While not discussed in many circles online, Shadow Dragon is probably one of the most important Fire Emblem games, being the last true “classic” styled entry. Upon it’s original release, the game wasn’t generally favored, and alongside rather poor sales in the United States it left Fire Emblem in a tricky place. Where the series would go after this will be explained in some other review i do in the future, as for now I want to talk about this game. Like a majority of this franchise, I had much interest in trying this game, as it was a remake of Marth’s very first adventure after all. But just like the many other games in the series I wanted to play, it wasn’t very accessible.
In the current day when FE8 and 7 started my obsession with this series I had hopped onto 6 immediately afterwards. I was not very impressed. Ok-ish map design tied with lackluster player units and absolute beasts of enemy units led me to frustration into dropping the game after only 13 chapters. I was done. So I decided to hop into this game instead, it was also on a handheld and I had heard some good things about it before. So I started playing.
This is a contender for my favorite Fire Emblem game so far from its gameplay alone. While rejecting a few gameplay systems from previous entries and retaining certain cryptic NES jank, the game itself is very speedy and easy to just pick up and play. Maps aren’t very long if you play smart, you can turn off pointless enemy turns to save time, and the game rarely feels like it's wasting your time. That being said… the certain carryovers from the original can be pretty annoying at points. Only Marth can enter villages, and there’s no rescue system which can leave your weaker units in a lot of trouble sometimes. I miss the rescue system because it added an extra layer of possible risk vs reward and gave cavaliers and fliers even more usability. But it's not too major of a blow.
Reinforcements are another element of this game that can be obnoxious. It’s a complete coin flip on whether they will spawn from unattended forts or the sides of the map, and like other FE games with reinforcements you would only know this from previous knowledge or using a guide. With some maps it's a fine enough hindrance for not playing efficiently enough, but in others it’s such a pain in the ass, especially when 90% of the time these reinforcements are horse riders or flyers, meaning they will dash after your ass IMMEDIATELY.
That being said, I feel as a tradeoff this game is honestly kinda broken. Units such as Caeda, a General Setger, and any Ballista user will be your best friend for a majority of the game, especially when properly exploiting the forgery system on the Wing Spear or Ballista weapons. There’s this one map I was really struggling on until I realized that I can just warp Setger to the central part of the map and have him sit there while taking literally no damage and killing every single enemy + reinforcement for almost the entire session. It’s little moments like these that make me kinda love this game, it’s busted and exploitable in areas to a comical degree but almost as a balance to this there are a lot of reinforcements and later maps are fine with having enemy healers out of your range constantly.
Permadeath, permadeath, permadeath. It’s impossible to discuss any Fire Emblem game prior to 12 without mention of this ever so infamous punishment for poor play, the ability to permanently lose any of your units at any time. It’s easy to be intimidated by it. What if I lose an integral character from my team and I can’t beat the game because of it? Shadow Dragon seems to try something a bit different with this concept by also fusing it with another frequent feature of Fire Emblem: the gaiden chapters. In previous games, the gaiden chapters could only be accessed by certain parameters, to my knowledge mainly related to recruiting certain units or finishing a chapter in a turn limit (and they were also required to beat FE6. lol.). This game’s approach to gaiden chapters was rather different- instead, they are used rather as a failsafe for players who are losing too many units. I’ve seen many players complain about this feature and how they don’t like the game is “forcing” them to lose units for it, but that’s entirely missing the point- the game isn’t forcing you. It’s there for players who might be struggling or decide not to constantly reload their game upon failure. If you feel that you are falling behind and might not be able to make it to the end, the game encourages you to keep going and gives you backup to put the player in a much more comfortable position. Now obviously, you still have to try if you want to see things to the end, but it’s there to keep you going regardless.
I think this take on the concept of permadeath is an insanely smart way of still keeping the punishing system it always has been, but creating new ways to make the player not feel discouraged from finishing the game. As early as the prologue, you are forced to sacrifice a single unit- with you even being told to accept your losses and move on. This is war, there is no playing around.
Replayability is another focus of Shadow Dragon. The game itself isn’t very long, consisting of 25 chapters that are all relatively short. However, this is taken advantage of by incorporating several difficulty options. Each difficulty progressively gets harder in a natural scale, starting with normal and slowly increasing the BS factor. It’s a way to keep you coming back, and topping that with Shadow Dragon’s addictive nature it fits like a glove.
The graphics have always been a major turnoff. After the simply beautiful GBA games with plenty of colors and smooth battle animations, going to the ugly pre-rendered look of this game alongside the “meh” looking animations may turn away most players. As much as it is to say “graphics aren’t everything” presentation still means a lot to a game in the long run, especially if it’s in a series with previous entries that looked much better. They’re graphics I can simply tolerate, but it did leave me disappointed especially with the potential of visuals the DS could pull off. The promotional art is a different story, though. Composed by Ghost in the Shell manga artist Masamune Shirow, they’re splendid pieces that fit Fire Emblem while being distinctive and stylish pieces in their own right. Unfortunately, he didn’t make that much art for this game, aside from some promotional pieces and some other artwork that you can’t even see outside of an art book he published, but they’re great nonetheless.
