This post is part of my ongoing translations of the Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn Memorial Book: Tellius Recollection (Vol 2).
This post features all all sorts of covert art sketches and ideas for Radiant Dawn. See some notes below!
You can find every translation I’ve done on this book so far on the compilation post here!
As you can imagine, the process of doing all this (scanning, editing, translating, etc) takes a lot of time, and I am unemployed…so if you like what I did, then…
Please consider donating! It helps fund future projects!
Enjoy!
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Translated text:
Some rough sketches and ideas for what would eventually become Radiant Dawn‘s cover art. One can see that Sothe and Micaiah were the centerpiece of every idea.
An early idea sketch. This composition features Sothe with his dagger drawn, and Dracoknights approach from the background. There is a great sense of perspective in this picture. Sothe seeks to be moving in front of Micaiah in order to protect her from harm.
The complete cover art. You can get a full glimpse of Sothe and Micaiah’s scarves, as well as the wyvern’s wings beyond the borders of the image. You can see some beorc battling with a raven and tiger laguz in the background, which gives an impressive sense of how large-scale this war is. The entire picture comprises of mostly warm colors, which would contrast the title.
This rough was created after two revisions. It is almost the final composition. Micaiah is in the center with light in her hands, with an Sothe actively protecting her back. There are no signs of the goddess who appears later, Ashera, nor any apparent connection with the previous game, Path of Radiance.
The above idea is from an entirely different viewpoint compared to the others. Sothe and Micaiah face off against a Dracoknight together. Behind them is a character that appears to be Nolan and some others that show off the Dawn Brigade on this cover. It was felt the Dracoknight took up too much (close to 30%) of the image, however.
Notes:
- Most interesting here is the cover art that would have featured Nolan (and what seems to be Edward to the left and probably Leonardo to the bottom left).
- What they mean by lack of Ashera or Path of Radiance is likely to keep them both a surprise in ways. While it was known to be a sequel, it was unknown whether Ike would appear, or the Goddess, etc.
kantopia 
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I like the cover sketch where the Draco Knight is taking up 30% of the image, because even though he is, it’s still eye catching enough and focused on Micaiah’s party, as a whole, that you can see what they all look like, compared to only having Micaiah and Sothe in up close detail on the cover. For an RPG, in general, I think it would have also helped people stop their browsing to pick the game up, like, “Hey, this cover is neat. What’s this game about?”
That’s pretty true! It would definitely be eye grabbing. The variety in having more than just Sothe and Micaiah (Edward, Nolan, etc) would probably help too.