IGN have had the chance to chat with Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes director Hayato Iwata and producer Yosuke Hayashi about the newly released game. They specifically asked the duo why they decided to select the hero of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Byleth, as the villain in Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes. They said that Byleth is one of the more appealing characters in the original game and they decided that they wished to bring out even more of her personality and charm in Three Hopes.
“We had the scenario writer of Three Houses also handle the writing for this title. So, when talking to this writer, I did discuss the following point: ‘Although Byleth is representing the player, they are simultaneously also one of the appealing characters. So making Byleth an antagonist is a necessary development in order to further bring out the character’s charm’.”
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes director Hayato Iwata
“We’d felt that the main theme of Three Houses was ‘the conflicts that arise from the clashing beliefs of the characters’ but among the characters, the only one that had no such conflict was Byleth,” he said. “This is quite natural as Byleth is the main character and is a character for which the selected route is always depicted as the correct way.
“In Three Hopes, we decided to portray Byleth as the antagonist as we wanted to further explore this theme. In doing so, we thought we could have players experience ‘the conflicts that arise from the clashing beliefs of the characters’ in both Three Houses and Three Hopes.”
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes producer Yosuke Hayashi
You can read our review of Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes here.
Having a protagonist becoming a antagonist in another game is a weird twist to the character concept. This explains why the theme for the new game has a dark tone depending on the situation.
It happened all the way back in Donkey Kong 2
Oh yeah. I remember that.
It doesn’t surprise me that these people wanted to do something stupid just for shock value, it’s what Koei Tecmo specialize in.
That’s not at all what they said in the article lmao. They specifically said they want to explore more concepts that come from Byleth being the villain in this game. From what I can see, they are going to portray Byleth as one of the paths that the player took in Three Houses and this will contrast and conflict with the actions of the player in Three Hopes. You’re essentially fighting against a different version of yourself. That doesn’t sound like it’s just stupid shock value to me
Not surprised koei the team knows for sexualized women in games like dead or alive chose the female alt of byleth to be the default byleth… Dispite the male one being the default choice by Nintendo…..
…Who cares?
I’m going to be honest: I felt like Byleth was one of the weakest points of Three Houses (to me), so any excuse to punch them in the face is acceptable
“So making Byleth an antagonist is a necessary development in order to further bring out the character’s charm’.”
I have no opinion on what they do with Byleth, as being a silent protagonist its their job to be a blithering idiot who is completely passive and so everyone has to explain everything to them.
That being said, this statement is nonsense, and in general, I want all of the nerds reading this to be aware that they never have to accept the answer “We had to” as a basis for story and character choices you’re criticizing. Its fiction. They don’t HAVE to do anything. Palpatine didn’t HAVE to come back from the dead. Spock didn’t HAVE to fly into a rage and scream “Khan”, They didn’t HAVE to invent an elf/dwarf romance for The Hobbit, I just tried to think of a Game of Thrones Season 8 example, but wow there are just too many of them, so I’m going to go with my personal peeve from that disaster, they didn’t HAVE to have Jaime go back to Cercei.
You’re allowed to not like the things. The default state is not loving everything unless you can scientifically prove why not. Its their job to sell you on their ideas. It is not your job to sell them on yours.
It’s not really anyone’s place to judge a creator on what they felt the need to or not to do. People get to different places in different ways, creatively speaking.
Why are people getting so worked up over such an inoffensive statement lmao
Having played through to Chapter 8 of Part 1 so far the game has handled Byleth really well, they’re no longer a silent character and it seems like it’s setting up quite an interesting character arc for them. The game as a whole has very few complaints from me so far.
“Although Byleth is representing the player, they are simultaneously also one of the appealing characters. So making Byleth an antagonist is a necessary development in order to further bring out the character’s charm”
Uhm excuse me? “Appeal”? “Charm”? Byleth is, even by Fire Emblem Main Lord Standards, 1 of the most unappealing and lackluster characters in gaming. Their literal personality is chalked up to staring at you with no expression, nodding, moving their arms, and small changes in their facial expressions. Their dialog is pretty much non-existent outside of battle quotes and the only time they actually show emotion is when you-know-who dies and just before the “Kill every last 1 of them” scene.
Also, just so people don’t misunderstand me, all this I’ve said is exclusively just on the original game. I’m currently playing through FEW:TH and so far I’ve liked Byleth a lot more.