Over the years, Tecmo Koei’s Warriors franchise has found itself being the basis for many licensed games, often for those related to anime. One of its most successful licenses though was the Wii U’s Hyrule Warriors, a game based on Nintendo’s Zelda franchise. This title did remarkably well in the west and spawned a handheld Director’s cut version of the game with Tecmo Koei expressing interest in potentially adapting one of Nintendo’s other major franchises. The two examples they listed were the Super Mario and Pokémon franchises; however there is one series that would fit the Warriors mold even better than Zelda did: the Fire Emblem franchise.
Fire Emblem is already a series based around colourful characters fighting in a deadly medieval war. Spanning over 14 titles and about 30 characters in each game to chose from, there is plenty of variety to be had in order to make an interesting cast. But, with this many characters, it can be a challenge trying to figure out who will make the cut and who will be waiting on a sequel. After talking it over with Kantopia, someone very familiar with the Fire Emblem series, I have narrowed down my picks to these 20. Enjoy.
So you might be wondering (or furious) how I chose these characters and why I settled with only 20. Don’t worry I shall explain, starting with the latter. When analysing the first entry to many of Tecmo’s first licensed Warriors games I noticed a remarkable pattern. Almost all of them start with approximately 13 characters in the base roster. If they are successful enough to get DLC, they often come in roughly 4 different packs. Lastly there are usually enemy characters that are not made playable at first but then over time are upgraded (although not necessarily all of them). With this all in consideration, and the patterns presented by Hyrule Warriors, I felt 20 made sense for a first title.
So why these characters? Well I will go into more detail for each one below but for now I will say why I picked these games. I could have gone the Awakening route by only having the main character of each title be made playable but I felt that was too easy and boring. Plus it would rule out any chance for any interesting side characters to appear. Instead I opted to go the Hyrule Warriors route with 3-4 games being represented in the base game with one as DLC. So of course I had to pick the very first game and the very latest game in the series for this. One for heritage and one for relevancy. Awakening squeezed in as it was the big turning point for the series. Although Awakening was intended on being the final Fire Emblem game it ended up being many people’s first. It propelled the series into a position of relevancy for Nintendo and so it made sense to include it. Path of Radiance then made it in purely because of its two characters and I will explain this in more detail below. For now let’s take a look at these 20 and talk about how they might play, starting with the Hero King himself.
Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem
Marth
| Class: Lodestar |
Starting us off we have the original protagonist of the Fire Emblem series and one of the most well-known characters, at that. Appearing in more games than any of the others, he secures his space on the roster. His fighting style is that of a fencer. He elegantly maneuvers through the battlefield cutting down foes left and right. Marth would be the starting character and thus an easy character for beginners to play. |
| Weapons: Swords | |
| Best Weapon: The Falchion |
Caeda
| Class: Pegasus Knight-Falcon Knight |
The deuologist of Mystery of the Emblem and the first female protagonist, Caeda is Marth’s childhood friend and future love interest. She was the original Pegasus Knight and so it only fits to have her represent them in this game. As a flying unit, Caeda specializes in aerial fights with her lance allowing for distances strikes. Potentially, she could also dismount for some attacks in order to get in nice and close to opponents. |
| Weapons: Lances | |
| Best Weapon: Wing Spear |
Katarina
| Class: Mage – Sage |
Katarina is a character who debuted in the remake of Mystery of the Emblem on the Nintendo DS. There she was a pivotal character to the game’s narrative due to her connection to the avatar, Chris. Katarina comes into this game to represent the mage class, being able to utilize different elemental spells that vary in power and ability. |
| Weapons: Tomes | |
| Best Weapon: Katarina’s Bolt |
Tiki
| Class: Manakete |
The final base character is Tiki in her child form. For her, I am imagining something like a cross between her original appearance and her #FE form. She moves with a skip and a hop while carrying a staff to perform a bit of random magic for light attacks. But her hard attacks can have her shoot fire and turn into a small dragon to destroy opponents with ease. |
| Weapons: Beaststones | |
| Best Weapon: Divine Stone |
Gharnef
| Class: Sorcerer |
The first villain to be upgraded to a playable character, Gharnef is a recurring villain from both parts of the Akaneia saga of the games. He fills the dark mage role that future villains like Iago and Nergal will be based on. Unlike the other dark mage on this list, Gharnef is more aggressive but not nearly as fast, choosing to focus on attacks that are closer and more trap-based than most magic users. |
| Weapons: Dark Tomes | |
| Best Weapon: Imhullu |
Fire Emblem Awakening
Robin
| Class: Tactician – Grand Master |
Now to move onto Fire Emblem Awakening. I had a hard time deciding if I wanted to include avatar characters or not but in the end I felt like the Robins are very much their own characters. Both genders would be available to pick from and would be based on the default look. Robin fights with both a sword and tome, which distinguishes him from other swordsman and magic users. |
| Weapons: Swords, Tomes | |
| Best Weapon: Robin’s Primer |
Lucina
| Class: Lord – Great Lord |
Of course we can’t do a Fire Emblem all-star game without the series’ new pseudo-mascot: Lucina. Although she is meant to be similar to Marth and so you would think that the two of them would play very similarly, for me, Lucina has less experience than Marth and should therefore not nearly be as elegant. Furthermore she was trained by her father Chrom who is more like a cross between Ike and Marth than just a straight-up Marth clone. So Lucina would be more wild with less piercing attacks and more area attacks instead. |
| Weapons: Swords | |
| Best Weapon: Alt. Falchion |
Tharja
| Class: Dark Mage – Sorcerer |
With Tharja’s overwhelming popularity, she seems like a shoo-in, much like Marth and Lucina. She is a Dark Mage who specializes in ranged attacks and damaging from afar, rather than Gharnef’s close-quarters combat. |
| Weapon: Dark Tomes | |
| Best Weapon: Goetia |
Aversa
| Class: Dark Flier |
Aversa is a magic user who also fights with physical attacks thanks to her lance. She can also fly, making her a very versatile character with a strong air game and ranged attacks. But she’s not very precise, going for AoE attacks rather than precision-based ones. |
| Weapons: Tomes and Lances | |
| Best Weapon: Aversa’s Night |
Tiki (Awakening) (DLC)
| Class: Manakete |
The first DLC character on the list. You might be wondering why I have gone for a Midna situation with Tiki having both forms. To be honest, one reason was because I was stuck deciding which version made more sense for the game, but another reason was due to her ability as a skilled Dragon allowing for a different sort of playstyle from her younger form. This version of Tiki is more focused and powerful but not as quick as her younger form. She ditches the light magic to focus solely on Dragon-related abilities. |
| Weapon: Beaststones | |
| Best Weapon: Aged Divine Stone |
Anna (DLC)
| Class: Thief – Trickster |
Of course you can’t do Fire Emblem DLC without involving Anna somewhere. The enigmatic saleswoman will already be in the game as the shopkeep, where you can craft weapons and skills, but now she can be playable. Being a speedy character due to her Thief class, Anna is more comedic in her movements, emphasizing her merchant nature and how she is in this war for profit and not any serious glory. |
| Weapon: Sword | |
| Best Weapon: Levin Sword |
Fire Emblem Fates
Corrin
| Class: Prince – Noble |
The avatar of Fates is even more of a character than Robin and is a central feature to the game’s narrative. Unlike Tiki, Corrin only turns into a full Dragon for his/her specials and magic, instead relying on his/her swordsmanship for regular attacks. However he/she can turn individual body parts into a dragon to fight, much like in Smash 4. Just like Robin, both genders are represented here. |
| Weapons: Sword, Beaststones | |
| Best Weapon: True Yato |
Azura
| Class: Songstress |
The cold and mysterious princess of Nohr, Azura is the deuologist of Fire Emblem Fates who fights with a Naginata and her graceful dancing. She has control over water when she sings so her specials and heavy attacks should take advantage of this as she gracefully dances across the battlefield. |
| Weapons: Lance | |
| Best Weapon: Waterwheel |
Ryoma
| Class: Myrmidon – Swordmaster |
The heir to the throne of Hoshido and a true Samurai warrior, Ryoma hits fast and hard, going for attacks in quick succession as opposed to anything that blows opponents away. With Raijinto, he gets an electrical effect added to his attacks that can stun opponents. |
| Weapons: Swords | |
| Best Weapon: Raijinto |
Takumi
| Class: Archer – Sniper |
The only archer on this list, Takumi is an excellent sharpshooter even though he is a bit brash and hotheaded at times. Takumi sucks at close quarters so it’s best to keep him a distance away from enemies when possible as you fire a volley of arrows into the opposing forces. |
| Weapons: Bows | |
| Best Weapon: Fujin Yumi |
Xander
| Class: Cavalier – Paladin |
The only pure, horseback rider on this list. Xander charges in on opponents with his sword at the ready in order to deliver powerful and force-filled attacks. He can mow down enemies but is a massive target with a short range which can be an issue sometimes. |
| Weapons: Swords | |
| Best Weapon: Siegfried |
Camilla
| Class: Wyvern Rider – Malig Knight |
The only Wyvern Rider on this list, Camilla is one of the few Axe wielders which means she hits hard against enemies. She can even throw her axe like a boomerang for ranged attacks. Some combo-ending attacks will have her use lightning from the sky to shock opponents but it’s only for a few of her moves. |
| Weapons: Axes, Tomes (thunder) | |
| Best Weapon: Aurgelmir |
King Garon
| Class: King |
The great king of the Nohrians and an evil man who doesn’t care if his children fall as long as they are serving him. Garon uses a gigantic axe to swipe through opponents, making him a bit like the Ganondorf or Whitebeard of this game. An overwhelming force. |
| Weapons: Axe | |
| Best Weapon: Bölverk |
Path of Radiance (DLC)
Ike
| Class: Ranger – Hero |
The legendary Radiant Hero in his more youthful days. Ike gets in as he was the most popular Fire Emblem character of all time according to a Famitsu poll conducted in June 2015. While Ike sticks mainly to his massive sword to blast enemies away, he has been known to follow in his father’s footsteps by using an axe, but it is only for some lighter attacks and for some range. |
| Weapons: Swords, Axes | |
| Best Weapon: Ragnell |
The Black Knight
| Class: Knight – General |
The yin to Ike’s yang, the Black Knight is a living Tank on the battlefield who can plow through opponents with his swordsmanship. He will also use Lances on occasion as well for that added reach. The Black Knight was chosen due to being one of the most popular villains of all time, even getting a Mii Costume in Super Smash Bros for Wii U. |
| Weapons: Swords, Lances | |
| Best Weapon: Alondite |
With that you have my roster for the first Fire Emblem Warriors game. I have more ideas for this game that would connect Fire Emblem and the Warriors series to a greater degree, but I will leave those thoughts for another day. For now, I would like to know what you thought about this roster. Do you think it is realistic? Are there any characters you wish I had included or do you wish I had gone about this roster another way? Let me know in the comments below. Also make sure you check out Kantopia’s blog to learn more about Fire Emblem. It is essentially the Source Gaming for the Fire Emblem series providing translations and interesting facts about Fire Emblem’s development and history so make sure to give it a read.
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Hm…. >.>
I’ve been thinking of how a concept like this would work myself, and I’ve got to say 20 seems way too low an amount of characters and should be something more akin to Dragon Quest Heroes, with at least the main lord(s) of each continent in there as well as avatars. Additionally, to cut down on Fates saturation I’d have Ryoma and Xander have ultimate type attacks utilising their respective families.
