Fire Emblem Gaiden

Fire Emblem Gaiden is a tactical role-playing game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. The second game of the series, it's a Japan-exclusive title. Later on, it got a remake called Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia which was released on the 3DS in 2017 worldwide.

Plot
The game serves as a side story to Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light which takes place in a different location via no bearing on the first game's narrative. Few characters from the original game like the Whitewings do return in the game. Valentina before the game came into a violent dispute over the beliefs of the gods Mila and Duma. Each god has its own beliefs with Duma's belief that mankind should strive for power and Mila's belief that mankind should be led towards peace and pleasure. The dispute led to a pack that divided the continent between them thus allowing Duma to rule the north and Mila to rule the south. Eventually, two nations rose from this division, Rigel in the north and Zofia in the south. However, the involvement of the gods in the nations they came to rule led to a contrast between them. The people of Rigel became strong yet forgot kindness in their might while the people of Zofia grew corrupt. The main characters who happen to be lifelong friends Alm and Celica fight in a war that consumed both nations.

Overall

 * 1) The idea of a Fire Emblem game that focused on two characters sounds interesting. Keep in mind that Gaiden became the first game to feature two protagonists of the same game. This is the reason why you are able to take control of both armies.
 * 2) *Also the fact that it's a side story to the original Fire Emblem.
 * 3) The villagers are seen as tier zero units, but they can promote into a variety of first-tier classes. Males can be mercenaries, soldiers, archers, mages, and cavaliers. Females (Echoes exclusive) can be cavaliers, mages, clerics, or pegasus knights. To do that, you would need to visit a shine when their level is 3 or higher. Gaiden makes the villagers promote into a random class. Echoes gives the player freedom to choose a class.
 * 4) There is a map that players can travel through between battles and towns freely. As the game progresses, more territory will be available to you.
 * 5) The weapons are unbreakable, which can be useful for those who are worried about weapon durability throughout the games.
 * 6) Pleasing soundtrack that might get stuck to your head. Gaiden has the typical retro-styled OST with Echoes being an improvement just in time for a modern-day remake.
 * 7) The plot is basic in Gaiden. It's all just the battles of two opposing armies on the continent of Valentia that are torn apart due to political issues that involved Alm and Celica. Echoes however takes the basic plot from the old game and was expanded in there. In other words, the story is simple to understand.
 * Est, Catria, Palla, and Camus (referred to as Zeke) make an appearance in this game. These characters first appeared in the original Fire Emblem game yet they return to this side story.
 * 1) When you want to learn magic, you can learn it by leveling up rather than getting tomes. That sounds like a different yet unique take on magic rather than using the typical tomes. The fact that tomes are not present here was later seen in Three Houses.
 * 2) Both games have a unique battle system thanks to the mechanics.

Gaiden

 * 1) This is the first game to introduce the support system. Should you pair up Alm and Celica together in battle, they get a higher chance to land a critical hit!
 * 2) The graphics. While primitive since this is an 8-bit game after all they are still of high quality even at the time.
 * 3) This is one of the earlier Fire Emblem titles where you can revisit older maps just for the experience.
 * 4) Character animations when being put in battle are smoother this time around.
 * 5) Introduced a unique enemy type of unit called monster units. (Terrors in the English version of Echoes). There is a number of them including revenants, entombed, bonewalkers, lichs, gargoyles, necrodragons, and mogalls.

