yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy party in the ‘palaceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Admittedly, I didn’t exactly plan on getting any sort of awards when I started this blog — and I started this blog in March, and technically got things started in April. And seriously, it’s a Fire Emblem blog. I mean come on! It’s Fire Emblem! But alas, I ended up getting nominated for a Liebster Award by Ryan from PlayOn.

So…what does that mean? Well, this is apparently what Liebster means. It makes me wonder who came up with this name and how this all got started, but couldn’t find out. Well, whatever the case, I do feel pretty happy that I was nominated. Thanks Ryan! Now, to pretty much outline what the Liebster Award is: an award for up and coming blogs with under 200 followers. TEH RULES:

1. Post eleven facts about yourself.
2. Answer the questions the tagger has set for you and create eleven questions for people you’ve nominated.
3. Choose eleven people (with fewer than 200 followers) to give this award to and link them in your post.
4. Go to their page and tell them.
5. Remember, no tag backs.

I know for sure I’m going to cheat somewhere in here. But surely the original creator won’t go find me and end my existence so…I can surely get away with skimming righttttt? Anyways, facts:

1. I live in America
2. I run a blog somewhere out there in this world that I won’t share with you
3. My name is an alias
4. I am a fan of celery
5. I love taking walks
6. I’m actually not that big of a video gamer. But I am still in the know at times.
7. I’ve avoided using emulators to play video games…until Shin Monshou No Nazo never came out to the US
8. I’ve never played a Vita Game
9. I used to have a working Atari game system
10. We did have a Commodore 64 in the house too. Never played it though
11. I never knew how the designs in Pokemon Red/Green (JP) looked like until I did a search a few days ago. Clearly, this is the best Mew ever!

Now onto Ryan’s questions:

What inspired you to start your own blog?

TL:DR; I acquired the passion and the desire to just go blog Fire Emblem, and acted on it. I say TL:DR because I’ve explained my reasons a few times already, so if you choose, you can go find out. But I gave you the cliffnotes version.

If there was one thing you would love to do before you die, what would it be?

Go sky diving once. That should pretty much put the fear of God in me!

Describe yourself in one sentence.

Not who you think I am!

Something that you recently learned.

Oh, I get to expand on Pokemon Green? Sure why not! See, I obviously played the Pokemon games that came in the West, but I knew about Pokemon Green in middle school, thought it was a joke, only to learn years later that it was true. In Japan it went Red/Green, then Blue (Which is what we got) and then Yellow. But I didn’t know that they had managed to have the sprites completely different! Now, I can’t kill the staff completely–the games came well before the anime ever did in Japan, so they had a framework to work with. But seriously, what’s up that Machop? What’s up with Charizard looking like the cuddliest thing ever? AND MEW HOW COULD YOU BREAK MEW

Would you rather re-visit history or visit the future?

I’m tired of 2013. Back in the 90′s and early 2000s, the last thing I worried about was people hating each other. Nowadays I think people really really really hate each other. Thanks society!

Your favorite quality about yourself.

I’m a good sleeper. Um, well, I make it a point not to say anything stupid unless I know and do my research. We know people get in trouble for that.

What would be your dream job?

I would reveal my dream job, but that dream job would be a lie. As I’ve explained already, I run a blog out there that ties more to my interests than anything else, so mentioning it here would complicate things. So can’t answer

If a Zombie Apocalypse happened tomorrow, what would be the first thing you’d do?

The first thing that I can do is to try and lock everything, and hope no one living with me has already turned into a zombie. If scenario 2 happens, then I would have to run away.

What helps you take your mind of things?

Fire Emblem

What is your favorite song at moment?

Guren No Yumiya by Linked Horizon

What are you most looking forward to this year?

Sleepppp

Now yeah, I would go find some more blogs, but I already highlighted a few blogs to check out already, so…

I guess that wraps things up!!!

My waifu’s stats ;_;

Oh hey, we actually get a character from the actual game making their debut. It’s not Roy though.

Synopsis

Visuals

Commentary

Synopsis

Taking place on the fictional continent of Elibe and staring Roy, the son of Fire Emblem protagonist Eliwood. Roy leads the League of Lycia’s army against the forces of the militant country of Bern shortly after his father falls ill.

The story begins when King Zephiel, ruler of the kingdom of Bern, finishes the brutal conquest of Ilia and Sacae and sets his sights on Lycia. With the war coming to his own country, Roy is sent home to lead Pherae’s army to oppose Bern, but soon after he meets Guinevere, the princess of Bern and Zephiel’s younger sister, who has escaped from her homeland to search for a way to stop the imminent war between Bern and Lycia.

Upon the death of marquess Hector, Roy carries on the Lycian League and makes many promises: to protect Princess Guinevere and Hector’s beloved daughter, the mage Lilina, and most importantly, to save the entire continent from Zephiel’s mysterious thirst for world domination.

But this story’s hero is Al, son of a Bernian blacksmith. After turning 15, he left his home with his father’s sword to go on an adventure in this continent bound for war.

Visuals

I get the feeling that they’re going to get along someday. This is not the day

This is a fail Chad. A hard fail.

blooodddd

FORESHADOWING

Commentary

So this chapter finally made the debut a character from the actual game series, Chad!…Too bad since I haven’t played Fire Emblem 6, I have no idea how his real personality is supposed to be (unless I go watch youtube videos of supports). In this version, and for now, at least, he’s a reckless son of a gun who desires vengeance for the ones who took care of him and all that jazz. But he’s a thief, and they didn’t reveal the assassin class until Fire Emblem 7, so he’s absolutely useless. Well ok not really but in this case he should know better. But as you can probably tell, he gets bailed out by Al and crew. And then you get the bit at the end.

Obviously, this is the part where we realize just how long we have to go until the real drama starts in the land. I know enough about Fire Emblem 6 that the real issues haven’t exactly gotten started. When they get started is when the story will actually be Fire Emblem. Until then, I just wonder when Tiena will just admit she’ll actually like Al.

