That was the point of the Collector's Edition's collectables as they were designed, though. Imagining the look of an NES release of FE1 that never existed.
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light |OT| Delisted? Bring It On!
- Thread starter kuroneko0509
- Start date
- OT
You don't see the contradiction in an "30th anniversary edition" that's celebrating a version of the first game that never came out?
Feels more like you're fundamentally misunderstanding what this wants to be. It's celebrating the original entry in a new globally popular franchise by creating a special collectible showpiece cartridge that didn't exist like this in the West and now it does and you can play it (not the cart obv) and have a cartridge for that system it was never originally localized for. That is a great way to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the first game.
I'd assume that's part of gag. Personally, I think it's cute how it comes with an NES-style game box and cart, not to mention the localized manual and the Nintendo Power "issue number" slotting in when a theoretical issue would have released in April 1990.
There's nothing celebratory about making up a release for a game that never came out on the NES, let alone one that released with the technical troubles on display (i've experienced a few graphical errors in addition to audible issues) and complete lack of features within the package itself. If this is meant to be a celebration of the series, then it's a farce when you'd find more options in a standard Famicom emulator than you will in this game's options, not to mention it would probably run with less issues.
If anything, it feels more like Nintendo is overlooking the long history of the series where it was and does in large part remain exclusive to Japan (FE 2-6, the remake of Book 2). Of the various incarnations of the first game (the Famicom original, its Super Famicom remake/sequel, the manga adaptation, the anime two-parter, Shadow Dragon), only the anime and Shadow Dragon have come to the West prior to this release, to say nothing of other games in the series or media like the trading card game or their respective manga adaptations.
If anything, it feels more like Nintendo is overlooking the long history of the series where it was and does in large part remain exclusive to Japan (FE 2-6, the remake of Book 2). Of the various incarnations of the first game (the Famicom original, its Super Famicom remake/sequel, the manga adaptation, the anime two-parter, Shadow Dragon), only the anime and Shadow Dragon have come to the West prior to this release, to say nothing of other games in the series or media like the trading card game or their respective manga adaptations.
so ...you're just mad about the emulator? cause you started off being cranky about the model cartridge and now you're saying that (unique replica physical cart) is nothing celebratory because ...the emulator isn't the best?
I'm annoyed that this anniversary edition that's meant to celebrate the series seems to be rather low effort. It should not be this hard to avoid screwing up re-releasing a Famicom game in 2020, and yet, here we are.
Screwed up...how? That the colors are dark because of the emulator?
so it is just about the emulator and its (lack of) features that annoys you. can we just agree on that then? cause that cartridge business wasn't really worth kicking up dust over...
I've been playing this and have a bit of a spicy hot take about it: I know lots of people like to crap on this game for being vastly inferior to many other later games in the series. It's maps are simple, you don't have conveniences like easily checking enemy ranges, damage forecast, etc.
I think if it actually was localized back when it came out, opinions would be a lot different on it and more like Super Mario Bros. 1. Super Mario Bros. is a weird example, just because FE is a more complicated game by nature, but SMB1 has a lot of things that wouldn't appear until later games that are just synonymous with the series now. You couldn't scroll the screen left, jump momentum is a bit weird, and vastly different from later games in the series, you couldn't do things like picking up koopa shells, none of the levels had any verticality to them, so on and so forth.
There's nothing WRONG with SMB1, and in fact it's an excellent game, it's just very simple compared to it's successors. Fire Emblem is the same situation. So far based on the 3-4 maps I have played, they're very simple: Beat the commander, take the castle. There's villages you want Marth to get to. There might be enemies you can recruit, there's houses to visit that tell you about the game's mechanics, there's usually a shop and a convoy. There's no weapon triangle, but still things like bows > fliers. I know the later maps obviously get tougher. Things like castle maps with chests get thrown in, but you don't have a lot of the more complex stuff you get in later games in the series.
If you ask people which 2D Mario is their favorite, you'll get a variety of answers. The most common ones I see are SMB3, SMW, and NSMBU. I almost never see anyone claim that SMB1 is their favorite, yet everyone universally thinks it's a great game.