Also, comedic movements wouldn’t really suit Anna’s style. Although she’s out for profit, at the end of the day she’s still a very capable fighter and I think having her looking silly in battle would be a massive disservice to her character (especially if she were to be DLC, which I’m very much against). Obviously you can tell from my avatar I’m a bit of a fan. 😛
Anyway, I think the concept of a game like this would be awesome, but it would need waaaaay more characters than 20, though I guess you had to limit yourself so as not to make the article too long. Personally, I’d throw in characters (aside from the lords) like Frederick, Jakob, Lon’qu, Basilio, Linde, Erk, Hector, etc.
Well i think comedic would work for Anna. This doesn’t mean she’s not serious or a capable fighter, like she wouldn’t bumble through the stage or anything. What I’m aiming for his the more comedic go-lucky nature she shows off in her support conversations and stuff. Like how she plays both Tiki and Corrin in their supports or how she just randomly has a french accent in those Awakening DLC packs. Stuff like that would transition into the way she moves that gives off more of her personality.
The more characters the better but the issue is that for a first game in a series it is hard. Unless your willing to make characters clones of each other. Then you could have like multiple lords like Marth, Sigurd, Roy, Leif, Erika who all play the same. That might happen in some Dynasty Warriors games when they run out of ideas but I wanted to avoid that for this one and 20 is the average from most Warriors tie-ins. Dragon Quest Heroes for example had 13 characters on the base game and 1 DLC which makes it 6 less than what i have for this game.
This just doesn’t seem right in some ways.
First off: Katarina. She’s basically a no name; the mage spot could instead be given to the much more popular Micaiah, which would also be another rep for Path of Radiance; which I feel this needs.
Aversa and Tiki: ..what were you thinking? Aversa’s great, but very much a minor antagonist, and her spot can be given to a much more popular Awakening character with just as much potential for a good moveset, such as…Chrom. Seriously, dude? Where’s Chrom? He shouldn’t be in Smash, but he’s very much the protagonist of Awakening. You could also feature Lon’qu. Really, we could just make Awakening Tiki an alternate costume for Young Tiki. Remove Aversa and Tiki and replace them with Chrom and Lon’qu; if you don’t want Chrom, hell, even could use Validar.
And then..Where’s Lyn and Hector? Lyn and Hector are faces of the series and would rep Fire Emblem (the game), which was a major release as it was the first one to arrive outside of Japan. You could also feature Eliwood, though the main issue here is the lack of Lyn and Hector.
So, in conclusion. Remove Katarina (I’d say you repped Mystery of the Emblem just enough) and replace with Micaiah (and/or Soren, I’d say), remove Aversa and Adult Tiki for Chrom/Validar and Lon’qu, then add Lyn and Hector.
Otherwise, I can appreciate this roster. Other then the issues I pointed out-which was all my opinion so don’t feel obligated to recitify anything-I’d say this is a good roster.
Also; I think you restricted yourself a bit too much with the pattern. Nothing says things couldn’t change with this hypothetical game.
So first off: as i established the focus was those three games with the PoR DLC. So Micaiah couldn’t be a choice (I did consider her as a DLC candidate at one point though but i’ll discuss that below). Katarina is a key character In Fire Emblem Mystery of the Emblem and a regular mage which I felt was lacking. I also had the problem that most of the characters from the Archanea chronicles are fairly no name. Most are generic and set up the arctypes for every other character in the series. Katarina is one of the few who is important and playable so that’s why i went with her.
Regarding Aversa her inclusion is because of the archetype she represents and her popularity. I would hardly call her a minor antagonist in Awakening seeing as she is the most recurring villain in that game, being associated with all three of the big villains at one point. The three villains represent a different archetype each so Ghnaref is the Dark mage that Validar and Iago from Awakening and Fates also fall under. Aversa is the femme fatal that Petrine from PoR and Arete in Fates cover. Lastly Garon is the big, touch, knight archetype that Hardin in MotE and Walhart from Awakening fall under. I wanted to include all three and wanted some villains so Aversa made total sense. I wouldn’t replace her with Lon’qu or Chrom because I wanted villain characters.
In regards to adult Tiki she wouldn’t work as a costume for child Tiki. Her model is completely different. its why Twili Midna is not a model swap for Midna in Hyrule Warriors. Adult Tiki is the weakest one on the list I admit but Tiki is super popular and fans are divided on which one is better. She is also super important to the story as a whole and in the end i decided to go with both. Thats all.
In regards to Lyn and Hector it is the same issue that I only wanted these four games represented at this time. I did nearly put all three of them in as DLC instead of Tiki, Ike and the Black Knight due to how popular Rekka no Ken is. However Ike and the Black Knight are two of the most popular characters in the whole series and as the characters were the more important part of the DLC I decided to go with those two instead. I went through many alterations with DLC at one point only focusing on the Radiant saga with Ike, Micahia and Sothe until I found out how unpopular that part actually is compared to the rest. Then I went Rekka no Ken but we felt that not having Ike was more of a disservice. Then we thought of doing Lyn, Ike and Sigurd to represent the most popular assets of Fire Emblem but then that would make every DLC character a Sword User and Sigurd would be too similar to Marth. That’s why those were not included. If it was just about my personal favourites Lyn would’ve been on there for sure but as I wanted to stick with this methodology unfortunately she just doesn’t fall into any of the focus games.
Your right anything can change but I needed a set of rules for this article otherwise it would be everywhere and deform into just some really long wish-list.
There are too many plot-relevant characters of interest for Tharja to be worth bothering with. Hell, this roster already has plenty of dark magic users…and blatant fanservice characters.
The abundance of Dark Mages was an issue I noticed and annoyingly just one I wasn’t sure how to fix. Tharja isn’t plot relevant but much like Ike she is one of the MOST popular Fire Emblem characters from Awakening so that was hard to ignore. Both me and Kantopia instantly had her on our list. She beat out many other Awakenign characters onto #FE which also says something.
No Chrom?
He was close to being in. The problem I had was the between Marth, Lucina and Ike who are all more popular than him he ended up not standing out. Its jsut his bad luck unfortunately but then Tecmo might see it differently and have him regardless. It depends on their design philosophy. This same reason is what stopped me from adding Sigurd as a DLC character so not just Chrom missed out.
