and introduce a new audience to this old tale his team sought to draw from the NES version as much as possible according to Nara hero the volume of content and the length of the scripts had increased vastly since the beginning and a simpler story could prove to be a boon for the series even Marth the titular character of the series was slightly redesigned to fit their new approach but only so much as not to make the character unrecognizable either way it was time for them to try and regain the success they once had their final version was Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon releasing in 2009 for the Nintendo DS in all aspects it was the same story as before but with some slight additions just like the original it told the story of Marth and his quest to reclaim his homeland of Altea from the evil priest garnet to slay the dragon madea's with the fire emblem and fashion in hand but unlike the old mystery of the emblem from the Super Famicom era shadow dragon had every single chapter and character from the original along for the ride and to further flesh out the plot Marth was given a four chapter prologue to put his adventure into perspective Gaiden chapters returned as well adding never-before-seen side content to the adventure but because of the Nintendo DS's dual screen capabilities intelligent systems was also able to finally implement another one of Shozo kagaz ideas for the first game this came with the introduction of custom artwork for each cutscene giving them more emotion than the standard conversations could hope to achieve however there were still more changes to the original to be had a new graphical style was present fusing 2d and 3d into one intriguing mesh the weapon triangle system that had become a staple of the franchise was of course put into play changing the course of how many older battles were won a new class swap feature was created as well which allowed characters to change classes from say a knight to a mercenary with several special classes such as Lords and thieves exempted nearly all of the innovations from the title succeeding the original fire emblem made it into the century all culminating in a series first Wi-Fi battles via a Nintendo Wi-Fi connection players could challenge their friends and random players from around the world to five on five matches victory was determined by either defeating the opposite army or capturing their flag so players had to plan out their strategies even more so as now they had real live and unpredictable human beings to contend with the impact of this implementation wouldn't be felt for some time when looking at all of this it seems that shadow dragon was a near-perfect remake of the original with all of the new bells and whistles the series had come up with over the years although it was missing something something that had become crucial to many of the Fire Emblem faithful support conversations fans had come to love the little tidbits and insight that they learned from these over the years making characters that they never would have given a second thought to care about all the more memorable with the exception of Marth and a few key players you wouldn't understand who these characters are let alone motivations this absolutely destroyed the game in the eyes of some fans with many proclaiming its to be the worst fire emblem ever created even when it was a nearly by the books remake of the original this was not the reception that the team and intelligent systems had hoped to gain with their simpler storytelling style there had to be something anything that they could do to earn the trust back from their fans and so Lee decided to remake or rather retell a story that was always an extension rather than its own beast that beast was Fire Emblem new mystery of the emblem heroes of light and shadow a remake of book 2 of the Fire Emblem mystery of the emblem releasing in 2010 in Japan alone the first title to do so in years new mystery of the emblem attempted to flush out the Forgotten sequel of the original while also adding in sought-after features such as support conversations that were missing from shadow dragon this brand new yet familiar tale follows Marth one year after the war of Shadows in the current war of Heroes against a newly resurrected madea's however he is not alone in this effort while of course there is his own army of Heroes both new and old a new secondary protagonist who had been lost to the annals of history takes center stage you referred only as the hero of shadow this new character or my unit as the game lovingly titles it is a fully customizable avatar for the player to inhabit with the ability to choose to be male or female you even had your own prologue and Gaiden chapters dedicated to your own story and mission with previously unobtainable units from titles such as BS Fire Emblem becoming available in total nearly 81 characters were recruitable making it the largest roster of Fire Emblem characters ever created a fact that remains true to this very day but there were still several other additions that changed the fire emblem formula for instance DLC was introduced a first for the series and many mainline Nintendo titles with the assassins expansion players had even more reasons to continue with new mystery of the emblem weeks after release however in a decision that changed fire emblem forever casual mode was made a part of the series this mode took away one of fire emblems main selling points and for some crucial gameplay mechanics perma death a feature that had been boasted about ever since the very first fire emblem now players had the ability to turn it off and regain their lost units after each battle drastically changing the flow of battle and possibly the point of it all since the characters of Fire Emblem had always been so personable and well-written the games had always forced you to think wisely about your actions whether it was a fight or simply moving your units one space this issue tore apart the Fire Emblem community the faithful found it to be blasphemous destroying any and all semblance of difficulty while others were finally able to play the franchise they had so desperately wanted to after all these years it was definitely a toss-up and one that not only ranked the community but the developers themselves with guilt many of the developmental staff worried that it destroyed everything that characterized Fire Emblem it created a type of security where your characters were prevented from dying so you didn't have to redo anything while still retaining the same essential game while this polarized fans the reception wasn't that great either sales had only slightly increased over these two injuries and it just showed no sign of improving Nintendo saw this as well and was looking over the shoulder of intelligent systems wondering if the franchise was even worth it anymore but before pulling the plug forever Nintendo decided to give them one last chance to save the franchise they loved if they didn't pour their hearts and souls into the project and make the ultimate culmination of the series efforts they would surely meet their own fate you [Music] seeing as their next venture could prove to be their very last one intelligent systems decided to bring out all the stops and create the best fire emblem title they could possibly make to do so they attempted to bring together as many fire emblem veterans they could to make the game a success Toru Nara hero who had taken over the position that series creator Shozo kaga led for so many years continued to lead the team as producer of the series guiding them with the knowledge he had been collecting from the very beginning of the entire franchise by his side was Masahiro Higuchi a fellow veteran from the days of genealogy of the holy war who had decided to take the lead as project manager Kohei mighta a writer for the series since binding blade and director since new mystery of the emblem and Hitoshi Yamagami another franchise staple producer who had been with the series ever since blazing sword the first fire emblem in the West however the creators of this new entry weren't just old-timers some new blood was injected into the series as well to update its look to a more modern sensibility the creative duo to pull it off would be comprised of Toshi Yukiko Sugihara as art director charged with bringing the world and its mini characteristics to life along with kazakh Yusuke who had previously worked on the fire emblem trading card game as the character designer tasked with bringing nearly 60 characters to life with their own personalities and quirks together all of these developers and the many people who worked under them were set to make the best fire emblem title possible internally called fire emblem fin children from the brink but no how would they do it at the outside of the project they tried throwing a number of ideas at the wall and seeing what would stick they made proposals that were a complete departure from the series Yamagami suggested that they take it into a wildly different direction a modern world setting with a bit of a fantasy edge in a bid that he called Fire Emblem 2011 other ideas that popped into their heads ranged from this to even setting the story on Mars but the team knew what experimentation had nearly done to the franchise before with the elusive we title so in the end they decided on something that made practical sense a culmination of the entire series as a whole if they were going to go down why not make it a celebration of thing that they had created to do so they would put in nearly all of the concepts and innovations from fire emblems past no idea was too big or difficult for them to implement and even as the work began to pile up everyone was still smiling and having fun as this admiration grew for this entry in the hearts and minds of the creators it too became a major theme along with the bonds that they shared various systems from the series past were put into play along with new ones that followed this philosophy the support system that had played a part in the series ever since the binding blade was combined with the love system all the way back from genealogy of the holy war to make their own unique system that would also further along the story bonds as well become an important aspect of gameplay with the new dual system otherwise known as the pair of mechanic which allowed two units to work in unison with each other this caused many fears within the development team wondering if they broke the gameplay flow but after some time it was felt that the system encouraged multiple play styles for different players but both of these systems concerned the love and bonds that their characters and in turned the players would develop so to make them all the more relatable voice acting made its return to the series the developers thought it would make the characters easier to imagine although it was thought that if they voiced their lines in full it might conflict with the pace of it all so this