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Shouzou Kaga

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Shouzou Kaga

Shouzou Kaga 1994.png
Kaga in a Famitsu interview in 1994.

Gender

Male

Nationality

Japanese

Employer
“ It's not a big problem if some of your characters die in Fire Emblem; I want each player to create their own unique story. Don't get caught up trying to get a "perfect ending." Have fun! ”
— Shouzou Kaga[1]

Shouzou Kaga (Japanese: 加賀昭三 Kaga Shōzō, spelled Syozo on his blog and Shouzoh in Fire Emblem Gaiden) is a Japanese game designer and writer who was once employed by Intelligent Systems. During his time at Intelligent Systems, he was the scenario writer for the first five games in the Fire Emblem series, and is often considered to be the "father of Fire Emblem".

Biography

Early career

Kaga first entered the video game industry in 1986, when he participated in a game coding contest run by Enterbrain's LOGiN magazine. His entry, a "role-playing [game] with hidden romance" called Cosmic Fighter, placed third in the contest.[1][2]

Fire Emblem series

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As an employee of Intelligent Systems, Kaga worked on the first five games in the Fire Emblem series and Fire Emblem: Archanea Saga. He was the lead scenario writer on all of these games and the director on every game from Gaiden onward. As a writer on the Jugdral games in particular, Kaga drew on his fascination with political history and how the course of history is changed by the smallest acts, and aimed to write "realistic" stories reflecting the unpleasant nature of medieval times and how mistakes change the world.[3]

Tirnanog and the Emblem Saga lawsuit

Shortly before the release of Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, his final Fire Emblem game, Kaga departed from Intelligent Systems in August 1999 and founded his own studio, Tirnanog. His final contribution to a game for a Nintendo platform was Trade & Battle: Card Hero, published the next February. As the president of Tirnanog, Kaga's first project was a strategy game for Sony's PlayStation console, which was originally titled Emblem Saga; former Fire Emblem artist Mayumi Hirota also served as this game's character designer. According to Kaga, Emblem Saga was planned to be directly tied to the events of the Archanea games:

“ I've made five games, which took place on three continents. Emblem Saga takes place on a fourth continent called "Forceria" and its atmosphere is the same. In this world, the Manakete tribe once flourished, and they built a highly advanced civilization. As history went on and they faced destruction, how did they deal with humans, the masters of the new age? The Manaketes... or rather, ancient dragons are involved deeply in this game. As they faced destruction, many of them chose to sleep underground eternally and hide their faces from the world, but there were those among the Manaketes who resented the humans. The story concerns those wicked men who sought to use their strength and the people who opposed them, as well as the shrine's holy guardian dragons who appeared because of a certain pact. ”
— Kaga, in an interview with Famitsu[4]

However, in 2002, Kaga, Tirnanog, and publisher Enterbrain faced a copyright infringement lawsuit from Nintendo over the Fire Emblem elements in Emblem Saga. Nintendo lost this case, but successfully won a case against Tirnanog for breaking unfair competition laws and were awarded damages.[5][4]

As a result of the case, Emblem Saga was renamed TearRing Saga: Yutona Heroes War Chronicles and all direct ties to Fire Emblem were removed. Even so, the game continued to bear a stylistic, thematic, and gameplay resemblance to Kaga's previous works; while Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, the first Fire Emblem game produced without Kaga, simplified the series' gameplay and removed features, TearRing Saga maintained many of the more complex gameplay traits which the series had abandoned, such as a skills system and a weapon level stat. It was released on May 24, 2001, and was followed up by TearRing Saga Series: Berwick Saga for the PlayStation 2 on May 26, 2005. Berwick Saga featured numerous changes to gameplay, such as a hexagonal grid-based map and a different turn system.

Current activities

Vestaria Saga I logo.png

In the years following the release of Berwick Saga, Kaga retired. He started a blog which he uses to share scraps of information about TearRing Saga and Berwick Saga which he finds on his hard drive. His first post on this blog was a post about the world setting of TearRing Saga, and a brief history of its nations.[6] He is not known to have ever discussed his time working on Fire Emblem on this blog.

In May 2015, Kaga announced that he had begun production on a free strategy RPG, Vestaria Saga I: War of the Scions, using the game-making software SRPG Studio. He put out a call on his blog for assistance in producing the game.[7] After this call, Vestaria Saga I was released on September 5th 2016, ahead of its planned schedule.[8] The first part of the game can be downloaded for free from Vestaria Saga's website.

In September 2017, Kaga posted his first, and, as of writing, only English-language blog post, stating that Vestaria Saga I would possibly have an official localization due to overseas fan demand.[9] Kaga stated that, if the localization progressed successfully, more details would be revealed some time in 2018. A demo of the English version of Vestaria Saga I was released on August 16, 2018 on Steam, published by DANGEN Entertainment, with the full game's release date initially listed as "2019".[10] The English localization of the game finally released on December 27, 2019, narrowly making its announced window.

