Commander Posted November 13, 2018 Share Posted November 13, 2018 For those who don't understand the title: Spoiler Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn Review and Retrospect Grab a chair because this is going to be a long one. So you've probably heard people rave about Tellius and how much they love it. I'm not going to sugar coat anything despite Radiant Dawn being my favorite game in the series and pretty much my favorite Wii game. This is the game that nearly killed the franchise and they should never do something like this ever again. There's a lot of good ideas that have come and while it would be cool to see them, I feel like it would sell horribly to today's market. There is a lot to talk about why this game was a failure and why fans pretty much hated it when it came out. Though over time this one suddenly became a classic and well recieved and often gets praised being the second half of the Tellius games. And if you thought Fates brought bad ideas, Radiant Dawn has some "what the hell were you thinking moments." It's a good game worth picking up, but it is a mess. So let's dive in and for those who haven't played the game you are in for a treat. The Game is a Sequel So Radiant Dawn is an odd duck when it comes to how it works. It's kind of like FE1 and FE3 where the second game takes place a few years after the first. And while you don't need to play Path of Radiance, it is highly recommended as many of the old plot elements are tied in and answered in the sequel. One of the biggest issues with these games is that they are rare and at the time, they both were on different consoles. Fortunately the Wii was backwards compatible which solved one issue, but there would be many newcomers who wouldn't be able to find Path of Radiance being first introduced in Smash. This was one of the biggest mistakes they made with the game and it caused the game to bomb in sales. FE11 and FE12 didn't do much better but they sold at least more than Radiant Dawn when they needed to make a new game to bounce back over remakes. A lot of people hate on Awakening and the direction FE is taking not realizing the route they were was going to bring their demise. I don't really blame them for milking on Awakening for Fates when death was knocking on their door. I'm not here to bring doom and gloom, but I do have to acknowledge every mistake this game made and this was the biggest sin especially with how connected the two stories are. Edited Note: So I went back and RD sold just under half a million which isn't too bad coming off of PoR's 600,000 copies. That's a pretty big drop from FE8 being closer to 900,000. Tales of Symphonia sold 1.1 million units which really just kind of shows the sudden gap. There's a lot more factors such as the Wii being much more popular, but it was not good given how expensive the game probably was to make. It's not a good number for a Nintendo big named game. It would be interesting to jump into a what if Awakening didn't happen, but that's for another day. I do not believe Fire Emblem would have died, but we may not have gotten anymore FE in the west. Since the games are so connected, I have to mention Path of Radiance and while I don't feel I'll need to do a review, I'll at least give you a short one on my thoughts. Path of Radiance is the FE7 of the console releases. It has everything that there is that makes what fans feel is a true Fire Emblem game with a really, really good plot for FE standards, a very likable lord, great supports and cast, the classic gameplay, and a wide variety of maps and missions. The thing about it is that it's catered more as a gateway game and veterans will feel it's way too easy. The biggest issue was the graphics certainly didn't age well on top of how slow the game is. The games before and after the Tellius all focused on being swift and flashy making PoR feel quite laggy in return. It really needs a port with updated graphics and a speedup button and I think it'd do quite well. Most of the mechanics and everything else is in Radiant Dawn, but they added some extra layers. I really recommend doing a hard mode run of PoR if you're a big FE fan as there's so many little things that make the run worth the while. Just don't expect the greatness people make it out to be. I'm going to say this as a disclaimer. Everything I say from now on is my own opinion and many of the things I'm going to say may make an saying "Fire Emblem Awakening is a masterpiece" to an elitist of the older games look tame. Whenever you see me say something, just let me finish before you burn the forums. Also, I'll be talking about PoR a lot since the two are similar, but pretty much what Fates is to Awakening. Graphics and Animations The best way to describe this game is that it's huge and this is the only small area to cover. If I had to describe the best looking Fire Emblem from style, graphics, and animations, it'd be Radiant Dawn second to none. Fates and SoV may look cleaner and both have their own amazing styles, but this game really has everything...except forts. The best way to describe it is that enemies look like they come from hallways and stairs when appearing as reinforcements. Everything is in 3d and even the elevation really adds depth. We'll get into that later. I think the character portraits are the best looking in the series and look so, so much better than PoR's kind of ugly ones. The animations actually