Why Fire Emblem's Creator Broke the Law.

foreign [Music] this is a documentary about a Trailblazer who is found at the epicenter of a groundbreaking series Once Again revisiting his creation it's a story dating back 25 years ago a humble developer honing his craft for years waiting for the perfect chance to create his magnum opus his game of all games what we will learn today however is that this developer was a modern day Icarus in its most textbook meaning he was at one point able to blot out the sun's Rays from burning him but just like the son of the Craftsman he was blinded by ambition all the same [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign this image from the making of Fire Emblem 25 years of development Secrets published in 2015 is still and will most likely be until the end of time the only in-game screenshot of the canceled fire emblem on the Nintendo 64 console to the right a girl named Ray tells this silvery blue-haired pent incline crossover that bows are her specialty and that she's had plenty of training hunting in the mountains this screenshot is part of a greater conversation of which a part of the game's script was included in that publication that guy on the left is actually named Ephraim the conversation takes place within the domain Lord Ephraim is from which is currently about to be attacked by an unknown enemy faction Ellie wood ephraim's father advises his son that deploying the army so hastily without knowing what they're up against is ill-advised then Aaron and to Wayne pitchin the former in agreement with Ephraim the latter in agreement with elliewood elliewood then tells the two knights to stop bickering before coughing then a character named boars appears to warn the group that enemy soldiers are heading their way afterwards Ellie wood commands his son Aaron and boars to go with him to face them just before Rey appears on screen to recruit herself to his side alongside the screenshot the following concept art was also provided in that publication concept art for Roy then named Ike and adoon and several other characters which were scrapped entirely like Taki Helen and Lynette and three other unnamed characters the game was titled kurayami nomiko maiden of darkness and was slated to be developed for the Nintendo 64 disk drive and years later would become Fire Emblem The Binding Blade with virtually all of their characters and Concepts reworked from the ground up on a brand new console the Game Boy Advance any other information from the development of Fe 64 to its cancellation come in in the form of developer interviews but this isn't just a story of a game getting canceled on one platform to be reconstructed on another Because the actual fe6 would be the first Fire Emblem game of a new generation one without shozokaga the man in charge of the series since the beginning shozo kaga upon the success of the fourth Fire Emblem entry for the super famicom released on May 14 1996 Fire Emblem was even more in the crosshairs of eager Gamers Fire Emblem was getting really popular and in fact a little over a month later on June 23rd the Nintendo 64 released in Japan putting two and two together curiosity arose for what the next Fire Emblem game would be developed for the still beating super famicom or the fresh unexplored N64 question is there a possibility for a next game if you make a new one would it be on the N64 that is not clearly decided yet but if we make a new one I think while the level of strategy would be high we would return to something that's easier to play without losing what makes Fire Emblem different from other games for the story I think I'd like to delve into arcanea again the previous story started from marth's Escape to Talus but of course there's a story before that there are fascinating characters like Camus and Michaelis on the enemy side too and I'd like to depict their story stories as well a couple of months later in the genealogy of the holy war fan special book kaga made a very brief comment about the N64 will the next game be on the Nintendo 64. I've actually been thinking that it might not be a bad idea to have the next game beyond the SNES as well though if we do end up releasing a game for the N64 we might have to create the battle scenes in 3D as well in the genealogy of the holy war super tactics book published in August of that year one to two-ish months after the N64 was released kaga made that first statement about the future of the series The Answer makes sense the N64 was brand new as was fe4 and there seemed to be no defined goals for the next game but plenty to think about the second quote displays kaga's perspective on the future game he seemed focused on continuing with the super famicom breaking down this quote it's notable that he did in fact follow through on what he said here albeit perhaps not exactly how he wanted he did end up making a more strategic Fire Emblem game than any in the series thus far in 3cs776 on September 1st 1999 but on September 28 1997 just a year after this interview arcanea Saga would be released for the broadcast satella view a short four chapter game with a heavy emphasis on non-playable characters like Nina and Camus it wasn't the title he had conceptualized entirely but it did technically explore some things he set out to do in that interview I actually published a video on bsfe a while back that explains what the broadcast satella view was and how bsfe worked in general which I will link in the description the point is kaga was temporarily able to scratch the itch to return to arcanea the thing though is it wasn't enough kaga was not done with marth's world he very much wanted to return to arcanea in full force and believed the super famicom with a return to Fire Emblem 3 Mystery of the emblem's engine would be sufficient for the task we're about to wind back the clock by literal use of the Wayback machine to break down one of two important message board posts from www.insys.com.jp a now defunct message board that served as a way for kaga and the is staff to interact with fans about the games and to sometimes hint at Future titles this is an accurate translation of that post written