Two weeks ago, I finished Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia on the 3DS. Being my first official foray into the Fire Emblem universe (after playing a lot of the mobile game Fire Emblem Heroes), I was very excited to play another tactics game that I hopped would not have a near perfect copy of That One Fight in Final Fantasy Tactics; it didn't. I honestly cannot say why it took me this long to play a Fire Emblem game either. Maybe it was the fact that there were so many FE games already out there and I did not know where to start so I just didn't? Either way, I feel like I am fully in its grip now and seriously considering shelling out $40 for the four year old Fire Emblem Awakening rather than a combined $80ish for the entire Fire Emblem Fates series. Then there is the attempt at braving the online auction house for a legitimate copy of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon because as you all know by now, I love starting series at their beginning, even if it is a remake of that beginning. But there is always hope for the hopefully happening Switch Virtual Console.
But Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia is why we are all here today.
Now, I played this, mostly completely blind, in that I did not look up playthroughs, FAQs, or guides for how to beat dungeons or bosses. There were some things I did look up while trying to make my way through Duma Tower such as if mid-stage bosses regenerated after leaving the Tower, or where to find Dragon Scales to craft the Dragon Scale Shield. I also did not look up the best build for Alm's starting characters, who are all classed as Villagers and can take on any job once they have reached a particular level. I tried to pick the path that I felt that the characters would choose based on the story up to that point. So Gray became a mercenary, Tobin became an archer, Kliff became a mage, Faye became a cavalier, and in the case of Celica's storyline, I had Atlas become a mercenary because he seemed more like a sword wielding bloke; otherwise I would have made him a tank via the knight route.
And because this is a Game EXP article and not a Full Review or even a Game Review article, I am going to skip all the paragraphs dedicated to how this game operates in terms of Mila's Turnwheel and just say that I used it very frequently. There were a number of times in Duma Tower that I ended up heading back out of the tower all together as I had used up more than half of my usages of the Turnwheel before reaching the mini-boss of the third floor. Eventually I just switched party members and focused on finishing the damned thing instead of leveling characters. But the Turnwheel. Because it is a game mechanic, I did not see the purpose of overusing it, like when a character died, or as petty as when one of my heavy hitters missed.
Speaking of death, let us talk about that dead elephant in the room. I played the game on the Normal difficulty and the Classic perma-death setting. I decided on this before I knew much about the game aside from the fact that it was a tactics game and I was still in a Final Fantasy Tactics mindset. It was a few hours in that I probably could have chosen to play it on casual setting since if any of my characters died (before I acquired the Turnwheel), I just turned the game off and restarted from my last save. So why play it on classic then? Because I had thought that, as is the case with FFT, that you could hire new mercenaries/soldiers as the story progressed, but that is not the case as every character you acquire is a named character, although not as important as either Alm or Celica. This created a very real possibility of having too many characters die throughout the game to the point that it might be impossible (especially against those bastards who summon witches, dread fighter, and necrodragons; bastards). So without the possibility of rebuilding up your fallen ranks, I decided that I would rather exit out of a dire situation rather than be frustrated in the late game.
Continuing with characters dying, I felt a little odd with Alm and Celica in battles since if they die, then there is no option to use the Turnwheel, your game just straight up ends. And in some battles which required well over an hour of your time (at least the way I played because I am certainly going to use my archers to their fullest), the last thing I want to happen (which did happen a few times) was to have Alm or Celica die and then have to restart from before the battle started. It was just mentally exhausting to play upwards of 45 minutes in a single battle only to have a few enemies spam attack Alm or Celica with critical hits and your game is over because you want your protagonists to be proactive and not lead from behind. So there ended up being a number of battles where both Alm and Celica just hung out in the back until I knew that there was no way any one was going to die. Cheap, but that's the way you have it.
In the end though, I did end up sacrificing three characters during the last battle (which I had my own issues with when it happened in that you were unable to pick who you wanted from Celica's party to join in, but whomever you had when you finished Duma Tower; annoyed partly because they were at a lower level than the rest of Alm's party) because they managed to draw attacks away from Alm or other characters who were more important during that battle. It was pretty sad to see Valbar, Lukas, and Palla die, more so when during the credits you are told what happens to them after the events of the game. Really I was the saddest, and at the same time happiest in a sad sort of way, when Valbar died. I'm going to miss that lovable lug.
