(Box pointed at Navarre) Plays the lead role in Map 3, “Devil Mountain.” He also won the popularity poll!
(Small text says Julian came in second.)

A dark-haired, green-eyed swordsman with a foreign appearance and an unapproachable aura. Typically a silent executioner, he appears to be 25 to 27 years old and has a disinterested personality. He fights alone on the battlefield, which sometimes puts him in mortal peril. It seems that he has an inscription on the side of his dual longswords. He’s abnormally resistant to alcohol.

(Bottom) Nabarl (ナバール) The strongest mercenary sword fighter on the continent. The strongest sword fighter, who wanders with unrivaled skill. In response to the friendship of his rival, Ogma, and the purity of his leader, Marth, he wields his crimson sword for the Liberation Army.

(Left) A concept sketch for the illustration. A beautiful young man with long hair, his feminine appearance is balanced by his tense body language.

(Center) A rough Navarre study. What you see in the upper right is his hair when viewed from behind. This is very close to the final version.

(Right-Top) Maki’s Note - Navarre. He is a character I was very nervous to design. He appeared in the manga before the SFC version* was announced, but by that time, the fans had a solid image of him as a “beautiful character with long hair.” He has a lot of very enthusiastic fans, it’s a bit intimidating!

*SFC Version = Mystery of the Emblem for the Super Famicom, aka FE3

(Right-Bottom) Maki’s Note - Navarre. I can’t draw, but doing the setting work was tons of fun. The reason why I gave him a bright red sword in the manga was not just to look cool- it was also to show his inner character. When I imagined what kind of “past” led to his current personality, the whole image came together. The unknown past of the Crimson Swordfighter… I hope I can draw something like that one day!

Navarre: Takehito Koyasu

I've been a big fan of the game, and the character I wanted to play the most was Navarre. It’s hard to have so few lines, but every line is important, so you don’t have to have a large number of lines to get the point across.

Navarre is a lone wolf- so I try to capture in my performance the feeling of being alone, even when you’re at a party. It’s a sort of “floating” feeling.

Navarre: A great mercenary with the nickname of the “Red Swordfighter”. Has a policy not to hurt women or children.

Navarre: One of the best swordfighters in the world, known as the “Red Swordfighter”. In Chapter 3 of Shadow Dragon, “Devil Mountain”*, he has been hired by the Samsian** and appears as an enemy, but when he talks with Caeda, he becomes an ally.

*Translated as “A Brush in the Teeth” in the English version.

**Translated as the “Samsooth Sires, or Soothsires” in the English version.

Navarre: A character that appears in “Shadow Dragon and the Sword of Light, and the remakes. A great mercenary known as the “Red Swordfighter”. He is persuaded by Princess Caeda, and joins with the line; “...I have vowed never to turn a blade on a woman.”*

At that time, multiple drama CDs and OVAs were developed, and different voice actors often played the same character depending on the work, but Takehito Koyasu plays Navarre in most media.**

*Translated as “…Nay, I’ll turn no blade of mine on a woman.” in the DS version

**The only times Navarre is not voiced by Takehito Koyasu is in BSFE, where he is voiced by Ohta Shinichiro, and the Departure Chapter drama CD, where he is played by Kiyoyuki Yanada.

Lon’qu: Great skill, but not great with women. A silent swordfighter with a killing edge.

Maeda: It was surprising that he [Takehito Koyasu] requested the role of Validar first, not the role of Lon’qu. I wonder if it’s because Validar is one of the main characters, and appears in the movies? Yes, that was probably why.

Higuchi: When deciding the characters that were to appear in the movies, Mr. Koyasu had voiced Navarre and others in the past, and I wanted him to participate this time as well.

Interviewer: Was Mr. Koyasu the first actor to be cast in “Awakening?”

Higuchi: That’s right, he was the first actor we cast in the game. But when you talk to him, he talks about “FE” very passionately. I met him for the first time when recording the drama CD- but I think he spent more time talking about “FE” than he did recording his lines.

(Everyone laughs)

Navarre: CV: Takehito Koyasu

"You can go anytime... I'll leave the decision up to you."

Navarre can be seen here, in the upper left image. He and the other four NPC characters that were cut from the base game and added as DLC were planned to be in the opening movie.

FE Warrriors' producer Yosuke Hayashi stated in the July 2017 issue of Nintendo Dream;

ND: How hectic indeed. Users will also see that as the biggest point after all. I think Hyrule Warriors was that good; so many people already have good faith that ‘the game will be interesting’. That’s why everyone is putting their focus on ‘which characters will come out’.

Hayashi: We’re thankful for that, but it can also put on quite a lot of pressure.

-Everybody laughs-

Hayashi: We had a really hectic time in choosing them. At first our company considered from the weapons first and sent the proposal [list], but Intelligent Systems pointed us to the results of popularity polls, and Nintendo also told us ‘please add this character’, so we adjusted it little by little.

Read the full article here.

ND: What were you reasons for picking Olivia?

Hayashi: Olivia’s inclusion was decided right towards the end.

Usuda: The other candidates were… Gaius and Lon’qu, but the main reason they were removed as candidates was because of their weapons. Gaius wielded daggers and daggers were a new weapon type then. Likewise with Saizo and Kaze from Fates, daggers had just come out and we had already established the weapon triangle, so since it would change the game mechanics, we decided not to add daggers. As for Lon’qu…

Hayashi: Because he was conceptually similar to Navarre…

ND: Lon’qu shares the same [Japanese] voice actor as Navarre too: Takehito Koyasu (laughs).

Usuda: We already added Navarre in the 2nd DLC Pack (Shadow Dragon), so if we added Lon’qu, another sword user, in the 3rd DLC Pack (Awakening), well… (painful grin) Besides, Owain was introduced as a NPC, so we couldn’t not add him. So we were debating what to do with two sword users. We looked within the pool of female characters and we already added Azura in the 1st DLC Pack (Fates), so we thought it would be interesting to have a character that had similar dancing abilities. Then we talked about Olivia and whether or not to let her dance.

–On Navarre’s Swordmaster Design

Usuda: Navarre has a similar feeling to Lyn who appears in Fire Emblem Warriors‘s main game–a no-nonsense swordsman with swift movements. I thought it would be strange for him to wear armour, like he wasn’t the same kind of rugged character. So instead, we designed his promoted appearance with a lightweight image in mind. Because Navarre is really important, we decided to incorporate asymmetry into his design. In fact, we designed him to have red cloths hanging on both sides and a single shoulder pad. But then, no matter how we looked, there were comparisons with Stefan, a Swordmaster who appeared in Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn…

ND: Fire Emblem as a series has a lot of Asian-themed designs.

Usuda: I agree. In the end, IS told us “it looks too similar”. As a result, thanks to lowering both of the cloths down to the waist and allowing the cloths to flutter around, I think we created a great design. As the fluttering increases, it really adds to the action, and it all combines to create a very nice feeling.