Unfortunately, I only played it after the 3DS/Switch games and was therefore a bit underwhelmed. Mechanically, the game is actually pretty solid, but some of the mechanics really annoy me. Permadeath, which you can't turn off, is just a shitty idea^^ Especially in combination with units spontaneously appearing on the map as enemy reinforcements and one-shotting you. It's just frustrating and you can't prepare for it because you never know where reinforcements can come from...if you could turn off permadeath that would be forgivable, but you can't :/
Then there's the writing - it's absolutely average, not really bad but nothing special either. Some "heavy" topics like racism are dealt with, but remain very superficial. Some dialog and plot points are also downright nonsensical - e.g. At a certain point you get a recruit who belongs to the enemy and joins us. Instead of questioning her or even taking her prisoner, she's just part of the group, even though she could have super important information about the enemy's troop movements etc. :D Things like that happen all the time. Maybe I'll give it another chance but I honestly wouldn't know why, I liked the later games more.

While the presentation leaves a lot to be desired, the core gameplay of FE9 is pretty much just as awesome as it was in the last two games, with map design remaining fantastic and some really neat new mechanics. While super canto and shove are both certainly funny, I mostly had fun playing around with laguz units and some of the new map gimmicks. The story was a little underwhelming but definitely not bad. The biggest issue are definitely simply a couple of stinker maps that stand out for the wrong reasons (chapters 10, 11, and 25).

I have to be honest - I did not like this game so much. This is only the second game in the franchise the I've ever played, but Path of Radiance kinda got me a little disappointed.

First, the good things. The glue that holds it all together IS the combat system. The true meat of the game! Strategizing your units, taking advantage of the amazing and well-designed maps, leveling up, changing classes, getting to know characters, recruiting, losing members and etc. When it comes to what was supposed to be the basic in a tactical game, Path of Radiance is great! I had a lot of fun with it! When things work out or when you know exactly what went wrong with your strategy, that's when the game shines.

The story is alright. I liked it, but it took me several chapters to actually get a grasp of it as a whole. Things are just thrown at you. Not not just 'things', 'THINGS' are thrown at you! The pinnacle of TMI! I'm glad there were some actually interesting characters and story development, but it was all VERY slow. I blame the story flaws in the tedious writing. But, still, not a bad story. Especially when you're getting close to the end - That's when it gets GOOD!

But that's about all I actually liked about in Path of Radiance. Sure, it's basically the core of the experience, but the game lacks in so many other aspects!

The presentation, for example, it's so bad, it's offensive! This game could've been a SNES game! To me, that hurt a HUGE part of the experience. The soundtrack sounded bad, the storytelling felt stiff, the artstyle was weird and everything else seemed too archaic. And although I liked the fact that the game focuses mainly on the main story, without any sidequests or unnecessary detours, THIS TIME I missed it. See, depending on the way (and difficulty) you play, Path of Radiance can be extremely punishing and there's no extra way to grind or get a bit stronger. Some bonus exp or character recruitment requirements are never actually explained to you, so you're left in the dark, with whatever you make out of its gameplay. It also doesn't help that most units are USELESS! Their resistances/defenses are made of PAPER and their attack power can be quite low. Good luck on the field, with your 11 characters vs 22 enemies and a one-shot freak of a boss!

Add that to the preposterous permadeath system and you have a mediocre way to challenge the player, instead of actually teaching them how to get better and giving them means to it. You're basically on your own and you don't have much else to do.

Maybe my hype for this game was too big. But I'm not to blame here, since EVERYBODY LOVES Path of Radiance. I had my share of fun during battles, yes, but found no love overall, only frustration.

I don't recommend this game, unless you're an ultimate sucker for the genre and the franchise.

I don't know how to sufficiently explain that telling a bunch of swordsman to do things instead of actually controlling any of them feels so damn good here, or why it's any better than the other 15 or so entries. But it really do be like that? Every time you hit that giant green GameCube A button and Ike responds by flipping over a racist shit, cutting him in half, and backflipping away while healing off the whole pummeling he took, it's like a giant affirmation of every preceding life decision up to that choice.

My favourite cast, story and protagonist in videogame history. Usually Fire Emblem protagonists are good but not great for me, but Ike is a top 5 character of all time easily. If this ever gets remade however, the only thing that needs to change is add in Radiant Dawn gameplay/mechanics like the much improved bonus exp from RD, Knives as a fleshed out weapon type, detailed combat information during enemy phase and staves as equipment (but let them hit using magic!) and add in Laguz weapon rank (but keep their exp gain as it is now, thats one element RD kind of missed the mark on bc most laguz in that game get like 1xp per round of combat lol). Additionally, they should add the ability to skip animations completely like in Radiant Dawn, because if I had to point out one flaw in this game is that enemy phase can be pretty slow even with animations off. Otherwise this is a 10/10 through and through, and I cannot believe I enjoy it's sequel even better.

