Gameplay: An interesting element of Path of Radiance’s gameplay is that it brought back a lot of things that originated in Holy War.
Skills like Astra, Sol and Luna, yep it was Holy War that started that.
Mounted units only using one weapon before promotion. Yep that too began in Holy War.
Canto is also something this game brought back. True you could move again in the GBA games if your mounted unit used an item or rescued someone but being able to move again after attacking is something that began in Holy War and got brought back in Path of Radiance.
Refresher units being able to refresh 4 units.
What’s cool here is that Path of Radiance added its own spin to things which made the game very enjoyable. Whenever a mounted unit promotes the player then gets to choose what weapon they use after promotion. That’s a pretty cool idea that I wish would return in future installments. In addition to having skills you now also have a capacity system that limits the number of skills each character can have. You also have Occult Scrolls which means that each class has a skill unique to them which just makes the different classes even more different from each other. Refresher units can refresh up to 4 times, but only after transforming into herons first.
This game also invented forges, bonus experience and shoving. In my opinion Tellius forges are best forges. You can make a powerful weapon, but it isn’t as OP as the forge system in Fire Emblems 11 - 14 since you can’t forge Brave or effective weapons (and you certainly can’t forge a Nosferatu). Bonus experience is cool because it gives the player an incentive to beat levels faster and it works as a way to boost the weaker units of your army. Shoving is interesting too and a lot of people really like it.
I do wish the localized game were a little more challenging though. Yes I know that Maniac mode exists but I haven’t played it yet plus I just don’t see myself getting a Dolphin emulator. That could change in the future and this really is a tiny nitpick.
The map design is hit or miss. A lot of maps are very simple while others are like Chapter 11 which are actually pretty good. I don’t think they’re quite up to par with say the GBA games, but at the same time the map design in Path of Radiance is certainly superior to the maps in some of the newer games. Also, I like the extra maps.
Final Thoughts: Path of Radiance isn’t just one of my favorite Fire Emblem games, it’s one of my favorite video games period. It has an awesome story, awesome characters, an awesome soundtrack and gameplay that’s still fundamentally Fire Emblem. This is a game that I can play over and over again and never get bored playing. It just does everything well and it seems like a game that’s genuinely hate immune. This game deserves all the love and praise that it gets and I’m happy to see that people love it.
Soundtrack: I like this game’s soundtrack. There are just way too many tracks to pick from that either stand out to me or bring back warm nostalgic fuzzies.
The first track in this game that I really like is Ike’s Resolution:
It’s bright, whimsical and it makes you want to play more of this game. There’s an epic feel too that I just love.
“Victory is Near” is a really joyous tune that really helps you feel good about being so close to completing a level:
I also like how they brought back Holy War’s Chapter 10 theme in one of the extra maps:
The music that plays whenever the player initiates a fight is also a plus:
Then there’s also The Black Knight’s epic theme:
Or Power-Hungry Fool:
Yeah, this game’s soundtrack is just epic, diverse and varied. There are so many tracks that leave some kind of an impact on the player that it would take too long to list them out. Suffice it to say that this game hits the nail on the head with its musical arrangement.
Characters: This game has an amazing cast. Each and every character have their own particular mannerisms, motivations and unique histories.
It’s no big secret that I love Ike. His character arc in Path of Radiance is very compelling. It’s so cool to watch him start out as a humble mercenary and then slowly rise to become a powerful leader of this army comprised of multiple different factions from all across Tellius. His blunt, straightforward mannerisms and overall rough lack of manners combined with a simple outlook on life make it easy to relate to him. Plus I love the fact that he’s not a noble or a prince. He’s just a down to earth mercenary without prejudice in a world where a lot of characters are prejudiced. There’s a fantastic video that goes even further in depth about him that I highly recommend watching:
Another character with a well done arc is Jill. When we first meet Jill she’s pretty heavily racist against laguz. She also comes across as really strict and duty bound. Over the course of the series this begins to change. Since she is part of Ike’s army she naturally has to fight alongside laguz. She has to deal with the fact that her pre-conceived notions about laguz being mindless monsters is completely untrue. Her conflict in Chapter 20 when she has to face off against her father Shiharam is also really sad when you think about it. Then add in the part where generic wyvern riders in that level all call her a traitor just adds to her turmoil and also shows just how far she’s progressed.