time they went for rapid fire lines that would evoke an atmosphere of sorts among other things that they sought to bring back was casual mode a controversial mode from new mystery of the emblem which shuts off the franchise's staple permadeath it was still a hotly debated issue that still affected some but many had grown to see it as a device that encouraged newcomers to join the series people who would never have dared playing before though now they would give three difficulties as a sort of volume slider where you could pick and choose the way you wanted to play cutscenes would also play a larger role than ever before they would have their own unique styling compared to their predecessors and were made to create a sense of grandeur and spectacle they were inspired by the openings of the taiga drama historical series a famous television event in Japan animated by the brand new studio enema with full blown motion capture technology these cutscenes helped mix the world and its characters come alive in crucial moments of the plot but with all these components in mind how are they going to change and better what Fire Emblem fans had always come to the series for the gameplay [Music] [Applause] [Music] at first the development team started by recreating the very first map in the franchise's history they toyed with the idea of switching between 16 by 16 and 24 by 24 pixel characters depending on the cameras overhead distance however as time went on they sought to use the Nintendo 3ds ability to render 3d models effectively to change between an overhead classic 8-bit style and a newer one akin to the radiant series for combat while designing the levels the team created both maps with a plot driven structure and maps that allowed for player freedom in an attempt to add variety to the series and make their design essential to their tale another aspect of the battle system new to the series was the inclusion of multiple camera options there was one that appealed to a more classic Fire Emblem style another that was provided gave a cinematic viewpoint and a third that added a first-person perspective to the battlefield much of this was done with Western players in mind as the developers wanted to both give players an option on their perspective in battle and demonstrate the platform's 3d effects other gameplay elements from the series past entered into the fray as well branching promotions from the Sacred Stones made a return allowing nearly any units to change their class into something new and unique making your units all your own to go along with that the quest swap feature from Fire Emblem shadow dragon came back to this new iteration serving as a way for you to try out different classes and obtain skills you never would have before skills - were still an important part of gameplay since nearly any unit could obtain any skill you were limited to only choosing between five of them to keep the game balanced a world map just like in Fire Emblem Gaiden was also implemented allowing the player to traverse the world and return to old maps for battles experience and gold you could also level up your units pretty much infinitely - giving the player another way to set their own difficulty level there were just so many ways to play that it wasn't Fire Emblem telling you how you had to play rather the way you play was your own decision it was a team effort through and through with any idea being taken into serious consideration [Music] Fire Emblem Finn was a serious labor of love from true fans of the series from the very beginning but this ultimate culmination of a project still needed a name something that was fitting to their situation yet still contained to the hope of a success that they yearned for the series to have it needed to impact anyone who came across it so Yamagami came up with the idea of awakening at the same time intelligent systems knew that this could be the end while the rest of the world didn't know this so calling it awakening meant that the fans wouldn't see it as the same old game they've been playing for years they would see it as something new but players still had to play it for that matter and after two years of development in Japan and a year later for the rest of the world everyone would then get to see intelligent systems culmination of the entire Fire Emblem franchise Fire Emblem awakening releasing in Japan in 2012 and 2013 globally was a love letter to the Fire Emblem franchise in more ways than one its story was a return to a setting that the series and its creator had failed to return to before ok Nia and Valencia 2,000 years in the future after the events of Fire Emblem mystery of the emblem we find ourselves in the Haledon of Elise the newly renamed okie Nia and it would follow the journey of Crom Marth's descendant but his adventure starts not by his own accord but by you the player as an amnesiac tactician that he finds on the side of the road you play as the avatar or Robin for short unlike previous attempts at making a customizable unit this time the avatar could be tailored to your own tastes from male to female to hair color and even age and a voice there were plenty of possibilities for you to choose from to insert yourself into the Fire Emblem lore but getting back on track as you join kromm's army and become his tactician the group travels throughout Dilys attempting to thwart the advances of the playin army find out the source of the monstrous risen confronts the origin of your avatar and save the world from destruction by yet another Dark Dragon Grima in many ways awakening was a return to the storytelling of the with an evil wizard and dragon to fight against but it was oh so much more than that as a culmination of the series as a whole other elements were mashed in such as the Celeste stereotypical character types that it has developed over time majorly much was brought over from what many considered to be the greatest Fire Emblem title genealogy of the holy war in turn they also wished to put something akin to the child storyline into play they achieved this by adding in a future storyline dealing with a mysterious character named Marth who is later revealed to be Luce Xena groms daughter from a future destroyed by Grima these new characters aside from Lucy now are all completely optional units to obtain now whenever two characters reach an S support rank they will marry and have children in turn their child from the future will appear and become recruitable based on your various pairings they also have the potential to look very different from another players run-through of the game as whatever child is born is dependent on the mother and their hair color the father along with differing stats and skills from each interestingly enough Fire Emblem awakening was also Nintendo's first attempt at paid DLC since this could potentially be the last entry in the entire franchise experimentation had always been a part of its production and this was no exception even after their adventure was over players could still play for hours on end further extending awakenings lifetime past many of its predecessors there were many different types of maps created for this some were made for the purpose of giving players an easy source for experience and money while others brought back characters from series past such as leaf and all essentially beings that took the form of cards that allowed you to bring classic Fire Emblem characters onto the battlefield along with future downloadable adventures that expanded on the story Fire Emblem awakening was truly a celebration of all things Fire Emblem in more ways than one and it seems that the whole world took note of this to save the Fire Emblem franchise awakening had to sell at least 250,000 copies in Japan alone and it achieved that in about one week as the year went on it doubled that assuring the series success but that wasn't all as the world still hadn't gotten their hands on this masterpiece its release was so incredibly anticipated in the rest of the world that the number of pre-orders placed out Striped the supply that Nintendo thought was acceptable this was unprecedented for a Fire Emblem title and especially after its previous lackluster releases you'd think no one would look forward to the next game however because of Nintendo's largest marketing push and Fire Emblem history Fire Emblem awakening was plastered all around the world with more coverage than it could ask for because of this awakening became even more successful outside of Japan selling nearly 1.5 million copies a feat reserved for most mainline Nintendo titles it was also one of the most critically praised titles in all of fire emblem with near-perfect scores and reviews about all the hard work and determination of the team at intelligent systems had paid off in droves what had once been a franchise declining in popularity with only its fanbase to hold it aloft had now become the most successful entry in the entire franchise and on the console that had now called home and amalgamation of everything they had made up until that point from their complex yet easy to understand battle system intriguing support conversations and hardcore difficulties Fire Emblem awakening was a game for both the fans and newcomers alike a demanding series that was near impossible for the majority of people to get into for a time this brand new entry truly had global appeal there was nothing stopping anyone from enjoying the franchise for what it is a franchise filled with a rich assortment of characters gripping narratives and fascinating medieval worlds but now there was just one problem the eyes of the world were now watching intelligent systems next efforts had to be a knockout hit that rose above the lofty heights of awakening once more the pressure was on and the true fate of the Fire Emblem series was about to come to light [Music] [Music] [Music] after Fire Emblem awakening zone precedented victory intelligent systems was shocked to find out that Nintendo wanted a sequel they had thought that Awakening was to be the final game in the series with or without commercial success but Nintendo didn't want just any ordinary sequel oh no they wanted it to succeed its predecessor in every shape and form quickly intelligent systems came forward with a proposal that fits those specifications given the obvious codename of Fire Emblem 3 ds2 the story they pitched was a winding narrative that stemmed from one pivotal choice that branched out into three different stories in this tale there were two kingdoms one of light and one of darkness the player would play as a prince or princess of that darkness who had been kidnapped by the wicked king of the dark at a tender young age after learning of their fate the player was given three choices sided with the light side with the dark or walk a different path than either the choice would be their own there were many reasons why intelligent systems chose this type of story but the main reason behind it all was they wished to rectify