Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia recently launched in Japan and, over here on Serenes Forest, we’ve been playing and enjoying the game non-stop! To make the wait for the English release more bearable (or less bearable depending on your tolerance), here’s our review of the Japanese version.
If you’re reading this, you’re probably a huge Fire Emblem fan and thus already have the game pre-ordered (or are going to buy it ASAP after release). So this review isn’t intended to persuade you or dissuade you from buying the game. Rather, we’ll be looking at the key features of the game and the parts of the game that shine (or don’t).
Caution: This article contains light to medium spoilers.
For the unacquainted, Fire Emblem Echoes is a complete remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden, which came out 25 years ago on the NES, but only in Japan. This means it will be the first time gamers in the West (as well as Chinese and Korean territories) can experience the world of Gaiden, officially anyway.
Back then, like many of Nintendo’s early sequels, Gaiden kept the core gameplay from the first game, but featured a heavy dose of experimentation. Some of these experiments, such as a traversible world map and branched Class Change system, eventually reappeared in newer games, but many other features have remained exclusive to Gaiden.