A huge part of what makes the characterization in this game work as well as it does are its support conversations. This game has a long list of awesome support conversations. This is the only game where I can say that I like every support conversation that I’ve read. The supports let the personalities of these characters shine while also letting us see into their backstories and motivations. This is exactly what support conversations are supposed to do and it works brilliantly.
Not only are the heroes well done, but the antagonists are also top notch. The Black Knight is one of my favorite villains, both in the Fire Emblem franchise and outside of it. He’s mysterious, powerful, intimidating and ruthless. Every time he shows up you know crap is getting real. Having him kill Greil early on gives Ike a personal stake in the story and then when you combine all of this with the fact that he’s so difficult to beat it really makes defeating him incredibly satisfying. The Black Knight fight is one of my favorite boss battles ever for this exact reason.
Ashnard is also a very well done final boss. If you think about it, the final bosses in Fire Emblem all tend to be huge dragons or deities. Rarely do you see someone like Ashnard being the final villain. If this were any other story Ashnard would be one-dimensional and boring but in this story he works really well. His Social Darwinism combined with his war mongering work well with the themes of this game and they help to make him a memorable villain.
Overall Summation: These characters rock! This game gets my vote for “Best Cast In The Series”. They’re different, memorable and unique. It’s very easy to get emotionally attached to them which makes playing this game a real treat.
Ah Path of Radiance. My first Fire Emblem game. This game brings back a lot of happy memories for me. Like many other people I first heard about Fire Emblem through Super Smash Bros. Melee. I mained Marth and did pretty good with him back in the day. Naturally I was intrigued about Fire Emblem. I liked the description in Marth and Roy’s trophies and I had to see for myself what this Fire Emblem was all about. Toward the end of 2005 I stumbled across Path of Radiance in the video game aisle in Target. I didn’t care about the fact that the blue haired guy wasn’t Marth, I just wanted to play it because it had the title of “Fire Emblem” on it. Little did I know that this would be the beginning of something special. Path of Radiance holds a special place in my heart and even 11 years later I am still very attached to it.
Plot:In my opinion this game has a wonderful plot and tells its story in a refined way. The game does a good job of introducing the Greil Mercenaries first before the plot kicks in. That way you can’t help but care about what happens to these characters when the crap hits the fan. The progression of events is well done and each part of the journey is memorable. By the end of the story you feel like you’ve progressed with Ike the whole way through which gives the story a satisfactory and triumphant feeling. The game knows how to do revelations right. Think of when Volke tells Ike about Greil’s history. It’s not only tragic but it also tells us a great about Greil and it tells us more about the Fire Emblem and why it’s important that the good guys hold onto it. Greil’s death is handled really well too. It gives Ike a personal stake in the fight against Daein and it makes the Black Knight all the more menacing. It helps to make the fight against the Black Knight at the end of the game all the more exhilarating and emotionally charged which is why its so satisfying to beat him.
Something I have to praise Path of Radiance for is its world-building. This game has phenomenal world building. The countries and locations that the player visits come across as memorable, unique and distinctive. How these countries interact with each other and what kind of history some of the characters have really adds to the overall experience in a meaningful way. The laguz do a wonderful job of adding to the world building and they’re not just there to be some cool gimmick. The laguz help to add to the themes of racial tension that Path of Radiance does a good job of exploring.
Something else that I noticed is the fact that Tellius is the most female friendly Fire Emblem world to date. By the end of Radiant Dawn all the beorc nations are ruled by women (Crimea is ruled by Elincia, Daein is ruled by Micaiah and Begnion is ruled by Sanaki) and then there’s also Nailah, who is the queen of Hatari. Then we get multiple kick butt female characters like Titania, Jill, Lethe, Marcia, Mia, etc.
