Character appearances are inevitably decided by their relations

ND: The [character] illustrations are basically based on the original game, but I laughed at Lissa’s picture. That thing she’s holding in her hands!

(Everybody laughs)

Usuda: Because it’s an axe instead of a staff. If Lissa were to be a Cleric as-is like in the original game, she wouldn’t be able to fight, would she? Of course, since we had added Agitha in Hyrule Warriors, we also had the option to use the staff to attack. However, in the end we want staves to be used for healing. Considering there is also a lack of axe characters, and Lissa can use an axe if she gets promoted to War Cleric, we made her to fight by energetically swinging the axe. She also had the same scene in the original game, but we think she’d swing it even more splendidly in a Warriors game.

ND: Well, you cannot even remove Lissa from the character roster in the first place.

Usuda: Yes. Since she’s part of the Shepherds, it would feel weird if Chrom were to appear without her. For example, if only Chrom and Frederick appeared there, it would feel off to us. We also inevitably decided character appearances by considering such character relations.

ND: I see. But it must be hectic to choose characters based on their relationships with each other. You might even end up having too many characters that couldn’t be removed. For example if you were to add Chrom, then how about Lucina?

Hayashi: But actually, we used to stray away regarding Lucina.

ND: And what do you mean by that?

Hayashi: At first there were talks in the development team of, “Should we remove Lucina?” However, after we talked with Nintendo and Intelligent Systems, we reconsidered that, thinking “That’s just not possible after all” (laughs).

ND: Why did you want to remove her?

Hayashi: It’s an obvious thing; it’s not because we hated her or something, but the reasons are because there are already too many sword characters, and because she’s of the children generation.

Usuda: Which means, when we were contemplating on whether to add people from the children generation, if Lucina wasn’t added, then we would’ve come to a conclusion that we wouldn’t add anyone from the children generation.

ND: So it’s the problem of adding how many people from the children generation and their relevance to the storyline. Lucina is a rather important character indeed.

Hayashi: Yes, so we tried talking about that.

Usuda: We had the most extreme problem in deciding characters when such talks came. But we overdid it with Lucina (laughs).

(Everybody laughs)

ND: So what kind of character will Lucina be like?

Usuda: Lucina is Chrom’s child, so they have the same swordsmanship, but they will have their own uniqueness in special attacks. But when we were creating their actions, there were talks that we had to definitely change the standing loop animations between them. That’s why although their actions are the same, they have different standing loop animations.

And the rule of changing the stance for each character started with Lucina. When many characters appear, those in the same class will end up sharing some similar movements. But since we have decided to change Lucina’s standing loop animation, then we also have to definitely make it the same for all characters even if they share the same class. So Lucina created that rule.

ND: So even though you had proposed to remove her, she ended up becoming the core character that creates the rule of character uniqueness.

Hayashi: As a result, the story has become more interesting. Especially when Lucina appears for the first time, we’d expect Fire Emblem fans to give us some (laughs).

Usuda: I can’t say the details yet, but it’ll be in the part on how Lucina shows up.

ND: This pose of her standing illustration is both Lucina and not Lucina in the original game (laughs).

Hayashi: Everyone should know it already, but it’s because at first she used a different name!

(Everybody laughs)

ND: By the way, the heroes are going to gather in the Warriors world from a certain point in their respective original stories. So is it alright for Chrom and Lucina to meet in the Warriors world?

Hayashi: You have a sharp instinct.

Usuda: I hope you can consider that a bit as a parallel world. However we have created it so that it wouldn’t feel out of place with the character relationships in the original game, so we hope you’ll enjoy how the two will interact with each other.

Robin not in the weapon triangle, and Frederick with the axe

ND: Next, please tell us about Reflet/Robin. His illustration looks like his standing pose from Super Smash Brothers for Wii U/Nintendo 3DS.

Hayashi: That’s right. We based him off of the Super Smash Bros. image.

ND: His weapon is Magic Book, so he’s outside the weapon triangle of Sword, Spear and Axe.

Usuda: Of course he could also use a sword other than magic in the original game, but since we already had a lot of swords, he shall mainly use magic as a Tactician, launching magnificent ranged attacks. Reflet/Robin is the first character to use a weapon outside the weapon triangle, so we created him while polishing what kind of traits he should have.

Hayashi: It’s also a good thing that he shouts names of the magic spells in battle.