I never played FE, but… Isn’t it weird for having so many characters from the same game? (Yeah, I know they are the most popular games, but FE fans probably don’t appreciate only awakening and/or fates) It could have more to represent other games, it doesn’t has to be the main character, of course. But I really liked the idea, it’s making me get interested into FE even if I’m not very interested in that genre, and maybe searching more about the games to see if I can try to make my own roster idea. Also, FE fans or not, I believe people who get this game of course will want all the ones that are in Smash. (Roy..)
I didn’t want Smash to dictate which characters I picked. I don’t think sticking to the same 4 games is bad for the first one especially as there is reasoning behind why these 4 were chosen. The issue wit doing every game is that I almost have to pick the main character from each one and they are almost all the same. Most are sword users and Lords who fight with an elegant style. Marth, Sigurd, Seliph, Leif, Roy, Eliwood, Erika and Lucina are all cut from the same cloth. Ike, Alm and Chrom are all similar to each other and use swords. Lyn is a sword wielder but is one based on speed so is somewhat unique. Micaiha, Celica and Lilian are all magic lords. Only Hector, Elincia and Ephraim are 100% unique being an Axe-wielder, Pegasus and Lance-wielder respectively.
Don’t forget that Ephraim has a horse two. Could provide mix-ups. Honestly I think you underestimate these peoples abilities to make characters stand out. Hyrule Warriors had three Links after all, and they each had something different.
They could mix them up a bit and i expect that to make some of my choices (like Marth & Lucina or the two Tikis) feel different despite being similar in idea. There is one thing having one or two characters that seem the same and then having the majority of the characters all identical.
No Elibian characters, what is this!? And while we’re on the subject no love for Jugdral!?
The Elibe series would certainly be the focus for a sequel but for this game they just suffer from not being the most recent, original or best-selling games. They were planned as DLC at one point but Ike shoved his way through. Jugdral as well although Kantopia pointed out to me how IS tends to avoid that series because its original creator left the company. It is also very similar to Mystery of the Emblem in many regards.
I’d be willing to bet people would want Roy as DLC.. Or am I getting my games mixed up again?
Seriously, no playable Crom? …. /jk
haha yeah Chrom was close but between Marth, Lucina and Ike I don’t think he would’ve stood out.
I agree with the concept, but Fates is way over-repped. Ike, for one, should also be in the base game simply because he is one of the most popular “lords.” You could also represent the 6 and 7 era with a mage in Lillian (name’s probably spelled wrong) if you want some variety.
Fates is essentially 3 games with a shared cast so it kind of makes sense to give them the most. It also allowed me to get classes that are not normally the focus like Takumi as an archer. The only other relevant Archer in the series is Innes really but Sacred Stones is not high on a Fire Emblem priority list. Ike not being on the base roster is because its focus is the three games and not every game. If it was every game then I imagine the roster to look like the Awakening character DLC instead. But that would be a boring article.
Doesn’t change the fact that you left out entire games while the money-grubbing scam that is Fates gets more than any other.
If you’re following Hyrule Warriors decisions, why not tertiary and/or irrelevant (that is, from old games) characters? Agitha, Darunia and Ruto (kinda).. I would say Marin, King Daphnes and Medli but you would say they’re only in the sequel.. right? HW also s̶u̶f̶f̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶m̶ has a lot of original characters, maybe this could happen with FE too.
True, Agitha’s probably not winning any popularity contests either.
I’m not following Hyrule Warriors decisions but general Warriors spin off decisions. Zelda only covered a 5/17 games (if you want to count the original Zelda), One Piece only covered 11/24 arcs (at the time), Dragon Quest Heroes only covered 4/10 games (and i am ignoring the spin-offs of which Heroes references none with its cast). There is no reason to expect Fire Emblem Warriors to cover every game.
And I would hardly call the cast of Hyrule Warriors irrelevant. Agitha is the only irrelevant character to her game. Link, Zelda, Ganondorf and Impa are all recurring central protagonists. Sheik, Midna, Zant, Fi, Ghirahim (and lets jump into Legends as well), Skull Kid, Tetra and Daphnese are all primary characters of their games while Darunia, Ruto, Medli, Tingle & Marin are all secondary characters to theirs (and even then Marin could be argued to be a main character in hers). There is a reason everyone guessed Marin for DLC because she is the most important character in Link’s Awakening after Link himself and the Wind Fish (who appears in her moveset).
Original characters could happen with FE but the difference between FE and Zelda or Dragon Quest is that it has a stupid amount of characters to pick from where as Zelda only has a handful of returning characters and Dragon Quest only has about 5-8 party members per-game. Fire Emblem at minimum has about 24 characters per-game.
Anyway you could argue that I did pick a tertiary character in Tharja so there you go.
Tingle sells you maps…not exactly a large role there. He may be well known, but he doesn’t exactly do much.
No Elwood, Hector, Lyn, Nils, Ninian, Erika, Ephraim, Lyon, Elincia, Miciah, Sothe, some of the other Laguz (maybe Ranulf). Solid list but too much from Fates in my opinion. However, can’t really think of any truly significant archers, maybe Shinnon, Innes, or Wil.
Innes is the only truly significant one but Sacred Stones is far down the priority list. The problem was that this focused on the three major games atm (which are also the three most recent series used). A sequel to this would certainly expand on the Radiant series and add the Rekka no Ken series as well. Maybe then Sacred Stones can be DLC with Gaiden.
What, no Sigurd, Chrom, Lyn, Eliwood, Hector, or Lief? But two Tikis? Alrighty then.
Another Tiki made more sense as DLC. If Chrom was DLC then people would complain why he’s not on the base roster. the others were all considered for DLC characters but Ike pushed his series first as he is the most popular Fire Emblem character.
Sir, this is a hypothetical game on a fan website. You don’t have to worry about fans getting mad when this is just a concept from someone who may never work on a game this large.
