Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn

In short, if you have played any Fire Emblem games you know what to expect because this one is no different. If you are a fan of the series and want more of the same; then you will probably purchase the game. If you don't like the series or are bored of it; then you will avoid.

Personally, I'm a big fan of the series but playing this seemed a bit boring but mainly because of the game's length; taking up a whopping 50 hours of my time. The chapters usually require the same strategy although there are a few here and there that need to be more cautious and defensive. I don't normally complain about a game's length but this game is definitely too long and probably should have been released as 2 games.

It is a sequel to the Gamecube's Path of Radiance although you don't really need to have played that game to enjoy this one. For those that aren't familiar with the series, it plays out like the turn-based strategy Advance Wars on the Gameboy Advance/DS. You take control of a small army and move each of your units in turn, then when the turn ends the computer will do the same. In Advance Wars you have to acquire cities to gain money and choose to create new troops each turn. In Fire Emblem, you have set characters which you carry over after completing the chapter. Each character gains experience by attacking and gains more for delivering the final blow. Each character doesn't have much health and when they die; they are dead permanently. There is no way of bringing them back which means you have to take it slow and play with caution and strategise.

The way you do this is by using the stronger characters to lower the enemies numbers and keep them further forward to draw the enemies attacks and take the damage. You will also use the grid system to your advantage by walling off sections with your strong characters, and hide the weak ones behind. It is often a good idea to progress forward in a close formation rather than attacking staggered and spaced out. It does take a while to understand the game's system and you will die many times as you learn with trial and error and will end up reloading time and time again. Once you work out the process, its a case of repeating your strategy again and again.

You also need a bit of micromanagement with your weapons and items because you have limited money, and each weapon can only be used a certain amount of times before breaking. You also need to think about which characters need the most experience and try to get the finishing blow with them. If you stick to killing the enemies with the same characters, you will end up with an imbalanced squad and will suffer in later missions. To help counter this, the game does give you bonus XP which you can assign to anyone between missions.

When you do reach the final chapter, you must choose a your best team, kit them out the best you can and progress through 5 painfully tough sections. Even an experienced Fire Emblem player such as myself will find it near impossible on normal mode.

Overall, Fire Emblem is a great game if you like this sort of thing. I just feel its been done time and time again and is starting to become stale; so I found my enjoyment hindered.

I had abandoned this series for a long time, sick of some of its frustrating elements. Any good Fire Emblem fan knows he has to reset if a character dies, which is just part of the games, but it unfortunately can turn a 20 minute battle in to an hour long slog-fest. However, after taking enough time off, I was able to jump back in to Fire Emblem fresh and truly appreciate the games again. What I love about them, given the benefit of years of reflection, is that the mechanics are so simple a child can grasp them, only requiring a little bit of math. It’s actually succeeding that can be a challenge. For the most part, Fire Emblem games are pure skill: if someone dies, it’s because you put them in a bad spot or didn't read what your opponent was capable of. Given how much time meticulously doing this can take, many players make mistakes, myself included.

Radiant Dawn goes back and forth between being a traditionally difficult Fire Emblem game and near insultingly easy. The maps in which you control Micaiah’s team are challenging because of the crappy units available, but the other teams are loaded and ready to mow down enemies. I found myself enjoying this balance. It provided peaks and valleys in the challenge of the game. After a decently tough first chapter, you get to relax a while before facing the truly gruesome maps mid-game. Sadly, the endgame is the easiest section, which is all too common in RPGs, but it’s mainly because at that point you can finally use every character available and you’ll obviously choose the broken ones.

The thing I enjoyed the most about Radiant Dawn was its multiple perspectives. You get to play some chapters as Micaiah’s struggling Dawn Brigade, some as Elincia’s Royal Knights, some as Ike’s elite mercenaries from the previous game, and even more as random characters that later join other teams. This game structure gets you to actually familiarize yourself with and care about the majority of team members thrown at you. Almost all of them are useful at some point in the game, and you even get to fight some of the units you were previously using in large-scale battles. Don’t see that in every game.

Unfortunately, the plot suffers some from this schizophrenic approach to presentation. Terrible plot devices are used to construe reasons your team won’t just shake hands and join the other, including a “Blood Pact” that requires one of the armies to continue fighting regardless of how they feel. It’s pure lunacy and if it were almost any other series I’d care. Fortunately, Fire Emblem is all about combat anyway, and few of the games had remotely interesting stories. It’s a bit sad that the connected Fire Emblem 9: Path of Radiance, was one of them. You get the sense that the developers at Intelligent Systems really only cared about the gameplay and were phoning in the story, which I guess might bother some, but probably not hardcore Fire Emblem fans.

All in all, the verdict is simple. If you like Fire Emblem, you’ll like this. If you always wanted to play a Fire Emblem game with completely broken units and just smash everything in your path, you’ll LOVE this. That said, I cannot recommend it as your first look at the series. 7: The Blazing Sword and 9: Path of Radiance are far better introductions, and particularly you should play Path of Radiance to get the far better-written backstory for this game. (Aside: Since I wrote this, Awakening was released, and I'd recommend that one to new players)