Cipher Series 13 Pre-Release Livestream!

June 25, 2018 Kirie FE Cipher, News 4 comments

This past Saturday, the Fire Emblem Cipher team held the Series 13 Pre-Release Livestream live over NicoNico! Ryota Kawade (Cipher Producer), Young, and Yuuki Kuwahara (VA for Ophelia and Nieve) hosted the presentation. Later on, Makiko Ohmoto (VA for Lyn) and Tsutomu Kitanishi also arrived as guests.

The main focus of the stream was to open packs and show off cards from the upcoming S13, Flame, Steel, Thought and Grief. It releases this Thursday, 28 June, and features characters from Blazing Sword, Shadow Dragon, and Heroes.

We also got to see some art from the upcoming S14, anniversary art by many Cipher artists, merchandise for the Cipher Summer Party event, and sneak peaks at upcoming set and gameplay information. Read on below to take a look at everything!

New S13 Card Reveals

Some of the most anticipated card reveals of the stream were the remaining SR cards. Two SR cards and three SR+ cards were still unknown at the time of the stream, but the hosts showed off them all. The final two SRs are Nils from FE7 and Athena from SD.

Athena is shown here with a matching N card, but Nils appears to get just the one card. His card, however, does feature both Ninian and Elbert in the background art.

The three SR+ card reveals were perhaps less surprising. All three of the main FE7 Lords—Eliwood, Hector, and Lyn— get a signed version of their SR card as a + variant. As Blazing Sword itself had no voice acting, the cards are signed by their Heroes VAs.

We also got to see a few new R cards and the final R+ as well. Kawade revealed the R+ to be a signed copy of Ninian, also signed by her Heroes VA. The two remaining R cards go to Lloyd from FE7 and Alfonse from Heroes.

The hosts also showed off a few new N and HN cards: Louise, Canas, Gordin, Nagi, Rickard, Vaida, Renault, and Castor.

Finally, Kawade revealed that S13 will feature at least two “secret” +X cards! These special versions of Ninian and Laevatein feature unique chibi-style artwork! You might recognize Laevatein’s art as the same featured on her S13 sleeves.

Promotional Cards & Goodies

As usual, S13 booster boxes will feature a number of promo cards and goodies included in the box. Early in the stream, Kawade opened up a booster box to show off some of them. The box he opened included the Heroes sleeve pack, an M!Corrin preview promo card, and a Chrom anniversary reprint promo, shown on the left below.

Young showed off the other available promos shown above on the right: Shadow Dragon sleeves, a Lucina preview promo, and a Marth anniversary promo. Each booster box will contain one sleeve pack, one preview promo, and one anniversary promo, assigned randomly.

Furthermore, Cipher is also hosting a release promotion for S13 featuring three types of clear files! Kawade held up the clear files to show them off, such as this one with Sharena. One side of the file uses Cipher art, while the other uses pixel art.

Participating retailers are giving out one clear file to everyone who buys eight Cipher packs on release day, while supplies last. AmiAmi is one of the supported retailers, so us international Cipher buyers will get two clear files per booster box.

S14 Artwork & Future Cipher Gameplay Reveals

Towards the end of the stream, Kawade began to show off some new artwork from the upcoming S14, which is scheduled for release this September. The set features cards and characters from Awakening, the Hoshido path of Fates, and Path of Radiance / Radiant Dawn.

On the Awakening side, we got to see new art for Lucina, Owain, Validar, and… Itsuki? Yes, Awakening-aligned characters from Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE will also be included in this set! Presumably this implies that Archanean-aligned characters will appear with the New Mystery portion of S15 as well.

For Hoshido, we get new art for Ryoma, Hinoka, and Gunter, while on the Tellius side, we get art for Boyd, Gatrie, and Mia.

Kawade also took the opportunity to show of the new playmat that’s included with the S13 ST Deck. The playmat actually contains a brand new area marked for play: the Mugen Area. This Mugen Area will be used with some new gameplay mechanics that will be arriving with S14. You can see it on the bottom left of the playmat.

Speaking of gameplay changes, Kawade also announced some exciting new during the stream: a rotational format will be added to Cipher, starting in 2019! Official Cipher tournaments held during 2019 will no longer allow the play of any cards from Sets 1-4. In 2020, Sets 4-8 will also no longer be allowed.

A further 4 sets will be removed each year from there on out as well. Although this means that some older cards will likely drop in value as rotation approaches, it does imply that Cipher is planning for the long term and will be around for many more years to come.

Livestream Guests & Anniversary Celebrations

You may have noticed in the opening photo that the NicoNico streaming hall was decorated a bit fancier than usual. This is because S13 is also the 3rd anniversary of Cipher! In addition to the balloons, Kawade was also dressed up very nicely for the occasion.

Tsutomu Kitanishi also arrived shortly after the stream began, bringing an anniversary cake for everyone to share!

In celebration of the anniversary, many Cipher artists contributed artwork. You can see a gallery of all the anniversary artwork at the bottom of this post. The pieces feature many Fire Emblem characters from throughout the history of the games.

One other guest appeared during the stream: Makiko Ohmoto, the voice actress for Lyn. Young presented her with a gift of an assortment of Lyn cards from throughout Cipher.

The stream also happened to air a day before Yuuki Kuwahara’s birthday! Kitanishi also brought her a Nieve-themed cake in celebration.

Cipher Summer Party Merchandise & News

This livestream was the last stream before the upcoming Cipher Summer Party event! As such, the hosts took the opportunity to show off some of the merchandise that will be for sale at the event.

The two cards seen in the corner of the image above are special promos of Fjorm and Laevatein. These cards will be given out to attendees of the event.

As expected, a new artbook featuring S12 art will be available at the event. For the first time, a promo card artbook will also be for sale! The cover features Mayo’s art for one of the very first Cipher promos, a Marth card available at the 25th Anniversary concert.

Two new playmats will also go for sale at the event. One features the colourful Cipher Summer Party promo artwork of Lyn and many other Cipher lords. The other features brand new joined-art of Cordelia and Severa! Likely this art will appear on cards in the upcoming S14.

The event will also sell a special Cipher t-shirt! The front of the shirt says “Fire Emblem 0” while the back features Cipher artwork.

The final piece of merchandise revealed is a special beach towel featuring art of Summer Tiki!

It’s possible that more merchandise will be available at the event as well, as this was only a sneak peak. We’ll post a separate article with all of the event merchandise information once it’s available.

Three Houses Set Tease & Closing

Near the very end of the stream, the live camera cut to showing the Japanese trailer for Three Houses, the same trailer recently shown at E3…

Sure enough, Three Houses will be getting a Cipher set next year! Although the specific set number is not mentioned in the above image, I have heard from people who understand Japanese that the game will appear in S16, which will likely release in late March of next year.

Shortly after, the stream came to a close. With a resounding cry of “Ichi! Ni! Cipher!” our hosts and guests bade the audience farewell.