Editing Fire Emblem (universe)
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==Franchise description== | ==Franchise description== | ||
During the early years of Nintendo as a game developer in the 1980s, software programmer {{s|fireemblem|Tohru Narihiro}} was hired by Nintendo to port Famicom Disk System software to the standard ROM cartridge that was used outside of Japan on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Narihiro would assemble a small team of other programmers to help port software, as well as to provide programming support for many of Nintendo's games. This team would be officially founded as Intelligent Systems in 1986. In addition to providing programming support, Intelligent Systems would soon begin developing their own games which were designed to be drastically different from the standard Nintendo faire; they would almost immediately become a second-party developer for Nintendo and release exclusively on their platforms from then on. | |||
'' | Though Intelligent Systems programmed various games of all kinds for Nintendo, the first game in their transition to simulation-based games was ''Famicom Wars'', a turn-based strategy game set in modern military times and the first entry in what would become the {{uv|Nintendo Wars}} series. Following that game's success, Intelligent Systems game designer {{s|fireemblem|Shouzou Kaga}} would pitch a personal project of his to Nintendo, which was a strategy game similar to ''Famicom Wars'', but combined various Japanese role-playing game elements and a medieval fantasy setting, all of which were heavily popularized by {{uv|Dragon Quest}} at the time. | ||
Kaga's project, and the first game in what would become Intelligent Systems' long-running strategy RPG franchise, was ''[[Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light]]'', released for the Famicom in Japan in 1990. Though it was both one of the earliest games in the turn-based strategy genre and one of the first such games to incorporate JRPG elements, the game was met with flat initial sales and reception. This, taken together with how the original {{uv|Final Fantasy}} did not sell well in Western markets at the time, prompted Nintendo to decide not to release the game to Western markets. | |||
It would take at least two months for Japanese sales to improve strictly from the spreading of word-of-mouth, leading Intelligent Systems to release a number of follow-up installments—starting with the experimental side-story ''{{s|fireemblem|Fire Emblem Gaiden}}'' for the Famicom in 1992, which incorporated traditional JPRG elements and told two parallel stories. 1994 saw the release of ''{{s|fireemblem|Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem}}'', a direct continuation of ''Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light'' that also contained a truncated remake of that game, which remained the best-selling ''Fire Emblem'' game in Japan for decades and remains one of the most recognizable ''Fire Emblem'' games in its home country. | |||
An unrelated experimental game project under development at Intelligent Systems eventually became the fourth installment ''{{s|fireemblem|Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War}}'', released for the Super Famicom in 1996, which attained a cult status for its grander scope, gameplay innovations, and multi-generational narrative in which players would marry units off to each other to bear powerful offspring; ''Genealogy of the Holy War'' received an interquel of its own, when ''{{s|fireemblem|Fire Emblem: Thracia 776}}'' received a relatively limited release in 1999. Between these two games were a short series of downloadable maps for the Japan-only Satellaview peripheral, called ''{{s|fireemblem|Fire Emblem: Archanea Saga}}''. After the release of ''Thracia 776'', Kaga left his position at Intelligent Systems to start his own studio and [[fireemblemwiki:TearRingSaga: Yutona Heroes War Chronicles|a similar series]] to ''Fire Emblem'' on the Sony PlayStation, a development which would result in a bitter lawsuit and estrangement between him and Nintendo. Meanwhile, the franchise was taken over under the direction of Narihiro for the foreseeable future. | |||
While ''[[Super Smash Bros. Melee]]'' was under development for the GameCube, HAL Laboratory answered Japanese fan requests to include [[Marth]] from ''Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light'' and ''Mystery of the Emblem'' as a playable character, after failing to include him in the Nintendo 64 game due to time constraints. At the time, Intelligent Systems was deep into development of the sixth ''Fire Emblem'' game, ''[[fireemblem:Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade|The Binding Blade]]'', for the Game Boy Advance, and HAL Laboratory took the ''Fire Emblem'' representation a step further by including its main character, [[Roy]], as another playable character in ''Melee'' to promote the upcoming game (although ''The Binding Blade'' was originally scheduled to be released before ''Melee'', delays caused it to launch the next year). Nintendo of America was initially apprehensive about keeping these two then-unfamiliar fantasy swordsmen as playable combatants in the North American release, but enough Western players previewing the game during debug testing expressed interest in them that it was decided to keep them in, while only leaving their voices in Japanese. This decision paid off and changed the course of the series' history: Marth and Roy were among the most popular characters in ''Melee'' worldwide (the former particularly in the competitive scene). | |||
