Hands on with a bit of history.

With hundreds of games being released each year, dozens of which are all vying for your attention coming from series and developers you know and love, it’s difficult to make time for games of the past.

So, when I heard that the very first Fire Emblem game was finally getting an official localization to celebrate the 30th year anniversary, I thought it would be a good opportunity to see how the venerable flagship series began.

Right, this is how video games used to look, it’s all coming back to me now.

MSRP: $5.99
Platform: Switch
Played: 10~ Hours

There’s something intrinsically difficult about reviewing a game that was originally released over 30 years ago as if I were to have played it on launch without the foresight of decades of technological and gameplay improvements to come, I think I would have greatly enjoyed this title.

However, as an experience in the present day, the outlook is far less positive.

I won’t go into much detail about the visuals because I knew what I was getting into but it’s about par for the course for the platform with muddy colors and sprites that only have a few frames of animation.

What’s more interesting to talk about is the combat and its various mechanics or at least, the lack thereof.

Fire Emblem has kept the SRPG formula relatively simple over the years and Shadow Dragon is no exception, being the most basic of the bunch. Attacks/Counterattacks and terrain advantage worked the way I expected it but I was surprised to find that there was no weapon triangle system. As that was a part of Fire Emblem’s DNA for so long until quite recently, I was expecting to see it here but it was absent, to be introduced in a later title.

The elements I missed the most were the damage forecast showing how much damage I was going to inflict/receive barring any crits/blocks/dodges. When not knowing if an attack is going to kill the enemy or just get me killed instead, it felt like I was rolling dice going into attack every turn.

While I got a feel for an estimate of damage I could deal out and receive, I was still surprised quite frequently not being able to finish off weakened enemies or getting killed on a counter attack that I thought I could take.

OH GEEZ PLEASE DON’T DIE.

I also could not see the general movement/attack grids on the field making it difficult to see where my units could move or be attacked from. There were countless instances of an enemy reaching my location quicker than I had planned due to this omission. As losing a unit could mean the difference between victory and defeat, this was a major problem.

Luckily, I was able to take advantage of the newly included save states and rewind feature to go back a few turns to try to salvage my positioning and save my units but as I progressed through the game, I felt like I was abusing this system so much that it felt essential. While I was able to make steady progress, the constant rewinding and loading of save states had me repeating the same actions time and time again, grating at my patience.

When the gameplay is a bit lacking, I can usually find the will to push forward if I enjoy the story and characters but given that there isn’t much character interaction or story to speak of, I was left feeling incredibly bored very quickly.

In fact, it got to the point that I could only play the game in 30~ minute bursts as any longer than that, I would feel that I would need to take a nap.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom as music is timeless and the chiptune renditions of songs I’ve become familiar with through years of experiencing the series was a delight to listen to.

You might recognize this one as it is one of the tracks featured in Smash Bros.

Despite my less than enjoyable time with Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light, I can’t help but appreciate its existence as the precursor to some of my favorite JRPGs of all time. However, as is often the case with pieces of history, it’s best left in a museum to be admired for all future generations.

Fun Tidbit: This will most definitely be the last NES game I ever review as it is rough to play most NES games nowadays and while there are a few exceptions like SMB 3, it’s hard not to wish for all the visual/gameplay advancements made in the last few decades.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.