the mistakes they had made in awakening fans had criticized them less for the gameplay and graphics and more for the story in comparison to the Past Fire Emblem titles and they earnestly wanted to improve on that front they not only wanted to create a narrative that appealed to newcomers but one that veterans would come to liked and their hook would be that fateful decision the player would make they wanted to weave a tale that would have players singing both sides of a conflict and allow them to understand both of the warring forces ideologies and where exactly they're coming from but to do this would require a massive amount of effort on intelligent systems behalf while the majority of the Fire Emblem awakening team was coming back for this next project their old work force just wasn't enough the amount of writing characters and worlds building needed would require three times the manpower than they had on hand Kohei myyy died his team just weren't enough the most important area they needed help in was the writing department after shuffling through nearly all of the video game writers they knew they found the right man for the job shin-kiba Yoshi a prolific manga and anime writer yousuke kazuki had known him through their shared editor and soon introduced him to the project at first he refused to due to his tight schedule but soon after playing Fire Emblem wakening with his daughter he excitedly agreed submitting an initial 10 page outline for each storyline he quickly grew fond of the characters and ended up writing a 1500 page outline for the whole game driven by a need to create a high-quality story and partially to surpass his daughters pressuring expectations his writing ended up creating enough scripts to fill two complete books worth of material combing through the aftermath of his work would be Nami Komuro a writer who had previously worked on fire on them Awakening and Yukino to keep Tajima a writer for the senran kagura series him and his script running company sent these would come together to write to the third neutral path and the many support conversations for this next entry a choice that had dire consequences down the line but what of the sound and art department you might ask for such a task many talented team members would need to be on hand to make it a reality the lead character designer in particular was a tough one to wrangle in the dynamic duo of Toshi Yukiko Sugihara and character designer yousuke kazuki had truly designed the look of the fire emblem franchise every entry had different character designers and art directors and all looked different from each other with a small pinch of that trademark fire emblem style that unified them as a whole but they lacked the uniformity that these two had implemented in awakening and the team wanted both of them back especially kisaki the sheer amount of characters they would be asking for him to design made them wary as to whether he would be coming back or not but they didn't need to worry he was just ecstatic to get the chance to work on yet another Fire Emblem title designing such an exorbitant amount of characters would certainly prove to be a challenge however the sound department had even more work to contend with not only would they have to compose as much music as they had for Fire Emblem awakening but they would have to do it three times in a row and maintain the same level of quality throughout he DoCoMo deshita and Rey Kondo the previous composers wouldn't be enough three others would have to be called in Takeru Kahn izaki Yasuo Sababa and Masato Koda would all have to come together to create the next Fire Emblem masterpiece their centerpiece - this would be the game's main theme opposed to the traditional fire emblem theme their new project would separate itself from the norm lost in thoughts all alone would be their creation written by mode Ishida with lyrics by Kohei Morita and sung by popular Japanese pop singer Ranka the role of the singer was a crucial one both for the story and the song itself the developers were looking for a senior who could do justice to their vision for the character and when they heard renko's audition they instantly decided that she was right for the role with several of them being brought to tears by her performance tears of a kind were common among the developers at intelligent systems as many of the seeds that they had sowed in awakening and several of the choices they had made along the way had begun to chip away at the mindsets of many of their developers it all began with the simple act of splitting duties among different teams the core development staff worked on the game shared assets while additional teams handled the level design this split the team apart but they were still working as one cohesive unit however as time went on things began to change many of the developers ended up in two different groups team a and Team B team a and Team B formed because of their conflicting opinions team a wanted to return to a simpler time when fanservice wasn't at the forefront of the series and they were solely on crafting better stories characters and gameplay team B on the other hand wanted to push the boundaries far beyond Fire Emblem awakening and increased set fanservice ten fault two incredibly lewd degrees their argument was that some of their precious resources that needed to be focused on actual development of the game should instead be focused on more intimate aspects of the experience they didn't advance the plot they didn't make the characters more memorable they weren't essential to the gameplay but they did help bring in many players before so having more of that should be a good thing one group saw success in a tactful approach while another took a pandering route these two opposing forces would fight back against each other for the entire development process pushing back and forth on what the project came to be thankfully the majority of the elements that made up the experience were left unaffected [Music] [Applause] [Music] the most critical concept they had to get right of course was you the player or rather your player character my unit as it was so affectionately called had become a crucial part of the experience since new mystery of the emblem and intelligent systems had taken note players were always a side character crucial to the plot yes but not the main character of the story per se they sought to make the story surround your avatar and make him or her the main focus there were no if ands or buts you would be the main character of this story and of course along with this you could customize them to your liking making them look as wacky or serious as you wanted them to be there was also a new feature added to further help customize this aspect of the game titled my castle it was similar to the barracks that had existed in previous Fire Emblem titles although it was very much more of a home base that players could change and rework to their own liking there were of course the fire emblem staples such as the weapon shops where you could rearm yourself along with the arena that lets you fight and vent on resources these resources became an important part of my castle as well as if you grew some food you could use it in a dish to beef up your army for the next battle or forage even better weapons with some gemstones on the lighter side of things the hot springs allowed the player to have various interactions with the cast and you also had your own private quarters which served as a way to invite characters over to improve your support rank with them and partake in the controversial skinship feature it was really odd but your castle wasn't only used for buying weapons eating food and rubbing people's faces there was still the much-lauded StreetPass feature to contend with Wi-Fi battles had existed in the series ever since new mystery of the emblem but with my castle things became more personal you weren't just fighting on some ordinary map but now on your own turf your own customized deadly turf you see your castle wasn't just for looks various traps and items were all there to help your cause ballistas caltrops healing dragons living golems and the oh so classic fort or just some of the many ways you could try to stop the enemy along with your selected units of course all of this could be played in person however it was also possible to leave your fort open to the public allowing anyone to come in and trade while trying to best your favorite warriors these Wi-Fi battles offered endless reach playability even when you finished the story with all of this it seemed like things were getting interesting with fire emblems second shot on the 3ds but the dividing factor between fans of alt was still to come the weapon triangle the single greatest addition to all a Fire Emblem was the first to see such a change it was still a triangle but no longer did swords axes and Lance's define it bows magic and the newly request shuriken took center stage all six weapon types had two weapons they were superior to to their weak two and one that doesn't affect them in the slightest so of course this irrevocably affected the gameplay forcing many to change tactics that would previously have worked but that wasn't all personal skills made a comeback units had only one fix tree classic option unless they used the new friendship and partner seals nearly all weapons have bonuses and penalties for using them now all classes were unisex save a few and there were new weapons and classes to go with this such as Wolf's and katanas with the biggest change of them all involving the weapons themselves which were now completely unbreakable the support system was as always an important part of the adventure with many of the ideas introduced in awakening translating to the new 3d s title like awakening two characters can build support points and support each other unlike awakening there were also a plus rank supports that were between two best friends instead of two lovers you can also once again have children when you reach S rank between two units although unlike awakening where they impacted the story in a major way this time they seemed to have no effect and were less of a crucial gameplay elements and more of an afterthought but the pair of mechanic that had become a crucial part of the series wasn't like that yes it still acted the same way as before but now the enemy had the ability to wield it too making it less of a detriment and more like another tool in your toolbox out of all of these casual mode of course made its return however the developers felt something was missing from this optional addition due to casual mode nearly everyone who played Fire Emblem awakening had the ability to beat it this seemed fine and dandy until they realized that some people still were unable to complete their adventure this is where Phoenix mode came into play when using this now whenever a unit fell in battle they wouldn't just be out until the next chapter they to revive in the next turn almost