Why is Path of Radiance considered super easy?

[Classic]

3 hours ago, Falcom Knight said:

My definition would be a challenging but not entirely lenghtened run.

My main issues with FE9's hard mode are, that promoted enemies share the same fate with FE8's by having lower stats than first tier enemies, and that most bosses are stationary. Seeing a movable Schaeffer and Norris would make things more interesting for being an actual threat.

From what I read, the game is not entirely harder (tbf difficulty spike between normal and hard in FE10 is only marginal and only really affects a few characters like Edward), but it slows down things by having way more enemies and so longer enemy phases.

FE10, whilst not really hard outside of the DB chapters, has a really good hard mode overall regarding enemies stats (letting gameplay aspects like no visible movement range aside). Since the amount of enemies is unchanged compared to normal mode and it has skippable battle animations, the game never really felt boring to me.

Manic Mode is much more challenging than Hard Mode and multiple times slower. In Hard Mode you can just move a good unit near a bunch of enemies without thinking too much about it and that unit will most likely kill everything. In Maniac mode you need proper resource allocation like supports, forges, BEXP, etc or that unit will die, because enemies are much tougher and there are way more of them.

Maniac mode does also fix the stat problem of promoted enemies and gives them more stats than unpromoted enemies.

Overall Maniac Mode is much harder difficulty wise,  harder than RD Hard, I'd say. It just also takes ages, since enemies have a lot more stats and thus are alive for longer and there are so many enemies. The enemy phases are probably 2-4 times longer depending on the map and it'll take a lot more turns to clear maps too.

If it had the QoL features of RD I'd recommend it, but as it stands, it's a great challenge for a seasoned player, but you do have to be somewhat resistant to boredom.

You could also wait, if the rumors about a remake are true, maybe that has a Maniac mode with animation/enemy phase skipping.

 

[♠Soul♠]

I wanted to weigh in regarding Maniac Mode, but I only really played up until Ch.17 Stage 1, and that was years ago. From what I recall, it was one of the harder modes in FE, but within reasonable range. It felt challenging without being "cheap" (such as H5 in Shadow Dragon), as well as rewarding. I would say it's slightly harder than RD's HM, at least judging by that first half of the game.

Titania definitely carries a lot more weight in this mode, in particular, but it's not like she can outright solo forever. She's very similiar to RD's Sothe, in that regard. Neither truly weigh down the rest of your units, and they "age" appropriately.

The only thing, is that the Japanese mode has a glitch where you can forge Thunder tomes for 255% crit. This means you can oneshot basically everything if you have a unit with Vantage. And I don't fancy the idea of Swordmasters and Snipers (especially these) lacking bonus critical. It makes them a lot weaker.

Edited March 4, 2020 by Soul >8]

[Samurai Navarre]

People actually complained about THIS being super easy? I can only imagine the complaints they must've had about Sacred Stones, Awakening, and Fates...

[eclipse]

8 hours ago, Samurai Navarre said:

People actually complained about THIS being super easy? I can only imagine the complaints they must've had about Sacred Stones, Awakening, and Fates...

Because it was?  A little bit of history research would show why this isn't a completely unfounded assertion (unlike the 3DS games you listed).

[Samurai Navarre]

1 hour ago, eclipse said:

Because it was?  A little bit of history research would show why this isn't a completely unfounded assertion (unlike the 3DS games you listed).

Compared to them this game is quite difficult though. This is definitely not one for casual players who are only just starting the series.

[vanguard333]

7 hours ago, Samurai Navarre said:

Compared to them this game is quite difficult though. This is definitely not one for casual players who are only just starting the series.

Path of Radiance was literally my first FE game, and it wasn’t too difficult (the game having an easy mode helped, but still).

Other than that, I agree. The 3DS games were way too easy compared to Path of Radiance. Even Conquest wasn’t difficult so much as tedious, like playing through the Water Temple in Ocarina of Time.

Edited March 5, 2020 by vanguard333

[Shadow Mir]

1 hour ago, Samurai Navarre said:

Compared to them this game is quite difficult though. This is definitely not one for casual players who are only just starting the series.

How so? Because I *really* don't see it. Sure, Sacred Stones is easier (and some people here consider that arguable), but the 3DS games? Nuh-uh. No way.

Edited March 4, 2020 by Shadow Mir

[eclipse]

2 hours ago, Samurai Navarre said:

Compared to them this game is quite difficult though. This is definitely not one for casual players who are only just starting the series.

