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Developer: Intelligent Systems
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: RPG
Region: NTSC
Format:
Release Date: 17 Oct 05
User Rating
10 (8 votes) -
- Old school RPG is very much alive here, as Fire Emblem charms us with its engaging storyline, uncompromising combat and solid gameplay.
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Overview
Well the holiday season is obviously in full force, and let me tell you the Nintendo Gamecube has obviously been feeling the hurt with the absence of Zelda: Twilight Princess this time of year. Nintendo realizes this, and have come out with a much more original first party lineup this year that is just trying to do anything keep the console afloat. One of these is Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, an RPG of sorts that tries to fill a huge void on the Gamecube. Can this game possibly manage to do this? Read our full review to find out!
Gameplay
Now, as with most RPGs, the story is what makes or breaks it. This is because you seem to put a lot more time and energy into these sorts of games, and therefore you want to be entertained along the way. The Fire Emblem series, which was made two appearances on the GBA, has always been known for their very deep and immersive storylines, and don't plan on this changing in Path of Radiance. Being such a complex storyline, I won't even try to give you all the "nitty gritty" details, but instead to say you play as the young Ike, who is basically the heir to the leadership position in his group, under his father. From there he is thrown into leadership into a group who don't seem to content on staying together. So the whole story is actual much more complex then I am making it out to be, but at least you get the idea. The story in Path of Radiance continues to grow from there and this is easily one of the best parts of Path of Radiance, because of its twists and turns.
For those that are wondering what type of RPG this is, Path of Radiance is definitely your typical turn based style RPG that never strays away from this point. The battles in the game are actually extremely complex and do take quite a bit of time to get through. Basically you have a sort of rock-paper-scissors system, whereby if you pick the sword, and the opponent picks an axe, the sword will win, and this sort of idea plays through in almost ever battle. However this is not the case when speaking of an extremely high level character that character will most likely win the battle no matter what weapon they are carrying. For the most part though you just have to get used to this sort of weapon mentality and work with it. Personally I actually enjoyed this sort of turn based battle system as it seemed to always keep battles somewhat fresh and interesting.
One of the most interesting aspects to the game however is the health of your character, which actually works differently from any other game on the market. Death is permanent in Path of Radiance. There are no revivals, no spells, no ways of bringing back characters, similar to real life, once your dead you are dead. So this puts an extreme importance on all of your battles, and therefore you really have to make sure you are careful in the way that you go about doing things.
When it all comes together the gameplay is actually quite impressive in Path of Radiance. One of the initial reactions I had to the game was the artificial intelligence, which actually was extremely impressed those at all difficulty settings that actually works really well and you can expect a fierce competition. This in turn of course does cause some frustration and therefore some may be turned away from the games difficulty, but true RPG fans are going to love the challenge.
In the end, the gameplay of Path of Radiance is really what you would expect from the series. The game has plenty of depth in the story and the combat and really never shows a change of pace throughout. The game really manages to do a great job of making a solid RPG from start to finish that may not be the best one on the market but still is a fantastic experience nonetheless.
Graphics
The visual capabilities of Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance is very high, but the end results are nowhere near as high as they could be. Most of the game you are looking through the grid map and this is not all that exciting of a view and this just really begins to keep the game from being anything out of the ordinary. The battle animations are not what I would call spectacular but they still get the job done.
The whole game of Path of Radiance is a good experience but the visual presentation just does not have sense of detail or color that I would have liked to have seen in the game. Without being too drab, I must say that the game just does not manage to make anything better then average in this game. The character models are good, the environments are on par, and the whole game just manages to stay at a good rate throughout the whole journey.
Fun Factor
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance is a fine game that many people will have a great time with, especially fans of the series. However like I said before, this is one of the more difficult RPG's to come out in recent time, so you can rest assured that you will have your fair share of frustration in Path of Radiance. The story in the game is exactly what you would expect from a Fire Emblem game, long, drawn out, and extremely engaging. I must say when you put a good combat system with a solid story, you get a fun RPG experience.
Overall
Fire Emblem is one of those games that are fun to play and just has an overall good feel to it. If you are an RPG enthusiast and still have been loyal to your Gamecube, then here finally is a great RPG for you. Fans of the series and fans of the genre alike will enjoy Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, for its engaging combat system and interesting storyline.
- Gameplay
8.0 - Graphics
7.0 - Fun Factor
8.0 - Overall
8.0
