Radiata Stories

"Radiata Stories breaks the most important rule in an RPG"

It has to have a plot. Yes, a plot. One of the most important parts of an RPG. RPG's are games that contain hours upon hours of walking through dungeons or across paths, fighting endless swarms of the same enemies over and over again.....endless hours of leveling up for that difficult boss....these are all what's in a standard RPG. So why do so many people like a genre where gameplay is typically "more work than fun"? Because RPG's have a storyline. They have that motivation that gets you through all the tedium of an RPG's typical gameplay. The storyline, as well as being in a living, breathing world, is what makes RPG's so worthwile. It's why so many people play them. And here, we have Radiata Stories, an RPG completely devoid of a storyline. And the game really suffers because of it.

I was a fan of Star Ocean; Till the End of Time. The fact that I kept my positive opinion on the game despite its ridiculous difficulty jumps near the end really says something about how much I liked the game while I was playing it. The story was very good, in my opinion, and the atmosphere was top-notch. When Radiata Stories was announced, (And was from Tri-Ace, the developers of Star Ocean; Till the End of Time,) I suddenly became very interested. It seemed like a must-play. I was just not prepared at all for how bad Radiata Stories ended up being.

Graphics; I will start the review with graphics, which is one of the things Radiata Stories does very well. This game looks amazing. It takes cel shaded art to an entirely new level. Just as I was starting to get tired of the style, Tri-Ace brings it to us in an entirely new form. Radiata Stories takes cel shaded visuals and makes them into something more. Radiata Stories's world is incredibly detailed and cartoony, and very cel shaded. Yet it doesn't look cel shaded. It looks like a fairy tale. They took cel shaded visuals and transformed them into this artistic, very warm, and very vibrant style that just looks amazing. The character designs are impressive, and the facial expressions are very well done. One thing I've got to admire about Tri-Ace after seeing the cutscenes in this game is their camera work. Cutscenes are set up very much like how they would be in a movie. With many cuts to different characters for reaction shots, to blurring focus in the background, and just much movement in general, cutscenes are fun to watch. It makes even Final Fantasy X's cutscenes seem primitive! Sure, there are some strange movements in some cutscenes, (the occasional "excessive arm movement" makes some appearances,) but overall, cutscenes are very well-directed. Which is good, since they tend to run long in general.

You will occasionally run into the "did my game freeze!?!?!?!" loading time when opening up a menu or going from one location to another. (A loading screen that takes way longer than it should, and you think that the game froze.) This type of thing happened frequently in Tri-Ace's previous title, Star Ocean; Till the End of Time, and it only happens a couple of times here. You just have to wait it out, and after 20 seconds or so, the loading screen will finally finish, and the game continues as normal. THE GAME DID NOT FREEZE if this happens. Please wait it out. After 20 seconds or so, the game will continue as normal. Why these made it into the game, I don't know, but it's something that you'll have to deal with occasionally.

Overall, graphics in this game are really great, and this is with very little loading time. (Although like Star Ocean; Till the End of Time, occasionally you will run into an unusually slow load screen.) It's great to see that the PS2's graphics continue to impress even this late in its lifespan, (the PS2's going to be 5 years old in a little over a month from now...) and it shows that the console still has some life left in it.


Gameplay; The gameplay in this game is a mixed bag. I will start with the good. The combat system. This uses the Star Ocean; TTEOT battle system, but very simplified. You no longer have MP, and you can only control the main character. There is only 1 attack button. You have no control at all over your other teammates' equipment, weapons, etc. You have no control at all over their skills. You have no control over their movements in battle, except for giving them commands. Pushing the Circle button will cause Jack, the main character, to run at the nearest enemy. You then basically just mash the circle button to kill the enemy. Holding X when the enemy is about to hit you allows you to block, and hitting Circle immediately after this unleashes a counter-attack. You use the right analog stick to target which enemy you want to attack. The Square button uses a more powerful attack, but this consumes Volty points. You get volty points back by attacking normally. And that's it, really. It resembles Tales of Symphonia's battle system, but in 3-D.

I liked the combat system. However, I will tell you right now that if you are a gamer who likes spending a lot of time customizing your characters, don't even go near this game. You will hate it. The only character who you have ANY control over is Jack. But for those of us who like the combat system, it's fun. Leveling up is handled very well, and you always get plenty of EXP for some fairly short battles, so when you have to level up, it's not the worst thing in the world. Radiata Stories also features a character recruitment system, where you can recruit (the game says) around 175 people to join your friends list, and these people can then be selected into your party whenever you want. (They do not appear in cutscenes, though, and have nothing to do with the plot of the game.) Some people can be easily recruited, while others have you perform tasks for them. Sometimes you have to follow an NPC around for a LONG TIME before they allow you the chance to recruit them. Unlike most RPG's, NPC's have their own schedule, and follow it. When an NPC is walking around, he or she is always going somewhere. There is a clock in this game as well. It only goes by the hour, but characters spend a certain ammount of time in certain places, then leave and walk to others. Day also changes to night and night to day according to the clock. Much of this takes place in the large city of Radiata, which is the Human City in this game.

