** So anyway, I've decided to start reviewing games for a friend's site, so without further a-do, here is my review for fire emblem radiant dawn:
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
Platform: Wii
Developer: Intelligent Systems/Nintendo
Release dates: JAP 2007-02-22
NA 2007-11-05
EU 2008-03-14
AU 2008-04-10
Genre: Tactical RPG
Rating: CERO: A (all ages)
ESRB: E10+ (Everyone 10+)
OFLC: M (Mature Audience)
PEGI: 12+
Players: 1Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn is the sequel to Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and the tenth game in the Fire Emblem Series, a series which does not contain a sole protagonist or setting. In Radiant Dawn it is three years after the mad king Ashnard invaded Crimea and began a bloody war. Now tensions are high in many countries, and war is about to be made, plunging the continent of Tellius into chaos.
Plot: 9.50
Fire Emblem games never disappoint in their plot detail or interest. After the Mad King’s War, Crimea handed over it’s right to rule Daein to the Begnion Empire. Begnion now has a cruel grip over Daein. They do not care for the people, Bandits roam freely while the occupational army, lead by the cruel tyrant Jarod, are only interested in taking funds from Daein and putting their soldiers into work camps. A band of heroes by the name of the Dawn brigade have come together to fight the occupational army and for a free Daein. This is the first part of Radiant dawn. Later on you gain control of numerous other groups such as Crimea’s army and the Greil Mercenaries. Each part holds an intriguing storyline full of twists and confusion. They also hold multiple characters each able to be commanded in battle. Each character has a back story and a lot of detail. This goes to show how much effort is put into the plot, if you view the character map, you will see just how complicated the story line is, almost every character connects with another in some way. I found it very well done when the armies from different parts collided and you were forced to fight yourself in a way.
The history of Tellius is also full of life and detail, you once again get the feeling that a lot of work has gone into the game’s plot. It has a strong history of racism between two races (Beorc and Laguz) and also has it’s own religion and story of creation.
Game-play: 7.25 Fire emblem is not like most other games, Fire emblem is what is called a strategically RPG, the game-play of Fire Emblem is a lot like an advanced game of chess. You control your own small force of personalized units, and fight against the opposing red army. Sometimes you may be joined by yellow partner armies, and other green armies. Each unit has a class, you normally end up with around 3 or 4 units in the same class. Each class have their own advantages and disadvantages. With a special item or by reaching level 21 you can change class to the next one above (if the unit is Beorc)
Another different aspect to the game is the fact that your characters can not simply be revived by a revive or phoenix down. Once the character loses all it’s HP, it either dies or must retreat and become unable to be used again in battle, forcing people to think through their strategy more carefully.
Both the commanding of a number of units, and the fact there are so many different units available, brings in a whole heap of options for gameplay. Will you choose to command a group of offensive units who quickly crush the enemy and do not care for life loss? Or will you choose to lead a defensive group who slowly advance and carefully make sure they keep everyone alive? Will you have two or three complete powerhouse units to fight with? Or will you train everyone equally? The choice is yours.
This choice also adds a lot of replay value. Three different difficulty settings also aid this. Sure, you completed the game on easy. But try doing it without letting one of your units die. Did you make sure you got all the characters you could? One about getting all the weapons you could? Why not try doing it on Normal difficulty? The list goes on.
I personally find Fire Emblem’s game play to be very entertaining and enjoyable; some other people may find it boring and dislike it. I give it a 7.00 due to this variable fact.
Graphics: 6.50 Fire Emblem does not focus on graphics as much as other categories. The graphics, against popular belief, actually have been updated since the Gamecube Path of Radiance and are considerably better than them however the in-game graphics are still very low quality, although they do clearly display what you need, they have no eye-candy and are quite repetitive. There are also what I call conversational graphics, these are all 2-d and I find them quite well made. They clearly show expressions and give a very good display of the character and what they look like.
Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn also has numerous artistic stills, these are really quite good. They are very well made, and look very nice. They are very helpful for portraying important points in game play in detail.
The game does posses some very beautiful graphics when needed to. In cinematic scenes shown at different points during the game the graphics are stunning and the small clips are very nice to watch, and easy on the eyes. All the effects are well made and the end result is an interesting and captivating scene.
Audio: 8.00 The Music in Fire Emblem I found to be quite well made. With 85 different compositions they have music to match nearly any situation or mood. Some characters also had their own themes to match them, such as the King Caineghis or Ike. I especially liked the songs which created a bit of adrenaline such as ‘Stalwarts Unite’ and also enjoyed ‘Caineghis, King of Lions’
Music also plays a part in the game, with Heron Laguz (Human-like beings with wings who can transform into Herons) being able to sing magical songs or Galdrar. These are normally like hymns without words, and are very well performed.
Overall: 8.25Overall, Fire Emblem is a very entertaining game and is quite enjoyable, it can provide a tough challenge for veteran players and for newcomers it can be very user friendly with a number of tutorials and an easy difficulty helping them to get the feel of the game before moving on to bigger challenges. Fire emblem provides infinite replay value, and is not a waste of money.
However, if you prefer fast-moving, action packed games and dislike using your head in video games, then you should avoid this game, as it involves a lot of thinking things through, and you cannot just bash the buttons to win the game.
