We've all been waiting for a good tactics game for the GC. Ta-da!
The story in Path of Radiance definitely meets the high standards given to the Fire Emblem series. You start out as a young boy named Ike, whose father, Greil, is the leader of a mercenary camp. Ike practices swordfighting with fierce determination and he soon joins the mercenary gang. However, his father dies in a terrible fight and Ike finds himself to be the new head chief. But some characters are not okay with that and as a result, a melodrama forms between the characters.
The game's story unfolds throughout a span of 29 Chapters, not including a Prologue and an Epilogue. Each chapter starts out to be around 20 minutes long, but as you get further into the game, some chapters become devilishly long (*Ahem* Chapter 17..). The game will take you about 20 to 30 hours on your first playthrough, but if you choose to play through a second time, which you probably will, it will take about 15 to 20 hours if you choose to skip the text. Character development is revealed through the Support Conversations, which long-time Fire Emblem fans should be familiar with. The game is programmed for the characters that you use in battle to converse with one another. Eventually the characters develop relationships with one another and as a result, they are more powerful when closer to each other in combat.
Okay, now to explain the scores:
Gameplay: 10
Fire Emblem has one of the deepest gameplay systems I've ever seen. No wonder it's lasted since the NES. Path of Radiance makes almost no changes to the gameplay formula, but that's to be expected. Fire Emblem is about choosing certain characters to be in your main party and raising them in order to defeat each chapter. But if you add in Class Skills, Luck, the Laguz, Growth Rates, Random Number Generator, Weapon Levels, Weapon Triangle, Tomes, and Healing... thats a lot to chew on. The depth goes on and on, which might be annoying to some people, but the hook here is that the gameplay actually makes perfect sense!
Graphics: 7
Okay, I'm sort of disappointed with the graphics, because the GBA counterparts had great graphics with lots of personality. It looks like a N64 game and you'll see many boxy characters and ugly textures. Sure, the artwork is great, but if they use the same artwork over and over again, and the only things that are moving are their eyes and their mouth, it gets old! A regular scene looks like a fancy puppet show and the characters look like cardboard cut-outs. On the plus side, there are several cut scenes scattered in the game, and they look amazing! It would have been nice if there were a couple more, but its worth playing through the game just to see them over and over again in the unlockable theater section.
Sound: 9
The sound is incredible, sort of to be expected from Fire Emblem. The soundtrack doesn't sound synthetic at all. I would kill to download Life Returns somewhere =]. On the downside, there happens to be voice acting in the cutscenes suck. Bad. Ike sounds like a retarded kid, Greil sounds like a drunk, the Black Knight sounds like a girl, need I say more? Also, there is no voice acting in the scenes between battles. You will eventually get bored of just seeing text.
Value: 7
Well, as great as a game Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance is, 50 bucks for it is asking for a lot. I think that this is an excellent package, but I mean, 49.99 of your hard-earned cash for a Gamecube game? Maybe, maybe not.
So all in all, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance is a game definitely worth checking out, and you'll soon be addicted to the rock-solid gameplay, deep storyline, and you'll probably be arguing with your friend about who is the best character in the game by next week =]
~jurlo. out.