Radiant Historia - Nintendo DS

Radiant Historia is by far one of the best JRPGs I have played on Nintendo DS. Before I get into the gory details, because it may not be for everyone, I want to mention that this review will contain no major character or plot spoilers, but I will spoil game mechanics. Why are you reading the reviews in the first place if you can't stand any spoilers? ;)Radiant Historia is set in a steam punk-esque world between warring nations. You are the protagonist, Stocke, a "secret agent" of sorts for one of the nations. The game focuses around the political and social intrigue between these two nations and several others. As you investigate some major and minor problems you do standard JRPG stuff like fighting foes, levelling up, gaining and buying equipment and making decisions of whom to include in your fighting party of three.GameplayThis will be a long section because RH does a lot of things differently from typical JRPGs and this is what really makes this game unique. Radiant Historia is roughly like a cross between a time travel JRPG like Chrono Trigger, a Choose Your Own Adventure book and a tactical RPG like Final Fantasy Tactics or Tactics Ogre. Very early on, Stocke gets the ability to travel between two timelines: a "Standard" history and an "Alternate" history. What happens in one timeline effects the other. Its best to suspend your disbelief about this sort of thing if you're going to enjoy the game. Although the game does a pretty good job of smoothing over logical inconsistencies in this method, you can always be successful with "go do something you missed" in the other timeline when you got stuck. The game forces you to jump timelines to obtain items needed to solve problems or change someone's attitude or life. You can't jump to any precise point. You are limited to "nodes" that are major events for the main character. All of the available nodes are nicely laid out in a timeline map for you that also contains pertinent information about your status on different quests. At critical junctures in the story, the main character must choose between two alternatives to progress the story. There is no penalty for a "wrong" choice as the game immediately gives you the chance to jump back in history to correct your mistake without a game restart. Completists will enjoy finding all of the "bad" endings, of which there are many. I found many of these choices to be logical yet requiring some depth of thought. You really need to consider all the character's motivations to get the story-progressing outcome right away. While some crave finding all the bad endings, I challenged myself to avoid as many bad endings as possible and was quite proud that I got through with only a few out of likely dozens of possible bad endings. The key to success in this game is following the mantra of: "if you get stuck, go to the other timeline." There was only one place in the game "near the beginning" when I wasn't sure what to do and its right in the beginning when you have to do your first transfer between timelines. Many people find themselves asking "why is doing this going to change something in the other timeline? After this first one it makes more sense what you have to do to accomplish tasks (the game makes it very clear too) so my initial frustration at this first one was quickly replaced by an understanding of how the game "works". Combat in the game is on a 9X9 tactical grid and the object is not just your standard JRPG "use your skills to kill each individual enemy as quickly as possible." The grid adds the interesting tactical element of being able to "push" and "pull" your enemies into different spaces. The front line allows you to do more damage, but you take more damage and the back line allows you to avoid damage while you do less. The middle is, well, the middle ground. Most characters have the ability to manipulate enemies on the grid in some way, with Stocke being the best at it. By pushing and pulling enemies around, you can "stack" enemies on a single square of the grid, resulting in any attack doing damage and affecting all enemies on that square. Rarely are battles the same in beginning setup and enemies change frequently. Three additional mechanics make battles fresh. Yes, we're still going. Every battle is governed by a turn order that you can manipulate. If you want to have your three characters go nine times in a row, you can switch with enemies and allow them to go before you to make it happen. There is a down side, of course. When you switch, your character becomes slightly more vulnerable to attack until they act. The purpose of switching turn order is to take advantage of the multiplier system. By alternating magic and physical skills, your characters can chain together a long series of attacks to build the multiplier, increasing the damage done to enemies when you have a large multiplier. Before battles begin, you can press the Y button to swing Stocke's sword at enemy, potentially "stunning" it. If you enter battle while an enemy is "stunned" you get a "surprise" round with three or four total turns to take before your enemy gets to act. I should probably also mention that battles are not random "sprung" encounters. You can choose to enter combat. Many are annoyed by traditional "random" encounter JRPGS and this is not one of them.CharactersExtra characters (six of them) enter your party as the story progresses and leave as the story requires them to do so. Each character has a defined personality and there is character development and growth of several of the characters. They are all likeable for different reasons and I personally found myself growing to like all of them. Stocke is particularly likeable as the "reluctant" hero archetype. He is much grittier than a lot of JRPG protagonists and