Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn

[Patinator]

Genre: Tactical RPG

Rating: E10+, Mild Fantasy Violence and Mild Language

Console: Wii

The tenth installment in the long-running Fire Emblem series hit U.S. stores in early November ’07. Many have given it mixed reviews for many reasons, ranging from lack of improvement, both system-wise and graphics-wise, over its GameCube predecessor, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, to its devilish difficulty. The game is ranked at 78% on Game Rankings and Metacritic.

The game stars nearly every character from Path of Radiance, and follows several groups all around the game’s continent, Tellius. You begin with the Dawn Bridge in Begnion-occupied Daein, then find yourself with the Royal Knights in Crimea, fight in Begnion with the Greil Mercenaries, and then have all playable units split into three groups, heading toward a common place and enemy…

I thought that this game needed a thread. The others are long-dead, and have pretty much nothing in them. Not only could I use a LOT of tips, despite having the guide (Stupid Prima. -_-), but there’s probably people who want to express their feelings on this game.

I’ll do just that. I’m very mixed about this game. I love it for its pleasant graphics, great story and characters, and wonderful music. But I DESPISE it for being incredibly hard, even on the so-called “easy” mode. After several months, I finally beat it last night, and am about to go through a second play-through on Normal mode to get everything you can get on a second play-through… A Dark Sage included.

And… I’ve had five games ended, spanning two hours and four chapters.

 

[Darkwashu]

Hardest FE ever

 

[pockyD]

FE9 was probably the easiest ever, followed closely by FE8

Part 1 of FE10 (this one: radiant dawn) was semi-hard because almost all of the characters suck balls, but everything after that, it was a complete breeze - it's probably the 3rd easiest overall

It didn't compare at all to FE6 (where it's hard to even beat the first chapter on hard mode O_o) or even FE7 HHM (not to mention the ridiculousness of FE5)

In addition, this game was probably one of the worst as far as non-game-mechanics go, because of the almost non-existent character development (stemming from the absence of unique support conversations).

I personally enjoyed it because I love FE games, but I had nowhere near as much fun playing this one as I did FE6/7

edit: also, not being able to see mobility in hard mode was just more annoying and time-wasting than actually increasing difficulty (like mandating you play while wearing an eyepatch), and the absence of the weapons triangle was just stupid (it just homogenizes the characters even more, and makes swordsusers suck even more) -_-.

 

[Bowser King]

The game was really challenging but that's why I like FE in the first place. Trying to get every character good (don't see why you would) is near impossible (especially for the fat girl in the red armour, meg?). All that aside it is a really good game and if you haven't played the other FE or only PoR then you will see that it's a lot more fun.

 

[pockyD]

the problem is that, with the lack of character development, there's no real motivation to try to "get every character good" aside from simply attempting to challenge yourself

In previous games, the characters were given much more personality, such that the player would only naturally grow to like/dislike certain characters and as such, work hard to make them usable // include them in their team. This game doesn't encourage that.

On a personal note, I've already beaten the game 4x, including hard mode and some random gimmick runthroughs

 

[Deleted member]

Its my very first Fire Emblem and i only had one person die.

 

[Bowser King]

At what difficulty??

I my self didn't let one person die. They seemed to important...

 

[Deleted member]

Well.........
in my first play through on easy, I let a LOT of people die. Including Edward, Nolan, Leonardo, and Soren.
I was a noob at that time so..........i played it again with new game,

2nd...........more people survived, but i had Soren die by accident,..... and i like Soren :/

3rd times the charm, the only people i had die was Fiona (i suicided her for the lulz) and Heather...............

On 4th playthrough (on normal), the only person i let die was Fiona, cause i suicided her.

 

[Sad Panda323]

I REALLY want to buy this game, but I can't seem to find it anywhere.

 

[Icy_Eagle]

edit: also, not being able to see mobility in hard mode was just more annoying and time-wasting than actually increasing difficulty (like mandating you play while wearing an eyepatch), and the absence of the weapons triangle was just stupid (it just homogenizes the characters even more, and makes swordsusers suck even more) -_-.

There is a weapon triangle <_<

 

[Darkwashu]

FE9 was probably the easiest ever, followed closely by FE8

Part 1 of FE10 (this one: radiant dawn) was semi-hard because almost all of the characters suck balls, but everything after that, it was a complete breeze - it's probably the 3rd easiest overall

It didn't compare at all to FE6 (where it's hard to even beat the first chapter on hard mode O_o) or even FE7 HHM (not to mention the ridiculousness of FE5)

In addition, this game was probably one of the worst as far as non-game-mechanics go, because of the almost non-existent character development (stemming from the absence of unique support conversations).

