Fire Emblem Warriors 2 was initially considered before Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes came to be

Fire Emblem Warriors 2 was an idea Nintendo and Koei Tecmo considered before settling on development of Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, it’s been revealed. 

That nugget of information comes from an interview published by Japanese magazine Nintendo Dream with development producer Hideo Suzuki, producer Yosuke Hayashi, and director Hayato Iwata. Hayashi said the team “wanted to make a sequel to Fire Emblem Warriors” and “called it Fire Emblem Warriors 2 as a placeholder name and discussed various directions we could take it in”.

Nintendo Everything’s translation reads:

Hayashi: Our first time working with Nintendo and Intelligent Systems was when we made the first Fire Emblem Warriors. During the creation process, it was brought up that we could also do the next main series Fire Emblem title, and that was Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Development started on Fire Emblem: Three Houses just about as soon as it ended on Fire Emblem Warriors. Once that was over, we decided that since our three companies had worked together for so long and begun to understand each other’s ways of thinking, we wanted to make a sequel to Fire Emblem Warriors. We originally called it Fire Emblem Warriors 2 as a placeholder name and discussed various directions we could take it in, and we decided on making a Warriors title in the world of Three Houses with the current staff involved because of its good reception and because the setting that our companies collaborated to make was one of its strengths. That was what Suzuki, Iwata and I concluded the audience would want the most. So we started by making Fire Emblem Warriors 2 and ended up making Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes from there.

Suzuki: It ended up as the phantom proposal (laughs). The direction may have changed, but we’re fans of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, so we were more glad than anything to have the opportunity to create a Warriors title in that setting.

Iwata also revealed that there was discussion about “possibly introducing characters from past titles”. However, as development progressed, it was decided “to focus on just Three Houses and create a story that could have plausibly happened in that world.”

Had Fire Emblem Warriors 2 happened, it would have been more of a celebration title like the original with multiple games featured. Fire Emblem Warriors represented Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, Gaiden, The Blazing Blade, Awakening, and Fates. 

We’re working on a full translation of Nintendo Dream’s interview with the Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes developers, so stay tuned for that in the coming days.