Crossed swords

Fire Emblem has traditionally struggled to make much of an impact in the West - we didn't even get to experience the franchise until the days of the Game Boy Advance - but it would appear that the turn-based series has finally caught the attention of players outside of Japan.

A new promotional page has just gone live in Japan in order to build up interest in the forthcoming Fire Emblem If soundtrack album and it is stated that the previous game in the series - Fire Emblem: Awakening - has shifted an impressive 1.79 million copies globally, as of December 2014.

That's an impressive achievement for what could be considered to be quite a niche game. Awakening was an effort to make the franchise more accessible to newcomers - it included a controversial "Casual" mode which removed the "permadeath" the franchise is famed for - and the tactic has clearly worked.

Fire Emblem If launches in Japan this June and is expected to hit the West next year.

[source geeksnack.com, via renka-web.com]