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The Blind Archer · **on:** November 08, 2008, 07:36:54 AM

It's out in Japan, and due out in Europe in less than a month's time. North America will have to wait a while longer, as there's no solidly-established release date yet (speculated to be in the first half of 2009).

That being said, the game is a remake of the very first Fire Emblem, released on the Nintendo Entertainment System. This means that after a long wait, gamers outside of Japan finally have a chance to witness Marth's story in action.

Some new features appear in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon that haven't appeared in any previous Fire Emblem titles. These include Save Points (creates a permanent save one time in a chapter so you don't have to restart from the beginning in case someone dies) and Class Change (change a characters class to another, such as turning Cavaliers into Myrmidons). The game also features an online mode where players can purchase items from a special shop, or compete with each other in a two person pvp match with small groups from their in-game teams.

As usual, however, the die-hard Fire Emblem crowd has come to dislike a lot of the name changes in this title, based on how long they've gone with the fanslations. An example of one of these name changes includes Sheeda/Shiida becoming Caeda (probably pronounced Ceeda, if you're up to date on your latin). I personally don't get what the big deal is over these, as I've been looking forward to the official US names for some time now.

VixyNyan · **Reply #1 on:** February 18, 2009, 09:56:46 PM

Yey necropost~

I snapped these for you all.

I hope a token black guy is interested in a signature/avatar/whatever?

Acid · **Reply #2 on:** February 18, 2009, 10:08:43 PM

I dunno.

Personally, I prefer the sprites from FE6-8. They had more charm. Will play this anyway, since I have never played FE3 before.

One question though: Are Swordmasters and Heroes in there?

Jericho · **Reply #3 on:** February 18, 2009, 10:09:50 PM

Another "DO WANT" class game that I can't get right away...

Quote from: Vixy on February 18, 2009, 09:56:46 PM

I hope a token black guy is interested in a signature/avatar/whatever?

[tornado fang] yeah. *hair flip*

Solar · **Reply #4 on:** February 18, 2009, 10:27:14 PM

Quote from: Acid on February 18, 2009, 10:08:43 PM

Personally, I prefer the sprites from FE6-8. They had more charm. Will play this anyway, since I have never played FE3 before.

This is FE1 though, there's a big difference.

Quote from: Acid on February 18, 2009, 10:08:43 PM

One question though: Are Swordmasters and Heroes in there?

I think yes, and yes. Better yet, you can have a whole army of them

Acid · **Reply #5 on:** February 18, 2009, 10:29:55 PM

Quote from: Taiyo on February 18, 2009, 10:27:14 PM

This is FE1 though, there's a big difference.

My bad

Quote from: Taiyo on February 18, 2009, 10:27:14 PM

I think yes, and yes. Better yet, you can have a whole army of them

How so?

Solar · **Reply #6 on:** February 18, 2009, 10:31:24 PM

IIRC, you can change everyone's (except Marth's) classes to whatever you wish, whenever you wish. I'm not sure what this means for the stats though.

Acid · **Reply #7 on:** February 18, 2009, 10:34:55 PM

Oh that's nice. I assume you gotta unlock them first?

Hypershell · **Reply #8 on:** February 18, 2009, 11:02:32 PM

Check out Serenes Forest, there are limits to reclassing. Marth isn't the only one exempt from it, either; there's also Xane, Theives, Ballisticians, and Manaketes.

Quote from: Taiyo on February 18, 2009, 10:27:14 PM

This is FE1 though, there's a big difference.

FE3 contains a remake of FE1, so the whole "never played" statement still stands as-is.

Loving the game so far, but the frequent necessity to get people killed to unlock other characters is kind of a shame. I'm in Chapter 4 and I just now realized that it's impossible to recruit Norne on any Hard Mode replays I may attempt in the future.

Solar · **Reply #9 on:** February 18, 2009, 11:18:21 PM

Quote from: Hypershell on February 18, 2009, 11:02:32 PM

FE3 contains a remake of FE1, so the whole "never played" statement still stands as-is.

True, but IIRC it's not the complete FE1, besides, FESD doesn't have the FE3-only chapters.

Quote from: Hypershell on February 18, 2009, 11:02:32 PM

Loving the game so far, but the frequent necessity to get people killed to unlock other characters is kind of a shame.

Well, considering they're there to help people that suck at FE...

Hypershell · **Reply #10 on:** February 18, 2009, 11:26:44 PM

Faceless stand-ins are there to help people who suck at FE. I'm mainly talking about the extra chapters and those you can recruit from them. Things like that can drive a completist like myself bonkers.

Solar · **Reply #11 on:** February 18, 2009, 11:29:12 PM

I know that's what you are talking about. Nintendo itself said they added those Gaidens for people that suck.

Hypershell · **Reply #12 on:** February 18, 2009, 11:33:35 PM

Well, I missed that interview.

I'm surprised they'd go to such lengths. Normal in this game is already a hell of a lot easier than previous titles, in addition to the two-screen shpiel making advice snippits a lot more convenient. This is cake compared to Radiant Dawn.

Nekomata · **Reply #13 on:** February 18, 2009, 11:38:38 PM

[tornado fang] YEA
THAT ONE WITH MARTH IN IT

Align · **Reply #14 on:** February 19, 2009, 12:56:04 AM

DOLL FACE
I wasn't really considering buying it after it got sawed hard by /v/ (back when I still went there), but those shots are definitely the final nail.

Hypershell · **Reply #15 on:** February 19, 2009, 01:05:21 AM

Vixy's images are from the Prologue. Marth's mug for the rest of the game is older-looking.

Frankly, I like the young face better...

Align · **Reply #16 on:** February 19, 2009, 05:19:08 PM

Well, perhaps it's just those few shots; does he change emotion otherwise?

