I’ve been playing this game nonstop for two weeks, constantly thinking about how I want to get my thoughts out on this one. Radiant Dawn gets a fair amount of distaste these days because of what it does wrong, and it’s totally fair, but I can’t get myself to dislike this game even with the myriad of problems.
For every stupid thing RD does, it does three other things that are pure genius. The sheer scale of everything makes this the largest and most ambitious FE game to date, even outdoing Genealogy of the Holy War. There’s a huge amount of map variety, with objectives and units constantly changing to help tell the story. It’s far from being a boring FE game because the game never stops mixing things up every chapter or so. While it can be very hectic both in gameplay and story, I can’t help but admire what was done here. Every single map, even the ones I disliked, made me go “wow, that was a neat concept for a map and it feels unique compared to everything else so far!” The gameplay-story integration is also up there with the Jugdral titles, especially the finale of part 3 which is one of my favorite maps in the whole series. When in tandem with the fantastic Tellius mechanics such as shove/rescue and BEXP it also creates an immensely fun gameplay experience.
The story is mixed overall and i think PoR had a more solidly constructed narrative, but RD has a lot of interesting concepts and plot threads that are thrown around, and when combined with the ludonarrative aspects of the gameplay, makes it super engaging. There’s definitely a lot of “huh” moments closer to the end, though, and the final part is a really odd curveball after the very dense political drama the rest of the game was, but the themes it uses are probably the best use of said themes in the entire series.
I dunno man, I adore Radiant Dawn. There’s like 800 problems you could pick at with this game and I still wouldn’t give a shit. It’s the quintessential Fire Emblem game in my eyes, it has something for really any fan of the series. Maybe not the whole package will jive with someone, but I think you’ll get at least one section of the game that appeals to your tastes. Radiant Dawn is messy, ambitious, and maybe tries to bite off more than it can chew. But at the same time, I almost wouldn’t have it any other way.
For every stupid thing RD does, it does three other things that are pure genius. The sheer scale of everything makes this the largest and most ambitious FE game to date, even outdoing Genealogy of the Holy War. There’s a huge amount of map variety, with objectives and units constantly changing to help tell the story. It’s far from being a boring FE game because the game never stops mixing things up every chapter or so. While it can be very hectic both in gameplay and story, I can’t help but admire what was done here. Every single map, even the ones I disliked, made me go “wow, that was a neat concept for a map and it feels unique compared to everything else so far!” The gameplay-story integration is also up there with the Jugdral titles, especially the finale of part 3 which is one of my favorite maps in the whole series. When in tandem with the fantastic Tellius mechanics such as shove/rescue and BEXP it also creates an immensely fun gameplay experience.
The story is mixed overall and i think PoR had a more solidly constructed narrative, but RD has a lot of interesting concepts and plot threads that are thrown around, and when combined with the ludonarrative aspects of the gameplay, makes it super engaging. There’s definitely a lot of “huh” moments closer to the end, though, and the final part is a really odd curveball after the very dense political drama the rest of the game was, but the themes it uses are probably the best use of said themes in the entire series.
I dunno man, I adore Radiant Dawn. There’s like 800 problems you could pick at with this game and I still wouldn’t give a shit. It’s the quintessential Fire Emblem game in my eyes, it has something for really any fan of the series. Maybe not the whole package will jive with someone, but I think you’ll get at least one section of the game that appeals to your tastes. Radiant Dawn is messy, ambitious, and maybe tries to bite off more than it can chew. But at the same time, I almost wouldn’t have it any other way.
Gay and also kinda racist
Somehow Edward ended up coming 1st in my rankings, which completely shocked me because it's always Ike, Haar or Jill lol
Greatest Fire Emblem game of all time, there is actually no contest
I also gave the boots to base level Meg and never fed her a single point of experience because funny
Greatest Fire Emblem game of all time, there is actually no contest
I also gave the boots to base level Meg and never fed her a single point of experience because funny
i think a lesson that anyone involved with media should learn whether they consume or create is that not all questions need to be answered, and that it's sometimes more satisfying when they aren't.
i went into radiant dawn not expecting much as someone who thought path of radiance worked just fine as a standalone title, and i cant say i was disappointed but i cant say i was that pleasantly surprised either.
micaiah is an incredibly boring lord, bordering on insufferable during some chapters and i think that hampered my enjoyment a lot. the dawn brigade themselves arent that great either, and sothe isnt a character i liked even in path of radiance so i dont really care about him. meg is probably the standout character from the dawn brigade but i just like what meg/brom/nephenee have going on. the game didn't really "start" for me until the end of act 2 when the greil mercenaries show up, and when the greil mercenaries are on screen the game is a solid 7/10 but otherwise it's just ehhh. maps are just as forgettable as path of radiance but even worse when you aren't playing as the greil mercenaries (and even then it's a step down from path of radiance).
story wise the game overall is also a downgrade. blood pacts are a meaningless and annoying plot contrivance, most of the major players are insufferable or boring, and the villains are so bad. they all look and act like they twirl their mustaches and hide behind their capes and go "mwahahaha! try and stop me now, heroes!" it's like they just forgot how to write any villains with any semblance of nuance or depth. unironically when talking about the villains the games writing is fates tier until maybe act 4, it's so bad
on the topic of act 4, pretty much every issue with the game is amplified. boring character interactions outside of the greil mercenaries and some of the laguz, boring maps, and the narrative still isn't that great. the villains are a lot less cartoonish, but still far from the most compelling. act 4 also likes to go out of its way to make multiple characters less interesting or important which is annoying when the game tries to shill the still uninteresting sothe and micaiah even harder. the elaboration on a few specific characters from path of radiance at the 11th hour is definitely an interesting choice, but immediately after this new lore about them you fight them on a very boring and tedious map and then they just kinda die and you're off to the final boss. i don't have much to say about the final boss since it's just another boring and tedious map, but i'd be lying if i said it was even close to being my least favorite.
i think the single most annoying part of radiant dawn though is how much story content you miss out on if you're on your first playthrough. i wouldn't say most of it is too major, but if you want to use your own radiant dawn save you're going to spend the next half hour after you finish the game watching this video just to get the full experience. doesn't help that the localization only did the easy mode version of the japanese script but that's neither here nor there.
after finally playing radiant dawn, i really think they should've just made a game starring the greil mercenaries and the laguz because the game kinda sucks when it isnt about them. radiant dawn is certainly an interesting fire emblem title, but its ambition is its downfall and i don't think it succeeds in being a compelling sequel to path of radiance. if you just want more ike or plan on playing the entire series i'd say play this game, but otherwise it's hardly essential unless you're the type who absolutely needs answers to the questions that media leaves unanswered.
i went into radiant dawn not expecting much as someone who thought path of radiance worked just fine as a standalone title, and i cant say i was disappointed but i cant say i was that pleasantly surprised either.
micaiah is an incredibly boring lord, bordering on insufferable during some chapters and i think that hampered my enjoyment a lot. the dawn brigade themselves arent that great either, and sothe isnt a character i liked even in path of radiance so i dont really care about him. meg is probably the standout character from the dawn brigade but i just like what meg/brom/nephenee have going on. the game didn't really "start" for me until the end of act 2 when the greil mercenaries show up, and when the greil mercenaries are on screen the game is a solid 7/10 but otherwise it's just ehhh. maps are just as forgettable as path of radiance but even worse when you aren't playing as the greil mercenaries (and even then it's a step down from path of radiance).
story wise the game overall is also a downgrade. blood pacts are a meaningless and annoying plot contrivance, most of the major players are insufferable or boring, and the villains are so bad. they all look and act like they twirl their mustaches and hide behind their capes and go "mwahahaha! try and stop me now, heroes!" it's like they just forgot how to write any villains with any semblance of nuance or depth. unironically when talking about the villains the games writing is fates tier until maybe act 4, it's so bad
on the topic of act 4, pretty much every issue with the game is amplified. boring character interactions outside of the greil mercenaries and some of the laguz, boring maps, and the narrative still isn't that great. the villains are a lot less cartoonish, but still far from the most compelling. act 4 also likes to go out of its way to make multiple characters less interesting or important which is annoying when the game tries to shill the still uninteresting sothe and micaiah even harder. the elaboration on a few specific characters from path of radiance at the 11th hour is definitely an interesting choice, but immediately after this new lore about them you fight them on a very boring and tedious map and then they just kinda die and you're off to the final boss. i don't have much to say about the final boss since it's just another boring and tedious map, but i'd be lying if i said it was even close to being my least favorite.
i think the single most annoying part of radiant dawn though is how much story content you miss out on if you're on your first playthrough. i wouldn't say most of it is too major, but if you want to use your own radiant dawn save you're going to spend the next half hour after you finish the game watching this video just to get the full experience. doesn't help that the localization only did the easy mode version of the japanese script but that's neither here nor there.
after finally playing radiant dawn, i really think they should've just made a game starring the greil mercenaries and the laguz because the game kinda sucks when it isnt about them. radiant dawn is certainly an interesting fire emblem title, but its ambition is its downfall and i don't think it succeeds in being a compelling sequel to path of radiance. if you just want more ike or plan on playing the entire series i'd say play this game, but otherwise it's hardly essential unless you're the type who absolutely needs answers to the questions that media leaves unanswered.
*Radiant dawn para RD, Path of radiance para PR, e fire emblem para FE.
Este é concerteza o mais ambicioso jogo de FE, não só isso ele é o título com a maior quantidade de quase tudo, texto, capítulos, personagens, resumindo esse jogo é enorme, entretando tamanho não é documento e ele comete graves falhas por ter essa mentalidade gigante e acaba esquecendo pequenos detalhes que faz com que esta experiência na franquia seja um tanto quanto excelente e amarga ao mesmo tempo.
-Narrativa e como ela afeta no equilíbrio do jogo
RD é uma continuação direta do PR, e ele faz bem isso, o expande e conta as pontas soltas de seu antecessor. Seu estilo de narrativa é baseado em vários pontos de vistas dos personagens, então você frequentemente troca de local e personagens e esses pontos constantemente vão se entrelaçando gerando tensão e um caos positivo, o que é um estilo que gosto muito. Também acho bacana como o jogo fez questão de colocar todos os personagens do PR nesse jogo (menos o largo kakakaka).
Grande parte da execução da história é boa, mas no meio dela tem um cancêr, que se chama: Blood contract, não vou spoilar, mas ele é um puta de um plot device horroroso, eles pegaram a medida mais preguiçosa possível pra mover a história para onde eles queriam.
.Narrativa X personagens
Esse estilo de narrativa acaba beneficiando alguns personagens e o contrário para outros, uma boa quantidade deles acabaram sendo jogados de escanteio e aparecem em uma pequena quantidade de capítulos (cof cof dawn brigade), fazendo ser difícil manter os personagens com um bom level para quando eles retornarem, gerando um frequente desbalanceamento entre units. RD também fez o crime de exterminar os supports, isso faz com que saibamos muito menos sobre os personagens introduzidos nesse jogo e se você jogou esse jogo antes do PR você vai saber quase nada dos que retornam, as bases conversations (info) ainda continuam pelo menos e vieram em uma maior quantidade pelo menos.
.Narrativa X dificuldade
O estilo da narrativa obviamente iria impactar negativamente nesse tópico, a troca de party somente tinha acontecido no Gaiden/Echoes, mas lá era só duas e você tinha o controle de quando prossegui com quem você quiser, aqui começa de boa, mas vai ficando bizarra com o decorrer: primeiro ato (uma party inteira até o fim), segundo (uma party inteira com algumas alterações ali e aqui até o final), no terceiro ato (primeira metade, nova army forte, diminuindo a dificuldade, com o decorrer você volta com a party do primeiro ato e ela tá bem underlevel, criando um puta spike de dificuldade, e depois vai alterando entre as duas até o final) e o quarto ato (onde tem um twist maneiro, de administração da party, mas depois vai pro final e você escolhe suas melhores e o resto do jogo é easy). Resumindo é uma zona, se tivesse um gráfico da dificuldade do jogo ia ser cheio de subidas e descidas e com poucos momentos de estabilidade, o jogo focou muito mais em progressão de história, fazendo com que a progressão da gameplay ficasse nada linear (algo cômico considerando que esse é um FE linear).
A...mas não acabou porque tem esse ponto de extrema importância que inclusive vou botar em maiúsculo pra todo mundo notar e não ter a experiência fudida por esse top 10 erros da história do mundo dos videojogos.
.MUDANÇA NO NOME DAS DIFICULDADES
Resumão, no japão é normal, hard e maniac, já aqui veio EASY, NORMAL E HARD, eu não estou zuando, se essa for sua primeira vez jogando o jogo, essa informação muda toda sua relação com o jogo, isso também foi um dos motivos do jogo ter recebido más notas de mídias ocidentais, dizendo que o jogo é muito difícil, ou seja se quiser ter sua primeira vez de boa, bota no easy que na verdade é o modo normal. Meio que existe uma razão para essa confusão, mas fds muito texto mlq, vai pesquisar ou me pergunta nos comments.
-Bem agora vou só tacar randoms pontos positivos e negativos sobre esse jogo.
Positivos:
.O jogo está bem mais rápido e os modelos e animações melhoraram bastante em comparação ao PR, literalmente concertou o maior problema dele, ou seja a gameplay desse jogo tá no ponto;
.Possui uma grande quantidade de diálogos bons ao enfrentar certas units com outras units;
.Poder transferir stats e bonds supports do PR pra esse jogo;
.MANO, ESPADA COM 2 RANGE NO COMEÇO BRRRRRRRR.
Negativos:
.O jogo bloqueia content que é desbloqueado na segunda jogatina POR NENHUM MOTIVO, um péssimo método de incentivar um fator replay, vai ver no youtube o que foi cortado que você ganha mais;
.O jogo tem dois scripts na versão japonesa, um padrão e um extended, o primeiro preso ao modo normal original e o outro para as outras dificuldades, dá pra adivinhar pelo nome as suas diferenças, a versão extendida possui uma linguagem mais formal e extendida, com uma ceninha aqui e ali novas ou que adicionam um novo contexto, provavelmente feito para diminuir a quantidade de diálogos para o jogador novato, ok, interessante, FDS versão ocidental só localizou o script padrão para todas as dificuldades haha, vai ser bem fds para alguns mas isso me enfurece um pouco;
.O fato de jogo ser gigante, também afeta o fator replay dele;
.Esse jogo é bem fácil no modo normal, até chegar o spike no meio do jogo (easy na versão americana KAKAKAKAKA);
.QUEM FOI O DESGRAÇADO QUE FODEU MINHA ASTRID!?
