The Good: Great lenghty well written story with likeable characters, the cutscenes are beautiful, controls flawlessly, the camera is at a perfect angle, battle system is awesome, epic music, excellent use of strategy and role playing elements.
The Bad: Unimpressive gameplay graphics, cheesy voice acting, a combination of permanent death and no saving during combat can get really annoying.
About a week ago, I got a Gamecube controller to plug into our Wii. We sold our Gamecube, but still had some games to play. I bought the controller for three games: Pokemon DX Gale of Darkness, The Legend of Zelda Windwaker, and the game I'm reviewing, Fire Emblem Path of Radiance.
In this game, Ike is training to be in his father's team of mercenaries, called the Greil Mercenaries. Once he gets in, a whole bunch of crap happens. (SPOILER WARNING!) Ike's father dies, the lands of Crimea (where Ike lives) and Daien (Crimea's enemy) go to war, and the Crimean princess is trying to get kidnapped (obviously). Ike has to lead his team of mercenaries to bring the princess back to safety. (SPOILER OVER!) It's a simple, yet effective storyline. The characters are really likeable and it's cool to find out what's going to happen next. It's a well written, well crafted story.
The graphics are unimpressive, but that isn't a bad thing. The dialogue scenes are made to be cartoony and the battle scenes still look cool. The game is not meant for you to admire the graphics. But still, a few touch ups here and there would be nice. The cutscenes look great though. Though there are few, they have fluid animation, beautiful 3D graphics, and even have voice acting, which is actually the weakest point. The voice actors in this game sound so… cheesy. But it's not really bothersome with the beautiful scenery and the fact that there aren't many cutscenes.
Time to talk about where this game shines- gameplay. This game is so much fun! The controls are great, the camera is at an angle where you can strategize well and see lots of what's around you, the battle system is engaging, the strategy behind the fights is fun to figure out, this game makes you think. I love it all! My only complaint is that you can't save during battle. If a person dies on your team that you don't want dead, you'll have to reset your console, open the file up again, and start the fight from the beginning. It can be kind of annoying, but it is necessary.
Inbetween battles, you go to base where you can talk to your teammates, award experience to the characters, teach them new skills, and trade, buy, sell, and even craft items. I like this, because it helps you prepare for the next fight. It's also fun, just talking to your teammates, seeing what they have to say. The other stuff is cool, too. I know that there are vendors in other games and I don't need to make a big deal about it, but oh well. I DON'T CARE!
This game also has great music. Every song is scored beautifully. There are intense songs, sad songs, heroic songs, happy songs, all of them are awesome!
I love this game! It's got a great story, likeable characters, gorgeous cutscenes, great controls, perfect camera angle, awesome battle system, epic music, and excellent strategy and role playing elements. The unimpressive graphics, cheesy voice acting, and no ability to save during combat is practically thrown out the window in comparison to this. You must play this game at some point in your life. YOU MUST!