Attacking softens up enemy units, sure, but also hurts your knights, foot soldiers, Pegasus riders, sorcerers, and so on in the process. Offense, then, is usually the worst defense. It's typical tactical stuff, except for Fire Emblem's peculiar tic that allows defending soldiers to nearly always counterattack. Just like other Fire Emblem games, you move your warriors around unique arenas and watch fights break out when the units get in range (usually within a single square of each other). Even if you do enjoy Echoes' steep difficulty, it's hard to shake the specter of doubt that Nintendo might have made the game harder than it should be just to sell downloadable extras.Įither way, a lot of the game's standard challenge is thanks to Fire Emblem's well-established combat mechanics.
Repetitive or not, dropping cash on such shortcut DLC starts to sound awfully appealing-or awfully exploitative-very quickly. Your mileage may vary, but Echoes is titanium-hard in spots. The $44.99 season pass ($5 more than the game itself) is mostly a load of repetitive dungeons that apparently offer scads more XP and gold far earlier in the game than the main campaign. It's disappointing, then, if not exactly surprising, that a big chunk of Echoes' DLC is designed to ameliorate that grind.
No amount of dumb luck and clever unit placement could get me through the game's second half-brute-force grinding between story missions was the only way I could manage to proceed. What’s worse, those repeated dungeon fights are practically mandatory to grind for extra gold and XP to finish the overland scuffles. These battles are broken up by 3D dungeon-crawling sections that can spawn infinitely more battles. Even more battles will start automatically if Alm and Celica stay in one place for too long. Battles push the story forward, but more battles also appear on the overworld map if you take too long to push the story forward.
#FIRE EMBLEM ECHOES CUTSCENES SERIES#
The crucibleĮchoes is a series of one grueling skirmish after another. The problem is that there are hardly any diversions to speak of, silly or otherwise, to break up the seemingly endless battles. But the slightly more down-to-Earth story of Echoes still carried my interest long after the gameplay couldn't. I liked the last few Fire Emblems' focus on flirting as much as anyone, which is to say I refused to beat any of them until all my soldiers were happily married. All optional talking is instead done on the battlefield itself. Few characters can develop relationships with each other, and, when they do, there's hardly any downtime between battles where they can converse. The series' signature pseudo-dating sim elements-where soldiers befriend and romance each other by fighting in proximity-are still present, but sidelined by the overarching intrigue that drives the main plot. Sworn to the swordĮchoes is the story of two long-lost friends, Alm and Celica, leading forces embroiled in a war between gods and nations, with politics and ideology at the forefront. It seems like a small difference, but it sets the tone for the rest of the game, harkening back to a slightly more sober tone of Gaiden than the melodramatic relationships of modern Fire Emblem games. The stills show a bit less anime inspiration than in Awakening and Fates-adopting an ever-so-slightly more "classical" design. These are the primary shots of the members of your army, all with their own backstories and personalities in typical Fire Emblem fashion. What really stands out, though, is the best-in-class character art. Fully 3D battle animations are also taken straight out of Fire Emblem: Awakening and Fates. Maps that used to be static, mostly green blobs are now isometric spaces that convey a lot more character and personality to the different kinds of terrain across the continent of Valentia. The art has been painstakingly redrawn from the ground up, much to the game’s benefit. While I can appreciate the game as a meticulous and beautiful remake of the Japanese Famicom original, Fire Emblem Gaiden, I just couldn’t get into the monotonous, flat, turn-based strategy gameplay from a modern perspective.Įchoes incorporates most of what I love to see in video game remakes. I'm not just referring to the game's plot, which mostly split my time between two different armies on opposite battlefronts. Links: Nintendo eShop | Official website Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia played out like two very different games for me. Price: $40 / £32 on Amazon, or £40 on Nintendo eShop Game details Developer: Intelligent Systems
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