On March 27, 2019, Kaga released both Vestaria Saga Gaiden: The Sacred Sword of Silvanister and Vestaria Saga Gaiden: Lucca Gaiden (Heroes of Lucca).[11] In June 2020, Kaga announced Vestaria Saga Gaiden: Chronicles of the Norden Civil War. This departs from the strategy RPG gameplay of the Fire Emblem and TearRing Saga series and is described as an "SLG".[12] Compared to the previous game, it has a simplified map but more tactical depth. According to Kaga, the gameplay was made different because it would be boring to keep doing the same thing.[13] On December 9, 2021, DANGEN Entertainment announced an official localization of The Sacred Sword of Silvanister with a tentative "2022" release date.[14]

Credits

Fire Emblem series

Post-Fire Emblem works

Other

Gallery

  • Kaga in a Famitsu interview from 1994.

    Kaga in a Famitsu interview from 1994.

  • Vestaria Saga I image from Kaga's website.

    Vestaria Saga I image from Kaga's website.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Kaga, S., Sakaguchi, H., et al.; trans. shmupulations, Fire Emblem – Developer Interviews with Shouzou Kaga and Hironobu Sakaguchi, shmupulations.com, Published: May 3 2016, Retrieved: May 3 2016
  2. ↑ Kaga, S., 懐かしのデビュー作(1), D's Notes, Published: May 31 2008, Retrieved: May 3 2016
  3. ↑ Kaga, S.; trans. Amielleon, Kaga Interviews (Page 3/Q1), Fire Emblem (according to Japan), Published: January 1999 (trans. February 22 2013), Retrieved: February 24 2015
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 VincentASM, Fire Emblem 64, Serenes Forest, Retrieved: May 3 2016
  5. ↑ University of Japan Copyright Center, 日本ユニ著作権センター／判例全文・2002/11/14d 3, Translan, Published: November 11 2002, Retrieved: April 17 2015
  6. ↑ Kaga, S., 世界設定[00508] (World Setting [00508]), D's Notes, Published: April 1 2008, Retrieved: July 4 2015
  7. ↑ "On his purported blog, Kaga is recruiting volunteers to assist with an indie game to be developed with SRPG Studio, a recently-released Japanese game-making tool published by SapphireSoft that allows creation of strategy RPGs like Fire Emblem." — VincentASM, Shouzou Kaga developing indie game with SRPG Studio (webpage), Serenes Forest, Published: May 6 2015, Retrieved: September 5 2016
  8. ↑ "Originally planned for release on 21st September 2016, Vestaria Saga (Part 1) is now available for public download!" — VincentASM, Shouzou Kaga developing indie game with SRPG Studio (webpage), Serenes Forest, Published: May 6 2015, Retrieved: May 9 2015
  9. ↑ Kaga, S., 海外向け(localized into English)について, D's Notes, Published: September 14 2017, Retrieved: December 6 2017
  10. ↑ Vestaria Saga on Steam, Steam, Published: August 15 2018, Retrieved: August 15 2018
  11. ↑ "But lo and behold, S_Kaga has just released both of his brand new gaiden (side story) games on the same day." — VincentASM, Vestaria Saga "Silverbirch's Sacred Sword" and "Heroes of Lucca" Released!, Serenes Forest, Published: March 27 2019, Retrieved: December 3 2021
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Kaga, S., 地域制圧型SLGのテスト制作 (Test work for region control-style SLG, D's Notes, Published: June 24 2020, Retrieved: September 29 2020
  13. ↑ Kaga, S., 質問まとめ (Question summary), D's Notes, Published: June 27, 2020, Retrieved: September 29 2020
  14. ↑ VincentASM, Vestaria Saga Gaiden: The Sacred Sword of Silvanister English Version Slated for 2022, Serenes Forest, Published: December 9 2021, Retrieved: December 10 2021
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Kaga, S., 外伝の予定 (Gaiden Plans), D's Notes, Published: July 31 2017, Retrieved: August 15 2018

External links

People related to the Fire Emblem series
Individuals Shouzou Kaga • Kouhei Maeda • Tohru Narihiro • Yuka Tsujiyoko • Gunpei Yokoi
Staff lists Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light • Gaiden • Mystery of the Emblem • Genealogy of the Holy War • Thracia 776 • The Binding Blade • The Blazing Blade • The Sacred Stones • Path of Radiance • Radiant Dawn • Shadow Dragon • New Mystery of the Emblem • Awakening • Fates • Heroes • Echoes: Shadows of Valentia • Three Houses • Engage
Other Artists of the Fire Emblem series (Artists of Cipher • Artists of Heroes (0–9, A–L • M–Z)) • Voice actors of the Fire Emblem series
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