The fire emblem series, your opinions

[Sullla]

Hard mode in Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn is actually challenging (compared to the others) because you cannot battle save on every turn to see if something bad happens after you move your characters and then reload to stop it. And the music isn't that bad.

Amen to this! I hate to sound like a stuck-up purist, but I really feel that the Battle Saves were one of the worst additions to the lastest Fire Emblem. Because the game is so challenging, I get the impression that a large number of players are Battle Saving their way through each level - which pretty much removes the need for strategy entirely! Ugh. The designers should have made the game somewhat easier and left this feature out. Or, have it present on Easy difficulty but not the other ones. I'm playing the Hard difficulty (Japanese Maniac) right now, and it's very intense. By no means impossible... just you have to know EXACTLY what you're doing at all times. Finished the end of Part I this afternoon, the last chapter taking 27 turns and over two hours to complete. But no one died, and I racked up a ton of sorely needed experience in the process - woohoo! To get back to the original post, the Fire Emblem series is about as non-casual as you can get. Only serious, die-hard fans of strategy gaming should apply! I would recommend newcomers pick up the Gamecube Fire Emblem (Path of Radiance) before buying the most recent game. It's easier to play, a much better starting point for newcomers, and serves as a prequel to Radiant Dawn, so you can then proceed on to the current game if you liked it. As a Gamecube game, it doesn't hurt either that it's extremely cheap and backwards compatible with the Wii. Also the music for these games is great, that's one complaint I don't have about the series. (Don't get me started on "biorhythm"...)