There’s also a new villain named Berkut, nephew of Emperor Rudolf, who has his own tragic storyline to accompany his final battle. A few new villager, Faye, has been added to join Alm in the beginning, who has a rather deranged crush on her childhood friend. There’s also a brand new final Act, consisting of one very large dungeon, though it’s more like a postgame bonus since it’s incredibly challenging. The hero also describes the sights, smells, and general atmosphere of the various caves and dungeons, all of which give each area much more identity with just a brief monologue.Ī new prologue, acting as a tutorial, with Alm and Celicia as kids, has been added and works as a tutorial.
#Fe echoes characters old plus#
There’s the usual variety of support conversations, newly added (though not as many as the previous two games), plus “Memory Prisms”, which reveal past interactions between certain characters. Plus the translation, handled by 8-4 (who also did Awakening), is a substantial improvement over the rather dull work on Fates by Treehouse. This is the first Fire Emblem game where almost everyone is fully voiced, which makes everyone more distinct. Alm and Celicia have much more fleshed out personalities the same goes for all of rest of the cast, many who barely had a single line in the original game, who are now much more interesting. But the storytelling, and particularly the characterizations, have been massively improved.
The basic plot hasn’t really changed much – the childhood friends Alm and Celicia find themselves on different fronts of a war waged between Zofia and Rigel, each ruled by the gods Mila and Duma, respectively. It was always something of an oddball, but this revamp brings back many of its discarded mechanics and give them a chance to shine, while wrapped in the sheen and granted the niceties of the modern entries. This limitation certainly adds on to the difficulty as you must choose between offence (special weapon) or defence (healing items), and distribute your supplies carefully.The third and final Fire Emblem game on the 3DS seeks to evolve by looking to its past – it’s actually a remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden, the second game of the series. Characters can hold one item at a time, whether that be a special weapon, some food for healing, or an item that increases certain stats. And rather than buying items with different abilities, skills can be unlocked as characters use their weapons – mages in Shadows of Valentia start out with fire spells, and unlock thunder and light spells as they fight. For example, Celica carries a standard sword which can be swapped out with a blessed sword, and that in turn can gain new skills as she levels up. Another absent mechanic is the weapons triangle (sword beats axe, axe beats lance, lance beats swords), and units now carry default unbreakable weapons that can be replaced with special ones. Limited to a few uses per battle, it has the ability to turn back time, and is a smart alternative to the screams of frustration and resetting that veteran and Classic mode Fire Emblem players are all too familiar with.
Shadows of Valentia balances out this increase in difficulty with the introduction of Mila’s Turnwheel. “In a departure from Fire Emblem: Awakening and Fates, marriage between characters is not an option in Shadows of Valentia, blessedly preventing the whole “time travelling babies” thing from happening again this time around.”
I’ve missed holding my breath, coming up with solutions that felt genius to save my units from an otherwise certain permadeath. I actually prefer this as I found that pair ups lowered the risk of losing characters too much. While there are still support conversations to listen in on, pairing up units in combat has also been nixed. In a departure from Fire Emblem: Awakening and Fates, marriage between characters is not an option in Shadows of Valentia, blessedly preventing the whole “time travelling babies” thing from happening again this time around. The narrative and dialogue are often either a hit or miss in Shadows of Valentia, with the former having its compelling moments before suddenly dropping to the overdramatic, and the latter wavering from pleasantly witty to intolerably cheesy.
Childhood friends and protagonists Alm and Celica pursue vastly different means to end the conflict, and you must play as both to bring peace to the land. On the continent of Valentia, the two nations of Zofia and Rigel are at war.
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