"Every War has Two Sides" If you were a fan of Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (POR) then you will be a fan of Radiant Dawn (RD). This game follows the same great formula of Stratagy RPG. You plan out your attacks accordingly and excute them with pin point accuracy. Those new to the Fire Emblem franchise need not be daunted, they have a very in depth tutorial system that is spread out as the game is played so you don't learn everything in the first battle. RD has a new feature that I, for one, am not sure is the best of features. RD, unlike its previouse installments, allows you to save in the middle of a battle. For the newbie to the series this will be a feature I forsee them using a lot. For the veteran Fire Emblem fans, they will scoff at this and brush it aside. RD, like the rest, still adhere to, as the famouse words of Ivan Drago, "If he Dies, he Dies." Formula. Once a character is killed during the battles, he is dead and gone (unless you restart from a save point, cheater) he is gone for good. None of this typical RPG formula if they die then after the battle you just replenish there health so they are ready for the next fight. He is dead and gone, with some parting words, he disappears forever. The graphics, or more like artwork, is a step up from POR. The artwork there is wonderful and I really enjoy it. Could use some more cut scenes but Nintendo as really never been one for Cut Scenes. The con is the lack of Wii Features. Now I for one can say not all games should utilize the Wii-Mote but something would have been nice. Instead of turning it like a retro nintendo controler, could have had the point feature for the base menues would have been nice. Another con for some is the formula. Some what something new and something different and if that is what you are looking for, you will not find it in RD. The only difference is you get to see the differences of war on all parties as you play through multiple parts to the story. Well that is my review, hope you enjoy it and I am going to get back to crushing the likes of Bengion soldiers, "FFFFFRRRREEEEDDDDOOOOMMMMMM"

This game suffers few major flaws,but apprantly there are things that still spark up some fun. There's one thing that's different from the prequel,Path of Radiance: cutscenes. Although Path of Radiance had cutscenes,they hardly had sound or significance(simply showing Lehran's Medallion and then it goes back to text cut scenes). This time,there are still quite a few CG cutscenes, but there are more. Also,there's more voicing, like the trasnsitions between chapters. Speaking of chapters, there are about fifty-something. The fifty-some chapters are divided unequally into four parts, and they all represent different sides of the continent,which I'll explain now. The story is the continent of Tellius is, entirely covered in conflict. In Path of Radiance, Crimea beat Daein, and Crimea gave the responsbility to Begnion,Tellius's biggest region. However, Begnion is treating Daein harshly, and soon a small group known as the Dawn Brigade takes on the Begnion army. In the next part, you play as the new Queen of Crimea, Elincia. She tries to take down rebels who are led by a corrupt duke who wants to replace her. In the following part, you take the role of Ike, the new commander of the Griel Merceneries, who were asked to assist the Laguz Alliance, an army full of demi-humans who can transform into feline beasts or certain birds. Finally, the medallion mentioned before in this review can't take, and forces the goddess Ashera to turn all but the strongest people(the playables) into stone. This leads to Part Four, where every playable team(Dawn Brigade,Griel Merceneries,Crimean Army,etc. if you forgot the groups) teams up,then splits into 3 groups, and then finally meet up at the Goddess's tower. Now, The story is very good, and I find no problems with it, even though other reviews claim they find laughable issues with the storyline,which I find insane because I find it actually unique,as I never heard of any continent entirely engulfed in war. The gameplay, is very addictive. You can't stop playing and shouting at the TV "Pull off critical hit,pull off critical hit...AWW DANG IT!". The gameplay involves rock-paper-scissors attack systems, like Lances beat Swords, Swords beat Axes, Axes beat Lances. ANd there's also magic. Wind,Fire,and Lightning are in the Anima category. Wind beats Lightning,Lighting beats Fire,Fire beats Wind. There is rare users who use Dark Magic,which beats Anima magic,and Anima Magic beats Light,which beats Dark. There are also bows,but they have no interference with the chain. There are also crossbows, which only certain soliders can weild.The actual battle screen is like a game of chess. However, there is one concept everyone hates but some accept:If a character falls,they're dead. Like, DEAD. You can't use them. This adds more frustration, but to the addition of Battle Save, there's less frustration than before. There are about 72 playable soldiers, and they each have different stat growths. The game allows you which characters you want to have in your army(save a few,like the commander and characters that have a huge interference with that commander). However, some soliders insanely fail, like Fiona and Oliver. So enough of depth, let's talk about graphics. There are now different animations, and they all improve. For instance, the beast laguz simple tackled "through" the enemy in Path of Radiance. Now,they bite the area around the head and jump back. The visuals don't improve much though. The sound is great, though the game has the same sound effects from Path of Radiance. The music is great,though. You can't resist the music that sounds like Indiana Jones and plays during a Griel Merceneries fight. Overall,the game succeeds as a must-buy, but doesn't reach full perfection.