Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia

 3DS
User Score
8.6

Generally favorable reviews- based on 419 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 356 out of 419
  2. Mixed: 37 out of 419
  3. Negative: 26 out of 419
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  1. BillzHere
    Nov 7, 2017
    4
    I was extremely hyped for this game, I wanted it to be so amazing. The thought of them bringing back an old, unknown game to the west just ensnared me, and I could not wait for this game to come. I was stupid. This game was just painfully, a disappointment.

    Now, not too much is inherently wrong with the game. For the niche amount of people who aren't too invested in the Fire Emblem    I was extremely hyped for this game, I wanted it to be so amazing. The thought of them bringing back an old, unknown game to the west just ensnared me, and I could not wait for this game to come. I was stupid. This game was just painfully, a disappointment.

    Now, not too much is inherently wrong with the game. For the niche amount of people who aren't too invested in the Fire Emblem franchise, this game is a remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden, the second Fire Emblem game in the series. Otherwise known as one of the worst to grace the franchise. So of course, you'd expect them to improve what made that game bad and rectify it more than 20 years later. Sure...

    To it's credit, Shadows of Valentia has got very nice unit artwork and a great soundtrack, which makes the game very attractive. Characters have average VOs, but they fit the bill for each character. These things attracted me to the game, and for a while I thought the game was incredible. I played the game under this facade until I hit the final level. That's where I snapped and I saw the true flaws of this game.

    Shadows of Valentia continues on the Fates tradition of removing staple features of Fire Emblem games. In this installment, the developers removed the ever-so iconic weapon triangle, further degrading any sort of strategy you put into the game. Not only removing that and still keeping no-durability from Fates, they also give every character a 'one item only' carry limit where in other previous games a character could carry about 5 items. Being restricted like this makes gameplay extremely frustrating, and in some cases forces you to grind so you can get past certain parts of the game.

    I've never played Gaiden, after attempting to play the original Fire Emblem on a NES emulator, I just never bothered. From what I've seen though, they've apparently re-used old Gaiden maps in Shadows of Valentia, which makes sense since the game is a remake. However, they are almost identical, as in no changes to the maps whatsoever. Which doesn't compliment any of the newer systems they've inputted in this installment.

    The story is strange, but pretty generic when you get past all of the confusing bits. You'll find yourself scratching your head for the most part.

    This game is not good. It's below average in my opinion. I had expected a lot more from this one, but was left sorely disappointed. It seems like these last couple of Fire Emblem titles have been going two steps forward, and then two steps backwards. This game almost feels like a game trying to be Fire Emblem with a very nice Fire Emblem paint job. If you like Fire Emblem, then you should buy this game when it's on sale, because it is certainly not worth the $40 base price.    … Expand
  2. andarial6670
    May 22, 2017
    2
    There are so many differences between what Echoes provides and what other Fire Emblem games have had for the past decade. These are the differences I am displeased with:

    This game feels extremely oversimplified, compared to even Fire Emblem Heroes, which is free on mobile. There is no weapon triangle, in fact you won't get any playable axe units at all. Axe users are exclusively enemy    There are so many differences between what Echoes provides and what other Fire Emblem games have had for the past decade. These are the differences I am displeased with:

    This game feels extremely oversimplified, compared to even Fire Emblem Heroes, which is free on mobile. There is no weapon triangle, in fact you won't get any playable axe units at all. Axe users are exclusively enemy only, and they are all 'the same', because of the lack of class diversity.

    More on that: Class diversity is horrible. Here your lance users: Cavaliers, Knights, Falcon knights. All of these characters will use lances and only lances, and they will, like all the other classes, promote in a straight line, instead of having any choices. You have one bow class line that gets to ride a pony in his final form. You get one sword class line that for some reason can promote backwards into a villager and then respec into any of the other classes. The mages are a little better; they all heal, move the same, and attack the same, but some can do one thing differently, like warp instead of rescue.

    You can't buy anything. You can only upgrade what few items that are in the game. But that's 'okay', because all units can only carry one item anyway. So in past Fire Emblem games, you could have something like a Great Knight (on horse) who was a heavy armored calvary unit that could use axes, swords, and lances, as well as several variations such as the 'creaver' type(opposite weapon triangle effect), critical hit type, ranged type, armor slaying type, dragon slaying type, horse slaying type, double hit type, etc. Now, units can only use one type of weapon, any non-default weapon would also occupy the item slot, and most of the weapon diversity itself is also gone. There's actually a lot of item diversity in the food consumables. Like, we got oranges, water, soup, bread, flour, carrot, holey cheese, blue cheese, meat, herring, fishes, ham, honey, cookies, yogurt butter, and MANA herbs, and all of them do the exact same thing: they restore some HP, and literally nothing else. The game developers actually foresaw this, as I can rename my forged items to Dick, Bigger Dick, Long Dick, and tinypenis to artificially improve weapon diversity.

    Instead of being able to learn a variety of skills like in Fates/Awakening, you can only get skills from your base class, or from the one item you're holding. You can 'learn' skills from these items--- but can only use those skills when you have that one item equipped. Skills that could buffchange stats passively/actively/for another unit is basically a mechanic that has been preserved by this new downgraded item system. Marriage/avatar is also gone.

    The maps are so so bad. These are carbon copies of the maps used in Gaiden, which had so much useless open space that just threw any positioning strategy out the window. You also get to use all of your units, dumbing the game down even further. They seriously could have at least made some improvements in this area, as it certainly wasn't one of Gaiden's strengths. Am I imagining things or did Fire Emblem games used to have fog, darkness, destructible environment, intelligent design?The most interactive and interesting map element in Echoes has been the occasional bridge.

