With so much going on in the Fire Emblem world lately, it’s too easy for things to be forgotten and left behind. Such as this interview with the Awakening development team from way back in 2013.

Conducted by Nintendo Dream to commemorate the game’s 1st anniversary in Japan, this interview was one of the first to touch on how Awakening helped to save the series from dire straits.

Yes, we can rest easy now, but, during development, we were faced with a rather grim situation: “If this game doesn’t sell well, the FE series is probably over.”

–Kouhei Maeda

There’s also a lot of insight into how the game’s DLC was developed, including some amusing commentary about the controversial censored swimsuit Tharja CG in the North American version.

But it actually had to do with the rating systems. So in North America, they chose to hide part of Tharja’s swimsuit.

–Toshiyuki Kusakihara

But in their efforts to conceal it, we heard it ended up being taken as even more suggestive…

–Kouhei Maeda

You can find the full translated interview over on Kantopia or on our forums.