"A unique experience that's a definite step in the right direction"

With all the generic titles that SquareEnix has been putting out recently, this little title that was given virtually no hype is an easy one to look over. But after playing through the introduction, it becomes clear that Radiata Stories is a gem. Many new and very good ideas are introduced, hopefully setting a precedent for future titles to follow. But what's different about this game? Well, let's get right down to it.

Introduction

Radiata Stories plops you into a world filled with conflict, colorful characters, and locales that range from beautiful to utterly bizarre. You fill the shoes of Jack Russell, the son of an acclaimed knight famous for slaying a dragon all by himself. But despite the fame your father had, you're living the not-so glamorous life in a poor farming village with your sister. But Jack, wishing to follow in his father's footsteps, travels into town to try out for the Radiata Knights. Things don't go so well for him at first, as he's handily beaten by a girl and only let into the knights because of his pedigree.

From here you start your adventure.

Gameplay

After your humiliating defeat, your new Captain teaches you the ropes. The battle system is real-time, and flows fairly smoothly once you've got controls down. The nearest enemy is automatically targeted, and you are able to attack, block, parry, and dodge your way through your fights. Getting too close to multiple enemies can cause you to randomly switch targets, but this can be solved by pressing R1 to manually lock yourself onto a specific target. Each hit you score will build up your "Volty Gauge", allowing you to perform various actions.

In addition to standard attacks, there are Volty Blows (a powerful regular attack) and Volty Blasts (a special move allowing you to inflict massive damage). But you'll rarely be fighting alone, and your party members, while controlled by AI, can be ordered to do things like attack a target, back away, backup another character, heal, etc. And when the situation gets desperate, you can use formations (called Links) that allow you to perform various team attacks. All in all, its a fun battle system that allows for some amount of depth.

Enemies can be found wandering the roads between towns, and depending on the time of day, may ignore you completely. There are no random battles, I'm happy to say. But fights are not limited to the enemies that chase after you. If you're so inclined, you can pick fights with the townsfolk, your allies, even the bugs crawling across the ground.

After learning the basics, Jack and his new brigade are dispatched on a few missions to get you acquainted with the game, and from there the story starts to kick in.

The Cast

While you won't find any complex storylines or mind-blowing plot twists, the characters that you'll meet along the way more than carry the story. And this is where Radiata Stories really shines. Gone are the generic NPCs of old. Every character in the gigantic town has a unique character model, and many can even be recruited to your cause if you're willing to help them out a little. A lot of detail went into this portion of the game. And since there's a time system similar to that of Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, you can find characters wandering around the town and going about their lives. Depending on when you talk to them, they may brush you off. Find them in the right time and place, however, and they may be willing to talk. This is what makes Radiata Stories so different from your average RPG. And if you want to get all 177 characters, you can expect to spend upwards of 90 hours exploring the world.

The Plot

After Jack's initial missions as a knight, a misunderstanding leads to his expulsion. Though discouraged, Jack and his former Captain decide to look for work within the Warrior guild.

The story unfolds at a fairly even pace, consisting mostly of missions given to you at the Warrior guild. About halfway through, war breaks out and the story branches. You can pick either side, and the course of the game is vastly different depending on your choice. The story, while not overly complex, is interesting enough to play through twice to see both sides. It never takes itself too seriously, often poking fun at itself and its characters. With some genuinely funny dialogue and goofy but serious when need be main character, the story is a good backdrop, but is ultimately outshined by the world in which it takes place. Its often more fun to simply explore the town and see what all the characters are up to than it is to advance the plot.

Visuals and Audio

So, how does this world look and sound? Thankfully, both are very well done, adding to the obvious detail that went into creating it. The backgrounds are quite picturesque, and the character designs are all very smooth and pleasing to the eye, even if the character themself isn't. The voice acting is very well done in most places, and you won't have to any annoying catchphrases being spouted over and over again in battle. The music is a good, solid soundtrack with some very catchy and melodic pieces. There's nothing to complain about here.

The Good

The little touches are what really made this game. Equipping different armor changes your clothes. All the weapons look different, and you're given a good variety to choose from. Everything from swords to axes and spears. Each person in town has their own house, and they actually remember to lock their doors (most of the time, anyway) to keep you from doing the usual RPG snatch and grab on their house. The amount of detail that went into the game gives it a very unique flavor that most RPGs lack.

The combat can be varied enough to keep it interesting all throughout, and the death of random battles is a huge plus.

The Bad

The story may be a little bland for the hardcore RPG fan looking for a compelling plot, and if no time is taken to recruit characters the adventure can come up a little short.

Overall, Radiata Stories is a solid title that brings together some interesting concepts that will hopefully pave the way for games to improve upon its premise.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/30/06