Overall Summation: Path of Radiance has a fantastic story. Everything from the progression of events to the world building to its revelations really adds to story making it unique, memorable and easy to get attached to.
Another major aspect of this game is the Pursuit Critical Coefficient. Every character in this game has a hidden critical modifier ranging from 0 - 5. If a character lands a second attack (if you’re using a Brave Weapon it would be the third attack) their critical hit rate multiplies by that modifier. This means that critical hits are extremely easy to pull off. Thracia 776 is the most crit friendly game in Fire Emblem history and I never get bored of seeing all the wonderful crits I can pull off in this game.
Another major bonus for this game is its god tier map design. Fire Emblem 12 may still get my vote for “Best Map Design in the Series” but Thracia 776 is not far behind. This game has some well constructed maps that require thought and effort on the player’s part. This game also, in my opinion, has the best first level in the series. I agree with dondon151 that most of the beginning maps in the series “tend to treat the player like an idiot”. It may work for newcomers but for “grizzled” veterans like me it’s a little off putting and it hurts the replayability value of the game because you have to replay dreadful maps like that all over again. Thracia 776 doesn’t have this problem. The beginning map is still well designed while being easy enough for most noobs to be able to play it without getting wrecked. The final map of this game also works really well. Most Fire Emblem games don’t have well constructed endgame maps either, which once again is a problem that Thracia 776 deftly avoids. In fact, Fire Emblem 7’s map design is a borderline copycat of this game’s map (I personally think Thracia’s endgame map is better).
Thracia also decided to bring back the “stat boosting items” concept that originated in Fire Emblem 3 Book 2. Instead of Star Spheres you have crusader scrolls, but they serve the same function. I like stuff like that so I’m cool with it. Thracia is also the first game to have skill scrolls (ie items that can teach you Wrath or Paragon). I’m also a big fan of this and the fact that the game limits the number of these running around is even bigger treat. This also invented “Paragon Mode” where all experience gains are doubled and units that already have Paragon gets 4 times as much experience! That is freaking awesome and I want to see this return in future installments.
One last tidbit about how well this game plays out has to do with its stealing mechanic. I love the fact that you can steal a mage’s tomes and effectively neuter them. If you manage to get your thieves constitution higher (bytheway constitution has a growth rate in this game and that’s awesome) you can steal more items from stronger enemies. That never gets old and I wish newer games would do stuff like this as well.
I don’t have very many complaints about this game’s gameplay but they do, unfortunately exist:
How well the player does in this game is dependent on how well they understand the game’s mechanics. If you know about them you’ll probably end up breaking the game. If you try playing this game blind it will wreck you hard. The game doesn’t inform the player of stuff like this either so you have to rely on a strategy guide in order to do well in this game. This is why some people think this game is so difficult while other people like me think that this game can be easy. Personally I consider Fire Emblem 12 and Conquest to be significantly more difficult than Thracia 776.
2. This game is also too RNG reliant for my taste. Staves are capable of missing and there’s not much the player can do about that. This game also has a 1 RN system so you’re more likely to miss as well.
Speaking of staves, the reason why Thracia has the nickname of “Staff Emblem” is because staves are OP in this game. In fact staff utility has never been more valuable before or after this game. Any staff with a range (with the exception of the Torch staff) has infinite range. That includes Physic, Warp, Rescue, Fortify and status staves. The effect of status staves lasts forever too which means that if Leif gets hit with a sleep staff and you don’t have Restore the game has just become unwinnable. That’s not good design. This has never happened to me since I always come equipped with Restore staves but I can see some newcomer get blindsided and rage quitting because of that.
3. This game also invented Fog of War. It handles Fog of War better than other games, but it’s still Fog of War.
Final Thoughts about the Game: I love Thracia 776. It’s a really fun game. It has great mechanics, great map design and it’s got that “old-timey” charm to it that keeps me coming back. This is a game I can play over and over again without getting bored. If you haven’t played this game yet you are doing yourself a major disservice. Go play this game! Go play this game now!
