As 2022 approaches the end, here’s a look back at some key Fire Emblem events that happened this year.

I’m unsure how many people noticed, but I ended up skipping the retrospective for 2021 because not a lot happened that year. Thankfully 2022 was a lot more eventful!

To begin with, a scale figure of female Byleth from the 2019-released Three Houses was revealed in mid-January. This wouldn’t be the only new piece of Three Houses merchandise, by far.

Next, during early February, the annual Choose Your Legends vote was held for FE Heroes.

The winners were Chrom and Tiki from Awakening, followed by Seliph from Genealogy and, funnily enough, female Byleth.

Around the same time, a memorial box was announced to celebrate the 5th anniversary of FE Heroes. Wow, has it really been around that long? Hmm, mildly jealous of those who got the Feh plush…

Read more

As the curtains fall on 2020, here’s a look back at the key Fire Emblem happenings this year.

Disclaimer: This isn’t meant to be an objective review of the year, but the author’s personal take on things.

Before we dive into things, overall, 2020 has been an unprecedented year. For many, I imagine it was a challenging year. The impact of coronavirus across the world cannot be understated–and it’s possible it’ll have a lasting influence for years to come.

There’s a small part of me that wanted to skip this year’s retrospective, but despite everything, there have been some good things–and I don’t want to pretend nothing happened.

For better or worse, Fire Emblem first made the headlines in 2020 with the announcement of Byleth as the 5th DLC fighter for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The reveal was made during a presentation on 16th January; Byleth him/herself would be available from 29th January. Since I don’t play Smash, I didn’t really pay attention to the comments at the time, but I could still imagine them…

Given the success of Three Houses and Sakurai’s admiration of the Fire Emblem series, it was almost a given that Smash would eventually get a Three Houses rep. Personally, I would’ve been more excited if it was somebody like Edelgard, to avoid yet another sword-wielder. But presumably Nintendo didn’t want to favour one particular house over another–and hence we got the neutral Byleth with all their relics.

Following that, concrete details for Three Houses’s final wave of DLC were unveiled. This was the moment we officially became acquainted with the members of the Ashen Wolves, whose story would be told in “Cindered Shadows” (previously, we knew some details via data-mining). The final DLC arrived on 13th February and thus concluded the tale of Three Houses.

On 17th January, the Switch port of Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE was released. The original game was developed for the Wii U back in 2015, as part of the Fire Emblem x Shin Megami Tensei project. Back then, a lot of people were put off from trying the game and the Wii U’s lack of popularity didn’t help matters either. So this was a good chance for a new generation to discover and appreciate it.

Read more

Soon, we’ll be saying “goodbye” to 2019 (or depending on your time zone, it might already be gone). In any case, let’s use this opportunity to reflect on how this year treated the Fire Emblem series!

Disclaimer: This isn’t meant to be an objective review of the year, but the author’s personal take on things.

Three Houses

Obviously, the biggest event this year was the worldwide release of Three Houses, the latest installment in our beloved franchise. This game was important for numerous reasons; it was the first mainline game released on the Nintendo Switch and the first console entry in nearly a decade(!).

Leading up to the game’s release, signs were looking promising, but there was always a chance it might mess up the landing… Thankfully, when the game arrived, it received nearly universal praise and, at the time of writing, it’s currently the series’s second best-selling title (number one is Fates, although that one had 3 separate versions).

Recently, the game also won 2 prizes at The Game Awards: “Best Strategy Game” and “Player’s Voice”. The first one probably was expected, but the second award was a very welcome surprise! Especially because it was voted by the public. Against all odds, fans of Three Houses gathered together, beating the other candidates–including Super Smash Bros. Ultimate–by double the votes! Well done, everyone!

Read more