Melee came along in 2001, followed soon after by Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword for the Game Boy Advance. Denied an official English translation on the NES, Fire Emblem was famously unknown in the west until Super Smash Bros. Upon completing the first mission, it even flashes a 'To be continued' message, as if you're actually watching an anime-the type of flourish that would become a large part of the appeal of later 32-bit games like Sakura Wars.īut despite its self-evident quality, and the recent popularity of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, most Americans have never played the original Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light. Though hardly as detailed, its animated portraits are reminiscent of Ninja Gaiden, released just two years earlier by Tecmo. Released in 1990, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light is part of the latter generation of 8-bit games that took a more cinematic approach to its storytelling. Once you get past the rather basic, flat-shaded map screens, it's startingly attractive almost like an intentional demake of the modern Fire Emblem games.

Static screenshots don't do justice to its detailed portraits and simple but attractive sprites, which are so evocative of the comics and anime of the era, particularly Shonen Jump. The first thing you might notice upon booting up Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light on Nintendo Switch is how good it looks for a Famicom game.

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