3DS User Reviews

A peak for the series, Echoes takes the sorely outdated original and improves upon the Fire Emblem formula in every way conceivable. From the amazing art direction to fully voiced cutscenes, Shadows of Valentia paints a political fantasy drama that offers a ton a replayability. While romance and self-inserts were brought on in awakening, Echoes steers away from the fanservice to offer a more mature and focused story that maintains the fast-paced gameplay of the modern FE era.

Pleasantly surprised with this one cool cahracters alm is based dungeons are coolsame zombie though

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia is a truly great game with a compelling story and an excellent ending. As the game progresses, you grow closer to the characters, developing a genuine affection for each of them. The battles stay true to the classic Fire Emblem formula and are incredibly enjoyable, many of them are so fun that you actually want to replay them. I regret having played this game so late, but it was an outstanding experience from start to finish. A must-play for any Fire Emblem fan or anyone who appreciates a good tactical game.

GREAT, same level of quality as awakening with better parts in some areas, less in others. Story is really good with a solid setup and really strong equal protagonists plus generally good events and ideas. Character enhance this with a tight knit group that is elevated with both solid combat function and characterization. Solid supports enhance this as usual and provide more to the great group elevating them. Shoutouts to berkut an great villian for the game as well. Gameplay is solid if not as strong as the other games ive played,with very average maps, but good battle events for the conquest an journey stories. EXCELLENT OST again. I'm also one of the odd people i feel that enjoyed the dungeon exploration even if its simple. Really had a great time with this game and it bringsthings home with another great final map / battle.

An amazing retelling of the second Fire Emblem story, breathing new life into the continent of Valentia. The sprites and character artwork are amazing, and the 3D models were a huge step up from Awakening and Fates. It also has a great expansion on Awakening in the post-game. An amazing soundtrack ties it all together making the best 3DS Fire Emblem game. Only thing keeping it from a perfect score is the maps being a bit too faithful to the original Famicom game. Definitely was a breath of fresh air after Fates confusing, bland, and bad stories.

This game has one of the best stories in the franchise. The limited cast of characters is very fleshed out. They range from simple but likeable to complex and interesting. The gameplay is interesting, though one of the weaker fire emblem games in that aspect. This is mainly due to the simple and outdated map design as a result of this being a remake. The dungeons, while very cool in concept, end up being a bit **** in practice. Still, if you like fire emblem gameplay you'll find plenty of enjoyment. And the story keeps you invested from start to finish.

With a charmingly voiced cast of characters, an epic story (by most Fire Emblem standards), and perfected gameplay, Echoes is a remake of an 8-bit Japan-exclusive of the highest caliber.

My favourite FE game so far (only played Awakening and Fates before this) loved the gameplay, loved the story. Fantastic!

Wonderful visuals and tactical nuances are let down by a slog of a final act

I did like it for the first few chapters, but eventually you control 2 armies at the same time and from that point on, it is very annoying with map disignes I really do not like so I barely finished it ... the characters and animations are nice tho. (version 1.0/1.1)

Fire Emblem: Echoes is a great experience with an enthralling story and lovable characters. Although some of the gameplay mechanics are unique, the way they are executed gives me such joy as a unique experience for the Fire Emblem franchise. The game is packed with tens of hours of content, amazing graphics for a 3DS game, and full voice acting. My only true gripe with the game is that it was given no difficulty setting above Hard, leaving only two difficulty options to choose from.

One of the best games on the 3ds, and one of the best remakes ever made. This game manages to be impressively faithful to Gaiden while also adding in it's own new things such as combat arts and 70ish% of the story and characters. Not all of it works, like Conrad, but most of it fits in perfectly. And it's not like I hate Conrad or anything, it's just really easy to tell he was added in, like in an Atlus Girl kind of way if you know what I mean.

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 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.

This was the last good entry from the franchise unfortunately...................

great game, great use of two different paths, good story telling, interesting new mechanics, and likeable characters

A beautiful and spellbinding experience that only really suffers from a failure to update old maps from the NES era.

A remake that feels old because it is afraid to change outdated mechanics from its original version even though they had already been modernized in FE Awakening and Fates.

| 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.

Tiene todo lo que debería ser un remake de Fire Emblem. Historia de calidad, personajes y dualidad de ellos interesantísima, dificultad muy bien ajustada... En resumen, un remake esplendoroso y sin necesidad de comprarlo dos veces, pagar contenido descargable... Compra obligada.

