[Source Gaming] Sakurai Discusses Fire Emblem

WARNING: Inside the actual translation, Sakurai does spoil parts of Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War and Fire Emblem: Fates. Source Gaming has added spoiler tags for answers that contains those spoilers, and none are included in this post.

With 6 characters in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS, Fire Emblem is playing an increasingly important role in the Super Smash Bros. series. Sakurai took a moment to discuss his own personal history with Fire Emblem in the 25th Anniversary book that was released in Japan. This is the first part of Sakurai's interview from that collection. The second part, which discusses Fire Emblem representation in Smash, can be read here. It was posted before the Final Smash Broadcast.

Interviewer: Please tell us about how you first encountered Fire Emblem.

Sakurai: I think that Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (henceforth referred to as Shadow Dragon (NES)) was released before I’d spent a year at HAL Labs, and I was really drawn to the spritework and animation. That feeling of satisfaction when a pirate cleanly hits with his axe (laughs).

Interviewer: So Fates has the Birthright route and the Conquest route, which one fit your style?

Sakurai: For me it was clearly the Birthright route. This is just for me, of course, but because I had Fire Emblem Festival, I really had to rush. So I had to really focus a bit more on the story.

The rest of the interview is here.​

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First person I've ever seen deny Sakurai's obvious bias. lol

Why does it matter? It's his game, who cares if he has a bit of bias, of course he would have bias to a series he likes. As long as the characters are unique it doesn't matter what series they are from. Besides, would anyone care if it came out that he had a Pokemon bias? And don't give me that "Pokemon is a bigger series" excuse, bias is still bias.

Besides, it is only a claim, he even said in a previous article that he felt that 6 FE characters would be a bit much, so obviously he bias doesn't entirely cloud his judgement.

 

Why does it matter?

Said no paying customer ever.

 

Given that Smash is a competetive game (any game that involves more than one person competing for a score); its natural for the users to be rather hostile. Also throw in that fans feel dedicated to particular characters and champion for them to get into the game. Finally, the game play between installments changes thus causing fans to become partial to one version over another version. It's pretty obvious those conditions will breed a rather hostile community environment. However, for the most part, it doesn't become extremely hostile and there are those who work very hard at improving the community.

I am semi-active on the forums for the game Destiny and that's one of the more toxic places I'm involved with. I could go on there and make a thread such as "(Characer class/weapon/boss/armor/ability) is over-powered/needs nerding" and I can gaurantee that at least half of the poster responses will be:

• Git gud
• OP is a ******
• OP is a ***
• Shut up, *****
• ***
• Go die
• Die, ******
• I hope you die
• Hope your family gets shot by ISIS

Or if you make a thread about your sexual orientation/gender/race/politics that's other than being a straight republican white male; they will jump on you and call you every name in the book with zero help from the staff lol.

It's a great place to post lol. Always a refresher to come here after posting there. And of course, there are even worse places on the internet that has zero filters in terms of what's unacceptable. Anything under the sun is fair game.

I agree; this forum is surprisingly tame compared to other places. There's a bit of sophistication and professionalism on Smashboards.

What I AM angry about is that Sakurai lied. He SPECIFICALLY stated that all of the characters after Roy and Ryu would be pure fanservice. While I do see Corrin is a unique character, and while I don't care if Fire Emblem is "overrepresented", I DO care that he went back on his promise. Sure, we did get Cloud and Bayonetta, but Corrin could have been K. Rool or Daisy or someone that have been waiting to be in Smash for a long long time. Instead, .

And with that, good night.

Yeah, business stuff happens.

Why does it matter? It's his game, who cares if he has a bit of bias, of course he would have bias to a series he likes. As long as the characters are unique it doesn't matter what series they are from. Besides, would anyone care if it came out that he had a Pokemon bias? And don't give me that "Pokemon is a bigger series" excuse, bias is still bias.

Besides, it is only a claim, he even said in a previous article that he felt that 6 FE characters would be a bit much, so obviously he bias doesn't entirely cloud his judgement.

Yes, I agree it's his game and he can do whatever he wants, but there should at least be some sort of structure. It's really just a walking advertisement, and it just so happened FE is the game coming out.

Why not just have the fans vote purely on the next roster? They are the ones buying the game after all. I just feel the series is too much of Sakurai's bizarre vision and fan neglecting.

 

Yaaay, Sigurd! Yay FE4, my favorite Fire Emblem!
It's great seeing Sakurai's opinions on my favorite and in my personal opinion, best Fire Emblem game.
Thanks for the article PushDustin and Source Gaming, you made my week!

Darn, now I want to replay it for the second time.

 

Said no paying customer ever.

If it matters so much to you then don't pay, your money is a drop in the pool of money he's gonna get for the DLC. It does not matter if he is bais, so long as the characters are at least unique and does allow his own judgement to be completely clouded by said bias (which it obviously wasn't because he didn't even plan to use Corrin originally.)

 

Well then again Sakuari already spoiled that Corrin is part Dragon so hmm.

I would say that he spoiled anything. Corrin has been prominently featured transforming into a dragon in promotional material for both Japan and the United States.

