In my fairly vast swath of gaming preferences (yes, I do in fact like games other than mid-late 90s CRPGs) there are only a few games, franchises or brands that inspire the kind of irrational loyalty in me that one would expect of a fanboy. While the layman's weird obsessive franchises may include such gems as Final Fantasy and Zelda, those are not mine. Instead, I have some really weird games or series of games that I will probably defend to the death, regardless of actual underlying quality. Might and Magic is probably one of them (I paid money for a copy of Might and Magic IX, despite the fact that it's a bad game), as is its spinoff Heroes of Might and Magic (though Heroes VI may be a make-or-break kind of thing). Main series Resident Evil is probably another, because even I am not stupid/loyal enough to tell you that The Umbrella Chronicles was an especially great game, nor would I ever consider seeking out a copy of that totally awful Gameboy Color game, I still like the actual games in the series an awful lot. Enough to own two separate copies of Resident Evil 2 for no good reason. Enough to have paid $25 for a copy of the gamecube version of RE3. The last of these hallowed franchises is probably Fire Emblem. And thus, we get to the topic at hand today.
 
I like Fire Emblem. Allow me to rephrase that: I like Fire Emblem enough to actively seek out ROMs of the Japan only titles, patch them with fan translations and then have lengthy discussions about them with Giant Bomb's other resident FE nut (You should already know who he is by now). There's something about the fairly punishing, yet mechanically simple gameplay that really appeals to me. Thus, you might say I was pretty pumped for Radiant Dawn, the sequel to 2005's excellent-if-overlooked Path of Radiance. Let's be fair. By the time this game came out in 2007, I wasn't exactly in my childhood (I believe I got this around my... 15th birthday?) and it hasn't especially ruined anything. However, I finished replaying it today, and I feel like I have some beef with that game that I might as well express in blog form. Because really, that Fallout 2 blog isn't coming anytime soon. 
 

I'm not going to explain to you what Fire Emblem is. If you don't know that as anything other than "It's where the marf guy in the Smash Bro come from" then I can't help you. Read the wiki. I can, however, explain why Radiant Dawn is a fairly middling game as far as the Fire Emblem franchise is concerned, but why it's still alright anyways. Let's start with the story. While almost all of the Fire Emblem games follow a fairly rote "Young hero rises up against evil" plot, Path of Radiance is probably the one that told it the best, despite having the most blatantly forced commentary on racism and prejudice I have ever seen in a video game.(Hint: Don't be a racist). Radiant Dawn is split into 4 parts, with each part having a different main character, but Part 2 is really short, and Part 4 consists of everyone teaming up to fight evil. If you want to read a more concise summary of either of these games, you happen to be on a video game website with a fairly comprehensive wiki. What the wiki for Radiant Dawn won't tell you is that the story is pretty dry until the totally out of left field but not in a bad way conclusion. This partially has to do with the first protagonist, Micaiah being generic bland nice girl with hidden power and a mysterious past, and also because by the time you get to Ike's chapters, the main thrust of the story mostly consists of “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT”. Then there's the issue of all the villains being hilariously evil, to the point where they aren't so much characters as they are puppy-murdering Nazis. The localization team did the best with what they had I guess. What the game does well on the story front is all the side stuff. The base conversations are usually worth reading, and there's also a decent chunk of incidental dialog on the battlefield. Unfortunately, supports, one of my favorite things in prior Fire Emblem games, have been neutered to the point of just being a way to give your characters stat boosts. There's some generic dialog, but it's not a good replacement.

