NintendObs Thinks: My weird infatuation with the original Fire Emblem game.
Deciphering what Fire Emblem was initially supposed to be.
I’ve had a really bad week. As in, a week without Internet the likes of which I’ve rarely experienced before. I’m saying this because, different circumstances call for different games. When everything is alright around me and perfectly organized, I’m about that Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury or Paper Mario The Origami King. That being said, when times are a bit challenging, I prefer playing games that push me to the edge and encourage me to do the same in real life: recently Metroid Dread comes to mind. This time, with literally nothing to do for a couple of days until things got relatively adjusted, bereft of the opportunity to organize my game-playing sessions I just thought I’d revisit Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light.
This is the very title that started the Fire Emblem series in 1990, and it was finally brought to the West with English text in December of last year to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the franchise. It’s amazing realizing how big of a game this is for its time since it came out on Famicom (NES), though it also stands as a testament of the creativity and technique developers accrued seven years into its lifespan. All of the maps, all of the characters, the animations, the ability to save mid-game at anytime and to keep playing the game later in the same state without passcodes… And without needing the added Bookmarks of this Nintendo Switch release, too.
If you’re familiar with the Fire Emblem series, especially if you’re a diehard fan, the game really makes you understand how much the franchise has evolved from where it came from, and yet… Aside from quality-of-life setbacks entirely appreciable for how vintage the game is, Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light truly holds its ground within all of the Fire Emblem releases we’ve seen in the West so far. If you ask me it’s actually better than its Nintendo DS remake. Surprisingly, technical limitations aside, it isn’t inferior to the other Fire Emblem games it is simply different. In some ways, many of the features from this original that were modified later on for better balance make sense right where they are in the first game, so much so I would argue some of the changes applied in later titles that remained to this day aren’t necessarily improvements.