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Fire Emblem Heroes

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Fire Emblem Heroes
Original app icon
Developer(s)
Publisher(s)Nintendo
Director(s)
  • Kouhei Maeda
  • Shingo Matsushita
Producer(s)
Programmer(s)
  • Yuji Ohashi
  • Ryo Watanabe
Artist(s)
Writer(s)
  • Kouta Nakamura
  • Kouhei Maeda
  • Satoko Kurihara
  • Yuu Ohshima
Composer(s)Hiroki Morishita
SeriesFire Emblem
Platform(s)iOS, Android
ReleaseFebruary 2, 2017
Genre(s)Tactical role-playing
Mode(s)Single-player

Fire Emblem Heroes[a] is a free-to-play tactical role-playing game developed by Intelligent Systems and Nintendo for iOS and Android devices.[1] The game is a mobile spin-off of the Fire Emblem series featuring characters from throughout the entire series, and was released on February 2, 2017.

Gameplay

See also: Fire Emblem § Gameplay

Fire Emblem Heroes is a tactical role-playing game. Players control a team of up to four characters ("Heroes") against enemy teams of varying sizes on an 8x6 grid map. Different characters have different movement restrictions; for example, armored units have a shorter range than cavalry units, but cavalry units cannot enter forest tiles. Flying units can enter any tile, even ones impassable to all other units such as water or mountains. The game strictly alternates between a player phase and an enemy phase every turn. During the player's phase, his or her characters can attack enemy characters when in range; if both the attacker and defender have the same range, the defender will counterattack if still alive. Heroes deal either physical or magical damage types; they also have a "color" that informs a rock paper scissors-esque system that makes it so some units have advantageous match-ups over other units. After moving and optionally attacking with all their heroes, the enemy phase occurs where the game's AI does the same for the opposing team of characters. The player, in general, seeks to lure enemy units into disadvantageous match-ups by careful character positioning on the map.[2] Unlike other Fire Emblem titles, there is no element of randomness or chance in battles; an engagement between two characters is perfectly deterministic, as is the enemy AI, so a given strategy will either win or lose consistently. Fire Emblem Heroes has a set of "story" missions divided by chapters for the player to complete, rotating challenge missions, a training tower for increasing character's strength in random battles, fights against other players' teams (albeit controlled by the game's AI) in the "Arena", and a variety of other content to complete.

The game's currency are known as "orbs", which can be used to acquire new heroes as well as several other quality-of-life items.[3] Missions cost stamina to play while stamina is recovered over time; the exact cost of missions and maximum of stamina held has varied over the course of the app.[4] Orbs are either earned by completing in-game activities or with in-app purchases.[3]

Upon its initial release date, Fire Emblem Heroes players could potentially access up to 100 distinct controllable units in the game, with players beginning with access to Alphonse, Sharena, and Anna. These three members of the "Order of Heroes" were created specifically for Heroes, with the remainder of the controllable characters being crossovers from the rest of the franchise. Since release, additional characters have been added to the list, including from games that were previously not featured.[5] In general, most characters are gained via a "Summon" tab which works on a gacha system. Orbs are spent on randomized heroes, with some heroes being common and other heroes being rare. Other heroes are gained for free, by completing in-game missions of varying difficulty and effort. If a player gains duplicates of the same character, the duplicates can be merged together to create a single more powerful character.

In March 2017, the game added "skill inheritance", which allows characters to mix skills previously reserved to other heroes: for example, a hero could gain another character's weapon or special ability.[6] In November 2017, the game released "Book II", which included a new animated video, new story missions, added new mechanics, increased the power of some of the weapons and skills perceived as weak, and introduced a new set of Heroes-exclusive allies and villains.[7] By December 2017, the game included more than 200 unique heroes.

Plot, setting, and characters

A sample map in Heroes. The area highlighted in red is the "Danger Area" that shows spaces within enemy movement range. Characters can be selected, and have their statistics and skills shown in the top section of the screen.

The main conflict in Fire Emblem Heroes is a war between the nations of Askr and Embla. The protagonist, whom the player can choose the name of, aids the Kingdom of Askr and its Order of Heroes, whose members include its Commander Anna, Prince Alfonse, and Princess Sharena. Embla is led by Princess Veronica and Prince Bruno; Veronica is featured on the original app icon and prominently in the title artwork. Both sides use summoned heroes from other worlds, with the other worlds being the settings of other Fire Emblem games. In the Book II expansion, two new nations are introduced: the Kingdom of Nifl and its Princess Fjorm, who ally with Askr, and the Kingdom of Múspell and its King Surtr, Princess Laevatein, and strategist Loki, who ally with Embla.[7]

The setting has vague references to Norse mythology; for example, the names of the warring countries are that of Ask and Embla, the first humans, while the Book II Kingdoms match that of Niflheim and Muspelheim. Place names and spell descriptions often include fragments in the Old Norse language, such as rauðr, blár, and gronn for red, blue, and green. The members of Múspell have the names of Surtr, the fire giant; Loki the trickster half-giant / half-god; and Laevatein the weapon.

