Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Intelligent Systems

Platform: GameCube

Release Date: October 17, 2005

Description

“That means you can look forward to a long series of challenging turn-based battles, a gripping storyline that takes the time to develop a huge cast of great characters, and the feeling that the decisions you make in combat carry life-or-death consequences for your squad.” -Gamespot

Game Walkthrough

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance is a turn based strategy game that takes place on grid based levels. The player and a computer controlled opponent take turns moving all of their units on the grid. There are many different types of units with some units strong or weak against another certain kind of unit. Weapons generally have a triangle of strengths: swords are good against axes, axes good against lances, lances good against swords. Characters can hold multiple weapons at once, but can only have one equipped at a time. Some characters can attack from a distance, while others are simply healers. Characters gain experience every time they attack or are attacked. Each level has a boss, but he does not necessarily have to be defeated. 

Playthrough 

Timestamps @4:52 Battle begins

Game Objectives

Each chapter of the story has conditions for winning the level as well as conditions for losing the level.

·         Defeat all enemies

·         Seize: Capture a certain point on the map

·         Escape: Reach a certain point on the map (possibly with a limited number of turns)

·         Defend: Defend a person or place for a certain number of turns

Motivational Elements     

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance is a very character driven game.  As the story progresses and the characters develop, the player’s decisions will be based on advancing the story further and finding out more about the characters. The player will want to earn experience for his favorite characters to level the character up and eventually upgrade classes.

Educational Outcomes

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance requires large amounts of thought and conceivably teaches a quite a bit to a player. At the heart of the strategic gameplay, the player is making calculated risks with every move. Players can see hit percentages, damages, and critical hit percentages before finalizing an attack. The player learns about risk analysis as he must balance the likelihood of successfully landing an attack and the amount of damage given. The lesson is driven home by the unforgiving nature of the game when the risk taken does not pay off. If a character dies, that character is dead forever.

There is much to be learned about management from the game as well. The player must manage funds, items and characters on and off the battlefield. The player must keep the army balanced so that he is not vulnerable to certain enemies. Also, characters can have conversations with each other off the battlefield. Once two characters have a support conversation, they boost each other’s performance when near each other on the battlefield. From the management portion of the game, the player gets an idea of how to manage real people: sometimes certain people are more productive when working with others, a team with workers who excel in different areas may be better as it is well rounded, and sometimes people have bad days (taught by the biorhythm effects on each character).

The story of the game also deals heavily with racism. While the story and races are fictional, some players will see parallels with the real world and learn about the significance of such problems. In fact, players may learn not to judge by first appearances by the ability to talk to some opponents and have them switch to the player’s side. The chance to use diplomacy instead of fighting at some points in the game also shows players that fighting should be a last resort. The educational value a player takes from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance may vary greatly from player to player, but the game provides quite a few opportunities to learn.