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Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon - official thread of "they're not ponies, they're pegasi!"

I do not mean to be rude to other reviewers here, but have they played any other Fire Emblem games? There's only a Normal and Hard mode, no Easy mode like the 3D incarnations. Even on Normal, one wrong move can end your campaign in a chapter. If they mean they provide you with the now de facto "end of chapter" menu which lets you replenish supplies, which was absent from nearly all the 2D Fire Emblems, that's not a very strong case to making it that much easier. Bottom line, I do not see how anyone could call this title casual at all, and though it can be easier than some of the other 2D Fire Emblem titles at time, it's overall still very challenging and no cake walk. Hard mode is also what you'd expect if you were a Fire Emblem fan. Just wanted to chime in on that.
 

grandjedi6

Master of the Google Search
Cow Mengde said:
This is why 1UP/EGM deserves to be out of business.

Unless NOA once again toned down the hard mode, you can tell whoever wrote that review clearly didn't play it on the hardest setting.

Oh, they gave it a B+, but gets an F- for professionalism.

http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3172742&p=39
Cow Mengde said:
I agree. Shadow Dragon has something for everyone. They couldn't have done a better job with the difficulty level. This is based on my experience with the import. The reviewer clearly showed he wasn't even aware of there being a difficulty setting (even though you're clearly asked from the very beginning) when he played the game. Hell, he probably just booted up the game and watched the intro and be done with it.
"is accessed by starting the game on normal (the lowest difficulty setting)"

"Even if you choose to ignore these new features and start on a very hard difficulty, the game is only mildly challenging"

oh look you're wrong
 
TSA said:
I do not mean to be rude to other reviewers here, but have they played any other Fire Emblem games? There's only a Normal and Hard mode, no Easy mode like the 3D incarnations. Even on Normal, one wrong move can end your campaign in a chapter. If they mean they provide you with the now de facto "end of chapter" menu which lets you replenish supplies, which was absent from nearly all the 2D Fire Emblems, that's not a very strong case to making it that much easier. Bottom line, I do not see how anyone could call this title casual at all, and though it can be easier than some of the other 2D Fire Emblem titles at time, it's overall still very challenging and no cake walk. Hard mode is also what you'd expect if you were a Fire Emblem fan. Just wanted to chime in on that.

It's 1Up.
 

Oxx

Member
It's definitely more accessible than PoR or RD, but I think the terms 'casual' and 'hardcore' are thrown around so liberally and in such a derogatory fashion on message boards these days that they are meaningless.
 

grandjedi6

Master of the Google Search
Cow Mengde said:
It's 1Up.
Cow Mengde, why don't you make a detailed argument explaining why you feel Shadow Dragon is still a hard game? Instead of, you know, repeatedly making juvenile potshots like "deserves to be out of business".
 
grandjedi6 said:
Cow Mengde, why don't you make a detailed argument explaining why you feel Shadow Dragon is still a hard game? Instead of, you know, repeatedly making juvenile potshots like "deserves to be out of business".

Hold on, I'll go get my DS and pop in Fire Emblem (JPN import).

Before I come back, have you played a Fire Emblem game before, and are familiar with the mechanics?
 

grandjedi6

Master of the Google Search
Cow Mengde said:
Hold on, I'll go get my DS and pop in Fire Emblem (JPN import).

Before I come back, have you played a Fire Emblem game before, and are familiar with the mechanics?
Yeah I have and yes I do. And I'm not saying that SD is or isn't hard, I just feel that making snide comments about 1up sucking really isn't the best way to counter their argument.
 

john tv

Member
SilverLunar said:
While I don't mind changing the character's names at all, Idon't know why they have to change them to this digree, like in that interview i couldn't figure out who were they refering to untill I looked it up.
She was called Shiida in Smash Bros and the European version, why Caeda??(I don't really mind the change itself but i got used to the old one).
Names were changed in places (with the dev team's blessing, as always) to provide more consistency between nations in the game. The way the Japanese original was...well, it's hard to explain, but you might liken it to having an O'Connor and a Buttafuoco from the same country. ;p There was no rhyme or reason for a lot of the naming choices. NOA does this kind of fixing-up with every FE game, not just this one. :)

As for the UK version, I couldn't say for sure, but it looks to me like they reverted to Smash Bros. naming for consistency, but we threw that idea out the window pretty early on when it became obvious that most of the Smash Bros. stuff was translated literally and without a whole lot of context.

Anyway, hope you like the game. :)
 

wrowa

Member
grandjedi6 said:
"Even if you choose to ignore these new features and start on a very hard difficulty, the game is only mildly challenging"
That is nonsense. The hard mode has five different difficulty settings and the game certainly is very hard on the higher settings. Who says something else hasn't played on these dificulties longer than two or three missions.
 
Alright, here goes. This is based on the Japanese version at 5 star difficulty.

