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Sakurai Interview (Part 2) from the 25th Anniversary Book Translated


Kirokan
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I made a thread about the first part of the interview with Masahiro Sakurai from the 25th Anniversary Book for Fire Emblem a few days ago, and now the second part of the interview has been translated.

This time it details Masahiro Sakurai's history with Fire Emblem as a fan rather than a game developer. He talks about Genealogy of the Holy War among other things. My friends at SourceGaming marked spoilers in tags so you can avoid Fire Emblem Fates spoilers!

I would paste it here, but I encourage people to go read it on their page to help support their site. So please read it here!

Meanwhile my simple blog post is here.

Part 1 of the interview can be found here.

Edited by Kirokan
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His views on the franchise are interesting. The fact he's been following it from the beginning really shows in his love for it in smash as well.

Marth being like SNES Swordmasters with touches of himself in FE1 and of course 3 for example.

Edited by Jedi
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For some reason, this interview really makes me wonder what pairings he used in Genealogy, Awakening and Fates.

Or what kind of units he prefers.

Well we know he likes units that contrast yet have similar roles at the very least now haha.

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Sakurai: I really like it. When Awakening came out, I thought, this is the definitive Fire Emblem game. Until now, I’d felt every game in the series was especially good at one thing, but was lacking in another, was missing a piece, but Awakening had really good balance, or how do I say it– I thought this game was perfection, that it just felt really complete.

As balanced as a square with enemies going aggro on a Nosfetank with V/V and Galeforce.

As complete as a three arcs story where each arc feels lackluster and rushed.

Ufufufufu! Don't worry people, I'm just fooling around. I guess I can see where he is coming from

Oh, by the way, I heard Sakurai married Maribelle! He has good taste in women, Maribelle is the best waifu in all of the game, she is so good she doesn't deserve Robin, ufufufu.

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Oh, by the way, I heard Sakurai married Maribelle! He has good taste in women, Maribelle is the best waifu in all of the game, she is so good she doesn't deserve Robin, ufufufu.

So Sakurai likes the Ojou type, huh? Can't blame the man, like you said, he has good taste.

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Interviewer: You didn’t like Wrys?

Sakurai: Let’s not talk about Wrys (laughs).

*Ba-dum TSH!*

Interviewer: And in Awakening, the I think the series ended up changing directions a little, what do you think about that?

Sakurai: I really like it. When Awakening came out, I thought, this is the definitive Fire Emblem game. Until now, I’d felt every game in the series was especially good at one thing, but was lacking in another, was missing a piece, but Awakening had really good balance, or how do I say it– I thought this game was perfection, that it just felt really complete.

...Seriously?

Ah, so the game that gimmick-whores its characters, has a simplistic, by-the-numbers black-and-white plot, can be broken in tons of different ways, and pretty much went overboard with changes and killed the old FE for the sake of sales is the "perfect" FE experience and "really complete"? Eh. After all, he's non-plussed with having the ability to treat characters like blow-up dolls, so what have you.

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...Seriously?

Ah, so the game that gimmick-whores its characters, has a simplistic, by-the-numbers black-and-white plot, can be broken in tons of different ways, and pretty much went overboard with changes and killed the old FE for the sake of sales is the "perfect" FE experience and "really complete"? Eh. After all, he's non-plussed with having the ability to treat characters like blow-up dolls, so what have you.

I don't mean to be rude, but people have different opinions you know.

What you believe to be a perfect Fire Emblem may be different from what others believe to be a perfect Fire Emblem.

Also, one the things he liked about Awakening is how it used mechanics from different FEs, split promotions and world map from FE2 and FE8, marriage and children from FE4, skills from FE4, FE9 and FE10 and reclassing from FE11 and FE12.

It seems that Sakurai really liked how Awakening was mix of all Fire Emblems.

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I don't mean to be rude, but people have different opinions you know.

What you believe to be a perfect Fire Emblem may be different from what others believe to be a perfect Fire Emblem.

Also, one the things he liked about Awakening is how it used mechanics from different FEs, split promotions and world map from FE2 and FE8, marriage and children from FE4, skills from FE4, FE9 and FE10 and reclassing from FE11 and FE12.

It seems that Sakurai really liked how Awakening was mix of all Fire Emblems.

Was just over-reacting a bit; poking fun at things and all.

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Yeah... I respect him for doing a great job with the game he's made but calling Awakening "balanced"... No, not like every Fire Emblem game is balanced (it could be argued none of them are) but Awakening is definitely not balanced in the slightest. I guess good for him that he's able to like it?

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When he says balance I think he means in terms of content. He said before that statement that the other fire emblems felt as if they were missing something. so when he says balanced he is meaning more like a good balance between gameplay features and story, and not in terms of reclass, skills, etc. to be honest he sounds more like the type of player, like myself, that really doesn't care a whole lot about the best skills, pairings for stats, and all the optimimazation min/max stuff.

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I think you guys may be misreading what Sakurai is saying when he talks about balance. He's clearly not talking about the character roster.

As I said, I can see where he is coming from, but it's still weird to read because even as a balanced whole picture, it falls flat (IMO) because of the story's arc division.

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