Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn has an extensive campaign that can put the best strategic minds to the test
When Fire Emblem was released in the Gamecube I thought it wouldn't be as good as a GBA game but I was wrong. The essentials of the game weren't forgotten, this was one of the reasons I liked Path of Radiance.
The game is a direct sequel to the Gamecube title Path of Radiance.
Radiant Dawn is placed three years after the events in PoR, after Crimea won the war against Daein we thought everything would be good, the thing is that Crimea let Beginon occupy the country of Daein, with no king and no political goverment Daein is now ruled by Begnion. Citizens are mistreated by the Begnion forces, there is hunger, poverty, injustice but when everything is dark a new rising star appears in Daein, The Dawn Brigade, this band of people are warriors who fight the begnion forces in order to win back the former freedom and glory of the country that they loved, this army is led by Micaiah one of the new faces in this game, she is also accompanied by Sothe a familiar face from PoR, along with other set of new characters, this is only one of the armies that you'll be able to use in one of the four parts of the game in which we'll see several new and old characters.
The game has 45 chapters in which you'll fight enemies, recruit soldiers and upgrade your army. The gameplay is similar to PoR but with some new skills and terrain effects. You'll have acces to different classes (swordmasters, dracoknights, mages, soldiers) and you'll gain exp points for every enemy you fight once your units gains enough exp points it will level up, once it gains enough levels it will change classes which will make it stronger.
There is a weapon triangle (Sword beats axe which beat lances which beats swords) and a magic triangle (Anima beats Light which beats Dark which beats Anima) these are some things that you have to keep in mind when sending your units into the battle, which adds a lot of strategy element to the game, the map is divided in squares a certain unit moves a certain kind of squares every turn once your turn is over, starts the enemy turn which will be controlled by the AI.
The AI is smart and you'll have to think a lot in this game even on the easier difficulties which why you need to think the best strategy in order to win the battle.
The graphics look a little more detailed than the ones in PoR but there isn't much of a change. The animation is fluid and the cutscenes look amazing. As for the music let's just say it isn't bad but I prefered most of the tracks the used in PoR.
The battle system is the same of a fire emblem game, you'll see the unit hp in the battle the total damage and the critical percentage, and a very lovely animation in which the units fight. The main attraction.
The game itself is a long one, being a sequel much of the storyline material is recycled from the previous game but it's for the best since followers of the previous one can see what happened with their characters after they won the war. You can easily get 50+ hours of gameplay, on it. The maps aren't just copy paste, and rushed they look well created and very detailed but being a complex board game the graphics is not where the main focus is.
You'll see some familiar faces from PoR for example Ike and the Greil Mercenaries, The Apostle and the Holy Guards, Queen Crimea and the Royal Knights and many new faces. The game offers a support system in which to characters talk during the battle, something common in the FE series. This time the characters doesn't necesary need to have something in common (brothers, lovers, friends, haters, and more) almost anyone can support.
In my opinion this game has almost everything that a strategy game needs, no online support though but besides that, Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn will be a title worth of a place in your collection, if you like strategy games then I strongly recommend it.