This game, while being fantastic in it’s own right, also marked the end of an era for Fire Emblem. The sequel would be the introduction to modern FEisms such as casual mode and a player avatar, which would soon be followed up be Fire Emblem Awakening, an absolute game changer in both Fire Emblem and Nintendo’s history, but that’s a story for another time. It’s a shame that this game wasn’t ever really given it’s moment to shine, especially when it’s a very solid package with a lot of fun quirks alongside being a great remake. Hopefully it will someday be given the recognition that it deserves, and I hope that this review will encourage readers to try it out themselves. Come join us, together we ride!
Replayed this for the sake of a video I'm making ranking every Fire Emblem, half-expecting to discover that my love for it was wrong the whole time but no, it's as great as I remembered it being. I could go on about how much I love DSFE's distinct feel of being player phase focused with extremely limited options in comparison to say Conquest or Engage, the interesting way having a meta based around forging affects resource management, and how the game it's a remake of is purposeful in a way that the overwhelming majority of subsequent FEs aren't but I think what makes this game hit different to me is my unique relationship with it. Maybe it's just because it was my first experience with the series when I was 12 but FE11 represents the weird mystique surrounding Fire Emblem prior to Awakening where it was spoken in hushed tones as this frictional experience where a character losing all their HP means they're gone for good. I'd liken it to Earthbound/Mother where being in the best selling party game of all time means you're inherently going to have a mythical specter built around the games from people who haven't played them, although in FE's case, that specter revolves moreso around its difficulty as opposed to weirdness in Earthbound's case. This reputation is of course exaggerated, as out off the five FEs with a stateside release (Blazing Sword, Sacred Stones, Path of Radiance if we're not counting the Japanese exclusive Maniac Mode) are easy to get the hang of regardless of which difficulty you're playing on and the remaining two only become uniquely hard if you play them on higher difficulties.
But as a 12 year old playing FE11 on normal as my first experience with Fire Emblem, this might have been the hardest game in existence. I could never get past Chapter 8 then. Still, something about the game was compelling to me. Shortly after the point where I threw in the towel though, Awakening would come out with this nifty little feature called "casual mode" and I would become fully obsessed with it, constantly starting new files in a foolish attempt to unlock every support conversation. At some point in this obsession, I tried to give the game another go and got as far as Chapter 20 before once again throwing in the towel. However, my Awakening obsession would eventually wear off. Fates and Echoes: Shadows of Valentia just didn't compel me in the way that Awakening did (to the point where I didn't even play past Act 2 of the latter) and getting into anime helped me realize just how tropey the game's writing is. I wrote off my love of the series as a juvenile one that only existed because casual mode Awakening was one of the few-non Pokémon games I was able to beat for the longest time.
However, in the summer of 2019, something would change. I watched the two episode Fire Emblem OVA on a whim and while I found it as cheesy as its reputation made it out to be, there was a charm to it that made me want to play a Fire Emblem game for the first time in two years. I remembered that I had all three of the Fire Emblem games available on the Wii U virtual console and started with Sacred Stones, the only one of the three that I hadn't touched beforehand and became enamored with it. Upon finishing it, I wanted more and booted up Shadow Dragon, aiming to conquer my childhood fears once and for all. While finally beating the game on normal mode really isn't that much of an accomplishment, finally emerging victorious against the demon that tormented me as a child felt like a transition to adulthood for my 19 year old self.
As corny as this story is, Shadow Dragon may very well have had a profound impact on the way I see games. For a long period of my life, a game's value was dictated by how much it stimulated me on a superficial level. Games I loved were ones I beat and if I couldn't beat a game, it probably didn't have that much value. But Shadow Dragon opened me up to the idea of more frictional experiences being worthwhile. It's probably not a coincidence that the overwhelming majority of games that I'd list among my favorites are ones that I played after the floodgates that this one opened. I don't think it's an understatement to say that my current tastes in games would not have existed without the one that most FE fans write off as "bad and ugly."
But as a 12 year old playing FE11 on normal as my first experience with Fire Emblem, this might have been the hardest game in existence. I could never get past Chapter 8 then. Still, something about the game was compelling to me. Shortly after the point where I threw in the towel though, Awakening would come out with this nifty little feature called "casual mode" and I would become fully obsessed with it, constantly starting new files in a foolish attempt to unlock every support conversation. At some point in this obsession, I tried to give the game another go and got as far as Chapter 20 before once again throwing in the towel. However, my Awakening obsession would eventually wear off. Fates and Echoes: Shadows of Valentia just didn't compel me in the way that Awakening did (to the point where I didn't even play past Act 2 of the latter) and getting into anime helped me realize just how tropey the game's writing is. I wrote off my love of the series as a juvenile one that only existed because casual mode Awakening was one of the few-non Pokémon games I was able to beat for the longest time.
