Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance-the most fun I’ve had with a strategy RPG in a decade!

Wolfpup

Wolfpup

CAGiversary!
Background:
I guess my tastes in strategy RPGs are (supposedly) unusual, because I hate most of them, even though I used to love the genre. I’ve never been able to stomach Final Fantasy Tactics, nor the majority of other s/rpgs. I only mildly enjoyed Tactics Ogre and Ogre Battle, and haven’t even played those Disgea-type games, since I assumed I’d hate them. I didn’t like the first GBA Fire Emblem game either (though in retrospect I wonder if I was just worrying too much about losing characters).

The games I absolutely loved? Dark Wizard, Shining Force 2, Heroes of Might and Magic (various), Dragon Force, and Vandal Hearts 1. Those last two particularly (I never got to play Shining Force 3…wish the complete thing would get released somewhere, along with a remake of Dragon Force!)

I only picked up Fire Emblem: PoR because it was clearanced at Circuit City, and I was buying some other clearanced games too (like Chibi Robo)-and plus I wanted to give it one last chance. In general I like Intelligent System’s games.

So-what do I love about Fire Emblem: PoR? In random order:
-The gameplay is simple and fun. There’s an easy mode, which makes it playable for me. There’s complexity and strategy, but it’s not overwhelming like so many games. I don’t need to care about height, or birthdays, or what a character’s favorite color is, or what continent they were born on, or their blood type, or what they ate for breakfast, or any other stupid thing.
The Laguz characters are interesting to play with (generally powerful, but can basically only fight half the time). Losing characters permanently is actually kind of neat. (And believe it or not, I’ve been without a healer for ages now-I lost both of mine, and thought for sure the game was basically over…but I’ve been doing fine just letting the weaker characters go if they go, and powering through with the strong characters.)

-The character design is really neat. The 3D engine is nothing special, but characters are frequently represented by high quality 2D art during cut scenes, and they all look fantastic.

-The writing. This story is shockingly good. It deals with some heavy issues like racism quite well, and is one of the best written RPGs I’ve played in ages. Honestly most Japanese RPGs have really terrible plots, and uninteresting characters. Nintendo’s translation/writing department needs a serious raise, ‘cause this is just fantastic. Starting out I had no interest whatsoever in the plot-I mean It I figure it’s generic fantasy-type characters going on their generic quest-whatever. But I can’t believe how quickly I was sucked in to the story and the characters. Even minor characters seem more interesting than the MAIN characters in most of these games.

I’m over 24 hours in in 9 days, and still loving it!
 
[quote name='Wolfpup']
I’m over 24 hours in in 9 days, and still loving it![/quote]That's about what I did... something like 44 hours in two weeks to get through it.

Goddess of Dawn will be here soon!
 
Nice! I didn't know anything about the next one.

I'm *REALLY* glad to see it just uses the classic controller. This type of game controls best with a normal pad. Period. (Just like Advance Wars DS was best with the normal controls-if you disagree, you're wrong :D ) I can't imagine trying to slowly maneuver characters around with the Wiimote.

Only bad thing is IGN's preview makes it sound like it doesn't use 16:9, which would be sort of lame. If nothing else, I hope they expand the main game screens to 16:9, even if the character portraits and stuff are still displayed in the center of the screen.
 
I heard you can transfer save data from PoR to Goddess of Dawn, as characters from Ike's Mercenaries that reappear in the sequel get a boost for stats they have maxed in the previous game. That, and also Laguz can now attack without having to transform.
 
[quote name='Wolfpup']Nice! I didn't know anything about the next one.

I'm *REALLY* glad to see it just uses the classic controller. This type of game controls best with a normal pad. Period. (Just like Advance Wars DS was best with the normal controls-if you disagree, you're wrong :D ) I can't imagine trying to slowly maneuver characters around with the Wiimote.

