My first review put here I hope it turns out right!!


Name: Fire Emblem Path of radiance

Genre: Strategy RPG

Developer: Intelligent Systems

Publisher: Nintendo

Rating: For Fantasy Violence

Players: 1

Platform: Gamecube Exclusive

Introduction

After Nintendo of America brought the amazing strategy RPG series Fire Emblem ( I played a few imports and I loved it) for the Gameboy advance called Fire Emblem people were stunned loved it and wanted more and couldn't imagine what they were missing out on. Than Nintendo of America was a bit more comfortable at the launch of Fire Emblem Sacred Stones for the Gameboy advance it did awesome. WAs enjoyable loved by many positive things were being said by everyone and Nintendo knew they did the right thing bringing it here and sold many copies it is a must have today for the Gameboy Advance. Well then Intelligent systems creator of Paper Mario The thousand Year Door have made one in 3-D for the Gamecube. Nintendo of America now knows what they will get. This game is in a class by it's self. It is called Fire Emblem Path of radiance. What makes it a must buy for the Gamecube? Find out in this review to help your decision and even if you are new to the series you will most likely love it!

Storyline:

OK since this is an RPG afterall so you are going to need to know if the story is worthwhile, original and what it is about so let's get started! Alright you are Ike son of Commander Greil leader of a small mercanary company that operates in the almost peaceful kingdom of Crimea their are of course still little tiny problems like bandits and thieves and other baddies. These aren't too much and The Greil Mercenaries are very skilled. Ike finally gets to join them it was his dream to some day take command of the company. Anyway you will start out by being "sell swords" as the baddies would call it and basically aid people. You do a couple of missions like that but then.... It gets serious real serious! Soren your friend comes over to your HQ and tells Ike and his companions about the war that the powerful Kingdom of Daein has started. They have already fully taken care of one country. And are moving. The company is then puzzled to get involved or just butt out? Well to make the game more interesting they chose to stick their noses into the war and fight against Daien??! Than after one fight with a small Daien army- they win but now they are bitter enemies of Daein and are being hunted down by them now! Laguz are also involved in this story. Laguz also referred to as "Sub-Humans" by humans is pretty mean to them. Ike after entering the Kingdom of Gallia the Laguz home to the best tribe (cats and tigers and lions basically) Ike unlike other humans becomes friends with them. Now Ike wants to help Laguz and Beroc (humans) come together not only that but also win the war can he and his companions do it all? The storyline is very good to say the least it had it's high points. I also like the way the farther you get into the game things and mysteries that you once asked you now know and everything fits into the puzzle. It is no not unoriginal just a smidge more and it could have been better than average but it is above average so but it is still enjoyable! And very very entertaining. FE had no unlockables... But the Story made players progress further to see what happens next! To me that is the intention of the storyline.

Storyline Score: 8.8/10 Very Very Nice!



Text Helps the Story. PS: Ike is the bottom Blue haried dude.

Gameplay:

Yes now for the most important aspect of the game. The gameplay! This is a strategy RPG so it is not like you think their is no walking around I who loves that parts of RPG's was not disappointed because their is a cool way to progress and play! Also my bro liked this since he hates wlakthroughs and gets lost all the time but that made him love it a lot more! I am sure their are others like this. Now you move on a square based environment if you have played Advance wars you know what I mean. You move like that. Each type of character can move farther than others. Also you need strategy to survive to help you out and win and crush the enemy use your units (characters) and their moving ability strength and their strengths to help you win! Wait wait! Don't go I know some of you have played strategy games and found them "hard" and overly difficult but this oh this you only need like 30 % of strategy the rest is common sense. Like Swords beat axes and stuff to help you strategy helps but it is not needed that much. I picked this up as a strategy newcomer and enjoyed it a lot it was the 2nd type of game I played like this sort of but wow it is never like anything else! Their is a triangle which totally simplifies everything for you. You get to use weapons such as Lances, Axes, swords and magic! Though their are not a lot of types of weapons as most RPG's this is where they cane improve. But that simplifies everything! Now the game is "texty" but I love those things it took me like 5 minutes to read one part once and I am a fast reader. But of course if you don't care about story than press start and skip it. I don't know though because the text is not all over the place. They only talk during before like one time during the mission and after the mission it is cool and if you love stories this game is for you. If you hate text you should still rent this and test it out anyway. For the battle system now, you move close enough to a character and attack them (archers and mages can attack from distances use it wisely!) you see a cool little animation on what happens plus their are critical hits if you have a weapon advantage. Really unique battle system not very complex. Your characters don't stay the same either. They change classes after leveling up a bit not only do they look cooler they are a lot stronger now and you can choose what they can specialize in now! Before a battle you get to equip your characters with weapons before a mission! It is not that hard either for example what kind of weapon do you think a "Lance" Knight ("hint" "hint") what does he weild? A lance wow! Good job!!!!!!! Yeah it is really that simple. Also about your characters if they die.... They die no they just don't fall to the floor and come up next level or something their gone for the rest of the game!!!!! I like this feature makes the game tougher and more interesting. And some people also say "well I don't want to stay 30 minutes and check everywhere to move!" You don't have to it's again not that hard! Just be smart! Since characters die and never come back their are a lot and I mean lot of others to get. Some just come to you, others you have to find out what they want and talk to them with a certain some one! Just read the Text for clues again those who don't like Text I don't know rent this game. Also you can level up your character before battle without training!!! You get bonus EXP every victory and you can use them all up on any character(s) you wish! I did this for characters that are a pain to level up. For this game you don't have to train *level up haters rejoice* so yeah this is a very different type of RPG. Use your units classes, abilities and your head little to get a full advantage!!! Gameplay hours can be 10+ (first Playthrough)

Gameplay Score: 9.2/10 Very unique and well!




