Just noticed something odd about the new Fire Emblem and made a video about it.

https://youtu.be/Yzigjwy_npo

The long and short of it is FE: Fates has three verisons, two on seperate cartridge, and one as dlc to be released soon, as well as a special edition with all three on the same cartridge so it was not broke apart due to memory limitations. In all versions however the early stages of the game are the same and after a key story point you choose your side in the upcoming war.

At this point if you choose the option that is not the path your version was made for (choosing to side with Family Noir in Birthright or visa versa) you will then be asked to buy that path/version for $20 US. So far, so aggrevatingly normal, but here is were I noticed somthing odd. When I purchased the other version, the game never asked about memory use, or the normal delay during the download. Just a 20 second or less pause for payment confirmation and you're back into the game. If you look at the e shop info for the game you'd see it a bigger one, so how you can you play it so quickly? The answer is simple: you already have it, partitioned on the cartridge.

I also had a theory as to why Nintendo chose this odd method of selling a game in a series that has never had multiple parallel versions. The first is live market research. It wasn't too long ago that Nintendo was considering retiring the series due to lackluster sales, so it may be looking to change its focus. Awakening sold better then anyother game in the series, but had some date sim elements that made some fans... uncomfortable. Any many people cite the game's higher then average difficulty especially when permadeath enabled, it may be too overwelming for new players to enjoy. Thus the difference between Conquest and Birthright: Conquest is an old school hard combat focused game, while Birthright is easier then most other games in the series and is much more focused on the social link building. Which ever version sells the best and if Revelation has wide enough adoption, will tell the big N what to do with the next game.

The second is: market acceptance. Fire Emblem is not the series people think of when you think Nintendo, so experimenting with it has less risk. But if it works... imagine in Pokemon Sun you could for a fee get all of Moon's rare and exclusive pokemon available to catch them in the wild as per normal. Vary plausible.

I can't say I was all that happy with the reveal that it was two separate games rather than two stories in one game..

But I suppose it's not all that different to what they've done with Pokemon for years (and I imagine the success of that model is the reason they've done it, they know hardcore fans will buy all versions).
I'll probably try get the combined version cheap at some point (or as a birthday present or something).

As annoying as it is, FE: Awakening is such an awesome game that I'm mostly pleased to get three different storylines to make this next game last longer.