Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light Review

If you were to read the phrase " Fire Emblem " ten years ago, at that place's a pretty decent probability you lot wouldn't accept known what I was writing about. Although somewhat popularized by the Super Smash Bros games and community, Fire Keepsake really didn't hit its footstep in the U.Due south until the release of Burn down Emblem Awakening in 2013. Of grade, it wasn't the get-go title to come up to united states of america, but it seems that over the course of this past decade, the Big N has officially, finally, found a receptive audition here in America. Burn Keepsake: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, henceforth FESDBL, is a relic from the time before Fire Emblem games were released exterior Japan, all the manner back on the Famicom in 1990. Thankfully, regardless of our absence in the initial audience, Nintendo has allowed Americans to participate in Fire Emblem'due south 30th anniversary past releasing FESDBL in its original class on the Switch Virtual Panel, with modest enhancements. Were we missing out on a treasure, or was Nintendo correct in their choice to expect for a while? Let's detect out in our Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light Review!

Content Guide

Magic/Sorcery: Magic has large roles in this fantasy world; Marth'due south regular army has several mages and sorcerer units, as do near opposing units.

Violence: Gameplay in FESDBL revolves around killing opposing units in social club to achieve goals. Sometimes pixelated blood is shown, and medieval weapons are always present. Sometimes units have dying words, but all enemies merely vanish when defeated.

Language: Occasionally, the expletives "H*ll" and "D*mn" are used in dialogue boxes.

Review

Once Upon A Time, There Was A Prince…

(Wow! Forced Graphic symbol Infatuation!)

FESDBL's story revolves effectually Prince Marth in his conquest to repossess his kingdom from the clutches of the evil sorcerer Gharnef and his armies. I'll be honest, if you lot want to follow the story in FESDBL, you may desire to play the DS remake rather than the Famicom original. If you, like me, have not played the DS remake, I recommend writing downwardly the affiliate summaries in a notebook, as it is difficult to keep runway of the story throughout the chapters in the Famicom version. Prior to selecting and deploying units, a few screens of dialogue are narrated/exchanged between characters, and that'southward it. This was before there were cutscenes or anything of that sort, and you lot're just kind of expected to keep upwardly with the story from chapter to affiliate. That'due south not including the chapters which are entirely dedicated to distractions from the story. I suppose with its anime artstyle and setting, it'south simply fitting that FESDBL has chapters of filler.

Back In My Day…

The gameplay of FESDBL displays the bones formula that proved to be successful for the rest of the series. The player chooses what units to take into battle and has to utilise strategy in club to defeat the opposing units. Permadeath ensures that if one of your characters dies, they're gone for the playthrough, with a few exceptions. Commonly with games like this I go for a "perfect" playthrough by recruiting everyone I can and losing no one. However, there are then many character recruits that I started to question my sanity in this policy, peculiarly seeing every bit many of them never participated in a single battle. By the terminal chapter, I had 48 different characters/units in my ground forces, but was only allowed to bring fourteen units or so in each battle.

Battle of Thermopylae: Fire Emblem style.

While FESDBL shows where the gameplay of Fire Emblem comes from, it also conspicuously shows how much the formula has been improved over the years. FESDBL lacks many quality-of-life changes present in later games. Terrain stats aren't displayed until attacking someone. Enemy stats, such equally projected post-fight HP, aren't visible. If you want to know what an enemy'due south assault range is, you accept to manually look into their stats list and calculate how far they can move on the filigree. These things, amongst others, are quite irksome past modern standards, and were correctly fixed in future titles. Regardless of these "characteristics" kept in the original port, the re-release on the Switch did, thankfully, come with some additional virtual settings. There are a few different fast-forwards settings, turn rewinds, and a quicksaving feature which actually improves the experience. This game was impressive for the era it comes from, but it would be nigh unplayable past modern standards without these additions.

Simply be warned that your game saves can be messed upward—even lost—if the quick salve feature is used carelessly, and that the fast-frontwards selection speeds up audio likewise, which makes already-annoying music maddening.

A Hard Journeying

Another notable trait of FESDBL is it's difficulty. FESDBL is hard. Looking back, I don't recall Burn Emblem games beingness easy, but FESDBL is on a different tier of difficulty. Due to an RNG system I believe to exist a bit simpler and harsher than later titles, hits frequently miss, fifty-fifty when stats are equal and units are leveled. Additionally, when units are fast enough to attack twice per see, they only land the second hit virtually one-half the times they should. This, in addition to opponents hitting pretty hard, makes for a healthy challenge to strategize around.

If you always wondered why Marth sprints funny in the Smash games, information technology's because he does in his original game, too.

Personally, I like my units being able to one-shot opponents by having them state both hits in an encounter, thus minimizing a lot of potential damage. However, in FESDBL, it requires a much higher level in order to get that physically stiff, and even then information technology's never guaranteed. To top information technology all off, the only fashion to level a unit of measurement alee of other units is via coliseums, which scale in difficulty the more they are used. I was able to milk this system to grind Marth to high levels early, but that only fabricated a real difference for a few capacity. I eventually had to surrender on trying to level up some weaker units, similar Pegasus Knights, because they were just too hard to level up for the corporeality of payoff given.

And We Were GRATEFUL

Playing through FESDBL, I couldn't help only call back about the differences between information technology and the later titles in the series. With all of the faults that the original game had, it also has a sense of simplicity that I miss in more modern Fire Emblem titles. There was no "support" system for me to worry near missing story, no advanced unit of measurement mechanics such as conveying/supporting units, and no side objectives to strategize around (besides recruitment, of course). There certainly wasn't whatsoever of the slice-of-life pseudo-D&D stuff that began in 3 Houses . The gameplay is dedicated solely to keeping one unit of measurement alive whilst taking out another. And I am grateful for information technology.

643 Turns! Across 25 Maps! On a Famicom Game!

It's Over…It'southward Finally Over

When I began this game, I didn't recall I would have a long task before me. I figured it would have maybe xx hours or so in length, and be done within a few weeks, if not days. Afterward all, I tin can play through other Famicom classics in a similar timeframe. I was wrong. Slowly but surely the days and the chapters went by, and with so little story to go off of, it seemed at times that the abiding battle would never end. I had the music muted so I could have fast forward active at all times, and ofttimes used the turn rewind mechanics for each decease I mistakenly allowed. It wasn't fun anymore; it was a job. I love the Fire Emblem series and its stories, simply I don't foresee myself ever playing this Famicom original again.

Overall, I concluded upward chirapsia FESDBL with over 60 hours in the game, across a whopping 643 turns taken. And that'due south not including all of the re-dos and restarts I had performed. I echo, I'thousand non doing it again. This game holds a lot of value in showing how far the series has come, but unless you are specifically looking for this nostalgia lesson, I recommend you pass up this championship. Or at least, play the DS remake instead. It's got to be better than this was.

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Source: https://geeksundergrace.com/gaming/review-fire-emblem-shadow-dragon-and-the-blade-of-light/

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