TearRing Saga (series)

The TearRing Saga series (ティアリングサーガシリーズ) is a pair of turn-based tactical RPG video games developed by Tirnanog and published by Enterbrain for PlayStation consoles. Originally intended to be a successor to the Fire Emblem series founded by Shouzou Kaga, the series was made to be more distinct from its predecessors as a result of legal battles with Intelligent Systems and Nintendo.

Series History
The first game developed by Tirnanog was originally titled Emblem Saga, which styled itself as a successor to Fire Emblem. Because the game's design, name, and setting bore very strong similarities to (or otherwise outright borrowed from) Fire Emblem, Nintendo sued the game's publisher Enterbrain on grounds of copyright infringement. Emblem Saga was renamed to TearRing Saga: Utna Heroes Saga, and key story elements were changed to distance the game from Fire Emblem. Nintendo initially had their claim rejected by the courts, but won a settlement upon appeal. However, TearRing Saga was ultimately ruled to not be in breach of copyright, and sales were allowed to continue. This court ruling set a precedent for numerous Japanese developers to make extremely similar spiritual successors without the consent of their original games' contractors.

During the legal battles with Nintendo, Tirnanog began on a second title in the TearRing Saga series, TearRing Saga 2, originally conceived as a side-story to Utna Heroes Saga following Richard's or Sennet's journeys. Eventually, however, the idea for TearRing Saga 2 was dropped, and Tirnanog decided to focus on an essentially unrelated setting instead for their next game, which was called Berwick Saga. Berwick Saga had a marked departure in gameplay from both Utna Heroes Saga and Fire Emblem, and Kaga himself was unlisted in the game's credits despite his close involvement; this was perhaps to avoid further legal troubles, as the legal dispute with Nintendo had lasted until 2005, the year of Berwick Saga 's release.

At least two early ideas for future titles were considered by Shouzou Kaga at some point: Holmes Saga and Vestaria Chronicle. The former was to be a remake of Holmes's route from Utna Heroes Saga in the engine of Berwick Saga, while the latter was a new entry in the series. Ultimately, neither came to fruition by March 2012, when Kaga announced on his blog that he was retiring.

Vestaria Chronicle was later revived as a freeware indie game, Vestaria Saga I. Though not officially associated with the TearRing Saga series, the Vestaria Saga series is widely recognized by fans to be its successor.

Sales
According to online sources, Utna Heroes Saga sold 366,164 copies, while Berwick Saga sold 177,101 copies.