Only bad thing is IGN's preview makes it sound like it doesn't use 16:9, which would be sort of lame. If nothing else, I hope they expand the main game screens to 16:9, even if the character portraits and stuff are still displayed in the center of the screen.[/quote]Personally I would have loved pointer control, as I also love the stylus control in AW DS. Hopefully the next one - since it's out at the beginning of the Wii lifecycle, should be able to squeeze another in - will, and have Wi-Fi battling.
 
Cool, I'll have to keep my save file...that is if I have any characters left when I'm finished :D
 
[quote name='botticus']Personally I would have loved pointer control, as I also love the stylus control in AW DS. Hopefully the next one - since it's out at the beginning of the Wii lifecycle, should be able to squeeze another in - will, and have Wi-Fi battling.[/QUOTE]


Noooooooooooo! :hot: :lol:
 
[quote name='metroid85']I heard you can transfer save data from PoR to Goddess of Dawn, as characters from Ike's Mercenaries that reappear in the sequel get a boost for stats they have maxed in the previous game. That, and also Laguz can now attack without having to transform.[/QUOTE]


You got to be kidding? That Laguz can attack without having to transform. They are extremely broken in that game especially when it comes to beast class since they don't have weakness to archery class. Their base stats are really high, ignore rock, paper and scissor weapon system, don't have to use weapons, high movement range and enable to see long range in fog of war. The only weakness is they can't attack when their transformer meter is down which is easily negated with high base stats. I beat this game under 20 hour just using the Laguz units.


My best advice for this game is always move with caution. A small mistake can cost to lose your allies permanently or you might have to replay the same stage over again. This rule of thumb is most important to healer class since they have very weak to physical attack due to low speed, hp and physical defense. Always move them to back row, have units with high defense carry them like knights and distribute majority of team xp towards the healer class. Either that or carry lots of healing items.


Another good advice is soft resetting until you get good stats on team distribution menu(hold start+b+x). In fire emblem the stats distribution is much different from any rpg. Instead of fix rate of stats when you level up like any rpg, you stats are generated by probability depending on class. For example, fighters have high probability of getting stats increase of attack, speed and hit or mages have high probability of getting stats increase of intelligence and magical defense. So it is possible to get fighter to have mage stats if you really unlucky. Fighter you want to focus on life, attack and speed. For healers, you want to focus more on life and physical defense to make them less valuable to one hit kills.
 
Interesting info. That must be why sometimes my characters go up levels and don't gain any stats!

I'd assume with the Laguz that they would be much less powerful in human form, or have some other kind of disadvantage...though it does sound like one of those things they change, just so the game is different, rather than actually being better. But it could work out.
 
Maybe this should be moved to the Gamecube forum, but thanks for the insight. This is one of those games that everyone swears it's an awsome game, but you never got around to. I'm in the same boat as the OP. I never really liked Strategy RPG, I played a few (Vandal Hearts, the Arc the Lad series) Plus I tried to get into Disgea but it was way too much crap going on for me. I do have a copy of Fire Emblem, but only played it for about an hour. Maybe I'll give it another shot.
 
My Astrid died a cold, undignified death a few levels back :D

She was way to weak by the time I got her-guess I should have powered her up.

I lost...mmm...whoever that "Sword Master" was last mission too. I liked her and hated losing her, but she was blown away in one hit (with full HP), and I didn't feel like replaying it-and she would have been worthless anyway without experience dumped into her.
 
I want to pick this up but if I do a search for "Fire Emblem" at Gamestop the only thing that comes up is Goddess of Dawn. I can't even see if any stores have it. Grrr. I guess my only option is ebay.
 
[quote name='Vegan']I want to pick this up but if I do a search for "Fire Emblem" at Gamestop the only thing that comes up is Goddess of Dawn. I can't even see if any stores have it. Grrr. I guess my only option is ebay.[/QUOTE]

When you search, click "Show back ordered items" or whatever it says. It should then list it for 12.99 and you can search stores for it.
 
