Warning: OrigenTV is doing a sequel video.
The natural balance means something awful will happen on exchange.
Melodrama aside, it's a sequel video, I can't help but mention some details from it's predecessor, I'll try not to ruin anything, but some things are unavoidable, though on the same logic, are to be expected.
Today in the origin of species, we return to the continent of Tellius, if PoR was a story about establishing ideas and concepts, it's sequel, is a story of consequences,
a story of intersecting vows, of a blue hero, and a silver maiden in opposing sides, a tale of countries and kings, of men and gods.
This is Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn.
Path of Radiance was a critical success, with high scores across the globe, in fact only the Awakening phenomenon was able to surpass it's average scores.
But despite all of this, PoR had low sales In Japan, some of the worst in the history of the saga, partly because it was one of the last entries in a console approaching it's end.
And that console was the gamecube, and I think nothing sums it up better than the Switch Stream, when the host mentions how each console innovated and all he comes up for the gamecube is that it has a handle.
Yeah, can't say I cried over the gamecube's departure.
Nonetheless, PoR had already introduced many ideas for a continuation, and the development of it's next entry moved to the not yet announced Nintendo Wii, with a larger production team, and with the strongest console to host a Fire Emblem so far,
Akatsuki no Megami, the goddess of dawn, became one of the biggest and most intensive projects in the brand's history.
Tellius was back, and to the rest of the world, it'd be known as Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn.
3 Years after the conclusion of the Mad King's War, the continent of Tellius is still getting used to it's new power relations, however, in a war there are no winners, and the state of tellius is a in tight rope,
the kingdom of Daein is oppressed by the forces of Begnion, the Crimean nobles despise their new queen, and the tense relations between Laguz and Beorc are about to blow up.
Unlike PoR, Radiant Dawn has an attitude towards it's story closer to Gaiden than any other title, because it's narrative switches between different points of view, with 3 main armies.
Ike and the Greil mercenaries star in the segments focused around the Laguz, after leaving Crimea, Ike faces the imminent reality of a new war,
and if he's not able to stop it, at least he'll make sure to face it alongside his partners.
Elincia and her subjects star on the Crimea arc, where the new queen has to face the discontent from the nobles, and the very real possibility of an armed revolution.
While in the subjugated Daein, the Dawn Brigade will direct the events, a rebel group composed of new characters.
And Sothe. But nobody ever used Sothe in PoR.
So he's basically new.
In the fractured Daein, the people place their hopes in the silver maiden Micaiah, a woman of mysterious abilities, and in the young prince Pelleas, Ashnard's secret son.
Which results in a mirror of Ike and Elincia's crusade, but one that doesn't fully fit, and the presence of the Black Knight, a ghost from Ike's past, in the Daien revolution,
will complicate everything once the 3 factions find themselves on opposite sides of the new brewing conflict.
Only one thing is for sure, there's something unusual going on in Begnion, and Tellius can't afford another war.
Like I said before, if you've played a Fire Emblem, you've played them all, and this is a direct sequel, so it applies even more,
everything about the units, their' strengths and biorhythm is the same, but the changes there are do make a world of difference.
Let's start with the least flattering stuff, Laguz and Beorc were modified, Beorc now have 3 promotion levels, with their maximum total level being 60.
And Laguz which were essentially pre-pormotes in PoR can now reach level 40, to remain on par with their Beorc counterparts.
Their transformation mechanics are also changed, you can choose when to transform them, which gives you far more control over their bar, and all of that sounds good, until you realize they ruined everything else.
Using the Laguz in RD is a frustrating experience, because transformed they receive pitiful amounts of experience, and in their human form they can't start attacks, only counter,
the result is that you'll have to use them as meat walls in their unarmed form to try to gain some experience,
experience that is only useful in their animal from, which you won't use because it'd waste experience, and it's a vicious cycle.
Laguz were very strong in PoR, sure, but you had little control over their bar, and transformation items weren't common, they balanced themselves because you were never going to use more than 2 laguz at once,
here using them is a disadvantage, an the experience issue doesn't matter with royal laguz, because they are so absurdly strong that you won't care about stats.
To that we must add the concept of availability, as you are switching between armies, you won't have access to all your characters, and that means there's less time to train them,
the problem is that none of the 3 factions ever vanish from the story, and while the enemy levels are constantly increasing, your standby units don't grow when alone.
Nobody suffers more from this than the Dawn brigade, the protagonists of the first section, they all start as first tier units, and are present in all 4 parts of the game,
but the enemies and main units from part 2 to 4 are way stronger than the brigade,
and unless you are very experienced with the game, and know how to maximize exp, the Dawn Brigade will always be the weakest link.
My gripes aside, in all other matters, RD is PoR's total opposite, because it has amazing gameplay.
