Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (Japanese:ファイアーエムブレム　新・暗黒竜と光の剣Fire Emblem: New Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light) is the eleventh game in theFire Emblem series. It is aNintendo DS remake ofFire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light,^[1][2] which itself was originally released on theFamily Computer. The remake also features elements from Book 1 ofFire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, merging elements from both versions; though it is officially stated to be a remake of the Famicom/NES release.^[1][2]Shadow Dragon features updated graphics and gameplay mechanics, additional background music, and several new characters, items, and plot devices.

Plot

Prologue

Long ago, the continent ofArchanea was invaded by theDolhr Empire, led by the Shadow Dragon,Medeus, and the people lived in fear and despair. However, a miracle occurred.Anri, a youth fromAltea, slew the Shadow Dragon usingFalchion, The Blade of Light. The Kingdom of Archanea was restored and the world entered an age of peace. But 100 years later... Medeus was resurrected. He joined forces with the Dark SorcererGharnef, who was also the usurper emperor ofKhadein and who shared his ambitions of ruling the world, as well as the kingdoms ofMacedon andGrust, and launched an attack onArchanea, Altea,Aurelis, andGra, beginning the longWar of Shadows.Cornelius, the king of Altea and successor of the heroic Anri, left to battle Medeus, with the Falchion in hand. Meanwhile, Cornelius's only son and the prince of Altea,Marth, awaits his father's return as he passes his days with his education and sword training, not knowing that Gra had betrayed Altea, sided with the Dolhr empire, and murdered his father. Gra soldiers attempted to take Marth captive; They were unsuccessful and, after several months and seemingly at the cost of the life ofFrey, Marth escaped toTalys, a small island kingdom that was allied to Altea. Marth vowed to one day return to Altea and free his homeland and her people. Very shortly thereafter, Archanea was defeated by Grust's GeneralCamus, and, aside from PrincessNyna, the royal family was wiped out.

Marth Embarks

After staying at Talys for several years, training himself in the arts of war, and very shortly after General Camus helped Nyna escape Archanea for Aurelis, pirates assaulted Talys and threatened to destroy its livelihood. Marth, a handful of knights that escaped with him from Altea, and Talys's PrincessCaeda deftly defeated the pirates, andthe king of Talys declared that Marth was now fit to challenge Dolhr. Marth embarked on his legendary quest to reclaim his kingdom and slay Medeus. When Marth set out he first answered the call of Nyna, who was currently in Aurelis resisting the Macedon occupied forces in the country. Marth went to Aurelis to free the war torn country, joining forces withHardin, the younger brother of Aurelis' king and the guardian of Nyna. After a vicious battle Marth set Aurelis free and had made a valuable ally in Hardin, and his loyal knights.

With Aurelis secured, Marth was given the sacred relic known as theFire Emblem, and the forces resisting Dolhr united under Marth's leadership, symbolized and granted by the shield. The united forces under Marth were dubbed "The Archanean League". The Archanean League traveled south to the Holy Kingdom of Archanea itself, with Marth at it's command. After being attacked by Macedon's princess,Minerva, and her subordinates, theWhitewings, being forced to make a brief detour toPyrathi, and to defeat itsManakete KingMannu, Marth was approached byCatria of Macedon's Whitewings squadron, who informed him of the plight of Minerva and more importantly her sister,Maria, the latter held hostage by their cruel brotherMichalis to force Minerva to serve Dolhr. On this news, Marth led the League toCastle Deil to free Maria, and the grateful Minerva joined with his forces to free Macedon, as did the three Whitewings later in the War. From this victory, they marched on the Archanean capitalPalace and liberated it from the Dolhr occupation underVolzhin.

