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Fire Emblem devs share more details on how Awakening's success saved the franchise from death

by rawmeatcowboy
27 April 2017
GN Version 5.0

The following comes from a Dengeki Nintendo interview with producer Hitoshi Yamagami, director Kenta Nakanishi, director Toshiyuki Kusakihara and producer Masahiro Higuchi.

Q: Though not directly related to Echoes’ contents, how do you feel about Fire Emblem’s constantly expanding popularity?

Yamagami: As we said in an interview with the company president about Awakening, though the Fire Emblem series was known by many, its sales were subpar up until then. We needed to sell more games, and often overthought how to go about doing it. Mr. Higuchi and I also constantly had opposing viewpoints on how to go about doing this, too.

Higuchi: (Sarcastic laugh).

Yamagami: I felt I had to make it more interesting to potential customers even if it meant changing things up significantly if need be. But Mr. Higuchi did not want to change it too much out of fear of losing what makes Fire Emblem what it is, and was protective of it that way. Our opinions were at complete odds with each other, not much could be done, really. I was still young at the time, so had little influence and was bad at wording my arguments. So I made a proposal in hopes of compromise. From that, New Mystery of the Emblem gained a casual mode where no units die. It was well received –and yet the sales did not improve.

So, at the beginning of Awakening’s development, we were warned by the parent company: “Look, if the sales continue to be subpar, then this is your final game.” Hearing that, the development team went, “Well, since this is probably the end, we can just do whatever the heck we want. Let’s throw something together with no regrets!” Everyone threw out various ideas and ways they could be implemented. Yokota and Maeda especially emphasized wanting to depict characters with their own unique traits and individuality. To that end, they brought in Mr. Yusuke Kozaki* as they felt his style was a match for Awakening and a way to bring it to a greater audience.

Nakanishi: That game ended up selling over one million copies overseas.

Yamagami: I wasn’t even thinking of the overseas audience at the time, so was quite surprised by those results. Anyway, the company then came around simply asking: “When’s the next one?” (Laughs). The exchange that followed went something like: “Didn’t you say this is our last one?!” “Well it sold, so that’s how it is.” Even though it was a rather silly argument, deep down I just felt a great sense of relief.

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