Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance

"Despite many mechanics changes, this is another great strategy title in the Fire Emblem series."

Graphics: 8/10

Luckily, PoR's weakest area is a mostly superfluous one, its graphics. This is the first Fire Emblem game to stray from the usual sprite-based graphics of previous games, so some imperfections are to be expected. Still, fans of the other two FE titles released in America will definitely miss the action-packed, superhuman battle sequences of previous games. Now, most battle animations mainly consist of units walking/riding/flying up to enemies, pausing a moment, then delivering a rather lackluster attack. Still, the attacks look realistic, and the triple-strength critical hit are still nearly as impressive as in previous games. Thanks to the new 3-D animation, magic is now much more amazing than before, however. One other plus is the likenesses your units now bear to their dialogue portraits in battle; they are not simply recolored version of generic classes like before.

The field graphics also leave much to be desired. The environments are fairly good, but can seem sparse and underdecorated. The units themselves are fairly blocky, but since they're so small on the screen it's hard to notice. They are quite distinctive; your units look like they should even on the map, and it's fairly easy to distinguish classes. (Except for the Knight classes, who vary only in the weapon they wield)

The only remaining place the game retains its sprite-based graphics is in the dialogue sequences, where character's heads or upper halves look great and realistic. Along with many fitting backgrounds, the dialogue sprites help to immerse you in the game's fantastic storyline and get to know the characters better.

Sound: 9/10

PoR's sound is even better than its graphics, with all-around great music and effects. The music is orchestrated and diverse, with different tracks for every part of the game. The themes effectively convey the action, tension, and drama of the game's battles and epic storyline. The only drawback to the music is that the battle theme may become slightly tiresome after a while of hearing it repeatedly, but luckily it changes later in the game to make things new.

The sound effects are also superb; the sounds for footsteps, galloping hooves, magic spells, and all manner of attacks are great and add great realism to the fighting. The in-battle effects are especially good; they'll have you thinking "Ooh, that has to hurt!" as your units kick awesome.

Spoken dialogue has never been a big part of Fire Emblem games, but Path of Radiance actually has some. There are six computer-animated movies throughout the game to add to the storyline, and each has the usual excellent sound effects, along with some voice acting. It's reasonably good, but is too rare to be much of a factor in the game's sound rating. Considering the amount of text in the game and how well it already conveys the story, full voice acting would be both unrealistic and unnecessary.

Gameplay: 10/10

Fire Emblem is one of the best strategic RPG series out there, and PoR is another strong game in it. Despite making many changes to the long-established gameplay, some major and some minor, it manages to be an incredibly fun and rewarding experience.

In case you are new to Fire Emblem, which has been in the US now for a few years with 3 games currently, it's a cross between a turn-based strategy game (a la Civilization without all the micromanagment and massive time scale) and an RPG (Final Fantasy without all the mind-blowing abilities; don't worry, it's far from boring). The result is something remotely akin to Final Fantasy Tactics, in which you engage in epic battles with dozens of unique and powerful units, gain experience, and use hundreds of weapons and items.

Despite the (relative) lack of FF's flashy abilities or the ability to control and build an empire like in Civilization, Fire Emblem's simple gameplay is fun and borderline addictive. (I've experienced the "just one more turn" syndrome referred to by Civ players) Each of your characters has strengths and weaknesses; Knights (which serve as slow, powerful walking tanks), fast-moving cavalry, agile Myrmidons, and deadly mages. Your units' unique stats determine these strengths and make them both diverse and fun to use. Adding to the uniqueness, units' stats are randomly generated in the default game mode. This system is a double-edged sword that can make your units weak and ineffective, but usually results in a team of virtually unstoppable powerhouses that have the strength of dozens of enemies

.Besides units' stats, their weapons are also important parts of the gameplay. The game has hundreds of diverse weapons in a total of ten types. There are three melee weapons (swords, lances, and axes), bows which deal ranged physical damage, magic tomes (wind, fire, and thunder), staves for healing, and knives and light magic, which are special weapons only equippable with certain abilities.

These weapons are diverse and add huge depths of strategy to the game. Basic iron weapons are weak, but accurate and durable while steel weapons are stronger and heavy. Other types of weapons include special lances and axes that can attack up close or at a distance, weapons specialized to fight cavalry, armor, or laguz (more on them later), or weapons with special abilities like attacking twice as many times in a row, striking with magic from long ranges, or inflicting various status effects. Weapons' might, accuracy, weight, and more interact with a character's stats to determine his or her effectiveness and specialties.

