A weak entry in the series, but a worthwhile game nonetheless.
Story: This game undoubtedly has the weakest story yet in a Fire Emblem game, a series renowned for its involving plots and intriguing characters. Here's the skivvy: Marth (that's right, you Smash-addicted intelligence-deprived monkeys, THIS is the one with Marth in it) is forced on the run when his kingdom of Altea is attacked by the kingdom of Gra. After that...it all gets kind of fuzzy. I think that you're expected to fight the "bad guys", and kill the eponymous Shadow Dragon, Medeus, who has been resurrected by the twisted sorcerer Gharnef. Unlike other Fire Emblem games, though, you're never given a full glance of the entire map, and it hardly gives you a chance to identify with the other countries. It just feels like you're walking from place to place, fighting battles just because you can. There's about three counties on your side, and for some reason, everyone else in the fxcking world wants you dead. A bunch of names of countries are thrown at you, as the game says "THESE GUYS ARE BAD GUYS. YOU MUST DESTROY THEM." In this sense, the game is very very vague as to just what is going on. Unlike previous (or maybe I should say later, considering this is a remake) titles, there aren't as many cutscenes between the constant action. You get a few blips of text on the overworld map, then are immediately sent to the preparations screen. Then you're given a few more blips of text, then immediately enter battle. Then, if you're so lucky, you may get a few more blips of actual plot before transitioning to the next chapter. Another big problem I have with the game's story is its characters. You're given over 50 units, which is a lot, even for a Fire Emblem game; most average around 40 units. And yet, numbers aren't everything; other than about five of your units, they hardly have any character development whatsoever. Actually, let me rephrase that; the five above hardly get any character development, whereas the rest have ZERO character development, since you only get a few lines of text from them throughout the whole game. A lack of support/base conversations leaves no room for characters to develop or bond, meaning that they're just flat slabs. Occasionally, the game will throw about five characters at a time at you, giving them no dialogue whatsoever. The big hook of Fire Emblem is that you connect with each and every single one of the members of your army; it's a bit hard to do that when 90% of your troops are faceless, one-dimensional drones. Even Marth, our valiant leader, is a cookie-cutter hero; in fact, he fits the "I FIGHT FOR MY FRIENDS" persona far more than Ike does. No, I'm not saying that every single protagonist of Fire Emblem character has been deep and provocative; however, compared to characters like Hector and Ike, Marth is just flat out dull. The argument may be brought up that "Oh, this is an old game; it's all right for it to have a limited story". The problem, though, is that it doesn't take next-gen hardware to tell a god damn story; the stories written on the walls of caves are more involving than this. Just look at Square Enix's earlier games; aside from Final Fantasy I, they are all pretty involving with three-dimensional characters scattered everywhere. It's true that not many sugar-hyped 5-year old American kids would have the patience to be told a sweeping tale, but then again, this game was made in Japan for the Japanese. No, I won't argue that all Japanese people are smarter than all American people; it's just...look at our countries' respective tastes. The most popular games in Japan are RPGs, with deep stories and fleshed out characters. The most popular games in America are FPS's, most of which (yes, I know there are many exceptions, but I'm talking in the broad scope here) involve blowing shxt up with no explanation other than because you have to blow shxt up. RPGs need stories to keep the gamer involved; more action-fueled games don't, as the gamer will usually be more concerned about chopping apart his enemy than as to WHY he's chopping apart his enemy. Now to be fair, the plot picks up a bit near the end. However, the depth and intrigue of the plot here is the likes of which you'd find in the beginning of better Fire Emblem games (or better RPG games for that matter), which isn't exactly a good sign. Overall, the story is silly and the characters are unmemorable and stupid.
Gameplay: This is one area where the game has aged relatively well: the gameplay. Like most tactical/strategy RPGs, you command a group of units that you move once per turn, attacking enemy units, healing your allies, or using items. There's really not much to say here; it's fun, challenging, addicting, and will let you forget the idiotic plot. A few gripes I have, though, is that the game is lacking many innovations that later games introduced. For example, in other games, the weapon triangle (swords beat axes, axes beat lances, lances beat swords) plays a huge role as to who can beat who; in this game, though, it hardly makes a difference, making it so that any unit can be killed by any unit and deriving the game of many strategic points. It's useless to have a myrmidon that's super-quick if a super-strong fighter can bash him in his unprotected skull with an axe without breaking a sweat. Also, the shove mechanic, a maneuver that was simple yet groundbreaking in FE9, is absent here. Now I can cope with that, but the fact that rescuing other units is gone as well pisses me off, as it makes it nearly impossible to move slow units across the field. One last thing, an incredibly simple yet life-saving implementation in Radiant Dawn, was the display of Attack Speed, which judged if your character can attack twice. This is absent in Shadow Dragon, resulting in confusion and rage. Despite my gripes, though, the system works, and it's developed enough to keep you playing through. An interesting note is that you can use the touch screen to control your units; however, it's no where near as accurate as a D-pad, so I suggest you stick with the latter.