Which now brings me to the end of the game. As I said, after you complete the game, you are told what happens to the characters later in their lives. Then, you are able to play a post-game series of battles that. . .continue their story? What is kind of annoying (in the petty sort of way), is that you are told what happens to everyone who survived the last battle (like two characters getting married and having lots of kids), but what if one of those characters then dies during the post game missions? I guess it negates the epilogue, which is the easiest answer.
One aspect of the game that I really liked, although I felt it could have added implementations was being able to pause the short fight scenes between characters, which then rotated the camera around the paused action. Coupled with the well done 3D effects made battles fun to watch as well. What would have made this better, is if you had been able to take pictures, otherwise you have an event that you just look at for a few seconds before continuing on with the rest of the battle.
My biggest criticism of the game is something that confuses even me a bit. I felt that the story ended too quickly, despite it taking me 73 hours to beat. Everything just seemed too straight forward for the most part. You need to stop Rigel's invasion of Zofia, so you do that. Celica needs to find out what happened to Mila and later rescue her at Duma Tower. I think what I was expecting was a deeper story along the lines of Final Fantasy Tactics or A Song of Ice & Fire, and what I got instead was The Legend of Zelda or The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. And there is nothing wrong with either of those stories. It is just that both have obvious bad guys and good guys, and clear goals that are set out at nearly the beginning of the story. But even that explanation is overly simplified and does not come across as how I want it to be. I guess the short of it is that I was a bit underwhelmed that there was not as much character growth as I was hoping.
But damn that was a fun game, for the most part. I mean, I find it rare that any game is 100% fun, although I did come away from Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia with a such a favorable view of the Fire Emblem series that I am just a little upset. Except Fire Emblem Warriors on the Switch, cannot say I have a lot of interest in that, but maybe I will just rent it then.
~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Instrumental
P.S. And for those of you wanting to know, I decided to have Sonya on my team instead of Deen, mainly because I felt like I could use another mage on my team as opposed to another fighter. At the time I did not know that that when you had the decision to attack one over the other, I at first decided to attack (and kill) Sonya as I thought that you would have to go up against the other later in the game and a stronger mage would be more difficult than a stronger fighter. When I found out that the one you did not attack joins your party, I restarted from a previous save so that I could get Sonya.
P.P.S. And yes, I am starting the end-game quests because why not? They are there and I do not have another tactics game (except I really do, but not on the 3DS) in my queue.
P.P.P.S. And yes, I did buy one DLC map pack, the "Rise of the Deliverance" which seemed the most appealing at the time, which I played first before even starting the main game as it said that it took place "shortly before Alm's tale," and y'all know me and chronology.
And because this is a Game EXP article and not a Full Review or even a Game Review article, I am going to skip all the paragraphs dedicated to how this game operates in terms of Mila's Turnwheel and just say that I used it very frequently. There were a number of times in Duma Tower that I ended up heading back out of the tower all together as I had used up more than half of my usages of the Turnwheel before reaching the mini-boss of the third floor. Eventually I just switched party members and focused on finishing the damned thing instead of leveling characters. But the Turnwheel. Because it is a game mechanic, I did not see the purpose of overusing it, like when a character died, or as petty as when one of my heavy hitters missed.
Speaking of death, let us talk about that dead elephant in the room. I played the game on the Normal difficulty and the Classic perma-death setting. I decided on this before I knew much about the game aside from the fact that it was a tactics game and I was still in a Final Fantasy Tactics mindset. It was a few hours in that I probably could have chosen to play it on casual setting since if any of my characters died (before I acquired the Turnwheel), I just turned the game off and restarted from my last save. So why play it on classic then? Because I had thought that, as is the case with FFT, that you could hire new mercenaries/soldiers as the story progressed, but that is not the case as every character you acquire is a named character, although not as important as either Alm or Celica. This created a very real possibility of having too many characters die throughout the game to the point that it might be impossible (especially against those bastards who summon witches, dread fighter, and necrodragons; bastards). So without the possibility of rebuilding up your fallen ranks, I decided that I would rather exit out of a dire situation rather than be frustrated in the late game.
