If you want to try out fire emblem go play the 3 on GBA, an step backwards since the GBA versions.
So on to Shadow Dragon, its a remake of the first ever fire emblem game.
This brings up the first problem STORY: 2/10
lol what story.... the fire emblem series has improved its story each instalment, adding twists interesting new characters. Its also the side stories that have made fire emblems story so strong with the support conversation feature that allows you to see the deep connections between characters that makes you restart the chapter every time a character you really care about dies. Is this feature in shadow dragon no, the story is bad end of..,, its a normal hero's kingdom taken and family die, hero escapes returns and beats the bad guys one by one in a linear progression with no villain development at all. I mean there is just so little substance to the story at all that I couldn't care less, even when i killed the final boss I was like meh... it was no different to killing all the other bosses which were just enemies with portraits nothing else, nothing compared to killing Nergal in FE7 etc.
GAMEPLAY: 5/10
Well standard FE turn based combat as you would expect. Accept their are now fewer classes(although a few new ones nothing major), the magic weapon triangle has been removed to now only magic. For some reason aswell the weapon tri angle seems to have less effect on combat aswell as what class a character is. Overall the tactics seem more shallow, along with the maps that are not well designed, the maps seem basic with no real thought to them. Plus this game is super easy, if you'r careful you will never have to fight more than 4-6 enemies at a time with an army of 15...it just feels cheap, and thier are no grand battles with multiple bosses and large armies that are typical of FE games towards the end. Castle maps my god these are easy, you dont even need a thief any more you just let the enemy thiefs get the treasure and kill them cav units and you get the items.
GRAPHICS: 6/10
Well these are new to FE games, the graphics are much darker and bland not really an improvement on the GBA games which were much brighter and nice to look at. Also the combat has been made 3D, while this works with some animations others are just lame, dunno whether i like them more than the previous animations or not.
OVERALL: 4/10
They basicly tried to bring the first game in the series into the modern and give it a new flair for the DS. But they failed, its just the same old Shadow Dragon, with out all the improvements that have made the FE on GBA great. In the end its infieror to its GBA counter parts which is sad because the DS was new platform that FE could of gone to whole new levels on, like other GBA franchises e.g. advanced wars.