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Filed under: Industry People, Masahiro Sakurai, Super Bros. Smash For 3DS, Super Smash Bros. (N64), Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Smash Bros. Series

Sakurai Interview: Fire Emblem 25th Anniversary

Sakurai FE

Note: Do not repost the full translation. Please use the first two paragraphs and link to this translation. For additional information, please read this post.

French Translation.

Today, Source Gaming proudly presents Sakurai’s interview from the Making of Fire Emblem: 25 Years of Development Secrets. The scans have been graciously provided by X Kan from Kantopia. If you are interested in learning more about Fire Emblem’s history and development, then Kantopia is the go-to website for it. For more information that has come from this book, check out this compilation post.

Source Gaming will be hosting a live reaction to the Smash Broadcast. Subscribe to us on Twitter and YouTube to stay up to date with information! We will begin an hour before the broadcast begins, and be joined by special guest Tamaki. After the broadcast, the Source Gaming team will begin SourceCast #6, live. Don’t miss it!

SutaMen, PushDustIn assisted with revising this translation.

TL Note: This post was updated with a more clear translation of one line at 1:20AM EST. My apologies! The line is Sakurai’s answer to: Interviewer: Was part of that done to differentiate him a bit more from Ike as well?

The whole story of how Fire Emblem characters appeared in Smash, and their direction

Interviewer: So, can you tell us the story about how Marth and Roy became playable characters in Super Smash Bros. Melee?

Sakurai: Well, I wanted to include Marth in the original Smash Bros. game, as a sword-wielding character. But for Smash 64, there were some features we barely finished in time, and the four hidden characters were created only on the premise of being able to reuse some movements and parts of the models of pre-existing characters, so in the end Marth couldn’t make it in.

Interviewer: As for the rationale behind wanting to add Marth, was it because you felt that out of Nintendo’s many franchises, Fire Emblem is one that should be included?

Sakurai: That is a big part of it, and in terms of character diversity I did want more variation in terms of sword-wielding characters. I thought in comparison to Link—who’s more of a strong, direct swordsman—someone with finesse, a swordsman who relied more on technique, would be a lot of fun. On top of that, when we narrowed the possibilities down to the popular franchises of the time, we felt some restrictions. So among the possibilities, Fire Emblem was a franchise boasting multiple popular titles, and I thought there was more than enough value in including a character from Fire Emblem. So, in the next installment, Super Smash Bros. Melee, I had decided to include Marth at the start. Then, while thinking about a potential clone character, Roy came up. His game was in development at the time, and so he was added.

Interviewer: And Roy was a character who appeared in Smash before he appeared in his own game, but was this a proposal on your end?

Sakurai: No, I wasn’t privy to any release dates or anything like that, so that was something that simply got decided during meetings. To tell you the truth, Binding Blade was scheduled to release before Melee (laughs).

Interviewer: It seems that due to a variety of factors, Binding Blade actually underwent a title revision as well. You can sort of tell from some conversations in this book, with Mr. Narihiro and Mr. Higuchi.

Sakurai: On that topic, Narihiro said in his interview that “Sakurai was angry,” but…I wasn’t that angry (laughs).

Interviewer: The direction the character was going in changed two or three times, and his outfit was also changed three times—or so I’ve heard.

Sakurai: When I first heard a description of Roy’s character, I felt he was a bit more energetic, had a bit more strength inside of him. So, in comparison to Marth, whose sword is stronger at the tip, I made Roy’s sword stronger near the hilt, which I felt made them feel very different. But I played Binding Blade, and he’s really not like that at all!

Interviewer: (laughs)

Sakurai: In terms of personality, he’s mostly the same as Marth. But in Melee, Roy is expressed as a very strong character because that’s how I envisioned him during the development phase. I just want to make it clear his representation in Melee is not because I didn’t understand his character (laughs).

Interviewer: But, because that impression is so strong, I feel like Roy’s image has an element of wildness, or mischievousness.

Sakurai: He has a sense of hidden power, I think. And, this time, when I was redesigning him for Smash for 3DS/ Wii U, I had him sometimes hold his sword with a reverse grip. I thought that would strengthen the image of him getting close to his opponent and hitting them with a lot of power. I used his Melee design as more of a suggestion, and remade many aspects.

Interviewer: Was part of that done to differentiate him a bit more from Ike as well?

Sakurai: If I had to say, I felt that if I was going to make Roy, I had to make him properly. If we’re going to have several characters all of the same type, then they’re not going to be clones, because we don’t need that overlap.