Gameplay: And now for the moment that you’ve been waiting for. This is the real reason why Thracia 776 is my third favorite Fire Emblem game: The gameplay. Thracia 776 has some excellent gameplay that deserves to be looked at.
For starters this is the first game in the series that had multiple map objectives. Three of the four previous Fire Emblem games only had seize as an objective and Gaiden only had the route objective. Thracia is the game where escape and defend chapters made their debut. This game has the best escape chapters in the series along with the fact that every unit must escape otherwise they get left behind. Multiple map objectives tend to make the gameplay more varied and fun and I’m grateful for Thracia for doing this.
Thracia also invented the Gaiden chapters, which is another really neat feature of this game. The Gaiden chapters also force the player to think ahead in advance about how they’ll play certain chapters because who wouldn’t want to unlock those chapters? Thracia also invented the Rescue mechanic too, which I believe a lot of people seem to like so kudos for Thracia. Thracia also wisely chose to bring back the dismounting feature from Fire Emblem 3 Book 2 which was a smart choice on its part. Then of course there are the two mechanics this game invented that I love so much: Capture and Fatigue.
Capturing happens when a player hits the “Capture” command which halves their units stats. When an enemy’s HP drops to 0 instead of dying they get “captured”. Once an enemy gets captured the player can then take their hostages weapons and items. Oh boy is this mechanic so much fun to exploit! It is a very satisfying feeling to capture a powerful enemy who has rare and valuable stuff and then claim it as your own.
The capture system also eliminates the need for money. Think about it, you only need money to buy things like weapons and maybe other items. With the capture system as long as you have enemies (which you always will have because that’s how these games work) you have items. I’ve never felt impressed by how most Fire Emblems handle money. Most games give you too much money which makes the game easy because you can always stock up on whatever you need to destroy the game with. Then there’s Fire Emblems 10, 12 and Conquest where you get limited amounts of money, which is better but the problem here is that it feels too restrictive. With capturing you can still have tons of weapons and items, but you’re forced to earn it which means that you still have to put thought and effort into resource management without feeling super restricted. I love this mechanic so much that I’m bringing it back in my own game.
I also have to point out that I don’t like the way that Fates handles “capturing” because it feels like such a fluffy gimmick in comparison to Thracia 776. In Thracia capturing is the predominant way of getting stuff. In Fates you could cut capturing out of the game and it wouldn’t make a significant difference on the gameplay. While it shares the same name as Thracia’s mechanic the way it functions and its impact on its game is completely different from Thracia’s which leads me to view it as completely different from Thracia’s mechanic.
Then there’s the fatigue mechanic. Here’s how fatigue works: Whenever a unit does something like fighting, healing or dancing their fatigue meter increases by a certain amount. Once their fatigue meter becomes greater than or equal to their Max HP they have to sit out the next level. This mechanic encourages the player to use a bigger army which I am all for. Sometimes you have to actively sit a unit out in one chapter because you need them for another one and you want their HP to be 0 for that one. I like that aspect of the game. Fatigue, like Capture, is a system that I’m also bringing back because I think it has a valuable impact on the design of the game.
Plot: So when it comes to the plot Thracia 776 is rather unique. Thracia is a midquel to Holy War. For those of you who don’t know what a midquel is here’s a definition from wikipedia that works: “A midquel is a sequel which takes place during a chronology gap within a single previously completed work. Examples include The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis, which takes place near the end of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequel)
Thracia 776 takes place before the events of Chapter 6 of Holy War and ends before the events of Chapter 8. Because of the fact that it is a midquel to Holy War I personally recommend that you play Holy War first before playing Thracia 776. If you play Thracia 776 first you will be spoiling major plot points in Holy War and you might end up either confused or just be unable to understand what’s going on. Either way, it’s not in your best interests to beat Thracia first.