Este é concerteza o mais ambicioso jogo de FE, não só isso ele é o título com a maior quantidade de quase tudo, texto, capítulos, personagens, resumindo esse jogo é enorme, entretando tamanho não é documento e ele comete graves falhas por ter essa mentalidade gigante e acaba esquecendo pequenos detalhes que faz com que esta experiência na franquia seja um tanto quanto excelente e amarga ao mesmo tempo.
-Narrativa e como ela afeta no equilíbrio do jogo
RD é uma continuação direta do PR, e ele faz bem isso, o expande e conta as pontas soltas de seu antecessor. Seu estilo de narrativa é baseado em vários pontos de vistas dos personagens, então você frequentemente troca de local e personagens e esses pontos constantemente vão se entrelaçando gerando tensão e um caos positivo, o que é um estilo que gosto muito. Também acho bacana como o jogo fez questão de colocar todos os personagens do PR nesse jogo (menos o largo kakakaka).
Grande parte da execução da história é boa, mas no meio dela tem um cancêr, que se chama: Blood contract, não vou spoilar, mas ele é um puta de um plot device horroroso, eles pegaram a medida mais preguiçosa possível pra mover a história para onde eles queriam.
.Narrativa X personagens
Esse estilo de narrativa acaba beneficiando alguns personagens e o contrário para outros, uma boa quantidade deles acabaram sendo jogados de escanteio e aparecem em uma pequena quantidade de capítulos (cof cof dawn brigade), fazendo ser difícil manter os personagens com um bom level para quando eles retornarem, gerando um frequente desbalanceamento entre units. RD também fez o crime de exterminar os supports, isso faz com que saibamos muito menos sobre os personagens introduzidos nesse jogo e se você jogou esse jogo antes do PR você vai saber quase nada dos que retornam, as bases conversations (info) ainda continuam pelo menos e vieram em uma maior quantidade pelo menos.
.Narrativa X dificuldade
O estilo da narrativa obviamente iria impactar negativamente nesse tópico, a troca de party somente tinha acontecido no Gaiden/Echoes, mas lá era só duas e você tinha o controle de quando prossegui com quem você quiser, aqui começa de boa, mas vai ficando bizarra com o decorrer: primeiro ato (uma party inteira até o fim), segundo (uma party inteira com algumas alterações ali e aqui até o final), no terceiro ato (primeira metade, nova army forte, diminuindo a dificuldade, com o decorrer você volta com a party do primeiro ato e ela tá bem underlevel, criando um puta spike de dificuldade, e depois vai alterando entre as duas até o final) e o quarto ato (onde tem um twist maneiro, de administração da party, mas depois vai pro final e você escolhe suas melhores e o resto do jogo é easy). Resumindo é uma zona, se tivesse um gráfico da dificuldade do jogo ia ser cheio de subidas e descidas e com poucos momentos de estabilidade, o jogo focou muito mais em progressão de história, fazendo com que a progressão da gameplay ficasse nada linear (algo cômico considerando que esse é um FE linear).
A...mas não acabou porque tem esse ponto de extrema importância que inclusive vou botar em maiúsculo pra todo mundo notar e não ter a experiência fudida por esse top 10 erros da história do mundo dos videojogos.
.MUDANÇA NO NOME DAS DIFICULDADES
Resumão, no japão é normal, hard e maniac, já aqui veio EASY, NORMAL E HARD, eu não estou zuando, se essa for sua primeira vez jogando o jogo, essa informação muda toda sua relação com o jogo, isso também foi um dos motivos do jogo ter recebido más notas de mídias ocidentais, dizendo que o jogo é muito difícil, ou seja se quiser ter sua primeira vez de boa, bota no easy que na verdade é o modo normal. Meio que existe uma razão para essa confusão, mas fds muito texto mlq, vai pesquisar ou me pergunta nos comments.
-Bem agora vou só tacar randoms pontos positivos e negativos sobre esse jogo.
Positivos:
.O jogo está bem mais rápido e os modelos e animações melhoraram bastante em comparação ao PR, literalmente concertou o maior problema dele, ou seja a gameplay desse jogo tá no ponto;
.Possui uma grande quantidade de diálogos bons ao enfrentar certas units com outras units;
.Poder transferir stats e bonds supports do PR pra esse jogo;
.MANO, ESPADA COM 2 RANGE NO COMEÇO BRRRRRRRR.
Negativos:
.O jogo bloqueia content que é desbloqueado na segunda jogatina POR NENHUM MOTIVO, um péssimo método de incentivar um fator replay, vai ver no youtube o que foi cortado que você ganha mais;
.O jogo tem dois scripts na versão japonesa, um padrão e um extended, o primeiro preso ao modo normal original e o outro para as outras dificuldades, dá pra adivinhar pelo nome as suas diferenças, a versão extendida possui uma linguagem mais formal e extendida, com uma ceninha aqui e ali novas ou que adicionam um novo contexto, provavelmente feito para diminuir a quantidade de diálogos para o jogador novato, ok, interessante, FDS versão ocidental só localizou o script padrão para todas as dificuldades haha, vai ser bem fds para alguns mas isso me enfurece um pouco;
.O fato de jogo ser gigante, também afeta o fator replay dele;
.Esse jogo é bem fácil no modo normal, até chegar o spike no meio do jogo (easy na versão americana KAKAKAKAKA);
.QUEM FOI O DESGRAÇADO QUE FODEU MINHA ASTRID!?
Haven't beaten but I'm pretty conflicted on this game on every aspect.
The story is pretty mixed around part 2 and 3 mainly part 2 and I think I really love all the moments with Micaiah and I thought part 1 as a whole is probably a Peak of Fire Emblem for the gameplay alone, Part 1 is really hard and I remember it making me give it my all just to clear a chapter, It really feels like you take what you can get and getting even a decent to good unit means the world lmao. but in contrast Part 2 and Part 3 are way too unbalanced and OP. FE9 has a level of brokeness for sure but it feels like you work up to it. in FE10 you just get really OP units like haar for example and it takes away the creative fun gameplay the first part had. also all around I felt like Part 2 was just really Mid I do like part 3 more but im yearning for more of that Part 1 type of gameplay which isn't going to be coming back for the rest of the game but I do like the Story at the point im at and where its going overall probably gonna redo this review once i finish.
The story is pretty mixed around part 2 and 3 mainly part 2 and I think I really love all the moments with Micaiah and I thought part 1 as a whole is probably a Peak of Fire Emblem for the gameplay alone, Part 1 is really hard and I remember it making me give it my all just to clear a chapter, It really feels like you take what you can get and getting even a decent to good unit means the world lmao. but in contrast Part 2 and Part 3 are way too unbalanced and OP. FE9 has a level of brokeness for sure but it feels like you work up to it. in FE10 you just get really OP units like haar for example and it takes away the creative fun gameplay the first part had. also all around I felt like Part 2 was just really Mid I do like part 3 more but im yearning for more of that Part 1 type of gameplay which isn't going to be coming back for the rest of the game but I do like the Story at the point im at and where its going overall probably gonna redo this review once i finish.
A wonderful sequel to the best Fire Emblem ever made concludes the highlight of the series' long run-time - but while Radiant Dawn's epic scale and improvements in gameplay over Path of Radiance make it a sight to behold, it tends to get in its own way a bit, stopping it from being quite as enjoyable and replayable as its predecessor.
The huge roster, engaging and complex maps and easy to use yet fun to master skill system give a wide variety of tactical options with depth and challenge - but simultaneously, Radiant Dawn drops a few beats with its otherwise brilliant story and some units are only available for agitatingly small bits of time. The lack of a proper support system also means that some of the newly introduced characters in this one end up feeling lackluster and flat compared to the returning favourites from PoR - hardly a favourable thing when much of the first quarter of the game is spent with them.
Though a worthy successor to Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn is so big that it becomes clumsy at times - all the same, the tactical brilliance and writing flourish of the Tellius series diminishes little through these faults. If you have the chance, play Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn - you will not regret it.
The huge roster, engaging and complex maps and easy to use yet fun to master skill system give a wide variety of tactical options with depth and challenge - but simultaneously, Radiant Dawn drops a few beats with its otherwise brilliant story and some units are only available for agitatingly small bits of time. The lack of a proper support system also means that some of the newly introduced characters in this one end up feeling lackluster and flat compared to the returning favourites from PoR - hardly a favourable thing when much of the first quarter of the game is spent with them.
Though a worthy successor to Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn is so big that it becomes clumsy at times - all the same, the tactical brilliance and writing flourish of the Tellius series diminishes little through these faults. If you have the chance, play Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn - you will not regret it.
As a follow up to Path of Radiance, this is honest to god the best way that Intelligent Systems could've done it.
I'll get my one gripe out of the way. This game not having traditional supports really hurts a lot of the new cast for me but I personally already have such a deep attachment to the Greil Mercenaries and Ike that it doesn't bother me too much. Still if this game had supports like other games this would've been a perfect game. But alas we don't live in such a world.
Now onto everything else, and hooboy do I love everything about this game the moment I started it.
The way the game goes around with its units and strategy aspects is honestly kind of genius. You barely get any money in the game, abilities are expensive, you switch around units a lot, bonus exp level ups now only increase 3 stats instead of how level ups normally go. All of your choices in how you want to build your party really matter, and this game doesn't push around in terms of difficulty even on easy. You have to really decide if you want to invest in certain units and how much money you're willing to spend on weapons and other items so that you can actually proceed with the game. Even when playing as the Greil mercenaries the game doesn't pull any punches despite you basically having all pre promoted units from the start. It feels like a natural next part to what players experienced from Path of Radiance as it ups the difficulty from that game. You feel so powerless when you're playing as the Dawn Brigade because of what happened to Daein in the last game, which really goes on to my next point.
The story is so tightly written in a way that feels like a natural next part to Path of Radiance. All the events that happen in this game makes a lot of sense in creating such a complicated world that Telius presents. No country is truly in the right even if the choices that the new rulers like Elincia make are going to make a perfect world that they envision. It plays onto the themes and messages of humans being imperfect so well that I seriously got to applaud the writers for really committing to said themes. I don't want to go more into the story since I feel many need to experience how this game plays out, especially the buildup to the game's incredible endgame where all the loose ends that this duology set up have such a satisfying end to it.
One other aspect I want to talk about before I end is the music, and man do I think the music is a massive step up from Path of Radiance. Don't get me wrong, the music in Path of Radiance is really fucking good despite it being Midi, but Intelligent Systems really went all out by having the game being fully orchestrated for its soundtrack. It really helps give such a grand scope of the conflict that the world of Telius has fallen to, especially after what Ike's crew did to Daein in Path of Radiance. There's a bigger sense in the war because of the booming orchestral soundtrack. The battle themes themselves don't start from the beginning once you engage another fight, it continues off from where the last battle ended off so that you can truly embrace how amazing this score is.
I cannot give anymore praises to how much this game truly delivered in what Path of Radiance set up. I don't think one game is better than the other, since I truly believe these games tell a grand epic that cannot truly exist without the other. The Telius games aren't perfect, but just like humans no one is perfect. I can embrace the strengths that these games have and they delivered everything that I was hoping for. It's hard for me to not give these games a perfect score for me.
I'll get my one gripe out of the way. This game not having traditional supports really hurts a lot of the new cast for me but I personally already have such a deep attachment to the Greil Mercenaries and Ike that it doesn't bother me too much. Still if this game had supports like other games this would've been a perfect game. But alas we don't live in such a world.
Now onto everything else, and hooboy do I love everything about this game the moment I started it.
The way the game goes around with its units and strategy aspects is honestly kind of genius. You barely get any money in the game, abilities are expensive, you switch around units a lot, bonus exp level ups now only increase 3 stats instead of how level ups normally go. All of your choices in how you want to build your party really matter, and this game doesn't push around in terms of difficulty even on easy. You have to really decide if you want to invest in certain units and how much money you're willing to spend on weapons and other items so that you can actually proceed with the game. Even when playing as the Greil mercenaries the game doesn't pull any punches despite you basically having all pre promoted units from the start. It feels like a natural next part to what players experienced from Path of Radiance as it ups the difficulty from that game. You feel so powerless when you're playing as the Dawn Brigade because of what happened to Daein in the last game, which really goes on to my next point.
The story is so tightly written in a way that feels like a natural next part to Path of Radiance. All the events that happen in this game makes a lot of sense in creating such a complicated world that Telius presents. No country is truly in the right even if the choices that the new rulers like Elincia make are going to make a perfect world that they envision. It plays onto the themes and messages of humans being imperfect so well that I seriously got to applaud the writers for really committing to said themes. I don't want to go more into the story since I feel many need to experience how this game plays out, especially the buildup to the game's incredible endgame where all the loose ends that this duology set up have such a satisfying end to it.
One other aspect I want to talk about before I end is the music, and man do I think the music is a massive step up from Path of Radiance. Don't get me wrong, the music in Path of Radiance is really fucking good despite it being Midi, but Intelligent Systems really went all out by having the game being fully orchestrated for its soundtrack. It really helps give such a grand scope of the conflict that the world of Telius has fallen to, especially after what Ike's crew did to Daein in Path of Radiance. There's a bigger sense in the war because of the booming orchestral soundtrack. The battle themes themselves don't start from the beginning once you engage another fight, it continues off from where the last battle ended off so that you can truly embrace how amazing this score is.
I cannot give anymore praises to how much this game truly delivered in what Path of Radiance set up. I don't think one game is better than the other, since I truly believe these games tell a grand epic that cannot truly exist without the other. The Telius games aren't perfect, but just like humans no one is perfect. I can embrace the strengths that these games have and they delivered everything that I was hoping for. It's hard for me to not give these games a perfect score for me.
Haar carry
This is in my opinion the perfect Fire Emblem game.
Its mechanics are fine tuned, the maps are more interesting, returning favorites make a return, cinematics appear in a series first and are excellent... but none of that is why I value this game so much.
The story in this game is absolutely top notch. This game has so much to say and says it so, so well. It takes its source material and expands the world around it, explores that games' events on everyone in this world, and even goes beyond and explores a variety of real world social issues. All this is done through the lens of a very interesting plot with some truly crazy story and gameplay twists. Add to that the returning favorites and interesting new characters (Even if some are a bit weak), and you have a winner.
Simply put, this game is a banger.
Its mechanics are fine tuned, the maps are more interesting, returning favorites make a return, cinematics appear in a series first and are excellent... but none of that is why I value this game so much.