Ike should have also been in the base game. Hyrule Warriors did a fantastic job of representing a huge cast. By comparison this roster feels far too tame.
You sir bring a really good point
I actually like the idea of a Fire Emblem Musuo game. Although your roster can use some adjustments. It is lacking characters from the SNES to GBA period such as Lief, Sigurd as well as Roy and the fan favorite Lyn and it’s really odd that Chrom is missing. But one thing for sure, if a game like this exists I’m going to main Ike!
It was kind of the point to exclude the SNES and GBA games this time. Structurally I wanted to focus on the three games that are most relevant and the ones most fans will know. I know Chrom missing is odd, it was mainly because he clashed with Marth, Lucina and Ike. Maybe if Ike wasn’t in the Chrom would’ve been but Ike is far more popular (in fact all three are).
The concept is all right, 20 characters is a well rounded number that will allow the developers to incorporate at least 1 of every kind of FE character to the roster.
Quick rapier – Marth
Strong Longswordsman – Ike
Balanced character – Lucina
Mage – Robin (they could be more like a red mage…like sword + magic)
Pegasus Knight – Caeda
Manakete – Tiki
Thief – ??
Axe – ??
and so on.
There are maybe too much “new characters” and some of them will become a footnote soon enough, maybe with a max of 2 per game we could get the essentials to get the 20.
But as I don’t know that much about this franchise I can’t suggest that much characters, but I would like Eirika (The Sacred Stones) as a Horse Rider, and maybe her brother as her assist (This way we could get more characters)
Also, we might get a new lord from a newer game, or even some Original character, like Lana in Hyrule warriors.
Great article anyways =)
For the record the Thief character is Anna and the axe-wielder is Camilla and/or Garon.
I wanted to focus on the new games specifically as they are most relevant and Awakening+Fates are what boosted this series into its current popularity. The issue with 2 per game is that it would be weird to not use the protags but they are all so similar that the roster would be boring.
It is true that we could get a lord from a newer game but i can’t predict that haha
I’m not sure taking the Hyrule Warriors approach and limiting the games characters are pulled from is the best way to go about this. Zelda and Fire Emblem are very different in terms of how they handle their casts of characters. With Zelda you have Link, Zelda, and Ganon effectively able to represent every game in the series. With weapons like the Fire Rod and Wind Waker they were still able to represent games that didn’t a rep in the core cast. You also have some games that are much more story/character focused than others so mainly pulling side character from the games where they played a more prominent role makes a lot of sense.
Fire Emblem completely changes its cast regularly. Every games has worthwhile characters worth representing and denying those characters a spot likely strips the games they come from of any potential representation. In this respect Fire Emblem is much more similar to Gundam than Zelda, which also happens to have a Dynasty Warriors spinoff we can look to for inspiration.
The first Dynasty Warriors Gundam pulled characters from 6 different Gundam franchises. Six also happens to be the number of different “worlds” where the FE games take place: Archanea(1/2/3/11/12/13), Jugdral(4/5), Elibe(6/7), Magvel(8), Tellius(9/10), and Hoshido/Nohr(14). Taking one game from each of these settings would pretty perfectly encapsulate the whole series, some games sharing the same cast makes global representation even easier. That said, you could probably justify including characters from both SD/MotE and Awakening instead of anyone from Magvel due the the importance of both the former and the relative insignificance of the latter.
If I were to pick 6 casts to pull characters from I’d go with:
-Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light/Mystery of the Emblem (the first game and its sequel which standardized a lot of series conventions)
-Genealogy of the Holy War (a fan favorite and the second best selling of the Japan-only games after Mystery of the Emblem (to my knowledge))
-The Blazing Sword (the first international Fire Emblem game and the best selling game in the series prior to Awakening (once again to the best of my knowledge))
-Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn (didn’t accomplish anything terribly noteworthy but the popularity of Ike and the sharing of the same cast across two games puts this cast well ahead of other options in my mind)
-Awakening (a “revival” of the series that brought about a huge boost in relevance)
-Fates (the most recent and thus most relevant game)
I do agree that just pulling the main characters from a bunch of the games isn’t the best option. You’d end up with a bunch of very samey sword lord characters and dark magic-y villains. Trying to represent a wide variety of weapon and class types should take precedence, even if it means some games won’t get their main lord. I would also personally avoid the avatar characters but I guess that’s just more personal preference.
I already spent more time on that last comment than I intended to, but now that I can’t seem to get this idea out of my head. So while I’m doing this may as well go all in and give my alternative take on this theoretical roster including characters from the 6 games I mentioned above. Admittedly I’m pretty clueless when it comes to the Japan-only FE games as well as FE7. Jugdral in particular I know very little about, I’m sure someone better versed in the series could pick some much better reps in that area.
In any case, I came up with a list of what I felt were the most recognizable classes throughout Fire Emblem. My goal was to have at least one character on the roster to represent each of these classes, 17 in total:
Lord
Cavalier
Bow Knight/Nomad
Knight
Pegasus Knight
Myrmidon
Mercenary
Fighter/Barbarian
Wyvern Rider
Archer
Thief
Anima Mage
Monk/Light Mage
Dark Mage
Priest/Cleric
Beast Shifter
Manakete
Dancer
I also decided a character could rep a class without actually being a member of that class. For example Lyn isn’t technically a Myrmidon, but she’s close enough in her stat-spread, weapons, and animations that I feel she can adequately represent the Myrmidon fighting style. With those rules in place this is what I came up with:
Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light/Mystery of the Emblem:
Marth (Lord/Sword)
Caeda (Pegasus Knight/Lance)
Tiki (Manakete/Dragonstone)
Gharnef (Dark Mage/Dark Magic)
Not much change here, just minus Katarina. Marth, Caeda, and Tiki are all probably the most iconic members of their respective classes. I went with kid Tiki over Awakening Tiki since Tiki is much more relevant in FE1/11 and FE3/12 than Awakening where they kinda seemed like an afterthought. Gharnef also sticks around as the og evil dark mage, an architype that appears in just about every game.