Usuda: This time, everyone gets to speak quite a lot during the action. They will say something for every action and combo. Reflet/Robin will shout names of the magic spells like “Elfire” and “Elthunder”. The magic book here isn’t divided like the original game, which for example has a book specifically for “Thunder”, so although it’s a single magic book, it can unleash magic skills of varying elements.

ND: By the way, did you also decide Reflet/Robin would appear from the beginning?

Usuda: The flow was from Chrom getting added. After all, if Chrom’s other half is not there, it wouldn’t feel right.

ND: We’re digressing a bit, but if you’re using that logic then wouldn’t that mean all characters that are announced here have been decided to appear from the beginning!?

(Everybody laughs)

Usuda: That’s why it was really difficult for us to select characters. First of all, staff members in our company who like Fire Emblem made a table split by weapon types and ranks from A to C. A is for characters that are popular and important to story. B is for those that are strong or have fond memories. C is for those that would be okay if added. However, eventually for some reason a mysterious S rank got added there.

(Everybody laughs)

Usuda: That rank is for people who would make the game strange if not added. As a result, a lot got put into the S rank (laughs).

Hayashi: Too many characters are in S and A ranks, and a lot more characters are added than usual, so we could no longer add characters from the B rank. That’s why most of the characters had fallen in the battle.

ND: Including the previously announced characters, so far there are no characters that can be removed. I think Frederick is also part of the Shepherds after all.

Usuda: That’s correct. Frederick is not in the S rank, but he was projected to be added in the end. After all, when we are to choose important characters from Awakening, when including relations between characters into consideration, first of all it would have to start from the Shepherds. And the weapon type is also a big factor. When we lined up the character candidates, we didn’t have enough axe characters.

Character-wise, Great Knights have the trait of mounting a horse while armored. I think a lot of people would think Frederick fits with the Silver Lance, but it was a class that could use three weapon types [in the original game]. And since we also have the non-mounted and armored Knight that will use a spear, Great Knights shall end up appearing with an axe.

Besides, his conversations also have things like ‘definitely protecting Lord Chrom’ and ‘picking pebbles’, so due to those easily understandable traits, I had been sure to pick him from the beginning.

Interactions with voice actors, and messages to readers

ND: Are there any things that left an impression to you when interacting with the voice actors?

Usuda: This game is fully voiced, so we talked about wanting to have all of them speak, and gave them very thick script books (laughs). But what makes them all great, although I think it’s an obvious thing since they are professionals, is that they love their respective characters, so they would revise by themselves even though we hadn’t explained things enough. They would ask for retakes by themselves before we could even think about whether to retake or not.

Midorikawa Hikaru-san (who voiced Marth) also said things like, “Is it okay to repeat this once more?” and revised himself four or five times, and he lives up to expectations. We at the booth can only nod, saying “That’s right!” (laughs). We couldn’t help getting excited since this game is also going to be fully voiced.

ND: How did it go with Marx/Xander, who is Usuda-san’s personal favorite?

Usuda: The recording session with Konishi Katsuyuki-san was also really fun. I also pondered “Yeah yeah, that’s right” while listening to the voices (laughs). Even without notes like ‘add a certain emotion’ he could still deliver it, so I think it could get conveyed just by texts on the quotes. He had the best voice.

ND: We also previously talked about including homages from the original games, but does that mean conversations like the ones in the original games will also be fully voiced?

Hayashi: That’s right.

ND: In that case, there would be cases where the voice actors would re-record the same situations in the original games, correct?

Usuda: That’s why they asked, “How should we do it?” “This quote is exactly the same as in the original game, but should I say it the same way, or should I arrange it for this game instead?” Even though the text is the same, the flow would still fluctuate, so everyone is really great.

ND: And thus, the time is up for this occasion. We look forward to the next issue too.

Hayashi & Usuda: Okay!

ND: So finally, please share anything else you’d like to say!

Hayashi: I’m rather unwilling to say this… but there are still many more characters appearing. Please enjoy predicting who are going to appear! There are still more characters appearing from Awakening!

Usuda: We only announced characters from Awakening this time, but I think you should have a good grasp on which characters will be coming. I’d like you to also predict how the roster from Fates and Shadow Dragon will be like from here on! Also, this title, which is fully voiced, is filled with love from not only us development staff but also from the voice actors, so please kindly anticipate it!

Massive thanks to BlackKite for helping with this translation!

Thanks for making it to the end of this post! If you use any of this translation, please be sure to properly source Nintendo Everything. Do not copy its full contents.

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