Fire Emblem Echos: Shadows of Valentia (3DS) [May 19, 2017]

[EternityEnd]

Thats fine if you choose to still get it. I can respect that. Nintendo has just gotten way out of hand with their DLC model on Fire Emblem and I just can't get behind it anymore.

Yeah, I respect your prerogative, and even agree. I didn't purchase DLC in either Awakening or Fates, because I thought their storylines and worldbuilding were completely uninteresting, and failed to foster that yearning for more content -- especially grinding fluff.

With Shadows of Valentia, I'm already more intrigued by the storyline and world, so I can pretty much guarantee I'll buy DLC pack #3, but that's all I'm interested in.

Nintendo's DLC pricing for Fire Emblem is scummy, as I said, but at the end of the day I can't personally allow that to deprive me of the core game. Even though I was less than satisfied with Awakening and Fates as products compared to previous iterations of Fire Emblem, I don't want the series to die and lose any chance of redemption. It's one of the last SRPGs on the market, and I gotta support my favorite genre.

[Obsidian]

The Heirs of Fate DLC in Awakening was actually super super good.

[Kirin]

I think on the whole I had little problem with Awakening's DLC.

Fates I was a little more cautious with, but yeah Shadows hopefully shows Nintendo they went a little too far with it and scale it back for FE Switch.

[Kirin]

Does anyone know what the Goddess Statue icon that sometimes appears next to people's names mean?

[EternityEnd]

Does anyone know what the Goddess Statue icon that sometimes appears next to people's names mean?

It means they're of sufficient level to promote at a Mila Statue. In general, you should promote units as soon as you're able in this game -- the opposite of other Fire Emblem games, where you wait until level 20.

Promoting a unit, rather than giving them set stat boosts, raises them to the promoted class' baseline stats. Growth rates are also much lower in Shadows of Valentia, so any stat advantages you gain from waiting to promote are minimal.

Also, if you're looking to break the game or really min/max, making all of your villagers into Mercenaries is technically the best course of action (but not nearly necessary in a normal playthrough). This is because Mercenary's final promotion, Dread Fighter, can reclass into Villager, allowing you to effectively promote loop to max a unit's stats.

[Damane]

I am not entirely happy how the class system and ability system works in this gameThere is almost no free romm especially since abilitys are tied to their respectiv item

I feel like its a downgradeing from previous FE games


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[Kaslo]

I am not entirely happy how the class system and ability system works in this gameThere is almost no free romm especially since abilitys are tied to their respectiv item

I feel like its a downgradeing from previous FE games


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Considering its based on a prior game I would say that was intended.

[Kirin]

That is one of my knocks against the game as well. Yeah the class system is antiquated, but at least its tuned for that antiquity and not unbalanced between promoted/non-promoted units.

I think the weapon triangle being missing takes a lot out of the strategy element. Also, the skills learned are on the whole useless because they can't double and are tied to the item equipped. Which brings up another issue in that you can only have 1 held item. Again, this goes back to them not wanting to deviate much from the original game but it is a pretty glaring weakness when compared to what the series became. Also, they could have allowed melee units to upgrade from Sword -> Iron Sword -> Silver Sword like mages get new tomes at certain levels.

My Pegasus units don't fear arrows, because the damage they take is only marginally improved over what a normal unit would take.

Something I noticed after playing through Alm's chapter 1 is that I actually care about the characters again. None of the eugenics simulator pairing people I like with people I don't just to get the best kid. I can appreciate Alm's genuine, but naive drive. I get an early sense of Celica's pain and worry. Mae is bae. etc. I havn't felt that since Path of Radiance and it is a welcomed change.

I do wish they had refined supports a little more. I never thought I would miss pair up, but I do. The supports don't seem to do much in terms of stat boosts, and the units who can support sometimes don't make sense. (Grey and Claire, but not Tobin and Claire even though Grey and Tobin are both trying to woo her).

The dungeon crawling aspects are neat, but this is certainly the Zelda II of the series where some experiments are better left experiments. I'd like to incorporate these more for villages and into dungeons in future titles in some capacity, because they do provide some world building and villager interaction in a game series that could use a *touch* more story. Though if you're going to leave the Zelda pot smashing, please give a better control scheme and more dialogue than "HYAH, HYEH, HYUGH!".

tl;dr - Good effort on a new coat of a paint for a very aged NES title. Some misses, some hits, but a return to whats been missing from Awakening and Fates without the eugenics simulators.

[EternityEnd]

I am not entirely happy how the class system and ability system works in this gameThere is almost no free romm especially since abilitys are tied to their respectiv item

I feel like its a downgradeing from previous FE games


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Considering the inventory in this game is limited to one equipped item, I think this system of progression actually feels very good. Never liked the constant class changing to min/max in Fates/Awakening. Would much rather characters have canon classes and maybe branching promotions from that. Maybe it'd feel better if abilities weren't tied to their weapon being equipped, ala FF9, but I'm still enjoying it.

