Well, that title is sure to annoy absolutely nobody.
Fire Emblem is unequivocally my favourite game series of all time. Strategy games are something I’ve always been partial to, from turn-based titans like Advance Wars and Final Fantasy Tactics to real-time triumphs like Total War and Age of Empires. However, Fire Emblem stands above the rest with its clever map design, charming characters, beautiful music and nuanced narratives. With an impressive 15 entries, the developers have been forced to innovate with these elements over the series’ 28-year history. The tenth game in the series, Radiant Dawn, is possibly the bravest Fire Emblem game that I’ve played, and some respect is owed to Taeko Kaneda’s team for the sheer amount of new things they tried. However, in the process, a lot of mistakes in development led to the creation of one of Fire Emblem’s most flawed narratives (Revelation notwithstanding) and a heap of game mechanics that don’t work.
Despite these huge flaws and a virtually non-existent marketing strategy crippling the game’s retail performance, I absolutely love Radiant Dawn. I’ve finished it 3 times to date, and I’ll be doing it a fourth time while I’m writing this series. There’s a fantastic game hidden in there somewhere, and while I play this game again, dissecting its elements, I’m gonna do my best to excavate it. However, that’s gonna mean we make a lot of changes. Even with Biorhythm, inconsistent unit availability and goddamn Fiona, Meg and Vika, I’m happy to leave the gameplay and characters mostly as they are. Over the course of this project, I’ll pick apart what prevents RD’s narrative from working, and pitch fixes to each flaw, culminating in a final product that should actually work and give a satisfying conclusion to the story that Path of Radiance began.
You might have guessed, but this will spoil pretty much all of PoR and RD. You have been warned.
So, where did Path of Radiance leave us?
Our main character Ike, after pretty much single-handedly freeing his homeland of Crimea from occupation by Daein, has relinquished his peerage and resigned himself to a life of badly-paid mercenary work. Nice.
Elincia, the new Queen of Crimea, has relinquished her land’s right of conquest over Daein to the Begnion Empire, since Crimea lacks the resources to manage Daein.
Path of Radiance left these two story arcs in perfectly coherent places: Ike showed a major distaste for nobility throughout the entirety of PoR, so his return to life among the common people is perfectly in line with his character. Elincia spent Path of Radiance preparing herself to rule, and her portrayal as an idealistic but uncertain ruler fits her well. But naturally, we don’t begin with either of these story arcs.
The Silver-Haired Maiden
We begin with a gorgeous CG cutscene introducing the two main characters of Part 1: Micaiah, a fortune teller who wields light magic, and Sothe, a solemn thief we first met in PoR. Right away we’re shown Yune, her bond with Micaiah and some really rapey soldiers, plus Sothe saving the day in his gorgeous scarf and crop top combo. This is useful right off the bat because we’re introduced to three key characters and their primary obstacle, the Begnion occupation forces. However, this cutscene could already be improved significantly.
What’s wrong with this cutscene?
Quite a bit. Aside from the clunky voice acting, we’re not given much context as to what’s going on. Micaiah is just there, Sothe appears out of nowhere and the rest of the Dawn Brigade are far away. Micaiah’s light show at the end of the scene doesn’t attract any more attention. The context is virtually non-existent. We have beautiful visuals, and the establishment of important characters and an antagonistic force. But this short scene could have introduced us to so much more.
So how do we fix it?
One of the biggest complaints most people have about Part 1’s heroes the Dawn Brigade is their near-total lack of development. The only reason they seem to be there is so you have more than 2 units for the first few maps. In fact, I knew so little about them that I had to check their wiki pages to actually learn about their backgrounds. Take Nolan’s, for instance:
Nolan became a successful merchant at a young age, but lost his fortune and status when betrayed by his associates. Downtrodden, he lost faith in mankind and began living as a tramp in the back alleys of Daein. At first, he thought the wars were none of his business. However, upon learning of the blood of his fellow countrymen being spilled by the Begnion Occupational Army, Nolan is inspired to become a freedom fighter, intent on liberating Daein. Initially, Nolan interfered with the Begnion forces alone, but after helping Edward and Leonardo escape from Begnion hunters, they joined forces. Rumors of their rebellious activities caught the ears of Sothe and Micaiah, who then contacted and joined them too. He then forms the Dawn Brigade to combat Begnion’s oppression, with himself as the leader of the group.
I actually reeled back a little when I read this. The game’s dialogue, base conversations and “supports” do absolutely nothing to convey any of this information to the player, and the same goes for Leonardo and Edward. Did you know Micaiah wasn’t the Dawn Brigade’s leader? I sure didn’t, and I’ve played the game to completion 3 times.
