Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & The Blade of Light

[Cepp]

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light is clunky AF. Everything is slow, especially the menus and curser movement. Doubling the speed via the emulator is great but it also doubles the speed of the music. I can't put up with playing it at the original speed personally so I've turned the volume off.

There's a translated English manual but it doesn't really tell you much. I found out in-game that hammers are good against knights for example but its not mentioned in the manual. This may have been the case with the original release but I'm not sure.

https://www.nintendo.com/consumer/downloads/FESD&BL_NES_eManual_ENG.pdf

So it's old and dated in some ways, and I think I need to read a strategy guide so I don't screw myself over later in the game, but it's cool to have it and I'm enjoying making my way through it. There's very little story, just a few lines of text at the start and end of each battle. No cutscenes either, just lots and lots of fighting!

[kryss]

There's not even a weapon triangle.

https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Fire_Emblem:_Shadow_Dragon_and_the_Blade_of_Light

[Cepp]

I'm on chapter 18 and it feels like Axe users get screwed in this game. None of the shops outside of the first few chapters sell axes but Barst is still kicking arse for me. I've taken to robbing equipment from lower level axe users instead.

[Cepp]

The final battle is bull****. I made heavy use of the rewind feature and even then it was tough. I would have had to replay that map many, many times back in the day. I had to sacrifice Cain to make it through and lucked out with Marth landing a crit on the final boss.

Fun game but definitely a product of its time.

[danstan21]

I haven't picked this up since I have the DS remake, but even in that version there's minimal fluff and a pretty rudimentary version of the standard FE gameplay. Still, even without the emphasis on characters that the later games became famous for, there's something pleasing about such a 'pure' experience without the reams of often-hammy dialogue to wade through.

[Cepp]

Yes, even this early on, fighting your way through each map was often extremely satisfying.

It was a good base to work from.