Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - Development

Development

Radiant Dawn was first revealed as part of a short FMV sequence during the E3 conference of 2006. Development had begun soon after the announcement of the Wii—then codenamed Revolution—and even before the Wii hardware had arrived for Intelligent Systems. During an interview with Dengeki Nintendo DS, Hitoshi Yamagami revealed that Wi-Fi compatibility had been considered for Radiant Dawn, with features such as downloadable battle maps and units, although difficulties relating to balance and difficulty prevented the idea from developing. As implied in the interview, the next Fire Emblem game, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon will contain online features. When questioned about why the developers chose to develop Radiant Dawn for the Wii instead of the Nintendo DS, Yamagami stated that "The FE series began on the Famicom, so we'd generally like to release it on consoles." He proceeded to explain Intelligent Systems' decision not to utilise the Wii's motion controls, stating that he did not think they were suitable for a Fire Emblem game. Yamagami also gave an insight into development during an interview with Nintendo Dream, stating a willingness to return to home consoles after releasing three titles for the Game Boy Advance, despite soaring development costs.

In an interview discussing the game, Nintendo of America localiser Rich Amtower discussed an emphasis on maintaining a consistent characterisation between the two games. He stated how the development team was hoping to attract players of Path of Radiance with the storyline continuation, and also newcomers to the Fire Emblem series, rating Radiant Dawn as "the perfect refinement of the Fire Emblem series."