Ramblings of a Crowe

Radiata Stories

You are Jack Russell, a young boy with a dream of becoming a famous Knight like his father. But being a knight isn't easy, nor is it all it's cracked up to be, as Jack soon learns after joining the Radiata Knights. Castle life is stuffy, the people snooty, and practices often unfair. Perhaps life as a knight isn't exactly Jack's cup of tea?

After an unfortunate accident, Jack finds himself working elsewhere, as does his captain, Ganz. At first Jack is bummed, but eventually life as guild member grows on him. Until, of course, that little incident that got him fired from the knights comes back to haunt him, and Jack finds himself pulled into a war based on conspiracy, hate, and ignorance. What side does he choose? Who does he help?

Radiata Stories is a light hearted RPG. Unlike Final Fantasy or Star Ocean, Radiata is full of humor, corny lines, and jokes so stupid you have to laugh. Jack has a unique personality, one I can only describe as a compassionate smartass. Don't let the silliness of the game turn you off--it's all in good fun and the game play is invigorating.

In Radiata, every character has a schedule. They go about their lives, doing different things at different times of the day. It's Jack's job to find out where they are and when, and talk to them. Making friends is important. Friends go with you on missions, offer advice and info. Make as many friends as you can. There are 175 recuitable characters (so far I have 55). All the characters have unique personalities, which makes interacting with them a ton of fun.

Time moves like a regular 24 hour day. Days turns to night and so on. The shops and offices are availible at different times of the day, just like in the real world. It's easy to get sidetracked from the main storyline and wander all over the city and surrounding areas, talking to people and doing odd jobs for them. Often, the game won't progress unless you go to bed and sleep.

The design of this game is typical of Square Enix. Beautifully done, rich with colors and artful landscapes. Each area has a different tone, from the different guild districts in the city, to the various territories around the castle. Animals can be seen grazing or wandering about in the back ground, leaves and insects fly about, huge tornadoes whirl omiously, etc. Even better, the background is interactive, allow Jack to do the most important aspect of the game...kicking. Yes, kicking. You can kick practically anything. From chairs and tables, to animals and people. It's a blast and sometimes you get an item (like opening a chest in other RPG's). KICK EVERYTHING! But be careful, if you kick an animal sleeping on the road, it might bite you. Or if you kick a person too many times, they'll try to kick your ass.

Music and voice wise, this game is great. There are a few annoying voices, but nothing that jumps out and grabs me as down right irritating. The acting is good, the punchlines well given. I love the music--there's all sorts of various themes you can collect and put in a phonograph. Sometimes you can even give them to more musically inclined NPC's and see what they come up with later. Very cool.

The battle system is similar to Star Ocean 3. Actually, it's a lot like it, which is nice. Hopefully, Square continues this trend of active battle systems and does away with the turn based fighting (boring). Unlike SO3, I found Radiata's battle system to be simpler--and maybe a bit less thought out. You have the item list, of course, and a command list to order your friends around. However, the command list is kind of a pain in the ass. Commands are given during battle, not set before hand like in SO3. You also have a link list, where you can link up with your friends in different formations. I'm not sure how this is useful yet, but I tend to be more of a melee fighter anyway. Everyone for themselves!!! AI is fairly intellegent--I don't have to many complaints. You can only control Jack in battle, which sucks, especially when he gets hit with a debilitating status effect.

Over all, this game is a ton of fun. Not a serious, thought provoking game, but entertaining enough in its own right. Actually, it's refreshing to have such a light hearted, no pressure RPG show up. It's worth a go in my book!

Posted by Zoso at September 28, 2005 08:56 AM