Path of Radiance VS Radiant Dawn

[WeaponsofMassConstruction]

I prefer PoR.

Reasons:

-It was the first FE game I played.

-Way better story and character development

-Better music

-Better level design overall

-Better support system

-More adjustable difficulty (I'm looking at you, RD Part 1), probably stemming from the concept that it's easier to make easy hard than it is to make hard easy

-Better GM portraits

Insert PEMN joke here.

[Galenforcer]

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.

The only real hard chapters are the DB ones, after those ones, the game gets easier, because of merged money, BEXP and broken units, like Haar and splitting them up accordingly for Part 4. Enemies start becoming jokes, since you can use BEXP to cap out your stat, but in Shadow Dragon, the growths aren't as hot and having high speed and defense becomes more important, since later enemies start using forged braves.

Basically:

FE11 H5 Earlygame>FE10 Hard Earlygame

FE11 H5 Midgame>=?FE10 Hard Midgame

FE11 H5 Endgame>FE10 Hard Endgame

You get Sothe in 1-2 and Volug in 1-5 and they wtfpwn everything in Part 1, along with Tauroneo, Zihark and others that join afterwards. No unit like that exists in Shadow Dragon, not even Wolf and Sedgar, since they need to grow in levels first, for a majority of the earlygame. Midgame is about equal, since more useful units show up to help and units that you've been using would have grown enough not to get their asses kicked not as much as earlygame. Then comes endgame, where FE10 enemies become loleasy, because of the many resources people can use, now convoys joined up, but FE11 still isn't out of the clear. Forged braves come that can really wreck your frail units and high enough stats to pose a problem.

Also note, reenforcements in FE11 show up on enemy phase and move afterwards, making positioning units complicated, unless you know where and when they come. FE10 don't act and are probably too far away to be any threat yet.

Yeah, not really seeing how FE10 Hard is beating FE11 H5.

[Florete]

I prefer PoR.

Reasons:

-It was the first FE game I played.

-Way better story and character development

-Better music

-Better level design overall

-Better support system

-More adjustable difficulty (I'm looking at you, RD Part 1), probably stemming from the concept that it's easier to make easy hard than it is to make hard easy

-Better GM portraits

Insert PEMN joke here.

I first read "PEMN" as "penis." I don't know why. Although I have to comment on two of those.

I don't know how the support system in PoR could be seen as better unless you mean the conversations. RD makes supporting much faster and it can be done with anyone. I also like how it rounds the bonuses up and not down.

I also think the difficulty is much more "adjustable" in RD. With PoR you have beat-with-your-eyes-closed easy (Easy), beat-when-you're-half-asleep easy (Normal), and easy/semi-normal (Hard) (Don't know about Maniac, though I don't know if you meant to include that). In Radiant Dawn you have easy (Easy), standard/somewhat difficult for beginners (Normal), and somewhat hard (Hard). Basically, you can make RD nearly as easy as PoR but PoR can't come close to RD's difficulty (once again with MM considered).

I disagree with a couple of the others also, but those are mostly opinionated things, so PEMN.

[Junkhead]

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).

I will get back to it this week. :)

RD HM says hi back.

RD HM is so easy. FE11 H5 has more enemies with higher stats in context to your small, underpowered group. Not to mention you don't have skills that help you, or units that target Res from afar, earlygame. (Mages)

Edited August 2, 2010 by The Leaving Song

[Smiley Jim]

Personally, I found that Radiant Dawn has a better gameplay system(3rd tiers, support with anyone, skills can be swapped between units, battle saves), but Path of Radiance has a better storyline and more fleshed-out characters. The one thing I dislike about PoR is that the enemies in that game are jokes. At least PoR's Hard Mode gives out a decent challenge(though Ike still pretty much trivializes HM).

