Milans' long lost parents...

I wanted to intruduce you the pro-generators of Milan that, due to forbidden love and male pregnancy, he was born.


We present the fathers:







And so Milan was born.

Fire emblem General rant part 5

We're now in the last part of this general rant where the game evalutaed will be the game Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn or Goddess of Dawn as what I've seen on the internet for the wii.
This is the last of the series I've played, the newest for the DS is just not appealing to me at all, what was it called, Shadow Dragon?

If you want a decent review about the game I reccomend you the following link:
Video Review Radiant Dawn

Let's start of by saying this is what most of the gamers from Path of Radiance wanted in the upgrade area, more lvl ups with even more stats, the past characters that simply talked back then now turn to be one of your units, and lastly we have, of course, the continuation of the beloved game for the gamecube. That said, I can clearly imagine the new ones to the fire emblem series seriuosly bored and disgusted with their buy, I mean, it's simply not appealing to them, the games settings are quite of in that part so, what I am gonna say now it's what I believe is true and what many do too, this game goes to the ones who have played Path of Radiance and have liked it, simple as that.
What can I say about its' general appeal? Well, taking a liking of its prequel it's no doubt the nostalgia I receive, it's mainly that actually.
The storyline will press on and you'll see series of events that, if you played the gamecube game, you'll find highly interesting.
Something that I found a great idea was the division of 4 parts in the game, as the Blazing sword one where there were two you'll have here about 4 and heck, believe me, the tension sure rises at some point of the game.
People, like me, would be in the first part whinning and complaining of how much, instead of playing with a uninteresting band you would look always the opportunity to play with your past units (Ike), the first of the story was ok and it felt neccesary for the plot but yet again I can't stop thinking of how much I hated that band.
I'd say in general the story was highly appealing, it had great twists, not to mention narrations that would cover up some important wholes in the before game, and things to look foward too and, being a path of radiance gamer myself, being able to see how a new big story develops in the wide world of Tellius was just a must for me to read and play, not to mention I get to see my old units all pimped out with their new character arts.
I have to say that, being a critic in this area that has played the pequel, the storyline is very well done, you'll sometimes find it awkward to why your using such unit and stuff but as a fire emblem gamer that longs for good story development I didn't mind much (except for the micaiah parts, brr...).
Being a fire emblem at heart, the world view with a narrator won't be missing, believe me not. Some say it was annoying while I say it's perfectly fine, you can just press A and read faster.
Seriuosly, together with upgrades the story part was one of the things the producers were having sharp in mind, what a good point.
You'll get from time to time a little video which was, for my point of view, a great way to begin a new chapter, the graphics, well, don't expect a super different thing from the gamecube game.
I have to say, because this thing goes mostly the ones craving for nostalgia the box should have been a bit more alluring in that area instead of putting a unisteresting battle between a wyvern guy and a girl you don't give care about.
Looks like somebody noticed it and decided to do its own;



Yes Ike, stay in that spot.





About the characters, apart from seeing your old ones 3 years later, some pimping some chilling, you'll have new ones added to the list of units you've played with and, to tell the truth, none appealed to me as the past ones.
I've waited for the moment of characters to direct my sight to the other main character of the game Micaiah, oh dear Micaiah, how more dull can you look? in dialogue, artwork, mpa viewing, you're just a complete bore for me. I know pretty well and I've many times dealt in my mind that she is supposed to be like that, being I don't know what many years, her none personality and not lively output where she would just call our for 'Sothe' out. How more cliche can you get with that bird? I found myself many times cursing and willing to sacrifice her to the enemies as long as I conitnued with other bands.
Fine, the first time I played it it wasn't that bad, though, I simply kept on playing so I could see what would happen, the second time though, I couldn't stand her dawn brigade band, boring and none appealing.
Apart from that girl, I mannage to grasp on slight changes about the personalities of each past character that would show, at a certain range 'maturity' or simply put 'getting older'. I have Tormod as an example, sure, he won't look as big as Sothe grown up and his 'hyper' thing is still on because of his personality, what I notice is that he really does look 3 years later, not blabbing and doing the same things as the past one.
Something I've loved and enjoyed from this particular world is how much personality they put in the characters compared to the portable games.
It's plain to see that the interactions are always something I looked foward to be reading, this game is no exception in this matter as the prequel.
Something that disturbed me and lasted for a pretty long time was the new face of Soren when he dialogues, damn what a WTH, the pretty uke face of soren turning into a old lady in only 3 years, it was seriuosly weird, at least for me.

