A remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden
In 1992, the second game in the Fire Emblem series, Fire Emblem Gaiden, launched exclusively in Japan. Now, for the first time, fans outside of Japan will get a taste of this classic game on the Nintendo 3DS family of systems. Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia is inspired by the 1992 original, reimagined on a grander scale. Every aspect of the Fire Emblem Gaiden game's presentation has been updated, along with the game being fully voiced. Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia recreates classic Fire Emblem gameplay with a modern twist, mixing in exploration of dungeons crawling with enemies."
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Un remake absolutamente maravilloso que mejora todos y cada uno de los apartados del original sin perder ni un ápice de su esencia. Los personajes están mejor desarrollados, visualmente es precioso y, aunque propone una jugabilidad que difiere un poco con lo ya visto en la saga (respetando más la original), es extremadamente divertido y te acostumbras en seguida.
Recomendadísimo, en especial si vienes quemado de varias entregas de la franquicia o del paupérrimo remake de Shadow Dragon. Shadows of Valentia será un soplo de aire fresco que agradecerás como agua de Mayo.
Viva la Reina Celica
Recomendadísimo, en especial si vienes quemado de varias entregas de la franquicia o del paupérrimo remake de Shadow Dragon. Shadows of Valentia será un soplo de aire fresco que agradecerás como agua de Mayo.
Viva la Reina Celica
An amazing story and a great new way to tell a story in fire emblem with the use of voice acting for story cutscenes. Gameplay is near exact like to the original Fire Emblem Gaiden so it feels outdated. A great game to atleast go through once.
Really enjoyed the dual protagonist format of this game and the 3D exploration of Dungeons. The visual novel style exploration of the cities also was great. Feels like a super underrated title in this series
Echoes fools you into thinking this game is approachable for people who are new to FE, then tosses them into the deep end of tactics hell with maps ripped straight from the original version. The characters, story and artwork are all surprisingly good for a post-Awakening FE game on 3DS. I had to make liberal use of the time rewind feature in order to even see the end of the game. I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone except the real strategy game sickos.
This is my first review on this site-- not sure if I'll make it a habit, but either way I try and keep my reviews short for the sake of readability. Categories will vary a bit between reviews, since some genres require more attention in specific areas.
I did not complete post-game as I moved on to other games, but I full-cleared everything beforehand.
Overall Rating: Above Average (3.5 Stars)
DESIGN
Build Diversity: Pretty good. There are a lot of ways to build most characters especially early on. It is possible to lock yourself into bad choices right at the start of the game (and then basically never again), but if you follow a few context clues, you'll have a very safe starting lineup. You can also get unique buffs by pairing certain party members together, some of which get stronger the more often you do it.
Scenario Design: Hit-or-miss. While the game has great build diversity, the map design is mainly a 1-1 port of a very antiquated game (Fire Emblem 2) and suffers from some very cheeky enemy placement and a lot of 'rough terrain' that can make map navigation feel very sluggish in its latter half. Slow, tanky units see very little relevancy in late game mainly due to this.
Extrinsic Mechanics: Cool and fun. This game features an overworld map, fetch quests and 3D explorable dungeons filled with puzzles and enemies to avoid or sneak up on. It also has an achievement system.
DLC: I did not play the game with DLC, on my friend's suggestion. The game was perfectly fine without it, though I was sometimes left wanting for resources to try out different builds that would have apparently been easy to grind for with the DLC maps. The extra class promotions also seemed cool, but I was more interested in using them to break the game than to beat the game, which would have greatly hampered the difficulty curve.
AESTHETIC
Narrative: Character-driven interactions are very enjoyable and the overarching plot/theme is predictable but cozy. That said, non-essential recruits get very little screen time outside of their introduction whereas some essential recruits take up more time than would be desirable. Certain character choices in late-game feel very contrived (especially as they contradict plot elements of the original game). The villains in this game are a highlight; there is plenty of diversity in archetypes and motivations.
Art & Sound: Despite the game suffering a bit from being on the 3DS, the painting-like art style holds up pretty well and the 8-bit sprites on the map screen are very quaint. The music and sound design are great; while they don't do anything interesting beyond a few minor key renditions, they set the tone of each scenario very well.
TECHNICAL
3DS DEPRECATION: Sadly, this game a pretty cool feature that will almost never get used in the modern day in the form of cards showing your achievements that would be sent to other players using StreetPass. While the lack of this feature doesn't hurt gameplay, there are some rather confusing/offputting moments when playing the game where these mechanics are referenced despite being unusable.
