Prior to her work on Fire Emblem Engage, Mika was best known as the illustrator of the Apocalypse Witch manga series, which began publication in late summer of 2019. She also has a long track record of creating VTubers for streamers and is credited as the sole designer of Sei Shounagon, a character from hit Japanese visual novel game Fate Grand Order.
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In a series of tweets posted over the last several days, Mika shared nearly a dozen high-definition character illustrations created during the development of Fire Emblem Engage. The impressive-looking artwork is consistent with her background in creating VTubers and manga illustrations, as all the shared designs feature tricolor palettes, abnormally colored hair, and purposefully exaggerated features. That style of illustration is also a hallmark of pretty much every Fire Emblem game in existence, which was presumably the crucial factor in Intelligent Systems’ decision to commission Mika’s talents for the development of Fire Emblem Engage. Click here to see the rest of the artwork.
Looking at its hero roster, Fire Emblem Engage is poised to be one of the most colorful series installments to date. That said, some fans aren’t happy with its protagonist’s design and have previously taken online to voice their displeasure with the game’s art direction, describing Alear’s look as “too much.”
Be that as it may, the franchise is no stranger to eye-catching character designs which started long before Fire Emblem Engage and arguably date back to the original Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light from 1990. Even Alear’s multicolored hair isn’t a series first, as Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade introduced green-and-white haired archer Heath all the way back in 2003. Fire Emblem Fates experimented with some comparably adventurous designs over a decade later, as best underlined by the pink-blue haired spear wielder Peri.
Art direction aside, Fire Emblem Engage is quite an exciting entry in the long-running strategy RPG series. Not only is the game returning to the rock-paper-scissors balancing mechanics of the classical weapon triangle, but it also promises to deliver a better balance between battles and 3D exploration introduced in Three Houses. Another massive change it’s set to introduce is the omission of the weapon durability mechanic, which could completely transform the manner wherein most players approach combat.
Fire Emblem Engage is scheduled to hit Nintendo Switch on January 20, 2023.
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