completely getting rid of any negatives to dying now with this new comer mode nearly 100% of the people who would play through this game would beat it but at what cost would this pandering have on the fire emblem veterans who have been around for years as with many things only time would tell [Music] with all of these features and interactions and past innovations there was still something missing something crucial a name looking back to the project's initial concept it's easy to find it their story was all about hips what if you decided to side with the kingdom of light what if you sided with the kingdom of darkness what if you rejected both Fire Emblem if was the answer releasing initially in 2015 and later in 2016 worldwide as the retitled and appropriately named Fire Emblem fates the release of this title was most intriguing was it released as just one game but it was released as three separate journeys for you to take at its core fate starts out in the land stricken with war between two sides ashido and noir these two warring nations were very different from one another Bushido a lands not too dissimilar from ancient Japan was a peace-loving and prosperous country that was only protecting themselves from the conniving hands of noir a nation torn right from the pages of classic Fire Emblem Medieval Fair they seek not peace but war and wished to conquer hijito and its neighbouring countries caught in the middle is you the avatar otherwise known as Corrin as a prince of noir Corrin has been locked away in a remote castle for nearly all his life wishing to only see the outside world he is eventually given the chance to do so when his father King Garon sends him to an outpost near the neighboring hoshido but before he knows it he's been betrayed by a fellow norian and caught by her shetan forces but he isn't killed immediately for some reason that reason is that Corrin is actually a prince of hoshido kidnapped and raised by Garen to fight against his family after a fateful meeting with Asura a princess who shared the same fate and learning of his dragon heritage Corrin is thrown onto the battlefield and forced to choose with he stay with the family that has bounced to him by blood or with the one that raised him and made him who he is the choice is yours now is when the game begins to split into three paths birthright conquest and revelation each of their stories is not only unique but have their own classes weapons and unique gameplay style to them fire emblem birthright is the easiest of the bunch following Corrin and his army as they seek to rid nor of their king since hoshi doe is based off japan the weaponry and classes had to reflect this bows became ume and swords became katanas with new classes such as diviners and oni savages taking the places of mages and warriors the game itself was also significantly easier to with the ability to level up characters outside of the storyline the only objective generally was to route to the enemy and take over their castle this was fire emblem for beginners and was the recommended starting point between these three titles while each of the three titles were their standalone adventures little hints and tip it spread throughout all three were crucial to understanding the overall story but many skip to this version after seeing how much it strayed from the standard Fire Emblem formula instead they preferred to go with the next version conquest this version was more at home for the Fire Emblem faithful with classic weapons and classes at their side instead of siding with his true family Corrin chooses the family that raised him and seeks to expel the darkness hidden within his country this wouldn't be your standard to kill everyone in sight journey however as each mission and conquest is structured differently new and unique victory conditions became a part of the everyday experience now you could be forced to defend a base from an enemy attack break through the ranks of your opponent's to escape or even have certain turn restrictions depending on the map on top of this you had to worry about where and when you killed your opponents and who their experience was being sent to this time around you couldn't just grind to success like in birthright you had to carefully plan out your moves and units on and off the battlefield it was the true Fire Emblem experience that any fan could ask for and while certain aspects of the game still bothered some conquests more than made up for that but between the simplicity of birthright and the difficulty of conquest lied revelation the midpoint of the two revelations took the best of both worlds and molded them into one Corrin in this version decides to choose neither side and instead ups to find a peaceful resolution between the warring States and learn about the inner workings of the world to do this he follows Asura into the secret Kingdom of Bala a land hidden beneath the world to discover both their paths and save the world from utter destruction at the hands of yet another Dark Dragon the story was all about bringing the world together so of course every single units from every other version is playable allowing for even more possible combinations and pairings even though revelations does increase the difficulty like conquest many of birthrights ideas such as unlimited experience and the only objectives usually being to route the enemy remain the same however something seemed to be missing from this crucial quest the heart and soul that beat in the quest for newcomers Fire Emblem birthright and the quest for veterans Fire Emblem conquest seems to be missing from this final storyline it just felt out of place compared to the other adventures and while it proved a good midpoint for the three the overall experience was sort of lackluster and its conclusion Fire Emblem fates had faced development hell up until this point but somehow it succeeded in many ways offering many stellar additions to the franchise and two equally compelling storylines walking away with just one uninspired narrative and a few odd mechanics was nothing to snuff at [Music] but they worked out of the fire just yet as their international release was plagued by controversy several features and additions had to be removed entirely to make way for the Fire Emblem fates release in other countries skinship was stripped down and removed many of its lewd and perverse elements and to support conversation that resembled to some gay conversion therapy was changed outright these localization issues and more made many feel that they should boycott the game in protest of these changes but as with most of these protests nothing ever came of it instead it was released as it was localization problems and censorship included Fire Emblem fates was another smash hit for the series selling a whopping 1.8 four million copies worldwide during its run showing just how much of a fan base the series had now it was a benchmark title for the series in many ways and showed just how valuable the franchise had become to the world the days of being an obscure and niche set of video games were finally over a franchise that proved time and time again that it could hold its own with the rest of Nintendo's icons Fire Emblem was now one of the greats this respect in turn led to the franchise being declared as a major IP by Nintendo a move that was unexpected but appreciated nonetheless Fire Emblem had become one of the greatest success stories of the generation from its humble beginnings as the first major tactical RPG to its many successful years with its creator the franchise struggled to find its footing for nearly a decade a plethora of stellar titles came out during the intervening years yet the public never took notice as the series slowly began to fade away only when they were given an ultimatum and forced to work the hardest they had in their lives did they truly find a success and now they knew that success wasn't a mistake Fire Emblem wasn't planning on going away anytime soon you [Music] Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei one was hailed for its strategic depth and equally compelling narrative while the other shared similar success with its own unique quirks for its many multifaceted franchises comparing these two gaming goliaths on the surface it would seem that they would be completely incompatible with one another but on the contrary one person inside of Nintendo thought differently than the rest one kaori ando ando a producer at nintendo had confided in fire emblem producer hey Toshi Yamagami that she wanted to create fire emblems first crossover title but with Pokemon being its collaborative partner it was an incredibly intriguing idea at the time as fire emblems popularity was waning around them but Nintendo still rejected the project outright as Pokemon Conquest was currently in development a Pokemon crossover with Nobunaga's ambition another strategy RPG game this one by Cohen which was similar to fire emblem but was based in a more historically accurate feudal Japan rather than a fantasy world and while crossing pokemon with fire emblem may have been a good idea Pokemon Conquest was too far in development and contracts were signed with Co a that this game would be happening this however didn't dismay Ando as she had a Becca plan waiting in the wings a crossover between fire emblem and the Shin Megami Tensei mega franchise Nintendo had some history working with Atlas the developer of the series so it seemed like an easy enough fit at first that however all changed when Ando actually pitched her concept to the developers as they seemed completely uninterested or even bored at the very idea of the concept she was presenting declaring that they were too busy to even undertake it thus the idea was shelved seemingly for good until one year later out of nowhere atlas began inquiring about the then long-forgotten project wondering if there was a chance that they might be a part of such a collaboration their workload had been so immense and taxing for the past year that the mood had dip into so much that they couldn't really get excited about anything new or interesting but with all of their busy work out of the way the team showed their true colors and we're actually incredibly enthusiastic about the idea of working with the fire emblem developers as they felt they were their equals in the gaming industry none thought this more than sin judo Toccata the new titles producer who saw fire emblem not only as a rival but as a goal to strive towards in his work the team he'd gathered together would field the same veteran directors from Shin Megami Tensei series meet sudo Harada and AG cheetah were both brought on due to the sheer amount of work that the project would entail a project that would take five years to complete from conception to production the overarching ideology of the project would change regularly at first it was a toss-up between intelligent systems or Atlas and who exactly would be taking on the production Atlas in the end did most