Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia - Nintendo 3DS Standard Edition

For FE veterans: get this game.For FE newcomers & on-the-fence: this game will be more challenging than Awakening and Fates, but it's worth a try.I did not know FE Gaiden was even a thing back in Famicon days. Had no idea this was a remake. Initially, I was put off by the idea that magic mechanic will not be fueled by tomes but by mage's HP (gasp, but they are so squishy). But I was itching to play more FE after Fates and patiently waiting for Three Houses. I am really glad I gave this a try because this is a fantastic remake and what Gaidan needed to bring that second title back to the modern gaming age.What SoV does not have compared to recent FE titles:- no S-supports = no waifus/husbandos- no child units- no My Unit- no My Castle- no armory- not much room for grinding even with dungeon feature- no weapon triangle- do not expect support conversations for every characters interacting with every characters- no casual/phoenix mode; Permadeath. Permadeath everywhere. Muhahaha.What to expect:+ Fantastic soundtrack as always+ Great, well-translated, well-paced story+ Interesting class change system+ Interesting dungeon feature akin to Final Fantasy than previous FE titles+ Interesting skill system+ Beautiful character art+ Well developed characters+++++ Mila's Turnwheel+ Voice acting. Oh, yeah... Every dialogue (that isn't fetch quest) is voice acted. That was a welcome change.The game's 5 acts took me about good 45 hours to finish; standard RPG time. (Remember to take breaks for your thumbs). For this remake, they added the new battle animations from Fates to give it more cinematic oomph. It took me a couple of maps to get used to the change in UI (how stats are shown for % of Crits and Dodge), but the new UI does the job of conveying the necessary information.Even on normal difficulty, some of the maps were challenging. But there's the Mila's Turnwheel that lets me avoid doing soft resets (L trigger + R trigger + START) every time I realized I made a tactical mistake. So scour for Cogs to increase the Turnwheel ammo. It's super useful!Another thing that made Sov difficult were the dated map design. While I read Gaidan was notorious for its difficulty back in the day, I did not expect how dated the maps would feel. There's a lot of empty space to traverse on many units that start with just 4 movements (those 5 movements were taken for granted). And the enemies are all the way across the map. At least the bosses can move instead of being stuck on the seize tile.Few things that did bothered me were the choppy animation in cutscenes and repetitive grinding. Turns out the choppy animations is the style for the studio who were in charge of SoV. So, I guess I can't really complain, but I did prefer Fates' fluidity (no pun intended).All in all, SoV is different than Awakening and Fates. Even Path of Radiance. But I see that as a good thing as it gives the fans to try something relatively new with FE.Now Intelligent Systems has a few remakes under their belt, I am hoping they remake Genealogy of Holy War and Thracia 776 for us relatively and brand new fans to FE :D 'cuz that would be awesome. Cheers.

I got hooked on the Fire Emblem series after it debuted stateside with Fire Emblem (GBA) - Blazing Blade (Rekka no Ken). It was a fantastic game with beautiful sprites, good pacing and difficulty. I've played every game released since then, including a few of the Japan only with translation guides. That said I find the remake of FE: Gaiden - Shadows of Valencia to be objectively the best Fire Emblem game I've played.The game streamlined more than a few things, instead of having a STR and MAG Power stat they are instead combined into one, likewise the double-attack speed formula is very simplified (which isn't necessarily a good thing). Class changes are available with your starting crew of Villagers and pitchforks from free DLC which was a lot more fun than Shadow Dragon. Additionally each character can hold a single item, which adds a lot of gameplay depth and very little complexity. No more weapon durability either, and the spell system is quite nice where you pay HP for your spells which means your mages have their limits, and are absolutely vulnerable on the front lines.Difficulty is excellent, it's a good entry point if its your first Fire Emblem game, there is also a built in rewind feature with a limited number of uses. Most character have decent stat bonuses and unlike other games there isn't any one particular character who is completely unusuable. The parallel story paths is interesting, and I got a kick out of sending items between stories via travelling merchants.The story is simple high fantasy and the characters are likeable. Compared to FE: Three Houses I would recommend Shadows of Valenica any day of the week. Three Houses suffers from a lot of mechanic bloat, Fire Emblem games are known for having almost minimal need to customize your party, but Three Houses takes this to the extreme, and is not nearly as satisfying as FE: Awakenings. Additionally, even on Hard Mode there aren't any challenging battles in Three Houses and nearly every opponent will be one-shotted by your team. It doesn't make for very rewarding game play. Valencia while one of the easier FEs, offers a up a decent challenge for newcomers and returning fans alike. You cannot go wrong with this game.

There is a bunch of LDCs out for the game now if you want to continue your adventure and learn more about new and old characters alike!The game feels very polished, there is a lot that it keeps from its predecessor AND a lot that it succeeds from its predecessor as well! Having a variety of options for classes and having an additional evolution tier for the end all be all, each feeling very powerful too!The game has much more mechanics than atypical fire emblem game, some abilities will increase range of your attack whilst others will increase the radius of your attack!The story is well done, the voice acting was really good and helped to captivate and immerse me into the game. I don't want to spoil anything even though its been years since it has released, but it is still a VERY solid story!One of the bad parts may be that the story is split into 2 groups, so if you have a favorite character on one side, you'll still have to go through a portion of the game without access to them! But in return, this leads to better story telling so its not a super bad thing!