on June 26 1998. here kaga explains a few things from the one to six section the next game would be on the super famicom and would be based on fe3 the plot would be a substory to fe1 so arcanea and thematically wanted a more subdued game which was aesthetically more Sullen than fe3 and was thinking it could be released next spring and mentioned that newbie's 2 Fire Emblem may want to wait for the release of the N64 version after he humbly explains how hopeful and happy he is about his next game and apologizes that he can't really explain more the N64 bit is most curious because it could mean two things number one that he was working on an N64 version perhaps a port of this next game which would be easier and if the previous quote was anything to go by would make use of 3D Battles but it could also mean number two that there could be an entirely separate N64 Fire Emblem game that is just easier than whatever this concept is this is my personal speculation but I'm leaning towards number two there's nothing that I can find that would substantiate the claim that kago would looking to produce two games at once and has always seemed focus on one game at a time and it always went back to his return to arcanea this post indicates to me that what kaga was saying is that his next game thracia 776 will be difficult and srpg newbies could skip the title and wait for Fire Emblem on the N64 which from the sounds of it would be his arcanea game this is further evidenced by Fire Emblem super tactics question the N64 has been released where do you think new possibilities lie for a simulation RPG like fire emblem on this new hardware you could let enemies and the like move with even more intelligent patterns meaning you could create a logical movement matching the changing circumstances you could make them take actions akin to real humans being able to reduce the time complex things take is nice because in the games so far we weren't able to have movement that makes sense because visual presentation is also becoming exceptionally Advanced you would be able to finish it off with three-dimensional displays of battles and the like using polygons and with information screens becoming easier to read you could cram more information on one screen and create a more tactical simulation RPG kaga's ambitious return to arcanea would have to wait whatever crazy plans he had it would be too much for the super famicom to handle but he still had 36776 to work on and to be fair to the super famicom engine kaga did push the enemy AI to act more like humans like he had wanted to accomplish on a next gen Fire Emblem thracia AI was surprisingly smart especially compared to fe4 and arguably more complex than in tearing Saga in thracia 776 enemy dancers would do their job enemies could warp other enemies they could capture your allies they would make use of special terrain would inflict statuses on allies and hell even go into armories and buy weapons if they didn't have any to use themselves tearing Saga AI was a little bit less complicated but that seems to be what kaga had intended on the intelligence systems message board he would tease details about the game on April 2nd 1999 six months before the game would release it would be really least that fall on the super famicom based on fe3's engine he describes the game's Unique Mechanics like a capture and rescue and that no underhanded tactics hidden objects nor hidden objectives that can only be found using a strategy guide are implemented I highlight this because if you've ever heard the allegation that kaga deliberately made 3c776 to sell guidebooks that came from a very bad mistranslation on the part of cerenay's forest when they translated this message board post the mistranslation said that she would need the guidebook to find hidden objects and objectives the complete opposite of what kaga stated and the article added a personal remark that kaga himself wanted to sell guidebooks such a blunder on sarenis forests part actually ended up being an often used remark when discussing or criticizing 3c776 so if you ever hear this said about the game correct them because they're very wrong and In fairness to cereny's forced they did amend that article but I digress this would be the final substantial post on that message board in May Kaka had an interview with Nintendo online magazine of which thracia 776 headlined the issue for that month this interview covered various aspects of the game and kaga's perspective on strategy and tactics the final question in the interview went over three cs776's development and it ended with a mention of the Nintendo 64. he said that he started working on three cs776 around the beginning of last year and the production period was supposed to be much shorter but he wanted to include more stuff he has various plans for the next installment in the series and for making software for the N64 he wants to make an easier game and someday he hopes he can deliver that game to the world this interview fits well into the timeline we're focusing on the Forum post which teased tracia 776's mechanics was in April the Nintendo online interview elaborated more on the game and the game released five months after that as far as the Nintendo 64 was concerned kaga had plans for it but by the sounds of things not much time was invested into the console just yet if at all he seemed focused on 3c776 alone and at best expressed Intrigue over the possibility of Fe 64. kaga's comments on the N64 have always been seemingly unremarkable for lack of a better term as far as I know in my research he's only ever mentioned it in passing and while he never really praised and definitely wouldn't critique the console this is me speculating but it always came off like he wasn't exactly sold on the platform at most he said the super famicom wouldn't be able to handle all of his plans and he need to wait for a better console but he didn't mention the N64 in that interview question I would like to ask you more about the new game when did planning for the next game begin we thought about the topic for the next game immediately after completing genealogy of the holy war as a matter of fact we