Greetings, all! As per usual, I'm Lief Katano. Surprisingly enough, we got another Nintendo Direct today - this time, for the Fire Emblem series! The main topic will be Fire Emblem Warriors, a Nintendo Switch game revealed at the presentation not-too-long ago. However, there are hints going around that the long-rumored Fire Emblem mobile game will also be detailed today. Namely that it's the Fire Emblem Direct, not the Fire Emblem Warriors Direct. I think that's a pretty good hint, myself.

I also saw a rumor when I was checking to see what time it was that Revelation was going to get ported to the Switch, but that's absurd, if only because Revelation is roughly one-third of Fire Emblem: Fates. And it's the last third. That's like if you started playing Final Fantasy IX on Disc 3. (There's four discs, but the last disc consists of more or less the final dungeon and ending cinematics. Which is a reoccurring trend in the PlayStation Final Fantasies...but I'm really digressing.)

Aaaaaaaaand it's starting!

The Direct is being narrated by Yuri Lowenthal.

It opens with two kids reading a story about Mila and Duma (from Gaiden - surprising reference) and promising to never fight like they did. ...Actually there's a lot of references to Gaiden in this. Huh. Narration about a massive battle, with Duma saying they should rule with strength and Mila proposing to chill. They eventually split the continent they were on in two, promising to not fight each other.

Duma, naturally, violated this.

New(?) Fire Emblem called Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. It's inspired by Gaiden, which was really unique for the time. And by "inspired", I mean it's a remake. There's a lot of things that made Gaiden unique - like dungeon crawling (unique for a strategy RPG), a world map, and traversable towns, so it's interesting.. It's coming May 19, along with Alm and Cecilia (the protagonists) amiibos.

A new Fire Emblem game is coming to the Switch! It...doesn't appear to be Warriors. And it's just in its planning stages now. Coming 2018, probably.

Fire Emblem Warriors details! The trailer from last Direct is played. Again. Chrom's shown beating everything up, with a release date of Fall 2017 shown. It's also being released for the new Nintendo 3DS.

And next is the aforementioned mobile title! Probably. The male lord this time looks...extremely anime. There is nothing not anime about him. ...Also I think one of the guys is using a gun. Why are they using guns?

Also, as you probably figured from a mobile title, it's a crossover thing. Characters from Awakening and Fates are shown.

The game's called Fire Emblem Heroes. It's basically blahblahblah evil kingdom begins warring. You're a summoner (using the aforementioned gun), so you summon guys. Battles take place on a 6x6 grid. Other than that, it's pretty much Fire Emblem optimized for mobile controls, it seems. The weapon triangle takes the form of not only Sword > Axe > Lance > Sword, but an overlapping Fire > Wind > Thunder > Fire triangle. Bows, knifes, and staves are non-elemental.

You get units via gacha, with new art drawn and voices recorded. As expected from gacha, there's units of different rarities. Which hero you gacha up is determined by the orb you use to summon them with - for example, using fire orbs lets you summon sword/fire magic characters. Gacha is a fun word to say.

There's also plenty of ways to grind, so you aren't restricted, and, lessening the gacha blow, you can star-up your units. And you can beat up guys to recruit them. The main equip things are skills - weapons, defense (I presume? No one actually had one), and proc skills (skills that have a percent chance to activate).

Also you can vote on units to come into Heroes from a small selection of pre-determined units. Pre-registration begins on January 19. I'd waaaaaaager it comes out 2/1 or sometime around then, since voting lasts until 1/31 (you can vote daily). Also, I lied - you can pick from literally anyone. Also it isn't launching for Apple devices at the same time it launches for Android devices. Good thing I kept my Android phone, I guess...? Vote here! Also they just get special artwork.

...Wow, that was short! My arm doesn't hurt yet, so I guess I'll give my thoughts.

Echoes is definitely cool. Gaiden's always been a pretty interesting game, but various NES drawbacks made it kinda...egh to play. Updating it to the 3DS without dropping its unique features is awesome.

Warriors information was...I don't think that counts as information. Well, there's the new 3DS thing, but besides that...

Heroes is pretty similar to Final Fantasy: Record Keeper - a downgraded version, but still very recognizable, version of the series's standard battle system, optimized to make battles quick, to fit its mobile status. It's also like Brave Exvius, in that you get new units via gacha (still a very fun word to say!). I'm personally...perhaps not quite excited, but I'm definitely going to pick it up when it comes to iOS.

Fire Emblem Switch is another RPG for the Switch. That's literally the entirety of what I can say about it.

Anyways, that's it for today! What are your reactions? Any games you want to get? Votes for Heroes? Post those and voice clips of you saying "gacha" in the comments below!