Fire Emblem: ShadowDragon is the first of the
Fire Emblem franchise to make it to the
Nintendo DS. Although it reached Stateside as the fifth in the franchise, it is
actually a remade version of the very first game for the Nintendo Entertainment
System. Complete with new levels, game play modes and updated graphics,
Shadow Dragon does a great job of living
true to what we have come to expect from series’ past.
You will begin
Shadow
Dragon by choosing one of two difficulties. The Normal difficulty setting will force you to play through the
tutorial mode and is for newcomers to the franchise and that style of gameplay, while the Hard setting will pit you against
enemies that are as much as five times stronger than the enemies you'll find in Normal. The good thing about the
tutorial is that it is set up as a prologue to the game’s story. This does a
good job of not making the game’s learning process too boring for veterans of
the
Fire Emblem series.
The prologue sets you in the castle of Marth, a young and innocent prince, as it is being overrun by enemies. Marth is forced to leave while his
sister stays to try and slow
the enemy. Through his escape he is aided by the
help of your first few allies. From here, the tutorial appears each time a new
obstacle or skill appears. For example, it will teach you how to attack your
enemies, use different weapons and items and how to interact with your
surrounding area. As Marth makes his way to allied kingdoms for help, he
encounters both new allies and new, and more deadly, enemies.
Shadow Dragon is
set up as a tactical strategy game in which the gameplay only takes place
while you are on the battlefield. During each of your conflicts, you will need
to station your team around the area while you make your way toward the level’s
boss.
The levels are set up in a grid
and each of your units can move a certain number of spaces in a horizontal and
vertical fashion. Horse, Pegasus and Dragon mounted units can move much more
father than free walking ones. On the other hand, characters wearing heavy
armor will have reduced mobility compared to a light weight character. Each
character can only move once a turn; then the enemy makes their progression
towards you.
You begin combat when you move close enough to an enemy so
they are within striking distance. Most weapons/characters need to be directly
beside the enemy while archers and mages can attack from afar. This, along with
your limited movements, requires you to strategically plan just where you should be
placing your party so that they won’t be in the attack range of approaching foes. A new improvement to the franchise introduced in
Shadow
Dragon is the ability to see the accumulated walking and attacking distance
of all the enemies at once. Hitting the X button will cause a red section of
the map to appear. Any of your units in this area are open to an attack from
the opponent. You need to find out when it’s okay to advance, and when you should
be playing it safe.
Fire Emblem also
does a good job of making sure the combat phases are both an important and
enjoyable part of the game. The majority of the weapons are swords, axes and
lances.
Shadow Dragon teaches you
that in a fight, an axe barer will have the advantage over a lance wielder, a
lance wielder beats a sword barer and swords are
good against axes. This, once
again, requires you to strategically place the proper units from your party up against the proper units from the enemy's party. The last thing to make sure you keep in mind is the number of
uses left for each of your weapons. For example, when you use your sword on too
many enemies, it will break, and you will have to find your way to an armory to
buy a new one.
The combat in
Shadow
Dragon is probably the most important part as it can have a long lasting effect within the game.
Any time one of your party members dies, you will lose them for the rest of the
game. This is probably the feature that is best known about the
Fire Emblem series.
Unlike most Role Playing Games, in which you can revive a character by using of an item, spells or
certain points on the map (for example, in
Final
Fantasy you can bring dead allies back to life by using a Phoenix Down), in
Shadow Dragon, a lost ally means it’s
game over for them. This can cause quite an issue as you will miss out on story
related scenes since they can no longer take place without the correct units.
What makes this worse is, because every unit is different and special in their
own way, you could have grown attached to them. You may have spent the first
three quarters of the game leveling up one specific character to make him/her very powerful, and
then lose all of that hard work in one minute. However, this also adds to the games replay value, as
perfectionists will want to restart the specific chapter so they can finish the
game with everyone. It may add to this game’s difficulty, but it gets you thinking more strategically, as you need
to plan two or three turns ahead.
