Reviews

With the recent release of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon in English, this OVA is perhaps more relevant than it has been in over a decade. Some quick backstory: in 1990, the first Fire Emblem game was released for the Famicom (and was remade for the Super Famicom in 1994). Since games back then had simpler stories and characters, extra care was taken by Fire Emblem’s creators to make supplemental media to flesh out the game. This OVA wasn’t meant to stand alone or take the place of the game, but to help players understand a little more about what was going on. I’m sure it helped them at least somewhat in the 90s, and hopefully it can help new players of the DS remake as well.

Still, it would be a lie to say that this OVA has many memorable qualities. While the plot is more detailed than that of the game, especially when delving into character motivations and reactions, in the end it’s still quite a simplistic story of a prince versus his kingdom’s enemies. Character development is even more minimal, but that’s not surprising considering how many characters are introduced in a short time. In a lot of respects, the OVA actually seems to fail at its purpose; you’re likely to walk away from this knowing very little more about the game than you already did. Still, this little bit of knowledge is an improvement over the no knowledge that comes from playing the game by itself, so players of both the original and the remake are advised to give this a watch.