There are various small changes that make it a more strategic experience, Bonus EXP is back, and all experience allied armies gain will be transferred to your base, but a level granted by BEXP is different from a regular one,
it'll always increase 3 stats, no more and no less, and this can result in a weaker unit than it'd have been if it trained normally, but when your unit is close to the cap, it becomes the most efficient way to guarantee a good growth.
Skills are now completely interchangeable, they don't disappear with use, and this gives you a lot of versatility and ways to customize your units, the introduction of a third promotion tier also gives a new personalized skill,
which replaces the occult scroll from the past game, so ike can have Aether in this game and have room for more skills.
This makes him an even more terrifying murder machine.
Supports were divided, and base conversations extended, focusing on characters besides Ike or the other leaders, they are essentially the narrative part of supports divided from the mechanical one.
Any pair of characters can form a support to take advantage of the stat bonuses, and this is separated from starting conversations, while the loss of classic supports hurts,
being able to optimize your army without sacrificing development is welcome, and given the huge cast, the lack of traditional supports is understandable.
And as if that weren't enough, the game adds a completely new mechanic, elevation, while there was always a split between foot units and flying ones, this only affected the terrains they could cross,
the game now recognizes height differences, there are high and low areas, and this affects your mobility, plus, it affects combat, an attack from higher ground has a damage and accuracy boost,
which makes sure taking and defending locations becomes a different experience, and the best part is that it never feels forced,
elevation is an organic part of the game, and it's present only when it makes sense.
Besides, the maps know how to take advantage of it, because oh my god, the maps, Radiant Dawn ahs great chapters, with varied objectives and strategies,
maybe there's too much of a focus on defense missions, but elevation does lend itself to that, and besides, each level has it's own identity,
from a mission on the top of the skies, or infiltrating the enemy lines, the design for each level reflects a scene, and it's one coherent with the story.
And yeah, still not shutting up.
Because besides all of that, as I already said, this has to be the more potent Fire Emblem, and it takes advantage of that, in RD the presence of allied or neutral armies is far more common than in other titles
having a larger presence in a lot of the maps, and your leader can give them orders, which adds a lot of options to face the enemy,
Not to mention the amount of units is impressive by itself, there's this specific level with 3 armies, and a counter which indicates the deaths, once you reach 80, there's still a respectable amount of units in the field.
There's huge maps with an unexpected density, and this all results in a true challenge, without it being unfair, since there are so many tools for you to use.
Except in the Micaiah levels, no seriously, you have no idea how awful the Dawn brigade is.
Point being, I want to marry this gameplay, I love it.
Remember when I said this was the complete opposite of PoR?
That also applies to it's story, the quality of the script went down a few steps between the two entries, PoR was a story with a small focus, in RD the fate of all of Tellius is always on the line,
the big advantage is that Tellius already is familiar, but a lot of developments feel forced or all too convenient.
There's also the fact that the new cast is controversial, personally I enjoy that Japanese trope of the second game's protagonist facing the original, but half of the fandom hates Micaiah,
and the Dawn Brigade has little characterization, which feels even more reduced in comparison to the retuning characters.
Plus, I don't get why they picked Sothe, nobody used Sothe, he had no particular arc in PoR,
and his attitude towards Micaiah in this game, compared to the way he described her in PoR oscillates from peculiar to perturbing.
Fortunately the story is never hard to follow, and it does solve all the questions from it's predecessor, but sometimes it feels like you accept the twists in good faith,
some stuff requires a serious suspension of disbelief, and half of you will want to stab Micaiah.
Personally I always liked her, and while it's true she receives more praise than she earned, she has some of my favorite lines in the game.
Besides she's one of the few 2d entities that I feel attracted to without being a mecha.
And that's weird.
The main idea is clear, the strengths of both titles in the Tellius saga are inverted, nonetheless, that they are in that order is good, PoR might not be the most challenging Fire Emblem, but it is a very engaging one,
, and its dedication to building it's world, allows Radiant Dawn to have an entire game to show the consequences of it's acts, it a story with a wider range than the previous one,
and the strong bases PoR left allows the flaws of RD to progress without doing much damage.
And I can't say more positive things about the gameplay, nostalgia amongst other things will make Sacred Stones my favorite FE for a long time,
but from a fun standpoint, you can't trump RD, it's the most entertaining FE I've touched, and one of the best turn based games out there.
At the end of the day, Radiant Dawn is a sequel, and my opinion would be poorer if I judged it on it's own, but that's not the intention,
PoR and RD are titles with their own strengths and flaws, but together, the world of Tellius is one of the high points for the brand.
And that, is something no amount of marriage mechanics, gachas or awkward exposition will ever take away.
Each of the Tellius titles shows one of the sides that make Fire Emblem the icon it is, and together, they are an amazing entry
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