Review: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
For those that know me you know that I love the Fire Emblem games. Can the first console Fire Emblem, subtitled Path of Radiance, live up to my expectations? Or will it fall short of the quality set by rest of the games in the series?
Story:
You play as the son of a leader of a band of mercenaries named Ike. The nation your band of mercenaries gets overrun by a rival nation, and the next in line to the throne of the nation has not only fallen into the hands of band of mercenaries but the invading army has turned it's focus upon your small band of mercenaries.
Graphics:
All I can say is wow, the cut scenes are some of the most beautiful that I have ever seen on the Gamecube, so it was kind of disappointing that there were so few of them in the game, especially after the opening. Other than that the graphics are also very good, but I was kind of expecting something a little more than a fully rendered 3d version of the 2d cut scenes I am used to on the GBA, maybe like just a full out action scene between the characters as they fought or something.
Music:
The Music is as good as the rest of the series, but what bothered me is that they bothered to voice act a few of the cut scenes, but not only didn't continue to voice act the game, nor many of the short cut scenes after the opening cut scene, thus forcing you to read through a whole lot of text.
Game play:
If you have played the Gameboy incarnations of Fire Emblem than you know what to expect from the Gamecube version of Fire Emblem, but the Gamecube versions have something new to offer. The Mounted unit has undergone a transformation, now there are 3 incarnations of the mounted unit for each type of weapon in the trinity. For those unfamiliar with the series there is a weapon trinity which works like a game of Paper, Rock, and Scissors, Sword beats Axe, Axe beats Spear, and Spear beats Sword usually. This trinity also extends to magic, and most forms of weapons in this game
Design:
Over all the Design is as great and as deep as we have come to expect from the Fire Emblem series. The world is big, the battles are good and require you to think before you move, the menus are easy to use and maneuver through, and the characters are all involving. There are a lot of missions to complete, and different campaigns to go through, and many new and different weapons add to the repeatability. However this game in many respects takes a step back for the series by being more like the original Gameboy game rather than the follow up the Sacred Stones, because many of my gripes about the original Gameboy adventure apply to the Gamecube incarnation as well. If you have forgotten these are: you do not get any generic troops to level up or sacrifice in lieu of loosing your more story based characters, I know that I am one of those commanders don't like to loose any troops, but if you slip up once some one is going to die but I would feel better if I did not have to guard my guys like some treasure. And one more thing that adds to it is that there are no chances to level up in between plot stages, so you may have to take a weak character in your party just to get through the stage, need less to say having to baby-sit a character I don't like to use to begin with is not one of my more favorite tasks. You also get to the lack of voice acting to my list of gripes as well
Despite my pathetic gripes, and nitpicking I still love this game regardless of its relative lack of improvements, and I recommend this game highly to anyone whom has a Gamecube that likes role-playing games, strategy games, or tactics games!
Graphics
10/10
Game play
8/10
Sound
8/10
Fun factor
7/10
Tilt
9/10
Average score
8.4
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance:
Pros:
Good overall design
Easy to lean controls
Fans will love it
Amazing cut scenes
Good graphics
Cons:
One mistake can prove fatal
No real improvements have been made
Voice acting only extends to the cut scenes