Welcome to Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
So, Fire Emblem is a thing that exists. What exactly it is, though, gets slightly more obscured behind the sorts of things that just turn up in common encounters. Fire Emblem is a series of games set in sword-and-sorcery times made by Intelligent Systems. There isn't much in the way of continuity, but each game sort of echoes and builds upon the ideas established in the predecessors. The newest instalment, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, is the one that has made the biggest splash and finally added Fire Emblem to the common discourse... if only for it to have been because of the massive divide in fan reception.
Path of Radiance, and its sequel Radiant Dawn, are probably the most interesting Fire Emblem games other than Three Houses itself on a political and moral scale. They are certainly the games that put the most effort in, and their enduring popularity in spite of their limited playerbase would definitely have made it a target for future Fire Emblems to build upon. But what exactly did the Tellius games do? How did they do it? What did they do well, and what did they do poorly? What parts can we see the hand of the people who made Three Houses moving behind the scenes? I hope that in going through these games, I can find out some of these answers.
I've certainly gone through it plenty enough before now.
This playthrough will focus on the important parts of the story- and while I've played it nearly two dozen times, I do also skip cutscenes, so it will be as enlightening for me to see some of the details. I will try to bring up as many as possible, but I won't be sharing the whole script unless I think it is important to know for the purposes of analysis.
Gameplay-wise, we will be playing an All-Girls run. I enjoy these sorts of low-man challenges, and All-Girls is a bit of a personal brand of mine. It'll be a little sad to skim over the men- there's one in particular that it'll be a shame to bench- but such is life.
We're playing on Normal Mode. "Difficult" isn't exactly Maddening or Lunatic or whatever, but we're here to learn, not to worry about whether we'll see the credits roll at all. The All-Girls conditions can make things spicy from time to time, though.
This is a feature included in Path of Radiance and Path of Radiance only. If you think "Fixed Mode" means that characters grow completely and entirely according to their averages (ie someone with a 50% growth in a stat gets that stat every other level, no more or less regular), then you would be wrong. Your stats are also influenced by your equipped weapon and what classes you fight. It's not really what one would want out of a Fixed Mode. We'll be rolling Random.
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Cutscenes! Path of Radiance was the first game in the series to have cutscenes. Considering the last home console Fire Emblem title was for the Super Famicom, pretty logical. There are six total, not counting the one before the title screen. This one is largely about Ike and Greil sparring in the woods, with Ike losing decisively.
We also get to see this character in flashbacks. She is Ike's mother, she is dead, and she taught Mist the song she's singing. This is fairly standard JRPG stuff, but unlike the standard, all three of these facts turn out plot relevant later. What Ike is doing flashbacking to her now, though, not so much.
And so our story begins...
"The sleeping prince" is certainly one way to describe Ike. Ike is the first Lord in series history to (gasp) not be the heir to land. Often, you will hear him be described as "the commoner Lord", but there is a bit of cheekiness to the whole affair of what Ike's claims are and who he is. However, for the time being and from a practical standpoint, Ike is not a noble.
Heavy? Trainer swords are the lightest swords in the game! I'm not going to deny that getting hit with a wooden sword is going to sting like hell, though- our world has foam bullets that can really leave you sore tomorrow.
Greil here, Ike's father, is trying to teach Ike to become a mercenary. Greil owns a mercenary company, and there is clearly some sort of qualification that Ike has not yet met, but once we actually meet everybody over the next few chapters, we'll find out that it's mostly one moderately-sized found family.
Well, if this isn't a bit of a pride issue. Ike's setting himself a high goal.
Fortunately, we have a solution!
How long was Ike out cold here? Who sent Boyd to check on Mist once she didn't come back? Also, where are we? We're presumably a ways off from the mercenary base, but why? Ah, the joys of nitpicking.
At least there's less people to watch Ike's suffering. Maybe that's why we had to pack up and leave.
