Fire Emblem may have taken its sweet time finding fame in the west, but it's been a popular franchise in its native Japan since the days of the Famicom.
In fact, it's such an influential series that Hironobu Sakaguchi - the creator of Final Fantasy - claims that he had to resist playing it too much during the development of Final Fantasy VI.
The revelation comes in a freshly-translated Famicom Tsuushin interview from 1994, where Sakaguchi chats with Fire Emblem designer Shouzou Kaga about their respective franchises.
Sakaguchi explains that the first Fire Emblem - released in 1990 - had quite an impact at Square:
Everyone wanted to know what kind of game it was. Back then there was nothing like it, and I would say its closer to an RPG than a simulation game. So at Square, when it came out, we bought it right away, and everyone gathered together to play and study it. I can't say it was the easiest game to pick up and play, but I felt something very special and addicting in it. And of course I've been playing it ever since!
When asked if he had checked out the latest release - Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem on the Super Famicom - the Final Fantasy boss admitted that he had forced himself to resist its charms:
I've been knee-deep in the FF6 development until just now, and the new Fire Emblem was released during the height of our work. I bought it on the day it came out, but I knew that if I opened it up, I wouldn't do any work, so it was sitting on my desk there like a decoration. During the most intense parts of the FF6 development, I comforted myself by saying, "As soon as this is done, I can play Fire Emblem as much as I want…"
The full interview is well worth checking out, and comes with a bonus 1990 interview with Kaga regarding the original Famicom Fire Emblem.
[source shmuplations.com]
Comments 26
I've always said "Sack intelligent systems, give Fire Emblem to SE. Make it look beautiful, make crossover's, make FE spin-off like FF's spin-off."
Make it happen.
@KO-Cub barfs
What?!?!
@FierceRagnar What you talking about, Fire Emblem is still as great as it was especially the new games. Your concern should be at Nintendo, not Intelligent Systems.
@FierceRagnar I don't think Intelligent Systems is doing things badly as you claim them to be. Yes there are questionable decisions that will probably leave them thinking on what to improve or change, but they are still outputting quality games.
Conquest is a more fun game than the following: Gaiden, Binding Blade, 7, The Sacred Stones, Shadow Dragon.
On a semi-related note, Tellius-obsessed fans annoy me.
Smart man! One of the best game series around!
@FierceRagnar
Right, because adding marriage and children to a game and discredits the other 90% of it.
Eye roll
I always thought Marth and Roy gave Melee the JRPG-ish characters it needed for its roster to feel "complete" twelve years ago, back when I was fourteen and didn't know jack about gaming history. I'd totally be for a Fire Emblem x Final Fantasy crossover, but with Tokyo Mirage Sessions FE not even being released yet this seems a bit of a stretch.
That's cool.
@FierceRagnar
Maybe you should go and play Genealogy of the Holy War before acting like the marriage and children system is horrible and new. IS Actually brought back an old mechanic, and while some decisions may not be the best, there is a reason Why Awakening and Fates have been best sellers.
Regarding that part of not opening the game until he finishes his job, that's me in my test periods - not opening games to avoid temptation!
Maybe one day we'll see The Last Story as a download on Wii U. And maybe those GBA Final Fantasy games.
Fire Emblem always had a waifu system placed in it since Genealogy of the Holy War and it is considered the magnum opus. Anybody who has complained about the waifu system are either new to the series or just hasn't touched an FE game since the Tellius and Elibe series.
All I can see is Sakaguchi at his computer tweeting out to get his next FE fix.
Bring it to vc along with the SNES ones
@KO-Cub crossover? Yes please. Sack Intelligent Systems? Mm...
@KO-Cub I'd give Paper Mario to Square instead, Fates looks great whereas Color Splash is pretty much Sticker Star 2. Less chance of Miyamoto getting involved.
I wonder if Sakaguchi would be interested in playing Kaga's new indie game, Vestaria Saga.
@IceAnt573
Lol whut? I concede that Fates overall is a pretty good game, as was Awakening, however it is a weaker game than all those games you've listed, aside from Shadow Dragon DS.
It's objectively 'good', but subjectively the newer games just aren't 'fun' in a sense.
Frankly, I wouldn't even have attempted this series if it wasn't for my introduction to Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright. The casual play and "ease of entry" system convinced me that I made the right choice to buy it, and I haven't looked back. So much so that I recently purchased Fire Emblem Awakening, and am planning on getting Conquest once my skills flesh out.
Seriously, I'm not a hardcore "gamer" but love this style of play. The game in and of itself is marvelous, and the characters are so endearing to easily be attached to.
@FierceRagnar Well, as was said, it seems to have expanded it's player base by introducing itself to beginners with some features that make it more accessible. I don't think, overall, that's a bad thing since sales have skyrocketed.