had a previously prepared story in arcanea the stage of mystery of the emblem therefore at first we planned to develop something in that direction but the things we wanted to do were too ambitious so during preliminary preparations we came to the conclusion that from a hardware perspective it would be difficult on the super famicom if possible I'd like to develop it for a different Hardware now for the last question factoring in the new game in which direction will Fire Emblem go from here can you share your vision on that as I have said before I feel like I want to develop One More Story related to arcanea and marth's tale when the environment for that is ready of course after we are able to develop that honestly I think there will be a stopping point I haven't really thought beyond that point in any case I want to implement all the plans I have into that one more story thank you RPGs and the N64 never really mixed it's well known that the RPG library for the N64 was very very small with some of them being critically pinned to make matters worse Final Fantasy Made the jump to PS1 there was a falling out with Nintendo and square but the memory limitations of cartridges also played a major role in how limited the n64's potential was for the genre in fact this seems to be a reason why kaga jumped shipped to the PS1 himself after 3c776 released on September 1st 1999 thracia 776 released but interestingly just a few weeks before kaga actually left intelligent systems on August 15th he formed his own company tiernanag Fire Emblem as we know it would no longer be spearheaded by kaga in his first Venture from the post Nintendo era would be emblem Saga later renamed as tearing Saga more on the Slater this was the title he wanted to create the whole time kaga would explain in an interview with famitsu the following question to finish off can I ask about any new features that we can expect due to developing for the PlayStation kaga is that it I am personally interested in where the save data is stored which is outside of the physical software we are considering making the save files for this game affect the next game if it becomes a series the situation may arise where characters from this game pass on their attributes to the next although I say this but this is still very far from now so I don't know what may become of this idea in any case I hope that this product will leave a good impression on players please look forward to it the hopeful kaga sought to take advantage of the ps1's optical discs and the console's memory capabilities to perhaps one day be able to carry over save data from one game to the next and do you remember his hopes for Unique AI emblem Saga delivered on that as well next up I want to ask about the game's difficulty level why have you created this game in the image of Gaiden which is considered a low difficulty strategy game about this problem we have various means to solve this one would be to design these Story battles to increase the Strategic challenge not to mention the artificial intelligence has been given a huge upgrade and the enemies will be very efficient in both strategy and combat also because battles utilize an isometric perspective and units have their own Direction ancient basic war strategies like rear attacking or surround and annihilate can be Faithfully recreated to incorporate war strategies used by famous generals like Hannibal and Caesar into the games has been one of my goals one may assume that kaga's sudden departure from intelligence systems to creating his own company to creating emblem Saga would be where we stopped talking about Fe 64 but there is more than a few unexpected twists we have yet to go through let's turn back the clock a couple years to 1997 because there was someone else excited at the prospect of Fire Emblem 64. Shigeru Miyamoto foreign [Music] 64 was originally going to be developed for the N64 disk drive the n64dd allows the Nintendo 64 to use proprietary 64 magnetic discs for expanded and rewritable data storage a real-time clock for persistent World design and a standard font and audio library for further storage efficiency describing it as the first writable bulk data storage device for a modern video game console Nintendo designed the 64 DD as an enabling technology platform for the development of new genres of games and applications dozens of which were in development for several years Miyamoto was excited for Fire Emblem on the n64dd question what about Fire Emblem 64 Miyamoto we are earnestly producing Fire Emblem 64. actually it'll probably come out after Mario RPG 2 the latter half of next year question what percent of it has been developed Miyamoto the plans for Fire Emblem 64 are steadily progressing the program team is completing Mario RPG 2 trying to come up with a playable demo dot dot dot I wonder if I've said too much it is understandable why kaga could see value in what the disk drive could offer in regards to its capability for a better UI more advanced AI extra memory and storage capabilities I mean the potential for ps1's save data capabilities is probably the only quote out there that could explain why kaga liked the PS1 at the time but in the end the disk drive was a complete flop and among the discontinued projects on the hardware Fe 64 was one of them Fire Emblem 64 announced in the summer of 1998 development shifted from 64 DD to cassettes in mid-199. however in September 2000 the development was taken over by Game Boy advances Fire Emblem dark Priestess after that the subtitle was changed and it was released as Fire Emblem the sealed sword but hold on when you look back on miyamoto's quote on Fe 64 the that was said on July 29 1997 Miyamoto said Point Blank that it will come out after Mario RPG 2 and that it was steadily progressing but what does this even mean the following is my own speculation because this is the information we have and we will never have a definitive answer on this but look at the Timeline July 29 1997 would be after genealogy was released and well before threesia 776 and the only thing kaga has ever said with regards to the Nintendo 64 took place last year when he briefly talked about