Genealogy of the Holy War:
Sigurd (Cavalier/Sword, Lance)
Leif (Cavalier, Bow Knight/Sword, Lance, Axe, Bow, Anima Magic)
Julius (Anima Mage/Anima Magic)
Here’s where my lack of Jugdral knowledge shows. Sigurd fills a similar role to Xander in Nantendo’s list and represents the first generation of Genealogy. Leif is a bit odd here. I’m basing him off the Master Knight class for this roster which lets him use every weapon type (though I toned it down a bit here). He’s mainly there to rep horse mounted archers, and to a lesser extent horse mounted magic users. Why Leif when he’s probably better known as unmounted sword user? Simply because I couldn’t come up with anything better. I’m unaware of any bow knights who are also at least decently important to their game’s plot within the 6 games I’m using. Leif himself is a noteworthy character if nothing else, showing up in two games and even being the main lord in one. This way he can at least be more unique than he would be if he was just another unmounted sword lord. Julius is the main villain of the game’s second half and would be more heavily focused around the elemental anima magic in spite of his ability to also use dark magic in the game proper.
The Blazing Sword:
Lyn (Myrmidon/Sword, Bow)
Hector (Knight/Axe)
While Eliwood is probably the most important of this game’s 3 lords I felt both Lyn and Hector bring a lot more to the table. Lyn as mentioned earlier is a perfect fit for the myrmidon fighting style and can also use a bow to further set herself apart from the other sword lords. Hector is both an armored unit and an axe user, two things you almost never see on a main character in fire emblem, let alone a Lord.
Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn:
Ike (Mercenary/Sword, Axe)
Micaiah (Light Mage, Cleric/Light Magic, Staff)
Skrimir (Beast Shifter/Strike)
Black Knight (Knight/Sword, Lance)
Ike and Black Knight stick around due to their immense popularity. If Ike’s harder hitting but slower fighting style from Smash is carried over to this game I believe he could pretty adequately represent the mercenary class. Micaiah is a lord introduced in Radiant Dawn and is pulling double duty on this roster, representing both light magic and staves. Skrimir represents the laguz of his own games and the beast shifters of Awakening and Fates. I thought a laguz should fill this role as they played a bigger role in their respective games than the taguel, wolfskin, or kitsune. Deciding on which laguz to use was a bit of a trial. I decided it should be a beast laguz over a bird or a dragon to better represent the beaststone users of later games. I went with Skrimir due to his status as a royal but Ranulf could easily replace him.
Awakening:
Lucina (Lord/Sword, Lance)
Basilio (Fighter/Axe)
Gangrel (Thief/Sword)
Awakening was an odd spot for me. I kept Lucina on account of her growing popularity and Intelligent System’s continued pushing of her as a series icon. Gangrel replaced Aversa due to needing a thief as well as his status as main villain for at least the first third of his game whereas Aversa is always an underling to someone else. Basilio is a choice I’m still on the fence about. He’s there because I could not for the life of me come up with another character to rep the fighter class. I felt like Hector didn’t really have the essence of a fighter/barbarian despite being an axe user, and also felt the class was too important to the series to leave unrepped. Basilio might be the most plot relevant fighter in any Fire Emblem game, which is pretty sad since he’s still very much considered a supporting character. He is at the center of one of the most significant plot developments in the game, and the reveal that he’s still alive after Valm assures the cast that they can indeed change their future, a big theme of the game’s narrative. I’d probably feel better about his inclusion if he was playable for more than like 2 chapters and actually had some supports though.
Fates:
Azura (Dancer/Lance)
Takumi (Archer/Bow)
Camilla (Wyvern Rider/Axe, Anima Magic)
Fates was cut down from Nantendo’s roster. The more unique characters were kept while those whose architypes could be filled elsewhere were dropped. We end up with one character from Hoshido, one from Nohr, and one from neither. It might seem a bit odd to not have Ryoma and Xander when they were used so heavily in promotion, but I think Takumi and Camilla’s popularity gives enough reason to include them without the need for their older siblings (Takumi beat Ryoma in the Japanese character poll and I’m told Camilla won the NA one).
General:
Anna (Thief, Cleric/Sword, Bow, Staff)
Anna comes as a sort of amalgamation of her last two appearances, having all weapon types she was given in said appearances. She fills the thief and cleric roles to an extent but would also make use of various non-weapon items.
And I think that’s about the best I can manage with my imperfect FE knowledge.
I would like to point out that Gundam also has 20 characters in its roster which matches up with mine but I don’t know anything about that series and if its characters swap a lot or what. Your way of doing the roster is fine as well. You made room by dropping the Avatar characters and some of the similar esque characters. If I was following your rules though I would make a few alterations.
I would outright drop Genealogy and just focus on the 5 games. Eliwood can fill the role of Sigurd, Katarina that of Julius and then someone from awakening to take Leif’s place (I would go with Aversa personally to get another villain as I would cut Gangrel for Sothe). I would swap Skrimir with Ranulf as he is far popular and more relevant. Maybe even with Lethe although her importance drops off later on. I would also remove Basilo for another Awakening character as i feel Hector can easily fill that role. He may not look it but he is still a big, burly, axe-wielder. So the question is who to add to awakening and this is where the problem lies. Chrom and Robin are the two main cahracters but one is an avatar and the other is too similar to Ike, Lucina and Marth. Tharja is popular but is a dark mage so i can understand why you want to avoid her. Lisa could maybe work but you need to think if she uses axes or light magic. Either is fine. Lisa was close to being on mine as well.
Although in my roster I had to consider who work as DLC as well. Unless you want to pick one of the games to be DLC. Maybe Rekka no Ken and Anna as that would make 4.
Either way I like your roster as well.