[quote name='Calamityuponthee']When you search, click "Show back ordered items" or whatever it says. It should then list it for 12.99 and you can search stores for it.[/quote]

Ah, cool!
 
I should have pumped up Astrid and those others I guess. I'm just so obsessed with "saving" my experience (or items, or whatever) that I end up never using it in RPGs :D

I'm always like "I could use it now...but what if I need it even more later?"
I sometimes have crazy items left over for the final boss battle in RPGs 'cause of it :D
 
[quote name='The Crotch']Um. Laguz are going to be far weaker in their human form. I figured that would be obvious.[/QUOTE]


Yes, Laguz units are weaker in their human form, but due to their insane base stats, they make pretty good tanks if you want xp distribute the your other party members. The only real down side is the amount of experience you gain, about 1/3 less then normal party members which is easily counter with group experience.

Not to mention, the last boss is really easy if you pick
King of Beast as your partner
 
[quote name='The Crotch']The female Swordmaster is Mia. She didn't do too well for me my first time around - neither did Zihark, really - but my second game (on hard)? Wow. I was throwing her into the thick of every single scrap during the giant bridge battle with Petrine. She didn't even get scratched.[/quote]
Mia was my mvp despite the fact that I started using her late in the game (to be fair, I abused the hell out of the bonus EXP to level her). I equipped her with a Wrath scroll, and along with the Vantage she had from the start she was decimating everyone that challenged her.

It was on the bridge too where she really shone. She fell into a trap and took a hit from one of the catapults(?). That knocked her HP down low enough for Wrath to activate. Five enemies attacked her in one round and every one of them was critical-killed before they could even take a swing at her.
 
[quote name='The Crotch']Um. Laguz are going to be far weaker in their human form. I figured that would be obvious.

As for PoR? Fantastic fucking game. SRPGs are my favourite games by far, and I loved Fire Emblems 6, 7, and 8. I put down everything else I had and powered through 9. My Jill was impossibly powerful - I put the Delphi Shield (or whatever the thing that made her good against archers was called) on her, and she was taking 0 damage from fucking everything.

I started hard mode immediately thereafter. My Astrid became the knew Jill, absolutely leveling everything in her path with her bow and sword.[/QUOTE]
Is there an american translation for FE 6. I loved and have played 7, 8 and 9 repeatedly. I would love to get ready for 10 by playing some 6 instead of replaying the other 3.
 
I got kind of bored with the GBA version... (don't get me wrong, it was pretty cool.. i just tired of the gameplay after a while) is this one improved, in general?
 
[quote name='jaystaeb8']Is there an american translation for FE 6. I loved and have played 7, 8 and 9 repeatedly. I would love to get ready for 10 by playing some 6 instead of replaying the other 3.[/quote]

There probably is, but not, um, legally...
 
I'm almost finished with Chapter 27 (second to the last, I think).

I've been a bit burned out from the last few chapters-kind of wanting to power through them to get to something else, but it's still fun.

One strange thing is how quickly you reach the level limit in this. Also I've never liked how you generally have to watch experience levels for a ton of separate characters in strategy RPGs. I think I'd like some kind of system where everyone in the battle goes up levels equally or something, regardless of what (if anything) they actually did.
 
[quote name='botticus']Personally I would have loved pointer control, as I also love the stylus control in AW DS. Hopefully the next one - since it's out at the beginning of the Wii lifecycle, should be able to squeeze another in - will, and have Wi-Fi battling.[/QUOTE]

I'm with you there. I couldn't imagine playing Advance Wars without a stylus and am disappointed Goddess of Dawn doesn't support the Wii remote.
 
Ugh. I absolutely can't believe when people say stuff like that. Advance Wars was completely unplayable with a stylus. It's 52 billion times slower and clunkier than using a pad. I'm not willing to qualify that with an "in my opinion"-it just is. I tried it several times, and was just amazed by how poorly it controls that way.