having to make 3D Battles and the post on the intelligence system's message board about an easier Fire Emblem game on the Nintendo 64 was made in the summer of 1998 as basically a brief mention while mainly focusing on developing through Asia 776 he did say that early on after genealogy's release that the next game was considered immediately and that they realized they had to wait for a proper environment to arise for that arcanea game because the super famicom was not strong enough but that quote was from Fire Emblem treasure which was published in 99 well after miyamoto's statement and even if kaga realized the super famicom's limitations as early as 1996 that doesn't just mean that he was so deep into the development of fe64 that its plans had steadily progressed just over a year later what I'm trying to say is there is no evidence quotes or anything that would come close to suggesting that Fire Emblem 64 was steadily progressing whatever that actually means especially during the time of 1997 in July and given that Miyamoto was also quoted for this question go on go on so Mario RPG 2 is almost complete Miyamoto we're still working on it gotcha we feel relieved Miyamoto don't worry feel easy about the 64 DD it strongly suggests to me that he was severely over hyping the 64 DD and over exaggerating the progression of fe64 because that Hardware died hard Miyamoto also told the public not to worry about the 64 DD but I mean the train never left the station but clearly fe64 had signs of life because as it was presented at spaceworld 2000 we have that one screenshot something I want to speculate on going back to this actually has to do with kaga I don't doubt kaga and I do think he probably explored the N64 since he was batting for Nintendo at the time and the only other platform was the competition in the PS1 emblem saga's beta assets are worth a look because not only can you see the genealogy thracia esquiui but also take a look at the map Sprites they're isometric these Sprites would later be changed to a top-down map Sprite style for the TRS release it seems like a really random thing to change at first thought but when compared to the fe64 screenshot I do find it intriguing that they both had isometric map Sprite styles again this is speculation and it's based on two screenshots maybe whatever the skeleton of what Fe 64 was engine and asset wise kaga had a part of never mind actually it's most likely he did there's one thing about fe64 that I've yet to mention the small mostly unimportant interview you of maiden of Darkness here Masahiro higuchi one of fire emblem's producers briefly goes over some thoughts during kaga's departure in the meantime we worked on thracia but just before its production deadline the director left the company that's why the topic became about what we were going to do for the next Fire Emblem we were looking for options like doing research on the Nintendo 64 or developing a Game Boy Advance Edition called maiden of Darkness maiden of Darkness was talked about in-game magazines and such for a while I thought it was something like a prototype for The Binding blade or is that wrong there was a change in organization during planning and we went back to square one at the time we showed images and such at space world and the materials we have right here are from maiden of Darkness we gathered up various illustrations and the like among other things the protagonist Roy stayed the same but it was fundamentally a different game in maiden of Darkness we had event scenes in an isometric view but we ended up returning to the form that has more or less been our standard since then so after restarting development from scratch we made The Binding blade although such a number of illustrations were made none of the elements from maiden of Darkness were used I think almost nothing was used well something like borrowing names from rejected ideas is not that rare of a thing in the series maiden of darkness really could have been a thing had kaga not gone we probably would have gotten a completely different Roy a dune everything the day was August 15 1999 when kaga left is causing maiden of Darkness to completely 180 into the game we know of now but there are so many other what-ifs which also changed the course of the series too I will protect you no matter what form I should take but if the time arrives myself completely [Music] long time fans of the series have probably heard that kaga was involved in a lawsuit with Nintendo due to tearing Saga but it's not often spoken how much of a rabbit hole the whole ordeal is in 2002 around a year after tearing Saga had been released for the PlayStation Nintendo sued tiernanag for copyright infringement and unfair competition law they cited kaga's game was purposely confusing fans and leading them to think tearing Saga was a fire emblem entry releasing on Playstation due to its similarities with thracia 776 thus damaging the Fire Emblem brand and asked tiernanag to Halt sales and provide a hefty monetary compensation and to an extent you could see their point kaga did use his own story and character conventions as well as very similar characters from Fire Emblem which was the game in the universe that he created although this time around these were under different names and Designs because legally all Fire Emblem from Marth to Tiki to arkanea all belonged to Nintendo also the game just felt like a new Fire Emblem in all but name in this first lawsuit Nintendo's lawyers mainly argued tearing saga's English subtitle emblem Saga was too similar to fire emblems as its title was also in English despite no overseas releases which they argued it was a blatant move to confuse fans given the series is renowned in Japan as far as strategy RPGs go they also heavily focused on every visual similarity the game shared with Fire Emblem such as the same turn-based gameplay the protagonist being an exiled Prince women riding pegasy every character using medieval western fantasy armor tile terrain affecting gameplay both games having a talk command when people talk on the map and more stuff like this in a nutshell Nintendo argued that kaga blatantly copied Fire