Replaying this game nearly 5 years after my initial playthrough, I was kind of blown away by how good it is. I ended up loving the gameplay, as it really feels like an expanded version of the GBA games with a lot of smart additions like how they handle promotions, forges, supports, and bonus experience. The chapter designs are also great and I really enjoyed the progression of them over the course of the game. Path of Radiance's biggest strength over the rest of the series though is its worldbuilding and writing. Tellius is an incredibly fleshed out continent with so many different factions and plot threads that connect together surprisingly well. This is helped by how well done the pacing and scale of the game is, with it starting out very small and gradually building over the course of the game. One of the reasons Ike is one of the series' best protags is because of how closely we follow his journey from mercenary to hero through his point of view. He's also given an actual personality that reacts accordingly to what happens rather than being a very standard protagonist who reacts generically. Having all of the base conversations before each chapter just helps the entire world and cast feel so much more alive and connected, which is much appreciated for a series which forces most of its characters to be in the background due to permadeath's implementation. My only issue with the game is that it does start to slow down a bit in the Daien arc, as the game definitely could've cut a couple chapters, but they're still fun to play. Overall, even though the game clearly sets itself up for its sequel, this is an immensely satisfying game to beat and stands to me as the ideal Fire Emblem game.

I feel like this game is the literal textbook definition of going through the motions. It starts off pretty solid, and I appreciate it's simplicity compared to some of the more modern games, but at the same time there really isn't that much going on here strategically.

Some of the earlier chapters are kind of weighed down by the fact that it gives you some really overpowered units really early on, and you can kinda just use them to either steamroll the map, or give everyone else ample exp.

By the time you get to the midgame, while these units are mostly gone, or toned down a bit, as soon as the rest of your units get leveled and promoted, there really isn't any unit that can take any of them down unless you're positioned extremely horribly.

So it just turns into one of those cases where the further you get into the game and the more powerful your units get, it just becomes more and more trivial to play. It really wasn't that fun to get on when the entire gameplay loop is just putting a few of the many overpowered units in enemy range and looking at my phone until enemy phase is over. If I didn't have speedup on an emulator I probably wouldn't have even bothered finishing it. This problem gets even worse at endgame, where instead of being able to breeze the map with a few units, you really only need the protagonist.

Pair this with there not really being anything too interesting about any of the characters, be it their personal skills or reasons to use them outside of their mobility or some of their stats. It goes without saying that the weapon triangle doesn't really matter here that much either so that's another thing you really don't have to think about.

It's also kind of annoying to recruit characters. Whenever you see a unit that stands out among the enemies, you just have to drag each and every one of your own units next to them to see which one can talk to and recruit them.
And aside from just a few I can think of, the map design is also incredibly boring here. Not that I think there are many that are that bad, but most of them are just there. Kind of unremarkable.

If you're looking for a simple power fantasy, you probably will get some enjoyment out of this game, but if you're looking for a strategical experience I would recommend looking anywhere else.