Marth, Star and Savior

The League's next task was to free Altea. The army marched toGra, Altea's traitorous neighbor and an ally of Dolhr, and brought down the country and its KingJiol; after the fight, Marth was disappointed to find that the Blade of Light, Falchion, said to have been stolen from his dead father by Gra at the war's beginning, was not there. His adviserMalledus theorized thatGharnef, the Dark Pontifex and resurrector of Medeus, was the one truly responsible for the blade's theft, and so the League made a fruitless detour to Khadein, the country under Gharnef's control, to recover it; there, Marth was informed by the White SageGotoh that they could not defeat Gharnef and recover Falchion without theStarlight spell, the only weakness of Gharnef'sImhullu spell, and tasked them with finding theStarsphere andLightsphere, artifacts required to create it. The League then returned to Altea and reclaimed it from its master,Morzas of Dolhr.

With Altea reclaimed, the League's new task was to defeat the remaining allies of Dolhr: Grust and Macedon. The army first traveled to the southwest, to theFane of Raman, to find the Spheres and freeTiki, theDivine Dragon princess, from Gharnef's control. From there, they conquered nearby Grust, Marth dueling and seemingly killing general Camus, despite Nyna and Marth both desperately wanting to spare him and Nyna revealing to Marth and his army that she loves him.

The army traveled next to Macedon, now ruled by Minerva's ambitious elder brother Michalis. Minerva challenged and seemingly killed her brother, liberating her country and bringing the Spheres to Gotoh, currently living near its castle, who from them forged Starlight.

The Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light

Gotoh transported the army toThabes, a distant ancient city and the current home of Gharnef, where they engaged Gharnef in battle and slew him with Starlight, recovering Falchion. With the tower reclaimed, they found Marth's lost sisterElice, held captive by Gharnef for the past three years. It shortly thereafter was revealed to Marth that his sister was held prisoner due to her ability to make use of the sacredAum Staff, which Gharnef wanted to exploit for unknown reasons. With no other opposition remaining, the League turned on Dolhr itself, charging into Dolhr Keep. It was discovered Medeus could not take his dragon form outside of Dolhr Keep, nor was he fully revived yet, and thus the Archanean League had effectively cornered him- however, Medeus fully expected an assault on his castle and thus was well prepared to deal with them.

Marth engaged Medeus in an epic battle, wielding Falchion, and the Shadow Dragon once again fell, though not without telling Marthhe cannot be destroyed as long as darkness is in the hearts of men. With the war over, at the advice of Nyna, Marth proposed to Caeda, and the two became engaged. Nyna married Hardin, who became Archanea's next king, yet secretly in her heart she still wept for Camus, for she loved him and him alone...

Gameplay

Gameplay is similar to the rest of theFire Emblem series with a bird's-eye view of the grid-format map. The player can move the character either through using the +Control Pad and buttons, or through tapping on the touch screen using the stylus.

Changes from the original

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Story

Some scenes were changed, ranging from minor to overhauling the scene entirely.Chapter 11 was renamed from "Knorda Slave Market" to "Knorda Market", and the village dialogue was changed accordingly. Every chapter has both an opening narration and a cutscene with characters. In the original, it depended on the chapter. All bosses have battle and death quotes, and all playable characters have death quotes rather than only about half.

Content removed fromMystery of the Emblem Book 1 is re-inserted into the plot ofShadow Dragon, including removed chapters and characters (though a very small amount of certain removed items remain removed).

Gameplay

Several minor mechanical changes were made to modernize the game:

• Theweapon triangle is implemented, though theTrinity of Magic is not.
• TheMagic andStrength stats are separated from each other, unlike in the two prior versions where only Strength existed and Magic was not a statistical factor.
• Newweapons anditems are added into the game, such as theWing Spear andHauteclere.
• The game has propertrading instead of the original game's 'give' system of item management.
• The original game lacked thecombat forecast entirely; this feature was added in the remake.