However, in the summer of 2019, something would change. I watched the two episode Fire Emblem OVA on a whim and while I found it as cheesy as its reputation made it out to be, there was a charm to it that made me want to play a Fire Emblem game for the first time in two years. I remembered that I had all three of the Fire Emblem games available on the Wii U virtual console and started with Sacred Stones, the only one of the three that I hadn't touched beforehand and became enamored with it. Upon finishing it, I wanted more and booted up Shadow Dragon, aiming to conquer my childhood fears once and for all. While finally beating the game on normal mode really isn't that much of an accomplishment, finally emerging victorious against the demon that tormented me as a child felt like a transition to adulthood for my 19 year old self.
As corny as this story is, Shadow Dragon may very well have had a profound impact on the way I see games. For a long period of my life, a game's value was dictated by how much it stimulated me on a superficial level. Games I loved were ones I beat and if I couldn't beat a game, it probably didn't have that much value. But Shadow Dragon opened me up to the idea of more frictional experiences being worthwhile. It's probably not a coincidence that the overwhelming majority of games that I'd list among my favorites are ones that I played after the floodgates that this one opened. I don't think it's an understatement to say that my current tastes in games would not have existed without the one that most FE fans write off as "bad and ugly."
A solid Fire Emblem, but very basic. It's simultaneously both obvious and impressive that this is just the first game in the series with a facelift. None of the characters feel very fleshed out, many of the mechanics that improved later games are absent, and pretty much every level has a "Seize" objective. However, that core FE gameplay never fails, and I couldn't stop playing until I rolled credits.
I managed to make it to the final chapter without any of my favorites dying, but that's totally because I would reload an earlier save every time Minerva or Haldin got their heads bashed in. It's a bit of a shame that "favorites" in this game just meant "the ones that hit the hardest". None of these blank slates left an impression like Lethe, Volke, Seth, or Tharja.
If you're wanting a Fire Emblem game to be bare-bones and simple, this is your game. But pretty much every other title will have more going on than Shadow Dragon does.
I managed to make it to the final chapter without any of my favorites dying, but that's totally because I would reload an earlier save every time Minerva or Haldin got their heads bashed in. It's a bit of a shame that "favorites" in this game just meant "the ones that hit the hardest". None of these blank slates left an impression like Lethe, Volke, Seth, or Tharja.
If you're wanting a Fire Emblem game to be bare-bones and simple, this is your game. But pretty much every other title will have more going on than Shadow Dragon does.
Sim, eu sou o emblema de fogo..
Po achei o jogo maneiro e é o primeiro que jogo desse gênero de estratégia por turno assim, e sinceramente não foi uma experiência ruim, claro que não foi aquilo de marcante teve momentos ali que eu fiquei com um certo tédio em continuar a história do jogo (que por sinal não achei lá tão legal), os conflitos e as conversas que rolam com os personagens é uma parada bem legalzinha de ver, principalmente quando tu mata algum inimigo e ai o outro da equipe reage de alguma forma, achei isso bala e deu bastante vida pro jogo, mas a história em si.. não consegui me apegar tanto.
Mas eu gostei do gênero e espero jogar mais vezes jogos desse estilo, Fire Emblem me divertiu na maior parte do tempo e colocou minha cabeça pra pensar antes de fazer qualquer cagada.
Po achei o jogo maneiro e é o primeiro que jogo desse gênero de estratégia por turno assim, e sinceramente não foi uma experiência ruim, claro que não foi aquilo de marcante teve momentos ali que eu fiquei com um certo tédio em continuar a história do jogo (que por sinal não achei lá tão legal), os conflitos e as conversas que rolam com os personagens é uma parada bem legalzinha de ver, principalmente quando tu mata algum inimigo e ai o outro da equipe reage de alguma forma, achei isso bala e deu bastante vida pro jogo, mas a história em si.. não consegui me apegar tanto.
Mas eu gostei do gênero e espero jogar mais vezes jogos desse estilo, Fire Emblem me divertiu na maior parte do tempo e colocou minha cabeça pra pensar antes de fazer qualquer cagada.
Imagine if someone explained to you that a core part of the modern Mario games was starting each level by jumping into the nearest pit five times to unlock the invincible raccoon suit. They elaborate that the game is bad because there's no guidance on how to unlock the power, it's a dumb way to hide a new powerup to try, and dying five times in a row on each level ruins the game's pacing and lives economy. Would you consider that a fair appraisal of the game's design when this mechanic was meant as a helping hand for struggling players, and most of the people sharing their thoughts online are probably good enough to never see the raccoon power in an entire playthrough?
On a definitely unrelated note, fe11 gaiden chapters. Fucked up amirite you are replaceable he he ha ha
On a definitely unrelated note, fe11 gaiden chapters. Fucked up amirite you are replaceable he he ha ha
raw and kino
I like it when a game doesn't pretend to be something that it isn't. FE11 is about as uncomplicated as Fire Emblem gets, and in this case that's a very good thing, as it serves as a much-needed modernization to FE1 without adding a bunch of fancy stuff on top of it which would've taken away from what the original Fire Emblem is. Most of the units have no depth to them, and the story is straightforward, but that's okay because at no point is this game trying to sell me on being a grandiose adventure of deep lore: it's just good solid fun from start to end. The new reclass system in this game is great and adds loads of replayability. Minus half a star for the most ridiculous gaiden requirements this series has ever seen and locking content behind the now-defunct online shop. Still, a phenomenal entry in the series, one of my favorites in it.
