fire_eblem_shadow_dragon_lo

I have a couple of top 10s lined up, but for now here’s something that I can effectively write about.

For once, American Fire Emblem fans had to go through what European gamers go through in general.  Believe it or not, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon has been out in Europe since mid December.  The game finally made landfall in the US early this week, although it sucks to be you if you live in the land down under right now as you still have a couple of months to wait.

Realizing that I had some extra cash to spend, I ended up picking this up.  Although I’m not all that great at this notorious difficult SRPG series, I’ve always picked them up starting with the first, but now how does the latest version of the game that started it all hold out?

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is the latest remake of the original 1990 Fire Emblem. You know… the one with that Marth guy that we only knew through Super Smash Bros. Brawl? This also marks the first time that a Fire Emblem game before the seventh has been released outside of Japan.

The game’s been nicely updated and takes full advantage of the DS, adding in touch controls (possibly running on a similar, if not the same engine that Advance Wars: Days of Ruin ran on.) and online features, making it the first game to do both.  One thing I can’t get used to is having unit information displaying on the top screen, leaving the bottom screen virtually uncluttered, save terrain info and an HP bar that is now placed on the top of each unit.  It’s a difficult transition to get used to after simply hovering over a unit for so long to get detailed stats.  As well, the battle draws out on the top screen while the “quick” version of the fight displays on the bottom. (Although I’m sure you can turn the top screen off, and there are no battle animations for healing, much like it is in Path of Radiance and onwards.)

One of the nice little features that have been brought over from Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn is the ability to highlight an enemy unit’s attack range on screen to allow you to better strategize and place your tank units in an effort to draw the enemy out into an ambush.  The guide functions from the later games are also made available here.  In addition to the original campaign, they’ve also added a short prologue to help ease players into the game, rather than thrust them right in. (As this is the original, I would expect that this will have been the hardest of the series to be released here, so it’s welcome enough for me.)

One of the most prominent features in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is the addition of online play.  For the first time in the series, you can now take your team online in an all-out battle against anyone else in the world.  Unlike in the past where you fought in an arena, this takes place on an actual battlefield and plays out as if it were in single player mode. This is something I would most likely look into, as I found the arena quite dull.  In addition to fighting online, you can also loan your characters out to another player that needs help getting through a harder part of the game. (It’s also a good option if you’re close to the end and your characters stats have been “RNG screwed.”)  The online shop is also there if you’re in need of an item but don’t have open access to an armory or vendor from where you are in the game.  I don’t know if maybe prices are influenced at what other people are buying, but it’s nice to see ways to possibly make the game a tad easier.

Intelligent Systems also added mid-chapter save points on certain maps in which you can save your game. (Instead of just suspending it.)  These save points are usually close to the boss unit which I guess is convenient enough for most.  However, I kind of see this as a double-edged sword, as this would allow you to save and not worry about having to restart the whole map if you lose a valuable unit, but at the same time, as this game still runs on the infamous “random number generator” it could also prove to be a crippler if the next sequence of numbers ends up giving the boss a critical. I would say if you want to use a save point mid-chapter, use it with due caution.

Other than that. This is it for all your Fire Emblem fans out there; An official translation of the original.  The general consensus among gamers so far has been a mixed bag, but I would say that if you’ve liked at least one of the games so far, pick this one up and dive right into it.  It’ll be worth it.