Best Game Ever

As I was driving home last night, listening to some Radiant Dawn tunes I had burned onto a CD, it occured to me that this game is, in fact, my favorite game ever.

It kind of doesn't make sense, since I consider the Zelda games my favorite series. So in theory, one of those should be my favorite. But despite my addition to Twilight Princess, I can stop myself in the middle of a game and go to sleep. With Radiant Dawn, I've had many moments in which I say, "Oh crap, when did it get to be 2am?"

For the longest time I couldn't determine whether I liked Radiant Dawn or Path of Radiance better, with one being the other's sequel, but because I played RD first I'm always going to be drawn to it. It's been about a month since my last completion of the game, and my hands are already itching to break out the disc again.

So what is it about this game, anyway? Plot, certainly. The age-old tale of knights and dragons and the like. But also the characters. The Greil Mercenaries are the ones that bring me back to this series. I know more than I should admit about this band of imaginary people: how they met, who loves/hates one another, and things they don't even know about themselves. They're just so well-developed.

And with the strategy-based RPG, it's never the same game twice. Since experienced is granted per character, not by group, you can really focus on making individual people stronger. And it's the ones you least expect that, if trained properly, knock everyone else out of the water. While Titania and Ike are naturally awesome, people like Soren and Edward—who are weaker at first—can far surpass them once they're leveled up.

It requires the brainpower for planning and strategy. You have to decide early on who you're going to train, because there are so many characters and they can't all gain adequate experience points. I have my standards, of course, despite my attempt to train someone else. Edward gets priority in the beginning of the game, and I always end up maxing out Rolf and Shinon (I love snipers). And even though he doesn't appear until later in the game, Stefan almost always gets a spot at the end. One of these days I'll give someone else a chance. But it's so hard when you're emotionally attached to your favorites.