Fire Emblem Awakening

Fire Emblem Awakening
North American box art
Developer(s)	Intelligent Systems Nintendo SPD
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Director(s)	Kouhei Maeda Genki Yokota
Producer(s)	Toru Narihiro Hitoshi Yamagami
Artist(s)	Yusuke Kozaki[1]
Writer(s)	Kouhei Maeda Nami Komura Masayuki Horikawa Yuichi Kitaoka Sou Mayumi Shuntaro Ashida
Composer(s)	Hiroki Morishita[2] Rei Kondoh[2]
Series	Fire Emblem
Platform(s)	Nintendo 3DS
Release date(s)	JP April 19, 2012 NA February 4, 2013[3] EU April 19, 2013[4] AUS April 20, 2013[5]
Genre(s)	Strategy RPG
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer

Fire Emblem Awakening (Japanese: ファイアーエムブレム 覚醒, Hepburn: Faiā Emuburemu: Kakusei) is a tactical role-playing video game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS.^[6] It is the thirteenth game in the Fire Emblem series, and the second Nintendo developed 3DS title to utilize paid downloadable content.^[7] The game was released on April 19, 2012 in Japan, February 4, 2013 in North America and April 19, 2013 in Europe, available both at retail and digitally through Nintendo's eShop.

Gameplay

The game is a turn based tactical role playing game, where the player must move their characters within a grid. The game involves moving characters into positions in order to attack the opposing side, or defend against their attacks. Characters possess a certain number of health points; when attacked, they are subtracted, and the character is defeated on losing them all. Battles are typically won by attacking the opposing side until all enemy characters have lost all of their health points.

Many new features, or features rarely present in the series, have been added to the game.^[8] The "Avatar" system, originating from Fire Emblem: Shin Monshō no Nazo: Hikari to Kage no Eiyū returns in greater detail, allowing the player to create and customize their own playable character.^[9]

In between battles, the player can explore the overworld map and converse with non-playable characters or buy items to be used in battles.^[10]

The game also features a class system, where different classes possess different skills, strengths, and weaknesses, with the player having the ability to change character's classes as seen in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon.^[9] Upon reaching a certain level, units can promote to a new class and the player can select between branching choices. There are over 40 classes available in the game.^[9] Characters can have up to five skills at one time, with surplus skills held in the character's skill bank.^[11] The game features a new option to perform a Dual Strike attack with a supporting character. Adjacent characters also have a chance of performing a Dual Guard, a defensive technique which cancels out an enemy's attack altogether.

Characters, while battling together, have the ability to develop emotional ties to one another.^[9] Some characters are even able to pair up and have children. The player-created avatar is able to pair up and marry any opposite gendered character, eventually having children which can be used in battle.^[12] More information about the characters can be found at List of Fire Emblem Awakening Characters.

The player has the choice of several difficulty levels, including "Normal", "Hard", and even harder modes "Lunatic" and "Lunatic+".^[13] Additionally, separate from the difficulty levels, there are "Classic" and "Casual" modes; "Classic" mode involves the permanent death feature the series is known for, where characters can never be revived after dying, while the "casual" mode allows characters to automatically revive post-battle.^[14]

Additionally, if two players interact with each other through StreetPass, their Avatar's party will appear both of their worlds. Players then can buy items from the party or recruit the leader either by paying or battling the team; battling increases the player's renown which is also shown to other players via StreetPass. A local multiplayer mode known as "Dual Tag" allows players to pair up to fight enemies to earn renown and items.^[15][16]

Downloadable content

Nintendo decided to release downloadable content for the game in all available regions,^[17] which includes new maps and playable characters from previous Fire Emblem games. Various artists have contributed illustrations for the downloadable characters, including those who have worked on previous titles, such as Senri Kita. The first release was Marth, which was initially distributed for free until it became a paid download. Other characters include Roy from Fire Emblem: Fūin no Tsurugi, Leif from Fire Emblem: Thracia 776,^[18] Alm and Celica^[19] from Fire Emblem Gaiden, Micaiah from Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn,^[20] Ike and Elincia from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Seliph from Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu, Ephraim and Eirika from Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones,^[21] Lyn from Fire Emblem,^[22] Est, Catria, and Palla from Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryū to Hikari no Tsurugi, and Katarina from Fire Emblem: Shin Monshō no Nazo: Hikari to Kage no Eiyū.^[23][24][25]

