Review for Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light. Game for Nintendo Wii, Nintendo 3DS, Wii U and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 20/04/1990 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 13/03/2019
2020 marks the XNUMXth anniversary of the Fire Emblem series, therefore it's time for celebrations for the Nintendo series, which returns to its roots for this occurrence thanks to the release of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & The Blade of Light on Nintendo Switch. First of all, a non-trivial premise is required: what is this chapter of Fire Emblem? This title is essentially a port with minor improvements of the first game in the saga.
Its release at the same time marks a precious opportunity to discover a pearl of the past, as well as an opportunity lost by Intelligent System to do a little more.
About a year ago we reviewed the first Dragon Quest, in the Nintendo Switch version. The experience was very interesting and we recommended it to anyone curious to discover a game that still maintains a unique charm. Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & The Blade of Light creates the same effect for us when it's at its best, however we don't find it as unique an experience as that of the first Dragon Quest. This re-release of Marth's early adventures is a beautiful thing in the past, very interesting for any Fire Emblem fan.
After all, it's interesting to see how much of what makes the Intelligent System SRPG core has been around since its very first iteration.
The game after all remains very enjoyable even nowadays, also retaining some particular mechanics which, if on the one hand they are not very inuitive, on the other hand they give it a certain retro charm. The title is divided into levels, clearly separated from each other, in which you will have to reach a certain goal, usually the conquest of a castle. Each map features much more content than it looks, with houses, convoys and secrets scattered everywhere. Thanks to this, the levels are not limited to being sterile game maps, but places that, in their limitation, it is nice to explore in search of the most effective weapon for your characters.
The core of the game, the strategic gameplay, also holds up very well. The perma-death is extremely well integrated into the gameplay loop, and the weight of each choice is also felt thanks to it. In fact, the characters also have their own, simple, character that allows you to become attached to each of them, pushing you to want to save everyone. The game design, in classic Nintendo style, is confirmed as timeless, making it fun and enjoyable even today. However, if everything related to gameplay we feel we can also promote it according to today's standards, where Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & The Blade of Light shows weaknesses is in the presentation of each of its elements.
For presentation we are not simply talking about sterile battle screens or visually bare maps, but more about the fact that no Intelligent System has done nothing to make the game "user friendly" for a generation of gamers who will probably play it for the first time. time in this version. By pressing on the characters it will never be clear how much it will be possible to move, the between the classes is to be discovered through trial and error and even the start of the game itself, during the first level, was left very bare, without any indicator that signals the transition to gameplay.
All these elements are strong detractors of a product that, in the lack of small improvements, finds its worst flaw. D.or all Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & The Blade of Light was not made available on the NES emulator for free, unlike many other Nintendo titles of the time, so a minimum of modernization work was expected which is completely absent. There are some very popular new features, such as the ability to speed up CPU fights and turns, but nothing to justify releasing this title outside of the emulator available to subscribers to the Nintendo Switch Online service. To take another example of missing enhancements, the game is not even in actual 16: 9, it is simply squeezed and not far enough to reach the edges of the screen. In fact, we recommend changing the ratio in the original 4: 3, so that the image is more pleasing to the eye.
If Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & The Blade of Light certainly has value in its physical edition, digitally it hasn't convinced us enough to recommend buying it. The price of the product is low, so if you are very interested it certainly makes sense to buy it digitally, but the fact that it was not offered for free is very worrying towards the not brilliant Nintendo Switch Online emulation service.
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & The Blade of Light is a good product, but not great, especially in today's context. While the original Dragon Quest has proven itself in our eyes as a true classic, Fire Emblem simply remains a fascinating foundation for an ever-evolving saga, but one that offers nothing unique compared to successors or even rivals. Ultimately, we recommend Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & The Blade of Light mainly to fans of the saga who are curious to see where it all started, but it is by no means a suitable title to approach neither the series, nor the SRPG genre in general.
► Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light is a turn-based RPG-Strategy-Game developed and published by Nintendo for Nintendo Wii, Nintendo 3DS, Wii U and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 20/04/1990 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 13/03/2019
