Introduction

Alright, it's time to start the show! Everyone, please proceed to your seats in an orderly fashion. If you bought offerings for the Gods of Random Number Generation, please hand them to the nearest Piety Associate, we're going to need all the favour we can muster.

That's right, it's

…because what's another Fire Emblem thread among friends?

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn is the tenth entry in Nintendo and Intelligent System's Fire Emblem series of Turn Based Strategy games. If you've ever played a Fire Emblem game in your life, you'll know what to expect, though if you haven't, we'll cover everything you need to know as we go. If you've ever played Advance Wars, you're halfway there! If you've ever played Final Fantasy Tactics, you're a different half of the way there, though not exactly the other half! (If you've played both, I guess you're maybe four fifths of the way there?) The name of the game is moving Your Guys next to Their Guys and selecting Attack, with a healthy dose of Numbers Going Up thrown in to boot.

Radiant Dawn is also a direct sequel to Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. It's mechanically very similar to its prequel, though there are a few little differences that I'm sure we can cover as we go. Plot-wise, it is notable for its use of perspective shifts between multiple main characters, each with their own allies, their own stories, and their own place in the bigger picture. There are four "parts", each split into multiple missions.

It is three years since the events of Path of Radiance, and the continent of Tellius is, ostensibly, at peace. Crimea is once again her own nation, having fully recovered from Daein's invasion, an event now referred to as the "Mad King's War". The theocracy of Begnion, as well as the Laguz nations of Gallia, Phoenecis and Kilvas have returned to their difficult but peaceful existences, and Goldoa remains ever isolated. Princess Elincia is now Queen of Crimea, and rules peacefully. Ike and his mercenary company are renowned as heroes. But what of Daein? Now under Begnion occupation in the aftermath of the war, the once great nation is now arguably a country fallen. Their King (who had no heir), all his lieutenants, and his most trusted and capable operative - the enigmatic Black Knight - are all dead, at the hands of Ike and his company. Daein's people regard Ike not as a hero but as an uncaring conqueror, and struggle under the rule of an occupying force that, more than anything else, seems to resent the imposition of having to keep the peace in a country outside their own. Unrest is brewing, and chaos abounds. One small pocket of resistance in particular is proving most troublesome for the occupying army…

Oh, that reminds me:

I should not need to say that this game will completely spoil Path of Radiance for anyone who hasn't played it. For the first several chapters, there won't be anything you shouldn't have seen coming from miles off; if it surprises you to learn that the forces of Daein were eventually defeated, or that Ike and the Black Knight finally came to blows, you'll get no sympathy from me. However, starting from chapter 9 of part one, significant revelations will begin in earnest. You've been warned.

This will be an informative LP at heart, though that won't stop me from riffing on the game. Lord knows that sometimes in Fire Emblem you just have to laugh. All joking aside, we're going to get everything and everyone, even if it means we'll end up with an army of bench warmers or three.

Note the following dialog standards:

This is me saying a line from the game!

This is also dialog!

"This isn't actually a line from the game, this is Fedule trying to be funny."
"Funny? He's just desperately looking for some way to be relevant among the five other Fire Emblem threads."
"Man, I bet he won't even be able to keep it up the whole way through."
"Tell me about it. At least the plot will hopefully be interesting by the time he finally forgets completely."

(no portrait, no serious)

We will be playing on Normal difficulty, because fuck Hard Mode. Hard Mode in this game is a whole different ballpark from other Fire Emblem Hard Modes - it's actually the Japanese Maniac Mode in disguise. Besides raising enemy stats, it also does a lot of stupid arbitrary bullshit, like disabling the ability to see enemy attack range displayed on the terrain, disabling Battle Save (an ingame savestate-like mechanism designed to make long battles less gruelling), disabling the Weapon Triangle (a longstanding and iconic Fire Emblem mechanic), and generally making the early game into an actual luckfest that can be survived only by avoiding ~60% chance enemy attacks and paying hawklike attention to Biorhythms. Fuck. That.

We will be playing using a Second Playthrough, because a few pretty neat things happen in a second playthrough. I will indicate what these are if it's not obvious (they're usually obvious). Related:

We will be unlocking all major secret stuff, and as much of the minor stuff as is possible depending on the circumstances (much of it is mutually exclusive based on who's in your team at the time). Important, interesting, hilarious or otherwise noteworthy content not legitimately unlocked in the LP will be shown in bonus updates.

We will be importing Clear Data from Path of Radiance. My stats in that game weren't anything to write home about (though Ike capped goddamn near everything), but what's important is that Ike had A-support with Soren. I think we had some coins, too. The implications of importing data will be covered in a later update.

We will talk at somewhat greater length about game mechanics between updates. I will do my best to explain the most immediately important things as we go, but sometimes, you just need a big infodump. These posts are not required reading, but that doesn't mean they're not chock full of useful information. I have some idea about what to discuss when, but I'm open to suggestions if you think there's something that warrants immediate elaboration.

Well then. Shall we?

The Let's Play Archive

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn

by Fedule

Introduction

Table of Contents