The game series Fire Emblem is really on a role: after the three Fire Emblem Fates games we had last year, they surprised us with a great mobile game. Fire Emblem Heroes works well on mobile, and I’m sure it brought people into the Fire Emblem game series.
Pretty soon we will already get a new Fire Emblem game, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. Well, new isn’t exactly the right word, as it’s the remake of the second Fire Emblem game ever released. It was originally known as Fire Emblem Gaiden (1982) and was never released outside of Japan.
In the game, you have to take command over the two armies of Alm and Celica. These two friends from childhood have to combine forces and fight in the war that is consuming the nations of Rigel and Zofia on the continent of Valentia.
You’ll still be able to see the origins of Fire Emblem, where you can freely explore towns and dungeons. These explorations take place from a third person perspective. Then, when you encounter an enemy, the game will transition to traditional tactical battle that we know so well from the series.
If you’re new to the game series you might not know it used to be known as the hardest game series, because of permanent death: once a character died in battle, the player lost him forever. To make the games more accessible to the larger public (which included me) they added casual play in Fire Emblem Awakening.
For Echoes: Shadows of Valentia they upgraded the old game Gaiden, added a new prologue that tells about the historie of Alm and Celica. For the first time in the series, all dialogues in the main storyline are spoken in English. It has that same casual game play mode added as Awakening, as well as classical mode. However, in this classical mode you’ve got Mila’s Wheel. It allows you to reverse some of your last moves, and in that way learn from your tactical errors.
Echoes is compatible with amiibo figures. The Alm and Celica amiibos will unlock a special dungeon. Added to that, you can save the current version of your Alm and Celica units and allow them to appear as phantom units. You can use the other Fire Emblem amiibo too, that you might have bought from the Super Smash Bros line up. These will summon phantom soldiers of those characters.
The new game will be released in the West on May 19. Not long to wait anymore! You’ll be able to buy it as part of a Limited Edition with an artbook, a metal pixel pin badge of Alm, Celica and Marth, a reversible cover and a CD with a selection of the soundtrack, as well as the Amiibo of Celica and Alm. Of course, you can also buy just the game, and have tons of fun with the tactical battles. I’m really looking forward to this one!
I’m really thrilled about this game, which is shaping up to be on of the major 3DS releases for 2017! On the other hand, I’ll definitely skip the special edition this time. It was quite the hassle to get my hands on the special edition of Fire Emblem Fates, and I don’t want to go through that again, all the more so as there is no extra gaming content involved this time.
I won’t go for the special release either, but I will look for the soundtrack afterward, see if they put it on iTunes. I love listening to gaming music through the daily obligation of work!
Yay, I’m excited! My wife has been playing through Awakening and Fates, thanks to their excellent casual modes, so this will be the first time we play through a “new” Fire Emblem game together. The limited edition looks tempting, though I already pre-ordered the regular edition and amiibo.
The special edition does look good, but I think I’ll go for the regular one. Maybe this time on my European device, as the release date is the same!
May is a good release date. If it came out now I probably wouldn’t play Echoes because April is going to be Persona 5 month.
Right you are! Though I’ll have to wait until Persona gets a remake for the Vita. But, enough good games to play anyway!