look good and while crits and abilities aren't flashy like in all other titles, they looked cool to me and I love when a peg dashes off the screen at high speed. My favorite it the halbedier pretty much doing flips when entering combat. It's not as streamlined as Fates or SoV, but characters felt very alive and you could now make out a number of details on them. I liked how everything looked and moved...though I can see why people would be really annoyed with armor knights. Whenever they attack, they move pretty slow in combat slowly walking up to the opponent then beating them up. I think the game looks great, but the mapping absolutely destroys anything seen in the 3ds titles. So an issue I have with most Fire Emblem games is that many maps have graphics that feel rather samey at points. Radiant Dawn I couldn't even tell you what map kind of reminded me of what. Some maps take place at night which look different then ones fought in the daytime. There's even one fought in the sky. And if you hated a map, you wouldn't ever see it again such as the mud pit. It used a lot of assets from PoR which maps looked really good, but I just recall more RD maps from design over that one. And there's no issue with depth perception compared to fates where I sometimes couldn't tell if something was a walkable tile or not. And don't get me started on the Mila tree. My favorite thing though: Spoiler We'll get into story later, but I will say the Tellius games managed to do a lot with only a little. Fates and Awakening focused on many scenes being similar to a clipscene in video games, but Radiant Dawn tells its stories in 3 different perspectives. The first is the tried and true "sprites" talking to each other in a standstill more or less using their portraits. Though in RD and PoR they use their full torso instead of focusing on the head. The second is using the maps to tell the story which I think is pretty well done sometimes using mechanics in clever yet amusing ways such as shoving people into the pits. The Tellius games do a lot of neat things with their maps which isn't seen much in other games. Pretty much Fate's Dragon Veins done right in most cases. Anyways, my favorite are the murals I have always thought the murals topped cutscenes. It's certainly better than scenes of Corrin swinging his sword hitting someone then getting hit back...all the time. These things are gorgeous and really give vivid imagery of what is happening and really express what a character is feeling. Oh yeah I guess there's cutscenes, but those are very few and far inbetween. While the voice acting isn't stellar, the scenes look really good and are a step up from Path of Radiance. I'll end this saying that the cutscene at the end of part 2 is one of the most iconic moments in Fire Emblem history. There's actually a lot of things that happen in part 2 one of which is graphical related, but I'll save that for the story. One problem with talking about Radiant Dawn in certain aspects is that everything feels connected and that's really important. Things will feel like a mess but just bear with me. Music When you think of Fire Emblem music, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Is it the medley from Smash Bros Melee? Id (Purpose)? Ocean's Gray Waves? FIRE EMBLEM HEROES!!!!! We all have our own opinions and what Fire Emblem music should be is different for everyone. This is the song that often comes into my mind: Spoiler I'm not going to say RD's ost is a pure masterpiece or the best one. RD has the Fire Emblem like soundtrack or at least an OST geared towards what FE was. There are many great and memorable songs including the player phase jingle for Part 1. It's been a very long time since I've touched RD and I remembered this theme so fluidly. Sometimes the music can just go to the back of your mind but never had I said a song was bad or not fitting. It doesn't have any of my favorite songs, but I think it does it's job damn well really, really is a beautiful soundtrack to listen to while playing the game. Oh wait it has my favorite recruitment theme. I will say that going from PoR to RD soundtrack wise is like going from RSE to Pokemon Coliseum. I really do think the way the game sounds probably was my favorite part of the game. The soundtrack really fits and basically every time you hit an enemy, a thundercloud sound would be heard when you do damage. I prefer this over most sounds weapons make because it makes your attacks feel more powerful. You really have to play it to understand what I mean as listening to it alone doesn't really convey the feelings they are meant for. I'm done fanboying this game now as I wanted to get these two topics out of the way since the game looks and sounds great and it really should be acknowledged. You don't hear these things too much when people talk about RD instead... Story Before I get into this demon, RD's story isn't garbage in my eyes. The game is very fatiguing especially in the later parts so often times one poor writing decision can feel much, much worse than it really was. The best way to put it bluntly is that the parts are much better than the whole. Some I feel were contrived for making some really interesting map ideas and you kind of have to make your own basis on if you let something pass or not due to this. Maps and story are very connected so I decided to pick story since I'd rather get that out of the way and not have to explain