[Fire Emblem Awakening](https://youtu.be/n-BB3KbVUYI), the game that saved the Fire Emblem franchise from the brink of death. We wouldn’t be bickering about the number of FE characters in Smash if it weren’t for this game’s success. Let’s quickly get us all up to speed since I’m sure you heard this story a million times already.
After an initially strong start in the West, series sales were on the decline, with Ike’s games being among the worst selling in the entire franchise. During production of the next game in the series for the 3DS, Nintendo basically told the developers that their cherished franchise was going to get F-Zero’d if it didn’t sell well. Knowing this, the devs poured everything they could into this new game, including but not limited to:
Casual Mode, a new anime art style, character designs by No More Heroes artist Yusuke Kozaki, a player avatar (known these days as Robin), [waifus and husbandos](https://youtu.be/vQ9074Kl3iY), a time travel storyline where your kids would come back from the future after marriage, dual audio voice tracks, StreetPass and SpotPass, and tons of paid DLC featuring legacy characters like Marth, Lyn, and Roy.
The game first came out on April 19th, 2012 in Japan, and Nintendo gave the devs an ultimatum. The game needed to sell at least 250,000 copies in order for the series to continue… and it achieved that in about one week. Nowadays, Nintendo has been milking Fire Emblem Awakening arguably harder than Atlus has been milking Persona 5. The game got guest spots in [Project X Zone 2](https://youtu.be/T73LyC7opWQ), [Dragalia Lost](https://youtu.be/0TPG6KGRKoc), and three freakin’ characters in [Super Smash Bros.](https://youtu.be/N9ytrX0wweA) among a ton of other things. So what did you think about this game? Who are your favorite characters and who did you marry? Have you fond memories of playing it back in 2013? Do you think you’re gonna pick it up before the eShop closes in a year? Edit: [And what do you think about this music piece?](https://youtu.be/9TR8Xhgi9e0)