What’s up everyone? bojjenclon here with a review for you. Today we’ve got the DS game Radiant Historia by Atlus. Atlus is pretty well known for intense, story driven (and somewhat grindy) RPGs. This game follows in that tradition. When I picked this game up, I’d only heard the name tossed around a few times in some obscure forum posts. It doesn’t seem to have gained a whole lot of traction. This is a shame, as it has quickly become one of my favorite DS games, right next to the Chrono Trigger remake.
First Hour:
Within the first hour of this game, I was hooked. It starts off a little slow at first, but then again, most RPGs do. Once it picked up, I quickly became addicted. The combat system was a fresh take on the traditional turned based style found in similar games. The story seemed interesting, and the characters had enough diversity between them to make me want to learn more about them as individuals. Overall, my first impression was very positive.
Story:
The story was gripping and at times emotionally stirring. I genuinely wanted to know what would happen next. The diverging timelines lead to many unique situations and surprises.
Many parts of the story get rather dark. However, considering Atlus was involved with this game, this isn’t all that surprising. Personally, I’m a big fan of this. When going into many games, I tend to expect things to be on a level that kids can handle. This is especially true of DS games. Radiant Historia has an ESRB rating of E10+ as there isn’t any direct gore or sexual innuendoes, but had the dark nature of the story been taken into account, I think the game could have easily received a T rating. Don’t play this game expecting a light hearted adventure full of rainbows and unicorns; the story is definitely geared more towards the older crowd.
The Gameplay:
> The Battle System:
Radiant Historia has a rather unique battle system. Battles are on a 3x3 grid. Enemies take up one (sometimes more, but usually one) spot on the grid. The closer the enemy is, the more damage they do. So you want to keep them back for that reason. But there's more. You can knock enemies into each other to attack multiple enemies at once. Plus, you get bonus experience for stringing together long combos. You get skills that let you knock the enemies in different directions. Another unique mechanic is it let's you switch the turn order. You can use the change command to switch your turn with another character or even an enemy. This makes you weak until you actually act though, so it has to be used carefully. Other than that it's your standard RPG turn based combat. It's a very cool system, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Most battles in RPGs of this nature tend to get boring after a while, but I liked the majority of the battles in this game. I didn’t really try to avoid battles until end-game, and that was only because I just wanted to see the ending.
You acquire various elemental spells throughout the course of the game. Unfortunately, the short combat tutorial never goes over them. I like short tutorials as much as the next guy, but this was a little too short. For a good portion of the game I just randomly picked a spell whenever I wanted one. Turns out there’s a skill to check for weaknesses (Weakness Scan), but the game just expects you to figure it out. This isn’t too big of a deal for an experienced RPG gamer, but I feel it would be a bit of a problem for someone new to the genre.
Instead of relying on random encounters like similar games, Radiant Historia opts for an “enemy on the overworld” approach. In other words, enemies roam around. You can either choose to run into them and initialize a battle, or try to run around them. In addition, you can try to hit them and knock them out to get a special “preemptive attack.” I personally am a big fan of this approach. Random encounters can be tedious. At the very least, this system allows you to know a battle is coming up and get an advantage by going for the first strike.
> Time Skipping:
The time skip mechanic is brilliant. Overall, I love it and I think it’s done very well. However, there is one major flaw. (Warning, the word event is going to be used multiple times. Try to follow along) Every time you replay an event (i.e. return to a node), you have to read the dialogue again. Now, there is a skip mechanic in place, so this in and of itself isn’t that big of a deal. The problem is, sometimes when you change an event that effects another event, the text might change ever so slightly. The change usually occurs at the end of the dialogue. If you choose to skip it, you may find yourself in the next scene wondering why they’re referring to things you haven’t read yet. This was a bit of an oversight on the developers’ part, but it’s very minor in the grand scheme of things.
> Side-Quests
While the main quest is quite engaging, the game also features numerous side-quests. These usually involve jumping around the timeline. As such, they aren’t all open or solveable right away. This gives a kind of puzzle element to each side-quest. This is fun most of the time, but I did have to look up a walkthrough for a few of them. Most side-quests give equipment or gold. A select few reward you with special skills for your characters. Many of them reward you with story points you wouldn’t see otherwise. Plus, there are special cutscenes you can unlock at the end of the game by completing certain side-quests.
> Levels, Experience, Skills, and Equipment
There’s a decent amount of equipment to choose from. Changing gear doesn’t change your sprites, but this isn’t too surprising for a DS game. The equipment does come with stat modifiers though. This is where things can get complicated. You’ll often have two or three pieces of gear that all effect slightly different stats. It’s up to you to decide how you want to configure your weapon, armor, and three accessory slots. This is one of those places where it’s hard to give a “good” or “bad” opinion. Choices are great, but it can seem a little overwhelming at times. Do I want more defense but less speed and health? Do I want more physical defense with a serious hit to my magic defense? Do I want high speed and magic but low attack power? These are the types of choices you’ll face with the equipment.
Levels come easily enough. Most of my characters were around level 55 when I beat the final boss. The majority of the game doesn’t require any sort of grinding as long as you don’t skip too many battles. However, this changes toward end-game. You’ll want to level up a bit before the final boss. This last grind can be a little annoying, but fortunately the battle system is entertaining enough to keep the grind from making you want to pull your hair out.
Each character gets a number of skills via leveling and side-quests. Some of the skills are repeated between characters, but each one has something unique about them. This makes experimenting with different party configurations pretty important. You’ll want to figure out what playstyle suits you best.
The Graphics and The Sound:
For a DS game, Radiant Historia had some really solid graphics. Everything was crisp and fit together nicely. There were a decent amount of unique sprites packed into the game, plus a number of palette swaps. The sound was also nice. The music fit most of the scenes very well. There’s no voice acting, but that’s to be expected with a DS game. The only qualm I had with the sounds were the footsteps. They should have been more subtle in my opinion. As it stands, the footstep sound playing every time you move gets annoying. Other than that, the sound was great.
The Experience:
Radiant Historia was amazing. DS games are usually just casual games I play when I’m looking for a simple way to pass the time. They rarely pull me in with amazing gameplay or compelling stories. This game breaks that stereotype though. I played this game nearly every day since I first picked it up. I wanted to know more about the story and to see what else I could do with my characters. It really pulled me in. If you’re looking for a solid RPG with an amazing, somewhat adult story, you have to get Radiant Historia.
The Cake:
I really can’t praise this game enough. I rarely get this worked up over a game, but Atlus really knocked the ball out of the park with Radiant Historia. I’ll admit, I was already a bit of an Atlus fan due to Persona 3, but this just made me love them even more. The few problems that exist are incredibly minor.
I give Radiant Historia a full cake. Yes, 7 slices of cake. This is a rare event, I rarely ever give out high scores like this, but this game really is that good.
The Future:
The end of the game somewhat sets up the possibility for a sequel. However, I’m not sure if I’d want one or not. If Atlus could manage to make the sequel just as compelling as the first, then I’d be all for it. However, if it’d just be a cheap rehash, they’d be better off making a new game with a similar system.
Well, this has been my review of Radiant Historia. Hopefully you enjoyed it. This has been bojjenclon, signing off.
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