Graphics: Years ago, as the DS first came out, I imagined what a DS Fire Emblem would be like. It would have a map on the bottom screen, battle animations on the top, and would utilize touch screen controls. And wouldn't you know it, I was right on the money; too bad it was just for a remake instead of a new game. I must say, though, I'm very impressed with the technical improvements in the graphics. While the bottom screen sprites are in 2D, the battle animations are provided in 3D, and are a delight to watch. I don't really like them as much as those in the GBA games, though, as they use too much of the 3D games' realism, making insane criticals found in 6-8 an impossibility. However, there's something else in the graphics that require much greater attention. As I stated above, the graphics are great. Technically. Artistically, they are...ugh...incredibly bland. The anime-inspired caricatures found in the previous ten games have been dropped, in lieu of a more realistic art style. The result is that almost every character looks the same, only occasionally with a different hair style or eye color. They show absolutely no emotion, continuing to widen the distance between you and the character. It all just looks so uninspiring and dull; I'm not so sure how else to put it. One could argue that this was all done in the sake of realism, but to even suggest that Fire Emblem exists in any sense of reality is just ridiculous.
Audio: The music's...okay. It's not bad, it's not good; it's just okay. The other games in the series have had incredible, memorable soundtracks. The music in this game is just so-so. True, there are a few songs you may find yourself humming, but for the most part, it's all drivel. I guess this is due in part to the fact that the original game's hardware engine couldn't pull off a sweeping score like those of today could. Then again, look at what Yasunori Mitsuda managed to pull of with Chrono Trigger. In an interesting twist of fan service, the music that plays in the arena is a rendition of the battle theme from FE9. Nice touch, Yuka.
Length/Replay Value: The game only took me 23 hours, which is relatively short compared to other Fire Emblems. 7 ranges from 30-50 hours, as does 9; 10, even after beating it multiple times, still takes me upwards of 70 hours, due to its massive depth. 11, though, has a grand total of 25 chapters, 29 if you include all of the prologue chapters and 34 if you include all of the sidequests (which, as opposed to 7 where they're unlocked when you perform well, instead act as a crutch in this game, unlocking only when you tend to suck). If you were to play the prologue AND suck enough to play through all of the gaiden chapters, you'd still only just be matching with 7's number of chapters, and you wouldn't be even near the amount found in 10. Again, the game's short length could be attributed to its age, so I guess there's really no point in complaining about it any further.
Bosses: You remember what I said above about character development in previous titles? Well, that attributed to the enemies, as well. Other than a select few (which are usually either pawns of a greater evil or just absolutely batshxt insane like Ashnard), they all have their own motives and goals, and are given plenty of screentime before your big battle with them. In this game, though, that's not the case. For the moment, let's just forget the fact that, other than Gharnef, you never even get to see any of the bosses until the chapter in which you kill them; these characters are some of the most lazy, one-dimensional, half-assed enemies that I've ever seen. Yes, these types of foes are common in the first few chapters of the game; yes, there are plenty in FE10. However, all of these games have somewhere between 5-10 villains that are well fleshed-out. Shadow Dragon has three. In fact, I'm being a bit too fair with that; two of them are evil for the sake of being evil, and one you don't learn about until a chapter before you kill him. Other than those three, every single chapter's boss is an "I WILL DESTROY YOU GRAAAAAGH" character that you will completely forget about once the chapter ends. It's sickening.
Multiplayer: An interesting aspect of the game is the Wi-Fi battling. I was a bit skeptical when I first heard about it, but it's actually performed excellently. Instead of just fighting one-on-one, as in the Link Arenas in 6-8, your characters are plopped onto a map, where Fog of War obscures vision on both sides, making you feel around for your enemies before you can even hit them. You can either play anonymously, or with friends through friend codes. It's nice to see friend codes slowly dissipating with Nintendo; too bad Brawl wasn't saved from its own demise.
Extras: Despite being a remake, Shadow Dragon has included many new features. There's the multiplayer, sound room, ability to save mid-battle, prologue/tutorial chapters, gaiden chapters, class swap (which is funky at first but is actually a great mechanic, as characters that you'd like for their stats but not class can be moved to other classes), and promotion for characters that couldn't be promoted before. These help keep the game fresh, and not just a pointless remake of the original.
Final Statement: Remakes are a tricky matter. If you are too close to the source material, then you alienate new players. If you stray too far away to appeal to the mass audience, then the core audience will be enraged. This could be said about any form of media (such as, oh, say, the Watchmen film); with any adaptation, it's impossible to please everyone. Now, I don't know where I fit into this; I'm not a new player to the franchise, but I wasn't around to play the original, either. So I guess I have mixed feelings towards this game. Here's my suggestion: if you've never played a Fire Emblem game, don't start with this. It'll most likely leave a bad taste in your mouth. Play 7, or if you can't find it, then at least play 9. If you have played previous Fire Emblem games, then go ahead and get this one; it'll be worth your time. Just stop holding Marth in such high regard. He's not that great. Really.