Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon

"Get it for the gameplay, but ignore the story"

Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon, a remake of the very first Fire Emblem only released in Japan and this is the first time western players get to play it localized, well, let's get started shall we?

STORY/CHARACTERS: 4/10: I'm afraid there isn't much to brag about story-wise. This is a remake of the very first game, and they tried to remain faithful to the original, if you have played the game, you will see that they tried to be TOO faithful. The story is pretty generic, the hero saving the world kind of thing with nothing in the way of plot twists. But wait! Surely the characters will make up for it, right? I'm afraid to say that's wrong, remember when I said IS remained a little too faithful to the original? Well, unlike in other games released on western shores, there are no support conversations, unless you count small conversations that characters can have that are sort of like supports, but even those are limited. I'm afraid if you're into deep characters and story, you'll be disapointed, who knows though, that first impression characters give you might be enough to reset if they die, but the problem is some units have no dialogue at all, and I don't mean the generic units, for example, the characters "Barst, Bord, and Cord" all have no lines in the game, unless you count their death quote, but that's still only one line right there.

MUSIC: 8/10: This game has some very decent music, especially for a remake of a NES game. You will hear the ever classic Fire Emblem Theme, a recruitment theme, among some others, I can not think of a "bad" piece of music in the game, but none of them are really "masterpieces" either. But don't expect this game to have the best music in the Fire Emblem series however, but it is, like I said, very decent especially if you come with low expectations.

Graphics: 9/10: I don't get why people complain about the graphics as much as they do, I personally loved the graphics. Outside of battle, the level design is solid enough, and the sprites for your "units"(More on that in "Gameplay") look like 3-D versions of their GBA counterparts! I see that most complain about the in-battle graphics though, however I think they are great, I can't put my finger on just why, but even if some people say the battle graphics look like clay figures, I still love them.

Gameplay: 10/10: What's that? Did he just give it a perfect score? Yes I did. Let's go back a bit in history shall we? Remember the Atari days? I wasn't there, but you can tell that games were meant to be played for one thing: The gameplay. This is where everything was focused on, the balancing of this game is superb. But first, let me explain how Fire Emblem works. Fire Emblem is a turn based strategy game where your "units" or people that you have recruited fight for you, each having a basic, yet unique personality. You use some units to recruit others. The game makes you THINK, especially if you're playing on the harder difficulties, you can't just go off and send an overpowered ally unit into a field full of "weaker" enemy units and expect them to live, this game makes you use your brain, I'm sure you could beat the game with the worst characters. This is in my opinion the most balanced Fire Emblem to date, even magic, which seems overpowered at first is balanced out thanks to the new (strange) avoid formula. I mentioned difficulty setting before, in addition to "Normal" mode, there are 5 additional harder modes that will challenge you, even I have yet to go through the hardest difficulty. Even when that's all done, there is still Wi-Fi, unfortunately Wi-Fi is flooded with hackers, but you can play with friends if they have the game as well. And even then you'll come back for more, for Fire Emblem has always had replayability, you won't get tired of it, I am currently starting my 8th playthrough and am still not bored! Another new addition is the "Gaiden" chapters, which is new to this game, not the series however. But the Gaiden chapters were rather nice touches, although the requirements are a bit steep, for those who have no idea what a Gaiden chapter is, it is basically an optional part of the game gotten by achieving a certain requirement, in this case it's having 15 units or less, for all of them, except one, but even that requires you to kill someone off. The Gaiden chapters are still a nice addition, especially for the struggling new player who could use new units gotten in these chapters.

All in all Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is a great remake that warrants a purchase, get it if you're a fan for sure, if you heard of this game due to Marth of Super Smash Brothers fame starring in this game, then you might want to rent it first though.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/02/09

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