Read Hasha No Tsurugi Ch 3 Here

Well, it seems when I brought Radiant Dawn and played it, I apparently had things to say about this game. So…let’s see…I guess this is 2007, 2008ish? (Probably 2008) I was what, maybe in high school? So it seems I had Fire Emblem passion in me at a younger age than now. So here, let me share with you what I wrote in my school notebook, and if you’ve played Radiant Dawn, you tell me what you thought of it as a whole.

…Oh, be warned, I seemed to have been pretty immature when I wrote this.

Coming off of playing the easy Sacred Stones and not playing Path of Radiance all that much, I was looking forward to the Wii sequel of Path of Radiance. Not surprisingly, Radiant Dawn was not well received by the critics. I say not surprisingly since the last two Fire Emblem games had their scores decreased compared to the first game in the series, and it centered on the fact that it played the same for Sacred Stones and the graphics for Path of Radiance were awful. But no matter, I would get this series anyways

“Wait, why does my game freeze? Did I get a defective disc I never get a defective disk” is the words that came out of my mouth as the game froze when I tried to carry over my Path of Radiance save file to Radiant Dawn. Apparently, in doing research, because I’m not so good at FE and tried to upload my easy file, RD froze. I wanted to upload my files and get the bonuses!!! So now I have to send my disc over to Nintendo to get that fixed. This is wrong!!! I wanted to play it….

Finally, I can play Radiant Daw now

Radiant Dawn is the worst Fire Emblem game ever. The balance is broken, the story is ****, the music is awful, the maps are retarded, the starting characters are the worst characters ever, I mean, seriously, they die in one hit, the difficulty is too high, Micaiah is by far the worst main character ever why Nintendo why what are you doing? I can’t play another chapter. There’s no way this game gets any better story wise and all, I think Fire Emblem is starting to become overrated, man I’m so disappointed why does this game suck so much

I should probably note that I don’t know what chapter it was that drove me to this state, but if I had a guess, it might have been Chapter 3 where Micaiah gets captured, her friends break in, and they tried to escape. I wonder when I picked this game up again…was it after Brawl lol

Oh hey. Need I remind all of you that I have an email address? No? Then let me go remind you that I have an email address! With that knowledge, you can send me all sorts of stuff through there and who knows, I might even go post it.

…Kind of like how I’m going to post this. Remember, I have the warning up for a reason!

Now…

Feast your eyes on what somehow slipped through my spam filter and got into my inbox:

And thus, we all know what happened to Chrom at the end of his days…

Walters’s Dangerous Predictions Begins!

So it’s almost time ladies and gentlemen. The expo of all expos, the time where gamers and non-gamers…

…wait what’s that? You mean E3 only exists in name and nothing else? Silly person! Even if E3 isn’t anywhere close to what we had in the past, it’s still E3, and either we will make fun of it like we usually do or just enjoy everything that might be offered and streamed on them big gaming websites.

Anyways, E3 doesn’t quite hold as much candle to me as it did in the past, and with Nintendo not even having a big conference (which, btw, I’ve gotten tired of conferences since nothing of importance really gets announced), this E3 holds somewhat even less importance, even with us attempting to get more info on the two new gaming systems. But I don’t have to worry about that. I’ll let others do that, while I make some predictions regarding Fire Emblem during the week of E3.

Wait, making predictions about Fire Emblem? I mean Awakening just hit the West in 2013! What could there possibly be? Well, who knows, but it’ll be worth making some guesses to see what’s in store for the franchise for this year and 2014. The order is in “this has a 99% chance of getting announced” to “the chances of this happening means an apocalypse is coming”. So let’s get started:

This Has a 99% Chance of Getting Announced

• Clearly, the only real guarantee I can make is that there will be some sort of video with more information on Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem, and actual details of what this crossover’s all about. As you probably all know zero information, aside from it being an RPG, has been released, and it’s time for the speculation on the internet to finally zero in on elements that will make the crossover easier to think about. All I can guess is based on what people have been saying, controllers will be broken and people will either be happy or just unhappy little girls. My guess is people will be unhappy little girls.

Anyways, SMT X FE is literally the only thing I’m sure will be talked about. Everything else below this is pure conjecture and a stab in a dark. So follow my prediction anyways:

At Best, This Has A Chance to Take Flight

• I don’t think it’s a stretch to say a Fire Emblem character will be in the upcoming Super Smash Bros. Game for Wii U and 3DS. Taking into account the history of Smash though, my guess is that they’ll definitely will be bringing a character from Awakening into the series, and it would be Chrom or Lucina. However, I think considering the ability to switch out characters has been featured in Brawl, I wouldn’t be shocked if Chrom and Lucina are brought in as a paired unit fighter. Maybe like the Ice Climbers, or maybe more Zelda/Sheik like. It mostly takes advantage of Awakening’s usage of pair up, so for now, that’s how I foresee it. The thing is though, how many characters will be shown during E3? This is why I don’t have it up in the 99% range, as, despite FE’s success, it’s still at least a tier below Mario, Zelda, etc. There’s a chance we won’t know what FE characters are going to be in the game until later. I kind of expect that. Still, if being current means anything, we might get teased!

Unlikely, But Don’t Be Surprised if it Happens

• Hey…you know that Fire Emblem Awakening has a soundtrack? No? Well they do! And boy, would I love for it to be announced for a Western release! The problem is, Nintendo just doesn’t release soundtracks here. I mean, we just have the Zelda stuff recently right? They really should consider bringing it over, especially with the emerging popularity and all, but I don’t think it’ll happen. But don’t be surprised if this is announced.
• Back to SMT x FE. While we don’t quite know what will be announced, we should at least expect something. One thing I wonder Nintendo will push is Wii U/3DS connectivity. Since Smash Bros is getting this treatment, I wonder if there will be hidden goodies for anyone who has either SMT IV and/or FE: A. I deem it unlikely since it sounds like way too much work, but Nintendo’s kind of crazy sometimes, so it would make sense to do even more crazy things, especially since Awakening was technically finished last year.

