Why Fire Emblem isn't what it used to be

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Taken from /v/

Meet Intelligent Systems staffer Nami Komoru, who is allegedly one of the main reasons why Fire Emblem isn’t what it used to be. Nami Komuro (小室菜美) joined Intelligent Systems as a planner after graduating from university. According to an interview, she did not have any prior experiences with the Fire Emblem series. For research purposes, she was was handed some of the older games by staff members so that she could get familiar with the series. However, the games were too hard for her and she complained that she was not able to clear them. She chose Intelligent Systems because the company was located close to her home in Kyoto. Nami did not have any interest in any games from the company.

She is said to have been perplexed and amused by some of the emotions that longtime fans expressed during the 25th anniversary FE concert. She also openly complained about a Fire Emblem Cipher live broadcast on Twitter despite having illustrators who work on that card game among her followers.

In an interview with the now defunct Official Nintendo Magazine UK, she admitted that she complained to the director about the difficulty of older Awakening builds and wanted the maps to be easier because she could not beat them. For Awakening, she acted as the character planner but was also involved with the story and event scripts. She created most of the characters, was involved in the main scenario and did some of the story and DLC events. The way she wrote the dialogue for some of the old heroes that appeared in the DLC missions was criticised by Japanese fans. They accused her of not doing justice to the characters and - in some cases - even severely mistreating them.

She has an obsessions with Inigo and Severa. Her Twitter account, which she deleted after she came under attack from Japanese fans, was @lune_of_laz - a combination of Luna (Severa’s Japanese alias in Fates) and Azure (Inigo’s Japanese name). She wants her characters to show up in as many games as possible. Not only did they appear in Fates, they also were among the first heroes players could summon in FE Heroes.

Due to the success of Awakening, she got an even bigger role in the development of the two Fire Emblem Fates games where she developed the main scenario, which was critically panned. Because she is a hardcore fan of Sailor Moon, she used the birthday date of her favorite Sailor Moon character Tsukano Usagi for Leo (June 30).

She also incorporates a lot of anime tropes and otaku baits into her writing.

Even though she hardly knows anything about the series, she got promoted to series supervisor and worked in that position on games like Smash Bros. 4 Wii U/3DS and Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE. She was not involved with Fire Emblem Echoes, but is most likely currently working on the new Fire Emblem game for Switch and Fire Emblem Warriors. Fire Emblem Warriors is once again built around the games she personally was involved with, Awakening and Fates.

Japanese fans have created several wiki pages and Twitter accounts to spread the word about Nami Komoru’s mistreating of the series, but Western fans don’t seem to be familiar with her as of yet. If you care about the series, I recommend checking out some of the links and use Google Translate to read what’s been written there. There are still people at Intelligent Systems that can develop a good Fire Emblem game, as Shadows of Valentia demonstrates, but as long as Nami Komuro is involved with the main series, the future is looking rather grim.

Info page: スタッフ発言・やらかし集 - 覚醒以降のファイアーエムブレム　問題点まとめwiki【1/26更新】 - atwiki（アットウィキ）
Wiki: 【ﾌｧｲｱｰｴﾑﾌﾞﾚﾑ】小室菜美の発言まとめ【覚醒if】
Twitter account about NK’s problematic remarks: https://twitter.com/nk_of_is
Twitter account: https://twitter.com/lamentfebot/

Source: http://boards.4chan.org/v/thread/383263331/why-fire-emblem-isnt-what-it-used-to-be

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I’m not really sure what all the fuss is about. She is one staff member on a team likely comprising of dozens of devs and other writers and artists. Most of the original staff got fired after FE12 because the game tanked hard, so it doesn’t surprise me that they got some new blood aboard. If anything, we should be thanking her - the series was going to be cancelled if FE13 flopped. It was a wild success and now we have a Gaiden remake because of it. A Gaiden remake!