he is much more intelligent than almost all of them. He doesn't say dumb things and this in game thoughts are logical.SkillsCombat systems are driven by skill sets and the skill sets in this game are well thought out. Every character gets some sort of "grid manipulation" skill and several characters specialize in them. You also have characters specializing in magic and some in other nuances. You can build some characters in multiple different ways although some characters clearly have strengths that you will want to cater towards. Every character in the game is useful in some way and I was surprised how much utility that I could get out of characters that seemed like they would be ineffective on the surface. You really just need to know how to play their role. Some of the best characters are not damage dealers. Characters gain most of their skills automatically through levelling although each character can also learn four additional skills through side quests. Many (but not all) of these "extra" skills are useful and make the end game much easier. One of things that I like about the skills in this game is that most of the skills that inflict status ailments on enemies are useful and make a big impact. Poison, often the lamest mechanic in most games is very useful in this game. Use it often, especially on bosses. Steal, also a very lame mechanic in most games, is incredibly useful here and can result in getting some unique equipment. The "stacking" nature of the grid can often result in multiple enemies with just a little health left and the Steal skill can be a good finishing move. Just like with damage, your chance to steal increases with increasing multiplier and increases with more enemies on a space.EquipmentThe economy in the game is pretty loose in that I rarely had any trouble buying anything. Note that I fight nearly every enemy that I encounter and reaped a lot of cash as a result. The challenge of this system isn't so much to have enough cash as it is to remember what time and place has the equipment that you need. Certain equipment is only available in certain times at certain places. Some of the best equipment is found in dungeons or as drops or can be stolen from bosses.ExtrasThe game has about two dozen side quests. This may not sound like a lot to some fans, but since many of these side quests require multiple different jumps back in forth through time to complete it is a lot of extra content. These side quests can also unlock different skills. Doing different sidequests can unlock alternate endings, including a "true" ending which I have not attained yet.Length and DifficultyI am no stranger to tactical or JRPGs and I found the game challenging at first and progressively easier as I went along. It is important not to "fight" the stacking nature of the mechanics to be successful. General JRPG rules like "having the best equipment" and "having enough support items" apply here. I think I was over-levelled throughout most of the game. I took my sweet time and fought every enemy and as a result I experienced little challenge from the final boss. I think if you did a blitz play-through only fighting what was necessary you would find the game much more challenging, especially around a certain chapter. It took me 45 hours to finish the main story and most of the side quests but there is still content I haven't seen. I think that the 45 hours is probably a mid-high estimate of how long it should take the average gamer. I usually take longer than most people, especially with games that interest me.Look and Sound/MusicThe game has a nice look to it with interesting locations. It has a steam punk aesthetic with technology in a sword and sorcery world. Monsters have no sound effects but weapons and spells do. They are pretty basic. There is no spoken dialogue in the game. The music is very nice although there isn't much (about eight tunes or so) and it is appropriately recycled depending upon the general "mood" and location of the game. There are some times in game where the music suddenly seems to disappear. A minor glitch.CriticismsDialogueThis game has a lot of dialogue. Reading all the dialogue is very important to get an understanding of where you are supposed to be going and what you are supposed to be doing there as the timeline doesn't always tell you. I think this an advantage to the timeline because it forces you to actually pay attention. It can get tedious to listen to dialogue over and over again as you skip through time. The game allows you to press START to skip entire conversations, but sometimes when you change history the conversations change and you miss out on subtle dialogue changes and whether you actually obtained the item you needed. Its a lot to re-read if you don't want to miss out on the clues.Enemy weaknessesJust like many JRPGs, enemies in this game are supposed to have weaknesses to physical and different elemental attacks and spells. The degree to which this matters is pretty weak in this game. What I would say is that there actually seems to be no middle ground. Enemies will tend to be nearly completely immune to certain attack types or vulnerable to certain ones. Almost every enemy in the game seems to be affected by lightning, which kind of cheapens the whole enemy weakness system and makes certain characters more valuable than others, but not by much.ConclusionThis is by far one of the best JRPGs I have played and in my top five games I have played on the DS. I do a lot of research before I buy games and I only buy the ones that suit my tastes and get good reviews. So, to put this in my top five means a lot. My only regret is that I finished it. By the time I finished posting this review the game is likely hard to find and has had a price jump so if you are still looking to find it, good luck!

