I really don't blame people for rejecting Shadow Dragon at its release, because it makes a terrible first impression. Presentation-wise, it's pretty darn ugly; the combat animations are clunky, the palette is washed-out, and the portraits look like everyone is wondering who farted. The world of Archanea is decently well-realized, but the story of the game feels like it just comes down to an endless stream of "and then Marth went into Country X and he won." It connects the dots between the chapters, and while that's all it was meant to do, that's also all it tries to do. There's glimmers of a much more intriguing tale going on, and the official English translation does a lot to liven up the experience, but after Radiant Dawn, it's pretty barebones—it doesn't do anything overtly wrong, but it's also not much I remember. It feels like they should have backported more from Mystery of the Emblem; it'd cut down on the exposition in that game, anyway.
Poke around in the first few chapters, and you also notice that it's pruned back a lot of features: conversation-based supports are the most famous absence, but rescuing, skills, the canto ability, and a number of other things encourage the barebones feel. While I don't think the absence of a feature is a bad thing as long as the game is designed around not having it, the lack of supports makes a lot of characters... basically one-dimensional. What's more, the first three chapters are pathetic on Normal, and a classic example of Early Game Hell on Hard or higher, where you don't get to access most of the really fun features and the second and third bosses are painfully badly-designed. Once you get to Chapter 4, the game opens up a lot more, but not everyone gets there.
So what makes me like it? Well, first, the core engine is really darn strong. It features a lot of quality-of-life elements that were really lacking from prior ones—most notably, the ability to see enemy ranges, save at points, and skip an enemy phase, all things that make the experience a lot smoother. Its tweaks to accuracy calculations mean that combat is a lot more predictable; you can't really dodgetank, so you rely on core durability, and this is helped by the incredibly clever idea to focus Hard Mode stat gains into offense, meaning that enemies are always feasible to bring down. The reclass system offers a lot of options, and though it seems like it'd remove individuality, given the massive focus on weapon ranks (which build very slowly) and weapon triangle, you generally can't just turn anybody into anything and expect it to work. I really appreciate the ironman focus; it goes in hard and it does a good job with it, with it being nigh-impossible to get the game in an unwinnable state. And forging is just amazingly fun. It gives a purpose for your cash, it lets you mess with weapon properties, and you can give them funny names.
That said, I feel New Mystery utilized the engine much better (being that it was their second go-round and all); it seems like the creators were either a bit too married to the original map designs or changed things too much, and it results in a couple chapters having major problems. Wooden Cavalry is probably the standout example, as is the Medeus fight, but the lopsided weapon and enemy roster was clearly designed in a different engine. Individual encounters with enemies tend to be decently fun and harrowing, but a lot of chapters feel like a bit less than the sum of their parts. It creates this weird mix of polish and jank, which definitely makes it distinctive, but it's also not for everyone.
VideoGame A Game That Gets Better
I really don't blame people for rejecting Shadow Dragon at its release, because it makes a terrible first impression. Presentation-wise, it's pretty darn ugly; the combat animations are clunky, the palette is washed-out, and the portraits look like everyone is wondering who farted. The world of Archanea is decently well-realized, but the story of the game feels like it just comes down to an endless stream of "and then Marth went into Country X and he won." It connects the dots between the chapters, and while that's all it was meant to do, that's also all it tries to do. There's glimmers of a much more intriguing tale going on, and the official English translation does a lot to liven up the experience, but after Radiant Dawn, it's pretty barebones—it doesn't do anything overtly wrong, but it's also not much I remember. It feels like they should have backported more from Mystery of the Emblem; it'd cut down on the exposition in that game, anyway.
Poke around in the first few chapters, and you also notice that it's pruned back a lot of features: conversation-based supports are the most famous absence, but rescuing, skills, the canto ability, and a number of other things encourage the barebones feel. While I don't think the absence of a feature is a bad thing as long as the game is designed around not having it, the lack of supports makes a lot of characters... basically one-dimensional. What's more, the first three chapters are pathetic on Normal, and a classic example of Early Game Hell on Hard or higher, where you don't get to access most of the really fun features and the second and third bosses are painfully badly-designed. Once you get to Chapter 4, the game opens up a lot more, but not everyone gets there.
So what makes me like it? Well, first, the core engine is really darn strong. It features a lot of quality-of-life elements that were really lacking from prior ones—most notably, the ability to see enemy ranges, save at points, and skip an enemy phase, all things that make the experience a lot smoother. Its tweaks to accuracy calculations mean that combat is a lot more predictable; you can't really dodgetank, so you rely on core durability, and this is helped by the incredibly clever idea to focus Hard Mode stat gains into offense, meaning that enemies are always feasible to bring down. The reclass system offers a lot of options, and though it seems like it'd remove individuality, given the massive focus on weapon ranks (which build very slowly) and weapon triangle, you generally can't just turn anybody into anything and expect it to work. I really appreciate the ironman focus; it goes in hard and it does a good job with it, with it being nigh-impossible to get the game in an unwinnable state. And forging is just amazingly fun. It gives a purpose for your cash, it lets you mess with weapon properties, and you can give them funny names.
That said, I feel New Mystery utilized the engine much better (being that it was their second go-round and all); it seems like the creators were either a bit too married to the original map designs or changed things too much, and it results in a couple chapters having major problems. Wooden Cavalry is probably the standout example, as is the Medeus fight, but the lopsided weapon and enemy roster was clearly designed in a different engine. Individual encounters with enemies tend to be decently fun and harrowing, but a lot of chapters feel like a bit less than the sum of their parts. It creates this weird mix of polish and jank, which definitely makes it distinctive, but it's also not for everyone.
It is really fun to ironman, though.