Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon

"Just another Fire Emblem game, but with Marth!"

Yes it's the long awaited game with Marth in it. The very Marth that people know from Super Smash Brothers. Nintendo and Intelligent Systems decided to remake the very first Fire Emblem (which was only released in Japan) to capitalize on Marth's popularity. Unfortunately, this game offers little improvements to the original NES title.

Plot:

Honestly, you shouldn't play this game for the storyline. Its a tired cliche of some evil group attempting to revive an ancient all powerful demon monster, while your group attempts to thwart their plans. And (SPOILERS!) they succeed and you have to fight and seal away the demon in the end.

It is entirely understandable that IS decided to keep the plot the same. In some senses the original Fire Emblem invented this cliche (at least for video games, this kind of story has probably been around for hundreds of years).

Music and Sound:

The music in this game is either you love it or you hate it. The music is pretty much the same 8 bit tunes from the original title. Some people may like the way Nintendo stuck with the original music, while others would have preferred a modern remix.

The sound effects in this game are good. The same kinds of sound effects you hear from most Fire Emblem games, which are good and fit nicely. This is the case where Nintendo and IS keep something the same and it works out great.

Gameplay:

The sad part is, this is where the game truly falters. The SRPG gameplay that Fire Emblem brought when I first played it back in 2003 when Nintendo sent over Fire Emblem 7 (titled Fire Emblem in North America) had me hooked for years. And after playing Sacred Stones and Path of Radiance, it just started to get tiring. The gameplay is identical to the other Fire Emblems, with a few gimmicks here and there. IS decided to put in the weapon triangle (which is like rock paper scissors, only axes swords lances. Winning this only gives you better odds in the battle). It is a nice addition to the original title which did not have this feature, but its pretty much expected and necessary with the way Fire Emblem has been going.

Another feature that Fire Emblem is famous for is permanent death. When a character dies, he or she is gone forever, there are no phoenix downs or anything. You'll have to restart the entire chapter in order to keep that character. It adds some difficulty, although sometimes there is just the things out of your power that force you to restart (such as a 1% critical hit occurring).

The gameplay is the same as it has been forever. People new to the series will enjoy it, but they will probably enjoy it the same with any other Fire Emblem game. Veterans to the series will find it stale and needing something to spice things up.

New Content:
Being a remake, there is bound to be some changes to the game here and there, including new content. Although the weapon triangle is new to the original game, I have already discussed it before and it is not new to the series.

Gaiden Chapters. Although Gaiden chapters (For those that do not know it is essentially a bonus level) are not new to the Fire Emblem series at all, the "unique" way of handling them in this game forces me to cover it. In order to get the gaiden chapters you must keep your total unit count at fifteen or lower, therefore you have to purposefully kill off a vast majority of your units. This is just something I cannot comprehend. The point in permanent death is to add a bit of challenge and force you to try different strategies. Instead of having the requirements for the gaiden chapters be a reward for an extra challenge (such as defeating a tough optional boss, or routing the enemy in a timed battle), it essentially just boils down to human sacrifice. Although putting it that way, it is somewhat comical that people often referred to the random number generator (what determines everything in the game, whether you will hit or miss, gain stats or gain nothing etc...) as a god, and now you must please it with human sacrifice. But seriously, this is just a ridiculous feature that contradicts the whole purpose of permanent death.

Class Swap. This is a feature that had potential to be very interesting, but ends up feeling like a cheap gimmick. In between missions you can change the class of any unit to another class. Doing this alters the character's stats and stat growths a bit. In theory this sounds like an interesting system, but it fails in execution. Most characters are built around their default class, making that the best for them and class swap will only weaken them. There is a few characters (Zagaro) who are better suited with another class (General) and make them unstoppable. For the most part, the only use for the class swap system besides units like Zagaro is for the novelty of messing around with units and classes. This novelty wears off fast.

Replay Value:

This game boasts six difficulty levels for replay value. But difficulty in Fire Emblem is mostly artificial. The game just stacks the odds against you, and strategy plays less of a role than luck does in determining the outcome of a battle. For the most, part one play through the game should suffice. Although one may want to do a 15 character run for the gaiden chapters, and maybe Russian Roulette class swap for some novelty.

Overall: 4.5/10

I give it a 4.5 out of ten because it feels better than a four, but not quite a five. Although Gamefaqs does not allow decimals, I give it a four, rounding it up to a five is just too generous for this game.

This game is nothing special. Same old gameplay that we've seen for ages now, coupled with some gimmicks that only further take away from the game. The only reason I see to play it is if you are a hardcore fan of the series, or you're a big Marth fan and just have to play Marth's game. For the rest of us Fire Emblem fans, the series isn't what it used to be. People are either moving on to other games, or trying out the older Fire Emblems.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 12/23/08

Game Release: Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (EU, 12/05/08)