Thing about supports were better back in my day thoughts. Well you tend to only remember the ones that expanded the characters and did something you found interesting (that is why Canas and Renault get praised over say, Bartre) while the rest you gloss over.
Some supports go nowhere but fates and awakening can't really call it day there with marriage being a thing which is why that comes off as forced. While I've not checked amount of supports my gut feeling is there would be more than usual to give more variety to children which means you have to write supports for people with little in common.
So as a more or less FE newb, Valentia or Awakening (or the DS remake of the first one) ?
And is there a metaplot that warrant a play in order ?
There are few references between Shadow Dragon, Echoes and Awakening but they are more "I get that reference" rather than anything essential.
On the presentation front Echoes wins over Awakening (better animations, full voice acting as opposed to partial). On the gameplay Echoes has it's own quirks but is generally simpler due to not having the pair up system (which is extremely imbalanced in Awakening), weapon durability or weapon triangle to be concerned with. Come to think of it I don't think Echoes really has maps with surprise reinforcements in (though Awakening telegraphs these pretty well with dialogue).
I hear normal difficulty Awakening can get insultingly easy at times and many players are left in a lurch where they find hard too hard but normal too dull whereas normal difficulty echoes the reviews I read had difficulty in the later parts.
The turnwheel in echoes might be beginner friendly. It allows you to go back a few turns rather than restarting a map if something doesn't go to your liking. You can't use it that much but it seems like a kinder prospect.
In terms of map design neither are anything to write home about and you're not seeing the pinnacle of the franchise (but even praised entries like Conquest and Thracia 776 have some terrible gimmick maps).
As I said earlier in the thread most Fire Emblem games work as an entry point. Most players started with Blazing Blade (simply called Fire Emblem over here) or Awakening as those were the first English games on their respective systems.
The problem with Shadow Dragon is it is a fairly dry remake of the original game as far as the total amount of dialogue goes so you're stuck with a 1990 plot with no support conversations and very little dialogue. The graphics also feel really generic.
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