The story in this game is absolutely top notch. This game has so much to say and says it so, so well. It takes its source material and expands the world around it, explores that games' events on everyone in this world, and even goes beyond and explores a variety of real world social issues. All this is done through the lens of a very interesting plot with some truly crazy story and gameplay twists. Add to that the returning favorites and interesting new characters (Even if some are a bit weak), and you have a winner.
Simply put, this game is a banger.
A group of senators are revealed to have exploited people’s religious faith in order to spread racism towards multiple groups and cause a genocide, which is something that would thankfully never happen in the real world.
The pinnacle of Fire Emblem, outstanding game and was my fave game for a long time. I pray that series goes back to something like this one day.
fuck the dawn brigade
Em questão de Historia ele continua muito bem a do PoR, porem em Gameplay tem muita coisa que eu acho problemática, como o fato das classes terem uma Terceira Forma oq é desnecessário e faz elas ficarem ainda mais fortes e deixa o jogo bem fácil depois de certo ponto, alem da dor de cabeça de equilibrar o time quando a todo momento o jogo te obriga a trocar o Cast que esta sendo controlado e deixando levar personagens de um para o outro, o que acaba punindo o jogador de primeira viagem
The series magnum opus and a true masterpiece. By far the best plot, cast, and map designs in the series.
Definition of GOAT: Greatest Of All Time: used to refer to or describe the person who has performed better than anyone else ever, especially in a sport.
Definition of GOAT (Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn): Brom.
Above all else, Brom is the GOAT. There is no questioning this fact. No one else in this game is Brom. Every character in this game wishes they were Brom, but they will never be. They wish they could be even half of who he is, but they never will be. Brom is a soldier, a champion, and a family man. The strongest generals and even the mightiest gods tremble when they see him approaching. It's not a matter of if Brom can triumph, it's a matter of how fast he will. He is the Greatest Of All Time.
Definition of GOAT (Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn): Brom.
Above all else, Brom is the GOAT. There is no questioning this fact. No one else in this game is Brom. Every character in this game wishes they were Brom, but they will never be. They wish they could be even half of who he is, but they never will be. Brom is a soldier, a champion, and a family man. The strongest generals and even the mightiest gods tremble when they see him approaching. It's not a matter of if Brom can triumph, it's a matter of how fast he will. He is the Greatest Of All Time.
Intelligent Systems spinning a roulette wheel to determine whether the next RD map will have a well crafted unique challenge and an interesting follow up to the story ideas presented in PoR or a boring slog rout map where the interesting story and themes are undercut
Notes for my series replay:
-This is the most ambitious Fire Emblem title. The gameplay and story structure is unlike anything Fire Emblem had tried prior to this, and it's super fascinating. The game has a huge ensemble cast of characters often at odds with each other and the narrative is very grand scale most of the time. It's fucking awesome.
-The gameplay is also very tight this time around. Characters feel more balanced than in PoR, and you are often times presented with a limited range of characters, making your team for a given part become important to you for a short time. Every unit has a niche at one point or another in the grand scheme of the game, save for a few with really limited combat potential.
-This game introduces elevation, which is a super neat concept that they haven't toyed with before or since, which makes me a little sad. The maps in Radiant Dawn have insane verticality and it makes the map feel more dynamic, as well as your positioning twice as important. It also entices the player to play around the high ground.
- Radiant Dawn is awfully close if not surpasses the diversity of map objectives that Thracia 776 has, which was one of my many praises of that game. This game is not just a rout the enemy/seize fest, but has some really interesting objectives, such as burning enemy supplies, or thinning enough enemy forces against a never-ending wave of reinforcements. This game keeps the player on their toes, but not in an unfair or bullshit way, which I really appreciate.
-This game also feels like the sweet spot for difficulty, as I was playing on NA normal mode and it felt very rewarding to get through a particularly tight chapter with all of my units still alive and kicking.
-Bonus XP got an overhaul in this game, as they reworked the formula to make it more balanced. It now scales with your level, making it less effective the higher level you are, but it guarantees three stats per level up, which can be handy if you're looking to cap stats. The game gives you BEXP like candy depending on how many optional objectives you clear per chapter, which also was a nice incentive to haul ass on maps.
- In terms of character writing and story, I have a few qualms with the Dawn Brigade's story, especially getting into part 3. I think that the blood pact was... interesting, but ultimately hindered the story of Pelleas and Micaiah. It felt like a device simply for getting Micaiah to square off against Ike, and I think there could have been a better way to put the two at odds that a plot contrivance. I honestly thought it served Naesala's character better than it did Pelleas, but I still disagree with opting to go that route. Micaiah choosing to blindly go with Pelleas felt like she was a Camus archetype, which is a neat spin on it, but then got ultimately subverted by the pact revelation.
-The soundtrack is fuckin amazing. I think that this game has to be top 3 Fire Emblem soundtracks, as it has so many bangers: "Eternal Bond," "A Grasping Truth," "On Glory's Wings," "Bearer of Hope," etc. They all have such an insane range, but also get me absolutely pumped to keep playing.
(EDIT: I remembered my last two points later, so I will be adding them below to keep tldr at the end.)
-Tier 3 classes are fucking awesome and feel so rewarding, especially since they aren't in any other FE titles up to this point, so I always feel super powerful with them, but also this felt like a better way to handle mastery skills. Getting Astra/Luna/Impale etc when you finally grind up to T3 is so rewarding for that dopamine receiver in my brain, I don't know why.
-Lastly, I think that the skill system overall was handled much, much better. I think the fact that characters can now trade skills is fucking awesome, because now you can have crazy shit like Uber Swordmasters with Wrath, Resolve, Astra, etc. I think this still kinda ties in with T3 classes but the power trip I felt with a completely roided full skill capacity T3 class was insane. Edward was going fucking ham in the final act. Yeah, there's some dumb shit like fucking Corrosion and Disarm, but to be honest, the biggest question mark skill in this game is Vantage. Why did they make it a speed check and not an HP threshold? Felt very odd to me, but I guess they were worried about wrath/resolve/vantage? Can't really wrap my head around it.
I wanted to write more about this game, but have played more FE games since, so the thoughts are fleeting, but my final conclusion about Radiant Dawn is as follows: this game is the best Fire Emblem post-Kaga. The ambition is insane, the scope is grand, and everything save for the presentation (which is a slight dip from PoR) mastered the formula they laid out in FE9.
-This is the most ambitious Fire Emblem title. The gameplay and story structure is unlike anything Fire Emblem had tried prior to this, and it's super fascinating. The game has a huge ensemble cast of characters often at odds with each other and the narrative is very grand scale most of the time. It's fucking awesome.
-The gameplay is also very tight this time around. Characters feel more balanced than in PoR, and you are often times presented with a limited range of characters, making your team for a given part become important to you for a short time. Every unit has a niche at one point or another in the grand scheme of the game, save for a few with really limited combat potential.
-This game introduces elevation, which is a super neat concept that they haven't toyed with before or since, which makes me a little sad. The maps in Radiant Dawn have insane verticality and it makes the map feel more dynamic, as well as your positioning twice as important. It also entices the player to play around the high ground.
- Radiant Dawn is awfully close if not surpasses the diversity of map objectives that Thracia 776 has, which was one of my many praises of that game. This game is not just a rout the enemy/seize fest, but has some really interesting objectives, such as burning enemy supplies, or thinning enough enemy forces against a never-ending wave of reinforcements. This game keeps the player on their toes, but not in an unfair or bullshit way, which I really appreciate.
-This game also feels like the sweet spot for difficulty, as I was playing on NA normal mode and it felt very rewarding to get through a particularly tight chapter with all of my units still alive and kicking.
-Bonus XP got an overhaul in this game, as they reworked the formula to make it more balanced. It now scales with your level, making it less effective the higher level you are, but it guarantees three stats per level up, which can be handy if you're looking to cap stats. The game gives you BEXP like candy depending on how many optional objectives you clear per chapter, which also was a nice incentive to haul ass on maps.
- In terms of character writing and story, I have a few qualms with the Dawn Brigade's story, especially getting into part 3. I think that the blood pact was... interesting, but ultimately hindered the story of Pelleas and Micaiah. It felt like a device simply for getting Micaiah to square off against Ike, and I think there could have been a better way to put the two at odds that a plot contrivance. I honestly thought it served Naesala's character better than it did Pelleas, but I still disagree with opting to go that route. Micaiah choosing to blindly go with Pelleas felt like she was a Camus archetype, which is a neat spin on it, but then got ultimately subverted by the pact revelation.
-The soundtrack is fuckin amazing. I think that this game has to be top 3 Fire Emblem soundtracks, as it has so many bangers: "Eternal Bond," "A Grasping Truth," "On Glory's Wings," "Bearer of Hope," etc. They all have such an insane range, but also get me absolutely pumped to keep playing.
(EDIT: I remembered my last two points later, so I will be adding them below to keep tldr at the end.)
-Tier 3 classes are fucking awesome and feel so rewarding, especially since they aren't in any other FE titles up to this point, so I always feel super powerful with them, but also this felt like a better way to handle mastery skills. Getting Astra/Luna/Impale etc when you finally grind up to T3 is so rewarding for that dopamine receiver in my brain, I don't know why.
-Lastly, I think that the skill system overall was handled much, much better. I think the fact that characters can now trade skills is fucking awesome, because now you can have crazy shit like Uber Swordmasters with Wrath, Resolve, Astra, etc. I think this still kinda ties in with T3 classes but the power trip I felt with a completely roided full skill capacity T3 class was insane. Edward was going fucking ham in the final act. Yeah, there's some dumb shit like fucking Corrosion and Disarm, but to be honest, the biggest question mark skill in this game is Vantage. Why did they make it a speed check and not an HP threshold? Felt very odd to me, but I guess they were worried about wrath/resolve/vantage? Can't really wrap my head around it.
I wanted to write more about this game, but have played more FE games since, so the thoughts are fleeting, but my final conclusion about Radiant Dawn is as follows: this game is the best Fire Emblem post-Kaga. The ambition is insane, the scope is grand, and everything save for the presentation (which is a slight dip from PoR) mastered the formula they laid out in FE9.
i have to play as micaiah
Hahaha this game is sooooooooooooooooooo fucked up but I'm bisexual so I love it though.
The person below me wouldn't know what peak gaming is even if it spit in their face
Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn is perhaps one of the best experiences that the Intelligent Systems team have composed. The story is a direct sequel to Fire Emblem Path of Radiance, that takes the world, characters, and politics set up in that game and expands upon it all greatly in a grandiose and exciting adventure. It almost feels like Path of Radiance acts as an extended prologue to this game's story which is impressive considering that PoR is it's own epic story. The story in this game takes ton of characters and concepts from the previous entry and takes them in crazy an unique directions I never expected them too. The gameplay on the other hand is relatively the same as PoR's while tweaking a couple minor things and mechanics such as the UI and Award EXP which was fine by me considering that the gameplay loop of PoR was pretty addicting and fun. Of course there could always be little quality of life things they could've fixed here and there but it was nothing that took away from the experience. Unlike the previous game however, the story is broken up into 4 acts with 3 separate playable teams of units each with their strengths and weaknesses. Personally I would have preferred if we had stuck with Ike and his comrades for the length of this game, but playing as Team Micaiah, and Team Elencia wasn't the end of the world. It's just that Ike's chapters felt more engaging and interesting to me personally, but I can see how people would prefer Micaiah's story. I can say with complete certainty though that this game handles the multiple teams concept better than how Fire Emblem Echoes did, as I found every team in this game were comprised interesting and fun primary characters, unlike Echoes where I found Celica a complete bore as a character (Alm was awesome however.) All in all I think the Radiant duology are some of the best Fire Emblem games you can play, it's just a shame that games are an absurd amount of money on the secondary market. Hopefully one day Nintendo will see fit to re-release both games in a collection or perhaps give them the Echoes treatment so more people get to enjoy these great games.
KIIIIIIINOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
What a fantastic follow-up to Path of Radiance, the separate Parts help give you more perspective on what's happening by swapping the protagonists around. It's so good.
Gameplay Rating: 10/10
It's just at that right level of difficulty, and there's a lot you can do in this game. The BEXP system is a little weirder but guaranteed stat level-ups and capping EXP at 99 to level-up later are all little neat things you can do with the system.
In addition, the skill system is fantastic and I do kind of wish it could come back. Swapping around some skills and budgeting skill space is legitimately great.
The third promotion system that would later show up in Three Houses is also good to help keep things fresh and make the game feel bigger in general.
The base system is probably the best pre-battle preparation the franchise has ever gotten (Sacred Stones, Fates, and Awakening are close follow-ups but I don't like how you can grind in those games. The Monastery and Somniel from the Switch titles suck big time).
Now, onto the proper Parts.
Part 1: Part 1's earlygame can be absolutely BRUTAL, and I love it for it. It really makes the Dawn Brigade feel like they're fighting against all odds to a better future. It's absolutely great. After you get you meet up with some of the original Daein crew (Tauroneo, Jill, and Zihark), it becomes a lot easier up until the chapters where you don't have them, like the god-forsaken swamp chapter. 1-E's Daein Arise is also a cool endgame, you've got the Black Knight tearing shit up, it's nice.
Part 2: Part 2 is really short, but it's a nice change of pace from the whopping uhhhh 4???? chapters you get?? Each of them is nothing too notable with the exception of 2-E, known as Elincia's Gambit. Elincia's Gambit is probably one of the best and most iconic chapters in the entire franchise, up there with the likes of Battle Before Dawn and Chapter 10 Conquest. It is such a fun map to do, especially since you get a lot of fun tools at your disposal (Haar, Callil's siege tome, Elincia's Amitie), and the chapter flows so smoothly; you can even make your own side-objectives by trading all your stuff to Haar so he can bring it over to Part 3.
Part 3: Part 3 is the MEAT of the game, this is what you were waiting for all this time, and it sure as hell delivers with the triumphant return of Ike and the Greil Mercenaries, and they're just as strong as you remember them. You get to play around with the OG Greil Mercenaries for a good while, and after slogging through Part 2 and Part 1 with mediocre-to-bad units (with a few exceptions obviously), it feels awesome.
Until you're suddenly forced to play as the Dawn Brigade and MAN is it a nasty shock to the system. Luckily the maps aren't too bad with the exception of another iconic siege map: 3-13. 3-13 is one of the toughest chapters in the game (arguably the toughest depending on how you trained your units), and it will test your skills using the worst units in the game (but by now they're not too terribly bad unless you didn't invest in them like i did lol).
There's also a brief portion of Part 3 where you play as Geoffrey's band of loser knights and it's mostly whatever. Slog of a chapter though.
3-E is more of a weird victory lap because the game does something pretty cool: It lies to you and tells you to rout the enemy even though only 80 units need to die.
