Support NeoGAF

[PK Gaming]

Some of the character art, especially during the summer swimsuit events, has been pretty risque for Nintendo, which is traditionally known as being family-friendly. How do you decide what's appropriate for the artwork in the game?

Shingo Matsushita: If you look at the Fire Emblem series since Awakening, we've had DLC that involved characters in swimsuits. So this isn't exactly a new concept. And, as you mentioned, Nintendo does have a family-friendly image. But within all of Nintendo's franchises, Fire Emblem is generally played by people that are a little bit older. So when we make games for this series, we keep that in mind.

It's not that we're making heroes in swimsuits just to have swimsuits. Fire Emblem Heroes is a game with a lot of deep strategy and gameplay, but at the same time there are a lot of great characters, so we want to give back to the fans a little bit of fan service. This is something we've had a positive reaction to in the previous games. So when it came time for Fire Emblem Heroes, the development team really wanted to include that as well.

We're also talking about the design. When we're thinking about the design for these characters, we're definitely trying to be very careful about it. One thing you could say [is], we're trying to maintain the dignity of these characters that we love. If you think about Fire Emblem characters, a lot of times they can be very serious, a lot of times they're fighting, but sometimes it's very nice to let the characters hang loose a little bit and let their hair down.

It seems that certain teams, like all-cavalry teams, have become quite powerful and maybe overpowered. Is that something you're looking to address?

Maeda: As the development team, what we really want to achieve is something where the players are using lots of different teams or lots of different characters. If we see a situation that appears to be unbalanced, we want to address that by looking at ways to make other heroes more appealing to use. Of course we gather data from the players and how they're playing, and we're able to analyze that.

You mentioned the parties using mounted-type heroes. We acknowledge that, yes, those can be very popular. There are fans out there that are very passionate about mounted parties. But when we look at the data we have, it only seems about 20 percent of the most passionate players are using teams like that. So we feel like it's still a situation where there are lots of different teams you can use and lots of different characters. But we'll continue to look at the data as we move forward.

Gatchapon games are known for suffering from ”power creep," where newer units get increasingly more powerful as compared to units that were available at launch. How will you address this? Will players have to leave their older units behind?

Matsushita: Of course power creep is something we're concerned about. But we are taking action to prevent that from happening. I think you'll see some of that in future updates. While I can't go into what those future updates are at this time, I do want to let you know that we understand that people love Fire Emblem characters, and we do want to respect the feelings those fans have towards those characters.

People want to be able to keep using the characters they love. So I think going forward, of course you'll see some characters that look really strong, but you'll still be able to use the characters you have from the beginning that you really love. As a side note, I am a huge fan of Ephraim, and if I couldn't use him anymore, I'd be really sad. That doesn't go just for me, but the rest of our development team, who have characters they love. So it's something we think about as well when we're working on the game.

Boons and banes are a controversial topic within the Fire Emblem Heroes community. There have been many requests to have the option to change a unit's boons and banes. Is this something you would be open to?

Matsushita: We have heard fans' opinions about the individual stat differences on summoned heroes. This is something we're looking into right now. The stat differences was definitely something that we had planned. We had expected players to make the best use of these. But we do know that there are some fans who would like to be able to change the individual stats that get increased, the boons and banes. However, if we had that it could also lead to some other problems. So it's something we're still looking into.

Sacred coins were introduced several weeks ago, but their purpose is still unknown. Could you shed some light on that?

Matsushita: I'll ask you to wait until October, and you'll find out then. But there's no disadvantage to collecting them now, so keep at it!

And my favorite:

Players seem to be frustrated with the experience of summoning colorless units, given that many of these units are not very powerful or useful. Is this something the development team is working to address?

Maeda: We do acknowledge that it seems that healers from the colorless heroes are not as popular as some others. We are thinking about some ways that we could address this.

More at the source

 

[Semajer]

It looks like they're at least aware of the problems people have with the game, hopefully they'll be able to offer some solutions.

 

[Zebetite]

all-mounted teams being OP just means its a regular old fire emblem game, i dont see why that necessarily needs to change

 

[Kamek Koopa]

Being honest I'm not sure if they really keep in mind that their public is a bit older than the standard Nintendo player when the story of some of their last Fire Emblems is that dumb and corny and their characters and dialogues that childish.

 

[Falchion]

That's a refreshingly honest answer about the swimsuits. He's like, our fans like it and it makes money.

 

[Tripon]

Maeda: We do acknowledge that it seems that healers from the colorless heroes are not as popular as some others. We are thinking about some ways that we could address this.

Yes, because the devs gave a 50% attack nerf across the board for healers. You have to have Wrathful staff just to unnerf them.

 

[poodaddy]

Being honest I'm not sure if they really keep in mind that their public is a bit older than the standard Nintendo player when the story of some of their last Fire Emblems is that dumb and corny and their characters and dialogues that childish.

All of this is so true it hurts. The games are extremely anime.

 

[HawthorneKitty]

It sucks that Nintendo ip seems to be a closed garden on mobile games, even to themselves.

 

[Zolo]

Being honest I'm not sure if they really keep in mind that their public is a bit older than the standard Nintendo player when the story of some of their last Fire Emblems is that dumb and corny and their characters and dialogues that childish.

I'd argue that's likely a mix of a lack of writing talent as well as trying to stay 'safe' with stories.

 

[Crayolan]

lol I love the swimsuit answer. Pretty much "we know our fans."

 

[SatoAilDarko]

I remember seeing this image a while ago:

Despite the controversy about the book slider and covering up Lynn XBX was by free with the skimpy outfits. Helped there was like a hundred different clothing options and nothing special was really highlighted about the swimsuits. It wasn't like there was a quest devoted to them. You can buy some and find some in chests.

 

[Zolo]

I remember seeing this image a while ago:

Despite the controversy about the book slider and covering up Lynn XBX was by free with the skimpy outfits. Helped there was like a hundred different clothing options and nothing special was really highlighted about the swimsuits. It wasn't like there was a quest devoted to them. You can buy some and find some in chests.

While not at Bayonetta levels, I think XB to Nintendo kinda fits under their older audiences, so they're not as worried about the kid-friendly label with it. Fire Emblem also has more of an older audience than stuff like Mario, but it's still considered one of their more staple franchises.

 

[ggx2ac]

Good questions, too bad they missed a chance at asking about the "anime project success" appearing on Lucina's Lance since they did talk about Choose Your Legends.

 

[Pachael]

That's a refreshingly honest answer about the swimsuits. He's like, our fans like it and it makes money.

Commander Anna is so in-character to deliver this message despite being one of the protagonists in the main story. Mentions or seeking merchandise, taking photos and videos with intent to sell them to boost the warchest(?) in the summer event, etc.