FE7 Blazing Blade Localization: Comparing all of the Character Epilogues [JPN vs ENG]

Today’s post is a personal curiosity! After seeing the differences (or mistranslations) between the regions of the various epilogues of FE7, such as Guy and Priscilla, or Bartre and Karla, I decided to go through all the epilogues (paired and unpaired) to see if there were any other differences to find that may not have been noticed yet.

There were some differences indeed, but none as major as the ones this blog has already covered.

Please be wary of spoilers as we go through many character endings.

So let’s take a closer look at these!

FE7 Blazing Blade Localization: Did Guy elope with Priscilla in the JP version? [JPN vs ENG]

This post is part of a series on reader requested (and personal curiosity) comparisons between Fire Emblem games’ Japanese and English scripts.

Today’s post concerns a reader question via twitter regarding Guy and Priscilla’s A support ending in Blazing Blade:

https://twitter.com/MiloZ28997263/status/1269795838659686400

Short answer: Yes, it appears Guy did indeed elope with Priscilla in Japanese!

I had been unaware of this, but it was mentioned on Priscilla’s Fire Emblem wiki page under trivia, though with no source. So while this information may already be known to some, I write this mostly for posterity for those interested in taking a deeper look or wondering about its validity and wanting the original Japanese.

So let’s take a closer look!

Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade Staff Interview (N.O.M 58 – May 2003)

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!

FE7: Blazing Blade Localization: Serra’s “Oh, that’s so sweet! You wanted to see me again!” line [JPN vs ENG]

This post is part of a series on reader requested (and personal curiosity) comparisons between Fire Emblem games’ Japanese and English scripts.

Today we look at a conversation from FE7 (Blazing Blade) chapter 14:

A friend brought up the following:

“Remember that recruitment convo with Erk? Where Erk says Serra is the last person he wanted to see and she’s happy he wanted to see her at all? How did that work in Japanese?”

Short answer: The content is actually similar, but localization tweaked the original joke slightly but managed to convey close intent thanks to clever word choice.

Let’s take a closer look!

FE8: Sacred Stones Localization: Does Aias’s Death Quote Specify the Tactician’s Gender? [JPN vs ENG]

This post is part of a series on reader requested (and personal curiosity) comparisons between Fire Emblem games’ Japanese and English scripts.

Today, I look into a reader request from twitter:

“I have a quick request. If you defeat Aias in Eirika’s Ch13 (FE8), he compliments Renais’ tactician. Do you know what he says in Japanese, specifically if he says the tactician is female? Thank you in advance!”

Short answer: Aias does not specify any gender of the tactician in Japanese either.

Let’s take a closer look!

FE7 Localization: “You think you can stand up to Batta the Beast?” [JPN vs ENG]

Today’s short post comes from a reader on twitter:

Hi, I was wondering if you could take a look at a certain infamous line from FE7’s prologue boss in Japanese…

They linked the above image of the first boss that many western fans of FE had first run into –Batta the Beast!

So just what does he say in Japanese? It’s a straightforward case of colorful localization. Let’s take a look!

FE7 Localization: Was Hector and Eliwood’s A Support Mistranslated? Who cut their hand? [JPN vs ENG]

Today’s post comes from a thread on reddit which concerns Hector and Eliwood’s A support conversation. u/Dragoryu3000 posed a question:

Hold up, is Eliwood and Hector’s A-Support majorly mistranslated?

They pinged me in a thread and I looked into it. The issue revolves primarily around Erik Laus and vague wording in the translation being potentially misleading as to what occurred. You can read their thoughts and the rest of the thread in-depth on the thread before reading this post if you want to get a better idea of the issue, but I’ll try my best to explain it as we go along, too.

So let’s take a look!

Lilina’s spirit is represented by Palutena in Smash Bros. Ultimate?

Today is a quick post that isn’t really a comparison or anything, just a curiosity.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, there is a system of spirits that inhabit different fighters that you rescue them from. This is a fun way to get even more characters in a game by getting similar characters and quirks in on a character that best represents them, for a lack of better words. (This is not the exact intention/statement as given by anyone, just a summarized observation).

Anyway, for fans of these characters who are familiar with their original source games, you get a lot of fun nods that others may not get.

One particular favorite of mine is L’Arachel’s spirit, for instance. She inhabits female Robin –and with her are two other allies: Wario and Sheik.

Fans can already get why the other two are even here. They represent Dozla and Rennac! It’s much like how Awakening‘s bonus box fights featured classes that were meant to represent other characters that traveled together.

Another instance is how Ninian is represented by Palutena, and with her is Roy (likely to be Eliwood):

There are many more, but as a final example, which I unfortunately neglected to take a screen shot of, was that Wrys was inhabiting Kirby. I suppose they went all out on his baldness.

So I started to wonder if Lilina is around. I figured the Zelda (of the A Link to the Past look) would be a good candidate for her.

A Japanese friend posted this when they found it:

I was pretty surprised! Since I fully expected Lilina to actually be inhabiting Zelda rather than Palutena. The fire affinity/ability, the manner of dress, the red alt, body structure, and status as a Princess seemed pretty fitting in my head! So this was especially interesting. I wonder why they went with Palutena?

One guess, due to her staff, is that perhaps it was to reflect Lilina’s sage look –where she has the long white dress and can wield a staff as well. I’m sure there are other reasons.

Outfit as seen here. Also drawn by said friend who presented the screen shot to me. Please follow them on twitter!

So for fun I drew a quick oekaki (pixel sketch) of Lilina in one of Zelda’s victory poses, just because it was fun to imagine.

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When I get through the game, I’d love to write a post that has every single fun FE nod through the spirits (I’m sure the wikis will do that already, but still).