Emblem to a t because they looked the same almost kinda Fire Emblem the franchise he produced and directed their accusations were incredibly pedantic and probably to the shock of no one Nintendo lost the first case because as kaga's defense noted regardless if he was a former Fire Emblem developer all the similarities listed between both series were just that and not truly exclusive to Fire Emblem nor the strategy RPG genre as a whole Nintendo deserved to lose this case because of this case the ruling set the precedent that game series could have clones or spiritual successors as long as they were legally distinct in fact this was such a landmark case that games like Mighty number nine bloodstained and ukulele all games spearheaded by developers who once were the brains behind other similar franchises Mega Man Castlevania and Banjo-Kazooie would technically have legal ground to stand on to defend themselves if those games as legal parent companies were to attempt to come down on them through copyright infringement just like Nintendo did with kaga and Fire Emblem in this case kaga is often remembered as a martyr of sorts being this figure when it comes to this aspect of Law and game development the thing is though no one has ever actually read these lawsuits because in my opinion it's the second one that flips the script on kaga entirely the one where he and his company lost in 2004 Nintendo sued tiernanag again asking the court to undo the result of the first lawsuit once again accusing kaga for unfair competition and using their copyright you would think retreading old ground would yield the same result right not this time their efforts eventually paid off in other ways and the guilty party was forced to pay Nintendo for the damages so what happened what did Nintendo do right this time remember when I mentioned earlier tearing Saga used to be called emblem Saga this time around the name change was important because it was noted that for all intents and purposes kaga's game was advertised in Japan with the English subtitle emblem Saga as said previously the Fire Emblem name is also used in English back in Japan despite none of the games leaving the country when this whole thing started and according to the lawsuit tearing Saga kept being advertised as emblem Saga even after the name change so it is plausible to claim many Fire Emblem fans from back then did believe their series would continue on PlayStation the game even sold decently well as far as strategy RPGs go with 345 000 units sold on its first three months kaga's defense again argued emblem saga's similarities with Fire Emblem were merely coincidental and also a side effect of sharing the same creative mind and while similitudes were brushed off in the end again kaga's team failed to convincingly explain why he had to choose the English word emblem to promote his game even after it was changed instead of anything else like tearing Saga and this isn't even the most damning evidence as a matter of fact Nintendo did bring new proof this time around such as one of the many interviews kaga did with famitsu about tearing Saga prior to his release and oh my goodness where do we even begin with this discussion with developer shozokaga about his new game a new story linked deeply to the existence of manakeets first let us listen to Mr kaga's comments about the games he's made so far as well as this game's relationship to them with regards to the story kaga I've made five games which took place on three continents emblem Saga takes place on a fourth continent called forseria and its atmosphere is the same in this world the manaki tribe once flourished and they built a highly Advanced civilization as history went on and they faced destruction how did they deal with humans the masters of the new age the manakeets or rather ancient dragons are involved deeply in this game will characters from previous games make a return kaga a certain shape-shifting youth will have an important role in the guise of a mysterious Bard and Sage since this game occurs in the same time period as the first game dark dragon and the sword of light more characters May return if the need arises dark dragon and sword of light takes place at the same time so that must mean the main hero is related to Marth kaga no not quite these two games aren't directly related although a young hero like Marth will appear as well fourth con continents mannequins character described as literally Zayn marth-like character more characters of fe1 could return if the need arises if I gave you just this part of the interview and told you this game will take place in the same universe as arcanea valentia and yugdrill and directly reference Fire Emblem characters how are you not supposed to assume this is Canon to Fire Emblem if you think the interview was sketchy and bound to confuse people that's because it probably was this gets even more mind-blowing because you see emblem Saga by kaga and his company tiernanag was published by enterbrain who at the time was the mitsu's publisher from 2000 to 2013. so this was a joint effort for enterbrain to quote-unquote legitimately promote quote-unquote Fire Emblem through their widely recognized Gaming magazine but that's not all Nintendo cited every other known instance and publication where kaga subtly or explicitly mentioned the canonicity of emblem Saga to fire emblem on January 28 a week after his famitsu interview he had an interview with dengeki PlayStation where he said that emblem Saga isn't a sequel to Fire Emblem but it will have manakeets and a return of the love system Nintendo's lawyers continue to mention every instance where kaga's words and other gaming magazines could publicly confuse consumers into thinking that Fire Emblem is coming to the PlayStation from the court records themselves in addition before pre-orders for the applese game started on March 8th the app please announced that the three Pegasus sisters popular characters appearing in the Fire Emblem series from the first to the third game would be appearing in the appley's game furthermore the appleys repeatedly used characters resembling popular characters from The Fire Emblem