Customer Ratings & Reviews

I only recently experience playing Fire Emblem in the GBA and fell in love. I got this on sale last month and have fallen in love with it. As this was my starting point, I would most likely hold this higher above others because it has a full well voice acted cast, beautiful music, and gorgeous visuals. I have not finished the game because it is a thinking game, for me at least. One part had me play for 2 hours (from trial and error, in fear of losing anyone in battle). If you're looking for something that'll keep you busy, and don't mind thinking strategies to win, I highly recommend this. I wish someone did but I guess it leaves lots of more hours to look forward to for the next games. I'm excited to play the old games and the latest one on the Switch. But first, to finish this one!

Great game! Art style, gameplay, story, and fully voice acted too! If you're into Strategy RPG than I totally recommend this. Veteran FE fans will love this. It might take a little bit to get used to for casual fans, especially without the pair-up/marriage system, but I would still recommend this.

I loved and put too many hours to count into Awakening when it came out. All of the extras with focus on relationships and making strong child units was fun to keep up with in addition to having the solid strategy gameplay and story inherent in the fire emblem formula. When Fates released however, I grew a bit tired of all the extra content and it felt like it got in the way of trying to solely focus on the story and progression. Echoes has been a relief to me for its return to focusing once again on combat and story while stripping out the extras that came with the last two games. It has one main new addition in the dungeon crawling segments. I've found running around the dungeons to be a fun way to level grind in between story segments. The story segments are great in this game and the battles offer a decent challenge to make each fight feel really rewarding when you complete them. If you are a long time FE fan looking for a return to form, this is a great entry to pick up.

My first Fire Emblem game. I greatly enjoyed the game. Uses 2D graphics for the map scene and switching to 3D graphics for the battle scenes. Uses 2D animation for the cut scenes. There is a large cast of characters. Besides the maps to play there are dungeons to explore that give you standard RPG element to play. There are enemies that you encounter in the dungeons. The story is very good. I played on classical/hard mode. In classic mode, characters who die in battle do not return after the stage is complete. I had to restart many times as I didn't like losing my characters but I liked the challenge of not losing any characters. There is a mode where characters will return on the next stage for players who want that. The tried the amiibo support for Lucina which gave me a ghost like character of her. I wasn't interested in that and did not use it again. The Alm and Celica amiibos give you an extra map/dungeon to play (I have yet to use it myself so I can't say much on it).

There's a lot to like about the previous two Fire Emblem games on the 3DS (Awakening and Fates) but the stories are pretty melodramatic and some of the characters are pretty one note. That's not the case in Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. The story is heartfelt and engaging, and every teammate matters. They all have their own personality which makes them more real. The game being fully voiced goes a long way to enforce that. As for mechanics, this is typical Fire Emblem fare and it's exciting and challenging (playing on normal seems about right, with some difficulty spikes) without being a slog. If you like Fire Emblem at all, you owe it to yourself pick this up.

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia for Nintendo 3DS is a complete remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden, a Famicom game that never got a stateside release. From top to bottom, this game has been completely modernized. The game looks great on the 3DS' dual screens with sprite-based 3D top-down battlefields and fully-detailed 3D battle scenes. It plays incredibly well and deftly manages to balance challenging difficulty with accessibility. The dungeon crawling breaks up the turn-based gameplay and keeps the strategy RPG from getting monotonous. This is my first experience with a Fire Emblem title, and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested.

A swansong of sorts for the 3ds. Shadows of Valentia ups the ante with improved graphics, art style, combat animations from prior entries and nearly full voice acting. This allows greater immersion in the tale the game tells. There are fewer support conversations between characters than prior titles but the voice acting partly makes up for it. Character customization is more linear than other entries so that could be a con and the post-story dungeon seems designed to encourage use of dlc. Otherwise, a great story and one that I have replayed a time or two. An archetypal story of a boy meeting his unknown destiny, perhaps, but between that and many main villains having resentments you can sympathize with via their voice acting, etc, the game takes you for a ride.

A fun tactical RPG. The story is solid, interesting, and deep. Combat is different than past games, but still has just as much tactical depth. Beautiful soundtrack too. A great treat for Fire Emblem fans and newcomers.