Just to be clear –this isn’t a complaint or anything. I just thought it was odd!

What do you all think of the game so far? Please avoid any World of Light spoilers if you can. Who are you playing as? Main? All that good stuff. Last game I would mostly play as Lucina, but this time I’m prioritizing Zelda for the above, hehe.

Fire Emblem Blazing Blade (FE7): A look at the Japanese commercial

As part of a request from a friend on twitter, I decided to look into the original Blazing Blade commercial. I translate what’s going on, an excerpt from an interview regarding the commercial, a design document, what song is playing, and some other fun tidbits.

So let’s take a look!

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First, here is the commercial itself, starring former actress Maki Horikita.

And below is the translation. I try to go in order and specify what is said by the voice, and what is just text. The song is afterward. Please note the translation is also to express intent, and thus, is not completely literal.

出会い
Encounters….
仲間
Friends…
戦い
Battles…

(Voice) 仲間と一緒にどう戦うか・・・
How will you fight alongside your friends…?

成長
Growing Together…
喜び
Happy Moments…
強くなる
Becoming Stronger

(Voice) みんな、どんどん強くなる・・・
Everyone grows stronger and stronger…

別離
Partings
会えない
For the last time

(Voice) 失った仲間には、もう・・・会えない・・・
The friends who fall…we shall never see again…

(Girl): さようなら
Goodbye…

(Voice): ファイアーエムブレム烈火の剣
Fire Emblem. The Blazing Blade.

Next, the song lyrics. Title: “LIFE IS…~another story~” by Ken Hirai. Specifically, the chorus:

答えなど何処にもない
誰も教えてくれない
でも君を想うとこの胸は
何かを叫んでるそれだけは真実

There’s no answer anywhere
Nor will anyone tell me
But my heart shouts at the mere thought of you
That much is the truth I do know

Note the song cuts off before the final two characters 真実 (truth). This is the third paragraph of the song. The rest of the Japanese lyrics for the song can be found here.

The song in full (or a cover of it, anyway) can be seen below. The original you will probably have to purchase:

Next is a brief excerpt from a larger interview with Tohru Narihiro from the Making of Fire Emblem 25th Anniversary book (specifically page 277).

[On expanding appeal with FE7…]

The TV commercial for Binding Blade featured a song that was reminiscent of the Shadow Dragon commercial. However, the Blazing Blade commercial had a different kind of appeal with casting Horikita Maki along with Ken Hirai’s song playing.

Narihiro: Yes. That was one of many ways we sought to widen the gates [to make the game have more widespread appeal].

It was presented with this design document:

The above document has the same flow as the final product. The minor differences are the lack of “goodbye,” as well as a slightly different word used for “parting” (they wrote “separation” instead). Another subtle difference is that it seems Kent is the character dying instead of Heath in the commercial, a tidbit I point out just a silly point later. Also, the title seems to be “A girl’s murmurs.” The music is simply “Ken Hirai~” but not what song of his, either.

This article is mostly straightforward and a reference point, so I’ll summarize any thoughts/analysis/silly trivia in bullet point format this time around:

• From the commercial, interview, and documents, one can see that the intention was to broaden the appeal of the game by using a known actress, popular song from 2003, and a change of style in presentation among other things.
• Most notable is how the commercial is more emotional and focuses on meeting allies, growing with them, and eventual partings via mechanics like perma death. Compare this with previous commercials that are more opera-like with an operatic flare (links provided in the interview segment above).
• “LIFE is…~another story~” is a romantic song (as the excerpt may have implied already) by the famed Ken Hirai, so was likely used for its popular appeal rather than its literal meaning. However, the themes of friendship and bonding share similar themes to love and longing, so it helped set the intended mood beyond it simply being a popular song in 2003. The song was not written for the game, but was actually the theme for a TV drama known as Black Jack Ni Yoroshiku.
• The final commercial featured Heath as the ally that has fallen and is being “parted with,” rather than someone so looks more like Kent in the original document. The emotional music paired with her waving him off with a “goodbye” became a bit of a joke among the fanbase, with multiple fans citing this commercial as the reason why they voted for hm on an FE7 popularity poll. They felt that bad! It’s much like how Dorcas came to fame thanks to the US commercial making him a bit of a joke.
• Speaking of the US commercial (linked above), you can see the difference in intended marketing between the two versions. The US commercial goes with “build an army, trust nobody” as its central theme, rather than the themes of “meetings, growing, bonding, partings” that the Japanese commercial aimed for. Considering it was the debut game for the US (and west) too, it’s an interesting approach!

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I believe that’s all that really needs to be said for this commercial! I hope to cover the Japanese commercial for Sacred Stones down the line.

FE6/7: Complete Character Poll Results and Comment Translations (2004)

Over the past several weeks (and months), I took a look at an old character poll conducted around 2003-2004 for the Elibe games (FE7 Blazing Blade and FE6 Binding Blade) for Japanese players. The results for the top 30 characters of each game were published online with Japanese player comments. The rest of the results (and some more comments) were published in the Character Book. As such, the data presented here is consolidated between the two sources.

While this poll was of course known to fans for a long time, the Japanese comments were never translated in full (for good reason, there were quite a few). As such the objective of this post (and project) is to serve as a resource in both presenting the poll data all in one place as well as giving English-speaking fans some insight on what Japanese fans thought of these characters those years ago. It’s become one of my objective to help bring the fandoms together in some way, so this is a part of that.

Lastly, for the sake of comparison, I include data from the Fire Emblem Heroes Choose Your Legends character poll conducted in 2017, just so one can see how 13 years (and a Western audience) made a difference to where the characters ranked. You can see how characters stacked from the Elibe games in a FE6/7 specific analysis I did before, too. The same data will be used throughout the post.

Onward to the content!