My name is Caeda Fire Emblem yo. (vine thud sfx) My husband is Marth Fire Emblem yo. (vine thud sfx) Uh huh! (vine thud sfx)
Inside the deep shadow of "It's so over" we found within ourselves the light of "We're so back"
the only bad thing about I can say about shadow dragon is that it's ugly, and that's unfortunately a kinda damning thing. if you look past that shadow dragon (and by extension dsfe) offers the best implementation of reset prevention (having save points will always be better than the turnwheel purely because intsys seems intent on designing maps poorly with the turnwheel as a crutch now), pretty good reclassing that doesn't totally sacrifice unit identity and some genuinely fantastic characterisation and writing of marth and nyna that none of the other versions of fe1 offer. honestly might be one of the closest games to thracia in terms of pure design since it showers you with broken weapons and items to make hard 5 doable (after the first few maps bc those boss stats are NASTY) and having the exact same support system. sound design and soundtrack are awesome and the concept art and cg's during chapter opening narration are at least really good. very deserving of a remaster alongside fe12.
this one is peak haters will not survive
Not a whole lot to say but will at least go into the basics.
FE: Shadow Dragon is a very clear first step into the Fire Emblem franchise. The gameplay is simple but tight, and there is little-to-no fat involved with it. You will get short, to-the-point cutscenes at the start of each map, and occasionally some in between while Marth and his crew lay waste to anyone that thinks to challenge them.
Marth is unfortunately fairly middling compared to some of the other characters, mostly because he doesn't get the option to class change, as nearly all the rest of them do. He's quite strong early on but against the final boss, I actually ended up killing it with another unit, which given that the special weapon does double damage against the boss, is pretty telling.
Keeping everyone alive all the way through requires some careful planning, but only a few resets were needed. I enjoyed the fact that it didn't waste my time with pointless extraneous systems (Looking at you 3H) and if the story had been tighter and the gameplay a bit more diverse would've edged out another half-star, but it's still a great remake with much-needed QoL for the first game in the series.
FE: Shadow Dragon is a very clear first step into the Fire Emblem franchise. The gameplay is simple but tight, and there is little-to-no fat involved with it. You will get short, to-the-point cutscenes at the start of each map, and occasionally some in between while Marth and his crew lay waste to anyone that thinks to challenge them.
Marth is unfortunately fairly middling compared to some of the other characters, mostly because he doesn't get the option to class change, as nearly all the rest of them do. He's quite strong early on but against the final boss, I actually ended up killing it with another unit, which given that the special weapon does double damage against the boss, is pretty telling.
Keeping everyone alive all the way through requires some careful planning, but only a few resets were needed. I enjoyed the fact that it didn't waste my time with pointless extraneous systems (Looking at you 3H) and if the story had been tighter and the gameplay a bit more diverse would've edged out another half-star, but it's still a great remake with much-needed QoL for the first game in the series.
i made the mistake of playing this after awakening, which was my first fire emblem game. dont play this game at all
Made Lena into a Swordmaster with capped offenses and she one-rounded Medeus. I don't see why people dislike this game
é um daqueles jogos sabem
um daqueles
um dos jogos de todos os tempos
um daqueles
um dos jogos de todos os tempos
Mixed feelings because the character designs are really sexy but the game won’t let me marry and/or fuck them
mymymy we are back to the fire emblem shithole you had to see my face when i ended up enjoying shadow dragon way more than the gba counterparts in the series maybe my tastebuds are busted because this was very flawed and very good at the same time even though kind of a weird installment in the series but we love to see it nonetheless
soooooooo im playing this series completely wrong and it was time to play this wicked game from the most powerful console of the entire planet with some of the most next gen graphics and incredibly clean audio apparatus thats right the godsent nintendo ds
I wasn't expecting too much from this installment but it definitely managed to crash my expectations out of the way from most of its playtime at least
while I definitely did enjoy most of the things here I gotta address the elephant in the room rn or im gonna go crazy . unfortunately the art direction in this one is SUBPAR the character portraits have this really weird art style that is like anime ish that looks pasted upon a 3d model which is definitely not the worst thing in the world but it just looks kind of weird compared to the gorgeous spriteworks of the earlier gba titles . the overworld sprites arent too different from the usual ones and the maps kind of look good ill give them that but what really sets this game wayyyyyyyyyyy below the other ones artistically is the in-battle ugly as shit 3d models now i usually end up disabling the animations because im adhd yada yada we been there that being said i have never disabled them THIS fast literally such a fucking step down from the earlier titles theyre not ugly for the ds but they wouldve benefited with some more sprite animations (which honestly already refined incredibly well in the previous titles so might as well use them again but i digress) . fortunately enough theres some bomb tracks most of the time (the song that plays out after you seize is SOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD and epic FOR NO FUCKING REASON)
but whatever where this game lacks in art direction it more than makes up for it in the other departments
