#I'll def continue with radiant dawn

[calamitaswrath]

Cal Lucia plays Fire Emblem Path of Radiance: Closing Thoughts

Right then! Yesterday I finally beat Path of Radiance, after starting it. . . oh boy, about half a year ago. Mind you, not because I didn't like the game, but because for any Fire Emblem game I usually just need to sit down and take my time, which was not at all helped by me having to take a break because I was on holiday.

Anyway, full thoughts are gonna be under the break, short version is: loved it a lot, story-wise a rather standard Fire Emblem game that put a very nice amount of depth and thought into story beats that normally don't really get questioned any further; gameplay didn't stand out compared to the GBA FE games but had some very nice caveats.

I think I'll just start off with the gameplay, because I think I should be able to get through that one quicker.

In retrospect, the gameplay overall was remarkably similar to that of the GBA titles, with very little to set it apart. Which is not a bad thing, mind you! And the presentation was still distinct and nice. But the things that did set it apart were really nice. Almost everyone having the ability to shove, master seals being basically unnecessary since characters just automatically promote upon levelling up after level 20 and the whole bonus experience system were very much appreciated, and it's honestly a shame that these two games are the only ones that have them. Mounted units having the ability to still move after attacking I could take or leave, though it often got very annoying with enemies. What did really bother me though was just how absurdly long it took in the beginning of the game before the concept of the convoy was introduced. I had to toss a lot of weapons because a unit's inventory was already full. And speaking of that, what also really kinda bothered me was how you couldn't access the convey during battle, since I don't really think it adds to much to strategizing. Oh, and then there was the whole "objectives for bonus experience are always secret" thing. Fine and all if it's just a map where you just have to clear things quickly, and most of the time these objectives are obvious enough, but some actual clarity would've been much preferred. Mages having seperate weapon ranks for all types of magic meanwhile was just plain stupid. I think at the end of the game my Soren only had a B rank as his highest one, even though he was the only mage I used.

Now, for the story! Early-game, I really did love the whole family-like dynamics of Greil's mercenaries, and how Greil himself interacted with them all. I can easily see why people are so attached to this group in particular. That whole sense got a bit lost as things went along and the cast got way bigger though, which is a big shame. Base conversations really could have done a lot to alleviate that, but I think for the last ten chapters or so I didn't really see anyone out of Boyd, Oscar, Rolf, Rhys, Shinon or Gartrie. Speaking of base conversations, though! Those were a really cool concept. Games like Three Houses of course had something similar going on with you being able to talk to people in the monastery between battles, but that really felt rather tedious, plus. . . Byleth isn't really the best person to bounce off of. Base conversations on the other hand are really cool in the sense that they helped characterize Ike, but sometimes also showed interactions that went beyond just the character that was shown in the menu. Much like bonus experience, that's something that I'd really love to see in another Fire Emblem game. As for the story overall - like I said in the short version up at the top, the whole story did rather feel like a straightforward Fire Emblem plot at face value. Like, Evil Kingdom™ invades Good Kingdom™, rightful heir to the throne escapes, and has to fight ~25+ strategic turn-based battles in order to reclaim it. But the way it presented itself really did add a whole lot of nuance to the simple setup. The lord is a commoner, not everybody instantly rallies behind Elincia right away, and on seemingly every step along the way you get characters behaving as if the writers asked "yeah okay, but what would actually happen in that situation?". Maybe this felt kind of heavy-handed at times, but I usually enjoyed it - even if it often felt like it was specifically Soren who was the mouthpiece for this sort of thing. It helped add to his characterization, though. Since I mentioned Soren, though: I am somewhat curious just how intentional the common fan interpretations of Ike as gay and autistic were on the side of the writers. Of course it doesn't really matter at the end of the day cause death of the author and all that, but I still can't help but to wonder if the writers really did intend for this without spelling it out. Maybe I'll look into them once I'm done with Radiant Dawn as well. As for the cast overall, I honestly didn't really find any character that I didn't like. Like, sure, Makalov was a shitty person, but he was at least funny that way, and it made Marcia far more interesting as well. From the moment that I had to pick and chose who I bring along for any given map, I always struggled since I had a legitimately hard time picking. I really might just have to read up on all the supports that I couldn't get here. As for some of my favs, there'd be Lucia (as I am contractually obligated to say but also I just thought that she had a banger design and was really cool), Nephenee, Elincia, Ike, Soren, Titania, Mist, Jill. . . and I better just cut it off here, because otherwise I'll just list way too much of the cast. Amazing character designs, too! Not quite sure yet if these are my favs in all of Fire Emblem since Shadows of Valentia and Three Houses has some bangers as well, but it's easily up there. Last thing that comes to mind right now, the music. . . yeeaaah, that really wasn't it. The soundtrack overall was passable, but it really just pales in the stuff you get from the 3DS titles onwards. Say what you will about a game like Fates, but it has a banger soundtrack. For Path of Radiance on the other hand, the only track that really sticks out to me is this ass-trumpet music for Daien, and that's not for good reasons. The final map didn't even have its own theme! And I guess I gotta wrap up here cause tumblr doesn't like the post getting any longer.