3DSMagazinesNintendo

Fire Emblem if: more details from the Famitsu interview

On May 14th, Famitsu published an interview with Kouhei Maeda (Intelligent Systems, Director), Yokota Genki (Nintendo, Director), Masahiro Higuchi (Intelligent Systems, Producer). But it looks like they didn’t publish the whole thing in the magazine, and the rest was posted yesterday on their website.

81HKpSxJRvL._SL1500_

This allows us to get even more details about the game, starting with the main character. This time around, your avatar is basically the main character, which is why the cutscenes are mostly in first-person. There was a couple of cutscenes in first-person in Fire Emblem Awakening, but since your avatar was mostly a support character, they mostly focused on Chrom instead.

Next: Phoenix Mode. In the interview, the developers explained that you can still lose in this mode, especially during the Nohr campaign. After all, certain maps have specific victory/defeat conditions, and if you’re not careful, you can still get a Game Over.

In the interview, the developers also talk briefly about the stances (Attack Stance and Guard Stance), which are the new versions of the Dual and Pair Up systems from Fire Emblem Awakening. They explain that they have a 100% activation rate whenever the necessary conditions have been met, for both allies and enemies.

Attack Stance is great when you need to deal more damage, but it’s rather pointless against a group of enemies who decide to gang up on you. In that case, it’s better to use the Guard Stance instead, in order to defend yourself against waves of enemies. In other words: you need to chose the adequate stance, depending on the situation.

Later in the interview, Kouhei Maeda explains that one of the major challenges they encountered when they started development was to find ways to help newcomers, so they can’t enjoy the game without it being too stressful.

One thing that was problematic was the weapons, as well as the timing to use valuable weapons. For the developers, this form of micro-management was too much for newcomers, which is why it was removed. Some people may think using a weapon would be wasteful, so they may end up not using it at all… which is basically the same as if the weapon didn’t exist.

Removing weapon durability allowed them to provide a more enjoyable experience, while keeping the fun of picking up weapons. They also explain that there is no weapon weight, but some strong weapons are hard to double-attack with, which is kind of like a weight-restriction. Additionally, weapons such as Javelins, Hand Axes, Tomes or Hidden Weapons can no longer double attack.

81-dfDaK99L._SL1500_

Kozaki Yuusuke is back for Fire Emblem if, and took care of the chara-design. Since there’s more characters in this game (due to two different campaigns), the developers were afraid he wasn’t going to accept, but it was unfounded as he agreed to reprise his role as chara-designer.

Fire Emblem if takes place in a brand new world, even though fans (especially those who played Fire Emblem Awakening) will find some familiar elements here and there. Hoshido is based on ancient Japanese culture, while Nohr takes more from the traditional western fantasy setting the series is known for.

The atmosphere of Norh is quite dark, with its castle standing in the middle of a giant chasm, and terrible weather conditions (which leads to poor crop yields and a lack of law and order). On the other hand, Hoshido is a pacifist kingdom, with exceptional peace and order. One day, King Garon decides to expand the influence of Nohr, and orders his children to invade the peaceful Hoshido kingdom.

The royal siblings from Nohr will therefore fight for their kingdom, even though they each seem to harbour their own hidden thoughts. Of course, the royal siblings from Hoshido will do all they can to protect their kingdom. Your avatar, on the other hand, find him/herself stuck in-between this conflitct, and will have to make a rather crucial choice.

Thanks to the interview, we also learn that the classes/weapons available largely depends on the campaign you’ve picked up:

– Nohr: familiar classes such as Cavaliers; weapons such as swords;
– Hoshido: Japanese-themed classes, such as Samurais, Pegasus Warriors (can be male/female, and can wield a lance or a bow); weapons such as katana;

Finally, some random tidbits: Parallel Seals are back, but this time around, it looks like they do not reset the unit’s level when used. Finally, it seems characters can only have two class branches (instead of 3, like in Fire Emblem Awakening).

Fire Emblem if (3DS) comes out on June 25th in Japan, and next year in Europe and North America.

Source: Famitsu
Via: Serenes Forest

Lite_Agent

Founder and main writer for Perfectly Nintendo. Tried really hard to find something funny and witty to put here, but had to admit defeat.

Leave a Reply