I personally enjoyed it because I love FE games, but I had nowhere near as much fun playing this one as I did FE6/7

edit: also, not being able to see mobility in hard mode was just more annoying and time-wasting than actually increasing difficulty (like mandating you play while wearing an eyepatch), and the absence of the weapons triangle was just stupid (it just homogenizes the characters even more, and makes swordsusers suck even more) -_-.

The first gruop dint suck,just had TERRIBLE defense <_<

 

[Deleted member]

The first gruop dint suck,just had TERRIBLE defense <_<

Don't you dare offend Edward and Nolan....................and possibly Sothe and Leo

 

[pockyD]

There is a weapon triangle <_<

Not in hard mode. Be ready to watch edward die to bandits

The first gruop dint suck,just had TERRIBLE defense <_<

Bad defense, bad speed, etc. =[. But in addition to that, they almost all had no personality

Don't you dare offend Edward and Nolan....................and possibly Sothe and Leo

leo sucks, sothe is ok but his class sucks (knives wtf ), nolan is awesome, and edward turns out pretty good but has a crappy time getting there, especially in hard mode

 

[Patinator]

Gah, multi-quote isn't working currently... Bear with me.

FE9 was probably the easiest ever, followed closely by FE8

Part 1 of FE10 (this one: radiant dawn) was semi-hard because almost all of the characters suck balls, but everything after that, it was a complete breeze - it's probably the 3rd easiest overall

It didn't compare at all to FE6 (where it's hard to even beat the first chapter on hard mode O_o) or even FE7 HHM (not to mention the ridiculousness of FE5)

In addition, this game was probably one of the worst as far as non-game-mechanics go, because of the almost non-existent character development (stemming from the absence of unique support conversations).

I personally enjoyed it because I love FE games, but I had nowhere near as much fun playing this one as I did FE6/7

I don't know about it being 3rd easiest over-all. Some chapters are just plain hard to get through without injury. At the same time, some are as easy as slicing a molten knife through hot butter. I owned the last three Endgames, but the second... Rebirth 2... Man, that was tough for a while. o_O;

Well.........
in my first play through on easy, I let a LOT of people die. Including Edward, Nolan, Leonardo, and Soren.
I was a noob at that time so..........i played it again with new game,

2nd...........more people survived, but i had Soren die by accident,..... and i like Soren :/

3rd times the charm, the only people i had die was Fiona (i suicided her for the lulz) and Heather...............

On 4th playthrough (on normal), the only person i let die was Fiona, cause i suicided her.

Ha, my first was worse. The only surviving people, as I remember, were Micaiah, (REAVER) Nolan, Sigrun, Ranulf, Ike, Gatrie, Nephenee, Brom, Geoffrey, Lucia, and...

Yeah. My second file, all but Laura lived.

My third, and only completed, everyone lived. I saved over on my first and second, in case my choices pre-tower got me killed.

The game was really challenging but that's why I like FE in the first place. Trying to get every character good (don't see why you would) is near impossible (especially for the fat girl in the red armour, meg?). All that aside it is a really good game and if you haven't played the other FE or only PoR then you will see that it's a lot more fun.

Meg, Fiona, Laura... Gah, Part One had terrible units. >_>

At what difficulty??

I my self didn't let one person die. They seemed to important...

My second play is on... Normal. That's odd that I'm failing so hard, because I'm one of those few people who got Heather to Whisper the Lvl. 21 route. o_o;;;

 

[pockyD]

is rebirth 2 the one with the

Spoiler

Black Knight

? that is so ridiculously easy; just get on a cover square and it's over in 2 rounds

you'll find that almost all of the hard chapters (not in hard mode) are in part 1, or in part 3 with the dawn brigade (my god they're bad). In hard mode, some of part 2 can be difficult too (the one with nephenee and brom is ridiculously tedious if you want to hit all the villages), but still, team ike ***** everyone for free

 

[Patinator]

is rebirth 2 the one with the

Spoiler

Black Knight

? that is so ridiculously easy; just get on a cover square and it's over in 2 rounds

you'll find that almost all of the hard chapters (not in hard mode) are in part 1, or in part 3 with the dawn brigade (my god they're bad). In hard mode, some of part 2 can be difficult too (the one with nephenee and brom is ridiculously tedious if you want to hit all the villages), but still, team ike ***** everyone for free

Yup, it's that one. I had trouble because Rafiel kept getting hit, and I HAD TO GET THAT WISHBLADE. Ike could do about 15, taking 8 about half the time... It was pretty easy, I suppose, once I wiped out the close units and relied on Nailah, Tibarn, Nephenee, and Caineghis...

But Ashera got her butt pwned off, served to her on a rusty, moldy plate, and burned up. Is that even slightly weird?