More Likely Heart Speaking Than Head

• In the realm of impossibility, a new Fire Emblem game will be announced for the 3DS. Guess what? It’s a remake! Remake of what? Of Genealogy of the Holy War!…hahahaha– ok hear me out. Generally most FE games have a 2-3 year window of development in Japan. The times where the window only lasted a year? First with The Binding Blade (2002) The Blazing Sword (2003), and The Sacred Stones (2004), and then Radiant Dawn (2007) to Shadow Dragon (2008). Shadow Dragon is a remake. I think personally it’s time to revisit and let the Western audience get a chance to build off the marriage and skills system in Awakening by bringing forth FE4, and of course updating it to modern times. And yes, this is the perfect way for me to avoid playing it on an emulator. So go and announce it! Go do it!
• To then properly get people pumped for this game, the new Super Smash Bros will then announce a surprise character for the series: Sigurd! He will make his debut in 3D glory and fight for what is right! And hey, Sakurai said he wanted to add Sigurd into Melee! He’ll have his opportunity now…Yeah…I need to stop hoping :/

The Chances of This Happening Means an Apocalypse is Coming

• Awakening…TEH SEQUEL! It would only make sense for a money grubbing company to try and make more money by announcing a sequel to what looks to be the most successful Fire Emblem world wide. And you know what? I wouldn’t actually mind an Awakening sequel. But at this point, IS will be too busy with Atlus on SMT x FE and maybe other projects. And personally, I think it’s too early to think sequel just yet, when it’s finally making the rounds across the globe. So I don’t see a sequel announced during E3 week.
• You know, I’ve bitched and moaned about playing the older games, so how about this for a stunner: A Fire Emblem collection is announced! That’s right guys! Wii U! Fire Emblem Gaiden, Genealogy, Thracia, and Binding Blade, translated (though not updated). That’s the stuff of dreams right there. But if this happens, I will probably go do things I’ve always wanted to do before I die. That probably includes robbing a bank.

Hey. HEY WAKE UP! I’M NOT DONE!

Other Gaming E3 Predictions That Have Nothing to Do With Fire Emblem

• Well, I guess I lied about not making any predictions. Sue me.
• I’m going to assume Microsoft will actually announce good things at E3. No really, after the negative feedback from its initial announcement, I can surely think they can only go up after that right? Watch as they somehow get a surprise publisher on their side.
• I can only guarantee we’ll finally see how the PS4 looks. What it will look like who knows, but I guess it’ll look like a blue toaster.

Yep, this blue toaster. Fight the power!

• Sega will finally do the right thing and bring back Skies of Arcadia. No seriously, for the ten millionth time pirates and ships in the sky will return, all updated and stuff.
• You can also count on not seeing Shenmue again. Now stop asking!
• Mega Man will also not be announced. Capcom will instead announce a new Street Fighter game.
• Actually, speaking of Street Fighter, how about Tekken X Street Fighter? We finally gonna hear about that game this time?
• I predict Nokia will re-enter the gaming industry, all thanks to Atari. No stop laughing I’m serious!

Anyways, use this as a general E3 Prediction thread. If you ask, I could put up an E3 focused live thread or something next week. This assumes nothing crappy happens to me somewhere out there. Feel free to share what’cha got!

Short post today. Well, somewhat short post today. You see, I notice a problem as I venture through these internets…a lot of people are playing Awakening on Hard Mode….on their first playthrough.

To that I go: why?

Let’s just say if the last Fire Emblem game you played was The Sacred Stones on GBA, there’s a decent chance you’re going to have problems playing Awakening on Hard mode. Let’s just say if the last Fire Emblem game you played was Path of Radiance on GCN, there’s a decent chance you’re going to have problems playing Awakening on Hard mode. Let’s just say if the last Fire Emblem game you played was Radiant Dawn on the Wii, there’s a decent chance you’re going to have problems playing Awakening on Hard mode. I’m going to assume no one played Shadow Dragon ok ok Let’s just say if the last Fire Emblem game you played was Shadow Dragon on DS, there’s a decent chance you’re going to have problems playing Awakening on Hard mode.

What am I getting at? Awakening has some of the features of prior games, but in general, it’s not the same game, with the inclusion of pairing up (which conversely means no rescue) and the fact that enemy reinforcements move on the turn they arrive, which was not seen in any of the games listed above (unless you played the higher difficulty levels in those games). You need to actually get a sense of how the game plays before moving right along. I know, I know veteran FE players probably jumped straight into Hard mode too and had no problems, but I would recommend you start on Normal anyways to get a feel for the game. That’s just the right thing to do.

So…admit it. You started Awakening on Hard mode didn’t you? Do you guys think you’re special? I’d say you’re just evil! EVIL!

…Now back to work for me.

No really, tell me what you’re reading, or maybe not reading, so I can go read it. Don’t recommend me anything licensed. I might as well feel dirty reading something that’s not licensed as opposed to something that’s licensed in America. I’ll check out a chapter and then critique it, as part of my crazy idea of posting manga for the rest of tonight and then Sunday. Because I’m cruel. And unusual. And maybe this is punishment for me missing on a few manga posts this week D:

A Fire Emblem theme: Betrayal!

(Recommend me some manga!)

Of course me talking about manga begins with me talking about Fire Emblem: Hasha no Tsurugi. Which I was supposed to have ready last Wed. oops

Synopsis

Visuals

Commentary

Synopsis

Taking place on the fictional continent of Elibe and staring Roy, the son of Fire Emblem protagonist Eliwood. Roy leads the League of Lycia’s army against the forces of the militant country of Bern shortly after his father falls ill.

