Here at Destructoid they like to talk about paying more attention to the text rather than just the final score of a review. Well I did, and I have a bigger problem with the text than the score. While I find the game is MUCH better than a 5.0, that isn't the focus of this article either. I'm a huge fan of Destructoid but I have to call this one out. Leigh Alexander's Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn review seems way off and I'm here to explain why. I argued in the review's original post about how lame it is having someone who hates strategy games review this game, but that isn't the subject of this post. I am not a huge strategy fan either (though I certainly don't hate them). The only strategies games I've ever played are Final Fantasy Tactics, which I loved, and Advance Wars, which is a great game but I didn't enjoy it at all.



I've never played a Fire Emblem game period. So I decided to pick it up because I figured if I liked FFT there has to be another strategy game out there that I'll like. The text Leigh wrote touches on so little of the game it's unbelievable. Everything she brings up happens in the first five minutes of the game. I'm not saying she needs to include spoilers, but she doesn't even discuss more advanced mechanics that are introduced within the first HOUR of the game. I e-mailed her days ago asking her what chapter she made it to and got no response, she never replied to that very same question in the review's comments either.

Maybe it's just me but I believe a reviewer should complete a game before reviewing it, and either Leigh didn't come close to finishing this game, or she wrote a very poor review that was very sparse on details. She doesn't cover many major aspects of the game which leaves me wondering how much of it she experienced. While the story is no masterpiece, it certainly isn't nearly as bad as she says, but I guess that is subject to opinion. Not to mention this is a sequel so she is missing out on additional depth by not having played the original game. Is that the game's fault? No. After hearing all this nonsense of the Wii having no titles for "hardcore gamers", I found it pretty shocking seeing her complain about the difficulty and how characters dies permanently. Well that is why you use the RESCUE command and you can safely take wounded soldiers away, that's part of the "strategy" in the game. I'm not sure what mode she was playing but she should have played on easy and watched all of the tutorials. The game is definitely challenging, but we need challenging games. She says that the challenge makes you not care about your characters or putting together a competent team, when it did quite the opposite with me. The game is so challenging that you MUST pay complete attention to your characters if you want to win.

I am not by any means a "stat-obsessed, detail-oriented resource manager". I'm just a guy that likes good games. I really don't see how this game could earn any less than a 7.0 (yes, even on the Destructoid scale) by even the most jaded gamer. I personally would give it somewhere around an 8.5 at least. Destructoid is all about honesty and free speech, and I found that review very suspect. As I said, either she didn't play a whole lot of the game or she was VERY light on details in that review. I may not always agree with Reverend Anthony's SCORES, but his TEXT is always right on and full of substance. I by no means dislike Leigh, or hold any grudge, but I had to bring this up. Hell, I think Destructoid would be proud, this is what the blogs and community are for, discussion. Perhaps Destructoid could offer "counter-reviews" posted by the community (only including well written ones, of course) since it seems that having multiple editors review each game isn't really possible since they have to purchase all additional copies (and sometimes even the original copy). I'm just throwing some ideas out there. I'd love to hear what you guys think about all this. I also heard that Nintendo is going to pull their advertising unless Leigh Alexander is fired as an example to all (ironically yes, this site does or did have advertisements for Radiant Dawn).