of the heavy lifting originally it was planned that the title would be similar to fire emblem but with an atlas twist the game was to be a simulation game with classic grid based tactical combat and reincarnated protagonists from the series past playing the lead roles but Honda wanted Atlas to be bolder with its decision-making and not simply make a Fire Emblem clone the fact that this was their first title in the genera wasn't helping however Takada had a simple solution to their problems why not let the developer known for RPGs make an RPG and thus the true form of the project finally began taking shape as a more traditional Atlas RPG in vain of the Mini Shin Megami Tensei titles before it with full production came the introduction of the team who would attempt to combine the two radically different franchises into one cohesive unit johannes uki and makoto me 'you Chi with Hazuki being in charge of the main narrative would write the scenario for this creative effort for time Hazuki struggled with how to incorporate the classic Fire Emblem characters into the Atlas mythos but then an idea struck in Japanese shamanism more specifically he took the concept of Kamiya Roshi to heart a notion wherein the deity attempts to communicate by possessing a priest or ritual dancer elaborating on this further he borrowed from the Kagura ritual dance which brought about the story central focus on the entertainment industry yet another topic that Atlas had yet to tackle and they would tackle it in many ways from a narrative that followed one characters rise through the Japanese pop idol industry to side stories that depict the struggles of those trying to make it in the entertainment industry each was made to help the player better understand and sympathize with the people they see on their screens daily to round it out each of the characters we would follow would be involved in a different sect of the industry from action heroes to pop idols and even budding child stars this was a delicate balance that Atlas had to maintain should they hone in on the story or the character drama to combat this they introduced an intermission between each chapter where players would be free to tackle as many side stories as they'd like but as entertainment became an increasingly crucial part of their storytelling it required Atlas to do something they hadn't done before a break from Shin Megami Tensei traditionally dark storytelling was needed and in its place would be a more upbeat atmosphere that the j-pop industry tried to maintain to bring the j-pop industry to life Atlas brought in many professionals who had worked in and around the field for the soundtrack they hired Yoshiaki Fujisawa known for his work on the multimedia projects loved life even though he had never worked on a video game previously he tackled the problem head-on designing a track that gave each area its own unique feeling tools with plenty of groovy tracks on the side for the pop idols themselves Georgia by an in-house composer brought in many famed singers and actors from around to the industry to sing the songs themselves and make the experience more authentic in the long run after forming his team a bullring works to analyze the personalities and traits of the main cast determining how their performances would play out in addition to other factors such as their professions impact on their portrayal these performances weren't limited to vocal ones as fire emblem studio anima and studio for degrees C came together to animate them all in either traditional 2d animation or full motion captured 3d animation the animation set a certain tone that would resonate throughout the project with its setting directly related to this helmed by the game's art director Fumito Quijano it would take place in modern-day Tokyo a familiar backdrop for any Atlas title although the teams centre of attention was aimed squarely at Tokyo's entertainment districts such as Shibuya and Harajuku at first they tried to mimic these real-world settings to a tee going on many scouting trips to get their exact realistic proportions however as development continued they soon realized that their expectations had to be trimmed back considerably as travel times between these locations were ludicrous at their ambitious levels over time they incrementally reduced the size of the environments to make them more enjoyable for players while still keeping the aesthetic that they had yearned for juxtaposed by their choice of color the real-world locations revolved around bright colors emulating their focus on the entertainment industry each main character designed by famous Japanese artist Toei eight also reflected this with each character given a feeling of both friendliness and splendour the reverse of this came with the game's dungeons the idol of spheres dropping characters and medieval armor into the modern-day setting just felt strange to the design team making an area just for them a necessity and the idlest spheres weren't without their own quirks all of them were designed with their real-world counterparts in mind with illusionary shibuya109 for instance being themed around fashion color too was an important factor with its much darker tones fitting of a dungeon the mirages themselves were the reason why these even existed and that was mostly due to their design as Tadeo Manabe the mirages character designer wanted to remain true to the original characters while emulating the sharpened dark character style of atlas games he gave them more battle-hardened appearance their armor was meant to reflect the dark events they had faced with any part unneeded for survival being degenerated to contrasting worlds were colliding all coming together however their impact had yet to be given a name over the five years of production the title had changed rapidly and was very different from what they had originally intended no longer Shin Megami Tensei game and no longer a Fire Emblem 1 it was something else entirely and so Tokyo Mirage sessions was born but with one caveat its subtitle sharp Fe a standard musical notation it was meant to denote that Tokyo Mirage sessions was a unique hybrid and something all its own at the same time even the inclination of the logo was meant to represent the game's altered perspective on the two series but would this new perspective even find audience the only way to find out would be to release it releasing on December 26 2015 Tokyo Mirage sessions sharp Fe seems like any other Shin Megami Tensei title on the surface you play as Itsuki Ali your everyday average high schooler whose normal life is quickly turned upside down after the game begins his friend Tsubasa is kidnapped during an open audition for pop idols by monsters called mirages forcing him to give chase into their own dimension the idol a sphere carefully exploring the new and twisted world he finds Tsubasa being drained of her life or Performa his friends in trouble Itsuki awakens his own Performa cleansing two of the mirages revealing classic Fire Emblem characters Crom and Keita with their newly obtained power and allies the two become fully fledged Mirage masters and finally fight back against their new foes as the story goes on the two enter into the entertainment industry and in turn Fortuna entertainment and attempt to discover the truth behind the mirages existence while solving their fellow actors problems along the way Tokyo Mirage sessions was all about the side of showbiz that made Japan pan this was all meant to build a picture of the entertainment industry for the player both the good and the bad Atlas wanted to show how difficult it is to work in a field where millions of people watch your work daily and at the same time how rewarding it can end up feeling there was nothing but sheer admiration for the industry and it even showed up in the combat system a hybrid in more ways than one ochio Mirage sessions combat was eminently familiar to anyone who had played one of atlases past titles and even Fire Emblem in some cases after triggering a battle with a mirage in the idle of sphere Itsuki and whoever you have in front of the party at the time are transported to a stage for battle from here on the system begins to play out like any other Shin Megami Tensei title each character has their own distinct fighting styles and magic spells like Zeo and Boo Fuu whereas enemies have similar strengths determining the exact weakness of your enemy whether it be magic or weaponry is critical to victory along with the various buffs debuffs and healing that is standard for any RPG hitting one of these weaknesses triggers a Cession attack a move borrowed and slightly altered from persona where all the party members attack a given enemy sessions quickly become crucial to success making most enemies undefeatable without it on top of this fire emblems weapon triangle was added in enhancing the battle system with the rock-paper-scissors like game play fans of that particular franchise had grown to love and even still more Fire Emblem mechanics were layered on traveling to the Blum Palace where Tiki a character from Fire Emblem shadow dragon resides characters that can perform unity with their mirages after collecting enough Performa unity allows you to upgrade your mirages ranging from new skills via the skill system from Fire Emblem to class changes such as generals and sorcerers weaponry played a crucial part in the process with each character gaining a variety of upgradeable weapons over time with distinct advantages and disadvantages all in all Tokyo Mirage sessions battle system was the perfect blend of the two franchises not overshadowing one or the other but instead complemented their weaknesses and but battling wasn't all there was to do in Tokyo Mirage sessions there was an entire world to explore that the team at Atlas had painstakingly created from Shibuya to Harajuku there was much to explore with a plethora of side quests and shops to visit and complete in addition to these side stories were another part of the experience offering further insight into many of the characters that you just wouldn't get from the main game conversations during these little story bits throughout the game are usually done with a system similar to visual novels with characters speaking to Itsuki alone with a variety of expressions considering this and the overall experience you'd think both Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem fans would be clamoring for the new release you'd be thinking wrongly however as Tokyo Mirage sessions sales were barely scraping the bottom of the barrel in Japan its critical success was average at best only earning slightly above average scores while financially it could only break 50,000 copies an amount that paled in comparison to either of its inspirations however Nintendo and Atlas still believed in the property and decided to release it globally albeit with some altercations two characters ages and outfits as well as basic human skeletal structure this of course didn't