The story begins when King Zephiel, ruler of the kingdom of Bern, finishes the brutal conquest of Ilia and Sacae and sets his sights on Lycia. With the war coming to his own country, Roy is sent home to lead Pherae’s army to oppose Bern, but soon after he meets Guinevere, the princess of Bern and Zephiel’s younger sister, who has escaped from her homeland to search for a way to stop the imminent war between Bern and Lycia.

Upon the death of marquess Hector, Roy carries on the Lycian League and makes many promises: to protect Princess Guinevere and Hector’s beloved daughter, the mage Lilina, and most importantly, to save the entire continent from Zephiel’s mysterious thirst for world domination.

But this story’s hero is Al, son of a Bernian blacksmith. After turning 15, he left his home with his father’s sword to go on an adventure in this continent bound for war.

Visuals

Man there’s no place like home anymore!

Man, the Lycian League sucks

A Fire Emblem theme: BETRAYAL!

Arena Time!

Ooh…right in the stomach! That’ll leave a mark. Or two. Or three.

Commentary

This chapter was a decided improvement upon the first three chapters. After Elena, Gant, and Al head over to Worde Castle to see Elena’s uncle, Duke Ranward, and ask about the Fire Emblem, Worde Castle has already been destroyed, with only a lone soldier survivor named Danan who tells the three all about the formation of the Lycian League, but how Bern crushed them and forced Worde Castle to surrender. To save Elena’s uncle, the four propose a plan that seems shrewd — have Elena seem like she was captured by enemy forces, but those enemy forces happen to be compromised of Al, Gant, and Danan. They would get close to the one who set the Duke up in Minister Youzen and catch him by surprise. The problem is that for a plan like that to work, they have to make sure that everyone is trustworthy for a plan like that to work. I don’t know about you, but Fire Emblem seems to always have characters the main protagonists believe in, and this is no exception. Too bad Danan was an enemy soldier, so that idea went up in flames, and now the three are in a position where death is imminent.

No really, this was a major improvement upon the last few chapters. It essentially combined being naive as hell and then subsequently not thinking of what would happen if they failed that ended up making the betrayal by Danan quite effective. How they managed to get the hell out of said situation was kind of lame, but it did make use of having a healer nearby. See, Elena is just great — she can use magic and can heal. Now, I don’t know if they will still get out of said situation, but oh well, we’ll just have to keep on reading along to find out!

Read Hasha No Tsurugi Chapter 4

Man there’s a lot of chapters of Hajime no Ippo. How does one catch up? Well, I guess I’ll bite.

Quick Summary: Makunouchi Ippo is a small, kind kid with a wimp’s mentality — hence why he gets picked on a lot and is badmouthed by everyone else. And as you can see below…

Man this kid Makunouchi sucks

And as you can see, poor Makunouchi can’t catch a break. Three guys wanting to beat him up? What bad luck. Thankfully a random person comes out of nowhere to save him! Wait, whaaaaaaaaaaa how in the blue hell– he just took their buttons off in mere seconds! Goddamn shounen manga! Man, only Japan would make this crap up. But well, anytime you can make fun of Mike Tyson is a good thing. Also, where’s the editor around here? No man, you don’t wanna do boxing, go do something constructive already! Man, if only people nowadays didn’t give up! That would be great!

So he went from not being able to fight to being able to throw a billion punches. What–

Impressions:

Well, that was kind of bizarre. However, I liked how all of a sudden Makunouchi went from wimp to someone who can be on par with a boxer in a matter of days. I’m interested in seeing where he goes from here, so I think I’ll keep reading.

So yeah, I’ve been keeping up with the Shingeki No Kyojin anime that’s been coming out, but I recently picked up a volume of the manga, translated by Kodansha USA, called Attack on Titan.

It’s essentially like the anime, except in reading the manga version of it, the art is kind of awkward and pathetic, but it makes up for it by actually having the titans be a bit dark in tone and scope, which I think the anime lacks, or it has lacked for the past few weeks. Then again, adapting a manga into an anime has its challenges, so I guess for the most part, Attack on Titan has been adapted well.

Anyways, summary time: Titans have taken control of the land, and humans have been forced to live inside a 50 ft wall. Peace has been the call for 100 years, but wouldn’t you know it, a colossal Titan, one more the size of the Wall itself, appears out of the blue and subsequently destroys a part of the wall. This leads to the smaller titans to get inside the wall and devour humans, and cause general chaos. We progress in the manga in the eyes of Eren Jaegar, a young kid who lost his mother to a Titan, and Mikasa Ackermen, a young girl who lived with Eren and his parents before the Titans struck. Now they both are in the Recon Corps, one of the three battalions needed to defend Wall Maria, and both aim to fight the titans and save humanity.

While I think the art makes the manga a bit of a letdown compared to the anime, I still like it. I feel like a lot of thought was put into this, and of course, 3D gear is pretty creative, visually. I’m definitely considering buying more volumes.

As I explained here, you guys wear me out. I’m tired…not replying to comments….for a good century…zzz…..zzzz…

(Ok, ok, this will be the last non Fire Emblem related post I do for a while, aside from the few manga posts I have promised. But um, let’s just say social media blew up over this, and call the console war over)

And now, back to blogging about Fire Emblem: Hasha No Tsurugi on Wednesday. Because I can.

Synopsis

Visuals

Commentary

Synopsis

Taking place on the fictional continent of Elibe and staring Roy, the son of Fire Emblem protagonist Eliwood. Roy leads the League of Lycia’s army against the forces of the militant country of Bern shortly after his father falls ill.

The story begins when King Zephiel, ruler of the kingdom of Bern, finishes the brutal conquest of Ilia and Sacae and sets his sights on Lycia. With the war coming to his own country, Roy is sent home to lead Pherae’s army to oppose Bern, but soon after he meets Guinevere, the princess of Bern and Zephiel’s younger sister, who has escaped from her homeland to search for a way to stop the imminent war between Bern and Lycia.

