Don't buy the dlc for this game, it's honestly not worth it. I was horrified to learn it totaled $45. With that said, Shadows of Valentia does a lot of things right and breathes a lot of new life in an older game. The things it didn't change are often dreadful, though, so if you're familiar with Awakening and Fates and looking at this game, you'd probably be better off skipping it. It can be an absolute slog to play, especially the later maps. The story can be fun, but only if you can handle the protags making frankly stupid decisions. Berkut is the best part of this game.

Some well designed maps and decent story. Having the two different parties allowed for more characters to get their chance to shine on the battlefield. The actual unit types didn’t seem very balanced and I eventually benched a chunk of the cast and started wrecking enemies. Despite some parts of the map being too vulnerable to repetitive random battles, I liked the game. All complaints are minor. I’d like to see an expansion of some ideas here, with more fleshed out dungeons being a main one. Simplistic story is a strong point.

This is a pretty decent entry for what seemed to be a series dedicated to Fire Emblem remakes.

My favorite part about this game is the art style. The game looks very beautiful and has my favorite character portraits of any Fire Emblem game. The character designs look amazing, especially considering how newer Fire Emblem games have been lacking in this department in my opinion.

I also find the writing pretty solid. The kingdoms of Rigel and Zofia are very fascinating, and having you switch between Alm and Celica throughout the game truly compares and contrasts not only their characters, but the nations they personify.

I find the characters' writing themselves to be a mixed bag. Without spoiling anything, some major plot details made me much more disappointed in how some characters were developed. The female characters in particular struggle from a damsel-in-distress syndrome that the original game had. I wish that the writers had polished a lot of the character endings. Being a remake of an older game, this would've given the developers an opportunity to improve upon some of the original game's weaker writing. We already see it with Leon now being written as a gay character to improve portrayal of LGBT+ characters in the series, so I don't understand why the remake retains the original game's poor portrayal of female characters.

I found the maps in this game to be so-so, and none of them were truly memorable for me. I did enjoy traversing through dungeons however.

And so there's Shadows of Valentia, the first and only entry in the Echoes series so far. Unfortunately, some people theorize that due to poor sales, we've never had another Echoes game since. It's a shame, as it's a solid game in spite of its flaws and can be enjoyed by newer and older fans alike.