The fact Hyperdimension Neptunia uses really high quality looking animated portraits and Fire Emblem, a game Nintendo is supposdely trying to take seriously now, doesn't, deeply upsets and worries me.
Hopefully FE16 does something like that. If it's presentation is too similar to the 3DS games, I'd expect some notable complaints from both reviewers and consumers.
Shadow Dragon felt like it was literally just the NES game shoved into the DS with updated (crap) graphics and some prologues thrown into it to give some context to people who don't read manuals or follow the lore (SDatBoL just threw you into Chapter 1 with 0 context and backstory. MotE's War of Shadows gave some backstory to what happened at Chapter 1 but not a whole lot). It felt dated on release.
More or less. IMO the bigger problem was that you had to kill off characters to access the newer ones. Also not having supports for the most iconic cast in the series is a shame.
With the graphics I enjoyed the sprites and protraits, but I didn't care for the drab color choices. As outdated as the original and Book 1 remake are, they definitely had more charm IMO. I think the game was a letdown more for what it could have been not for what it delivered.
I haven't played New Mystery of the Emblem, but from both of what I heard and saw with my own eyes, it feels like a bit of a repeat of SD in the bad aspects and the story was altered heavily from the original, to the point that I never had anyone not tell me it might be worth finishing the original story and then the remake later so I can see what was "butchered".
Also some of the elitists put the blame on "the state of FE nowadays" starting with that game but I don't want to go down this rabbit hole
It's not everything it could have been but I'd say it's an improvement over FE11. My Unit/Chris I never really thought effected the story, as their role was mostly in the extra chapters that did a decent job in filling in some plotholes. To Chris's credit, they were much more representative of yourself than Robin/Corrin are and the choices given to you in-game, in which there was more than 1 or 2, did have some meaningful effects.
Granted Chris was pretty OP, but I don't really see why it gets the hate it gets. IMO it's a solid remake and Chris is a true "My Unit." I actually came out liking Marth more than I did before in his previous games, I never really saw Chris stealing the spotlight from him unlike Robin did with Chrom/Lucina. I think the charm and sheer length of the original game (2 FE games in one game!) give it value despite having a modern remake, but I wouldn't put it a pedestal (it really wasn't that improved over FE1) nor say it was butchered.
There are some things I would say started in this game that Awakening gets some unneeded flak for, but I wouldn't say it's to blame for the current state of the franchise either.
I've been skeptical on SoV because looking at the previews and the fact I heard the reception was just alright are making me think they just can't do remakes period.
We'll see. If you're not sure yourself then go out and play the original game if you haven't already before making a serious judgement. Import, buy a reproduction, download a patch. Just make sure to play the game on Easy Mode to help speed up EXP grinding. The FE fanbase is way too opinionated and lacking in experience to put much stock into IMO.
If my copy had a working save battery you'd bet I'd be replaying the original ahead of time before Echoes releases.