Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon

"Good for a SRPG, Bad for a Fire Emblem game"

When I first saw this announced in a friend's Nintendo Power, I'll admit that I was a little bit skeptical, but at the same time, I was excited. After all, this is the first time that those of us outside Japan can legally play this game. However, having played this game, I've got to admit, I again have mixed feelings.

Gameplay:8/10
I'm going to start with one of the best things about the game: the gameplay is, for the most part, solid Fire Emblem. You still have the standard "grid-based battle with your guys vs. the bad guys", which is nice, and honestly, you don't mess with a working system. However, it is a remake of the first game, which means it didn't have all the nice things that we've come to know, love, and expect in our Fire Emblem games. So, for better or for worse, the developers added some of them in. Example: the weapon triangle. This wasn't in the original game, and has been added to this one, although whether or not that's a good thing is up to you to decide. The thing is, though, that it feels sort of tacked on. When I attack an axe-wielding unit, the weapon triangle states that I should use a sword, as it will be the better choice, both in accuracy and damage. However, I've noticed that in this game it really doesn't make a difference - or at least, not enough of one. The difference between a sword (which should have bonuses against the axe) and a lance (which should have penalties) is maybe five points of accuracy and no damage. That's a big issue, in my opinion.

Next is the lack off support conversations. Those wonderful little in battle discussions that added back-story to the characters and may have helped you sympathize with them? Yeah, they're gone. Sure there are some little discussions (called events, which, like supports, can be viewed later), but there's never any follow up. For example, in one of them, a female character asks one of her bodyguards to protect Marth, citing a possible romance as the reason. Then? Nothing. After that, there is no mention whatsoever of that romance, not between her and the bodyguard or her and Marth. It's just left hanging, and it's really bothersome. It makes all of the characters seem too flat, but more on that later.

A few new additions, and then I'll move on. First is reclassing, which, is exactly what it sounds like: a feature that lets you change your units' classes within their set. However, this can go both ways - it can either be a neat feature for challenge runs or balancing out characters, or it can be a way to massively break the game, by turning all of your characters into broken classes like Paladin, General, and Hero. That said, I think it's a cool feature, but should be toned down in future games if it's implemented, or removed completely in favor of The Sacred Stone's multi class options. Also new is the forging system, which allows you to modify your weapons and rename them, although at a fairly high cost. This is a mixed bag, however - as stated, it's expensive, and additionally, you can't increase the number of uses the weapon has. Also, the idea of having to sacrifice characters (or just suck) to access the gaiden chapters is interesting - if you're attempting a gaiden run, it means you have to pick your units carefully, and kill off the rest, which enforces using the same units, but to be honest, you were probably gong to do that anyway. And finally, there are some new characters in this version, although they, unfortunately, have backstories and in spite of being cool additions, tend to feel tacked on because of that flatness.

Story:2/10
This one hurts, because I was hoping for a nice, emotional storyline like FE7 and 8, but instead, we get gypped. I even tried to enjoy the story, and I just couldn't. I mean, honestly, several characters talk exactly once. Some never talk at all, except in death quotes. And while in previous FE games, some characters rarely talked in the main story, there were supports. Here, that options gone, which makes the flat characters really flat. And this sucks. I mean, I'd want to know why Frey seems to have been the one who canonically sacrifices himself for Marth to get away, and I'd want to know why Norne joins the army, and how Caeda knows Navarre, and more about Marth and Merric's friendship - and that's just in the first few chapters. But we get nothing. One character literally says something like "Arr, I be tired of pillagin', and I be wantin' to join yer army", then joins you right away (if he can get to Marth, and if you don't kill him first). Then? That character never speaks again. Seems pretty pointless to me. And the main story...I can literally sum it up in eleven words, without spoilers: Marth travels the world, builds an army, and saves the world. Sure, there are some minor conversations, but they aren't really that important.


Graphics & Sound: 6/10
Another mixed bag. Well, graphically, at least. The sound is excellent, and I'd recommend playing with the volume turned up. But the graphics are meh, at best. The "out of battle" animations are pretty cool, and in some cases there's even uniqueness - one Myrmidon holds his sword at his side, for example, while another holds hers upright - but they're pretty much what you'd expect in a DS turn-based-strategy game. The in-battle animations, however, are a different story. They're done in 3D now, which adds something in the "cool" department, but takes away something as well. They're lacking the uniqueness of the GBA games - all Calvaliers, for example, are wearing the same color armor and just have different hair colors, whereas in the GBA games, each in-battle sprite was unique. And the reclassing robs that, too. Say you reclass two characters into General? Both will be blue. It's really quite upsetting, actually, and is definitely something that should be fixed in future games. Those complaints made, the graphics are quite nice for the DS, and in some ways superior to the GBA battle animations.

Replayability: 5/10
This is easily among the most replayable games I've purchased in the past twelve months. There are a grand total of five and a half difficulty settings (One-star hard mode is really just normal mode without the prologue, which makes the game marginally harder, but not enough to make any huge differences), and beyond that, reclassing allows for a potentially infinte number of challenge runs. However, for some, the lack of the multiple heroes (as seen in FEs 7 and 8) will limit the number of runs, as will the lack of having to get all the supports. Basically, your mileage may vary with replayability.

Final Score: 5.25/10
This is one you may wish to rent first, and buy only if you really like strategy games, or if you're a completionist who absolutely has to beat all six difficulties. Or raging FE fanboy. Other than that, you may end up disappointed by it's lack of modern conventions and the lackluster story.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 03/02/09

Game Release: Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (US, 02/16/09)