Fire Emblem Echoes

Fire Emblem Echoes

Fire Emblem Echoes

Fire Emblem Echoes

[Classic 8-bit music plays]

Natan: (while still music still plays) 25 years ago, this was the opening of an intense strategy game called Fire Emblem Gaiden. Today, 25 years since its original release, a new song is played when one opens the newest game in the franchise.

[1 orchestrated piece plays]

It has been 27 years since the first launch of the original Fire Emblem game on the Nintendo famicom system. While most games are fun and quick to play, Fire Emblem is quite the opposite, with a difficulty that drive many who play the game to question their choices. I decided to sit down and talk to Mark Anthony who is considered as a historian of the series by the community.  

Mr. Anthony: Oh, the series has a… has had quite the difficulty throughout the years. When it comes to Fire Emblem and how the series has a permadeath mechanic, where a character will be killed forever if they are fall in battle, That’s… that’s one aspect that really helps you to connect to some of these characters, I feel. Because death is a one off road for pretty much everyone, it kinda lets you appreciate what kind of personality they do convey in the time that they have; if you don’t reset the game upon them dying like so many people choose to do because the characters are just...that precious to them, they can’t see any of them die.

Natan: That is one of the main driving points of Fire Emblem. To keep all of the character’s alive. It’s not an objective of the game, but fans have made it the true purpose of the series. By keeping these characters alive, you get to look into who they are and add depth to the game by means of support conversations. Mr. Anthony has had many of these experiences and gives an example.

Mr. Anthony: When I started playing Fire Emblem The Sacred Stones [another game in the franchise], I was a young boy who initially didn’t know about support conversations or how to really activate them. So it made finding them just a little more special to me. Especially when I couldn’t figure out who could have a support conversation with who. And it leads to those fun little moments like, one character, Garcia, talking with another character, I believe it is Duessel I think, and they start talking about various aspects of training and, you know, generally life on the battlefield. And I remember one support conversation, Garcia informs Duessel about why exactly breakfast has the name breakfast. Because when you are sleeping, you are essentially fasting for a short period of time, so when you have your first meal of the day, you are breaking that fast. And it’s just a fun little thing that shows you Garcia isn’t just some random guy living in a cabin near the mountains. He actually knows more than what you might ever thought he knew. And you’re only going to find out stuff like that about these characters if you have these support conversations with them. And like I said, Fire Emblem is a series where you have all these characters the can die at any time and you either take that death and stride to move on, or you fight, go back, start the map over, and try to protect them. You try to do it right this time so they don’t die. And I think that is something you can only get if you have these support conversations, those little critical lines, all those small things add up. It’s all cumulative and it makes the characters really and helps make the game.

Nathan: It was largely in part of the series’ characters and the difficulty to keep them alive that had made the series what it is today. A very tough challenging game, whose focus was on combat strategies and character development which has made it popular among fans even to where now, there is a new remake of one of the original games; Fire Emblem Echoes.

Mr. Anthony: Fire Emblem Echoes Shadows of Valentia, which is a remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden, which is considered by Japanese fans, the black sheep of the series, due to its… differences from Fire Emblem 1.

Natan: But the franchise was not always so successful. In fact, there was a long time where the series was faced with cancellation and then given a challenge that meant either the success or the death of the series.

Mr. Anthony: Essentially, the team was given the ultimatum that if this game did not sell a certain amount of copies, the series was done, no more Fire Emblem. Done. Whether this was true or not, or if this was just Shigeru Miyamoto’s own way of firing the team up so that they can create a quality game is a little unknown. But, Fire Emblem Awakening came out, known in Japan as Fire Emblem Kakusei and in which there were, very very well know stock shortages of the game because it wasn’t being stocked at stores. It was through Fire Emblem Awakening that the series that the series was able to take off. Whether it be through word of mouth alone, or good marketing. But it was Fire Emblem Awakening that really brought the series to a wider audience which is presumably why it has the most exposure in recent years.

