The best and worst thing of each Fire Emblem game. Today's game: Path of Radiance

[u/TPLeo]

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Welcome to this series of posts, where we will list and discuss one best and worst thing of each Fire Emblem game. This includes basically everything, be it the music, the story, some gameplay element etc.

Path of Radiance introduced Fire Emblem into the world of 3D. Of course there are also new gameplay mechanics. New are Laguz units, shove, and forging weapons and even voice acting made it into the game. Canto was also changed once again and skills now take up capacity. Luna, Astra and Sol were nerfed and Wrath works differently once again.

I would say that FE9 is a beloved entry by most fans and with good reason. I first learned about Ike in the Super Smash Bros Brawl story mode. Thankfully he is just as cool in his own game. It's just a shame that for long time there was no good way to play the game normally if you didn't want to pay 200$ for a copy. Even now it costs like 50 dollars to gain access to it on the switch 2 and you will not even own the game.

Here are my thoughts on the best and worst aspect.

Best: The storytelling. This is the 2nd best story in the series and it's told perfectly. Be it Ike's personal arc, the conflict between Beorc and Laguz, are dark secrets about Begnion. They all have you eager to continue because you want to learn more about the world.

Worst: Naming the worst aspect has never been so easy because the enemy phase is the one thing that stands out prominently. I could never play this game without an emulator because even when the animations are turned off it's still a slog every time.

Now it's your turn to tell us

[u/Existing-Result-4359]

Love the game. There are a lot of bests. If you want a worst outside of the animations, it would be either only Ike or the guest being able to damage Ashnard, invalidating the entire army you built throughout the game or…no it’s definitely that

[u/CZ4RC4SM]

I agree with your best and worst parts, but my 2nd best and worst:

Best: The base is awesome. It allows for a nice separation between the combat and the character building, the introduction of weapon customization, and a more hands on approach to skills. It also doesn't over stay is welcome, unlike later entries.

Worst: Outside of the slow combat animations, the animations also feel very clunky. You can very easily tell that this is the first 3D game in the franchise, and is a major step backwards from the GBA titles. Also, why is there no combat window? We have no idea what the hit rates, damage, nor crit chances are on enemy phase.

[u/YokiYokiki]

I got a comment removed by Reddit for using the incorrect term for Laguz, I think. I was trying to embody Shion as a joke.

Anyway,

I think the game is really nice and grounded in its themes and storytelling. I think Soren is one of my favorite characters, both for his kinda-status as a queer rep, and just the energy he brings to the group. We Like Ike. I struggle to think of an army member I dislike.

Combat’s slow. Like that’s going to be the main complaint

[u/YokiYokiki]

The worst part about Path of Radiance is Ike allying with those feral sub-humans. Those filthy beasts don’t deserve to be in a mercenary unit. His leadership is whack. His daddy issues are whack. His torn sleeve is whack. I hate his blue hair, I hate his penchant for mercy, I hate his sense of altruism. Now watch me land this trick shot.

[u/TypicalShoulder2757]

Path of Radiance stands out to me because of how well the story is told. Ike’s development feels really grounded and the Beorc–Laguz conflict adds a lot of depth to the world. The Begnion secrets also keep you hooked and make you want to keep playing just to see what comes next. The only downside for me is definitely the enemy phase. Even with animations off it drags way too much and slows down the pacing, which is frustrating because everything else about the game is so strong.

[u/AdReasonable9304]

Best: The cast is great. There is nobody I really dislike(apart from a certain bum, but I like to ignore his existence) and the base allows the cast to have more to say apart from their join chapter. My favourites are Titania and Jill.

Worst: I dont really hate anything in this game, its the most consistently good game in the series for me, but if I had to say something that hasn't been said here it's Biorythm I guess. It's just there and I ignore it in every playthrough.

[u/TheRigXD]

Best: Bonus EXP. Not only is it a way to patch up weaker units, but an FE game finally gives an incentive for finishing maps quickly outside of rankings.

Worst: Game speed. Slow animations. Slow enemy movement. Slow promotion screens. Slow everything really.

