Fire Emblem was once a Japanese only series. Now it is on its fifteenth title, and has become one of Nintendo’s more popular game franchise. Lets take a brief look at the franchise’s history in the West.
Fire Emblem was initially nothing more than a simple curiosity in the Western part of the world. A tactical RPG video game series produced by Nintendo and developed by Intelligent Systems, Fire Emblem was initially a Japanese only series. It only had mild success in Japan, and the rest of the world was simply ignorant to its very existence.
Now it’s 2019, the series has released its fifteenth title, and there are currently seven playable Fire Emblem characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The mobile title, Fire Emblem Heroes, has accumulated over 500 million dollars after its launch. The franchise is now considered to be one of the premier series for Nintendo.
The series has never been in a stronger position before; how did it get to this point? The short answer is Fire Emblem Awakening, but I’ll go into more details about why shortly. Instead, I will provide a brief history for the entire franchise in the West, and how it slowly climbed its way to the top.
Marth And Roy In Melee
The first six titles in the Fire Emblem were released only in Japan. The series wouldn’t receive any exposure outside of Japan until Super Smash Bros. Melee.
The Super Smash Bros. is a Nintendo crossover fighting game series that stars the most prominent characters from Nintendo games. As it so happened, Fire Emblem was going to release a new game on the Game Boy Advance in March of 2002, a few months after Melee’s release in Japan. This new Fire Emblem game is called Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade and it stars a red-headed swordsman named Roy.
Roy became a secret character in Melee, probably to advertise the then-upcoming Binding Blade. He wasn’t alone; Marth, the main protagonist from the first and third Fire Emblem games, was also a secret character in Melee. As the lead character of the very first Fire Emblem game, Marth would end up becoming the de-facto face of the franchise.
For whatever reason, Roy and Marth stayed in the roster for Melee in overseas copies of the game. When Melee was first released in 2001, the internet wasn’t the same as it is today. A majority of people couldn’t look up what Fire Emblem is, or what it is supposed to be. However, Roy’s and Marth’s Japanese voice acting and cool designs peaked fans interest. Melee is one of the best-selling games on the Nintendo GameCube, which meant Fire Emblem was exposed to a much bigger audience than it is typically.
Around this time, Nintendo released Advance Wars on the Game Boy Advance. Advance Wars is made by the same studio that develops Fire Emblem. Advance Wars is a similar tactical RPG game, except it has tanks instead of pretty anime characters with swords. The game sold well enough in the West that it also contributed to the decision to bring over Fire Emblem beyond Japan.
The Road To Radiance
Nintendo fans outside of Japan got a taste of Fire Emblem, and now they wanted more. Convinced that there is interest in the series outside of Japan, the seventh entry in the series, The Blazing Blade, would be the first game in the franchise to be released in Western countries. Since it was the first game in the series to be released beyond Japan, The Blazing Blade was titled Fire Emblem in the West.
Fire Emblem on the Game Boy Advance was released in 2003 and serves as a prequel to The Binding Blade. It received positive reviews and sold well enough to warrant a sequel to be released in the West as well. Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones was released in the West in 2005, and was also successful.
The next title in the series, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, would release on the Nintendo GameCube in late 2005 in the West. Path of Radiance would prove to be an essential game in the franchise, as it was the Fire Emblem game to be released in the West on a home console. It also introduced Ike, the main protagonist from Path Radiance. Ike will find greater exposure as a playable character in the Super Smash Bros. franchise, just like Marth and Roy did.
Despite releasing late in the GameCube lifecycle, Path of Radiance proved popular enough to have a sequel called Radiant Dawn. Radiant Dawn released on the Wii in 2007/2008. Even though the game was well-received, many players found it to be tough. It is considered to be one of the most challenging games in the franchise.
The Ultimatum And Rebirth
By the late 2000s, the Fire Emblem franchise was not in good shape. Two remakes of older Fire Emblem games, Shadow Dragon and New Mystery of the Emblem, were released on the Nintendo DS in Japan in 2008 and 2010 respectively. The remakes didn’t have strong sales, and New Mystery of the Emblem was never released outside of Japan. Shadow Dragon was released in North America in 2009.
It was at this point that Intelligent Systems were given an ultimatum; unless the next title in the series sells very well, the franchise will stop continuing.
For all intents of purposes, Fire Emblem Awakening on the 3DS was made with the intentions of it possibly being the last game in the series. That explains why there are so many references to the original Fire Emblem game in Awakening, which includes the return of the character Tiki and references to Marth.
Possibly because the game was made by developers who probably had a “nothing to lose” mentality, Awakening was a critical and commercial hit. It received universal acclaim from most major gaming websites and was the first Fire Emblem game to sell a million copies.
It introduced elements that proved to be popular among the broader gaming community, which includes pairing characters off in battle and allowing players to wed characters together. The aesthetic was also more anime-like than previous entries (though the series arguably always had some anime influence), and proved to be popular among casual gamers.
Beyond Awakening
Awakening’s popularity directly influenced the next title in the series, Fire Emblem Fates. Fates was split up into two separate games, Birthright and Conquest, with a third campaign released as downloadable content. Fates doubled down on the dating aspect from Awakening, making all the characters in Fates a waifu or husbando (terms to describe attractive characters that players would like to date in real life).
Though Fates sold very well and was well-received by gaming journalists, it proved divisive for fans as it began focusing away from classic Fire Emblem elements.
Nonetheless, it is thanks to the success of Awakening and Fates that the franchise gained more spin-off titles. One of these spin-offs were Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE, a crossover game with Atlus’ Shin Megami Tensei franchise. It was released on the Wii U in the West in 2016.
The Fire Emblem mobile title, Fire Emblem Heroes, has become one of Nintendo’s most successful mobile games ever. First released in 2017, Heroes has since accumulated 500 million dollars as of 2019.
Fire Emblem Warriors is a hack and slash action game released on the Nintendo Switch and 3DS in 2017. The game is a crossover with Dynasty Warriors, another hack and slash video game series that places similar to Warriors. Fire Emblem Warriors is a direct successor to Hyrule Warriors, which is a Legend of Zelda and Dynasty Warriors crossover.
The latest title in the series, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, has finally released. While no other future titles or spin-offs have been revealed, the franchise is still going strong. The series went from being one of Nintendo’s most obscure franchises to becoming one of its most popular titles. The future hasn’t looked brighter for Fire Emblem.
