Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, known as Fire Emblem Echoes: Another Hero King in Japan, is an tactical role-playing game developed by Intelligent Systems and Vicarious Visions and published by Nintendo, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Activision for the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita handheld video game consoles in 2017. The game is a full remake of the 1992 Famicom title Fire Emblem Gaiden, the second entry in the Fire Emblem series. Following childhood friends Alm and Celica as they fight on opposites sides of a war between their respective nations, Fire Emblem Echoes carries over the core gameplay mechanics of the Fire Emblem series while incorporating mechanics from Gaiden and new elements including dungeons.

Development of Fire Emblem Echoes began in 2015 following the completion of Fire Emblem Fates. Intended as the culmination of the Fire Emblem series on the 3DS platform and carrying over several staff members from both Fates and Fire Emblem Awakening, it carried over the unconventional mechanics of Gaiden while expanding and rebuilding the story and gameplay based on recent Fire Emblem games and the team's wishes for added role-playing elements.

Gameplay
Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia is a tactical role-playing game in which players command two armies on opposite sides of a war on the continent of Valentia. There are two difficulty settings (Normal and Hard), two modes that dictate the fate of characters that fall in battle. In Classic Mode, a fallen unit is subject to permanent death, a recurring mode in the Fire Emblem series that removes fallen characters from the rest of the game. Casual Mode enables units to be revived at the end of a battle. The player navigates Valentia using a world map, going to different story-based and optional locations. Environments are split between battle maps similar to earlier Fire Emblem titles, towns which can be explored to find friendly non-playable characters (NPCs) which run shops, and dungeons the player can explore. Encountering enemies on the world map or in dungeons with trigger a battle.

As with other Fire Emblem games, Fire Emblem Echoes uses a turn-based system where each unit on both sides is given their chance to move and act. Battles take place on a grid-based battlefield, with turns being given for players and enemies. During an attack, the view transitions from a top-down perspective to a third-person view. Unlike many other Fire Emblem titles, the Weapons Triangle — a rock–paper–scissors system where certain weapons have advantages over others — and limited weapon durability are removed. Units instead have standard weapons that last the whole campaign, and can be given special weapons which replace their standard weapon and grant passive advantages. Each unit can only carry one weapon, which grows in power as its wielder gains experience points and levels up through battle. Each unit is assigned a unique character class, with the class dictating their weapon and consequently their actions; archers can attack at a distance, melee fighters are limited to close-range attacks, while mages must sacrifice a portion of of their health to perform an action. Once a unit has reached a certain level, their class can be evolved into more powerful versions. Villager NPCs can also be recruited in towns; while initially weak, they can be strengthened and assigned any available character class.

Each time a unit is used in a battle, their Fatigue meter is filled and their maximum health is decreased. The meter is depleted by either giving that unit gifts or purifying them at special statues. During battles, adjacent allied units can engage in Support conversations. In dungeon environments, players can roam freely through a 3D environment with a party of ten units, able to avoid encounters if they wish and smash objects or open crates to obtain money and items. Upon engaging an enemy, the perspective switches to the standard top-down battle screen. An added function is Mila's Turnwheel, a mechanic whereby players can undo three turns to redo moves if something has gone wrong such as a unit falling in battle. In addition, Fire Emblem Echoes features Amiibo support, with compatible figurines being main protagonists Alm and Celica, in addition to characters from earlier Fire Emblem games: using an Amiibo summons a phantom unit for a single turn at the cost of a character's health. Amiibos not related to the Fire Emblem series summon allied monsters.

Synopsis

 * Main article: Fire Emblem Gaiden § Synopsis

The main storyline remains the same as in Fire Emblem Gaiden. Long ago, the sibling gods Mila and Duma fought for control over the continent of Valentia. Eventually, they called a truce and each took half of the continent. Mila's worshipers would form the kingdom of Zofia, a land of plentiful bounty that over time spoiled and corrupted its people through complacency, while Duma's worshipers created the kingdom of Rigel, a desolate land whose people grew in strength but became numb to emotion. The game follows Alm and Celica, childhood friends who set off on their own journeys across Valentia in order to restore peace.

After the completion of the game, a new post-game chapter can be started which allows Alm, Celica, and their allies to journey across the sea to Archanea, the setting of the original Fire Emblem. While there, a large labyrinth buried in the nearby desert can be discovered. Exploring its depths, various stone tables speak of an alchemist named Forneus who attempted to create the perfect lifeform with divine dragon blood as well as reanimating the dead to be subservient, but was sealed within the labyrinth as punishment for his inhumane experiments. At the deepest level, Forneus' "perfect lifeform" is encountered: a monstrous being dubbed "The Creation" which serves as the final boss of the labyrinth and is heavily implied to be Grima, the main antagonist of Fire Emblem Awakening.

