Path of Radiance VS Radiant Dawn

[Lilmik11]

Personnally,I prefer PoR. The game is way more balanced than RD, it's easier, you have more freedom in the units you want to train, the characters are less broken, the story is better, etc. And you?

[Florete]

Radiant Dawn.

-Path of Radiance is too easy

-More characters

-Longer

-Better forging system

-Controls overall (such as getting rid of map animations completely to speed things up)

-Better battle animations (such as people with shields actually blocking instead of dodging)

-I, at least, liked the story more in RD.

I'm sure there's more (See: Integrity's post below).

Edited August 1, 2010 by Red Fox of Fire

[Integrity]

RD.

-I never minded the story of RD and didn't mind the perspective switches.

-Reassignable skills and personal skills that don't take points.

-While the support system wasn't what we're used to, I liked it. I missed the conversations, but from pure gameplay it's my favorite.

-This x2:

-Controls overall (such as getting rid of map animations completely to speed things up)

-Better battle animations (such as people with shields actually blocking instead of dodging

-New hotness for so many characters. Yes, I'm shallow.

-Laura.

EDIT3: As I sit down to play the aforementioned right now, I remember my last one. I prefer RD not because it's more difficult, but because the difficulties run the gamut. Easy is a roflstomp, Normal is a good fun playthrough, and Hard is actually Hard.

EDIT: And tag onto that the graphical upgrade, which was TREMENDOUS. Nothing bugged me quite so much as the Paladin Lance graphics with that blocky damn PSX-era ...pointy thing.

EDIT2: Now, I will say in PoR's favor that RD missed the "building an army" aspect that all the other FEs I've played have captured. You're kinda just given most everybody via Base conversations or automatically.

Edited August 1, 2010 by Integrity

[-Cynthia-]

I also find PoR too easy, main reason I prefer RD.

As for balance, both games are pretty unbalanced. PoR has a lot of high Mov characters with almost no disadvantage to their low Mov counterparts who you can make great with BEXP even in HM. RD has a pretty unbalanced system as well, since there are large gaps in character performance across the game. I also liked RD story better, it was less generic than most.

I liked PoR having an actual support system though.

Edited August 1, 2010 by -Cynthia-

[Junkhead]

In gameplay terms FE10 just demolishes FE9.

And it's the other way around with backround and story with FE9, where it had well-developed characters and support conversations.

[NinjaMonkey]

Personnally,I prefer PoR. The game is way more balanced than RD, it's easier, you have more freedom in the units you want to train, the characters are less broken, the story is better, etc. And you?

I'm pretty sure all the Paladins in FE9 are broken...

[Junkhead]

They only have great caps. "Broken" means they start great from the start to the end. And Titania is only like that if you keep her up to the team. Same with Oscar and his support with Ike...>_>

[El Rey León]

I'm pretty sure all the Paladins in FE9 are broken...

Only Titania. Oscar is broken if you pair him with Ike, but his str growth isn't that great. And Makalov just sucks.

Anyway, PoR. I like the support conversations, army-building, and it really felt like I was on a journey from a small town mercenary to an army general taking back a conquered land.

RD had fun gameplay, but everything else was a schizophrenic mess. Sexy battle animations, though.

[The Envoy of the Beginning]

I prefer PoR over RD. While RD is better in terms of gameplay, there are many things in PoR that I prefer over RD such as (but not limited to) plot and music (for the most part).

-Path of Radiance is too easy

Maniac mode disagrees with you.

And before you say "But that's only in the Japanese version!", ISOs of this version of the game are not out of reach.

And Makalov just sucks.

Actually, Makalov is decent as a unit. But if you mean his character, then yes, he does suck!

Edited August 1, 2010 by BLS

[Mikethfc]

In gameplay terms FE10 just demolishes FE9.

And it's the other way around with backround and story with FE9, where it had well-developed characters and support conversations.

But FE10 lets you pair whomever you want so you can do IkexSanaki to your heart's content

I'm hard-pushed to choose a favourite possibly RD because it had a completely different story-line to the other FEs ( or from FE6 onwards at any rate.)

[NinjaMonkey]

They only have great caps. "Broken" means they start great from the start to the end. And Titania is only like that if you keep her up to the team. Same with Oscar and his support with Ike...>_>

So why are most of the paladins high up on the tier list then?

Titania tier

Titania

Top

Jill

Oscar

Kieran

Boyd

Marcia

High

Ike

Reyson

Tanith

Astrid

Makalov

Muarim

Edited August 1, 2010 by NinjaMonkey

[eclipse]

I like them for different reasons.