Development

The game was first announced by Nintendo as the third mobile game made under the DeNA partnership in April 2016, alongside an Animal Crossing mobile game, and was originally set for release that year.[8][9] Intelligent Systems, the studio within Nintendo that has produced the other games of the Fire Emblem series, headed up development of Heroes to ensure it would be a proper Fire Emblem game optimized for mobile devices, rather than a spin-off.[10] The game's title and gameplay details were later revealed during a Fire Emblem Direct presentation in January 2017. Immediately afterwards, Nintendo launched an online "choose your legend" promotion, in which players could vote for various characters from the series to be included in the game. The game was released in 39 countries for Android and iOS devices on February 2, 2017.[2][11] As was the case with Nintendo's previously released mobile game Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes requires players to have an internet connection to play.[3]

Since release, the game has continued releasing new characters and features.[10] Shingo Matsushita, the director of Heroes, compared a normal Fire Emblem game to a movie, and Heroes to a television series; there would be a constant demand for new "episodes", but there would also be a feedback loop between the producers and the players that could affect the initial vision of the product.[10]

Reception

At time of release, Fire Emblem Heroes received mixed reception, according to review aggregator Metacritic.[12] One critic praised the game's casual-friendly design with its straightforward combat and character collection, but did not like the arbitrary play time constraint that stamina limit creates.[16] Criticism of the stamina restrictions at launch were later met by an increase in the Stamina cap as well as a reduction in the Stamina spent to complete missions.[4][7]

During the first day of release, Nintendo reported that the game generated more than $2.9 million.[17] The game also ranked in third place in Japan when the game launched, also making shares skyrocket for the company.[18] In December 2017, it was reported that Heroes had made more than 240 million dollars.[19] Commentators have noted that despite having an install base smaller than Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes is more financially lucrative for Nintendo.[20] The Verge noted this was due both to being a "superior game" to Super Mario Run as well as Heroes targeting a somewhat older audience willing and capable of paying microtransactions for more content.[10]

Accolades

Fire Emblem Heroes won the Google Play Japan award for Best Game of 2017 on the Android platform.[21][22] It was also nominated for "Best Handheld Game" at The Game Awards 2017.[23]

Notes

  1. ^ Known in Japan as Faiā Emuburemu Hīrōzu (Japanese: ファイアーエムブレム ヒーローズ)

References

  1. ^ "Famitsu Interview with Nintendo and Intelligent Systems".
  2. ^ a b Goldfarb, Andrew (January 18, 2017). "Fire Emblem Heroes Announced for Mobile". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
  3. ^ a b c Goldfarb, Andrew (January 31, 2017). "Nintendo's Fire Emblem Heroes is a complex strategy game with a free-to-play twist". The Verge. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
  4. ^ a b Fire Emblem Heroes’ April update adds a huge quality-of-life change: That stamina cap’s going way, way up
  5. ^ Soto, Bobby. "Fire Emblem Heroes releases details on future update". Nintendo Wire. Retrieved 1 March 2017.
  6. ^ Fire Emblem Heroes players already hate the game's newest feature: Inheriting skills could be the last straw for a ton of players
  7. ^ a b c Fire Emblem Heroes' story expands with major update: Introducing 'Book 2'
  8. ^ McWhertor, Michael (April 27, 2016). "Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing are coming to mobile devices". Polygon. Vox Media. Archived from the original on April 27, 2016. Retrieved April 27, 2016. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ "DeNA meeting reaffirms Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing mobile titles for fall release | Nintendo Wire". Nintendo Wire. August 10, 2016. Retrieved January 22, 2017.
  10. ^ a b c d Webster, Andrew (August 30, 2017). "Nintendo's Fire Emblem Heroes has quietly turned into a big hit on mobile". The Verge. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
  11. ^ Seedhouse, Alex (January 22, 2017). "Fire Emblem Heroes Will Launch In 39 Countries". Nintendo Insider. Retrieved February 2, 2017.
  12. ^ a b "Fire Emblem Heroes for iPhone/iPad Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved December 15, 2017.
  13. ^ Quesada, Daniel (February 3, 2017). "Análisis de Fire Emblem Heroes - El juego gratis de Nintendo". Hobby Consolas (in Spanish). Retrieved February 6, 2017.
  14. ^ "Games review: Fire Emblem Heroes is Nintendo's new free app". Metro. February 6, 2017. Retrieved February 6, 2017.
  15. ^ Slater, Harry (February 2, 2017). "Fire Emblem: Heroes Review". Pocket Gamer. Retrieved February 6, 2017.
  16. ^ "'Fire Emblem Heroes' Review: Nintendo's Latest Mobile Game Features Casual-Friendly Depth". International Business Times. February 10, 2017. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  17. ^ "Nintendo's 'Fire Emblem: Heroes' grosses $2.9M in first-day sales". Apple Insider. Retrieved February 17, 2017.
  18. ^ "Fire Emblem Heroes Starts Strongly in Japan as Nintendo's Share Value Soars". Nintendo Life. Retrieved February 3, 2017.
  19. ^ Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Has Made $10 Million So Far, One Third as Much as Fire Emblem Heroes at Launch
  20. ^ Fire Emblem Heroes bests Super Mario Run profits, despite 10 times fewer downloads
  21. ^ Google Play Japan awards Fire Emblem Heroes Best Game 2017
  22. ^ Google Playが選ぶ2017年ベストゲームは『ファイアーエムブレム ヒーローズ』！　『バンドリ！ガルパ』はユーザー投票部門とアトラクティブ部門で2冠
  23. ^ Makuch, Eddie (December 7, 2017). "All The 2017 Game Awards Winners Revealed". GameSpot. Retrieved December 7, 2017.
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