Their popularity, in tandem with the unprecedented Western success of ''Advance Wars'', is commonly attributed to be the driving forces behind Nintendo's decision to localize and release nearly every subsequent ''Fire Emblem'' game worldwide. This began with the 2003 Game Boy Advance prequel to ''The Binding Blade'', ''{{s|fireemblem|Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade}}'' (originally released outside Japan as just "''Fire Emblem''"), which was specifically structured with introducing the series' gameplay to an unfamiliar international audience in mind. Subsequently, the mid-2000s saw a steady stream of new ''Fire Emblem'' games, including one more Game Boy Advance game, ''{{s|fireemblem|Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones}}'', in early 2005. Late 2005 saw Intelligent Systems' biggest undertaking for the franchise to that date: ''{{s|fireemblem|Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance}}'', for the [[Nintendo GameCube]], was intended as a return to the ambitious scope of the Super Famicom years. ''Path of Radiance'' received a direct sequel on the Wii, ''{{s|fireemblem|Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn}}'', in 2007. | |||
The commercial underperformance of ''Radiant Dawn'' had major repercussions on both Intelligent Systems and the ''Fire Emblem'' franchise, which took on a "rebooted" development team whose first projects were two remakes of Marth's games for the Nintendo DS: ''{{s|fireemblem|Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon}}'' in 2009, and ''[[fireemblem:Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem|New Mystery of the Emblem]]'' in 2010. ''New Mystery of the Emblem'' became the only game since ''The Binding Blade'' to not be released outside of Japan, and franchise sales continued to decline enough that when the time came to develop a thirteenth ''Fire Emblem'' game, ''{{s|fireemblem|Fire Emblem Awakening}}'', the team was informed that it would be the last game in the franchise if it did not perform well. To combat this, as well as achieve a wider audience in the East and the West, many systems and mechanics from past games were curated into this next entry, including the Support system, marriage, children, a player avatar, and the return of Casual Mode. | The commercial underperformance of ''Radiant Dawn'' had major repercussions on both Intelligent Systems and the ''Fire Emblem'' franchise, which took on a "rebooted" development team whose first projects were two remakes of Marth's games for the Nintendo DS: ''{{s|fireemblem|Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon}}'' in 2009, and ''[[fireemblem:Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem|New Mystery of the Emblem]]'' in 2010. ''New Mystery of the Emblem'' became the only game since ''The Binding Blade'' to not be released outside of Japan, and franchise sales continued to decline enough that when the time came to develop a thirteenth ''Fire Emblem'' game, ''{{s|fireemblem|Fire Emblem Awakening}}'', the team was informed that it would be the last game in the franchise if it did not perform well. To combat this, as well as achieve a wider audience in the East and the West, many systems and mechanics from past games were curated into this next entry, including the Support system, marriage, children, a player avatar, and the return of Casual Mode. | ||
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==Trivia== | ==Trivia== | ||
<!--NOTE: Please do not add anything about the criticism towards the number of Fire Emblem characters. This especially applies to Byleth.--> | <!--NOTE: Please do not add anything about the criticism towards the number of Fire Emblem characters. This especially applies to Byleth.--> | ||
*To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the ''Fire Emblem'' franchise, the first installment, ''Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light'', was officially localized and released for Nintendo Switch on December | *To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the ''Fire Emblem'' franchise, the first installment, ''Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light'', was officially localized and released for Nintendo Switch on December 4th, 2020. The announcement video notably begins with two children playing ''Super Smash Bros. Melee'', and afterwards inquiring about Marth's origins to illustrate his lack of familiarity with Western audiences at the time.<ref>https://youtu.be/8xNUYS-tJZQ</ref> | ||
*As of version 7.0.0 in ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'', ''Fire Emblem'' has the most number of unique victory fanfares in a single universe, with four in total. | *As of version 7.0.0 in ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'', ''Fire Emblem'' has the most number of unique victory fanfares in a single universe, with four in total. | ||
*''Fire Emblem'' is one of the four series not to have a home stage for a fighter in the installment it was first included in, the other three being {{uv|EarthBound}}, {{uv|F-Zero}}, and {{uv|R.O.B.}} | *''Fire Emblem'' is one of the four series not to have a home stage for a fighter in the installment it was first included in, the other three being {{uv|EarthBound}}, {{uv|F-Zero}}, and {{uv|R.O.B.}} | ||
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*''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'' is the second video game ever to feature all eight ''Fire Emblem'' fighters as playable characters, the first being ''Fire Emblem Heroes''. | *''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'' is the second video game ever to feature all eight ''Fire Emblem'' fighters as playable characters, the first being ''Fire Emblem Heroes''. | ||
*''Fire Emblem'' is the only universe in ''Melee'' without a stage. | *''Fire Emblem'' is the only universe in ''Melee'' without a stage. | ||
*''Fire Emblem'' is the first universe to introduce a fighter who debuted in the 21st century. | |||
*''Fire Emblem'' is the only universe with more than one downloadable character available in ''SSB4''. | *''Fire Emblem'' is the only universe with more than one downloadable character available in ''SSB4''. | ||
*''Fire Emblem'' is the only universe with more than one Echo Fighter in ''Ultimate''. | *''Fire Emblem'' is the only universe with more than one Echo Fighter in ''Ultimate''. | ||