After a supposed insider previously claimed that the next Fire Emblem game has been “finished for over a year”, a leak of alleged screenshots has provided players with their first glimpse at the franchise’s upcoming outing.
Word of a new Fire Emblem title was first given by Emily Rogers, perhaps best known for leaking the first details about the Nintendo Switch prior to its official reveal, back in February of this year.
At the time, in discussion of Nintendo’s 2022 plans, Rogers told the Famiboards forum that “The big wild card is still Intelligent System’s Fire Emblem.”
“Will it be an October 2022 release or an early 2023 release (February/March)?” Rogers rhetorically asked. “I’ve mentioned before that this game is nearly finished with its development. IS has had over 3+ years to develop this game, and they received assistance from a support studio.”
“Let’s rewind the clock back to the year 2017,” she continued. “During that year, Nintendo released TWO Fire Emblem games: Fire Emblem Warriors and Fire Emblem Echoes. Who says history can’t repeat itself again?”
“That said, I could see Nintendo’s marketing team saying: ‘Oh, well, our Fall lineup is already stacked with Xenoblade, Bayonetta 3, etc. Let’s move FE to early 2023,'” Rogers admitted. “But as I said before, in terms of sales, I just don’t think Bayonetta 3 is a big enough title to carry an entire month on its own. Pairing Bayonetta 3 with Fire Emblem would be smart. Pairing Bayonetta 3 with Metroid Prime HD would also be smart.”
Fast-forwarding to June 13th, Rogers later returned to Famiboards to provide users with an update on “the new Fire Emblem Game”.
In addition to revealing that the “upcoming Fire Emblem is a new game, not a remake. Brand new story,” the leaker further detailed that the project would be a “collaboration between Intelligent Systems, Koei Tecmo and Gust (division of Koei Tecmo Holdings)”, with the latter having “heavily assisted with the visuals / graphics,” which “are an improvement over ‘Three Houses’.”
She then explained that that game, which was “originally intended as an anniversary game to celebrate FE’s 30th anniversary” and has actually “been finished for over a year”, will follow a main character with “strange red and blue hair” whose “mother is a dragon” and will feature a “new ‘Emblems’ gimmick” which “allows players to summon ‘FE characters from the past’ for your squad.”
“I don’t plan to share any more details about this game,” Rogers concluded. “Many months ago, @NateDrake teased about ‘red and blue’. Everything Nate has teased about the upcoming Fire Emblem game has been accurate. Please be kind to Nate. His information is good, and he cares about the Nintendo fan community.”
As referenced by the leaker, in January, the leaker known as ‘Nate the Hate’ had claimed that along with a remake of Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, Nintendo would be releasing brand new Fire Emblem game in collaboration with Intelligent Systems and Koei Tecmo some time in 2022.
“New game play concepts are going to be introduced,” said Nate, “and the fact that they have more experience with the engine that they have used with Three Houses means we’re gonna get a higher quality product.”
While some have since assumed that Nate’s leaks were in reference to the Omega Force-developed Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, Rogers’ assurance that he was speaking to a completely new title have led many to reassess their conclusion.
While the story would usually end here, perhaps with a bit of speculation on our behalf, another supposed leak has breathed even more life into Rogers’ and Nate’s respective reporting.
As recently seen spreading across social media, a new batch of screenshots alleged to be from the new game show a woman, as depicted in a Fire Emblem-esque artyle, with bright red-and-blue hair.
The leading candidate for the source of these screenshots is Reddit user /u/miasmadelta, who on June 14th started a thread on the /r/fireemblem subreddit headlined “The new mainline Fire Emblem leak is real – pictures included”.
Begin his post with a recap of Rogers’ claims, the user then added, “I can confirm that this is a brand new FE game, and it has been completed for quite some time now. I’m not sure what the delay has been in announcing it.”
“Interestingly, some aspects of it seem to be reused from the canceled Wii FE game,” said /u/miasmadelta. “Additionally, the rumors of an FE4 remake [Genealogy of the Holy War] are real as well. Gust has helped a lot with this development – if you aren’t familiar with their work, you should take a look at the Atelier games on the Switch.”
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The user continued, “There are many new characters in this game, and I believe people are overreacting a bit about the summoning with thinking of this as a full-blown [Fire Emblem Heroes]-style game,” before turning to announce “Other people with insider information have been mentioning the blue and red haired protagonist for awhile now and waiting for the Direct reveal, I’ve just decided to finally show a bit.
Sharing an Imgur gallery of the alleged screenshots, /u/miasmadelta then declared, “I can’t do a full AMA [Ask Me Anything] or anything, but I wanted to share a bit since there were so many doubts about yesterday’s leak! Now for the fun part, take a look at some of the new characters.”
“These screenshots are quite old at this point, and obviously not of great quality,” they added. “Make of that what you will!”
Apparently taken from a Chinese source, these alleged screenshots show, respectively, a woman with red-and-blue hair standing in front of a desk, the support menu for two knights clad in white armor – one much older and bearing blue and yellow highlights on his equipment, the other younger and wearing equipment trimmed in purple and black – another view of a support menu, and the two knights conversing.
Notably, these screenshots provide a number of interesting details about the supposed title.
In the second image, it’s revealed that players can name the game’s main character, as the red and blue woman is named “WWWWWWWW” – the Asian-internet slang equivalent of “lolololol”.
Further, units seen in the Support menu screens include a rider atop a blue and red dragon or wyvern, the older knight as an axe-wielding Paladin, a woman with blond hair with a crown and yellow dress (possibly with a red fan or bouquet), and a red axe-wielder with a cape (possibly a female Fighter).
In the last screenshot, the older knight, as according to a machine translation of the Chinese text as provided by DeepL, can be seen telling his counterpart, “If Lord Ryodawoner were still alive, I’m sure he would have accepted you with pleasure.”
Those discussing the leak online have been quick to mock the red and blue woman with comparisons to various items including toothpaste, other characters with a predominant red and blue color scheme, Pepsi, Fruit by the Foot, erasers, the Nintendo Switch’ default Joy-Con color scheme, Slushies, and even the US two-party electoral system.
In response to the alleged screenshots, Rogers exclaimed via her personal Twitter account, “I’m just as surprised as the rest of you.”
“I’ve never seen those Fire Emblem (Reddit) screenshots before,” she said. “So, I couldn’t tell you if they’re real or fake. I’m leaning toward real. They look like they may have been leaked from Chinese localization.”
What do you think of the leaksers’ claims? How about the alleged screenshots? Let us know your thoughts on social media and in the comments below!