It has been 15 years since Nintendo and Intelligent Systems brought the first Fire Emblem game to NES players back in 1990. Now in 2005, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance marks the series’ debut on Nintendo’s latest console, the GameCube. And while this may be the 13th Fire Emblem title to make its way to the various Nintendo game systems, this is no unlucky number for players. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance is a solidly built and highly entertaining strategy-role-playing game in the traditional school.

When you are talking role-playing games, the story becomes key in bringing players into the game’s world and making them care about the characters and moving the game forward. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance does a good job with its story and world. The main protagonist is Ike. Ike is the son of Greil, leader of a mercenary band with its base of operations in the Kingdom of Crimea on the continent of Tellius. Tellius is a land that lives under an uneasy peace. The seven nations of Tellius are variously made up of the beorc, who are human in form, and the laguz, a race of animal-like humans who regularly undergo transformation to their full animal form of big cats, birds and dragons.

As the story opens, Ike is just completing his training to join the mercenaries. It is soon after his initial missions (which conveniently teach the player the basics of play) that the beorc kingdom of Daein attacks the Crimea Kingdom that shelters the mercenaries. Of course Ike and the mercenary band rapidly get drawn into the conflict when a Crimean princess falls under their protection and the Daein try to take her by force. From there it is a twisting plot as the mercenaries flee with their new charge into the land of the laguz to seek allies and the ultimate defeat of the invaders.

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance is a very traditional role-playing game. From its medieval setting to the combat and even the leveling up of characters, there is really nothing new here. But in this case, it is not a bad thing at all. Stepping into Path of Radiance should be a very comfortable experience for even the casual role-playing gamer. The story and the use of strategy to win the day is what keeps RPG players coming back to these games.

The combat and strategy elements of Path of Radiance are very easy to pick up and employ even for an RPG novice. Melee weapons come in sword, axe and lance varieties. And like a rock-paper-scissors game, each has a natural edge over another in combat. The same is true of the magic elements in the game. Thrown into the combat mix are elements that fall outside the normal power triangles like ranged weapons and light magic.

Player-controlled units come in many forms. Each may be leveled up to more powerful status through experience gained in combat or through magical means. As a unit levels up it becomes more useful in combat and can even eventually change its class to become a true terror of the battlefield like a Paladin.

The Laguz units are an interesting addition to combat. The laguz automatically transform between their humanoid and their full-animal forms in a cycle indicated by their individual transformation bar meters. Only while in animal form can they attack with their natural weapons. At other times they are a bit of a load on the party and need to be kept out of the fight.

As the player deploys his units in Path of Radiance, he must be very careful to balance the risks he takes with his characters. Losing a strategically-important character can mean losing the entire battle. And once a unit is lost, it is gone from the game. Dead is dead in Path of Radiance. Of course anytime Ike is killed the game is over.

Game chapters (missions) start out fairly reasonable in length but quickly get long. I bring this up because the only hard save points are between chapters. It is possible to suspend play at any time, but once the game is restarted from the suspended point, the file is gone. If you lose a character and decide you just have to have him back, it can be quite an investment to start a chapter over again.

Graphically Path of Radiance is attractive if not stunning. As you’d expect, the action plays out on a grid map with units’ movement allotted in grid squares. It is in no way demanding on the hardware. The player can elect to see close-up combat animations or just let combat happen quickly on the main map with minimal animation. The story is mostly told through almost-completely-static sequences that are heavy in text. There are some fully-animated cutscenes, but these are rare.