ill get this out of the way the story isnt the most intricate shit in the world prince marth got exiled and he has to take his throne again going through (and annihilating) all the other pieces of lands and thats the main gist of course theres some kind of insight on some characters and characters interactions but it doesnt get too deep than that then you add a dragon at the end and boom you get the title of the game . ideally i liked a lot of stuff here but its so damn weirdly paced theres some chapters of nothing and than chapters where stuff happens all at ones (not as bad as binding blade tho lets be real) so it definitely was kind of weird for the most part but still has some good moments if i gotta be honest
i did find most of the main characters likeable caeda is an highlight im literally in love with her and i was expecting a damsel in distress kind of archetype but when i realised shes one of the cuntiest girls in the fire emblem franchise literally cunning persuasive hot determinate gorgeous a fucking beast on the battlefield and waited 25 chapters for marth to get a clue of her undying love for the twink LITERALLY an angel i love her dont touch me i will be a dog and bark for her wag my tail roll all that for the other characters i gotta say theres SO FUCKING MANY ??? i think this is the game with the biggest character pool because each chapter they would just throw at me 2 or 3 characters like theyre trash and then be like “ok do something with them i guess” and sometimes they would just die on me and i would be like ok whatever but the reality is the best characters are the ones you get at the beginning of the game and theyre the only ones worth to actually put some work into leveling up all the other characters youll get later are just there so that you could steal a steel lance or sword from them also the fact that theres no supports is so fucking detrimental to the character development because theres literally no way in hell i should know a characters whole 3 pages essay of personality after one (1) interaction
so if you want my serious ass lineup i gotta say Cain (i want to fuck him) Abel Frey Catria Palla (i want to fuck her) Sedgar (i want to fuck him) Barst (i want to fuck him) Lena and then idk for the other units i just put Ogma Wolf sometimes Minerva sometimes Julian shit like that
now you have to know that im fucking stupid and i forgot to get merric in chapter 4 and i remembered hes in this game in like chapter 15 because suddenly the game required me to go against magic users and i was like umhhhhhhh why do i feel like im missing something and THEN i realised i FORGOT MERRIC ???????? and because of that i had to skip an entire chapter because i didnt have a strong magic user to go against the dragon guy literally ruined my entire playthrough what the hell
also i cannot stress this enough but i basically played the entire game with caeda solo shes so fucking CRAZY literally forged wing spear and she would kill anything in front of her and when i got the shield to protect her from archer weakness if i wanted i could end the game with her alone at this point so much fucking fun
so these are the characters that i used now this is definitely not as hard as binding or blazing blade but it sure has some really fucking hideous stuff like 10 reinforcements in a chapter that come out completely out of nowhere (that are usually wyverns so end up instakilling your weaker party members i MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM) a lot of janky mechanics like only marth able to visiting towns and the fact that the rescue option is completely gone this was pretty much for the detriment of the usual gameflow but i still had a lot of fucking fun (savestates required) and in general i liked this way more than the gba titles which makes me wonder why people are so rude to this installment sure its not the greatest game in the series thats shadows of valentia but i dont feel it deserves so much criticism sure i havent played the original because i dont like cock and ball torture but it was a good remake that made me experience marths story without the need to cut my veins and ballista maps made me really consider it lets just say that
im not an expert on the series nor am i the biggest fan of classic fire emblems but this was a good ride nonetheless the plethora of characters and short but challenging maps made for a really great bite sized experience with a lot of personalisation and variety maybe this was not the remake people were expecting but seeing caeda serving cunt was all i needed peace
the other day i realised that fire emblem is inspired by shogi and not chess and my brain expanded to no limits
forgot to say that I think ogma has the biggest cock in the entire cast and I also think its very homophobic for him not to show it to me
soooooooo im playing this series completely wrong and it was time to play this wicked game from the most powerful console of the entire planet with some of the most next gen graphics and incredibly clean audio apparatus thats right the godsent nintendo ds
I wasn't expecting too much from this installment but it definitely managed to crash my expectations out of the way from most of its playtime at least
while I definitely did enjoy most of the things here I gotta address the elephant in the room rn or im gonna go crazy . unfortunately the art direction in this one is SUBPAR the character portraits have this really weird art style that is like anime ish that looks pasted upon a 3d model which is definitely not the worst thing in the world but it just looks kind of weird compared to the gorgeous spriteworks of the earlier gba titles . the overworld sprites arent too different from the usual ones and the maps kind of look good ill give them that but what really sets this game wayyyyyyyyyyy below the other ones artistically is the in-battle ugly as shit 3d models now i usually end up disabling the animations because im adhd yada yada we been there that being said i have never disabled them THIS fast literally such a fucking step down from the earlier titles theyre not ugly for the ds but they wouldve benefited with some more sprite animations (which honestly already refined incredibly well in the previous titles so might as well use them again but i digress) . fortunately enough theres some bomb tracks most of the time (the song that plays out after you seize is SOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD and epic FOR NO FUCKING REASON)
but whatever where this game lacks in art direction it more than makes up for it in the other departments
