Shouzou Kaga: Difference between revisions

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*Tirnanog <small>(former)</small>

{{Quote|It’s not a big problem if some of your characters die in Fire Emblem; I want each player to create their own unique story. Don’t get caught up trying to get a “perfect ending.” Have fun!|Shouzou Kaga<ref name="shmupulations" />}}

Shortly before the release of {{FE5}}, his final ''Fire Emblem'' game, Kaga departed from Intelligent Systems in August 1999 and founded his own studio, Tirnanog. His final contribution to a game for a Nintendo platform was ''[[wikipedia:Trade & Battle: Card Hero|Trade & Battle: Card Hero]]'', published the next February. As the president of Tirnanog, Kaga's first project was a strategy game for [[wikipedia:Sony|Sony]]'s [[wikipedia:PlayStation (console)|PlayStation]] console, which was originally titled ''Emblem Saga''; former ''Fire Emblem'' artist [[Artists of the Fire Emblem series#Mayumi Hirota|Mayumi Hirota]] also served as this game's character designer. According to Kaga, ''Emblem Saga'' was planned to be directly tied to the events of the Archanea games and the ''Fire Emblem'' series:

{{Quote|I’ve made five games, which took place on three continents. Emblem Saga takes place on a fourth continent called “Forceria” and its atmosphere is the same. In this world, the Manakete tribe once flourished, and they built a highly advanced civilization. As history went on and they faced destruction, how did they deal with humans, the masters of the new age? The Manaketes… or rather, ancient dragons are involved deeply in this game. As they faced destruction, many of them chose to sleep underground eternally and hide their faces from the world, but there were those among the Manaketes who resented the humans. The story concerns those wicked men who sought to use their strength and the people who opposed them, as well as the shrine’s holy guardian dragons who appeared because of a certain pact.|Kaga, in an interview with ''[[wikipedia:Famitsu|Famitsu]]''<ref name="fe64">{{Cite web|url=http://serenesforest.net/general/emblem-saga/|site=Serenes Forest | author=VincentASM|title=Fire Emblem 64 | retrieved =2016-05-03}}</ref>}}

However, in 2002, Kaga, Tirnanog, and his publisher Enterbrain faced a copyright infringement lawsuit from Nintendo over the ''Fire Emblem'' elements in ''Emblem Saga''. Nintendo lost this case, but successfully won a case against Tirnanog for breaking unfair competition laws and were awarded [[wikipedia:Damages|damages]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.translan.com/jucc/precedent-2002-11-14d.html|title=日本ユニ著作権センター／判例全文・2002/11/14d 3|author=University of Japan Copyright Center|site=Translan|published=2002-11-14|retrieved=2015-04-17}}</ref><ref name="fe64" />

As a result of the case, ''Emblem Saga'' was renamed ''[[TearRing Saga: Yutona Heroes War Chronicles]]'' and all directly ''Fire Emblem''-related elements were removed. Even so, the game continued to bear a stylistic, thematic, and gameplay resemblance to Kaga's previous works; while {{FE6}}, the first ''Fire Emblem'' game produced without Kaga, simplified the series' gameplay and removed features, ''TearRingSaga'' maintained many of the more complex gameplay traits which the series had abandoned, such as a skills system and a [[weapon level]] stat. It was released in mid-2001, and was followed up by ''[[TearRing Saga Series: Berwick Saga]]'' for the [[wikipedia:PlayStation 2|PlayStation 2]] in 2005. ''Berwick Saga'' featured numerous changes to gameplay, such as a hexagonal grid-based map and a different turn system.

In the years following the release of ''Berwick Saga'', Kaga retired. He started a blog which he uses to share scraps of information about ''TearRingSaga'' and ''Berwick Saga'' which he finds on his hard drive. His first post on this blog was a post about the world setting of ''TearRing Saga'', and a brief history of its nations.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://zeeksweb.blog120.fc2.com/blog-entry-5.html|title=<nowiki>世界設定[00508] (World Setting [00508])</nowiki>|author=Kaga, S.|published=2008-04-01|retrieved=2015-07-04|site=D's Notes}}</ref> He is not known to have ever discussed his time working on ''Fire Emblem'' on this blog.

In May 2015, Kaga announced that he had begun production on a free strategy RPG, ''Vestaria Saga'', using the game-making software SRPG Studio. He put out a call on his blog for assistance in producing the game.<ref>{{Cite web| quote= On his purported blog, Kaga is recruiting volunteers to assist with an indie game to be developed with SRPG Studio, a recently-released Japanese game-making tool published by SapphireSoft that allows creation of strategy RPGs like Fire Emblem.|site=Serenes Forest | author=VincentASM | published=2015-05-06 | retrieved =September 5th 2016 | url=http://serenesforest.net/2015/05/06/shouzou-kaga-developing-indie-game-srpg-studio/#more-26336 | title=Shouzou Kaga developing indie game with SRPG Studio|type=webpage }}</ref> After this call the first part of ''Vestaria Saga'' was released ahead of his planned release date of September 21, 2016, releasing it September 5th instead.<ref>{{Cite web| quote= Originally planned for release on 21st September 2016, Vestaria Saga (Part 1) is now available for public download! |site=Serenes Forest | author=VincentASM | published=2015-05-06 | retrieved =2015-05-09 | url=http://serenesforest.net/2016/09/05/vestaria-saga-world-and-characters/#more-33215 | title=Shouzou Kaga developing indie game with SRPG Studio|type=webpage }}</ref> The first part of the game can be downloaded for free from [http://site.wepage.com/vestariasaga/page5-02 Vestaria Saga's website].

<!--info on Vestaria Gaiden-->

There are two ''Vestaria Saga Gaiden'' projects in development.<ref name="gaiden">{{cite web|url=http://zeeksweb.blog120.fc2.com/blog-entry-161.html|title=外伝の予定 (Gaiden Plans)|author=Kaga, S.|published=2017-07-31|retrieved=2018-08-15|site=D's Notes}}</ref>

In September 2017, Kaga posted his first, and, as of writing, only English-language blog post, stating that Vestaria I will possibly have an official localization due to overseas fan demand.<ref>http://zeeksweb.blog120.fc2.com/blog-entry-164.html</ref> Kaga stated that, if the localization progresses successfully, more details will be revealed some time in 2018.  A demo of the English version of ''Vestaria Saga I'' was released on August 16, 2018 on Steam, published by

DANGEN Entertainment, with the full game's release date initially listed as only "2019".<ref>{{Cite web|site=Steam | published=2018-08-15 | retrieved =2018-08-15 | url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/694770/Vestaria_Saga/ | title=''Vestaria Saga'' on Steam}}</ref> The English localization of the game finally released on December 27, 2019, narrowly making its previously announced 2019 window.

 

In June 2020, Kaga announced ''Vestaria Saga Gaiden: Chronicles of the  Norden Civil War''. This departs from the strategy RPG gameplay of the ''Fire Emblem'' and ''TearRingSaga'' series and is described as an "SLG".<ref name="norden">http://zeeksweb.blog120.fc2.com/blog-entry-178.html</ref> Compared to the previous game, it has a simplified map but more tactical depth. According to Kaga, the gameplay was made different because it would be boring to keep doing the same thing.<ref>http://zeeksweb.blog120.fc2.com/blog-entry-179.html</ref>

** ''[[Vestaria Saga I: War of the Scions]]'' (Japanese: {{hl|ヴェスタリアサーガI 亡国の騎士と星の巫女|Vesutaria sāga wan: bōkoku no kishi to hoshi no miko}}  ''Vestaria Saga I: Knight of the Ruined Country and the Shamaness of the Stars'')