Part 4: Finally, all the squads get brought together and you get to teambuild for 3 separate teams. All-in-all, it's a good time as it starts to tie up loose ends as you slowly march to the Begnion Tower.
Once you do arrive to Begnion Tower, you begin the best session of Endgame prep I've had the joy to prepare for. You could easily spend about 2 hours purely prepping; you get everyone's skills, you get everyone's gear, all the BEXP and Money you've been saving up, and you get to use it all. You pick your best 10 units and venture up the tower for a series of challenging fights; it's a damn good finale.
Story Rating: 9/10
Unfortunately, the story kind of falls short due to the, ah, blood pact stuff (and a little bit of Micaiah but I think people are a little too harsh when it comes to discussing her role). It's nebulous how the blood pact works and it's a little bit contrived in the way the story frames it to the point it's better to not dwell on it too much.
That being said, the rest is pretty great. Part 1's story of the Daein Liberation Army is pretty good, makes me a little sad how Micaiah herself gets a little bit shafted later on but it's no fault of this Part. Seeing the Black Knight show up out of nowhere blew my fucking mind when I first played this.
Part 2's story is more of a "here's what you missed" between Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, it really doesn't overstay it's welcome and it's nice seeing lesser characters like Brom and Nephenee get a little bit more of a prominent role.
Part 3 is where the game REALLY starts to pick up with the Laguz Liberation Army and Ike going against Begnion (and later Daein). It's very typical skirmishing and doing a lot of battle planning; the dynamics between Soren and Skrimir are also pretty funny.
It's here where the blood pact gets introduced, I've already said my piece, it's mostly whatever.
Micaiah also suddenly becomes a little bit dumber around this part but it's relatively understandable considering that it's only been about a month or so since she's gone from being a bandit girl to being commander of the Daein army? Micaiah gets a little more flak than I think she deserves, honestly.
Part 4 gets a little exposition-heavy but it's all super interesting stuff about the world; and if you've made it through 2 games then you're probably at least a little interested in the lore.
It's here that some loose ends are tied like the Kilvas blood pact, Sephiran and Zelgius' deals, and Sanaki not being able to hear the Goddess.
And my favorite part:
Ike: "Make your peace with whatever the gods worship. Your end is near."
...is by far the rawest fucking line I've seen in media.
Colorblindness Rating: B-
In this game, there are Ally Units and Other Units; you can direct allies, but you can't direct other units. They are differentiated with the fact that one is yellow and one is green, but unfortunately for me, I can't tell the fucking difference. It's not something that makes the game unplayable, but it makes it a little annoying when trying to figure out "Hey I wonder if I can direct my allies there" when they're actually Other Units.
It's a minor gripe but something I do find annoying.
What a fantastic follow-up to Path of Radiance, the separate Parts help give you more perspective on what's happening by swapping the protagonists around. It's so good.
Gameplay Rating: 10/10
It's just at that right level of difficulty, and there's a lot you can do in this game. The BEXP system is a little weirder but guaranteed stat level-ups and capping EXP at 99 to level-up later are all little neat things you can do with the system.
In addition, the skill system is fantastic and I do kind of wish it could come back. Swapping around some skills and budgeting skill space is legitimately great.
The third promotion system that would later show up in Three Houses is also good to help keep things fresh and make the game feel bigger in general.
The base system is probably the best pre-battle preparation the franchise has ever gotten (Sacred Stones, Fates, and Awakening are close follow-ups but I don't like how you can grind in those games. The Monastery and Somniel from the Switch titles suck big time).
Now, onto the proper Parts.
Part 1: Part 1's earlygame can be absolutely BRUTAL, and I love it for it. It really makes the Dawn Brigade feel like they're fighting against all odds to a better future. It's absolutely great. After you get you meet up with some of the original Daein crew (Tauroneo, Jill, and Zihark), it becomes a lot easier up until the chapters where you don't have them, like the god-forsaken swamp chapter. 1-E's Daein Arise is also a cool endgame, you've got the Black Knight tearing shit up, it's nice.
Part 2: Part 2 is really short, but it's a nice change of pace from the whopping uhhhh 4???? chapters you get?? Each of them is nothing too notable with the exception of 2-E, known as Elincia's Gambit. Elincia's Gambit is probably one of the best and most iconic chapters in the entire franchise, up there with the likes of Battle Before Dawn and Chapter 10 Conquest. It is such a fun map to do, especially since you get a lot of fun tools at your disposal (Haar, Callil's siege tome, Elincia's Amitie), and the chapter flows so smoothly; you can even make your own side-objectives by trading all your stuff to Haar so he can bring it over to Part 3.
Part 3: Part 3 is the MEAT of the game, this is what you were waiting for all this time, and it sure as hell delivers with the triumphant return of Ike and the Greil Mercenaries, and they're just as strong as you remember them. You get to play around with the OG Greil Mercenaries for a good while, and after slogging through Part 2 and Part 1 with mediocre-to-bad units (with a few exceptions obviously), it feels awesome.
Until you're suddenly forced to play as the Dawn Brigade and MAN is it a nasty shock to the system. Luckily the maps aren't too bad with the exception of another iconic siege map: 3-13. 3-13 is one of the toughest chapters in the game (arguably the toughest depending on how you trained your units), and it will test your skills using the worst units in the game (but by now they're not too terribly bad unless you didn't invest in them like i did lol).
There's also a brief portion of Part 3 where you play as Geoffrey's band of loser knights and it's mostly whatever. Slog of a chapter though.
3-E is more of a weird victory lap because the game does something pretty cool: It lies to you and tells you to rout the enemy even though only 80 units need to die.
Part 4: Finally, all the squads get brought together and you get to teambuild for 3 separate teams. All-in-all, it's a good time as it starts to tie up loose ends as you slowly march to the Begnion Tower.
Once you do arrive to Begnion Tower, you begin the best session of Endgame prep I've had the joy to prepare for. You could easily spend about 2 hours purely prepping; you get everyone's skills, you get everyone's gear, all the BEXP and Money you've been saving up, and you get to use it all. You pick your best 10 units and venture up the tower for a series of challenging fights; it's a damn good finale.
Story Rating: 9/10
Unfortunately, the story kind of falls short due to the, ah, blood pact stuff (and a little bit of Micaiah but I think people are a little too harsh when it comes to discussing her role). It's nebulous how the blood pact works and it's a little bit contrived in the way the story frames it to the point it's better to not dwell on it too much.
That being said, the rest is pretty great. Part 1's story of the Daein Liberation Army is pretty good, makes me a little sad how Micaiah herself gets a little bit shafted later on but it's no fault of this Part. Seeing the Black Knight show up out of nowhere blew my fucking mind when I first played this.
Part 2's story is more of a "here's what you missed" between Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, it really doesn't overstay it's welcome and it's nice seeing lesser characters like Brom and Nephenee get a little bit more of a prominent role.
Part 3 is where the game REALLY starts to pick up with the Laguz Liberation Army and Ike going against Begnion (and later Daein). It's very typical skirmishing and doing a lot of battle planning; the dynamics between Soren and Skrimir are also pretty funny.
It's here where the blood pact gets introduced, I've already said my piece, it's mostly whatever.
Micaiah also suddenly becomes a little bit dumber around this part but it's relatively understandable considering that it's only been about a month or so since she's gone from being a bandit girl to being commander of the Daein army? Micaiah gets a little more flak than I think she deserves, honestly.
Part 4 gets a little exposition-heavy but it's all super interesting stuff about the world; and if you've made it through 2 games then you're probably at least a little interested in the lore.
It's here that some loose ends are tied like the Kilvas blood pact, Sephiran and Zelgius' deals, and Sanaki not being able to hear the Goddess.
And my favorite part:
Ike: "Make your peace with whatever the gods worship. Your end is near."
...is by far the rawest fucking line I've seen in media.
Colorblindness Rating: B-
In this game, there are Ally Units and Other Units; you can direct allies, but you can't direct other units. They are differentiated with the fact that one is yellow and one is green, but unfortunately for me, I can't tell the fucking difference. It's not something that makes the game unplayable, but it makes it a little annoying when trying to figure out "Hey I wonder if I can direct my allies there" when they're actually Other Units.
It's a minor gripe but something I do find annoying.
Ughhhh the game tries a lot of ambitious ideas with giving you control of multiplie armies, but it also has a lot of annoying ideas like giving you control of multiple armies. Also the game is generally waaaaay tooo frickin long and way too messy. The story could be really good if the game was condensed and better paced.
It has a lot of different map objectives compared to most FE games so that's cool.
It has a lot of different map objectives compared to most FE games so that's cool.
I love men
Elincia's Gambit was one of the most stressful maps I've ever played. Peak FE.
This review contains spoilers
On the 30th of December, 2023, I finished Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (FE10) for the first time. Funnily enough, I finished EXACTLY one year after I finished Path of Radiance (FE9). After I had finished that game, I had said that it was the best FE game. Well, FE10 looks at that end laughs. Yeah no this is the best FE game, you can DEFINITELY trust me this time.
Started: April 23rd, 2023
Playing: Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
Via: Dolphin Emulator w/ Wiimote
Console: Dell Laptop
(Spoilers for both games, I hold nothing back.) There was a lot of stuff in FE9 that never went anywhere. A lot of pretty major plot points that were never finished. This left the ending feeling kinda lackluster and left me feeling a tad disappointed. I tried to hold off judgment until I played FE10 to see the rest of the story though. Now that I’ve finished the entire story, and have seen everything the content of Tellius has to tell, I’d say looking back, FE9 ended… well enough. There’s still some stuff I wished they did that FE10 didn’t/couldn’t do, but I’d say it set up FE10 pretty well. I wish FE9’s ending had done more with the Medallion. I really thought they were building up to Ike accidentally touching it, which never happened in either game. I thought they’d mirror what happened with his parents. I suppose this is all to say, FE10 carried on a lot of plot points that FE9 set up which really helps the world feel more complete, but FE9’s ending still should have been better.
With that little follow up note finished, let's actually talk about FE10.
Starting off with gameplay. FE10’s gameplay legitimately blows my mind, in both how good it is and how no other future game seems to have tried to replicate it. I think the biggest praise I can give is how well it works alongside the story. I think in the past, sometimes the story and gameplay in FE have worked against each other, mainly in the story always being forced to follow your single, ever growing team and to find some conflict to make a level out of. This often resulted in filler chapters and overall just, the chapters growing stale. FE10 does an OUTSTANDING job at avoiding this. Not only does the story feel free from needing to follow the gameplay, but the gameplay is actively being made better due to the story. The game is not afraid to switch around what units are available to you and which ones aren’t, depending on what the story calls for. On paper, that kinda sounds like the game is constantly taking stuff away from you and choosing story over gameplay. But in actuality, it allows you to use characters you wouldn’t have otherwise. In every single other FE game I’ve played before this, by like chapter 10 I’ve got my team set up, and I rarely change it to fit in new characters. This game allows me to get to use everyone, which is really cool!! It allows me to appreciate this cast so much more. I get to use a variety of team set ups which mean a variety of classes which means a variety of strategies. On top of improving the story and my experience with the cast, it keeps the gameplay fresh and interesting! There are VERY few characters I can say I hardly used, and even less I can say I never used. That’s such a nice change from previous games. I always hated getting a new character that seemed like fun only to never use them because I already had a full team I really loved. I suppose I could see someone not liking this system as admittedly it is taking freedom away from the player, but in this case it is SO for the better. The way this game switches between multiple teams is just really neat. Getting a chapter purely starring Brom and Nephenee (My favorite side characters) or just Micaiah and the Black Knight was RIDICULOUSLY hype.
Another aspect of how the game’s story and gameplay improve each other is by just HOW many chapters have fun gimmicks that set it apart from the rest. In previous games, maybe three or four total chapters would have something like a ‘gimmick’. In this game? Chapters without a gimmick are often the minority. The word ‘gimmick’ may put some people off but I can assure you, not only are these GOOD gimmicks but they’re relatively minor. The game never forces you to play a different game lol. Sometimes these gimmicks are a unique win condition, sometimes it’s an interesting map design, sometimes it just puts you into a unique situation. I remember a chapter that had an absolute TON of enemies, but it gave you a TON of ally units, so it REALLY felt like two giant armies clashing. There was a chapter where I needed to burn multiple stacks of supplies around the map within a certain number of turns, like a scavenger hunt. The game fixes the issues FE9 had with verticality and makes it a mechanic which some levels were built around, which I really appreciated. Some chapters felt more like I was the enemy units or I was supporting another team like ally units, some fun role reversals! Between this and my units constantly switching around, I was constantly encountering new obstacles and situations that needed new strategies to overcome. All this also made the chapters without a gimmick feel special. 2-Endgame is probably my favorite chapter in the entire SERIES gameplay wise. Hoooo boy that chapter was a blast, it really felt like an intense, brutal fight to defend the castle, making it out purely by standing our ground and fighting better, which represents the story of the chapter too. Aw man it was so good... I could probably fill a whole page going over all the cool stuff this game does with its maps and chapters. I can’t BELIEVE Awakening comes after this game, that game did NOTHING to really mix up its chapters looking back.
And THAT’S not even mentioning all the cool variety of weapons and classes. There’s nothing majorly new but just like, there’s a lot of freaking stuff. Crossbows particularly stand out to me. Daggers are new I think, new to me anyway. A lot of cool staffs and magic, even if they aren’t new. I appreciate how you actually get to use super long ranged magic. The class system has gone from two tiers to three which kept the whole system a lot more interesting. Overall in pretty much every aspect the game is constantly doing stuff to keep the game fresh and interesting. It’s only in Part 4 that I really feel like the map design starts to grow a teeny bit stale but even then there’s still some fun situations (Except that level made entirely of sand, screw whoever thought that was a good idea, took me freaking 28 turns.)
It’s REALLY good that this game does so much to keep the story interesting because this game is LONG! I don’t know if it has the most chapters out of the games I’ve beaten but it CERTAINLY has the most required chapters. Not to mention those chapters feel even longer than FE9’s, which I already thought was super long. This actually kinda became a problem in Part 4, as 4-4 in particular took me multiple days to complete, probably turning out to like 5-6 freaking hours long. That one… started to upset me…(SCREW THOSE FREAKING SLEEP STAFFS TOO!)
