Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia Limited Edition - Nintendo 3DS

I was incredibly skeptical going into this game because of the sour taste left by Awakening and Fates, but I can now soundly say that Echoes: Shadows of Valentia is one of the best Fire Emblem games in existence. It stays faithful to the original Fire Emblem Gaiden, the game that Echoes attempts (successfully) to remake while also pushing the bar in storytelling and gameplay. My favorite gameplay aspect is the exploration of dungeons, which never seems to get old for me. Be warned: This game returns the beloved series to its roots and forgoes content like marriage/childbirth, unnecessary support conversations (support conversations are present but not overly tedious like in Awakening and Fates), and pairing units on the battlefield. This creates a gameplay and storytelling atmosphere that is straight to the point, rewarding, and by no means a waste of time. If you only enjoy Fire Emblem games thanks to the unrelenting fanservice and harem aspects that Awakening and Fates built its success on, this game may not be for you. The Limited Edition itself is absolutely stunning. The North American release received a beautiful box worth displaying. The pins are a nice addiction, but what really shines are the soundtrack and art book included. Clearly no expense was spared creating a music score and character artwork for Echoes. I highly recommend this Limited Edition and the game itself. Fire Emblem Echoes will not disappoint longtime fans of the series and lovers of a good, solid story.

This is a great Limited Edition package. It comes with a very tall hardcover art book. This is awesome because the images are very large, and I always prefer a hardcover art book over paper back in these types of collections. It also comes with a CD sound selection. Many people may dislike this since it's on a CD, but I personally love video game music an really enjoy this type of item. Most special editions have a small random item, and in this case, it's a 3-piece pin set of Marth, Celica, and Alm all done in an 8-bit style which is really cool. Another feature of the limited edition is the reversible box art on the actual physical copy of the game. These are really cool, and even more so here because the reverse side shows the box art from the original game. The game itself is an awesome 3rd entry for the 3DS. I feel another FE game in the same style as Awakening and Fates would have been overkill, especially ahead of FE for Switch, but Nintendo was really smart with the remake. The different style and flow makes this a really fun and different experience worth owning.

I love the Fire Emblem Series! Ever since The Sacred Stones on GBA I loved the grid turn based strategy style of controlling your own units and defeating the enemy without casualties to reach victory. And its only improved over time with titles such as Awakening & Birthright/Conquest. But Echoes is easily my new favorite due to one major addition and thats full voice acting instead of just reading text or only some lines being voiced. Its so well performed that each character feels so much more alive and now more than ever you will reset over and over if you fail if only just to keep characters alive just for the chance to hear more conversations down the line and see them develop. If your new to the Fire Emblem series PLEASE do yourself a favor and start with this one! Its fantastic!

The box for this game is great and large, similar to how obnoxiously big the box was for Breath of the Wild Special Edition on Switch. This isn't a bad thing. The title is in gold leaf print offset by the matte finish of the rest of the box. The contents of the box are the game, beautiful art book, soundtrack, and pin collection. If you can get a hold of it this set is a great collectible for Fire Emblem or Nintendo fans and looks absolutely great displayed on a shelf. The game itself is great and a slight departure of the other recent games. Permadeath is still able to be disabled for those who fear the difficulty of these games, but I feel the story telling has been improved and the 3D RPG style dungeons are a welcome feature in my book. I am really enjoying this game.

Fire Emblem Echoes is easily the best looking and presented Fire Emblem game on the 3DS so far but what makes it interesting is how it changes the series' established mechanics. This game is a remake/reimagining of Fire Emblem Gaiden which was originally on the Famicom over two decades ago but it doesn't feel stale or outdated. While the game is still about turn based tactical combat on a grid map it also introduces ideas seen in other more traditional RPGs like dungeon crawling. The game is definitely accessible to newcomers and requires no knowledge of previous entries in the franchise.

What else can you say about this game that hasn't already be said on other reviews. I loved the art book, great detail of the characters and their gear. The sprite pins look great with pixilated greatness! I haven't listened to the CDs yet but the music in game is good. And the game itself is awesome. I love the voice acting and hope they keep that up in remakes. Good game, time killer/drainer. Like seriously a lot of time can be lost playing this haha

I never got the pleasure of playing this game on the NES(Famicom) as it was released only for JP if I'm not mistaken. The game itself is fantastic. Great tactical choices to make, full voiced support logs and cutscenes, great musical score. The mechanic of leading two armies really makes you balance out your teams and choosing which route to progress through first. Post game is my favorite segment of the game as the difficulty sees a steep increase.

This game is a lot different from the last few entries in the series, which I actually find refreshing. I love the addition of 3rd-person dungeons, random encounters, and first person exploration segments. Having the game be fully voiced for the first was fantastic as well. The limited edition was well worth it; the artbook is thin but hardback and very nice and the soundtrack is excellent, although I wish there were more tracks.