Have you read the topic?  The logic is there.  If you have any points within those that you disagree with, post 'em and explain why.

[Samurai Navarre]

8 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

How so? Because I *really* don't see it. Sure, Sacred Stones is easier (and some people here consider that arguable), but the 3DS games? Nuh-uh. No way.

How so? Are you joking? You can't even grind in this game like you can in Sacred Stones. That alone makes it far harder. Not to mention the tedious and grueling enemy phases. And did you seriously just say this game is easier than the 3DS games?

9 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

Path of Radiance was literally my first FE game, and it wasn’t too difficult (the game having an easy mode helped, but still).

Other than that, I agree. The 3DS games were way too easy compared to Path of Radiance. Even Conquest wasn’t difficult so much as tedious, like playing through the Water Temple in Ocarina of Time.

If you've played similar games before then sure. But if it weren't for Awakening this franchise would've been discontinued. They had to take a better approach to casual players.

[eclipse]

53 minutes ago, Samurai Navarre said:

If you've played similar games before then sure. But if it weren't for Awakening this franchise would've been discontinued. They had to take a better approach to casual players.

I'm going to assume that you know where all of those "casual" features came from?  Because this is highly misleading as-is.

[Shadow Mir]

8 hours ago, Samurai Navarre said:

How so? Are you joking? You can't even grind in this game like you can in Sacred Stones. That alone makes it far harder. Not to mention the tedious and grueling enemy phases. And did you seriously just say this game is easier than the 3DS games?

 

The "Are you joking? part is my line. There have been points made in this thread as to why Path of Radiance is easy. Points you have yet to contest. Also, what do "tedious and grueling enemy phases" have to do with the game being hard or not? And yes, I did say it's easier than the 3DS games... because it is. Unless you're seriously going to argue that Conquest is easier than Path of Radiance, in which case, good luck with that, because you're gonna need it.

8 hours ago, Samurai Navarre said:

If you've played similar games before then sure. But if it weren't for Awakening this franchise would've been discontinued. They had to take a better approach to casual players.

...And this has what exactly to do with the topic?

Edited March 5, 2020 by Shadow Mir

[vanguard333]

55 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

The "Are you joking? part is my line. There have been points made in this thread as to why Path of Radiance is easy. Points you have yet to contest. […] And yes, I did say it's easier than the 3DS games... because it is. Unless you're seriously going to argue that Conquest is easier than Path of Radiance, in which case, good luck with that, because you're gonna need it.

Can I weigh in on this? 

Path of Radiance vs Awakening: Awakening is definitely the easier game. Comparing Path of Radiance's Normal Mode to Awakening's Normal Mode, and Path of Radiance's Hard Mode to Awakening's Hard Mode (since Path of Radiance's Maniaic Mode was exclusive to Japan so it would be unfair to compare), Path of Radiance offers up a lot more challenge than Awakening does. Off the top of my head:

• Path of Radiance offers far more map/objective variety, forcing the player to come with strategies that differ from map to map, whereas what works for one map in Awakening will often work for the others as well. This means that the challenge largely has to come from the enemies, and that's hindered in Awakening by the potentially nigh-limitless grind and pair-up.
• Pair Up trivializes Awakening, while Titania "trivializes" Path of Radiance. I put quotes around trivializes in Titania's case because, at best, she trivializes the early-game. She is basically a Jagen that actually remains competent. By the mid-game, let alone late-game, she'll only be as good as the rest of your units. Pair Up, by contrast, only gets more broken as Awakening progresses. 
• Black Knight fight.
• Ashnard moves in Hard Mode and, in all difficulties, he can only be damaged by certain units. Anyone can damage Grima, and the damage cut from Dragonskin is a non-issue. 
• BEXP vs Reeking Box: BEXP wins because it is far more finite, while reeking boxes are a renewable resource and, while they are far more expensive on Hard Mode to the point of being "essentially finite", they are not necessary. Put the game down, come back after a while, and risen will show up on the map free of charge. 

 

Path of Radiance vs Fates (Birthright): Same story. And it's the same for Revelations. Infinite grind, boring (or tedious in Revelations' case) maps, etc. The stances are less broken than Pair Up, but that's not saying much. 

 

Path of Radiance vs Conquest: I hear Conquest constantly get praised for its difficult levels and having the best Fire Emblem gameplay, but I don't see it. To me, the levels aren't difficult; they're tedious. They rely too much on gimmicks that you can rarely use to your own advantage and almost never offer added challenge; just added tedium. That, to me, is fake difficulty.

