Hello everyone. My name is Satoru Iwata from Nintendo. Now that Fire Emblem will become available for the first time on the Nintendo DS, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce everyone to all the attractions that this game will offer on a new format. However, this occurred at the same time when I had to head off to the U.S. for the E3 press conference in Los Angeles. With all the demands on my schedule, at first I thought it might be impossible to make this interview happen, but then I came up with an idea.

The idea was to ask Mr. Masahiro Sakurai from Sora Limited to interview Narihiro-san from Intelligent Systems on the exciting developments in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon. I’m sure everyone is familiar with Sakurai-san’s work on Super Smash Bros., and Narihiro-san has worked extensively as producer of the Fire Emblem series. Sakurai-san’s deep familiarity with the Fire Emblem world can be felt keenly through his work on Super Smash Bros., so it only seemed natural to ask him to do the interview. What immediately came to mind was the memory of Sakurai-san singing the Fire Emblem song on stage at the August, 2002 Super Smash Bros. Melee orchestra concert, sponsored by HAL Laboratory.

So while I was at E3, Sakurai-san did the interview for me, and he is about to give you the background and news on Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon. With his passionate enthusiasm towards the game, I’m confident he can get the story from Narihiro-san from a perspective that only Mr. Sakurai can provide, and one that is uniquely different from my own.

Perhaps readers may feel these last-minutes changes are a little sudden, but please make yourselves comfortable and enjoy the interview.

*This interview was held in the summer of 2008, right before the release of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon for the Nintendo DS in Japan.