Fire Emblem Engage royalty characters recreated by fan in pixelated throwback artwork
A throwback to a time when Fire Emblem had pixelated characters.
Fire Emblem Engage has been out for a few weeks, and many fans have had a chance to explore the game and the numerous party members that appear throughout the tale. What stands out in every Fire Emblem game is the characters’ notable designs, and the Engage ensemble is no exception. One fan has gone out of their way to put a spin on the four royalty characters set to rule the four nations of Elyos, recreating their iconic designs in a pixelated style similar to the art style of previous Fire Emblem games.
The piece of artwork created by The.Blind.Archer was made on one of their Twitch streams and shared on the Fire Emblem subreddit. The art piece was likely inspired by Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, which was released in 2004.
Related: Fire Emblem Engage fan art piece highlights the standout sibling dynamic between Alcryst and Diamant
The art piece features four of the primary characters of the royal family for each of Elyo’s four major nations: Alfrad, Diamant, Ivy, and Timerra. The art removes the more modern graphics players originally see them in on the Nintendo Switch during Fire Emblem Engage and reimagines them as if they initially appeared on the Game Boy Advance, a device that is now well over 20 years old.
The artwork is a fun throwback to when Fire Emblem originally appeared on handheld devices before it jumped to more popular Nintendo consoles. However, even in the more recent games, the artists and designers pay tribute to the original pixelated art style, finding ways to make pixel representations of the characters somewhere in the game. For Fire Emblem Engage, these pixelated characters show up on the loading screen, and party members that appeared in the most recent battle or had significant appearances in the previous story chapters.
The four characters that appear in this specific art piece are only four of the 36 characters players can unlock throughout the Fire Emblem Engage story. Despite having a massive number of party members to unlock, the art style and design of each one are unique, along with their fighting style and usefulness in combat.