Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia

[Astro Dude]

Celica and Alm's first meeting went... not as great as I expected. Obviously if they were just all happy go lucky and worked together, things would be too easy (both in terms of gameplay and story conflict), but it hurt my heart to see that transpire. Darn kids and their stubbornness. :(

 

I do like that Act 2 was noticeably more difficult than Act 1, though.

You mean the Lover's quarrel?

[Blake]

Got around to finishing the fame, so just gonna cover it before I go to bed. But be warned.

 

SPOILERS AHEAD

 

Gameplay

The system itself is rather refined, the battle forecast is strangely intuitive, and the game feels very smooth when you play it.

 

However, the map design and existence of witches are just... such blights. 

 

I know that Map Design is due to Gaiden, but it still just leaves a sour taste in my mouth at points, and there were certain maps I saw reused 2-3 times after their premiere.

 

Witches are just RNG, and that's plain old bad design. They're less egregious later, as they stay more-or-less the same strength throughout the game, but that just shows how much of a nuisance they are early on.

 

Or in hordes, such as from the two Witch-spawning Witch characters.

 

Witches and, to a lesser degree, Cantors felt like they were often used as artificial difficulty increasers, which feels against the spirit of a game like this. Cantors were usually fine, mostly due to Snipers/Bow Knights handling them well, but that also means they encouraged aggressive play a little too much.

 

Still unsure about dungeons. Like the idea, but losing a ton of progress (COUGH THABES) due to a simple mistake is a big turn off. This isn't too rampant, but being able to just get funked outright just made me want to put the game down and forget about it.

 

Not to mention that the dungeons tended to be stronger than your army when you arrived at them, meaning those mistakes are much more likely to occur.

 

Again, only really had the issue in Thabes, but this may be due to the lack of a Mila Statue more than anything.

 

Furthermore, unless you're pursuing the 500 Turn Speedrun achievement, the game has very little replay value, because there's not much to do differently in each run, outside of the Villagers (and Villager's Fork), with how every major battle gives you access to your entire army, final map and dungeons aside.

 

That said, for all the flaws, I still greatly enjoyed the gameplay, and it was very intuitive. I can criticize it a lot, but with the exception of a couple maps, I very, very much had fun playing it, and I rarely got super frustrated with it.

 

And some changeups, like the limited item slots, which were balanced with Rings (MAGE RING AND SPEED RING OMG) and Shields made sense, and the forging was very cool/useful, at least for the actual good items.

 

So, while I wouldn't sing its praises, and I can definitely complain about it, I'd still give it between a 6 or 7 out of 10. Not entry level for sure, though.

 

Cast

I... actually really loved the cast.

 

Not every character hit the ball out of the park, but for a remake with limited supports and characterization added in, there were some absolute gems.

 

Alm, Gray, Valbar, Leon, Fernand, and Berkut all stand out to me in that regard. I know that Gray and Leon get criticized for being "just straight"/"just gay", respectively, but they have a lot of quality to them that people ignore.

 

1G. Alm is basically the perfect shonen protagonist. He fits the mold, but all of his actions are completely believable, considering how he was raised and/or groomed. Not once did I have to say "of course he did that, because protagonist", not even with Delthea. He felt so natural throughout the game, and I can really appreciate that. His wit when going through the Visual Novel/SMT-esque village sections didn't hurt, either. 

 

The only remotely jarring thing was when Mycen told him to stop whining over his father, but even then, it made sense. You can see that he carries that burden with him, he just chooses to do so quietly because there are more important matters at that moment. 

 

2G. Gray is lecherous, but we do get to see his sense of humor, his care for his friends and women he's actually serious about, and his resolve. Gray never really falters or stumbles as a character, and while he's simple, he's very well executed. The support with Clair is a little bit rushed, but in the 3 part structure, it makes sense. Nothing mold breaking, just a fun character.

 

3G. Valbar is just a funking teddy bear and all around good guy. He's a revenge character, but he never seemed like he let vengeance consume him, which made for an interesting experience. Good end revenge isn't really common, so it was nice to see this time around. His strength of heart and character also stand out, because you find a genuinely caring and strong person beneath the goofy exterior.