Upon the death of marquess Hector, Roy carries on the Lycian League and makes many promises: to protect Princess Guinevere and Hector’s beloved daughter, the mage Lilina, and most importantly, to save the entire continent from Zephiel’s mysterious thirst for world domination.

But this story’s hero is Al, son of a Bernian blacksmith. After turning 15, he left his home with his father’s sword to go on an adventure in this continent bound for war.

Visuals

“OH IT BURNS! IT BURNS! OH THE PAIN! I NEED MORE! MORE PAIN!!!” what an M

Now if only Fire Emblem games allowed you to push terrain like that. But only in a manga!

Oh man, these guys are screwed. This isn’t the video game guys, this won’t be easy!

Really guys? Really? You gotta be sh**in me!

Commentary

Well this took one step back. Well just one step. I would have thought that after Al got to Youzen they would have used him as a hostage to get back Tiena’s uncle Duke Ranward. Instead the trio of Al, Gant, and Tiena are surrounded by enemy forces, and so is Duke Ranward. And as you can tell from the pictures, they survive. I’m not even sure where I’m supposed to go with this. It’s just that dumb. It gets even dumber when Danan, you know, the knight that betrayed the crew and the Duke, tries to get back on their side by leading them out through a back entrance.

…Let me get this straight: you’re in a position where you have to decide whether to fight the enemy or take the secret passageway from a guy who already betrayed you once. It definitely does not make sense to be that trusting, especially considering he could have easily led them to an even dire situation (and in retrospect, kind of did). But ok, fine, arguing about the merits of this is up to you. But how the hell does Danan know that secret passage? Did he not say he was kept behind Worde Castle to make sure he catches anyone unsuspecting? What are you doing? How does he know about this secret passage? Did he beat someone up to get the info? Did he find it one day and suddenly remembered it? Well we get no explanation of that, and of course our desperate heroes believe him. They’re lucky he really was sorry about betraying the Duke and Al and crew.

Too bad the Duke’s luck ran out. Man, did that Mage come out of nowhere. I wonder what level he’d be if he was in the game. But this wasn’t a subtle chapter. Instead of searing into the minds the utter loss losing Duke Ranward would be, Al ends up defeating him in battle. Now I thought about this and contented that the Mage should have brought some forces with him, but I can live with him being a rogue character since he ended up killing Youzan. Still, he seemed like he could have been an important character, and might have added an extra subplot to the story. Instead, he’s killed at the end. I call it a wasted opportunity.

Anyways, frustrating chapter. Really skipped some steps I say.

A look back at Walters’ Predictions

Man, I’m not good at this predicting game am I?

This Has a 99% Chance of Getting Announced

What I said:

Clearly, the only real guarantee I can make is that there will be some sort of video with more information on Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem, and actual details of what this crossover’s all about.

What really happened: So much for that. It makes me feel better Nintendo didn’t talk more about the new Zelda U, but then I realized they already have two other Zelda games on the way (like Wind Waker HD and Link Between Worlds), so yeah. Well, the only thing I can gather is that this crossover has a good chance of being released in 2014. I think most guessed that. But to not have anything ready by E3 is a sign that it won’t come until the second half of 2014 — in Japan! It may just have a winter release for the West, and may slip into 2015. Yes, it seems to be that far in development.

At Best, This Has A Chance to Take Flight

What I said:

The thing is though, how many characters will be shown during E3? This is why I don’t have it up in the 99% range, as, despite FE’s success, it’s still at least a tier below Mario, Zelda, etc. There’s a chance we won’t know what FE characters are going to be in the game until later.

What really happened: Exactly as I said would happen. I’ll have a post with a few characters with a shot to get into Super Smash Bros. probably Sun or Mon, but otherwise, there’s a hierarchy at Nintendo, and that hierarchy relegates Fire Emblem to second tier status. Maybe with Awakening’s success its place has risen, but for now not really. Still, I expected this, so no skin off my bones.

Unlikely, But Don’t Be Surprised if it Happens

What I said: Something about a soundtrack.

What really happened: Well this wasn’t a surprise. Of course I’d have to order the soundtrack from JP. Of course I do!

What I also said: SMT x FE connectivity with the 3DS games.

What really happened: Well they didn’t even bother talking about SMT x FE, so…this point is moot. But try and remember to keep potential connectivity in mind as more details eventually emerge on this game.

More Likely Heart Speaking Than Head

What I said:

In the realm of impossibility, a new Fire Emblem game will be announced for the 3DS. Guess what? It’s a remake! Remake of what? Of Genealogy of the Holy War!

What really happened: ahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

What I also said:

To then properly get people pumped for this game, the new Super Smash Bros will then announce a surprise character for the series: Sigurd!

What really happened: Well, he still might actually be in the game. Otherwise, for a teaser trailer for Smash Bros, I think showing a mysterious character from a game that never came to the states would probably not sell well. I guess.

The Chances of This Happening Means an Apocalypse is Coming

What I said:

Awakening…TEH SEQUEL!

What really happened: As expected, just too soon. And I guess Intelligent Systems is busy with other stuff, so oh well, still gotta wait for FE14.

What I also said:

You know, I’ve bitched and moaned about playing the older games, so how about this for a stunner: A Fire Emblem collection is announced! That’s right guys! Wii U! Fire Emblem Gaiden, Genealogy, Thracia, and Binding Blade, translated

What really happened: Well…dreams are meant to broken…*sniff* so of course…this dream…would be…too….*sniff*

Other Gaming E3 Predictions That Have Nothing to Do With Fire Emblem

What I said about Microsoft:

I’m going to assume Microsoft will actually announce good things at E3. No really, after the negative feedback from its initial announcement, I can surely think they can only go up after that right? Watch as they somehow get a surprise publisher on their side.