Building off of that, I had heard that this game was noticeably harder than previous FE games, and yeah I can kinda tell lol. I’m absolutely someone who plays FE for the story and characters and not the gameplay, so I’ll fully admit, FE is a series I don’t like when it gets super hard, unlike ones like Pikmin or Kingdom Hearts where I LOVE blisteringly difficult gameplay. So there were some moments where I was kinda frustrated (like the example above.) But aside from the occasional hiccup, the difficulty was REALLY good and really pushed my skills to their limits. It constantly felt like I was hanging on by a thread which forced me to really consider all the gameplay mechanics. The final chapter in particular really forced me to consider terrain like I NEVER have before. Being surrounded by a group of enemies and carefully concocting a plan to take out as many as possible as efficiently as possible never gets old, and it’s always SUPER satisfying when a plan goes right. Going “Wait, can I kill all these enemies?” and actually being able to? Aw, peak FE gameplay. I swear sometimes FE feels like a slide puzzle and I absolutely love it. Overall the gameplay just really elevates the typical FE gameplay, making every little mechanic much more prevalent and forces me to think carefully. The game has a good seedy difficulty curve too, unlike FE9 that kinda got easier as it went on. The fun gimmicks I mentioned also make the game just feel SOOO much more complete. This feels like a fully fleshed out game and it’s incredible. Again, it doesn’t seem like future games ever tried to replicate this and that BAFFLES me! That’d be like Pikmin 5 completely ignoring everything Pikmin 4 added.
A few quick things to finish this section…
This game pretty much completely revamped the support system. You can only have one active support at a time and, most notably, support conversations have been pretty much removed. Yeah, I probably should be putting this in another section but it’s kinda both presentation and gameplay. So, at first, I REALLY did not like this, and from what I’ve seen it’s probably the most common complaint on the game. But people pointed out to me that they make up for it with the info/base conversations, which FE9 established and FE10 continued. Eventually I realized, “yeah okay that’s a good change honestly.” But, late into the game I kinda realized “Hey, they really aren’t making up for the lack of support conversations…”
You see, I don’t think there’s anywhere near enough info conversations to make up for no support ones. This game probably has the same amount of info conversations per chapter as FE9 did. Only having more total because there’s more chapters. FE9 had both. A lot of new and returning characters got extremely little screen time which meant I got to learn next to nothing about them. Granted, there’s always been a ton of characters I knew next to nothing about in previous games, but then it was because I hadn’t experienced everything they had to offer. I have with a few of these characters and I still know nothing. I actually REALLY love the idea of replacing support conversations that are hard to unlock with ones that you can always see, allowing me to get to know the entire cast and not just the select few that I use a lot, but they didn’t do enough to make that work. Also, with how this game is constantly swapping around your units, I don’t think the old support system would’ve worked very well.
A little thing, Laguz no longer instantly transform, instead you manually transform them, allowing you to hold their transform meter for when you want to use it. This is SUCH a better system, and it’s only a small change but it makes the strategy around Laguz so much better.
This game gives you ally/partner units quite often, which is great because the ‘Direct’ system was a TON of fun in FE9 and they pretty much just ported it over, 1 to 1. The reinforce command is gone but that’s alright, it was super OP, despite how fun it was. Ally units are RIDICULOUSLY helpful in this game?? Like, legitimately lifesaving??? That has NEVER happened before. I found myself healing and helping our allies extremely often. 2-3, 2-Endgame and 3-13 I specifically remember really relying on them a lot, and they held through. Apparently it’s a bit of a meme in the fandom lol. In 2-Endgame specifically there was this armored knight that lodged himself in this position that blocked off a TON of enemies, and every single time he died those enemies SLAUGHTERED my units so I had to restart, so I learned to keep him alive at all costs. In the end, he valiantly made it through the chapter with the help of an ally healer. I saluted that knight, I hope he went on to live a good life lol. Anyway, the ally units are just another way they kept the gameplay fresh, but they were so prevalent and fun I thought they deserved a dedicated shoutout.
I still have absolutely zero idea what affects biorhythm but the herons being able to boost your biorhythm and lower the enemies’ was pretty cool, it was nice to use when I had no use for them normally. I never used the latter though.
There’s also a few things FE9 didn’t have that the GBA games did that I still don’t like. I really miss having shops on the field and not in the menus, it made weapon durability feel much more important. I also liked having specific items to promote specific groups of classes rather than just master seals that can promote anyone. I’m not even sure why I just found it to be more fun. The little flavor text when you view a person’s name is still missing which makes me sad, but the library makes up for that a bit.
I like how this game allows you to use your FE9 save file to affect stuff. Besides supports, I’m not entirely sure what exactly it carries over but I’m fairly certain it can boost character’s stats and stuff. Meaning if you used a character in FE9 a lot, that character will be better in FE10 which is really fun!! Probably why Brom and Nephenee were absolute KILLERS in this game haha!!
And finally, holy COW this game has actually good bosses?!? Like, good FINAL bosses!!! Basic bosses are the same as ever, those are kinda hard to screw up since they’re so… basic. But in the past, EVERY single ‘big boss’ I can think of has just been some kind of hp sponge that’s just annoying and tedious to take out, making it feel more like I’m cheesing the fight more than anything. The final dragon in FE7 and Ashnard in FE9 were just ‘attack with the op unit who can actually deal damage. Heal that unit. Rinse and repeat.’ The fights were not engaging, it felt like they just took a normal enemy, buffed its stats to a ridiculous degree, gave them a cool weapon and a skill or two and called it a day. Not in FE10 though. The single addition of the rewarp staff, giving bosses the ability to teleport around the stage, made them feel 10x more like a present threat. Izuka being a summoner was super cool, Lekain had the rewarp staff and cool terrain. Sephiran having the little elemental spirits redirect lethal attacks away from him was REALLY interesting. The fight against the Black Knight was REALLY neat, I’ll admit it felt a tad drawn out by the end of it but still, it forced me to consider every single advantage I could get in order to win. The set up with Ike and him alone while the rest of your team fights off other enemies was super interesting. And then Ashera’s fight was also really cool. Needing to destroy the aura around her was neat, and her attacking via retaliation damage made for a super interesting fight. I also had to kill her freaking THREE times before I realized they had already told me to have Ike deal the final blow (I thought Micaiah was just whining AHA). I killed her twice in one turn which impressed myself haha! Overall the big bosses felt like unique encounters, making the defeat of the villains feel much more impactful.
As I said, my gosh the gameplay is good. It’s so much more refined, polished and expanded compared to anything before it. By FAR my favorite gameplay from what I’ve played of the series.
That’s gameplay out of the way, now I want to talk about the overall presentation, some miscellaneous stuff aside from the characters and story which I’ll get into after.
I forget when during my playthrough I noticed this, but the more I started thinking about it the more clear it became to me. This game takes FE9 and matures it. I forget if I said this in my FE9 review but that game had a VERY classic, nostalgic feel running all throughout it. A story of a young kid rescuing a princess and fighting a dark knight. It felt like it mixed more classic medieval/fairytale stuff with FE’s style. That’s probably why it resonated so much with me. FE10 takes that and grows it up. This game may only take place three years after the last but the characters have grown a lot, so it makes sense to grow everything else around them too. This whole thing reminds me a LOT of Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2, which had a similar thing going on. From the characters themselves, to the story, to the music to the graphics to the GUIs oh I could go on. They feel more mature, complex and deeper, be that a good or bad thing depending on the specific scenario. You can just compare Ike's sprites in both games and you’ll get it. It runs all throughout the game, which also means going into specifics would mean going over stuff I’m already going to talk about, so I think I’ll just mention specifics when I get to them. This shift in atmosphere was done really well, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t still prefer FE9’s atmosphere. That classic nostalgic feel is pretty rare I’ve found, and every time I’ve encountered it, (Epic Mickey, Kingdom Hearts 1, Pikmin 1+2) It has made the game feel SO comforting to me. I may like FE10 more, but FE9 ABSOLUTELY still has its own merit to stand on its own. I’m not looking back and liking FE9 less, if anything I’m liking it more than I was before. A sequel that can not only be better than its predecessor but ALSO make the first one better? Goodness that’s rare. Despite being very different in many ways, FE9 and 10 actively improve each other, while still being able to stand on their own. That’s crazy impressive! Neither games are perfect, definitely not, but I struggle to say they aren’t masterpieces.
Another ‘overall’ thing I’d like to mention is how confident this game is in itself. I think I said in my Pikmin 4 review that that game felt so worried about trying to please its players that it was actively hurting the experience, being too scared to take risks and do crazy stuff. FE10 is… kinda on the complete opposite side of the spectrum where it feels overly confident at times. I think it expects me to care about a few plot points a LOT more than I do, because IT cares about them. Now, I still prefer that to a game not believing in itself, and this is not to say that it’s like that all the time. For most of the game it’s confidence is 100% justified and it feels REALLY good. I’m not sure how exactly to describe it or what examples to give, but it made me care for the world, characters and story a LOT. It felt professional while still having fun. Between this and my last point, I can really respect FE10 despite any issues I might have with it.
Now onto more specific things. First, the GUIs. At first I really wasn’t a fan of how they looked, the use of yellows and browns just gave off the impression that everything was covered in sand, as opposed to FE9’s where they were very cozy and colorful, as if they had just been rained on. And while I still massively prefer FE9’s, I can appreciate how this change ties into the matured atmosphere. It does a lot for it actually, makes the whole game feel a bit more serious and less idealized. I’ve been noticing more and more lately how important GUI design is for a game’s atmosphere and mood, and these two games are a great example of it. Layout wise they’re all great! I love how you can see the specific support bonuses finally. A lot of it is mostly pulled from FE9 or before so I don’t really have a whole lot to say on them functionally.
Okay this one gets me excited, I freaking LOVE THE CHARACTER DESIGN IN THIS GAME!! I LOVED FE9’S CHARACTER DESIGN AND STYLE AND THIS IS MORE OF THE SAME!!! It’s so cool and classic and colorful, it fits the character’s personalities, their classes, their place in the world, oh it’s so good. I said this for FE9 and I’ll GLADLY say it again, this is PEAK Fire Emblem character design and style. This is what I think of when I think of FE’s style, nothing else could possibly beat it. The game lets you scroll through character’s full artworks in the extras menu and I loved flipping through them so much. I’m not normally that into anime/japanese art styles but from the GBA games to this one, this style has REALLY grown on me. I love how the characters stand out from each other while still very clearly being from the same world. I love the diversity in their faces, they’re distinct, they don’t blend into each other. For a game with almost 100 characters? That’s crazy impressive. I also really want to highlight the improvement in the character’s sprites. They now look pretty much identical to their full artwork and they look AMAZING!! SUCH a crazy good improvement over FE9’s. I already really loved how FE9’s sprites looked, but now I look back and kinda chuckle to myself. Brom had a CRAZY good glow up. The only characters I felt had worse sprites were Anna and Astrid because their eyes were off. Some of FE9’s sprites do still have a simplistic charm to them though, but overall FE10’s clear by miles. These more detailed sprites also REALLY contribute to making the game feel more mature. I don’t think I’d want a remake of these games to have the same exact way of doing character sprites because then that aspect would be taken away. I’ll talk more about individual characters later. But seriously, both FE9 and 10 have been and will continue to be very influential to me as an artist. The character design, both appearance and writing wise, is by far my favorite part of these games, no doubt about that at all for me.
The music in this game is PHENOMENAL! I’m actually listening to it while I write this review lol. I really loved FE9’s ost, and while I still think there’s a handful of tracks in FE9 that I like more than any track in FE10 (Elincia’s theme and ‘Greil Mercenaries” being the main standouts), overall I think I like FE10’s ost more, but I think I need to listen to both for a little while longer to truly figure that out. Much like everything else, there’s a big difference between the two that absolutely ties into the mature atmosphere. FE9’s were a bit simpler with a clearer melody, while FE10’s tracks are more complex pieces that sound a bit more grandiose. FE9 uses a lot of brass while FE10 uses a lot more strings, it creates clear identities for the both of them. I definitely think the battle music in FE10 is better, some of these battle tracks are REALLY good, while some of FE9’s could get a tad grating at times. ‘Bearer of Hope’ is DEFINITELY my favorite map track, it added a LOT to 2-Endgame. Overall the map tracks were really REALLY good. I think it’s REALLY sad that Victory Road music has been totally removed. FE9 had it, but only used it like twice for some reason despite MANY chapters working for it. I’ll never get why the series stopped doing that, it made the end of chapters feel so exciting!! I REALLY love the base music here, it’s so lively and made Outfitting my team legitimately a blast. Then they replaced it with a more somber one and OOOO that was a good mood shift! There’s a few other tracks I want to mention but they tie directly into other characters so I’ll get to them later.
I think I had briefly mentioned this existing but this game adds the Library to the base, containing profiles on all the characters, a list of terms and some chapter data. This is a VERY welcome fun addition!! It was so fun constantly checking in on the character tree anytime I met a new character. And being able to find the definitions to lore terms was super nice, Kingdom Hearts should have that lol. I kinda wished they had taken the whole thing further, more info on the characters, more terms, more chapter data, etc. I think there’s a lot of room for that to grow, as it is now though it’s pretty cool!! I do think it’s sad that this game is missing Soren’s status reports from FE9. There was some fun info on there, and even though you can probably find it elsewhere anyway, it was nice having it conveniently given to you. They don’t even need to attach it to a character, though I’d prefer it if they did. Obviously the character would have to change depending on the team you’re with.
I think one of my biggest problems with FE9 was how bad the 3D graphics/combat animations were. Like, laughably bad. They were boring, stale, and not very pretty. Going from the WONDERFUL 2D GBA games to FE9’s clunky 3D graphics was pretty difficult. FE10 improves this WONDERFULLY! Combat animations feel SOOO much more alive, the fact that both sides have entry and exit animations make the encounter feel more complete. The camera is SOOO much more dynamic, there’s finally stats during the cut scenes. I really appreciate how a laguz’s transformation meter appears alongside their EXP bar, THANK YOU! And the character models and animations themselves are just so much better. The 3D models could be laughably bad in FE9 but they all looked really good here, wish there was a model viewer… The animations are a lot smoother and more dynamic. It’s clear they were still learning in FE9 and finally got good here. Are they perfect? No. I still absolutely prefer the GBA games’s animations and in terms of 3D, Awakening is definitely an improvement. But for what they are, I really appreciate them.
I’d also just like to quickly mention that, man, future games did really well at giving characters a lot of little flavor text throughout the game. Not having level-up or critical hit quotes is severely prominent to me. I’m not gonna fault the game at all for not doing something future games did but without it the characters do feel fairly unimportant outside of cutscenes.
