Remember Advance Wars? Fire Emblem and Advance Wars were sister series, with the former focusing more on RPG elements and storytelling and the latter being more of a pure strategic experience. Back when both series debuted in the West in the early 2000s (they’d been around in Japan much longer) fans were pretty much split between the two series – some preferred Fire Emblem, some were more into Advance Wars. If anything, Advance Wars was more popular here.
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Despite that, Nintendo has continued to strongly support Fire Emblem, while Advance Wars has sort of fallen by the wayside. The last new entry in the series was the 2008 Nintendo DS game Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, which came and went without much fanfare. Since then, it’s been all quiet on the Advance Wars front.
Well, Fire Emblem is more popular than ever right now, with numerous games just released or in the works, so could Advance Wars also make a comeback? Eurogamer asked Nintendo’s Hitoshi Yamagami, who worked on the past three Advance Wars titles, if the series could come back, and his response was surprisingly encouraging. That said, there is a catch…
“Personally, I’d love to do [another] Advance Wars, but since it’s harder to create relationships between its characters compared to Fire Emblem, I don’t have a clear idea of what kind of setting it could have.”
Fire Emblem producer Masahiro Higuchi also seems to be into doing a new Advance Wars.
“The Advance Wars series is one that I personally have a lot of interest in. I hear some of the staff here saying that they want to make one too, so if we have a chance it’s something I’d like to do!”
While I’d love another Advance Wars, I’m not sure a focus on Fire Emblem-style relationships is the way to go. The Advance Wars games did have characters (of a sort), but the fact that they focused strictly on strategy is what set them apart. Add too much RPG stuff and Advance Wars is just Fire Emblem with tanks.
While you wait for another Advance Wars, you may want to check out Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, which released on Nintendo 3DS earlier this month.
[via Eurogamer]
