Still love this game, even after all of these years. It's just such a fun journey with a gameplay system that's infinitely replayable. Having three main characters is honestly a very welcome idea, with more main characters meaning more characters that can actually consistently have dialogue over the course of the story. Lyn, Eliwood, and Hector all bounce off one another well and the rest of the cast is easily one of my favorites in the series. While the story as a whole isn't perfect, there's a lot of great moments throughout that keep it enjoyable and exciting. I especially appreciate that even though there's a lot of neat connections in the cast, this game didn't shackle itself to just being "the prequel to The Binding Blade" and told a completely original, smaller scale story. The GBA games are also in my opinion, still the best looking games in the series and Blazing Blade might be the best, as I prefer its brighter palette over Sacred Stones. Some things I did start to notice on this playthrough is that a lot of the early maps can be really tedious. Pretty much the first half of the game is just flooded with forest tiles, rain, or other movement slowing design that makes moving your army a chore. Aside from that though, this is definitely a comfort game for me that I can come back to any day and just have a great time with.

Replaying this game nearly 5 years after my initial playthrough, I was kind of blown away by how good it is. I ended up loving the gameplay, as it really feels like an expanded version of the GBA games with a lot of smart additions like how they handle promotions, forges, supports, and bonus experience. The chapter designs are also great and I really enjoyed the progression of them over the course of the game. Path of Radiance's biggest strength over the rest of the series though is its worldbuilding and writing. Tellius is an incredibly fleshed out continent with so many different factions and plot threads that connect together surprisingly well. This is helped by how well done the pacing and scale of the game is, with it starting out very small and gradually building over the course of the game. One of the reasons Ike is one of the series' best protags is because of how closely we follow his journey from mercenary to hero through his point of view. He's also given an actual personality that reacts accordingly to what happens rather than being a very standard protagonist who reacts generically. Having all of the base conversations before each chapter just helps the entire world and cast feel so much more alive and connected, which is much appreciated for a series which forces most of its characters to be in the background due to permadeath's implementation. My only issue with the game is that it does start to slow down a bit in the Daien arc, as the game definitely could've cut a couple chapters, but they're still fun to play. Overall, even though the game clearly sets itself up for its sequel, this is an immensely satisfying game to beat and stands to me as the ideal Fire Emblem game.