go over well with the few fans who would buy such a heavily Japanese influenced title and with a less than stellar localization by Nintendo treehouse many simply refused to buy the game based exclusively on that premise even with all this controversy sales in North America ended up being double of that in Japan's and Europe's and the majority of critics on all sides seemed to agree that Tokyo Mirage sessions was a fantastic celebration of the two franchises just not something that exceeded either one but wasn't that its true purpose at first it was more Fire Emblem than shin megami tensei then for time it flip-flopped freezing one franchise more than the next but as time went on the two found a commonality a sort of kinship between the two and began building on that newfound friendship to build something more something that glorified the two for their many storied years in the industry while being its own unique creation at the same time even though the series may never continue on again from this point the talented team at Atlas can rest assured that they at least accomplished that one small feat you [Music] [Applause] after 20 long years of hard times nearly ending with their franchise's demise intelligent systems and fire emblem were on a roll merchandising spin-offs cameo appearances and the full backing of Nintendo as a new major IP Fire Emblem was now the gaming industry's latest hottest commodity everyone wanted to work on this critically acclaimed franchise now more than ever and Nintendo was looking for the series latest prospects this came with the news of a partnership between the publisher and Japanese mobile gaming provider Dena Nintendo wanted to enter the mobile phenomenon faster than any of its competitors at Sony and Microsoft and felt that Dena the owners of the uber successful mobile platform were the right partners in this effort at the time they announced two titles an animal crossing mobile game and a brand-new Fire Emblem title courtesy of intelligent systems themselves they wouldn't let just anyone take a hold of their brand they wanted themselves to be responsible for this incidentally they had been thinking about making a mobile Fire Emblem game for years so this new opportunity from Nintendo was one that they had been waiting for co-directed by the Kohei Morita and Shingo Matsushita of Nintendo SPD this fresh take on the Fire Emblem formula seemed like a simple thing to make they could have just thrown a bunch of their older characters the series famous battle system and a simple story together and call it a day and yes they would do exactly that but in the best way possible that they could [Music] [Applause] [Music] unlike many Fire Emblem titles that have veterans like Towe do not a hero and you casue gioco the majority of the team would be comprised of people who had worked on Fire Emblem fates and awakening Hideko morichika was the main composer of the title bringing much of the style that the series had developed over the past four years to the forefront koto naku muta Satoko Kurihara you Oshima and Kohei Mita himself would decide on how to make a fire emblem story work on the go and lastly yousuke kazuki returned as the lead character designer a key position needed for one of the most important features of the game the entire franchise's lineup of heroes there were new characters for this adventure for sure but the crux of the whole project was bringing many of the classic heroes back to life to introduce them to modern audiences an idea they had been tinkering with in Awakening and fates the best part of this though is that they would all be voiced many for the first time in countries outside of Japan with new and exciting designs created by the very best artists in the Japanese industry wada Sachiko the way d'you Mohito omocha Yuji Fujisaki meheeco Paco and so many many more lent their talents to make each and every character look visually distinct from one another with kisaki especially drawing the main characters to go along with fire emblems established style as this would be fire emblems first consecutive global release the art wasn't even half of it the voice acting now that was the difficult part they needed to gather hundreds of actors together for the 39 countries they were releasing and combined with each voicing the little quips that gives the character's personality intelligent systems wanted this to be a celebration of all things Fire Emblem if the characters didn't feel like their original selves then it wouldn't all be for nothing but mobile development isn't as taxing as other mediums so they were able to get the game outright on time [Music] Fire Emblem heroes releasing on February 2nd 2017 worldwide was the fire emblem you knew and loved simplified for mobile convenience you play as the summoner a hero who has been summoned from another world to save the kingdom of esker from the evil alien Empire and their leader princess Veronica the world you enter is very unique from other Fire Emblem realms as the two warring kingdoms possess the ability to open and close portals to classic Fire Emblem worlds and either recruit or steal the heroes that live there to fight by their side joining the order of the heroes alongside Prince Alphonse princess Serena and their leader Anna it's your job to free the heroes of these worlds and defeat to the emblem Empire and that's about it other than a few cutscenes here and there there's relatively no story at all you just go through the various worlds fight and free the heroes held captive there and rinse and repeat at the moment Fire Emblem Heroes is the most simplistic and dull story the Fire Emblem series has ever had but this game was never really meant for that anyway the gameplay and heroes were what were most intriguing unlike the plot the gameplay is essentially the same using the weapon triangle system that they had had for the past decade and a half it was only tweaked in the sense that all of the weapon tights were now color-coded making it easier to understand what each of them was week two fighting was made much easier - all you have to do is simply move an ally over to the enemy using the touchscreen and depending on their stats and weapon of choice you either win or lose perma death unfortunately was completely thrown out to prevent frustration from new Fire Emblem fans with hard and lunatic level difficulties being unlockable over time when you aren't in the mood for playing through the main story there are other modes to unlock like the training tower where you can gain more exp shards and crystals to level up arena duels that let you fight against other players team's special maps that let you recruit a new character each day alongside other events and lastly paralogs which lay out as side stories like any other Fire Emblem game heroes also only uses four units on the battlefield as the maps were made to be 8 by 6 grids so they could easily fit under the screen of a smartphone but this team of four is as customizable as any other Fire Emblem game with over 100 Heroes to choose from that consists of the classic games like the binding blade or more recent ones like fates the ability to pick your favorite characters from across the decades was something to behold each with a bio that told you exactly who they were and where they came from yet you couldn't just choose your favorites from the start oh no you had to pray that the summoning ritual would bring forth the ones you desired with a good star level to match stamina was another feature or rather hindrance that came into play that stopped you from playing for a time unless you either waited or coughed up some cash just like any other mobile title Fire Emblem Heroes was laid in with microtransactions and the orbs or fire emblems method of choice while you could earn one a pop by playing through each of the stories nine chapters along with several challenges and events there was always the option to take the easy route and to pay for more orbs to gain more heroes thankfully intelligent systems built the summoning ritual as a completely randomized mechanic if someone decided to pay say a thousand dollars they might not even see all of the characters in the game leveling the playing field between players Kohei Maite and his team wanted anyone to have a chance to play a Fire Emblem title which is why they made it free-to-play however they didn't want anyone to steamroll through it just because they were rich that's why everything else the features essential to the gameplay are free and have to be earned through your hard work and determination [Music] Fire Emblem Heroes was definitely a Fire Emblem game for sure but it's mobile inner-workings might have hindered it a bit this was unnecessary evil however as how could a free game ever be profitable without them even if most people play it for free forever the other fans are certainly content to spend their hard-earned cash since Fire Emblem Heroes has raked in 2.9 million dollars globally on the first day no less this little app is definitely an ignite MA in the long line of Fire Emblem titles it's story is nearly non-existent its gameplay is forgiving at times and its characters take forever to obtain still hero stands as a celebration of all things Fire Emblem people who had never played any other games outside of Fire Emblem awakening and fates and others who would have never even guessed that there were Japanese only Fire Emblem titles out there could catch a glimpse of its history Fire Emblem Heroes is a vehicle for the entire series to be introduced to the world and for everyone to find out what they've been missing if anything we must at least be thankful that they all will find out what a glorious franchise Fire Emblem truly is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] with the success of Fire Emblem fates on their backs even if many were left unsatisfied by the experience intelligent systems went forward determined to continue this trend the Fire Emblem Renaissance had only just begun and they were determined not to disappoint yet again with the surprise announcement at the beginning of the year it seemed the year of Fire Emblem was about to commence but as with any story or video game for that matter the starting point of their latest creations began right after their latest release post Fire Emblem fates Hitoshi Yamagami was throwing around ideas for the next great injury to the franchise at first he thought that Nintendo's secretive console the Nintendo switch would be their next conquest Fire Emblem felt right at home on handhelds and the added power of the console would allow the team to do new and exciting things that just weren't possible on the 3ds however he needed a title to come out too much sooner than the consoles release dates a title meant to act as a buffer until the switch was ready for release and Yamagami wanted it to release in the final quarter of 2016 releasing a brand new Fire Emblem title with the same polished gameplay and story in that