Intelligent Systems, the company you probably don’t know that brought you the 2D Metroid games, Famicom Wars/Advance Wars, Paper Mario, and WarioWare, is responsible for all the Fire Emblem masterpieces you have or haven’t played. Fire Emblem: Akatsuki no Megami (translated: Goddess of Dawn) was recently released in Japan for the Wii as the massive sequel to the GameCube’s Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. The game is expected to hit North American shores later this year.
In an interview with Nintendo’s Hitoshi Yamagami, Intelligent System’s producer Toru Narihiro and graphics designer Masahiro Higuchi, the Dengeki DS & Wii Style magazine learned that the Fire Emblem team is eager to include online components for the next installment of the series. Mentioned were the possibilities of players being able to download new maps and units for use in the game, maybe other small bonuses. It was revealed that they looked at this possibility for Goddess of Dawn, but certain restraints (likely time) prevented this from happening. According to Yamagami, “This would be the first FE for the Wii, so we decided to focus on single player and held back on Wi-Fi. However, for the next title, if we have the chance, we’d like to use it.”
The magazine article had a few other details of interest in it. To the query about Fire Emblem: Goddess of Dawn’s control scheme, Yamagami gave this response: “At the start of development, we didn’t know what controller would be included with the Wii. We began production by considering the classic controller default. Once we learned what would be included with the Wii system, we made it so that everything could be controlled with the Wiimote. However, we felt that controls like pointing and shaking of the remote were not applicable to FE, so we held off on it.”
Lastly, for those wondering about a Fire Emblem game for the DS, it doesn’t look like one is deep into development… yet. The magazine questioned Intelligent System’s decision to make Goddess of Dawn a Wii title instead of a DS title, and Yamagami responded, “The FE series began on the Famicom, so we’d generally like to release it on consoles. Also, it’s a game with many detailed parameters, so we want to put it on a television. However, we do feel that the SRPG genre is suited for the DS.