CITRA COMPATIBILITY: Yes, I emulated this game. See more in the disclaimer below. Compatibility was mostly fine on newer versions of Citra, but occasionally map sprites would glitch out and be replaced with garbage and sprinting in dungeons would replace the VFX overlay with random spritesheets. It was more funny than anything.
DISCLAIMERS:
Played on Citra for the sake of TV casting; copy was dumped from a physical cartridge by my friend, and was exclusively played in his company.
This is my first Fire Emblem game played through to completion, so my perspective is mostly fresh. That said, I have played several other SRPG series & games (XCOM, Mario & Rabbids, Devil Survivor, Persona 5 Tactica, Mega Man Battle Network 5) so I do have plenty of prior experience with the genre.
Star ratings are give according to how much I would recommend this game to someone inclined towards its genre (in this case, SRPG). A truly average game (2.5 stars) is not one I would recommend to anyone unless they have nothing better to play; anything below that is for those desperate or masochistic enough to give it a shot.
I did not complete post-game as I moved on to other games, but I full-cleared everything beforehand.
Overall Rating: Above Average (3.5 Stars)
DESIGN
Build Diversity: Pretty good. There are a lot of ways to build most characters especially early on. It is possible to lock yourself into bad choices right at the start of the game (and then basically never again), but if you follow a few context clues, you'll have a very safe starting lineup. You can also get unique buffs by pairing certain party members together, some of which get stronger the more often you do it.
Scenario Design: Hit-or-miss. While the game has great build diversity, the map design is mainly a 1-1 port of a very antiquated game (Fire Emblem 2) and suffers from some very cheeky enemy placement and a lot of 'rough terrain' that can make map navigation feel very sluggish in its latter half. Slow, tanky units see very little relevancy in late game mainly due to this.
Extrinsic Mechanics: Cool and fun. This game features an overworld map, fetch quests and 3D explorable dungeons filled with puzzles and enemies to avoid or sneak up on. It also has an achievement system.
DLC: I did not play the game with DLC, on my friend's suggestion. The game was perfectly fine without it, though I was sometimes left wanting for resources to try out different builds that would have apparently been easy to grind for with the DLC maps. The extra class promotions also seemed cool, but I was more interested in using them to break the game than to beat the game, which would have greatly hampered the difficulty curve.
AESTHETIC
Narrative: Character-driven interactions are very enjoyable and the overarching plot/theme is predictable but cozy. That said, non-essential recruits get very little screen time outside of their introduction whereas some essential recruits take up more time than would be desirable. Certain character choices in late-game feel very contrived (especially as they contradict plot elements of the original game). The villains in this game are a highlight; there is plenty of diversity in archetypes and motivations.
Art & Sound: Despite the game suffering a bit from being on the 3DS, the painting-like art style holds up pretty well and the 8-bit sprites on the map screen are very quaint. The music and sound design are great; while they don't do anything interesting beyond a few minor key renditions, they set the tone of each scenario very well.
TECHNICAL
3DS DEPRECATION: Sadly, this game a pretty cool feature that will almost never get used in the modern day in the form of cards showing your achievements that would be sent to other players using StreetPass. While the lack of this feature doesn't hurt gameplay, there are some rather confusing/offputting moments when playing the game where these mechanics are referenced despite being unusable.
CITRA COMPATIBILITY: Yes, I emulated this game. See more in the disclaimer below. Compatibility was mostly fine on newer versions of Citra, but occasionally map sprites would glitch out and be replaced with garbage and sprinting in dungeons would replace the VFX overlay with random spritesheets. It was more funny than anything.
DISCLAIMERS:
Played on Citra for the sake of TV casting; copy was dumped from a physical cartridge by my friend, and was exclusively played in his company.
This is my first Fire Emblem game played through to completion, so my perspective is mostly fresh. That said, I have played several other SRPG series & games (XCOM, Mario & Rabbids, Devil Survivor, Persona 5 Tactica, Mega Man Battle Network 5) so I do have plenty of prior experience with the genre.
Star ratings are give according to how much I would recommend this game to someone inclined towards its genre (in this case, SRPG). A truly average game (2.5 stars) is not one I would recommend to anyone unless they have nothing better to play; anything below that is for those desperate or masochistic enough to give it a shot.
I love this game. Alm and Celica are great protagonists and seeing their stories converge was very rewarding. The music hits so hard, and the gameplay is challenging and fun! I wish there was more interaction to be had with your units, but overall it's still a great fire emblem game