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Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia Discussion (Nintendo 3DS) [game]
 
Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia on the 3DS
9.25/10 from 6 user ratings

Welcome to the official discussion thread for Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia on the 3DS!

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FIRE EMBLEM ECHOES: Shadows of Valentia
is now available!
TWO ARMIES, ONE DESTINY!


In a continent that was torn asunder by warring gods, guide two armies through brutal tactical battles - as this reimagined RPG epic invades the West! Uncover the intertwining stories of Alm and Celica, engage foes, fend off dragons, and explore 3D dungeons. Your prowess will grow as you master this melding of modern and legacy Fire Emblem gameplay.

Alm and Celica lead separate armies united by a common goal: to counter invading forces and locate a goddess. To stop the war and unify Valentia, you have to achieve both. Each army has its own path, units, and supplies, so balance their needs. Here, battle is waged in the traditions of elder Fire Emblem games, when the rules of battle were simpler, yet the challenge formidable as ever. When you encounter a dungeon, explore it in action-adventure style: smash false walls, break pots, or ambush enemies with a slash of your sword. You never know; you may stumble upon some uncommon items...or a hidden tactical battle with a brutal boss.


Now available for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems! All right Negative World, who else is heading out onto the battlefield once again for glory?!? Huzzah!



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05/20/17, 01:49    Edited: 05/20/17, 02:02
 
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So a new Fire Emblem dropped on 3DS today! Well...new to *us* in the West, I suppose. But while this is a remake of an old Famicom game (Fire Emblem: Gaiden, to be exact) it is a fairly robust remake with tons of new stuff. I gotta admit, despite all the love (too much love?) this franchise has gotten over the lifetime of 3DS, I'm still pretty psyched to check this out. Gonna start it up tonight!

Anyone get the amiibo figures for this as well? Or did anyone go "whole hog" and get the super-sweet limited edition bundle? (I got the amiibo, but the "vanilla" retail version of the game)
05/20/17, 02:07   
No hog, as of yet.

I am eager to add it to my stack of unplayed FE games, though!

(Sadly, I might have put the most time into Heroes!)
05/20/17, 20:41   
Oh man. This game is great. Classic Fire Emblem but with cool new twists. I'm digging it. Is there really no one else playing this game? Hello? Hello? ....Bueller?








....you guys are missing out!
06/03/17, 17:50   
I watched the Giant Bomb quicklook of this game and it looked pretty dope.
06/04/17, 03:03   
I made it to Act 3 last night, and I absolutely love this game. I thought Fates was pretty good (I have yet to play Revelations, but both Birthright and Conquest were fun), but oh my gosh, Shadows of Valentia is on track to be not just my favorite Fire Emblem on the 3DS, but possibly my favorite game in the entire series. It's so incredibly good.

There's full voice acting, which is surprising for a Fire Emblem game. Even better, the voice acting/localization is really good! It's bursting with life, and such a joy to experience. Each character feels like a distinct person with their own personalities and quirks, and there have been some lines that actually made me laugh pretty hard, both in the main story and in the support conversations.

I also like the little quirks here and there that differentiate this game from other Fire Emblem games. On one hand there isn't as much customization (each class can generally promote to only one other class when promotion time comes, with the exception of Villagers), and there's no weapon triangle, but I love the way that combat in this game works. Arts are pretty cool, and rather than working off of a durability system like most Fire Emblem games or having no restraint applied to their use as in Fates, Arts generally will cost some of your hit points to cast. This I think is balanced pretty well, as you can use pretty nice stuff like Warp to send a unit much further ahead, but you need to take care not to leave your units in harm's way.

Also, archers are like a million times more useful in this game than they've ever been in any other Fire Emblem game, thanks to their being able to fire at enemies from much farther than just 2 spaces away, as well as being able to fire at enemies right next to them. Clerics are also badass, because while it costs some of their hit points to heal an ally, their Nosferatu spell can absorb health from any attacking enemies, which makes Clerics surprisingly really capable fighters in certain circumstances, hehe. Also I love the dungeon exploration (which kinda reminds me of Trails of Cold Steel, with regard to being able to sneak up on and attack enemies in the field to get an advantage over them), and the story, and oh my gosh the music, and AHHHHHHHHHH THIS IS SO GOOD

