So I did a mammoth playthrough session yesterday and managed to progress through Path of Radiance, to the point where I'm at where Ike leads his forces against Daein. Recording general thoughts/occurrences as I go along:
-So I lost Volke on the pocher/slaver mission. Thought I'd get some XP with him, but nut, criticals gonna critical, and he's out. Really, it's my own fault, and I've since had to rely on Soothe when I need a thief.
-Concerning Malakov...okay, quick question, why does he have no supports with Marcia? This is purely a question of storytelling, but Marcia's motivations up to this point in the story are finding her in-debt brother. So after finding him in the above-mentioned mission, they promptly never talk to each other throughout the rest of the game (least in support conversations). This isn't the only oddity, there's no supports between Rolf, Boyd, and Oscar, despite the three of them being brothers.
-On the other hand, I love Malakov's info conversation with Ike, which can basically be summed up as:
Malakov: "Huzzah! I'm free from my debtors!"
Ike: "Actually, I just paid them off, now you owe us money. That means you're stuck with us, your debt will be taken from your pay, and from the looks of things, you'll be serving with us for a very long time."
-With the desert mission, I'm not exactly sure what Sanaki's plan is. She sends Ike and co. into the desert, obstensibly to deal with bandits, but they turn out to be the Laguz Emancipation Army. Which...okay, sure, but how many of those 'bandits' did my team kill before that was revealed? And how do the survivours feel about the whole "yeah, sorry for killing a lot of you, but we're besties now, right?"
-Getting into Serenes Forest, it's absolutely gruelling since you need to play 4 missions back to back, but I actually like the mechanics here, how you get to choose two reinforcements per mission, who are also going to be your only source of new items. I wouldn't want a whole game styled around this format, but as a one-off thing, it works.
-Damn hawks turn up in the last mission, stealing my kills and XP, the bastards.
-Getting with the Serenes Forest genocide of the herons, I'm really mixed on this. On one hand, I applaud the game for having the guts to deal with what is unambiguously genocide, and showing the effects on the survivours (e.g. Reyson, who understandably, despises the beorc), as well as the perpetrators (while not shown directly, it's often stated how the mob that torched Serenes was consumed by guilt and loathing, hence why Sanaki taking it upon herself to apologize works well as a moment). Out of all the Fire Emblem games I've played, it's probably the weightiest subject matter that I've seen the series dealt with, and for the most part, it deals it with the sombreness you'd expect.
On the other hand, things wrap up far too neatly for my tastes. Sanaki apologizes, Leanne accepts her apology, and Reyson, albeit grudgingly, accepts it as well, since Leanne's his sister, so by extension, the hawk laguz sort of forgive the whole genocide thing. Maybe. And then Reyson and Leanne sing a song and Serenes Forest bursts back into life, which goes to show you that all you need to get over genocide is just good will and a galdr. This might sound glib, but from an in-universe standpoint, I'm not sure if Reyson (and certainly not Leanne) are really in the position to forgive Bengnion, because even if they can, what about the surviving herons? What about the fact that many of the people who slaughtered the herons are still alive? If this was an event that occurred hundreds of years ago, sure, but in-universe, a mere 20 years have passed, and Bengnion doesn't really need to do anything bar its empress (who's the innocent party in this scenario) apologizing and getting it from winged angel birds. So when Nasir says that the divide between beorc and laguz has shrunk...really? Um, okay, Mr. Optimist.
So, yeah. Great setup, not so sure about the conclusion.
-So Ike literally becomes a lord (fun fact, I'd maxed him out by the Serenes missions so tried to use him as sparingly as possible), which kind of makes sense, and is then given an army to command. Um...okay. I'm not sure how commanding a mercenary trope of maybe up to 30 individuals (less if you've been losing units) is the same as commanding over 800 soldiers (Sanaki uses the term "regiment," so assuming the terminology holds true, that's probably between 800 to 1000 soldiers under his command), but to be fair, Ike is uneasy about this as I am, and is shown to be relying on more experienced officers such as Tanith.
-Also, minor nitpick, but it's established that the Crimean Liberation Army marches on Daein at the onset of winter. Um, okay. I'm not an expert on warfare, but generally, marching during winter isn't the best move in the world to make. Just saying.
-This might be reading too much into things, but there's an interesting possibility that's raised in the support conversations. Tanith tells Ike that Ashnard came to power 18 years ago, whereas 20 years ago, a great plague struck Daein (I think elsewhere as well), killing thousands of beorc and laguz alike. What else happened 20 years ago? The Serenes Massacre. I can't help but wonder if the plague occurred BECAUSE of the massacre. As in, nature's out of whack (Sanaki says earlier that the laguz are vital for maintaining nature or some other stuff that's a bit Noble Savage, but okay), so a plague occurs. Of course, it could be coincidence of just saying "twenty years" at random, but still...
So, yeah. Looking above, I've probably listed more gripes than praise, but still, the game remains solid both in gameplay and story. Assuming things remain at this level, at the least, this will probably end up being my #2 or #1 FE game.