Granted, not all the maps in Conquest are like that; a few are actually pretty good. Hinoka's chapter where you can change it so flying units either have insane movement or almost no movement at all is pretty decent. But so many of them, including the jar chapter, the golem chapter, and especially the Kitsune chapter, are just empty tedium. 

I won't argue that Conquest is easier than Path of Radiance. But the difficulty is presents isn't real challenge; most of the time, it's just tedium. 

[Eltosian Kadath]

19 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

 

Path of Radiance vs Awakening: Awakening is definitely the easier game. Comparing Path of Radiance's Normal Mode to Awakening's Normal Mode, and Path of Radiance's Hard Mode to Awakening's Hard Mode (since Path of Radiance's Maniaic Mode was exclusive to Japan so it would be unfair to compare), Path of Radiance offers up a lot more challenge than Awakening does. Off the top of my head:

And yet Awakening has both Lunatic and Lunatic plus. People like to forget about those modes but they are still a part of Awakening and are more difficult than anything Path of Radiance can offer.

22 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

This means that the challenge largely has to come from the enemies, and that's hindered in Awakening by the potentially nigh-limitless grind and pair-up.

and the scaling on Lunatic and Lunatic plus make map grinding almost untenable.

23 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

• Pair Up trivializes Awakening, while Titania "trivializes" Path of Radiance. I put quotes around trivializes in Titania's case because, at best, she trivializes the early-game. She is basically a Jagen that actually remains competent. By the mid-game, let alone late-game, she'll only be as good as the rest of your units. Pair Up, by contrast, only gets more broken as Awakening progresses. 

Titania isn't what trivializes Path of Radiance, being able to super level your best growth flier or cavalry with Bonus Exp until their stats are high enough to break the game (and that is before mentioning how easy it is to save scum supper levels on them using that system), not having to wait or pay for promotion items, having good Canto on all mounted units, Knight Ward giving cavalry a +30% speed growth, rather weak enemy stats overall, extremely generous forge money (and on maniac mode/japanese version the ability to forge 255 crit weapons), and getting absurd avoid from Earth supports are what trivialize this game. Titania is just a nice holdover until what really trivializes this game gets moving.

28 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

Black Knight fight.

Which is as optional as the Awakening fight with Priam.

25 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

• Ashnard moves in Hard Mode and, in all difficulties, he can only be damaged by certain units. Anyone can damage Grima, and the damage cut from Dragonskin is a non-issue. 

Wrath Resolve trivializes Ashnard even on maniac, and it can fairly easily be one rounded with either Ike or Ena with very little effort. All him moving does is reduce the turn count. Neither Grima or Ashnard are difficult bosses, and the only thing keeping Ashnard from being a one turned is his second form.

 

[Shadow Mir]

2 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

Path of Radiance vs Awakening: Awakening is definitely the easier game. Comparing Path of Radiance's Normal Mode to Awakening's Normal Mode, and Path of Radiance's Hard Mode to Awakening's Hard Mode (since Path of Radiance's Maniaic Mode was exclusive to Japan so it would be unfair to compare), Path of Radiance offers up a lot more challenge than Awakening does. 

As much as I think Lunatic and Lunatic+ are bull, they're still there.

2 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

• Black Knight fight.

Is optional. And if that counts, so should Priam, which is far harder (have fun with 50 units that come at you all at once AND have multiple capped stats on anything higher than normal mode!).

2 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

• Ashnard moves in Hard Mode and, in all difficulties, he can only be damaged by certain units. Anyone can damage Grima, and the damage cut from Dragonskin is a non-issue. 

He's still wrecked by Wrath/Resolve. On the flipside, Dragonskin is likely reducing anyone other than Chrom or Lucina to dealing scratch damage at best.

2 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

• Pair Up trivializes Awakening, while Titania "trivializes" Path of Radiance. I put quotes around trivializes in Titania's case because, at best, she trivializes the early-game. She is basically a Jagen that actually remains competent. By the mid-game, let alone late-game, she'll only be as good as the rest of your units. Pair Up, by contrast, only gets more broken as Awakening progresses. 

Counterpoint: Oh hi there BEXP. And that's just ONE aspect of what breaks Path of Radiance.

