On the subject of Radiant Dawn
That game is quite distressing for me, because it seems simultaneously good and awful. First, I'll say that I had my interview with Stewart's yesterday and I don't think it went very well. Hopefully I'll be brought in for a second one. Also, Wendy bought the Oxford Book of Idioms, which I think is one of the cutest things she's done yet. I sense that she really loves to learn just for the sake of it.
Now onto the promised (spoileriffic!) critique!
There's really nothing wrong with the game mechanically. Class balance is pretty good(though mages in general get shafted in speed), there're a lot of weapons of every type. BEXP is better implemented than it was in PoR. Class abilities are better, innate abilities are better(they become scrolls of the skill in question instead of disappearing when removed and don't cost any skill points). Laguz work much better and have access to a couple of items(Olivi Grass, Laguz Stones, etc.) that go a long way towards alleviating the weakness of only being good when transformed. The only mechanical flaws I can think of is over-nerfing thunder magic(it'd be completely useless if it didn't do bonus damage to wyverns and dragons) and Maniac disabling the weapon triangle(rendering swords fairly useless due to their inferior strength relative lances and axes).
No, the real problem is the plot. The plot is just fine in the 1st and 2nd parts. Of course Daein would resist occupation, and it's perfectly feasible for the Apostle to not know exactly what is going on in a distant place(though this gets stretched when you consider that it's been going on for a while). It's also feasible that Elincia essentially sitting on her hands as the country that just three years ago laid waste to Crimea regained its independence, though Ludveck seems preternaturally capable, easily out-smarting Lucia, who we're supposed to believe is a capable spymaster.
No, where the game really runs into problems is part 3. The entire business with the war is awfully contrived. The Senate, which until now has been depicted as entirely subserviant to the Apostle and Sephiran, is suddenly powerful enough to depose them on a whim. Given that Sephiran is actually Lehran, the heron guy who fought against the Dark God hundreds of years ago and is also Sanaki's great-great-great-etc. grandpa(and is also supposed to be crazy capable), it's a bit hard to believe the Senators seemed to have completely outsmarted him and also happen to be mustache-twirling evil and it was THEM(not Ashnard) who orchestrated the Serenes massacre....for no apparent reason, really. They just really hate bird people. At least Ashnard was completely nuts and trying to bring total chaos to Tellius, which gave him a perfectly reasonable reason to remove the most "orderly" race. Plus, the Laguz Alliance KNOWS ALL ABOUT THE MEDALLION and FIGHTS A CONTINENT-SPANNING WAR anyways. You know, the exact thing that wakes up the Dark God. But it's no big deal, it's not like Begnion is bigger or stronger or anything. Oh wait, it is. They're invading a much more powerful opponent and their opponent is led by General Zelgius, one of the best generals in the entire freaking world. There's no way this could go wrong guys!
Oh, wait, it does. The crows betray at the outset and then Daein gets on Begnion's side. The plot device used to explain this is this entirely new thing called a "blood pact" which somehow magically binds the signatory to do whatever the plot requires them to. So Naesala turns traitor and King Pelleas orders the Dawn Brigade into battle all because Lekain holds a scrap of paper that'll kill motherfucking everyone in their countries if they don't. Of course, if they'd ever bother reading it, they'd realize it specifies "Begnion" and not "Vice-Minister Lekain". Because, you know, both Sephiran and Sanaki outrank Lekain and thus all they'd have to do to would be to tell Sanaki all about it and then they'd be fine, because they could crush Lekain's skull in and still be doing as "Begnion" wishes. Naesala figures it out(only after practically genociding the hawk tribe) but Daein is too fucking retarded for words.
You see, Pelleas's mother seems to know an awful lot about blood-pacts. But, instead of asking her about it, Pelleas hits the books and concludes the only way to break it is for him to die. In your first play through, you're forced to kill him. The option to save him only unlocks on new-game plus. This is one of two things that that actually enables. They know Almedha seems very knowledgeable about blood pacts, but they're way too busy stabbing the shit out of Pelleas to even bother to ask her. Which they should, because it turns out that only one of the signatories has to die AND the physical pact itself needs to be destroyed. The other signatory is Lekain(who, again, for some retarded reason, specifies "Begnion" as the one with the power instead of "Lekain" or maybe just the "Begnian Senate"). So basically Pelleas dies for absolutely no reason whatsoever on your first play through. Because everyone around him is brain-dead.