 

4G. Leon is like Faye done right. He knows Valbar won't love him back, but he doesn't care. It's not a character for the sake of netorare fetishism, it's a character who represents unrequited love, which, like Valbar, is something that isn't as commonly tackled in this form... at least, not this well. His love comes from a place of admiration, of being saved, and just happiness to see Valbar happy, even though he knows it won't be with him. His sassy attitude and his supports with Kamui also take him away from being a repeat (prepeat?) of Niles, as well.

 

5G. Leon + Valbar's supports get a special mention. We see Valbar trying to help Leon move on from his feelings for him, albeit in a misguided way (fitting for Valbar), and we see the banter and friendship they two share. The A conversation even reveals that the feelings Leon has for Valbar are out in the open, and that the two really are the best of friends, who want nothing more than happiness for one another... And it doesn't seem like either of them is resentful towards the other. Just very close.

 

6G. Fernand is a great representation of executing a character with realistic rage well, as opposed to characters like Kurosaki Shun from Arc-V. You can believe every action he makes, because he had a reason to become hardened. The DLC where you play as Clive + Fernand only serves to strengthn him.

 

His rage and pain aren't played up for edge, and none of his actions seem unrealistic. Even following Berkut makes sense, because it's like someone who understands him appeared before him in a time of need. Someone saved him from falling into the depths of his rage, made him feel less alone in the world, made him feel vindicated in actions that would clearly tear at his heart. He parted with his best friend, it only makes sense that he'd be desperately clinging to anything that convinced him that he was correct.

 

And his death scene... I could more than relate to him. It made sense. It felt right. I had wanted to save him before, but I... It brought me to the verge of tears, because I could feel the pain of the character, and the catharsis of letting all of it go. Of admitting his sins and shortcomings, and seeking forgiveness, admitting that he had fallen so far... And that he let himself give in to that pain, instead of believing in what he had left. It's realistic, but not to the point of being edgy or taking away from his character.

 

7G. Berkut... is kinda more proactively breaking Fernand, because we see his madness unfold on-screen, see his fall into despair and pain. And for good reason. Everything he knew was snatched away from him, except for Rinea, and he was forced to accept that he was a failure, that he would no longer have a shot in the world he knew.

 

He broke so much that he sacrificed his lover, the only person he showed that he could open up to... For a chance at this power. It was tragic. It hurt. And you never doubted the chemistry between him and Rinea, because it was palpable. He took the life of someone who meant that much to him, because he fell so far. And while he is redeemed... It's on death's door. You see that, much like Fernand, he's able to let go at the end, to set it all free. And with his beloved, who forgave him... It's a beautiful tragedy.

 

I also must applaud his VA in particular, due to the execution. Sold the character even more.

 

Now, this isn't to say there weren't other good characters, not at all. These just stood out to me. If anything, the only bad characters I'd list are Faye and Atlas.

 

1B. Atlas may be due to just not using him enough, but he funking sucks so rip.

 

2B. Faye... I don't think she's as bad as people say. She suffers from Shun-syndrome. She's written in a realistic fashion, unlike the other cuckold/stalker characters we've seen from the series, Palla and Catria aside. The only really goofy part about her obsession is her epilogue, but it is implied that the war took a toll on her mental fortitude, which would explain why she's broken to that point.

 

I don't even think she's that bad a character, I just think designing a character for the sake of getting cucked is stupid. She's not great, but she neither deserves the hate she gets nor to exist for this purpose, especially when Alm already HAS a character who wants him but doesn't get him.

 

3B?.Celica threatened this list of bad characters, too. She starts out reasonably strong for an idealist character, and she's super funking sassy in the earlier Village segments... But then that falls off and she falls into the same issues Corrin fell into in Conquest, which was just sad to see. I know it's an adapted character, but I feel like she could have been fleshed out better than she was, because IS just continues to fall short on idealists.

 

Only character I know nothing about is Deen.

