Radiata Stories

"An extremely entertaining game in the vein of Star Ocean and Disgaea."

Hailing from Tri-Ace, the best company ever and creators of such games as Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile, Radiata Stories stands out in today's wasteland of derivative sequels and knockoffs. Radiata Stories is an entirely new world with new characters and new gameplay. Unfortunately, not many of you bought it. I'm telling you right now, go get it now. This game is worth it. Now, I shall explain to you why.

Graphics: 10/10
Even people who hate the game have to admit that the graphics are amazing. This is not because the game looks photorealistic or anything. Far from it. What Radiata Stories has is an absolutely amazing art style. It's as if the developers sat down and looked at everything in the game, and made sure nothing was left undecorated. Where something can look fancy or unusual, it does. Buildings are not just boring cubes, they are made of interesting shapes, and have odd angles built in sometimes. You don't just wear a boring old suit of plate mail, you wear red plate mail studded with gold trim and a long cape. See that guard over there? His armor is adorned to make him look special. See what I'm saying? Nothing in this game looks boring.

That's not to say it all looks fancy. Some parts of the game look incredibly dingy. The bad part of Radiata town is dirty and grimy, with flies buzzing around open trash cans and alley cats prowling around eating the rats that have taken up residence. In this case, the art style expands to encompass a very run down look, but it still fits in with the style of the rest of the game. It really has to be seen to be believed. Attack animations are all nicely done, but not the best I've ever seen. Overall, they are above average.

Sound/Music 10/10
I'll start with the voice acting. Quite simply, it's amazing. Jack Russell (the main character) is perfectly portrayed as the lovable jerk he is, and all the supporting characters around him are voiced just as superbly. A few of them are recognizable from Star Ocean, but that's fine with me. The sound effects in this game are about what you would expect. Why would you play a game for the sound effects, anyway?

The music. Oh, god the music. This is one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard. From the moment you set foot in Radiata town and begin exploring, you instantly get the feel for the town. The jazzy, upbeat theme of the warriors district, the fast paced song of the Path of Fanaticism, they're all just great. I used to think that Motoi Sakuraba (Of Star Ocean fame) was the master of all things jazz, but I'm here to tell you that he has some serious competition. I could simply go on and on. The world exploration theme, the bar theme, it's all really incredible. The style fuses Jazz and Arabian styles together to create something truly unique which fits the world well. Really, the music is one of the highlights of the game.

Story: 9/10
If you come into this expecting Final Fantasy VII, you will be very, very surprised. Radiata Stories knows that a gripping tale does not come from the plot itself, but from how much you care about the characters in it. While the events in Radiata Stories are perhaps not as interesting as games like FF VII or Xenogears, you will come to care about the characters as much as, if not more than, the characters in those games.

This is accomplished through several methods. One, most of the events will make you laugh. A lot. Jack Russell's hilarious antics had me nearly shooting coke out my nose at several spots. Second, they are voiced so incredibly well that you really get a feel for the character simply in the way that they communicate. Three, you get a real sense of development with the characters. Jack Russell grows more than the characters in most Japanese RPG's do, so it seems more like you've had a hand in his progress. Every piece of armor and every weapon you buy is represented cosmetically on Jack, so you essentially get to choose what he looks like, if you want. Also, he can be customized through the gameplay, but I'll get to that later. The plot itself is fairly basic fantasy stuff, but you will care about it so much more because of the interesting twist this game takes on it.

Gameplay: 10/10
First of all, let's talk about what makes this game unique: the world. Radiata feels incredibly alive. This is accomplished through two mechanisms. First is the Day/Night cycle. There is a persistent clock running as long as the game is on, and the world reacts to this clock whether you are present or not. Every single NPC (Yes, even that old farm woman way out in the wilderness) has a schedule and motivations that they follow. Not only that, but every single NPC is unique. Because of this, you really develop an attachment to the characters of the world. That's not just some NPC over there, that's a character you know about because you've talked to them and followed them around to see what it is that makes them tick. When I was first playing this game, I was exploring Radiata Town. I spent hours just following NPC's around, seeing what it is they do, who they interact with, and learning what kind of person they are. I'll tell you right now that I loved every minute of it.

Learning about the NPC's will come in handy because of the second major gameplay feature that sets this game apart. You can have as many as 178 different characters to choose from in your party. (Hear that Suikoden? We've got more characters!) All teasing aside, this is really a great way to increase the play value of the game. Most of those characters won't just join up automatically, you have to work at it. What does this entail? You have to do things for them so that they'll want to help you. For example, you see that guy in armor over there, walking around aimlessly? His name is Carlos, and he lost a contact lens. He says he lost in near the underground water system. (read: sewers and water pipes) Go down there and follow the water downstream. Eventually, you see something shiny. Pick it up, and you'll find that it's Carlos' contact lens! Give it to him and he'll join up!

This is a fairly simple example, however. Some powerful characters require immense effort and planning to make them join. Your best bet for getting everyone is to be very, very thorough and make sure you try everything. Yes, it is worth it to try and get everyone. First of all, there's the pride. Second, every character brings something a little different to the table, so you can always swap members out so that you have the right party for the situation. Need to hit someone with ice damage? Bring along two ice mages and a warrior with an ice element on his sword. Characters level up pretty fast, so you never really need to worry about characters being left behind. You can always level up the weakling until they're strong enough to keep up.

Okay, now the battle system. Anyone who has played Star Ocean: Till the End of Time will initially feel right at home, then realize that they actually aren't. This game has a flavor all its own. Both games take place in real time, allowing the characters to run around at will inside a fixed arena. However, whereas Star Ocean focuses on finding the best way to string together special moves, Radiata Stories focuses on effectively commanding your party members to fight at the best of their abilities. Sure, you can just let the computer handle their actions, but that's no fun! (not to mention not as effective...)

There are two ways you can order your buddies around. First, you can give commands to individual characters. For example, you might tell the cleric to heal a wounded ally or have the warrior concentrate on a certain enemy. Second, you can use the Link system. Throughout the game, you learn different "links", which is basically a fancy way of saying formations. When you initiate a link, all the characters form up into the chosen formation. Each one has different specialties. One link might allow you to concentrate on a single enemy, while one allows you to defend a weak member of the party. Each of them has its own reason for existence.

As for controlling your character, Jack performs basic attacks by pressing the O button. There are different classes of weapons Jack can equip, and each of them has a different set of special attacks. For example, short swords have different attacks than spears. Once you learn an attack for that class of weapon, you can set it up in your combo list. Every weapon has a certain number of points, and you can equip your learned skills to that weapon, thereby using up some of those points. For example, you might equip the skills Right Slash, Left Slash, and Dance Tornado on your sword. What this means is that, once you start attacking, you can move through this list. The first time you press circle, you'll do a right slash. The second time you press it, you'll do a left slash. Third time will execute Dance Tornado. The tough part is deciding which skills to equip, and in what order. Note that you can swap out these skills even in the middle of battle, so you can always tailor your attacks to suit the enemy.

In addition to regular attacks, there is something called the "volty meter" This a meter that builds up every time you or one of your party members hits an enemy. You use these volty points to execute strong attacks with the square button, or issue Link Commands. Additionally, if the meter is full, you can execute an ultimate attack that always hits and does a ton of damage. That's about it for gameplay. It's incredibly deep in practice, and it's just about as close to RPG nirvana as it gets.

Final Recommendations:
If you consider yourself a fan of RPG's at all, buy this game. It may not be your favorite game ever, but anyone who likes RPG's should have some fun with this game.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 02/01/06