The only thing that **** about this game is the Celica levels, specially the desert ones,. Everything else is great. All the characters (except Faye because she's always talking about Alm) are likeable.

Este juego es uno de los más grandes de la consola. Realmente es una experiencia única la cual muy pocos juegos te pueden dar aunque haya quejas sobre su jugabilidad. Historia de 10, gráficos y diseños de 10 y banda sonora, uffff la banda sonora de 1000. Simplemente un fantástico fire emblem Se tiene que probar aunque sea solo una vez. MAGISTRAL!!!

I agree with the user ratings but not the critics, definitely not near an 8/10. This game is amazing, to be Frank. Any level of player can pick it up and enjoy it, it expands on the core mechanics of what the FE series did amazingly (combat). This includes the blacksmith - which to my knowledge was the precursor of fe3h. Also, an in-game model where you move freely which brings the sprites to life well. I didn't think I'd like the "double party" system within one game, but overtime both the two seperate parties became fun to play. The promotion system was also very generous and rewarding, also super satisfying to hear the statue music and the promotions. The characters were super likeable or hateable, but regardless all art and sprites looked amazing and consistent. The look is very unique to the FE games but it works. I thought the way they used a "pad wheel" for the auto battling made farming and combat super simplified. I do recall an overabundance of dragons just everywhere, I believe in the Cecilia route - having more enemy diversity may have helped at certain stages. Also new to the FE titles was the voice acting - I am so happy this game had top level voice acting all the way through - even a year after beating the game, I can hear the voices of each character pretty vividly every time I see the characters. This game is amazing and is a must play for any one that enjoys turned based combat and army building.

Неплохая игра на 3дс, не знание прошлых частей игр, не мешает играть так как история самостоятельная, а ещё как человеку который не играет в стратегии и РПГ от слова совсем, боевая система очень понравилась

My actual favorite game. I started my FE journey with Awakening then Fates. I started playing the old GBA titles and even emulated PoR & RD. Without a doubt Shadows of Valentia stands on the shoulders of the titles that came before.

I really like this game. The units are great and the cutscenes also look nice. The dungeons is kinda boring.

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

Finally finished this awesome game. The best part of the series after Geneology. The old traditions of the series are combined with new mechanics. But DLCs arent worth its price.

Among the best in the series with groundbreaking 3D animation, amazing voice acting and intriguing characters.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

I think this game sets the standard for how an NES remake should be done. The updated art and voice acting along with new characters and features breathes new life into the game. Sometimes the map design shows its age, but other than that it’s a captivating adventure.

I started playing this game so that I could work my way up to the last game because I knew that if I played them in reverse order everything would seem old and clunky. So this is my first experience with fire emblem and it gravely disappointed me. I started the game in classic mode to the full experience and was amazed by how well the game pulled you into it's story and immediately made you care about the characters. The story was instantly compelling and dialogues as well as character models were excellent. Every character felt like they were an actual person. I started my first few fights and loved the sharpness of the gameplay despite the lack of enemy variety in the game. I could only manage the health of my characters, the weapons triangle wasn't there (yet). But I kept on playing because the fighting animations were done very well and theydidn't get old quick despite them being repetitive. I hit my first and last wall with the leather shield merc. He felt impossible to get through with all my characters still intact. So I couldn't, after many quit and reloads the best performance I got was killing the guy while only sacrificing Tobin. He had volunteered to join our quest so he could make the money to feed his family. It was sad seeing him go like that, I mourned my loss and moved on to the outpost I had recovered from the enemy. The game broke before my eyes when I entered the dungeons and the game showed a dialogue scene where Tobin -whom just sacrified his life for the quest- was casually chatting with Gray. My actions that were supposed to have so much weight just seemed dismal and the game degraded from a perilous journey **** of friends where every decision of their leader mattered and had tangible meaning, to a strategy game that lacked depth and repeated itself way too often at the beginning stage. I know it was way too early to judge the fighting system but the lack of weight your decisions have on the story would only get worse and that was for me the main selling point of the game. I can think of many games with much better strategy elements, the perma-death system was the thing that made the game unique and it still does -except for x-com?- but you should know that it has no applications to the story. I will try my luck with other games from the series but so far this franchise has disappointed me.

