"Stories worth reading twice..."

Introduction:

Radiata Stories is a Playstation 2 RPG developed by tri-Ace, makers of the venerable Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile games (expect plenty of nods and cameos to both series); it's published by Square-Enix. It's got a sort of Western Medieval Fantasy feel, with Knights and Dragons. and Castles and whatnot. And samurai. It doesn't matter the time or setting, they're going to find ways to fit a samurai or a ninja in somewhere. Gotta love the Japanese.

The game boasts over 200 Non Player Characters including 176 you can recruit as potential party members. Most of the NPCs have a schedule based around the game's active time system. They may be walking from their homes to their job in the morning, eating grub at a diner during the afternoon, hanging out with other NPCs during the evening, and so on and so forth. It gives off an immersive vibe. Two major story paths, and an action oriented battle system similiar to Star Ocean's round out the list of features.

Story:

You are Jack Russell, son of the deceased Dragon Slayer, Cairn Russell. Upon turning 16 you set out of your humble village with your older sister's blessings and follow in the footsteps of your father to become a Radiata Knight. You'll meet all sorts of characters, learn ancient lores and prophecy, get involved in schemes and plots. and even get caught up in a war.

So far so standard. However, the thing about Radiata Stories is that it's a fair amount more light hearted than your typical RPG and that humorous touch puts a fresh twist on the usual cliches. Take, for example, our young protagonist who prefers to punch doors instead of knocking on them and believes that through battle he will unlock his "hidden powers". Shortly afterwards, the girl who kicked his ass a little while ago remarks he reads far too much manga.
Not to say the plot's all fun and laughs, as it does get serious especially towards the end. There's suitable drama and even poignancy.

Now be warned, the main plot (and there is one despite what certain other reviews might tell you), takes a little while to get moving. You'll find yourself left to your own devices a lot between story advances. Fortunately there's a lot to keep you busy like missions, leveling up and finding ways to recruit NPCs. I got so caught up in that, I actively sought to AVOID advancing the story. Honestly the plot does take a backseat for most of the game.

I only really understood the story after my second playthrough. It's not a bad story and I sort of liked it actually. It could have been presented in a better manner but the point should come across. The theme I suppose is defying fate and it can be poignant and wistful at times, especially when involving the love-hate relationship between Jack and Ridley. The main story eventually comes to a fork in the road and you will have to make a decision which path you will take. This affects not only ending, but the people you can recruit and the places you'll have access to. To get the full extent of the story and recruit every possible person, you'll have to play it twice. Which isn't so bad especially since the game is actually not that long, the 20-30 hour mark if you're the no-nonsense type. I had 60 hours on my first playthrough, for comparison.

Asides from the main story, you also have the "Stories" of the game title, meaning the recruiting system.
With 176 NPC's to recruit, you'll be spending a large part of your time interacting with the denizens of Radiata Town as well as the world's other races, including Light and Dark Elves and Orcs and Goblins. These NPC's for the most part have real schedules and by following them on an average day and talking to them at different points, you learn a bit of their own story. It's kind of fun stalking people, learning their favorite hangouts, and discovering their relationships with other NPCs.

I only wish it got even more in depth. For instance, there is a little known cutscene that involves your squad, and while it has no impact on the game or even the story it does reveal a slice of ordinary life. It would have been nice if there were more of these little scenes involving different characters and situations throughout the game.

Story Rating: 8/10
To reiterate, the story is actually kind of neat but has its share of cliches. Fortunately, the game's lighthearted tone makes it easy to swallow. Admittedly the main story takes a backseat to the recruitment system for a large portion of the game and when it is front and center, it's not presented as well as it could be, leaving you with some questions. Nothing all that outstanding but certainly doesn't detract from the experience. It's solid, and with all the little stories you'll be involving yourself with, concerning the NPCs, it generally works out to a good experience.

Graphics:

The aging PS2 hardware can still dazzle us. The graphics are quality. You don't control the camera outside of battle, so that fixed perspective probably allows for more graphics fidelity. The game is 3D, I assure you, not just a polygonal sidescroller, and the camera does tilt every now and then as you wander around, but you only see so much of any one area. It does the job though and more.