The setting itself is somewhat vague for the new people to the series, for the ones who enjoyed the past game it'd look awesome but for those it's just awkward and none interesting, seriuosly, does Daien matter weight upon any one who hasn't played agaisnt it before? Hell no. The world keeps on living and the gamer is set up in a much more larger range of opportunities than the older game, why and how? It's the mere fact that all the countries and general busy bodies of the continent have something to do in the plot line, that's what I call big in this case. The first part is, as mentioned earlier, dull, no appeal whatsoever where the highlight is about a girl you don't have idea about, yeah, I consider this a pretty big turn off.
Really though, the interesting parts are when seeing the past developed characters interact with each other, that was a high appeal to me. Later on, as the story progresses, I couldn't easily forget about the controller, it gets fast paced and your willing to keep up.
So yeah, in conclusion the setting is appealing to those who have played it, good grief.

Lastly we have the upgrades, the highlights being the other other character class evolve and well, that's it for the spotlight. You'll get another laguz race and that's all great, I liked the idea of adding the wolves.
New stuff like the reading narrator or the swift salutes and the end and beginning of the combat aren't that worth mentioning really.
You'll get the same battle system of path of radiance as well as the character interactions
Everything just points out of how much they were looking foward doing a sequel to path of radiance more than anything else, I have nothing agaisnt it.
The upgrades in short words are what many would call 'expanded from the older version', it's what all fire emblem gamers look foward to see the units more powerful, then again, for those who haven't played older fire emblems wouldn't tell the difference so they'd just not comment about it.
Sure, you can notice a pretty decent upgrade on the world envolpement area, it's for me the rsult of all the fan requests in which, yet again, I have nothing agaisnt with, I enjoyed it pretty much, didn't make it so annoying nor so repetitive.

Let's make a quick conclusion because this ranting has gone up my head.
Radiant Dawn was a very enjoyable game for me, the beginning is dull and I couldn't possibly feel instantly comfortable with the some characters but what comes next and develops as the story goes through I found it worth it.
This game as achieved for what's for me, a great appeal in the story area, bringing back past units and showing how much they have grown (ohhhh my little ones you've grown big and strong sniff, you make me proud/jk), it's what I call a total sequel to the Path of Radiance one.



Results:

Story: 8.5/10 (if only the beginning was so laggy)


Characters: 8/10


Setting: 7/10 (tried to make it fair)


Upgrades: 7/10


Total: 30.5/40




(I'll couldn't find a complete soren from Radiant dawn instantly so yeah, here we go)

"For those who crave for nostalgia and at the same time a bigger world."

Fire emblem General Rant part 4

We go straight to n°9, Fire emblem Path of Radiance.
For those who don't know about who the guy in my avatar is I'll enlighten you and say its' the main character of this game for the gamecube, Ike.
Before I start ranting anything about plot, story, characters, upgrades, settings, and so on, I want to say, as much as many out there didn't like the idea of a wide screen fire emblem where the characters looked always too solemn and seriuos for their liking this fire emblem has marked my liking to the series.
With no longer adue I'll say why it's like this.
The first title of the series on the gamecube, not to mention it's origin was pretty late compared to other games. Path of Radiance has in my opinion a great plot, sure, the beginning will look shabby and incredibly dull and you'll be questioning if the buy was worth it. As mentioned in the first part of this ranting fire emblem was for me known as a book where you are able to see your units do their stuff, whoever doesn't like the idea of a something like this dedicated to be in a small screen rather than a LG it's perfectly fine with me, though, I have to say, the variety in gaming is always fun at some point.
In general, the story is well sorted and at times awkward but not annoying positions, as an example the sometimes placement of Ike in cleary too high positions interaction (his company involvement with royalty etc), I have nothing agaisnt it actually.
One of the best points of the game, in my personal opinion, is the characters. Sure, many already got used to the bland things of a common GBA pixeled dialogue, with no intention of offense, I found much more appealing and entertaining the interactions in the gamecube game, I guess I couldn't be satisfied with the GBA versions.

Ike not being a nobleman didn't much appeal to me in the beginning, as the story goes on I kept my eyes keen in his role as a commoner charging through different places and stages, it was what I considered interesting.
Of course, this kind of maneuver couldn't be done with lame dialogues, the interaction between characters are fair enough decent and the storyline itself rows smoothly and in ease.
I will try and not spoil anything so let's see, why do I like Ike so much? I find him the best fire emblem character ever made, it's not neccesarily because of his common blue hair with generic features of a rough boy (which isn't appealing to me at all) and this defying and taking different paths from the usual prince, but his development and personality, hell, his resolution and general interaction are for me well achieved.
You might notice I'm not asking much from a character, a solid and shapeable personality was enough for me to feel satisfied.
You'll get as the usual series more and more to your mary band of mercenaries and I have to say, still belonging the character area, Ike is not the only one with some personality.
I use as example the sniper Shinon whom in my opinion deal pretty well with his sarcastic, aloof and general attitude, at least I could re call these traits juts by looking at his character art.
It's not a surprise to question how the heck did Titania or Oscar got their armors so polished and so on, I couldn't answer this apart from saying 'it's fire emblem characters', 'the good guys will always be pretty to look at.'
We have as another added point the two distinct live forms; the humans who look human (beorcs: your usual units in the pre games) and the humanoids that posses a common characteristic from a animal (laguz), indeed, I have no doubt that at some point the producers were nervous of how this would turn on, adding humanoid animals into the realm of fire emblem, these characters are nothing lower of interesting than the general entirely human looking, in fact, most of them have much more personality than most of the usual looking units. This part is pretty tight with the upgrade section so it'll have to wait till then.
So as a sum up of this section, I say the variety of characters is relatively satisfactory, you'll see a nice and sweet princess from a rotting old man.
I repeat myself, the beginning is not near of how interesting it gets further on.

Not only is the character part well done but the setting is nicely output.
A band of goodie toes mercenaries that get involved in the whole continent bussiness Telius. With a decent and not entirely useless narration you get a well set up of where you are and why, it was pretty clear if you ask me.
Something I've waited since the beginning since character mentioning is the satisfactory spread of 'races' across the land, the laguz being south east from the other countries and kinda stick to each other seperated by frontiers.
It's in general a really fun world to look at, the setting seems simple and it's definately a world where I'd expect much. This last said points alot to what the producers did, even though Path of Radiance was a fun game where when finishing it you'd say 'it was fun,' you were undoubtly awaiting for more laguz beorc action, I mean, the whole main plot revolves around talking about a huge war and how much it must be stopped, sure, it is stopped (at this point I guess spoiler advertisement is futile) but you still want the huge calamity to strike as a gamer, as much as you pity all the people in there.
You'll get this last satiated in the sequel and that's what I'm mostly gonna talk about in the last part of my ranting.
Something to say before ending this part is that I found really fun the way each beorc and laguz generally see each other, sure, their general behaviors to each other are extremely expected but further than that I liked the idea of the insults 'human' and 'sub human', this last one in specific because it simply remarks the fact that their world has granted the laguz (sub human) less 'intelligence' than the beorcs (human) but have all general animal advantages as to instincts. Yes, in general I liked the whole concept.