it twice. Be warned, there will be many spoilers beyond this point as we have to cover ALL of it to even explain why it's a mess. So here's the funny "what were they thinking moment." The game is separated into four parts. Once you finish a part, you get a teaser trailer treating the next part like some movie trailer showing clips of the cutscenes from that part...even if there's only one cutscene in it. And the narrator tries to make you hyped for it. I'm not making this up for those who haven't played the game. And I just remembered the chapter cut in. I love when the chapter cut-in appears. Anyways, one thing I really liked about this game is that the transition dialogue was narrated instead of having to read it and pray you read all the text before it continues to autoscroll. If you played any of the old Fire Emblems you know about the dealeo of how there's text explaining how the character got from point a to point b where the chapter takes place. And now we begin with part 1. Each part focuses on a main lord with Micaiah being our lord for this part. Our story opens to an oppressed Daein (the bad guys of PoR...probably misspelled) which Bengions treat them like crap. Micaiah and a couple members of the Dawn Brigade try to escape until they come across a critically injured boy from a soldier attack. Micaiah uses her magical powers to heal and save this boy. Though doing this really exhausts her. This introduces a heal mechanic where Micaiah heals a party member but loses the same amount of HP as she heals. She also is forecaster of future events. We'll get to that later. They escape to safety, meet up with the Daein army, and free Daein from oppression making Pelleas the king. Typical Fire Emblem stuff. I don't remember all of the writing since it's been a while but it's good for what it is though...there is one question probably looming on everyone's mind: is Micaiah a Mary-Sue. I'm looking back and honestly, I think Micaiah is a pretty solid character in part 1. There's just the issue with having to know quite a bit of lore to understand her character and not want to pull your hair out. Micaiah pretty much is a kind-hearted girl pushed into a role she really didn't want. She's a Corrin don right in my eyes. She's also one of the oldest being around 25. She's also a branded which means she likely didn't have many people to hold close to her as humans and Laguz shun them (read up on Stefan if you're interested). She was a beggar who really only had Soothe and later joined the Dawn Brigade lead by Nolan to free themselves from the 3 year oppression from Bengion. She's someone who cares more about helping others than winning a war going out of her way endangering herself to save a boy. Her special powers which actually come from her being the true apostle which isn't explained all that well are what people jump and call her a Mary Sue instantly. Bengion has been oppressing these people for years now and after being ruled by a gruesome mad king, they were desperate for change. We have this girl who wears a heart on her sleeve with incredible powers. She is treated as this savior who will free them for all these bad things pretty much pushing her to be a leader. So here we have a lord who likely knows jack shit about tactics leading an army. It doesn't help that her only true friend has his head stuck in the clouds about the glory PoR days. There is one character that she really trusted due to being a branded like herself which was Pelleas. She really has no idea what she's doing so she kind of put blind faith in Pelleas and the very, very questionable Izuka. The game doesn't explain this well which is why you often question her stupidity. She also doesn't think too much about what being the savior means and took a walk in the forest and was almost assassinated. And now we get to one of the questionable choices the game threw at us. Micaiah let a critically injured Jarod escape in honor of his comrade's sacrifice. Unlike Corrin, Micaiah will kill in order to survive but they didn't go out of their way to do so. It was a kill or be killed world sometimes. Maybe someone killed her caretaker and left her to live changing how she lived and behaved, but we never really find out because this game have very, very limited backstory on characters. It really makes no sense why she'd let him go under normal circumstances given all the cruel thing he and his underlings had done. She then has a vision telling her that she screwed up badly. Well at least it's consistent she isn't the sharpest tool in the shed. Still smarter than Corrin letting the entire Hoshidian army get away scoot free. And at least Micaiah's actions had consequences for being an idiot. We really could use something to expand upon all of this because we got so little on Micaiah. And now we get into Part 2 where we play as multiple characters who perform as the lord while Elincia is the main lord. The entire story is that the people of Crimea aren't so welcome to a hidden from public princess has risen up to rule their country and changing many of their laws and policies regarding Laguz. And then we stop the rebellion. The end. Also, Ike shows up to kick ass. There's a general consensus that part 1 is too hard, but still good, but Part 2 has conflicted opinions as it's unnecessary. Personally, I really like this segment as it's kind of an epilogue to Crimea after PoR. Elincia has been struggling in