If Fire Emblem released in 1990 in English (or 1991, given how long localization could take), I think this game would be seen a whole lot differently by English-speaking audiences today. You CAN go the method of doing the damage calculations yourself, but given how simple everything is in this game, I have mostly winged it through the maps. Granted this could change later on, and I might take advantage of the rewind more, but I've been doing generally pretty okay without running the calculations. It's been more a glance at my stats and their stats, and seeing if it's a fight I could reasonably take.
I think if it actually was localized back when it came out, opinions would be a lot different on it and more like Super Mario Bros. 1. Super Mario Bros. is a weird example, just because FE is a more complicated game by nature, but SMB1 has a lot of things that wouldn't appear until later games that are just synonymous with the series now. You couldn't scroll the screen left, jump momentum is a bit weird, and vastly different from later games in the series, you couldn't do things like picking up koopa shells, none of the levels had any verticality to them, so on and so forth.
There's nothing WRONG with SMB1, and in fact it's an excellent game, it's just very simple compared to it's successors. Fire Emblem is the same situation. So far based on the 3-4 maps I have played, they're very simple: Beat the commander, take the castle. There's villages you want Marth to get to. There might be enemies you can recruit, there's houses to visit that tell you about the game's mechanics, there's usually a shop and a convoy. There's no weapon triangle, but still things like bows > fliers. I know the later maps obviously get tougher. Things like castle maps with chests get thrown in, but you don't have a lot of the more complex stuff you get in later games in the series.
If you ask people which 2D Mario is their favorite, you'll get a variety of answers. The most common ones I see are SMB3, SMW, and NSMBU. I almost never see anyone claim that SMB1 is their favorite, yet everyone universally thinks it's a great game.
If Fire Emblem released in 1990 in English (or 1991, given how long localization could take), I think this game would be seen a whole lot differently by English-speaking audiences today. You CAN go the method of doing the damage calculations yourself, but given how simple everything is in this game, I have mostly winged it through the maps. Granted this could change later on, and I might take advantage of the rewind more, but I've been doing generally pretty okay without running the calculations. It's been more a glance at my stats and their stats, and seeing if it's a fight I could reasonably take.
This is also how I feel basically all the major lasting Nintendo franchises started out on NES/FC. Zelda and Metroid "suffer" from this equally or moreso, since specifically Mario (SMB1) remains very accessible and playable to this day and the others need those "you're playing a classic game in its original form"-goggles firmly planted onto your face before you sit down and try to come to grips with it.
Yeah I agree that Zelda and Metroid probably suffer this more, but less than FE because those games were available in English and still are frequently re-released. They're playable on the NES app right now. I personally can't stomach Metroid 1, but I can stomach Zelda 1 (although I have never beat it).
I don't know what the general reaction to Earthbound Beginnings was when it came to Wii U, but I'm willing to bet it was similar.
In non-Nintendo franchises, you see a lot of this in the Persona series as well: Many people never touch Persona 1 or the Persona 2 duology, and their only experience with the series is Persona 3/4/5. They usually play Persona 1 for a few minutes, get turned off by the high encounter rate (which to be fair, that part does suck), and quit it. Persona 2 they usually quit early for different reasons (although I think the P2 Duology is better than Persona 1). Persona did have a weird history with English localizations, with the PS1 localization of P1 being the weird Americanized one, Innocent Sin never being localized for PS1, and then Eternal Punishment coming out with a normal localization.
It did come out...in Japan.
It's still the 30th anniversary of Fire Emblem whether you're in the US, Japan, or Europe. Fire Emblem is Fire Emblem worldwide. The Collectors Edition is clearly a bunch of "What if it was localized in the NES era?" type of stuff, which is really neat. There's the fake NES box and cartridge, the Nintendo Power poster (every NP issue had a poster in it like that). The art book is pretty neat.
It's a package of Nintendo acknowledging they didn't localize the game back then and they probably should have, but it's nice they can have a little fun of doing things like the fake cart and Nintendo power poster.
