The Fire Emblem series, developed by Intelligent Systems, has long been Nintendo’s flagship tactical RPG franchise, with most of its installments remaining in Japan until the Gameboy Advance era, thanks to exposure of its characters in Super Smash Bros. Melee on the GameCube. In 2008, the first game in the series saw a remake on the Nintendo DS as Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, which saw its North American release the following year. The remake may satisfy fans of the franchise, although those new to the series will likely find themselves in a world of hurt.
Shadow Dragon is divided into a little over two dozen chapters, including several prologue chapters available only on normal difficulty but not higher difficulties, each with a battle necessary to advance the game. Before each battle, except for the first few, the player is able to view the battlefield, select which units to use, change unit classes, outfit units with up to five weapons and/or items with limited uses, change starting character positions on the field, save the game, shop for new equipment, and so forth.
After preparations are complete, the player can begin the battle, with the player and the enemy having separate turn sessions. The player can move around his or her dozen or more units across the battlefield; after the player has moved a character, a number of options become available, including attacking an enemy if one is nearby, changing the character’s equipped weapon, using an item, or staying put. One nice feature is the ability during the player’s turn to view the enemy’s combined attack zone, somewhat useful in planning movement and attacks.
If one of the player’s characters attacks an enemy unit, the game transitions to a separate screen where the player’s character attacks the enemy unit once, and the enemy unit attacks the player’s character once. However, depending upon the stats of either unit and/or the type of weapon used, one of the units might gain an extra attack. After both characters have exchanged blows, the player’s character gains some experience points, with a hundred necessary to level, in which case some of that character’s stats increase. The more character use specific types of weapons, moreover, the more that character’s proficiency with that weapon increases.
There are many strategic factors to consider before attacking enemies. One is the Fire Emblem franchise’s weapon triangle, where swords beat axes, axes beat spears, and spears beat swords. Moreover, bow users will deal more damage against winged units and can attack melee units without risking counterattack, although they are unable to counterattack melee units when attacked. Magicians, on the other hand, can perform ranged or melee attacks, and curates are able to heal damaged units. Some classes are able to wield more than one kind of weapon, while others can only wield one type.
Maps may occasionally have fortresses where the player can place a character so they can gradually recover HP with each turn (and from which enemy reinforcements may occasionally spawn), and shops where characters can purchase weapons and other items. Arenas also allow the player to bet money for a character fight enemies to win additional money while netting the fighting character experience. Certain enemies, furthermore, are recruitable if the player talks with them with a certain story character. Winning a battle in Shadow Dragon is typically a matter of defeating an unmoving boss enemy and “seizing” the square they occupy with Marth.
Though the battle system has some decent ideas, it nonetheless suffers from some serious drawbacks, the biggest of which is that units can die permanently, with Marth’s death resulting in a Game Over, requiring the player to restart the whole battle or resume from the last on-map save point. Leveling is also horribly unbalanced, with heavy-hitters hogging the most experience and weaker characters dying easily. There is supposedly a technique called “arena abusing” where the player can use arenas to level weaker characters, although doing so can be risky, as characters can still die permanently at arenas.
If less than fifteen units are alive after certain chapters, then the player will have to play through additional maps. Furthermore, if the player is low on story characters, then faceless characters will serve as reinforcements before each chapter, which are typically useless. This can possibly make the game unbeatable towards the end if players aren’t skilled enough, and force them to restart from the very beginning. It is possible to “borrow” units from other players via Wi-Fi, although finding players with loan units available who are at the same point in the game as the player in need of them is a difficult task. Overall, as with most subpar games, the gameplay is fun at first, but very much loses its appeal as the game drags on.
The game’s in-battle controls generally work well, although the menu system in between battles takes some getting used to, with inventory management being a hassle in that the player can’t directly access the item convoy, and when a character’s inventory is full, the player can’t instantly switch an item in their inventory with an item in the convoy. When a character buys items from shops on the battlefield, moreover, the player can’t directly send them to the convoy unless their inventory is full. All in all, Shadow Dragon’s control scheme is okay, but could have certainly been better.
As Shadow Dragon is a remake of a game from the 8-bit era, the story naturally suffers from the brevity most RPG plots did back then. The spotlight is almost completely on Prince Marth and with whomever he interacts in between battles, with an additional bit of backstory before each battle. However, Shadow Dragon ends up following the typical Japanese RPG formula of having the protagonist perform a bunch of random tasks around the world that don’t exactly enhance the main plotline, with scant development for his allies, and no apparent effect on the plot regardless of which characters die in battle throughout the game. Surviving characters do get brief statements on what happens with them when the player finishes the game, but they could have definitely had greater influence on the main storyline.
Fortunately, not every aspect of Shadow Dragon is below par. The music is half-decent, if somewhat repetitive, and the graphics look fine, even if none of the story characters but Marth have a distinctive look in battle. The localization is also functional and doesn’t detract from the main storyline at all. Naturally, however, none of these aspects can really compensate for the lackluster gameplay.
Finally, the game is about twenty hours long, if the player even manages to beat it, with multiple difficulty levels theoretically adding replay value, if the player is masochistic enough to replay the game. All in all, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is a surefire disappointment, given its unbalanced mechanisms that can potentially render the game unbeatable and largely forgettable story. Fans of the series might be used to its various irritants, although these make the game inaccessible to those new to the franchise, and a poor introduction to strategy RPGs.
Note: This review is based on an incomplete playthrough. I played the game all the way to the final chapter, which I could not complete.
The Good:
+Has some good ideas…
The Bad:
-…but awful execution.
-Unbalanced leveling.
-Characters can die permanently.
-Can be potentially impossible to beat.
-Weak story.
Score Breakdown:
Platform: Nintendo DS
Game Mechanics: 3/10
Controls: 5/10
Story: 3/10
Music/Sound: 6/10
Graphics: 6/10
Localization: 7/10
Lasting Appeal: 4/10
Difficulty: Adjustable, but still potentially impossible
Playing Time: 15-25 Hours
Overall: 3/10
