Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light

Fire Emblem’s original 8-bit adventure is back and for the most part, Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light still holds up well.

In the end, Nintendo gave us what they promised, a localized port, and it’s a fun Fire Emblem game at its core. I can only hope that we get more Japanese only Fire Emblem games localized because there are a lot of improvements in every entry.

Although very much of its time in visuals and sound, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light holds its own in the modern day thanks to solid gameplay and structure. Almost everything you know and love about the series is here, and the game is worth picking up if only for the insight into early parts of the franchise. It’s not an essential Switch game by any means, and quite alienating for beginners to the series, but it’s practically compulsory for fans of Fire Emblem.

While Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light is a fantastic game that somehow holds up after 30 years, it’s presented in a barebones package that feels too little too late as an anniversary release. If Nintendo is hell-bent on destroying their own history, they’ll have to do a lot more than adding savestates and speed modifiers.

Fire Emblem was originally released in Japan on the Famicom in 1990. Now after 30 years, Nintendo finally ports the original to the Switch with a new translation and a few quality-of-life improvements. Do these new additions help an old game stand the test of time?