[DS] Radiant Historia

[Hailey Knight]

Posting this because if it hadn't been for a tiny side-column in a magazine, I'd have not heard of this game, and there may be more of you out there like me who'd be having a great time.

Radiant Historia is a DS RPG where, as you move through the game's story, making choices, you can time travel back to those choices, changing what happens in alternating timelines. What begins with trying to save fellow soldiers grows into saving the world from becoming a desert wasteland.

This is an RPG by Atlus, same people who make Persona and Shin Megami Tensei (Digital Devil Saga, Nocturne, Devil Summoner, etc)--that may mean nothing to you, or it could mean "hey, I played some other great games by the same people."

Anyway, the time travel works both for story and as a puzzle. The battle system is fun too, in that rather than just boring grinding, you not only need to strategy against the 3x3 enemy grid to survive, but you're rewarded extra EXP and money for combos.

The time travel and choices really make the game though. Have a brief trailer:



To paraphrase some review I read, it feels like a game chucked up from the days of Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, and their lot--before we had FFXIII and such... I'm enjoying the hell out of this game, so I figure I'd post, in case others who might be interested hadn't heard of it. If it's your kind of thing, you're missing out.

 

[Ravenpoe]

This is an RPG by Atlus

This is as far as I read. Bought.

 

[Jay]

Sound interesting but sadly I hate the combat mechanics. The shitty anime style combo boxes most RPG games get from the Jap market remove a huge part of enjoyment for me in the game. Chrono Trigger didn't need 10x hit combos to get me interested in combat but rather smart selection of talents and team moves. Neither did Earthbound. The game sounds good on premise but watching the combat gameplay make me lose all interest in the game. It's a shame.

 

[Hailey Knight]

It's not so much about the combos as hitting multiple enemies even with regular attacks, since you're stacking them. The top screen shows your turn order, like Final Fantasy X, except here you can switch with each other to make the best use of your moves, or switch with enemies so they aren't all attacking together. It gets more beneficial when you get more magic spells, so that it's nice stacking 3-4 enemies who are weak to ice, and then casting a Frost spell on them.

But I can understand if it's not your thing.

 

[Ravenpoe]

I actually like the combo system. It leads to strategizing rather than just attacking each enemy until it dies. You can use different attacks to force enemies into different positions, stacking them together to do group attacks on.

So far, I'm digging the game, though I'm not very far in.

 

[Hailey Knight]

I've been abusing the changing order system, giving a single enemy boss an extra turn so I can have six in a row.

Not very far myself, although the time travel is getting interesting. I note that one event I thought was insignificant is marked in blue. I didn't think I made any choices during it, but maybe doing something different there will cause other events to be revised. I'm intrigued.

It amuses me that you can get multiple endings without needing to start over, and the time travel eliminates the need for a new game + feature, since you can just go back to the first scene of the game.

 

[Zappit]

I do want this one. I really do.