First of all, playing hard mode means you don't get the prologue chapters to play through, that means no leveling up before reaching the very first level. At the highest difficulty, the enemy stats are higher. The very first thief you see has a speed of 15. The stats increase is dramatic enough that you'd have to completely rethink your battle strategy even in the first level. Jagen's not going to be able to take out most enemies even with his Silver Lance.

The mid-level save is only available in the normal mode. The is no mid-level saving in 5 star. Enemy reinforcements also appear at the beginning of each turn (something most of the GBA games didn't do). More reinforcements, more powerful units, more likely to screw up and start over. Try the chapter where Garnef (or whatever they translate his name to now) appears while your entire party is completely unprepared and cannot fight back in hard mode.

Reclassing sounds cheap, but it's not. Sakurai found out the hard way making Wrys a fighting unit and doing no damage. Borrowing units from someone only works if you have someone to borrow from. Let's not forget stats are random in FE.
 

Ricker

Member
Radiant Dawn was pretty dam hard,even on normal,in the opening act anyway...if you are crazy like me and don't want anybody dying,it got a little frustrating and I gave up on it after a while...I just hope this one starts off a little less hard or with a better scenario.
 

Gabyskra

Banned
Ricker said:
Radiant Dawn was pretty dam hard,even on normal,in the opening act anyway...if you are crazy like me and don't want anybody dying,it got a little frustrating and I gave up on it after a while...I just hope this one starts off a little less hard or with a better scenario.

Better scenario than Radiant Dawn? How in the hell is that possible? I suspect you barely went through a few levels before stopping...

Anyway, there's no scenario to talk about in Shadow Dragon.
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
john tv said:
Names were changed in places (with the dev team's blessing, as always) to provide more consistency between nations in the game. The way the Japanese original was...well, it's hard to explain, but you might liken it to having an O'Connor and a Buttafuoco from the same country. ;p There was no rhyme or reason for a lot of the naming choices. NOA does this kind of fixing-up with every FE game, not just this one. :)

As for the UK version, I couldn't say for sure, but it looks to me like they reverted to Smash Bros. naming for consistency, but we threw that idea out the window pretty early on when it became obvious that most of the Smash Bros. stuff was translated literally and without a whole lot of context.

Anyway, hope you like the game. :)

You work for 8-4, don't you? You guys localized the US version? Not Treehouse? And you did NOT localize the EU version? Bizarre.
 

markatisu

Member
rainking187 said:
So has anyone found this at Target yet? It's in the ad today, but I'm not going to bother looking if no one's gotten it there yet.

We just got back and it was not in the display case at ours, the ad says guaranteed by 4pm but since its Presidents day it might be a bit late

I was actually surprised to see it in the ad, I do not remember the others being featured before
 

john tv

Member
Mejilan said:
You work for 8-4, don't you? You guys localized the US version? Not Treehouse? And you did NOT localize the EU version? Bizarre.
We worked with Treehouse on the NA localization. I don't know much about the EU version -- as far as I can tell from looking at screens, I think they probably just took our version and made some term adjustments, added some "u"s, etc. :) I can't say for sure, though. I'm hoping to import it someday and check it out in more detail.
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Thanks for the answers john tv. Are you guys close with Treehouse? You worked with them on Baten Kaitos Origins too, no?

Oh, just got my preorder call from Gamestop. Tomorrow in the afternoon, they say.
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
I've yet to play the new one, but Sacred Stones was easily my least favorite of those that have been localized.
 

botticus

Member
Looks like my order has shipped from EB. Almost hope they did screw me on the art cell so I can return it and save a few bucks elsewhere :p
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
I'm still really disappointed with the state of the characters. I was hoping that they would be more fleshed out. All of the recent FEs had wonderfully detailed casts, especially for such large games and for being Nintendo, even if the stories were standard fare.
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
I'm with you there. This really could have been an opportunity to modernize all aspects of FE1 (and 3, damn it!) but seemingly all they really touched was the gameplay and technology.
 
Mejilan said:
I'm with you there. This really could have been an opportunity to modernize all aspects of FE1 (and 3, damn it!) but seemingly all they really touched was the gameplay and technology.

Gameplay is the most important part of Fire Emblem. My favorite is Thraica 776, and most of the characters only get 2 or 3 lines.
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
No doubt. But on the same token, it's not altogether unexpected to hear complaints when a franchise does take a step back. And remember, for us Westerners, the earlier, cruder FEs weren't available.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
Cow Mengde said:
Gameplay is the most important part of Fire Emblem. My favorite is Thraica 776, and most of the characters only get 2 or 3 lines.

