Special Feature: Fire Emblem — Blazing It for 30 Years

Nintendo and Intelligent Systems’ long-running Fire Emblem strategy RPG franchise celebrated its 30th anniversary this week, but it’s tough to think it’s been that long — especially for most English speakers.

The Fire Emblem series has existed in Japan since 1990, with the first couple installments releasing on the Famicom, and successors coming to Super Famicom and (and after a long gap) Game Boy Advance. But for a while, it was one among too many intriguing Japan-only franchises, the kind gaming types absorbed information from through import previews in gaming magazines and the early days of the internet. Strategy RPGs outside spinoffs in established franchises weren’t that popular on consoles, and sales on par with the non-Final Fantasy Tactics examples wouldn’t have been good enough for Nintendo. It was after RPGs and SRPGs became more popular that they felt comfortable with giving it a shot, despite it being a slightly different SRPG compared to those westerners were familiar with.

The western world got its first FE taste with Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade for GBA, simply titled “Fire Emblem” outside Japan so as to not make anyone think they were missing out on previous installments — including a preceding one on GBA. The game’s success showed how Nintendo indeed chose the right time to release it. The first localized installments in Japan-only franchises always have a special allure to them (not as common these days), so this title was unsurprisingly the most popular one for a good while.

Nintendo didn’t hesitate to localize The Sacred Stones, the next title released for GBA. But they also granted the wishes of everyone who said “Man, I wish they’d make a console game” by releasing Path of Radiance. It’s a pity the latter title wasn’t quite as popular thanks to being a late GameCube release. This also reportedly applied to sequel Radiant Dawn, despite it arriving early in the Wii’s lifetime. It was after this that Nintendo’s handling of the FE series got bizarre, to the point that we almost lost the franchise.

Nintendo’s earlier FE anniversary gift was a remake of the first game, called Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon in English, released for all territories. It was Nintendo’s opportunity to rerelease the game Marth really debuted in, but also the kind of remake that showed how difficult it can be for developers to strike a good balance between those that retain older (let’s say “archaic) elements alongside features more common in newer installments. The game included a few too many old school elements that put off newer fans of the franchise — you know, a good portion of the non-importing English-speaking base that started with the GBA games. This put the FE series in serious jeopardy.

Shadow Dragon was followed by a remake of Heroes of Light and Shadow, the third game in the series, also for DS. The game was better received than the previous remake, but Nintendo passed on localizing it thanks to Shadow Dragon’s reception. Fortunately, it has a solid fan translation. For as successful as the DS was as a system, it’s strange that it never received a unique FE title of its own.

The pressure was heavier on Intelligent Systems with the production of Fire Emblem Awakening for 3DS than they let on during the marketing cycle, and not because it was the first brand-new installment in more than half a decade at the time. Nintendo was ready to put the franchise in the grave if this didn’t sell. These days, there’s a good chance you already know how overwhelmingly successful it was. In addition to maintaining FE’s trademark SRPG gameplay, Awakening was the first title to place emphasis on relationships and couples creating children that westerners could officially experience. Awakening was a breakout hit in the same way that Persona 3 was for the Persona franchise.

The subsequent Fire Emblem Fates was an even bigger success, enough for Nintendo to start treating it as one of their key franchises. This was partially due to the game having three versions with alternate story paths, but also goodwill established through Awakening. The series was now bigger than ever in the west, while the 3DS games reestablished the series in Japan. Nintendo had enough confidence to green light a remake of the comparatively unconventional second game, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, which might have also performed well (sales data and analysis is scant) despite being a late 3DS release.

The FE franchise’s upward trend continued with the most recent Fire Emblem: Three Houses for Switch, which remained in sales charts for months after being the first FE title to release simultaneously worldwide in June 2019. The game made changes to its SRPG formula, but none that upset most of the already-established fanbase. In fact, it actually brought back fans who were put off by the grand-but-unfocused Fates.

It would be wrong to discount the recent impact of Fire Emblem Heroes, the free-to-play mobile behemoth that’s maintained a dedicated audience for the last three years. Its monetization schemes, like many f2p games these days, are geared towards the “whales” continually pumping cash into it. Its popularity has at least helped to sustain the franchise, but there’s a chance it’s also helped it grow.

The Fire Emblem series’ 30 years on the market haven’t been consistently good, but it couldn’t be in a better position now, and that’s what matters most for this occasion. The arrival of the next game is a case of when, and not if, though it could be a little while considering Three Houses received story-based DLC a little over two months ago. But it should arrive before we can celebrate the series’ 35th anniversary.