amount of time was just absurd thankfully a couple of passionate team members convinced him of a project that just might work a remake of a long-forgotten title that had been labeled the black sheep of the entire franchise a remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden these developers wanted to combine many of the ideas that they had never gotten a chance to implement in fates into guidance vastly different gameplay concepts Gaiden had been lost to the public eye and the majority of titles from the series past had all but been forgotten by the millions of new fans brought in with their latest entries so a history lesson seemed appropriate to Yamagami and conveniently it would be ready in time for the game's 25th anniversary but they needed to get started on development immediately if they were to ever hope to release the remake on time the months of pre-planning and decision-making would have to be rushed if they ever hoped to meet the September deadline they set for themselves a ludicrous date that they quickly retracted and revised but this rush job came with several caveats as many of their co-workers were hard at work on Fire Emblem heroes and the eventual switch title that would catapult the series forward into the next generation they couldn't necessarily be picky with whomever worked on the project some were a given like series producers masahito Higuchi and - tosya Megami along with composers such as Takeru Kawasaki and Yasuo Sababa others sought to take the project as a chance to try something new take the character designer instead of using the tried-and-true works of yousuke kazuki Toshi Yukiko Sugihara one of the game's directors insisted that they hire hidari a popular japanese character designer whose sake Hara had wanted to work with him for years but their schedules just couldn't line up until now hey Dory's artwork exuded a certain charm that made characters even more endearing and he wanted to supply this to the fire emblem formula starting with alms design and going through four redesigns of it Midori meticulously crafted him to feel like less of a royal character than the previous Fire Emblem heroes after designing ohm he used that as a bouncing board to bring the rest of the cast to life ku Saki hada was so impressed by the artwork that he just had to add it to the game and he did so by having each character's portrait fill up the bottom screen so that Hadar ease timeless designs would always be on display his artwork gave each character a personality that they were sorely lacking in before a fact that the rest of Gaiden itself was suffering from as well a symptom of the time many of the key plot points and realizations were locked away in the man you and not in the game proper due to the Famicom's many limitations a great story was hidden underneath and only needed to be unearthed for all to see they needed someone to help lead the team someone with an intricate knowledge of the source material someone who could dedicate themselves to unveiling this hidden gem to the world that someone was Ken Tanaka Nishi a relatively unknown member of Nintendo nakanishi had been working in the background ever since his start in 2009 first as a simple debugger then later on xenoblade chronicles helping one of the most important video games in history to get a Western localization after working on some of the series main titles and becoming a subdirectory on fates nut Ganesha finally had the connections to speak with the driving forces behind Fire Emblem a franchise that was near and dear to him as a young boy he was introduced to the series by his father a major fan in his own right teaching him how to play and getting him hooked on the series the two had played the original Shadow Dragon and Gaiden for hours on end this time he spent with his father didn't last unfortunately just around the release of mystery of the emblem his father passed away leaving him only with the memories of the fun times they had laying his father to rest with the copy of mystery of the emblem he continued playing the series for years to come later on while sorting through his personal effects he found two cartridges of Shadow Dragon and Gaiden that he played with his father long ago Nagano she reminisced about the times the two had spent together which only strengthened his bonds with the games he told to this story to Yamagami and Higuchi and they hired him on the spot it just felt right to them with his vast knowledge of the series and his emotional attachment to Gaiden nook annachi seemed like a perfect match [Music] Nagano she led the Nintendo side of things but what about intelligent systems well Keisuke Hara decided to be the one to step up onto the plate he had always been intrigued by guidance unconventional gameplay and wanted to see how a modern audience would react to such a drastic shift in mechanics with directors in tow production was a go though they already had a strong idea of what they wanted to do at the beginning from the outset of the project the directors and producers alike had several goals they wanted to reach by the tail end of the production the most pressing matter at hand was Gaiden itself and specifically its difficulty Fire Emblem Gaiden was renowned as one of the most difficult titles in the series but it wasn't only because of your opponents on the battlefield character growth rates were stingy at best offering one or two stat boosts each level and if you lose enough units you won't even be able to finish the game it was brutal to say the least brutal enough that it could alienate their current fanbase if they went down that route to alleviate these concerns they up to the growth rates to modern standards tweak some things with weapon accuracy and added in other iconic innovations like the support system the volume like difficulty options and the option to enable casual mode didn't hurt either the team at intelligent systems wanted to introduce classic fire emblem to a new audience and this was just the tip of the iceberg the story was a hard sell as it was it had no clear theme its characters either dominated the narrative or said only one or two lines that were instantly forgotten afterwards and when the game switched between silica and ohm it could be jarring to say the least everything just needed some clarification characters needed to have personalities instead of cookie cutter archetypes a clear narrative through-line had to be developed and everything in the manual had to be shoved into the final project no one was going to look through a manual in this day and age but what was guidance theme throughout it all what was Shozo kaga trying to get at back in the day a confrontation of opposites of differing ideologies and values between the main characters and their enemies this dichotomy is also what made silica and alms journeys and in turn their respective armies conflict with one another alms path is one of power seeking to end the war by force celica on the other hand stands on the side of love and compassion and seeks to end to the war in her own way everything in the story is defined by these opposing values providing a thrilling narrative in theory with the advancements of today though it was all but a reality there were just a couple things out of place though namely a group of compelling characters to follow giving them more personality and a larger role in the story was one thing they could do however the team wanted to take it one step further and add full-on voice acting to the series for the first time this added a layer of depth that just wasn't possible with lines of text to truly convey tense moments happy moments or those that can fluctuate an emotion at a moment's notice voice acting was absolutely Ness Cerie gaiden also had sort of an image problem ever since its release meaning side story and Japanese many were confused as to what the side story and it was for so keeping the name as it is just wasn't going to cut it at first they thought about calling it new gaiden like new mystery of the emblem however the presence of Gaiden or paralog chapters further complicated things so the idea was scrapped on the spot still they wanted to keep the feeling of the game being a remake for this reason they looked into popular Japanese naming conventions at the time such as re4 remake or using Saito meaning once again or second time or even just a simple G at the end of the Fire Emblem moniker these were great concepts in their own right but they just weren't clicking with the t's vision for the project somewhere amidst the ramblings though they found their answer echoes in ocean of stars the simple yet fitting name it be fitted the mission of the game to have their classic titles echo back to their modern audience and let them see just how much the series have changed as well as how much it has remained the same over all these years echos was all about honoring the Fire Emblem franchises storied past and keeping it alive for future generations a noble goal to say the least while the majority of people involved in the original title either left the company or pursued other interests within it the brilliant group of individuals who inherited the franchise's legacy and this one little game in particular were more than up to the task [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] what's an echo is just that an echo while it would help the game to stand out it wouldn't help its to be seen as its own unique experience and having the echos label for any future Fire Emblem remakes couldn't hurt either hence Fire Emblem echos shadows of Valencia who was born releasing on April 20th 2017 and later in May for the rest of the world the story of Fire Emblem echoes was a much more grounded and simpler tail using guidance narrative as a basis writer Sokoto Cooney Hara weaved a more compelling version of events adding context and new characters in to make it all flow more fluidly taking place on the continent of Valencia a land torn asunder between two gods nila and doom and two kingdoms the harsh Raguel and lavish Sofia the game begins with a prologue to it all telling the fateful meeting of duel protagonists ohm and silica years before the game proper various circumstances forced them to part ways during your youth with only their destinies to tie them together years later homs homeland of sofia has fallen to the hands of the traitors to say and the regalia Narmada with only the rebel deliverance to stop them one of their soldiers lukas visits alms village begging for alms grandfather sir my son's aid rejecting his offer outright Alma decides to take his grandfather's place and fight in the war himself hoping to end the country strife on a small island east of Sofia Celica sits out on her own mission to discover what has happened to Milla as the nation has started to wither and die a slow death this sets the stage for the war to save Valencia with each of our protagonists trying to accomplish their own similar goals with their own conventions [Music] Echo's has a much simpler plot structure with a clear distinction between good and evil sometimes the lines between each blur on the side of our heroes but for the most part our opponents are evil - a cartoonish degree save a few but if the villains were getting an upgrade surely the supporting cast was getting one - right well for starters echoes actually had a supporting cast characters that in the original Fire Emblem Gaiden only had one or two lines now had fully embellished personalities and roles to play alongside Ullman Celica take the humble villagers great Oldman and cliff in Gaiden nearly all of them looked virtually identical to one another and never said a word after the first level in echoes all of them have very different looks personalities and aspirations with even a fourth villager named Fay being added in whose personality was interesting to say the least these and more rounded out the cast on both sides making for some of the most intriguing characters in all the Fire Emblem with some of the best voice acting in all of gaming even and that was thanks to the localization work done by teammate for in the Western release which made each character sound real and believable for fantasy characters at least [Music] speaking of realism that was one of the main goals of the designers from the very beginning of the project Gaiden wasn't the supposed black sheep of the franchise for nothing many of its mechanics were unique to itself while maintaining many of the technical elements introduced in Fire Emblem shadow Dragon and the blade of light it introduced many elements that were more akin to an ordinary RPG than anything else explorable towns and dungeons a world map and many other elements differentiated Gaiden from the rest of it skin and kosaki hada and nakanishi wanted to honor this in any way they could so I went to the weapon triangle that the franchise had clung to for over a decade and what stayed leant a more realistic atmosphere to the battlefield instead of relying on weapon advantages you instead rely on terrine and what would make sense in a medieval setting heavily armored Knights block arrows left and right yet have a fatal weakness to magic which blows right through them hiding an archer or a swordsman in the forest makes them harder to hit while moving through it is a more arduous affair than running across the plains each class ally or opponents has their own obvious advantages and disadvantages that can be deduced through simple observation with terrain being the focal point of it all every decision was a choice that has some type of downside to it for example instead of being able to hold multiple items at a time each units can only hold one these items can range from a healing item to a unique soror bow the weaponry you wield determines the strength of a units attack usually coming with a downside or two to balance things out using them enough draws out their potential and enables powerful arts to be unleashed upon your foes but these and more also come with their own price to pay inviting a sort of risk reward system to the game even though many of these mechanics had been designed decades ago their additions made combat feel fresh for a change a welcomed difference from the rock-paper-scissors battles of old still these weren't the only important reinventions of guidance tried-and-true mechanics millas turn wheel was thrown in as a sort of stopgap between turning on casual mode and going full-on classic fire emblem with the permanent death that it entails towns became an essential stopping point in Europe allowing you to recruit view analyze take on side quests and even forge your own weaponry into adept implementations of death there was even a light bit of exploration strewn throughout these locales with hidden and essential items hiding in plain sight exploration was also the key to another one of guidance and now echos gameplay mechanics dungeons ranging from intricate to simple and easygoing dungeons were the most immaculate additions to the Fire Emblem formula based on what the free roaming and Fire Emblem fates was originally intended to be these labyrinthine efforts are the most technically impressive of all of echos feats controlling fully three-dimensional representations of celica and all players delve deep into these dungeons searching for hidden treasure and enemies within with a simple swing of the sword players are thrown into a classic Fire Emblem battle with all of its bells and whistles the dungeons themselves were just the icing on top of the cake however echoes wasn't one to just honor the past of its original creator it was a celebration of all Fire Emblem afterall so of course other features from past titles made it in a surprising addition from three CS 776 fatigue makes a comeback in a big way forcing units to take a breather within dungeons and every so often during a chapter supports also resembles past Fire Emblem games with less supports being available between each character the child system being thrown out entirely and everything being a lot less lovey-dovey instead supports focused on further emphasizing each character's uniqueness from one another with everything coming off as less manufactured compared to past games [Music] above all else what truly helps echoes go one step beyond its predecessors is it's lovingly crafted score just like everything else many of the tracks were present in Gaiden decades ago and have since become iconic in their own right leaving a lasting impression on the gaming sphere more than the game itself you Kosugi Yoko's work on the title had been known to people who had never even heard of gaiden so taking up such a monumental task was difficult to say the least however veteran composers Takei Duchannes Aki and Yasuo Sababa were more than up to the challenge Kawasaki would compose the majority of the game with Baba and fellow intelligent systems sound designer sho Murakami picking up the slack also on hand was Takafumi wada an anime composer famous for composing the soundtracks to the seven deadly sins Seraph of the end and others would lend his own unique style to the editing and mixing processes together they'd compose an excellent homage to Gaiden turnin simple 8-bit tracks into fully featured epics rivaling many themes from the series past and Beyond Fire Emblem cinematic qualities were also drastically increased the cinematic design team led by Kawasaki Hara sought to add to and tweak the battle camera that had become a staple of the series since Fire Emblem awakening dawn was the obtuse first-person view and the menagerie of other angles and in its place was a more fluid and robust experience the team implemented actual fight choreography for once with characters dynamically entering each battle in their own personable way and battling it out with foes in an entertaining sort of manner battles could not only be sped up to quickly move through each turn but also slowed down and zoomed in on to take in the action when first introduced in Fire Emblem awakening this new fighting style was meant to be an elegant dance with death and while it showed promise for many years it finally came into its own with echoes the in-game cinematics weren't the only ones stepping up their game however instead of using the exquisite and breathtaking works of studio anima to tell their tale intelligent systems decided to work with studio cara and animation house founded by Hideki Konno famous for his seminal masterpiece Neon Genesis Evangelion known for their work on the revitalization of his classic series and in animation on several well-known anime on the surface it was confusing why they would go with such a studio that uses a combination of 2d and slightly choppy 3d animation over the fluidity of what animal was renowned for it is unknown why they decided to change studios however this choice allowed them to implement longer and more in-depth cutscenes than were possible with anima the results speak for themselves though [Music] [Applause] [Music] but what were the results for the game itself how did it compare to fire emblems past was that the title fans had been waiting for for half a decade or rather was it too different from what fire emblem fans had come to expect selling only one hundred and thirty two thousand copies in its opening week under half the amount fates ended up selling financially echoes wasn't selling as much as the past two injuries but this was to be expected as it was a remake critically - it also fell in the place of its past entries with many baffled by the changes to the series formula but as some would say who cares about those people Fire Emblem echoes wasn't truly meant for them it was a game made by Fire Emblem fans for Fire Emblem fans everything they had asked from the removal of Phoenix mode to the change in gameplay mechanics was done in part to celebrate the Fire Emblem faithful that had stayed with the franchise throughout of the years Fire Emblem echoes shadows of Valencia was a return to the franchise's roots to a simpler time when battles were simple yet complex and stories were straightforward yet intricate the conveniences and reinventions of modern times propelled a story as elementary as guidance into something more thought-provoking captivating and riveting so much so that it might as well be its own original title Fire Emblem echoes was only meant to echo back to previous installments instead it is reverberating into the future with its impact yet unknown Fire Emblem is at a precarious point in its lifetime where it has finally achieved what it set out to do with awakening all those years ago yet has the chance of falling from grace and losing all that they have accomplished but they've seen worse and to think the ones who would save the franchise and propel its even greater heights were fans just like us decades ago whose echoes have now been heard [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Lockstin & Gnoggin

Views: 812,608

Keywords: fire emblem, fire emblem history, chronicles, chronicles of gaming, fire emblem documentary, fire emblem shadow dragon and the blade of light, fire emblem echoes, fire emblem echoes history, fire emblem fates, fire emblem fates history, making of fire emblem, fire emblem creation, chronicles of fire emblem, history of fire emblem, history of, history behind, ファイアーエムブレム echoes, marth, alm, celica, japan, nintendo, intelligent systems, fire emblem warriors, awakening, game theorists

Id: V3QT39JwDs8

Length: 148min 23sec (8903 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 08 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/ArtemisRoth]

I saw that. Pretty interesting to hear the history of the franchise

[u/Kimarous]

Good also for newbies like me to catch up.

[u/tirex367]

what actually happened to chronicles of gaming? there has not been any activity since october 2018 despite announcements.

[u/xcall1tquitzz]

Really well done doc. I loved seeing the way the series has evolved over the years.