Archive for FE Three Houses

Feature: Fire Emblem Expo II drama stories available in English + casual fan interview

Rediscover the worlds of Three Houses, Path of Radiance, and Awakening with these fun stories by Intelligent Systems.

Before we delve into our main topic, here’s a rundown of what Fire Emblem Expo II is for the uninitiated. (If you already know, skip ahead!)

In the November of last year, Fire Emblem series developer Intelligent Systems announced it would be bringing back Fire Emblem Expo in May 2020—appropriately named Fire Emblem Expo II. Like the original Expo, it was a fan-focused event to hold art exhibits, onstage music and play performances, and hotspots for buying all-new merchandise. It was like a Fire Emblem paradise, and sure to be a hallmark for the series’ 30th anniversary this year as fans create new memories together.

The key visual for Expo II, as seen on its official site.
It’s accompanied by a tagline meaning: “To the world of Fire Emblem, together!”

Sadly, Intelligent Systems later announced cancellation of this event due to coronavirus concerns a month prior to its planned schedule, which would’ve taken place at the Zepp Namba in the city of Osaka, Japan. While it was a tough move to go through, Intelligent Systems did share offerings to make up for the loss, like broadcasting the original 2019 Expo concert on YouTube and selling tailored merch on the Fire Emblem Online Shop (including a CD album with music from the event, Fire Emblem Premium Arrange II, which would be used for a Tap Battle event in Fire Emblem Heroes). In the end, bits and pieces of Expo II still ended up with fans even if the event itself didn’t actually take place.

Among the things Intelligent Systems did in their efforts to keep the spirit of Expo II alive was publish the scripts to a number of stage dramas which were to be played at the event on the Expo II website for all to read, which brings us to our main topic!

An excerpt from one of the three Expo II stories, as it appears on our site.

Each stage drama is an all-new short story starring a group of characters, acted out by their voice actors with appropriate background music. Commonly released on CDs, they are also played exclusively at in-person events, and the stories we have to share today are thanks to the published Japanese scripts, and those scripts being translated by a fellow fan passionate enough to bring all three of them to English!

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Report: Three Houses is the best-selling Fire Emblem of all time, surpassing three million units sold worldwide

No ifs, ands, or buts: Three Houses is #1.

In a sales data report by games industry member DarkDetective Nathan on the ResetEra forums, Three Houses is recorded to have sold 3.02 million units as of June 2020, which by all possible accounts makes it the best-selling Fire Emblem series title ever.

In a previous report by Nintendo themselves back in May, Three Houses had sold 2.87 million as of March 2020, so it is easy to imagine the figure to have already surpassed 3 million by now.

The title of “best-selling Fire Emblem” had been contested for some time due to the nature of the release of Fates, which was published as multiple different units and was not normally all accounted for both physically and digitally in reports. Fates was known to have collectively sold about just 3 million units as of December 2019, according to another ResetEra post.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses wins Award for Excellence at the Japan Game Awards 2020

During the second day of Tokyo Game Show 2020’s Japan Game Awards, an esteemed event celebrating Japanese gaming, Fire Emblem: Three Houses was selected as the sixth winner of this year’s “Award for Excellence” among other titles released between April 1st, 2019 and March 31st, 2020. The news was hosted by personality Hikaru Ijuuin and actor Shohei Shibata, joined by guests Katsuhiko Hayashi and Akio Inou, editors-in-chief of Weekly Famitsu and V Jump/Saikyo Jump magazines respectively.

Following the announcement were video letters from Three Houses co-directors Genki Yokota of Nintendo and Toshiyuki Kusakihara of Intelligent Systems, expressing their gratitude for the win. Thanks to the help of an official interpreter, we’ve transcribed both of their comments in English.

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Three Houses: Original Soundtrack releases in Japan February 17, 2021

Intelligent Systems has announced the Three Houses Original Soundtrack for release in Japan early next year on February 17th, a CD set of the game’s complete music library.

The key visual for the Three Houses Original Soundtrack, featuring the two characters Sothis and Rhea.

With a total track time of over 8 hours across 6 CDs, the soundtrack includes all of the music from the main story, as well as the music heard through downloadable content (DLC), namely the Cindered Shadows side story.

The soundtrack will release in Standard and Limited Editions, available to pre-order now via the Fire Emblem Online Shop (and other vendors).

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