Interviewer: In Smash, a lot of Fire Emblem characters have “counter” moves. Is there a reason behind that?


Sakurai: That comes directly from the Fire Emblem games. In Fire Emblem, first you have your attack phase, and then the enemy attacks. That pattern repeats itself, so to express the nature of those battles, I gave them counter moves…although Robin doesn’t have one (laughs). Robin doesn’t seem like a counterattack-type character to me.

Interviewer: Robin is a character who’s more about ranged attacks anyway.

Sakurai: Moreover, I thought it would be more fun to include an attack that can absorb percentage, like Nosferatu. Of course, the initial tactician class can’t use Nosferatu. But Ike doesn’t use projectile attacks with Ragnell, either, so it’s all part of balancing the game. Knowing the source material and then making each of the fighters unique is how they ended up the way they are today.

Interviewer: I think that Smash characters are designed in a way that’s very conscious of the entire worldwide audience, but at first Fire Emblem wasn’t even a series that had been released outside of Japan. Were there some difficulties trying to include Marth, who hadn’t ever made an overseas appearance?

Sakurai: Yes, there were a few, but I was certain he would be a fun character, so I pushed hard for Marth. For Roy, I think there was some discussion and internal dispute. For example, their voices are both Japanese even in the international releases. That’s pretty rare, I think. Well, other than Pikachu.

Interviewer: (laughs)

Sakurai: During development, I also had meetings with NoA. We talked about removing Roy for the NA release, but in the end they said, “He’ll be fun, so let’s leave him as is.”

Interviewer: As a result, there are a lot of people who were first introduced to Fire Emblem through Smash. What do you think about the impact the game has had?

Sakurai: It’s a give-and-take relationship. It’s not limited to Fire Emblem; this happens with a lot of series. It’s less about one series helping the other, but more of a reciprocal relationship. It’s important to pin down what makes a game or character fun, but because every fan will interpret that differently, I think it’s important to really tread carefully and make sure there are as many good outcomes as possible.

Playable fighters in Smash are influenced by the “trends of the time”

Interviewer: In Smash for 3DS/ Wii U, there are far more Fire Emblem characters on the roster than in previous games. How did you go about the selection process for these characters?

Sakurai: It really depends on the situation. For example, Roy and Robin were included for completely different reasons. It also depends on luck, of course. Industry trends around the time when development begins is a pretty big factor. I started development on Smash for 3DS/ Wii U right after I’d wrapped up Kid Icarus: Uprising, and Fire Emblem Awakening was released one month after Uprising. So what’s popular around the time when I begin designing the game is important. Characters are almost never added after I’ve completed the project plan for Smash.

Interviewer: So once that project plan is set into motion, everything is already fixed.

Sakurai: If I had to offer up one exception from this time, it would be for Pokémon. We knew there was going to be a new release soon, so we left one spot open for a new Pokémon, and everything else continued according to plan. Adding or removing during the process directly impacts production costs and people’s workloads, so it’s not that easy to add or change things, and we take that into account.

Interviewer: That’s a separate topic from post-release add-on content (DLC), though.

Sakurai: We don’t think about adding in post-release content from the beginning. We want to provide as much as we can with the base game.

Interviewer: But that means Awakening’s release schedule was pretty fortuitous.

Sakurai: Yes, that was the case. For example, if Awakening was released six months later, Robin may not have made it in, and if it was six months early, they might not have even been considered.

Interviewer: Was Lucina in a similar situation?

Sakurai: Yes, that applies to Lucina as well. How much a character will please the players, how unique they are—there are a lot of factors that go into deciding a character’s inclusion. I don’t know whether Fire Emblem will have many more games in the future, but it’s not as if we have a stipulation that says “we have to include the protagonist of the next Fire Emblem game.” Moreover, we don’t even know if there’ll be another Smash game.

Interviewer: You do say that every time, though, so I do wonder if maybe it’ll just keep on going forever.

Sakurai: And I’ll become the Smash craftsman? (laughs)

Interviewer: Yes. After all, including the DLC, you’ve been involved with Smash since the beginning.

Sakurai: Well, DLC is coming to an end soon, too, y’know.

Together: (laughs)

Interviewer: By the same token, I think there are a lot of people who want you to make a new original game.

Sakurai: It’s pretty difficult. If I keep making Smash, I get to work on interesting things like Ryu, but if I leave, I don’t know if the staff could do it by themselves.

