![]() ![]() Unfortunately, the sidequests are a bit dull, and are always of the “if you get me item x I’ll give you item y” variety. From a first-person perspective, you then can look around the room with a targeting reticule to pick up items or talk with the various townsfolk to shop, learn about the world, or potentially unlock a small sidequest. Towns are made up of a few different locations (taverns, homes, blacksmiths, etc.) and you select where you want to go from another map. Once you do visit a town or dungeon, you get very different experiences from anything we’ve seen before from the series. The overworld map helps get across the idea of the duo actually fighting a war, moving the frontlines and themselves closer to their goals with each victory, and being able to see how far they’ve come in such a simplistic way gives a sense of scale that we don’t often get in Fire Emblem games. It is larger, has branching paths, and allows you to bounce back and forth between Alm and Celica’s different bands of characters, each traversing their own course and occasionally interacting with the other at certain points. While Shadow Dragon displayed a linear overworld map at times, you use Shadows of Valentia’s to actually plan your next move. Getting to towns and dungeons is done via utilizing a limited overworld map with paths laid out before you, and you can see ahead to where most of the battles that mark major chapters in your adventure will occur. It may have been far-reaching in 1992 in 2017, it feels like Fire Emblem is just growing in new and wonderful ways. All of that radically different gameplay returns here in Shadows of Valentia, but what’s interesting is that since this is a first for Westerners to experience this in Fire Emblem-with features like “My Castle” in Fire Emblem Fates helping to pave the way-it actually feels like a natural progression for the series that I surprisingly enjoyed and quickly adapted to. There are also fully-animated cutscenes, while each character has had a more modern redesign given to them that pops off the screens of the 3DS.ĭoing some research, though, led me to find that Fire Emblem Gaiden was often described as the “ Zelda II of Fire Emblem.” This is because the game introduced some drastically different gameplay like dungeons and town exploration, and even side quests from NPCs that were quickly abandoned by the series as a whole after poor reactions. For example, following in the footsteps of more modern games in the series, every major character has their lines fully voiced (and fantastically so). It’s your typical Fire Emblem tale of kings, queens, dragons, and magic.īecause Fire Emblem Gaiden never made its way to the West, it’s hard for me to compare this remake to the source material beyond obvious differences. Each will try to bring peace to Valentia in their own way, not realizing how connected they truly are. Two children who bear a special brand on their hands, Alm and Celica, are unexpectedly thrust into the center of it all. The dragon gods-Duma from the north and Mila to the south-have withdrawn their boons to the people, and the respective nations that fell under each god’s purview are crumbling because of it. While Marth is freeing the continent of Archanea in the east, the continent of Valentia to the west is war-torn for different reasons. Shadows of Valentia takes place at the same time as Shadow Dragon in Fire Emblem chronology. And-if Shadows of Valentia is any indicator-the idea of continuing to bring over old games in the series remains as sound as I thought it did almost 10 years ago. ![]() Naturally, then, Nintendo releases Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia-a remake of the second-ever Fire Emblem game, Fire Emblem Gaiden-rekindling my hopes. ![]() Flash forward almost a full decade later, and I had all but given up on the idea. That decision gave me hope that we would start to see more of the Fire Emblem games we never received finally cross the Pacific in some form or another. There are more than a half-dozen Fire Emblem games that never came to our shores, but in 2008, Nintendo released Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon for the DS-a remake of the very first Fire Emblem game-here in North America. ![]()
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