The Making of Fire Emblem: 25 Years of Development History contains some fun trivia regarding the series. You can find all the information I translated thus far in one place here.
This post is about the never-released Fire Emblem Wii. According to interviews within the book, it was in development after Radiant Dawn (FE10) but was canceled due to the project having no real aim. Below are some design documents from the book. I provide the translated image below, followed by some commentary, and finally the transcript below. The interview regarding this game can be found here.
As you can imagine, the process of doing all this took a lot of time, and I am unemployed…so if you like what I did, then please consider donating! It helps fund buying more fun books and magazines to translate. : )
Enjoy!
Translator’s Commentary:
- The game was in development for the Wii after Radiant Dawn but never released. Sales had not been that great for the previous console entries, so both Nintendo and interior staff were assuming it was a result of being too niche and needing to broaden to a wider audience. This project was an experiment to see what may appeal, but was ultimately shelved after there was a lack of greater objective to the project. The brief part of an interview with series’ veteran Toru Narihiro on this can be found here.
- The three characters look like Stefan, Ilyana, and Rhys. I wonder if it was related to the Tellius games? A direct sequel? But it could also be possible the developers were just using their design assets while tinkering around with the game.
- Southern European architecture likely refers to the general Mediterranean area, as evident by the seaside towns and the way buildings look.
- The figures/statues they show (hard to see in the scan above) resemble mermaids/mermen. The second is a more bestial looking sea creature. Was there going to be water-based laguz?
- The free roam (field) has towns, dungeons, and enemy encounter elements made this more like an RPG. The book is vague as to whether strategy elements were involved outside of battle…
- The descriptions on the right were really microscopic even on the actual book page… so I did not translate them to avoid errors from unreadable text. The best I could do was with the titles.
Transcript:
Below is the transcript for the two main bodies of text:
世に出ることは叶わなかった幻のＷＩＩ版の資料を公開。高い樹のようなものがそびえ立ち、南欧風の建物が海辺にたたずむファンタジーな世界観。シンボルエンカウントにて戦闘に突入するようだ。
These are the design documents for the illusive Wii title that was never released. It was a fantasy setting that featured things like tall trees that towered over their surroundings. There were also buildings that resembled the style of Southern European architecture that lined with the sea. When certain symbols were encountered, a battle would begin.
フィールド（探索パート）
- ・プレイヤー主人公を探索して移動、会話、敵とのエンカウントを行う探索パートを、フィールドと呼称する
- ・フィールド上の敵シンボルと主人公が接触するとバトルに移動するシンボルエンカウント方式を採用する
- ・フィールドは、ルート以外にも町の中、建物の中、洞窟の中といった状況が存在する
Field (Exploration)
- The player could freely explore, hold conversations, and encounter enemies in this part. It was called “Field” as a result.
- If the player’s character touched an enemy symbol, a battle would begin. This game made use of the “Symbol Encounter [from other RPGs]” in this way.
- Aside from just the roads, there were towns, buildings, and caves that could be entered.