PoR

- Actual support conversations, which made the characters really come alive (if RD had that, then Aran might have a personality!)

- The story doesn't jump all over the damn place

- I had to think really hard before positioning my mages

- Tormod was easier to get and level

- Full Guard (IIRC)

- Stefan comes really early

RD

- Better graphics

- I can be as dumb with my supports as I want to be (including Tormod x Sanaki, which is redundant but funny. I wish those two had a paired ending)

- Disarm means my inner thief gets to do all sorts of funny things to the enemy

- Wyverns are easier to take out (hello Thunder!)

- Untransformed laguz can counterattack, meaning that Volug + Paragon + no transformation = approximately a level, assuming he survives

- Florete (but I really wish it ran off the Magic stat)

- BEXP system is more abusable

- PRF magic, and lots of it

[Junkhead]

So why are most of the paladins high up on the tier list then?

That happens in every FE that isn't FE10. Because even Arran is in Top tier in FE12, IIRC.

They have great Mov, WTC and avaiblity, most of the time.

Most of the FE9 Cavaliers that come later have good growths and BEXP to make up to their low level. They only have great caps, and they don't reach the "broken" status until they are apt for combat, at least this goes to Astrid & Makalov.

[James Bond]

I prefer RD mostly because of the 3rd tier, skills can be removed and used to other characters instead of vanishing like in POR and graphics...The only thing I prefer in POR is Ike, I don't like how he looks in RD...

[NinjaMonkey]

I prefer RD mostly because of the 3rd tier, skills can be removed and used to other characters instead of vanishing like in POR and graphics...The only thing I prefer in POR is Ike, I don't like how he looks in RD...

Let's just say he's been at the steroids...

[James Bond]

Let's just say he's been at the steroids...

Exactly that's the reason...

[Mikethfc]

Let's just say he's been at the steroids...

Not necessarily, haven't you seen all those adverts saying you can get ripped in 4 weeks. 3 years isn't an unreasonable timeframe considering

[Florete]

Maniac mode disagrees with you.

And before you say "But that's only in the Japanese version!", ISOs of this version of the game are not out of reach.

Irrelevant as far as I'm concerned. My official copy released in my region that I spent $50 for and have put at least 100 hours into does not have it. No one here discusses it, we don't even have a tier list based on it. We also don't discuss it assuming the critical glitch works and Berserkers, Swordmasters, and Snipers don't have a critical bonus.

[dondon151]

I would say RD, but I haven't yet had a chance to play through PoR MM yet. Dolphin doesn't run too well on this computer.

[Charpig]

Radiant Dawn for the win. You get to move skills around freely, you can save in the middle of a battle (except on Hard mode), and you get the third tiers. Additionally, the laguz have more strategic value because you can make them revert at any time or stay reverted to conserve transformation gauge, in PoR you can't do that. With PoR I have to worry about losing my progress in a chapter if the power should go out suddenly. With Battle Saves I don't have that worry. Also, PoR's final chapter made almost every single unit useless except for the select few that can actually hurt Ashnard. In Radiant Dawn almost every unit has the chance or potential to be useful. Even though Ike has to be the one to strike the final blow against Ashera, just about every unit is capable of damaging her, unlike with Ashnard. And, you get to beat down the BK with a Hammer. You can also acquire ALL of the legendary weapons, not just a few like in PoR. (I consider the SS weapons to be "legendary" even if they are not called that in the game.)

Since people on this site like to complain about games being too easy, let me give you some reasons why I found Radiant Dawn to be more difficult than Path of Radiance:

-The enemies actually have good stats

-You can't just solo the entire game with Ike, you have to use multiple characters throughout the game

-Your Hit is often below 100 due to biorhythm effects and the enemies actually having good stats (in PoR it's much easier to get that magic 100 Hit)

-A lot more enemies actually have a chance of criticaling and killing you, especially Snipers, Swordmasters, and Thunder Mages

Were it not for the Battle Save, Radiant Dawn would be the most difficult NA Fire Emblem, if it's not already, though it's not nearly as hard as Gamespot's review made it out to be. Unlike myself, some people didn't like Radiant Dawn because it's not "balanced." I say it is more balanced than other Fire Emblems because player units usually join at a competent level and all of them can be useful if you put in the effort to train them, even Meg and Fiona. Other people may disagree with me on these points, to each his own. Fire Emblems, like ice cream, come in different flavors.