Not in an NES cart, it didn't:
As an aside, I love how terrible the original artwork for characters is for the first Fire Emblem game.
Why does Abel have beaver teeth? LOL!Not in an NES cart, it didn't:
As an aside, I love how terrible the original artwork for characters is for the first Fire Emblem game.
They get so much better/worse, I highly recommend giving them a look.
Well I have always been a fan of pantsless Marth.They get so much better/worse, I highly recommend giving them a look.
God this looks like trash. After the dark (literally) days of the Wii U I thought we were past this awful emulation.
it's using a version of the Wii U emulator, though :) (because it likely was intended as a Wii U release originally, probably for the 25th).
Picked up my Best Buy order last night and did not realize until I got the box out of the trunk that the art piece seems to be glass and not just clear plastic. Wish the music did not go berserk when using the fast forward options but that is a minor complaint. The sound effect that plays when an attack does 0 damage sounds so cute lol.
The music being ruined when you speed things up bugs me almost as much as the crackling does; Yuka Tsujiyoko's score is one of the game's few highlights and her compositions are excellent. They do an amazing job of capturing the sweeping scale of this war and injecting character with leitmotifs that the dialogue rarely manages to deliver in comparison. There's even some poignant tracks like "Each Map's Victory" that comment on the state of warfare in a subtle manner. It's a astonishing that they managed to screw up the sound as badly as they did.
I don't remember how I found out about this particular exploit, but i'm glad I did because it's absolutely hilarious that using a promotional item can give Tiki a defense higher than any attack possible in this game if you do it enough times.
Apparently this is selling well! I saw on Twitter it's at number 2 on the eShop, haven't confirmed though. Hope we get some SNES localizations next!
Good to hear the Best Buy orders are going through. I ordered mine and I got the notice telling me they're working to get it within the next few days.
The only thing this is going to do is encourage Nintendo to keep doing this artificial scarcity garbage for their next legacy release/bundle. People hoping this will lead to more localizations are being naive at best.
This is Nintendo being exploitative, plain and simple; they are cashing out on the first game's legacy over a limited time period with equally limited effort, solely because they know people will lap up their $50 special edition due to them making it scarce and impossible to buy (I mean, I bought it, but I did so to review the game). They're not using this to test the waters for a hypothetical Binding Blade localization, they're using the game to boost their fiscal quarter by fanning a fear of missing out. This is your one and only chance to own the Fire Emblem game that started it all…unless you change your region to Japan in which case it's part of your Nintendo Switch Online offerings.
Buying this game is only going to make it more likely that the next major retro release by Nintendo is going to be sharing shelves for a short period of time, and the fear of missing out on re-releases of historically significant games with limited features has worked for them on two different accounts (3D All-Stars selling 5 million and FE 30 being sold out everywhere).
this is simply not true when they commissioned an original localization for this along (we know of no finished localization sitting around like it was for EB Beginnings or Star Fox 2) with a dedicated art book. limited effort this is not.
I get it, you can say you don't like them using the shoddy Wii U NES emulator and that they should have added more features and that the limited time availability is trash but stop there and don't always add all of this nonsense. You're killing your legit points with this every time.
Last edited:
Not to mention special editions of Fire Emblem games are always scarce. That's a completely separate issue from their limited time availability nonsense. This 30th anniversary edition was always going to be as hard to come by as the Fates or Three Houses special editions. Especially post-pandemic.
The limited time thing is for sure BS (especially for digital versions) and I hate "having" to support it through my purchase. But if there's a slight chance it'll make Nintendo realize there's a market for old FEs getting translated on the Switch then I'll take it.
One thing I will say about the localization: While most of the script reads like it would have were the game released in 1990/91, Gharnef and Medeus saying they'll see Marth in Hell is definitely not something the censorship-happy Nintendo of the 90s would have ever let fly, which was a little distracting. It's not the biggest problem with the first game's story but it's something that was certainly a surprise when I got to the final chapters.