As far as I know Gundam has a completely different cast in every individual series, which is why I equate it to Fire Emblem. Your right that I wasn’t really thinking about who would be DLC, but I don’t think 20 is too unreasonable for a starting roster. Looking at Hyrule Warriors is a bit deceptive because some characters have multiple weapon types which give them completely different movesets and effectively change their entire play style. True they probably weren’t quite as hard to make as a totally new character on account of borrowing the same character model, but I certainly wouldn’t disregard them outright. Taking the alternate weapons into account Hyrule Warriors actually does have 20 different character play styles in just the base game, without even including the free DLC for Cia and her ilk.
Cutting Jugdral outright doesn’t really sit right with me given there are two games in its continuity. However on account of the Jugdral games never making it outside Japan cutting its representation down to just Sigurd (as he seems to be one of the more popular and recognizable characters of the era) would probably be alright.
Awakening as I said was weird for me. My original Awakening roster is definitely pretty weak, mainly serving to fill certain archetypes rather than properly represent Awakening (aside from Lucina). In theory I don’t have a problem with including characters like Tharja purely because of their popularity, however when they are the only character in the roster to get in with that reasoning it starts to be an issue. If there were a handful of fan favorite but plot irrelevant characters I wouldn’t bat an eye at Tharja, but I don’t be she’s beloved to the extent that she deserves special treatment not given to any other character in a similar position.
Awakening has an issue of all its main characters not really having much that sets them apart from more recognizable characters from other games. I did strongly consider Lissa but her plot importance kinda falls off after the first third of the game and I felt didn’t didn’t bring much to the table that Micaiah didn’t already cover. I still feel Basilo brings something that Hector can’t by repping the more wild and erratic fighting style of a barbarian/berserker (not his actual class I know but one I think he could pretty easily fill the shoes of). Granted I never played FE7 so I could have Hector pegged totally wrong here. My reasoning for Basilo is similar to yours for Katarina I think. They’re mainly there on account of a lack of better options for their class despite being kinda noname in the grand scheme of things, Basilo on account of being a more minor character and Katarina on account of being from a japan-only remake.
I really wanted to use Sothe originally because he’d be able to use knives rather than sword like most other thieves, but I felt like Tellius was already pretty well repped. If I’m cutting down Geneology though he can probably fit and would be a more true to form thief than Anna or Gangrel. Skrimir seemed to have more pull on the plot in RD than Ranulf which is the main reason I chose him, given I’ve not played PoR. But since Skrimir never appeared in PoR I don’t doubt that Ranulf tops him in relevance when looking at both games together. Ranulf being more popular was also something I was unaware of which makes replacing Skrimir all the more justifiable.
So in essence I agree with most of your proposed changes giving me something like this:
Marth
Caeda
Tiki
Katarina
Gharnef
Sigurd
Lyn
Hector
Ike
Micaiah
Sothe
Ranulf
Black Knight
Lucina
Basilio
Aversa
Azura
Takumi
Camilla
Anna
This seems better, though not without issues. Awakening representation still seems kinda weak (though a big part of that is me refusing to remove Basilio). Marth era Archanea and Tellius kinda dominate the roster though I suppose its somewhat justifiable with their casts being featured across multiple games. Katarina along with Basilio both strike me as weaker choices where I just can’t come up with better options. I’m actually really tempted to cut Katarina for Robin and have them be the pure mage character despite my desire to leave out avatars. Would help fix my issue with the Awakening representation too.
A lot of people semm to be against Katarina because they don’t know who she is but I would like to point out that not only is she important enough to appear alongside Marth and Caeda in some of the games artwork but she is also one of the Awakening paid DLC characters, beating out Caeda, Eliwood, Sigurd, Hector and Lilliana.
Artwork: http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/fireemblem/images/f/f7/Marth%2C_Caeda%2C_and_Katarina_%28Memorial_Book_Archanea_Chronicle%29.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120903065719
DLC: http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/fireemblem/images/a/aa/Katarina_FE13_DLC_Artwork.png/revision/latest?cb=20160615201636
Valbar/Valbo appears on the Boxart for Fire Emblem Gaiden alongside the two main protagonists despite not be any more relevant to the game’s plot then most other units. Showing up in artwork doesn’t automatically equate to importance.
As for the Awakening DLC, they also included all three of the Pegasus sisters as individual characters in separate DLC. I don’t think they’re goal was choosing the absolute best reps possible for the series.
Katarina, while being the most notable of the characters introduced in FE12, is ultimately only important to a sub plot added in the remake.
If you want a character to represent FE12 specifically Katarina’s a good choice as she represent the new things FE12 added in its re-imagining of FE3. Whether or not FE12’s additions to FE3 are themselves worth repping is anouther matter entirely. I’m not sure how well the new content in FE12 was received or how well integrated it was into the main plot. I do know that Katarina was considered an underwhelming final DLC character for Awakening by fans, at least the places I was following. Her detractors in these comments might be a sign she doesn’t have the recognizably to justify her inclusion.
I’m not quite as down on the character as some others seem to be though. I do like that Katarina at least has something, some semblance of importance unique to her. I just don’t believe its all that significant of an achievement relative to the series as a whole. She a character I could live with being in this theoretical game, but not one I’d actively support.
I am rather surprised no one from the GBA era is on that list, especially the characters from Elibe. (FE 6&7)
After all Roy and Lyn have been popular enough to appear in Smash twice. Not to mention Hector is quite popular as well, and wields the huge legendary axe Armads… which somehow turned into a pickaxe in Awakening. XD
I mean sure Elibe reps can be themed DLC, but with Fire Emblem 7 being the first Fire Emblem game to be released outside of Japan, it seems odd not include characters from it.
It all came down to that series not being relevant atm. The 4 picked are the four most recent which include the best-selling games and the most popular character in the whole series (Ike). That was the only reason why.
While I do really like the idea, I think that Katarina, Tharja and one of the two Tikis could be easily replaced with Roy, Chrom and Lyndis.
As a side note, it could be funny if they added the ability to actually control your troops on the battlefield, like real Fire Emblem games.
I really wish a game like that or a Kid Icarus variant was real: I would main Garon for sure!
