Yunaka

About

Yunaka is a character in the 2023 video game Fire Emblem Engage that grew popular among fans and players of the game due to her bubbly personality that overcompensates for a murky past and her surprising skill on the battlefield. Following the game's release in January 2023, her popularity inspired a deluge of fan art and discussion about her effectiveness as a character.

Origin

In Fire Emblem Engage, released January 20th, 2023, the player can recruit Yunaka early on by talking to her during Chapter 6.^[1] Yunaka is classed as a Thief unless the player manually changes her class. Her personality is bubbly and outgoing but she is also deeply suspicious of people and of letting her guard down.^[2] Her dialogue is peppered with catchphrases like "Zappy!" and "Hiya Papaya!"

Spread

After the game's release, Yunaka surprised players with her competency on the battlefield. Yunaka's ability makes it so that when she is on a tile that increases her Avoid stat, her critical hit rate grows substantially. This makes her an extremely powerful defensive and offensive unit. On the day of the game's release, January 20th, 2023, a user in the /r/FireEmblem^[3] reported that they placed Yunaka on a tree square (which grants +30 avoid) and watched her wipe out 20 enemies singlehandedly.

Around this time, guides on optimizing Yunaka appeared on YouTube as well. On January 29th, YouTuber Enel posted a guide on making Yunaka "Broken," gaining over 78,000 views in two weeks (shown below, left). On January 22nd, YouTuber BenFM posted a compilation of Yunaka dominating battles, gaining over 73,000 views (shown below, right).

Yunaka's personality and catchphrases also left a strong impression on players, inspiring the creation of much fan art. On January 23rd, 2023, Twitter user @jsketch12^[4] posted art of Yunaka, gaining over 2,400 retweets and 8,900 likes in three weeks (shown below, left). On January 29th, user @GCastelini^[5] posted art that gained over 230 retweets and 750 likes in two weeks (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References