Plot

The story focuses on the trials of Chrom, the prince of the Halidom of Ylisse, and his companions during a turbulent era. When the neighboring nation of Plegia starts acting suspiciously, Chrom commands his band of soldiers — the Shepherds — to keep his country at peace. He encounters an unholy force called the Risen plaguing the lands and a masked swordsman claiming to be Marth, the Hero-King of legend.^[26] The game is set across two continents: Archanea and Valm. Archanea has undergone many geographical changes over the years, and is now composed of three kingdoms: Ylisse, a theocracy that reveres Naga, the Divine Dragon; Plegia, a desert kingdom said to revere the Fell Dragon Grima; and Regna Ferox, an alpine kingdom where battle is substituted for politics. Valm was once known as Valentia, and three of its nations are mentioned as well: Chon'sin, Rosanne, and Valm itself.

The story begins with the player's character, the Avatar, waking up in the middle of the field with no memories of their past life. The Avatar joins Chrom and several members of the Shepherds when a nearby town is attacked by bandits. The Shepherds move to fight both Plegia's forces and the Risen, and are helped by a mysterious swordsman calling himself Marth, who seems to have knowledge of future events. The Shepherds win the war that ends with Chrom's sister Emmeryn's supposed death.

Two years after Gangrel's defeat, Chrom inherits the throne of Ylisse from his sister and is married with a newborn daughter named Lucina. Chrom leads the Shepherds again when Emperor Walhart of Valm threatens to invade the continent of Archanea, where Ylisse and its allies are located, and they are victorious. During the campaign, Marth returns and reveals himself, or rather herself, to be Lucina from the future. She warns Chrom that in the future, the Fell Dragon Grima awakened and brought destruction to the world. Using a spell created by Grima's nemesis Naga, Lucina traveled back in time to prevent Grima's awakening, which is achieved by combining the legendary Fire Emblem with five magical gems, named Argent, Azure, Gules, Vert and Sable.

Chrom and the Shepherds manage to find four of the gems. They are then ambushed by Validar, the new king of Plegia and the apparent father of the Avatar, after offering them the Sable stone. Validar reveals that the Avatar was bred to be the new physical vessel for Grima. He then takes control of the Avatar in an attempt to steal the Fire Emblem from Chrom. Lucina realizes the Avatar betrayed Chrom in her timeline, but Chrom remains confident the Avatar can overcome Grima's mind control because of their friendship. The Shepherds then manage to track down and kill Validar, recovering the Fire Emblem. Despite this, the possessed Avatar from Lucina's future appears, having followed Lucina through time, and awakens the present Grima after merging with him. In a race against time, Chrom uses the Fire Emblem to awaken Naga, but she reveals she only has the power to put Grima to sleep for another thousand years. Naga says that the only way to destroy Grima is to have him destroy himself through the Avatar, which would come at cost of the Avatar's life and with a small chance of survival due to their bond with Chrom and the Shepherds.

Two possible endings to the game can occur depending on the player's actions. If Chrom lands the finishing blow, Grima is put back to sleep. The Avatar has regrets about allowing this to happen, but Chrom, and the Avatar's family if they have one, comforts them. If the Avatar kills Grima, they disappear. Chrom and the Shepherds refuse to believe the Avatar is dead, and promise to search for them. In a post-credits scene, the Avatar wakes up in a field similar to the beginning of the game, where Chrom finally finds them. It should be noted that there is a brand on the Avatar's hand in the beginning, but if they finish Grima off and achieve this ending, the brand will be gone.