Hypershell · **Reply #17 on:** February 19, 2009, 11:16:51 PM

Mouth moves and eyes blink, that's it.

Align · **Reply #18 on:** February 20, 2009, 04:03:03 AM

What? Seriously?

...Why would they do that? Emotion was sparse enough with those high-detail sprites they had.

Acid · **Reply #19 on:** February 20, 2009, 04:06:10 AM

Well, I finally played it.

While I don't like the overall presentation (artstyle and new battle animations) I must confirm that the gameplay is damn solid. They really improved the old handling.

It's kinda hard to describe, but you'll recognize the improvements if you played previous FE titles.

HyperSonicEXE · **Reply #20 on:** February 20, 2009, 04:17:23 AM

I bought this!
Then, registered it!
...then, it's going to be traded in tomorrow when I reserve GH:Metallica! Yea!

Hypershell · **Reply #21 on:** February 26, 2009, 09:51:34 PM

Something that's grating my nerves is how that Chapter 4 Arena just FREAKING TAUNTS YOU. It so begs to be camped. I sank all my money into Heal staves and spent over 400 turns there. Marth, Caeda, Lena, Julian, Norne, and Castor are all at Level 20, Gordin is at 14, and I have over 120,000 gold.

An inopportune miss later, Barst is dead.

Frey soon after. Needless to say, resetting isn't something I'd enjoy at this point. Guess I'll be going for the side-quest chapters on my first run after all.

Pringer X · **Reply #22 on:** March 01, 2009, 04:16:15 AM

Quote from: Taiyo on February 18, 2009, 11:18:21 PM

True, but IIRC it's not the complete FE1, besides, FESD doesn't have the FE3-only chapters.

Well, considering they're there to help people that suck at FE...

I'm wondering how you can be that bad at the game to get to that point. I mean, even a newbie can't be THAT bad to warrant going through the Gaiden chapters because of random luck (if they don't know about it).

Quote from: Hypershell on February 26, 2009, 09:51:34 PM

Something that's grating my nerves is how that Chapter 4 Arena just FREAKING TAUNTS YOU. It so begs to be camped. I sank all my money into Heal staves and spent over 400 turns there. Marth, Caeda, Lena, Julian, Norne, and Castor are all at Level 20, Gordin is at 14, and I have over 120,000 gold.

An inopportune miss later, Barst is dead. Frey soon after. Needless to say, resetting isn't something I'd enjoy at this point. Guess I'll be going for the side-quest chapters on my first run after all.

You (somewhat) lucky bastard. I'd kill to have my members at level 20 at this point, and I'm half way through the game. At the very least, Barst and Frey can be easily replaced (when you get Wolf and Sedgar, assuming you haven't gotten them yet). Wolf can be a better lance user while Sedgar can turn out to be a better axe user.

I absolutely HATE the level I'm on now. Nothing but sand that reduces the distance that everyone can walk at (barring flying and mage units), and an insanely powerful bastard that happens to be a mage that can darts towards you, and is invincible. About the only way I can think of to beat the stage is to use up the Warp staff I have and send Wolf over to kill the mage that's at the end point, and then next turn have Marth take the win. Sadly that means I lose out on an Energy Drop, but at this point, it's not worth it. The AI's become too smart and doesn't fall for the bait you place. I don't know what to do. If I go for the Energy Drop, it'll help in the later stages to power my characters up. If I don't, I don't have to deal with Magey McBastard.

Flok · **Reply #23 on:** March 01, 2009, 11:08:41 AM

I don't know, but so far, this is my least favorite Fire Emblem game.

I know that it's a remake of FE1, and I am not really sure if this option was available back then, but did Intelligent Systems really had to leave the rescue option out? I mean, when I think of Fire Emblem, rescuing your allies is one of the traditional tactics.

I also did not like 95% of the recruit able units. I didn't care when my units died. And lastly, wow, the difficulty was non existent for me.

Difficulty should go up when playing Hard Mode, but those other two things I mentioned will probably be not upgraded as well then.

Haven't tried online mode yet, but I would probably get my ass handed to me.

Hypershell · **Reply #24 on:** March 01, 2009, 11:26:26 PM

Quote from: Flok on March 01, 2009, 11:08:41 AM

I know that it's a remake of FE1, and I am not really sure if this option was available back then, but did Intelligent Systems really had to leave the rescue option out? I mean, when I think of Fire Emblem, rescuing your allies is one of the traditional tactics.

I noticed that too, and it's very frustrating when a flying unit slips your eye and you need to get your Mages/Clerics/Curates the hell outta there.

Speaking of which, leveling Mages is a pain in the ass. Merric and Linde start at Level 1, they suck at the Arena, they move slowly, and class-swapping them to Cleric/Curate hampers their Magic growth.

All of these are probably just indications of how old the original game is, but with the renewed presentation you'd kinda expect them to touch things up a bit (they did add the weapon triangle, movement range, and other such things). Unfortunately this shows just as well in the script; recruited characters near always do absolutely nothing after they've been recruited. No base events, no support. You can see the difference during the Prologue, at least then Marth actually talks to his crew.

I guess that's why it's easy to hate this game's units. You have the chapter they're recruited in and their mugshot, and that's about it. There's no character development.

Quote

Difficulty should go up when playing Hard Mode

Oh yes, it does. Frey and Norne are exclusive to Normal, though, which is why I was kinda bummed at Frey dying (Norne turned out better than Gordin anyway, despite what the GameFAQs guides say).

Oh yeah, and I'm not using Wolf because, no matter how broken his growths are, Castor will kick his butt as soon as he gets a Master Seal. Leveling him up was easy since the Arena seems to underestimate him. Julian and Marth cruised through it as well.

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Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon