On January 18th, Nintendo took to the internet to detail upcoming Fire Emblem Titles, following up on some previous announcements.
Fire Emblem Echoes - Shadows of Valentia
The presentation started off with talking about their upcoming Nintendo 3DS title that was just announced, Fire Emblem Echoes - Shadows of Valentia. Fire Emblem Echoes is a reimagining of the second Fire Emblem game, Fire Emblem Gaiden, released back in 1992 for the Famicom. The title was never localized for the west, remaining a Japan exclusive, meaning that this release is the first the vast majority of people will ever see of the game.
Fire Emblem Gaiden is notable for the fact that it went some different directions with the gameplay mechanics. It featured exploration segments, many smaller turn-based battles that came out of dungeon crawling type elements as it put its own spin on the franchise's signature. The game will be fully voiced and have all the elements of the original, on a larger scale.
The event showed a lot backstory for it, as it features the traditional split content of Fire Emblem with two sides fighting. On one side you have the cold hearted and villainous Empire of Rigel, and on the other, the Kingdom of Zofia. Their clash and your actions will determine the fate of the continent of Valentia.
Fire Emblem Echoes - Shadows of Valentia will release May 19th on the Nintendo 3DS. Additionally, on May 19, amiibo of Alm and Celica will be released with details on how they interact with the game being shared later.
Fire Emblem For Nintendo Switch
The next title brought up, was little more than a teaser and notice that it is being worked on. Fire Emblem For Nintendo Switch is the working name for this project, and it will be the first main entry in the series to be on a home console since 2007. When it does come out, that means it will have been a decade since Fire Emblem was on a home console as Fire Emblem For Nintendo Switch is expected to release sometime in 2018.
Fire Emblem Warriors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS_pIrT053k
After sharing information that the mainline series was in good hands, Nintendo then turned to spinoffs, first talking about the recently announced Fire Emblem Warriors. Following the success of Hyrule Warriors, Nintendo has again teamed up with the same team to make another title using one of their IP - this time Fire Emblem. With the traditional Musou style combat of the Warriors series, we got to see a bit more as the new trailer showed a few new scenes then were shown at the Nintendo Switch reveal event.
The biggest information is that Fire Emblem Warriors will be coming not just to the Nintendo Switch, but also to the New Nintendo 3DS, much like Hyrule Warriors eventually did. There was no information about any differences between the versions, which may or may not occur. Fire Emblem Warriors is releasing in Fall 2017.
Fire Emblem Heroes
The event ended with the bit that people were both excited about and dreading - Fire Emblem for mobile. Fire Emblem Heroes aims to take the core Fire Emblem experience and streamline it for the mobile platform while retaining those core elements. Fire Emblem Heroes is a tactical RPG like the series in general, featuring two warring kingdoms in a new story that players take part in as these kingdoms battle across multiple worlds.
Your character is a summoner, with the ability to summon various characters to fight for them. These are characters from the series at large with characters from different installments, as well new characters. Battles take part on an 8 by 6 grid with your goal being to clear it of enemy combatants. Each character has an attribute that creates the traditional sort of rock-paper-scissors advantage gameplay from the main series. Each character has a star rating, which can be improved with it rating 1 to 5. In the event, they showed Robin, having 3, 4, or 5 stars with different stats based on that and leveling up allows you to power them up.
Fire Emblem Heroes is a 'free to play' with microtransaction experience, where in the microtransactions are used to purchase materials you can also acquire in game. The one they showed was Orbs, which are used to summon new characters and they are earned through gameplay, or purchased via a variety of microtransactions that go up to $74.99. Further differentiating itself from Super Mario Run, Nintendo has also pledged that Fire Emblem Heroes will have special events, seasonal events and ongoing free content updates.
Fire Emblem Heroes will be available on Android devices starting February 2nd. You can pre-register right now on Google Play if you want to have a notification about it. Additionally, if you want to vote on characters who you want to make an appearance in Fire Emblem Heroes, Nintendo is holding an event right now for that, and those with Nintendo Accounts will get a platinum for voting. Fire Emblem Heroes will also be coming to iPhone and iPad 'soon', but no announced release date.
