Path of Radiance is one of the best RPG games on the Gamecube and should be in every gamers collection.

User Rating: 9 | Fire Emblem: Souen no Kiseki GC
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance is one of the greatest RPG games to date on the Nintendo Gamecube. The gameplay in this game is amazing and mixed with an absolutely spectacular story (really its that good!) this games comes together perfectly. If you have enjoyed the Fire Emblem series particularly from the Game Boy Advance your in for the same great experience with this game. The game is set on the continent of Tellius, which is the home of the Beorc (human) and the Laguz, who are half human half animal beasts. There are three different tribes of the Laguz, there are the beast Laguz, which are composed mostly of cats and tigers and live in the deep forests of Galia. Than the other two tribes are the ravens and the hawks, who can obviously fly and rule the islands just off the Southern coast of Tellius. The Laguz play a huge role in this game because the games story line is based on the discrepancies between the Beroc and Laguz. The main character in this story is Ike son of Griel, leader of the Griel mercenaries. When suddenly and brutally the capital of Crimea is attacked by the country of Daein. The leader or top bad guy of this game King Ashnard is the king of Daein, and attacks Crimea for there ways of being friendly to the Laquz. Later on we find out that Ashnard wants ultimate power and wants to rule the entire continent of Tellius. The unknown princess of Crimea escapes before Daein realizes that she exists and Daein will do anything to capture her. She comes into the contact with the Griel mercenaries and this is where the story truly begins. The main objective of this game turns from protecting the princess to eventually reclaiming Crimea. Through most of this game you will play through missions where you have to capture a certain location or just defeat all the enemies on the playing field. During the battle sequences you will follow a turn based system, you can also perform special moves that can take out enemies in one hit. The game is fairly long around forty to fifty hours of gameplay, with about fifty missions to play through. The RPG elements of this game are very well done. During the game you can have about thirty unique characters to join your team. You can level them up during battle upgrading their stats or their weapon arsenal. There are three main categories to weapons, they are lance, sword and axe. Each weapon has their advantages and disadvantages. Like sword beats axe, axe beats lance, and lance beats sword. The best part of this game is definitely the gameplay so you should check this game out.

Now to the graphics. This is the first Fire Emblem game which features 3D graphics. Since the other games were on the Game Boy Advance this is the first Fire Emblem game to make its way to the Nintendo Gamecube. The graphics are not spectacular their unfortunately average. But putting that aside during the breaks between the missions where you can manage your team the game has dialogue cut scenes where there are beautifully drawn pictures of the scenery or the characters. This is one of the great parts of the game.

The sound in this game is pretty good. There are good memorable songs during the games battles none of which get annoying like some games. Other than that there are the sounds of battle which are average.

The game has excellent value to it. The game has great replay value because its just one of those games that you want to play again and again. And since this game is over forty hours of gameplay it should be in every gamers collection.

So overall if you are a fan of the Fire Emblem series or are looking for a good RPG game, Fire Emblem Path of Radiance is the game for you.