Sound and music

The game's soundtrack was composed by Rei Kondoh and Hiroki Morishita. Long-time series composer, Yuka Tsujiyoko, also contributed to the score.^[27] The soundtrack has seen two physical releases, the first being a Club Nintendo award in Japan entitled Fire Emblem: Awakening Music Selection, and contained 20 tracks from the game. On March 27, 2013, a five-disc set entitled Fire Emblem: Awakening Original Soundtrack was released in Japan. The first four discs contain the soundtrack, while a fourth data disc includes sound effects, voice tracks, and more.^[28] Much of the music in the DLC maps consists of various themes from past games in the series.

The game contains a significant amount of voice-acting and actors. Patrick Seitz and Hitomi Matsuki served as the voice directors for the English and Japanese versions, respectively.^{[citation needed]} The game allows the player to switch between the Japanese and English voice track.

Development

The game was announced at Nintendo's 3DS press conference ahead of the 2011 Tokyo Game Show. Nintendo held this press conference on September 12, 2011.^[29] On June 6, 2012, directly after a Nintendo 3DS software showcase at E3 2012, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime revealed that the game would be coming to North America under the title Fire Emblem Awakening.^[30] The game's downloadable content was confirmed for release as well.^[17] A free demo version was released on the 3DS eShop in North America on the week of January 17, 2013^[31] and on March 28 in Europe.^[32]

Due to the declining sales of the Fire Emblem series, Fire Emblem Awakening was meant to be the last title developed in the series, if the game didn't reach at least 250,000 copies sold.^[33] Under such a huge pressure, Intelligent Systems had elaborate concepts that were new to the series, such as setting the game in the modern real world or on Mars, but in the end they opted for the usual classic medieval fantasy setting.^[34]

Reception

Fire Emblem Awakening was critically acclaimed and currently has a rating of 92 on Metacritic^[36] and 92.52% on GameRankings,^[35] making it the highest rated Fire Emblem game released in English and the second-highest-rated title on the 3DS overall according to Game Rankings. Famitsu awarded the game a score of 36/40 (9/9/9/9).^[38] IGN reviewer Audrey Drake gave the game a positive review, awarding a score of 9.6/10. She lauded the game's increased accessibility and enormous depth, calling it "the best 3DS game since Super Mario 3D Land".^[42] GameSpot praised the "finely-tuned" and new gameplay elements, and all of the extra content beyond the main campaign, but felt disappointed with the minimal local multiplayer content, which merely consisted of a simple cooperative missions consisting of only three characters each.^[40] Joystiq praised how the game's character development affected the actual gameplay, leading to extended replay value, stating that it "resembles a soap opera in how thoroughly addictive it can be."^[45]

Sales

The game's Japanese release sold well, with it being the fastest selling entry in the series since detailed weekly tallies began.^[48] The game sold 242,600 units in its first week of sales in Japan,^[48] selling 81.63% of its original shipment, although the sales count does not include the Fire Emblem Awakening 3DS bundle, according to Media Create.^[49] Media Create also cited Nintendo's promotion of the title and mechanics as reasons for the higher sales.^[49] Additionally, in September 2012, six months after its Japanese release, Nintendo reported that 1.2 million units of downloadable content had been sold, bringing in an additional 380 million yen (about $4.8 million).^[50]

The game sold 180,000 units in its first month of sales in North America, with 63,000 units of the total sales being eShop downloads. The game had the best ever first month sales in the franchise in North America.^[51] On April 17, 2013, Nintendo of America announced that Fire Emblem Awakening had hit 240,000 units sold in North America; 80,000 units of these were digital sales sold over Nintendo's eShop.^[52] On September 12, 2013 Nintendo announced sales in the United States as 390,000 units.^[53] In UK, Fire Emblem Awakening debuted at #3, alongside a special edition Fire Emblem Awakening 3DS. The game and the hardware bundle collectively boosted sales of the 3DS by nearly 50% over the previous week.^[54]

References

External links

• Official Japanese website
• Official conference page at the Official Japanese Nintendo website
• Official North American website
• Official European website (English version)
• Fire Emblem Awakening at Fire Emblem World (Japanese)
• "Iwata Asks" Interview on the Official English Nintendo website