Series in the advertisement of the appleis game prompting the customer to purchase it due to such assertive acts by the apolly causing confusion concerns about confusion among customers were significantly heightened however it should be understood that confusing a product for having licensing agreements between a subject with well-known product indicators and using similar indicators is also included under the term confusion from Article 2 paragraph 1 Section 1 of the unfair competition prevention act even if it was well known that the apple and Nintendo and Sony Computer Entertainment had been in intense competition over Hardware when coming in contact with advertisements giving the impression of a new Fire Emblem Series game is being developed for the PlayStation it is of course possible that customers mistake it as the apple is producing the sequel of the Fire Emblem series on Playstation with consent from Apple and Nintendo and coming across advertisements giving the impression that Fire Emblem would appear for the PlayStation absolutely happened the title of these articles in these magazines were pretty clear on this monthly game walker March 2000 issue the Fire Emblem series PS dangeki PlayStation December 22nd 2000 issue Fire Emblem the legendary Legend of the Fire Emblem series comes to the PlayStation 64 Dream June 2000 issue contained a post saying I'll get Fire Emblem even if I buy a PlayStation furthermore it was also found out that kaga posted on an Internet site on January 16 2000 referring to himself as the creator of Fire Emblem that the game will be similar to Fire Emblem Gaiden and that his relationship with Nintendo hasn't changed in spite of the flimsy defense provided by the accused the plaintiffs continued to say that even if they had no control of magazine Outlets title decisions there was no evidence found to suggest that kaga and enterbrain took sufficient measures to make consumers recognize that emblem Saga was not at all related to Fire Emblem as per the court records the appleis argue that although Publishers tended to try to associate the applese game with the Fire Emblem series such Tendencies disappeared due to the appley's efforts however as advertisement associating the applese game with the Fire Emblem Series has been published beginning in weekly femitsu from January 21 2000 exhibit a20 and dengeki Playstation from January 28 1000 exhibit a460 but also in monthly game walker from March 2000 exhibit a22 dengecki PlayStation from December 22nd 2000 exhibit a24 and weekly femitsu from March 9 2001 exhibit a26 it cannot be said that such Tendencies of connecting the appley's game with the Fire Emblem series disappeared due to the appley's efforts regarding this the athletes argue that number one because apple and Nintendo and Sony Computer Entertainment have different Hardware to begin with no customer would think that the appley's game developed for the PlayStation had a connection to Apple into Nintendo number two although Publishers tended to try to associate the appley's game with the Fire Emblem series such Tendencies disappeared due to the appley's efforts number three as game magazine articles about the appleys game exhibit a20 a460 called it a new title and original work it was made clear that it is different from the Fire Emblem series number four as apple as statements do not appear in-game magazine articles without change the applese cannot control the contents of game magazine articles number five regarding the posts on websites they have merely been misunderstandings by fans that are overly attached to game software and careless customers and number six ultimately although some confusion arose on the customer's side there is no big difference to the market disorder that comes with a famous clothing designer moving companies I am not kidding that's the defense in court records they have their statements actively contradicted the explicit quotes used by kaga in his interviews they made no effort to clarify to fans that Fire Emblem wasn't related to emblem Saga That Fire Emblem wasn't coming to the PlayStation and kaga actually did the complete opposite they blamed overly obsessed fans and careless consumers instead of addressing kaga's explicit tie-ins with Fire Emblem it's because they had nothing else to say say if this defense sounds like complete bollocks it's because that's exactly what it is it's loaded with deflecting and arguing semantics especially their sixth Point here for example whenever they admit to confusion but don't want to use confusion in turn with the law they will use a word that can also mean disorder confusion chaos and so on it's so that kaga's lawyers can use a word that doesn't explicitly imply mixing up two things the example made out of the clothing designer attempts to illustrate the difference it will cause a disruption in the srpg market but should not be evaluated as confusion again they're just dodging and arguing semantics kaga and his publisher got exposed it's really hard to accept and rough to see but this is what happened incidentally court records reveal famitsu not only accepted pre-orders of the game after it was renamed tearing Saga and name due to pressure from Nintendo famitsu openly notified consumers of this change after the pre-order period had passed in essence regardless of how much kaga and enter brain denied it the fact is they both promoted tearing Saga in a way it was heavily associated with the Fire Emblem Universe which under Japanese law is considered acting under unfair competition and all of this still doesn't consider how the second trial also uncovered that kaga had without any doubt plans for unfair competition as he used development materials from both thracia 776 and an unfinished Fire Emblem entry called by the court as true emblem here is another translation of Court records providing more detail on what the defendants were found guilty of rather between apolly a when retiring from Apple and is taking development data from The Unfinished true emblem game developed by Apple and is and using it in the appleis game as well as taking development materials from thracia it is evident that