Being e remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden, the second game in the series and only released in Japan at the time, Intelligent Systems knocks it out of the park again with an excellent remake and an excellent Fire Emblem game. People might crucify me on this one but I like it way more than Awakening. I do respect and love Awakening however since it saved Intelligent Systems from going bankrupt which means this franchise would have died right after Awakening. The music is again excellent in this one, and it once again fits the narrative very well. The story was also excellent as well. It had some nice twists I didn't see coming, and I grew very attached to Alm and Celica. Alm's story arc and character development were absolutely epic and the change in music in the later acts make the late game a masterpiece. I also love how the post-game ties in with Awakening story-wise. The gameplay was fun and it actually felt challenging at certain points. You really needed to formulate a strategy or else it you would struggle. This game introduce the turn back time mechanic which was also added in Three Houses, but I found myself rarely using it in this one. A good strategy was mainly all you needed. I always recommend not letting anyone die because seeing all your characters make it out in the end is very heartwarming. An excellent and damn near masterpiece for the 3DS and I recommend it to ALL 3DS users.

As the final Fire Emblem game of the 3DS era, Shadows of Valentia delivers a compelling character-bases narrative accentuated by a rich score and engaging gameplay. Story: 9/10 Simple, yet entertaining due to its well written structure. Each line can be individually savored. Voice Acting: 10/10 Each line of dialogue is delivered by a professional cast. Voice actors of Berkut, Alm, and Mae characterize their lines particularly well. Visuals: 8/10 The hand drawn character models and subtle Greek mythology art style add a lot of charm. The 3D models used in cutscenes, however, will not age well. Music: 9/10 An enjoyable leitmotif appears frequently throughout songs and sound effects, giving the game's music a binded and cohesive sense. Gameplay: 9/10 The new gameplay addition of Mila's Turnwheel will help propel the Fire Emblem franchise forward for years to come. Shadows of Valentia plays with the idea of dungeons, which would have been a thrilling area for the game to pursue if it doubled down on this new addition. The downside is that many of the faithfully created maps are dated, and thus not contributive to strategic gameplay. Repetitive enemy encounters in dungeons with no variety also drag pacing. Overall: 9/10

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia is nothing but a masterful mix of emotional storytelling, sweeping music, and overall invigorating detail and atmosphere. Where it tends to fall short, however, is in the primary game play and actual meat of the franchise: the combat and stratagem. Although the animations are interesting and smooth, the faithful yet outdated maps and mechanics make this game mostly more of a chore to complete than an enjoyable experience. Without the other wonderful factors of the game pushing you forward, this game would be sub-par at best. However, because this game offers up a plethora of enticing storytelling elements that push it arguably above other predecessors and other absolutely infatuating details, it is more than worthy of carrying the torch, remake or the likes of it not.

I really loved Alm and Celica relationship in this game, the story was really good and the music, the graphics and the gameplay. But i don't know why i felt so lost at the beginning of the game, maybe it was that it was different from the previous game, i don't know or it just was that i didn't pay much attention. But i really enjoyed it a lot

It is a beautiful rwmake, one of my favorito videogames, have a grat story and grate caracteres, the soundtrack is perfect and the gameplay is good

Dentro de los FE de los últimos años, Shadows of Valentia, un Remake de la oveja negra de la saga, ha pasado bastante desapercibido para muchos. Y sin un motivo real. No es la oveja negra de la saga por ser un mal juego, si no por introducir mecánicas que no aparecen en ningún otro FE transformando la experiencia completamente. Lo primero es entender que este es un FE clásico sin mecánicas de hijos (y por tanto sin personajes de relleno). Cada personaje esta bien desarrollado, él y sus relaciones. La dificultad es elevada, pero adaptable y accesible por las mecánicas exclusivas (y por la inclusión del sistema opcional de deshacer las últimas acciones, cuyo uso baja la dificultad a algo bastante medio). Incluye la novedad de llevar a dos personajes con sus propios ejércitos y batallas, que avanzan paralelamente hasta un momento común de unión. Esto implica también cierta variedad (por ejemplo, algunos personajes puedes reclutarlos con un ejercito u otro en diferentes momentos, pero obviamente si los reclutas con uno, no podrás con el otro). Aparte de esto, la gran novedad de este juego son las mazmorras. Y no hablo de mapas de estrategia, si no mazmorras en 3D con enemigos pululando, ítems, etc, añadiendo un sistema de exploración (similar a la base de FETH, pero en las mazmorras). El entrar en contacto con un enemigo despliega un pequeño mapa de batalla para combatir contra ellos, y cosas cómo atacar por la espalda genera ventajas en el despliegue de las unidades y turnos. Por toda esta innovación, los buenos personajes, la historia, este es un muy buen exponente de la saga, diferente del resto, pero muy buena entrega. Eso sí, sigue siendo un remake de un clásico, y hay algunas mecánicas que pueden ser algo repetitivas (farmeo de objetos para algunas quests).

