You got Fire Emblem in my Shin Megami Tensei
This was touched on earlier during last week's Nintendo Direct press conference, but Atlus is putting out the official word as well. Their long running Shin Megami Tensei series, a JRPG franchise that includes the popular Persona spinoff, will be teaming up with Nintendo's niche strategy RPG series Fire Emblem.
This is kind of a big deal because Nintendo hardly ever does crossovers like this, and it emphasizes just how friendly they are with Atlus these days. There aren't any details yet, but this announcement is only good news for the Wii U. Nintendo consoles have been hurting for solid RPGs ever since the N64, and while the GameCube and Wii marginally improved on that, Nintendo's RPG catalog has never rivaled the Playstation's. I'm also curious about how they'll mix the standard turn-based combat and demon training elements from SMT with the grid-based strategy gameplay from Fire Emblem.
TOKYO, JAPAN -- JANUARY 26, 2013 -- Index Corporation (headquarters: Setagaya, Tokyo, CEO: Yoshimi Ogawa) has announced a collaboration with Nintendo Co., Ltd. on a new RPG for the recently launched game console, Wii U™. The collaboration was unveiled as part of the Nintendo Direct presentation on Wednesday. The title is a joint effort between the ATLUS brand and the Nintendo Fire Emblem series.
The ATLUS brand has released many popular titles including the Shin Megami Tensei series and Persona series. Recognizing the raving fan base of the Shin Megami Tensei series, and considering ATLUS brand's commitment to high quality content and game development, the partnership is a natural fit for the two brands.
Currently, Index is earnestly proceeding with development, while Nintendo will deliver news out to the customers.
Prior to this announcement, Index had only developed and released games from its own brand, ATLUS, but this collaboration is intended to be a new step for multimedia expansion.
From this joint development, Index hopes to expand its own brand, as well as optimize the efficiency of its resource placement and increase revenue.
About the Fire Emblem series:
The first of the series, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragons and the Blade of Light, was released in Japan in 1990 by Nintendo. The series has since reached its 13th title and has become a benchmark for the simulation RPG genre. The newest title, Fire Emblem: Awakening, was highly acclaimed by its users and has become a long seller since its Japanese release in April 2012.
About the Shin Megami Tensei series:
One of ATLUS' most acclaimed IPs, the first Shin Megami Tensei game was released in Japan in 1992, and spunoff the popular series, Persona. The most recent title, Shin Megami Tensei IV, is set for release on Nintendo 3DS in 2013, and will be the first true entry in the series in 10 years.