this uphill battle and now has to deal with a war where she worries for Geofferey's safety and her best friend, Lucia becomes a hostage. Luvdeck surrenders and is taken hostage but then an ultimatum is thrown her way: either turn her throne over to Luvdeck or let Lucia be hanged. They could have gotten out of Elincia answering this question so easily, but she answered it clear. She would not give up the throne and was ready to watch Lucia die to her dismay. It's kind of nice for a female protagonist to act like a leader (even if she's only the protag for a short time) as we've seen Celica surrender to Jedah, Eirika give in to Lyon's obvious trap, Corrin breaking down after killing Ryoma...and many other things. She may not be an official lord, but she is in my eyes and we could honestly use more characters like her taking the lead role. And now we've hit Part 3. For the most part, you play as Ike as the main lord and you get some of your allies from the Dawn Brigade here pretty much usable for the rest of the game. So the plot is basically a war between Gallia against Bengion with Daein helping them later. You do pretty good but something that usually doesn't happen in FE especially this late is the fact that Ike's side is losing and is forced to retreat. You escape and are pushed back to near Crimea's borders. This causes Elincia to go into the battlefield, without a weapon, says GTFO of her country like the badass she is and it worked....mostly. Crimea pretty much is neutral towards this whole war so Ike isn't getting much help from them. Eventually Sanaki is found causing Zelgius, the general of the army, to cease his army only leaving Daein left in the equation. So for a couple chapters you switch back as the Dawn Brigade fighting off the Laguz army. And they start to question what they are doing...and here comes the most hated plot convenience in the franchise. The Daeins have to keep fighting on the side of Bengion because of what is called a blood contract. Basically if Daein turns against Bengion, they'll die. It's a confusing plot device, but honestly it never really bothered me all that much. The rules behind it are confusing so I'll leave that out. Even Ike kind of wonders why the heck Daein is still fighting like mad seeing they have no reason to. Like if you get worked up over this, just look at all the other asspulls IS has pulled and get over it. Is it a terrible part of the story? Probably. And it eventually leads to a big clash against all the armies waking up the Dark God and they pull an Ultron...before it was cool. And everyone but playable characters and the Senate are statues...also Dragons are fine for some reason. And then we get to part 4. Well a mix of both. So Micaiah's bird, Yune, is the good half of the goddess referred to the Dark God of the Fire Emblem. She basically controls and replaces Micaiah for the remainder of the story. Probably a good thing because Yune at least knows what she's doing. She explains a bunch of lore dump and then you're set off in three groups racing towards the tower. It's pretty uneventful until the finale where you pick an army and storm the five maps and behold a very, very heavy text dump explaining and giving background to a lot of the antagonists of this game. Some of which I haven't seen because they require new game plus. They are pretty interesting and really add to the lore of this game which is quite good...thanks to Path of Radiance. Ike beats the goddess and the world is saved. The plot isn't anything reward winning and it can be a bit all over the place from being solid to awful and it's a jumbled mess to think about. Personally, I think what we had is fine, but there's so much more I wish we got since we really only lightly touch on these characters due to no supports. Most only have one or two info conversations. You DON'T need supports to flesh out these guys as Aimee certainly was pretty memorable and unique. That's the item lady in love with Ike...who Ike is terrified of. I don't need a more fleshed out support system but I think having a lot more info conversations each chapter could really, really help many of these guys out. Aran is basically a generic soldier. We get some like Zihark and Meg. I hope if there's every a remake or enhanced port, IS takes a lot of time to expand on the many aspects of Tellius as much of the foundation is well built and easy to expand upon. The Dawn Brigade needs it the most though. I personally think it's fine, but there are parts to be desired instead of simply speculating. Gameplay Remember how I said most of this all goes hand-in-hand. There is a lot to cover in terms of gameplay so I'll cover all the simple and short ones first: The camp menu is a godsend and should be brought back instead of a hub area, supports are fine albeit a bit weird, I hate that you need to transfer game data on top of making sure you do an A support from that game, on top of playing new game plus to unlock all the story content. Some of the requirements are pretty ridiculous such as fighting a character who may one shot you. Biorhythm sucks. In terms of basic mechanics it's just a more polished Path of Radiance. So another obvious big flaw about Radiant Dawn is that it has a very, very unbalanced roster due to the army being split into three perspectives. Some characters have plenty of availability while others aren't available for very much time. Part 1 is very flawed