Latest news with #FireEmblem
Metro
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
New Fire Emblem for Nintendo Switch 2 teased on LinkedIn claim fans
Ahead of a rumoured Nintendo Direct, a newly spotted LinkedIn profile sparks theories of a new Fire Emblem being in development. With any luck, rumours of a new Nintendo Direct dropping by the end of the month will prove true and hopefully include announcements for new first party Nintendo Switch 2 games. Nintendo has plenty in the pipeline already, such as Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, Pokémon Legends Z-A, and a new Splatoon spin-off, but fans can't help but yearn for more. Especially when there's no sign of a new Animal Crossing or 3D Mario game. While such projects can safely be assumed to be in development somewhere within Nintendo, fans think they've found evidence that work has already begun on an equally inevitable new Fire Emblem game. This comes from the LinkedIn profile of Takeshi Maruyama, a freelance 3D character modeler with credits across multiple Japanese studios, including Square Enix and Sega. Most recently, Maruyama served as a contractor for Nintendo earlier this year, from January to April, at its Tokyo branch, where he worked on what he describes as 'the sequel of Nintendo's SRPG (tactical role-playing game) on Switch 2.' Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. It being a sequel immediately rules it out as a new IP, so the most obvious assumption is that Maruyama is referring to Fire Emblem, as it's the most prominent tactical role-player Nintendo has. The last entry was Fire Emblem Engage, at the beginning of 2023 and new titles have been releasing pretty consistently every two to three years. There's not been any leaks of a brand new title but there have been longstanding rumours of Nintendo planning a remake of Fire Emblem: Genealogy Of The Holy War. Maruyama's choice of the word 'sequel' has created some dispute as to whether he's referencing Fire Emblem, with some fans arguing that most Fire Emblem games are standalone stories, so it wouldn't be accurate to call a new one a sequel (especially if the next one's a remake). More Trending This seems more like splitting hairs though, and even if it wasn't, it's not as if the series hasn't had direct sequels before. For example, 2007's Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn is set in the same world as 2005's Path Of Radiance and features several of the same characters. Another argument for why it can't be Fire Emblem is that Maruyama worked in Tokyo, but Fire Emblem studio Intelligent Systems is based in Kyoto. However, as one fan points out, remote work is a thing and Nintendo EPD (which has locations in Tokyo and Kyoto) has assisted on the series before. One fan posits that since Maruyama only worked on this project for four months, it could be a Switch 2 upgrade of a Switch 1 game (so either Engage or Fire Emblem: Three Houses) along the lines of the Switch 2 Editions for The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild and its sequel – which is plausible. There are other theories, such as the game being a new Pokémon Conquest or Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE but this seem very unlikely, especially as none of them were made in-house at a Nintendo studio. Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes review – Musou on fire MORE: Nintendo Switch 2 charity auction for 'Staplegate' stapler is already at £80,000 MORE: Nintendo Switch 2 has a secret problem that could cripple third party support
Business Mayor
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Mayor
Last Defense Academy makes confusion part of the fun
The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy starts off by asking a simple question: what happens when you pluck a handful of colorful teenagers from their homes, plop them in a state-of-the-art school filled with every convenience, then force them to fight for their lives? Your guide as you navigate this question is an unsettling and creepy-cute mascot that knows more than it's let on, and there's an overarching mystery to the world that you can't quite put your finger on. If you, like I, answered ' Danganronpa !' — as this premise sounds very much like the plot of the quirky and irreverent murder-mystery series from Spike Chunsoft — then congratulations! We're both totally wrong! And after 45 in-game days with LDA, I still have no idea what's going on, and I love it. I'm going to be gentle with myself and you for thinking LDA is another entry in the genre of high school-themed killing games. After all, it was developed by Kazutaka Kodaka, creator and writer of the Danganronpa franchise, in collaboration with Kotaro Uchikoshi, known for his work on the adventure-puzzle game series Zero Escape . And though LDA oozes with the DNA from both series, it stands so completely apart mechanically and narratively that while I can get a grasp on the former, I'm lost with the latter. The cast of this game is full of great characters. Image: Too Kyo Games The premise is simple enough. You play as Takumi Sumino, who gets whisked away to the Last Defense Academy, where he and a group of others use their newly awakened powers to defend the school from monster attacks for 100 