Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon (DS)

[Irenicus1]

This is a remake of a Famicom game. Being a typical American I never got the chance to play any of the Japanese-only Fire Emblems. Therefor I don't know what upgrades/changes have been made from the original.


I really love the simplistic straight forward awesomeness that this game brings. One thing I really appreciate are the  battle animations. For example the main character Marth does a piercing attack with a sword. When he can "double" his attack he'll follow it up with a swift backhand swipe. It's simple, but crisply done and effective. I've always enjoyed simplicity & realism in my games. No need for that super-hyper-combo-team attack for 4x the damage during a rainstorm and when the enemy lands on a green tile.

For the most part its on par with the two GBA games. Maps, characters, weapons & enemies are pretty similar. There are some differences which are:

1.This game is much easier. You usually get one or two save points on each map, plus the "suspend" mode. For a handheld game I can understand that. Also the Arenas are much easier. Usually the only way I get killed in the Arena is if I get hit with a critical. So far none of the enemies have had even a chance to critical me. Lastly the discrepancy between my soldiers versus the enemies is huge. My 3 Cavaliers are waaaay better than the enemy boss Paladins.     

The game is a little too easy. I'm using the best characters. Maybe next playthrough Ill use the worst. This would be a perfect Fire Emblem for a newcomer.  

All in all I love this game & it was worth buying the 3DS Xl for. I was waiting for the DS Player, because I prefer playing on a big screen, but I couldn't wait no more!  A+

************SPOILERS AHEAD***********

I tend to speed read walkthroughs for these games. The reason being is that special characters, items & maps can be obtained if you perform certain actions. The certain actions tend to be on the obscure side of things & unless you already know what to do you won't find it. I like figuring things out if there's some sort of logic behind it, but with this stuff it just doesn't make much sense to me.  

It turns out if you have 15 or less soldiers in your army you'll gain access to special maps. I just finished 12x which is the second special map. I find it bizarre that this game rewards you for getting your troops killed. I would think the game would offer bonus maps for having more soldiers still alive not less. Anyhow this has forced me to play this game differently than my typical Fire Emblem style. I like to obtain every soldier, experiment with them, give them a few levels and even distribute experience fairly evenly. Now I have to kill my own guys off right after I recruit them. A part of me enjoys playing this way & another part of me doesn't.   

[Oltobaz1]

You might think it's easier than the GBA games, still, have you tried the hard modes? They're quite challenging.

[Rev1]

Thanks for the heads up about this game. I still haven't picked it up despite there being a thread about Fire Emblem games like 5-6 months ago. I think this is the only US Fire Emblem game I haven't played. After I finish Luigi's Mansion and Mario and Luigi for 3DS I'll probably track this one down. I can't seem to get enough of these games. I clocked in close to 200 hours on Fire Emblem Awakening (3DS).

[Irenicus1]

Oltobaz- I have not tried the Hard Mode on this game. I did play the Hard Mode on the 2 GBA games & they sure were hard. I suppose this game would be harder for me if I didn't Arena abuse. Like I posted the Arena is a lot easier in this game. I think even on Hard if I abused the Arenas it would be easy.


Rev - I'm going to finish this, play one of the Advance Wars & then probably get to Awakening. Then maybe a year or two down the road I'll play this again on Hard mode. How about an update on your Awakening thread, please?

More thoughts---

The story is really bad, at least imo. I don't tend to care much about story anyway. I speed read through it. I think the GBA games had better story/dialogue.

This game has Ballistas as an actual class & not as just an accessory for Archers. I just finished Map 13, I think. I faced off against "The Wooden Calvary", which consisted of about 8 or so Ballista units. It was the coolest & most unique map in this game so far.



 

[Oltobaz1]

While it's still possible to abuse the arenas even in the harder modes, I think the over the top difficulty might actually surprise you.

[Irenicus1]

[QUOTE=Oltobaz]
While it's still possible to abuse the arenas even in the harder modes, I think the over the top difficulty might actually surprise you.[/QUOTE]

I'm not one that really enjoys insane difficulty. Although I played the Hard modes on the two GBA games I also had plenty of moments of frustration. Normally I wouldn't bother with Hard Modes, but I love this series so much I'll probably get to it eventually on this game.

The trick for me is overcoming my perfectionism and just enjoying the challenge. I need to not hit reset when someone dies and just carry on. Sometimes I can do it. Sometimes I can't.

[Oltobaz1]

I know how you feel. I'll hit reset as well... The 3DS game allows you to retrieve your characters after they die, but you can still have them remain dead after battles if you so desire. That's the route I took, wouldn't really feel like a full fledge Fire Emblem otherwise.

[Irenicus1]

I tend to dislike Tactics-games that don't have perma-death. The only exception is Brigandine (PS1), the monsters do die permanently, but the Generals only have to miss a month of action. If death in battle means nothing than what's the point?

Well I'm not a huge fan of the Manaketes, but at least I don't hate them like the Laguz.

The character Xane is an interesting character. He's a doppleganger. I don't like the doppleganger race in any game, but alas he is useful. I must say I prefer the Dancer characters in the GBA games much better.