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.