Unfortunately, almost NONE of these features actually mean anything. Character recruitment is basically pointless. Yes, you need 4 characters in your party at once, but once you get 3 other characters, that's all the recruiting you really need to do! In fact, it's better to have a smaller party, because it means that you can devote your time to only leveling up a select group of people. Except for when recruiting some characters, (when you have to meet them at a certain time,) the in-game clock means basically nothing. Day changes to night, but with almost no change in the gameplay or atmosphere at all. Yes, you can no longer buy items at stores, but that's really it. The streets of Radiata never seem any busier or less busy at night, and there are no hidden events that occur when walking around at certain times. The clock in this game really serves no purpose at all except for character recruitment, which is a disappointment. Because character recruitment serves little purpose at all as well, except for those looking to do a "perfect game." So what, exactly, does Radiata Stories have to offer?

It's definitely not a lively world, that's for sure. First of all, Radiata is the only real town in the entire game. (Except for the Dwarf Town, but this town is so small and boring that it hardly even matters.) Other towns and villages are so small that clearly VERY little effort went into them at all. With the exception of Radiata and the Dwarf Town I mentioned, I can't think of any other towns at all. If you travel back to the village that Jack grew up in, it only consists of about 3 houses. That's it. If you're walking along a path, it will (at one point) say you are passing through somewhere called "Nuevo Village." You look around. "Where is it?" There are 2 houses on the path. "This is the village!?!?!" Yes, it is. "Can you enter the houses?" Nope. Most "towns" have no buildings to enter at all. They're just paths leading to one plot-specific area, or room. Why am I making such a big deal about the severe lack of any real towns in Radiata Stories (Except Radiata)? Because at a certain point in the game, you are forced to choose a side; Do you side with the humans in the war, or with the elves? If you pick the elves, (which the game really wants you to pick) you can no longer enter Radiata. So you can say GOODBYE to any sort of town exploration for the rest of the game. The elves, at least, should have had an equivalent to Radiata. A big elf town. Nope, they don't have one. The "amazing" City of Flowers is nothing but a lame hill once you get into it. Those expecting an amazing Elf City as big as Radiata will be completely disappointed when they enter the City of Flowers to see that it's nothing but a hill leading up to the City Elder's house. What I don't understand is the fact that Tri-Ace, who made such big and interactive towns in Star Ocean; Till the End of Time, made a game with only 2 real towns....! The other "towns" in this game consist of nothing but people just walking around an area with a house or two.

What this does is makes the world very undeveloped. What is in this world? Nothing but a bunch of paths that all connect to eachother at these "towns." That's it. Yes, PATHS. As in moving from left to right in front of a backdrop. You can not explore the background, despite the endless fields that you see behind you. What I'm trying to say here is that Radiata and the Dwarf Town (and some dungeons) are really the only places in the game where you are actually are able to EXPLORE. In Radiata, the game's only big town, there are buildings to enter, there are people to talk to, there are things to do....sort of. I say "sort of" because even these aren't things that Radiata Stories does properly. The city of Radiata appears huge, but your excitement vanishes very quickly when you realize that you can only enter a FEW of the buildings. Most buildings in this city are just houses for the NPC's. Things to do in Radiata? Well, aside from recruiting characters....um....you can go item shopping.....and...uh....hm.......

When an RPG has a big city, (Like...say...Lindblum in Final Fantasy IX) it should make the city seem like a bustling, important, and activity-filled location. Radiata has seemingly nothing going on except NPC's mindlessly walking from one area to another to stand around for hours, and then walk somewhere else to do the same thing again. Speaking of NPC's walking....the streets of Radiata seem completely deserted. It is clear almost immediately that Tri-Ace did not put enough people in this city. It looks like a ghost town. Occasionally you see an NPC walking by, but really, since it's the only city in the game, it should have a bit more people in it. And there's a complete lack of activity. Throw in an arcade, something.....there's just nothing whatsoever to do for fun in this city where you spend a large amount of your time. It's games like Radiata Stories that remind me of how ahead of its time a game like Shenmue truly was. The world in Radiata Stories just seems dead. Radiata is the only real city in the entire game. And if you pick the non-human side in the war, you are no longer allowed to enter the city. That leaves you in the world that is otherwise completely dead. Even if you choose to side with the humans and remain in Radiata, however, it's not much more exciting. We have here a huge city with practically empty streets, and with almost nothing going on it, and with very few buildings to enter. Not exactly a fun place to explore...The world is a very important part of an RPG. Radiata Stories simply doesn't have one. A bunch of paths and two towns does not make a good world.

