Sakurai

Several months after I joined HAL Laboratory, when I was still just a young guy, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon started selling in stores.

Narihiro

Oh, is that right...

Sakurai

In my company, I worked with a senior programmer who really looked forward to the very first Fire Emblem release. On some project, he had worked with your company, Intelligent Systems. So he was fired up, bursting with anticipation, saying “This game is gonna be great, it’s a must buy!” Later I stood behind him, and watched him completely entranced as he played that game. You can only do these things if you work in a video game company! (laughing)

Narihiro

Absolutely. (laughing) When you saw the actual game, what did you think?

Sakurai

Many great things were said about the game. Like the characters and sound, the scenarios, the game balance… But, when I first saw Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, more than anything else I was awe struck by that initial battle scene, when Marth’s army fights the pirates.

Narihiro

Right.

Sakurai

When an attack came from the enemy, the pirates would walk slowly and heavily, and their axe would swing cleanly into the forehead of someone on Marth’s side. That unique action visual combined with a sound effect that stayed in your ears, as a player I thought “Wow! That’s awesome!!!” Then I ran out and bought one for myself to play. (laughing) So the start point for appreciating this game was the fight animation. That got me hooked on the Fire Emblem series. The software had a myriad of interesting points to explore and get to know.

Narihiro

Sakurai-san, that’s a very unique way of getting into the game.

Sakurai

By the way, this latest version of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is a remake of the NES version, and was this the very first Fire Emblem game to be produced for the DS?

Narihiro

Yes, that’s right.

Sakurai

It’s already been over 3 years since the Nintendo DS has come out, so this seems to come as a surprise,

Narihiro

The developments for the home consoles like GameCube⁵ and Wii⁶ were underway, so it wasn’t until now that we were able to begin work on the DS version.

5. GameCube: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (9th of the FE series, 3rd installment released in the US) released October, 2005 for the GameCube system.

6. Wii: Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (10th of the FE series, 4th installment released in the US) released November, 2007 for the Wii console.

Sakurai

But why Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon now?

Narihiro

It’s been exactly 25 years since the NES was first introduced. We feel like things have come around one complete cycle. Also, not only the Fire Emblem series, but other software popular at the time of NES are now unknown to many people I think.

Sakurai

Certainly. That is true.

Narihiro

The Wii version of Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn was the 10th installment of the Fire Emblem series. So for the DS version we returned to the original and remade the first game of the series. I thought we could take this as an opportunity to once again introduce everyone to the fun and attractions that this series has to offer.

Sakurai

I see. I tried and played this latest remake to get a feel for it. The things the characters say can be very funny. Remembering the quirkiness that the NES version had, I was really happy to still see them still intact in this latest version.

Narihiro

Basically, I wanted to draw on the script from the NES version as much as possible. In the more recent games in the series, the volume of content has increased, and so too have the length of the script lines, but this time we tended toward cutting down the script. Even with a smaller script with just a few lines, I think players can glean various meanings.

Sakurai

In this game you’re able to recruit⁷ characters, and later on they start talking to other characters. The way their call-outs expand and develop is superb. It caught me off-guard and made me smile.

7. Recruit: In the Nintendo DS version of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon you are able to recruit certain enemy characters to your army.

Narihiro

Yeah, it’s a blast dreaming up backgrounds for these characters. Though there’re not intended to be written in any particular way, there are many ways in which messages might be taken. (laughs)

Sakurai

What can be read and felt from a scene varies a lot with each and every player.

Narihiro

It’s great that the players get so much out of it.

Sakurai

Now let’s talk about some of the features specific to the DS, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon’s two screen compatibility is really quite fantastic, like the ability to battle without closing the map, and being able to view your status and the map at the same time. And it also felt like it was the latest to the series. Even though this was based from the NES version, I couldn’t believe that it was originally something from so long ago.

Narihiro

Rather than a remake of the NES version, we tackled with the development of this game as a renewal, in other words, we aimed on recreating it as a totally new work. Elementally, and in content as well, I think we accomplished the building of something entirely new.

Sakurai

Players are now able to play using the stylus, too.

Narihiro

But, players may be split on which they like best. For me, I prefer buttons.

Sakurai

Really. I played it with the stylus, and thought the movement of characters became so much easier.

Narihiro

Of course we adjusted the game so that players could enjoy the game just as much with the stylus. But originally this game was designed to be played with buttons. To make the button pressing feel just right, we devoted a lion’s share of time and energy to perfecting key response. If response was bad, then we wouldn’t be able to keep players captivated in the game.

Sakurai

In order to make the controls feel good, you also paid extra effort to the sound effects. The fast start-up sound, and how the footsteps are different between each of the characters, all produce a nice effect all-around.

Narihiro

With those areas where the player directly interacts with, we concentrated on meeting the same high level of quality one would expect in an action game. They’re all the little details in the game, though.

Sakurai

It’s the things we can’t see that are so important! (laughing)

Narihiro

After all, since we’re able to work very close to Nintendo, we can really feel their attention to the areas that aren’t at first visible. Everyone at Nintendo really pays attention to those things…. One might say they can be very….persistent… (laughing)

Sakurai

You say that with such a serious look on your face! (laughs)

Narihiro

(laughing) No seriously, I really think so.