The reason for this being is the multi-act structure, and it's one of the things that Radiant Dawn doesn't do especially well. Since your units now have availability factoring in to how useful they are, a lot of otherwise good characters end up being shoved to the sidelines because they rejoin the main group (which, let's face it, is Ike's group.) late in the game. I guess that's what bonus EXP is for, but one of the things I liked doing in previous series entries was being able to replay the game with an entirely different team of dudes. Since the viable unit pool for each group is pretty small, that can't happen especially well, and since the game throws a bunch of overpowered Laguz Royals at you in the endgame, there's not much motivation to train stragglers either. The other issue that this brings is incredibly inconsistent difficulty. Micaiah's group is full of a bunch of glass cannons who can be two-shotted in the first few chapters of the game. And I'm not just talking about mages. It's clear the developers know that, because they give you not one, not two, but four characters of varying Jeigan-ness all willing to suck experience points from the units that need it (but are on the other hand still kinda required because of how sucky most of the Dawn Brigade is). And then, when you play as that group in part 3, they still have the exact same problems. Ike's team, on the other hand, is full of plenty of great units capable of steamrolling most opposition without much trouble. Basically, this is probably the worst Fire Emblem game for beginners, even with some tender mercies given to the US and Euro versions of the game (a permanent mid-level savestate, and you don't have to use a master crown to promote your units to 3 tier). Thracia 776, the Japan-only midquel to Seisen no Keifu, is worse, but I'm pretty sure I'm one of two active users on these forums who has ever played it.

I feel like I should probably talk about the Laguz here, as they're really the true distinction of these two Fire Emblem games from the rest of the series. They weren't especially great in Path of Radiance because of their tendency to hog experience and the whole “useless when untransformed” thing. They function somewhat differently in this game, being even more vulnerable when untransformed due to the way their stats work (All their stats except HP and Luck are doubled upon transformation. Thus, a Laguz with 30 defense transformed has 15 untransformed.) Thankfully, due to the prevalence of transformation meter-boosting items, they theoretically spend far less time in that vulnerable state. Still never really saw a use for the non-royal, non-heron ones. They still steal experience like no one's business. And they're still furries. 
 

But yeah, despite these flaws, Radiant Dawn is still alright. It's not amazing, especially compared with some of the better games of the series, and it's a Fire Emblem game for people who are good at Fire Emblem (as opposed to Sacred Stones, which is Fire Emblem for people who suck at Fire Emblem). Thus, replaying this has reiterated my thought that people who want to be introduced to this franchise should probably try Shadow Dragon, which despite having its own set of weird, weird design anachronisms is the most newbie friendly Fire Emblem game that is still probably readily available. Now I wonder if anyone will reply to this... Screw Fallout 2, I'm going to finish Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne. How did I get sidetracked from that game anyways? Oh right. Dragon Age II. Oops.

In my fairly vast swath of gaming preferences (yes, I do in fact like games other than mid-late 90s CRPGs) there are only a few games, franchises or brands that inspire the kind of irrational loyalty in me that one would expect of a fanboy. While the layman's weird obsessive franchises may include such gems as Final Fantasy and Zelda, those are not mine. Instead, I have some really weird games or series of games that I will probably defend to the death, regardless of actual underlying quality. Might and Magic is probably one of them (I paid money for a copy of Might and Magic IX, despite the fact that it's a bad game), as is its spinoff Heroes of Might and Magic (though Heroes VI may be a make-or-break kind of thing). Main series Resident Evil is probably another, because even I am not stupid/loyal enough to tell you that The Umbrella Chronicles was an especially great game, nor would I ever consider seeking out a copy of that totally awful Gameboy Color game, I still like the actual games in the series an awful lot. Enough to own two separate copies of Resident Evil 2 for no good reason. Enough to have paid $25 for a copy of the gamecube version of RE3. The last of these hallowed franchises is probably Fire Emblem. And thus, we get to the topic at hand today.
 
I like Fire Emblem. Allow me to rephrase that: I like Fire Emblem enough to actively seek out ROMs of the Japan only titles, patch them with fan translations and then have lengthy discussions about them with Giant Bomb's other resident FE nut (You should already know who he is by now). There's something about the fairly punishing, yet mechanically simple gameplay that really appeals to me. Thus, you might say I was pretty pumped for Radiant Dawn, the sequel to 2005's excellent-if-overlooked Path of Radiance. Let's be fair. By the time this game came out in 2007, I wasn't exactly in my childhood (I believe I got this around my... 15th birthday?) and it hasn't especially ruined anything. However, I finished replaying it today, and I feel like I have some beef with that game that I might as well express in blog form. Because really, that Fallout 2 blog isn't coming anytime soon. 
 