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this smells waaaaaaaaaaay too witchhunty for my liking. if a story involves someone deleting their twitter account owing to harassment from angry fans, i can’t say i’m entirely inclined to trust the viewpoint of said fans. like sure, maybe this is how she feels fe should be, but it’s pretty obvious from various interviews that she is far from alone. when you’ve got people like maeda and kusakihara pushing heavily for many of the issues with the current games, singling out a woman on the team for crucifixion like this is pretty dodgy

further, a lot of the allegations are flawed at best. like,

She chose Intelligent Systems because the company was located close to her home in Kyoto. Nami did not have any interest in any games from the company.

if she’s a recent hire, well, have you SEEN the job market lately? having a pre-existing fondness for the position’s output is not a luxury we can all afford, and the situation in japan is certainly no exception to that

She also openly complained about a Fire Emblem Cipher live broadcast on Twitter despite having illustrators who work on that card game among her followers.

kinda douchey to do that in front of the artists, yeah, but in all fairness the cipher livestreams are pretty fuckin weird and over-the-top and it makes sense to me that they wouldn’t be to everyone’s tastes. i’m assuming she took issue with the broadcast itself rather than its contents, given how this is phrased; if i’m wrong, fair enough

She wants her characters to show up in as many games as possible. Not only did they appear in Fates, they also were among the first heroes players could summon in FE Heroes.

they were in the two most recent games at the time and placed high in popularity polls for both of them. whether or not you agree that their popularity is deserved (and i can’t say i do), no fucking shit they’re in heroes at launch. and i mean, it’s not like the starting roster suffered for it

Because she is a hardcore fan of Sailor Moon, she used the birthday date of her favorite Sailor Moon character Tsukano Usagi for Leo (June 30).

Breaking News: Writer Adds Minor Allusions To Shit They Like Into Their Own Work

Due to the success of Awakening, she got an even bigger role in the development of the two Fire Emblem Fates games where she developed the main scenario, which was critically panned.

a reminder that shin kibayashi exists. sure, she played a role there, but it’s not the only role. she’s not even the only person credited for writing the valla route, aka the one generally agreed to have the worst writing. a certain mr yukinori kitajima is also credited for that one. that’s without getting into the long-ass list of names credited as scenarists in general. sure, some are more senior than others, but that list’s got some longtime guys like maeda and horikawa so

Even though she hardly knows anything about the series, she got promoted to series supervisor and worked in that position on games like Smash Bros. 4 Wii U/3DS and Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE. She was not involved with Fire Emblem Echoes, but is most likely currently working on the new Fire Emblem game for Switch and Fire Emblem Warriors. Fire Emblem Warriors is once again built around the games she personally was involved with, Awakening and Fates.

i mean, i don’t agree at all with the reasoning for warriors and idol trash focusing on fe13 and fe14, but again, the odds of her being the only reason behind that are pretty damn slim. lest we forget the fat stacks of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ those games earned. do i think it’s deserved? god no, but it happened, and of course spinoffs and crossovers are going to take that as a gigantic green light to go apeshit with those games

not to mention, in warriors’ case we still have zero confirmation that she is involved. sure, it’s not impossible, but ffs people wait for hard confirmation before you go pointing fingers

and use Google Translate to read what’s been written there

pfffffffffffffffffffffffffffAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

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Why apply to a job you don’t like/related to something you don’t like then?

Let’s be honest, Severa, Inigo and Owain weren’t necessary in Fates, even the DLC “explaining” why they are there is plain stupid.
As for Heroes, I don’t have nothing against them being there.

I know, but what can you expect from 4chan? ¯ \ _ (ツ)_/¯

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Why apply to a job you don’t like/related to something you don’t like then?

because… people need money to live? because almost any income is better than no income? because if there’s a specific position you have your heart set on, odds are you need to get some actual work experience under your belt to be even remotely worth considering as a candidate?

take me, for instance. i was a creative writing major at university. while i’m still glad i did the course, that does not exactly open many doors for me. i’m inexperienced and my (lack of) credentials don’t exactly inspire confidence in your average employer. i cannot afford to be picky about what jobs i take, and i’m not even in a situation where it’s a life-or-death matter for me!

