"The best get even better."

After two successful titles on the Game Boy Advance, the Fire Emblem series takes its first leap onto a major console since the days of the SNES, and its first console release on American shores outright. And despite the high standard set by previous Fir Emblem titles, Path of Radiance lives up to a level of excellence that fans of the series come to expect.

For those unfamiliar with the nuances of a Fire Emblem title, it is a strategy RPG typically set in a medieval world, featuring a succession of epic battles pitting a small number of good soldiers up against all odds beset by the forces of evil, eventually culminating in a grand coup de grace and epic ending.

In the Path of Radiance universe, you'll follow the story of a young boy named Ike who yearns to follow in his father's footsteps as the strong leader of the Greil Mercenaries. Ike is forced to grow up in a hurry however, as his homeland of Crimea is invaded and easily waylaid by its neighboring country of Daein. The horrors of war are soon realized to the Greil Mercenaries, and they soon learn that it is up to them to put an end to Daein's tyrannical actions and bring about peace to the continent of Tellius.

Furthermore, humans and shape-shifting half-humans --- otherwise known as beorc and laguz, respectively, in the Path of Radiance world --- have decades-long prejudices against one another and must learn to put their differences aside lest they all be consumed by Daein's iron fist; a task much easier said than done, as both beorc and laguz have in their histories taken the opposing race into slavery.

Though Crimea is wiped out before they can offer resistance to Daein's attack, the princess of the country is able to survive and enlists the Greil Mercenaries for assistance. Her task is for Ike and his small following of soldiers to help her take back her country. This is done via a series of battles that take place all through the continent, featuring a battle system equally endearing to Fire Emblem first-timers and veterans alike.

As with the other Fire Emblem games released in America, there are an overload of simple tutorials to help new players get their feet under them, but veterans of the series can simply skip over them all unless they see something new to the series. Many of the tried and true features are still around, such as the Weapons Triangle, Skills, Rescuing, the Random Number Generator (RNG), the Magic Triangle and various weapons that can be used to cheat the system. Other features, such as Direct, Order and Shove make their first appearance in Path of Radiance. It can all seem a bit overwhelming at first, but it's actually very easy to pick up. Either a nuance will be easy enough to learn after a bit of practice, or the in-game tutorials will do a good enough of teaching you everything there is to know.

Everything comes to a head in battle, which takes place on a big chessboard-like grid. Battles take place in alternating phases, with allies and enemies taking turns unless neutral units are on the map. The basic premise of the game is simple enough; kill all the enemies, keep yourself alive, and any unit that gets killed is gone for good unless you restart the entire chapter over again. However in standard Fire Emblem fashion, Path of Radiance is both simplistic and deep at the same time. Many things are taken into account when units battle, not to mention the legion of map factors that play in as well.

On maps, units can see different advantages or disadvantages in battle depending on where they stand. For example, standing in a bush will increase a unit's evasion during a fight, and walking in a desert or on a mountain will decrease the movement area for certain units. Some units, such as those who can fly, avoid such movement problems but take a lot of extra damage from arrows. All of this applies to the enemy as well, and most players will have a fun time figuring everything out as they go along.

In battle itself, things get even better. In basic terms, units attack each other with either weapons or magic. There are three weapon types that work in a triangle against one another; swords best axes, axes best lances and lances best swords. A fourth weapon type, bows, attacks from two panels away with no fear of counters unless the defending unit wields a ranged weapon of his or her own. The catch is that bows can't attack adjacent units, so bow-wielding units are helpless to counter when attacked. Certain weapons are available to cause extra damage under certain conditions, such as an Armorslayer causing extra damage against a knight-type unit or a Poleax doing extra damage to anything on horses. It's imperative for players to read all item descriptions to see what is and is no effective at any given time.

Magic works in much the same way. There are three main types that work in a triangle against one another; fire beats wind, wind beats thunder and thunder beats fire. Light magic ends up being the odd man out in this case, as it is perfectly neutral and not strong or weak against any other magics. Unlike the previous two Fire Emblem titles, dark magic does not appear in Path of Radiance. Mages in general deal good damage, but can die rather easily if the enemy manages to get to them.

A new unit type exclusive to Path of Radiance are the shapeshifting laguz, which are half human, half animal. Most laguz are useless while in human form, but are among the highest damage-dealers in any fight once they transform. The laguz in your party may seem like a free ride to victory on any map, but there are a lot of weapons in the game catered specifically to killing laguz. There are also some maps in which these powerful beings fight with the enemy and make your job all the more difficult.

Individual unit statistics come into play to determine exactly how a fight plays out. Every unit has their own stats that determine damage dealt and taken and such, but the most important stat of all is Speed. If a unit is fast enough, it'll be able to attack twice in every fight, which is a gigantic advantage and the single most effective way to get through most fights. Units also gain stats randomly at level up per the RNG, so no two playthroughs of the game will ever be perfectly identical. Some units will be blessed by the gods of randomness, while others will suffer. There are well over 40 units available for use by the game's end, and it's difficult to see them all and retain a party with good stats. This requires further playthroughs to see what all of the units are capable of, which most fans of the series do not object to.

Though it may only seem that the end-all be-all for every fight is to obliterate the map, each map in the game may have different victory conditions. Some maps require you to wipe everything out, yes, but other maps simply require you to kill a boss or to arrive at a spot in a set number of turns. This, paired with the intricate check and balances system in the game and permanent unit death make for an interesting series of fights from start to finish. There is almost always a unique quirk thrown into each map as well. Sometimes you'll have to stop bandits from destroying nearby towns by getting to them first, which thins out your army but typically rewards you with good items, while other maps may simply call for you to reach treasure chests before thieves or brigands do. There's a lot to do on virtually all of the game's maps, which all contribute to a fun, chaotic, often addictive pace.

Being the first Fire Emblem title on a major American console, Path of Radiance is able to take advantage of the Gamecube's capabilities and earn bragging rights as the first Fire Emblem title to feature battles in full 3D. The Gamecube graphics aren't the best compared to its generational system counterparts, but they don't need to be. Most individual battles take no longer than a few seconds, and the graphics do a great job of setting regardless of platform. For those who wish to speed the game up, an option of turning off battle animations exists that rids you of watching the fights and simply has everything taking place on the map itself. Path of Radiance has a fairly disappointing soundtrack for the first half of the game, but vastly picks up later on as the story unfolds into a more gloomy setting. By game's end, the music is a key contributor to an already outstanding atmosphere that lasts until game's end.

Path of Radiance is a very well-done, polished game with no major flaws to speak of that fans of not only good strategy, but good games period should try out. It does the series justice for its first major America console appearance, and hopefully there are many, many more yet to arrive.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 05/21/07