Seriously. I was certain I'd enjoy this game anyways, because it's Fire Emblem and Fire Emblem is generally good, but I'm really impressed with the quality of everything in this game. It makes me happy that I preordered the Limited Edition when I did, hehe. I'll have to check out the music CD when I'm done with the game.
06/04/17, 03:47   
Edited: 06/04/17, 03:49
I'm mostly enjoying this game but hit a point where battles took a turn for the worse. Much worse. They become such a chore to play due to certain units being capable of summoning others and it's usually like 5-8 extra enemies to have to fend off. And they're never nearby and well guarded by other units so it's not an easy job to take them out. It adds so many extra turns to battles where I simply spend them taking out the crap that they summon which are generally not too hard for my main units but forces me to leave some of my crew behind cause I know they'd get swarmed and butchered if I did. Hopefully these are few because having had a couple in a row now, I'm already tired of them.
06/04/17, 05:17   
Edited: 06/04/17, 05:17
@VofEscaflowne

I seem to recall you had a low tolerance for enemies calling in reinforcements in Project X Zone as well. If I'm not mistaken?
06/04/17, 15:40   
@GameDadGrant

It's not about having a low tolerance. It's about knowing when a gameplay element is total bullshit.
06/04/17, 17:04   
@VofEscaflowne@GameDadGrant
I'm not a fan of endlessly respawning enemies in games either, it's like in Call of Duty single player, so annoying!
06/04/17, 20:16   
06/04/17, 21:48   
@VofEscaflowne Sorry to hear you're not having fun with that. I personally like this game's combat enough that I actually feel more satisfied whenever a Cantor summons up some Terrors for me to fight Are you aware though that you can knock all of their summoned Terrors out at once by simply taking out the Cantor that summoned them in the first place? Once I figured that out, it started to take significantly less time to deal with them. Having an archer or two at the ready makes them pretty simple to deal with.



EDIT: Out of curiosity, I've looked up a couple songs from Gaiden's OST to hear how they originally sounded on the Famicom. They're pretty cool (this particular track gives me kind of a Phantasy Star vibe), but I'm especially impressed with how much they built off of them when making new versions for Echoes' soundtrack.



06/05/17, 07:36   
Edited: 06/05/17, 07:43
@X-pert74

Oh I know that taking out Cantors will also kill off all of the summons but like I said, they're placed way in the back of a map that before you even reach them, you're facing wave after wave of those summons. Plus they're sometimes so well guarded that you can't just send in an archer and call it a day. My one good archer right now has pathetic resists so he can easily be taken out by an out of reach caster, sometimes which there are several of on the way to the Cantor. It's never a simple solution and is instead one that drags out the battle to ridiculous ends.
06/05/17, 14:35   
@X-pert74

Wow, impressive music. The remake adds so much more to the simple 8-bit tunes, its kind of shocking. But yeah, definitely the same song. Cool find!
06/05/17, 20:39   
I might buy this in July to have something new to play on my 2DS XL
06/05/17, 21:13   
I picked up the Alm and Celica amiibos, because I love this game so much and I want to be able to own them. They're my very first amiibos ever, actually. I love the way they look, especially Celica! I wanna be just like her

I just finished Act 3, and am still really loving this. I also went through both amiibo dungeons today, but they were fairly simple. I'm still happy I own the amiibos simply for collecting's sake, but it would be a waste to get the amiibos solely for the dungeons, in case anyone was planning on doing so. Each dungeon just consists of five battles that sharply increase in difficulty, all in a row, all while giving you progressively better and better items with each battle you win.
06/08/17, 08:16   
@VofEscaflowne@deathly_hallows I totes agree, endlessly respawning enemies typically feels like a poor replacement for good stage design.

Then again, you know what game is full of endlessly respawning enemies? Mega Man 2. Hm, makes you think...!
06/08/17, 21:34   
I think it really depends on the implementation. I do get really pissed off at respawning enemies in Call of Duty and the like, but I don't mind the Cantors in Shadows of Valentia. I also think respawning enemies in games like Ninja Gaiden are just fine to deal with, once you get used to them.
06/11/17, 01:13   
I love the water on this map. So cool-looking!



Slowly making my way through this game. Slow...but sure.
07/08/17, 18:11   


#braggingrights
08/07/17, 18:05   
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