Nintendo of Europe opened the microsite

[Starwolf_UK]

Here is the news story In shops tomorrow: Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon

And here is the microsite.

It seems weird about Wi-Fi I notice on the screenshot Arena 1 but yet the site doesn't mebtion anything about multiple arenas. But then again NOE issued an English press release that used the French name for Shiida (Caeda) so...

Probably the biggest error you will spot in the history of Fire Emblem video is

they use a prototype version of FE6 for the footage :( Still, I was expecting a footnote about it being planned for the N64 as Maiden of Darkness

Edited December 4, 2008 by Starwolf_UK

[Seph]

What gay names.

I may be blind, but I didn't

spot the FE6 part.

I hope they remake FE4 (best game ever made).

Edited December 4, 2008 by Loputousu

[Rodykitty]

Loaning Units

Need some assistance in getting through your single-player campaign? When you find yourself in over your head, take out a loan. The Loan Units feature lets you borrow a unit that another player owns and inserts it into your single-player campaign.

You can both borrow units from friends and download them from a pool of units other players have uploaded via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. You can return the favour by uploading one of your own units to the central server to be downloaded by other players looking for a loan.

The loaned unit takes the place of a similar, weaker unit with the same name in your stable of units. If the loan unit is lost in battle, the unit that it replaced on your team is also lost for the rest of the campaign.

We should come up with a crazy community based playthrough using this feature somehow.

[Judge Judy]

Ah cool, it seems future FE games will be released to Europe...

I do hope they remake the other FE games...

[Mekkah]

I enjoy how they always let prepromotes kill stuff in their videos (Eyvel killing a Soldier with Fire Sword, Seth finishing off an Archer Ross weakened, etc). Good thing there's that village in FEDS that tells you not to let Jagen do all the work.

[GenG]

Good thing there's that village in FEDS that tells you not to let Jagen do all the work.

You want to make Jagen useful?

Prologue III Spoilers:

You can get rid of him in the prologue and get a good social knight instead!

[Rodykitty]

I just watched the history. Though the video footage is not the most reliable, the voice over explaining everything was well done. They even credit Thracia 776 as the first game to have rescuing and fog & war.

Spoiler tag

Only in Normal mode.

[GenG]

So I suppose you can't play the Prologue in Hard Mode.

[Gemini-Saga]

Prologue would Be awesome on Harder Difficulties not on normal mode =_='

[VincentASM]

You can play the Prologue in Hard mode only if you hack or cheat.

[Ike-Mike]

I case that anyone has troubles watching it for some reason the history video has been

.

[Starwolf_UK]

I just watched the video again and picked up on something.

They mention FE7 bering the first Fire Emblem to be offically released outside of Japan. Back in 2004 we had a few fan translations out. The Fire Emblem Gaiden one and an FE4 one. If they left the word officially out the message doesn't change but the word being there does imply unofficial translations existing which is what the fan translations are (and unofficial releases such as grey area imports and emulation). I'm probably reading into this too much :(

Also I have a feeling these videos might be showing up on the Nintendo channel...at least I hope they do and if they send out an e-mail alert NOE can clear their conscience that they've done everything they can to market the game without paying any money (TV spots and Magazine pages cost money)

[Destiny Hero]

I watched the video, and the guy's voice made my ears hurt (literally), so I closed the site, never to return....

[Swordsalmon]

They made an error within the first minute of the video.

Fire Emblem was not the first console SRPG. <_<

[Liz]

They made an error within the first minute of the video.

Fire Emblem was not the first console SRPG. <_<

which was the first one?

[Swordsalmon]

Elthlead.

[Celice]

Everyone seems to make that mistake then again, I always mix up which came first: Nintendo Wars or Fire Emblem ._.;;

I spotted a good number of games similar to Fire Emblem in this guy's visual chronology of the Famicom ^^

[Starwolf_UK]

You wouldn't say Super Mario Bros was the first 2D platformer...but it was the revolutionary one (with scrolling rather than single scrren action as well as 32 whole levels filled with secrets).

Prehaps in Japan it sparked a similar revolution. Maybe they meant to say the first one that actually made an impact.

[Rodykitty]

All RPGs are a throwback to table top RPG games in some way anyway, Fire Emblem included with its d100 dice roll mechanics and moving miniatures on a grid.

[Celice]

I wouldn't really call it a throwback, as much as a simplified adjustment of the system, an adjustment to different needs :/

[Rodykitty]

Of course it's an adjustment to different needs. It's a much larger scale, and the DM are the game designers and AI.

But I find it much more comparable than say, Final Fantasy, where they use over complicated formulas and large, exponentially growing numbers that wouldn't be intuitive to calculate by hand and makes it much more difficult to track how stats actually matter, not to mention the random battle mechanic introduced in early video game RPGs is a far departure from table top mechanics in order to simulate enemies jumping at you due to lack of human DM, while Fire Emblem actually has grid based combat and enemies laid out in a purposeful fashion.

Yeah, I know this isn't about "what is the first SRPG?" I am purposely derailing into a less flammable discussion for the better.