Game: Radiant Historia
Publisher: Atlus
Genre: JRPG
Price: $34.99
Verdict: Challenging puzzles in a beautiful setting.
Cons: Tired story with little replay value.

Acquired via Publisher

I am a sucker for games with the Atlus logo on them. While I know they may only publish a lot of the games carrying their branding, I know that almost every morsel of gaming goodness is going to provide a unique experience. Radiant Historia is one such experience that brings a fair amount of fun, with a bit of tired stereotypes for the JRPG genre.

The story in Radiant Historia is not unlike the vast majority of games we have played in this genre. You take the role of Stocke who lives in a world torn by war between two super powers (seen that lots of times). This world is also looking at its end with the “desertification,” which has all life crumbling into piles of sand. While everyone and their dog seems to be fearing this sandy apocalypse, Stocke, being the loyal soldier he is, carries out his orders handed down to him from his superiors. As you might have guessed, it is up to Stocke to save the world from its impending sandy demise. The story does have its share of funny quips and entertaining moments, but it tends to stick with tried and true formulas far too much.

What is a story without some combat to break up all the gum flapping people in towns love to do? When it comes to doing battle, you can breathe a sigh of relief as this is not a classic case of grind the same rat for six hours just to level up. This turn-based RPG places enemies on a three by three grid on the left, with Stocke and two allies on the right. This may sound unfair with nine enemies going against three heroes, but this is where the game forces you to think. Characters have the opportunity to move enemies around the battlefield with abilities called “push assaults,” which becomes integral with the combo system.

Essentially, you try to push as many enemies as possible into the same square, allowing the next party member to hit all enemies in that square. There is also a bonus applied if this attack happens right after another party member attacks. In addition, you can change up the battle order to allow more consecutive hits from your party at the cost of allowing the enemy to attack first. I found this system to be fun, and challenging at times, as the game forces you to consider your actions on the battlefield. One bad move in the later portion of the game can have detrimental consequences on the life of your party.

There is one big downfall to the combat system, and that is boss fights. If you really despise the boss after boss after boss setup, this game is going to try your patience. Just when you think you have killed a boss for the umpteenth time, they come back for one more fight. It gets so frustrating that there are times you may just want to throw your DS in a fit of rage. Thankfully, these fights occur infrequently and do not detract from the overall fun of the game.

Where the game really pulls it together is in its implementation of the time travel mechanic. Early on in the story, Stocke receives a book called the White Chronicle. This book allows Stocke to go back to pivotal moments in the game and replay key decisions. Stocke must utilize this tool too travel between the two timeframes to piece together a future in which the world does not end in catastrophic death.

Now before you get all uppity thinking this has been done before, Radiant Historia makes great use of this feature. Maybe you are working on one timeline only to hit a snag where you need an item that does not exist in that period. You then have to go back to a prior point in the game and play the second timeline to acquire that item, or even trigger a specific event that changes something in the other time period.

With so much going on, it can get confusing on what happened when and where in the story. Thankfully, there is a menu option that allows you to see the pivotal moments that you can jump to. Just move your cursor to a point you are debating on and the top screen fills up with a briefing of what has happened up to that particular point. Once you find the point you want to go back to, select it and you are teleported back to that moment in time. The only difference is that you know one outcome of a particular decision, and you have the power now to change the course of the future for the better.

Rounding all this goodness off is a striking presentation. The sprite based characters and background really struck a chord of nostalgia for me. I felt like a kid playing my SNES yet again. The character portraits do a lot to bring personality and life to the characters you lead through the game. Animations and spells are very well done, with some spells bringing a flare of grandeur to them. The visuals are complimented by an extremely well done audio package. This is one of the better presentation packages I have enjoyed on the DS.

The biggest gripe I have is the sheer amount of dialog you have to traverse during your play time. Traveling back in time to alter the future is great, but having to read through the same boring dialog with no change can become extremely tiresome. You can fast forward through the blah blah blah, but why force players to sit through that? There are a few times where the same rambling dialog will include something new, but if you hit start to skip the crap you already read, you will miss these new portions. It is good that these times are far and few between, but it is frustrating nonetheless.

Ultimately, Radiant Historia is a fun game that forces the player to think to solve both time travel puzzles and battle puzzles. This is something many portable RPGs rarely do, and it is a welcomed addition. Completionists can expect to snag 30+ hours if you decide to run around and do every last sidequest the game has to offer, which are great fun with fantastic gear rewards. This game offers an engaging role-playing experience that fans of the genre should, and most likely will, enjoy. Do not let this game slip your radar.

GrE Grade: B

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