Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light gets official English release for Switch

All Articles News
Isaac Todd
October 22, 2020
0

Nintendo have revealed that the very first Fire Emblem game, Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light, is getting an official localisation for the Switch December 4… but there’s a catch.

While this may be the first time the Famicom version of Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light is getting an English, the 2008 DS remake Shadow Dragon ended up being released worldwide.

The game that started it all, localised in English for the first time! #FireEmblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light comes to #NintendoSwitch on 04/12! pic.twitter.com/HT8JP0Wg6S
— Nintendo of Europe (@NintendoEurope) October 22, 2020

A few new features have been added to this Switch port, including Three Houses’ turn rewinding, the ability to speed up player and enemy animations, and custom save bookmarks that act similarly to emulator savestates. These are all welcome additions, bringing the experience closer to modern Fire Emblem games.

The American release is also getting a 30th Anniversary Edition, which includes a Replica NES Game Pak art piece and an NES style box. No mention of this edition was made by Nintendo of Europe.

Now, since this is Nintendo we’re talking about, there’s of course a downside to this release. Like the recent Mario 3D All-Stars collection on Switch, Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light ‘will only be available for a limited time‘. Translating a Famicom game in 2020, just to remove it for sale later on, definitely seems like an odd decision.

Join The Discussion

Rice Digital Discord
Rice Digital Twitter
Rice Digital Facebook

Or write us a letter for the Rice Digital Friday Letters Page by clicking here!

^{Disclosure: Some links in this article may be affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking on them. This is at no additional cost to you and helps support Rice Digital!}