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.

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.

Can kind of tell this is Capcom's first new IP to follow the Resident Evil formula. For the most part, it is still just an RE game with dinosaurs, but there's a lot of smaller differences that weren't terrible ideas, they just didn't work as well for me compared to the actual RE games.

The use of fully 3D environments and more complex enemy design does have it's advantages, but they come at the cost of variety and atmosphere. The environments are all incredibly similar while also lacking the level of detail they could've had from pre-rendered backgrounds. The more complex enemy AI did mean that a basic enemy was more engaging and unpredictable than a regular zombie, but this comes at the cost of there essentially being 1 enemy type throughout the entire game, and a nearly complete lack of bosses.

For the puzzles, I didn't mind the actual process of solving them and they were generally pretty fun. However, this game is absolutely flooded with number codes, to the point that finding them takes up a major portion of the game. This would've been fine, but for some reason this game doesn't give you a journal of all the memo's you've come across, meaning you have to go back to each individual room if you forget the codes. They also changed how item boxes worked and it's mixed for me. I do like the decision making that comes from the use of plugs and the different resources that item boxes can give. However, the game is incredibly scarce with plugs in the beginning of the game, and I wish that every unlocked box functioned like in RE where they were all connected with infinite space.

To give some praise, I actually wasn't opposed to how this game is structured around the combat, or rather the lack of it. A standard enemy in Dino Crisis is a lot tougher than one in Resident Evil. The game is also generally scarcer in ammo, which means that a lot of encounters encourage running past enemies and utilizing the environment such as the beam gates. I personally find running around enemies with tank controls to be incredibly fun, so this style of play was actually pretty very fun for me. Also I think the small cast of characters actually helped, as you just get more interactions with each of them.

Regina is a fun protagonist, but she also contributes to a smaller gripe I have with this game. This game just isn't scary if I'm being honest. There's really nothing all that disturbing, and like I mentioned, the lesser detail in the environments doesn't really help with creating a disturbing, eerie atmosphere.

Even though I've gone over a lot more negatives than positives, I do still think this is a decently fun game. It still has the great survival horror game flow, where just progressing through the map feels great while keeping track of resources throughout. This definitely feels like a first attempt at a lot of these different ideas, but I'd like a sequel to this style or even a remake that's able to flesh it out into something great.