Appley a had plans of unfair competition furthermore the appley's actions extended to frequently conducting advertisement activities for the appleys game using product indicators resembling the product indicators from the affluence game continuing to accept pre-orders even after receiving a warning about violation of the unfair competition prevention act from the appellant and announcing the title change of the appellants game to general consumers only after pre-orders were closed such acts of unfair competition from the appleys are nothing but malicious and should be considered intent or negligence of the applese for context true emblem is the expression used by the plaintiffs and it's likely in reference to the next Mainland Fire Emblem game after thracia 776 so in other words what was being stated there was that kaga took unfinished work for the next Fire Emblem which would have been fe64 and development materials of fe5 that legally did not belong to him anymore also kaga and enter brain ignored Nintendo's warnings and even accepted pre-orders of emblem Saga then notified fans after the fact that actually it's tearing Saga and actually this isn't related to Fire Emblem at all the complete removal of Fire Emblem references in name and canon in tearing Saga helped leverage their position with regards to copyright infringement which contributed to Nintendo losing the lawsuit on that front but where Nintendo won was business conducted by enter brain outside of the game itself which kaga and enterbrain are irrefutably guilty of the absolute balls to do this to Nintendo is just completely wild dude long story short while the second trial failed to prove kaga was violating copyright laws for a second time meaning the game was allowed to keep selling even if they run out of copies it did show that kaga purposely infringed on unfair competition prevention law forcing enter brain to pay the damages and dealed a coup de grass that crushed kaga's hopes of ever continuing the Fire Emblem franchise in his own terms this really truly is a modern day Icarus Legend kaga is still a legend don't get me wrong but how insane is it that kaga is both a martyr and a man who quite literally around and found out foreign it's hard to imagine chozokaga as someone accused of being malicious and negligent given that he's often adored for his work but it's not so hard to understand why it's now Justified to call his and the actions of enter brain exactly that we don't know what either party actually thinks of the other these days on one hand kaga isn't credited at all and doesn't have anything akin to special thanks or designer credits for shadow dragon new mystery or Shadows of Valencia he was never mentioned at all in the 25th anniversary developer Secrets book by name instead only as director but the fe1 re-release and localization did have all the credits preserved at the same time it's crazy to consider how much of his work on fe1 through fe5 is celebrated not just remakes but spin-offs Fire Emblem Heroes and Fire Emblem engaged now kaga's creative Works continue to be made use of by Intel religion systems and Nintendo talk about appreciating the art not the artist I'm not saying it's surprising but the whole situation is just really something to take in for lack of a better term kaga got what he wanted with tearing Saga creating a game that he wanted on Superior Hardware that enabled him to realize a lot of Concepts too complicated for Nintendo's Hardware he'd move on to create Berwick Saga and much later visteria Saga 1 and 2 the latter of which being released earlier this year in English on srpg maker clearly he still has a passion for making games even at 72 years of age but to see your own characters and games continuing to be used the way they are even 20 something years later and Counting seeing characters like Marth Celica and sigurd being celebrated all beyond your control though how does something like that feel but maybe he just licked his and his company's wounds he remained focused on his love and passion for game development and it's not that kaga never financially recovered from the lawsuits or anything to put the success of his post Nintendo work in perspective tearing Saga ran out of copies to sell topping off at 366 142 narrowly outselling binding blade and Berwick Saga actually outsold Path of Radiance then Kaka took a long break before funding and busting out another series the man is a Titan in gaming it's a shame that no game demo from space World 2000 exists this is a really fascinating chapter in fire emblem's history that the majority of people have only vaguely heard of writing and researching kaga's old interviews has been a very eye-opening experience to speculate on what kaga's mentality was and if he may have hinted at the N64 was like piecing together a puzzle and realizing that Miyamoto threw a confusing wrench in there for good measure was also humorous but sadly the falling out between kaga and Nintendo is a really really bitter one he was so passionate and excited in his famitsu interview for years he was dreaming and waiting for a platform that he could use to realize his magnum opus and when it finally happened Nintendo came knocking and both parties as lawyers scrapped in what ended up being a historic legal battle with winners and losers on both sides with kaga and enter brain being found guilty of rather blatant unfair competition while initially winning against big bad Corporation Nintendo two years before perhaps now is the perfect time to end this video the story of Fe 64 is long finished now as is kaga's Fire Emblem Arc there is nothing left to say that this video is still concerned with now it's just questions what if kaga stayed with intelligent systems what if he decided to stick it out with Nintendo and wait for something like the Gamecube or the 3DS what if it was always tearing Saga with no references to Fire Emblem that might confuse buyers and gave no leverage to Nintendo what if there was never a second lawsuit with the relationship between kaga and intelligent systems be different how different would Fire Emblem be deuces [Music] thank you foreign thank you