I played this game a second time recently, the first time was on Normal and on Wii. It was pretty surreal as it was my gateway into some of the older FE titles. I really liked it back then. Now I got to play it on Hard Mode, thinking about Maniac Mode for another time.

I think this is a complicated game for me to rank. I really like the story of this game for one, it's nice to see a Fire Emblem story that actually stands out. From an everyday merc to a hero story with Ike, to the story of Elincia and accepting her role as a ruler and being comfortable with these mercs, the Laguz and Daein conflicts commenting on racial subjects, all of that is great and I wish we had more stories like this in Fire Emblem, feels like they play it pretty safe a good amount of the time or if they do something ambitious it kinda falls flat a good amount of the time.

The units I used are pretty fun too. I got to use Brom, Zihark, Ilyana, Nephenee, all of which were fun to use. I even got some really good supports. Zihark-Brom and Brom-Nephenee are very wholesome and cute to read and it made me appreciate them more as characters. Ilyana is kind of a gimmick character, but I thought her support with Zihark was adorable and she has some cute supports with other characters like Mia and such. Ike is awesome and is one of my favorite lords/protagonists in the series.

But... there's the gameplay. I'll get to the good stuff first. I think there are good ideas here; BEXP, the base, base conversations, being able to promote without needing a Master Seal, Laguz units are pretty interestingly designed. All of that is great. That's kind of as far as it goes though.

The unit balance is kinda bad, it sucks that Ike can't promote for such a long time so you just level him up real early so that the other units can soak up all the EXP, some classes are greatly preferred over others such as Paladins and Flying classes, swords are too weak, axes are too strong, Bio-rhythm is a bad mechanic that is only specific to this game and the sequel, the late game fights between Black Knight and Ashnard are genuine RNG fights and it's not fun to play. But I think the greatest sin of this game is that it's so... slow. Everything takes too long to load, enemy phase takes forever even on speedup if you're playing on emulator and you could not skip it at this point in Fire Emblem, the maps are huge a lot of the time which makes it feel especially really long and drawn out, and so on. It got to a point where late game felt like a chore to play.

I complained a lot, but I still don't have it in me to dislike this game or even call it mid. I still like it at the end of the day, but I think this game deserves a remake or remaster that makes it faster, give it a visual glowup. I think it would be so great to play and I'd be happy.

Three Houses was my introduction to the FE series, and I thought the writing was incredibly deep and well-written with fun gameplay for the most part. Over time I found myself getting super attached to the wide cast of characters with deep and riveting writing. I thought the rest of the series would pale in comparison to it and Three Hopes, but I was wrong when I played PoR. Quickly this has become one of my top 5 games of all time, especially on my second playthrough. The gameplay is fairly standard for FE standards, but the overall map design and skills/base system made PoR very fun to play through. PoR's biggest highlight is the story and Ike. The narrative is entirely Ike's journey from a wandering mercenary to a continent-renowned hero; a coming-of-age story told and presented exceptionally well. The lore and worldbuilding of Tellius easily rivals the levels of depth and quantity of the Fodlan game. Each nation is fleshed out and has a lot to offer in terms of the overarching narrative and Ike's storyline. Lastly I wanna mention the cast of characters in the game. While a lot of them come off as pretty one-note and gimmicky, there are some legitimately fantastic characters in PoR on the same levels as my other favourites in the FE series such as Zihark, Jill, Soren, Shinon, Reyson, Ashnard, Tibarn, Naesala, and the Black Knight.

This is undoubtedly the definitive best Fire Emblem game; almost every aspect of this game is done right from the narrative, characters, gameplay loop, core combat, and music.

As the first of this duology epic, Path of Radiance really gets the job done in terms of establishing its setting, characters, and conflicts that will be played it in both this and Radiant Dawn.

The world of Telius is so dense and tightly written that it's hard for me to put it all into words to how grand the world feels. A lot of care was put into the relationships between the different continents, species, and the relationships between the people that inhabit the world of Telius. You can feel how much history that the setting of Telius has through the dialogue in the game that you can see through the story, info cutscenes, supports, and many other times when you're not doing battles. It feels so carefully crafted in a way where you can really tell why there's a lot of conflict occurring in this continent which really helps give the story a lot more weight to it.

Supports in this game do such a fantastic job at giving so much depth to the Greil Mercenaries and crew, as well as giving such fantastic character arcs and revelations with a few examples coming from Jill and Soren. Like the worldbuilding in this game, the character supports are so tightly written in a way that make these characters seriously stand out from the rest of the FE casts that have come before and after. Also helps that these characters are also very attached to Telius so they bring even more weight to the world that they inhabit. Just seriously some amazing stuff for the world of these games.

