Fire Emblem Echoes: official website open in Japan, details (inc. characters, amiibo), footage, OST samples

Today, Nintendo finally opened the full official website for Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, providing us with quite a lot of details (characters, story, gameplay systems, amiibo), but also some gameplay footage, and even four new soundtrack samples.

Front page

First, here’s our YouTube playlist with the four soundtrack samples available on the website:

Next, here’s a video with all the three gameplay clips from the website (merged into a single video for your viewing convenience):

The main page shared a couple tidbits about the game, and more precisely the protagonists: Alm is described as the young man that believes in Power, whereas Celica is more of a religious person that believes in God. The game tells the tale of those two childhood friends, their intertwined fates, and their journey throughout the Valentia continent.

About Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia

The game takes place on the continent of Valentia, with the Nigel Empire in the North, and the Kingdom of Zofia in the South. Both countries worship different gods, the peace between the two is fragile, and is on the verge of collapsing…

The two protagonists, Alm and Celica, are childhood friends, and have the same strange mark on their hand. Due to various reasons, they ended up separated, and as the flames of wars suddenly engulf the continent, they are in each other’s mind. Together, they go on a journey in order to stop the war, and bring back peace to the Valentia continent.

Here’s the timeline for the story (courtesy of vincentasm from Serenes Forest):

• 3000 years before the game: one day, Duma and Mila (sibling gods) go to war, and after an arduous battle, they divide the continent in two: the North (ruled by Duma), and the south (ruled by Mila). They also pledge never to invade each other;
• Year 1: a sage with knowledge of the celestial bodies’ motions go see Mila, and shows her the calendar system he came up with. The goddess approves of her calendar, and that year is chosen as the first year of that calendar;
• Year 189: the Rigel Empire is established in the North, and the Kingdom of Zofia is established in the South;
• Year 374: the young Rudolf is appointed as successor of Rigel III, the Emperor of the Rigel Empire, and ascends as Emperor Rudolf I;
• Year 384: King Lima III dies, and his eldest son, Lima IV, is crowned. Unfortunately, he has little interest in politics, and so Desaix becomes Chancellor;
• Year 398: due to poor harvest, the food reserves of the Rigel Empire are running low. They turn to Zofia for help, but to no avail. Rudolf I then chose to invade Zofia, leading the troops himself, and so the two countries are plunged into war;
• Year 399: the Zofian army is pretty inexperienced, and so they are repeatedly routed by the overwhelming forces of the Rigel Empire. At the same time, said forces are creeping even further into the Eofia Kingdom. Desaix manages to contact the leaders of the Rigel Empire army, and manages to negotiate a cease-fire in exchange for a large sum of gold. The war ends, but the Rigel Empire arm remains stationed in the North of the Zofia Kingdom, and tensions continue to grow;
• Year 400: Desaix launches a coup d’état, and the various members of the royal family are assassinated one after the other (including Lima IV). That’s when the Deliverance, a group that opposes Desaix, is establish by the nobility, with Clive as its leader.

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia – Characters

As mentioned above, the two protagonists are Alm and Celica. They each have their own story, and are accompanied by their own teammates. You can play through their respective story the way you want, switching from one to the other at any time.

Here’s some of the characters appearing in the game:

• Alm (voiced by Natsuki Hanae). Starting class: Fighter. He was raised in Ram Village on the borders of the Zofia Kingdom, together with Celica. Trained by his grandfather Mycen, he has developed a formidable sword arm. Because of his strong sense of justice and desire to show off his strength, he volunteers to join the Zofian Liberation Army to combat the Rigelian Empire.

1. Gray (voiced by Kishou Taniyama). Starting class: Villager. One of Alm’s childhood friends, also from Ram Village. He’s the son of a merchant. He ends up joining the Zofian Liberation Army;
2. Tobin (Atsushi Abe). Starting class: Villager. Another of Alm’s childhood friends, from Ram Village. He’s the eldest son in a large family, and joins the Zofian Liberation Army so he can get money for his family. He’s a pretty straightforward and serious person;
3. Kliff (Mitsuki Saiga). Starting class: Villager. Another of Alm’s childhood friends, from Ram Village. Pretty fond of reading and History, he learned to speak at a pretty young age. He joins the Zofian Liberation Army in order to learn more about the world;
4. Faye (voiced by Atsumi Tanezaki). Starting class: Villager. Another of Alm’s childhood friends, from Ram Village. She’s always been pretty fond of him, from a pretty young age. She joins the Zofian Liberation Army in order to be with him;
5. Lukas (voiced by Takahiro Sakurai). Starting class: Soldier. A member of the Zofian Liberation Army, and the son of an aristocrat. He’s the one who recruits Alm;
6. Silque (voiced by Yuka Inokuchi). Starting class: Cleric. Alm rescues her from a band of thieves, who kidnapped her. She’s the one who gives him the Mila’s Gear. She accompanies him on his hourney;
7. Clive (voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya). Starting class: Cavalier. Leader of the Zofian Liberation Army, and a member of the aristocracy. He was originally a Knight of the Order of Zophia, but he left to found the liberation army following Desaix’s coup d’état;