The plot in this game does not progress naturally. Sometimes you will have to go to sleep, which makes it become 7:00 AM the next day. Sometimes this progresses the story. (Sometimes it must be done several times to progress the story.) Other times it doesn't. I once had no idea at all what to do, and after sleeping 6 times, I realized I needed to do something else. I found out that I needed to talk to someone. I talk to this person, and then I try sleeping. There. The plot continues. The problem is that it's often hard to tell exactly how to progress the storyline. This leads to a bunch of aimless wondering around. And you can only sleep at save points. Ah...save points. The essential part of any RPG. In Radiata Stories, they challenge you by making save points VERY few and far in between. There is only 1 save point on the map at a time, and it's way back at your base in Radiata. (Or at the fort, if you choose the non-human side.) Except for some temporary save points, which sometimes, but RARELY, are found before a boss, this is how saving is done in Radiata Stories. It is very common (in fact, it's normal) to go into a boss fight without having saved for over an hour. While not much of this game is challenging, there are a few challenging bosses, and dying on them is not fun at all, since you have to often start very far back, and likely walk through the dungeon AGAIN to get back to this boss. This is really more of a problem earlier in the game than later in the game, since later in the game, there are various warp points that enable you to warp back home to a save point. (But you often have to walk all the way back to a warp point, warp to the save point, then warp back to the warp point, then walk through the dungeon again to get to the boss....it gets annoying.) I don't know why they didn't just throw some more save points into the game. Saving your game is not something that should be an issue in a video game.

Radiata Stories has a fun battle system, but otherwise, the gameplay is completely flawed. Save points are almost never placed before bosses, resulting in some deaths where you lose over an hour of gameplay. The game's "world" consists of nothing but paths that connect to eachother. Side-scrolling paths, where you can not explore what's in the background. The exception to this is the game's one city, Radiata, which loses its thrill after 10 minutes since there's really nothing at all to do there except pointless character recruitment. The day/night system serves almost no purpose, hardly altering the gameplay at all. Progressing the story is not always easy to do, and way too often, you will be wondering "what am I supposed to do next?" Only to find out that it's just a pointless sidequest, or talking to some person, that will progress the story. With often big gaps between story progression, the game's narrative is way too fractured.


Sound; The voice acting in this game is extremely well done. Although the main character at times features some iffy acting, (and his "innocent and optimistic" tone seems a bit forced at times,) the voices completely fit the characters, and the acting is great. I have to mention Ganz's voice actor, who does an amazing job at bringing this character to life. All the actors did a great job. I was surprised to see that the voice actors were not listed in the credits. What a bummer. They did a great job at voicing the game, and they don't get credited. Hopefully they were at least paid...

The music, on the other hand, isn't so good. Composed by Noriyuki Iwadare, (Grandia series) the music is all upbeat songs, but with little hook or catch. The music is all very shallow. It's good background music, but little else. I am not a fan of Iwadare's music. I've only played 2 games he's done music for, (Grandia II and this one,) but his Grandia II score was terrible, and this soundtrack is just boring. I wonder if this composer will ever show that he is capable of composing more than just his standard "upbeat and catchy, but completely unmemorable" music.

Plot; What plot? Radiata Stories has no plot. This is the game's biggest weakness by far. There's just no plot. The game starts off promising enough. You, Jack, are the son of a famous knight, and you basically try to ride on his success. You are accepted into the nights because of who your father was, and must try to work your way up. You then end up going on a mission to persuade the Elves to accept a note from the humans. A conflict happens, a character is seriously injured, and you are all in serious trouble. You are then kicked out of the knights, and join a warrior guild. The plot is good up until this point. (This is about 5 hours into the game.) Then, the plot literally stops. Yes, it stops. Nothing else happens for another 5-6 gameplay hours. The party is disbanded, and you are alone, doing random tasks for this guild, (and they're very challenging, I'll add) for about 5-6 hours. No plot exists whatsoever during this time. The plot does EVENTUALLY get back on track, but by this point, the momentum is completely gone, and it was hard for me to get back into it. You do certain sidequests on a list, and after doing the correct ones, the plot will advance the next time you go to sleep. But you don't know which quests advance the plot. So you are stuck doing pointless (and long) quests, often involving a lot of time leveling up for a really hard boss at the end of this quest. This lasts for hours and hours until you finally do the right ones, bringing you back into the game's plot. But by this point, I just couldn't get back into it.

