 Preparations for New Mystery of the Emblem began during development of the 2008 DS remake of Shadow Dragon at the Blade of Light . Instead of building on Shadow Dragon for New Mystery of the Emblem , the staff started over and used the original Mystery of the Emblem as their starting point . Staff included producer Tohru Narihiro , co @-@ director and writer Kouhei Maeda , co @-@ director Masayuki Horikawa , and character designer Daisuke Izuka . Two of the major new elements were the customizable Avatar character and the " Casual Mode " , in which units defeated in missions are revived : the latter element was a point of fierce contention between staff due to the series ' long @-@ standing tradition of permanent death for characters . It was the first Fire Emblem to remain exclusive to Japan since Fire Emblem : The Binding Blade in 2002 . Upon release , it received critical acclaim from Japanese and Western journalists , and went on to sell over 274 @,@ 000 units . 
