Tag Archive for Interview

Warriors: Developer Interview on Character Choices and First Impressions

We have had another developers interview from Nintendo Dream that the great people at Nintendo Everything managed to translate.

The interview goes over several points; I will highlight some in quotes.

ND: I see. But it must be hectic to choose characters based on their relationships with each other. You might even end up having too many characters that couldn’t be removed. For example if you were to add Chrom, then how about Lucina?

Hayashi: But actually, we used to stray away regarding Lucina.

ND: And what do you mean by that?

Hayashi: At first there were talks in the development team of, “Should we remove Lucina?” However, after we talked with Nintendo and Intelligent Systems, we reconsidered that, thinking “That’s just not possible after all” (laughs).

ND: Why did you want to remove her?

Hayashi: It’s an obvious thing; it’s not because we hated her or something, but the reasons are because there are already too many sword characters, and because she’s of the children generation.

Usuda: Which means, when we were contemplating on whether to add people from the children generation, if Lucina wasn’t added, then we would’ve come to a conclusion that we wouldn’t add anyone from the children generation.

So Lucina was originally on the chopping block, which may shock quite a number of fans. However later on they stated that characters that shared the same class became more of a concern due to Lucina’s inclusion.

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Awakening: 1st Anniversary Interview from 2013

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.

Echoes: Free DLC + Dengeki Staff Interview

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia has been out for a week in Japan now. Starting today, players can download “Gift from the Goddess 2”, which grants a rare Villager’s Fork item, but only once per save.

When equipped with this item (which cannot be found in-game), any character who isn’t Alm or Celica can Class Change to a Villager at a Mila Shrine, allowing them to explore other class paths and gain more Levels.

In related news, Kirokan has kindly translated a rather lengthy interview with the Echoes development staff from the June 2016 issue of Dengeki, which came out recently. You can read it on Kirokan’s website, or over on our forums.

You may have already seen an out-of-context quote from this interview posted on various gaming sites; if so, we definitely recommend reading the entire interview (or at least the relevant parts) to see what the developers really meant.

Besides that, the interview provides a lot of insight not just for Echoes, but for the well-being and future of the series. There’s even a sneaky mention of the abandoned real-time Fire Emblem game.

A special thanks to Kirie for sharing the interview!

Shouzou Kaga Interviews from the ’90s

Shmuplations recently translated two old interviews featuring Shouzou Kaga, the creator of the Fire Emblem series.

A rare picture of Kaga, courtesy of shumplations.

A rare picture of Kaga, courtesy of shmuplations.

The first interview from 1994 sounds like something out of a nerdy RPG fan’s dream, as the father of Fire Emblem meets up with with Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the Final Fantasy series.

Meanwhile, the second interview from 1990 discusses the very first game, Dark Dragon and Sword of Light, which came out in the same year.