ill get this out of the way the story isnt the most intricate shit in the world prince marth got exiled and he has to take his throne again going through (and annihilating) all the other pieces of lands and thats the main gist of course theres some kind of insight on some characters and characters interactions but it doesnt get too deep than that then you add a dragon at the end and boom you get the title of the game . ideally i liked a lot of stuff here but its so damn weirdly paced theres some chapters of nothing and than chapters where stuff happens all at ones (not as bad as binding blade tho lets be real) so it definitely was kind of weird for the most part but still has some good moments if i gotta be honest
i did find most of the main characters likeable caeda is an highlight im literally in love with her and i was expecting a damsel in distress kind of archetype but when i realised shes one of the cuntiest girls in the fire emblem franchise literally cunning persuasive hot determinate gorgeous a fucking beast on the battlefield and waited 25 chapters for marth to get a clue of her undying love for the twink LITERALLY an angel i love her dont touch me i will be a dog and bark for her wag my tail roll all that for the other characters i gotta say theres SO FUCKING MANY ??? i think this is the game with the biggest character pool because each chapter they would just throw at me 2 or 3 characters like theyre trash and then be like “ok do something with them i guess” and sometimes they would just die on me and i would be like ok whatever but the reality is the best characters are the ones you get at the beginning of the game and theyre the only ones worth to actually put some work into leveling up all the other characters youll get later are just there so that you could steal a steel lance or sword from them also the fact that theres no supports is so fucking detrimental to the character development because theres literally no way in hell i should know a characters whole 3 pages essay of personality after one (1) interaction
so if you want my serious ass lineup i gotta say Cain (i want to fuck him) Abel Frey Catria Palla (i want to fuck her) Sedgar (i want to fuck him) Barst (i want to fuck him) Lena and then idk for the other units i just put Ogma Wolf sometimes Minerva sometimes Julian shit like that
now you have to know that im fucking stupid and i forgot to get merric in chapter 4 and i remembered hes in this game in like chapter 15 because suddenly the game required me to go against magic users and i was like umhhhhhhh why do i feel like im missing something and THEN i realised i FORGOT MERRIC ???????? and because of that i had to skip an entire chapter because i didnt have a strong magic user to go against the dragon guy literally ruined my entire playthrough what the hell
also i cannot stress this enough but i basically played the entire game with caeda solo shes so fucking CRAZY literally forged wing spear and she would kill anything in front of her and when i got the shield to protect her from archer weakness if i wanted i could end the game with her alone at this point so much fucking fun
so these are the characters that i used now this is definitely not as hard as binding or blazing blade but it sure has some really fucking hideous stuff like 10 reinforcements in a chapter that come out completely out of nowhere (that are usually wyverns so end up instakilling your weaker party members i MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM) a lot of janky mechanics like only marth able to visiting towns and the fact that the rescue option is completely gone this was pretty much for the detriment of the usual gameflow but i still had a lot of fucking fun (savestates required) and in general i liked this way more than the gba titles which makes me wonder why people are so rude to this installment sure its not the greatest game in the series thats shadows of valentia but i dont feel it deserves so much criticism sure i havent played the original because i dont like cock and ball torture but it was a good remake that made me experience marths story without the need to cut my veins and ballista maps made me really consider it lets just say that
im not an expert on the series nor am i the biggest fan of classic fire emblems but this was a good ride nonetheless the plethora of characters and short but challenging maps made for a really great bite sized experience with a lot of personalisation and variety maybe this was not the remake people were expecting but seeing caeda serving cunt was all i needed peace
the other day i realised that fire emblem is inspired by shogi and not chess and my brain expanded to no limits
forgot to say that I think ogma has the biggest cock in the entire cast and I also think its very homophobic for him not to show it to me
This was better than expected, ugly visuals aside.
Everyone who hates this game is a fucking idiot who plays FE for everything but strategy.
my favorite part was when the final boss was so powerful enough to the point where it was impossible for me to kill him so i had to use an action replay code to make a god sword to kill him in 2 hits
however every other chapter in the game is really cool and had me on the edge of my seat the whole way through and i swear to god if another unit spawns in the enemys camp i will reach into the screen and kill those motherfuckers myself
however every other chapter in the game is really cool and had me on the edge of my seat the whole way through and i swear to god if another unit spawns in the enemys camp i will reach into the screen and kill those motherfuckers myself
My first Fire Emblem! I'm an avid Shadow Dragon fan, as you can tell from the score, and in my local Fire Emblem aficionados community I'm known as the "Akaneia guy". What gives?
Put simply, the ease of play and replayability give this game a lot of mileage. There's a lot of characters, lots of maps and lots of difficulty settings to talk about and personally I just really like Marth's role in this game, where he is a strong character in his own, suffering because of loss but still having to be the role model for everyone else. It's a weirdly personal tale, something I really like (something the sequel will ruin but that's another story). I wholeheartedly recommend this game even just for how easy to play and fast it is, compared to other slower games in the same franchise.
