Today I translated a summary (or highlights) of a developer interview on Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade from Nintendo Dream’s May 2003 volume. I could not find this magazine despite my searches for the full interview, so settled on translating a Japanese user’s summary of highlights instead.
If anyone has this issue, I’d love to take a look at the interview in full, as highlights may miss some of the fun tidbits!
Enjoy!
I translated an interview I came across from the Nintendo Online Magazine No. 58 (May 2003) that did not seem to be translated elsewhere as far as I saw…
It contains some fun tidbits for the first Fire Emblem game to come to the west (The Blazing Blade), and FE in general, so I encourage you all to read and share.
Enjoy!
Today I translated a summary (or highlights) of a developer interview on Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance from Nintendo Dream’s June 6th volume (released May 21, 2005). I could not find this magazine despite my searches for the full interview, so settled on translating a Japanese user’s summary of highlights instead.
If anyone has this issue, I’d love to take a look at the interview in full, as highlights may miss some of the fun tidbits!
Enjoy!
April 20th marks the 15th anniversary of Path of Radiance!
In celebration, I translated an interview I came across from the Nintendo Online Magazine No. 82 (May 2005) that did not seem to be translated elsewhere as far as I saw…
It contains some fun tidbits for fans of Tellius and FE in general, so I encourage you all to read and share.
Enjoy!
In addition to the large interview on Fire Emblem Echoes; Shadows of Valentia featured in Nintendo Dream’s July 2017 (released May 2017) issue, there was a section with Hidari (character designer) and his comments on some of the various aspects of character design of the game.
You can also learn more about the illustrator himself. There is also some concept art shown here and there.
Enjoy!
In this corner of the magazine, we ask questions to the artists who breathe life into the characters of the game! Today, Mr. Hidari, a character designer with a varied portfolio spreading across light novels, anime, and games appears! He is the designer behind Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia (from here on, just Echoes).
Profile: Mr. Hidari
Freelance Illustrator. Illustrator behind novels like Usotsuki Mii-kun to Kowareta Maa-chan*, and anime like Fractale, Natsuiro Kiseki**, and Room Mate. He handled a wide range of character designs for three games in the Atelier Ayesha (Dusk) series.
*Lit: Lying Mii-kun and Broken Maa-chan
**Lit: A Summer-Colored Miracle
I always liked drawing pictures since I was a kid. While my friends would draw people like Goku and Vegeta (*1), I would usually be drawing weapons, dungeons, logos, and other inorganic things.
I fell in love with manga in middle school. Through imitating other artists, I came to be able to draw people much more naturally, too.
I think the biggest turning point in terms of drawing people for me came with the advent of CG. From age 20 I was able to start coloring my pictures, and so began to pay more attention to all the intricacies of coloring.
Alm’s initial design. As it was a remake, I had to consider how much the character should resemble the original, and often sought consultation on the matter. His blue armor retained its regal air at first, but from these drafts one can see I was trying to decide whether to go on a “simple” design (based on the fact he was raised in a village), or one that was more “out of place (to the context). [-Hidari]
I draw illustrations with a Cintiq 24HD Wacom Tablet, and use the program Clipstudio. I didn’t really have to do anything too out of the ordinary for this game when it came to my drawing process, though I did have to remain aware of special metallic effects such as dents in the armor and all that. [-Hidari]
The poses had to be something that could express the characters in a suitable way, but since there were quite a few characters, I had to come up with quite a variety of poses to avoid them becoming dull or repetitive.
In Awakening and Fates, the designer Mr. Yusuke Kozaki’s (*2) characters were shown from all sorts of angles, such as back view or sitting down. Seeing them drawn that way, I realized that he set a precedent that I too could get away with doing!
On other media I’ve worked on, I’m used to hearing, “Please make it front view [only]” or “We can’t see their waist if they’re sitting [so don’t do it.]”
Well, as a whole it was designed as a remake, so I sought to retain the air of a “good old fantasy” while also aiming to appeal and be acceptable to today’s players. I had to actively strive to maintain a balance between the two.
Regarding the clothes, there were already different types of established outfits for each class. So I arranged for each of the characters to wear clothes based on these designs. When it came to these designs, I carefully designed it as not to be too overly complex. Other games have such gorgeous or showy characters, and so their designs often call for being rather dense. Things like this have been drilled into my very nature, but since this was a remake, I tried not to add an excessive amount of accessories… despite that they still came out a little more complex than before.
When thinking of armor designs, I often reference familiar things as a motif. It’s hard to put in words exactly, but things like a [Japanese] sliding screen, a gutter, a steel rack or pillar, etc.
