The time waiting for the US release of Shadow Dragon has faded from months now to weeks, and people who haven't played the JPN version of the remake or the original(s) are probably wondering if it'll be worth their time or not.

As they stand on the original storyline, few things have changed, besides the addition of sidequests, additional features (forge, multiplayer) and the addition of a few new characters, and older characters' names (Ex.: Oguma -> Ogma, Kashim -> Castor, Rena -> Lena), though not all of them, apparently, have changed. Things still largely remain the same: Characters such as Raddy, have zilch speaking lines and/or backstory/personality, just as they did in the first installment, which is something that should've changed.

The storyline is terribly cliched among FE games - not terribly surprising, I hope, the original came out almost two decades ago - and for Path of Radiance haters, the text is so brief that it's just bad, and what they've said of translations I've read isn't different in the least. Among the handheld Fire Emblems, this game is bad. Very bad.

Still, I think I'll pick it up, if it isn't too expensive. Although there are several things I disliked about the game, I've been dying to really see it in English, and it'll be nice for collection purposes, I guess. And, the few changes made weren't bad - sidequests do add to the story in a way, and there are SIX levels of difficulty - double of what we're used to. And in a certain chapter in the original where reinforcements spammed from turns 13-50, things could be insane on the harder/est levels. I think it'll be a good way for beginners/Marth fans to really get into the Fire Emblem series, personally, with that many levels of difficulty/a character who they know little of that they happen to like.

It's not going to be worth $50 by any means, but I'll probably pick it up if it's not too overpriced. I'm not horribly stoked about it, but it's worth a go.

I'll buy it mainly for the difficulty, but I'll probably stick with the SNES version after a couple playthroughs

I was expecting a complete overhaul in every aspects of the game. So much I didn't even think about authenticity. Silly of me.
I think a friend of mine is interested in getting the game so I'll just lend it from him and see what this whole deal with Marth is all about. I want to see this so-called "heartwarming determination" that Marth supposedly have. Other than that, I pretty much have the same critiques as anyone else. Tsk.

But you know, I've been wondering. Does anybody here think this is some sort of diversional release? What I mean is, the developers just made something quick to keep the fans busy while they work on the next FE. If I'm right about them working on the next one from the start... Could be that this FE12 is going be a record-setting game. Yeah, this is what I'm hoping but this is just a possibility after all. Only time will tell in the end.

I'm just irritated with this less than stellar re-release because they could've made a new game instead. I really hope Hydrogen's right, because I wouldn't mind playing another new FE game, and I'm curious as to what changes a new game will feature after FE10. I would like to see what happens with the height and skills systems, as well as how much content will be stuffed into the next game disk (assuming a console release, of course). With any luck, they might even revert to the old support system. Sure, Shadow Dragon has wi-fi connectivity and six difficulty levels, but Fire Emblem doesn't lend itself all that well to multiplayer anyway, and a higher number of difficulty levels isn't exactly groundbreaking. It doesn't seem like anything special, and it certainly isn't the follow-up I was looking forward to after Radiant Dawn.

I've read somewhere that a different team was working on Shadow Dragon. Is this true?

First impressions:

-The CGs and artwork added to the game is really impressive; the graphics in general are a massive step over these graphics - and personally, I think they're better than the GBA games' graphics, as well. 3D didn't hold back the characters' appearances - they made them (at least the ones who weren't originally clones) still look pretty much the same. Castor/Kashim is the one character I've come across that looks notably different from himself in the original game... Scratch that; all right, a lot of characters do. Cord and Bord/Saji and Maji, even Og(u)ma and Navarre look somewhat different - Navarre looks like a generic FE9 swordmaster, imo.

But still, fantastic change. Seems they really took advantage, what since I had just finished Chrono Trigger DS earlier, too...

-Challenge: Normal mode is easy as hell, but then again, that MIGHT be because this game is in a language that I can read. Whatever, though; that could also be because I know the game's mechanics like the back of my hand... If you've played this before, only the sidequests would surprise you, and even then they're - the one that I managed to get - not all that difficult.

Best thing about the game is the graphic presentation. It simply looks amazing, considering what it once was.

-edit: lol, mistake. My bad.

I downloaded it today and played the normal mode prologue. Judging by that, normal mode seems easier than the already easy SNES version, due to how attack speed works.

Then, I played chapter 1, Hard 3 diificulty level. It felt like kinda like Thracia 776, difficulty wise. And there are 3 harder, I'm so gonna love it.

Gotta agree with Denning about the graphics. These are definitely my favorite animations (well, I haven't played Radiant Dawn, so I don't know if they look better).

I think I'll pick up the actual cartridge next weekend.

Mm, yes. The hard modes in this game are insane. H5 Chapter 1 is harder than the whole of any games in ENG, comparatively. No, I take it back: it even made somewhat challenging portions of FE5 look easy.

All I can say is, you'd better get used to death in that mode. I lost the game before I was even halfway across the map.

I just bought the game today. I played two chapters and found it more enjoyable than the beginning of the other games.

Sacrificing in the prologue was a bit odd, but it gave me a convenient way of getting rid of Jeigan.

I always get rid of Gordin, myself.

I actually did not really like the 3D graphics that much (compared to the GBA graphics, not the SNES graphics of course). I did really like the wi-fi multiplayer, though. It makes the entire game more fun for me because I'll play through it for the sole purpose of making a good multiplayer squad.

I forgot that you can only forge one weapon per chapter, however, so I was at the last chapter with over 500,000 gold (arena abusing :P) for forging weapons for my multiplayer squad when I found out I could only forge one, so now my team is not quite as good as it could have been. (I did not have any brave weapons to forge either. D: I did have all the stat-boosting items from the secret shops, though. :D)

The forging system in this game is a lot better than that of FE9's, but it's also a lot more costly, as well. Of course, it's possible to make silver weapons stronger than that of the Three Regalia quite easily - not to mention, but it's possible to have a paladin wielding both Gradivus and Mercurious at the same time ... pretty devastating, if the paladin's maxed out, too. Abel :wub:

Brave weapons and Elysian Whips (promote peg knights into Falcon Knights in this installment if you don't like dracoknights) can be bought via the online store, iirc. Forging Brave weapons sounds cheap as hell, though.

If you have some money on you, you can pretty much turn a javelin into another Gradivus. (I think the javelin will have one less might, but should be able to beat the Gradivus in the other fields.) I agree that this forging system is improved, but it is a little easy to make weapons overpowered. ;)

Forging brave weapons to their full potential is around 120k gold, but you could get by with the maximum might and maybe 20 or so (I don't remember how much I added to the one I recently forged) added to the hit rate, which would be around 75k.