I think this is a really tough game to like. There's a lot of cool things it does (making magic cost health, the exploration elements, and the supports are pretty good), but the maps are pretty dull so it kind of drags on a bit. I think the story is, generally, pretty good. I know people complain about Celica, but I think she's a flawed character and the game does a pretty good job at showing why she makes flawed decision. I'm a fan of that, personally. I'm also a fan of Alm, who I think is really lovable. I think a lot of the cast is, honestly. I think, out of all the fire emblem games, this one consistently nails down good characterization for the majority of its cast. The dungeons are pretty cool too, and unique for the series. However, I feel like some of them drag on a bit too long, and, again, the normal maps are too boring to compensate. It's still unfortunately a product of its time as an NES game, even if they did so much to make every other part of it better.

I still think it's worth a shot for the characters, worldbuilding, and story alone.

Was wondering, during the playthrough of Fire Emblem: Awakening that I started earlier this year, “Why is this not clicking with me at all?” I was thinking that, maybe playing other titles in this series right after banging out two back-to-back playthroughs of Fire Emblem Engage was pushing it. Maybe I was feeling series fatigue. Then, after shelving my playthrough of ‘Awakening’, I boot up this game for the first time since the year it released and crank out three hours of playtime in the first session and I realize, “Oh, ‘Awakening’ is just missing a lot of how this series evolved after regaining its popularity, and is the least unique out of these modern titles, and thus is hard for me to get into.” Then my partner said, “why are you saying such long-winded sentences to yourself out loud while playing that game?”

‘Echoes’ was the first Fire Emblem game I was able to get in on the Collector’s Edition of on release. I still have the pins, the reversible cover, the soundtrack, and the wonderful art book. What really drew me to the series in the first place was the perma-death, because it raised the stakes of gameplay in a way that was lacking in a lot of media I loved, but also what I really appreciated was the story and characters of these games. Which, I’ve always been someone who valued story, since before I could remember I was obsessed with storytelling. Gameplay, level design, etc. were not things I really could consciously parse the particulars of when I was a teen, so when just looking at what was important to me back then, this game blew me away. It was only the fourth game in a series that soared to my favorites with having only played the two previous 3DS titles and what was the easiest GBA title to get secondhand at the time: Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (which I got for $20!!! from GameStop back around 2015/‘16). I mean, you do not have to dig very much into my profile on here to see I appreciate story-centric, character-driven adventure RPGs still to this day.

The point of this is, since finishing ‘Engage’ I’ve been meaning to go back to this game. Despite adoring it after its release in 2017, I’ve only played this game once! So I dove in, and as I said before, this game stuck back to me so fast.

Though, most everyone really enjoys this game’s story. The real sore spot for people is the actual gameplay part of this game. It’s definitely a unique entry in this series and definitely threw a curveball towards a growing fandom after the pretty standard strategy gameplay of ‘Awakening’ and ‘Fates’. For me, though, and like I said, I can’t exactly parse the ‘why’ of it all, but I kind of really liked the gameplay. I hear a lot of stuff about ‘Gaiden’ and ‘Echoes’ map design all the time but I found it to be tricky in a fun way, even Celica’s maps along her route I found fun. It’s basic to start out besides terrain differences, and then you get to the Southern Outpost and that’s when it starts to pull the rug out. I also love the dungeons so much, and mini-battles as dungeon encounters is so interesting to me; for this playthrough I found myself regularly going back to dungeons in order to grind units that are recruited at lower levels or just to go back and complete quests and explore.

I was a little nervous to do the Hard difficulty for this game, since I struggled in both ‘Engage’ and in ‘Awakening’ to get through maps easily. Then I booted this game up and realized… I did my first playthrough on Hard! It is advertised as being for returning players familiar with the franchise, and by 2017, I very much was that. Though, on my first playthrough, I did lose a lot of characters very easily. I lost Faye really quickly, most of Celica’s mercenaries didn’t make it far, save for Saber. I lost Luthier during an ambush before I could even get to the sluice gate and then I couldn’t even get Delthea! Thankfully, I was able to remedy all of these mistakes, and characters I didn’t even get to use for more than a few battles were all-stars this time around (Faye, Jesse, Est, and Delthea, of course)!

Though, playthrough number two wasn’t without its losses. It never feels like an authentic Fire Emblem experience without sacrifices needing to be made, or mistakes leading to regretful losses. Different than my experience with ‘Engage’, the turnwheel offers a second chance, but never took away the tension. There were even times where I ran out of spins on Mila’s turnwheel and lost units I loved! In ‘Engage’, there were points where I had to artificially say to myself “I don’t get to use the time crystal for that mistake,” in order to keep the tensions high. Here, the game feels best balanced for the Turn Rewind mechanic than later entries do, funny enough. Though, the turnwheel can’t save you from every death. The world map ambushes are really clever, and I had completely forgotten how they work, so when Alm first got caught off guard, the enemy cavaliers made a bee line to my unit with the weakest defense: Silque. I love that girl, and I never made that same mistake again!

I love Celica; I love how she is not a case of a female fantasy protagonist holding herself back from violence and war because of their sensitivity or fragility that ignores their having lived in the real world. Right from the get-go, Celica is not afraid to fight, and that’s what makes her the ‘Caring Princess’. She is willing to sacrifice herself not only in the Christ-like way many ‘Fire Emblem’ protagonists find themselves doing, but also through the blood, sweat, and tears that the violence of this series’ worlds require from its leaders. Celica and Alm are the best. In fact, I love most, if not all the characters in this game. I like how, to make up for less support conversations, you can talk to characters in villages and in forts as Alm and Celica and have them confide in you, converse with you, and through that you learn enough background about them to find them all endearing. I like how Emperor Rudolf is not a psychopathic (literal) demon, and is a nuanced character with heart and humanity despite being a warlord. It is so hard to find delicately written bosses, but this game really cares to intelligently make the player come to terms with the realities of war that Fire Emblem characters routinely face. It cannot be exaggerated how special I think the writing in this game is.

I’ve always had a problem with how in newer entries in this series the protagonists were the gods, and, for lack of a better reason, I put the burden on my hate for the “chosen one” trope. Though, with experiencing this story I truly know what the problem is. Much like plenty of other JRPGs, Shadows of Valentia is a story about gods being destined to leave the world to man. Mila speaks to Alm and Celica in the final act and tells them of Naga making weapons that would allow mankind to put down the gods once they began their death throes against the fate that was sealed for dragonkind the moment they began to rule the earth. The good case of the “chosen one” trope is Alm and Celica being prophesized to kill the old gods and pave the way for man to inherit the earth. Thus, the bad cases that we see in Three Houses and Engage is that the gods are the chosen ones, and man must fight by their side to pave the way for god to continue a righteous rule over them.

It’s funny how my two favorite Fire Emblem games are the ones with split-path scenarios that follow two equal protagonists (though the series will always acknowledge the princess of the two the real protagonist), but I think, just because I adore the story and gameplay a little more, this is officially leapfrogging The Sacred Stones as my favorite Fire Emblem game.