What really happened to Microsoft:

Oh god, they were awful. Well, so says the internet and gamers worldwide. Why’d I think they’d go up after they had their issues the first time? But guess what? They ended up solving all their problems by changing course yesterday. Makes so, so much sense. No really, it does. Now who thinks it’s too late?

Anyways, at least I got the surprise publisher part kind of right, with Kingdom Hearts III and Final Fantasy XV coming to Xbox One.

What I said about Skies of Arcadia:

Sega will finally do the right thing and bring back Skies of Arcadia.

What really happened: Man, another year where no one will know how good Skies of Arcadia is because a remake or a new game is not in the cards. SEGA!

What I said about Shenmue:

You can also count on not seeing Shenmue again.

What really happened: I had to get something right.

What I said about Mega Man:

Mega Man will also not be announced. Capcom will instead announce a new Street Fighter game.

What really happened: I was half-right. Something did happen to that Blue Bomber. But if you want to get technical, no, a new game was not announced.

What I said about Nokia:

I predict Nokia will re-enter the gaming industry, all thanks to Atari. No stop laughing I’m serious!

What really happened: All hail Nokia!

Readers’s Predictions

What Ashley predicted (kind of fragmented but I fixed it):

So in case you’ve been living in a rock for like, years, Super Smash Bros for the 3DS and the Wii U is coming, and Nintendo finally busted out a trailer for what should be a pretty rocking video game. So, using incomparable research (hint, none) and gutless guessing, I have chosen 5 potential candidates that have a chance of appearing in this game. At some point (sooner rather than later), I will make a prediction on what Fire Emblem characters, stages, potential music remixes, and everything else might possibly be in both games. For now, let’s just have fun and figure out who will represent the 4th generation Smash Bros. game!

Ike

There’s a decent chance Ike might not return to Smash Bros 4, if only because his time in the limelight has passed — he was included in Brawl because he just so happened to be the current hero at the time of Brawl’s release, and while he did appear in Awakening, it’s not like he was the main character. But despite that, I think it would be a good opportunity to build off the last console game Fire Emblem was involved in — and that was Radiant Dawn. So with that as a base but with a needed upgrade for Ike’s attire, Ike has a good shot of returning for Smash.

My Unit

I would have never considered this a possibility if Brawl didn’t have the Pokemon Trainer. Now in Smash Bros 4, we not only have the Villager, but Wii Fit Trainer. So this opens it up for the avatar character from Awakening to make his debut. With the potential for long range and close range attacks, we can have a fit here, whether it’s the male or female avatar.

Lucina

My gut feeling is that this will be a pair-up between Chrom and Lucina; but considering that I don’t think Marth will be back for this game, it makes sense for Lucina to take that mantle, since she supposedly is “Marth” in Awakening.

Tharja

Tharja wasn’t even a possibility when Smash Bros 4 was announced, and even during the trailer. But then I see how popular Tharja seems to be, and re-thought it. It seems unlikely considering FE’s history with Smash — but then again, FE’s history with Smash isn’t actually that large. It would be cool if Nintendo broke tradition and selected a non-main character, and a non-sword user.

Anna

See, already a trophy for Anna

Finally, if we’re going to be trolls like Sakurai seems to be, then it only makes sense to include a character that’s wormed her way into most of Fire Emblem’s releases: Anna. With her actually being a playable character in Awakening, there’s a base to work off with. Now just add her stealing money from someone, and she will be the best character ever.

So ok, who do you guys have pegged to join Smash Bros? Feel free to share! Next Smash Bros post will probably be predictions on what I think will happen though.

Note: I had this planned a few weeks ago, but I’m tired of having it in my draft folder, so I’m publishing it now. You all probably get the gist of it right? Well that’s the point. I hope.

Entry #1: Well. It’s been a while since I’ve written about blogging. Don’t you guys remember the first week when I just blogged a bunch of nonsense. No? Good. Well, I’m about to go blog a bunch of nonsense again. Oh joy.

Now, I had explained in my about me post that I had scheduled a bunch of posts way in advance. I said it was an experiment. I also made a mention about real life. Just scheduling posts really sets me up for maybe the whole week, and allows me to go do other things (aside from playing Fire Emblem games). But what about writing immediately and then getting that published? Well, I have to say, that is also something to be looked at as well. It mostly depends though. Is it something you just want to get out there to be timely, or you just really don’t like spacing your content over a bunch of days? So, I’ll just list reasons why both can be good….nothing bad, because in the end, its your blogging style. You come up with it however you want.

Planning Ahead

• I get to take the week off
• I can develop content and maintain consistent posting
• Can also look it over a few more times
• Can also save it in case something breaking comes up

Writing Immediately

• Stay current of course
• Increase the chances of relevance — some content just shrivels away the more days that pass
• This may be how you best write, instead of holding it off instead
• Don’t want to have content hiding for who knows how long

So really, how do any of you write? As for you readers, do you even care, as long as the content is good =p

Entry #2 6/4/13: Wait, a second entry? Is this like postception or something!??

No, not really. Actually, this is one of the articles I had actually written months in advance. But after stalling on it due to timing, the nature and intentions of this post have changed. For starters, I had actually written some posts that popped immediately due to circumstances and timing, and you know what? That has been successful. On the other hand, some of the posts I planned out in advance did not generate enough discussion. The exception? The Share Your Favorite Awakening post, which I had in mind two weeks before it ended up going live.

What exactly did I learn from this experience? Well, for starters, not everything I write is intended for discussion. I would welcome it of course, but stuff like writing about the classes and even the Sounds of Fire Emblem, I don’t expect much discussion out of that, and that’s intentional.

See, I show up with something to write about…honest

Ok, anyways, if there was one obvious egg on my face from E3 was the fact that there wasn’t a single iota of information released on Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem. But finally, we got something.  I can finally get started somewhere. And that somewhere involves Fire Emblem in the modern world.

