Radiata Stories

"Best game out since Star Ocean 3."

Radiata Stories is a very good game overall and it is probably one of the better RPGs released in the mid-late 2005 year. The overall game play and design remind me of previous tri-Ace games; namely Valkyrie Profile (PS1) and Star Ocean 3 (PS2).

In the world of Radiata Stories you play a character named Jack Russell whose father was a very famous knight. Jack is young and arrogant, and he will quickly find out that the world isn't so great. The story starts off with Jack trying out for the Radiata Knights only to be beaten by a girl. Although he failed, the leaders decided to accept him for knights simply because of his father's name.

The story begins with Jack going on simple missions for the Radiata Knights and then the game will progress from that point. Although the main game is rather short compared to other games, it can be very exciting and fulfilling to complete.

Story
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The story is probably the most important part of any game. Radiata Stories has a very good story. Although it is very general, it can be somewhat involved. You can think of the story like Star Ocean 3: very slow at first, but very exciting at the end. Although the story line of Star Ocean 3 is somewhat annoying to some, you can think of Radiata Stories not pulling a “SO3” on you.

The main story line is based upon comedy and drama. Unlike other RPGs, Radiata Stories is mostly focused on comedy rather than seriousness and this may or may not annoy some people looking for a serious game. Again, at first the game is rather slow, but later on it picks up the pace. And by funny, I don't mean something like Chris Farley, but rather something like “talking” comedy instead of physical.

Also, you get voices in this game. The way you talk to people is very good and each time you talk to someone, their faces pop up really big on the screen along with the text. It is very nice to see this and it adds to the overall feel for the game.

Battles/Fighting
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The most exciting part of the game, the battle, is very well defined. The battles itself will always be in real time and orders are issued in real time. There is never a point, with the exception of giving orders or selecting items, will you pause. The battling system will immediately make you think of Star Ocean 3 or Tales of Symphonia. The battles are a lot like Tales of Symphonia with the exception that you can move 3D much like Star Ocean 3.

The battles allow you to do combos be hitting buttons. You can customize what type of attacks you can do by selecting them in the status menu. You have to level up and fight more to unlock more types of combos that you can place on your weapon to attack enemies with. The general idea behind these combos is to do maximum damage and minimizing enemies from attacking you. You must select what type of combos you think is best.

Your friends will attack everything automatically. You cannot control them for yourself (not 100% sure on this) nor customize them at first, but you can issue orders to them. The way this works is during a battle you can bring up a menu where you can select what type of attack or support a friend of yours can do. At first all you can select is “Attack that enemy” but as you progress you can buy books that open up more commands to select.

Overall the battles are very good in this game. Only complaint here is the battle voices: they are very annoying to have to listen to them making grunting noises or other noises. In Star Ocean 3 you can turn off battle voices and keep more focus on the battle rather than being annoyed by the voices.

Interaction/Game World
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The movement of your main character reminds me of Valkyrie Profile. Generally speaking, you move about the world in 2D in a 3D world. There are exceptions here as you walk in towns, stores, and various other places. However, overall when you are out walking it will remind you of how Valkyrie Profile moves about the world. It is very interesting and something easy to get used to.

Your interaction to the world is rather unique in this game. First off you have a time system where it is night and day. Certain things happen during this time like a bar opening or you are able to see a different set of people walking around. Next thing is the very fact of how you interact with people and things. You have your basic “use/talk” command and then you have this other command of kicking things. When you are looking for things, you can kick things like a bucket and some useful item will drop. Also, you can kick people and characters around your world. This will get anyone mad, obviously and you can fight NPCs around the world. Sometimes the battle will be easy while other times it will be really hard. Battle people brings no advantage that I know of except recruiting friends.

Friends System
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Radiata Stories allows you to recruit various characters throughout the game like Suikoden's 108 Stars. In this game you can recruit somewhere along the line of 170 friends. You recruit them by doing various deeds for them, fighting them, or just walking up and talking to them. In my opinion this adds a lot to the game and you can really get involved into recruiting many good characters. Good thing is that it is all optional and you can continue playing with or without many of the friends.

Also, with friends you can only select them during non-solo-missions. For example, at first if you need to go on a mission for your guild you have to use what they provide rather than your own team.

Overall
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Overall I give this game an 8/10 because it is a good game but it has some minor flaws that keep it from being the best game out there. It is an interesting and fun game to get into if you are a hard-core RPG fan or a casual gamer looking for something exciting.

Pros/Cons
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Pros:
+ Great battle system
+ Funny game
+ Fun recruiting system
+ Good story line
+ Voices during scenes
+ Kicking things can be fun to gain items
+ Time system to allow better feel of the world

Cons:
- Rather annoying battle voices with no option to turn it off
- Skill setup and equipment can be painful to use sometimes
- Recruiting certain characters can be annoying
- Time system sometimes mess up
- Somewhat easy boss battles

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/26/05