"175 Characters, great music, but no fun in the gameplay department."

While Square Enix is out making the new Final Fantasy game, lately they've been putting out some duds. For example, “Romancing Saga”, “Full metal Alchemist 2", and many others that I wont list. But every once in a while, they hit something that's more than half decent. The game I'm talking about is “Radiata Stories”. Square partnered up once again with Tri Ace, (they made Star Ocean 3 together) to make this solid RPG. Like many other games by Square this was only released on the Playstation 2. Radiata Stories is a decent RPG, that had strong points, (Graphics and music) and very low points, (the gameplay). Many will enjoy this title and many will be put off by its repetitive gameplay.

When I first popped this game in I was in awe over the look of Radiata Stories. Many, who compare this to Dragon Quest 8, and other games by Square, to this will think that the graphics stink, but putting other games aside, this is one good looking game. All of the characters are highly detailed, and almost everyone is completely different. So it does not feel like your walking past the same guy over and over again. A neat thing that they did, was when you get new armor, or a new weapon, it actually shows you walking around in those new clothes. This is a nice little detail that I found to be pretty cool. All of the attacks that you learn move really smoothly, and they all look really cool. All of the towns are unique and colorful, and they are huge. The day turns from night to day like a real life day. If you look at a clock on the wall, you can see it change. Some people only come out in the night, and some only in the day. This makes the towns feel even more real. The dark and light effects are actually quite cool also. Overall, the graphics are really well done.

Music is a vital part in any Square game, and this one is no exception. The soundtrack is very diverse, and there are plenty of different tracks to listen to. Sometimes you will hear a soothing, calm song, and then right after you'll hear an exciting fast song while you fight. This makes the game feel non repetitive. The voice overs also need some recognition. Every character has a unique way of speaking, some have different accents, and others speak different languages. This really adds to the realistic part of the game. One thing that does get kind of annoying though, is the noises that the characters make in battle. Every time you attack, you'll hear “YA!”, or a “HUMPH!”. These sound are made every freaking time that you press the O button, and it will give you a headache. Anyway, besides the abnormal grunting in the battles, the music is pretty good.

The story goes like this. Jack Russell is a young wannabe knight. He tries out for a spot on the Radiata Knights, and he is accepted. He goes on many quests as a knight and he meets many people. There really isn't a main story since the game is mostly a combination of a bunch of side quests. The side quests tie in with the story only a little bit, so most of the game you will be thinking about other things besides the main story. This is a good thing for the casual gamer because you don't have to get into a huge storyline.

Like I said before, Square has teamed up with this team before on another game called “Star Ocean 3". In that game you could use magic, and assign many different attacks to different buttons, and you could move and fight with any character that you wanted. Well, for Radiata Stories, they threw all of that away for a more simplistic kind of gameplay. You can't use magic, instead, you attack with the same attacks over and over again. You do get a good variety of attacks to use, but I think that it would of been better if they would of thrown in some spells to use to shake up the battles. You basically press one button the whole time to attack. This makes fighting really boring and bland. So this could basically be a button masher if you wanted to get through it quick. Another complaint that I have is that you can only control one the main character during battle. It would of been really cool if you could of played as all of the different characters that you recruit. This is just another little thing that makes fighting bland and repetitive.

Recruiting characters is the thing that makes this game stand out the most. There are over 170 characters that you can use to fight with. You can recruit anyone from warriors in guilds, or just normal towns people. A lot of the time you have to help that certain person to get them to join you. You must get them something that they need or sometimes, all you have to do is talk to them at the right time of the day. Like real life some of the people are strong, and others are not , so everyone is different. If you look in the menu screen you can also see mini profiles of all your friends, so that you can tell how they fight and what they're like. This is a nice little thing that just adds to the game's real like qualities.

Well, when it comes down to it, Radiata Stories is a game that wants to be as real as possible. This game has great graphics and music. The voice overs are extremely well done and recruiting characters is a good change of pace from the bland battles. Im giving this game a lower score because the gameplay is so bad and because it plays such a big part in the game. Overall, Radiata Stories is the kind of game that Square Enix has been trying to make for the past 2 years.

8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/09/06