Is Fire Emblem: Echoes a tough game?

This is a game I never got around to playing until now. It was developed by Intelligent Systems and was made a while ago before I got my hands on it. The story revolves around two people Alm and Celica who were pretty much attached the hip when they were kids. But, after an attempted attack from a vicious knight named Slayde who tried to kidnap Celica after recognizing her as the lost princess of the country. Having being separated for years, they obviously take different paths in order to bring peace back into the world.

Warning: Possible spoilers ahead

Alm becomes a warrior and a leader to the rebellion force that calls itself the “Deliverance”. The rebellion’s goal is to take out King Rudolf who rules the opposing country that’s trying to take over theirs.  They all hope that Alm can take out King Rudolf before things get too bad. On the other hand, Celica has become a warrior priestess who believes that using violence is wrong (even though she’s taking out people left and right herself) and that there is a peaceful solution to this crisis.

Her solution is to find Mila who is the goddess of their country that is supposed to be keeping their country, at least, nice and peaceful. Find her and ask her why is she letting everything go to shit lately? I think it’s painfully clear that something must have happened to her if she’s in charge of making sure nothing happens to the humans in her domain.

While I’m talking about Gods and such might, as well talk about Duma and Mila. Duma and Mila ancient gods that happen to be siblings, too. When it came time to rule over the humans they both disagreed about how they should be ruled. Duma thought that only the strong should be in control have all the wealth and power and rule over the weak. While Mila thought that everyone should be equal and share the wealth and prosperity. Since, they couldn’t agree they decided to split the world in half so each god had a place to rule and made a contract with each other that forbid the other from ever interfering with their side of the world.

Doing so would mean total war.

Personally, I understand their ruling styles, but the same time I see the flaws in it. Duma believes that as long as there is a strong leader then the weaker people will be led to prosperity. What actually happens is strong people becoming evil, angry and only thinking about themselves while the weaker people become poor and treated like dirt. During Mila’s rule, she’s the complete opposite of Duma, believing that as long as everyone is equal and share everything things will be just dandy. Problem with is the people became spoiled, weak and even when people were starving to death because they were too nice and gave away everything they had. So, its same to say that if they combined their ways then the world would end up just right.

Now would I consider Fire Emblem Echoes a hard game? It’s a bit of a challenge I will say that. Is it an impossible game to beat? No, but I do wish I could have lowered the difficulty a little bit because for one if one of your players dies they are permanently dead until you find a revival well (which doesn’t even allow you to revive all your characters). These wells are a bit hard to find, so you better be sure that you’ve searched every nook and cranny when you’re in a dungeon or could have missed it without knowing it.

Also, I didn’t even know about the revival wells until I did some digging in the internet about what to do about bringing dead players back into the game. It wasn’t even in the tutorial which I  don’t even know why. I would like to think that would have been a nice little detail to tell the gamer playing this freaking game. Also, one other thing that you figure out, eventually, is that you need to talk to everyone just in case they want to join your group. For me, I like to have as many people in battle as I can, but it sucks when most of them have died and I haven’t gotten to a well yet.

I’m loving some of these characters though. One of my favorites is Gray who is that strong, confident and funny type that says things that just make you fall in love with him right away. Another favorite is Faye (even if I’m a little concerned about her) she’s another childhood friend of Alm and has been in love with him for as long as she can remember and that love as not only grown, but is bordering total obsession. During the talks they have during some of the battles, you can tell that she would do anything for Alm and makes it painfully clear that she’s into him, but he doesn’t seem to be taking the hint. It kind of makes you feel sorry for her.

The storyline is really good and the characters are really interesting. I’ve had several theories about Alm’s identity throughout playing this game, but I’m not going to tell you who he really is. But, if there is one thing we do know it’s that Alm and Celica do not end up together. No matter how much we want them to, they don’t. That’s not really a spoiler if you’ve watched the beginning cutscenes. I’ve enjoyed playing this game and if you like RPG/adventure games then you will, too.

Thanks for Reading!