@FierceRagnar @KO-Cub Either something is wrong with you or that you can't tell what horrible games that FE has overall. The series as a whole has never once gotten bad scores. Even Shadow Dragon wasn't that bad.
@AVahne I disagree. Conquest is loads of fun and has lots of variety. Birthright I can agree is shallower than Awakening but Conquest definitely is a fun game.
@FierceRagnar "Waifu sim".
I'm sure I'm not alone in that by now that overused phrase is basically white noise. I personally think Intelligent Systems misses a lot of credit/praise for how well they've now integrated the core gameplay mechanics along with the support mechanics. Because it's been excecuted brilliantly.
It's resulted in an evolution the gameplay of the series, while appealing to players who want to pair their favourite characters up. Not just through two separate systems in the game but through mechanics that complement each other.
Characters build relationships during battle while supporting, fighting alonside each other and helping each other. While the support bonuses, stat boosts, dual attacks act as a gameplay incentive and a strategic incentive to build the supports. It's a graceful execution of both gameplay and character development.
As someone who's been a fan of the series since 2004. One thing I'm not a fan of is how petty some of you people make long terms fans look as a whole.
I'm so tired of people keep saying FE now is "waifu sim".
This feature is optional. OPTIONAL. If you need a dictionary to look up the meaning of "optional" then go get one. No one drags you and forces you to marry someone in the game. If you don't like this feature so much why you keep mentioning it? Why not just ignore it? STOP whining.
tbh, keep saying "FE is now all about waifu trash" or "players playing this game are all weaboo" does NOT make you look better or smart. It actually shows how shallow and immature you are. Instead of focusing on analyzing the battle and weapon systems, which contribute much more to the gameplay, and giving suggestions and more valuable thoughts so that IS and Nintendo can do better next time, spending 99% of the time complaining about a not-so-important aspect of this game is just pathetic.
And this comes from someone who thinks the marriage system is not necessary in FE14.
@Dr_Lugae The problem is the "pairing anybody with anybody" mentality and player pandering via self-insert avatars have ruined the quality of the actual supports and storytelling.
The vast majority of "romantic" supports are bland and don't add any development to characters, while platonic supports are the ones that consistently build on the characters.
Fates' writing should easily tell you that player avatars are a terrible addition: Corrin never really gets called out, they're near-universally loved with those who don't being cartoon villains with no motivation, and the plot in general treats them like a Mary Sue that can do no wrong. Couple this with the stupidest plot contrivance since the blood pact and massive bias towards one kingdom (alongside virtually non-existent worldbuilding), and you've got probably the worst-written title to date.
Yeah, supports were generally hit-or-miss in the past. Yeah, the series never had the greatest writing. But now "hit-or-miss" is predominantly "miss" and "not the greatest" is "absolutely terrible".
But damn if they didn't get something right with the gameplay.
@Luna_110 Maybe you should play Geneology of the Holy War before comparing the two systems. FE4's was because most of the 1st generation got killed off half-way through with the 2nd gen picking up 15 years later; in general, it didn't have the slightest thing to do with shipping. Awakening just threw it in there because it wanted to reference it.
Fates, on the other hand, shoe-horned it in mid-development in a way that makes no logical sense and has absolutely no effect on the story.
As stated in interviews from the time, Kaga's game design philosophy was oozing with deliberation. The Judgral games had respectable world building, and pretty much every decision was made for a reason; yes, including the incest (the only explicit incest in the series... up until Fates, at least).
@RGnsd Game features don't exist in a vacuum. Features are part of larger things; a negative feature can drag things down. Screaming "it's optional" at people isn't going to change their minds.
Though, yeah, Ragnar is an elitist troll on Serenes Forest that pretty much nobody likes there. I just wish this comments section had done what we've learned to do long ago: ignore him and hit "report" if things get dicey.
@KO-Cub I thought Square Enix already had their own Tactics game. Final Fantasy Tactics? And you may buy it on the Nintendo store... right now!
and for all of the haters. Are you kidding me? the relationships is one of the best things about Fire Emblem. I absolutely love Birthright! I tried playing some of the really old FE games and they've aged. They're hard, and the characters seem kind of dry. But FE Birthright has amazing characters. Literally everyone can play the game and find at least one person they like.
@AVahne What point are you trying to prove? "Subjectively" I find both Awakening and Conquest (I'll add in Birthright, but not Revelation) more fun than past games (I would have added in slow-as-a-snail Path of Radiance and few others) each for different reasons. "Subjectively" you don't. The have still maintained (and are perceived) a consistent level of quality.
@IceAnt573
What I'm "trying to prove", which I really not as I've no time to type out proof, is that they have NOT "maintained (and are perceived) a consistent level of quality". Quality is still good in some ways, but I find it difficult to say that the quality of current games is as high as previous games.
A Fire Emblem x Final Fantasy crossover would be pretty epic!
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