PoR Records

So how did I do?

After the credits roll, Fire Emblem games usually show you your turncounts, and this game follows that norm. I could show you my credits in full with screenshots, but let's be honest: the real timer is completely inaccurate and there's not much of a reference for how fast I went. Fortunately, I have been in the habit of ritually recording my turncounts for every single run of Path of Radiance I have ever done, and I would like to show you six runs to compare with both the main playthrough and the backup run. For convenience's sake, I'll also be dividing by Act (as per my review pages.)

Act 1: Greil Mercenaries

Starting with the opening skit. My second run seemed to be very cautious towards the end, presumably trying to get Mia the EXP she needs to handle Chapter 8. On the other hand, my third run was much more briskly paced.

The comparisons here are my first playthroughs of each difficulty, because I've only done two runs on Hard Mode and these were the best choices I figured I still had. You can see that, on Hard Mode, the prologue is one turn shorter: I think Ike can reach Boyd on Turn 1. I wonder what took my River Crossing so long.

Act 2: Laguz Nations

Onto the Daein arc, and look how long my Tatana Beaches were! I have no idea how that happened. Toha continues to show how my third run was working on speed- sad for it that it lost a turn to the Shipless Pirates.

Also here are my first few runs. After saying my All Girls was slow in Tatana Beach, it turns out that 9 turn was one of my best goes. None of these runs did Stealth in Canteus- I did that once, and I assume it was my 29 turn clear. Apparently 7 is my normal for Toha.

Act 3: Begnion

Here we show off the fact that, in Chapter 13, you can finish early by making there be zero red units on the map. I've been getting better on Grann, too. Serenes doesn't seem to have bothered me much.

The Defend thing also shows up here. I've just been generally slower in these runs than the All Girls, surprisingly. I can sorta explain that, but not really.

Act 3-1: Daein

We are welcomed to Daein with some more clear speed improvements. Nevassa was probably sped up by using Rescue Drops rather than just letting them walk through Nevassa, possibly. My clear of Palmeni in this playthrough is my fastest across all my playthroughs.

And over in in the other display, we can see the same thing. Not sure why my thieves held me up in Nevassa. This run's go at The Great Bridge is also my fastest run of the mission ever. Both amused and glad that I managed one of those in both runs.

Act 3-2: Crimea

Finally, the ending stretch. Another set of general "just get better" going around- with the exception of Nados, where I spent 5 turns in Part 2 to kill 3 enemies for the funny of it. I think without that, I would match the third run.

And lastly, my other scores. I think Act 3 is just a general "Go Mode" for me. Also, Melior is sped up in Hard Mode because Ashnard comes to you rather than you having to deal with the stairs.

How did the characters do?

Also in the credits is a listing of every character you recruited, what their final level was, and how many times they killed an enemy, in order from lowest to highest (listed as "Wins" to be less brutal and also because some "kills" are not lethal due to cutscenes). This is relatively unique to Tellius, although other games, like the GBA games and Three Houses, list killcounts in the character epilogues, and some games (Shadows of Valentia and to an extent Three Houses) sort the epilogues by killcount.

I have also kept a record of these, but I do not believe there's as much interesting statistics-wise by comparing the sets, so let's just look at our two runs.

The Main Playthrough (All Girls)

Unfortunately for the purism of this run, Ike and Geoffrey have 2 kills each. Ike's two kills are Boyd and Greil in the Prologue (no avoiding that), while Geoffrey's two kills are Daein generics in Chapter 24. It is possible for him to get less kills, but I'm not certain how one gets him to zero without Reyson.

The game specially highlights the top 5, but I like to count the top 10 anyway. Astrid never gets top 5, it bothers me so much. Shame I couldn't get Mist up there, though. Calill in top 10 feels new, but it turns out she's always been top 10 in my All Girls. Admittedly, not hard.

Ah, Mia. You could've been so great if it wasn't for the importance of Transfers phasing you out. If it wasn't for God-Mist, I usually wind up giving Mia Transfers- and even in this run, I got more Transfers than usual because I actually used my BEXP early. I don't think I could've gotten Mia Transfers unless I used Tanith much less, though.

Nephenee had some surprising lulls because she just wasn't getting into any fights, but she seems to have finagled her way back to a top spot. Nephenee honestly has a really tough section in Radiant Dawn I like to have her prepared for here.

Jill is just a badass, no two ways about it. You use a Jill, you get her in the top 5. Despite how hard Nephenee has it, I'd honestly say Jill's role in Radiant Dawn is even more intense. I feel unchallenged in saying that, if you can only Transfer one character's stats, make it Jill.

While the general playerbase can't stop Jill from getting in their top 5s, I can't stop Marcia from getting in them. She did apparently take a back seat in some early runs and I have (somehow) completed runs that limited her use, but apart from that, she has a near monopoly on the top spots, and is the unit that has the most wins across all of my runs combined.

...I know it's important to respect your roots, but I really don't think those guys in the first six chapters should count the same as the rest of them. Titania's sheer dropoff, and the fact the only reason I didn't bench her for so long was to show off Ike/Titania A, should make her a dead cert for not getting trophies based obstensibly on participation, but that early lead has made her the top contributor in all four of my All Girls runs.

The sub playthrough (Hard Mode)

Pictured: Reyson gets listed here too, despite having no way to kill enemies except maybe Counter (and even then, I'm not sure kills by Counter count as kills). Radiant Dawn gave herons ways of getting onto the Combat Records, but that still means not using them as dancers.

Poor Tibarn, the whole "spawning on a map with no enemies" cost him an actually interesting score. Also pictured, Geoffrey with only one kill. He usually gets 1-3, but apparently my first Hard run was the only time he scored a 0.

Kieran and Ilyana were units I was using as backups while the main team was stabilising, and here they are listed with Elincia and Nasir, my endgame units. This is more reasonable because of the whole "no time to get kills", even if it is sad for Elincia. One day, I will get Elincia onto the top 5.

This is a nice healthy collection of characters and roles on the team at this part.

Top 10. Mist got seventh again and... wait, is that Oscar in here? Dude, I had you benched before Ilyana! Literally how did you get here?

As much as I like the kid, I do not like Tormod's official art for Path of Radiance. That face. First time I got Tormod into a top 5, it was a jump scare for me. He looks so much better in Radiant Dawn.

Brom is just old reliable. He may not do the job fancy, but he does the job and I'm proud of him. I like this man more and more, some slightly questionable Supports with Nephenee and Zihark notwithstanding.

Rolf gets this high if you use him partially because he's almost entirely a Player Phase unit, requiring all his EXP shooting and letting the other people handle Enemy Phases. Training Rolf requires feeding him lots of kills.

See what I mean? Me and Marcias, I just can't stop them.

If Jill is a common sight in the top 5, Ike is a common sight in the top spot. You're expected to have a good Ike for Endgame, especially if you want the Nasir content, and Ike is just a practical sword unit- he fills a somewhat crucial party niche that the absence of the GBA Mercenary class left behind, and his Aether skill is good for things other than the Black Knight too.