Los calabozos son un concepto muy interesante, pero no se explota lo suficiente. En general es un Fire Emblem de buena calidad. Lo que más le duele es la ausencia del triángulo de armas.

Felt kinda boring in some parts, due to unnecessary spamming of some opponents, but in the end a pretty good title with loveable characters and the best soundtrack ever in the final boss battle. What a f****** anthem.

One of my favorite in series #best presentation of any Fire Emblem game and it is Unique Experience

Don't go into Shadows of Valentia thinking you'll have a standard Fire Emblem experience. There's a lot of odd design choices, some good, some bad. Since this game is a remake, there's also some old-school rough edges that were not touched. Here are the differences: -No weapons triangle or durability. Money is used simply for upgrades to existing weapons. Your units can only hold 1 item and learn skills from that item. When you take off the item you lose access to the skill sadly. The game still has the FE problem of "arts" not being worth using most of the time. This time, Arts and magic cost health to use, so for physical arts especially, they aren't worth the hp cost and loss of a double attack most of the time. There's no UI to easily flip through your skills like in FE: 3 Houses either. -Very strange "required" skills to beat levels that the game doesn't tell you you need. There are some enemies that spawn 4-8 enemies every turn and there is a spell that will insta-kill 2-5 of them you can use every turn, for example. You will not know that the spell exists or when you'll get it, leading to frustration if you try to complete a map that requires it without it. There's several other instances of this as well. -3rd person dungeons for side quests and loot. I liked this, but there is too many generic battles and combat is too slow. Dungeons are relatively small and you have to revisit them as you get quests to go back. -2 different armies that you have to flip back and forth to. I didn't care for building up 2 different armies because you're basically doing the same thing over again. Double the grind for no reason other than to increase the play time they boast on the back of the box. You also have to use an annoying to find NPC to ship items back and forth between armies. -Tons of generic, repetitive unavoidable battles. As time passes on the world map, the enemy will send out troops to fight. Also, certain areas will have enemy armies respawn every time you pass by the area. This happens frequently and you'll be going back and forth a lot trying to find new NPCs in the same areas you have visited before. -Maps that are poorly designed. Lots of annoying mechanics that waste time and test your patience. From what I have read, they are copy/paste from the original game. I think they could of spent time redesigning the maps to be more interesting. For example, there are quite a few desert maps that will reduce movement significantly and you'll spend 4-5 turns just getting in position. Why? There are many maps that have choke points that highly favor the enemy. Since most of your units won't be 1 shoting enemies, there's a slog to get through the choke point while archers (which have crazy range in this, 5+ squares) rain down on you. It's simply not fun. That said, the story is standard JRPG anime fantasy. There is a lot of English Voice acting, which is nice, with a few recognizable voices you may have heard elsewhere. The visuals are better looking than FE Fates for the character models, but the environments, towns, NPCs, ect. are very generic and lack detail. There's a lot of repeated dialog in towns from your party members. Side quests are rudimentary, but quick normally. I find the rewards don't usually equate to the effort to complete some of them. Overall, FE: SoV is a good game, but not the one fans deserve. I would recommend this to extreme FE enthusiasts only.

Game: Fire Emblem Echoes Shadows of Valentia Genre: Strategy RPG Developer: Intelligent Systems Publisher: Nintendo System: Nintendo 3DS (3DS) Year of Release: 2017 Length of Playthrough: 45 Hours Total Score: 90/100 Value Score: 9.0/10 • Story: 9/10 • Characters: 9/10 • GamePlay: 9/10 • Graphics: 8/10 • Sound: 10/10 • Music: 8/10 • Length: 9/10 • Replay Value: 8/10 • Player Value: 10/10 Pros +Good Story and character interaction +Choice of casual mode for beginners of the series and hardcore mode for veteran players +Ending can be changed depending on who you recruited or survived till the end of story +Remake of the 2nd Fire Emblem game - additional characters added to storyline, visual improvements and a lot of voice acting Cons -Additional characters and classes tied to DLC which is also expensive and never reduce in price -Street Pass requirement needed to access some background story scenes and to get items -None of the QoL improvements from Awakening are included

My favorite FE so far, the story is extremely bittersweet and makes you feel part of the story. Great OST and voice acting

This game is so peculiar, it forgets about a core mechanic from many other FE entries but does it so in a way that results in a very unique game truly deserving on it's own. Everything from this game, the characters, the music, the story, the game play, it's what makes it so enjoyable.

