Path Of Radiance is a great mix of strategy and role-play. it's also both addictive and tells a great storyline.
Fire Emblem Path of Radiance is a great game that combines a turn-based battle system with rpg elements such as leveling up your characters to increasing your stats and health points etc. The game is made up of units that you'll need to move around a grid. The units are basicly your characters, and the grid is the battlefield where you'll move them around. This is where the strategy comes in. You'll need to think smart on where to move each character, because if you move a weaker unit like a healer next to a stronger enemy unit like an axe wielder, your unit could easily die, and if a character dies, they're gone for the rest of the game and can't be brought back like they can in games like Tales of Symphonia or the final fantasy games.
When you first get into the game you'll think it won't do anything for you, but as you play through the chapters you'll find a lot of things you've never seen before like visiting the villagers homes. They'll give you items or even weapons to fight against invading pirates etc who are causing trouble for they're people. If you don't visit though, an enemy unit could pay a visit to that home and burn it down, so it's always best to visit before they do. There's also a thing this game calls a triangle. The way the triangle works is that if you have a sword and your battling against an enemy unit with an axe, you'll be at an advantage with the enemy unit taking more damage while your unit takes less. The same goes for axes against lances and lances against swords. These aren't the only weapons though, the game also has bows that your archers can use which aren't part of the triangle. There's also magic users that use all kinds of spells like wind, fire and thunder. When your magic users have used a spell a specific amount of times, they'll be able to use more powerfull spells of the same type.
The game uses phases that make up the way the game is played. There are two main phases that lets you move your units and the enemy move they're units. You'll learn the other two during the course of the adventure. Soon into the adventure you'll also be able to buy items and weapons from your convoy using the gold you can earn from finishing a chapter, you won't be able to use the convoy until you get it after the first few chapters though. It's here you can also support the members of your party with a conversation and get information from them.
There are many characters in the game, but you can only choose a certain amount for any given chapter, and speaking of chapters, there's also many of them too. The overall game will take around 35 hours your first time through, though it can be played through more than once due to how addictive the game is. Also the game has no multiplayer, but that's ok because multiplayer isn't something the series is known for anyway.
What the series is known for however is it's storytelling. The story in Path of Radiance is yet another great addition to the series. The storyline starts out with a CG intro showing the main character, Ike, practicing sword fighting with his father Greal who leads the Greal Mercenary Company. Soon into the game Ike becomes in charge of the company due to certain circumstances, and is forced to lead even though he's just a rookie mercenary. Without spoiling anything the basic storyline is about Crimea (which is the closest thing that the people of the Greal Mercenary Company have to a home) is under attack from the nation Daein. Relations between these two nations have never been friendly. Another thing you'll learn soon into the storyline is a never ending hatred between the human Beorc and the half human Laguz. All of this takes place in the world of Tellius where the game is set.
The story in the game is told so well, and some of the characters talk as though they come from a few centuries ago which makes the game feel a lot more realistic for it's tone and setting. It's also realistic in the fact that not all of the characters talk the same such as pirates who really talk like pirates, and the rich who really sound as though they've been brought up under a kingdom. As well as the way the characters talk, it's also worth mentioning that the game only features voice acting during the cut-scenes, which there aren't many of.
The CG graphics in Path of Radiance look great, as well as the 2D artwork which there is much of, but the 3D in-game graphics aren't quite as great as the rest, though it does look good when one of your units land a critical hit on the enemy and takes most of they're health points away, or kills them completely.
To accompany the graphics, the game has really good themes the whole way through the game. The themes sound similar to games like soul calibur 2 and have many instruments you'll hear in movies that are based around the fifteenth century such as the violin to the trumpet and many more which give it a really epic feel. As for the rest of the audio, there isn't much to it. As mentioned you'll hear voice acting only during cut-scenes, and the rest of the audio is just battle sounds you'll hear in games like Final Fantasy X and Tales of Symphonia etc.
Overall, Fire Emblem Path of Radiance is a great half turn-based half strategy game anyone interested in rpg or strategy games should look out for. I highly recommend checking this game out. You'll be playing it for many hours.