I'm not going to explain to you what Fire Emblem is. If you don't know that as anything other than "It's where the marf guy in the Smash Bro come from" then I can't help you. Read the wiki. I can, however, explain why Radiant Dawn is a fairly middling game as far as the Fire Emblem franchise is concerned, but why it's still alright anyways. Let's start with the story. While almost all of the Fire Emblem games follow a fairly rote "Young hero rises up against evil" plot, Path of Radiance is probably the one that told it the best, despite having the most blatantly forced commentary on racism and prejudice I have ever seen in a video game.(Hint: Don't be a racist). Radiant Dawn is split into 4 parts, with each part having a different main character, but Part 2 is really short, and Part 4 consists of everyone teaming up to fight evil. If you want to read a more concise summary of either of these games, you happen to be on a video game website with a fairly comprehensive wiki. What the wiki for Radiant Dawn won't tell you is that the story is pretty dry until the totally out of left field but not in a bad way conclusion. This partially has to do with the first protagonist, Micaiah being generic bland nice girl with hidden power and a mysterious past, and also because by the time you get to Ike's chapters, the main thrust of the story mostly consists of “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT”. Then there's the issue of all the villains being hilariously evil, to the point where they aren't so much characters as they are puppy-murdering Nazis. The localization team did the best with what they had I guess. What the game does well on the story front is all the side stuff. The base conversations are usually worth reading, and there's also a decent chunk of incidental dialog on the battlefield. Unfortunately, supports, one of my favorite things in prior Fire Emblem games, have been neutered to the point of just being a way to give your characters stat boosts. There's some generic dialog, but it's not a good replacement.

The reason for this being is the multi-act structure, and it's one of the things that Radiant Dawn doesn't do especially well. Since your units now have availability factoring in to how useful they are, a lot of otherwise good characters end up being shoved to the sidelines because they rejoin the main group (which, let's face it, is Ike's group.) late in the game. I guess that's what bonus EXP is for, but one of the things I liked doing in previous series entries was being able to replay the game with an entirely different team of dudes. Since the viable unit pool for each group is pretty small, that can't happen especially well, and since the game throws a bunch of overpowered Laguz Royals at you in the endgame, there's not much motivation to train stragglers either. The other issue that this brings is incredibly inconsistent difficulty. Micaiah's group is full of a bunch of glass cannons who can be two-shotted in the first few chapters of the game. And I'm not just talking about mages. It's clear the developers know that, because they give you not one, not two, but four characters of varying Jeigan-ness all willing to suck experience points from the units that need it (but are on the other hand still kinda required because of how sucky most of the Dawn Brigade is). And then, when you play as that group in part 3, they still have the exact same problems. Ike's team, on the other hand, is full of plenty of great units capable of steamrolling most opposition without much trouble. Basically, this is probably the worst Fire Emblem game for beginners, even with some tender mercies given to the US and Euro versions of the game (a permanent mid-level savestate, and you don't have to use a master crown to promote your units to 3 tier). Thracia 776, the Japan-only midquel to Seisen no Keifu, is worse, but I'm pretty sure I'm one of two active users on these forums who has ever played it.

I feel like I should probably talk about the Laguz here, as they're really the true distinction of these two Fire Emblem games from the rest of the series. They weren't especially great in Path of Radiance because of their tendency to hog experience and the whole “useless when untransformed” thing. They function somewhat differently in this game, being even more vulnerable when untransformed due to the way their stats work (All their stats except HP and Luck are doubled upon transformation. Thus, a Laguz with 30 defense transformed has 15 untransformed.) Thankfully, due to the prevalence of transformation meter-boosting items, they theoretically spend far less time in that vulnerable state. Still never really saw a use for the non-royal, non-heron ones. They still steal experience like no one's business. And they're still furries. 
 

But yeah, despite these flaws, Radiant Dawn is still alright. It's not amazing, especially compared with some of the better games of the series, and it's a Fire Emblem game for people who are good at Fire Emblem (as opposed to Sacred Stones, which is Fire Emblem for people who suck at Fire Emblem). Thus, replaying this has reiterated my thought that people who want to be introduced to this franchise should probably try Shadow Dragon, which despite having its own set of weird, weird design anachronisms is the most newbie friendly Fire Emblem game that is still probably readily available. Now I wonder if anyone will reply to this... Screw Fallout 2, I'm going to finish Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne. How did I get sidetracked from that game anyways? Oh right. Dragon Age II. Oops.