Multiplayer

Shadow Dragon was the first game in the series to feature online multiplayer and the first to have multiplayer outside of theLink Arena style of multiplayer. It is also the first to have a maximum number of players less than 4 (in this case, only 2 players may participate). InShadow Dragon's multiplayer mode, players choose five units to be sent into a battlefield against the other player's team. Each team can also use aCard to give themselves a specific advantage of some kind, if the rules set by the players allow it. The goal is to either rout the opponent, or seize and hold the castle until the turn count runs out. Players who have exchanged friend codes can talk to each other via voice chat using the DS microphone.

The same multiplayer mode returns inFire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem, and a very similar multiplayer mode appears inFire Emblem Fates. Online play was discontinued after the shutdown of Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection in 2014.

Classes

Classes present in neitherShadow Dragon & the Blade of Light orMystery of the Emblem Book 1 are added as new additions to the game, and characters from the aforementioned games that have strange class choices by modern standards are given more fitting classes in several cases. Instead of using many different items to promote different units, only one item is used to promote units now- theMaster Seal. There is, however, one exception to this.

New Base Classes

• Myrmidon – This class was added into the game and is the class of two characters that were formerlyMercenaries:Navarre andRadd.
• Dark Mage – This class was originally inMystery of the Emblem Book 2 as Gharnef's class, but notBook 1 (where he was a Bishop). It is neither a normal enemy class nor a class that any playable unit starts in; it is used only as a class one can reclass their units into in this game.

New Promoted Classes

• Swordmaster – This class is a promoted form of the newly added Myrmidon class, although there are no pre promoted Swordmasters that join in this game.
• Sorcerer – This class is a promoted form of the Dark Mage class, which is a first in the series. Notably, it is now the class of Gharnef, as opposed to him being aBishop.
• Sage – This class is added and is the promoted form ofMages now (In both previous versions of the game, both Mages andCurates/Clerics promoted to Bishops, now only Curates/Clerics become Bishops).Wendell andGotoh are now Sages instead of Bishops, as well.
• Falcon Knight – This class is now a promotion ofPegasus Knights, yet Pegasus Knights can also promote toDracoknights like in prior versions- this results in a Branching Promotion, the only one in this game and its sequel. This specific promotion requires anElysian Whip as opposed to a Master Seal (using a Master Seal promotes the Pegasus Knight in question into a Dracoknight), which is a very rare item exclusively found in theOnline Shop on certain days.
• Warrior – This class is now a promotion ofFighters, which appeared in the previous versions but did not have the ability to promote.
• Berserker – This class is now a promotion ofPirates, which could not promote in the original versions.

Reclass System

The Reclass system is an entirely new mechanic in the series that debuts inShadow Dragon. It is distinct fromClass Change, or promotion, because it does not involve a resetting of levels nor enhanced stats- it simply changes the character to a completely different class with a different skill set. The player may only have a set number of a certain class set, so Reclassing should be done with care.

Characters

Main article:List of characters in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon features the return of every playable character inFire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light, including those removed fromFire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, with some new additions. These new characters can only be recruited if the player visits the new chapters exclusive toShadow Dragon. However, this generally requires an enormous amount of units to die in order to gain access to these chapters. The new characters and their appearance conditions are outlined in the table below:

Portrait	Character	Class	Found in	Accessed if
	Frey	Cavalier	Prologue II	Player chooses Normal Mode.
	Norne	Archer	Prologue IV	Player has 4 or fewer units at the end of the chapter.
	Athena	Myrmidon	Chapter 6x	Player has fewer than 15 units at the end of Chapter 6.
	Horace	General	Chapter 12x	Player has fewer than 15 units at the end of Chapter 12.
	Etzel	Sorcerer	Chapter 17x	Player has fewer than 15 units at the end of Chapter 17.
	Ymir	Warrior	Chapter 20x	Player has fewer than 15 units at the end of Chapter 20.
	Nagi	Manakete	Chapter 24x	By the end of Chapter 24,Tiki is dead andFalchion is lost.

