One of top reasons to buy a Gamecube
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Intelligent Systems
Platform: Nintendo Gamecube
Genre: turn-based strategy
Release Date: October 17th, 2005
Introduction - Well, this is my third review. I wrote the last one at least 3-4 months, so I decided to hunker down and write a review of my favorite Gamecube game. Path of Radiance was my first foray into the Fire Emblem world, and after beating it once and a little more, I would have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Story – OK, I’ll try to give you a good feel of the story without giving away too much. You are, Ike, a citizen of the country of Crimea on the continent of Tellius. There are two main races on this continent, Beorc (humans; this is what Ike is) and Laguz (half human and half animal). There is a strong hate between these tow races. Your father, Greil, is the leader of a group of mercenaries, of whom you are a new member. A thought-to-be-friendly country, Daien, takes over your country, and tries to take over the whole continent. It is up to you to stop him. Along the way you meet a mysterious princess, discover secrets about your family, try to eliminate racial injustice, and become a gallant leader. The story, though not terribly different from those of other RPG’s, is very well written and really draws you in. It has many plot twists and turns (which is a good thing). One secret that you learn in the last third of the game is especially intriguing.
Gameplay – For those of you who don’t know, Fire Emblem is a turn-based strategy game. This means that you use a turn to use your units choosing from a variety of things, and then your opponent takes a turn to do the same. This goes along until someone wins or you meet the goals of the level. Path of Radiance executes this type of gameplay very well. The game is divided into 30 levels. Between levels you are at your base. Here you can manage units, participate in conservations, and award bonus EX. It is very nice to be able to take care of everything while you are not in battle. The main way you get EX (experience points) is by fighting bad guys and that is given to you right then and there. However, you can also get extra EX by finishing a level quickly, etc. When a unit gains 100 EX it levels up, increasing its stats. It is very addicting to try to get your units better by leveling them up. In my opinion, this is the main reason why this game is so fun. The gameplay is also fun in this game because of the interesting and diverse playable characters. There is numerous classes that each unit is put in based on what their role is in battle. Each of the 40+ characters also has a very distinct personality and fighting abilities. This makes for interesting dialogue and varying gamplay as well.
Graphics – The graphics in this game are, for the most part, good. When you decide to fight an opponent, the screen switches and shows a close up of the battle. These animations are excellent and beautiful to watch. It is especially cool when a your unit does some kind of special attack. However, after watching thousands of these close-ups you may get sick of them. That’s not terrible, though, since you can just turn the battle animations off. Another not-terrible-but-not-great thing is that the battlefields can sometimes get dull and not very vibrant. A good thing, though, is the 6 cell-shaded like movies in the game. They are absolutely delightful to watch, and I wish there was more.
Sound/Music – Like the graphics, the sound and music department is mostly good, but also has some weak aspects. The good is that the music is very well composed and fits what is happening in the game very good. There are also lots of different songs. For most of the battles, though, it seems like they use the same tune(s). Don’t get me wrong. There is tons of music (in the unlockable sound room there is 64). It is just that they use the same music for most of the battles. The other music comes in during the movies and the loads of dialogue (you can skip it – which I did numerous times - though you may miss out on some of the plot).
Replay Value – The replay value in this game doesn’t go on forever, but it does go on for quite a long time. Most of the replay value comes from the three different difficulty levels and how addicting the game is. Also, to unlock everything, you’ll have to beat the game 15 times! Thankfully, you get the majority of the extras by just beating the game once on the hardest mode. The things you would get are: illustrations of all the playable characters in the game, a theater to watch the awesome movies I was talking about, the aforementioned sound room, and 3 of 6 extra maps. One thing that isn’t my favorite about the extra maps is that your characters can’t gain EX on these maps. It isn’t the end of the world, though. Just make sure to level up the characters you want leveled up before you beat the game.
STORY: 9/10__Very intriguing and lots of twists and turns
GAMEPLAY: 10/10__Very addicting to get your characters better
GRAPHICS: 9/10__The weak things don’t interrupt the gameplay; rest is very good
SOUND/MUSIC: 9/10__(same as graphics)
REPLAY VALUE: 10/10__So much unlockables plus the addicting nature of the game
OVERALL: 9.4__If you can’t already tell by the radically high score, I loved and still love this game. All I have to say is that this is a must-buy for almost every gamer and good job, Intelligent Systems!