On the technical side, I really love the detailed textures of the game, most evident on clothing and armor. The game has a 480p option that just emphasizes this detail. Just to add, Jack's appearance does change with different armors and weapons, which I thought was a nice touch. There's some nice outdoor scenes, like running across a bridge and seeing the panaroma in the background. The water looks especially nice in Solieu Village.

Oh yeah, I should add that this game has some really nice soft focusing or bloom lighting. This occurs mostly in cutscenes and the effect it gives off is very aesthetically pleasing. I wish the whole game had bloom lighting, but alas.

The character designs are great as it should be on a game so character focused. I actually prefer the in-game models to the game art. Facial expressions are suitably varied and they all have a for the most part unique and distinguished look. Character portraits like the ones on the Friends screen are fun to look at as well.

On the downside, there are few moments when you're really impressed and the environments can be a little bland now and then.

Graphics Rating: 9/10
Nice textures, good use of bloom lighting, awesome character design. Above average stuff, but few "WOW!!" moments.

Music and Sound:

Personally, nothing really got stuck in my head music-wise so I could say it's solid but forgettable. It's done very nicely and varies quite a bit, for example in front of the Warrior's Guild and around that area you get an upbeat big-band style theme. As you move towards the part of town that houses the Magic Guild, it's starts getting more subdued and has an air of mysteriousness. You can collect various themes in the form of in-game records, and then play them in Jack's room adding for another nice touch. What sucks is that a song sung by a certain character (and in real life by J-pop idol, Nami Tamaki) is entirely cut. Sucks but I guess I can understand.

On the matter of sounds, you have your traditional fare of slashing swords and assorted "yeaaarghs" and other grunts. The voice acting is solid stuff and nothing you'll feel like turning off. Ranging from adorably cute, annoyingly lame, to gruff and manly personalities, the voice acting cast succeeds admirably with few miscues. The guy voicing Jack in particular pulls it off well, hitting those comedic notes more often than not.

Music and Sound Rating: 8/10
Again, good stuff with a few standouts. Aside from the voices, there was nothing all that memorable.

Gameplay:

Now we get to the heart of the matter. Outside of battle you basically run around talking to people, examining stuff, opening doors, all standard RPG fair. At least until the kicking part. An intersting novelty gameplay aspect, you can kick stuff to find items... or kick people to goad them into fighting you. You can "kick-duel" just about any NPC in the game by kicking them twice, although it doesn't actually affect you relationship or influence the story for the most part. It's something neat to do when you're bored or wondering how a certain NPC can fare in battle. "Hmm... I wonder what happens if I kick the King of Radiata...?"

Speaking of fighting... the battle system is a simplified version of Star Ocean 3. You can have up to three other people in your party alongside Jack, but you don't ever directly control them. You don't even select their equipment. However, you can order them using various commands you learn over the course of the game. Some commands include backing someone up, healing, being bait and backing away. Generally, these NPC allies have good Artificial Intelligence. You might need to babysit some at lower levels, but most know their role. About the AI, depending on their health the AI might change their battle plans based on their personality. An aggressive fighting monk who's been reduced to a third of his HP might suddenly become more passive and wait for enemies to come to him, or even start backing away from battle. A timid thief in the same situation might suddenly get really aggressive instead in a desperate last bid to survive. Nice. Adds some more personality to these NPCs.

Some of the more high ranking NPCs you can recruit late in the game are so damn strong, you can sit back and let them handle the bulk of the fighting. In addition to commands, you can also assume various formations, called Links, to tackle the enemy in different ways. Links also allow characters to share their skills with one other. If one of the guys in your link has an ability to cure 10 HP every second, all characters in the link will also recover HP. And if Jack uses Links with that guy for a certain amount of battles, he'll learn that skill for himself. Some skills are so rare only one or two people in the entire game have them.