Continuing with characters dying, I felt a little odd with Alm and Celica in battles since if they die, then there is no option to use the Turnwheel, your game just straight up ends. And in some battles which required well over an hour of your time (at least the way I played because I am certainly going to use my archers to their fullest), the last thing I want to happen (which did happen a few times) was to have Alm or Celica die and then have to restart from before the battle started. It was just mentally exhausting to play upwards of 45 minutes in a single battle only to have a few enemies spam attack Alm or Celica with critical hits and your game is over because you want your protagonists to be proactive and not lead from behind. So there ended up being a number of battles where both Alm and Celica just hung out in the back until I knew that there was no way any one was going to die. Cheap, but that's the way you have it.
In the end though, I did end up sacrificing three characters during the last battle (which I had my own issues with when it happened in that you were unable to pick who you wanted from Celica's party to join in, but whomever you had when you finished Duma Tower; annoyed partly because they were at a lower level than the rest of Alm's party) because they managed to draw attacks away from Alm or other characters who were more important during that battle. It was pretty sad to see Valbar, Lukas, and Palla die, more so when during the credits you are told what happens to them after the events of the game. Really I was the saddest, and at the same time happiest in a sad sort of way, when Valbar died. I'm going to miss that lovable lug.
Which now brings me to the end of the game. As I said, after you complete the game, you are told what happens to the characters later in their lives. Then, you are able to play a post-game series of battles that. . .continue their story? What is kind of annoying (in the petty sort of way), is that you are told what happens to everyone who survived the last battle (like two characters getting married and having lots of kids), but what if one of those characters then dies during the post game missions? I guess it negates the epilogue, which is the easiest answer.
One aspect of the game that I really liked, although I felt it could have added implementations was being able to pause the short fight scenes between characters, which then rotated the camera around the paused action. Coupled with the well done 3D effects made battles fun to watch as well. What would have made this better, is if you had been able to take pictures, otherwise you have an event that you just look at for a few seconds before continuing on with the rest of the battle.
My biggest criticism of the game is something that confuses even me a bit. I felt that the story ended too quickly, despite it taking me 73 hours to beat. Everything just seemed too straight forward for the most part. You need to stop Rigel's invasion of Zofia, so you do that. Celica needs to find out what happened to Mila and later rescue her at Duma Tower. I think what I was expecting was a deeper story along the lines of Final Fantasy Tactics or A Song of Ice & Fire, and what I got instead was The Legend of Zelda or The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. And there is nothing wrong with either of those stories. It is just that both have obvious bad guys and good guys, and clear goals that are set out at nearly the beginning of the story. But even that explanation is overly simplified and does not come across as how I want it to be. I guess the short of it is that I was a bit underwhelmed that there was not as much character growth as I was hoping.
But damn that was a fun game, for the most part. I mean, I find it rare that any game is 100% fun, although I did come away from Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia with a such a favorable view of the Fire Emblem series that I am just a little upset. Except Fire Emblem Warriors on the Switch, cannot say I have a lot of interest in that, but maybe I will just rent it then.
~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Instrumental
P.S. And for those of you wanting to know, I decided to have Sonya on my team instead of Deen, mainly because I felt like I could use another mage on my team as opposed to another fighter. At the time I did not know that that when you had the decision to attack one over the other, I at first decided to attack (and kill) Sonya as I thought that you would have to go up against the other later in the game and a stronger mage would be more difficult than a stronger fighter. When I found out that the one you did not attack joins your party, I restarted from a previous save so that I could get Sonya.
P.P.S. And yes, I am starting the end-game quests because why not? They are there and I do not have another tactics game (except I really do, but not on the 3DS) in my queue.
P.P.P.S. And yes, I did buy one DLC map pack, the "Rise of the Deliverance" which seemed the most appealing at the time, which I played first before even starting the main game as it said that it took place "shortly before Alm's tale," and y'all know me and chronology.
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