To help with this,
Shadow
Dragon adds the use of mid-chapter save points.
Instead of always having to start at the
beginning of the level, you can make a hard save somewhere within the chapter
and begin again each time from that point. Though, in order to activate these
mid-level saves, you need a character to stand on a specific spot which can
cause you to waste a turn with them.
When comparing the graphics of
Shadow Dragon to the Game Boy Advance versions of
Fire Emblem, you won’t see too much of a difference. The maps and
the characters look almost exactly the same. The only new addition is the way
the combat now shows
small cel-shaded characters instead of flat two-dimensional
sprites. Though, it still looks great and with the inclusion of nice hand drawn
images to be shown during the between chapter cut scenes, it’s a great looking
game for the Nintendo DS.
Shadow Dragon also introduced a cleaner information interface.
With the DS’s second screen, all the character information and stats are
displayed on the top screen while the battlefield remains on the bottom. This
is particularly helpful because, in order to play the game well, you often need to check
enemy and ally stats to know how to proceed.
The sound in
Shadow
Dragon is also a great asset to the game. When acquiring a new team mate,
you will hear fast-paced, heroic music playing in the background, while the loss of an
ally plays soft, slow paced music to drive home the depressing nature of the event. The overall music adds to the game quite nicely as it matches
the story`s atmosphere. Also, hearing lively up beat music as you make your way
through the battlefields and mow down the enemies makes you feel like quite a
powerful army.
The caveat for
Shadow
Dragon is that it doesn’t introduce many new or innovated features to the franchise. It has brought in the choice for some online modes and the idea of
mid-chapter save points, but apart from this you are getting the exact same
game play you’ve come to expect. In each game you need to keep the same things
in mind and you need to know who is good against what. If you have played any
of the other
Fire Emblem games, you
probably already have a good idea of all these and even which type of units you
should put your time into when choosing who to level up. The levels and
characters are different, but with only a couple of new classes to play
around with, you’ll be playing the same game you played a few years back. This
can be a downside to anyone getting tired of the game’s hardcore and tense nature,
but if you haven’t played titles from this franchise in a while,
Shadow Dragon will satisfy you quite
nicely.
What hurts it even more though, is the online modes aren’t the best, or even close for that matter.
Your main options are an online store and the multiplayer mode. The online
store is a fine addition to the game since finding some powerful weapons mid
game can
be quite hard. The store updates itself everyday with new items, but
at the same time, items previously available for purchase will be removed. You need to check it
quite often in hopes that the one item you are looking for is being offered. To
make sure you aren’t taking advantage of the items for sale, you can only buy a
select number of the more rare and powerful items.
The multiplayer mode is the most disappointing of all.
Playing against your friends and seeing how well you can outsmart other people
online sounds like a great idea on paper, but it doesn’t pan out well once in use.
When playing against random people, you will almost always get matched up with
someone either incredibly powerful or very weak. There is no system in place to
match you up with people who are around the same level as your in game team.
Finding an opponent with a powerhouse team or someone just starting out is no
fun for either party. Though if you find someone of equal skill level, it can
become quite fun.
Fire Emblem: Shadow
Dragon does what every game in the franchise has done before: make you strategise
more than almost any other game out there. If you are a gamer that plays games on a more
casual level, this game isn’t for you. It’s designed to make you think and even
second guess every move you make. You have to really know the game in order to
be able to play it perfectly on it’s harder levels/difficulties. That being
said though, it does a great job of introducing you to the franchise. With the
addition of the online store and mid-chapter save points, it’s one of the most
accessible games in the franchise, and its visuals and fitting sound, which accompany its wonderful story telling, make for great experience. And if you are a
perfectionist when playing video games, this will lead to countless hours of
replay value.
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon
is a wonderful addition to the
Fire Emblem franchise, and is a welcome addition to the Nintendo
DS library.