Unit mannagement on the big screen was sure, big and 3d, kinda different from the usual pixels, many simply didn't buy the game because of the idea and other probably cut gaming because of the concept, I'm in the people who kept of playing because of the story and general curiosity.
Something that's out of the question though is that, of course, we were expecting much more than what was presented to us, a whole change scene for a strike o counter strike, no doubt the big screen makes it look like a mini movie in the beginning but later on it's a plain drag, of course you can just switch it off but improvement in that area would be highly apreciated, the game is after all a whole spin off from the usual series, why not make it? Of course, changing this one and one fight scene would mean great general changes in the usual combat area on whom I haven't actually sorted it out yet.
Something that wasn't so alarming neither TOO attention seeking was the dissapearence of some of the classes, why not so alarming? You have a whole bunch of laguz to cover up such, besides, not thinking so much in deph about the matter I'd conclude the creators were thinking something for making it like that, well, whatsoever I'm just one of the many gamers that play it.
The incorporation of other beings instead of the classic humans agaisnt humans was highly appealing to me, sure, the idea at first sounds vague and you'd many times question (if you were interested to begin with) if that's the best they could do about new ideas, I myself found it great, why so fun you ask? Because it makes each other remark themselves as the story unfolds to new series of events where each of them have a role somehow, besides, the laguz personalities are simply more true to what a animal would be if it took a humanoid form. From this last, people who aren't much of a fan or simply are but bugs them at some point, there could be questions of why they should take a human form and why should they be so 'human ish' if their 'true' forms are animals, to tell you truth, it's something on which I haven't thought much, till now I have simply enjoyed the fact there are other races apart from humans and that have things on which I can generally distinguish one and another, the game doesn't make it annoying.
Something from the technical part that is effective and at the same time not is the skill part, that's that.
You'll get a pumping intro and a decent character art if only some of them weren't so yelling in color.
Apart from the connection with characters and setting, the upgrade stands too on what is cinematography, sure, it isn't purely dissapointing and terribly bad, but damn Mists' voice annoys me and damn I prefer imagining Ike talking than actually hearing his english voice, it's simply retarded for me, the only save-able person is Ike's father and the singing part in the Serenes forest.


You'll get the usual fire emblem dialogue interaction, be it semi body showing or sprite field which is clearly something a fire emblem gamer would have expected more development or simply is satisfied and not molested with the 'improvements', personally, it wasn't such a bother and yet I always found myself expecting more in this upgrading media area.



In conclusion about this game I say it's the fire emblem whom, if you are open and a reader will enjoy much, sounds extremly vague and generic but I have no other way to say how you would like this. I personally did and till now would remmember things from the game, un questionably Ike and how he develops. The game itself isn't the best thing since best but then again no fire emblem game was pretty much in that area, it was for me always a chilling way to pass a quiet evening, just reading and going through the story with characters I like to get attached with.

Final scores

Story: 8.5/10


Characters: 9/10


Setting: 8/10


Upgrade: 7.5/10


Total: 33/40



"A fair playing fire emblem that, even if you haven't played the previuos ones, you'll fairly enjoy the story. The wide screen is something that has pros and cons, yet again, it's something to simply deal with."

Fire emblem General Rant part 3

If you ever did wonder the avatar here is based on a wallpaper on which I extracted the main figure and made a 100x100 pimped square, I have that truthfully in mind and I'm not hoping for community chaos because of such.

Carrying on we the evaluation we have n°8, Fire emblem Sacred Stones.
From where to begin... ok I got a reasonable set up, the story is boring and just plain none epic, I have no idea if the creators thought that fire emblems' good points were not incluiding the story or character development but its' easy to see there was no appeal in this area. Sure, it isn't as bad as n°6 and the map we are given too is far more dark and arcane (it's highlight) and yet I can't remmember anything from this game apart from having a none interesting relationship between two perfect abricombie finch models, hell I remmember their names Erika and Ephraim, I have to say, the name of the guy took my eyes instantly.
The setting could have been much more well done, I mean, just look at the continent and all the dark loomers around, of course, being a fire emblem game at heart they decided on the 'epic' win over all darkness and evil having to behold such radiating and boring brotherly love.
Sure, the upgrads seem to have been one of the center points of the producers, the art posses a really nice clean painting ish render and the chap advancing is no longer one head line as it has been till now, no ladies and gentlemen, here you can travel as you please through the continent, in other words, probably many complaints reached the creator ears and so they decided on doing the most easy and logical solution, traveling at will from poit to point where you have two ways; one being the one you already beated up so you could continue to the next and the other where the story would press on.
This is the overview you get each time you beat a stage or dot, this example just showing the the beginning;


