and perhaps more importantly, not being interested in something =/= actively hating it. i feel like you’re conflating the two here to make this woman’s employment sound inexplicable. the premise here is that at the very least she had no interest in pre-existing fire emblem at the time of her hiring, not that she was dragged kicking and screaming into a studio she hated to work on a series she hated. at that point, it was just a job to her

Let’s be honest, Severa, Inigo and Owain weren’t necessary in Fates, even the DLC “explaining” why they are there is plain stupid.

you aren’t wrong. when you get down to it, fe14 did not need those three. that said, i’m not entirely clear on how their presence is inherently a problem. sure, the reasoning for including them is very transparent, but nothing about them to my knowledge undermines the integrity of the game or its world (such as it is…). they’re basically just there, having no real impact either way

personally speaking, i take no issue with it whatsoever. frankly, after how fe13 sold, i was fully expecting them to embrace the cash cow and do a direct sequel/prequel, and in a way i’m impressed that that instinct ultimately got no further than these three

and let’s not forget that reusing popular characters in effectively unrelated sequels is about as old as fe itself. just ask catria, palla, est and camus in fe2. those specific characters weren’t exactly necessary to fe2’s plot either

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One time I got a job at a Pretzel place despite not caring for Pretzels, and 3 months later that store ran out of business. Did I want to destroy the Pretzel industry, no, I wanted to actually have an income and I unfortunately got a job at a place that would suddenly have to compete with a much larger fast food chain in 2 months.

From the tone set here, this comes across as witch hunting, which is never a good thing. Its perfectly fine to dislike the newer games, but it is a foolish thought to think one person who caught a lucky break in the job market is behind the series not matching the thinker’s specific tastes anymore, especially when the person in question has quite a few superiors, and hell, those superiors have superiors in the form of Nintendo themselves.

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This feels like a witch hunt. If there’s some grand conspiracy to destroy Fire Emblem, it’s not working because Fates and Echoes are fantastic games.

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When you lack of interest on something, you don’t care about the results. This can affect whatever you’re doing.
This is why I’ll never apply for a job that I have no interest in again. If I know that I won’t be as efficient as someone that do care about the job, the better is to step down. Now I’m working on a job that isn’t really what I want, but at least I have interest on it, and that makes a huge difference compared to my old jobs.

They expended time redesigning them, making new supports, and making them a story just for them.
They could made something better instead of reusing old characters.

Those were different times, most of the characters from FE1 are color swaps, and for FE2 almost all bosses use the same face.
At least for Camus/Zeke/Sirius they created some interesting backstory, unlike the Pegasus Sisters.
But nowadays that practice is seen as lazy and unappealing. Just see Shadows of Valentia, every boss look unique (aside from the bandits), even if they don’t play a major role in the game.

Maybe if we burn the witch, FE will return in all its full glory!
BURN THE WITCH! BURN THE WITCH! BURN THE WITCH!
http://i.imgur.com/zqPhPrr.jpg

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Japan isn’t exactly the kind of culture that allows you to hop from job to job. Why take your chances in the volatile job market when you have a stable job? Most of us don’t have the luxury of doing exactly what we want for a living.

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Also, the Awakening trio are some of the best written and fleshed out characters in Fates, and part of that is how they’ve developed since Awakening. I wouldn’t mind if they showed up again as grizzled war vets in their late 40s.

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When you lack of interest on something, you don’t care about the results. This can affect whatever you’re doing.

you know what else is a great motivator for results? not wanting to get sacked. wanting to be able to keep affording a roof over your head. if you’re in a comfortable enough position that you can afford to wait for jobs in which you have an active interest in the subject matter, good for you, but that is decidedly not the position in which the overwhelming majority of job hunters find themselves in. just ask just about anyone who holds a retail position!