Which brings me to the Dawn Brigade, which receives zero characterization whatsoever. Not even Sothe or Micaiah. Sothe's personality literally boils down to "Must protect Micaiah". Micaiah's is "I must do whatever it takes for my country, even if it's completely stupid and goes against everything I've ever believed in. Oh, boo-hoo, I'm Branded and everyone will hate me if they find out!" The rest of Dawn Brigade members have only the personality you can discern from a handful of brief info conversations and their sprites, because there are no real support conversations to provide them with actual characterization. Nolan is generic wise dude('cause he looks thoughtful and has a beard!), Edward is generic eager youngster, Leonard is generic realist (British) youngster, etc. Considering they're also returning literally the entire cast of PoR(except for Largo, for no real reason), it leads to a couple of cardboard cut-outs and static characters. Basically no one from PoR has changed at all and they don't change at all. This is especially obvious when you play as the Greil Mercenaries.
Part 4 isn't bad, especially if Pelleas is still around(because he's one of the few characters that actually gets good characterization) but it can't really save the game. Sephiran/Lehran is characterized well, Yune(the so-called Dark God) is actually fairly humorous. No, one of the crimes the game commits is essentially rendering PoR completely moot. The "Dark God" gets released anyways, but it turns out that isn't a big deal because she's actually a lot nicer than Ashera, whose actually a heartless bitch. Ike avenged Greil by killing the Black Knight! Wait, no, actually he's alive and was also Zelgius all along. Well, knocking off Ashnard was good, wasn't it? Turns out he was just Sephiran's pawn. He wants to end the world so he can just die already. How emo is that? At least they put an end to the Feral Ones! Wait, no, that was Izuka's work and he's holding the highest position in Daein's government and still doing completely insane and horrible things.
Well, at least that creepy fat fuck Oliver who had a really, really creepy obsession with heron princes met his end, right? RIGHT? Actually, no. He can even join your party!(to be fair, it's pretty hilarious, but the game is striking such an obviously serious tone that it doesn't fit at all).
In the end, it feels like a cash-in and it's substandard story basically rips all meaning out of PoR. I don't think I could play it at all if it wasn't Fire Emblem.
Oh, I forgot. Micaiah is Sanaki's older sister. And is of heron blood. And is the only non-heron who can sing galdrs and the only person the entire world with the power of "Sacrifice"(which is rendered entirely useless when she promotes and gains the use of healing staves). As if she wasn't enough of a Mary Sue already! Also, if you bring the Black Knight to 1-E and Ike fights him in one specific chapter(which is really, really hard, because Ike needs at least 27 speed to avoid being doubled and easily killed), Lehran joins you in the very last level. And also if you port Ike and Soren in from PoR with an A-support, you can get a super-secret info conversation right before the last battle(assuming you brought Soren, of course) that reveals that Soren is actually Ashnard's son.
Seriously?
Now onto the promised (spoileriffic!) critique!
There's really nothing wrong with the game mechanically. Class balance is pretty good(though mages in general get shafted in speed), there're a lot of weapons of every type. BEXP is better implemented than it was in PoR. Class abilities are better, innate abilities are better(they become scrolls of the skill in question instead of disappearing when removed and don't cost any skill points). Laguz work much better and have access to a couple of items(Olivi Grass, Laguz Stones, etc.) that go a long way towards alleviating the weakness of only being good when transformed. The only mechanical flaws I can think of is over-nerfing thunder magic(it'd be completely useless if it didn't do bonus damage to wyverns and dragons) and Maniac disabling the weapon triangle(rendering swords fairly useless due to their inferior strength relative lances and axes).
No, the real problem is the plot. The plot is just fine in the 1st and 2nd parts. Of course Daein would resist occupation, and it's perfectly feasible for the Apostle to not know exactly what is going on in a distant place(though this gets stretched when you consider that it's been going on for a while). It's also feasible that Elincia essentially sitting on her hands as the country that just three years ago laid waste to Crimea regained its independence, though Ludveck seems preternaturally capable, easily out-smarting Lucia, who we're supposed to believe is a capable spymaster.
No, where the game really runs into problems is part 3. The entire business with the war is awfully contrived. The Senate, which until now has been depicted as entirely subserviant to the Apostle and Sephiran, is suddenly powerful enough to depose them on a whim. Given that Sephiran is actually Lehran, the heron guy who fought against the Dark God hundreds of years ago and is also Sanaki's great-great-great-etc. grandpa(and is also supposed to be crazy capable), it's a bit hard to believe the Senators seemed to have completely outsmarted him and also happen to be mustache-twirling evil and it was THEM(not Ashnard) who orchestrated the Serenes massacre....for no apparent reason, really. They just really hate bird people. At least Ashnard was completely nuts and trying to bring total chaos to Tellius, which gave him a perfectly reasonable reason to remove the most "orderly" race. Plus, the Laguz Alliance KNOWS ALL ABOUT THE MEDALLION and FIGHTS A CONTINENT-SPANNING WAR anyways. You know, the exact thing that wakes up the Dark God. But it's no big deal, it's not like Begnion is bigger or stronger or anything. Oh wait, it is. They're invading a much more powerful opponent and their opponent is led by General Zelgius, one of the best generals in the entire freaking world. There's no way this could go wrong guys!
