[DS] Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon - The RNG Still Hates You

It only took Nintendo about a million years, but the chance for Marth to debut in the west outside of Smash Brothers has finally come. Shadow Dragon is a port/remake of the original NES title Fire Emblem: Shin Ankoku Ryū to Hikari no Ken from 1990.

The game was released in Japan last year, Europe in December last year and just hit the shelves in NA today.

They've touched the game up graphics wise and added some things from the previous titles, such as the weapon triangle and the ability to select opponents to see their movement range. There's a button that shows a big red area for the movement range of everyone on the map that'll come in handy at some spots too.

The map is displayed on the bottom screen and the top can be toggled to see unit stats, inventory, or an overhead view of the map and all unit placements. Seems neat so far. When you actually fight the small display is kept on the bottom and the actual battle is shown top screen side. They've added the ability to battle online as well, but I haven't given that a shot yet.



Anyone else getting or planning on getting this one? Or in the case of you R4/CycloDS/Europe bastards, already played it?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I'm definitely planning on picking this up. Whenever I have the chance to. I'm not sure if I want to wait for the price to drop, but I will pick this up eventually.

As for the subtitle, I totally agree with it. EVERY SINGLE Fire Emblem I have played, the RNG has fucked me with level ups. It pays me back slightly with strings of criticals at 5% or 6% each, but I ultimately end up with the shittiest team possible made up of the better characters.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I've got it preordered, and definitely plan on playing it.

It looks to be good, but I have to say I like the graphical style of FE6, 7 and 8 better than the still screen shots I've seen of this remake. But maybe this will look better in motion.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Already got it. EB said it was coming out today... but it was on the shelves at wal-mart yesterday, so...

So far it's pretty good. Execept for the cheesy 3D. That seems to be doing more harm than good. Plus the mercenary doesn't jump 10 feet in the air anymore! It's just not the same.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I picked it up this afternoon after cursing Omagnus for the past month. Unfortunately I've only had time to finish the prologue so far, but it hasn't disappointed. The dual-screens couldn't have been implemented better, and it's incredibly handy to have a button that shows all enemy ranges at once like in Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn.

Does anyone know if there are support conversations in this one? I haven't seen anything about them, so I'm not sure if I should continue trying to place units beside each other. The forced sacrifice during the prologue would be pretty annoying to anyone looking to get 100% supports if they are in Shadow Dragon.

I was speaking idiomatically.

i haven't seen support come into play yet. i've also noticed a severe lack of a rescue command - i hope that one didn't bite the dust. It was key.

Spoiler:

Why does the game force you to sacrifice someone? I tried so hard to find a way around it, but i couldn't. That's going to suck if it happens too often.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

From what I can tell, Frey is a new character placed in only for the DS remake's prologue. You never recruit him if you're playing on Hard difficulty, so the sacrifice is to keep the max number of units you can have the same. I sent off the pre-promoted Paladin since those guys are always experience drains anyway.

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not to mention he's really not that powerful in the first place. Did you at least nick his stuff before sending him off? Frey, on the other hand, is awesome.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Yeah, there's no way I'm sending someone to their death with silver equipment. I didn't want some old guy dragging down the rest of the party with his brittle bones and incontinence issues anyway.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

There's no support convos in this game. That was one feature that was added after the NES titles that they decided not to go back and add in to this one, I guess.

And anybody with a brain will have sent off Jagen in the beginning because he is the archetype for characters in the series that eat EXP for no reason. The whole point in that exercise is

Spoiler:

to hint that in order to get the games Gaiden chapters (where you'll meet new characters) you'll have to let certain people die. As in, by Chapter 6 or so you can only have less than 15 people in your party.

I'm at Chapter 5 now and I've already got 15+ people. The game just keeps throwing dudes at you. I guess I'll save a Gaiden run for my second play through when I'm acquainted with everyone.

FUCK YES PEGASUS KNIGHT RIGHT IN THE BEGINNING THOUGH OH GOD YOU ARE THE BEST CLASS EVER

How ya doing, buddy?

