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.

This game is nothing short of legendary.

Everything from the varied locales' atmosphere, to the simple but engaging combat and clever boss fights, to its timeless and iconic soundtrack, to the characters, etc. are all so well done. There's only a handful of games that stood the test of time and this one's no exception. Play it in 1998, you'll be blown away. Play it in 2022 like I did for the very first time on my N64, I was blown away. The devs definitely cooked when they were working on this game.

It’s my first FE, so there’s nostalgia there, but due to how many times I played it in 2015/2016, I revisit sparingly nowadays, but make sure to pump my files of all their content I can. I have my litanies of critiques with the story (namely pacing), and some with mechanics, but it’s so fun to approach as a sandbox if you do engage with the grind, just to turn your brain to slop and tackle it with the most broken builds and child units ever. Also, the production value remains excellent. The amount of dialogue permutations, particularly if you marry characters like Chrom as I did this run, are amazing. When the game wants to hit emotionally, it bares its fangs quite well, and does fanservice better than Engage did, if I’m honest. Dialogue and localization are fantastic, and the graphics are still quite good to look at even now, barring the models’ lack of feet. Cutscenes and their shot composition are fantastic as well. I think the game does have its share of flaws, be they pacing or the orientalist designs Plegia is plagued with, with all the Plegian antagonists being dark-skinned when those who join you aren’t, and it is not necessarily the FE I play the series for, but it is a comfort food to me, and it’s important to realize things that bring us nostalgia can still hit today. I appreciate it for rewarding players who engage in the absurdities of its grind, whilst also having a fun challenge in higher difficulties.