Smash for development secrets: emotional moments with Roy’s VA, Jun Fukuyama

Interviewer: Is there anything you want to talk about regarding the development of Fire Emblem characters?

Sakurai: I have one story, about re-recording Roy’s lines for Smash for 3DS & Wii U. At the time of Melee’s recording, Jun Fukuyama wasn’t as famous as he is now, and it had only been about three years since his debut, I think. But he remembered that one- or two-hour recording session in amazing detail. Like knowing who the other voice actors were, for example. Actually, at the time, Roy’s name was “Ike.” It was eventually changed to “Roy” later, but he even remembered a minor detail like that.

Interviewer: Wow, that’s an interesting story.

Sakurai: That’s almost 14 or 15 years ago. But he remembered every detail, and he said it was a very fun recording session he remembered this whole time. Now he’s an incredibly popular voice actor, so he’s probably had a lot of memorable roles, but I was deeply moved the fact that he remembered this short, two-hour session after all this time.

Interviewer: Were there any differences in the recording between then and now?

Sakurai: His vocalization was slightly different. It’s been awhile, so higher-pitched sounds he could do back then are a bit harder for him now, so he did have some difficulty with that.

Interviewer: Midorikawa, who was the voice of Marth, wasn’t contacted after Brawl, so he thought Marth wasn’t going to be in the latest Smash.

Sakurai: The thing is, his lines in Melee were so great, I thought “there’s no topping this,” so I am sorry, but I didn’t think re-recording was necessary.

Interviewer: Midorikawa said that his voice was younger back then, so he wanted to try doing his lines again now, to voice lines that would befit his cooler visual look.

Sakurai: If there’s a next time, I’ll keep that in mind (laughs). I’m very grateful he keeps us in mind every time there’s a release.

Interviewer: As a closing topic, since this is the 25th anniversary of Fire Emblem, I was wondering if you had any words for fans of the series.

Sakurai: I was playing the first one when I started working, so that would mean it’s been a quarter-century since I joined the game industry. The amount of work is pretty harsh… Recently, my vision has been getting worse as well…anyhow, leaving that aside (laughs). But, being able to take these characters who first appeared so long ago, and to be able to keep using them and share them with the current generation is, in my opinion, a blessing and a really fun job. Fire Emblem is changing and evolving with entries like Awakening and Fates, and I’d love to keep an eye on this evolution now and in the future.

Interviewer: And about the future of Smash…?

Sakurai: Who knows…?

Interviewer: (laughs). Thank you very much for your time.

Soma

22 comments
  1. Excellent work as usual on the translation, guys. I’m glad there was some nice information in there for everyone. : )

    xkan on December 13 |
  2. Well, that confirms the fact that DLC is going to an end.

    it has been a good ride…

    Logo on December 13 |
  3. All good things must come to an end, I suppose. It was a wild ride, guys.

    Neoxon on December 13 |
    • Congrats, you are the 2,000th comment on Source Gaming!

      PushDustIn on December 13 |
  4. You know, he really does seem to have a soft spot for Fire Emblem. There must’ve been something he saw in the series that made him feel it was worthy of more attention than the niche series it started out as.

    With how successful Awakening and Fates have been, it seems like he succeeded.

    Delzethin on December 13 |
  5. “But for Smash 64, there were some features we barely finished in time, and the four hidden characters were created only on the premise of being able to reuse some movements and parts of the models of pre-existing characters, so in the end Marth couldn’t make it in.”

    That’s an interesting revelation. So Jigglypuff was included due to similarities to another character…but then, so were the other 3 unlockables.

    Igiulaw on December 13 |
    • Not quite, Jigglypuff and Luigi were most liekly based off of other characters, and i have no diea about Ness, but Captian Falcon’s was most likely ripped from the original fighters in Smash Bros before they decided on Nintendo characters – the prototype characters for Dragon King: The Fighting Game.

      spikeylord on December 13 |
      • Falcon also shares several animations with Samus, though.

        Spazzy_D on December 13 |
  6. I wonder what exactly Sakurai means about DLC ending soon. Does “soon” mean just a few weeks, or several months? Could it be yet another one of his defensive statements that he ends up surpassing? Remember, he originally said he wasn’t sure if he’d make another Smash game…and then he did. He didn’t think his team would make very much DLC…and now look at it all.