Has anyone else heard a lot of static during a battle's music and then had the game freeze up? I had to restart Ch. 1 once after that happened and I had to turn off my DS. Hopefully that isn't a common problem.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Can't say I've heard of that (or experienced it myself). =\

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By the way, the Warp and Physic staffs are oh so exploitable in this version. The Physic staff don't have the Range of 1 - (1/2 your mages Magic power) limit anymore and can reach anywhere on the map, and the Warps allow you to send anyone where you want to and they can move on that same turn.

It's fun because if you have a dependable tank in your party (Ogma and Caeda for me) you can warp them or Marth across the map and have them take care of later foes and bring back recruit characters. Comes in real handy when there are certain maps where you have to race to get to someone.

I'm on Chapter 13 so far, where are you folks?

I was speaking idiomatically.

I'm up to 15.

Spoiler:

is there any way to hurt the invincible guy in this level? I tried using the light girl and that didn't work as well as i had hoped. Do i just have to avoid him?

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Just got to 15. To answer your question:

Chapter 15 shit inside:

ol' G there is one of those special big bads that require a particular weapon to defeat, kind of like the Black Knight from PoR. Just hang in there for 6 turns and then he leaves. I pretty much just ran everyone across the bridges onto the main area and then used a promoted Caeda to hold him off, healing with a Physic each time she took damage.

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I'm still only on Ch. 3 since I've been trying to finish several other games first, including FE Sacred Stones. I just went ahead and started because I'd been so anxious to try Shadow Dragon. Nice to know there's another Black Knight waiting for me. ;__;

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I don't know, the Black Knight actually had a more imposing presence than Gharnef, who has showed up maybe once now. Plus he did more stuff. Like block off big ass sections of the map with his big armor and impressive battle stance.

Besides:

You get the weapons you need to kill him not long after that anyway. Maybe a chapter or two after. Haven't seen him since.

Chapter 20 now. Chiki (Tiki in the NA version) is the cutest lil' dragon ever. EVER.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

To be fair, it would be difficult to top the Black Knight. That guy was a monster with his huge movement range despite the heavy armor, and he had such a great look to top it off.

Especially:

after playing as him in Radiant Dawn, slaughtering everything that comes your way. <3

How ya doing, buddy?

as you two are farther than I am (a sudden influx of new games and homework means I haven't had a lot of time for it), can characters class up just by reaching level 21, or do we have to use the items like in the first fire emblem. I'll still leave it off as long as possible, but it would be good to know.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

You can only Master Seal promote. Fortunately the game isn't too stingy with handing them out. I've got 8 promoted people by Ch. 20.

The best range is somewhere around 15-18 for most, I've found. Some people like Ogma and Barst can max out easy though, so it's up to you.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I'm way behind you, Hawkeye. Like I said, I'm still working on some other games first so I'm only up to around Ch. 3 in Shadow Dragon. The Black Knight Tails and I were talking about is from Path of Radiance.

How ya doing, buddy?

i realize that. i beat path of radiance, and i own radiant dawn, i just haven't gotten very far because i don't have a wii here and can only play it when i go home. and yes, he was freaking awesome.

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Well I finally got through the campaign today. Definitely not as engaging as the other titles in the series, but that's because it's a graphical (and minor game play) update of the NES title, so no lengthy support convos or fleshed out stories. Although the conversations for recruiting certain characters were plenty amusing (Caeda's lines to Roger are all golden) and the length felt like any of the other FE titles.

Shame there aren't more peeps playing it. ;_; I recruited everyone, which I think comes down to like 40+ people in the end so I could see all the end dialogue for them. Gordin gets the best epilogue title ever. I'll probably do a Gaiden run sometime soon if I don't pick up any other titles.

FELIPE NO

You know why does Gamefaqs (as one example, sure there are many others) classify the Fire Emblem series as strategy, but Tailsnub put it in the RPG forum. Just wondering.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

a) we don't have (or need) a "strategy games" subforum, and
b) while not an RPG in the traditional sense, it Fire Emblem bears many resemblances. They definitely have the same sort of feel and are enjoyed by the same types of gamers.

Jam it back in, in the dark.