Oh, and this game just reuses the tutorials from FE9, just changing or adding onto them whenever necessary. At first this was a little disappointing but of all games to reuse tutorials from, FE9 is THE game. I freaking LOVED Anna’s tutorials in FE9, absolutely my favorite tutorials in a game, so fun and charming, and genuinely informative. The only reason I was disappointed most of them were reused was because I wanted more haha! I watched them all again anyway and they were just as fun the second time!! Anna is such a fun charming character, gosh I want her in Smash Bros. so bad…
This game has a lot more pre-animated cutscenes which was really great! They were done well, the animation was pretty good (Obviously motion-captured but what are you gonna do), the models looked great, and the voice acting was also surprisingly decent. It was really cool getting to put voices to some of these characters. Rolf and Tibarn’s add a lot to their characters. Ranulf and Skrimir were NOT what I was expecting, but they kinda grew on me. I still think they sound too manly and serious (especially Skrimir). I really like Ike’s voice too, it fits him well. It was cool how many characters got to appear in them, the scene when the Greil Mercenaries first showed up was REALLY cool and extremely hype! Were the cutscenes perfect? Definitely not but they were enjoyable.
I’d also like to talk about the overall writing. One of my biggest praises for FE9 was how well it was able to control and manipulate my feelings. If it wanted me to feel something, I FELT it. I think that’s definitely a little weaker in FE10, there were a good few scenes I remember just not getting a whole lot out of, mainly ones surrounding Micaiah or at the end. But dialogue wise the quality has not dipped, it’s still just as great as ever!! Characters always feel extremely genuine in their reactions and how they interact with others. Scenes are very well written and paced. It’s all very professional with clear passion put into it.
Overall the presentation of this game is absolutely phenomenal. It’s got such a strong identity both with and separate from FE9, and is super confident in itself, which makes for a consistent, entertaining experience. While there are many aspects I still prefer about FE9’s (and past games’) presentation, I struggle to really point at anything major here and say it’s bad or even just ‘worse’. Again, man is it so sad that future games didn’t try to be more like this one…
That's the overall presentation done, now onto my favorite part, the characters!!
So, I briefly said this before, but holy COW does this game have a lot of characters. The FE Heroes CYL poll ballot has 97 characters listed. A whopping SEVENTY-THREE of those characters are playable. Every single character that appeared in FE9 and didn’t die, returned, and even a lot of the major ones that died still have an entry on the character tree. Every single playable character in FE9 is playable here, except Largo for some reason, but he still shows up. 73 playable characters. Goodness gracious. I’m too lazy to count how many characters other FE games have but regardless it’s still crazy impressive. Overall, I’d say FE10 does its characters better than FE9 did, even if the lack of support conversations mean they don’t get as much screen time. Most characters only get two base conversations, and even then they aren’t guaranteed to be the main character in either. Thankfully, a lot of characters also get at least a few other minor appearances outside base convos. Quite frankly, a good amount of characters here are kinda just relying on their ‘one thing’ thing here. However, I think that the writing does a good enough job at making their personalities strong enough to make their limited appearances not only stick with you, but do enough for the characters to where you can easily imagine how they act outside of their ‘one thing’. Every character here, bar a few, have VERY strong, VERY entertaining personalities that really carry them. Maybe it’s just because I’ve spent a lot more time with this cast, having two LONG games with them instead of just one, but I feel significantly closer to this cast than I do any other FE cast, even more than FE8 which I really fell in love with. I also think the game’s worldbuilding does a lot to make the characters more believable. Overall they’re just super charming. Aside from a villain that you were DEFINITELY supposed to hate, I can’t say I dislike any of these characters. There are a few I couldn’t care less about but like, that’s VERY few.
I really appreciate how a lot of returning characters use their promoted designs from FE9 as their base designs here. Nephenee and Brom being the most obvious examples to me. They also start out as their promoted class from FE9, which is probably why they made a 3rd tier to be promoted to. It’s just a really fun minor thing I thought was worth mentioning.
I’ll go over the characters in roughly the order they first show up, though I definitely won’t be touching on all of them though lol. Starting off with Micaiah, the sort of main character. I had heard a lot of people complaining about Micaiah so I really didn’t know what to expect. After playing through the game, yeah I can see why very few people like her. She’s just kinda… boring? Not horribly so but compared to a LOT of other characters, even those around her, she’s fairly bland. They tried to do a lot with Micaiah and NONE of it worked for me. My biggest issue with her is how inconsistent she is. Here’s an excerpt from my notes during 1-8 that I feel still sums up my opinion on her: “So… what is her story now exactly? I’m so confused on what her arc is. At first I thought “oh she’s naive but she’ll learn to be more shrewd and cautious.” Then it was “oh she’s taking people for granted but she’ll learn she has to work for stuff.” Now it’s “oh she feels guilty that people are praising her even though her abilities come from something they deem bad.” What is her main story?! I should be able to tell by now right?! I’m okay with characters having multiple faucets to their story, I’m okay with a character’s story being a surprise, but none of these stories work together. Even if they do reveal her true story as a surprise, it won’t have any impact because they’re constantly fluctuating between contradicting plot lines for her. I have no idea who Micaiah is. I never know how she’d respond to something. I’m okay with a character having alternative motives or being hard to read, but that’s not what they’re trying to do here, and even if it is, I don’t think it fits Micaiah. Man, she had so much potential but I’m really starting to see why so many people don’t like her. I can’t get attached to her or care about her when “her” is constantly fluctuating between different characters. They’re trying to get me to feel bad for her now but I just don’t because this wasn’t how she acted before.”
The game REALLY acts like it’s doing something super profound and deep with Micaiah but it really isn’t. Her entire character is messy. It really sucks too because I absolutely love her design and I feel like had they stuck to one story for her she could have been REALLY cool. I think the “naive to more cautious” arc would have fit really well for her, but at the same time I can see how that wouldn’t make a lot of sense with her backstory. Idk man her whole character just needed a complete rewrite, it’s so messy and all over the place.
Next is Sothe. It’s super cool how they took a one off character from FE9 and fleshed him out so much. I wonder how much of FE10 was planned during FE9. I really liked Sothe in FE9 but didn’t use him a lot, so I really appreciated getting so much time with him here. He’s just very enjoyable. Not a lot to him, but his personality is distinct and I found him to be far more consistent and enjoyable than Micaiah. It’s also just very cool seeing how much he’s grown between the two games. Ngl I thought I had more to say about him but I guess I don’t. I really like him.
The other members of the Dawn Brigade are kinda boring which is disappointing. I liked Nolan, he grew on me a lot. It would have made a lot more sense for him to be the leader of the group rather than Micaiah, she should have just been the figurehead. Edward… I like the idea of, but in execution he was SOOOO generic. I like the idea of this super scrappy, oblivious optimistic kid who feels straight out of a fairy tale or Disney movie but he just felt, well, generic. Leonardo has like, literally no personality at all. He’s an archer. That’s him. As I had said before, not every character is great. Overall, besides Micaiah and Sothe the Dawn brigade members are very unimportant which is odd. I also think it’s odd you do rarely get to see Micaiah and Sothe interacting with them. The team doesn’t feel very close.
This game introduces Wolf tribe Laguz. The reasoning for them never being mentioned or seen in FE9 is fairly solid, maybe a little odd, but my main point on them is that… they kinda serve zero purpose? Rafiel, the heron that travels with them is super important but Nailah and Volug, the only two wolves you meet, don’t contribute a lot. I feel like there’s a lot more they could have done with them but the game is already loaded with plot points so I suppose I should be grateful they didn’t try to stuff another one in.
I was surprised by how excited I was to see the merchant caravan again, I really didn’t feel much towards them before and I still don’t but for some reason I wasn’t expecting it. I was especially excited about seeing Ilyana again haha! I love how her new sprite looks.
I absolutely ADORE Tormod in this game. Tormod in FE9 was a character I thought I’d really like but found myself forgetting about him most of the time. Tormod in FE10 is exactly what I thought he was going to be in FE9 and more. He’s so cocky and full of personality, I love his dynamic with Sothe so much. I just wish he was in the game more. Seeing Muarim again was nice too, his library profile was for some reason swapped with Mist’s, and looking it up apparently that’s actually an issue in the original release baha! Vika, a raven, has also been added to their team. There is like… NOTHING to know about her, she hardly gets any dialogue or anything. It was really disappointing, I like her design a lot. She’s an example of a character that really needed some support conversations.
Prince Pelleas was very cool, I enjoyed his character a lot. I have a bit more to say on him when I get to the story but he was very endearing. His story is super interesting too, it had some loose ends that didn’t really get tied up. I know on a second playthrough you can recruit him but from what I’ve seen the added dialogue doesn’t do that much.
It was a really big surprise seeing Izuka again, he was a fairly random character that showed up in the second to last chapter of FE9, but I remembered really liking him actually, he reminded me of a more scatter-brained Vexen from Kingdom Hearts, which is definitely a good thing to me. It was a shockingly pleasant surprise to see him be so plot relevant in this game. Once again his story had a super rushed ending, but his fight was fun and I was content with what I got from him in Part 1. His theme is also really good. He’s an effective side villain!
I should also mention Valtome, another villain. He’s the character I was referencing when I said there was one that they clearly intended you to hate, and yeah they did a great job with that haha! Not only is he butt ugly, but he’s so smug and self-absorbed and stupid. He causes problems for both sides. He’s a good silly minor villain.
Then, there’s Lekain, kinda the main villain, kinda not. There’s a lot of villains in this game it’s hard to pin one down as the “main” one. Anyway, Lekain is the one area of this game where they didn’t feel confident in what they had. I feel like the game expected no one to care about him so they kept his presence fairly limited and focused more on the effects of his actions. I think that’s a real shame because any time he was on screen I actually REALLY liked him, I found him to be a fun, threatening villain. He’s so cheery, so polite in his words, it’s always INCREDIBLY clear he has it all figured out and is in his right mind, which combined with the power he has makes him kinda scary. His obsession with “progress” and innovation was super interesting. All in all I just wish they had made him a more prevalent character, having him come in to smugly mock you constantly, the rewarp staff allows for that. Out of every FE villain that I’d like to see fleshed out (That isn’t already) Lekain is 100% at the top of that list. Very surprising!
Almedha was a SHOCKINGLY fleshed out character. I can’t say I particularly care for her but her story was very interesting and tied up a lot of stuff relating to the dragon tribe. Pelleas, Izuka and Almedha’s whole… thing… going on made for some very captivating drama. It’s just kinda tragic how much stuff can get messed up by a few mistakes.
I’m really glad that of all plot points this game chose to finish, Ike and the Black Knight’s was one of the ones they chose. I already said how satisfying that final fight was, but I want to talk a little bit more about the Black Knight himself. You get to control him multiple times in this game and my GOSH does he feel just as epic and imposing as when he’s an enemy. His slow walk, his AMAZING theme overtaking the battle music, his raw power. Ooooo it’s so good. None of his mystique disappeared in the slightest. I do think that a lot of new stuff they tried to add onto him was kinda messy. Honestly him being Zelgius (Which I already knew) doesn’t affect a whole lot, if anything it overcomplicates his character, same with being a Branded, but I’ll get to that. Zelgius never had that much of a personal connection to Ike, so the reveal is just kinda like “oh dang, that’s crazy” for him. Overall, his connection with Ike had a really solid finish but his character really didn’t. I think that anything I had thought was going on under that armor was far more impactful than what actually was.
To do a COMPLETE 180 to a different character, I remember really liking Marcia in FE9 but MAN she is REALLY fun in this game. I just adore how casually she slings out insults. She’s not mean spirited or grumpy, she just has an attitude that’s really endearing. She’s written REALLY well. I love how she just does not even hesitate to try to sell Makalov aha! I also REALLY love her new design, such an improvement. I was really surprised to see Haar again, I guess he was recruitable in FE9? I totally missed that. He was a super fun character too! Lots of personality.
Next up is BROM AND NEPHENEE!! WOOOOO!!!! HECK YEAH MY FAVORITE SIDE CHARACTERS GOT A WHOLE FREAKING CHAPTER JUST TO THEMSELVES YEAHHHHH!!!! Oh it was so insanely hype. It was so cool having them in the plot even if just for a chapter. It felt super natural too! I loved Brom’s speech at the end of it, once again showcasing that he is genuinely mature and isn’t just some silly joke character. These two were characters I just kinda latched onto even when I didn’t know much about them but as I’ve gotten to know them I’ve only liked them more and more. There’s just something about them that really resonates with me. They were done so much justice in this game. As I said, WOW does Brom’s new sprite look SO much better.
I’ll also mention Meg now. Getting to meet one of Brom’s children that he had mentioned in FE9 got me REALLY hyped! Unfortunately, I kinda hate how she was handled. As I had just said, I love how Brom isn’t just a silly joke character but has real depth to him. That’s why I loved him in the first place. Meg, is the total opposite of that. I loved her when she was first introduced because of her adorable design and relation to Brom, but I soon realized she’s only here as a joke reference to one of Brom’s support conversations (One I never saw). Worse than that, this joke involves a misunderstanding where she thinks she’s going to marry Zihark, a guy who’s significantly older than she is. That… makes me very uncomfortable. She has NOTHING else to her besides an oblivious, starry-eyed personality. When she and Brom are finally on the same team at the end of the game you don’t even get a cut scene of them together. I was waiting for that the entire time. So disappointing. I still like her though she’s very cute, 10/10 design.
I STILL got nothing out of Geoffrey and Lucia. Despite being far more plot relevant than before, and being very close to Elinca, one of my favorites, I still don’t feel much towards them. I think Lucia has more going for her, but Geoffrey is totally bland. I could not care less about him. I’ll also mention Bastian, who I like a lot more. I really thought they were building up something bigger with him, I expected a big twist with him in some way but he kinda just showed up with his own plot right before the final chapter. Speaking of that plot, Elincia’s uncle really just came out of nowhere. I don’t remember him ever being brought up in FE9 but apparently he was. It was cool seeing Bertram brought up again, but considering he had only ever appeared as a one-off boss (a cool one but still) before this, it made the reveal not super interesting, especially because it was solved like immediately after. Getting to see how the feral drug affects Beorc was way more interesting than him. But, the scenes were still written well so I’m content with it lol. It was random and pointless, yeah, but it was cool.
The little plot point about Astrid falling in love with Makalov was SO random, but I kinda love it? It’s so stupid and it fits both their characters really well in some weird way. Made for some absolutely hilarious conversations. Also, freaking Danved. He appears on screen and I go “Yooo it’s Devdan from FE9!! Wait, why is he called Danved?” Then the characters bring it up and he’s like “Who’s Devdan? I’m Danved!” And it’s just… so freaking random but so freaking funny to me. Like yeah this guy looks and acts identical to Devdan but he’s adamant that he’s a different person. Are they truly different people? Are they the same person? Who the heck knows it could totally go either way I love it so much. And then both Devdan and Danved get a spot on the character tree with a line labeled “Same person?” connecting them. Love it.