Development
Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia is a full remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden. The second entry in the Fire Emblem series, Gaiden was released in 1992 for the Famicom. The game was notable for breaking away from the gameplay precedents set in its predecessor, Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light; while it retained that game's tactical turn-based battle system, it included new features, such as navigable towns and overworld, and simplified mechanics. Due to these changes, Gaiden came to be considered the black sheep of the series, with many of its new elements being dropped for subsequent entries. Gaiden did not receive a Western release. Development for Echoes began following the completion of Fire Emblem Fates in 2015: Producers Lauren Shuler Donne, Peter Del Vecho, Charles Roven, Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall with the executive producers Francis Ford Coppola, Sofia Coppola, Ben Affleck and Richard Donner began considering developing a Fire Emblem game for the new Nintendo Switch home console along with PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows, but it was too early to be developing for that system. While considering what would come next, several Intelligent Systems staff said they wanted to implement features that had to be cut from Fates in a remake of Gaiden. As Gaiden has received little attention up to this point, Shuler Donner thought they could quickly develop a remake and release it before the PS4, XO, Windows and Switch's release. It was initially planned for release in September 2016, but they could not reach this deadline without compromising the game's quality, so the release was delayed into 2017.

Director Christopher Nolan —who was a fan of The Dark Knight Trilogy, Tim Burton, was busy with another project. The director Bill Condon—he took up the role due to his sympathetic understanding Gaiden's unconventional gameplay. Rather than calling it "New Gaiden", the team chose the English word "Echoes" to give it worldwide appeal, enable its differentiation from the other side story projects within the Fire Emblem series, and as the potential branding for a new series of remakes. Echoes was intended to be the culmination of the Fire Emblem series on the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita. The characters were redesigned by Hidari. Condon was chosen due to Nolan's frequent praising for his work. Gore Verbinski had tried to hire Condon to work on both Awakening and the Fire Emblem trading card game, but Condon was too busy with other projects, but for Echoes, a meeting was set up well in advance and Condon was able to accept when he was hired by Christopher Nolan to work on Echoes. Condon's first character design was Alm; he underwent four redesigns, which enabled Condon to get a handle on the game's artstyle and design the rest of the cast on his own. The game features animated cutscenes by Studio Khara.

The game's music was composed and arranged primally by Michael Giacchino with the additional music composed, arranged and conducted by John Debney. The composer John Paesano, was not involved with the project due to Paesano's commitment to scoring Fire Emblem Heroes. The game's theme song is "The Heritors of Arcadia" (Arcadia's Successors in the Japanese version) which is performed by Janis Crunch (who translated and adapted the lyrics in Japanese version) with the background vocals performed by Mamoru Miyano in the Japanese version and by Hayden Panettiere with the background vocals performed and additional vocals produced by John Legend in the English version. The song's music was composed by Michael Giacchino and lyrics written by Carole Bayer Sager, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. The song was produced by Michael Kosarin, Alex Lacamore and David Foster with the orchestral and choir arrangements provided by Michael Giacchino.

According to Linda Woolverton, David S. Goyer and Evan Spiliotopoulos, the original story of John Musker, Ron Clements, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio had been underdeveloped compared to later Fire Emblem titles, to a remake would enable them to redesign the narrative to suit the tastes of modern Fire Emblem players. The story of Gaiden was expanded significantly with the inclusion of the core conflict between the two nations that was previously confined to the original version's manual, and cast the character Saber in the role of narrator so as not to limit the scope of the story. While the team contemplated adding elements from earlier 3DS titles such as a player-created avatar, but the team wanted to focus on original protagonists Alm and Celica. The sibling relationship and their positions in seperate rebellious factions was what had originally drawn Nakanishi back towards the game. The gameplay was rebuilt from the ground up based on the technology developed for Fates and Awakening, with its redesign being seen as a necessity with remaking the story due to the original version's "obtuse" mechanics. Rather than bring the game more in line with the rest of the Fire Emblem series, they preserved the role-playing mechanics and combined them with more recent Fire Emblem mechanics. The free roaming mechanic had been developed for Fates, but quality concerns led it to being cut. As Gaiden had this featured originally, it was considered a "perfect" match. It was also decided to lower the difficulty when compared to the original, allowing series veterans and newcomers to enjoy the game.

Release
The title was first announced in January 2017 during a Nintendo Direct broadcast dedicated to the Fire Emblem series. In Japan, multiple versions of the game were released; in addition to the standard release, there was also a limited edition with a special soundtrack, and a "Valentia Complete" edition featuring the contents of the limited edition with added items, including an artbook. The game was released in Japan on April 20, 2017; in North America and Europe on May 19; and in Australasia on May 20. Amiibo figures of the game's protagonists Alm and Celica were released alongside the game. The game features full voice acting—a first for the Fire Emblem series—for all but minor characters, but the English release does not include dual audio unlike Awakening. The game's localization was handled by 8-4, who previously worked on Awakening and the 2008 Nintendo DS title Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon. Post-release, five downloadable content packs are set for release over the following two months, and a Season Pass giving access to all five packs at a reduced price.

Reception
Gaming journal Famitsu gave the game a positive review, with all four reviewers praising the mechanical quality, dramatic story and the mechanics carried over from Gaiden. One reviewer said that the efforts spent on Fire Emblem Echoes had elevated Gaiden from being the series' black sheep.

Sales
During its first week on sale, Fire Emblem Echoes sold 135,195 units, topping gaming charts and selling through 80% of its initial shipment.