Radiant Historia

Voices of: N/A
Developer: Atlus, Headlock
Publisher: Atlus
Directed by: Mitsuru Hirata, Satoshi Takayashik
Rating: E+
Genre: Role-playing
System: Nintendo DS
2011

Times Completed:
Tim: 1

Summary: Stocke is given the White Chronicle and uses the mysteries tome to travel in time, seeking to find a path through history to save the continent from war and the world from desertification.

Review:
Tim: I've played a lot of RPGs in my day, and I have to say, I absolutely loved Radiant Historia. I think a lot of people sleep on this game because it was released for the Nintendo DS, but my goodness, what a spectacular game. It feels much more epic than you'd expect from a handheld RPG. Atlus did a fantastic job of creating memorable characters in a wonderfully written story that was engaging, fun, and compelling. I really loved playing this game I consider it one of the most underrated RPGs I've experienced.

I want to start by saying how much I loved the writing. I've played some truly great games that had pretty awful writing. Bravely Default is an example where the overall game is amazing, but some of the writing is abysmal. I never saw that issue here- the writing is exceptionally well done. It's not walls of text, and the writing nearly always advances the story or reveals something about the characters. This is undoubtedly one of the better written RPGs I've played. I felt so thankful, to be engaged by the dialogue verses turned off by it. Bravo.

The story here felt incredible to me. The worldbuilding was excellent- it's detailed, interesting, and engaging. It adheres to many genre staples while also feeling like it differentiates itself. The coolest mechanic is that Stocke travels back-and-forth through time, both in Standard History and Alternative History. His actions in one timeline can impact the other. I wasn't always clear on how the time-travel components worked, but I was able to suspend disbelief to go with the story. Much of the game was easy to play without a guide- usually, you could advance one storyline as far as it would go, switch to the other timeline and advance until you unlocked what you needed to progress. A number of the sidequests are pretty straightforward, too. Now, as the game goes on, some of the other events are insanely difficult to figure out on your own. I absolutely used a guide to help manage the time travel back-and-forth. That does bring up one of my least favorite features- it's so easy to get lost in time. You need to travel to a specific node to advance a sidequest, but it's very seldom clear which node. I wasted so much time on this. I also wasted time reading online guides, many of which aren't helpful. They'd say something like, "Return to present day"- but which node? It's beyond aggravating at times. That really sinks the experience at times. Luckily, the game is so good that I was able to push past these. A few times, though, it was truly challenging- like, you'd have to return to a node and then replay quite a bit to get to the place you needed to be. The repetition was a lot at times. Still, the whole concept is so brilliant- Stocke is trying to find the one perfect timeline. You are often presented with key choices- one advances the story, the other results in a bad ending. It was so fun to replay these decisions and see how even innocuous choices could have a big ripple effect on history.

I thought the characters were excellent. Stocke is a tremendous protagonist. I love that he wasn't "silent" or unnecessarily brooding. He's tough, but fair and cares about his friends. He's self-sacrificing, intelligent, resilient. I really thought he was an exceptional lead. I liked Raynie and Marco a lot, too. There's a few unexpected moments with Raynie on a latter sidequest that I thought was cool. Aht is a great character and became a staple of my team, for her extremely high damage dealing traps. Gafka and Rosch were great powerhouse fighters, but I didn't use them quite as much. Eruca started out so weak, but she had a battlefield-blasting attack that I loved to use. These characters are all well-written and I really loved getting to know them throughout this game.

I thought the battle mechanics were actually great fun. It's pretty easy to master, once you refine your trap-setting skills. In a lot of RPGs, battles become nearly automatic, as you're just mashing the attack button. That never happened here. Battles felt like puzzles. There's a grid and you mostly end up setting traps and pushing or pulling bad guys into them. This created a need for strategy, which kept me engaged. The battles can get a tad repetitive at times, but overall, it's better than many RPGs. I did love how critical poison attacks felt here. I almost NEVER poison bad guys in RPGs, but here, I did it for every major boss I could. It really makes a big difference. I appreciated that. I felt like the whole battle system was more engaging than the traditional RPG ones.

I thought the character designs and overall graphics were quite good for the DS. It never took me out of the game and it did help contribute to the overall experience. I guess here I'll mention that I played the original, not the Perfect Chronology remake. I read up on that, and it feels like that one was both better and worse. I felt content playing this one.

In the game, I got Stocke to Level 65. His stats were- HP- 714. MP- 303. ATK- 157. DEF- 118. MAG- 111. MDF- 167. SPD-51. LUC- 48. For the other characters, I got them to the following levels- Raynie- Level 61. Marco- Level 60. Aht- Level 64. Eruca- Level 50. Gafka- Level 58. Rosch- Level 58. There are 236 different events throughout the game to see. I finished with 235. I didn't do the final optional boss, beating the insanely difficult Vainqueur. Part of me is bummed about this, but that battle was so stupid. You need a good deal of luck, and I'd likely have needed to beat like 7 levels with Eruca to learn a spell that might have helped me. As much as I loved this game, I wasn't willing to invest that kind of time in post-game content. A consistent trait for me.

Radiant Historia is a superb game, one of the most fun RPGs I have played in many years. There's quite a few fans of the game out there, but it feels sad that we never got a sequel. I had immense fun playing through this game, and even during the frustrating moments, I was always drawn to advancing the story and spending time with these characters. Atlus designed a brilliant RPG and the 43:31 I spent on this game felt well worth it to me. This is a really special game.



Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: N/A



If You Enjoyed This Game, We Recommend: Bravely Default, Fina Fantasy Tactics, Chrono Trigger