days. Should they fail, the invaders will destroy the school and thereby… because of plot… all of humanity. Usually past a certain point, I can figure out a game's core gameplay loop and rough narrative thrust. When the first body dropped in Danganronpa , I immediately understood that I'd be spending the rest of the game solving my classmates' murders. But I haven't been able to figure out LDA . I understand the gameplay loop easily enough: it's a tactical RPG with visual novel-like relationship-building elements. Combat takes place on a gridded battlefield with each combatant able to attack in a different configuration, similar to chess. One of Takumi's abilities attacks enemies in a straight line. My ally, Gaku, attacks in a rectangular pattern. Each of my allies' attacks contributes to a voltage meter that allows us to use our special abilities when full. And if one of my allies should fall, they'll be revived before the next wave of enemies. I like how the tactical combat isn't like Fire Emblem or Triangle Strategy . LDA is unique, as you're not trying to manage the complex rock-paper-scissors formula of what weapons are strong or weak against each other. Instead, life is the engine that drives combat. Actions you take are determined by how many action points, or AP, you have, and killing certain enemies grants you more AP. On the flip side, allies who are near death can unleash big special attacks that can clear entire battlefields at the cost of losing them for the rest of the wave. Combat is grid-based, and allies can attack in varying configurations. Images: Too Kyo Games Combat then becomes a function of playing with life totals — my enemies and mine. I'll arrange my attacks in such a way that every time I act, I kill an enemy and gain more AP so I can just keep going, denying my enemies the chance to fight back. Then, when I'm out of AP, I can unleash a killing blow that ends the round. My allies get revived the next round, and I can start the process all over again. I've been left so unsatisfied by the crop of tactical RPGs lately, and LDA fills the gaping hole Fire Emblem Engage created and the Advance Wars remakes could not fix. But while I've got a handle on the combat, I still haven't the faintest clue of the story it's trying to tell. My confusion is so thorough that as I go through each new day, my experiences start sounding like wartime letters from the front lines. It's day 33. Our self-proclaimed leader, Hiruko, is still missing. We're starting to suspect she'll never return. Meanwhile, the enemy keeps hurling themselves at our defenses. So far, we've been able to hold them off. Gaku recently developed his power, revealing himself to be a peerless ranged fighter. But our forces are nowhere near full strength, since Ima, Kako, and Shouma refuse to fight. And alas! Our foodstores have burnt up and I fear we'll starve soon. War is grim, but I fight knowing the closer I get to the 100th day is a day I am closer to returning home… or so I hope. LDA 's narrative is so unlike anything I've ever experienced that not knowing what's happening next is part of the fun. I like getting dragged along for the ride, discovering new developments alongside the characters, who are themselves a delight. As other outlets have pointed out, Darumi Amemiya is the physical manifestation of the irony-poisoned and terminally online dirtbag edgel(ady), and I adore her even if her characterization gets uncomfortably familiar sometimes. I am thou, thou art I… unfortunately. Image: Too Kyo Games I also really enjoy how the characters are over-the-top caricatures themselves — Darumi's the creepy murder-obsessed emo girl, Takemaru's the typical fighting-obsessed delinquent — but make decisions like normal people. I often struggle to get into 'transported to another world' stories because none of the decisions made in them have ever made sense to me, a woman who can't turn off her overly logical and reason-obsessed brain in order to just go with the flow. So it's incredibly refreshing to see these characters push back on the circumstances they've been dropped in. Instead of just accepting that they've been taken from everything they've ever known and forced to fight and die (even if that death is temporary), some of my allies maintain a healthy level of skepticism, question everything, and refuse to fight. I know I would! And even better, other characters in the game understand and acknowledge that as a reasonable position. There's no rah-rah speech of 'You must fight!' that convinces them to take up arms. The reluctant characters are given the space to come around on their own time and for their own reasons. That may sound boring. After all, in an isekai-like narrative, the characters are usually forced to get on board quickly otherwise there wouldn't be a plot. So seeing a game take its time with the reluctant characters, letting them work through their hangups in a natural and unforced way, was pleasing to my brain. In the almost 50 days I've spent with LDA , I do have some working theories as to where the overall story will go. How it gets there, though, I have no clue, but I'm excited to see what twists the game will take along the way. The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy is out now on Switch and PC.
