As the Fire Emblem series has picked up a much larger fan base with their past two installments; they now take a look back with a remake, now called Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia.
Story: 9/10
The story here is what I believe is the driving force of the game. Although every Fire Emblem game takes place during wartime, you get a real feeling of just how the war affects each country and the citizens involved in it. While certain story points are predictable, it doesn’t stop you from wanting to push forward and see how the game ends.
Score: 9/10
The music in this game rocks. I personally listened to quite a bit of the soundtrack before the game came out which made me appreciate it all the more. Fire Emblem has always done a great job with their music and this game is certainly no different. Also, the soundtrack is remade from the original songs so if you’ve heard those before, you’ll be glad to know that your favorites are back in a new and remastered way.
Characters/Character Development: 8.5/10
While this game has a smaller cast than other games in the series, it allows you to get to know each character a bit better. Because of this, it seems like each character plays a bit bigger part even though the story will focus mainly on only a few characters. Also if you’re playing on classic mode, losing a character is much more of a loss than in other games.
Graphics: 5/10
While the overall map designs look nice, certain cutscenes had less than adequate graphics with the movement of certain characters just looking unnatural. There are also many times when characters weapons and other items are phasing right into the floor and although not a huge deal, it is definitely noticeable.
Also the user interface of many text boxes looks very bland. While this may have been done intentionally to make it look older like the original game, it looks out of place in a game that is a complete remake.
Gameplay: 7/10
Gameplay here is much different than traditional Fire Emblem games, which may be a turn off to fans of the most recent games, but after learning the system it feels easy to understand, but definitely lacks that true Fire emblem feel that fans have come to love.
Free roaming dungeons are also new to this installment which does make for a fun and interesting change up, but some of the dungeons just last a bit too long.
Difficulty: 7.5/10 (0 being the easiest, 10 being the hardest)
I feel as though this game was significantly harder than the others and I feel this is because of the leveling up system. While you level up faster at lower levels, leveling up at higher levels takes significantly longer which can be a real hassle if you’re trying to make certain characters more powerful.
Fun: 7/10
This Fire Emblem still has that wonderful feel of never wanting to put the game down and just wanting to make it a bit further before you stop for a moment, but this game also feels like you need to spend more time grinding than previous titles which can be a bit bothersome. However, I do believe you’ll have a good time playing through this game.
Recommended for-
- · Strategy game fans
I also want to talk about the DLC for this game and the hefty price it comes with. I purchased the entire thing in a season pass, since I enjoyed previous DLC in the fire emblem series. My only advice would be to pick and choose which segments of t add on content you actually plan on using. The DLC came with 10 new classes which I was initially really excited about, but I learned as I got into the game that those extra classes can only be obtained after maxing out a character to the highest level; a feat that would take much longer than I planned on playing. So basically on my end that was nothing but a waste of money.
Other parts of the DLC added extra battles that take place before the game began which were rewarding to play, so it wasn’t all worthless to get it, just take caution before getting the add-on.