The latest official Fire Emblem Heroes popularity level was not won by Marth or Chrom or any of the other beautiful characters from the franchise’s history. No, fans voted overwhelmingly for the nameless gatekeeper guarding the entrance to Garreg Mach Monastery in 2019 Fire emblem: Three houses.
Nintendo has the full results of the fifth “Choose your legends” poll yesterday (h / t Polygon), what it shows Heroes players have thrown a ton of weight behind the Gatekeeper, which will be added to the game as a playable character this summer based on his victory. He earned 72,267 votes compared to 46,699 for the original Fire emblem protagonist Marth. Three houses‘Marianne and Sacred stones‘Eirika was the leading two characters on the women’s side.
The Gatekeeper – an unnamed NPC who only exists to greet the player as they enter the monastery – has become something of a meme in the Fire emblem community to Three houses arrived on Switch in 2019, despite the fact that he could not be teased by the main character or even recruited. Yet his cheerful nature warmed the hearts Fire emblem fans, what produced a ton of fan art and even found a way to turn him into the game as a useful unit in battle. Predictably, the charm of the Gatekeeper was not on the rankings.
Fire Emblem Heroes has seen steady updates since arriving on mobile platforms in 2017. Previous polls in the series “Choose your legends” have seen the community for characters such as Three houses‘Dimitri and Edelgard, Gaidensee Alm, en Radiant Dawn‘s Micaiah appears in the game with special outfits. This was the first year that the Gatekeeper was included as a voting option.