Fire Emblem (series)



Fire Emblem (ファイアーエムブレム Faiā Emuburemu) is a popular turn-based tactical RPG video game franchise developed by Intelligent Systems, and published by Nintendo. The series is credited with establishing the tactical role-playing video game genre, otherwise known as tactical RPGs or strategy RPGs. Games in the series are most commonly set in worlds inspired by medieval Europe and take influence from a variety of European mythologies.

Franchise History
The Fire Emblem franchise began in 1990 with the release of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, which was released for the Family Computer and was exclusive to the Japanese market. For twelve years, five additional games were released as Japan exclusive titles, up until Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, which was released in 2002 for the Game Boy Advance. The Fire Emblem franchise gained much exposure in the west when Marth and Roy were included in the 2001 release of Super Smash Bros. Melee. Additionally, due to the western success of Intelligent Systems's other tactical RPG, Advance Wars, the Fire Emblem franchise began being localized with the release of seventh Fire Emblem title, Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, known at the time simply as Fire Emblem.

For eleven years, the franchise saw mediocre sales that declined overtime in Japan. Even after being released in the west, these trends carried over. After Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, only four of the five games released after it were released world wide; Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem remained a Japan exclusive. Fire Emblem Awakening, the thirteenth title, was developed to be the final game in the franchise and utilized numerous features used throughout the various Fire Emblem games to create the best game they could that would be a proper finale for the franchise. If the game did not sell enough units in Japan alone, the franchise would be permanently shelved. However, the game was well advertised and had exceptional sales, more than any previous titles. The success of the sales in Japan lead to the localization of the game worldwide, leading to similar sales success and newfound interest in the franchise.

Currently fifteen Fire Emblem tiles have been released with seven of them being released only in Japan and eight released worldwide. Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia is the most recent Fire Emblem title, released May 19th, 2017. A sixteenth title has been announced as in development for the Nintendo Switch and is scheduled to release in 2018.

Fire Emblem has been represented in three of the four Super Smash Bros. games with six Fire Emblem characters appearing as playable characters and one as an Assist Trophy. Super Smash Bros. Melee introduced Marth and Roy, Super Smash Bros. Brawl introduced Ike, and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U introduced Robin, Lucina, and Corrin. Lyndis serves as an Assist Trophy in both Brawl and 3DS/Wii U.

Over the years, the franchise has also seen a number of spin-offs. Such releases include games developed in collaboration with third parties like Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE and Fire Emblem Warriors, trading card games including Fire Emblem 0 (Cipher), and the mobile phone game Fire Emblem Heroes.

Games
Counting announced games in development, the franchise currently has thirteen original games, three enhanced remakes, and four spin-off titles. Games predating Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade were released only in Japan.

Characters
The Fire Emblem series does not take place in a singular world, instead taking place in several universes, and sometimes, different points in time. Most games have original casts of characters that are unique to their specific games, and over the franchise's history, hundreds of playable and non-playable characters have appeared. Because some games serve as direct prequels or sequels to others, a number of characters make multiple game appearances. Characters that are playable in one game may appear as NPCs in another, while others may remain playable, possibly with tweaks to their classes and abilities. The series is loosely tied together thanks to several characters that appear in multiple Fire Emblem games, including Jake, Naga, and most notably the recurring shopkeeper character Anna.

Permanent Death
"If the enemy reduces a unit's HP to zero, that unit will be removed from the game. Lost units are gone for good; you won't be able to use that unit again after that point."

- Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon in-game guide. In the Fire Emblem games, when a character's health points reach zero, they will die permanently and be left out of play for the rest of the game. This is a deviation from most traditional RPGs, where characters would reach zero health and be merely incapacitated or can still be revived. This leads players to be mindful of their units and use care in deploying them into battle, keeping back any significantly injured units. If a character other than the primary protagonists (whose deaths result in a Game Over) who are important to the story have their health points hit zero, they end up receiving a crippling injury that prevents them from ever fighting again instead of dying (an example is Soren from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance). Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon features side chapters (also called Gaiden chapters) that only become available if the player has lost certain numbers of units; these chapters offer new recruitable characters to prevent the player's roster from growing too thin.

Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem introduced Casual Mode to the franchise. In Casual Mode, the permanent death mechanic is turned off and any player character that is defeated in battle will stay in the player's roster and become usable again in the following chapter. The purpose of Casual Mode is to ease the difficulty, letting new players into the game more easily. Fire Emblem Fates takes this approach a step further with the introduction of Phoenix Mode, in which defeated characters return to battle on the very next turn with full health. Just as Casual Mode is meant to ease the barrier of entry to those put off by the traditional permanent death mechanic, Phoenix Mode is meant for strategy RPG novices.

In Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, the introductory chapters that make up Lyn's Tale are meant as an extended tutorial for those new to the Fire Emblem series in general. As such, Lyn's Tale does not feature permanent death. Units that are defeated in Lyn's story return in Eliwood's/Hector's story, which makes up the main portion of the game. However, characters that are lost in Lyn's story are weaker than they otherwise would be when they are reintroduced.