Today I had the opportunity to sit in on a live demo of Atlus’ next big RPG, Radiant Historia for Nintendo DS. I’ve been wanting to sink my teeth into a good RPG for quite some time, and I feel confident in saying that Radiant Historia is going to be awesome.
Taking place in two different timelines, Radiant Historia offers RPG fans a really unique experience. With graphics that conjure up memories of Chrono Trigger and Xenogears, and a soundtrack composed by the legendary Yoko Shimomura, this game is already shaping up to be something pretty special.
Even though the game was already released in Japan back in November of last year, localization started for the United States back in August. Nothing was removed from the Japanese version, nor was anything added. Players can also choose to use the d-pad and buttons or play the entire game with the touch screen.
The story of Radiant Historia revolvesaround the main character, Stocke, a young man who is an agent for Alistel Intelligence. He is joined by fellow agents Raynie, a cute female who’s good with a spear, and Marco, a young lad who excels at sword-fighting and beingyour support/healer. There are four more playable characters, but for the most part the story revolves around Stocke, Raynie, and Marco. Some gamers might be sad to know that you can’t rename your characters, but I really don’t see that as a big deal-breaker.
When Stocke is severely wounded in battle, he awakens in a place known as Historia, and gains the power of a special book known as the White Chronicles. By using the White Chronicles, Stocke can travel back and forth between time and in doing so, help save his world.
Time travel isn’t a new concept to the gaming world, especially in the RPG genre, but what Atlus has done with Radiant Historia is truly unique. With 236 total scenarios, multiple paths to choose from, and several endings, gamers will get a lot of bang for their buck. One thing that was mentioned in the live demo was that should you miss a special event that would unlock extra scenarios, you can easily travel back so you can complete them. Additionally, when you’re looking at the branches, red nodes are bad endings, while blue nodes are points where you can jump back and forth through time.
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Should you go for a bad ending choice, the game will kick you back to Historia, a place that is definitely inspired by the works of M.C. Escher. It’s a shame that Radiant Historia won’t be coming out for the 3DS because Historia in 3D would be simply breathtaking. After making a bad choice, the game will give you a chance to reconsider your decision, absolutely making sure that you go down the correct road, but know that there is no “point of no return” in Radiant Historia. If any of you have played Fallout 3, you will be familiar with how choices affect what you can or cannot see as you progress throughout the game.
In the game there are two main paths with one true story. Upon completing the game, you will have your ending that is contingent upon how you played the game. As I mentioned before, there are definitely bad endings, with some that will shock you, but there are good endings as well. Like in most RPG’s there is a normal ending, but if you did everything, like literally everything, there will be a special ending. Additionally, several epilogue screens for various characters will appear, and those are unlockable depending on the amount of side-quests you completed. If you’re wondering how many side-quests there are, know that there are about 70 total. Side-quests are purely optional, with random characters asking you to do things for them.
It’s worth noting that, when you do jump back in time, none of your characters lose items, experience, equipment, or anything of that nature. And speaking of levels, it’s speculated that the level cap is good ol’ 99, with level 65 marking the spot where you stop acquiring new skills. You cannot permanently lose members of your party either, so don’t worry about that. Also, if you’re wondering if some of your characters will run into themselves during time travel, know that Stocke will be able to run into himself at certain points throughout the game, but it will be very subtle.
In terms of graphics, I mentioned earlier how it easily reminded me of two classic RPG’s: Chrono Trigger and Xenogears. The characters are cute, little sprites, but when they pop up for dialogue they are incredibly detailed. When in battle, the game reminds me of Chrono Cross on PSX, which is a compliment. The gameplay is turn-based, and the enemies sit on a grid. The grid, which will become no larger than a 3×3 square, is important in determining how you play and what strategies you’ll use.
If you are battling more than one enemy, and if the enemies only take up one square on the grid each (yes, there will be enemies that will be so large they take up the entire grid), you can knock them so that they stack up and stay on the same square. If you manage to accomplish this, attack the square and you’ll damage all of the enemies at once. The location of the enemy is crucial; should they be located on the back row, they will have increased defense, whereas those in the front row will have increased offense. Sometimes the enemies will have objects with them that will take up space on the grid, like barricades or ballistas.
You can also view the order of attack on the top screen of the DS and move the character order around. Having this option puts you in strategic control over every battle. When you do this, the character you’ve moved around will turn red, meaning they are in a provoked state. While provoked, they are wide open to enemy attacks until the next turn. The key is knowing when you can afford to take the risk of having a character in harms way so that you can manipulate the turn order so that your party has three turns in a row, or so that you can break up the enemies attack if they have three in a row. What’s nice is that while you get to play master manipulator, the enemies can’t change the turn order at all. They can, however, spend one of their turns to move around the grid. Also, at the end of your party’s turns, the enemies will automatically move off shared squares without wasting a turn. I know… how dare they?!
While you’re in battle, you have the option of turning on “auto-battle” which makes your entire party use the same standard attack over and over. This feature is handy if you’re in an easy battle that doesn’t require much strategy, and you just want to blast through it quickly so you can move on. If you opt to do everything manually, do your best to continue your combo. By doing so, not only do you increase damage, but if you switch attack types, like swapping magic for physical attacks, you can keep the combo going and increase even more damage.
One downside, for me at least, is that after you battle, your HP and MP don’t refill, same with when you level up. Enemies will respawn after any screen transition (where the screen fades to black in between sections), so be careful and pay attention to your stats. There will be a large variety of items at your disposal that will be restorative, buffs, de-buffs, and ailment inflictors plus multiple versions of all that will vary in strength. With your skills, some will focus on movement, hitting different configurations of multiple enemies, support recovery/buff/de-buff, and then there will be your “kick-ass skill” where you bring the pain to those in your path. By paying attention to the kindof character you have – whether they are more magic or attack based – you’ll know how to form your party. Some will be better at moving enemies around on the grid, some will be better at setting traps, while some will be better at large area damage.
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Now, I know that some of you might wonder about the bosses you’ll encounter, and while not a lot of information was given, we were told that they won’t have bosses in the traditional sense, and that is mainly because there aren’t actual levels in Radiant Historia to warrant one at the end of a major section. There will be major plot enemies for you to duke it out with, and there will also be some extra difficult (and optional) bosses that can be triggered through side-quests, similar to Ruby, Emerald, and Omega Weapon from Final Fantasy VII & VIII.
Now, on to the music; it’s gorgeous! As I mentioned in the beginning, the game was composed by Yoko Shimomura, and she has quite the resume. Not only did she compose the Kingdom Hearts and Parasite Eve games, but she also composed the original Street Fighter II and Legend of Mana. Impressive, no? When you’re in Historia, everything is so beautiful, and so angelic. When you’re looking at all of the nodes after you open the White Chronicles, the soothing, ambient sounds are really something special.
With roughly 20-30 hours of main plot, not including the 70 side-quests, a ton of treasure to look for, and places for your character to slash through to discover new paths, Radiant Historia will definitely be worth the $34.99 price tag. Included in that price is the full length game and a mini-soundtrack with 5 songs from the game. Copies with the soundtrack will be available at launch, and will not be retailer or pre-order exclusive. It’s a shame that the entire soundtrack will never be able for purchase, but something is better than nothing!
Radiant Historia drops this February on the 22nd. Will you be picking up a copy? Let us know in a comment below!
