Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance comes to the Nintendo Switch 2

3 days ago 13

It's always a good time to play Fire Emblem

An image from Fire Emblem Path of Radiance, featuring Ike, a blue-haired protagonist with muscles and a huge sword.

2026 is looking to be a great year for Fire Emblem fans. Not only is Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave — which could be either a sequel or prequel to Fire Emblem: Three Houses — set to release this year, but now the best Fire Emblem game of the franchise's earlier years is available to play on the Nintendo Switch 2.

Through Nintendo's GameCube lineup on Nintendo Classics, players are now able to play Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. The catch is that it's exclusively available for Nintendo Switch 2 users who are members of the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription service, so if that's not you, you'll need to subscribe before you can access the strategy role-playing classic.

Originally released on GameCube in 2005, Path of Radiance is set on the continent of Tellius and follows the mercenary Ike. After the human Beorc nation of Daein invades the kingdom of Crimea, kidnapping Princess Elincia in the process, Ike and his companions travel to earn allies to free Crimea from Daein's tyrannical grip. Along the way, they must also grapple with racial tensions and decades of anger and resentment between the shapeshifting Laguz and the Beorcs.

Path of Radiance immediately earned its place as one of the best Fire Emblem games due to its hard-hitting story, as well as innovative introductions to the franchise, such as fully-voiced cutscenes and its use of 3D maps. While it may not have added anything particularly new to the strategy RPG genre, everything it did, from its story to its gameplay, was done exceptionally well. So well that it even earned a sequel a few years later, in 2007, with Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn on the Wii.

Nintendo Classics' library of legacy titles continues to grow, and Nintendo couldn't have picked a better one to add to its collection than Path of Radiance. Let's hope we don't have to wait long for its sequel to arrive on modern consoles, too.

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