What this game’s plot does very well is give the player the sense of what fighting a powerful Empire would actually be like. You and your broke ragtag army of thieves, villagers and nobles from a fallen kingdom have to go up against this fantastic enemy juggernaut that is disciplined, organized and hell-bent on destroying you. Most of the time you’re just fighting to escape the enemy’s clutches. For me it works really well and I love this aspect of the game.
There isn’t much else to comment on the game because for the most part the plot isn’t all that memorable. I can’t think of anything about that’s bad about it, but it doesn’t really stand out much to me either. I guess I can say that it’s rather middle-of-the-road.
Characters: Yeah, not really the strongest point for this game either. There’s a significant number of characters with Gaiden levels of characterization meaning that they only get a couple of lines of characterization. The villains don’t particularly stand out either. Their motivations, from what I remember, are lackluster to say the least. The only character I can think of that actually gets any meaningful characterization is Leif. Believe it or not, Leif actually grows and develops throughout this game and it’s rather nice. He did get a characterization upgrade from Holy War, but even with all this in mind he doesn’t make up for all the levels of blandness that most of the characters in this game have.
Soundtrack: The best way to describe the soundtrack in this game is….very foreboding. It adds to the apprehensive feel that the game is going for. Unfortunately a lot of the tracks sound very similar to me. There isn’t much else to say here, except for the fact that the soundtrack is a weak point for the game.
Final Thoughts on the Game: I won’t deny that this game has a huge number of flaws. I can totally understand why other people don’t like it. It’s a mess, but it’s an epic mess. The size and scale helps me forget about its flaws. Thanks to its glorious soundtrack I can sit back, relax and enjoy wrecking Begnion or Crimea, or whoever I’m fighting.
I already got to know most of the cast from Path of Radiance so even if they didn’t get additional development I can still feel attached to them, which is more than what I can say about the characters in most of the other games in this series. The plot’s a mess but I can see what this game was trying to go for and I can at least appreciate it for that. Like I said before, the awfulness of Fates and Awakening makes me appreciate the good things about this game’s plot.
I think a major part of the reason why I like this game so much is BECAUSE of its connection to Path of Radiance. This is the same awesome world of Tellius and I appreciated having another Tellius related game to play. Was it the sequel that Path of Radiance deserved? Heck no, but I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t have a lot of fun playing it though. If given the choice between picking Radiant Dawn and Blazing Sword or Sacred Stones or Fates I would easily pick Radiant Dawn any day of the week.
Soundtrack: I LOVE this game’s soundtrack! Definitely one of the best themes in the series. It really does a great job of adding the atmosphere and the “feels” that this game is trying to give you. Ike’s theme has to be my favorite track in the entire game.
It feels so epic and grand and it fits with what this game is trying to do.
Other highlights:
“Hymn of the Righteous”:
“Battle is Joined”:
“Darkness Eternal”:
“Urgency Drives Us”:
“Zealot’s Prayer”:
“Ascent”:
This game also brought back classic tracks like The Black Knight’s theme, Caineghis’s theme and Path of Radiance’s recruitment theme. I think what Radiant Dawn’s OST is very good at is either giving a sense of epicness, as if the player is about to engage in an epic war over the fate of continent (which is exactly what you’re doing toward the end of the game).
The OST is also great at creating an atmosphere of anxiety and tension too. Interestingly enough there are also some great tranquil tracks that help the player feel the exact opposite. There’s also a lot of tracks that can give one a sense of urgency as if the event is really important and the player needs to pay a lot of attention to what’s happening.
Overall Summation: Fantastic score. Definitely one of the best OSTs in the series. It adds a lot to the overall feel and atmosphere which I really enjoy. It adds to the epic feel of the game and I love it for that.
Gameplay: This is another hit-or-miss category for the game. I’ll start with the negatives and then move on to the positives:
Poor unit balance: This game shot itself in the foot when it chose to bring back the majority of Path of Radiance’s cast. In addition to that this game added A LOT of new playable characters which led to the game having one of the biggest casts in the series. Naturally any Fire Emblem game with a really big cast is going to have some major balance issues with its units.
