Fire Emblem Engage devs on how the Emblems mechanic came to be

The developers of Fire Emblem Engage have discussed the origins of the game’s Emblems mechanic, and how it came about when thinking about the marriage systems of past entries in the series. This comes from an official interview with director Tsutomu Tei and producer Masahiro Higuchi plus Nintendo’s Genki Yokota and Kenta Nakanishi.

According to Nakanishi, with the marriage system in Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, it took quite some time before players could actually marry someone and have children. The Emblems mechanic for Fire Emblem Engage was ultimately about wanting to have “pairing” gameplay that can be enjoyed more casually. 

Here’s the full excerpt from the interview:

Nakanishi: The idea of the Emblems came up when we were discussing the core gameplay of this title. During those discussions, the marriage systems in Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, Fire Emblem Awakening, and Fire Emblem Fates were brought up. In Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, the marriage system allows the characters to get married and have children who inherit the abilities of the parent characters. Players can come up with their own pairs and develop those child characters. However, you had to play through the game to a certain point first before you could get married and have children, so it took a very long time until players could see the outcome of the pair they chose.

Yokota: Even if you think later, “Actually, pairing these two together instead might be better”, you pretty much have to go back to the beginning and start over.

Nakanishi: So, to let players enjoy this “pairing” gameplay more casually, we came up with this idea of “Emblems”. We mentioned earlier that the player would travel in search of 12 Emblem Rings. Characters equipped with the Emblem Rings can make the Emblems – the heroes from other worlds – appear and synchronize with them to fight together.

On top of that, characters synchronized with Emblems can also “Engage” – or merge – with them to use special weapons and abilities, as well as powerful attacks. Rings are interchangeable, so players can enjoy more casually trying out different character pairings.

You can check out the full interview for yourself here.