My review for these games continue with my review for Radiant Dawn, as that game really continues a lot of what I said here but way more.
https://backloggd.com/u/Kanan/review/1375387/

Fire Emblem: Path of Furry Racism is just a generally quality fire emblem experience. The writing is by far the best of the series with your cast of character feeling like real people and actually enthralling world with believable politics. While there's not too many unique features outside of minor things like having a lot more transforming characters and biorhythm, this game really mastered the fire emblem formula with interesting maps and character progression. This game is a shining example that you don't always need all the bells and whistles and you can have a great focused experience.

You absolutely need to play this game if you get the chance.

I've played PoR a few times, but I somehow always forget how awesome this game is. The story doesn't throw any punches, and its very refreshing to have the story focus on a character that isn't royalty (no, not even secretly).

The gameplay has improved a lot since it's GBA predecessors, and its a satisfying change from 2D to 3D. The animations are just a bit stiff, but everything else in this game is totally elevated. The character art is gorgeous, the music is memorable, and you'll be playing eager to see how the story concludes. Plenty of little mysteries as well, which give fun reveals later in the game. It's challenging at times like any good Fire Emblem game will be.

The character writing gets a special mention. It's really good. There's a lot of depth and brave writing choices (I mean that being, they weren't afraid to make mean characters. not everyone is bubbly and sweet). You really get the sense that these characters are doing everything they can to survive during this war.

If you choose one Fire Emblem game to pick up, I recommend this one. I recommend it even over my favorite titles. It's a good time, invoking, and engaging.

(we like ike)

probably my favorite FE game? thracia is high up there as well

gameplay is super solid, chapters are for the most part, well designed, characters are well developed and for the first time, our protagonist isn't of regal status--he's a dude who runs into issues BECAUSE some kingdoms are waging war

i don't know i think because this game is so vastly different to its predecessors its that much cooler. idk its awesome

This is another great game in the Fire Emblem series that unfortunately had to be stuck on a system that didn't do well, and didn't sell well itself compared to other games.
But this Fire Emblem does a great job of mixing its RPG elements and story beats. The main character, Ike, is especially great as usually most Fire Emblem main characters have the personalities of plastic cups most of the time but Ike has a genuine character arc that makes him evolve through the story. And there are other great side characters in the story that evolve as well.
It's also incredibly open to customization such as custom naming your weapons, the "Bonus EXP" system, skill scrolls, and items that impact your character's stats or gameplay.
There are a few drawbacks such as the Supports once again being limited to 5 conversations, the enemy phases are a bit of a slog to get through; especially in the late game.
But all that aside, this is a great game that sadly seems to go unnoticed a lot.

Path of Radiance tem um dos melhores worldbuilding que já experimentei em RPGs. Não por ser altamente complexo e multifacetado, mas sim pela eficácia em apresentar os aspectos sociais e políticos de Tellius com simplicidade e clareza, nos mostrando um continente assolado pelo conflito racial histórico entre Beorc e Laguz.

A narrativa é excelente, e aliada aos personagens envolventes resulta em uma história agradável e surpreendentemente boa, considerando o lento início do jogo.

Em questão de gameplay, senti pouca variedade na construção de build da party, o que diminui um pouco a liberdade estratégica tão fundamental em Fire Emblem. Por outro lado, a diversidade dos mapas é ótima, porém infelizmente é prejudicada pela relativa baixa dificuldade do jogo. Ainda assim, a gameplay de Path of Radiance é agradável, apesar de muito lenta, principalmente nos turnos inimigos.

No geral, um excelente e memorável jogo nessa franquia que tanto amo.

What I'd consider to be a highlight reel of what makes a good Fire Emblem game, and probably the most consistently good game of the series. If you are curious as to what makes me like Fire Emblem, this game pretty much has it all.

The game's story has a well constructed world with tight worldbuilding and mature character writing that helps drive the exploration of war and conflict that makes the series stand out from other Nintendo exclusives. Moreover, the refinements made to the game's mechanics over previous games make this a much more streamlined experience, without losing the unique challenge that makes the series so addictive. Path of Radiance also boasts one of the best casts out of any game in the series, with units that are unique not just from a gameplay and balance point of view, but also with how they contribute to the game's story and themes.

Still, a lot of it comes with caveats that stop me from putting it at a pedestal compared to my favorites in this series. For once, outside of the solid character designs, the presentation is terribly weak. Compared to the immaculately crafted and animated 2D sprite work of previous games, the unappealingly simplistic 3D visuals of Path of Radiance fail to hold up. Moreover, I unfortunately found the game's soundtrack to be so much less memorable than its predecessors. The game's pacing is also uneven, having a slow and restrictive first act and a lackluster third act that isn't quite so satisfying as it half-heartedly wraps up the game's plot and doesn't offer much challenge so far as map design goes.

Regardless, I would still highly recommend this as a must-play if you're in any way interested in the series.