This was the first Fire Emblem game I ever played. I bought it after reading a review of it five hundred times in Official Nintendo Magazine (it might also have been the same exact volume of ONM that directed me towards Hotel Dusk, another one of my all-time favourite games - talk about getting your money's worth!), which described it as being like chess, only the pieces are all characters you care about. I'm paraphrasing, or maybe I’m misremembering - I haven't read that beautiful magazine in almost fifteen years. But this isn't a review of whatever # of ONM that was. This is a review of the hugely ambitious Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, a tough as nails grid-strategy turn-based fantasy RPG, bursting at the seams with delightful dialogue, intelligent plotlines, unforgettable music, interesting and sympathetic characters, and NUMBERS (my favourite thing). Thematically, it is one of the most thoughtful sequels in video games, concerned not so much with bigger, bolder, more bombastic action and set pieces, but with the political opportunism and humanitarian disasters that logically follow the events of the previous game. It is a burning star lighting up the black sky, the heat of its light still tickling the back of my neck fifteen years (approximately) later. It is also hugely misunderstood and, in some circles, maligned, like a weird younger brother with echolalia and a vindictive streak who wears your clothes all the time and has somehow kissed both more girls AND more boys than you have. Here are some of the criticisms I’ve seen directed at this game in the past: it is too unforgiving; there are too many characters; there is not enough VA; there is too much reading; the presentation is overly simple; it didn’t sell enough copies, nearly ending the franchise; etc; etc; etc. In light of these criticisms, (most of which I don't agree with, upon reflection,) I got used to thinking of Radiant Dawn as being one of those 7/10, middling games that I just so happened to like a lot, greasy junk food, an acquired taste. It took a decade and a half, it took playing Awakening, Three Houses, and Engage, to gain the perspective necessary to see this game as it is. And what is it? What is Radiant Dawn? Well, I’ll tell you. Radiant Dawn is the last good Fire Emblem game.

For a work that was, upon release, considered conservative and old fashioned, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn is a hugely ambitious title, juggling a massive cast of characters, careful worldbuilding, thrilling adventure, and enormous stakes, all while tying itself to Path of Radiance in looks and design so that they complement each other, so that they can be played and read as two parts of a whole, as the plot so requires; without Radiant Dawn, Path of Radiance feels incomplete, and vice versa. And what is the plot? Radiant Dawn takes place three years after the end of Path of Radiance and follows what happens to the land and citizens of Daein after their tyrant king is defeated and they are taken over by the holy state of Begnion. The Begnion military rules by the sword and is not afraid to turn its weapons against civilians. Corruption requires not a mad king, nor do war crimes require a Daein army. The game's themes begin to reveal themselves early; power corrupts, military rule is abuse, and prejudice, like heroism, can come from anywhere and anyone. In an incredible and challenging twist, (a twist that IGN called “odd” at the time, revealing more about the writer of that review than the game) you are no longer battling against the armies of Daein, but are tasked with freeing its people—innocent civilians caught in the to-and-fro of war, who have rapidly had to come to terms not only with the crimes of their own countrymen, which they almost certainly supported to some extent, but with the loss of their freedom. They impotently stare down the barrel of a gun at bullets of poverty, violence, shame. They are trapped under the boot. They are trapped forever. Children, adults, elderly, all trapped, all hungry, all afraid. It's completely brilliant, and harrowing.

You set off, a girl who can give your life force to heal others, a mirror of what your ragtag band of rebels are willing to give up in order to save their people, on a desperate mission to make Daein free once more. Your enemy is a rogue Begnion general placed in charge of keeping the peace, his loyal (read: fearful of sudden murder by General) soldiers, and the wealthy politicians pulling the strings from the shadows. Characters new and old, human and not, join you in this struggle. You and your little squad use careful tactics to bring down larger numbers, getting stronger and more confident all the while, raising the morale of everybody across the land. And what happens when you succeed? When Daein is free? The game continues, of course. In fact, at that point, the game has hardly begun. I recall thinking I was at the end of the game when I won back the Daein capital, all those years ago, and I couldn't believe that the game would just keep on going, and going, and going, tackling international and inter-racial tensions as it did so, its generosity as endless as its perma-death is awful.

One thing that gives me pause, I suppose, is the incredibly positive representation of monarchies, birthrights, etc throughout both this and Path of Radiance. I am sceptical of monarchies in much the same way that this game seems sceptical of politicians and governments - but to be fair, the politicians in this game are generally corrupt and working to amass wealth and power for themselves and their friends no matter who has to die for it, much like the Tories in the UK, so I sort of get where they're coming from. Anyway, this is the great thing about fiction. It let's you pretend. Doesn't it feel better to fantasise about a nice queen who will unite the land through peace and everybody will love her and each other, rather than cheering on governments who don't even pretend NOT to steal our money and bomb our neighbours and slowly degrade the human rights we've fought and marched and died for over the years? Anyway, my favourite thing about these games is all the gay subtext between--

Stop! Get offa me! The people must know!

The people!

Must!

Knnoooooooooowww~~!!!

(is never seen or heard from again)

An almost entirely miserable experience that gives you all the freedom in the world - to butcher, and butcher, and butcher, in unimaginative lands full of equally violent and miserable people as yourself, nobody with anything meaningful to say in their lengthy monologues, everybody sort of uncanny and ugly. It's not D+D, it's not Baldur's Gate, and it's not a good RPG. When it comes down to it, it doesn't even feel that big - it just feel torturously slow and clunky, with every battle taking forever, and painfully awkward traversal otherwise, all coming together to give the illusion of size, and of time well spent. BG3 is an enigma, if only because of how extremely shallow and juvenile the game is, and also how adored.

Well, I tried to like it. I promise, I tried. I spent more than two weeks playing this, and I can't think of a single quest or area or conversation I would like to revisit. Also, the UI is cluttered and the camera frequently worked against me. Also, it crashed 50 or so times during my time with it (on PS5), mostly when trying to load saves, sometimes after levelling up, and occasionally for no discernible reason at all. What happened to standards?

I keep thinking about all the unsurpassed freedom that this game supposedly offers. Well, I don't think a game needs to offer unlimited things to do and ways to do them, because games should focus first on doing one thing well, and then expanding where it has space to. Yet, since everybody and their grandma keeps bringing up how much freedom this game gives you...I never felt free to do what I wanted in this game. I felt trapped. Suffocated. More so than in most 'linear' RPGs I've ever played. You sort of have to do every quest you can find if you want to level up. Different dialogue choices lead to the same outcomes. You can never escape the endless vortex of (often meaningless) violence thrust upon you by passersby. There were so many fights I got into that I didn't want, so many people I had to kill that I would have liked to befriend, flirt with, talk to, be nice to... God, being nice! Acting like a regular human being to a fellow traveller! What a concept! Instead, your key interaction in this game is putting your fist through somebody's skull before they can do the same to you, through battle inputs that don't feel good or natural to use. It's mind numbing!

...Ketheric Thorm's voice acting was good. Stood head and shoulders over the rest of the cast.