Natan: And so as the series continues, there are many ways the franchise can go. Some of the fanbase wishes for a more waifu simulator, others care for a more strategic approach and to increase the difficulty. Mr. Anthony has his own hopes for the series.

Mr. Anthony: I am also personally of a fan of the more console oriented Fire Emblem games. Because there is something a little more fun when you are trying to play Fire Emblem, you know, this robust strategy game where, even one critical mistake will result in someone dying and you either having to live with that mistake or restarting the entire map because you just can’t handle your mistake. And there is something about doing all of that with someone watching you and either jokingly criticizing your every decision because you’re just bad at strategizing or someone trying to give you a hand and actively helping you out, out of no other reason than that they want to see you succeed. In that sense, Fire Emblem is something of a fun couch based game and I say that purely from experience, but everyone has their own opinions on where Fire Emblem should go.

Natan: Well, now it is my turn to move. Fire Emblem will continue down the path as one of Nintendo’s main games and will release many more games in the near future, two of which are to be released in the winter of 2017 and again in early 2018. This has been Natan Bu reporting.

[outro music]

Songs used:

Fire Emblem Gaiden Title Screen by Yuka Tsujiyoko

Echoes-Fire Emblem Echoes by Takeru Kanazaki, Yasuhisa Baba, Takafumi Wada, Shoh Murakami

Comrades-Fire Emblem The Sacred Stones by Yoshihiko Kitamura, Saki Haruyama, Yoshito Hirano

Fate-Fire Emblem Echoes by Takeru Kanazaki, Yasuhisa Baba, Takafumi Wada, Shoh Murakami

Id (Sorrow)-Fire Emblem Awakening by Rei Kondoh

Id (Purpose)-Fire Emblem Awakening by Hiroki Morishita

Opening Theme - Fire Emblem Echoes by Takeru Kanazaki, Yasuhisa Baba, Takafumi Wada, Shoh Murakami

MTA Bito

MTA Bito

https://soundcloud.com/user-541107633-329035958/mta-bito

I work for the MTA, I’m a conductor for the N train. You know, on the N line you go from Astoria outside, to all through Manhattan, then you go out into Brooklyn to Coney Island so it’s like, you’re always outside. You know, some people prefer to be in an office, but… I like to work midnights, and for me I like the N train because the people there are… uh, how can… they’re a little less crazy on the N line.

I’ve only been there three years and I have so many stories in my head, I’ve seen the… most drunk girls possible. Me and my partner, we’re trying to get a woman that was completely naked off the train. We kept telling her “can you please put your clothes on.” Crazy, some crazy woman.

I’ve seen drunks just, peeing on themselves, people just taking dumps on themselves...crazy people, you know, talking to the wall. I’ve had a guy just running across the train, like inside the car, and finally slamming into the wall like. I’ve seen people get stabbed, you know what I mean, I didn’t technically see it, but I saw the aftermath. Fights, you know, high schoolers love to fights, holding the doors...all that stuff.

But, honestly, it’s like any job, it could get boring. You go from stop to stop, and you know, doors have to open, you have to allow people out, allow people in, doors close, and you go on to the next one. But it could also be very...freeing because you don’t have someone on top of you. You’re by yourself all day. You do what you got to do and that’s it, you’re done. I like it.

The Dying Clubs

https://soundcloud.com/user-541107633-329035958/the-dying-clubs

Host intro:

As graduation season approaches, graduating college students will begin job hunting. Many employers look for students who have strong leadership and team building from their college years. Here at York College, student participation for clubs is on the decline. Natan Bu finds out why.

Track 1: Currently there are 25 active student clubs at York. Dr. Anthony Andrews is the assistant director of Student Activities here at York. He says students who are involved in extracurricular activities actually do better in class.

Dr. Andrews: Also it gives students an opportunity to interact with faculty and staff. And those relationships help the students, not only when they are here, but also as they are looking for employment, internships, or other opportunities post graduation.

Track 2: With all these benefits for being involved in a club, one would think more people would sign up to join one. However, as I surveyed the campus for what clubs students were currently involved in, there was a large and almost unanimous answer as to whether they were in a club.