But don't worry - the strategy doesn't end there. Weapons are also governed by the "weapons triangle," which can grant accuracy, damage, and avoid bonuses for attacking with the right weapon. Weapons triangles exist for physical weapons and magic and are important parts of battle, especially early in the game. (Bows, staves, knives, and light magic are exempt from the weapons triangles) Of course, a sufficiently powerful unit (which you'll later have in abundance) can do plenty of damage with any weapon. What weapons triangle?

Fire Emblem has a few other touches of realism many other games lack. Weapons will wear out and eventually break after use; you must always keep your soldiers well-equipped in order to keep them fighting. Luckily, you only have to replace weapons once every few chapters if you don't overuse a unit and you always have plenty of money, so this feature never becomes annoying.

Fire Emblem's most realistic and infamous feature, of course, is the death system. There is no Life Staff, no resurrection spell, no way at all to return dead characters to life. Once a character dies, he or she is gone forever. This forces you to think hard to keep your units safe, and causes some difficult decisions about whether to restart the current chapter for a dead unit or press onward. Though it can be frustrating at times, it's Fire Emblem's distinguishing feature and something you'll have to get used to.

All of these features form the basic system for Fire Emblem games, providing surprisingly deep, strategic combat. However, many new additions have been made to Path of Radiance to keep the game interesting for veterans of the first two games. The game sports a new continent to play on and new characters, of course, along with many never-before-seen features.

One new one is entirely new unit classes. Cavaliers have become ____ Knights, who each specialize in one of the four physical weapons and can pick any other when they promote into mobile and deadly Paladins, a fun element of customization in the game. First and foremost, though, are the laguz, half-human, half-beasts creatures who can morph into animals and gain deadly fighting skills. They have much better stats than human units and their claws, beaks, and breath never run out, but in return, they periodically alternate between human and beast forms. They're defenseless when unmorphed and killing machines when morphed, and are an interesting and fun new set of classes in the game.

Another big new addition is the skill system. Most units have skills, which are innate abilities that give them a variety of unique powers ranging from always striking first in battle to attacking five times in a row! Many units start with these skills, and scrolls found throughout the game can teach the skills to units. Picking the recipients of, and using, these skills add even more strategy to the game, arguably more than any other feature. As some of the later skills can be quite powerful, they can end up making a big difference in battle.

Many other more minor changes have also been made. Unlike in previous games, where almost everything (such as item management and support conversations) happened in the midst of battles, you now get a "base" to stop at between chapters in which you can do all these things and much, much more. A merchant caravan that eventually joins you allows you to buy a growing variety of items using the money you earn, sell items you don't need, or even forge your own weapons. This feature lets you make custom weapons based on existing ones with changeable stats, allowing you to get incredibly deadly weapons for your characters for a price.

The base is also the only place to manage skills, have support and info conversations, and award bonus experience. The last of the major add-ons to PoR, bonus experience is earned by meeting goals in battle and can be used to safely and easily level weak characters up to help them catch up with your stronger fighters. Since several characters join late with low levels, bonus experience is almost a necessity to help them stand a chance.

Despite the myriad of gameplay changes, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance lives up to its two American predecessors and is one of the best (and few) strategic RPGs for the Gamecube. It's perfect for fans of previous games, lovers of strategic RPGs in general, or any patient gamers who enjoy a good story. If you don't mind a lack of real-time gameplay, you should definitely give this solid game a try.

Controls: 10/10

Since Path of Radiance has no real-time action, controls aren't much of an issue. The controls are all for navigating the game's menus, an art that's been perfected long ago. There's nothing special to the game's controls, but you won't have any difficulty with them either. (Unless you play on your computer like me and have a brief control lag, which has nothing to do with the actual game)

Story: 10/10

Storyline has always been one of the most important aspects of Fire Emblem games, and Path of Radiance pulls it off even better than usual. This game is set on the new continent of Tellius, a land populated both by humans, or "beorc," and half-animal beings called "laguz." The obvious differences between laguz and beorc has created a deep rift between the two species filled by prejudice that is the driving force behind the game's plot. I can't say any more without giving the incredibly engaging story away, but trust me - this game never gets dull. Its huge cast of distinct and likable (and occasionally contemptible) characters creates one of the best storylines of any game and one worthy of a Fire Emblem title.

Replay: 8/10

While PoR's unique and fun gameplay and epic storyline will likely keep you busy for quite a while, the game loses much of its fun after beating it once. Beating the game unlocks several features that may encourage you to play the game again, but after that you'll more or less be done with the game until you eventually start wanting to play it again, which can take months or years. Still, the fun the game provides while it's fresh makes it a great buy for fans of turn-based strategy and RPG games.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 01/09/06