And now we’ve finally reached Elincia! She was my favorite behind Ike last time and she still holds that position! I was super happy to see how relevant she still is, I was expecting her to be really sidelined, but nope! At first I wasn’t really feeling how she was being handled, not that there was anything wrong, but quickly I grew to really love her story here! It’s a very natural evolution of her story in FE9. I think the reason I felt a bit underwhelmed at first was that it seemed like her character went backwards from where she was at the end of FE9, but then I realized that was definitely intentional. All throughout FE9 she was worried no one would accept her as queen, but she pushed through that to earn her right to rule. In FE10, her worst fears are coming true, so it makes sense she’d start slipping back into her more timid ways she had in FE9. But with the support of those around her, she pushes through even harder and conquers those fears, proving once and for all that she is the rightful ruler of Crimea. I really loved that scene when she was dealing with the coup, where Leanne says like one nice thing to her and she breaks down in tears. It did a great job showcasing how much stress she was under, which made her overcoming it all the more satisfying. She matures a LOT and it was super satisfying to see! The scene where she drops her weapon to stop Ike and Valtome from fighting, and her theme from FE9 starts playing, REALLY got me hyped. As I said, it’s a WONDERFUL extension of her arc from FE9. I feel like the new rendition of her theme does a good job at showcasing not only her character here, but the difference between FE9 and 10 as a whole, sounding much more grand with a lot more complexity, while also kinda drowning out the actual melody, representing all the pressure on her. When she finally overcomes it, THAT’S when they use the original, as if she’s broken free from it and her true self is showing. She’s done really well here and I love to see it!
From my second favorite to my favorite, Ike! Ike in FE10 is the same Ike I know and love and that’s good. Seeing him go from a nobody to possibly the strongest, most famous person on the planet throughout both games is really satisfying. I think what I like most about him is how he desperately does not want this fame, he just wants to chill out with his friends and family, but the world is constantly going “Haha no.” So he’s like “Dang, gotta go teach the world a lesson again.” It’s both engaging and really funny in a cosmic sense. In that way, he reminds me a LOT of Olimar, who has a very similar story except, unlike Ike, he can’t seem to overcome it. Through sheer force of will and heart, Ike breaks through any problem that keeps him from his goal, no matter where that takes him, or what crazy stunts he has to perform. I’ll admit this is all starting to come to me as I’m typing this. I wish I had thought of this during my playthrough because it probably would have made the ending a lot more enjoyable. Besides that, there’s not a whole lot else to talk about with him in this game. He doesn’t have any really big character arcs, which I was originally going to cite as a complaint but I don’t think he really needs one. I’m super satisfied with how Ike was handled in this game, and his place as my favorite character is rightfully earned.
One thing that ISN’T satisfying to me is the fact that they just COMPLETELY dropped Ike and Elincia’s relationship!! I freaking loved them together!! I’m not usually one to get into shipping characters together but boy if they weren’t the clearest exception to that. Their relationship and dynamic was so smoothly built up, well written and healthy. They were absolutely perfect for each other, and I thought it was pretty dang obvious that that was intentional. You cannot watch the final pre-animated cutscene of FE9 and tell me those two are not into each other, you cannot. In FE10 though? COLD! THEIR CONVERSATIONS WERE SO FREAKING COLD!! Ike goes missing for ages and when they finally reunite all Elincia gives is a thanks for helping her out and some info on the Black Knight. Then Ike’s like “thanks for telling me” and just freaking leaves. All their chemistry, gone. At the end of the game it almost felt like they were taunting me. Ike gets good 5-6 line long conversations with people, Elinca finally shows up at the end, and it’s just two boring lines of dialogue. Felt like a punch to the gut. Ngl this pisses me off I’m so upset by this. Awful creative decision, you threw away gold.
Anyway, I don’t have much to say about the other Greil Mercenaries. All their designs are really great. I love how grown up Boyd looks, he’s so manly now it makes me laugh. Mia’s new design is REALLY good!! I liked her old one but WOW this one is better. I also like that she stayed as part of the team. Shinon and Gatrie were a lot more fun than I remember them being. Mist’s new design is cute, and seeing my boy Rolf looking so grown up was really cool. Idk why but he feels like a younger brother to me lol. I really really like Titania but weirdly enough I’m really struggling to find anything specific to say about her. She’s just very cool.
I really adore how Ranulf was used in this game. Seeing sly, cool-headed Ranulf become the frantic straight man because of just how chaotic Skrimir is, is REALLY funny to me. It’s very clear that this is still the same Ranulf from FE9, but he’s finally REALLY stressed out and it’s such a fun twist to pull on a character like him. It shows another side of him which does a LOT to make him a believable character. And speaking of him, I really enjoyed Skrimir. He was a fun addition and had a ton of personality. His character arc may have been RIDICULOUSLY predictable (Called it the same chapter he was introduced) and very basic, but it was very nice. I give him a thumbs up, very enjoyable character. From stubborn, self-absorbed and aggressive, to taking feedback, building others up and spirited.
To mention some other Laguz, I think Mordecai might be the only character I can really point to and say was done notably worse in this game. He’s always been a gentle giant, yes, but he never came off as innocent and oblivious before, which is how I’d describe in FE10. I liked how sometimes unintentionally rude he could be in FE9. I specifically loved his supports with Ilyana where he’s just kinda weirded out by her and is not hiding it, but is trying to be polite. In FE10, I specifically remember a scene in part 2 where he’s like “That makes Mordecai sad.” and it just really came off as childish, which I REALLY don't like, that makes him a lot more bland and forgettable. I do really love his new sprite though, it looks a lot better. I also quickly want to mention Lyre, who REALLY feels like some deviantart OC that’s just a recolor of Lethe (in both design and personality) and I kinda love that so much.
Also King Caineghis is still ridiculously cool, I know there’s not a whole lot to him but like dang, he’s so freaking cool, how’d they make a character that cool? Getting to use him in the final chapter was so exciting!!
I really freaking love Tibarn. I don’t know if they did anything different with him or if I just got to see more of him but my gosh I loved every second of him being on screen. He has so much personality, he’s really funny, he’s cool as heck, he’s just a really great character, he quickly rose to one of my favorites. You get to use him a lot which is cool! I actually really love his defeated quote. He’s just so utterly BAFFLED that he could be defeated. It shows how secretly self-absorbed and stubborn he is. It’s a little detail that does a TON to flesh him out for me.
I’ll get more into Naesala when I get to the plot but I really wish his story got a more satisfying conclusion because he’s got a SUPER cool story. Also seeing Nealuchi and getting to use him was really funny to me, I hardly remember anything he did in FE9 I just remember some old guy showing up now and again. It was also great getting to use Leanne finally. I really like her and Reyson, they’ve really grown on me. Reyson particularly, I just think he’s a fun character.
And finally, Yune. I had gotten spoiled about her being a child and not a bird, but I didn’t really know much else. I think she might be the biggest surprise for me, because gosh DANG was she such a lovable, endearing, enjoyable character. That first scene with her outside the fort, it was so much fun and felt so lively, which was a wonderful contrast from everything that came before it. Her dynamic with Ike is hilarious, I absolutely adored the scenes with them ascending the tower, with her telling the story of how the world was created. She has so much attitude and spunk, she’s immature which contrasts her power and responsibility really well. I love how casually she degrades people through her use of words, despite genuinely loving them. She was written REALLY freaking well. She had me laughing out loud many times. She came out of complete nowhere which fits her really well. Going from SUPER serious story to her, represents her chaotic nature so freaking well. I think that much like a lot of the game, she kinda started to fall apart at the end, but I did really enjoy her story. I just wish it was conveyed to me more clearly.
Hooh, that’s all the characters I wanted to mention. Now, finally, I can go over the story. It seems this review isn’t going to be all that much shorter than my Pikmin 4 review lol.
Starting off with… the start, this game begins really well. Obviously a big part of this is just the nature of being a direct sequel, but I was INSTANTLY hooked by it. Getting a sort of role-reversal and seeing it from the perspective of the Daein civilians struggling after the war was really cool and I think it not only followed through on what the end of FE9 hinted at, but set up the rest of the game REALLY well. It shows how much unrest was still in the world, which makes things escalating back into a war very believable (something something WWII). It also does a good job at showing us that Daein isn’t some super evil country by nature, which sets up the moral of being one humanity later. Even if I feel confident in saying the first part is the worst part, that’s really only because the rest of the game is so good. A VERY good start that lays a lot of foundation and is just really interesting to see.
Another aspect of part 1 that I really like is how the whole plot is mirroring FE9’s plot, but a little more twisted. Soren even directly mentions this. Micaiah takes the place of Ike and Pelleas takes the place of Elincia. In both situations, a foreign country has taken over their homeland with a tyrannical rule. The child of the last ruler that had been kept secret from the public emerges, and with the help of an inexperienced but well-intentioned young hero, they fight to take back their country. This time though the plot’s a bit more twisted with how Izuka is manipulating Pelleas and the Daein army’s hatred for Laguz. It just kinda presents an interesting dilemma where like, it's good that they’re overthrowing Begnion but at the same time I struggle to call a lot of these guys good people. I feel like this mirrored plot is shown really well through the contrast between Elincia and Pelleas. They’re both very similar but Pelleas is a much more troubled, depressing character. I love comparing their themes. Even just the titles, “Beautiful Princess Elincia” and “Sorrowful Prince Pelleas” say a lot. (Speaking of which, Pelleas’s theme is REALLY cool.) I think it’s a shame the two never got to interact, I would’ve liked to see that.
I like how they clearly label the different parts of the story by literally splitting into parts. It makes the introduction and conclusion of each story feel a lot better. FE7 and Awakening could have really benefited from doing this. It’s a little thing but it’s very nice.
I kinda already said everything I had to say on part 2 when talking about Elincia. I appreciate how the plot of a coup starting pushed her whole story into motion though.
I think the biggest praise I can give to FE10’s story is how AMAZINGLY well paced it is. Every single FE game I’ve played before this has had sections that felt painfully slow, some (FE7 & 9) worse than others (FE8 & Awakening). But this game? No no no, it’s pacing is really freaking good. Aside from mayyyybe a little in part 1 and 4, the entire game has a very refreshing brisk pace that is not slow at all, and doesn’t feel too fast. Every chapter feels like it adds something important to the plot. There’s always something interesting happening, even if it doesn’t directly impact the plot much. It makes the story REALLY engaging and a joy to play through. It makes the gameplay far more enjoyable too because it gives you much more motivation to finish. In a game as long as this, slow pacing absolutely could have single handedly killed this game. It already kinda single handedly brought down FE9 for me. I cannot reiterate enough how GOOD this makes the game feel to play. Ohh it’s so refreshing…
There’s another massive issue I had with FE9’s plot that FE10 skillfully dodges. In FE9, it felt like Ike and his team had some MAJOR plot armor in the second half. I just kinda felt like this ragtag gang of heroes and soldiers marched into one of the strongest countries in the world and defeated them without a hitch. I compared it a lot to Awakening’s plot in Valm. There, a similar thing happened, except that they overthrew that country by outsmarting them. Ike in FE9 didn’t really do that, he literally just marched through the front gate and won. Now, the story was implying that Ashnard let that happen, (Which FE10 reinforces) but I still felt like Ike should have gotten some kind of recompense for it. It also kinda felt like the game was implying that ME working hard and winning the levels was what earned them their victory but like, yeah it did not feel like that.
Anyway, FE10 makes it very clear that Ike’s team IS outsmarting the enemy. Not only that, but the teams are more evenly matched (emphasis on more), and even then they still kinda lose some battles here and there. It makes the whole thing a lot more believable and realistic, and thus, engaging. It’s really refreshing, just like with the pacing it makes the entire game just that much better. I REALLY appreciate that FE10 fixed my biggest issues with FE9, it makes me appreciate it so much more.
I REALLY liked the blood pact as a plot point. That creates SUCH an interesting dilemma that REALLY captivated me. Forcing Micaiah and Pelleas into fighting people they can’t beat and really do not want to fight, without being able to explain to them what’s going on or else everyone will die. Using a misunderstanding as a basis for drama is really lame, but in this scenario, it’s not that they don’t want to sort it out, it’s that they CAN’T!! It was SUPER frustrating in a really good way. I love how much it tested Micaiah’s loyalty to Daein, the lengths we got to see her go to to protect her country. Having to commit some horrible atrocities against people she holds no real ill will towards. She could have left at any point but chose to stay. That aspect of her was done really well I’d say. Same thing goes for Sothe. The blood pact is just such an interesting storytelling tool. I love how it was used to explain Naesala’s actions. How he had to force himself to not only betray his friends, but close himself off from them as well. It REALLY fleshes him out and I’m freaking PISSED that the only conclusion it got was just his end card. I WANT TO SEE HOW TIBARN AND REYSON RESPOND TO IT!! WHAT JUST BECAUSE I DIDN’T BRING HIM INTO THE FINAL CHAPTER MEANS I DON’T GET TO FINISH HIS STORY?!? Incredibly disappointing. Anyway, I was also gonna say that I’d love to see a future FE game reuse the blood pact in some way. There’s so much storytelling potential with it, it’d be a shame to never use it again. I do kinda feel like the conclusion for Pelleas’s blood pact felt a bit like a cop-out, but I have no idea how else they could have solved it so it’s fine lol.
I REALLY want to sing the praises of the presentation of 3-Endgame. Holy COW did that chapter pull out all the stops to make that as impactful as possible. It was obvious that the dark god was going to break free, but I really had NO idea what to expect, which made the entire chapter INCREDIBLY suspenseful. The counter in the corner of the screen counting how many people have died, friend or foe, combined with the constant sound of a heartbeat, combined with the occasional short cut scene whenever the counter hit a certain number, ooooooooHOOOOO it was an EXPERIENCE!!! I struggle to think of a part of a game that has filled me with so much dread and anxiety. It made me feel suffocated, which is exactly how the characters were saying they felt. It immersed me in the experience really freaking well. My only complaint is that it felt like the chapter cut off at a very random point. I had hardly gotten halfway through the map when it ended. I was kinda looking forward to actually getting to fight Micaiah’s team. (Which by the way, any chapter where a different team you got to control previously appeared as enemies was REALLY freaking cool.)
