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taco31

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Alright this is my first review so plz be nice any suggestions are welcomed.


Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn Box Art

Summery:
Developed by the same studio who made Advanced Wars (Intelligent Systems) and a licensed franchise of Nintendo. The Game picks right up where Fire Emblem Path of Radiance left off. Its three years later and after the Mad Kings War the nation of Crimea basicly allows Begnion to rule their deafeated enemy Daein. Players will encounter familiar characters to the series like Ike, Sothe, and Tormod while encountering new faces like Micaiah a light mage, Nolan a fighter (axe wielder) and Edward a Myrimidon (sword wielder). This is a hybrid turn based RPG/tactical game as it involves the traditional elements of an RPG while being similar to Adavanced Wars.

Story 7/10:
The story is very interesting and will keep the player interested throughout the entire game with twists and turns alike. However there is one major drawback you have to read ALOT of text. Most of the out of game sequences are spent reading text block after text block and it can get boring and repetative pressing the A button. Thankfully you can just press the B button to skip the entire thing. But overall if you actually read, the story is very well drawn out and planned.

Graphics 8/10:
I have to admit even though there is alot of staring down at a map from overhead the character models are great and the battle animations are beautiful expecially when you get a well earned critical hit or perform a complex spell. In addition the few cutscenes that are integrated into the game are among some of the best that I have seen they are very climatic and rendered beautifully. However, when there is character conversation there is nothing but a painted backdrop.

Gamplay 9/10:
This is where the game truly shines. There is alot and I mean alot of depth to the gameplay. You can build realationships with your characters so when they fight together they get a nice little bonus, there are unlockable characters (with a second playthrough), there are terrain bonuses to take into account, leveling up and class changes (class changes are when a unit levels up to level 21 then upgrades to a more powerful unit with more skills and stats kinda like the evolution aspect in pokemon), there is money management ie buying and selling items and weapons, there isn't any IR or motion sensing but there are three methods of control via classic controller, gamecube controller or the wii remote sideways all work fine. But perhaps the most important concept of this NINTENDO game is that it embraces death. Once a character is dead they are dead no extra lives or nothing. Players can either choose to move on or restart the mission from when they last saved as long as the character who died didn't compromise the mission at hand or as long as they were not a main character. There is also a battle save feature (a fire emblem first) for the easy and normal modes that allow players to save in the midst of battle so you actually can prevent character from dying. However, there is a hard mode unlocked by beating normal mode that disables this battle save. Be warned I played normal mode when I wrote this review and thoght it was challenging as the AI is very unforgiving and brutal the Hard mode is HARD. Not only can't you battlesave but you cant see enemy movement/attack range and no bonus experience (earned EXP used at base to level up). This mode is for the hardcore fans only and if you wanna try it then go right on ahead but no not me. The only minor drawback is that the story is linear and there is no multiplayer via wi-fi but this is relativly minor considering all of the depth to the single player mode. There is also extra content when you beat the game like cutscenes, portriats, art, and a sound room. As an added bonus there is GC data transfer. If you have data of Path of Radiance saved to a GC memory card you can transfer your charater data to Radiant Dawn to give you an edge in battle. If its replayability and depth your looking for Radiant Dawn has it. I guess I should also mention even though Normal was challenging newer players to the series can play the somewhat forgiving easy mode.

Sound 8/10:
One word epic the songs are well orchastrated and dynamic it actually gets your adrenaline pumping and gives you chills when you hear the boss music come on. The only flaw is that when you hear a stab or slash its somewhat muffled and dosen't really sound real probably Nintendo's family friendly mantra. But despite that, the sound is beautifully done.

Presentation 5/10:
Okay now we get to the weakest aspect of the game and I'll try to refrain myself from an all out rant. The presentation is weak. At one moment you see gorgeous cutscenes and VOICE ACTING in the cutscenes and then you have to read text. So if there was voice acting in the cutscenes why cant there be any voice during all of the text? And while the cutscenes are gorgeous they are too short and too few in number along with the combination that you are reading text for the majority of the game it just makes you ache and beg for more. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you have gorgeous cutscenes and then meh (meh=text and backdrops). Not necessarily a good mix.

Final Verdict 7.5/10:
This game has great gameplay and alot of depth and replayability to it and being a Fire Emblem fan myself I highly would recomend it. Just know what you are getting yourself into. A challenging and text heavy game with a lot of thinking to it.

*again suggestions are welcomed and I hope this review helped you make a informed well thought out decision.

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FriedToad

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Good review. Sounds like a great game.


Writing the review wise, i think i would of felt a little better with some more general use of grammar, and maybe a check through for spelling mistakes.


Very good review though, i think i may have almost imagined the game.

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taco31

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Thanx i tried to be very detailed with my review particularly with the gamplay and presentation aspects of the game since in my opioion those are the two most important things about any game. I think for the grammar though I kinda rushed through with it a bit resulting in the spelling errors and the such.

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ownage

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very detailed it made me feel like i had actually played the game its very detailed and you let people know the bad parts to so we know what we're getting into. overall its a very good review, a bit more background information would be nice but other than that everythings fine.

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taco31

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Thanx glad that you liked it. I hope to do more sometime.

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Waterworld96

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Wow, amazing review! Ihave played the game and you nail it on the head. I am a huge Fire Emblem fan and really did enjoy this one. I hope they make another for the wii

Anyways heres some *rep* for the nice review, keep them coming (please, lol)

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taco31

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Thanx. And don't worry I plan on doing more reviews once I find the time.

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kokiri_kid

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Awesome review!! I played this game and you told me things I didn't know!! I totally agree woith your review, and for having almost the same graphics, and not being online,it was still a great game a lone!!

I guess I AM going to be able to save the game on hrd mode!! I'm planning to do that in the summer. There is something wrong with the review though. You said that after the game you get nothing... not true. There is one thing you get to do and that's decide wheter Pelleas lives or dies, keep him as a character, and possibly use the only Shaman/Necromancer in the game! I heard you get another character and more items, but i don't know that for sure!! All in all great review, and sorry for the rant!!

I'd suggest re-reading before you post that way you can catch your mistakes and it will look more professional. Good job on the first time!

PS i am so late in replying!! =P

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Hydrallics

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...i need to play this game, mainly because i love Ike so much...i need to know his background!! >..<

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taco31

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Oh yeah. Forgot about that. I tend to try to mush fact together. But thanks glad that you found the review helpful.

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