Channel: Faerghast

Views: 113,761

Keywords: fire emblem

Id: AoduDiidoSc

Length: 46min 57sec (2817 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 01 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/RJWalker]

Nintendo accusing Kaga of taking development material with him to use for his own game is pretty much confirmation of the story similarities between TearRing Saga/The Blazing Blade and Berwick Saga/Path of Radiance+Radiant Dawn being the result of Kaga taking notes.

[u/Master-Spheal]

I knew about Kaga saying TRS was part of FE in an interview, but I didn’t know he said it in multiple interviews and that it went far beyond that, holy shit lol.

[u/ScourJFul]

I knew about the first lawsuit, but the second is just damning lmao. Jeez, Kaga is usually paraded around this community often so it's just really jarring to also hear that he committed some shady shit to his own created works, former employees, and former fans.

But then again, it's not often that creators of popular media series can be assholes. Keiji Inafune, Hideki Kamiya, etc. People can make mistakes and it's just how it rolls in life.

This was really well done Ghast! I really enjoyed it.

[u/DoseofDhillon]

This was a great video, Kaga Saga crimes now real. i'll just say its always been a "come on bro" but seeing the actual evidence is now a all caps "COME ON BRO" however tone you wish the read it. This was a interesting video and something I'll remember. Special shout outs to Ghast for hiring people to translate this, dope stuff

Also thracia guide book bros? Are we playing in these streets?

God that was such a terrible argument I fought against and said was stupid and seen as true for SO LONG. As I've said once, I learned a lot about FE from Thracia fans but their brains just turn off whenever they talk specifically about 776. Kaga fans, and I speak as one, are some of the most hypocritical people in this community.

[u/[deleted]]

Great video Ghast! Can tell you put a lot of work into it.

[u/TheOneWithALongName]

I always wondered how Kaga and IS relation toward each other was.

Also, how long did you research this?

[u/XNumbers666]

I wish some oil king gave kaga a shit ton of money to go all out. I feel like fire emblem is similar to pokemon that it really doesn't take the next huge step. Even three houses didn't feel like such a huge leap compared to the 3ds games. Engage is also seems like a moderate boost. Just the AI ideas from kaga could go a long way.

[u/Neutron199]

Thanks for digging this stuff up! Still not really convinced that he did anything wrong in a meaningful way. In fact this just improves my opinion of him in the end.

Even though it's blatantly stupid to do what he did, I just have to side with him for the reasons expressed at the end of the video: it just makes sense that he and his remaining team members would want to hold on to the concepts, characters, etc. that they created. Like obviously don't call your series the same thing but it almost feels like ritual humiliation that the lawsuit insisted TRS had "nothing to do with Fire Emblem." It has everything to do with Fire Emblem!

It makes sense he lost the case since he was fuckin around with marketing but fundamentally his actions still make sense to me and I don't think he did meaningful harm -- just not convinced that there was really rioting in the streets or "disorder" when it was revealed Emblem Saga was actually Tearring Saga. Not to mention, Tearring's release date means it couldn't have really interfered with the release of any post-Kaga FEs. Binding Blade was a full year after TRS.

Guess it kinda goes with how I feel about emulators and ROMs. If you think Nintendo is morally right in taking down ROM sites and suing their owners, then sure they were valid with their uproar over Kaga, even if he was pointlessly agitating things. It's their legal right after all. But if emulation doesn't bother you I don't see how this is all that revolting (aside from it being shockingly dumb on Kaga's part to prod the lion like that).

[u/TRNRLogan]

Good lord that second lawsuit is so damning to Kaga/Tirnanog