There was a time not so long ago when the Fire Emblem franchise was on the brink of death. While it had been “popular enough” over in Japan, it barely made waves over in countries like the US and UK. Even when characters like Marth and Roy got into Super Smash Bros, thus elevating their exposure by many leaps and bounds, it didn’t help the franchise. Things finally changed when a certain “Awakening” arrived via the Nintendo 3DS, and the series got more attention. Fast forward to the Switch era, and two mainline entries proved that it was a AAA franchise that Nintendo could count on.
However, a recent “Soapbox” piece that was put online really got players up in arms. Specifically, the piece stated that Fire Emblem should “step away” from the turn-based strategy elements that have been a part of the series since the beginning, and instead become something more akin to a life simulator, or even a more action-focused title.
The reasoning for this suggestion comes from the fact that the most recent title, Engage, didn’t sell as well as the previous entry, Three Houses. The latter of whom is the best-selling entry in the franchise. They posit that the reason for the disparity is that the former tried to be more like the original entries of the franchise, focusing more on the gameplay than the character interaction moments that the series had improved from the 3DS era on.
They further stated that new gamers “weren’t interested” in the “bland maps” or strategy gameplay but simply wanted to romance their favorite characters.
It’s no secret that one of the keys to Fire Emblem’s success since the 3DS era was the more “life sim” elements, especially in games where they really hammed it up. However, to completely ditch the turn-based strategy elements would be a huge departure for the mainline games, and fans aren’t having it.
In the comments of the tweet above, many noted that this is a foolish take. One cited how Final Fantasy decided to go away from turn-based combat, and it didn’t help them. Others stated that if they were to go away from such SRPG gameplay, they wouldn’t be fans of the series anymore.
A few pointed out that Three Houses’s success was due to its writing and characters. Therefore, future games should rely on what that title did instead of the other.
It should be noted that the two Switch games were being worked on simultaneously. So it wasn’t a case of Nintendo seeing one game and then deciding to go in another direction. The next entry will likely follow up on what the best-selling title did.