• Celica (voiced by Nao Touyama). Starting class: Priestess. The other main character of the game. She spent her childhood days with Alm, but afterwards left Ram Village for some reason and lived at Novis Monastery as a Priestess. After having an ominous dream about Alm–and to uncover the truth behind the large number of strange happenings across the Kingdom of Zofia–she begins a journey to the Temple of Mila

1. Mae (voiced by Eri Inagawa). Starting class: Mage. A mage from the Novis Monastery. She’s Celica’s servant, but also her close friend. She accompanies her on her journey to the Mila Temple;
2. Boey (voiced by Takuma Saski). Starting class: Mage. Another mage from the Novis Monastery. Just like Mae (her childhood friend), she’s Celica’s servant, and she accompanies them in their journey to the Mila Temple;
3. Genny (voiced by Yuki Horinaka). Starting class: Cleric. A sister from the Novis Monastery, and Celica’s younger sister. She accompanies her on her journey to the Mila Temple;
4. Saber (voiced by Takehito Koyasu). Starting class: Mercenary. He used to be a soldier of the Rigel Empire, but he’s now a mercenary from Novis. He’s paid to act as Celica’s bodyguard;
5. Valbar (voiced by Takahiro Fujiwara). Starting class: Knight. A former soldier who pledged to get revenge on Dahha, who killed his family.
6. Leon (voied by Kouji Takahashi). Starting class: Archer. A beautiful young man, and a former soldier who accompanies Valbar (that he considers like his brother). He’s a very honest person, who simply cannot lie;
7. Kamui (voiced by Shuhei Matsuda). Starting class: Mercenary. He comes from a faraway country, and was hired by Valbar to help him get his revenge. A pretty generous person, who loves freedom.

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia – Systems

As mentioned before, you get to follow both Alm and Celica’s route, which is not the same (this is two separate stories, not just a retelling with different characters). You navigate on the world map freely, and battle against enemy forces you meet on the way. You have to defeat them in order to capture points, which in turns allows you to get experience points, and recruit new characters for your army.

The battle system is the same as in other Fire Emblem games: they are turn-based, and to win, you need to defeat all the enemy units on the field. You move the characters on the squared map, and place them next to enemies to attack them / next to allied units for support moves.

As mentioned yesterday, you can chose the difficulty level: Normal (for beginners or intermediate-level players) and Hard (for experienced players). You can also choose between two modes: Casual (units that fall in battle come back to life once the battle is over) and Classic (units that fall in battle are lost forever).

It is explained that in order to get the upper hand in battle, you need to pay attention to terrain. Depending on where the battle takes places, various parameters such as evasion rate and accuracy will vary.

Some weapons allows you to attack from a distance, such as bows. You can also use magic to attack, but be careful: every time a unit uses a spell, they will lose some HP.

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia – amiibo

The official website confirms that not just the Alm and Celica amiibo are compatible: pretty much all the figures and cards can be used with the game. They can be used that way:

• all amiibo: when you tap an amiibo via the Mila’s Gear option on the map: you can learn “amiibo Summoning”:
• Alm and Celica amiibo only: you can access a special dungeon. You can also write the data (Level, stats, etc.) of their respective character on the amiibo;

If you use amiibo Summoning in battle, you can summon an illusory soldier, that will fight instead. You do so by selecting the “amiibo Summoning” skill with Alm or Celica, and then scan the amiibo with the data on. The kind of unit summoned varies depending on the amiibo you picked. If you use the Alm or Celica amiibo, the illusionary soldier’s stats will be based on the data recorded on the amiibo.

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia (3DS) comes out on April 20th in Japan, and May 19th in Europe and North America.