Six students

No. No. Currently right now, no. uh..nah. Currently no. Nah, at this time no.

Track 3: Even when asked what club they would like to be a part of, most conversations went like this.

Natan: What club would you like to be a part of ?

York student: I would like to be apart of a maybe a hispanic club. Yeah

Natan: So what if I told you there was a hispanic club here at York

York Student: I guess I’ll go sometime….

Track 4: So many students are unaware of what clubs are around or the information to the clubs that they are looking for are just as hidden. Many of them did not even know what types of clubs were around. The York College website list 30 clubs but not all of them are active. Crystal Thomas, a psychology major, says she was involved in the Straight and Gay alliance, also known as SAGA but the club had to close because they couldn’t get enough people. This is what the students call “the death of a club”

Crystal Thomas: Well I used to be part of the SAGA club, that is the sexuality and gender acceptance but right now we are starting to like, get things back together for next semester. A lot of the members from last semester, they graduated, so they weren’t able to come back this semester, so I did not have enough people to start back up [the club].

Track 5: In order to better promote their clubs, many club organizers are tapping into social media, like the Anime Club and the York Robotics Club. Communications Technology major and a member of the Robotics Club  Jessica Thackoordeen used photograph and videos to attract new members.

Jessica Thackoordeen: So as part of the robotics club I photograph and video their work and document it on social media; on their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram page and I basically manage that because we do a lot of demonstrations for the students here at York and also we would go out to to students in different schools and we would do presentations there and even so, we try to do promotional videos and things like that so people can also view our online even though, even if you cannot be here.

Track 6: With social media becoming a more reliable source to reach students, this might be the way to get new members to join the clubs at York College. With the York Robotics Club at around 15 members as of March 9th and progressively growing since then, Jessica’s methods are certainly proving their worth. This has been Natan Bu for York Radio Lab.  

foreign language

Foreign Language: CT244

https://soundcloud.com/user-541107633-329035958/thoughts-on-foreign-language

Thoughts on Foreign Language

Host intro:

York college is a diverse place filled with  multiple cultures and languages. Since 2013, York college obligates students on the pathways courses to take up a foreign to graduate, but not all students agree. Natan Bu has more.

Track 1:

Claudia Gregory, a theater and speech communication major, love the concept of taking a foreign language, but not necessarily as a graduation requirement.

Person 1: Claudia Gregory,

Well I think that learning a foreign language is great but I don’t think it should be a requirement to graduate because there are people who are genuinely don’t have an interest in learning a foreign language, so I’d only say it’s good for people who only want to learn.

Track 2:

Every student at York know the value as see learning a foreign language. Kawon King, an undergraduates here at York says it has mental benefits

Person 2: Kawon King,

In life, it's a very useful skill to understand more than one language and also while you’re learning it, it tends to improve your brain function in a way.

Track 3:

So why do they say it should not be requirement… Jabari Mahamed summarises the majority of student opinions by explaining how other languages are not being relevant to them.

Person 3: Jabari Mahamed, Theater arts major

I don’t see how i'm going to use that as of right now, may be later on in the future if I have money to travel but I have no plans as of right now to actually go anywhere besides America.

Track 4:

But Claudia, who speaks three languages already explains the difficulties that comes with learning foreign languages with her experience as learning other languages and specifically sign language.

Person 1: Claudia Gregory

Repetition as sometimes slack when it comes to repeating things and especially when I don’t have anybody around me who speaks those languages it gets hard so I ended up learning sign language with the people who are in my class and just keep moving your hands around, just keep learning.

Track 5:

Shaevaun Morlis told us about his outside of school adventures where foreign languages have helped him

Person 4: Shaevaun Morlis, College Assistant, Student Activities

outside of this college you know, the supermarket or whatnot, someone might not be able to speak English you might be able to help them out

Track 6:

It is clear that the students are opened to take a foreign language, but as to whether they like it as a requirement is another story. This has been Natan Bu for York Radio News.