This is a large interview that goes over multiple points,like how they did not know awakening would blow up the way it did.
Which led to them becoming more aware of the western audienceTo tell you the truth, it was a very big surprise," Three Houses director at Intelligent Systems Toshiyuki Kusakihara says of Awakening's success. "To tell you more, I can say… I honestly still don't understand why it was such a success, as we didn't realize – we didn't make any change to our philosophy to make Awakening be liked outside Japan.
"I still don't understand why it's so popular," he adds with a laugh. "It's strange."
Kusakihara says that Awakening's legacy runs deep – right through to the team now being more aware of their Western audience and their tastes when developing a new title.
Which eventuslly leads to the title"When making games, it's really difficult to be loved by everyone. But it's easier to start thinking 'what should I do not to be disliked by everyone' – this way of thinking is easier,"
The hope is that Three Houses will be the biggest and best entry in the series to date – but coming off the back of 3DS games, Intelligent Systems couldn't make a RPG of the scale of Fire Emblem: Three Houses alone – and that's where Tecmo Koei come in.
"As far as this game goes, I'm pretty sure that without the help of Koei Tecmo it simply wouldn't have been possible," Kusakihara says of the studio.
"Or maybe it was possible, but it would have taken a lot more time," adds Genki Yokota, Three Houses' director on the Nintendo side of development.
Theres way more at the link but it's pretty detailed"Regarding the design aspect – Koei Tecmo didn't do so much," Kusakihara clarifies. "It was especially us at Intelligent Systems who did all of the graphics and design. For example, we had the help of a freelance illustrator Kazuma Koda [Nier Automata, Bayonetta 2] and also Chinatsu Kurahara [Uta no Prince-sama, Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters], who was the character designer. My team and I were in charge of designs like weapons, monsters and other details like that. So in design terms, it was mainly Intelligent Systems."