Man, I should play a Fire Emblem game. It's all rock-paper-scissors type unit interplay, right? How much of it is grinding Job Points so Ramza can survive his fight with Wiegraf for more than five seconds? Or whatever the FE equivalent to that might be?
 
You or "that other FE fan" (who will no doubt be posting in just a moment and talking about kings and moons and hideous drowned chicken majora masks and such) should make a beginner's guide to this series: Where to start, what to avoid, and so on. Because apparently my new thing is demanding people I barely know to spend their time doing stuff for me. But I'm sure others could use it too?

I'll reply to this: I thought the story in Radiant Dawn was pretty good. We saw Micaiah pull off some moral corruption, Elincia start some really weird Obama allegories (despite the game being released in 2007), and the Black Knight...OK, the plot twist was that he was a total pussy. Didn't like that. Also didn't like the bouncy difficulty curve or how the supports sucked so damn hard, but it was still a pretty cool game. Had they smoothed that stuff out, they'd have a ridiculously refined game. Hell, maybe even more refined than Fire Emblem (the GBA one, somewhat obviously).
 
@Mento said:

(who will no doubt be posting in just a moment and talking about kings and moons and hideous drowned chicken majora masks and such)

@ArbitraryWater said:

It has a condescendingly drawn-out obligatory tutorial for us illiterate gaijin (one that becomes only slightly less of a pain on subsequent playthroughs), but as a result it does a pretty good job of hammering in the basic concepts of the series.

That's...actually kind of rude, man.

I really enjoyed Radiant Dawn, myself. My issues with it are fairly minor, as I really liked the way that the game switched things up, shied away from some of the oldest gameplay tropes in the series, and in general pummeled me in the face...well, at least until the game got inexplicably easier around the third part. Those final battles at the game's end though, holy fucking shit. I had to give up on my desire to see the game through with everyone alive and in one piece at that point. The game can be hard as hell, but in the end, I found it worth it.

As for the plot, the characters aren't really the focus of it, as in Path of Radiance. It's a shame that they neutered the support conversations, but with the way that the game is structured, it makes at least some sense, in that there's a huge cast, and by the end of the game you're asked to pick favorites to take with you. I had to make some pretty hard choices at the endgame, and no amount of support could save some of my characters from getting steamrolled. But that aside, the focus is more on the events of the war, rather than the characters, most of whom will be familiar to anyone that played Path of Radiance. It's a shift in storytelling perspective, and while the characterization of the newcomers tends to suffer for it, I wouldn't really call it bad, either. The villains all tend to have reasonable justification for their villainy.

I always appreciate Fire Emblem talk, and pretty much agree completely with everything you said about Radiant Dawn. I'd argue that it's even less friendly than Thracia. In that game your characters were sufficiently powerful but it was what they did with the map layout and the specific challenges that provided the difficulty. Radiant Dawn just had giant maps with super high stat enemies. I spent the same amount of time with each game, but had considerably more fun with Thracia because it at least seemed more fair. I felt like I had the right tools at my disposal and it was my fault for using them wrong. 
 
@Mento said:

How much of it is grinding Job Points so Ramza can survive his fight with Wiegraf for more than five seconds?

This just reminded me that I stopped playing Radiant Dawn in the middle of my second play-through. I don't remember not liking the story, but I agree that the support system got kinda killed. In any case, this was a good read.

Holy shit, fuck the first section of this game. I'm no newbie to Fire Emblem but I'm getting my ass kicked so much, that I've sped the game up as high as it'll go and turned off battle a I nations because of the amount of replaying each chapter I have to do. It doesn't help that I refuse to let anyone die until I've "figured out" the level, but damn even characters with weapon superiority don't do that well in fights. Its a good thing I cheated a little and learned that you're forced to use So the in the end game, otherwise I never would have dared relying on him for fear of early high level imbalancing.

Then you're playing it right.

Playing through without anyone dying and making sure the characters you want to get the exp get the exp is indeed the right way of playing.

But I'm thinking of doing a Path of Radiance hard mode run where I let the chips fall where they fall and see who comes out the other side. Also I intend to use Mist as a frontline fighter once I can, because I'm crazy.

The results will be glorious.

