Fire Emblem Fates’ story concept was penned by Shin Kibayayashi, the author behind the Get Backers and Psychometrer Eiji manga series. However, Kibayashi wasn’t the only prolific writer involved with the game—Fates’ third story path, Invisible Kingdom, was written by Yukinori Kitajima.
If you haven’t heard of him before, Kitajima is a well-known videogame writer that has been around for a few years now. In recent years, his script-writing company, Synthese, has been involved in various capacities with Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies, Time Travelers, Okamiden, Chaos Rings, 428: In the Blocked City, Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney, and more. Kitajima and his Synthese staff are also the main scenario writers for the Senran Kagura series.
[Note: Back in 2011, Siliconera conducted the very first English interview for Senran Kagura, well before the game had been announced for Western release. At the time, series producer Kenichiro Takaki touched upon how Kitajima came to be involved with the franchise, and emphasized his influence on the story.]
Kitajima announced his involvement with Fire Emblem Fates via his Twitter account, revealing that he penned the scenario for the downloadable Invisible Kingdom story path. In addition, Kitajima says, he and other Synthese staff also wrote the support conversations for the Birthright and Conquest story paths.
While developing Fire Emblem Fates, Intelligent Systems and Nintendo made a conscious effort to provide the game with a strong story, as they felt the story in Fire Emblem: Awakening had been lacking in complexity. Upon failing to find a writer within the videogame industry that fit their requirements, Intelligent turned to Shin Kibayashi, who has done most of his work under various pen names. Kibayashi then went on to write an extensive outline for each of the game’s three story paths.
Fire Emblem Fates will be released in the West in 2016.
Update: More background on Kitajima and Synthese added.
