FE Three Houses Localization: Are there references to older FE Games in the Two-Toned Whetstone sidequest?

A fun trivia and comparison post today!

A reader brought this nifty easter egg that reddit user PeppersJacks noticed in English to my attention. It involved items you trade while getting the Two-Toned Whetstone to either Shamir or Catherine, and whether the item names are actually references to previous games in the series.

The main items people point to are the Whetstone referring to Fates, the eyedrops referencing Awakening, and the book Path of Dawn being the Tellius games. Is this also the case in Japanese? Are there references that weren’t fully translated, or is this just a little nod by the localization team, or is it all a coincidence?

I took a look in Japanese as requested, and it turns out they most likely are intentional references when looking at the Japanese! But whether the localization opted to convey these (or realized the references) is up to interpretation. They do not seem to reference individual titles per se, but rather the sagas seen over the series …with one exception.

PeppersJacks got most of it, though the Tome of Comely Saints left them a little unsure. However it and the others are made more obvious in Japanese.

Let’s take a deeper look.

Fire Emblem Series “Choose Your Legends” Analysis – Final Summary and Recap

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. : )

FE1/11 and FE3/12 (Archanea Games) “Choose your Legends” Poll Results Analysis

Nintendo conducted a poll for Fire Emblem Heroes urging fans to pick a favorite character of theirs that they would love to see featured. Each fan could vote once a day for 13 days for almost any character from any of the main Fire Emblem series of games.

This is part of a miniseries I am doing on analyzing the vast amount of poll data available to us and what it means for the fandom and their favorites regarding characters.

Thanks to the tireless work of Elieson over on serenesforest.net, we can take a look at the break downs by game! Today we will focus on FE1/11 (which were combined on the official poll), and FE3/12 (which too were combined). The games will be referred to as Shadow Dragon and Mystery of the Emblem for simplicity. Combined, they form the Archanea Saga of games.

There are some general things to keep in mind before we get started, however.

Sigurd 25th Anniversary Artwork (Cleaned)

Today is not exactly a translation, but it does have to do with the Fire Emblem 25th Anniversary book. The book features five special illustrations that have Marth, Sigurd, Eliwood, Ike, and Lucina, each drawn by the same character artists in charge of their respective games.

You may view them on the book’s compilation post here, but I wanted to make individual pages for each one, too.

So, today, I provide Katsuyoshi Koya (character designer in Mystery of the Emblem and Genealogy of the Holy War)’s artwork of Sigurd. I went out of my way to clean it up for people who wanted the artwork.

As you can imagine, the process of doing this all took a lot of time, so if you like what I did, then…

Please donate!

Enjoy!

Fire Emblem 25th Anniversary Book on sale today!

Fire Emblem’s 25th Anniversary book went on sale today in Japan. I bought it with money I  received from donations (thanks to all who donated!) and it should arrive on December 1st or 2nd. You can buy the book yourself here. Amazon Japan offers relatively cheap international shipping, so check if it can be delivered to you if interested!

I hope to translate any parts I find interesting from the book itself. If you have requests I may take those up too!

Please feel free to donate for that coming project! It will really help me out!

For those who want to know what the amazon description says, see below where I provide the same translation I made on an older post on the matter.

UPDATE: More reviews are in, some not as positive as others, so I gave a few more to give a spectrum of opinions. Please remember these are just reviews to give you an idea of what it’s like. I may provide my own review later.

5/5 (4 of 24 found helpful)

“A Must-Have for Series’ Fans:

Full of design documents and interviews, the largest amount that have been published to date. The large amount of information on the production cycle and inside story behind the games makes this an essential part of any fan’s collection.”

2/5 (of which 5 of 5 found helpful):

“A book for those who like Awakening and Fates, but not so much for the full 25 years”

Summary: “The book seems to focus on the two more recent installments over the rest of the series, so was a bit of a let down”

3/5 (of which 15 of 18 found helpful):

“A little disappointed”

Summary: A worthwhile read, but one may be let down by what the cover advertises versus what they actually get. Some good things are interviews with the development staff (such as the director), and other interesting tidbits such as info on map design and music composition.

However, 70-80% is Awakening and Fates information, leaving long-time series’ fans a little iffy. Also it lacks in illustrations, and the unused assets mostly pertain to Awakening and Fates as expected.

Would have preferred to see more of the other series’ works and information regarding them.”

Fire Emblem 25th Anniversary Book on sale Nov. 28th. Info from amazon.jp translated!

Fire Emblem is getting a 25th Annivesary book which will go on sale on November 28th this year. I plan to import it on money I have received from donations (thanks to all who donated!) and hopefully translate any fun things that may come in there. The book itself can be pre-ordered here. Amazon Japan offers relatively cheap international shipping, so check if it can be delivered to you if interested!

Please feel free to donate for that coming project! It will really help me out!

For now, however, I translated Amazon.co.jp’s description on it, which can be seen in both text and image below!

The Making of Fire Emblem – 25th Anniversary Development Secrets, Awakening and Fates – Special Book

Release: November 28, 2015
Price: 3,888 Yen (~32 USD) [Import may add 10 USD on average]

Contents:

-Filled with developers discussing the path the series has taken and its evolution
-Approx. 300,000 characters of interviews
-100+ never before seen development materials from the beginning
-The ultimate book for understanding Awakening, Fates [if], and 25 years of series history

Summary:

Since the 1990 release of Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light, this year marks the monumental 25th anniversary of the Simulation RPG Fire Emblem.

This book mainly comprises of developer commentary from Nintendo and Intelligent Systems regarding development of the games, but has development documents and retrospectives on Awakening, Fates [if], and 25 years of Fire Emblem history as well in commemoration.