Following the release of the first gameplay and cinematic footage of Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem during the April 1st Nintendo Direct, Shinjiro Takada of Atlus took to the game’s official website to wrote down some of his thoughts as part of the first of a Staff Interview series for the game. Shinjiro Takada was also the director of the Devil Survivor series of games.
That interview has been translated and posted on this website. The translator, Mystic of TRADUKO SOFT, is not officially affiliated with Atlus or Nintendo in any way, but hopes to share the contents of the interview with non-Japanese speaking audiences. After the break I’ll offer a summary from the blog post’s translation, but if you’d like to learn more be sure to visit the blog directly and view the results of the translator’s effort!
Takada expects that many are surprised with how the game turned out. He mentions that Atlus originally had difficulty incorporating Fire Emblem themes into this project, but Nintendo encouraged them and offered their faith in the direction of the project. In addition, Nintendo and Atlus are still maintaining a tight collaborative relationship while working on this game. As a result, the cumulative effect of the visions the developers had amounted to this: “Realistic characters who suffer from many conflicts and worries in modern-day Japan.”
He acknowledges that many anxious gamers are probably having difficulty finding traces of Fire Emblem in the recently released promotional movie, but he hopes for their patience as he believes the presence of Fire Emblem will be made more apparent over time. For the most part, it does seem that traces of Fire Emblem aren’t visible, and that the modernity and chaos often associated with Persona is more visible instead.
Take a look, for example, at the character designs. There is only one known so far who has arguable Fire Emblem influence. Takada mentions that Atlus enlisted the help of character designer toi8 for this game. While aesthetically the appearances of the characters suggest poppiness and color, Takada also envisioned combining this with a sense of familiarity for fans of both series and a freshness that would attract even those who aren’t familiar with Fire Emblem or Shin Megami Tensei. Takada promises more characters (some of which were seen in the PV, though not prominently highlighted) so he hopes fans will stay tuned.
In closing Takada notes that this ambitious crossover endeavor was a huge collaborative effort that brought in other developers. He says that fans should look forward to hearing from other members of the development team in the future in this interview series. The game’s development has reached its “climax”, but there still is work to do on refining the game. Expect a Winter 2015 release in Japan!
Credit to Mystic of TRADUKO SOFT for the translation work.