Now, I have a question for anyone. My guide isn't within reach right now, so...

Do I have to do normal-difficulty on a second play-through to get the extra goodies, namely

Spoiler

Pelleas

?

 

[pockyD]

no, you can get him on hard

rafiel was a poor choice anyway (it's REALLY hard to protect him without canto) -_-, but bolting/meteor/blizzard makes getting the wishblade easy

 

[Patinator]

no, you can get him on hard

rafiel was a poor choice anyway (it's REALLY hard to protect him without canto) -_-, but bolting/meteor/blizzard makes getting the wishblade easy

So I'm assuming Easy is out the window? Crap...

Good bye, my one chance at seeing Carreau, Fenrir, Verrine...

Well, Rafiel IS the best Heron, Vigor-wise...

 

[pockyD]

no, i think you can get him on easy (i've never played easy mode though, so i don't know for sure; i don't see why not though), i just didn't understand why you'd want to play it on easy after beating it on normal -_-

 

[Bowser King]

For

Spoiler

Black Knight

all I did was attack, take damage, run for my life and heal. it got harder though on higher difficulty as some n00bs on the other side kept dieing (I dont know why I brought the dragon prince.....). The rest was quite easy.

Spoiler

Ashera

was easy all you needed was Ike and Machia (dosen't she automatically get given to 2 class changes? because she sucked anyway...) after beating the orb things.

 

[Deleted member]

For

Spoiler

Black Knight

all I did was attack, take damage, run for my life and heal. it got harder though on higher difficulty as some n00bs on the other side kept dieing (I dont know why I brought the dragon prince.....). The rest was quite easy.

Spoiler

Ashera

was easy all you needed was Ike and Machia (dosen't she automatically get given to 2 class changes? because she sucked anyway...) after beating the orb things.

Theres are unit named Machia? She must be amazing......

Jk, I had the lion king (forgot name) and tibarn do all the work.

 

[Bowser King]

It's hard remembering all there names As for doing the work, same with me plus the raven king and lion kings friend. I was talking about how to beat it.

 

[Deleted member]

Also, a question out of curiousty, At the part where Yune blesses everyones weapon, Lets say you didn't bless Ike with Ragnell and instead, picked some other weapon. Does that mean you can never beat the game as u cannot beat Ashera without Ragnell?

 

[Patinator]

Also, a question out of curiousty, At the part where Yune blesses everyones weapon, Lets say you didn't bless Ike with Ragnell and instead, picked some other weapon. Does that mean you can never beat the game as u cannot beat Ashera without Ragnell?

Actually, Ragnell HAS to be blessed.

...Y'know, I had Stefan with the Dragonfoe skill and a Wyrmslayer. I thought he'd do like 1000 to a Dragon, lol, but no... And I went and blessed the Vague Katti over the Alondite. I thought it was already blessed.

Also, PockyD, I beat it first on easy. Now I'm doing Normal, on a second play.

Sadly, because it's SO hard... Ten game-overs on one chapter, and I still haven't beaten it. Part 1, Chapter 2...

 

[pockyD]

dragonfoe and wyrmslayer don't stack, i believe

 

[Lord Viper]

I play this game over again for a long time, (since It first came out), characters I kill with the most is Micaiah, Mia, Ilyana, Marcia, and Nephenee, (lol, all females XD).

 

[lordzedd]

yeah it has sucked hours out of my life.. hard mode is like scraping your nails on a chalkboard! its too bad that micaiah's party blows

 

[Patinator]

dragonfoe and wyrmslayer don't stack, i believe

If only... Then you'd also have Beastfoe w/ Sanaki/Tormod/Calill, or Birdfoe w/ Bastian or Soren. Or Dragonfoe w/ Ilyana, lol. That'd be niiiiiiice.

@ Viper JLT4GOV: ...Ike? Haar? Tibarn? Seriously, XD. My top battle-winners were Haar, Tibarn, someone, Nephenee, and Ike, in least-to-most order.

 

[Queen Zelda]

I started playing this game in easy mode and I still thought it was hard. That was because I didn't want anybody to die so I constantly restarted the chapters. The only one that died was Gatrie and that was in Part III.

 

[Deleted member]

My top battle-winners are Boyd, Mia, Edward, Soren, Ike, Sothe and Haar

 

[Patinator]

I started playing this game in easy mode and I still thought it was hard. That was because I didn't want anybody to die so I constantly restarted the chapters. The only one that died was Gatrie and that was in Part III.

