Japanese players will have to dig deep, but will get two radically different experiences
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/40155/new-details-emerge-for-fire-emblem-if
Japanese website 4gamer has provided some additional information about the release of Fire Emblem if, including how the download versions will work and the nature of the game’s 3rd downloadable story.
The Hoshido (White version) route will be similar in objectives to Fire Emblem Awakening and include a world map, while the Nohr (Black version) will not have a world map and feature skirmishes similar to other Fire Emblem games. The eShop versions will download the same first five chapters, then the choice will be made based on which version you purchased and will force a download of that story’s data. Should the owner want to play the other story, they will have to purchase it separately, even with the download version.
The 3rd scenario also had details revealed, which describe it as “halfway” between the Hoshido and Nohr stories and will pick up from chapter 5 as well.
The promised limited edition bundle, which contains all three scenarios, has sold out across Japan including two separate releases on amazon.jp. Fire Emblem if releases on June 25 in Japan and 2016 in the West, and we hope to have Western details shortly.
If they pull this B.S. in NA, then I can't see the sales justifying any future FE localizations. The Japanese are used to getting reamed by their corporate overlords (just look at how anime is priced & distributed over there), but the NA fanbase is way too small for this not to have severe negative repercussions. They'll effectively have blown away any traction they earned with Awakening.
“I believe so; however, you’ll be plenty satisfied even just by playing one of the routes, so please play whichever one piques your interest,” replies Nintendo producer Hitoshi Yamagami. “After that, if you get curious about what happens on the other route, give that a try. Once you learn about one route, the other one will become more profound.”
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“Yes, that’s exactly it,” responds Yamagami. “If we were to put the content of both sides into one, we’d have no choice but to set the price as [the value of] two games, and that wouldn’t be fair to players that are just going to play one route.”
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“It is Fire Emblem, after all,” says Yamagami with a laugh. “Each route is properly made, with its own scenes and movies as well.”
If you’re wondering just how much content the routes of Fire Emblem If has, we previously reported that it has about the same amount of content as Fire Emblem: Awakening, which wasn’t a short game, by any means. That said, with the increased cost of development in mind, it makes sense that Intelligent and Nintendo chose to split the game into two versions instead of simply charging a higher price for the entire package as a whole.
Read more at http://www.siliconera.com/2015/04/29/fire-emblem-developer-explains-game-split-two-versions/#v1ymaiFCEd17Lddb.99 (http://www.siliconera.com/2015/04/29/fire-emblem-developer-explains-game-split-two-versions/#v1ymaiFCEd17Lddb.99)
If they pull this B.S. in NA, then I can't see the sales justifying any future FE localizations. The Japanese are used to getting reamed by their corporate overlords (just look at how anime is priced & distributed over there), but the NA fanbase is way too small for this not to have severe negative repercussions. They'll effectively have blown away any traction they earned with Awakening.
Mad? No...not really. I think it's ridiculous that Nintendo is openly admitting that they made one game, split it into 2 parts so they could sell it twice, and people are praising them for it when "on-disc DLC" is so widely despised elsewhere. Frankly, the mountain of DLC is one of the reasons I stopped playing Awakening, and I have no desire to go back to it. The likelyhood of me even buying this game is not great at the moment, and knowing how this game is designed doesn't help that. Am I mad about this? No, but I'm annoyed and as a general fan of the franchise do think this will do more harm than good to the NA FE franchise, which is small as it is.
I don't see the difference between this and the Pokemon series, with the exception that this has the potential to be cheaper.
Yeah, I don't get how it's okay to release two games simultaneously as separate hunks of plastic, but putting all that content on one card and making it available for less than you'd have paid separately is somehow an atrocity.
Yeah, I don't get how it's okay to release two games simultaneously as separate hunks of plastic, but putting all that content on one card and making it available for less than you'd have paid separately is somehow an atrocity.
Well, I've always thought the way Pokemon is designed is a scam people have accepted for far too long, but that's a conversation for a different thread.
Do we know the pricing yet? That's gonna be the deal breaker here.
Thanks for the breakdown, Clex. I never knew much about Genealogy and now I really want to see a FE game with that play model.
What Ogre Battle-ish game are you talking about? Is it available easily? I've been wanting to go back to an Ogre Battle style game recently.
