Shadow Dragon is a great SPRG with tight, focused design trapped inside such a swagless, unappealing shell that it turned a game that should have reinvigorated interest of the series into one that almost killed it outright.

The turn to turn gameplay of Shadow Dragon holds up great. If you're in the mood for a "vanilla" Fire Emblem game, despite reclassing and reforging, this scratches that itch more than most other entries in the series. Maps are designed with the limitations of your party in mind, with a clear flow that still allows for creativity in how you clear them. The new mid-map save points mitigate some of the more frustrating and antiquated aspects of FE1. The game gives you a ton of cool tools to play with, and begs you to break them further with the reforging system It's a game that I've went from not getting past the few extra chapters, to one where if I have to kill an afternoon or a long bus ride, much like Final Fantasy 1, I can breeze through in about six hours and have a great time. I don't usually enjoy challenge runs in the Fire Emblem series, and I'll abuse save states/resets if my favorite units chip a nail, but Shadow Dragon's just built in such a way where death feels bad, but not something to avoid at all costs. While much of this praise can be levied towards the original, the remake doesn't get in the way.

I didn't know this until close to ten years after the game came out, because it looks and sounds like a Jagex game. This game's sound font sucks shit, if I could have an option to listen to the original NES version, it would stay on at all times. The concept art on the cover for this game (on this website) looks nice, but that's probably the only audio or visual element of the game I don't think fails. The art style's probably my least favorite in the series, including the Grannvale's yaoi chin epidemic. The color pallet is drab, to such an extent where I'll look at my individual units on screen and everything will just blend together until I focus my eyes. The battle animations are the nadir. Under no circumstances did they have to resort to these animations. There were no expectations for this pseudo-3D presentation. Final Fantasy Tactics A2 was a year old at this point with minor improvements to the artystyle, mostly consisting of putting the added screen real estate to use. Front Mission 1's remake was older, they ripped most of the assets straight from the original, and it was the best way to play that game until the recent remakes. This isn't a SPRG studio release done on $500, Marth was in Super Smash Brothers. What's the excuse?

The presentation of Shadow Dragon is something I harp on because it really did kill a lot of the causal interest in the series stateside till Awakening, and it didn't have to be this way. They put so much effort into the feel of the game, and assumed that people would understand how self evidently good the game is (or they'd see a portable Fire Emblem and gobble that shit up) and get on board. Shadow Dragon's reputation among the community, myself included, has improved considerably since the game's release, but it's really hard not to be frustrated with just how hard they dropped the ball. It's a lot of fun reforging a Wing Spear and tearing shit up across the countryside. Unfortunately, that fun is tempered by my functioning eyes and ears.

It's one of my favorites in the series, which I'm aware isn't a common opinion. The base gameplay is simple, and the story is too, but that's okay. At its core it's FE1 updated to more modern (for the time) standards, without breaking the balance of the game by adding too much stuff. It could have done more but I feel like what's there is more than enough.

Giving promotions to the classes that lacked them is great, and letting healers level normally is a boon, but that goes without saying. I don't really use reclassing too much when I do play but the addition is interesting. Save points are a nice quality of life addition- I don't know if I prefer it over the turnwheel/time pulse but I'm surprised this form of it wasn't used more.

It's not everyone's cup of tea, but I think it's a fairly good time.

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

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.

A remake of one of the most iconic sRPG in videogame history, Shadow Dragon shines in its capacity of respecting the saga defining canons built in the first chapter of Marth's history while also adding intringuing new features: pawns of your army can now change their class and evolution paths may now possess alternative routes that enhance both the replayability and the overall personalization of your characters.

An online mode, playable through Nintendo wi-fi connection, was also present: in this mode, you could battle 1vs1 against an opposing army or simply trade in online shops to find rare items such as cool swords or alternative promotion object.
Although it was plagued by cheaters and not much played overall, I had quite a bit of fun with it: in hindsight, I think this is the first taste of what would later become the fire emblem heroes PVP mode.

Talking about cons, we should talk about the elephant in the room: as many have said in the past, I don't think the art style is very good.
Colors, both of characters and of maps, are really dull and character models, designed with a 3D plastic-like appearance are kinda aesthetically displeasing and unexpressive.

I would suggest to play it even now, not only for those who want to discover the roots of the Fire Emblem franchise but also for those who want to experience a good sRPG that won the test of time.

It's Fire Emblem. While I'm not the most diehard fan of the series, I enjoy playing through many of them for the gameplay, which this game is relatively solid at. With Hard 3, the difficulty I played it, it felt a little bullshit at times, but I would say I enjoyed it overall, with the story being ok, but imo rather impressive thinking about where it originally came from, with some ideas being interesting but never really fully fleshed out like it could with a modern FE game. If you like FE or strategy games, this is alright, but there's nothing here that makes it particularly special.