Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn Review Part 1 - The Plot and the Characters

                

                          Nickname: Fire Emblem - Goddess of Contrivance? (once again I am out of ideas for nicknames. If you have a better idea then feel free to share it)

                   Plot:  Oh boy, here we go. Radiant Dawn has one of the more controversial plots in the series. It tries to do big and epic with the result being less than stellar. Alright so what are the issues with this game’s story?

• The Blood Pact: I think the biggest issue with Radiant Dawn’s plot comes from the blood pacts. It comes across as a really cheap way to get people to do stuff that they normally wouldn’t do. I can see the development team coming up with the idea of having different non-villainous sides fighting against each other and then coming up with the blood pact idea as an afterthought later to explain why the two sides are in conflict.

                           One Fire Emblem summed up the problem pretty well when he said:  “Instead of coming up with an interesting and nuanced way to have clashing protagonists, it's just the good guys vs the good guys who are extorted by one dimensional villains via cheap plot device.” (Source: http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=57894)

                         While I LOVE the idea behind non-villainous parties clashing the main problem of course is in its execution. It also raises other questions too. For example, does the curse prevent people from talking about it? One would assume that from looking at Ike and Micaiah’s dialogue. You do wonder why anyone with the Blood Pact doesn’t try to talk to someone else and explain their situation. In that case the Blood Pact could force people to team up against Begnion and defeat them. That would be a smarter way to do things than what was shown in the game. 

• Disjointed Arcs: One problem with the narrative is that the blood pact would have been the only way for the Dawn Brigade to remain relevant in the story after Part 1. After Part 1 the Dawn Brigade has no reason to be involved in the current of Tellius. They don’t like either the Laguz Alliance or Begnion so they wouldn’t fight for them and they don’t like Crimea either because of the events in Path of Radiance so what reason would they have to fight? The only logical conclusion would be that they would have to be forced into the conflict against their will.

                      That ties into how poorly the first two arcs are set up in relation to the last two. Parts 1 & 2 of Radiant Dawn could be cut out of the story altogether without any major impact on the events of Parts 3 & 4. You could still have Daein be forced to fight against the laguz, albeit in a different way (by being Begnion’s vassal) but it would still have the same effect that the blood pact had on the story except this idea would be far less contrived. Overall, the story needed to work on its consistency and having everything “flow” together.

                     Now to be fair there are some cool things about Radiant Dawn’s story. For example, it helped to build upon Path of Radiance’s excellent worldbuilding. We get to learn more about the goddesses and about how the different countries in Tellius came to be. The laguz are a cool addition to the Tellius world, even if the gameplay mechanics behind them aren’t perfect. Unlike Awakening and Fates the laguz here actually play a fundamental role in the plot of both Radiant Dawn and Path of Radiance and therefore have a justified reason for existing in the narrative. 

                   

                              Each of the nations in Tellius are distinct and memorable and you can easily remember each and every one of them. I do wish that we actually got to visit Phoenicis, Kilvas and Goldoa but hey you can’t have everything right? I wonder why Hatari exists though. The idea behind a wolf laguz is cool but why are they there again?

                        Even though the Serenes language is backward Japanese in its pronunciation I do give this game’s worldbuilding extra points for trying to make up its own language (I always love little tidbits like that in fantasy worlds).   

                      Overall Summation: The plot’s got major issues but I can forgive these issues because of the epic scope that its narrative is trying to achieve. The awful writing in Awakening and Fates causes me to be even more forgiving with this game’s flaws. Still, I can’t say that the story is good from an objective point of view. From a subjective point of view, I still find enjoyment in this game’s story.

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Characters:

                                  There’s one more major problem with Radiant Dawn’s story: It hurt some of the characterization that happened in Path of Radiance in addition to Micaiah's characterization. To start things off here’s a quote from a fellow Fire Emblem fan:

                                   “It made Micaiah's actions seem justified and made her character one dimensional. It turns her into what amounts to a puppet, who is doing these morally ambiguous actions because she was forced to do it to save Daein. You know how Naesala's a complete fuckwitted bastard who keeps betraying everyone for money? Then sorta comes to his senses towards the end of FE9? They nullified that aspect of his personality due to the blood pact that he had to sign.

You know how Ashnard rose to power? They said it was by slaying all of his family and rising to power through force - which agrees with his personality ideology of those with power shall rule. Except now it was retconned to say that he did not use straight force, he used a blood pact, which nullifies him personifying his ideology.

etc etc etc

It really just cheapens the plot. Part 3 was called intersecting vows but Micaiah made no vows or had any ideals, she was just forced to do what she did and she's absolved of her war crimes.” (Source: http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=57894) 

                  Another criticism is that the portrayal of the Black Knight doesn’t quite sync well with what Path of Radiance delivered to us. In Path of Radiance the Black Knight killed Greil just to get the medallion and threaten “to visit horrors” upon Mist in order to get Greil to talk. In Radiant Dawn he’s presented as an anti-hero who simply wanted to get stronger. Like with the blood pact I like the idea behind Radiant Dawn portraying him in a different light, but when you try to compare the two different versions of the Black Knight it can give the impression that one is seeing two different characters.

                     Then there’s the supports. Oh how the mighty have fallen! How did we go from the fantastic support conversations in Path of Radiance to the brainless and threadbare ones of Radiant Dawn? Even if you take this game on its own merits, these supports are stupid! They deserve all the crap and criticism that they get. With all that being said I do like a lot of the base conversations in this game and we do get some memorable lines like when Micaiah teases Sothe saying that Ike is “the father of Sothe’s children” or the infamous line where Shinon tells Gatrie that he’d “hit on a tree if it had a skirt on it”.  

                             However, let’s give credit to where credit is due: Elincia’s character got an upgrade from Path of Radiance this game. In Radiant Dawn she’s got a much stronger personality than her “tee hee milord Ike” persona in Path of Radiance. In Radiant Dawn Elincia is shown as being firm and steadfast in the face of opposition. She’s even given a sadistic choice between choosing letting Ludveck go or watching Lucia die. In the end she makes the right choice, even if it’s a painful one. She also managed to stand between the Laguz Alliance and the Begnion Army, throw her weapons down on the battlefield and declare neutrality. It was a really bold move on her part. Then you take into account how she got prettier in Radiant Dawn AND the fact that her combat abilities got a significant upgrade in this one and it’s pretty hard not to like her.

                              I also appreciated Mia, Haar and Shinon a lot more in this one. Most of it has to do with gameplay reasons but they still retained their personalities from Path of Radiance so now that they’re good - great combat units it makes it all the easier to appreciate them.

Overall Summation: I have to agree that Radiant Dawn didn’t do much to add to what Path of Radiance established and I do wish that we got more development. Still, because of how awesome Path of Radiance was in establishing its characters I have to admit that I’m still attached to the cast in Radiant Dawn (at least the ones that crossed over from Path of Radiance).