Fire Emblem Engage releases this Friday, and Nintendo has begun releasing an Ask The Developer roundtable interview with the minds behind the title. The first portion of the interview released today, and while interesting info is sprinkled throughout (such as them making protagonist Alear too vulnerable in early drafts to differentiate them from typical hero types), the most interesting section concerns Emblems, the Lords from past Fire Emblem games who support the protagonists.
The interviewer was surprised to find out that Emblems appear from the beginning of the game, considering a mechanic so powerful and useful would usually only appear after some progress. Producer and FE dev veteran Masahiro Higuchi revealed the reasoning: the fun of tactical RPGs isn’t as intuitive or immediate as that of fastpaced games like action titles, so the Emblems are there to offer fun and power from the start. As Higuchi states:
In platformer games, for instance, you start the game, press buttons, and Mario jumps and stomps on enemies. That alone is intuitive and fun from the start, you know? But in tactical strategy games, you must use tactics to defeat enemies slowly and to steadily advance to take control of the area before you can complete the stage. You need to go through all these steps to experience the fun. …In that sense, the fun comes a little later. We thought that the lack of intuitive fun in how it controls may create some barriers for those who have never tried these types of games. So, for this title, by having the unique Engage feature with Emblems available early on, we wanted players to feel the fun from the get-go as they experience the unleashing of overwhelming power and special attacks.
The developers also discuss the world map, the game’s title, and some difference from Fire Emblem Three Houses, all of which you can check out in Part 1 of the interview. Part 2 will release tomorrow, so check back then for any more juicy tidbits.
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Written by Amelia Fruzzetti
A writer and Nintendo fan based in Seattle, Washington. When not working for NinWire, she can be found eating pasta, writing stories, and wondering about when Mother 3 is finally going to get an official localization.
