Digital Media Concepts/Fire Emblem

Fire Emblem is a Turn-Based Strategy RPG video game series co-developed by Intellegent Systems and Nintendo. Like with most RPG video games series, the main character(s) vary between the various games released.

History and Games released
See also: List of Fire Emblem games

The first game in the series, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in Japan on April 20,1990. Two years later, Fire Emblem Gaiden was released for the same console. The Super Nintendo saw the releases Mystery of the Emblem, Genealogy of the Holy War, and Thracia 776 in 1994, 1996, and 1999 respectively. For a long while, Fire Emblem was a Japan-only video game franchise. However, in 2001, the series has become popular to the point where Marth and Roy, the main protagonists of Shadow Dragon and Binding Blade respectively, were included in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Because of Marth and Roy's addition in Melee, Nintendo began to release Fire Emblem games in Western Regions, starting with Fire Emblem: Blazing Blade (or simple named, Fire Emblem due to it being the first game outside of Japan). Blazing Blade was also the first Fire Emblem title to be released on a handheld system, being released on the Gameboy Advance in 2003. A year later, Sacred Stones was released for the same handheld in October 2004. The Gamecube saw the release of Path of Radiance in 2005 and the Wii had Radiant Dawn released in 2007. Due to the decline in sales for the previous installments in the franchise, Fire Emblem Awakening was planned to be the final entry in the series. However, the addition of Casual Mode to this game, the way it was marketed, and the inclusion of a deep and interesting plot was what lead to it selling over 1.9 million copies worldwide. Awakening's success eventually led to the eventual release of Fire Emblem Fates in 2016. The first Fire Emblem game to be released for Android and IOS, called Fire Emblem Heroes, released in February 2017. The latest entry in this now-popular franchise was a remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden, called Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, released in April 2017. A spin-off game called Fire Emblem Warriors will be set to be released for the New Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Switch in Fall 2017.

Gameplay
The Fire Emblem series' most well-known gameplay includes moving a group of characters (known as units in the series) across a grid based map similar to a chess board. The player's units (always marked with a blue color) start out grouped together in one spot on the map while all enemy units are either grouped together on another spot or spread out throughout the rest of the map. Battles on these maps are split between two phases: Player Phase and Enemy Phase. During Player Phase, players can move units across the map when selected. How far units can move, your own or the enemies, depends on the what type of class that unit is. Classes in Fire Emblem are what type of weapons can be used and how well they deal with enemies. The weapon triangle helps the player decide how well a battle will go. Being similar to rock, paper, scissors, the weapon triangle has lances gain an advantage over swords, swords over axes, and axes over lances. When a player selects an enemy unit, they will see how far that unit can move, as well as what type of weapon that unit wields. This is crucial, as players will need to know if any of their units are close by of if they are weak or most powerful against that unit. One of the common complaints about Fire Emblem's gameplay is the permanent death system. As the name implies, once a character's health reaches 0, they remain unplayable for the rest of the game. Fire Emblem Awakening fixed this problem with the addition of "Casual" mode. Casual mode is where if a character's health reaches 0, instead losing that character forever, they will only be unplayable for the remainder of the time the map that is being played. Since the beginning, most of the map objectives involve defeating every enemy on the map or defeating that map's boss. However, Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest introduces more variable objectives, such as escaping the map with all units or surviving for a select amount of turns.