Like Fire Emblem Gaiden, Echoes allows players to visit towns, castles, and other peaceful settlements in between battles to move the story forward, meet and recruit new units, learn about side quests, and collect items. Some are slight and serve only to immerse players a little more deeply in the game's storytelling, while others offer an exciting new way to interact with the world of Fire Emblem. Players do ultimately have to complete each of Alm and Celica's battles and missions in order to move toe story forward.Įven for veterans, there are some interesting new features in Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia that make it feel completely unique within the series. These Split Paths - which we refer to in our walkthrough as Alm's Path and Celica's Path - can be jumped between at will, so whether players want to focus entirely on one character or move back and forth over the course of a single Act of the story, they can approach the game however they'd like. However, rather than serving as a jumping-off point for completely different adventures a-la Fire Emblem Fates' Conquest, Birthright, and Revelation storylines, the different narratives in Echoes' simply follow the two main heroes, Alm and Celica, as they face the same conflict from different perspectives and locations. Like Fire Emblem Fates, which featured a story that branched off after a certain points, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia also features multiple narratives. It makes sense for this game - Nintendo's choice to keep Echoes' main characters and story consistent with Gaiden's strengthens the emotional connection between the two leads, and firmly establishes their roles in the world in which the game takes place. The "My Unit" feature popularized in Fire Emblem Awakening and Fire Emblem Fates, which allowed players to create a customized avatar to insert themselves into the story, has not returned for Echoes. This is simply down to the fact that these features weren't available in Fire Emblem Gaiden, on which Echoes is based there are still elements of romance in the story, but they are pre-determined, largely incidental, and have no bearing on battlefield success. Marriage and childbirth - both extremely popular features from previous games that allowed players to direct their own romances and "breed" optimal soldiers by pairing specific units together - have been removed entirely from Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows. Support buffs between units are permanent, and the more conversations two units have over the course of the game, the higher the stat boosts (up to a point.) Units can gain temporary stat buffs during combat through a Support system, but the feature allowing two units to pair up on a single tile (introduced in Fire Emblem Awakening) has been removed Support stat boosts are now only granted to two units who are standing next to each other after having a conversation on the battlefield. Basic combat is otherwise unchanged, playing out in a series of attacks and counter attacks between individual units. Objectives typically range from routing enemy forces or defeating bosses, to rescuing captives and finding legendary treasures.įire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia ditches the rock-paper-scissors weapon effectiveness triangle, simplifying things back down to a simple damage calculator based on the difference between Attack and Defense (for physical attacks) or Attack and Resistance (for magic attacks). Visual novel-style settlements, as well as fully 3D, real-time dungeons, are completely new in Echoes, and together with the turn-based tactical battles, they offer a more immersive way to experience the Fire Emblem universe.ĭespite these changes, Fire Emblem remains at its core an RPG, where the player takes on the role of a main unit ( Alm and Celica) and leads a team of other heroes against your enemies over the course of many turn-based tactical battles. Though Echoes’ changes to the formula largely consist of subtractions, it does add a couple of interesting features not seen before in the series. Finally, there is no “My Unit” in Fire Emblem Echoes. Branching paths - like those offered in Fire Emblem Fates - have also been axed in their place, you’ll find a split narrative that has the game’s two primary heroes walking different paths at the same time. The rock-paper-scissors weapon triangle has been replaced, while the support system has been streamlined marriages and childbirth are gone as well. As a re-imagining of Fire Emblem Gaiden - a Famicom exclusive, and only the second game in the series - Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia simplifies many of the systems expanded upon - some say “perfected” - in the earlier 3DS Fire Emblem games.
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