 

There's also a fair bit of villains who are FOR THE EVULZ, but they're still enjoyable in doing so. It's not nearly as forced as the villains of Fates, in that regard, and the story could use some work, anyway, so villainy for the sake of villainy is fine. But this just makes Berkut and Fernand stand out more.

 

It's no Sacred Stones, but it's still surprisingly good for an adaptation, and there are some genuinely good characters, so I'll give this... 8/10.

 

Voices/Scripting

Okay, for the most part, both of these were great. Hell, certain characters like Grieth (and his lackey) who barely mattered in the long run... Were very enjoyable, albeit somewhat hammy at times. I laughed my ass off at the antics, until the moment I was no longer meant to.

 

There are only 1-2 voices in the game I felt were poor, which is impressive for a series taking its first foray into full voice acting and who hired zephiel's heroes VA

 

The dialogue and humor were both pretty top notch as well, reminded me of a visual novel. Which fits.

 

9/10

 

Story

It's not the strongest, and Mycen's magical plot powers don't help, but... overall, I'd say that Alm's story is pretty average, and Celica's half falls on the lacking side. Again, IS does not know how to handle Idealism.

 

5-6/10

 

Thabes

Alright, I touched on this for a split second, but I wanna address the elephant in the room.

 

This isn't Apotheosis. Not even close. It uses the dungeon mechanic to force more resource management (mostly of the timewheel) and tactics, but in a way that you lose way, way too much progress over mistakes, provided you make too many. A simple mila statue would have greatly fixed this artificial difficulty issue, but that's not the case.

 

Instead, we have a dungeon that practically requires being Level 20/all to go into. Not outright, I got funking far with a ragtag team of 5 20+ and 5 support/strong units, but that still ended up with me getting wrecked on the 8th/9th floors.

 

It's not unbeatable, and I appreciate the origin story for YOU KNOW WHO, but I just don't feel like it was made in the spirit of an FE game, more like a nod to the Tower of Valni/Lagdou Ruins with... Fewer rewards for doing so. I know this also leads into FE4 design, but those are much better maps and design, from what I recall.

 

Overall

It's definitely an experience worth having.

 

The dialogue/humor, cast, voicework, and most of the gameplay are worth looking into. There are definitely flaws to the game, but I can overlook most of them, because it is a remake. This doesn't excuse everything, but it's certainly enough to give it a pass here or there.

 

I can see how Sacred Stones evolved from this game, as well, and it really makes me excited for the if/when we get an Echoes version of Sacred Stones. Hell, I can also see how it leads into FE4, which is interesting.

 

After Fates, I was nervous, but this adaptation turned out pretty damn good in my books. I probably will replay it once after beating Thabes, but I still feel like it lacks in the replay department.

 

Overall score (not a true sum of the parts) is about an 80%.

[Astro Dude]

If Kira Buckland's gonna voice Eirika in the Echoes version of Sacred Stones, I'm totally on board for that.

 

Anyway, I'm waiting for the Cipher DLC to come out before I finish act 1.

 

Speaking of, here's my team so far:

 

• Alm, lv 15 Fighter
• Silque lv 5 Saint
• Faye lv 5 Saint
• Clive lv 1 Gold Knight
• Forsyth lv 2 Baron
• Python lv 1 Bow Knight
• Lukas lv 2 Baron
• Tobin lv 2 Bow Knight
• Gray lv 4 Dread Fighter
• Clair lv 2 Falcon Knight
• Kliff lv1 Sage.

Is it possible for me to beat Delthea's battle without killing her with this team?

[Astro Dude]

bump: okay buckle up guys. I got Yuzu and Shade.

 

Objective: it's kinda like pokemon.

 

Weaken Shade, but don't kill her then have Alm talk to her, then finish off the enemies.

 

Now I kicked Desaix's butt clear cross Zofia.

 

Okay, Ghast Station brought this up but I have my own spin:

 

I equipped Clive with a Saunion lance I got from the dlc dungeons. I noticed that it functions like a Javelin, the problem is it can't be used in close quarters. That's when it hit me: I could use Clive as bait to lure Slayde away, and while he was busy with Clive, the rest of my troops went after Desaix. Not easy to take down, but I got the Dracoshield.