as it has multiple ways you can game over on top of having a bunch of weak characters. You eventually get some tier 2 characters, an Oifey (a meh one), an exp hog, a bunch of tier 2, and units who can effortlessly beat maps one of which is pretty much untouchable. What the game doesn't tell you is that you better make sure to train up the characters you really want as part 3 will bit you in the ass with those defense chapters. And they will bite. I do think they should have added more Dawn Brigade chapters and I think a remake would likely address that...I hope. And some of them leave the Dawn Brigade like Ilyana and Tormod. Fortunately you do get yellow units which do help alleviate your mistakes a little bit. So the cool thing is despite the unbalance (still better than Rev's) you can pretty much pick up and salvage anyone on normal mode which is actually hard mode. PoR Hard Mode is Normal mode making for quite the rude awakening for the unprepared. You are forced to deploy certain units in the finale but BExp really helps make characters who you damn well wouldn't ever use otherwise be usable. It's basically the ultimate fix your screw-ups which it being my third game certainly was well needed. I also don't regret using the bulk of mine on Kurt. There's also Battle Saves which you pretty much can save at any point in the chapter and abuse the heck out of that. They got rid of that pretty quickly, but I really am going to miss that mechanic since it prevented having to restart the entire chapter over again. There's just so many mechanics I could write an essay on that alone. You have strength determining the speed reduction (I'm not the biggest fan, but better than not having one), rescue, shove, and canto strats, the anima magic triangle, laguz, and weapon refining. Laguz are fun to use, but their biggest issue is gaining experience as they make Jeigan in chapter one look like he earned a lot. Those characters are slow and hard to raise to the point you really don't use them all that much. Except Mordecai because that smite is nice. There's also elevation mechanics which anyone but calvary can climb and being on a level above grants more accuracy and being below counts less and only ranged weapons can hit. This added a much needed variety to maps. Doors can also be damaged to open instead of requiring a key. Wyverns were also broken because they are not weak to bows, only thunder magic. Why do you think Haar is referred to as a god? The game is much more balanced than PoR as it doesn't promote spamming calvary to win...unlike a certain mobile game at a certain point. Now I said before maps all looked and felt unique due to design, but there's a second half to it. Every map has a main goal which could be to seize, escape, or kill boss. They are quite varied and P3-E has one of the most unique requirements being tied in with the story. The big thing about Radiant Dawn is all maps have multiple objectives. And it's not like PoR where it's just try to finish a map in a certain amount of turns. Often times you will come across maps with green units some of which are super damn hard to protect for the BExp. You can choose to easily clear maps, but sometimes you want to go get an item or have to choose between killing an enemy or letting them escape for BExp. This game's maps and story go very hand-and-hand. Like take Elincia's Gambit the famed defense chapter. You are defending your castle from an endless amount of enemies (100 wouldn't be shy) and you get a message Geofferey is headed his way. The game gives enough time for Geoffery's team to come in at the top right and charge in where the big boss stands to try and take him down. We haven't seen our already used allies return in the heat of battle since FE8. There's also random horses you can use for a sabotage map mission. My favorite is the sky battle where you're playing like it's thracia where you one unit keeps getting captured. Oh, and sometimes avoiding to kill certain enemies nets more BExp. There's also the battles where Ike and Micaiah clash which you can sway certain characters from Micaiah to Ike if you want to train them up (but you probably need them over there). The game is pretty great, but if you don't like big and long battles, it certainly isn't for you. Many times it isn't just your playable units on the field as you often have both green and sometimes yellow units to aid you on your journey. You can control yellow somewhat, but green just do whatever they want. It can be a big turn off seeing this big battles with 100s of characters on the screen, but personally I really liked it and love how epic they are. Except Part 4. While I didn't mind it too much, the battles really drag on and enemies are all tier 2 while you're tier 3. And it's reinforcements galore. Part 4 is really slow and while I like the idea of splitting your army into three groups, it wasn't always the most exciting but I will take advantage of Elincia's route next playthrough. On the bright side, P4 has pretty much two of my all time favorite boss fights in the series. I should mention hard mode as it's really weird. I mean it's really weird. It basically removes any ability to detect enemy ranges and you have to manually count all enemy movements to figure out placement. On top of that, the weapon triangle and battle saves have been removed. It's probably not a good idea to start on that if you want to play classic and