2. The bad emulation and lack of features is precisely what i'm referring to when I say the effort is limited. Translating an old Famicom game is not so Herculean a task to somehow negate the sound problems.
1. Both Earthbound Beginnings and Star Fox 2 weren't sold for a few months during their series' respective anniversaries.
2. The bad emulation and lack of features is precisely what i'm referring to when I say the effort is limited. Translating an old Famicom game is not so Herculean a task to somehow negate the sound problems.
Last edited:
1) has nothing to do with the "limited effort" argument and 2) is you again ignoring the rest of the package and that an actual limited effort would've been an even more basic version of the emulator WITHOUT any of the features it does have (rewind, etc). Cause those have been added specifically for this thing. And you underselling game localization just so can stay mad is just ...no.
Again, you can certainly criticize the emulator and its issues but do it without the unnecessary flourishes.
The localisation quality is light years ahead of what you would've gotten in the 90s. It's actually kinda jarring to see such a modern quality localisation in a NES game!
Even Earthbound Beginnings (which itself had a VERY high quality localisation for the time, easily the most well written English script ever seen in a NES game; and better than most SNES & MD games even) doesn't really compare to the quality of the writing in FESD&TBOL. The difference is stark.
Similarily. Trials of Mana's localisation is far, FAR better than anything we got from Squaresoft in the 90s.
I forgot about it happening in Shadow Dragon since it has been some time since I played it but this game throws so many benchwarmer units at the player. I know it is due to permadeath but I feel kinda sad that they will just sit out forever, minus one or two characters needed to recruit useful units that cannot be recruited by Marth/Caeda.
yeah, comparing with the JP NSO version I spent 15hr on I can vouch for sound issues. There's something with the pitch/crackling and it's very bothersome. My only theory on it is that, wii U NES VC games were SUPER INSANELY quiet, which was very dumb. This seems to be the same emulator as Wii U at its base, but with the volume adjusted to not be as limited. Maybe that caused the audio quirks since the emulator was meant to be quiet with NES games... Really hope they fix it though, I can deal with the darkness due to the screen size options, but I can't stand the audio issues when I've played 15 hours of a version that sounds 10000x better, agree with caz on this one.
The CE is definitely amazing though: the art book goes into a ton of obscure details including the BSX game, which is pretty magnificent since Nintendo threw the Zelda ones a single line or two in the hyrule historia, while it gets it's own section of art and stuff with history tidbits in this FE book.
The CE is definitely amazing though: the art book goes into a ton of obscure details including the BSX game, which is pretty magnificent since Nintendo threw the Zelda ones a single line or two in the hyrule historia, while it gets it's own section of art and stuff with history tidbits in this FE book.
they've had this sitting around for years presumably. they're not touching this again.
I envy your optimism.
Neither of these are going to happen just because you bought this game.
So is there anyplace else discussing the audio crackling or comment from Nintendo? It feels odd to me that this thread seems to be the only place that acknowledges it.
I'd expect an FE6 remake before a localization of the original.
I cannot get over how incredible the chapter intro or "Trouble" theme is. I have the game paused for at least two loops every time I start a new chapter.
Anyway, game's honestly really fun and holds up surprisingly well. I'm not even using too much of the QoL features as well, mostly because because they suck but yeah. Game's great.
Anyway, game's honestly really fun and holds up surprisingly well. I'm not even using too much of the QoL features as well, mostly because because they suck but yeah. Game's great.
Thank god, I thought my speakers or receiver were going out with the crackling and pops. Glad it's just the game. (While also NOT glad it's the game...)
All in all though, I'm actually really enjoying playing through this. I kind of thought I would just be suffering through it to experience a piece of gaming history but I kind of like it. A lot of NES games don't hold up and obviously while it's very rough around the edges, the core gameplay shines through. I'm glad I gave this a chance.
All in all though, I'm actually really enjoying playing through this. I kind of thought I would just be suffering through it to experience a piece of gaming history but I kind of like it. A lot of NES games don't hold up and obviously while it's very rough around the edges, the core gameplay shines through. I'm glad I gave this a chance.
