Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is one of those games where you’ll spend way too much time agonizing over every move—because if a unit dies, they’re gone for good. The remake of the original NES game keeps that brutal permadeath mechanic, so you’ll actually care when your archer gets ambushed by a cavalier. The pixel art’s clean, the battles are chess-but-with-more-spears, and the story’s got that classic Fire Emblem mix of war drama and weirdly specific medieval politics.

First few battles ease you in, but don’t get comfortable. By Chapter 3, you’re already second-guessing whether to send your pegasus knight into range of those archers. The DS touch controls work surprisingly well for moving units, though I still end up using the D-pad half the time out of habit. If you’ve played later Fire Emblem games, the lack of support conversations feels barebones, but the core strategy holds up.

Just don’t name your lord after your best friend unless you’re ready for emotional damage.