Also, the information about plot details in Geoneology of the Holy Wars and Fates is closed off in the article, similar to how we have a "spoilers" option for posts on SmashBoards. I think reading the article now would be fine unless you don't trust yourself to not peak at the information.

 

Most people's first reaction to getting slapped in the face isn't wanting to thank the person who slapped them.

Most people don't get slapped unless they did something wrong or are in some sort of stupor.

Sometimes, people need a good, hard slap in order to wake up.

 

when you think about it smash is an advertisement being shoved down your throat too

lol it WAS the reason I bought Earthbound, a few Warioware games, Dr. Mario for Game Boy, and others, after all!

 

Sometimes, people need a good, hard slap in order to wake up.

 

If it matters so much to you then don't pay, your money is a drop in the pool of money he's gonna get for the DLC. It does not matter if he is bais, so long as the characters are at least unique and does allow his own judgement to be completely clouded by said bias (which it obviously wasn't because he didn't even plan to use Corrin originally.)

Maybe it wouldn't matter, if Sakurai didn't already say that all the characters after Roy and Ryu would be fanservice. You can't tell me Corrin is fanservice of any kind whatsoever. Because of that, it matters completely.

That and tbh Corrin isn't even all that unique. What people praise about him is strictly just cosmetic stuff, and he doesn't do anything mechanically different. Just put a dragon mouth hand or a stretchy lance arm over a hitbox. Oh, and let's not forget he has a counter, literally the last thing any more characters needed. Doesn't matter if he turns into Arceus while using it, it's still a counter. At the end of the day, he's just another Counter Emblem swordsman. The most unique thing abut him is that whole "stick into things" gimmick.

Most people don't get slapped unless they did something wrong or are in some sort of stupor.

Sometimes, people need a good, hard slap in order to wake up.

Or maybe, the person who slapped you is just an ass.

 

Maybe it wouldn't matter, if Sakurai didn't already say that all the characters after Roy and Ryu would be fanservice. You can't tell me Corrin is fanservice of any kind whatsoever. Because of that, it matters completely.

That and tbh Corrin isn't even all that unique. What people praise about him is strictly just cosmetic stuff, and he doesn't do anything mechanically different. Just put a dragon mouth hand or a stretchy lance arm over a hitbox. Oh, and let's not forget he has a counter, literally the last thing any more characters needed. Doesn't matter if he turns into Arceus while using it, it's still a counter. At the end of the day, he's just another Counter Emblem swordsman. The most unique thing abut him is that whole "stick into things" gimmick.


Or maybe, the person who slapped you is just an ***.

True, but I don't think that that is the case here.

Also, at least they made Corrin's counter unique, like Shulk's or Greninja's.
They could have just given him another standard counter like they did with the other FE characters (sans Robin) and Palutena.

 

True, but I don't think that that is the case here.

Also, at least they made Corrin's counter unique, like Shulk's or Greninja's.
They could have just given him another standard counter like they did with the other FE characters (sans Robin) and Palutena.

I think it is.

So? The animation doesn't matter, it's still just another counter move. Toss it into the towering pile of counter moves we already have.

 

I think it is.

So? The animation doesn't matter, it's still just another counter move. Toss it into the towering pile of counter moves were already have.

I doubt it. There really isn't anything that points to it being that way.

Animation?
I never said anything about the animation.
I was talking about how it hits.
Like Shulk's, Greninja's, and Peach's, it doesn't hit like other counters. (Mac, Ike, Marth, Roy, Lucina, Lucario, Mii Swordfighter)

 

I doubt it. There really isn't anything that points to it being that way.

Animation?
I never said anything about the animation.
I was talking about how it hits.
Like Shulk's, Greninja's, and Peach's, it doesn't hit like other counters. (Mac, Ike, Marth, Roy, Lucina, Lucario, Mii Swordfighter)

Aside from Corrin not being fanservice?

It's still a freaking counter. What is hard to understand about that?

 

Aside from Corrin not being fanservice?

It's still a freaking counter. What is hard to understand about that?

The fact that you complain, saying that it's "Just another counter" when it's clearly not.
Yeah, it activates the same, but that's really the only similar thing.

 

The fact that you complain, saying that it's "Just another counter" when it's clearly not.
Yeah, it activates the same, but that's really the only similar thing.

Oh my lord, you're joking, right? I didn't actually just read someone saying that a counter "isn't just a counter", did I?

 

Oh my lord, you're joking, right? I didn't actually just read someone saying that a counter "isn't just a counter", did I?

Yes, I did type that.
You don't have to act like it's some shocking taboo that just blew your mind.
That's just dodging the point.

 

Yes, I did type that.
You don't have to act like it's some shocking taboo that just blew your mind.
That's just dodging the point.

I didn't dodge the point.

I pressed down and then B.

 

I didn't dodge the point.

I pressed down and then B.

Okay, I'm not gonna deny that that was a good comeback, but you still have yet to actually counter what I've said.

 

Okay, I'm not gonna deny that that was a good comeback, but you still have yet to actually counter what I've said.

I don't see how much longer we can go on about this.

I think all counters are virtually the same and aren't unique, while you disagree.

That's basically it.