Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon

"A great remake of a classic fire emblem"

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is a great remake of the original Fire Emblem. Rather than being just a port of the old game with new graphics it fixed the flaws of the original title and added more features, such as online multiplayer which hasn't been in the most recent console Fire Emblem game Radiant Dawn.

Gameplay
The game keeps it's classic Fire Emblem turn based battle system and class system, however added to this title is the class swap system that allows characters to switch between classes out of a set amount for each unit type.

The 3 sets are Male A which are Myrmidon/Swordmaster , Cavalier/Paladin, Curate/Bishop, Mage/Sage and Archer/Sniper with Dragon Knight upon promotion.

Female which is the same as Male A but has Paladin upon promotion and Pegasus Knight instead of Cavalier.

Male B which is Armoured Knight/General ,Hunter/Horseman ,Dark Mage/Sorcerer, Pirate/Berserker ,Fighter/Warrior and Mercenary/Hero.

The Class swap feature adds and works very well to the game play allowing you to replace vital team such as healers or flying units if they are to be defeated in combat. Most characters can fill in most job classes(since stats change a bit between the classes) though switching a trained physical unit to a magic unit and vice-versa won't work very well.

The DS version game also balances out the classes, allowing units that do not promote(such as Marth, Thieves, Ballistae and Mamkutes) to reach level 30 and have higher maximum stats than un-promoted units. It also added the Warrior class as the fighters promotion(as in the original they could not promote) and it added the Myrmidon/Swordmaster class which were not in the game.

The Game has 6 difficulty modes of which the range of difficulty is very wide giving suitable challenges to any type of fire emblem player be them new to the series, played one or two of the previous games or is a veteran of the series. Interestingly enough the game difficulties work well with the class balancing in that while on normal mode ranged units are less useful than direct attacking ones, their use increases a lot as the difficulty level increases as many enemies equal or even beat your characters in stats, but are mostly direct attackers so ranged attackers become useful as they can deal out damage without having to take counter attacks .

Like the Battle saves in Fire Emblem Radiant dawn there is the option to save during battles however in this game there are a limited number per map and you have to get a character to step on the space, while not very useful on normal mode they are well placed to save you the stress of having to repeat the harder chapters on the Hard modes.

Another new feature to the game is replacement troops, if your army falls to a number too small for the chapters requirement you'll get generic replacement troops however on the harder difficulties the enemies tend to be too strong for even non-generic recruits later in the game so sometimes you're better off restarting chapters to keep people alive rather than using the generics.

However if your character number falls below 15 units after certain chapters you'll be able to reach a Gaiden chapter in which you can get an extra character from and more EXP from enemies and usually a couple of the rarer items in the game, it's true you'll miss out on the Gaiden chapters if you keep all your characters alive but most of the units you get from those chapters will be only about as strong as the characters you'll currently have so they are only there to give you replacements that turn out stronger than the Generic units you get.

There is also the online multiplayer which takes place on a map with a 5 v 5 setup of characters you win either by defeating all of your enemies characters or gaining points by placing a character at the citadel at the centre of the map and changing the flag to your army which will win you the game when the number of turns run out unless your opponent captures the citadel for themselves or defeats your party before the final turn ends.

I give the gameplay a 9/10. No bad changes and the classes(apart from a couple) are a lot more balanced than in previous instalments.

Story
Due to the game being on the NES it had a very simple story, the DS has made it a bit more indepth but many of the minor characters and some the story itself is a bit lacking compared to more recent RPG titles.

Without giving away spoilers the plot involves Marth(a prince from a kingdom called Altea) building an army to save Arkenia(the continent the game takes place in) from armies led by Medeus and Gharnef.

The Major characters in the game do play good roles and the story itself is interesting but it's really the lack of backstory for many of the characters which could have been resolved with the support system seen in the previous games (apart from radiant dawn) is slightly disappointing to say the least.

So I'd give the storyline a 6/10, not good but the fact it was from the NES does need to be taken into consideration.

Graphics/Sound
The graphics of this game have be improved a lot over the previous handheld fire emblems with more advanced character models, battle scenes, effects and background maps for chapters. But the scenes keep the normal Fire Emblem 2d character drawings.

However the character models in battle themselves lack variety and the models only vary by hair colour and gender while previous fire emblems characters had different coloured clothing as well, though the models themselves are designed very well.

The Music in the game has great variety and most of it is pretty good, the tracks are played at suitable times and are fitting of the point in which they play. There's not much else to say about the music since it's used in a similar fashion to most Fire Emblem games although there could've been more music for different chapters.

The Graphics and Sound deserve a 7/10, the music and graphics are pretty good but more music and more unique character battle models would have made them better.

Play Time & Replayability
On its hardest difficulty the game takes up to 30-35 hours to complete, less on the easier settings there is quite a bit of replay ability in which you may want to form a team for online play by planning a play through. Also the 6 difficulties means you could play through one to see how well you do and try a harder one after you complete an easier one to see if you've improved.

The online multiplayer can also add to the extra playability in this fire emblem. As you can play against an opponent on equal terms or even get teams from other people to use prepared matches between other players can be pretty fun.

The play time and replay ability get a 8/10 the game can last quite a while and there are many difficulty modes to add to the replayability.

Final Recommendation
Overall the game is classic Fire Emblem but with its range of difficulty settings and new features this game can be recommend to fire emblem fans new and old, this game is very suitable as someones First Fire Emblem game. I find this game most comparable to fire emblem 7 due to its similar battle system that doesn't have character skills.

I'd say this game is a great addition to the Fire Emblem series and recommend to buy it new if you're a fan of turn based strategy games or a Fire Emblem Fan, if you're new to turn based strategies buying it second hand or maybe renting it would be the best idea so you can see whether or not you like it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/26/09

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