Update (12/10/2011): So the difficulty takes a huge hike early on in Alternate History chapter four. I'm really pleased with this, though I got destroyed very quickly because I wasn't expecting it. And I'm well leveled. There is a LOT more strategy required for the battles now. So I'm more impressed overall. I've been playing a few other games in the meantime (Solatorobo and Atelier Totori), but I've been taking a few swings at this over the last few weeks and will complete the game then update the review further. Just note: Much more difficult now, so disregard the earlier posted comments on how easy the game is.----------------------Update (10/12/2011): Well into the game and nearing the end of Chapter 3 (out of 6 I believe). Finally we get to see some other characters to use in battle, and actually get a pool of several characters to choose from. The story really gets into gear in chapter three. Pretty gripping stuff. The music has improved with access to new areas, there are several new scores instead of the usual 5 or 6 from the first couple of chapters.Also of note with the music, the regular battle music is rather... not intense? It has a pretty good sound overall. But when you hear the three or four boss music scores... those are a vast improvement. And I like that they have several different boss music beats, that way the more intense and troublesome bosses have the more sinister music. Nice!Another note: There will be times in chapter 3 and on where it would be... inadvisable to do a timeline jump since there are not any nodes to bring you back to the current timeline. This is nice because it keeps the story moving very well. You 'can' do a jump, but then you would have to jump back much earlier in chapter three and re-work through much of that timeline to get to where you were. Just saying that the developers seemed to say: "Hey! Stick with this storyline a bit longer, it's just getting good!"-----------------Update (10/5/11): Despite the game starting off ridiculously easy... it suddenly goes into extra tough overdrive about 4 or 5 hours in. More than level grinding, what is required of later battles is a smart sense of tactics. Many opponents will arrange themselves in the grid for a special attack, or hit certain points on the grid with enhancements, such as a MAJOR attack increase. Your top priority at this point is to use your players to keep these opponents off those parts of the grid or to immediately knock them to a different point on the grid.Also, there are a few techniques you gain which enhance the exploration aspect. You receive a technique to chop trees allowing you to access previously blocked chests/areas, and later you gain an ability to 'sense' hidden treasure and items on the exploration screen. Give this game 4 to 6 hours and you really get into the meat. It really doesn't even get going until the end of chapter one/ start of chapter 2.----------------Things that I enjoy? First and most notable is the music. The tunes are great old school RPG style songs with good variety. They're catchy and mood fitting for the most part. I also loved the included CD with the piano arrangements. Awesome extra for those like me who pre-ordered (though there may be some with the CD still around).Graphics are amazing. They remind me a bit of Xenogears from the PS1 without the ability to freely move the camera. The sprites are chunky little 2d things but the use of character portraits helps to personify the main characters and overcome this. If you really look around you can see the rich detail in almost every setting.Battles are fun and the use of the grid system really adds a bit of versatility. It seems this may have worked well as a Chrono Trigger like system with more are and line attacks and combos, but despite the seemingly simple system it works. And you do gain better rewards after battle with higher combos. I could sit here and describe the system and bore you to death, but better to check out an online video.The time travel element adds a nice touch to the game. At certain points history diverges and there are nodes created to when you may return. It makes some parts repetitive, but you can rapidly skip text in the blink of an eye, just not speed up character actions (like little clouds of annoyance or people walking about etc...) so some of the repeated points in history can get a tad annoying.The real gem of this game is the story. You immediately dive into a complex and rewarding story. Some of the other characters might get a bit annoying, but most villains and heroes are complex and rather a treat to engage with. It is one of the deepest and most interesting stories for any DS game (the exact opposite of Final Fantasy Tactics A2!).If you enjoy deep stories, engaging characters, and fun battles then you ought to pick up a copy before they become hard to find and double in price. This is a late release for the DS, but another of those classic style games that makes me a huge DS fan!