Welcome to A TERRIBLE PUN - er, Sa-vingmoney-ddam Hussein. This is an EXCUSE TO USE THIS TERRIBLE PUN - er, an attempt to resurrect an awesome old series. Today, I'll bitch at you to buy one of the few games on the Wii that REQUIRES MORE THAN 2 BRAIN CELLS.



Title: Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
Developed By:: Intelligent Systems
Released: November 11, 2007 (NA), February 22, 2007 (JP), March 14, 2008 (EU), April 10, 2008 (AU)
Bargain Binned: $20 at EB, X Goozex Points

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn is hard. Harder than the difficulty settings are labeled at least. Easy isn't too bad, but Normal has a significant chance of beating you from the tutorial mission. The difficulty isn't caused by excellent AI, but the odds being stacked against you. They enemies both outnumber and outclass you. Often, enemies deal more damage and have more hitpoints than your characters. While this is likely only a bad design decision, it leads to the game requiring *GASP* actual thought. This is an unusual requirement for a Wii game, and one that makes Radiant Dawn feel very out of place on Nintendo's console. This isn't a slight against the Wii, merely a statement of fact. The Wii is a good system, but 90% of it's library is made up of shitty wagglefests. This creates instant suspicion on the part of games purchasers of anything not a first or second party Nintendo production, yielding to really great, original games, like De Blob, No More Heroes, and Zack and Wiki not selling. Sorry, this paragraph got away from me. Let me start again.

Radiant Dawn, despite it's imperfections, is still a stellar game. While it doesn't have the (excessive) character customization of a Disgaea or Final Fantasy Tactics, or the innovation of Valkyria Chronicles, it has it's own charm. The game looks like something from the early PS2, minimal voice acting, and weak characterization for it's cast, but has the best mechanics in a Fire Emblem game. Unlike the first 8 games, it has a system of character and Item modification. Skills are found as items, and can be equipped on characters, creating a character customization that is neither too simple or RETARDED.

The story is weak, but not terrible. It has a few storytelling mechanics that are uncommon and rather interesting. Character deaths are permanent, and while important characters will flee the battlefield upon getting they ass handed to they, non-plot relevant characters are absent from all future cutscenes and are occasionally sadly mentioned by survivors. Another entertaining concept is the fact that the two groups are on opposite sides of a war, and occasionally meet in battle. While it would be dramatically interesting to have to kill your own player characters, they merely flee the battlefield upon their hitpoints being reduced to zero. The game also has a horrific, pro-furry agenda.

The game is about 40 hours long from beginning to end, but if you're anything like me, you'll restart quite a few times, and get EVEN MORE FUN :D

If you want a Tactical RPG that actually puts up a significant fight, give Radiant Dawn a look. You will not be disappointed. Maybe frustrated, but not disappointed.
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