Radiant Dawn is still the great game Path of Radiance was, but it doesn't improve from its predecessor in any way.
Fire-Emblem is a turn-based middle-age strategy series that was not very well-know outside Japan, actually the first Fire-Emblem game released outside Japan was a GBA game and the series was already going on in Japan since the NES time. Anyway, the game was a success and following it a new Fire-Emblem game was released outside Japan, but this time for the Game Cube, Fire-Emblem Path of Radiance. That game was another success and now, Radiant Dawn, its sequel has gone out for the Wii.
As a direct sequel from Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn is placed in the same world of its predecessor, the world of Tellius, where two races exist, the beorc (humans) and the laguz (half-humans, half beasts). Radiant Dawn takes place 3 years after Ashnard, the mad ruler of Daein was defeated by Ike and the Crimean army. After winning the war, Crimea receives the right to rule Daein, but with the country in reconstruction, and without enough resources to rule another country, Crimea renounces to its right to rule Daein and passes it to Begnion Empire, but instead of rulling Daein with justice, Begnion starts an oppression. You start the game in control of the Dawn Brigade, a group of people who try to solve Daein's problems. You start the game with just this group of characters, but you'll soon see yourself involved in a war to free Daein from Begninon's oppression. That summarizes the story from the first part of the game, actually, Radiant Dawn is divided in 4 parts, that's pretty cool, since you can play with different nations, with different points of view, but this design choise has a big problem. The 4 parts work as almost almost independent storys from each other, but then the story has to be told in 7 or 10 stages. The storyline is still great, but if compared to Path of Radiance, that had one story for 30 stages, it lacks deepness.
Radiant Dawn is very similar to its predecessor, but in this case, its a bad thing. Let's start with the graphics, Radiant Dawn looks exactly like Path of Radiance, but Radiant Dawn is a Wii game and Path of Radiance is a Game Cube game, the problem is that PoR's graphics were already lacking, the game suffers from low-detailed character models with some poor animation, the story is only told by 2D pictures and texts, and what is even worse is that the DS could easily do this. The graphical highlights in the game are some impressive CG animations. The sound is quite simple too, the musics are good but its all midi, and they manage to get old really fast.
Radiant Dawn doesn't use any of the Wii's features, it has no online mode and no motion-sensing controls. The controls work just like in PoR, you can use the Wii-Remote (held in its NES position), the Classic controller or the Game Cube controller, just select your unit and attack someone. No motion-sensing controls included, but in Fire-Emblem's case the controls just wouldn't add anything to the overall experience.
In RD, difficulty was seriously increased, Fire-Emblem veteran or not, you should not start playing in the Normal difficult, but in the Easy one. A good new is that now you're allowed to save in the middle of the battle, so you won't have to do the stage all over again. Other thing that increase difficulty is that just like any other Fire-Emblem, once your characters die, they don't come back.
If I have criticized the game a lot until now, I'll tell some good news now. The battles are as complex as ever. In battle, a lot of patience is needed, you'll always have to analyse the opponents weakness before attacking ( That thing of rock-paper-scissor is present: Swords are strong against axes, axes are strong against lances and lances are strong against sword, the same goes for the magics), and since there are various classes in the game, each one with their own advantages and weakness, you'll also have to pay attention to that. Once in your base, you can assign special skills to your characters, to award them with bonus experience, to sell and to buy items, to forge your own weapons (even choosing their colors and names), to create special relationships between your characters and to get some special info. As you can see, there is a plenty of things to do.
In the end, Radiant Dawn is a great game, but its quite a disappointment too, because its just like Path of Radiance, a long time released Game Cube game with weaker story. Anyone who has not played Path of Radiance should try to, and the ones who have already played and liked it, should get this game, expect for 30 to 40 hours playing a really addictive
game.
Graphics............................................... 6,5
Sound.................................................... 7,0
Gameplay............................................. 8,0
Story....................................................... 8,5
Reply Value.......................................... 8,0
Overall................................................... 8,0