![]() ![]() In battle, she screams “for Alm!” often, and when she wins, a third of the time she’ll mention Alm. For Faye, it’s her unrequited love for Alm that colors her every dialogue. Faye reminded me too much of Fates’ ideal of character motivation - only one thing driving them forward in the plot.There’s a few quibbles I have that I haven’t mentioned in depth yet: Their stories are not necessarily unique, and both suffer a bit from the “I’m not strong enough” trope (especially Celica, who I was screaming at the last quarter of her quest), but damn it all they are supremely likable and I am so glad I snagged their amiibo a while ago. Lastly, Alm and Celica are fantastic leads.Leon is a surprisingly well-executed gay man in a video game…maybe even the best one I’ve come across? I didn’t max out his support with Valbar, but I really was pleasantly taken with how well Nintendo and 8-4 Ltd.However, his resistance and speed were not great, so he tended to lose out to other mages. And the leveling up is kinda chaotic in a good way I had a mage who took physical damage like a boss thanks to a shield, so I could throw him into the front lines with little worry for his safety. So while recent fans may be aghast at the loss of many staples of the last two games (and even some further back), I kinda dug it? I also like that skills are attached to the item a character can carry, making it strategic to upgrade their weapon over merely swapping out for a “better” one and losing the skill. Healing is plentiful thanks to all second-level mages gaining the ability as well as Celica, and weapons don’t break but can be upgraded via smiths to become stronger tools of war. Which is fine! The series conventions of the weapon/magic triangle is absent as well, along with a few other tactical considerations (Pegasus Knights aren’t weak to ALL bows here, for instance). Combat is pared back here from Awakening and Fates - you won’t find the dual/team-up systems here, and the supports are dialed to pre-3DS conversations that boost stats when units are near each other but that’s about it.The final dungeon for both characters are perhaps pushing it a little in size, but overall Intelligent Systems kept the mode interesting with just enough secrets and goodies to warrant the search. The biggest change to the overall series mechanics is the addition of dungeon spaces to explore in 3D, and I think these are pretty fun and engaging.It suits each scene so beautifully and is easily the best soundtrack in the series for me. Only a couple characters drag it down (which I’ll get to in a minute), but this is a huge improvement over the tepid motivations and personalities of Fates. There’s depth and nuance to them, and their interactions with each other are just superb. Characters are interesting, their plights authentic, and like 95% of the text is voiced with high quality performances. Speaking of characters, their writing is almost perfectly on point.After being somewhat disappointed in the designs in Fates, this was a breath of fresh air. Alm, Celica and the supporting cast just look amazing in their illustrations and on the battlefield. And let me explain why it succeeded so well: I was smitten with how wonderful it is, actually (which is why all of my blogs sat in lonely silence lol). However, that is not to say that Echoes is bad quite the contrary. If you come into this game expecting Awakening or Fates, you’ll probably be very shocked, as much of what drove those two titles are absent here. Gaiden was the second of the series, and while the original featured some of the codifying tenets that would become the standard, Gaiden took a lot of different twists and turns, ones Echoes faithfully modernizes. ![]() That is one update to the original formula that is much appreciated (I probably would have failed miserably if it wasn’t an option lol).Įchoes is a splendid remake of the previously unlocalized Famicom entry Gaiden, an apropos title given how distinct it is from the rest of the franchise. Note as well that I played on Casual on Normal, so I didn’t permadeath my heroes as they fell on the battlefield. If you just want my short and sweet opinion wait a little bit for my Top 111 piece on the game (it’s gonna crack the Top 50!) - just know I adored nearly every minute with it. ![]() Well…I beat it, so I certainly gave it a proper shot! XD Before going too much deeper there will be some spoilers in the text below. I was testing out games before I head out to my favorite indie game shop as part of my Christmas festivities, and Fire Emblem Echoes was in the pile of games to try out. I didn’t intend to disappear for two weeks. ![]()
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