Oh, wait, it does. The crows betray at the outset and then Daein gets on Begnion's side. The plot device used to explain this is this entirely new thing called a "blood pact" which somehow magically binds the signatory to do whatever the plot requires them to. So Naesala turns traitor and King Pelleas orders the Dawn Brigade into battle all because Lekain holds a scrap of paper that'll kill motherfucking everyone in their countries if they don't. Of course, if they'd ever bother reading it, they'd realize it specifies "Begnion" and not "Vice-Minister Lekain". Because, you know, both Sephiran and Sanaki outrank Lekain and thus all they'd have to do to would be to tell Sanaki all about it and then they'd be fine, because they could crush Lekain's skull in and still be doing as "Begnion" wishes. Naesala figures it out(only after practically genociding the hawk tribe) but Daein is too fucking retarded for words.
You see, Pelleas's mother seems to know an awful lot about blood-pacts. But, instead of asking her about it, Pelleas hits the books and concludes the only way to break it is for him to die. In your first play through, you're forced to kill him. The option to save him only unlocks on new-game plus. This is one of two things that that actually enables. They know Almedha seems very knowledgeable about blood pacts, but they're way too busy stabbing the shit out of Pelleas to even bother to ask her. Which they should, because it turns out that only one of the signatories has to die AND the physical pact itself needs to be destroyed. The other signatory is Lekain(who, again, for some retarded reason, specifies "Begnion" as the one with the power instead of "Lekain" or maybe just the "Begnian Senate"). So basically Pelleas dies for absolutely no reason whatsoever on your first play through. Because everyone around him is brain-dead.
Which brings me to the Dawn Brigade, which receives zero characterization whatsoever. Not even Sothe or Micaiah. Sothe's personality literally boils down to "Must protect Micaiah". Micaiah's is "I must do whatever it takes for my country, even if it's completely stupid and goes against everything I've ever believed in. Oh, boo-hoo, I'm Branded and everyone will hate me if they find out!" The rest of Dawn Brigade members have only the personality you can discern from a handful of brief info conversations and their sprites, because there are no real support conversations to provide them with actual characterization. Nolan is generic wise dude('cause he looks thoughtful and has a beard!), Edward is generic eager youngster, Leonard is generic realist (British) youngster, etc. Considering they're also returning literally the entire cast of PoR(except for Largo, for no real reason), it leads to a couple of cardboard cut-outs and static characters. Basically no one from PoR has changed at all and they don't change at all. This is especially obvious when you play as the Greil Mercenaries.
Part 4 isn't bad, especially if Pelleas is still around(because he's one of the few characters that actually gets good characterization) but it can't really save the game. Sephiran/Lehran is characterized well, Yune(the so-called Dark God) is actually fairly humorous. No, one of the crimes the game commits is essentially rendering PoR completely moot. The "Dark God" gets released anyways, but it turns out that isn't a big deal because she's actually a lot nicer than Ashera, whose actually a heartless bitch. Ike avenged Greil by killing the Black Knight! Wait, no, actually he's alive and was also Zelgius all along. Well, knocking off Ashnard was good, wasn't it? Turns out he was just Sephiran's pawn. He wants to end the world so he can just die already. How emo is that? At least they put an end to the Feral Ones! Wait, no, that was Izuka's work and he's holding the highest position in Daein's government and still doing completely insane and horrible things.
Well, at least that creepy fat fuck Oliver who had a really, really creepy obsession with heron princes met his end, right? RIGHT? Actually, no. He can even join your party!(to be fair, it's pretty hilarious, but the game is striking such an obviously serious tone that it doesn't fit at all).
In the end, it feels like a cash-in and it's substandard story basically rips all meaning out of PoR. I don't think I could play it at all if it wasn't Fire Emblem.
Oh, I forgot. Micaiah is Sanaki's older sister. And is of heron blood. And is the only non-heron who can sing galdrs and the only person the entire world with the power of "Sacrifice"(which is rendered entirely useless when she promotes and gains the use of healing staves). As if she wasn't enough of a Mary Sue already! Also, if you bring the Black Knight to 1-E and Ike fights him in one specific chapter(which is really, really hard, because Ike needs at least 27 speed to avoid being doubled and easily killed), Lehran joins you in the very last level. And also if you port Ike and Soren in from PoR with an A-support, you can get a super-secret info conversation right before the last battle(assuming you brought Soren, of course) that reveals that Soren is actually Ashnard's son.
Seriously?