From the people I've talked to that played Gaiden, Echoes pretty much plays like Gaiden. Consider it the black sheep of the family. There's no Weapon Triangles, so damage is based purely around your attack stat compared to the enemy's defense/resistance. Having only one speed over your opponent instead of 5 ensures you'll get a double hit. Weight is in this game, but it deducts purely from your speed. You can only equip one item at a time. Like Fates, there are no weapon charges and each class comes pre-equipped with a default weapon. Magic costs HP to use. The maps are very, very basic in structure. Overall worse than Awakening's. And even though it's been improved, this game has super low growth rates as you level up. Don't be surprised if you average only 1, maybe 2 stats per level up, so class changing as soon as possible is highly recommended in this game. Arrows won't OHKO Pegasus Knights anymore like in other games, but they still do a good amount of damage. Bows can also hit at close range combat. Magic is usually really good as Resistance rarely, if ever, levels up. Also, the game has an over world map similar to FE8 and Awakening. This game also lets you explore dungeons and get into encounters in those as well as find treasure. You also have access to some units (villagers) who get multiple choices on what class to become when you reach the Mila statue instead of just being locked on a set path.
And from my understanding, all of this was in Gaiden as well.
Gaiden did add some new things like Mila's turnwheel to go back a turn in case you screwed up, though you're limited to charges per battle. Not sure how this was implemented in Gaiden, but you explore towns ala Visual Novels. Think Ace Attorney investigation phases. Growth rates were raised significantly from Gaiden but still a lot lower than Fates and Awakening. I believe they added supports similar to FE7 and such, which I prefer so much more. The pairing up system from Awakening and Fates is gone. And characters were added to help flesh out the story more, and I believe the story and characters were fleshed out more as a whole. Also, full voice acting. Every line in this game is spoken, and the dub I find is really really good.
Overall, this game is easily the most polished of the 3DS games imo in terms of presentation, graphics, animations, and the like. It looks gorgeous. The character art is a more water color/washed out style which I love. A big departure from Awakening and Fate's more anime style art. Really great OST to boot too.
Just be warned if you get this game. It's essentially a polished version of the second game of the Fire Emblem series, down to the core mechanics and everything else. Bland maps, but some interesting mechanics to say the least. I'd compare it to Zelda 2 in terms of it being the Black Sheep of the franchise. To me, it doesn't really feel like a FE game. So, imo, the game will be a hit or miss. If you're looking for something different with some outdated mechanics or loved Gaiden, this game is for you. And from my understanding, as I never played the game, this game is leagues above Shadow Dragon in terms of being a remake.
I'm up to Act 3 right now and personally, I'm enjoying it. It's not perfect, but it's enough that I'm having fun with it. In my opinion, gameplay wise, I enjoy it more than Awakening, BR, and Revelation, but less than Conquest. Though I will say, I feel the story is much better than those games, at least so far. I really like the storytelling and the character interactions. And yeah, Alm is a bit generic at the moment, but it's still early game for me to really make a call, and I have a feeling he'll get much more interesting as the game goes on.
Honestly, my biggest complaint with the game at the moment is the wonky camera in the dungeons. It's pretty annoying to control. I'd probably also say most of the maps are uninteresting as well, though I'm a bit more lenient since considering how often you get put into battles, having to do too many interesting maps would get stressful. Still, I feel it wouldn't hurt to make maps more interesting on Act bosses.
From my understanding, Echoes may be a potential long line of remakes in the FE series if this game does well, and from what I've seen so far, this game has been pretty well received. Hoping we eventually get to the day we can get a FE7 remake if possible.
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