Edited August 2, 2010 by Charpig

[The Envoy of the Beginning]

Irrelevant as far as I'm concerned. My official copy released in my region that I spent $50 for and have put at least 100 hours into does not have it. No one here discusses it, we don't even have a tier list based on it. We also don't discuss it assuming the critical glitch works and Berserkers, Swordmasters, and Snipers don't have a critical bonus.

Actually, there are some who do discuss it; in fact, Soul (his current display name: "The Leaving Song") even made a FE9 MM playlog, though incomplete. It's a small number of people, but not "nothing" >_> And that number might increase in the near future as more people become aware of using a GameCube emulator and the JP FE9 ISO image (not to mention, learn the menu commands despite being in Japanese, and start to get better PCs that can run said emulator without much problems).

[Galenforcer]

Were it not for the Battle Save, Radiant Dawn would be the most difficult NA Fire Emblem, if it's not already, though it's not nearly as hard as Gamespot's review made it out to be. Unlike myself, some people didn't like Radiant Dawn because it's not "balanced." I say it is more balanced than other Fire Emblems because player units usually join at a competent level and all of them can be useful if you put in the effort to train them, even Meg and Fiona. Other people may disagree with me on these points, to each his own. Fire Emblems, like ice cream, come in different flavors.

FE11 H5 says hi

[Charpig]

FE11 H5 says hi

RD HM says hi back. You can't warpskip chapters, you can't forge weapons such as Wing Spear, you don't have infinite generics to replace fallen units, and you can't just reclass everyone into an overpowered class such as (insert class that you consider to be overpowered). Shadow Dragon at least lets you save twice per chapter once you get past Chapter 2. Radiant Dawn gives you NO SAVES per chapter on Hard Mode, and the chapters are much longer, especially if you decide to leave the animations on. Radiant Dawn also has a lot more enemies that can kill you instantly with a crit if your units are unlucky. Shadow Dragon has very few enemy units that can do such a thing (especially if your units have decent luck), and even if they do, you don't have as long of a chapter to replay. To give an illustration, in Shadow Dragon if you have 20 Luck you can nullify crits from any enemies that don't have killing weapons. In Radiant Dawn, if you have 20 Luck you can still be criticaled by Swordmasters and some Part 4 enemies, even if they don't have killing weapons. In Shadow Dragon it is much easier to level up units and boss abuse since EXP gain is not gimped. Radiant Dawn has very few enemies on thrones, so boss abuse is considerably more difficult. Shadow Dragon gives you a $#!+ ton of money, in Radiant Dawn you have to manage your money carefully, especially if you decide to forge. Radiant Dawn never encourages bad tactics either, such as killing off units to gain access to sidequests. Shadow Dragon also is a lot less based on luck than Radiant Dawn.

But to be fair, I have beaten Shadow Dragon's H5, so yes, it is very hard. But it alone is not enough to say that Shadow Dragon is more difficult than Radiant Dawn, because overall, RD's Normal Mode kicks the crap out of SD's Normal Mode in terms of difficulty.

[dondon151]

RD gives you so much money to forge with that it's not even funny.

FEDS H5 is a game of precision. Make one move that's slightly off, and you'll have to restart. RD is a lot more forgiving in that respect.

[Zynac]

I'll just prefrece this by saying i love them both and i love how even the minor untied ends of PoR are tied up in RD.

I have to say i prefer PoR, and i think it will be some of the same reasons ppl dont like it more...i blame this on perspective.

I love the support convos: they give more excitement when it comes to playing through multiple times and also adds great development to every character, somthing RD fails to do with every new character it introduces( DB is the main example, compared to the Griel mercenaries i never felt i knew much about any of them).

I also love how well PoR sets the mood and makes you love the story, EX: the very first levels with the mercenaries, every time i play it i just love how happy i feel and really feel the change of pace and mood when Daien attacks( i didnt feel obligated to make this a spoiler tag...)

Although i enjoy the extreme mindbending plot twists of RD i find the switching parties system to be very tedious on a storyline stand point. it can be dealt with game play wise( but i really dnt like it ) but just when im enjoying the plot of the Griel mercenaries it throws me into the crappy Dawn Brigade or the Cimean Royal Knight, which i find annoying to say the least.

I also dnt like Ike's haircut in RD i mean come on he used to look like a hero now he looks like a muscle head!

just the first that come to mind, im sure if i get argued over it or as time goes by ill remember more.