@pyromagnestir: Respect, I'm paying on normal and having a tough time. Honestly I've just switched my play style somewhat, since my healer is so incredibly weak I mainly rely on items.

@pyromagnestir: That wouldn't be that hard, honestly. While my current hard-mode run-through of PoR is stifled by my irrational desire to get the Knight Ring (i.e. don't kill any of the crows before Naesala talks to Reyson) I think an "Ironman" playthrough would be quite possible given the number of powerful replacement units you get in that game. Also Mist is great.... assuming you use arms scrolls to get her weapon rank up so she can use the sonic sword.

@brendan: Yeah, act 1 of Radiant Dawn is a bastard of trial and error map design combined with most of your units having the durability of a wet toilet paper. Don't worry, it gets less crazy as the game goes on, but the opening chapters of that game are not for the Fire Emblem neophyte. Rule of thumb is to train Nolan since he's one of the few Dawn Brigade units who doesn't require an absurd amount of bonus exp or babying to be useful, with the same going for Jill. You have to use Michiah and Sothe as well, so have "fun" with them.

@arbitrarywater:

On my first hard mode run through I got the knight ring, and I found it requires giving Reyson the boots and giving him a laguz stone to make him transform as early as possible. Also it requires a bit of pushing Reyson around with other characters, some of whom (the bird tribe laguz) didn't see any other use in my playthrough. Pushing Reyson was their one job. With those things I had it down to a science, but that knowledge has been lost to time. I was just thinking earlier about how I should have written it down or something.

That one chapter would really be the only thing about the idea of an ironman run that gives me pause. Would I be able to restrain myself from going for the ring? If not, could I at least keep Reyson alive? These questions haunt me.

@arbitrarywater: Nolan is one of my mains, and when the A level support Micaiah and Sothe team are correctly positioned they hold their own, provided I've stocked up on potions. I would kill for a Lynne or a Hector though. Heck any one from the original GBA FE would be fantastic right now. Its good to hear that there's another side though.

Shadow Dragon might have been the best entry point for the series when this was written but it's gotta be Awakening these days. I tried Shadow Dragon as my first Fire Emblem and, while definitely not a bad experience, I got pretty bored of it quickly. Awakening, however, seems fantastic. Actually, it might partly be because I got annoyed at restarting a fight every time someone died, so I completely restarted Awakening on Casual mode, but bumped the difficulty up to Hard.

As for Nocturne, that game is great but starting it up is scary sometimes. Just how badly is the next boss going to fuck me up, anyway?

Shadow Dragon is Fire Emblem at its most bland, so I don't blame you. The gap between that and Awakening is exponential and its easily the worst game in the series to come to the west, while Awakening is the best the series has been in a long time.

Looking back on these blogs where I say I'm going to do something is always fun. To this day I cannot claim to have finished Nocturne. It's on my nebulous list of half-finished games that I mean to go back to some day.

To be fair to Shadow Dragon, it is the best version of the original Fire Emblem you're going to find. It's just that it reveals a lot of core structural flaws with the original that aren't exactly easy to fix (the flat story and characters, recruitment boiling down to "speak with Marth; if not possible, speak with Caeda", etc.).

@video_game_king: I'm going to go the other way and say that they could have done a lot more with the story and the gameplay but instead chose to keep it as close to the original game as possible to the point of detriment. I don't think it's particularly controversial to say that Fire Emblem as a series didn't reach the level of quality it did until Seisen no Keifu came around and those first three games are merely ok.

And of course the parts where they deviated weren't all that great either. The conditions for sidequests come to mind, as does reclassing, which was worthless for everyone except Wolf and Sedgar because of generally low growth rates. Sword users are garbage because of the dodge formula and the prevalence of lance enemies. Shin Monshou no Nazo fixes a lot of these problems (and actually has support conversations, among other things) to be fair, but it's probably safe to say that the DS Fire Emblem games are the low point of the series.

Yea, that's the one weird part of Shadow Dragon. It probably would have made more sense to build a Fire Emblem game around that rather than tack it onto a known entity.

To its credit, everyone in Shin Monshou has crazy good growth rates which allow far more room for reclassing... which is compensated by the part where half of them have utterly abysmal starting stats and aren't worth touching.