familiar fire emblem. Closing thoughts This post probably is like the game being all over the place because it certainly isn't anything short on faults. The best way I can describe the game is a pink diamond with a large crack down the side and a bunch of chips. It's really going to be hard to tell if you like the game by listening to others say due to what they take out of a Fire Emblem. I've only scratched the surface on some aspects as there's just so much to really talk about when it comes to the details and all the little stuff the game does. Some people may think the game is horrible or one of the worst due to the horrible balancing, not very strong narrative, and mechanics that don't work like Laguz and Biorhythm. Those are the ones who see something cracked or damaged not very valuable or enjoyable to look at. Then there are people like me who really enjoy all the different things brought to the game and made it such an enjoyable experience that despite it not being the best Fire Emblem, it easily is one of our favorites from the experience. One thing I did miss is that Micaiah is a glass cannon lord. She'll never be your best unit and I really think we should go back to that as it goes back to the old chess style older FEs played more on. A lord is a king which is the most valuable piece on the board as if they die you lose. Often times, they aren't very good and need protected but sometimes they can be of use. I really like that style of lord vs Ike who basically doesn't need an army to be successful. I don't think IS will ever do that again as they try to make the lead broken or very strong so you use them more instead of strategically. A lot of people hate Micaiah because she's a "terrible" unit. And we're back to square one. It's really weird when you can talk about a positive of a game also being a negative. And I skipped over so many things so if you want me to talk about something else like tier 3 units I certainly can. If you really like Conquest, this game is easier, but you'll get some feeling from that game in this one, but if you hate Conquest you'll probably hate RD as well. One game I should mention is 3Houses. Despite how unbalanced it is, Radiant Dawn really did handle the shifting perspective pretty well as switching lords didn't feel like torture or agonizing...except 3-13. I hope we actually see this idea exercised in that game as we're seeing a lot of Tellius influence in that game. And as for a possible remake of Radiant Dawn, please add more Dawn Brigade chapters in part 3. That's the main thing I'd really want, supports or at least more info scenes as a side. And sniper 3-13 with the RD soldier voice for Heroes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrossImpact Posted November 13, 2018 Share Posted November 13, 2018 ah, you made it! thank you so much. you've even went into other details like music and graphics that I really tend to just take how they are from game to game. ... I must say I find myself humming the player phase OST along often, no matter which game. x) I think Genealogy did the most splendid job. I'm not an expert on music, but it had a different one for each chapter, with the final one being a kinda remix of the first one. I love that. Each tune has a connection to a place and its events. Eldigan.... pay respects. turning the 25th anniversary concert on now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_5g_hEePjc&index=2&list=PL9W0BM_gZhzFoPY7X1dw7iy0PzOKykHU3 As for graphics, I actually turned the 3d animated battles off rather quickly both in PoR and RD - they prolong any FE game really fricking much, and RD maps usually take very long already. So I think I remember the animations were somewhat better in RD. Not that it was hard to do in comparison to PoR. Those looked really stiff and awkward. Overall, now playing Shadow Dragon and having played every game of the series bar New Mystery of the Emblem and SoV once I finish it, it's insane how "Anime" they went with Awakening!!! I don't know if it's just the times, and if the GBA games would have that nowadays ; but the Shadow Dragon mugs look really really off, a style so far from anything else within the series. So idk what direction they intended to go. Speaking of cutscenes, the ones foreshadowing the next part of the game are western release only. I'm personally not much of a fan, I don't even watch trailers to movies I wanna see. Every scene might give a glimpse of something I could have laughed or be surprised and excited about as it would be happening. Like Kurthnaga, HOLY DAMN. Though I guess he's in the intro, that by the way expands with a couple scenes the further you advance through the game. Let's see what I can piece together about the parts. Part 1 - Dawn Brigade You said you don't remember all the writing. Well. Good news is: you haven't forgotten much. Bad news is: There wasn't anything to remember. Not in this part yet. The game picks that up in every part after that. It's really really empty and bad. Now, the player is offered a really unsufficient perception how much Micaiah is driven by what seems to be her inner voice at the time. So something like [ Pelleas, questionable royal offspring about whom is immediately apparent he has neither natural nor developed charisma (the latter is obvious, as he was just hiding in the desert ; ... in fact, shortly said, I dislike that narrative in itself a lot, really lame) : "Please