Path Of Radiance is a good RPG and faithful to the series.
Story: Like a few other FE games, Path Of Radiance has nothing to do with either GBA titles, so you don't need to have played them. You are Ike a new recruit of the Greil Mercenaries, that's headed by your father. Ike starts out learning the trade by doing a few missions to get you used to things. As Ike goes along everything seems to be going well, but then he learn that a war has broken out between his country(Crimea) and Daien. Before long Ike gets stuck in the middle of it and is part of a huge war. Ike eventually has to take over the band of mercenaries and be in charge. They eventually find a mysterious young woman who claims to be the Princess of Crimea. You take her word for the time and set off on a huge adventure to save your country and other's too. Most of the story doesn't unfold very fast and the rest has too many spoilers for me to tell anymore. PoR's story is exactly what you get, there aren't any plot twists, which is actually a bit nice for a change. The biggest thing in the story however, is the issue of racism, which is very big and very heated in PoR's world. The level of racism is beyond even some in the real world currently.
Audio: The music in Fire Emblem games has always been top notch, and PoR carries on that tradition. The opening theme song is wonderful and the separate themes of other characters is also just amazing. PoR has a great orchestra and it benefits greatly from this. The music sets the exactly right tone at the right time always. You can tell how much work went into making the music in this game just sound fantastic and fit so well. When you're in the heat of the battle the music is loud and booming, while if it's calm and at night time it's in the background faint enough to hear it, but not obtrusive. While the music sounds great, the sound effects suffer a bit. Most of the effects sound good like swords clanking, or the roar of a dragon, but there are others that don't sound quite right and could've used a bit of work. Not only do some of them sound a bit off, but when you're playing the game the motion of the characters sometimes doesn't fit the effect very well either.Of course, this isn't a huge complaint and most of the sound effects are alright. PoR has a great soundtrack and is one of the few games I would actually just play to listen to the music. The composition is great and the game really does benefit from having such amazing theme songs and battle music. If you enjoy epic sounding music then PoR certainly does deliver. Even though the sound effects aren't perfect they are easily overlooked thanks to the music that is in the game. The only other slight thing is, that there isn't nearly enough voice acting. While in the anime style cutscenes it does have good voice acting there is none to be found anywhere else. While this isn't new to the FE universe, it would've been nice to hear the characters voices instead of having to read it all. The music is dramatic and emotional, just like any RPG's music should be.
Graphics: Most games in 2005 have looked great and have been mind blowing at times, but PoR is a mix of things. There are three different sets of graphics used in this game and some just aren't very good. You have the regular cutscenes which are the characters art just standing in one location with their mouths moving and it has an art background too. The backgrounds in these cutscenes look great and the art for the characters is also very well done. This is some of the best art I've seen in a game this year. The artist did a great job as usual and make the characters really stand out. The second type of graphics are the blend of anime and CG cutscenes that are sparsely put throughout the game. While these do look amazing and are top notch with anything else, there aren't nearly enough of them. There are only six total in the entire game, so when you see one enjoy it because there aren't many. The third and final type of graphics is where PoR really hurts, the battlefield graphics. It's amazing how you can have such nice graphics one second and then you have another set of graphics that looks like a detailed N64 game. The only game I can think of to compare them with would be Skies Of Arcadia:Legends graphics. While I personally don't mind them they are not nearly close to what a game should look like these days. If you looked at them you wouldn't be able to tell they were in a game that was made in late 2005. It is sad that all the other graphics look so nice and detailed and then you have these, that you spend the most amount of time looking at. The unique and detailed CG cutscenes and the art all look great, but it doesn't seem a lot of work went into the other graphics. While they all feel unique to Fire Emblem the battlefield graphics just don't seem to fit. Since we have games like Resident Evil 4 and God Of War now a days it would be nice if PoR's graphical levels matched those. While, it doesn't take away any enjoyment from the game it is a bit disappointing.
Gameplay: This is what really sets Fire Emblem apart from other RPG's. Fire Emblem games have always been challenging and fun, and PoR makes no exceptions here. When you first start out, you don't have many units to choose from and the battles are pretty short, but as you progress you start getting into some pretty lengthy battles. The starting of the game is probably going to be a bit boring for vets of the series, but as you get further and further into it, you start getting more new and exciting things that haven't been in the previous FE games. One of the big new additions is the Laguz, they are the race that can change into powerful animals and deal great amounts of damage. To counter all their great strength and great defense, you have to wait a few turns to be able to turn into an animal. Some Laguz will turn into a animal right at the start, but most do not. Once the Laguz are in animal form they have a bar which slowly drains each turn, until it is empty. Once the bar is empty you turn into a human again and have to wait for it to fill up, so that you can return to your animal form. Besides the Laguz there are a few other new enemies and character types, but for the most part your favorite character classes and enemies return. Besides the new characters and such, there's also some new features to go along with them. One of the new mechanics is the option to shove a foe or friend out of the way(if they're standing next to them), which in the long run could save that character's life. Another new things is the Bonus Exp., which you get at the end of every chapter. How much Bonus Exp. you get depends on how well you preformed in the chapter, and there are a lot of ways to get more or less. Before the start of each new chapter you can use this Bonus Exp. to level up your characters, which leads into another new addition in this game, the fact that you no longer need to visit stores. You now have a base, where you can use your Bonus Exp., buy or sell items and weapons, and even have support conversations. Now that you don't have to use weak characters in battle to level them up, it feels a bit easier and it kind of feels like cheating when you know it would be harder to level them up otherwise, which does bring the difficulty of the game down some. Since you don't have to worry about finding shops anymore during the battle, it makes you relax a bit more. Besides being able to do all the