A couple of years ago, Nintendo surprised us with Fire Emblem Heroes, a free to play mobile RPG with all of our favorite characters to boot. The game requires you to be tactical throughout your journey, but also incorporating a fun gacha twist.

Heroes is essentially a spin off, referencing many past Fire Emblem titles. Being a big fan of Awakening myself, I thought it would be interesting to see how many nods to the game I could find in Heroes, and oh boy was I not disappointed.

Caution: There are big story spoilers for Awakening.

Starting off with the characters, there are of course many from Awakening implemented in this game. Even in the opening movie we can see our boy Chrom fighting alongside Camilla (from Fates). His sister Lissa makes a surprise appearance too.

Characters from Awakening, as well as other titles, indulge in intense combat; but also have time for fanservice events.

A notable one was the spring event (shown above), which had both Lucina and Chrom dressed in adorable bunny costumes. Even during the first year of Heroes, there was also a special Christmas event which featured Chrom, Robin, Lissa, and Tharja in the holiday’s attire!

These skins are also known as “Alts” that are visibly an alternative change to the characters. Robin and Lucina also have legendary hero alts. For example, Lucina wields a bow, similarly to the one she had in Monster Hunter Frontier G.

The Exalted Chrom Alt also has him holding his fully awakened Falchion, referencing when you promote him into a Great Lord in Awakening. His outfit also strikingly resembles if not a redesign of his Great Lord armor.

Funny enough, as I was writing up this article a new event was announced, titled “New Heroes (From a Future Past)”. It features the future children of characters from Awakening, as well as a new chapter.

The first two introduced are Yarne, the son of Panne, and Kjelle, the daughter of Sully. The last two consist of Brady, the son of Maribelle, and Nah, the daughter of Nowi. Having these four join the fray of Heroes was definitely surprising, but a pleasant surprise nonetheless.

If there’s one thing I thoroughly enjoyed while playing was how they brought back many voice actors from the original game. It’s very comforting getting to hear our characters as we once remembered them.

The original artist for Awakening, Yūsuke Kozaki, was brought back to provide art and character design for the new original characters in Heroes, as well as special designs for recurring ones. It brings a sense of familiarity while at the same time keeping the story fresh.

There’s also a good chunk of areas within Heroes that are taken from Awakening as well. Notably Chapter 4, which is literally called “The World of Awakening.” Many places are inspired if not straight up thrown from Awakening into the world of Heroes. Part 1 for example, is taken from Chapter 2 of Awakening (just a cute, shrunken down version).

Something I also thought was captivating was the fact that the battleground for Legendary Robin and Mythical Naga’s is directly inspired by the final map in Awakening. How cool is that?  

I’m sure there are many more references that I didn’t come across upon my first playthrough of Heroes, but from what I found; I was pretty happy. Awakening has a special place in my heart, so being able to see subtle nods to straight up replicas of things from the game was heartwarming.

If there are any easter eggs or references I missed, please feel free to comment below.

Sources:

• Fire Emblem Heroes via Wikia
• Map references via Reddit
• Hero images via Gamepedia
• Yusuke Kozaki via Wikia
• Friends who shared their experiences