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GBA Fire Emblem, to me, is the apex of the series in every respect, and I feel the game suffered when it transitioned to 3D.

Seeing a GBA Remake/Demake (depending on your perspective) of Shadows of Valentia feels not only interesting and fresh, but also appropriate.

Everything is lovingly recreated in such a way that it feels it always belonged on the platform, and I couldn't be happier for the fact this exists.

The FE community is really something else; if you, like me, dislike playing SoV on the 3DS, this will be the perfect substitute!

First, the gameplay functions very well. I played through FE Gaiden on NES and enjoyed it very much, so I decided to go through this hack by playing on easy mode with stat boosts for every level-up and GBA hit rates in order to get a feel for map structure and how the plot and characters were handled (more on that below). I have not played the 3DS remake, but I can guess many of the changes to the Sacred Stones engine originate in that version. Certain changes are better than others: archers' and mages' reach makes them much more useful in combat, but the low movement ranges of soldiers, mercenaries, and other melee combatants makes them significantly less useful. By the time my footsoldiers had reached front lines, many enemies had already been sniped or incinerated, and I ended up forcing levels through monster fights. Level grinding was a bit easier here than in the NES version, but more balanced units would have made it less necessary. Again, I played on some of the easiest settings possible, so perhaps my opinion and criticism is a bit skewed here.

Not so for the plot and characters. The plot is fleshed out a bit more with more character given to the Doma/Duma cult and its adherents, and I like the characterisation of the two gods of Valentia. However, when it comes to the dialogue between characters, this hack really falls short. Many anachronisms and 21st Century American ideas and idioms make their way into the characters' mouths, especially between the members of the "peasant class" such as the villagers from Ram. Dew, Hector, and Ike of Fire Emblem games of yore were gruff and informal in their word choice without ever resorting to current year street talk. It destroys immersion to see a character in a medieval fantasy setting use such blatantly anachronistic phrases as "You got this!", and Python's comment about Clive "crapping gumdrops and sugar sprinkles" as Forsyth "lap[ping] them up and ask[ing] for seconds" is a bridge too far. Couple this with retaining Leon's grooming propaganda from the 3DS remake and it's plain the writers for this hack ought to have taken notes from the series' earlier entries for dialogue.

Finally, I would like to point out that the artists who worked on pixel art and animation did a fantastic job. Small touches like units leaping onto the battlefield squares or twirling an arrow as a fight animation starts are a very nice touch. I also appreciated the visuals added for attacks displayed on the map when battle animations are turned off. It was a pleasant surprise to see things like this included where Nintendo did not have the time or the will or the wit to put them in the original GBA games.

Overall, a 3 out of 10. I play Fire Emblem mostly for the interesting characters and plot and this game fell far short with the immersion-killing 21st century slang and ideals. Visuals were delightful, and gameplay was okay, but could be a bit more balanced in how units function.

Edit: as I've now cleared the final storyline map it is time to give a more in-depth review of the hack, as it is.

First of all, the amount of effort put into it is staggering. Both visuals and audio are amazing, as the team did an amazing job translating the Echoes' character designs into GBA sprites. Everything from the world map, the menus, the in-battle animations all look incredibly smooth and could easily pass for an official release.

Story-wise, the game follows the same beats as the 3DS version for 90% of the plot, but changes - and in my opinion improves - some contentious actions that certain characters make. New supports between the playable units have been added, which do a great job of adding some depth to them and give them a lot of personality. The quality of the dialogue is excellent and always manages to be entertaining.

Gameplay-wise, the addition of the WT forces you to be a bit more strategic about your approach to maps, but in the end the hack is very much finishable even if you're a less experienced FE player. I did a Normal Classic run and while I did need several attempts to clear some chapters without casualties, the game never felt unfairly hard or tough. Those less confident in their skill can always grind the replayable shrine / dungeon maps if they feel like they need the extra EXP.

Map design is very solid in general, with a special mention to the Sluice Gate chapter - it retains the gimmick the made the original memorable AND adds a time limit, but also removes the RNG Teleport shenanigans that caused a lot of frustrations. In general the amount of Witches or endlessly multiplying Mogalls have been greatly reduced, making for a much more enjoyable game.

I do have some notes for the authors in case they decide to read this. Overall I felt like weapon ranks played a rather insignificant role in the game. I understand that these are a leftover from the GBA engine as it didn't exist in Echoes, but you can level them up very quickly, meaning it won't affect the gameplay much expect for the occasional occurrence of not being able to wield a Silver or S-rank weapon.

I did encounter a rather serious bug in the very last map of the game. For reasons unknown, three of my characters were considered dead when starting the map (Delthea, Luthier and Silque) despite all being alive and not even used in the previous chapter. The 'where are they now? epilogue mentioned all three dying in Alm's Departure (the very first map) despite not even being playable at that point. While I still had access to enough revival springs to get them back in the postgame, this seems like a pretty serious issue.

Finally, while I learned of the existence of Secret Shops pretty early when I found the Members Card, I did not ever find but one shop up until the postgame. I don't know if this is currently the only one in existence or if I simply missed the others, but they are clearly well hidden in that case.

All in all, there's a lot I could say or discuss about the hack, but you're better off just finding out for yourself. This is an amazing demake ROMhack that really should be played be all Echoes' and GBA FE fans.