Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
October 25,2005 -

Though it’s only been on American shores for a few short years, Fire Emblem has already become a cult-classic.  Fire Emblem and Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones on the Game Boy Advance have done a flawless job of combining an intriguing plot line with an even more interesting system of play.  This resulted in a fantastic game for people on the go, and now Nintendo has once again teamed up with Intelligent Systems to bring gamers Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance for the GameCube—the first Fire Emblem console game to hit the United States.

Streaming Video

Check out the trailer for FE: Path of Radiance

Path of Radiance, despite being the third title to reach our shores, is actually the ninth entry to the long-running Fire Emblem series.  If you haven’t given any of the past games a shot, don’t worry.  None of the games are real sequels, and their stories (while somewhat similar to each other) don’t intertwine with any of its other stories either.  So if this is your first foray into the Fire Emblem series, be glad, because it’s unlike any gaming experience you’ve had before.

The main story follows Ike, the son of a great warrior and commander of the Greil Mercenaries.  Being the son of the commander, Ike is also destined to take over for his father one day.  On a dreadful date, enemy forces of the Daein Empire suddenly attack the Greil capital.  Ike then finds himself as the leader of the Greil and now has to find another place for refuge.  The mercenaries take refuge at a country called Gallia.  However, Gallia is also the native home of the Laguz—a race of people who have the ability to turn into a beast that resembles a werewolf.  In this Laguz form, they’re capable of causing all sorts of havoc, and the mercenaries find themselves in an uncompromising position.  Now, Ike not only has to take care of defeating the Daeins, but he also has the Laguz to worry about—leaving him in a place of unnecessary turmoil for now.

If the story sounds complicated, that’s because it is (at first), but like any real Fire Emblem fan (or any other Nintendo fan, no less) would know; the story isn’t everything.  Each chapter in the game consists of one main battle, and that’s where all the good stuff comes into play.

Battles are fought on a grid not unlike those found in Advance Wars or the classic Shining Force games.  You’re given an amount of warriors and other infantry to wipe out those of the opposing force.  However, that isn’t always the case.  Sometimes you’ll just be required to surround an area to prevent things like a kidnapping or the murder of someone of importance (like a defenseless queen) for a given number of turns.  Other times you’ll just be required to seize a throne or fort.  And huge portions of the game’s battles require you to just kill the Boss enemy.  Each unit can only move a certain number of spaces, depending on his or her class.  For example, Pegasus Knights (those riding on a Pegasus) can fly, allowing them to move to farther spaces than that of a mercenary or knight.  If you end up next to an enemy, you can choose to fight or just stay there

But whatever the winning case may be, your characters will eventually be forced to fight.  Each kind of unit will have a certain kind of weakness.  Aside from an astonishing difference of experience level, the game also determines the advantage with a sort of “rock-paper-scissors” attack system.  Swordsmen beat axe bearers; axe bearers beat those holding a lance, and lance users beat Swordsmen.  The same goes for magic users as well.  Light magic beats dark magic; dark magic beats anima, and anima beats light.  Usually, if you try to strike an opposing enemy of the same level but possess a weaker weapon or magic, you’ll miss and the opposing character can easily strike back at you.  Sometimes, in the case of magic, you won’t even deal any damage. 

If you don’t die, you’ll earn experience for the fight.  If you defeat the enemy, he or she will disappear and you’ll gain a handful of experience points.  However, the higher level of experience your character has will result in a lower amount of gained experience.  This is one of the many factors of strategy used within a battle.  Most experienced players often send their strongest character in to deal the first blow against a boss character.  When the boss ends up with about a single digit of HP left, which allows a weaker character to be able to dispose of the boss.  The end result will often lead to that character gaining a level or two, which helps a lot in later chapters.

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