Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia Announced

Fire Emblem is a franchise that has a very colorful history. There wasn’t a Fire Emblem game released overseas until the seventh entry in the franchise. Despite that, the series received lukewarm sales outside of Japan, even the eventual remake of the first game. The series was in danger of being discontinued, right until the release of Fire Emblem: Awakening. That game saw massive success and stirred up widespread popularity for the series. Now that Fire Emblem has been kicked into fifth gear, Nintendo has a massive influx of upcoming games. Among them is the third 3DS game for the series, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia

Fire Emblem Echoes is a remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden, the second Fire Emblem game ever made. Since the first Fire Emblem game has already been remade, it makes sense that Gaiden would get the same treatment. Gaiden was a bit of a step away from traditional Fire Emblem. While it had the classic turn based combat, it also had free roaming and dungeon crawling. These will be present in Fire Emblem Echoes, having been polished up for the 3DS. The 2D free roaming having been replaced with realtime, 3D free roaming for example.

Fire Emblem Echoes will be released May 19, 2017. In addition to the game, there will be a pair of Amibos released for the game. Alm and Celica, the main characters of Fire Emblem Echoes. These Amibos can be bought separately, or as part of a bundle that includes the game. Amibos have been used in the past to include additional DLC for the game. If that will be the case for Fire Emblem Echoes, it has yet to be announced yet. One way for another, Fire Emblem fans have a lot to look forward to in the near future.