2 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

• BEXP vs Reeking Box: BEXP wins because it is far more finite, while reeking boxes are a renewable resource and, while they are far more expensive on Hard Mode to the point of being "essentially finite", they are not necessary. Put the game down, come back after a while, and risen will show up on the map free of charge. 

It's also far more abusable, like was stated above. I can't abuse Reeking Boxes on anything other than Normal, and grinding is far less viable on Hard, considering that enemies have stronger weapons even in the earlier maps, and pretty much unviable on Lunatic.

2 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

Path of Radiance vs Fates (Birthright): Same story. And it's the same for Revelations. Infinite grind, boring (or tedious in Revelations' case) maps, etc. The stances are less broken than Pair Up, but that's not saying much. 

That's bull. You can't grind as much as in Awakening, and most units are far less durable, not to mention overleveling isn't nearly as viable.

TL;DR Your post is pretty much deliberately ignoring the broken aspects of Path of Radiance and pointing out the broken aspects of the other games.

Edited March 5, 2020 by Shadow Mir

[vanguard333]

1 hour ago, Shadow Mir said:

As much as I think Lunatic and Lunatic+ are bull, they're still there.

I’m not counting those because saying “Awakening harder because  more difficulty modes” just throws the point of comparing them in terms of difficulty out-the-window. So. I’m comparing them side-by-side, normal-to-normal, hard-to-hard.

1 hour ago, Shadow Mir said:

Is optional. And if that counts, so should Priam, which is far harder (have fun with 50 units that come at you all at once AND have multiple capped stats on anything higher than normal mode!).

The Black Knight fight is part of the main game, while the Priam fight is Spotpass. It is not a both or neither situation. 

1 hour ago, Shadow Mir said:

He's still wrecked by Wrath/Resolve. On the flipside, Dragonskin is likely reducing anyone other than Chrom or Lucina to dealing scratch damage at best.

Grima gets wrecked in general by pretty much any good unit; Dragonskin is meaningless as he’s a pitiful endgame boss. With Grima, you don’t need a skill scroll you can only get in chapter 27 (resolve) to trivialize the fight.

Also, in terms of boss maps, at least the final level in Path of Radiance isn’t skippable: the enemies block your way to Ashnard, they pose a threat (especially the red dragons and Bryce), you have to get through them, and you don’t get access to a Laguz Royal in Hard Mode until after you beat Ashnard the first time. With Grima’s final level, the enemies are downright skippable. You can go right around them and beat Grima in one turn even on hard mode. 

1 hour ago, Shadow Mir said:

Counterpoint: Oh hi there BEXP. And that's just ONE aspect of what breaks Path of Radiance.

It's also far more abusable, like was stated above. I can't abuse Reeking Boxes on anything other than Normal, and grinding is far less viable on Hard, considering that enemies have stronger weapons even in the earlier maps, and pretty much unviable on Lunatic.

I guess we’re going to have to agree to disagree here; I say BEXP doesn’t trivialize Path of Radiance because it’s far more finite, you say the boxes are less trivial because they actually involve fighting enemies. 

1 hour ago, Shadow Mir said:

That's bull. You can't grind as much as in Awakening, and most units are far less durable, not to mention overleveling isn't nearly as viable.

Are you really going to argue that Ryoma the Game isn’t easier than Path of Radiance? It is the most pitifully easy Fire Emblem game there is, as there’s no point where it’s actually difficult. Sure, overlevelling isn’t as viable, but you don’t need to trivialize Birthright; it’s already trivial.

 

1 hour ago, Shadow Mir said:

TL;DR Your post is pretty much deliberately ignoring the broken aspects of Path of Radiance and pointing out the broken aspects of the other games.

If you find a game easy by how it breaks, then you have to look at how long the game goes for before it can be broken. Awakening breaks sooner and has more ways of being broken.

Also, the fact that there are are chapter objectives in Path of Radiance beyond “kill all the enemies” or “defeat the boss” already makes “trivializing the game” require far more thought on those chapters. For example: on the Begnion ship mission, there is no one-character strategy that keeps everyone alive; the mission asks more from you than just “have your best person go in and kill them all”. Also, I just love the fact that you accuse me of ignoring the broken aspects of Path of Radiance when you deliberately ignored this argument the first time I made it. 

[Shadow Mir]

1 hour ago, vanguard333 said:

I’m not counting those because saying “Awakening harder because  more difficulty modes” just throws the point of comparing them in terms of difficulty out-the-window. So. I’m comparing them side-by-side, normal-to-normal, hard-to-hard.