It's clear to see they totally turned their attention to this upgrading part where you could lvl up and have the chance to select one of two classes for each member and gave out a rather cold shoulder to the other two points of story and characters, sure, the characters are not so bad and yet from what I could remmember never did attach myself to any of them, apart from the nice name Ephraim.
In short words, what could I say about the story? It's none attractive, predictable and boring, given the world and the characters I would have expected much more from the story line.
This last points to our character development area which is in simple words for me not-bad, true, the water colors and the rather dark shading is pretty appealing for gamers of fire emblem but their general blandness and none interesting pick ups leave them as they are right now in my opinion of boring.
The characters, apart from looking pretty and nice, decent if that's the word, could have been much more versatil, I mean, just look at the swordsgirl Marisa or Marica, she's supposed to be a cold and extremely dedicated swordsperson and she looks like she just got out of celebrity cocktails where every woman would gossip of how hot and none hot everybody looked, seriuosly, those boots are pretty high-heeled for me if its' for someone so not into the fashion world.
I know every character till now in fire emblem has high class taste in clothing and I have nothing agaisnt it, it's just these specific characters that I find myself doubtful and questioning if it's really true they have such and attitude or if they are just pretending for the hell of it.
Not all of them in this game are terrible, I mean, there's a mercenary with a buff body and a decent scar that clings to the word 'street wise', a dancer named Thetys or tetys that has mentioned at some point of how much she takes care of herself, a rather decent looking archer that looks seriuos, it's not all that bad, it's just, as mentioned earlier, a pity they didn't press much of the story and the characters in such a wide setting to tribute the great name of 'game developement'-Upgrades, not to mention those others that are equivalent to a turn off, ahem, girl beside this text.
Believe me, this is a good example of swirling hair beneath the rays of sun and across the 'bloody' mad war where dark creatures roam and want nothing but flesh, thanks but, I've had quite enough with that.
True, the other fire emblems have the same thing going and I haven't mentioned it till now and that's for a reason; these heroines have no personality whatsoever to explain their use of hair for that, it just leaves me believe they like looking pretty which has nothing wrong to it, if they could (Marisa) keep up with their attitude or at least personality that is.
I pretty much know fire emblem is about pretty people slaying the evil doors and I've liked it so far, but sometimes you just have the neccesity to question and be doubtful about their appearences and ways, if you have never thought about it and have nothing pulling down your interests about the matter, I recomend you this game, that is if you're ready for fair boring story telling.
Something that by this extent you've been probably wondering is the battle part, yes, in this game you are agaisnt not only bad people but bad monsters from Evil Von Dark, that's how you keep on killing and killing and lvl uping, this takes part from the upgrade section. Another point of this area is the general human a monster relationships, they sure try to make it as tight and not soffocating as possible, this is something I can't consider bad or good, it's pure taste.
In conclusion, the game is none epic and none memorable, it's bland in the area beyond pretty faces and nice coloring with a decent map, even if the creators unleashed all what the common sense would say they should have unleashed in the upgrading part it sometimes turns out to be a downfall because it doesn't feel as wanted as what the gamers wanted in the start.




Final scores:

Story: 5/10

Characters: 6.5/10 (just because they have Ephraim with a lance called reingleif and a decent art)

Setting: 7/10

Upgrade: 6.5/10

Total score: 25/40



"Enjoyable to an extent. Because of lacking appeal in story and character the game turns repetitive and none original."