Fire Emblem Awakening is a tactical role-playing video game, developed by Intelligent Systems and Nintendo SPD and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS handheld video game console in April 2012 in Japan, and April 2013 outside Japan. It is the eleventh entry in the Fire Emblem series, and the first to be developed for the Nintendo 3DS. The gameplay, like previous Fire Emblem games, focuses on tactical movement of characters across a battlefield fighting enemy units. Other features include the ability to build relationships between the characters to improve their abilities, adjustable difficulty levels, a mode that disables the permanent death of characters, and multiple camera perspectives in battle.
The story of Awakening takes place 2000 years after the events of the original Fire Emblem and Fire Emblem Gaiden, focusing on a group of soldiers from the kingdom of Ylisse. The player controls a customizable Avatar character, (known widely by Fire Emblem fans as Robin, his/her default name ) who suffers from amnesia. The Avatar is taken in by Chrom, the prince of Ylisse, and his personal army known as the "shepherds" of Ylisse. Over the course of the story, the Avatar aids Chrom's army in defending Ylisse from monsters dubbed the Risen, and attacks from the hostile nation of Plegia.
Development of Fire Emblem Awakening began in 2010, with multiple veterans of the Fire Emblem series filling key development roles. Development was handled by Intelligent Systems with supervision from Nintendo. As the series had seen declining sales with previous installments, Awakening was designed as the possible last entry in the series, with elements from all previous Fire Emblem games incorporated.