…Instant reaction: Will you make the Fire Emblem characters more modern designed, or will you keep their aesthetic as they are in the modern world? When we get confirmation of that, I might change my opinion. My current opinion is that it’ll be interesting. As Yamagami noted, it would be cool to see a traditionally medieval cast of characters and creatures invade Tokyo. It would also be kind of hilarious to see the FE characters somehow adjust to all that Tokyo would have to offer. That might just provide a bit more humor for a game that’s probably going to be filled with them.

…But of course, I’m not all that certain I want to see Sothe dressing in punk gear or Micaiah in a high school girl uniform. Or any Fire Emblem character in clothing that’s from the 21th century.

Well, at least we can finally speculate a bit more on SMT x FE! What do you think could be the story of this series now? What do you guys in general think of hearing about FE characters in 21th century Japan? Whatever you think of this news, feel free to share!

Note: Another one of my unfinished articles. Well, technically. I needed to find sources for a few things when I wrote it, but didn’t. Oh well. The basic gist is simple: Why did Fire Emblem skip the Nintendo 64? Share your theories below while I set the scene…

This is setting the scene. I’m good at this aren’t I?

The Fire Emblem franchise has appeared on a number of Nintendo systems, and it will soon make its debut on the Wii U with the crossover Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem. It’s nice that the series has managed to be on every system like a Mario, a Zelda, a…*reads the title of the post* Erm, wait, what? Huh? It skipped the Nintendo 64? But why? And how?

Well, let’s first set the scene a bit.

It’s 1999, and Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, was released…for the Super Famicom. Not even mentioning the fact that it was initially not intended to be a normal release, Thracia 776 was a SFC title at the time when the Nintendo 64 had come out…in 1996. For emphasis, Genealogy of the Holy War came out in May of 1996, the N64 came out in June. Unfortunately, the life cycle of the N64 lasted until November of 2001, and the Gamecube came out.

So just what happened? How did Fire Emblem manage to skip the Nintendo 64?

Well, let’s start with the technical problems. It’s not quite a secret that the Nintendo 64 was a revolutionary system with its bringing of the analog stick, but it’s also not quite a secret that RPGs on the consoles were few and far between. Cartridges had run its course compared to memory, yet Nintendo choose to use it, despite other competitors moving forward to using discs, which contained more space and more memory. With the upgrade to 3D, this presented a challenge for the Intelligent Systems staff. Considering the type of style Fire Emblem employs, it looks like they would have needed more time to actually create a manageable FE game for the N64. But knowing all that, couldn’t have IS just stuck with the traditional FE style? That depends on how they planned the game, and if they planned to have it in 3D, then it might have taken a while to get the engine right.

But unfortunately, it was more than just the technical side of things, it was the internal side of things. First, one of the Producers of Fire Emblem, Gunpei Yokoi, left Nintendo in 1996, or essentially after Genealogy of the Holy War. Then it came down to where will Fire Emblem go now? Well, the creator of the series, Shouzou Kaga, supposedly wanted to go back to the Akaneia series — hence why Fire Emblem: Akaneia Saga (BS Fire Emblem: Akaneia Senki) was released for the Satellaview, with no background music, you gained points for defeating enemies, and you had voice acting — it wasn’t a proper game. It has been surmised that the standalone maps for that game were intended to be in a brand new FE game set in the Akaneia saga. But instead, we had a continuation of the Judgral Saga with Thracia 776. Then in 1999, Shouzou Kaga left the company and started his own studio Tirnanog.

We now move into 2001, and that was when the Game Boy Advance came out. At this point, there was no point in focusing on a N64 version of Fire Emblem. So it’s feasible that whatever plans they had for the game they moved to the GBA line, with of course its limits. And thus, Fire Emblem was at a bit of a stalling point. It also skipped the Game Boy (though that provided its own limitations, so considering where FE had reached, would be difficult to bring it forth for the system), but for a period of time the franchise didn’t really advance.

But it makes me wonder if Fire Emblem had reached the N64, or at the very least, not gone into development hell. Well, not that it would have mattered since Nintendo hadn’t released a FE game in the West at this point….

Thanks to the author of Disingenuous Assertions, FIRRREEEE EMMMMBLEMMM, a blog that officially got started in April, has finally reached 100 Subscriptions.

That means it’s time for those 21 and over (drinking age in the US) to join my epic champagne party and I leave with a challenge that I hope people can work on…and yes, it totally involves Fire Emblem!

But first, let me get drunk with power to set the mood! *drinks a bit of champagne*

heeeyyyyyyyyyyy sexy lady!!!

I reiterate for the 100,000 time that this blog A) got started because I had an impulse to blog about Fire Emblem after Awakening came out B) is for fun, and is a hobby when I have some spare time C)To promote Fire Emblem as best as possible. I don’t know if I have accomplished C yet, but I do know that I blog here because I can, and I so knowing that I’m not tied down with anything. I.E, I blog whenever the heck I want ^_^ Though I admit, I didn’t intend to be gone for long stretches — at least have a post or two each week — but things picked up for me so now this blog has turned into my side blog, as it was meant to be. But the plan is for this blog to not die, so I’ll try and have a post at least once a week or so, not in two weeks or so. Watch as I eventually break this plan and go with Plan Z. (Don’t ask what Plan Z is)

Now, *takes another drink*, of course, even as I say this is a side project for me, it doesn’t mean I wanted to write and have no one share their FE knowledge or fun with me. So of course I have to say thanks to the readers and followers of this site. Without you guys I probably would not be having as much fun as I am when I try and think of posts to work on, and your interactions amuse me. No seriously, they do!

*starting to get a bit drunk*

OOHHHHHH, ITS GETTING HOT IN HERE!