This illustration shows the main male and female character standing back-to-back, with the air of a “historic war tale.” It has been arranged in a way that the castle, troops, and dark clouds express how difficult of a journey lies ahead. After some discussion, it was chosen as the main illustration for the game. Though it’s not the most stylish composition, it has a lot of components crammed into one image like the original work from 25 years ago. [-Hidari]
It’s a bit of a vague answer, but I would say “charm.” I personally don’t think I’m that good with enchantingly flashy designs, so I have to rely on gestures and facial expressions to bring out a character’s “charm” instead.
1 What was the first human [shaped] thing you drew?
The Decepticon logo from Transformers. (*3)
2 What other illustrators or manga artists do you lie?
Masters Jun Suemi (*4) and Hiroaki Samura (*5). Master Suemi influenced my coloring style, and Master Samura my drawing style.
3 What characters do you like?
In Echoes, I’d say the simple characters Gray and Robin. They are childhood friends now fighting a war together as comrades in arms with different degrees of confidence. The way Kliff contrasts with the two in his own growth is also great, I thought.
4 What’s your favorite game of all time?
There’s no way I can name just one!
5 What games have you been playing lately?
As I answer this question, Echoes has just been released, so I’m in the midst of playing that at the moment.
6 What if you were not in this line of work?
I’m not exactly sure, but I do have an interest in music. So if I was unable to live up to my dream [of being an illustrator], I’d probably be doing something in music.
7 Tell us something that has impressed you lately.
Glasses-free 3D on the 3DS screen! (I’m a little late, since I bought a 3DS just for Echoes).
*1: Characters that appear Akira Toriyama’s manga Dragonball. Goku is the main character.
*2: A manga artist, illustrator, and character designer with an extensive portfolio. He worked as character designer on games such as No More Heroes, and anime such as BBK/BRNK.
*3: Transforming robot toys from TOMY, which became a comic and animated show. Decepticon is the name of the group of antagonists.
*4: An illustrator. Did illustrations for the Guin Saga novel series, as well as the Wizardry series.
*5: A manga artist. Best known for Blade of the Immortal.
That ends Hidari’s segment! I hope you enjoyed and learned something new about the artist.
I spent the whole last week translating an interview about Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. It was featured in the July 2017 issue of Nintendo Dream (released May 20th, 2017). I had to find and buy the magazine too! This post is the entire interview in one place for your convenience (you may notice the last few days have snippets from it, separating various sections).
A big thanks to VincentASM on serenesforest.net for referring me to the fact that nobody had translated it yet (that we know of). Please link back if you use any part of the interview as I put a lot of time into it. The original Japanese transcript I (re)typed up is available by request.
I recommend reading a previous interview about this game as some things the devs said in it are referenced.
Please note the third section has spoilers. The section has a clearly marked spoiler warning from the magazine and me, so please be weary.
This post is part of my ongoing translations of the Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn Memorial Book: Tellius Recollection (Vol 2).
Much like Volume 1, the final two pages of the book feature developer commentary from various staff. I put the commentary on the page, but also in text format below for easier reading and sharing.
There is some fun trivia to learn through it! So please give it a read.
You can find every translation I’ve done on this book so far on the compilation post here!
See image below (right click and view image), but head past the break for the easier to read and cite text.
Enjoy!
I spent the last two days translating an old and seemingly overlooked interview about Fire Emblem: Awakening. It was featured in the June 2013 issue of Nintendo Dream.
Note that in Japan, the game came out in April 2012. (It was released much later in the west in 2013).
A big thanks to VincentASM on serenesforest.net for sending me the scans and bringing it to my attention. Please link back if you use any part of the interview as I put a lot of time into it. The original scans of the interview are available only by request, as well as the Japanese transcript I (re)typed up.
As far as we saw, this interview had not been translated in full before!
Some fun things are addressed. Among them are in-house fighting over where FE should go as a series, how the DLC came about, how Maid outfits were almost in Awakening, and of course silliness regarding Tharja’s bikini mishap.
I spent the last two days translating an interview about the newly released Fire Emblem Echoes. It was featured in the June 2017 issue of Dengeki Nintendo (released April 21st, 2017).
A big thanks to VincentASM on serenesforest.net for sending me the scans. Please link back if you use any part of the interview as I put a lot of time into it. The original scans of the interview are available only by request, as well as the Japanese transcript I (re)typed up.
Some important questions are addressed, such as where the title came from, why Gaiden, and other fun tidbits of other Fire Emblem games. Enjoy!
A user named Hardin on serenesforest.net passed a small interview found in an old guide for Fire Emblem: Gaiden to me to translate in celebration of the game’s 25th anniversary in March.
Specifically, it is from the Ape Encyclopedia Fire Emblem Gaiden, located on pages 131 and 132. It features an interview with Fire Emblem series creator Shouzou Kaga. This interview was conducted a long time ago, before the release of Mystery of the Emblem (FE3, which came out in 1994)
Since then, news of Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia came to light, making this more relevant to readers who may be curious. This article was actually written January 19th, soon after the news of the game was released. (Posting was delayed because I wanted Hardin to post it first, as intended, in March).
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