The way I see it, if you enjoy your turn-based RPGs full of weapons and stats then chances are you’re going to love Radiant Dawn. If you cringe at the mention of the genre RPG then look elsewhere because this isn’t going to convince you.

There a review in just one paragraph because honestly that is all it takes with this game. Role playing games are like marmite, you either love them or you hate them. But for those that actually want a little more information about Fire Emblem and its move to Wii read on.

A great battle resulting in the death of the king of Daein results in chaos throughout the land and a small group called the “Dawn Brigade” try to wrong all the rights of the evil empire and bring peace back to the land. Well that’s how to put it in it’s simplistic form and I must admit at first I was confused to say the least. But it definitely does the job of setting the scene.

The game is nicely split into four parts with the first three introducing three new groups and separate stories then the final one linking them all together for a final showdown against an army of enemies. It’s a good way of presenting more allies and creates a nice flow to the story giving different perspectives and situations to the gamer.

Battlefields are broken down into grids of squares which you plot paths on for your group of fighters to follow hopefully leading to a battle with an enemy. Get within attacking distance of a foe and the computer takes over “treating” you to a very archaic and bland fight sequence. Every turn you can move each of your characters around the map, fight, use items, recue casualties and do just about everything you’d expect from a game of this type. When you’re done the enemies army does the same and this continues till one of the team’s leaders bites the bullet.

This formula is stuck to pretty much throughout the title’s thirty off hour lifespan. You’ll level up your characters along the way, meet new ones and get to a point where you’ll have recruited so many you’ll need to choose the rights slayers for certain situations and environments in order to win. One feature of the game sure to split players is the fact that if one of your characters fall during battle they ain’t coming back. All the hard work you put into getting someone up six or seven levels can be lost in a mere swipe of an enemy sword so expect to hit the Wii’s reset button many a time if you become particularly fond of certain fighters.

You’ll find the usual cast of character types and attributes in Radiant Dawn. Some are swordsmen, some archers whilst some don’t even fight at all and instead have healing abilities or the power to give strength to allies. Each have areas in which they excel. Axe users are strong but slow and people on horseback quick but vulnerable to archers. It’s a nice element that requires you to think about your next move exploiting weaknesses and concealing your own.

You need patience for this game. Bottom line. While not the slowest paced game I’ve played (that award goes to the Mario Party series) it still isn’t exactly grease lightning so if this was your first role playing attempt you’re jumping in feet first rather than getting your toes wet.

And multiplayer? Forget about it. All you’ll find here is a single player campaign with three difficulty settings and some artwork for the characters you’ve unlocked. While online would have been an unexpected treat, multiplayer should have been a must as the strategic turn-based style of Fire Emblem would have been ideal for fun wars with your mates.

Like most if not all RPGs, the lifespan of Fire Emblem will outrun that of most other games taking anywhere up to fifty hours to finish depending on difficulty. And speaking of the difficulty. It is tough. Easy is no walk in the park and anyone who dares try the later two modes are in for a real challenge.

The big question however for me is “why does this game feel so last generation?” The presentation would be impressive had this been an early Gamecube release and with no Wii controls used at all (not necessarily a bad thing) one can assume this was intended for Nintendo’s previous console. The FMV cutscenes are nothing to write home about and conversations  are limited to still images of characters and mountains of text to read underneath. Battles as mentioned before seem very tame and Pokemon-esque in that they can feel so lifeless since not much contact is made and rather you just see characters move quickly and pose a lot.

It is impressive the amount of detail in stats and attributes. Not only does the character his or herself matter during battle but also terrain, weaknesses, likeliness of hit and even higher land are taken into account. Weapons range wildly from staffs to swords and if you’re not happy with what you’re using then simply create your own weapon of destruction right down to the colour. It is very daunting at first but I must admit the tutorials explain everything extremely well.

I will repeat myself but who cares, if you like the Fire Emblem series or these type of games in general it’s obvious you will enjoy this. You hate them, then... well you will still hate them. As for me, I enjoy the odd tactic focused game now and again and Radiant Dawn isn’t bad. It just needs to move ahead with the times a little and offer more. Maybe it’s time for Nintendo to rethink this franchise?