Gamertell

Title: Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon
Price: $29.99
System: Nintendo DS
Release Date: December 5, 2008 (Europe); August 7, 2008 (Japan); February 16, 2009 (USA)
Publisher (Developer): Nintendo (Intelligent Systems)
ESRB Rating: E 10+
Pros: Lengthy single player campaign. Fun multiplayer component. Improved save game system. Multiple difficultly levels. Classic turn-based strategy gameplay.
Cons: Fun components of previous entries have been dropped. Lacks personal touch of other Fire Emblem games. Mundane story.
Overall Score: One thumb up, one thumb sideways; 80/100, B-; *** out of 5

About a year ago, I barely had any idea what the Fire Emblem series was. Then I purchased Radiant Dawn on a whim during one of the many Wii title gaps. It’s one year later and I’ve now completed Radiant Dawn, Path of Radiance for the Game Cube and Fire Emblem and The Sacred Stones for Game Boy Advance.

I had to import the latest in the series, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, because I simply couldn’t wait for the February 2009 release in the US.

A Hero is Born. Again

Shadow Dragon for the Nintendo DS is an update of the very first Fire Emblem game, which debuted back in 1990 on the Famicom system. An update is acceptable here since the first few entries in the Fire Emblem series never made it to the US. The game’s hero, Marth, is actually better known in this country for his appearances in the Smash Brothers series. Shadow Dragon follows young Marth as he attempts to reclaim the throne and rescue his kidnapped sister.

The soul of the Fire Emblem series is in the turn-based battle system. A grid is set over a map of the battlefield and your units can move across the grid a certain number of spaces at a time, depending upon their abilities. At the end of each turn, the units can perform an action, such as attack, cast a spell, drink a potion, etc. After all of your units have moved, the enemy gets their turn. This sequence is repeated until you’re defeated or until you’ve achieved that level’s goal.

Of course, different units have different strengths and certain weapons are more effective against others. It’s classic turn-based combat, but Fire Emblem has always distinguished itself from games such as Advance Wars by focusing more on individuals than on squads or vehicles.

Here, each soldier is an actual person with a name and a face and a story. When that soldier dies, he/she’s gone for good. This personal touch would cause gamers to replay an entire level just to keep everyone alive, which made the games equally frustrating and rewarding. Unfortunately, that personal touch is lost in Shadow Dragon. Each unit is still an individual person, but there are so many of them that they’ll start to become useless by chapter three or four. There are no support relationships to provide history and links between characters, and only the main characters ever really get involved in the story.

Who Wants to Live Forever?

Shadow Dragon actually seems to reward you for losing characters. Some won’t appear in the game unless your army has dwindled to a specified number. Even more perplexing, the strategy of sacrificing a soldier for the sake of your army in encouraged. If you play through the tutorial, you won’t even be able to progress to the opening chapter unless you sacrifice one of your soldiers. I was greatly annoyed by this at first but found it a bit liberating after I grew used to it. Fewer level restarts, I suppose, unless I lost a unit I really liked. And yet, this is the first Fire Emblem that really gets the save feature right.

Traditionally, you’ve only been able to restart a level from the beginning or from a suspend point. When you restart from a suspend, that save data is loss and you either have to suspend again or go back to the beginning. In Shadow Dragon, each map will contain a couple of save game points to which you can return if one of your units lands there and saves. It’s a great feature and one that would’ve been welcome in previous games where you actually felt the need to keep everyone alive.

The World is Your Battlefield

What Shadow Dragon loses in personality, it makes up for in combat. The single-player campaign offers many levels that can take quite a long time to beat. The big news, though, is the addition of a multiplayer component. Using the DS Wi-Fi, gamers can battle locally or worldwide in 5-on-5 skirmishes. A leader board keeps tracks of your wins and losses, and you can even “loan” your soldiers to other players. I haven’t been able to test that feature yet, though, so I’m not sure what happens if your soldier dies under the command of another player. Will you still get that soldier back?

There are some other things that Fire Emblem gets right.

First, the dual screens are well suited to a game of this type; no longer will you have to shuffle through numerous screens to get important tactical information, as unit stats are always right there on display.

Second, you can use the stylus or the traditional D-pad approach to controlling your units, and switch between them at will.

Third, there are numerous difficulty levels, guaranteeing a challenge for even the most seasoned turn-based strategists.

And fourth, the general design and battle animations are as gorgeous as ever. I was especially nervous about the animations after reading game previews, but the screen shots don’t do them justice. Things really do look much better when in motion on the actual Nintendo DS.

Oh, and the music is worthy of being listened to outside the game, although the continual loops during combat can grow annoying.

Stand Up and Be Counted

Reaching into the past, Intelligent Systems did Fire Emblem fans a favor by bringing us a chapter many of us had never seen. Unfortunately, by not adding some of the features of later entries in the series, it also created a game that doesn’t really feel entirely like the Fire Emblem we’ve come to love.

People new to the series, especially those moving over from Advance Wars, may play through a few levels and wonder, “What’s the point?” And they’d be right. If the combat completely supersedes the relationship between the characters, and therefore your attachment to the characters, then there’s little else to help Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon stand apart from its competition.

But those who just want some quality turn-based strategy gaming will be pleased by the challenge before them, and fans of the Fire Emblem will enjoy the opportunity to go back to the roots of the series to play through yet another chapter.

Product Page [Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon]