This review was based on a review copy of the game and not a retail copy, generously furnished by Nintendo.
It’s no secret that Nintendo has eagerly embraced its new, massive casual audience. They’ve got Wii Sports, Wii Fit and the like on their hit console, while the Touch Generations line attracts new consumers to the DS like a magnet. In the midst of this, enter the first-party title Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon. Say what you want about this excellent strategy RPG, but one thing you can’t say is that this is a game intended for casual players, in any way. This is a long, complex, difficult game, and longtime Nintendo fans are sure to appreciate this one.
Marth, known in America for his appearances in the Super Smash Bros. series, makes his stateside debut in this game, which is a remake of the very first NES Fire Emblem title. His homeland of Altea has been conquered by the evil forces of Dolhr, under the command of the shadow dragon Medeus. The game details your quest, as Marth and his band of rebels, to retake Altea and defeat the evil Medeus with the blade Falchion. The plot is pretty straightforward, without many surprises; like many other major-name Nintendo titles, it serves more as a vehicle for the gameplay, though it also makes sure to get you nice and attached to your characters, which I’ll touch on in a bit.
This game is a strategy RPG through and through, meaning it is far and away more complex than your traditional Nintendo offering. You’ll command a small army of units on a grid-like map, as you move forward in an attempt to defeat the enemy army and seize the castle/throne/whatever it is you need to seize. The devil is in the details, though, and there are an awful lot of details you’ll need to concern yourself with. Fans of the Fire Emblem series will be more than familiar with all this, but the uninitiated may be surprised by the level of depth present in this game. You’ll level up your troops, you’ll obtain more powerful weapons, your troops will level up their weapons… you get the point. If you don’t like putting a lot of thought into your strategy, you will probably have trouble digesting this title.
If you are intrigued, but still intimidated, there are a couple things that Nintendo does to help put your fears at ease, without compromising on the strategy or difficulty. Firstly, they have added a Prologue to the game, consisting of several chapters, designed to ease you into the world and gameplay of Fire Emblem. Secondly, once you’ve gotten your head around the gameplay, there are some in-game elements that will help you plan your strategies. With a tap of the X button, you can call forth a grid that shows your enemy’s complete attack range, so you can tell if you’re moving your troops into danger. Also, right before you attack an enemy, a little chart tells you of the enemy’s stats compared to yours, and how much damage each of you is likely to give each other; you can use this to plot out how you intend to carry out your assault. These things are intended to help keep you aware of the repercussions of your actions, allowing you to more effectively plan your attack; having never played a Fire Emblem game before, I found these elements to be quite welcome and helpful.
There is certainly quite a bit of strategy that goes into this game. There are at least three hierarchies in play in this game: two of them are “rock, paper, scissors” style weapons loops, while there is also one inherent in the troop system; fliers will fall to archers, while my axe-wielding fighter always tore apart the enemy knights. Even the position of your troops will determine how much ground the enemy can cover, who will attack and counterattack, all sorts of things. The game does a fairly good job of easing you into this, even after the Prologue is complete, but it remains quite a bit for a player to take in. In addition, there can be certain changes in the type of battle; chapter 6 will be your first encounter with the speed-based battle, tasking you with racing some soldiers through the castle in order to stop thieves before they escape with valuable treasure. You can choose not to go to quite this extent if you wish, but choosing to do so will increase the difficulty, the risk, and the reward considerably. The game seems to do this every so often, offering higher-risk options with a greater payout. In summary, the various systems in place are fairly complex at their core, but the game goes to great lengths to make them easier to swallow, and for the most part succeeds. The core Fire Emblem gameplay is highly entertaining, without very many obstacles in the way of its enjoyment.
It’s entirely possible that I just suck at Fire Emblem (in fact, a friend of mine tells me this often, being a skilled player herself), but I’ve always felt that I am highly skilled at video games in general, so I feel confident in stating that this game is seriously difficult even if you don’t choose the higher-risk mode of playing. Besides the number of things you need to keep in mind regarding the strategy, the game is just a difficult one to play. I find myself turning off my DS and restarting a mission a large number of times, because slight faults in my troop positioning led to disaster, as well as the entire enemy army ganging up unfairly on a single soldier; on that note, there should be an option to quit to the main menu with or without saving. It doesn’t help that the game creates emotional attachments to many of your troops, which will lead to frustration when one of them dies. If a troop dies at any point in Fire Emblem, they are dead for good, and will never return to the battlefield; the only exception is Marth, who will trigger a Game Over if he is killed. Essentially, you’ll be fighting more strategically, attempting to preserve the life of every single troop, instead of simply charging through and heading for the boss. Here’s hoping you have a lot of patience.
You can control the game either with the stylus or with more traditional button controls; both of these work just fine, with no real difficulties. I ended up playing through most of the game with buttons because that is my general preference for most games, but I found myself a bit partial to some of the simplicities of stylus control; for example, in order to move a unit around a map, you simply need to tap the unit, then the square you wish to send it to. The game looks pretty good as well, being entirely 2D with some hand-drawn artwork thrown in; it’s hardly taxing on the system, but it all looks quite nice, and the battle animations when one solder attacks another is oddly entertaining, even for the thousandth time. The game doesn’t sound quite as good as it looks, but it’s plenty good; you’ll hear a few iconic Fire Emblem tunes on your quest, and while nothing will stick with you that much, it’s entertaining to listen to, and accompanies battles well.
This game is going to keep you playing for a while. Each of the 25 chapters took me, on average, 30 minutes or so, and once you’ve completed the game, you’ll have reasons to go back. As stated before, you can try to play through the game in a more high-risk manner, or perhaps a lower-risk one if that’s the sort of thing you enjoy. There’s also a Hard mode for you to trudge through, if you’re feeling particularly masochistic. In addition to that, there are five extra missions in the main story that you may or may not get to; most of them require that you have fewer than 15 troops alive, a milestone that I never really achieved.
It’s entirely possible that reading about the complex gameplay turned you right off of this title, and if that’s the case, that’s fine. Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, quite frankly, isn’t a game for everyone; it knows its audience well, and if you like this sort of game, it will most definitely be good to you. I give this game a Yay! for strategy fans, or anybody looking for a deep, long, satisfying title. If you’re willing to put in the time and energy it takes to really play this game, you’ll find the results to be highly satisfying.
