The Fire emblem franchise was on the verge of coming to an end due to poor sales, resulting in Fire Emblem Awakening being made as the last game in the series. However, the game that was to be Fire emblem the finale ended up reviving the nearly dead franchise. Although Awakening successful in bringing Fire Emblem to mainstream popularity, it was still originally developed to be a love letter combination from all other games in the franchise. For this reason, Awakening includes many Easter Eggs from all of the previous games it was based on, from mentioning certain characters to reusing the first name of an old protagonist.

Ylisse’s links with Archanea

Fire Emblem Awakening Obviously contains many references to Archanea games, as the main continent of the title is Archanea itself. The Ylissean royal family is descended from Marth, Lucina uses the legendary hero-king’s name as an alias at the start of the story, and Tiki even returns to the present as an adult. Most of the connections to the Archanea games are significant to the actual story, but there are also a few small references and nods hidden in the conversations and the character names.

Tiki tells male Robin that he reminds him of Marth, even though Chrom looks more like the Hero-King. She reflects on the fact that it’s not Robin’s appearance that reminds her of Marth, but her soul. It’s not really an Easter Egg as the game makes it very clear who Marth is, however, there is a similar situation if you recruit Marth himself via DLC. He says the player reminds him of a close friend and member of his Royal Guard. While Tiki remembers Marth, Marth actually remembers the player character in Fire Emblem: the new mystery of the emblem, Kris. Kris is an oft-forgotten playful character, as even Fire Emblem Heroes hasn’t added him as a hero for years. Because they get overlooked at times, this Easter egg probably goes unnoticed by many people.

In addition to the frequently mentioned name of Marth, other names are also mentioned throughout Awakening main narrative and secondary missions. For example, Cain and Abel, the first instance of the Red and Green Knight Combo series, are mentioned in Sully and Stahl’s chain of support. Cain and Abel were knights who served Marth, known as the Bull and the Panther, respectively. In addition to them, another ally of Marth is mentioned by name. The Wyvern of Seek and her son Gerome is named after Macedonian Princess Minerva, a woman who fought alongside Marth. Minerva was riding a wyvern herself, so it’s more than likely that Seek named her own creature after that of the legendary princess.

Awakening Does not only refer to the Archanea series…

All child units except Morgan share their birthdays with the Japanese release dates of previous ones. Fire emblem Games. For example, Lucina shares her birthday with the release date of The Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and Owain shares his with New emblem mystery. Speaking of Owain, he’s also a great source of Easter eggs. Usually his references are not that subtle; it screams game titles like Radiant dawn and Sacred stones, and it also uses the names of former protagonists Ike and Eliwood. He tends to talk the most about the Tellius series, naming two attacks after sniper Shinon and soldier Nephenee.

The recruitable character of Spotpass Priam is the descendant of Ike, wielding Ragnell as his signature weapon. It is well known that Priam is related to the Path of Eclat and Radiant dawn hero, but what is less well known is the fact that his Japanese name Paris was Ike’s first name during the development of Path of Eclat. With Priam having changed their name to the English versions of Awakening, that extra connection between them was lost. However, the translation kept an obscure reference to the Japanese name of Priam. Priam was the king of Troy in the kingdom of Homer Iliad and Paris was his son.

In support of Panne with the avatar, Robin asks if all shapeshifters turn into rabbits. Panne tells the party about the tribes of birds and cats from the Tellius games and how she met them long ago. She doesn’t explicitly call them the laguz, but it’s clear to fans that she is talking about them. In a different chain of support, a certain Laguz hawk named Janaff is mentioned by name. Nowi, with Stahl’s help, takes care of an injured bird and later gives it the name of Tibarn’s right-hand man. Nowi claims that she invented the name Janaff herself even though laguz did exist at some point in the world of Awakening, according to Panne.

Most references to other games in Fire Emblem Awakening are only noticeable to veterans of the series, perhaps to give them some closure as the series almost came to its final conclusion. Fortunately, no closure was necessary because Awakening went on to become one of the best-selling 3DS games and saved the entire Fire Emblem franchise from its demise as Intelligent Systems triumphed among the developer owners of Nintendo. Instead of being the end it was meant to be, Awakening Now serves as a celebration of all things Fire Emblem thanks to its many connections to the rest of the series.