Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia Review [Minor Spoilers]
Number of hours played: ~41 hours
Completion status: Main story completed + minimal sidequests
Click here for a TL;DR version
After the massive success of Fire Emblem Awakening that revitalized the Fire Emblem series, and more recently, Fire Emblem Fates, which brought it even further in with the mainstream audience, Fire Emblem had become one of Nintendo’s biggest third-party IP’s. So, when Nintendo began development on their newest console, the Nintendo Switch, it was only natural that Intelligent Systems, the company behind the Fire Emblem games, wanted to develop their next big Fire Emblem title for the Switch. However, the Switch was still in its early stages of development back in 2015, so Intelligent Systems was caught in a bind with deciding what the next step of Fire Emblem should be. It was at this time that many people within Intelligent Systems expressed their interests in a remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden, a Famicom game released back in 1992, and the second game in the Fire Emblem franchise. Realizing that development of the game could be completed before the release of the switch, producer Hitoshi Yamagami jumped at the prospect and promptly began development, renaming it to Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia.
On the consumer’s side of the story, while Fire Emblem Awakening and Fates did well in attracting new fans to the franchise, many veterans of the Fire Emblem games started to become troubled in the direction that Fire Emblem was going. The inclusion of the Love and Marriage system, player avatars, and locking crucial and relevant story content behind DLC paywalls, all have fans worried that Fire Emblem was catering a bit too much to the mainstream audience. So, when Fire Emblem Echoes was revealed, many fans were ecstatic for the fact that Intelligent Systems seems to be giving them a piece of Fire Emblem that had been absent from the previous titles. However, they were also cautious as to whether they would remake the classic to be more akin to the recent 3DS games, and also whether or not they would improve upon Gaiden’s shortcomings.
So, did Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia manage to win back the old series veterans hearts, while giving new fans a taste of how Fire Emblem came to be? Or will veterans still be on the search for the Fire Emblem that used to be?
Let’s find out, shall we?
Story (Skip the first two paragraphs if you want to avoid any type of spoilers)
“and in order to secure a lasting peace, each pledged to never violate the other’s dominion”
Since ancient times, the land of Valentia was ruled by two gods, Duma and Mila. Each having vastly different philosophies in how man should live, the two gods battled fiercely in a long, bitter conflict, before it was resolved with a divine accord, dividing the land of Valentia ever since. Duma was given rule of Rigel, a kingdom in the north, while Mila ruled the kingdom of Zofia in the south. A cautious peace persisted ever since, with the people of Valentia growing to overly rely on Duma and Mila, and as time went on both kingdoms had begun to grow into a fragile state. It was only a matter of time before another terrible war began.
“Don’t worry Celica, I’ll crush those bastards!”
Meet Alm and Celica, two childhood friends who had the chance to meet when Celica moved into Alm’s village one day under the protection of Alm’s grandfather. The two had grown incredibly close, before they were unwillingly separated again when a band of knights from the Zofian army threatened to raze their village before being chased away by Alm’s’ grandfather, forcing Celica to go into hiding again. Seven years later, the kingdom Zofia is thrown into chaos when its King is assassinated, and its borders invaded by the Rigelian army. Now grown into young adults, Alm and Celica set out on their own journeys in order to save Zofia, and ultimately unify the land of Valentia.
To give some perspective, the only experience I have with the Fire Emblem series are the 3DS titles, that is Fire Emblem Awakening and Fates. On top of that, I mainly play Fire Emblem games for its excellent gameplay and not its story. Awakening’s story was fine for the most part save for the lack of stakes throughout most of it. On the other hand, Fates had probably the most magnificent train wreck of a story I have ever experienced in a video game. So, trust me when I say that Echoes easily has the best story of the 3DS era. Right off the bat, the game does something unique by allowing the player to experience the story through the perspectives of both Alm and Celica, which is a fresh approach to video game storytelling that I rarely see being done in other video games. Despite the challenges in keeping the story consistently coherent and interesting using dual protagonists, the pacing is excellently done. At no point in the game did I feel the story rushing through plot details or dragging in areas, it executed all its story beats at the right moments and ended it all with a very neat bow-tie right on top. The excellent pacing of the story could possibly be a result of the game’s relatively short run time, if a player were to go through the game without any grinding, they would easily be able to beat the game in around 25 hours. The short play time of the game ended up working out for me personally, although other players who are looking for a longer, more involving story experience could be disappointed. The twists presented are also done very believably, both serving as a great revelation for the moment it is presented in within the game, while also being grounded enough so that players who were able to pick up on the twists before hand were acknowledged for their foresight instead of it being spelled it out for the player to understand.
