Pokémon nearly crossed over with Fire Emblem, became Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE instead

A translation has surfaced of an interview with Nintendo’s Hitoshi Yamagami and Kaori Ando revealing a since-discarded plan to develop a crossover game merging Pokémon and Fire Emblem together.

A transcript of the interview, which featured in the December 2015 issue of Japanese magazine Nintendo Dream, was published on translation blog Kantopia. Ando and Yamagami were asked about the development of Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, where they revealed the idea for the potential crossover was discussed five years ago, but it did not eventuate due to the already-proposed Pokémon and Nobunaga’s Ambition crossover Pokémon Conquest.

See below for the full transcript including Atlus producer Shinjiro Takata:

Yamagami (Nintendo Producer): 5 years ago, Ms. Andou proposed a plan [for a crossover], saying “You know, I think FE and Pokémon’s rules are pretty compatible!” Though I agreed with her, by chance the Pokémon group had already proposed what eventually became Pokémon Conquest at the same time [so we were unable to follow through].

Andou (Nintendo Director): Yes, which I was in charge of too.

Yamagami (Nintendo Producer): As the plan was a secret, she was put in charge of that first. (Laughs). And then, it took her less than a week to say, “Here’s the next plan.” The new plan was a collaboration with Atlus. At that time, new games like Xenoblade and Pandora’s Tower were coming out, and, because I myself was quite interested in Atlus’s games, I figured “This could work!” At first, we made informal plans within our own small group, but…

Takata (Atlus Producer): At that time, the organization itself was undergoing changes. and it was almost impossible to deal with Atlus as a second party, and so we almost decided to give up on it. After roughly 2 years, we heard from Hiraoka (board member at Atlus), “Let’s try to collaborate and level up by making an RPG together.” After that, we attempted to contact Nintendo repeatedly, asking “Do you want to bring that RPG to life [with us]?”

Yamagami (Nintendo Producer): We replied immediately with, “Let’s do it!” We then quickly began to draft plans for the game, still only having a rough idea of what it would be. And so, we released an image that showed, “Shin Megami Tensei Meets Fire Emblem” to the public.

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Both Pokémon Conquest and Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE were reviewed favourably upon release, but one can’t help but wonder what a game featuring a Dragonite-wielding Ike would have been like. What do you think? What crossovers would you like to see in the future?

Sources: Nintendo Life, Kantopia