LIT ON THE SPOT - REVIEW
Despite being the remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden, one of the franchise’s first installments, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia has the best story since Path of Radiance, developing relevant discussions and tragic characters in a well-constructed narrative. However, it also brings back from Gaiden an uninspired level design alongside some problematic gameplay changes, making it one of the most inconsistent Fire Emblem games around.
When the story begins, Alm and Celica are childhood friends who, on a fateful day, are separated from each other after a group of knights appear to recognize the girl when passing near their isolated village. Years later, already trained by his grandfather Mycen, the always impulsive Alm offers his services to a resistance group called The Deliverance, understanding that his country has just suffered a coup d’etat. Meanwhile, Celica sets out on a journey to find out what is happening to the goddess of her kingdom, since its land is no longer cultivable and the food supply is running out.
The setting of Shadows of Valentia is divided into two countries, whose respective ideologies are bearing bad fruits. The southern kingdom of Zofia, which was always praised for its abundance of food and parties, now has apathetic rulers that care more about their own personal pleasure than the welfare of the people. Meanwhile, Rigel, in the north, developed its culture based on the most severe and unshakable discipline they could think of, which eventually darkened men’s hearts, making them capable of the cruelest acts in the name of duty and honor. Therefore, when Zofia’s king is murdered, a military invasion by Rigel becomes only a matter of time, leading to the birth of Alm’s resistance. Alm, however, encounters disagreements within his own group, which reflect the old institutional problems of his country.
The Deliverance is an organization created by nobles to solve a problem created by nobles, but that needs to enlist the help of the people. When one of its leaders, Clive, shows the intention of empowering Alm to create a channel of communication with the common soldiers, some of his comrades inevitably rebel. Their main representative is called Fernand, a nobleman who sees with outrage the possibility of someone who grew up as a poor man giving him orders – even though Alm has royal-blood, being the grandson of Mycen.
Fernand believes that it is a noble’s upbringing that gives him natural authority. For him, a nobleman is better than a commoner precisely because of his superior education and experience, which give him the right to rule and live a better life. A character that shares a similar opinion is one of Alm’s main antagonists, a Rigel’s lord named Berkut, explains the determinism of this ideology very clearly: “One is born either noble or common. This destiny cannot be changed. Has a sheep any hope of leading wolves?” Alm, as might be expected, argues against Fernand’s circular logic, defending that it’s the actions of a man that should define his value and not the circumstances of his birth.
The main antagonists of Shadows of Valentia are far from being one-dimensional though, having tragic narrative arcs. Yes, Zofia’s regicide and his minions are irredeemable in their wickedness, but they are soon replaced by far more interesting characters. Fernand, for example, is not capable of cruel acts and strongly condemns them. If he defends the nobility and the inequality that derives from it, it’s because he has been taught to do so since childhood. So, when confronted ideologically, he reacts violently, just as he was programmed to do in that circumstance. Meanwhile, Berkut’s personality appears to be marked by a repressed inferiority complex, which makes him desperate to seek ways to prove himself to others. The violent defense of his title, then, is more a symptom of his need to cling to elements that make him feel superior to others than the logical result of an ideology. Berkut also ends up being the classic case of the character who, in their rampant ambition, sacrifices all that is dearest to them to, in the end, achieve absolutely nothing.
Alm and Celica are also much more complex than they appear to be at first glance. Alm, for instance, shows an unhealthy tendency to present “fighting” as the solution for all his problems. The moment when he decides to enlists in the resistance army comes as no surprise to the player, since violence is the language Alm mostly speaks in. His drive for battle is further aggravated by his binary worldview: he sees himself as a hero, while his enemies must be despicable villains. This puts him in direct confrontation with his dear childhood friend, whose pacifist philosophy preaches dialogue and compromise even when that means that oppression will endure. Celica’s altruism often turns into arrogance – the only trait she shares with Alm –, making her believe that she’s the only one who must suffer from the burdens imposed by the war and the only one who must make the necessary sacrifices.
Their brief moments of reunion, therefore, are always dramatically ambivalent: although those scenes are sweet and sad, marked by longing and regret, they nevertheless culminate in more conflict and new separations. Their tragic narrative arcs are very well-developed, reaching their climax at the end of a chain of actions based on their respective flaws: Alm’s warlike nature and Celica’s altruistic personality not only forces them to tread separate paths but also to make terrible mistakes.
But, if Shadows of Valentia proves to be far superior to several of its predecessors regarding its narrative, when it comes to gameplay, the game drops the ball with changes that only simplify its main systems, adding nothing that makes up for this loss of complexity.
The first notable change is the removal of the franchise’s famous weapon triangle: swordsmen beat spearmen, who excelled against axemen, who in turn completed the circle by earning bonuses against swordsmen. This bonus was not huge enough to prevent a swordsman from beating someone with an axe, but it complicated the fight enough to often lead to tragedies such as missing an attack and taking a critical hit for the mistake. Now, however, everyone is on the same page in the battlefield, and since the triangle was not replaced by anything of equivalent effect, the change has only made the battles less complex.
Inventory has also been removed: characters now carry only their class’ base weapon in addition to a single healing item and a ring that increases their attributes or a special weapon that does something similar. If Fire Emblem Fates replaced the durability system with a flawed one, Shadows of Valentia removes everything altogether.
In the gameplay department, the main word is “less”. Supportive conversations are diminished in number and now take place during battles; there is no longer a homebase to build and defend; and there are no more marriages, let alone the madness of children trapped in a bizarre parallel world where time passes faster.
There are few “additions” to the gameplay, but they all date back to Fire Emblem Gaiden. The main one is dungeon crawling: the player controls Alm or Celica in third person, exploring mazes and facing small battles in the process. If Alm manages to surprise a monster with an attack, the battle begins on her turn with the enemies already damaged; otherwise the monsters act first. These battles, however, are pretty much the same every time, since the map design and enemies rarely change within the same dungeon. Therefore, these dungeons can easily overstay their welcome, with the player eventually having to avoid the monsters to save time.
The only really interesting addition is the possibility of visiting cities and towns, which are presented in an aesthetic similar to the main town in Shin Megami Tensei IV. This allows more interaction with the inhabitants of the game’s universe, making it feel more tangible and alive, and the player can even activate some side quests in the process.
Shadows of Valentia’s level design, however, proves that the franchise has evolved a lot in this respect since Gaiden: while each stage in Conquest tried to bring something new to the table, here the player will basically only find open fields of various sizes. There are very few battles, then, that require a unique strategy to be beaten.
Finally, the game’s presentation deserves mention only when it comes to its sound department. Shadows of Valentia marks the first time that the characters’ dialogues are fully voiced, and all the actors do an admirable job: even the random grumbling of villainous pirates such as “Yar har ho!” and “Gar har har!” sound vigorously funny. Meanwhile, the soundtrack must be applauded for both its variety and logic: Alm and Celica’s union theme, for example, becomes a leitmotif, emerging in various times of conflict, which reflects how their separation negatively impacts those around them.
Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia succeeds in revitalizing an old story by developing complex characters and conflicts. At the same time, however, the game will also make the player regret the fact that some of Gaiden’s core elements didn’t remain lost in time.
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