However, while the story is presented very well, it is by essence an extremely simple and predictable one. This is partly due to it being a remake of a story that was created in the 1990’s, and Intelligent Systems did their best to redesign the narrative to suit the tastes of modern Fire Emblem players. As mentioned earlier, the twists while being presented very well within the game, is extremely easy to figure out for the player. Barely anything in the story will ever leave you surprised, especially for players who have seen these kinds of stories before, and players who seek more in the stories they experience will be given nothing new to digest here. For me however, while the story didn’t quite live up to the expectations I had based on how much the Fire Emblem fanbase likes to praises the stories in older Fire Emblem games, it is still a very entertaining story all the way through. It’s just a bit of a shame that the story won’t go in my book as one of the more memorable stories I have seen in video games. But hey, maybe it doesn’t need to do that.
Characters
For those unfamiliar with the Fire Emblem Franchise, know that it is a series that is known for having loads and loads of characters that each have their own varied personalities and quirks. As a result, there is always at least one character that a player will be able to gravitate towards to. Fire Emblem Echoes is no different, so to avoid having to speak about every character, I will simply focus on the two main leads, Alm and Celica.
Feel free to pick a favourite among this fine lineup. What’s that? None of them tickle your fancy, don’t worry, there is much more to come.
Alm is a very likeable, albeit somewhat stereotypical hero that yearns for a chance to see the world beyond his little village. He’s a character that is very easy to get behind, often fighting for the greater good, and always ready to lend his hand for those in need. Despite how generic he sounds, I quite like him a lot, sometimes it’s the simple characters that are the easiest to relate to, and I was able to easily understand his motivations enough to root for him to succeed. Alm himself goes through many struggles that often places his beliefs in question, which I found to be very nice character development. His story is one that was definitely entertaining all throughout, and one you can’t go wrong with.
My opinion of Celica on the other hand is a lot more mixed. It’s not just me however, Celica seems to be the more polarizing lead in Echoes among the Fire Emblem fanbase. This is mostly because she is a character that is more extreme in her approaches, which can be very controversial for some, myself included. While her motivations are easily understood, it is her actions that can often frustrate players, especially as the story goes on. Do note however that this is largely based on individual tastes, so whether or not her story is a good, well-written one is really left up to the player to decide.
One point I’d like to address before moving on to talking about the rest of the cast is the relationship between Alm and Celica, as it is important in the characterization and development of both characters. This is an example of a flaw that is often seen in stories, which is the notion of “show, don’t tell”. Throughout the majority of the game, we are supposed to believe that these two characters share a deep, emotional bond, similar to a relationship of love, through the dialogue of both between them and the characters around them. However, since the game relies very heavily, too much even, on dialogue between every character except Alm and Celica, it is hard to believe that the bond they share is indeed genuine. While I understand what direction the game is going for in terms of their relationship, that of the star-crossed lovers perspective popularized by Romeo and Juliet, I personally did not believe in their relationship as much as the game wanted me too. Don’t get me wrong, I still had some belief that their bond was genuine, it just didn’t hit me as emotionally as I wanted it to be.
Now while the main protagonists might be a bit undercut for me, the rest of the cast were an absolute joy to play with. Side characters all have their own distinct and fun personalities, from Saber’s overflowing charm and charisma to Clair’s quirky noble-like dialogue, each character has something to love about them, and they all mesh extremely well with each other. This is in part due to the brilliant voice-acting that was done in this game all around, along with the amazing English localization for this game. With these two elements paired together, every character dialogue and every character interaction felt grounded and natural, while also being very funny in some parts. I absolutely love how this game is almost entirely fully-voice acted, with only a few segments that had no voice track accompanied with it. It made the characters and world feel incredibly immersive, and I had an absolute joy listening to it whenever it came up.
Very well said, Saber
The villains also feature a robust group of characters, save for one who’s potential was a bit underutilized in my eyes (Rinea… I’m looking at you, though technically you don’t count as a villain), most of them range from your typical bad guy that serves more as an obstacle than an actual character, to ones that get almost the same quality of character development as the main protagonists. It’s extremely refreshing for me particularly to see this type of villain after playing Fates, who only had a villain who was both extremely ridiculous and underutilized. While the villains may not get the same deep backstories as other villains found in the same genre, I found that the game really didn’t need a villain like that. Rest assured however, that the main villain of this game has an extra layer of characterization hidden away from the player that allows for further discussion to be had, which for me personally really elevated my opinion of a character who I thought was very one-dimensional.
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