Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia Reviews
'Fire Emblem Echoes' combines a wonderful blend of modern and legacy gameplay in a package that successfully introduces the world to a title that never made its way to the West. With a well-written plot and brilliant characterization, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia is a remake of the highest caliber, with welcome additions that still manage to stay in tune with the original.
The simple graphics and story take you on a nostalgia trip but the fight with Fire Emblem Echoes was harder and longer than excepted. You really have to bring some frustration resistance to go through the long dungeons with the poorly made AI but the game still offers much for Fire Emblem Veterans as also for beginners.
Review in German | Read full review
Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia might be a complete remake of the Famicom’s Fire Emblem Gaiden released in 1992 but to western fans this is a completely new chapter in the Fire Emblem series that cannot be missed.
The final Fire Emblem on 3DS is both different and familiar at the same time. Shadows of Valentia perfectly caps off the series' 3DS run with a thrilling adventure that pushes all the right buttons for a remake.
Combat is interesting and challenging to a point, character interactions are charming, and dungeons do help break up the monotony, but it isn’t fulfilling overall. FE: SOV is nothing special, but it is a perfectly serviceable title good enough to act as a gateway into the rest of the Fire Emblem series.
Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia suffers from an identity crisis in almost everything it does. For example, one early dialogue exchange sees an enemy drop a surprisingly crude word apropos of nothing, and then the game subsequently wastes ~25 hours holding your hand through a comically absurd story driven entirely by the brain damaged stupidity of both lead characters. Fire Emblem Gaiden’s story has been fleshed out to a certain degree for this remake, but only the inconsequential bits seem to have received this treatment, leaving the lore at roughly the same level as the original. The end result is that the bare-bones prophecies and plot developments force relatively complex characters to act in incredibly simple-minded ways at times, flitting between being legitimate leading characters and idiots so infuriatingly dull and shortsighted that it’s a wonder they can remember to breathe.
After looking to their past, Intelligent System has made a daring strike forward. The result is a resounding strategy experience, with Shadows of Valentia not only delivering a sensational remake but one of the greatest tales that the Fire Emblem series has ever told.
A decent Fire Emblem game with a good story but overall not as good as the other 3DS Fire Emblem games.
Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia brings a lesser known chapter in the franchise's history to the forefront. Its compelling gameplay, top notch presentation, and captivating cast of characters make it one of the best entries in the 27-year-old franchise.
Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia launched on 3DS here in America back on May 19th. The latest entry into the Fire Emblem Series is actually a full remake / re-imagining (whatever you prefer to call it) of Fire Emblem Gaiden. Gaiden was released back in 1992 on the Famicom (Japanese NES) and the game was only available in Japan until 2009 when the game was released on the Wii Virtual console albeit still only in Japan.
It’s great that Intelligent Systems and Nintendo is trying to further the genre, but this time they haven’t succeeded.
Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia is an interesting throwback title, because it reminds me of what made Fire Emblem such an enduring video game series with many traits that have trickled down through the years. However, there are some unique aspects to the game as well, that also shows me how much the series has grown as well.
Overall, Shadows of Valentia delivers a new personal favorite Fire Emblem game. There are a lot of additions I would love to see return in the Nintendo Switch entry, and there was never a time I found myself frustrated, and wanting to put the game down. This game is an excellent last hoorah for the series on 3DS. The future looks even brighter for this franchise.
"Echoes from the past."
Review in Finnish | Read full review
Fans of the series will find a lot to love in Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, and if the over complicated nature of the series acted as a deterrent to you before then there has never been a better entry to jump in on. Intelligent Systems takes a good game and adds an insane amount of polish.
All in all, I quite enjoyed how Echoes brought Fire Emblem back to its roots. While I have enjoyed recent forays in the series, this felt more like the Fire Emblem I grew up playing. For $39.99, you get a ton of content, and that’s not even taking into account the DLC, which I didn’t sample in order to keep my experience more pristine. There’s a lot of replay value as well, with optional quests aplenty and many hidden memory prisms which unlock more lore. It’s also a long adventure, as my final playtime with the game was just short of 40 hours, longer individually than either Awakening or Fates. While not everyone will appreciate the hardcore emphasis of the game, I feel it’s a great sendoff for the Nintendo 3DS, which has done so much for the series. Now I just have to patiently await the next great adventure in Intelligent System’s fantastic tactical RPG saga.
Shadows of Valentia is a remake done right. The aesthetics are charming, the characters are lovable, and everything that made the original stand out is retained. Rather than mess with the base too much, Intelligent Systems stayed wholly faithful to the core of Gaiden — and with a few minor exceptions, it paid off. It was a joy from start to finish, and I found myself satisfied by almost every aspect along the way.
This is decidedly a very classic feeling Fire Emblem, with enough freshness to captivate even veterans of the franchise and comes with a welcome accessibility that makes it the easiest for newcomers to get into. This entry goes to show that there's room within the franchise to make different looking Fire Emblem entries that still feel true to the series but which also dare to not only tread new ground, but to do so in a great way. It's a well rounded package that is well balanced to please the majority of its audience, like the entire trilogy of Fire Emblem Fates before it, but while keeping it all confined to just one game with the complete epic story being accessible just from buying this one piece of software instead of it being spread out, and that's something to be thankful for. Overall, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, while feeling like an older entry, might very well be moving the series forward in certain aspects that could potentially return in future outings.
The game felt somewhat on the easier side and the dungeons could've had a little more to do. Those are minor things in a journey that doesn't slow down from start to finish. If you're here to be enchanted, Fire Emblem Echoes delivers in spades.