Radiant strategy game for the Gamecube.

Story

Path of Radiance is placed in the fantasy world with only one surviving continent of a great flood is called Tellius where two intelligent beings live, the Beorc (humans) and the Larguz (human like beings that are able to shape-shift into animals). The story begins with Ike the son of Greil of Greil Mercenaries in being set as leader for some of the jobs. After a couple of jobs, the mercenaries are attacked by Daein, a Beorc kingdom that has just invaded Crimea, soldiers discover a young woman unconscious on the side of the road.

Later after she regains consciousness, she tells the mercenaries she is Princess Elincia Ridell Crimea and asks the mercenaries to escort her to Gallia, a Larguz kingdom. On the way however someone very close to Ike is killed by the enigmatic Black Knight, a mysterious man that always wears a full body black armor and one of Deain's four riders. This leads Ike and company on an adventure that takes them across the continent.

Gameplay

The gameplay is similar to the previous Fire Emblem games with a grid-based battlefield and weapon triangle, although the magic types have changed to fire > wind, wind > thunder, thunder > wind. Light magic is neither strong nor weak against other spells, and dark magic does not exist. Weapons remain the same with swords > against axes, axes > against lances, lances > against swords, and bows not part of the triangle. Also from the previous games, when a unit falls in battle they are gone for good.

New to the series are the Larguz, and skills and a few more. Larguz are powerful fighters that are split into nine (in this game) and can shift the way the battle is going. However, they cannot remain forever in their Larguz forms without certain items. Skills are special abilities that characters have or can learn from a skill scroll. Although most skills can be learned by all characters, some are specific to certain units.

Lifespan

This game has quite a bit of replay value because on the second and beyond times through, some characters and bosses have bands that increase stats. There are seven characters to unlock, and for those that replay the game again on hard mode there is a secret fight after defeating Ashnard.

Graphics

The graphics are only on the upper medium level. The 3D images were for many characters were on the lower end of the scale. The game makes up for it slightly with the characters' individual pictures.

Sound

Music is crisp and clean sounding and this was the first Fire Emblem game to include lyrics in one of its songs (I admit I have no idea on the language, I think it may be the Heron Clan language). Sound effects were very good and clear.

Review by Sarnoc