FE Echoes: Shadows Of Valentia es un remake muy bien rediseñado del aquel Fire Emblem Gaiden. La historia del juego es maravillosa, encontrandonos con personajes donde desde el primer momento conectamos con ellos y como se narran los hechos invitan al jugador a querer siempre saber mas y mas. El gameplay sigue la linea de sus antecesores en la plataforma (Awakening y la serie Fates) asi que muchos cambios no hay pero para que tenerlos si la formala funciona a las mil maravillas. Lo menos que me gusta de este juego es quiza su algo injusta dificultad donde por momentos a los jugadores menos expertos en el genero los hara desesperarse un poco y llevarlos a dropeo del juego o a cogerle algo de tirria pero yo como jugador no tan experto en este tipo de generos te aconsejo que te arme de paciencia y que todas esas derrotas o anclajes te hagan conocer mas el juego y por supuesto mejor jugador de Fire Eemblem

As the last Fire Emblem chapter on Nintendo’s heroic handheld, Echoes delivers a perfect swan song for the series’ 3DS days. This is a satisfying, deeply strategic adventure with an engaging, personal story and beautiful presentation, full of appealing art and lovely details that come alive as you play. But more than that, it’s also just delightfully different from its predecessors, in ways that only broaden its appeal: if you loved Awakening and Fates, this is close enough to be comfortable but with plenty of tweaks and additions to feel exciting and fresh; if you didn’t like those entries and yearn for a more ‘traditional’ Emblem experience, you’ll love Echoes’ throwbacks and unique touches; and if you’re a JRPG fan who’s never understood the appeal of the SRPG chessboard, explorable towns and dungeons make this a perfect point of entry to crossover. Proof that the 3DS still has life left in it yet, Echoes is a phenomenal Fire Emblem and a wonderful tactical title to tuck into.

Even with Fire Emblem: Three Houses released for the Nintendo Switch... I'm keeping this game as my absolute favorite Fire Emblem game. Why? The answer is quite simple: old-school mixed with new-school is my school. This game is as good as people have told me it is... however I was a little discouraged when I heard commentaries like: "meh, it could've been better." or "remember everything you knew about Fire Emblem? Well this game throw that to the dumpster" and I was quite hesitant when I bought my own copy... they lied. Or worse yet... they didn't know. Just when I booted up the game and saw the title screen and then heard the main theme playing I was like: "wait... is- is this real?". Heck yeah it was. Just when I was about to start, characters were reciting everything the dialogue box was saying and well... don't mind if I do. I love the whole VA thing, it just adds so much life to the story!! And now a big "oof"... the characters. And it's not a bad "oof", it's an actual great "OOF" i'm going for here. The characters. Oh, my, god! I just can't hate them, I love hating some of them: Jedah, Saber, Alm, Celica and even minor characters. Everything stays in line with a good and complete character development. A heartbreaking story, an amazing "new" mechanic where you have to use HP points to use things like magic or even special moves, a great cast, freaking Hidari as lead artist... heck, this game has everything. I'm keeping it and replaying it for years to come. A must-play treasure and an underrated masterpiece, and believe me, I'm choosing my words wisely.

This game deserves a 10 just because Heritors of Arcadia. That song is the **** best and deepest you will ever hear in any videogame. Oh and also, the game is good.

This is my first Fire Emblem game, and I have to say, it is a very good game. The story is a typical "gods fighting, they solve their dispute, 2 countries formed, now they are on the brink of war", but it is fleshed out nicely. Also, the visuals are absolutely astonishing, especially on new 2ds. I also love the soundtrack. It does a great job of suiting the atmosphere. If you have never played an FE game, pick up Echoes .

A good entry in the FE series. There are quite a few changes in the combat system compared to other recent FE entries, most of the changes I enjoyed. I like most of the characters in this one. It helps that the voice acting is quite well done in the English version. I also like the change to 2d cutscenes instead of cgi. Also the character models in this one even have feet. Overall the story was quite good, but I have two complaints. First, way too much heavy handed situational irony. Like instead of hinting at an interesting part of the story that might get fully revealed later, they hammer away again and again the same point until it's painfully obvious and even frustrating that the characters haven't realized it yet. Also the unrequited love interests. There are always multiple characters in every FE game who are defined entirely by their obsession with another character.