Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia

Despite being the remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden, one of the franchise’s first installments, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia has the best story since Path of Radiance, developing relevant discussions and tragic characters in a well-constructed narrative. However, it also brings back from Gaiden some uninspired level design alongside some problematic gameplay changes, making it one of the most uneven Fire Emblem games around.

When the story begins, Alm and Celica are childhood friends who, on a fateful day, are separated from each other after a group of knights recognizes the girl – who’s a princess in hiding – when passing near their isolated village. Years later, already trained by his grandfather Mycen, the always impulsive Alm offers his services to a resistance group called The Deliverance, understanding that his country has just suffered a coup d’etat. Meanwhile, Celica sets out on a journey to find out what is happening to the goddess of her kingdom, since their land is no longer cultivable and the food supply is running out.

Shadows of Valentia‘s setting is a world divided into two countries, whose respective ideologies are resulting in different problems. The southern kingdom of Zofia, which was always praised for its abundance of food and constant parties, now has apathetic rulers that care more about their own personal pleasure than the welfare of the people. Meanwhile, Rigel, in the north, developed its culture based on the most severe and unshakable discipline, which eventually darkened the hearts of the people, making them capable of the cruelest acts in the name of duty and honor. When Zofia’s king is murdered at beginning of the game, a military invasion by Rigel becomes only a matter of time, leading to the birth of Alm’s resistance group. Alm, however, encounters some divergent ideologies within this group, which reflect the old institutional problems of his country.

The Deliverance is an organization created by nobles to solve a problem created by nobles, but they need to enlist the help of the common people nonetheless if they wish to succeed. When one of its leaders, Clive, shows the intention of empowering Alm to create a channel of communication with the common soldiers, some of his comrades inevitably rebel. Their main spokesperson is called Fernand, a nobleman who reacts with outrage to the possibility of someone who grew up as a poor man giving orders to him – even though Alm has royal-blood, being the grandson of Mycen.

Fernand believes that it is a noble’s upbringing that gives them natural authority. For him, a nobleman is better than a commoner because of his superior education, which should, in turn, give him the right to rule and live a better life, even though this “better life” was what allowed him to get his education in the first place. Alm, as might be expected, argues against Fernand’s circular logic, defending that the circumstances of someone’s birth shouldn’t be a deciding factor in their life. It’s not because a person is born poor that they have to remain that way, being denied the means to improve their social status. A character that disagrees with Alm is a Rigel’s lord named Berkut, who explains the determinism of this ideology very clearly: “One is born either noble or common. This destiny cannot be changed. Has a sheep any hope of leading wolves?”

The main antagonists of Shadows of Valentia are far from being one-dimensional,  however, having tragic narrative arcs. Yes, Zofia’s regicide and his minions are irredeemable in their wickedness, but they are soon replaced by far more interesting characters. Fernand, for example, is not capable of cruel acts and strongly condemns them. If he defends the nobility and the inequality that derives from it, it’s because he has been taught to do so since childhood. So, when confronted ideologically, he reacts violently, just as he was trained to do in that circumstance. Meanwhile, Berkut’s personality appears to be marked by a repressed inferiority complex, which makes him desperate to seek ways to prove himself to others. The violent defense of his title, then, is more a symptom of his need to cling to elements that make him feel superior to others than the logical result of an ideology. Berkut also ends up being the classic case of the character who, in their rampant ambition, sacrifices all that is dearest to him but, in the end, achieves absolutely nothing.

Alm and Celica are also much more complex than they appear to be at first glance. Alm, for instance, shows an unhealthy tendency to present “fighting” as the solution for all his problems. The moment when he decides to enlist in the resistance army will come as no surprise to the player, as violence seems to be the language Alm knows how to speak best. His drive for war is further aggravated by his binary worldview: he sees himself as a hero, while his enemies must be despicable villains. This puts the boy in direct confrontation with his dear childhood friend, whose pacifist philosophy preaches dialogue and compromise even when that means that oppression will endure. Celica’s altruism often turns into arrogance – the only trait she shares with Alm –, making her believe that she’s the only one who must suffer from the burdens imposed by the war and the only one who must make the necessary sacrifices.

Because of their conflicting personalities, their brief moments of reunion are always dramatically ambivalent: although these scenes are sweet and sad, marked by longing and regret, they nevertheless culminate in more conflict and new separations. Their tragic arcs are very well-developed, reaching their climax at the end of a chain of actions based on their respective flaws: Alm’s warlike nature and Celica’s egocentric altruism not only force them to tread separate paths but also lead them to make terrible mistakes.

If Shadows of Valentia is far superior to several of its predecessors regarding its narrative, when it comes to gameplay, the game, unfortunately, drops the ball with changes that only simplify its main systems, adding nothing that makes up for the loss of complexity.

The first notable change is the removal of the franchise’s famous weapon triangle: swordsmen used to beat spearmen, who excelled against axemen, who in turn completed the circle by earning bonuses against swordsmen. This bonus was not huge enough to prevent a swordsman from beating someone with an axe, but it complicated the fight enough to often lead to tragedies such as missing an attack and taking a critical hit for the mistake. Now, however, everyone is on the same page in the battlefield, and since the triangle was not replaced by anything of equivalent effect, the change has only made the battles less complex.

Inventory has also been removed: characters now carry only their class’ base weapon in addition to a single healing item and a ring that increases their attributes or a special weapon that does something similar. If Fire Emblem Fates replaced the durability system with a flawed one, Shadows of Valentia removes everything altogether.

In the gameplay department, the main word at play is “less”. Supportive conversations are diminished in number and now take place during battles; there is no longer a home base to build and defend; and there are no more marriages, let alone the madness of children trapped in a bizarre parallel world where time passes faster.

There are few “additions” to the gameplay and they all date back to Fire Emblem Gaiden. The main one is dungeon-crawling: the player controls Alm or Celica in the third-person, exploring mazes and facing small battles in the process. If Alm manages to surprise a monster with an attack, the battle begins on your turn with the enemies already damaged; otherwise, the monsters act first. These battles, however, are pretty much the same every time, since the map design and enemies rarely change within the same dungeon. This means that these dungeons can easily overstay their welcome, with the player eventually having to avoid monsters if they want to save time.

The only really interesting addition is the possibility of visiting cities and towns, which are presented in an aesthetic similar to the main town in ​​Shin Megami Tensei IV. This allows more interaction with the inhabitants of the game’s universe, making it feel more tangible and alive, and the player can even activate some sidequests in the process.

Shadows of Valentia’s level design, however, proves that the franchise has evolved a lot in this respect since Gaiden: while each stage in Conquest tried to bring something new to the table, here the player will basically only find open fields of various sizes. Consequently, there are very few battles that require a unique strategy to be beaten.

Finally, the game’s presentation deserves mention when it comes to the sound department. Shadows of Valentia marks the first time that the characters’ dialogues are fully voiced, and all the actors do an admirable job: even the random grumbling of villainous pirates such as “Yar har ho!” and “Gar har har!” sound vigorously funny. Meanwhile, the soundtrack must be applauded for both its variety and logic: Alm and Celica’s union theme, for example, becomes a leitmotif, emerging in various times of conflict, which reflects how their separation negatively impacts those around them.

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia succeeds in revitalizing an old story by developing complex characters and conflicts. At the same time, however, the game will also make the player regret the fact that some of Gaiden’s core elements didn’t remain lost in time.

August 05, 2019.

Review originally published in Portuguese on December 15, 2017.