Seeing the return of fan-favorite characters was a pleasant surprise when Fire Emblem Engage was first revealed. As the Fire Emblem series has grown over the years, the roster of iconic characters has expanded in tandem with the growth of the fan base. Now that Fire Emblem Engage has shown off the mechanic of summoning past heroes, many fans have been left wondering how it will affect the series' timeline and overarching lore. Luckily, the most recent trailer confirms that these past heroes are not the exact heroes themselves, but rather "Emblem" versions of the heroes.
For the sake of keeping the series' timeline intact, it was wise of Intelligent Systems to go this route with its handling of past characters. Rather than being "Living Legends" abducted from their timelines and dropped into a new one, these Emblem Heroes seem to be the spirit of these past heroes that reside inside the Emblem Rings. This decision allows the inclusion of multiple past heroes for the purpose of fan service without having to worry about disrupting the canon of the series. Fire Emblem Engage's approach to legacy character inclusion skirts the problem past crossover attempts have had in explaining how characters from the past have ended up together with characters in the present.
Fire Emblem Timeline Struggles
Fan expectations for a series' canon timeline have always given Nintendo games trouble. The Legend of Zelda series is the most notable example, with Nintendo finally giving into fan requests and releasing an official timeline in 2011. Even with this official timeline released, fans have still called into question the placement of games released since its publication—most notably The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This timeline has been thrown into disarray many times with crossover releases like Hyrule Warriors and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. These titles are typically considered non-canon, so Nintendo has not put too much effort into explaining how they fit into the overall timeline.
Fire Emblem, however, has no such official timeline, which has led fans of the series to piece together their own timeline based available information within the games. To make matters worse, the Fire Emblem series has had a fair number of games that involve time travel, time skips, and even dimensional pockets that have to be factored into a timeline for the series. Trying to manage all of these time-altering factors in a game that suddenly introduces the return of past characters seems like a nightmare. That's why it makes sense Intelligent Systems would forego attempting to place the actual Living Legends themselves in the game in favor of ethereal representations of said characters.
Fire Emblem Engage's Emblem Heroes Could Affect Future Crossovers
The Fire Emblem series has attempted crossovers between its mainline games in the past. Fire Emblem Awakening featured DLC that would allow the player to recruit past characters such as Marth, Roy, Ike, and more. The explanation for these heroes' existence in Awakening's timeline was the Outrealm Gates, opened by the children traveling back from the future, which allowed players to travel to different dimensions and recruit the heroes found there. This was a great attempt at fan service, but throws a wrench in the canon of the series as the characters recruited via this method are supposedly the actual characters themselves who now have entered the canon of a new game.
Fire Emblem Heroes was the most ambitious attempt at a series crossover, as dozens of characters from across the series were added to this mobile entry in the franchise. Although considered non-canon, Heroes once again relied on the dimensional portal for its explanation as to why these characters were able to exist alongside each other. Now that the series has decided to ditch the multiverse approach to its crossovers, the door has been opened for characters to return without muddying canon. It's likely even more heroes could make their appearance as Emblems in the form of DLC for Fire Emblem Engage.
Fire Emblem Engage releases on January 20, 2023 for Nintendo Switch.