This is What I meant. Very cool and unique that's for sure! Don't look too hard....

Graphics:

Well by the picture that I just posted the graphics don't look to promising right really bad right..... WRONG! The graphics are a lot better than that! That is just the overworld view! When you go into battle the animation is stunning! A lot of detail on the characters, their stance, their weapon and the environment is the best thing in there! Also the cut scenes are the best cut scenes ever made! Their very colorful and they are ceil-shaded in the cut-scenes so very awesome!!!! IN the battle though you don't see the characters face as clear... I love it! Very cool and creative it makes you focus on the battle more in the animation well not in the cut-scene though wow it is beautiful! How come more games graphics were not as good as these. The graphics are amazing detailed and not to rough to to soft really brings the game to life. A strong point in the game that makes you love it even more! If you like pretty battle scenes to make a game more brighter than you well this is totally your game I would describe this game as in the "light" mood Good thing it is!! If you don't care about graphics and loved the Gameboy advance one's man those graphics were nothing compared to these! Very cool style from other games and they paid off! Though their were not a lot of cut-scenes into the game and the gap was huge form each other some of them were also rip-offs if you forge a weapon which is what you can do you can change it's color the battle animation will show it. One flaw in the graphics character models are all very similar from attacks to looks it does make the game less exciting not a big flaw just something that can be worked out but you should know of these things it won't ruin your game experience just imagine if it was more custom...




Graphics Score: 8.8 Lacked something but not a big con just a con that will get noticed a bit...

Yeah beautiful cut-scene graphics *drools* Very detailed...... Best on the Gamecube........

Sound/Music:

Now for the sound/music part of the game! The sound is what I call "detailed" sound which means every action is noticeable and totally adds to the gameplay it also sounds realistic. Like if your character is walking on grass it will sound like it is or if your character is walking on the beach it will sound like it. Their was voice acting in the game I was disappointed Ike's voice sounded kind of weird I think they should have just left the characters alone I know see why Nintendo usually leaves out voices and leaves the gamer to imagine on how he/she will sound that kind of ruined the cut-scenes. Next time get better voices really! The animation sounds well they are all the same when you throw a steel lance and then an iron lance it will sound the same and same is not good all the weapons when they miss hit they sound like the same thing! It is little things like these you can notice in such a good game! Music well is pretty good not that catchy as most RPG music but is still pretty awesome and raise attention caution and makes you feel like your in the game the music was not as good though as other Fire Emblem games but you can still bare with it and like it of course although it is mostly the same all the time it might bore they should have had more variety.

Sound/Music Score: 8.3 About average not too shabby it could have been a lot better!




Abra Kadabra! Imagine what this sounds like! BOOM! OWNED!!

Replay:

The replay value of this game is amazing! And their are a lot of reasons for that the first reason is because it is so much fun you will probably want to play it again anyway but also because you might have missed some characters and want to get them again and use them and know because you know more it will be loads of fun maybe even more fun than last time! Also if you didn't understand or skipped a part of the story you can see it again! And now you want to level up a different character now instead of that bad one and test it things like these that make you play again and get all of the characters also the game is not a 30-40 hour RPG that you will never want to play again it is only 10 hours on your second try you may beat it in 5 hours. It is a very good game in terms of replay. Unlike Advance wars though their are no unlockables!!! That would have made this game the ultimate experience funny thing is Intelligent systems also made Advance wars so what is wrong with them they still should have had unlockables like extra levels suits re-color characters! But no I have no idea why they did not do this! Also if you hate playing stuff again even though you didn't get everything characters and level them up this might not apply to you but if you do like me you will love it and usually I hate playing games over again! The replay value is amazing especially without unlockables but imagine it with unlockables hopefully things we will see in the next one....

Replay Score: 9/10 Very very solid need unlockables though..........



I could own these guys over and over and over again!

Fun Factor:

With a crazy amount of characters to level up make them stronger and use them to help your strategy own people is really fun to say the least. With the ability to forge weapons for your characters to use their advantages with and also the strategy and finishing the game from start to finish this game will have you having fun like leveling up your characters buying weapons having the best ammunition after finishing that level, watching the cut-scenes, figuring out what happens next, and more importantly finishing the level with no characters dieing is what it is all about. This game is total FUN!

Fun Factor: 10/10 this game stands alone..........



Pros: Amazing Cut-scenes, Fun Leveling Up, Different than most RPG's detailed characters stats, very high replay value and easy for most strategy game newcomers.

Cons: Bad voice acting, maybe to short for some people, no mutliplayer, no unlockables, animation stance character models and sounds repeatitive and more variety of weapons needed

Very addicting and easy to get ahold of Fire Emblem Path od Raidance is a must buy for the game if you have any conerns I still strongly suggest you rent it and if you like what you just saw buy it or if you like startgey games buy!! This game is a must buy for the Gamecube and deserves to be in every collection.

OVERALL SCORE: 9.4