Two people joined this private outing and already we're just mocking the new guy here. Yeah, especially once you meet one of the other mercenaries later, I can understand why Ike might want some privacy here.
Any experts on swordplay able to cite Greil on this one? It feels like something he should've tried sooner.
Boyd is pretty overconfident in his abilities. As a gameplay unit, Boyd is actually a really solid Fighter if his speed doesn't let you down, but even then, Boyd is definitely overselling himself.
That said, we're ready to start. Well... almost ready.
Would it have killed you to spawn one square closer? I'm not entirely sure why "moving" and "attacking" have to be done on separate turns here. Boyd, for his part, will not perform any actions on his turns.
Mist is surprisingly savage in this first chapter. I didn't remember this side of her character. I hope it lasts. Not sure what's got Boyd so tongue-tied, though.
Remember what I said about Boyd not acting on his turn? That applies even when we're standing next to him. Look, buddy, I don't know what to tell you, but you've gotta at least take a swing at us.
Damn straight.
Well, that was enough sparring with people that don't have us completely outmatched.
"This" is a vulnerary, a 3-use item that heals 10 HP every use. It will help us recover from that one hit Boyd gave us, but I'm not sure how it's going to help us deal with Greil. What, is he going to be polite enough to wait for Ike to heal up in between hits?
Oh, well he is our pop, of course he's going to be that kind. This is good advice in general, really.
And what better way to demonstrate it than to follow it? We only have 8 HP missing, but that's close enough to 10. What are we, the kind of RPG gamer that saves all their healing items in case we need it more later, even during the final boss? Of course I am, I expect to use about three vulneraries total for the rest of the playthrough.
Unlike Boyd, Greil will attack you if you are standing next to him on his turns. If you accepted what Boyd did at face value, you would look at these damage values and attack Greil for a 6HP counterattack, leaving you with 5HP that you would then heal the next turn so you could get the full effectiveness of that 10HP heal. And then Greil would've knocked the remaining 5HP off you on his turn.
Never let it be said that a tightly railroaded tutorial is effortless. There's certainly a lot more practical value in other games' tutorials putting you in a combat situation immediately and teaching you what to expect from the rest of the game, but this precise mathematical outcome hammers home the lesson of being prepared for the worst. And honestly, is just really cute.
If you're wondering why Ike is doing so much more damage than Greil, well, here are his stats. Level 10 promoted and his highest stat is 6. Discipline is a skill that appears in Radiant Dawn with a vastly different purpose, but here it does... well, we can only assume it's lowering Greil's stats for us.
Slightly unrelated, but while we're looking at stat pages, here is the third page. We won't have much reason to check this page out again, but it's nice to see Greil's Affinity. "Biorhythm" is something that only the Tellius games have, where a unit can feel slightly better or worse and have higher or lower chances for chance-based outcomes, like hitting the enemy. We can't manipulate it and in PoR, the bonuses/maluses are so low that it's not worth keeping track of, but it is a thing IS tried.
From full health and with Greil getting first strike, Ike wins by the skin of his teeth. Beating Boyd and Greil gives enough EXP for Ike to level up, but in the excitement, I seem to have been unable to hit the screenshot button firmly enough to show you what it was. I'm sure we'll manage.
Edited: Ike notices that Greil was holding back, in a screenshot I'm sure I took. I'm sure it would take a bit of an experienced eye to tell that sort of thing. PoR's animations are a little too janky for it to come across to us, though. Besides, I'm sure the animations used here are the same ones as the rest of the game.
Ike is ready for Greil to stop babying him, though.
Boyd tries to pass off his own loss as holding back. Mist sees through him. Mist is great.
See what I mean? One day, I will understand the bridge in skill between Ike and Boyd and have an opinion on which one of them is more prepared to work in this mercenary company. A few missions in the thick of things should sort things out.
Of all the things for Boyd to counter Mist's burn, random chance? This is the one fight in the game with fixed 100% hit odds.
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