Radiant Dawn, on the other hand, actually has decent enemies, making the game a lot harder. This really only applied to Dawn Brigade maps, where I only had a few good units(Edward, Nolan, Sothe, Jill, Volug) and the enemies are fast enough to avoid getting doubled by anyone who is not Edward, Sothe, Volug, or Zihark, and strong enough to 2HKO most of your units. In my game, only Aran, Sothe, and Volug were 4RKO'd or better, Nolan was 3HKO'd for all of pt1, and Edward only stopped being 2HKO'd after 1-5; everyone else was 2HKO'd for all of part 1(Leo) or flat-out OHKO'd(Miccy, Laura). I'm not including Meg, Ilyana, or Fiona since they pack 30 tons of fail.

However, once you leave pt1, the game becomes a joke, since you get guys like Haar, Ike, and Gatrie that basically beat the piss out of everything(compared to part 1 where only Nolan, Edward, and Jill would do any ass-kicking and gum-chewing(and even then, they only did this with levels), not including jeigans). In pt4, it's even easier since you get 5 laguz royals as a failsafe if you neglected some units(not that I neglected anyone, since I had my army of Edward, Mia, Gatrie, Haar, Jill, Shinon, Soren, Pelleas, Tibarn, and Caineghis set up).

Edited August 2, 2010 by DA125

[Narga_Rocks]

-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)

I think we are using different units or I forge more, because I very frequently get 100 hit. With strapping +20 on forges and having Ike's authority stars, the only real problems are part 1 before forging and if you try to use 2 range before those can be forged. Otherwise, so much is near 100. Granted, even on HM Thani can be borderline early on and I've seen it dip below 95, but compared to fe6 where a hammer is lucky to see 60 hit on enemies and only sword users with iron/killer are pulling 100 hit... (oh, and steel swords against axe using enemies, I suppose)

[Zynac]

I don't know how the support system in PoR could be seen as better unless you mean the conversations. RD makes supporting much faster and it can be done with anyone. I also like how it rounds the bonuses up and not down.

I also think the difficulty is much more "adjustable" in RD. With PoR you have beat-with-your-eyes-closed easy (Easy), beat-when-you're-half-asleep easy (Normal), and easy/semi-normal (Hard) (Don't know about Maniac, though I don't know if you meant to include that). In Radiant Dawn you have easy (Easy), standard/somewhat difficult for beginners (Normal), and somewhat hard (Hard). Basically, you can make RD nearly as easy as PoR but PoR can't come close to RD's difficulty (once again with MM considered).

Well it seems kinda obvious that he meant the convo's but i dnt like how RD lets you make a support between any one cuz storyline wise that just doesnt make sense for alot of ppl. The PoR supports have a real story behind them all but the RD ones can be completely random ppl that have absolutly nothing to do with each other. now it is alot easier to use for combat purposes but i think it takes some of the life out of the game. I also find RD's "difficulty" to be annoying, the only hard parts are much more annoying than hard, mainly DB( too weak so their levels are hard) and the fact that you cant do the range checky thingy( which just makes me waste my time counting squares...oooo soo hard really just obnoxious) that being said RD is harder than PoR so if thats what you want then there it is( i wasnt talking Maniac for any of that i dnt have a japanese game...)

[Fei Mao]

I prefer RD over POR though, there were some stuff I like in POR than RD. (Trial maps, support conversations, some items, and some music)

Reasons for liking RD more as reasons already stated:

.Enemies with good stats besides those in HM. (When I tried for the first time POR in NM I was disappointed/bored of how easy the enemies were, the only ones that proved a threat were dragon laguz. I haven't tried POR HM yet since I can only get 20-30FPS on the Dolphin emulator.)

.Can't solo maps with a single character. (While there are characters like Ike and Haar they can't really solo some maps by themselves, yes you get royals at the endgame who dominate everything they are optional so you don't have to deploy them.)

.Can reassign skills to different people. (Yes I was surprised I couldn't take Soren's adept in POR and give it to someone else.)

.Allies have decent stats unlike the previous FE games so they can actually fight instead of being cannon fodder.

Edited August 2, 2010 by Generic Officer

[Rewjeo]

I prefer RD. Largely because I've only even had the opportunity to play PoR twice.

[Anouleth]

Both have their upsides.