Fire Emblem, as a series, saw a sort of rebirth on the Nintendo 3DS. Starting with probably the strongest entrance in the recent series, Fire Emblem Awakening, the series soared into mainstream popularity after years of struggling. However, that momentum took a hit at the release of the last pair of games. Fire Emblem Fates, while being mechanically solid games, missed the mark of any sort of interesting story or worthwhile characters. So, eagerly awaiting another Fire Emblem, I was very happy to see Shadows of Valentia pop up. Shadows of Valentia, for those who aren't aware, is a remake of the second Fire Emblem game: Fire Emblem Gaiden, released for the Famicom and never given an english release. This time, it's been updated and reworked to fit the modern standards. I haven't played Gaiden (can't really read Japanese), so I can't make too many comparisons. The gameplay of Valentia, like Gaiden, is different than other games. Alongside the typical tactical RPG gameplay are dungeon-exploration scenes, and series staples such as the weapon triangle are not present. Nonetheless, despite a few hiccups o folder mechanics, the game shines through. I won't give much story wise, as it's worth playing for yourself, but there is a lovely and rich story around the beginnings of a war, and Alm and Celica are excellent protagonists. I would heartily recommend this game for any Fire Emblem fan, although if you have yet to play the series, it might be a bit of a misnomer to start on. I'm hoping Nintendo keeps the Echoes name for more remakes and remasters of older Fire Emblem titles, especially ones that have yet to make it to the west.

I never played the original gaiden version but I am enjoying this remake so far. Although some battle features present in the recent games were removed like the weapon trinity and pairing system, I still enjoyed the battle system and other added features. I am also usually not a fan of english voicing for most jrpgs but this one was well done. If you are in it for the story, I am happy to say that you will not be disappointed. Fully Recommend.

This is a much needed remake of the critically-panned, red-headed stepchild of the series, Fire Emblem Gaiden for NES. Improves many of the things that failed in the original, while still remaining true to it's differences. Forget about the Weapon Triangle that you're used to in other FE titles, as it's not in this game. Would highly recommend this game to anyone who is a fan of the series, and are looking for a new challenge.

This game has proven to be deserving of the Fire Emblem series' black sheep with a lot of interesting and unique functions and strategies that FE veterans would not be accustomed to. It's refreshing, fun, and more convenient with the Turnwheel than ever before. Highly recommend it for newcomers and series vets. It has a gorgeous artstyle and fully voiced giving the player an immersive experience

So Fire Emblem Echoes is an expanded reimagining of Fire Emblem Gaiden, which originally released in Japan. So forget about the weapon advantage system and marriage mechanics and promotions you might expect as things are different here. First off though, the presentation is fantastic with full voice acting, rousing soundtrack and battle animations that draw you into the action. The gameplay has its strengths and downsides. Ultimately, you control Alm and Celica in two separate campaigns around the map for the main story. With Alm, one gets a party heavy on physical units and light on magic units though class promotion flexibility for your initial villager units can make up for this. His story is ultimately more relatable as the hero's journey of wanting to prove himself, his uncle and finding Celica along the way. Celica's campaign has more magic units if that is your style but with mobility options bogged down by swamp and desert maps later in her campaign, which can lead to a tedious experience. In addition, her journey is less about herself than seeking out the Goddess Mila as very nearly an impersonal matter. She is an earnest young lady as presented so one roots for her but she makes mistakes that could present as poor writing. Gone are class abilities except for passive class-bound ones and customization more comes from unique spell lists (for mages) and weapon arts which are special attacks bound to an equipped weapon unlocked over time using the weapon. This was an interesting change but can be unbalanced given the need to fight for weapon experience to unlock new abilities as you find or make new weapons. So, the story is great and the localization really highlight the loving effort put into selling it. However, there is no multiplayer, no endgame difficulty optional content as dlc like Awakening had while the final dungeon that exists is high enough that it might make one want to resort to the DLC paid classes to beat it for bragging rights. To make a long story short, though there are things to enjoy about the gameplay (5-range archers), the story is the highlight while replayability is low and the DLC practice is abominable and costs more than the base game. So, savor this tale like a fine wine and hopefully Three Houses can combine this level of presentation with gameplay.

Echoes does a good job of combining the old and new style of fire Emblem gameplay. It also has excellent graphics and voice acting

I've been a fan of Fire Emblem games since the series moved stateside back in 2003 with the GBA release entiled "Fire Emblem". All games prior to that were Japan-only releases, so I'm thrilled that Fire Emblem Echoes (a remake of FE2) was released. Better yet, the gameplay and graphics have been updated to keep pace with the excellent recent FE games. Love the strategy, the challenge, and the storyline.

As a long time fan of the series, I was excited for another title t play. And this did not disappoint at all. Great battles and story to keep you entertained. As a huge fan of turn based combat, this was right up my alley.

The game has a great story and the gameplay is your basic FE level up, promote, and conquer. The DLC however is just predatory. 2 packs are just for grinding and one locks away the best classes of the game.

Great graphics and interesting characters. This game adds an exciting new story to the Fire Emblem series.

More interesting story and characters, better presentation, same solid gameplay, and adds new mechanics for something fresh. Overall great.

I'm a huge fan of the Fire Emblem series and really enjoyed this entry! The story, characters, and overall presentation are fantastic, a much improved update over the original game (which never came out in America). However, as much as I enjoy seeing Alm and Celica's journeys in English, the map design still feels very old... not as much depth or variety as newer entries. Still, the gameplay is very streamlined and well-balanced for what it is!