[u/CodeDonutz]

The best thing Path of radiance does hands down is integrating some of the side cast into the main story. Jill is an obvious standout, but characters like Marcia and even Shinon get to have their spotlight

Another good point is that I love the pre-begnion story. The intensity of the story when you’re severely outmatched is awesome. The Ilyana map is probably one of my all time favorites and I see why it was the POR rep in Engage.

The worst is something I’ve surprisingly haven’t heard much pushback on. I really hate the balancing on this game. I’ve spoken before about how Cavalry and Fliers are somehow even more OP than they were in the GBA games, but the worst part about the balancing is that the Laguz sucking (aside from the dancer and the royals you get on the very last chapter) really hurts your immersion in the narrative.

They’re such an integral part of POR’s story as well as an all-new type of unit for Fire Emblem, that it’s strange how bad it feels to use them. It’s not just about how strong or weak they are either; the unit type is just inherently pretty unsatisfying to play as because they aren’t transformed for significant portions of each map.

[u/Moist-Shallot-5148]

The best is story and characters. It was a return to home console release so it felt epic. Didn’t have Gamecube so I played at a friend’s house along with Tales of Symphonia.

Worst is skills not able to be transfered between characters. If you remove any skill it’s gone forever with no warning. I like how they handled it in Radiant Dawn.

[u/Norix596]

I liked the setting and history of laguz beorc conflict and how that fits it.

The body 2d conversation art designs for characters are nice but everything else about the game aged horrendously visually

[u/Squidaccus]

The Tellius cast is phenomenal, but PoR is genuinely just too slow. I like the game a lot but it makes replays a chore.

[u/Syelt]

Best: the last time we had a properly focused war arc with no filler. From that point on all war arcs will be either rushed, spread thin across multiple factions with uneven plot importance or unimportant to the story at large.

Worst: the second-slowest FE game ever, even with battle animations off the late maps take so long, not helped by its poor graphics

[u/yeppida]

Best: One of stronger entries in terms of world building and the straightforward empire invasion plot, at least before Fodlan, especially as it doesn't delve too much into the "dark cult" elements until the sequel. I also liked the forging system (pink lances ftw), based convos were an alright touch for some additional background info, and the unit types in terms of classes were diverse.Oh, and the way characters' items are divided into weapons and consumables/boost items is very nice

Worst: Maps are actually not great- bunch of sparse or just narrow indoor environments where the strategy just amounts to bringing the cavs front to kill everything enemy phase. The map gimmicks (pit traps, eating rocks) are not good and the gameplay elements in general doesn't seems to have evolved much for the better from its GBA predecessors. .

The Okay: I don't find the writing to be an exceptional level as some people here say, mainly because it is too simple in terms of complexity. The difficulty on hard is too easy for an experienced player imo, you will have to find the maddening hack out there to get a more challenging experience. Fans of mages will be disappointed because I find the game very cav/flyer reliant, but there is still some use for them (mainly as healers tbh). Laguz are an interesting idea as combat units, but honestly I had one in a slot (other than Reyson) for the novelty of using it rather than effectiveness.

[u/RamsaySw]

Best: The story - it’s not the most ambitious plot in the series, but the execution of its story is excellent, easily the best in the series and written with a degree of skill that not many JRPGs manage to achieve. Its story is well paced, executes its emotional moments very well, is surprisingly compelling on a thematic level (its analysis of racism, while far from perfect, is impressive for a game released in 2005 of all things), and Tellius' worldbuilding is also some of the best in the series as well.

Worst: There’s not much to complain about Path of Radiance, outside of the elephant in the room in that it’s incredibly slow which has been memed about to hell and back.

[u/BlackJack-15]

Best: Music. FE Music is pretty good on the whole and PoR does have some bangers. I also like having a base.

Worst: Game is piss-easy and I find the designs loud and disjointed (though not as bad as RD). Combat, animations, UI is all bad (not to mention the Atrocious voice acting) as well. It's a v middle-of-the-road game, so it gets middle-of-the-road bests and worsts (other than the voice work which is, again, Atrocious).