Chapters

Main article:List of chapters in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon includes all of the original chapters ofFire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light, and then some.Shadow Dragon features the addition of a four-chapter prologue ofMarth's story, introducing new players to the gameplay of theFire Emblem series, as well as a never-before-seen beginning to Marth's quest.Shadow Dragon also features severalside quests, which are accessed if the player has lost too many of his or her units, and feature short plots and new characters.

Fan translation

Main article:Fan translation#Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon

WhenShadow Dragon released in Japan a basic menu patch was produced before the game's English release.

Development

There are two separate and slightly contradictory statements on whenShadow Dragon began development.Masamune Shirow states inIntron Depot 5: Battalion that he was contracted for character artwork drafts in November of 2006,^[3] a couple months before the release ofFire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, while an interview withTohru Narihiro inThe Making of Fire Emblem statesShadow Dragon began development after the disappointing sales ofRadiant Dawn.^[4]Radiant Dawn released in February of 2007 in Japan.

Regardless, it is stated that the disappointing sales ofRadiant Dawn caused a staff reset, cutting down the sizableFire Emblem development team.^[4] The new team went through a "period of trial and error" figuring out what game to develop next, which resulted in the development ofShadow Dragon alongside anunreleased wii title. TheFire Emblem development team was told not to release another game on home console that would result in sales likeRadiant Dawn,^[4] which may be whyShadow Dragon released on theNintendo DS instead of a home console.

Masamune Shirow was contacted for artwork before this. Originally-but not atypically-being contacted "out of the blue" to do the game's box artwork, Masamune Shirow, being given no specific direction, based it solely on the original game's depictions of the characters.^[5] After viewing the first draft, Intelligent Systems requested Marth be made "a little older and more manly". Masamune referencedIke for this, noting to himself that giving art "a slightly realistic touch" was a trend at the time.^[6] Ultimately, none of these art drafts were used for the box ofShadow Dragon, though the second draft of the boxart discussed inIntron Depot 5: Battalion was used as advertising key art.

Shadow Dragon's 3D assets were developed externally by Alvion.^[7]

By April 2007 Intelligent Systems was capable of providing ingame animation asset references to Masamune Shirow,^[8] but otherwise there are few details on how the development ofShadow Dragon progressed up to release.

Game credits

Main article:Staff of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon

Reception

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Sales

According toFamitsuShadow Dragon opened with 180,697 copies sold in Japan.^[9]

Reviews

Trivia

• Shadow Dragon is one of two games in theFire Emblem series not to have any playable characters inFire Emblem Heroes credited to it, the other beingFire Emblem Gaiden. All playable characters to have originated inShadow Dragon are instead credited as hailing fromFire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem.
• In the Japanese version, there are two images in the in-game guide showing a five-use Vulnerary. In the actual game, including the Japanese version, each Vulnerary can be used only up to three times. However, Vulneraries do have five uses apiece in the originalFire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light.

Etymology and other languages

Gallery

• 
  European boxart forShadow Dragon.
• 
  Japanese boxart forShadow Dragon.
• 
  Group artwork forShadow Dragon.
• 
  Artwork from the cover ofShadow Dragon's manual.
• 
  Artwork from the cover ofShadow Dragon's manual.
• 
  DS Home Menu icon.

• 
  Concept artwork of the box andMedeus.
• 
  Concept artwork of the box.
• 
  Composition thumbnails for the second version of the box.
• 
  Concept artwork for what would become the key group artwork for the game.

Screenshots

• 
  North American title screen ofShadow Dragon.
• 
  Forging a weapon.
• 
  Marth before attacking afighter.
• 
  A scene of world map narration.
• 
  Maria attacking aballistician.
• 
  Caeda recruitsLorenz.

External links

• ファイアーエムブレム 新・暗黒竜と光の剣, Japanese official website.
• ファイアーエムブレム新・暗黒竜と光の剣－BACKGROUND－, section on Fire Emblem World (archived by the Wayback Machine)
• [1], North American official website
• Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon for Nintendo DS - Nintendo Game Details, North American product listing.

References