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Course and Research Guides
A-Z Database List
Legends never die, and the OG hero Marth comes to life as a relic of JRPG history. If you know nothing about Fire Emblem, it is not a surprise. The series was only localized outside of Japan after a decade and six games into the franchise. However, Nintendo is rectifying this poor decision by finally porting the first Fire Emblem Game, Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, to the Nintendo Switch come this December! It should be noted that this news has me absolutely geeking out and will carry me through the entire month of December without wanting to so much as leave my apartment.
Fire Emblem didn’t pick up traction with many audiences until 2013, when the Fire Emblem: Awakening title reinvigorated the series. Awakening was also supposed to be the franchise’s final farewell, but the game blew past its projections and became the series’s highest-selling product. This popularity has only been intensified through its other collaborations with Super Smash Bros, Shin Megami Tensei, and Dynasty Warriors.
After the stellar success of 2013’s Awakening, Nintendo had no choice but to continue feeding us with new content and updated classic games. 2017’s Fire Emblem: Echoes is a revamped evolution of 1992’s Gaiden, which demonstrates Nintendo’s appetite to continue updating classic games within the Fire Emblem franchise. This year’s Shadow Dragon release isn’t even its first localization. It was updated in 2008 for the Nintendo DS and adopted many of the features that evolved in later games.
This new remake sets itself apart, though, by being unabashedly old school and a faithful realization of the first game. It is a simple English translation applied over the original game with minimal edits to graphics or gameplay mechanics. It is an exciting bit about video game history coming to the Nintendo Switch. I absolutely hope Nintendo continues the trend with other series as they reach their significant milestones.
For a brief description of this game, it is a tactical RPG classic that involves elements of high fantasy, political drama, and a hero’s tale. Marth, the hero of Shadow Dragon, is a refugee and is the lost prince of a country conquered by a tyrannical king. He must wield the sacred weapon Falchion and depose of tyrants, corrupt leaders, and evil dragons if he is to restore peace to a war-torn continent.
It comes out December 5th, so you have plenty of time to budget for the $5.99 it will cost to bring a brilliant piece of video game history to your home and battle it out against 8-bit dragons. Finally, and most importantly, you must play on permadeath mode!
- Daniel Samford, MS-LS Candidate 2021
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