What I’m trying to say is that this scene could have introduced us to the entirety of the Dawn Brigade, rather than just two characters. If we meet them right from the get-go, and get invested by seeing them fighting, quipping and having each other’s backs, we’ll form a connection and actually care about what happens to them. This early introduction would also free up time for them to be given background and development without taking up too much gameplay time. Imagine this:
Two soldiers in red armour bearing torches meet in front of a cracked wall, frantically searching their surroundings.
“Find anything?”
“Not yet, sir, no.”
“They’ve got to be here. Keep looking!”
“Sir!”
As they march away, Micaiah’s small figure emerges nervously from the gap in the wall. We’re given a brief look at her golden eyes and silver hair before the sound of boots and chainmail forces her back into her hiding spot. The soldiers return, and Yune flies away chirping to distract them. In front of the player, but unbeknownst to Micaiah, the soldiers share a knowing glance.
“Oh. It was just a bird.” The men move away.
Micaiah’s sigh of relief is cut short by a gauntleted grip on her arm as Begnion soldiers surround her. Her Light tome drops to the floor.
“Look! Silver hair!”
“The fortune teller… we’ll be heroes!”
“The Dawn Brigade is nothing without her.”
Yune chirps and the men look up as an arrow pierces the soldier holding Micaiah. As he falls, a man garbed in green and brown drops from atop the wall and puts himself between the girl and the soldiers. A single glance passes between them before the remaining guards snap out of it and advance. Sothe’s acrobatic fighting style proves to be a match for individual guards, but as they close in, he drops into a defensive stance with his knife. Two guards move around, aiming to surround him but before they get the chance, they’re struck down by sword and axe. Edward and Nolan emerge from the shadows: the former raises his blade with excitement, the latter with resignation.
Edward and Nolan battle guards back to back, while Sothe protects Micaiah. Edward’s lack of experience nearly nets him death on the end of a lance, but a timely arrow from Leonardo saves him. The two exchange a smile and a nod. Before long, Micaiah scoops up her Light tome. On top of the wall, Leonardo spots another contingent of Begnion soldiers approaching. Shouldering his bow, he puts his fingers in his mouth and emits a piercing whistle. Taking this as a signal, the Dawn Brigade disengage. Micaiah recites an incantation and a flash of light bursts from her tome, blinding the soldiers. The Dawn Brigade retreat into the night; Sothe, Yune and Micaiah disappear into the woods while Nolan and the boys vanish over the walls. As they leave, the squad of Begnion soldiers Leonardo spotted enter the scene and discover the bodies of their comrades.
What has changed, and how does it benefit the narrative?
First off, we’ve introduced every member of the Dawn Brigade, and been given some indication of their roles and their bonds with each other. This strengthens their characters and increases our investment in what happens. Plus, we get an infinitely cooler fight scene of virtually the same length that opens the story in exactly the same way. Subtle cues we’ve included also speak volumes about what kind of people they are and how they feel about each other.
Edward, the inexperienced but enthusiastic swordsman, approaches the fight with tenacity, slips up and is saved by his best friend Leonardo. We’ve learned from these three tiny events what Edward is like as a person, and who he cares about. Sothe instinctively places Micaiah at his back, and the look they share before the fight begins indicates a level of trust that doesn’t require words. We know that he’s a careful fighter and cares deeply enough for Micaiah to place his own life in danger without hesitation. Nolan’s resigned outlook at the beginning of the fight tells us that he dislikes confrontations like these, but his confidence in combat shows us that he’s experienced and wise. Leonardo is in the background, but the only two arrows we’re deliberately shown as he fires them are shot specifically to protect people he cares about. Micaiah’s importance to the group is alluded to by the soldiers’ dialogue, and her timely blinding of the soldiers allowing her friends to retreat shows some level of tactical knowledge. Leonardo’s signal and the group’s acknowledgement of this as a cue also indicates a greater synergy between the group that the game never originally showed us. Compare this to the original scene, where we’re shown Micaiah and Sothe’s bond, Sothe being a badass, and very little else.
The Begnion soldiers’ dialogue has been stripped down to cut out all the creepy stuff – we can have an enemy army and dislike them without making them caricatures. A strong theme in Radiant Dawn is that heroes exist on both sides. Making the Begnion soldiers a little more human helps to strengthen this theme, rather than contradict it.
Our changes to this scene provide us with much more information about the people we’ll be spending the next 10 chapters with. This is just the first couple minutes of the game, but with a little thought, we’ve already improved the characters in the Dawn Brigade, a step towards fixing one of the game’s biggest problems.
I can’t promise any kind of regularity to these posts, but I hope you’ll enjoy them as and when I can make them.
Huge thanks to Drew for his invaluable creative input on this first entry.
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Chris Talks Games 
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