Your
group of men, about 12, enters the map to find yourself
out-numbered and out-weapon to the enemy army of about
23 men. They tower over you with their high levels
and mighty lances. However, thankfully, your group
of men has you. You are a wartime tactician, and your
choices affect whether you win or lose the battle.
Fire
Emblem: Path of Radiance throws out a great Strategy
RPG for the GC. Unlike its predecessors for the GBA
however, it places you in the shoes of a guy named
Ike, who is still training under his father, the leader
of the local mercenaries, instead of a tactician that
is recruited into the war.
In
order to punish the world, a dark god drowns the world
in a large flood leaving only one piece of land. This
continent is called Tellius and is divided among the
humans or beorc, and the demi-humans or Laguz. The
Beorc and Laguz have been in hatred of each other
for quite some time, constantly warring against each
other. Until recently, they created a shaky and uneasy
peace treaty with each other through the help of the
Crimean King.
However,
in a local mercenary camp south of the capital of
Crimea, a young boy is recruited as a mercenary. That
young boy is Ike, that you play as through out the
game. Ike soon finds himself on the battlefield against
bandits. The mission runs you through a string of
tutorial videos to get you settled into the flow of
the game play, simple things such as; moving around,
attacking, healing yourself, and how to complete the
mission. Throughout the beginning chapters, you get
random tutorial boxes popping up and explaining things
such as the unit skills that you just got, or how
to complete the different types of missions. While
the boxes always popping up can get kind of annoying
at first, they are extremely informative with a glimmer
of comedy mixed inside.
The
game offers you one game mode, single player story
mode. In this you go through a large amount of chapters
that lead you through the intense story that this
game offers. In each chapter you have a large battle
you must complete to continue on to the next chapter,
and the next twist in the plot. Each battle grants
you a challenge with your units being out numbered
each time and a major boss that you have to beat.
While you usually are out numbered you can have the
security to know that your units are strong enough
and skilled enough to take them out, with exceptions
of course.
The game offers simple controls for this massive game.
Its pretty much all based around the control stick/d-pad,
a button, b button, and the start button. Using the
control stick, you're able to move around the menu
and the map grid looking at the units. When you place
the cursor over a unit you can use the "A"
button to select the unit to look at its stats or
items that that unit is caring, or to move it (if
it is yours). The "B" button is used to
cancel actions. The start button brings up the overview
of the map, the number of enemy units and allied units,
and the conditions that you have to complete to beat
the mission.
Fire
Emblem: Path of Radiance, offers a large variety of
well, every thing, from items to units. Units are
plenty full, if you can keep them alive that is. Available
to you are units ranging from Rangers to Berserkers,
Lance/Axe/Bow Knights to Wyvern Riders, and Archers
to Mages. Each one of the units has his/hers strengths
and weaknesses against the other units. Some of the
units can attack from a distance depending on what
type of weapon they are using, and some of them can
even up classes to something better. The type of land
you're fighting on can affect your units and the enemy
units in good of bad ways. Something like the weather
can affect the movement of large units for instance.
Also there is something else that affects all units,
two types of triangles, one is for weapons and the
other for magic. The weapon triangle is simple; lances
beat swords, swords beat axes, and axes beat lances.
The magic triangle is; fire beats wind, wind beats
thunder, and thunder beats fire. If you attack a unit
and you have the upper hand with a weapon that beats
there's, it gives you a sort of boost to your attack.
But be careful of how you use your units because once
they're gone, they're gone for good.
Graphics
in the game are nicely shaped, with a nice anime look
to it. The battles are pretty with nice 3-D graphics.
However, in between the battles and chapters, you
get still photos of the main characters talking, and
talking and talking, and then talking some more. The
couple of cut scenes you do get though, are beautiful
with nicely drawn animations.
Fire
Emblem: Path of Radiance offers you a minimum amount
of music that just gets looped over and over throughout
the battles. The music is roughly the same with just
the tune or sound changed. The only time the song
changes is when the characters are talking, or game
over. The voice acting, the little there is because
it's only during the cut scenes, isn't to bad. However,
the cut scenes are more focused on the action that
is going on in it to worry about script, saving you
from breathless and the least energetic voices I've
ever heard.
Unlike
most Nintendo games, this one doesn't have a multiplayer
mode. Yet it could have multiplayer possibilities
such as gathering two teams of units from two different
games matching up against each other.
With
its few faults, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance still
has to be one of the better strategy games for the
Gamecube. With its large expansive game play and large
battles around every corner. The game is hard so don't
expect to beat it down with out at least sending your
Gamecube into orbit at least once.
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