Over the last week, I took an in-depth look at the Fire Emblem Heroes “Choose Your Legends” poll. It is the first time there has ever been (what is essentially) a popularity poll of the Fire Emblem series conducted worldwide across every main entry in the series. For that reason I put a lot of time toward looking at the trends, characters, and other fun data that we can derive from it.
There are limitations to it of course, which I address on each individual post. I hope as a Fire Emblem fan you gain some nice insight form all this.
A big thank you to Elieson over on serenesforest.net for having organized the original graphs of data that I could then modify and format for purposes here.
I will be resuming my usual translations from tomorrow, but if you have any other suggestions on what sort of data you want to see formatted (such as “Chart showing Jagen characters lined up), let me know! I’ll happily add it.
If you feel generous, then I’ll happily accept any donations you may have (just click the orange button on the top right of the page!)
Below I present the findings in image format, and links to the more detailed article pages! Enjoy! And thanks again for all reader comments and support. : )
Note:
- Click Right click and “View Image” to view them in higher resolution.
- To view all images in a single imgur gallery, go here.
Analysis of Top 20 Male & Female Characters
Summary: A look at the winners and original goal of the poll. The top 20 male characters and female characters.
Analysis of the Poll as a Whole
Summary: A macro look across all the games and the entire poll. Limitations in voting format and selection are discussed in-depth and games are compared at a macro level. Some summary graphs below. The full chart is omitted from below, but can be seen here.
Games by the numbers:
Gender Distribution:
Highest Scoring Characters (by gender):
Lowest Scoring Characters (by gender):
Archanea Saga Analysis
Summary: A micro look at FE1/11 (combined on the poll), as well as FE3/12 (also combined) which together form the Archanea Saga of games. See how Marth performed compared to the rest of the cast from his games. I look at both individually, and combine the numbers to show hypothetical performance.
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (FE1/11)
Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem (FE3/12)
Archanea Saga Games (Combined)
Fire Emblem: Gaiden (FE2)
Summary: A micro look at FE2, known as Gaiden. The game generally placed low, its two protagonists high. It is the game that the upcoming Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia is a remake of.
Jugdral Saga
Summary: A micro look at Genealogy of the Holy War (FE4) and Thracia 776 (FE5). The games placed low, with Thracia 776 as the lowest overall. FE4 first featured the marriage/child system, but these two were never released outside of Japan, which greatly lowered their numbers. The last of the Shouzou Kaga Fire Emblem games.
Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War (FE4)
Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 (FE5)
Elibe Saga
Summary: A micro look at The Binding Blade (FE6) and The Blazing Blade (FE7). Roy stars in the former, and the latter is the first Fire Emblem game that came west –and the numbers show. FE7 also featured the overall poll winner, Lyn.
Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade (FE6)
Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade (FE7)
Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (FE8)
Summary: A micro look at The Sacred Stones (FE8). It is (thus far) a standalone Fire Emblem game that takes place on Magvel with a small cast of characters. It stars the siblings Ephraim and Eirika.
Tellius Saga
Summary: A micro look at the first console Fire Emblem game to come west on Gamecube: Path of Radiance (FE9) and its sequel on the Wii: Radiant Dawn (FE10). These are the games that star Ike, the winner of the male character poll (and overall winner if votes are combined). The games sold relatively poorer than the other games in the series. See how it changed the numbers. Features a hypothetical combined poll.
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (FE9)
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (FE10)
Tellius Saga Games (Combined Votes)
Fire Emblem: Awakening (FE13)
Summary: A micro look at Awakening (FE13) which is known as the “game that saved the series.” With it came an influx of new fans and “new era” of Fire Emblem. I refer to this as the first of the “Kozaki” games, named after the character artist. The game features the most votes given to a single game and its characters. See what an impact this game had purely by the numbers on this poll.
Fire Emblem: Fates (FE14)
Summary: A micro look at the second of the “Kozaki” games: Fates (FE14). It is actually three games (Birthright, Conquest, and Revelation). The latest game as of this writing that features a unique “choice” which determines the path the main character takes. The game did not have as many votes as Awakening, with possible reasons included in the main article.
Additional Data / Food for Thought
There is no main article as these are miscellaneous charts I created just to put some data into perspective, and am open to requests (so may be constantly updated). Take a look!
Awakening votes split by generation:
Fates votes split by generation:
Performance of the “expies” in Fire Emblem Awakening and Fates
How the Fates royal family stacked against each other:
The secret winner of the poll (and loser of the split vote): Anna
And that’s that! Thanks again to Elieson of SF, and for all the readers who left comments and didn’t fall asleep through all this analysis. I enjoyed doing it, even if it took a ton of time! I hope it can be used in reference (with the limitations in mind of course) for anyone making use of the poll data.
Things should be back on track tomorrow regarding translations from Tellius Recollection Vol 2 as well as more game comparisons.
kantopia 
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Great read. Now that CYL2 is live it’s fun to look back and analyze the first run. I’ll be curious to see how Fire Emblem Heroes influences votes – especially for Japan-only titles like Thracia 776. Reinhardt’s dominance in the meta has at the least made the international audience aware that the game exists. (Sidenote: Now that Micaiah has been released poor Leif is the only main Lord left out of FEH!)
Is it possible/simple to analyze by class archetype? Obviously, Lord is dominant but I’m curious how mages, healers, armored knights, thieves, pegasus knights, etc stacked up against one another.
Thanks for reading! I put a lot of time into this analysis back then, so when I heard there was a round two the first thing that came to mind was “Oh no, here we go again!”
Poor Leif just doesn’t get a chance to shine huh?
So the reason I didn’t do class is, especially in the later games, it becomes a lot more complicated. Like should Empress (Sanaki) be counted among mages? Should Camilla be a Wyvern class or a mage class? What would Ross/Ewan and co be? In every category? Or none of them? Those were the things I wasn’t sure how to work out beyond “class group” (i.e. people who use certain weapons). But I was definitely curious to do something like that!
i’m really looking forward to seeing how the rankings change, e.g. pretty much all the _gaiden_ characters were at the bottom of the first poll’s list. will also be interesting to see how characters from games still not released outside of JP, like reinhardt, jump in the polls as well.
I too look forward to seeing how that goes!
wow, great analysis. i love pointless trivia like this. thanks for posting!
Thanks! I’m all about pointless trivia xD feel free to share with others who enjoy it too : )
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