Using Links costs Volty Points. And what pray tell is a Volty you ask? A yellow meter underneath your HP that increases whenever you hit enemies or block an attack. Commands and Links cost varying amount of Volties. A Volty Blow, which is like a special extra strong attack, costs 10. When you max out your Volty meter at 100, you can execute a Volty blast, a very fancy and guaranteed Super Hit that can strike for over 1000 HP depending on your level.

How battle actually works. A targeting cursor appears on the enemy you are closest to or facing, and you start hacking, slashing, parrying, and countering away at the foe with your choice of one-hand swords, two-hand swords, spears, or axes.
Each weapon type has a pro and con. As you use a weapon, like say any sort of axe, you eventually learn new moves and those moves can be linked with other moves to form combos. You determine the order of moves so take note of what combos work and what don't. The amount of moves you can string together depends on the Combo Points or CP of a weapon. For example, let's say you want to string together some moves for your axe, Right Slash, Middle Slash, and Skull Bash together. All three moves require a CP of 2 each for a total of 6. Your axe would have to have a minimum of 6 CP points to be able to do that. This might make for interesting conundrums. Should you buy this uber-axe with 5 CP or stick to your weaker axe that has 8 CP? Some weapons also have elemental strengths and status afflicting properties, which puts even more stuff into play when choosing what to wield.

Back to the battle system. You have the option of controlling the camera but the computer does a more than fair job, honestly. Facing an enemy will usually make the computer target that enemy for you and to prevent refocusing, a tap of a shoulder button locks the target. I have no complaint with the system though it's not perfect. If you attack an enemy that's behind a bunch of others, you might find your character spazzing out trying to reach it and ignoring other foes that are attacking. Just double tap X to stop it and target a closer enemy. There are times when you get hit waiting for a combo animation to stop, but overall the system is intuitive and works perfectly fine. Mashing away at the attack button works for a fair portion of enemies, but sometimes you'll have to use the parry and counter and dodge, especially in one on one duels against strong foes who tend to block and dodge a lot themselves.

That's the combat system. Now the recruitment system. As mentioned before, you can recruit up to 176 NPCs, though never all of them at once in one playthrough. Once recruited they will stay on your friendlist even after you decide to start up a second game though you can't put them in your party until you fulfill their recruitment requirement again. Chances are you'll need a FAQ at least once as some requirements are pretty obscure. Other NPCs might only have a limited window of time in which you can recruit them. To recruit NPCs, you might have to do favors for them, fight them, talk to them at certain times or in certain places, complete a mission, help another NPC close to them, or have certain people in your party among other things. It can be very fun trying to figure out just how to recruit them, and it can also be frustrating in case you miss out on them. Keep several saves handy if you're a completist. The recruitment system is probably the most fun aspect of Radiata Stories.

Finally, after beating the game once, you have two options, (you can do them both at any time) a bonus dungeon and Starting Strong. Starting Strong essentially means starting the game again with all skills and Links learned in the previous playthrough and money earned along with a few select items that will really help you power through the game. Your friendlist is also intact as noted before so you can go for all 176 recruitable NPCs.

Gameplay Rating: 9/10
Simple but with some depth, the combat system is enjoyable though it has a hands off feel at times since you only control Jack directly. Not that I minded as it gave me the feel of working alongside NPCs instead of just using them as I saw fit. The kick mechanic is a neat diversion, and the recruitment system is kickass. I wish the game was a little longer but it's all nitpicking at this point. The challenge is on the easy side though since it's easy to overlevel.

Overall:

Light snack before Final Fantasy, another mediocre RPG, no plot, RPG-lite- blah, blah, blah. I'm sure this game has it's share of detractors but honestly, this is one of the few PS2 RPGs I've really gotten caught up in. Perhaps it's the immersiveness of a (seemingly) living breathing world brimming with NPCs that go about their own business. Perhaps its the game's characters themselves that I've become attached to. I'm sure the collection aspect of the Recruitment System also helped. All in all, these things combine to make a wonderfully crafted RPG that I've become quite fond of.

One of the characters in a final, final battle said something to the effect of, "...let us meet again someday... someplace..."
Yeah. Let's. Maybe on the Wii or 360 or PS3. I'm sure there's so many more stories still waiting to be told.

Overall Rating: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/17/06