At this point, a war happens between the humans and the non-humans. You are forced to choose sides. (I chose the non-human side, so the rest of the review will be focused on that side of things.) The problem is that this war means nothing to anyone. The main characters had nothing to do with this war. They are just helping one side defeat the other one. There are no big battles of any kind, like you'd usually expect in a war. Just a couple of confrontations. There is very little character developement, and overall, there's just no excitement. Eventually the world is on the brink of destruction, but the reason for it is so stupid and seems so forced that I found it impossible to care. They could have done things so much better. The war should have started early in the game after the character was hurt. The humans could have responded to this incident and the war should have started then. Then the main characters would share some responsibility for this whole war, and it would add some interesting angles to the plotline. Instead, the plot stops for it's 5 (or so) hours of pointless quests, then, a trading dispute (that none of the main characters have anything to do with) starts the war. BORING....You basically just do jobs for whichever side you choose until the game reaches it's rather unexciting conclusion, and then ends.

This war doesn't happen until about 13 hours into the game. The game's only about 20 hours long. Until this war, there is basically no plot to speak of. Even during this war, the plot just isn't there. Character interaction is extremely minimal, and what it basically comes down to is doing favors for whichever side you chose. There are a couple confrontations with the enemy, but that's really it. Then you're heading towards the final dungeon. This all leads up to the WORST ENDING I've ever seen in an RPG. I don't know if the human side's ending is better (I really hope so,) but the non-human side's ending was just terrible. I was not exactly happy with the game by the time I neared the end of it, but this ending just left me in shock at how terrible it was. Even if I had loved the game, I would have still knocked at least a point from my score of the game because of this ending. It feels like it was thrown together 15 minutes before the game was shipped!

Verdict: Radiata Stories is a funny game, and there are quite a few laugh-out-loud moments. But that's the only good thing that can really be said about it. The combat system was fun, but limited and unoriginal. And Radiata Stories offers no real world!!! A bunch of connected paths with cool backdrops does not create an interesting world! A huge town that's practically empty and that has nothing to do in it (except character recruitment, which is pointless and tedious anyway,) does not create an interesting main (and only) city! But the biggest problem with Radiata Stories is that it breaks the big RPG rule; it needs a plot. This game just has no plot. There are a series of events during the game, but there is no plot. No main quest. Nothing. It's like Final Fantasy X-2, but even more scattered and less focused. Without a plot, you have nothing motivating you to continue through those battles and leveling up that RPG's throw at you. Without an interesting, explorable world, the whole idea of a "living, breathing world" is basically pointless. Just as pointless as character recruitment, which is Radiata Stories's "big main feature." There was just no reason for this RPG to be made. It does nothing at all for the genre, and there's really nothing in this game that wasn't done better in other RPG's. I really liked the game's first few hours, but it loses all its momentum by forcing you to do pointless sidequests: momentum it never gets back. And the lack of plot, and lack of an actual world, just took all the fun out of this game for me. I'd seriously recommend renting Radiata Stories instead of buying it. That is, if you REALLY want to play it. If you've played any other action RPG, I don't see why you'd really want to play it anyway, as there's nothing here you haven't seen before.

Note: About the final score...I was looking forward to Radiata Stories since I first heard about it, and it being this bad is a huge disappointment for me. I play RPG's with the hope of enjoying them and hope that they create a worthwile experience. It's not a terrible game, exactly, but when I finished it, I thought to myself, "There was no reason at all for me to have played this. None. I can't think of even one redeeming factor about this game!" And this is a problem. A 4/10 score should be reserved for games that are absolutely awful. Radiata Stories contains no game-ruining glitches, it's got fairly high production values, it looks great, the combat system's solid, ......yet, this is an RPG. And if I didn't hammer this enough into the review I'll repeat it again here: RPG's need stories and worlds. That's the entire point of playing them! Even RPG's with mediocre stories I can deal with, (provided they're strong in other areas,) I just need SOME motivation for playing. But Radiata Stories doesn't offer that. Without an actual story, feeling of progression, or the feeling of exploring an actual world, the game completely fails as an RPG, hence the score. As soon as I hit the power button after the end credits I forgot the game entirely. It's not memorable in any way except for how bland it was. Even RPG's I disliked, such as Tales of Symphonia and Baten Kaitos, at least had some good qualities, and had some memorable aspects to them. Radiata Stories just doesn't. Even its best features (combat system, humorous characters) can easily be found in many other, (much better) RPG's. I highly recommend trying those instead of Radiata Stories.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 09/26/05, Updated 05/12/08

Game Release: Radiata Stories (US, 09/06/05)