Nintendo published this turn-based strategy game developed by Intelligent Games. Created for the Nintendo DS, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon allows for one to two player gaming. Rated "E10+" by the ESRB Board for mild fantasy violence and mild language.
By: Simon "Soulrift" Ludgate
Published: Mar 21, 2009
Updated: Sep 2, 2010
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon for the DS is a remake of the game that started the whole Fire Emblem craze: the original Nintendo game has been brought back and freshened up for a whole new audience. It’s also a first-time for English audiences, since the game was never translated from Japanese before. The new version takes advantage of the two screens and networking capabilities of the DS, adding whole new features like unit sharing over Wi-Fi.
The Fire Emblem games are Strategy RPGs, or maybe Tactical RPGs is more appropriate. You have an army of units that gain experience and go up levels (like an RPG) but you deploy an entire army at once and take turns moving all your units around a grid-based map (like a Strategy/Tactical game). Fire Emblem games tend to differentiate themselves from other similar games with a number of unique features, such as story-based characters rather than no-name or created characters, permanent character death, and weapons that have limited uses before they break and need to be replaced.
Shadow Dragon builds upon the advances of other recent Fire Emblem games by bringing back features like the equipment convoy and forging gear to add custom bonuses to it. On the other hand, features like rescuing (where larger units can pick up and move smaller units) are nowhere to be found. One unique feature that doesn’t show up in other recent Fire Emblem games, however, is the ability to re-class units. So if all your archers die and you have a spare knight, you can re-class him or her to fill that role, greatly alleviating the loss of a particular unit in combat. This is particularly handy when you know you will be promoting a unit to a dual-weapon role (eg: when sword-wielding mercenaries become heroes, they can wield axes too) and you want to train them up in both weapon skills in advance (eg: by having the unit get 10 levels as a mercenary and 10 more as a fighter before promoting to hero).
Graphically, Shadow Dragon looks much like the Game Boy Advanced incarnations of Fire Emblem, with similar sprite-based characters moving about the map. However, combat is now smoother, with pre-rendered 3D characters engaging in battle on screen. The second screen adds very handy additional displays, either a full character readout with skills and equipment or a full map showing all your characters and all the enemies, both of which alleviate having to open up menus and interrupting the main game to consult information.
Information consulting remains a high priority in Fire Emblem, as statistics decide the outcome of battle. Weapons do a fixed amount of damage, and whether or not you attack twice is precisely determined by the difference in speed statistic between fighting units. All of this is neatly summed up in the usual battle outcome box that will be instantly familiar to Fire Emblem Fans. One nice addition in Shadow Dragon though is the ability to cycle through your available weapons from within the outcome box, so you can pick out just the right weapon for the battle at hand.
Ultimately, there isn’t too much new with Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon. This is probably just what fans of the series want: I know I enjoyed playing through the game twice, on regular and again on hard modes. Hard mode actually has five difficulty settings now, each of which makes the enemies harder and harder. Five-star hard mode is, well, very hard. The only way to win on five-star is to sacrifice numerous units as you go and rely heavily on the constant recruitment of new units; units that often get neglected or outright ignored on easier difficulty settings where you pick up your favorite units early on and stick with them.
{slot15}The network features add some nice touches to Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, but the game is ultimately a single-player experience. There are no head-to-head battles or anything like that. Still, it’s a good way to enhance your experience by sharing with friends.
As far as tactical RPGs are concerned, Fire Emblem is one of the best series available, and Shadow Dragon does not disappoint in the least. While a New Game+ mode (where you can re-play with your leveled up characters) would have been a fun way to add a bit of extra replay-ability to the game, it still doesn’t lack in exciting strategy the first, second, or however many times through. I just hope there are some more games released for the DS in the future to continue to feed my insatiable need for Fire Emblem!
Score: 9.6/10
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