Echoes

 * 1) Elements that were unique to Gaiden return including the town and dungeon exploration. The best part about them is how expanded the features become; dungeons became an explorable 3D environment with the towns and villages feeling like a visual novel.
 * 2) There is a new item called Mila's Turnwheel. While it has limited use, this can allow players to rewind the events of a battle. Useful for correcting mistakes!
 * 3) Some features added in other Fire Emblem games are present in the remake.
 * 4) *The usual support conversations once again have been added to Shadows of Valentia. The conversations take place on the battlefield just like the GBA titles of Fire Emblem.
 * 5) *The weapon forging from Path of Radiance is brought back. Just go to a town by paying a blacksmith Silver/Gold Marks to improve the stat of a weapon. If a weapon has a certain rank depending on the weapon, you can ask the blacksmith to evolve the weapon to the next rank or a new weapon.
 * 6) *Casual Mode from New Mystery of the Emblem returns. Characters who fall in battle will return. Good for beginners.
 * 7) *The fatigue system from Thracia 776 appears in the game only this allows stat reduction instead of temporary incapacity to makes things less severe. This only applies to the dungeons.
 * 8) If you own any of the following Amiibo figures, they will bring in some new content.
 * 9) *The Alm and Celica amiibos unlock special dungeons called Duma's Ordeal and Mila's Ordeal. These are used to save the current versions of the Alm and Celica units which can be summoned later as illusory units.
 * 10) *The Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U line of Fire Emblem amiibo will summon illusory copies of those characters.
 * 11) *Other currently available amiibo can be used to summon an additional monster in battle.
 * 12) Introduces some new characters exclusive to the remake. The characters seen in the remake consist of Faye, Berkut, Rinea, Fernand, Conrad, Jarth, The Creation, and Forneus. Also, keep in mind that The Creation is a younger form of Grima from Awakening.
 * 13) Weapons in this game have Combat Arts that can be learned. All skills are only used on a weapon that is learned from. The skills take the appearance of passive abilities or direct ability commands. The more usage a weapon has, the newer attacks will be learned.
 * 14) Incredible voice acting both in Japanese and English. This is the first in the main series to have full-on voice acting. If you want to talk about the English dub, it's the first one to have full English voice acting. You can hear the characters speak in the dialogue.
 * 15) Echoes had moments where it was never found in the old game like when Jedah sacrifices Celica to Duma, only for the latter to steal her soul just to turn Celica into a mindless puppet, or when Alm being forced to kill the Duma-influenced Celica with Falchion yet got revived by Mila's last power. In other words, do expect a lot more heart and epicness than usual.
 * 16) *The story has a prologue. We get to learn more about Alm's and Celica's past.
 * 17) *A bonus chapter is included for this game, taking place after the events of the original story where Alm, Celica, and their allies go across the sea to Archanea which was the setting of the original Fire Emblem.
 * 18) Echoes added new monsters like deimos, garudas, balors, draculs, and guardians.
 * 19) The cutscenes here look incredible that it almost feels like your watching an anime. The animation is done by Khara, Inc. who is known to work on the Rebuild of Evangelion tetralogy.
 * 20) DLC is present there. You can get characters from the trading card game called Fire Emblem 0 (Cipher) which consisted of Shade, Emma, Randal, and Yuzu. This is the first time you get to see the Cipher characters in a video game! There is DLC that can give you new maps and dungeons with exclusive character classes.
 * 21) Made some improvements that were major flaws with Gaiden.
 * 22) *The characters are more fleshed out than usual. You can thank the support system for fleshing out the characters.
 * 23) *The difficulty is lowered in the game just for the series veterans and newcomers to find the game enjoyable.
 * 24) *Other than that, it shows that despite certain changes it still respects the source material.
 * 25) Many of the cast of characters have gotten redesigns that fit very well with each character. Sure, the designs are not exact in comparison to the original artwork but the redesigns make the characters stand out well and it shows that not all redesigns have to be bad and instead turned out to be good.
 * 26) *We get to see what Mila and Duma look like in the game.
 * 27) The artstyle of the characters seen in the portraits looks nice. The characters stand out with a style that is considered to be artistic to look at. It's almost like the art style has a medieval/anime edge to the characters, thanks to Hidari (the character designer).
 * 28) Because of the characters being more fleshed out compared to the original, there are great nuances to see in them:
 * 29) *Alm is a naïve but kind young man who is strong with justice and never turns down the opportunity to help others. Also sees other party members as family. You know what they say right, nothing's more powerful than the love of family!
 * 30) *Celica is depicted as a kind girl who believes that she should bring peace without fighting. Despite this, she can still fight with her allies for a reason and even sacrifice herself if her friends are threatened.
 * 31) **Speaking of the main characters, their relationship and chemistry are just deep and relatable.
 * 32) *The villains here are just awesome. From the sadistic Jedah to the prideful Berkut.
 * 33) *Some side characters are entertaining like notably the easygoing Gray, the flirtatious dreamer Jesse, and the bright Delthea. Other side characters are still possible. Some examples include the big-hearted Valbar, the vain yet honest Leon, the confident yet mysterious Conrad aka the Masked Knight, the strict yet polite Lukas, the dutiful knight Mycen, the straightforward Forsyth, the fearless Clair, just to name a few.
 * 34) *Some of the female characters are admittedly pretty like most notably Sonya, Catria, Palla, Silque, Faye, Tatiana, Mathilda, and Clair.
 * 35) As expected from a 3DS title, the maps here appear more natural. The maps look like something you see in an art museum. No matter where you are, the maps are a work of art.
 * 36) Though the character models are a little fuzzy, they are a lot more detailed for 3DS standards. It is cool to see your character fight.
 * 37) Since this is a remake of Gaiden, players outside of Japan can experience Gaiden in the form of a remake!