fight for me Micaiah." .... Micaiah: "Ok let's go." ] can almost be seen as uncut dialogue. It really is close enough, and it was infuriating after experiencing PoR's abundant exchange between characters. I agree, PoR had such a splendid cast. Unfortunately, you will need 10538 playthroughs to unlock all support conversations :D' They were very personal. It's something Awakening and Fates were kinda missing imo ; way too many characters (forced 2nd generation zzzz) to keep it interesting. With supports also being gone additionally to the missing writing in that part, PLUS the game starting off with Begnion acting like a complete turnaround of anything you could imagine Sanaki would stand for, idk, I felt horrible. Obviously the latter part is the plot part to uncover, but oof. There was just nothing to cling to for enjoyment. It is also a rather hard part. On Hard mode (which is already called Lunatic in the Japanese version iirc), your backline can be oneshot by any opponent. May it be Micaiah, Laura, Leonardo. They all just run the danger of immediately dying from one oversight. It can be exhausting. Balancewise, yeah. Nailah, lol. Just forge max Might Iron Weapons with some increased Hit tbh. It really works wonders. Thankfully, Elincia and the Greil Mercenaries will come to save the day. Oh and Tibarn. God bless Tibarn. Tibarn. What do you think Tibarn and Elincia would name their child? Part 2 - Crimea Another sudden shift in the next country whose situation seems to have been resolved in PoR. Unrest in the aristocracy with the new, young ruler Elincia. I'd say it is a super feasible thing to happen. It doesn't really contribute to the main plot of Daein/Begnion/Laguz, but Tellius doesn't consist of only two parties (like the world building in Fates was very baseline with 1 nation v 1 nation + 1 hidden enemy). Tellius is a super rich world. As it is a shorter part of the game, it is important to portray Elincia's development (I agree totally on the scene with Lucia, DAMN she's so strong ;-;) it's also important as the overture to the reappearance of the second faction of what you could view as main protagonists (Dawn Brigade + Greil Mercenaries, as they are the ones to clash). Intrigues and treason have forever been a staple in FE games' background. Part 2 is good imo. Cutscene from 2 to 3 just give me more of that stuff will ya Part 3 - Greil Mercenaries + others I think you said enough about it. Praise you have trained the right units of the Dawn Brigade. 3-13. Yikers. Also, Tibarn x Elincia. If you get recognized by the bird god that way, you are special. And she's already into wings. I know I know, he's not a god. But he's a *god*. 3-E just felt great. A very unique chapter throughout the whole fricking series! Part 4 - War against Ashera and her chosen followers Now, I will say that, if we ignore the ? about who was turned into stone and who wasn't, I loved the spiraling of the conflict within the tower. The actual chapters felt meh. In Rebirth 1-5, you get to encounter all the big names in a kinda ascending order. Lekain -> Black Knight -> Dheginsea -> Sephiran -> Ashera. Love it. What a fricking load of showdowns. The problem is what you mentioned: You'll need a second playthrough to unlock all story information, which I agree is a bad choice. Especially today, I think you should expect people to move on to another game after finishing one. --------- --------- other features base camp - I agree. it's by far the best solution to management. on-map shops imo are baaaaad, you just waste turns to buy and distribute items. it's so time consuming for no good reason. Genealogy of the Holy War is kinda in the middle of all that (if you overlook being unable to normally trade items :3). you get to buy some items at your starting castle each chapter without using up a turn. walking around on the world map like in Awakening is not really genuine. not terrible, but you better remember what's where. biorhythm - I've read that on western Lunatic / Japanese Lunatic+, weapon triangle is disabled and thus, Biorhythm is the thing to go by. wowzers. without that, I'm neutral on it. Though I would have expected for them to use it differently than simply following a turn-to-turn pattern ; like the Beast Tribe should be doing great at night compared to anyone else etc., since they did include Fog of War and even nighttime chapters. height - this was so aggravating (...) when playing for the first time. the height buff is so terribly OP imo. *some* less could have done it as well. I've dealt with it far better in 2nd playthrough, opinion remained. also, this mainly being an AI fault, it can make for some awkward standstills on certain maps or the player running into an undefeatable bulwark until you get to flank it (which, technically, sure, that's how you do it, but oof, feels bad man) reposition mechanics - those are really nice! though I haven't played a lot, it's actually been FE: Heroes really showcasing to me how powerful it can be. Shoving/Smiting, Canto, Trade+Ranged Attack are things that can really let the player shine. I've seen rescue chains in some playthroughs across games on youtube that have me questioning what I'm even doing for 20 turns on one map. LOL attack speed - you don't like (Weight - Strength) + Speed? do you prefer the simple Speed - Weight? or the Build/Constitution stat? this obviously ties into balancing the relevant stats. either of