normal things in the shops, you can now build your very own custom weapon, providing you have the funds. If you choose to build a weapon you can choose what kind of weapon it will be, what the name of it will be, and choose the color of it. Of course since you can do all that, it's kind of expensive and you may not want to do that until the last chapter. Now, instead of having to try and talk to a character mid-battle you can now do that when you're in the base, with the support conversation option. These conversations are still very interesting, and you learn so much more about the characters that you wouldn't have otherwise. That brings me to another point, there is a lot of text in the game and it will take a while to read it all, so if you don't like a lot of reading or you just prefer action, then this probably won't be your cup of tea. Since most RPG's are story driven, I really have enjoyed all the text and the writing is very well done, which adds great value to it. All of these new additions will sound pretty good to most FE fans, but you won't get to see some of the better ones until much later in the game and that's when you really start having a blast with PoR. Once you get through these new additions, you'll find that PoR is exactly like every other FE game, except that it's in 3-D and it isn't on the GBA. That can be a good and bad thing, because PoR's weaknesses and strengths are all the same, which makes it hard to be fair in reviewing it. Vets of the series will be right at home with PoR, but don't you worry newcomers, because the game is very helpful or beginners. Before you begin your quest you are given the option of choosing three different difficulty levels, Easy, Normal, Hard. Easy, is for gamers who have never played an FE game, there are tutorials and the enemies are weaker, and the items cost less too. the tutorials are in-depth and do a very good job of getting you into the flow of things, you also will get a bit of help for a few chapters after too. Normal is for gamers who have gone through FE games before, and are looking for a bit of a challenge. Hard is for people who have gone through the game, but weren't challenged enough, enemies are stronger and are more plentiful, plus items cost much more. The bosses that you fight are all very powerful and by the time you get to fight them, you want them dead as much as any character in the game. There are still characters that you can get, which are optional and usually take a bit of thought to get to and there is more than enough characters whether you get them or not. At the end of the game you will have a huge selection of about 40 characters to choose from and all of them have pluses and minuses. As in all the other FE games a character only has one life, so be careful because you won't get them back again. I like that they didn't change that system, because it makes you work harder at making sure you don't lose your best character and have to start the chapter over again. FE is one of the few games where you pay greatly for foolish mistakes permanently. It adds even more depth, because as you progress you connect with each character and don't want to lost a single one, even if you never use them in battle. PoR is very lengthy and will take anywhere from a good 24-40 hours your first time through, and slightly less after you've been through it more than once, which makes PoR a pretty long game in any genre. PoR is easy to recommend to beginners and vets, because it's a good game that stays true to the Fire Emblem franchise and doesn't wander much from the straight and narrow path.
Features: If you have a GBA, either one or both FE GBA games and a GC/GBA connector cord then you are in luck. Once you finish PoR and either one or both of the GBA FE's then you can connect the GBA to the GC and unlock artwork for all three of the FE games. the art is great to look at and well worth beating the game for, with it's vivid colors and great portraits of the characters, it's one of the best unlockables. After you beat the game you also unlock the sound gallery, where you can replay all your favorite tunes from PoR over and over as many times as you like, while viewing some art behind the song selection. You also unlock a movie gallery, where you can choose from any of the six CG/Anime cutscenes that you saw in the game. As if that wasn't enough to do you can also unlock a few secret characters in the game by beating the game over and over again, you can even unlock enemies that you can use in the main game, like the final boss. Of course, if you want to get all the secret characters you'll have to beat the game 15 times and that will unlock everything there is. Sadly the one thing that was taken out was the arena where you could fight the computer or a friend using five or less characters. While it wasn't amazing, it was still fun.
Replay: Even though there are quite a few secret characters to get if you play through the game 15 times, it's unlikely that you'll want to go through it that many times. The story is interesting(although not new) and the battles are fun, but you won't really be wanting to play through it again more than a few times at most. You can skip the cutscenes if you want to, but they add a lot to PoR and of course since the battles don't change, just get harder if you choose Hard or Normal, there's not a lot of reason to go through it again and again. PoR is more of a game that is very fun while it lasts, but doesn't offer enough to go through it 15 times or even 5 times. While you're playing it you'll enjoy it, but playing through it again more than twice isn't likely, but because the game is so long, fun, and exciting that's okay.
Overall: The story isn't the greatest thing, but it isn't the worst either. The text may be long and there may be a lot of it, but the writing is well done and it adds a good amount of value to the story. The regular cutscenes are very well done and have amazing artwork that really sticks with you. There is now voice acting for the lengthy dialogue, but if you like FE you won't mind. There aren't many CG/Anime cutscenes to be seen, but the ones that it does have look great, and serve kind of like a reward. The new additions are pretty well balanced, while not making the original parts seem like they don't belong. The characters are all unique and have very different and sometimes weird personalities, that make you really feel a connection and not want to lose a single one. The graphics, while they aren't that pretty, are still just the right fit for a FE game and fit it well. The later chapters are very lengthy and add a lot of depth to earlier type missions. Vets will love it, because it adds some new things while keeping the old things that we have come to love, while beginners will feel right at home and will learn the basics and then enjoy a great RPG. There are negatives, as there are positives, but in the end PoR is another faithful game in a good franchise. The lack of MP and the lack of replay do hurt, but not enough to take away from the enjoyment that you'll get from PoR.
Rating: 8.9/10. This is the first 3-D Fire Emblem game and the team made a good transition from 2-D. The only real problem with Path Of Radiance is the fact, that the games strengths and weaknesses are the exact same thing, but if you love RPG's, good stories, and fun gameplay, then Path Of Radiance is a good game to buy. With the lack of RPG's in 2005 PoR certainly makes it okay.