So after that, all the teams join together. I really love how they let you divvy up this one massive team into three different ones. Getting to control who goes with what team was very fun, and felt really cool. Really felt like I was strategizing carefully, trying to ensure I don’t leave one team with all my bad units. Having a whole custom menu to do it made it feel really special. Not to mention the plan to split up so Ashera sees it as less suspicious really helped in making our victory feel earned
Before I get into the ending, I just quickly wanted to say that I’m glad the dragon tribe finally got something interesting to do. The explanation of why they’ve kept to themselves makes a lot of sense and it really helps tie up a lot of loose ends. That was one thing I thought felt very snubbed in FE9 so I’m glad they got to finish that.
Okay, I can finally talk about the ending. There’s… a lot of different aspects of it to talk about. First, I feel like despite how rushed it felt at the VERY end, it felt oddly drawn out. By like 4-3 or 4-4 I was kinda like “Okay game you can end now.” There wasn’t a whole lot going on that I really cared about, and gameplay wise there wasn’t a lot keeping it interesting either. It felt like it was all set up for the final chapter, when those chapters should have been dealing with stuff instead, taking the load off the final chapter so it can feel more focused.
Even then, however, I still feel like they tried to stuff way too many plots into this game. There’s multiple plot points that really just felt incredibly pointless. Right at the end they tried to stuff so many down my throat and I hardly cared about any of them. The game REALLY acts like the Branded are way more important than they are, I honestly just cannot muster up any feelings towards them. They reveal someone’s a Branded and maybe for like a few seconds I’m like “whoa!” because the scene itself is well written, but then I immediately go “wait, why should I care?” If they gave me a reason to really care then it might be cool. It does lead to some interesting character backstories at least, but I’m not sure what the point of it is. It felt like there was supposed to be some overarching story or message there and whatever it was I just did not pick up on it.
I also didn’t really care all that much about Micaiah and Sanaki being related. It was fun seeing Sanaki get kinda jealous, but I really don’t see how that affects Micaiah at all, and honestly I just feel like it overcomplicates some stuff. It doesn’t change enough for me, Sanaki and Micaiah don’t have an interesting dynamic, and I feel like the time spent exploring it would have been better spent on something else, like Naesala. Also that final scene with them felt so scripted, that did NOT feel in character for either of them it was weird.
Part of me likes the idea behind Sephiran, having this one twist mastermind behind every single conflict across both games, but in execution boy I could not care less about this guy. The reveal came SO last minute, about as late as they possibly could have revealed it. They give me no time to see him as a villain or how it really affects most of the characters. I like the idea of this character as a villain, he’s SUPER polite and nice, so him having such awful intentions is really interesting. It’s interesting having a villain that’s given up on the world and just thinks it’s better if it gets destroyed. But, there are some major issues aside from what I already said that hold him back. One, it felt like they didn’t commit to him being a villain, it felt like they wanted him to feel misunderstood and a ‘good guy deep down’. Regardless of if he is, he shouldn’t have been. With as little screen time as he gets as a villain, they did not have enough time to do that. Oh, and that brings me into my next point, I HARDLY KNOW THEY GUY!! I CAN ONLY THINK OF LIKE TWO TIMES I EVER EVEN INTERACTED WITH HIM, AND BOTH TIMES WERE IN FE9!! BRUH! I HAVE ZERO CONNECTION TO HIM!! And then they reveal that he’s ‘Lehran’ and at first I’m like “WHOA!!!” before immediately realizing “Wait I don’t know who that is.” I remember it being mentioned but I don’t remember any context to the name. Maybe that’s my fault… Also, I don’t really like how him commanding the Black Knight takes away from the Black Knight’s character. You mean the Black Knight isn’t a one-man army with his own goals and ambitions, but is primarily just following someone else? What a let down. I think it would have been better to have Sephiran show up at the beginning of the endgame, and reveal himself as a villain when you fight Zelgius, giving you a lot more time to see him be an actual villain. The end is for wrapping things up, not carrying out more mysteries. At the very least, the twist that he’s a villain makes sense. I can look back and go “Oh wait no yeah I can see that.” So uh, props for that I guess?
To reiterate something I said a while back, this game gets a little too confident, and believes that some of the stuff it's doing is really amazing and profound when it really just comes off as needlessly complicated, pointless and honestly? A little dumb. The story needed to be simpler. A simple ending would have done wonders here. I feel like they had a great setup here to do that too. I love how the final chapter is set up. Choosing an elite team to scale an unending tower, with each level having a big boss fight against someone super important. And between each floor, you have Ike and Yune having casual conversation about how the world was created and other things, reinforcing this game’s AMAZING world building and tying up a ton of loose ends. It really felt like they were trying to have a super hopeful, sweet message about the beauty of humanity and to embrace the winds of change. A simple one, one I REALLY liked and felt like fit the games beautifully. But then you reach Sephiran and it all really just starts to fall apart. They randomly try to start some plot about the gods and whether the world needs them or something and I just lost all interest. They got super philosophical right at the end and just kinda ruined itself.
I absolutely hate how the entire final chapter, they’re talking about how Yune and Ashera need the other to balance themselves out, then you just kill Ashera and everything’s all well and fine in the world?? Bruh what!? The game contradicted itself. Ashera should have given in and embraced humanity, it just doesn’t make sense if she doesn't. That, or the world should have ended. A happy or sad ending would have been worlds better than the… nothing ending they have now. It would have left SOME kind of impact. I literally felt NOTHING during the ending. No emotions in my head. No frustration, no sorrow, no relief, no joy. Zero, zilch, nada. Man they had such a GOOD set up and just fumbled it!! It was like the entire game they were doing SOOOO freaking good, constantly running higher and higher, then right at the last second they just kinda started tripping over themselves and fell down. Like it is so close I feel like a simple mod could easily fix it. If I knew anything about modding I’d totally do that.
To finally wrap up, the lackluster ending is not enough to counteract everything amazing that came before it. It’s not like FE8 where nothing went anywhere and just kinda, killed my enjoyment of the whole thing. One minor thing that did really frustrate me however, is like, one of the last bits of story you get in the entire game. Ike’s end card says he “left on a journey to lands still unknown. He was never seen again.” WHAAAAAT?!?! HE DOES ALL OF THIS TO BE WITH HIS FRIENDS AND FAMILY AND HE JUST UP AND LEAVES?!!? WHY’D HE DO ANY OF THIS THEN?!?! I HONESTLY just decided to ignore this blurb, it messes with way too much, I don’t even want to talk about it further.
The credits were lackluster too compared to the ETHEREAL experience that FE9’s credits were. But that very last little bit about Ike’s legacy was very nice, it felt good to just linger on that. Oh and I was up until like midnight writing out all the records they give you, gosh DANG that took ages… Overall, aside from the ending, I think I MUCH prefer the execution of FE10’s plot, but I do think I still prefer FE9’s simpler story. That is to say, I think I prefer the idea of FE9’s story, but I prefer experiencing FE10’s. FE9’s story had some AMAZING mood shifts and character arcs that I don’t think FE10 quite reaches, but it also has poor pacing and plot armor holding it back, both of which FE10 MORE than fixes.
Hoooh boy, this review is really freaking long. It’s come out to 13,696 words after finishing it. That's still about 3,500 under my Pikmin 4 review but still. I wasn’t expecting to write so much on this game but considering how BIG it is, I think it’s justified, I’l try not to make this a habit. I REALLY love FE10 in case that wasn’t clear. I feel kinda bad ending off with such a negative section but hey the game did the same thing lol. I feel pretty confident in saying no FE game will beat FE10 for me. But I do have to admit, I think FE9 is closer than I thought at first. The other day I booted it up just to go through the extras menu and Holy COW it felt like I was playing a game I had been playing since childhood. It felt so incredibly nostalgic and comforting to me. I just played it for the first time in 2022 it has not been that long. I kinda expect FE9 to grow on me with each playthrough, I’m not too sure that will happen with FE10. Who knows, it may surpass it. (Gosh can I PLEASE have a normal opinion on games for once, do I always have to side with the underrated ones?!?!)
Finally, in conclusion…
FE10 EASILY scores my favorite gameplay in the series. The fresh gimmicks make the game feel so INCREDIBLY fleshed out and complete. The gameplay satisfies me immensely. The way the game takes advantage of every mechanic, like ally/other units, variety of enemy units, special terrain or unique victory conditions does so much. The variety of weapons, classes and tools also really add to this as well.
The presentation matures the atmosphere of FE9 beautifully by taking advantage of pretty much every aspect of the game. I LOVE how the updated character sprites look, it’s such an improvement. And even if the art style didn’t originate here, it’s still my favorite in the series. Overall though I do still prefer FE9’s presentation, it’s just too nostalgic for me not to.
FE10 easily has my favorite cast, just being FE9 and more. Between both games, I have come to feel so close with this cast and characters. Ike and Elincia were both done just as well as in FE9, Brom and Nephenee got a ton of wonderful screen time, and so many other characters like Titania and Tibarn were really fun too. They’re all written insanely well, being funny, full of heart and captivating, even if a few got kinda snubbed.
And for the story, it has a few bumps. It can get too confident in itself and tries to stuff way too much into itself, becoming a bit convoluted at times. But aside from that, a large majority of the story is absolutely PHENOMENAL! The pacing is incredible, always keeping me engaged and excited to continue. It fleshes out the world beautifully. It fixes major issues FE9 had. Scenes are incredibly well written. I’m unsure if it’s my favorite, but it’s wonderful.
Overall, this game’s confidence is very commendable. It tries to do SO much, and like, 80% of it, it NAILS! Even in areas where it doesn’t particularly appeal to my tastes, I cannot deny how much of a masterpiece this game is. It is a more than worthy successor to FE9, and being the last original game of the classic FE era, its grandness and size is more than justified.
Re-reading my FE9 review, the main word I used to describe it was “genuine”. While that certainly isn’t wrong for FE10, I don’t think it quite fits. I think “ambitious”, for better or worse, is the word I’d use. Professional, confident, grand, BIG, these are a few other words. Triumphant maybe. FE9 feels like a chill friend you love to hang out with, who’s always got your back. FE10 is a great, powerful mentor you can look up to, though perhaps isn’t as personable. I stand by what I said about being able to respect this game, despite its flaws. The more I think about it the more I need to replay FE9 to see if I like it more, but I still think FE10 is the best one regardless. What a beautiful swan song to classic FE. Oddly enough, I can already see tiny hints of things I don’t like about modern FE seeping through in a few places. Taking itself too seriously, trying to get too philosophical. It’s almost like foreshadowing. But I don’t like to focus on that, when everything else is so good.
Records:
Overall time: 57:46:31
Total turns: 515.
Unit Records:
5th: Titania- Gold Knight. Lvl.18. 71w, 194btl, 18rnd.
4th: Ilyana- Arch Sage. Lvl.5. 72w, 107btl, 24rnd.
3rd: Mia- Trueblade. Lvl.15. 95w, 143btl, 18rnd.
2nd: Nephenee- Sentinel. Lvl.15. 99w, 201btl, 19rnd.
1st: Tibarn- Hawk King. Lvl.37. 103w, 136btl, 7rnd.
(More at the bottom of my notes)
The last thing I have written in my notes is: “Man, farewell Radiant Dawn. What a WONDERFUL game. I will never forget my experience with this one. As much as I’m sad to be finished with it, I’m also super relieved to finally be done. I love these characters and world dearly, until we meet again…”
Notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IPmzQBviXE6JpMiZWzJLtF_ioTLlIRKZ6xpWJ0L5i5k/
This has a lot of things I enjoy in Path of Radiance, but the attempt to make it more epic and spectacular came at the cost of my favorite thing in the prequel: the characters. Like, this is ways better than nobody but Leif/Roy being important, but the huge pool of units really backfires, some of them are so plain it's annoying.
A very unique fire emblem game, with a story that does everything path of radiance couldn't. it's hard, has some great characters, and the single best take on gods in fire emblem except for maybe three houses. it's about the power of humanity, what it means to be human, and how we are seen to others. I really enjoyed it, despite getting frustrated occasionally at the map design or the reveal of a certain twist. it also has some fantastic villains, and probably the single best fire emblem finale ever.
This review contains spoilers
It's both better and worse than PoR, but I came out of it really loving it, even if I think its narrative has peaks and valleys (and by valleys I mean the blood pact). Radiant Dawn is certainly trying something different, and when it's good, god, it's good. It has the most capital H Heart out of any FE game I've played so far.
I ended up watching the 2nd playthrough content on YouTube because I am a deeply lazy person, but it really solidified why I think Radiant Dawn is so great. It's just full of love and care and kindness? The final conversation between Soren and Ike, with Ike embracing him (they're in love btw), them leaving to travel together, Soren and Almedha, her desperation to find her child... Zelgius and Sephiran's relationship (they're also in love btw).
Even other things like the optional scene where Rolf tells Boyd he loves him and Oscar like they were his siblings and considers the mercenaries his family over his biological mother? Elincia's dedication to ruling Crimea with compassion? Stefan's hysteria when he realizes there was truly no reason for his suffering? Reyson telling Tibarn how much he cares for him in their A support conversations (oh look, more gay people) (the Tellius duology reaches levels of homosexuality previously unknown to man)... It's small moments like that where I find this game so poignant. The Tellius games have so much thought and detail put into them and their characters, and it shows. Anyone who says Ike is a nothing character can fight me behind a Denny's because he rules, etc.
"Ask any you meet be they young or old, beorc or laguz, of a hero named Ike and you'll receive a warm smile and a tale or two of faith, courage, and honesty." <3333
I ended up watching the 2nd playthrough content on YouTube because I am a deeply lazy person, but it really solidified why I think Radiant Dawn is so great. It's just full of love and care and kindness? The final conversation between Soren and Ike, with Ike embracing him (they're in love btw), them leaving to travel together, Soren and Almedha, her desperation to find her child... Zelgius and Sephiran's relationship (they're also in love btw).
Even other things like the optional scene where Rolf tells Boyd he loves him and Oscar like they were his siblings and considers the mercenaries his family over his biological mother? Elincia's dedication to ruling Crimea with compassion? Stefan's hysteria when he realizes there was truly no reason for his suffering? Reyson telling Tibarn how much he cares for him in their A support conversations (oh look, more gay people) (the Tellius duology reaches levels of homosexuality previously unknown to man)... It's small moments like that where I find this game so poignant. The Tellius games have so much thought and detail put into them and their characters, and it shows. Anyone who says Ike is a nothing character can fight me behind a Denny's because he rules, etc.
"Ask any you meet be they young or old, beorc or laguz, of a hero named Ike and you'll receive a warm smile and a tale or two of faith, courage, and honesty." <3333