Editing Fire Emblem (universe)

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==Franchise description==
==Franchise description==
The ''Fire Emblem'' series combines strategy with a medieval fantasy setting and Japanese RPG elements. It was the second original game series from Intelligent Systems after the {{uv|Nintendo Wars}} series, and the first game's concept was decided on after the completion of ''{{iw|warswiki|Famicom Wars|game}}''. Creator {{s|fireemblem|Shouzou Kaga}} felt that RPGs had strong stories but limited protagonists, while strategy games had a lot of characters but a weak story. The first ''Fire Emblem'' game sought to combine the two to create a gameplay experience even non-gamers could enjoy with characters that could be taken seriously.<ref name="kaga90s">[https://shmuplations.com/fireemblem/ Shouzou Kaga's 1990 and 1994 interviews]</ref> The game became ''[[Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light]]'', and it was released for the Famicom in Japan in 1990.
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.


''Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light'' revolved around [[Marth]] and his growing army in Archanea. Although initial sales were low and early reviews criticized the game for its unimpressive graphics and "hard to understand" gameplay, sales started to pick up and reception became more positive after half a year.<ref name="kaga90s"/> A follow-up game for the Famicom titled ''{{s|fireemblem|Fire Emblem Gaiden}}'' was released in Japan in 1992, and it told two parallel stories with a different cast of characters in Valentia. 1994 saw the release of ''{{s|fireemblem|Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem}}'', a game that includes a shortened remake of ''Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light'' and an original story acting as its sequel. A [[fireemblemwiki:Fire Emblem (anime)|direct-to-video anime]] based on ''Mystery of the Emblem'' was released in Japan in 1996 and the U.S. in 1998<ref name="feanime">[https://web.archive.org/web/19980221210352/http://www.advfilms.com/adv/news.html#Title10 Fire Emblem announcement from ADV Films (January 2, 1998)]</ref>; it was the first piece of ''Fire Emblem'' media officially available in English.
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.


A fourth ''Fire Emblem'' installment titled ''{{s|fireemblem|Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War}}'' was released for the Super Famicom in 1996, and it included a "love system" that let players marry units together to bear powerful offspring. The following year, a Nintendo 64 game that would become ''[[fireemblem:Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade|Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade]]'' was revealed<ref>[https://www.ign.com/articles/1997/07/30/miyamoto-reveals-secrets-fire-emblem-mario-paint-64 Miyamoto Reveals Secrets: Fire Emblem, Mario Paint 64] (IGN, July 1997)</ref> and ''{{s|fireemblem|Fire Emblem: Archanea Saga}}'' was released via the Japan-only Satellaview. While the Nintendo 64 game was still stuck in development, an interquel to ''Genealogy of the Holy War'' titled ''{{s|fireemblem|Fire Emblem: Thracia 776}}'' was released in 1999 via the Super Famicom's Nintendo Power service. Kaga left Intelligent Systems after its completion to start his own studio and [[fireemblemwiki:TearRingSaga: Yutona Heroes War Chronicles|a similar series]] to ''Fire Emblem'' on the PlayStation, a move which would lead to legal battles between him and Nintendo.
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.


The game that became ''The Binding Blade'' moved from the Nintendo 64 to the Game Boy Advance, and this new version was revealed at Space World 2000.<ref>[http://www.gameiroiro.com/2000/000924-6.htm N64「ファイアーエムブレム」は開発中止、別機種移行へ] (Gameiroiro; September 24, 2000)</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20160505032105/http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q3-2000/082500b.html Spaceworld 2000: Game Boy Advance Unveiled] (RPGamer)</ref> ''[[Super Smash Bros. Melee]]'' started development around the same time, and there were plans to include Marth from ''Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light'' and ''Mystery of the Emblem'' alongside the upcoming game's protagonist.<ref name="FE25">[http://www.sourcegaming.info/2015/12/13/sakurai-fe25/ Sakurai Interview: Fire Emblem 25th Anniversary - Source Gaming]</ref> The Space World 2001 demo of ''The Binding Blade'' featured its protagonist, now named [[Roy]], with a design resembling how he would appear in ''Melee''. ''Melee'' wound up coming out four months before ''The Binding Blade'' in Japan.
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.


Nintendo of America kept Marth and Roy in non-Japanese versions of ''Melee'' after the two tested positively with Western players.<ref name="FE25"/><ref>[https://www.nintendo.co.jp/n01/n64/software/nus_p_nalj/smash/flash/1204/index.html 速報スマブラ拳!! : マルス] (nintendo.co.jp)</ref> This was done despite none of the ''Fire Emblem'' games being officially available in English; Nintendo did not think SRPGs would be popular outside Japan.<ref name="awars">[https://web.archive.org/web/20120426182037/http://www.edge-online.com/features/making-advance-wars?page=2 The Making Of: Advance Wars page 2] (Edge Magazine, April 2012)</ref> The Western success of ''Advance Wars''<ref name="awars"/> changed this perception, and it was a driving force 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.
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 4, 2020. The announcement video 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://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xNUYS-tJZQ A First for Fire Emblem Fans! - ??? Announcement Trailer]</ref>
*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''.

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