A Second Fire Emblem Wii Title Was in Development at one Point

Apparently there was a cancelled Fire Emblem title for Wii that was in development shortly after Radiant Dawn finished. It was cancelled mostly due to lack of sales on previous home console entries, and they moved to DS/3DS.

- Fire Emblem Wii was in development after Radiant Dawn but never released
- sales had not been that great for the previous console entries
- Nintendo and interior staff were assuming it was a result of being too niche and needing to broaden to a wider audience
- the project was an experiment to see what may appeal
- it was ultimately shelved after there was a lack of greater objective to the project
- free roam (field) has towns, dungeons, and enemy encounter elements made this more like an RPG
- there were buildings that resembled the style of Southern European architecture that lined with the sea
- player could freely explore, hold conversations, and encounter enemies in the field
- If the player’s character touched an enemy symbol, a battle would begin
- there were towns, buildings, and caves that could be entered

Being able to freely explore sounds really interesting! I've always wondered what that would be like in a Fire Emblem title. But I'm not surprised it was cancelled. I'd love to see a Wii U or NX Fire Emblem title, but at this point I think it'll stick to handhelds where it's seen much more success. (especially on 3DS) Really hyped for Fates next month!

I can see them having a Fire Emblem on the NX if the system takes off and if Fates does great worldwide. Freely exploring the world would have also brought a new element to the series.

The following comes from a Dengeki Nintendo interview with producer Hitoshi Yamagami, director Kenta Nakanishi, director Toshiyuki Kusakihara and producer Masahiro Higuchi.

Kusakihara: Oh? Is it okay to talk about it? Well, the truth is, there was a game we had planned for the Wii after Radiant Dawn, and started development on.

Yamagami: It had me as the producer, and Mr. Kusakihara as the director. It was going to be a real time strategy Fire Emblem game with all sorts of interesting departures from the norm. But, as we approached a finished product, the incredibly picky Mr. Kusahara was not content with it as it didn’t fit the image he had in mind when he played it. While it was incredibly amusing watching him try the product, I don’t think I could’ve reached such a decision so quickly based on that alone. It did show just how passionate he was about the real time system though, but, in my experience, Fire Emblem was always about minimizing casualties as much as possible and thinking about things carefully by the turn. To put together a real time experience in a short time without these considerations and make a judgement based on that was a little premature in my opinion. So, in the end, development froze.

I would LOVE to see the devs revisit this idea now that the series is much more popular and they've been able to experiment more. I would love if the Fire Emblem Switch game releasing next year was based on this real time concept.

I think they should try this idea again after they put one regular new Fire Emblem game on the Switch. We don't need another case like Hey Pikmin where fans say the series is dead for trying something different.

A real time Fire Emblem game would have put what I love in RPGs the most into a series I love a lot. I would love to have seen that quite honestly. But the staple of permadeath and what FE is known for with it's stragetic play would be difficult to implement that. Especially a real time aspect... I couldn't imagine swapping betweem units like that. I would think the units not controlled by the player would be an AI at the given time. But...what a headache.