Given the strengths of Fire Emblem and the capabilities of the Nintendo DS, the fit seemed a match made in heaven and I’ve been hoping we’d see a FE game on the hand-held for years now. Well, it appears that on August 7th that it’ll finally become a reality. Granted, that’s the Japanese release date and I expect the North American release to be announced in the weeks/months to come — but one way or another I’ll be playing it! This entry, for the DS, is a remake of the original Fire Emblem and has been loosely translated as Fire Emblem: New Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light. On June 13th, IGN broke a long period of silence by providing recent info. from Famitsu on what we can expect:
The basics of the game aren’t being changed much from the original and its sequels as players alternate between event scenes and strategic battles. There’s one big difference here: online play. Developer Intelligent Systems is making use of Nintendo’s Wi-Fi Connect service to give the title long distance multiplayer — a first for the series. You begin an online battle by first creating a team using up to five units that you’ve built up in the single player story mode. Battles take place over versus-specific maps.
Great news! Despite the fact that I’ll get my rear-end handed to me on Wi-Fi, no doubt. There are simply too many great FE players that are able to manage and/or manipulate stat-growth to a degree that have no time and interest in replicating. Still, it’ll be fun. I’m also holding out hope for the ability to build characters in towers, skirmishes, etc. once more, as we were able to do in FEVIII: The Sacred Stones (GBA). For me, the opportunity to do so added an awful lot of pick-up and play replay value that I loved, and gave me the chance to see what some of the other players could do if you put time and attention into building them up correctly. There was some criticism that character building made the game easier, but as best I can tell, that’s an individual choice that can be measured accordingly depending on the player. One could choice to utilized it, or abuse it, as they saw fit and I enjoyed the chance to take different units into battle immensely. But whatever the case, this is one of my most anticipated games of the year and I’m excited to finally be able to play the series, hopefully with the charm of the GBA hand-held version, sprites and all, as well as some of the enhancements that are unique to the DS.
[More to come as updates become available.]