The magic system in this game is particularly awesome, IMO. Having different characters have different spell lists, and having spells cost HP, adds interesting trade offs and some replayability.

[Damane]

i wouldnt mind the system if the item equip restriction wasnt there. 1 accessiore 1 weapon & 1 shield/2.weapon/bangles to boost atk/def/whatever skill. Would have made it much deeper. It just feels so shallow compared to before


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[Kaslo]

Thought this was the best place to put this:

Fire Emblem Echoes director would like to remake The Binding Blade
https://nintendowire.com/news/2017/0...binding-blade/

When asked, Nakanishi says he’d love to remake the GBA’s Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, which never launched in the west. The GBA game launched in Japan on March 22nd, 2002. It was the follow-up, Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken, that became the first localized game, simply renamed “Fire Emblem.”

[Kirin]

If "Echoes" does become the FE Remake tagline, that would be the next logical choice for a remake. That or a Holy War/Thracia 776 remake in the vein of Shadow Dragon.

Having Roy's story be the more visible one over Sigurd and co. though makes more sense.

[Damane]

So after finishing the game i have to give it a "meh" at best. Its the weakest of the 3 DS games and i would even say its weaker then the Advance titles. nice presentation but its mechanics/customization are shallow compared to the rest. Would not buy again if they go this route in the future

[Obsidian]

Makes sense to do Binding Blade, we got Blazing Sword but not the "sequel" that came before it.

This is a pretty faithful remake of Gaiden, you can see why it was a divisive game when it came out the first time. It's not Nintendo trying out new gameplay mechanics. I think it's the best of the 3DS titles but I'm easily swayed by presentation, which Shadows of Valentia nails.

[EternityEnd]

Put me in the camp that thinks this is, by far, the best of the 3DS titles. A significant amount of that respect comes from the presentation, quality voice acting, storytelling, and writing.

Gameplay-wise it was also super fun to me. Although missing the weapon triangle was shame, I honestly didn't find myself missing it, and there was no feasible way for them to include it.

The magic system in this game works really well. Magic costing HP makes sense in a world with no weapon/spell durability, and individual characters having unique spell lists simultaneously makes the game more RPG-like while giving it more replay value. I really hope this could come back in future titles. The ability to think outside the box with unlimited Warp/Rescue early on is super neat.

Similarly, the weapon ability system was RPG-like and welcome. Really differentiated Alm in particular from other characters, with his insane Double Lion skill, and gave late game weapons a sense of tangible improvement (and sometimes strategy) beyond stats.

As a classic hardcore FE fan, I found Mila's Turnwheel to be a fantastic addition. Perfect compromise between classic mode, casual mode, and save states.

I struggle to praise the gameplay of the other 3DS titles. Awakening and Fates had too many random, unpredictable elements that could cause a unit loss and map restart, which was very problematic. Between Awakening's same turn acting reinforcements and Fates' unforecastable enemy dual attack system, they just didn't respect their players' time. Fuck those mechanics. Complete antithesis to the thoughtful strategy that Fire Emblem games had previously been about.

This is a pretty faithful remake of Gaiden, you can see why it was a divisive game when it came out the first time. It's not Nintendo trying out new gameplay mechanics.

The developers have said in interviews that the dungeon crawling in SoV was planned for Fates, but they weren't able to polish it enough in time. I think SoV is definitely a testing ground for some changes to Fire Emblem (dungeons, voice acting, etc), but yeah, probably not battle mechanics, however much I personally enjoyed them.

I just pray pair up/dual attacks/children aren't in FE Switch.

P.S. This game has the best OST of any Fire Emblem, and it's not even close.

[Obsidian]

What I meant was that most of what's in SoV isn't new, it was in the original Gaiden as well. You can see a lot of ideas from this game have leaked into newer FE titles even if the ideas weren't well-received when Gaiden first came out. The dungeon stuff made it into Sacred Stones, the third tier classes were in Radiant Dawn, the skills system has been evolving since Sacred Stones as well. Voice acting they've been dabbling with since Radiant Dawn/Awakening, but SoV is the first time they've gone all out and if this is the kind of VA quality we can expect for Fire Emblem games going forward then sign me the hell up. It's the best voiced game Nintendo has done, by a mile.

I'm pretty partial to a lot of the tracks from Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn and Awakening, but SoV's OST is definitely excellent.

[EternityEnd]

Agreed, the voice acting is spectacular. Honestly some of the best I've heard in a video game.

Particularly Berkut and Fernand. Speaking of Berkut, his and Rudolf's themes are my favorites of the OST. The operatic themes really fit Fire Emblem.

Spoiler: show

[6souls]