Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia - Where is Marth? (Marth marth marth marth)

I finished Act 1 last night - I've been playing at a very leisurely pace! - and I'm chuffed with how this game is panning out. Naturally, the maps are pretty weak but as a whole, thumbs up so far!

I've been trying to start this since it's release but I just can't for some reason

That's me up to Act 4 now. I genuinely think I'm at a stage where I could solo the rest of the game with Saber. The man's a beast.

And doneski! Good game - I found it a fair bit easier than previous Emblems, but maybe that's because I abused the hell out of Saber through most of the game. He was duking it out with the final boss and was able to last a good few rounds of combat with him before needing heals! What a monster.

I think this might be my favourite handheld Emblem, actually. I really enjoyed the characters and writing in this one, which meant that I ended up enjoying the story more too. The move towards simpler mechanics was a welcome one as well - the game didn't feel as bloated as Fates due to stripping back the mechanics.

Ugh, why is Celica so stupid? Wow, what a twist, the evil guy who spent half his lines laughing evily was lying about making a deal of taking her soul in exchange for letting everyone live or giving her anything in return. HOW SHOCKING I ARE SHOCKED BY THIS BRILLIANT TWIST.


This is some Corrin levels of stupidity right here. Don't get me wrong, I understand that some characters are stupid, but if there's one thing I absolutely hate in storytelling it's naivety taken to such an extreme that it's akin to a toddler being promised candy by a stranger. What makes it even worse is that these developments are coming not soon after the brilliantly handled Berkut and the culmination of his slow mental collapse as his world is slowly ripped out from under him.

This game writes some damn good villains, but it also writes some horrible protagonists.

I couldn't fathom what Celica was up to there - like, I get she thinks she NEEDS to go with Jedah, but surely she knew the consequences. Alm was much better, even if he was a basic ol' Fire Emblem lord.

I don't know if I can do this final boss map, I honestly don't know. They took all of the worst parts of the game and threw them in a blender, serving it up on a silver platter with a big s***-eating grin on their faces as they did so. Jedah with his "I can only be hurt every five attacks" crap returns, his summoning of the eyeballs of hell that constantly spawn yet more eyeballs return. The Medusa spell to reduce a units HP to 1 returns (who the f*** actually thought that attack was a good idea? Maybe if it was a one-range move, but it's a five f**ing space move, do you even game balance Echoes devs?) returns, the Witch conjuring witches return, and of course the final boss himself brings back the stupid earthquake skill that hits every unit on the map for damage based on his attack (which is skyhigh for obvious reasons) so if you even think of playing aggressively you get slaughtered.


At this point the game has become a genuine chore. The constant wave of fodder makes me feel like I'm in an Advance Wars stalemate, said fodder also being juuuuust strong enough to be annoying, but not strong enough to pose a threat (a good thing given how much they're spammed, but at the same time their weakness just begs the question of why bore the players to death). Words cannot describe how boring this map is. I've been on it for over a week with the 3ds in sleep mode, even finding the bloody filling I just had more mentally stimulating than playing.

This isn't skill or strategy based, it's just a very boring numbers game. This game might be the very first Fire Emblem game I've started that I intentionally never finish. Even the improvements to the story aren't good enough to keep my interest (if I want a good fantasy with characters that believably make constant bad decisions I'll read Stormlight Archive, and besides it's obvious what the story's conclusion is at this point anyway. Duma will die and a utopia free from Mad Dragon Rule will be formed, happy ever after the end.).


/rant the second. With that I think I'll resume my play of a infinitely superior game in Persona 5. Maybe someday I'll slog through this map, if only to say I've done it, but that day can wait. I've got far better games to play, both on the 3ds and elsewhere.

I... really didn't struggle with the final map. I had Saber, Alm, Celica and another of my Dread Fighters bum rush Jedah on the first chance I got, and used the Mage Ring on Delthea so she could pick off the Terrors from afar. I had my Priestesses on constant healing and my Bow Knights helping with picking off units. Sure, it was a long map, but I certainly didn't find it anywhere near as tough as you've found it, Athrun.

Sounds to me you had some lucky level-ups, my Celica's a glass canon who'll die the moment she's played offensively and Alm literally has 5 resistance despite being level 15 after a promotion where he'd almost hit level 20, and neither are even close to strong enough to take on Jedah.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the final map's difficult. It's just mind-crushingly boring and filled with a stack of horrid game design decisions that turn it into an obnoxious numbers game that makes me miss Revelation. I could likely take down Jedah if I wanted to, but as soon as the enemies start pooping out their minions my mind simply goes "nope, not interested, rather have another migraine putting me to bed for a day, peace out".

I had a good five to six units rocking Seraphim who could tank a hit or two from the Terrors - that might have helped matters. I also gave Celica a strong shield for this battle and I only used Alm to get the final hit with Double Lion on Jedah - I know he couldn't survive otherwise thanks to his mediocre resistance stat.

I started this last night whilst watching some Kinda Funny.

Played for about 2hrs, seems rather decent from those few hours.

Likely will talk more about 3DS games and the system elsewhere when I get my Argos games.

I really like it for feeling different from most Fire Emblem games. Three Houses freshened up the formula, but Fire Emblem has been mostly static in its formula across the majority of its games. It feels more like an RPG, if that makes sense.

Yep, have said myself that this game is closer to a standard RPG than the others. Focuses on aspects I don't normally look for in a Fire Emblem, but this game gets so much stuff right to the extent that it's one of my favourites. And the presentation is so damn good.

I recently done Act 1 which like 4hrs in and does seem a tad different with the dungeons etc

Yeah, the dungeons were a nice change of pace - they sort of fit the purpose of the Monastery bits in FE:TH in that it breaks up the battling with something a bit different, in a way.