PoR:

Better storyline

More interesting characters (especially Ike)

Better support conversations

More flexibility with what characters you can use

RD:

More challenging

Better graphics/soundtrack

Better interface

More interesting maps (as in, more Rout maps)

Greater tactical depth with Skills and different Herons types and Tide skills and 1-2 range swords

I'd rather play RD, but PoR is still fun to play.

[dondon151]

More interesting maps (as in, more Rout maps)

"Interesting" and "rout" should never belong in the same sentence.

[Anouleth]

"Interesting" and "rout" should never belong in the same sentence.

Maybe not interesting, but I find Rout maps more enjoyable than any other type (which is also why Part 4 is my favourite part of RD). Certainly better than the kill boss chapters that are so easily broken by flying units in Path of Radiance. I always feel bad skipping all that delicious CEXP.

[dondon151]

Well, my first time playing through FE10 NM to unlock turning off map animations, I wanted to kill myself repeatedly because it took -hours- for me to finish the part 4 rout maps due to how long the animations took.

[Jediabiwan]

I prefer RD. Better story imo, more chapters, almost all the cast from PoR returns, changing perspective and leaders, better graphics, more characters can kill the final boss, re-assignable skills, more prf weapons, and more SS weapons.

[Anouleth]

Haha, I guess the lengthy map animations are pretty intolerable. I didn't think about it from that perspective. Generally I just do something else while the enemy phase and ally phase goes on.

But really, just another reason that Radiant Dawn is better than Path of Radiance, which has intolerably slow map animations. Some skills are probably actually worth taking off just to skip their animation, like Nihil or Parity. I suppose that Path of Radiance is easy to blitz through most of the maps, so generally you don't need to fight much anyway, but sometimes it's unavoidable, like in Battle Reunion.

Edited August 2, 2010 by Slowking

[El Rey León]

Were it not for the Battle Save, Radiant Dawn would be the most difficult NA Fire Emblem, if it's not already,

I heard Radiant Dawn is the first FE game where the difficulty wasn't lowered for the West.

[dondon151]

Int had a lengthy discussion over this, and it's pretty clear that the difficulty of FE10 was lowered for the NA release, whether intentional or not.

[Charpig]

I think we are using different units or I forge more, because I very frequently get 100 hit. With strapping +20 on forges and having Ike's authority stars, the only real problems are part 1 before forging and if you try to use 2 range before those can be forged. Otherwise, so much is near 100. Granted, even on HM Thani can be borderline early on and I've seen it dip below 95, but compared to fe6 where a hammer is lucky to see 60 hit on enemies and only sword users with iron/killer are pulling 100 hit... (oh, and steel swords against axe using enemies, I suppose)

I was comparing FE10 to FE9, not FE10 to FE6. Also, let us not forget that forging exists in FE9 as well, that's the game that started the forging system. FE10 can really mess up your hit rates due to the biorhythm of both you and your enemies, FE9's biorhythm effects are barely noticeable unless you are using Tempest. I had 100 Hit a lot more often in FE9 than in FE10.

For the people who brought up Shadow Dragon H5:

When I said that Radiant Dawn was the most difficult NA Fire Emblem, I was speaking in overall terms, not just the highest difficulty settings. Yes, I can concede that Shadow Dragon's H5 is more difficult than Radiant Dawn's HM. But Shadow Dragon has the option of a very easy Normal Mode, you are not forced to play H5. Shadow Dragon's NORMAL mode is certainly not more difficult than Radiant Dawn's Normal Mode. Even Radiant Dawn's Easy Mode can be more difficult than Shadow Dragon's Normal Mode at times. Not to mention that Shadow Dragon is a very simple game compared to Radiant Dawn.

[Shadowknight]

PoR for me. Yes, I might have a bias towards it since it was the first FE that I ever played, and it still retains some of my best memories. (the 200+ playthroughs probably help).

Graphics were decent imo; they weren't fugly. The story was simple on the surface but deep with the connotations and personality. Also for the reasons other people have mentioned.

Overall, PoR had soul for me. RD had... materialistic substance? That's the way I look at those two.

[Zynac]

Overall, PoR had soul for me. RD had... materialistic substance? That's the way I look at those two.