them seems fine if done right. usability of Laguz - their EXP cuts when transformed just seemed super unnecessary, at least to that extent. even when transformed, they have sufficient weaknesses (no range, transformation gauge easily depletes in a horde of enemies). they are not braindead units with the exception of the kings. there are a lot of likeable characters across the tribes, and it's a shame. what do you think of shapeshifters in Awakening / Fates in comparison? Maybe they could have worked out further differences between tribes, though I felt like their attributes (speed / staying power / tankiness / ...) showed well enough. save data - a unit gets +2 on every stat they maxed out in PoR IF they were also promoted lv20 in PoR. I'm happy I did that the second time for Ilyana. hungry mage lady looking for food. electrocute enemies in return. ------------- ------------- maps and story I think you expressed that well - they are deeply tied. that's why you will have 15 of your units, 25 yellow or green units, 50 red units more often than you'd wish. ally and enemy phase are just taking way too long like this. I can make breakfast and then have my next turn. also, on several maps, the allied units can clear the map by themselves. doesn't really make the player feel important :c because of the sheer amount of units, the battles drag out. the second factor you only noticed briefly - "reinforcement galore". RD is one of the few games that fall into this. I think Thracia 776 is the worst offender here though. Mindless reinforcements for 25 turns. At least they can't immediately move. I despise that even more, unless you get prepared for it by dialogue / story. Interesting you drew a comparison between Conquest and Radiant Dawn, I felt so too. RD is somewhat easier depending on your character choices, but is still towards the harder end of the series. ---------- ---------- The Cast Dawn Brigade - You already said it, due to missing support conversations, there's really nothing we know about these folks. It's mostly the PoR characters really putting in the connection for the player, it's a bit sad. The folks in it really need training, and in the western versions, even get some treasured weapons of Daein to get up to complete viability. These do not even exist in the Japanese version. - Micaiah is, like you said, an interesting protagonist, being very fragile. But she has super strong offense. Balance problem: Legit gets one-shotted. Legit one-shots bosses with Thani tome. The real cheap way out. x) - Leonardo, you just have to feel bad for this guy. He's really really bad. How is the player even supposed to connect to characters they can't even properly use. - Sothe. Unlucky he's forced because Volke exists. - Meg and Fiona ???? still base level at the end of the game tbh - Zihark and Tauroneo and Jill feel like shadows of their former selves. I think Jill can be salvaged if giving a lot of attention? She's so damn important in PoR. Love her!! - Vika, curse them for this little availability. - Black Knight. Oh, by the way, HE is the Black Knight!!! Which at first glance sounds like the worst reveal in gaming history, actually goes back to cut dialogue in the western versions. Ranulf already realizes who he is when fighting against him as a distraction for the Greil Mercenaries, then tells Ike about it in the relevant chapter. The former dialogue during the duel was cut, and so Ranulf just hits the player with a wet noodle. ....but even if it were not cut, it wouldn't make for a good reveal imo. Black Knight is one of the most hyped up and iconic antagonists in the entire series. he deserved an equally hyped reveal. Crimea - Again several shadows. - Marcia, might as well fight with a stick and Brom with stones because sticks and stones will break Nealuchi's bones since he's old af - Kieran and Astrid, what happened??? for Astrid, yeah, she deffo hanging out with Makalov too much, but man, Kieran from one of the best to underwhelming :c Greil Mercenaries and Laguz Alliance - Ike ; Ike! - Titania is a bit more fragile in RD, but damn she still dishes out. having actually had Oifey because I played FE4, they compare well, tho FE4 enemies are much weaker so Oifey quite dodgy-tank - Soren, somewhat weaker than deserved I feel ; the playable Branded seem to be especially powerful usually. his bloodline is a super interesting part of PoR, easily missed if not supporting with Ike. - Gatrie, really goes off in third tier.... impressive overworld design. CRIMEAAAAAAAAAAAA! *tanks 10 opponents* also likes cats, apparently. - Mia, felt somewhat better than in PoR, though in PoR is luck dependent on strength growth - Kyza, Lyre - why? - Volke, sorry Sothe is there my friend, would take you anytime over him :c - Kurthnaga and Ena - they don't seem to get counterattacked by other dragons, so their max level stats would be interesting to know. and a waste of time without bonus XP. Never throughout the series have I felt a lot of units being absolutely useless -from the point you get them- like in RD. there are better and worse ones in every game (hello Roy, hello Gwendolyn), but oof. RD can outright make units not viable at all if you don't use them well / feed them from the very first chapter they appear in. Bonus XP and switchable Paragon skill are a thing, but it won't do -super much-. final note: Ike > Hector, stay mad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.