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Nintendo Reviews / DS Review: Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon
« on: March 04, 2009, 08:03:22 PM »
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Intelligent Systems
System: Nintendo DS
Release (NA): 2/17/09
Story
Long ago, the Shadow Dragon Medeus attempted to take over all of the continent of Archanea. If it wasn't for the efforts of the hero, Anri, who held the divine blade Falchion, the whole world would've been covered in darkness.
However, Medeus has recently been resurrected and is again trying to take over the world. The evil sorcerer Gharnef who usurped the throne of Khadein joined his cause. Grust and Macedonia joined the cause shortly after, followed by Gra, longtime neighbor and friend of Marth's country, Altea. It is now on the shoulders of prince Marth of Altea to recover the divine blade Falchion from Gharnef, and defeat Medeus while warding off their forces.
Sound 10/15
I am not particularly impressed by the audio in this game. I was looking for some of the catchy melodies from "Shadow Dragon Medley" from SSBB in here, but they were quite scarce. In comparison to other games, sound is very poor. The music was always appropriate, but it wasn't... as good as it could've been. It could've been more engaged, I think.
Graphics 16/20
Map sprites are well made, but there is one problem: you can barely distinguish between two people of the same class and gender. You would think, after all the 2D FE games they would do something about that, especially with the incredibly detailed event profiles and 2.5D battle scenes. Personally, I really liked the art style used in the previous 3 portable FE's, but it was nice for a change. One thing that bugged me was the lameness of criticals. They have been so epic in the past, but not in this game.
Appeal 23/25
The game is oddly difficult in the beginning, yet gets easier as you go on. That's kind of messed up if you ask me. Here I am, a FE fan, and I'm dying on the normal 1st through 3rd levels. That would be unappealing to new fans to the series. The game can be played through a number of times, on two different difficulty levels: Normal and Hard. Hard is split into five sub-categories, from "Hard" to "Merciless". I haven't tried merciless... but let me tell you, I tried "Brutal" (the second difficulty level) and found myself dying over and over on the first level. There are definitely options for hardcore gamers here. Furthermore, the plot is engaging, and you really WANT to beat Gharnef and Medeus, so you can't stop til you beat it at least once. Multiplayer is interesting: you actually go onto a map and face another team. This absolutely RADICAL idea has never been implemented before, and I'm pretty freaking happy they finally did it. When I went on multiplayer for the first time, I pwned two people before finding someone with all level 20 units. Then I died... a lot. (it was my first playthrough, and I couldn't be bothered with that training stuff) So my guess is they set you with opponents around a record similar to yours. (I know for a fact that you can view the results of your last twenty matches at any time). Another revolutionary thing is the online shop, which features rare, but unique items on certain days of the month. But something that bothered me was the thing with Pegasus/Falcoknights. Normally in FE, a Pegasus Knight will class up to a Falcoknight, but in this game they class up into a Dracoknight (riding a wyvern). This was usually a separate pair of classes, but what is even odder is that the online shop sometimes offers the "Elysian Whip", which will allow you to class up a Pegasus Knight into a Falcoknight. The Falcoknight offers no super-special-awesome abilitites. That's just a little oddity.
Gameplay 36/40
You have to think to play this game. That's one of the greatest parts of this whole series. You read the events, and think in order to continue. One thing they removed from previous games was the ability to read an enemy weapon's stats. (or one that's yours, but the unit has performed an action this turn) Although they made it so you can read the total battle stats of any unit without going into battle with them, it would've been very nice to conveniently compare weapons. Gameplay is too difficult at the beginning of the game, it will repel people who have barely started. But it is fun, so that's a plus.
Overall 85/100
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is a highly entertaining game with an engaging plot, appropriate sound, entertaining gameplay, and well-made graphics. However, little perks in the game set it out from the rest, which may not be a bad thing in some cases, but are sometimes annoying to me (ie: lame criticals, pegasus/falcoknight thing, etc.). Other than that I would recommend this game, but perhaps not to newcomers because of difficulty at the beginning of the game (btw there is a tutorial that is optional... forgot to mention that
)
Review by Nnja
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Intelligent Systems
System: Nintendo DS
Release (NA): 2/17/09
Story
Long ago, the Shadow Dragon Medeus attempted to take over all of the continent of Archanea. If it wasn't for the efforts of the hero, Anri, who held the divine blade Falchion, the whole world would've been covered in darkness.