I mean, look at what happened in the comments section for this XBOX post. Pure madness! By the time I got back, it was too late to stop people from tearing each other’s throats out, and by the end, we tried to name the Xbox. Another post that did well was everyone sharing their favorite Awakening characters, and it was fun to see that. But two posts stick out to me that I loved the most. The first was taking Ashley’s 5 things we should know about Awakening and me making it into an actual post. I personally had fun doing that, if only because the reactions were excellent and delicious The other happened to be some basics of Awakening everyone should know about. Mostly because of the discussion that took place in the comments. It was pretty awesome–

*falls to the floor, is drunk with power*

So now…I leave you all with a request. I want you all to share with me EVERYTHING you know about Fire Emblem…or what you don’t know about Fire Emblem! And I mean EVERYTHING — positive, negative, neutral, the works! This is your challenge. Join me in just speaking your mind about whatever you know about the series, and I’ll link your posts on the site. You can turn it in whenever, just let me know either in the comments below or send me an email (waltersfe at yahoo dot com), and I’ll add it.

So, I leave you warriors with one more toast, and with the hope that things will go smoothly for some more good times.

Since I decided I wanted to write about why Fire Emblem abandoned (that’s right, ABANDONED) the N64, it only made sense to continue pushing on with one of the biggest Fire Emblem mysteries for me since I got started in Fire Emblem fandom. You see, I left off with the franchise in a pretty weird state, but as you already know, the series ended up continuing on the GBA line, and has had games for every new console since then. In other words, the franchise went back to being stable again. But the aftermath of the N64 abandonment continues, since one particular developer somehow managed to fall off the face of the Earth ever since this happened, and that person happened to be the genius who created the franchise. And yes, that genius is Shouzou Kaga.

Ok, maybe saying he’s a genius is probably no longer the correct term. But before I get into that, just a small story: as I’ve pointed out before, Nintendo and Intelligent Systems made an attempt to fuse conventional RPG gameplay (like Final Fantasy) and Famicom Wars, and that turned into Fire Emblem for the Famicom. The one who was good enough to come up with the concept was Shouzou Kaga. To have come up with a high fantasy concept with turn-based gameplay and wartime tactics, and manage to squeeze it on the 8-bit Famicom is pretty impressive. And I don’t need to remind you that it turned out to be a major success in Japan.

But apparently, all good things come to an end, and as I’ve mentioned in the N64 post, Shouzou Kaga left Intelligent Systems and formed his own studio Tirnanog after development of Thracia 776. So, now with Nintendo and IS’s out of the way, he finally had his dream, and for the PS1, he ended up creating TearRing Saga, which turned out to be a game that ended up reminding many Japanese players of Fire Emblem, and in some circles it has been dubbed a spiritual successor to Fire Emblem Gaiden. In an interview with Famitsu magazine, Kaga kind of hinted it as such:

There will be multiple main characters? Gaiden-style elements of the game?

Kaga: I’ve always thought that allowing players to choose the main character would be interesting. This time, there will be multiple “armies” that can be controlled on the world map. As for which characters can lead an army, each character has a rich background, so any character has the potential to become a main character. Although the missions that each army can undertake is fixed, but there will be a lot of freedom from the middle and onwards, and you can focus on your favourite army to progress the story.

Now, I would have normally linked to the interview in question above. But I didn’t, because the link would have led you to what happened before TearRing Saga was created, and what happened before TearRing Saga is pretty messy, but also pretty dumb. This was basically Fire Emblem for the PS1. And for some reason, the original name of the game was Emblem Saga. Needless to say, that got changed when Nintendo realized that the game was essentially Fire Emblem on the PS1. Predictably, that did not stop Nintendo from crying foul, they sued, and Enterbrain and Tirnanog, after years of legal battles (that I won’t get to here, especially since the documents are in Japanese), they ended up paying 76 million yen to Nintendo. The game still did not breach copyright, so copies remained in stores, but I don’t know about you guys, but what Shouzou Kaga did was pretty dumb. Yeah, you want to go create your own title and prove to IS that your way is the best way, but doing it in a fashion where it was obviously Fire Emblem like, with very little changes or differences, does not a genius make.

But don’t worry. It’s not like things went completely south for Tirnanog. Some years later, they ended up creating a sequel to the game, TearRing Saga: Berwick Saga, and while it retained common conventions from Fire Emblem, it finally distinguished itself and made enough changes to actually stand on its own. And who knows, it may have actually been a fun game. Of course, this turned out to be the last game Tirnanog ever made. And that meant the end of Shouzou Kaga because of this game…

…Actually, I take that back. It wasn’t even confirmed if Kaga did contribute to Berwick Saga. Based on what little information is out there — and I don’t think I need to say much on that front, because there’s not a lot of info out there — he may have stopped working for Tirnanog while Berwick Saga was in development. Either he just got tired of developing games or Nintendo was keeping a close watch on him. Whatever the case, it’s been said he wasn’t on the credits list for Berwick Saga, but that’s a rumor that hasn’t been confirmed.

Now, I ask again: Where in the world is that bastard Shouzou Kaga? It’s a major surprise that he could seriously fall off the face of the Earth after leaving IS, but you know what? That’s what happened. And trying to find anything on him now is an exercise in frustration, and, in a way, sadness too. While we don’t really know what has happened to Kaga, I think it’s somewhat clear what took place at the end of his days at IS was pretty severe. Yeah, probably should not be speculating on that front, but it’s hard to not at least consider that to be the case. I guess this is one cautionary tale about the perils of being in the gaming industry.

Anyways, I guess I should end this with a bit of hope: John Szczepaniak of Hardcore Gaming 101 ran a Kickstarter that would tell of the untold history of Japanese game developers. On the page, he talks about trying to get in contact with Kaga. For all the marbles, I hope he can. I doubt it, considering nothing’s been heard of him for ages, but if he can, you can bet I’d talk about it here.