Put simply, the ease of play and replayability give this game a lot of mileage. There's a lot of characters, lots of maps and lots of difficulty settings to talk about and personally I just really like Marth's role in this game, where he is a strong character in his own, suffering because of loss but still having to be the role model for everyone else. It's a weirdly personal tale, something I really like (something the sequel will ruin but that's another story). I wholeheartedly recommend this game even just for how easy to play and fast it is, compared to other slower games in the same franchise.
everyone is mean to this game but tbh outside of the art being jank its an incredibly solid and straightforward srpg. No frills or anything, its just fire emblem in its purest form. There are a couple of standout characters and the plot is easy to follow.
Wyrs looks identical to my father. Like down to the last minute detail. What the fuck fire emblem.
An unremarkable game in all aspects and its most noticeable with its disgusting pre-rendered mobile game graphics. That being said I still found myself going back to it because of how addicting the gameplay was.
It was fun micro managing my units and making sure they got a good amount of EXP every chapter so they could continue to be useful, though I’m sure that holds true for every single SRPG. It’s a pretty short game and I think it’s worth playing if you don’t go into it expecting greatness.
An unremarkable game in all aspects and its most noticeable with its disgusting pre-rendered mobile game graphics. That being said I still found myself going back to it because of how addicting the gameplay was.
It was fun micro managing my units and making sure they got a good amount of EXP every chapter so they could continue to be useful, though I’m sure that holds true for every single SRPG. It’s a pretty short game and I think it’s worth playing if you don’t go into it expecting greatness.
Me: playing a game using bottom screen
Me: enters combat
Game: Psych!! It's now the top screen.
Me: enters combat
Game: Psych!! It's now the top screen.
she Nyna on my Hardin till I Camus
This one makes me cum
FE11 is, to me, the gold standard for a remake. It keeps the experience of the original game intact while enhancing the game in ways that were impossible when the original came out
The story of FE11 isn't much different from the original. As I've said before, It's nothing revolutionary, especially by today's standards, but it's still impressive for a 1990 game and holds up perfectly fine. I would have been interested in seeing them try to add to this plot but I very much appreciate their approach of not fixing what isn't broken. This is something of an aside but complexity doesn't make a story good nor does simplicity make a story bad. FE11 tells a very simple and straightforward story but that doesn't make it bad at all.
While the plot has seen little change, the writing was greatly improved from FE1/3. This is easily one of my favorite scripts in any game and the amount of character they're able to give such a simplistic story is impressive. Caeda in particular is a standout. She was a pretty typical female lead character before but this writing adds so much more depth to her. There's also conversations that can be triggered between specific units that not only offers more characterization to the units involved but also fleshes out Archanea's world. The only complaint I have in regards to these is I wish there were more of them.
I wouldn't say that filler is exactly a problem the last 5 games have suffered from. That being said, there were several times when I felt the dialogue in FE6-10 could get a bit unnecessarily long winded and this was most prominent in the supports where it often felt like they were saying a little with a lot. FE11, on the other hand, is incredibly to the point and leaves absolutely no room for filler. This is a huge step up from FE10 where it would feel like several hours could pass without any plot progression. It also makes FE11's scrpit more enjoyable to read on repeat playthroughs because it never wastes your time.
What I believe really makes FE11 such a great game is how it plays. It's by far the fastest paced game yet which lends to its replayability alongside the 6 difficulty options. It's so tempting to play this game again and again, trying new team configurations and reclass options and difficulties. There are so many different ways to play and so many ways to build units that it makes FE11 the most repayable game thus far.
I mentioned reclassing in that last section, which I think is definitely an interesting addition to this game. It allows you to experiment with different classes and try something different with characters who may have been stuck in a bad class. The drawback of this is that unit identity is lost. It's harder for a unit like, for example, Merric to stand out because he's no longer one of the only units capable of being a mage. Overall though I would say that reclassing was a good addition if only for how much it adds to replayability.
One of the most maligned aspects of FE11 is the gaiden chapters. Because they require you to lose units to unlock them, it is impossible to a achieve a "perfect ending". A lot of players tend to get into the habit if resetting for every loss, which isn't how FE is meant to be played. Obviously there's nothing wrong about playing this way, but our lord Shouzou Kaga Himself said that you shouldn't trip over yourself in pursuit of a best ending. By offering these gaiden chapters, FE11 nudges the player into rolling with the punches without forcing them into that playstyle. That's not to mention how it serves as a safety net to struggling players. If you have lost a lot of units, here's an entire chapters worth of experience as well as a new unit.
I started the last paragraph with "one of" because the actual most hated thing about this game is the presentation. In my never-ending quest to be the most contrarian Fire Emblem fan on the internet I have come to the conclusion that this game looks pretty nice. The maps and menus look good and there's these beautiful pieces of art shown before each chapter. I like the portraits too. I think the grittier style along with FE11's writing work together to give this game a really unique atmosphere that makes it standout even from the game it's remaking. I won't defend the battle animations though. They're really ugly and it sucks that units don't get unique pallets.