However, Medeus has recently been resurrected and is again trying to take over the world. The evil sorcerer Gharnef who usurped the throne of Khadein joined his cause. Grust and Macedonia joined the cause shortly after, followed by Gra, longtime neighbor and friend of Marth's country, Altea. It is now on the shoulders of prince Marth of Altea to recover the divine blade Falchion from Gharnef, and defeat Medeus while warding off their forces.
Sound 10/15
I am not particularly impressed by the audio in this game. I was looking for some of the catchy melodies from "Shadow Dragon Medley" from SSBB in here, but they were quite scarce. In comparison to other games, sound is very poor. The music was always appropriate, but it wasn't... as good as it could've been. It could've been more engaged, I think.
Graphics 16/20
Map sprites are well made, but there is one problem: you can barely distinguish between two people of the same class and gender. You would think, after all the 2D FE games they would do something about that, especially with the incredibly detailed event profiles and 2.5D battle scenes. Personally, I really liked the art style used in the previous 3 portable FE's, but it was nice for a change. One thing that bugged me was the lameness of criticals. They have been so epic in the past, but not in this game.
Appeal 23/25
The game is oddly difficult in the beginning, yet gets easier as you go on. That's kind of messed up if you ask me. Here I am, a FE fan, and I'm dying on the normal 1st through 3rd levels. That would be unappealing to new fans to the series. The game can be played through a number of times, on two different difficulty levels: Normal and Hard. Hard is split into five sub-categories, from "Hard" to "Merciless". I haven't tried merciless... but let me tell you, I tried "Brutal" (the second difficulty level) and found myself dying over and over on the first level. There are definitely options for hardcore gamers here. Furthermore, the plot is engaging, and you really WANT to beat Gharnef and Medeus, so you can't stop til you beat it at least once. Multiplayer is interesting: you actually go onto a map and face another team. This absolutely RADICAL idea has never been implemented before, and I'm pretty freaking happy they finally did it. When I went on multiplayer for the first time, I pwned two people before finding someone with all level 20 units. Then I died... a lot. (it was my first playthrough, and I couldn't be bothered with that training stuff) So my guess is they set you with opponents around a record similar to yours. (I know for a fact that you can view the results of your last twenty matches at any time). Another revolutionary thing is the online shop, which features rare, but unique items on certain days of the month. But something that bothered me was the thing with Pegasus/Falcoknights. Normally in FE, a Pegasus Knight will class up to a Falcoknight, but in this game they class up into a Dracoknight (riding a wyvern). This was usually a separate pair of classes, but what is even odder is that the online shop sometimes offers the "Elysian Whip", which will allow you to class up a Pegasus Knight into a Falcoknight. The Falcoknight offers no super-special-awesome abilitites. That's just a little oddity.
Gameplay 36/40
You have to think to play this game. That's one of the greatest parts of this whole series. You read the events, and think in order to continue. One thing they removed from previous games was the ability to read an enemy weapon's stats. (or one that's yours, but the unit has performed an action this turn) Although they made it so you can read the total battle stats of any unit without going into battle with them, it would've been very nice to conveniently compare weapons. Gameplay is too difficult at the beginning of the game, it will repel people who have barely started. But it is fun, so that's a plus.
Overall 85/100
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is a highly entertaining game with an engaging plot, appropriate sound, entertaining gameplay, and well-made graphics. However, little perks in the game set it out from the rest, which may not be a bad thing in some cases, but are sometimes annoying to me (ie: lame criticals, pegasus/falcoknight thing, etc.). Other than that I would recommend this game, but perhaps not to newcomers because of difficulty at the beginning of the game (btw there is a tutorial that is optional... forgot to mention that
)Review by Nnja
(Because i'll get all your friend credits... muahaha)