 

Which sounds like a clear-cut case of you ignoring something that is obviously detrimental to your argument.

1 hour ago, vanguard333 said:

The Black Knight fight is part of the main game, while the Priam fight is Spotpass. It is not a both or neither situation.

Doesn't change the fact that it's still optional. If you had to win to proceed, then sure, I'd count it, but that's not the case.

1 hour ago, vanguard333 said:

Are you really going to argue that Ryoma the Game isn’t easier than Path of Radiance? It is the most pitifully easy Fire Emblem game there is, as there’s no point where it’s actually difficult. Sure, overlevelling isn’t as viable, but you don’t need to trivialize Birthright; it’s already trivial.

Yes, because he misses half the game. What are you gonna do until then??? Not to mention the nerfs to 1-2 range that make setting a strong unit with a hand axe or such to aggro a bunch of enemies pretty much unviable. Also, some people here made cases for Path of Radiance being easier than freaking Sacred Stones, as in the game that hands you the best unit in the game in the prologue. I don't buy into that myself, personally, but that's still very damning.

1 hour ago, vanguard333 said:

Grima gets wrecked in general by pretty much any good unit; Dragonskin is meaningless as he’s a pitiful endgame boss. With Grima, you don’t need a skill scroll you can only get in chapter 27 (resolve) to trivialize the fight.

Also, in terms of boss maps, at least the final level in Path of Radiance isn’t skippable: the enemies block your way to Ashnard, they pose a threat (especially the red dragons and Bryce), you have to get through them, and you don’t get access to a Laguz Royal in Hard Mode until after you beat Ashnard the first time. With Grima’s final level, the enemies are downright skippable. You can go right around them and beat Grima in one turn even on hard mode. 

 

Like who? Besides Robin, that is. Also, Grima is blocked by a wall of mooks on any difficulty other than normal mode. And there's the fact that Physic mooks can and will heal them if your strategy falls through.

1 hour ago, vanguard333 said:

If you find a game easy by how it breaks, then you have to look at how long the game goes for before it can be broken. Awakening breaks sooner and has more ways of being broken.

Also, the fact that there are are chapter objectives in Path of Radiance beyond “kill all the enemies” or “defeat the boss” already makes “trivializing the game” require far more thought on those chapters. For example: on the Begnion ship mission, there is no one-character strategy that keeps everyone alive; the mission asks more from you than just “have your best person go in and kill them all”. Also, I just love the fact that you accuse me of ignoring the broken aspects of Path of Radiance when you deliberately ignored this argument the first time I made it. 

Not really. Or are you going to ignore what a BEXP dump can do to what little difficulty Path of Radiance has again? Also, Sacred Stones has more variety in objectives than Awakening does. Do you think it's harder than Awakening??

1 hour ago, vanguard333 said:

I guess we’re going to have to agree to disagree here; I say BEXP doesn’t trivialize Path of Radiance because it’s far more finite, you say the boxes are less trivial because they actually involve fighting enemies. 

It's not just that they involve fighting. It's that on harder difficulties, trying to actively grind on them WILL break your bank. And there's still the fact that it's trivially easy to savescum for super levels with BEXP.

Edited March 5, 2020 by Shadow Mir

[Eltosian Kadath]

1 hour ago, vanguard333 said:

I’m not counting those because saying “Awakening harder because  more difficulty modes” just throws the point of comparing them in terms of difficulty out-the-window. So. I’m comparing them side-by-side, normal-to-normal, hard-to-hard.

You are ignoring Maniac mode as well, and PoR Maniac mode breaks easier than Awakening Lunatic thanks to 255 crit forges. I will also note that while I can find a 0% growths run of Path of Radiance on Maniac mode, I can't find one for Awakening Lunatic (an Awakening Hard Mode run is the highest I have seen), and it is speculated that it might not be possible, which while not definitive does indicate that Path of Radiance is easier to break on that difficulty. Another vague Ignoring Lunatic plus is still disingenuous when talking about the game's difficulty, but if you are doing this direct mode to mode comparison don't cherry pick the match-ups.

 

46 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

The Black Knight fight is part of the main game, while the Priam fight is Spotpass. It is not a both or neither situation. 