FE11 is one of the best games FE has seen in quite a while and easily my favorite post-Kaga game so far. I loved the gameplay, but FE11's writing was really on another level. I can't wait to see the rest of the series to see how the writing improved after this. Haha.
The story of FE11 isn't much different from the original. As I've said before, It's nothing revolutionary, especially by today's standards, but it's still impressive for a 1990 game and holds up perfectly fine. I would have been interested in seeing them try to add to this plot but I very much appreciate their approach of not fixing what isn't broken. This is something of an aside but complexity doesn't make a story good nor does simplicity make a story bad. FE11 tells a very simple and straightforward story but that doesn't make it bad at all.
While the plot has seen little change, the writing was greatly improved from FE1/3. This is easily one of my favorite scripts in any game and the amount of character they're able to give such a simplistic story is impressive. Caeda in particular is a standout. She was a pretty typical female lead character before but this writing adds so much more depth to her. There's also conversations that can be triggered between specific units that not only offers more characterization to the units involved but also fleshes out Archanea's world. The only complaint I have in regards to these is I wish there were more of them.
I wouldn't say that filler is exactly a problem the last 5 games have suffered from. That being said, there were several times when I felt the dialogue in FE6-10 could get a bit unnecessarily long winded and this was most prominent in the supports where it often felt like they were saying a little with a lot. FE11, on the other hand, is incredibly to the point and leaves absolutely no room for filler. This is a huge step up from FE10 where it would feel like several hours could pass without any plot progression. It also makes FE11's scrpit more enjoyable to read on repeat playthroughs because it never wastes your time.
What I believe really makes FE11 such a great game is how it plays. It's by far the fastest paced game yet which lends to its replayability alongside the 6 difficulty options. It's so tempting to play this game again and again, trying new team configurations and reclass options and difficulties. There are so many different ways to play and so many ways to build units that it makes FE11 the most repayable game thus far.
I mentioned reclassing in that last section, which I think is definitely an interesting addition to this game. It allows you to experiment with different classes and try something different with characters who may have been stuck in a bad class. The drawback of this is that unit identity is lost. It's harder for a unit like, for example, Merric to stand out because he's no longer one of the only units capable of being a mage. Overall though I would say that reclassing was a good addition if only for how much it adds to replayability.
One of the most maligned aspects of FE11 is the gaiden chapters. Because they require you to lose units to unlock them, it is impossible to a achieve a "perfect ending". A lot of players tend to get into the habit if resetting for every loss, which isn't how FE is meant to be played. Obviously there's nothing wrong about playing this way, but our lord Shouzou Kaga Himself said that you shouldn't trip over yourself in pursuit of a best ending. By offering these gaiden chapters, FE11 nudges the player into rolling with the punches without forcing them into that playstyle. That's not to mention how it serves as a safety net to struggling players. If you have lost a lot of units, here's an entire chapters worth of experience as well as a new unit.
I started the last paragraph with "one of" because the actual most hated thing about this game is the presentation. In my never-ending quest to be the most contrarian Fire Emblem fan on the internet I have come to the conclusion that this game looks pretty nice. The maps and menus look good and there's these beautiful pieces of art shown before each chapter. I like the portraits too. I think the grittier style along with FE11's writing work together to give this game a really unique atmosphere that makes it standout even from the game it's remaking. I won't defend the battle animations though. They're really ugly and it sucks that units don't get unique pallets.
FE11 is one of the best games FE has seen in quite a while and easily my favorite post-Kaga game so far. I loved the gameplay, but FE11's writing was really on another level. I can't wait to see the rest of the series to see how the writing improved after this. Haha.
The best way I can put this is that the game shows its age in both good and bad ways, if you can believe it. The quantity and expendability of your units makes for an experience you don’t quite get from modern Fire Emblem titles, and it’s enjoyable. The game is fascinatingly easy to cheese, but that’s part of the fun of it, honestly. The story isn’t anything special, but Marth was a surprising highlight. Overall, if you’re a Fire Emblem fan, it’s worth a play.
Yeah its fine. People give it a lot of crap for being simpler than the later games but as a remake of the first game, i'd say it mostly works to the game's benefit.
Shadow Dragon is such a pure and condensed FE game that I can't help but love it. This game is unrelentingly charming and just really fun, and it's simplicity has ranked it highly in my heart. Unfortunately, as it is a remake of an old classic it decided to be a little bit too faithful, leading to a nice serving of annoying chapters and lack of later implemented features and QOL such as rescuing units. These don't ruin the game by any means, but I feel a stronger desire to go back to other entries more due to them cutting the tedium. It's unfortunate, because if there wasn't that annoying side to it all, this would probably be my favorite entry in the series- but as it stands it does take a little bit of a hit. Ultimately though, if you like Fire Emblem, you owe it to yourself to give this game a shot as it is quite special through it all.