    As a strategy game, this feels really weak. Many strategic elements of past fire emblem games are downgraded or removed completely, and everything, the units, the maps, the items, feels homogenized. Most of the new features also seem unimpressive or completely inconsequential (fatigue being such a trivial element it might as well not be included at all). The 'explorable' villages and dungeons are just linear, forgettable time sinks. The unit sprites also look incredibly ugly. But the story is still better than Fates, sooo...2/10? I'll just roll the dice on the rating like nintendo did with this game    … Expand
  3. Prinny101
    May 19, 2017
    3
    A huge step back after the fire emblem fates. It does not have anything, especially for a $ 100 game. Pairing? Gone. Perks? Gone. Weapon triangle? Gone. No more tactics, now it's just a "go and punch".
  4. hahahacker
    Jul 4, 2017
    3
    Even fates had be more interesting characters i find Cecilia incredibly unlikable the fact we can only have one item and that we need items for skills means that all our healing comes from mages who are then unable to attack and the combat system is a pretty large downgrade
  5. sandora85
    Jan 17, 2021
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Worst story I everseen every cutscene make angry you Celica most idiotic and selfish person.MC is a cry baby and how many times enemy escape your hand omfg.… Expand
  6. Zorwasa
    Aug 9, 2021
    0
    the dungeons a terrible, later on into the game you have you main character fight 1v10 and its rng if you win or not, and thats at the end of the dungeon, so if you lose you have to replay an 1 hour of gameplay, so **** terrible game design
  7. Kalcool12
    Dec 4, 2022
    3
    | Nothing Redeeming |

    I don't want to be too harsh in this game because there are certainly some things I enjoyed. From the combat, many of the characters, and a lot of ideas I thought were very good. However... there's nothing else. The game attempted to implement this exploration-dungeon thing, and I did not enjoy it. The game had different characters than the previous    | Nothing Redeeming |

    I don't want to be too harsh in this game because there are certainly some things I enjoyed. From the combat, many of the characters, and a lot of ideas I thought were very good. However... there's nothing else.

    The game attempted to implement this exploration-dungeon thing, and I did not enjoy it. The game had different characters than the previous installments, and none are as memorable as Awakening's or Fates' characters. The story is interesting and builds up to big surprises, but nothing comes close to the Lucina twist or Grima storyline or Three Houses' twists or... yeah.

    Overall, this is a game that follows the Fire Emblem formula, but with nothing better than its contemporaries.    … Expand
  8. JustAGameGuy
    May 14, 2023
    4
    Easily my least favourite 3DS Fire Emblem. Playing through this game was miserable, with a mediocre story and boring gameplay. After the great time I had playing Fates and Awakening, I was hoping to enjoy Shadows of Valentia, before I was met with a terrible omen of things to come - one inventory slot. As the game progresses, things get worse. Boring boat maps, Cantors infinitely spawningEasily my least favourite 3DS Fire Emblem. Playing through this game was miserable, with a mediocre story and boring gameplay. After the great time I had playing Fates and Awakening, I was hoping to enjoy Shadows of Valentia, before I was met with a terrible omen of things to come - one inventory slot. As the game progresses, things get worse. Boring boat maps, Cantors infinitely spawning monsters - and later on - teleporting witches, desert maps that slow anyone without a Pegasus to a crawl, swamp maps that force you to walk through damaging swamps just to complete the map - there’s no other way to beat them!

    I ended up quitting the game right as I reached act 5, because despite the fact that I was so close to finishing, I could not handle it anymore. Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia is a miserable experience and I could only ever recommend it to superfans of the Fire Emblem Series.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

7
#7 Best 3DS Game of 2017
4
#4 Most Discussed 3DS Game of 2017
2
#2 Most Shared 3DS Game of 2017

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
81

Generally favorable reviews - based on 76 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 67 out of 76
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 76
  3. Negative: 0 out of 76
  1. Riot Pixels
    Aug 25, 2017
    76
    Even though Shadows of Valentia lacks some of the cool ideas from the previous installments in the Fire Emblem series, this tactics game is very addictive. It’s head and shoulders above the dull Fire Emblem: Fates.
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  2. Nintendojo
    Aug 16, 2017
    91
    Fire Emblem has come to be one of Nintendo’s premier franchises, with Shadows of Valentia further cementing the series’ sterling reputation. This is some of the best storytelling and gameplay anyone could hope for on any platform, whether home or portable. Its presentation belies the fact that the game is running on a portable console, and the clever additions to the familiar Fire Emblem formula have yet again breathed new life into a series that has never been stagnant. There are other features waiting to be enjoyed, like the addition of Amiibo that bring new dungeons and fighters, a StreetPass feature, and more. It’s likely that other than Fire Emblem Warriors this will be the last time the franchise appears on 3DS, but it’s going to be a long goodbye—expect to sink many hours into this adventure. Alm and Celica have firmly cemented themselves into the ranks of my favorite Fire Emblem characters, and I hope that when the series transitions to Switch it will be half as entertaining as Shadows of Valentia.
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  3. NZGamer
    Jul 14, 2017
    90
    Fire Emblem Echoes is the second best entry in the new generation of Fire Emblem games, ranking lower than Awakening, but higher than Fates. Tight storytelling, paired with challenging gameplay, makes for a thoroughly enjoyable experience, as accessible to new players as it is inviting to old. Watch out for tantalising-but-expensive DLC, and a bit of a nerf on older consoles. It’ll be hard for the next Fire Emblem to step out from under the Shadows of Valentia.
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