I don't have the patience to slowly select orders, slowly scroll around, etc. I would not play either game if I was stuck with that type of control.

Regarding Fire Emblem-I'm on the last mission now, I guess. I've already wiped out half their forces, though I wish I had thought to put that "permanent beast form" type bracelet on my dragon. For some reason I didn't think of that until after I'd started the level. Ema (is that her name?) is completely awesome. Crazy damage, fantastic defense, AND she heals a bit every turn on her own :D I could probably beat the level just with her.
 
[quote name='The Crotch']Colty - improved in some ways, but worse in others. I find the fights in general to be more fun. A lot of little things have become better - item use out of combat, supports out of combat, bonus EXP rather than colloseums, and a Jeigan that follow's Seth's lead of actually being good. The cutscenes look absolutely fantastic, and the bonus maps are quite well done.

A lot of small things have become worse, too. The supports aren't as enjoyable to me, and I find that a lot of the really good characters support with crappy ones (Tanith and Makalov? Jill and Mist?). Combat animations aren't anywhere near as good. Cavalry looks especially odd, what with the double-jointed horses. There are no more branching-path promotions, though you do have a little bit of choice for some classes. Cutscenes are too few and far-between. There's also the problem of the "rolling rock" traps that show up in certain levels. These things take great delight in giving a middle finger to the laws of physics, and take a lot of the strategy out of the levels they are in.[/quote]

Thanks, this was helpful...

Animations are worse, eh?

Think I'll just replay Shining Force ][ again, for the time being.
 
If you like Shining Force-I'd get this. This is as close as you're going to get any time soon. The 3D graphics aren't anything special, but they get the job done (the 2D art looks MUCH better-and yeah, 2D combat cut scenes would look better).

But gameplay wise there's a lot of similarity, and I prefer this type of game to something like Final Fantasy Tactics...though I would probably HATE this game on normal difficulty.

I didn't have any problem with the rocks on that one level. Just added more variety.
 
[quote name='Wolfpup']Ugh. I absolutely can't believe when people say stuff like that. Advance Wars was completely unplayable with a stylus. It's 52 billion times slower and clunkier than using a pad. I'm not willing to qualify that with an "in my opinion"-it just is. I tried it several times, and was just amazed by how poorly it controls that way.
[/QUOTE]

Yeah, [highlight]completely unplayable[/highlight] except that I beat every mission that way :roll:.

There was ONE thing I had to use the dpad for though - I think it was the missles? I forget exactly, but it was something you had to move and then detonate - that didn't work well with the stylus. But for most normal control it worked fine. That's also a fact ;).
 
[quote name='io']Yeah, [highlight]completely unplayable[/highlight] except that I beat every mission that way :roll:.

There was ONE thing I had to use the dpad for though - I think it was the missles? I forget exactly, but it was something you had to move and then detonate - that didn't work well with the stylus. But for most normal control it worked fine. That's also a fact ;).[/QUOTE]

Well I don't have the patience to play something like that. I want good control in games, particularly something like that-I need the interface to work well enough to be unobtrusive. You'd have to pay me to play Advance Wars with a touch screen, or Fire Emblem waving a remote at the screen.

There's no reason for that when the control pad is far faster, allows for far faster scrolling, jumping between units, etc.
 
I haven't played the Fire Emblem series before. Is PoR a good start? I love SRPGs in general so it sounds like I'd love this game. Also where's a good place to pick it up pretty cheap?
 
I'll throw out a recommendation for Age of Empires on DS to any Fire Emblem/Advance Wars fans. I did enjoy it more than fire emblem and i'd put it right up there with Advance Wars.

Just watch out for the game destroying bugs. Don't name your profile less than 4 characters or you could trigger a bug that actually makes the cart unplayable, as in it starts up on a black screen and cannot be fixed. I named my first profile Jer and suffered this tragedy halfway through the game.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top