The Nintendo 3DS had a strong library of games, coming from just about all the company's biggest franchises. Super Mario 3D Land set the stage for 3D World; HD remakes of Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask released; Kirby: Triple Deluxe and Planet Robobot followed up the winning formula of Return to Dream Land on Wii; MercurySteam's Metroid: Samus Returns and Masahiro Sakurai's Kid Icarus: Uprising revived older names; and a host of Pokemon games filled Generation 6 and 7. However, few titles boast as meaningful a story as Intelligent Systems' Fire Emblem Awakening.
Unfortunately, these experiences and more are at risk of disappearing — or at least becoming more expensive at second-hand retailers. Nintendo announced it will shut down the Wii U and 3DS eShops in March 2023, and people have not been shy about criticizing the company's lack of preservation efforts. Without a more robust system to play classic titles, the most fans can hope for is a forthcoming 3DS library in Nintendo Switch Online, or full-priced re-releases. That makes now a perfect time to go back and play Fire Emblem Awakening, as its 10th anniversary highlights what made the experience special.
How Fire Emblem Awakening Brought the Franchise Back From the Brink
Fans of Fire Emblem or Nintendo trivia likely don't need the explainer, but newcomers should know that Fire Emblem Awakening helped save its struggling tactical RPG franchise. Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light first released in 1990, though an official English port of the original Fire Emblem didn't release until 2020 on Switch. The series was popular but remained a Japanese-exclusive property until its seventh mainline entry, Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, released for Game Boy Advance (GBA) in 2003 (just called "Fire Emblem" abroad).
The inclusion of Marth and Roy in Super Smash Bros. Melee helped spur interest for Fire Emblem with Western audiences, though Roy's game, The Binding Blade, did not receive a western release. Rather, The Blazing Blade is a prequel starring the parents of Roy and his crew, including lead protagonists Eliwood, Lyndis, and Hector. This proved successful enough that every Fire Emblem game after (except 2010's New Mystery of the Emblem) would follow suit.
However, the Tellius duology on GameCube and Wii — Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn — were not sales juggernauts. Neither was the remake Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, which is why its sequel New Mystery of the Emblem remained a Japan-exclusive. As the story goes, Intelligent Systems discussed Fire Emblem Awakening being its last-ditch effort, the swan song for the franchise if it didn't sell at least 250,000 copies. The development team went all-out and packed Awakening with revamped ideas from all its predecessors, leading to a blockbuster success which has fueled numerous games to follow — including 2019's Three Houses, the best-selling Fire Emblem to-date.
Fire Emblem Awakening Reinvented Features like Supports
Among the features packed into Awakening were more verbose difficulty options; including "Casual" and "Classic" modes from New Mystery of the Emblem that let players turn off permadeath, and experience grinding by returning to older areas akin to Fire Emblem Gaiden and Sacred Stones. However, perhaps the most well-known addition to the 3DS blockbuster was an overhauled Support and marriage system. Versions of this appeared in the GBA and Tellius games, with other forms of bonding dating back to 1996's Genealogy of the Holy War on SNES, but Awakening made the idea far more ingrained.
Whereas classic Fire Emblem games with Support systems had units build a rapport by fighting alongside one another on the tiled battlefield, Awakening added a Pair Up system in which the paired unit offers stat buffs and the possibility to negate an attack. This became iconic, and Robin's Final Smash in the Super Smash Bros. series references this with Chrom coming to their aid — even before he became a playable fighter in Smash Ultimate. When characters spent enough time alongside certain allies they could unlock Support Conversations with unique flavor text, and a number of them include S-Rank "marriage" Supports.
The stroke of genius in Awakening's marriage system is that, unlike Sacred Stones, characters coming together had a tangible effect on the world. A major plot beat established early on involves the Shepherd army's children coming back-in-time to stop a calamity, and these second-generation units had varying appearances, stat distributions, and skills depending on the player's marriage choices — something not really seen in Genealogy of the Holy War. Fire Emblem Fates' follow-up execution was awkward, involving time-distorting pocket dimensions, but Awakening struck a great balance with its time-travel conceit that led to iconic characters such as Lucina.
The Legacy of Fire Emblem Awakening Should Last Beyond a Decade
Fire Emblem Awakening left a lot to be desired with its Support system, including representation of LGBTQ+ relationships that have only grown slightly with Fates and Three Houses (and these have their own issues with portraying gay characters). Yet, it's just one element in the smorgasbord of features on offer, with everything from weapon and skill variety, to Awakening's three-arc story campaign leading to a memorable — and successful — experience.
This made Fire Emblem Awakening characters an overbearing quantity in future Intelligent Systems projects, even as successors came about. For example, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE is a Shin Megami Tensei spin-off by Atlus that has its characters team up with Mirages based on Chrom, Virion, and Tharja, among others. Three units from Awakening are part of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's roster, and the Shepherds play a substantive role in Koei Tecmo's Fire Emblem Warriors. Lucina was also one of the key units in the first wave of support for Fire Emblem Heroes, a gacha mobile game. She placed second out of every female character in Heroes' first "Choose Your Legends" community event.
Taking this into account alongside non-Nintendo crossovers, like Lucina appearing as an armor set in Monster Hunter Frontier G, shows just how much Intelligent Systems appreciates the financial viability of its series-saving release. There have been long-standing rumors about a Fire Emblem remake coming to Switch, but it would behoove the developer to also ensure Awakening is available beyond its 10th anniversary, even as the 3DS eShop shuts down.
Fire Emblem Awakening is available now on Nintendo 3DS.