Overall

 * 1) Weapon durability is missing in both games despite being a staple to the series.
 * 2) Using magic in this game costs the user hit points.
 * 3) Sometimes it can be tough due to the enemies. The Cantors are examples of this because they can summon monsters. Even though Echoes did lower the difficulty, but still. Another example would be the Witches who are infamously prone to teleport.
 * 4) Trying to recruit some characters can require backtracking.
 * 5) Sometimes grinding can be a mixed bag in both games.
 * 6) You can only hold a single item or weapon. However, you can't hold both.

Gaiden

 * 1) Having to promote a villager in a shrine is reliant on randomized material. In other words, it's like a box of chocolates whereas you never know what you are going to get.
 * 2) In Act 5, Celica's party loses health while Alm explores the Duma Temple catacombs. This does not happen in the remake.
 * 3) The sprites are inconsistent with the artwork of the game. For example, Alm's hair is green yet the game makes it look more blue than green in his portrait. Even Gray, Tobin, and Kliff's sprites are inconsistent with their original artwork.
 * 4) The graphics are still pleasing yet they have been recycled (outside of some improved combat animations). Even the maps look mediocre albeit primitive since it's a Famicom game.
 * 5) The attack accuracy is bad in this game. The archers and knights are the worst examples of this.
 * 6) Gaining experience is slow and leveling takes a long time.
 * 7) Has poor character writing. That was fixed up in Echoes since it's a modern game.

Echoes

 * 1) False advertising: silhouettes of wyverns appear in the sky on the cover art yet none appear in the gameplay.
 * 2) If you want to activate Combat-type Combat Arts, a character has to sacrifice a set amount of health.
 * 3) Due to its combat, it's not as deep in comparison to more modern games (especially those who are used to the modern games). The weapon triangle is absent here since Gaiden lacked it.
 * 4) Character models are a little fuzzy.
 * 5) Though this could be intentional due to game balance, the Mila's Turnwheel mechanic only has limited usage. Once they have been used up, you might as well have to know how much you need to be strategic across battles.
 * 6) DLC is overpriced. The game costs about $39.99 yet the Season Pass costs around $45, or purchasing the DLC separately which bumps the price up to roughly $52.
 * 7) Plot holes: It is never explained how Duma developed his mutations after Naga exiled him and his younger sister, Mila.
 * 8) *How did Desaix come to know that Alm is Rudolf's son?
 * 9) *Who explained to Fernand that Mycen didn't have a grandson? It's probably Desaix, but still unknown.

Reception
Gaiden was seen as the black-sheep of Fire Emblem similar to that of Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. Famitsu gave the game a 28 out of 40. Public reception was positive: in a poll taken by Family Computer Magazine, it received a score of 24.3 out of 30, indicating a large popular following Echoes has gotten positive reviews with a score of 81/200 on Metacritic, 37/40 on Famitsu, 9/10 on Nintendo Life, and 8.5/10 on EGM. Was nominated for "Best 3DS Game" in IGN's Best of 2017 Awards as well as "Handheld Game of the Year" at the 21st Annual D.I.C.E. Awards

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Trivia

 * 1) In Echoes, the Weapon Triangle was intended to appear but did not as it would have required adding more characters or altering the original cast.
 * 2) *The Marriage mechanic from Awakening and Fates was also intended to return, but ended up scrapped because it could've established character relations too much.
 * 3) The song The Heritors of Arcadia was performed by the Japanese singer Janis Crunch with Bonnie Gordon (the voice actress for Silque) for the English version. Bonnie became a singer purely by chance and got worried by the number of high notes in the song due to her low singing voice. The song was written from Mila's point of view.
 * 4) The dungeon mechanic was originally from the scrapped Fire Emblem Wii.
 * 5) Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia has the shortest period of time between the release dates of the Japanese version and the international versions, with only a 29-day difference in time.
 * 6) First game in the series to be officially released in Chinese territories, specifically, Hong Kong and Taiwan.