What’s worse is that the different teams that the game forces you to bounce between are extremely imbalanced too. The Dawn Brigade is full of terrible units like Meg and Fiona while the Greil Mercenaries effortlessly steamroll through the game. Last we have Crimea which ranges from mediocre to bad. On the one hand I LOVE steamrolling with the Greil Mercenaries! On the other hand I hate playing as the Dawn Brigade. I find myself trying to blitz through the Dawn Brigade’s chapters so that I can get to the Greil Mercenary chapters where I tend to have the most fun.
Another contributing factor that leads to these major imbalances comes from the fact that availability is all over the place. Some units barely have any time to be used like Elincia, Tormod, Muarim or Vika which hurts this game’s overall replayability value.
2. The wackiest difficulty curve in the series: This game’s difficulty tends to bounce all over the place. Part 1 is pretty difficult because of all the weaksauce units that you have to use, Part 2 is meh, Part 3 is easy and Part 4… I’m still not even sure how I’d describe Part 4’s difficulty. Annoying maybe? It does feel tedious with the abundance of all those Rout levels. Another major problem I have is with the fact that Hard Mode arbitrarily removed the weapon triangle for no discernible reason. Also, why did they decide to prevent the player from checking enemy movement ranges? Did they suddenly feel nostalgic for Gaiden? I ask because the removal of these two features helps the game to feel more like an old-school Nintendo game which is NOT a good thing.
3. The overabundance of Rout Maps in the Endgame: How’d we go from wonderful map objective variety to all these rout levels in the endgame? Yuck. Rout maps I am told easily turn into “place juggernaut with 1 - 2 range weapons in range of an enemy horde and watch said enemy horde get rekt”.
4. The Mastery Skills: The Mastery skills are stupid. Most of them for all intents and purposes are “kill enemy unit and if they miraculously survive prevent them from doing anything”. Extra props to The Black Knight for having the most ridiculous skill in the entire series, Eclipse: “5x Strength and negates enemy’s Defense”. Is there any unit in the series that can possibly survive that without a skill of some kind? What on earth were the designers smoking when they came up with that?
So was there anything that you liked about it’s gameplay? Yes there is.
That ledge mechanic: The ability to attack uphill or downhill is awesome! It adds to the map design and incorporates an element of real life combat into the game. In fact, I like this mechanic so much that I’m bringing it back into the game I’m trying to create.
Limited resources: This seems like one of the few games in the series where you’re given a limited amount of resources and the game expects you to use those funds wisely. The only other games I can think of that do this are Fire Emblem 12 and Conquest (Thracia 776 doesn’t count for reasons that I will explain when I review that game). Bravo Radiant Dawn. Bravo indeed.
The map design: In my opinion this game has better map design than Path of Radiance. The ledge mechanic is a nice feature that adds to the overall design of the game. Most of the time the map objectives are varied (up until you get to the endgame) which is a neat plus.
Another thing I’d like to point out about Radiant Dawn’s maps is that even if they’re poorly designed there’s usually at least a grand aesthetic to them that makes it easy for me to ignore its flaws. Take Elincia’s Gambit for example. That level can be cheesed in about 1 - 2 turns with Haar but it looks like such a huge, epic battle that I tend to forget how easy to cheese it can be. It looks like a lot of fun trying to fend off hordes of enemies that I usually prefer doing that than skipping it with Haar. There are other maps where this is also the case too.
Being able to remove skills: I can’t credit Radiant Dawn for coming up with the neat capacity system, but I can credit Radiant Dawn for letting me remove one skill from one unit and placing it on another. It’s a fun little addition that adds to the strategy of the game.
Overall Summation: There are a lot of noticeable flaws. There are some nice things too. I like the fact that we got a more challenging Tellius game this time around. One of my few complaints with Path of Radiance is how easy it is. Even when I can point out the flaws in this game’s design I tend to enjoy the crap out of it anyway because of how much it resembles the gameplay of Path of Radiance.
