by Matt Bird

Created on: August 24, 2009

I stalled my entry into the world of Fire Emblem for quite a while. I have several friends who have been egging me on to pick up one of the titles for ages, and until the other day I managed to hold them off.

Now I'm wondering why I waited so long. I don't know about the other games yet, but Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon for the DS is a great game.

The story is a little threadbare, and nothing terribly interesting. You play the role of Marth (familiar to anybody who likes the Smash Bros. games), a prince of Altea who has been forced out of his kingdom by invading forces. Looking to restore his country to its proper place, rescue his sister and discover what became of his father, who charged off to fight the head of the villains, Marth sets out with a small but ever-growing army to make his place in the history books.

In all honesty I kinda skim the plot. It's not BAD, but it really just serves as a vehicle through which you can access the game's various maps, which is all I really care about. Players taking on Shadow Dragon are only really going to be concerned with the game play anyway.

Shadow Dragon is a tactical RPG. At the beginning of each stage your units are deployed on one part of the gridded map, tons of enemies elsewhere, and the two sides slowly but surely come together and beat the snot out of each other. Successfully beating enemies (or even just hitting them) earns your characters experience and boosts their levels, which is a necessity for challenging the ever mounting difficulty of the game. Fighting is a little simpler than other, similar games, with a three way weakness chain of weapons (sword good against axe, axe good against lance, lance good against sword) and a few other offensive surprises to boot. Changing job classes further add to the diversity, though veteran players will still probably find Shadow Dragon's offerings a bit scanty.

That said, it's still an awesome game. Why? Because, lord help me, it's hard. Very, very hard. Not just on the higher difficulty levels, either; charging in on some of the lowest offerings can still be tough, because no matter your level of difficulty your characters only have one chance at life. If they die in battle, they don't regenerate in the next fight. They're gone from the game for good. (The only exception is Marth, for if he dies the game ends immediately.) This is understandably vexing if you've been leveling a particular character for a long time, so a huge amount of caution is necessary to succeed - and that's what's so fun, as you really need to use your brain before yuo make a move or end your turn.

Graphically Shadow Dragon is a fairly basic DS game. The sprites on the battlefield aren't amazing, but they're kinda neat when tossed into battle. There's nothing to wow you, but at least the character art is nice. And I must admit that I love the music of the game, though that may stem from its later appearances in Smash Bros.

Overall Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is a great challenge for any patient players out there willing to invest their time in a real brain tease. Expect to restart your game a LOT with this one.

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