They expended time redesigning them, making new supports, and making them a story just for them.
They could made something better instead of reusing old characters.

a reminder that we are talking about fire emblem fates, the game that gave the world such amazing and well-crafted characters as corrin, azura, garon, anankos, peri and camilla. not including those three characters wouldn’t have suddenly resulted in better-written ones

Those were different times, most of the characters from FE1 are color swaps, and for FE2 almost all bosses use the same face.
At least for Camus/Zeke/Sirius they created some interesting backstory, unlike the Pegasus Sisters.
But nowadays that practice is seen as lazy and unappealing. Just see Shadows of Valentia, every boss look unique (aside from the bandits), even if they don’t play a major role in the game.

you’re describing two very different things. reusing assets and having pre-existing characters make additional appearances are not even remotely on the same order of magnitude, especially given fe14 does not reuse any assets for the reappearing characters at all

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This exactly. At my job, I don’t have a particular interest in sorting out emails and filling in excel sheets. But I sure as hell don’t want my work to be low quality, for my own sake and for my job’s sake.

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50% shit taste confirmed.

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It could be worse. I could think Gate is a good show.

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Good for you. I wish I could get a job like that. In the meantime, though, I have no money and need to make money somehow.

I don’t necessarily disagree, but this has literally nothing to do with the woman in question

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I’m glad that when this poorly sourced nonsense was posted on /v/, the majority of people there called it out for being the BS that this is.

Even if this person was responsible for “making fire emblem not what it used to be” IS would never fire her considering how successful and well received the games she’s worked on have overall been. If anything, she’d be getting a promotion.

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Don’t put any stock in this, 4chan’s /v/ is notorious for its bloodlust and loves to single out individual people as solely responsible for the decisions of a team/company. That post is also chock full of hyperbole and sensationalism aimed at making this person look like the devil incarnate just because she happens to take pride on her own work (funny that, coming from unrepentant NEET types), and whenever I see it posted it also has this cute little accompanying image of copypasted twitter posts with explanations of what they say (not even straight translations) and a link to the japanese IS contact or something, with a parenthesis saying “be polite”. Whoever’s spreading this around wants to have this person fired and completely ruin her career if possible, and is already preemptively excusing themselves from whatever happens after siccing channers on the target.

I don’t really like this person from what I hear of her, but anyone who’s ever struggled for work knows that you don’t always get to work your dream job and when you’re lucky enough to get something in your field you go for it, even if you don’t really care for your employer and their product/service, so I can’t really blame her for not caring about the older games.

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Truth or Internet Shamming
it’s a fact that the FE games since Awakening had a dive in gameplay, story and character quality
in favor for casual and otaku bait.

Fates is the “bottom” of FE games
and Valentia is saved because it is a 1992 game with its core structure intact.

This has nothing to do with the actual product and result though. Nothing at all.
By your logic all games should adapt the MOBA structure
and milk $_$ from all those terrible MOBA gamers we are making fun of.

FE12 flopped because FE11 was truly awful, boring, soul-less aka not a proper remake.
FE12 didn’t even get a chance outside Japan.
Yet it has many western fans and even it’s the reason the MU feature has become a thing.

If anything, it’s the only game that has utilized the MU feature the best.

For Awakenings success, we shouldn’t forget the massive advertisement it had
as well as the tons of SNES features it brought (Skills, Children, Pair emphasis)
that initially attracted a lot of the older fans.

Perhaps it is just internet shamming
but here’s what everyone’s wrongly assuming:

They think they gave her to play the old NES/ SNES games.
Most likely they gave her the most recent ones (WiiU, DS)
so she can have an idea of the recent formula.
Yet complaining that those were hard shows me a person that isn’t a gamer
or even understood the original appeal.

It’s not strange a lot of FE players are more hyped for ROM hacks than the official games.

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And yet Conquest is the pinnacle of FE map design for the most part, meanwhile the maps are the worse part of Echoes are the maps, and the best part of Echoes is the amazing characterization and delivery of the story. So the best part of Echoes came from NewFE, while the worst part is a relic of KagaFE.

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If the implication is that I think it is, you’re wrong. The manga is fantastic, while the anime is a watered down version with far less graphical violence and grit.