    Delzethin on December 13 |
    • Worth considering that if they really did wait until the Ballot closed to start working on characters from it, the earliest the first of them could be ready would probably be around February…

      Delzethin on December 13 |
    • Soon probably refers to one to two months if you go by Mewtwo’s release and when he said soon.

      Source Gaming Team on December 13 |
  7. (laughs) – Sakurai,Masahiro

    Mikael on December 13 |
  8. Great interview. Thanks for translating. I would love to see his thoughts on other series represented in Smash Bros as well.

    gojiramon on December 13 |
  9. while it’s true some of Falcon’s moves came from Samus, people say Falcon also got his moves straight from Dragon King…

    can anyone here confirm this, because during the E3 Treehouse Live i remember Shiggy saying Fox’s creation was based on those foxes of the Shinto lore stuff making him responsible for the Fire Fox idea and possibly Falcon’s moveset and Falcon Punch. (already obvious Fox’s moveset is inspired by the arwing’s techniques and the blaster in the multiplayer)

    i honestly think Falcon’s moveset is based on what his vehicle can do in F-Zero and how he’s a bounty hunter for the GF.

    UP+B: jumping off ramps
    DOWN+B: Boost Power
    Side+B: blasted off of by mines
    Neutral+B: how hard you hit the opponent on the track

    from the wiki:

    While Fire Fox (and clones thereof) is unique to Smash Bros, the way Fox is surrounded by flames while executing the move is similar to how a spaceship enters a planet’s atmosphere. As Fox hails from Star Fox, a video game series about spaceships, this would make plenty of sense. Alternatively, the move’s fiery nature may be related to the powers of the fox-like creature of Japanese myth, the kitsune; Fox’s creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, confirmed that Fox’s creation was partially inspired by the foxes of Fushimi Inari-taisha.

    In Star Fox 64 3D, an aesthetically similar power-up called Firebird and exclusive to Battle Mode had been introduced, over ten years after Fire Fox being featured in Super Smash Bros. It is a very rare power-up that makes the Arwing surround itself by flames; it is extremely powerful, instantly destroying any opponent entering in contact with the user. However, it is unknown if the Firebird power-up had actually been inspired from Fox and Falco’s up special move from the Super Smash Bros. series, or if it is just a coincidence.’s Firefox attack was his idea and is basd on those shitno myth

    lurker on December 13 |
  10. I’m glad somebody asked about this. There are some REALLY good questions here. IF Marth had got in the first game I doubt people would be so spiteful towards Fire Emblem bring prioritized because it would also have started Smash. I find it funny he says Fire Emblem protagonists are not always added because they can be. Maybe the next Smash will break the “trend”.

    The end of the interview honestly implies to me Sakurai will be back for the next one.

    Another note: the part where he says everything is locked in still leads me to think that Chrom was never ever passed beyond “Hmm Chrom? NAH!” It sounds to me like Chrom was only intended to be Robin’s final smash and nothing more. Not sure if anyone will agree though.

    haruhisailormars on December 13 |
    • I remember reading in another interview that his techneice is that he picks out a bunch of characters and then scraps them off as he makes them, its quite possible that he wanted Chrom in but changed it to Robin at just the appropiate time! 🙂

      Alienrun on December 14 |
  11. I feel like sometimes the community doesn’t give Sakurai and his team enough props for knowing what people like and/or want and knowing what he can actually achieve in the allotted development time. He always seems so passionate about game design and history of gaming.

    Also I am curious why people are so shocked by the revelation that DLC is ending soon- we knew it couldn’t go on forever and the game is getting a bit long in the tooth for an AAA game.

    DonkaFjord on December 13 |
  12. So Roy was originally called Ike… “We like Ike” and “Roy’s our Boy” will never sound the same.

    DekZek on December 13 |
    • Ike’s our bike

      Logo on December 28 |
  13. Awesome article, I also loved the concept art on kantopia.

    Ar on December 13 |
  14. Fire Emblem & Kid Icarus, the only 2 franchises that exist to Sakurai.

    J. G. (@GeneralRayburn) on December 14 |
  15. “It’s pretty difficult. If I keep making Smash, I get to work on interesting things like Ryu, but if I leave, I don’t know if the staff could do it by themselves.”

    So does this mean he’ll keep making Smash as Smash 5 may come sometime in the future? Now that’s great! Unless he doesn’t push himself over too much if he doesn’t hurt himself. But I’m still wondering about the Kid Icarus’ sequel…

    zoniken on December 14 |