If I am forced to consider the Black Knight fight a part of the main game, than it is the easiest part of the main game, as there is a trivial to determine 1 turn clear that costs no vital resources, risks no units, nets you the same amount of loot, and number of characters (its only a question of whether you get a growth unit or a high bases unit) no matter how you clear it. When Ike moves to the retreat tile, the map is cleared, and it is only difficult if you intentionally make it more difficult on yourself.

 

1 hour ago, vanguard333 said:

 

Also, in terms of boss maps, at least the final level in Path of Radiance isn’t skippable: the enemies block your way to Ashnard, they pose a threat (especially the red dragons and Bryce), you have to get through them, and you don’t get access to a Laguz Royal in Hard Mode until after you beat Ashnard the first time. With Grima’s final level, the enemies are downright skippable. You can go right around them and beat Grima in one turn even on hard mode. 

Just going to leave a 2 turn clear video of PoR endgame on maniac mode, and the 0% growths 2 turn clear video of Path of Radiance endgame on maniac mode in the spoiler tab below. Both game's final maps can be utterly broken if you know how to break them.

Spoiler

Basic Maniac mode LTC

0% Growths Maniac mode LTC

 

1 hour ago, vanguard333 said:

For example: on the Begnion ship mission, there is no one-character strategy that keeps everyone alive; the mission asks more from you than just “have your best person go in and kill them all”.

Could say the same thing about Awakening chapter 6 where you have to defend Emmeryn as well as rout the map. Mangs had to learn that this is a one-character chapter the hard way quite recently...

 

[whase]

Am I the only one who cheesed through PoR on hardest difficulty by only using 4 units?  Me, the guy who couldn't get past chapter 1 of RD on hard? 

I played PoR on hard mode and had no trouble whatsoever. If I didn't have access to DLC for Awakening I would not have been able to get through Awakening hard mode. The dlc experience is what dragged me through the Awakening chapters, Ike with a Soren support made PoR a breeze. I know PEMN, but I really can't see how people can call Awakening easier than PoR.

I enjoy playing a game on easy much more though.

Awakening easy gets broken by pair up. PoR easy gets broken by bonus experience. Up to those points the games aren't particularly easy or hard imo, afterwards they get easy (except for the BK fight, granted, but it's skippable). Awakening pair up only starts breaking after a while though, and some classes break the game more than others (never found Chrom/Lord on his own a very strong unit?).

I guess it kind of depends on what a player does and what their style is. If for some reason the player forgets pair up, awakening becomes a lot harder. If a player forgets bonus experience exists, PoR becomes harder. If a player simply never uses the stronger classes their experience becomes harder.

Whether a game is hard or not is personal, and while I've heard far more people say PoR is the easiest game, you can't say PoR is easiest under each and every circumstance. IMO anyways.

[ping]

I'm fairly confident in saying that for the western audience, PoR is the easiest Fire Emblem game to play on its highest difficulty. This statement excludes FE1-6 and FE9 Maniac, so I don't have to talk about things I'm not familiar with. Compared with Sacred Stones (which I think is the only reasonable contender)...

• PoR has the easier earlygame. In PoR, some of the earlier maps (ch.4, for example) can be a little tricky because you have to keep characters like Rhys and Soren alive, but FE8 also has ch.5 and ch.6, which I think are more difficult, especially for a new and blind player, than anything PoR can offer.
• PoR has fewer and less severe difficulty spikes down the line. The Bridge map can be tough when losing a crucial unit's turn, but otherwise, it's sometimes difficult to get all the bonus objetives, but never to finish the map. The Desert map is pretty trivial if you just slow-push your way towards Muarim - getting all the items while keeping all Laguz alive is difficult, but not actually necessary. Similarly, the priest-saving map only becomes a bit tricky if you want to save the priests and get all the chests. Blood Runs Red is easy as pie, but saving all the vigilantes (including the two that are aggro on turn 1) while recruiting Zihark requires some planning.
• BEXP is more easily available than grinding in FE8. Yes, map battles and the tower are theoretically limitless, but it takes a fair bit of time to grind up units like Amelia, Ewan, or Marisa (not to mention L'Arachel) to your party's average level.
• As a result, FE8 is more punishing when choosing to use a weak unit. Unless you spend a lot of time grinding, using Marisa and Amelia will make the game more difficult, while bad units in PoR tend to make the game slower instead of tougher because stat-wise, all PoR units are good and a nice BEXP dump will immediately bring an underleveled character up to speed.

[SSbardock84]

Good question, I think it's much harder than Radiant Dawn.