G-Gatrie?! And I thought that was impossible, lol... XD

 

[ozg82889]

my bro already beat it and im on part 3 but i don't play the game as often. he is playing on hard mode and is a few chapters behind me. hes on part 3 chap 3 im on part 3 chap 7ish.

i don't think its too hard. the problem for me is that i make dumb mistakes like place a weak character in a place that leaves them open to attack from an enemy i didn't notice.

every time a character dies i restart the chapter. ive done that since TSS for GBA. it makes the game last a lot longer.

ive already made my decisions for my final team for the tower i just need to level them all up properly.

 

[Lord Viper]

Do anyone know how to get the last Conversation in the game. I can't seem to get it. =/

 

[Patinator]

Do anyone know how to get the last Conversation in the game. I can't seem to get it. =/

Let's see...

You have to import data from a memory card with Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance clear data. Ike and Soren must have a support rank of A in both RD and PoR. Then you get it.

 

[Chris Lionheart]

I love this game, but it wasn't exactly my favorite Fire Emblem (and I will explain why.)

The things I like the best about Fire Emblem are its incredible artwork (which helps inspire me), great stories, nice soundtrack (I love epic music), and at its core it helps me work my brain a little and have fun at the same time.

Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn had:

Artwork- Ok as far as this goes it was the best I've ever played (and I've played all 4 American Fire Emblems.) It was so generous that even the more important non-playable characters like Ashera, Yune, Jarod, etc. got portraits. I just have one issue.... MEG!!!

Storyline- Despite what the Gamespot review says, I never felt that the story was shallow. It was comparable to the story's of FE7 and FE9. I loved the amount of detail put into filling in the blanks left by FE9. The plot really caught my attention and kept it.

Gameplay- This Fire Emblem basically has most of what I (and anyone else) should expect from a Fire Emblem game. It messed with the formula quite a bit though, and not all of the changes were good.
Pros:
Height changes add new tactical experiences.
You finally get to be on the side not receiving the damage from pushable rocks.
Defensive missions are so much fun (despite being some of the hardest missions.)
The game gave a pleasant level of challenge on easy, though normal and hard are hard.
Huge campaign. I got 52+ hours on my first playthrough as compared to 28-30 hours on Path of Radiance.
Cons:
Rewarp staffs were annoying (I wanted to brutally murder Izuka.)
Characters weren't well distrubuted between the split groups (Micaiah's Group SUCKED, Nolan and Sothe are the only truly great units that are available on a reliable basis. Ike's group on the other hand got almost all of the game's best characters.)
Bonus damage was to much of a factor, even in easy. I felt reluctant to bring flyer's into the fray when there was any chance of harm to them.
Anima Mages were divided into 3 groups and don't get staves until Archsage level.
Palidans were divided into 4 groups and made practically useless in comparison to their FE9 greatness.
To many required units kills the last levels replay value.
Lack of support conversations killed character backstories that made the Fire Emblem plot even better.

Music- This is where I feel the game really bombed. Usually I can expect to see many of the same recycled songs (which I enjoyed and thus liked to see.) This game on the other hand had a rather shallow Sound Room (except for a few nice songs like Dawn Brigade.) But I still liked the sound room enough to justify this part of the game as reasonably good.

All in all, I feel its a great game. One of the best Wii titles.

The Gamespot reviewers were clearly high when they gave this game a 6/10 for shallow plot, laughable villians, and insane difficulty. Obviously, they paid no attention at all to the plot and have never heard of easy difficulty. Had I reviewed the game, I would have given it atleast a solid 8/10.

Oh and my top battle winners were:
Tibarn, Gatrie, Ike, Mia, and Nephenee (not necessarily in that order, though Nephenee was undisputed champ.)

 

[GreenKirby]

So people still complain about Nintendo being casual friendly but a topic of an actually challenging game has only like 30 posts?

IMO, it's not just Nintendo that needs to get their priorities straight. >_>


Sidenote: Are there any Gatrie/Tree-in-skirt pair fan drawings out yet? lol

 

[Chris Lionheart]

Sidenote: Are there any Gatrie/Tree-in-skirt pair fan drawings out yet? lol

^WIN!!!^

/10smittenkittens

 

[Bowser King]

Radiant Dawn was a great game. I would have given it a minimum 8.5/ 10. Though because FE was a series that NA got very late, many people didn't pickup on it. I find that some people find this game to hard (I mean FE altogether) so they don't buy it. If you like really challenging games, buy it! If you like turn based war games, buy it!

 

[Deleted member]

i give it a 9/10. It made me a fan of the series, when i bought Path of Radiance after i beat RD.

 

[Lord Viper]

Let's see...

You have to import data from a memory card with Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance clear data. Ike and Soren must have a support rank of A in both RD and PoR. Then you get it.

I see. I have a rank of B in PoR so I have to beat that game all over again.... no problem, just that my PoR CD don't work anymore. T_T

I'll just use my firends PoR then to get that last conversation.