You could cut the adult Tiki for Chrom but would Chrom make sense as DLC? This is something I had to consider. I only wanted to focus on these three games + Ike which is why Roy and Lyndis did not make the cut.
I think a Kid Icarus variant would work really well but its small cast would make for a coring article. It’s super obvious who would be playable.
It is possible to cut Old Tiki and add the Young one as a DLC, while putting Chrom in the base game or cut Young Tiki and retaining the Old one as a DLC.
This is just personal bias, but I really want to see Soothe. He’s just to cool lol
I almost had Sothe as DLC but him and Anna are the same class and very similar. I like Sothe though.
Just noticed the added irony that Chrom’s on the cover image for this article, yet not on the roster…but Tharja is.
Yeah I know. Nirbion didn’t realise I hadn’t included Chrom. I guess he thought Chrom was a shoo-in haha.
This is a fantastic idea, Fire Emblem characters are pretty suited for a Warriors-style of gameplay. Personally, I would have gone for 2-3 representatives from several games over several representatives from a few, but I understand why you did it the way you did. If you went with my idea instead, you might end up with an over-abundance of sword or lance characters, since most FE protagonists use one, the other, or both in some cases, and it’d be odd to represent a game without its protagonist.
I’m glad you liked it. That was the reason I avoided going in that direction. Well, that and I was trying to avoid just regurgitating the Awakening DLC again haha.
I’m not following Hyrule Warriors decisions but general Warriors spin off decisions. Zelda only covered a 5/17 games (if you want to count the original Zelda), One Piece only covered 11/24 arcs (at the time), Dragon Quest Heroes only covered 4/10 games (and i am ignoring the spin-offs of which Heroes references none with its cast). There is no reason to expect Fire Emblem Warriors to cover every game.
And I would hardly call the cast of Hyrule Warriors irrelevant. Agitha is the only irrelevant character to her game. Link, Zelda, Ganondorf and Impa are all recurring central protagonists. Sheik, Midna, Zant, Fi, Ghirahim (and lets jump into Legends as well), Skull Kid, Tetra and Daphnese are all primary characters of their games while Darunia, Ruto, Medli, Tingle & Marin are all secondary characters to theirs (and even then Marin could be argued to be a main character in hers). There is a reason everyone guessed Marin for DLC because she is the most important character in Link’s Awakening after Link himself and the Wind Fish (who appears in her moveset).
Original characters could happen with FE but the difference between FE and Zelda or Dragon Quest is that it has a stupid amount of characters to pick from where as Zelda only has a handful of returning characters and Dragon Quest only has about 5-8 party members per-game. Fire Emblem at minimum has about 24 characters per-game.
Anyway you could argue that I did pick a tertiary character in Tharja so there you go.
The moment Hyrule Warriors was announced I always thought Fire Emblem Warriors would have made much more sense due to having tonnes of characters and weapons (but brand recognition and marketing, what can ya do?). I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the next Nintendo IP to get a Musou game (plus it might make them ease up with adding too many FE reps in Smash again).
I haven’t played any FE games besides Awakening, but I think this is a pretty poor roster. I get you were trying to mimic what Hyrule Warriors did, but I really think that pattern doesn’t work for Fire Emblem. Zelda has recurring characters and one-off characters. Meanwhile FE pretty much ditches the cast for a new one every time with the few rare exceptions where they make a sequel (Mystery of the Emblem and Radiant Dawn), so it makes more sense to cover more games than Hyrule Warriors did. Also I think holding off someone like Ike as DLC would be a pretty questionable decision, since there will definitely be people who aren’t FE fans but might buy the game for the FE characters that were in Smash.
If I had to choose 20 characters, here would be my picks:
Marth
Caeda
Tiki (young or old, doesn’t really matter)
Celica
Sigurd (originally Eliwood on horse, but Sigurd could do that without overepping Blazing Sword)
Leif
Roy
Lyn
Hector
Ephraim
Ike
Micaiah
Kris (has a bunch of different weapons in a single moveset as a reference to how you can choose his/her class)
Robin
Chrom (with Lucina as a alt perhaps?)
Corrin
Anna (doesn’t represent a specific incarnation)
Kinda having trouble coming up with the last three. There’s only so many ways you can do swordwielders differently so that’s why there’s no Eirika or Alm. I’m trying to avoid giving more than two reps to any era that had only one game, so no more Awakening or Blazing Sword reps.
I feel this roster would cover a wide range of FE games and many weapon types and be a better representation of the franchise.
I feel that the lack of Jugdral, Elibe, and Magvell would hinder the roster more than anything else
like why have Aversa when you could have Sigurd.
why have Garnef, one of the most foregttable antagonist in the series and have Arvis use his Valflame tome or have Lyon join the battle.
I wouldn’t bother with Katrina, I’d just have Lyn in if you needed a female protagonist.
it seems you guys missed the mark on having a token axe user, Hector, my god he is a complete BA in FE 7
and because of my FE 8 bias, Ephram and Erika, just cause
maybe we just need like 3-4 characters from each game
Gaiden needs more love, it’s largely ignored in the FE community as is.
Now this is the game I really wanna see from Nintendo and Koei-Tecmo! I may not know much about the FE series since I haven’t played it before, but making a Warriors/Musou version of this series is one of my crossover wishlists that I wanna see in the future!
I could see the Smash FE fighters Marth, Roy, Ike, Lucina, Robin, and Corrin being the game as they’re recognizable. But not just only main protagonists, but main heroines, main villains, and key persons could work perfectly for the roster. I can hardly tell who should be best as I hardly know much about any characters since I haven’t played the game before, but I think they’ll bring more characters than this roster I guess.
But really, this should happen in reality. I don’t know why Koei-Tecmo’s not focusing on this game that makes perfect sense. I wouldn’t think the FE staffs would mind having their permission of creating it though. C’mon KT, I know you can do it! Make it happen for the FE love and future!!
4/5 right now.