The whole package is most important. And in this case, Shadow Dragon seems a missed opportunity.
 

botticus

Member
Call me crazy, but I think if IS was going to spend the time working on a scenario for an FE game, I'd rather they do so for a new game than go back and add one in the confines of a remake. Sure, both would be nice, but I'm not really going to be disappointed by a remake of an NES game being... a remake of an NES game.
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
What the hell is wrong with you GAF? Why did I find this pages and pages back?
So I'm sitting here staring at Fire Emblem on one part of my desk, Dragon Quest V in another, and my dinner in a third, all the while listening to some of the worst game install music ever. Thank Street Fighter 4.

I'm at a loss as to how to proceed.
 
I started on normal, just for the prologue chapter. I would have gone with Hard, but it said it would be without the prologue, which I thought sucked since I love whatever story I can get from FE games.

Anyway, I just got to Chapter 3, I believe--Soothsire Mountains.

I'm really loving the game so far--especially how it reads! I very much enjoy such a level of skilled writing :D
 

Hive

Banned
Mejilan said:
What the hell is wrong with you GAF? Why did I find this pages and pages back?
So I'm sitting here staring at Fire Emblem on one part of my desk, Dragon Quest V in another, and my dinner in a third, all the while listening to some of the worst game install music ever. Thank Street Fighter 4.

I'm at a loss as to how to proceed.

haha

you're so lucky to have that kind of choice~ well, i would probably start with Fire Emblem, but MAN that's a tough choice....
 

joelseph

Member
I had no freakin' clue that F.Y.E was running a deal on this game! With my backstage pass I got it for 26.99 after tax and a $15 mail-in-rebate bringing the game down to 9.99! I was flabbergasted.
 

Ranger X

Member
Mejilan said:
What the hell is wrong with you GAF? Why did I find this pages and pages back?
So I'm sitting here staring at Fire Emblem on one part of my desk, Dragon Quest V in another, and my dinner in a third, all the while listening to some of the worst game install music ever. Thank Street Fighter 4.

I'm at a loss as to how to proceed.


Fuck life and play Fire Emblem.

.
 

Daigoro

Member
dumbass at BB denied me yesterday. it said in stock on the website and on the in store computer, but she told me repeatedly that they didnt have them. i argued for a few minutes and then walked out pissed (had to get to work). asshole.

/vent

ill probably pick it up tomorrow.
 

Kyosuke

Member
Gamer @ Heart said:
Can every class be upgraded to a new looking stronger model? It is probably the most satisfying thing about Fire Emblem to me.
Most units can change classes. The exceptions are Marth, Thieves, Ballisticians, Chameleons/Freelancers and the Dragons (Marth's level cap is 40 though, so he doesn't suffer much from not being able to promote).
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Marth can't promote? No get horsey-horsey or some such badassery? :(
I've said it before. Not a fan of the new art style. But I love the animations, so far! :D
And the music. And the non-character graphics.
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Man, the writing in this game rocks!
Did they eliminate the detailed battle info window? I can't see a way to enable it in the options ala the GBA games!
 

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
Mejilan said:
Marth can't promote? No get horsey-horsey or some such badassery? :(
I've said it before. Not a fan of the new art style. But I love the animations, so far! :D
And the music. And the non-character graphics.

Always hated my Lord units promoting into Cavailery.
 

JonAmikar

Ignorant Scrub
I have a few questions GAF.

What difficulty would you recommend to a Fire Emblem vet who has played all of the localized games? Normal is somewhat of a joke so far. Does it ever get hard?

Also, is the EU version compatible with the US version?
 

Link Man

Banned
Got this Tuesday, played the first two prologue chapters, then played Dragon Quest V and was hooked. I'll get back to the game, but DQV is just too good.
 
JonAmikar said:
I have a few questions GAF.

What difficulty would you recommend to a Fire Emblem vet who has played all of the localized games? Normal is somewhat of a joke so far. Does it ever get hard?

Also, is the EU version compatible with the US version?

Hard mode is definitely a step up from normal. For one, you don't get access to the first 10 prologue chapters, which means you miss out on a lot of experience and one character. The difficulty is pretty high in beginning because of this.

Also, Hard Mode Five bitch slaps even the best of veterans. BITCH SLAPS.
 
I bought this game on Tuesday.

I'm an Advance Wars veteran. The series is kickass, I love it, and when I heard more about Fire Emblem, about how it was like Advance Wars and also developed by the same Nintendo team, I was happy to jump on board. Although I own every FE to have been released in NA, I've been waiting to play this one because I think it would be the best one for series newbies.
 

AniHawk

Member
TheGrayGhost said:
I bought this game on Tuesday.

I'm an Advance Wars veteran. The series is kickass, I love it, and when I heard more about Fire Emblem, about how it was like Advance Wars and also developed by the same Nintendo team, I was happy to jump on board. Although I own every FE to have been released in NA, I've been waiting to play this one because I think it would be the best one for series newbies.

I haven't played it yet, but The Sacred Stones was preeeeeeeetty newbie-friendly.
 
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