I couldnt agree more. To me RD's "plot" is better( more complex and certainly unpredictable) but PoR had more( as you put it so perfectly) soul. PoR was some what predictable but with so much more heart to it. Also they made the main character easy to relate to and pretty much awsome( i honestly wanted ike to kill miciahah). Also the sad moments of remembering Greil( and basically the whole sequence leading up to and imediatly after Griel's death) have so much feeling, every time i play i just feel the emotion. RD has the makings of a better game( twisted plot, more difficulty and options, better graphics, although many of the animations are so unrealistic its stupid but hey what can you expect?(ie swinging a spear and a horse jumping from a stagnant position) but you cant replace spirit. Also i prefer PoR skill animations cuz they happen so fast which i like better than the slow mo of RD. really just personal opinion but ShadowKnight hit on the exact reason i like PoR so i thought id comment

[Lilmik11]

I couldnt agree more. To me RD's "plot" is better( more complex and certainly unpredictable) but PoR had more( as you put it so perfectly) soul. PoR was some what predictable but with so much more heart to it. Also they made the main character easy to relate to and pretty much awsome( i honestly wanted ike to kill miciahah). Also the sad moments of remembering Greil( and basically the whole sequence leading up to and imediatly after Griel's death) have so much feeling, every time i play i just feel the emotion. RD has the makings of a better game( twisted plot, more difficulty and options, better graphics, although many of the animations are so unrealistic its stupid but hey what can you expect?(ie swinging a spear and a horse jumping from a stagnant position) but you cant replace spirit. Also i prefer PoR skill animations cuz they happen so fast which i like better than the slow mo of RD. really just personal opinion but ShadowKnight hit on the exact reason i like PoR so i thought id comment

I just totally agree with you too! It's really better and the characters are so less generic!

[whase]

I fell in love with the Radiant Dawn graphics and battle save

I also loved the switching between teams, it brings something extra into fire emblem

laguz systems are way better in RD. although they get harder to use, they're also more fun to use. (even then, I never use them)

probably not last but certainly not least, those annoying gamecube controllers cramp up my thumbs where the WIImote doesn't.

can't think of more right now...

[shadowofchaos]

Has been stated before, but I'll say it again I guess...

Graphics and Gameplay-wise... FE10 is the better...

But in story and characters, FE9 has much more of the feel of what fans fall in love with/expect in an FE game.

FE10: "What's a plot?"

Now, if you had FE9 with FE10's graphics, skill system, and battle animations, that would be heaven >_<

And it probably wouldn't take much work for people who have experience taking this stuff apart. All the mugs and character slots are there, all you would need to do is get some first tier models for some PoR characters... All the mugs and stuff are there already.

That, and some custom work for Ike's Ranger and Lord class, as well as Asnard, but not really compared to making an entirely new game ._.

As for the movies, they're both in THP format... so only maps, events, and models would be the question. Items are also basically fixed :P

lol "Battle Save"... IIRC, Akatsuki no Megami didn't have such a feature :( (That would also include the widescreen aspect ratio)

Edited August 4, 2010 by shadowofchaos

[Flashpoint_1230]

RD wins big time in my book.

-Better graphics

-Turned off animations are actually turned off.

-Cooler tome animations (Cymbeline, anyone?)

-Better control over the laguz

-Better Skill system

-The fight vs. the BK isn't completely rigged!!! @ FE9

-Third Tier outfits!

-The fact that the SS rank weapons are actually attainable, as are enough Arms Scrolls to make it possible for everyone to use the SS rank weapons

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

Ha ha... My little brother looked at Ike's FE:RD portrait and went "he looks different." Even he could tell. How old is Ike, anyway? Older than Mist (17 in RD?)

FE9 only has better supports and less annoying villains as its high points. (Valtome and Oliver have got to be the two most annoying people ever)

- 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)

Hey, I did that pairing, too!

[Don Draper]

FE9 Maniac>>>>>>FE10 Hard Mode

In both difficulty and enjoyability.

Edited August 13, 2010 by Ari Gold