"Get your kick on..."

Radiata stories is a very intriguing video game that makes all your RPG fantasies a reality. Well, at least most of the time. So sit back relax and enjoy a nice comforting review of Square-Enix's Radiata Stories.

Graphics: 10/10
The graphics of this game will amaze all as they use similar graphics in other games. An example would be Tales of Symphonia. Although it may be cel-shaded graphics and not that perfect HD looking game like Madden, the graphics will blow your mind and you will fall in love with this game because of it. I give Graphics a 10 outta 10.

Sound: 9/10
The sound is amazing with all the different voices for each individual character and every part of the game has great music. Although it has great sound, some of the music may not be so appealing to many people. Some might love it entirely. The battle music is okay but the ending theme could be a little better. Maybe something similar to the Final Fantasy battle theme. I love it when I beat monsters in Final Fantasy and hear that little Jingle. The music is enjoyable and probably sounds great on the soundtrack but they could have put more effort on the battle theme and the monster cry when you defeat them. But overall I think sound deserves a hard earned 9 outta 10.

Control: 8/10
The controls in this game may be a bit confusing because of the fact that in a battle you basically attack with the O button while outside the battle zone, you use the X button to choose an option when given. The Triangle button is used to open up your inventory and you use the left analog stick to maneuver through areas and choose where you want to go on the inventory screen. Although, if you are the type of person who just loves to level up, you will be using the O button a whole lot in this game. So even though you use X to make your selections, you might occasionally open up your inventory and end up closing it by pressing the O button instead of the X button. Half the time I feel like I'm playing Star Ocean because of the battle system. Sometimes I feel like I'm playing FF7 because of the excessive use of the O button and the same for the X because for X I feel like it's FF 8, 9, 10, 10-2 and 12 all over again. So the learning curve from the controls would be about a half hour. Although this is my opinion I still think that they should have just stuck to using one button to attack, confirm selections, and all that other mumbo jumbo instead of mixing it up trying to get you to use all the buttons. Although you use all of the buttons, the only button that feels neglected would be the [] button due to the fact that you only use it once when you're in battle to activate the volty blow only if you have 10 points in your volty meter thing. Controls gets an 8 outta 10.

Game play and Features: 9/10
The game play is tremendous and will make you want to play this game, beat it, and play it again. But what really caught my attention was of course the features. In Radiata Stories, you can do almost anything. Yes, I said anything. You can shop, run around, hang out in the pub, and kick. Yes, you can kick in this game. But kick what? Anything! Yes, it's true, you can kick monsters you see in the area's outside the cities. You can kick people. I thought Final Fantasy 12 was good, but when I heard you could kick people and start a fight with them in this game, I had to get my hands on it! Kick anything you want to kick! People, buckets, various objects. Kicking certain things allows you to get some really good items. But if you get stuck on a boss in the game and get tired of leveling up you can waste your time by just kicking the wall away. Ahh. Who said you can't kick your problems away? But kicking is only half the fun of Radiata Stories. Of course continue with the story line. If you ever come across one of those dummy's, press O to engage in a tutorial for a weapon's lesson. If you ever see any tutorial that has a lesson that says destroy the enemy and it gives you a time limit, you have to fight it before the time runs out, but the best part is, you get EXP from defeating them! And you can repeat that lesson over and over and over and over again until you get bored and feel like kicking some more walls or mice in the fields. This game has so many things you can do that it would be extremely hard not to be addicted to this game. Although the kicking is fun, it would be better if we could add some cats on and kick them. Yes, I admit. I love kicking cats. In video games... The game also has Volty Blow which was mentioned in the controls section of this review. In this game, every time you or a party member attacks a monster they get one point added to the Volty Gauge. Do some serious damage by obtaining ten of the Volty Gauge Points and press [] to unless the Volty Blow attack. But for even more pain and misery, get a hundred and press X and [] simultaneously to activate the devastating Volty Blast. You can set up Links in this game to have your party unleash some serious damage. Just go to the Party's menu or Inventory screen, (however you want to call it), and click on Links and set it up. Although I'm not very far in the game I don't know what they do but there's always the instruction Manual. So from Linking to kicking, Game play and Features gets a 9 outta 10.

Story: 10/10
The story is revolved around a boy named Jack Russel who just got accepted into the Radiata Knights. He was competing to enter and had to face Ridley Silverlake. When he saw Ridley was a girl he thought, meh, no problem I can beat a girl. But he swallowed more than he could chew, in other words, he lost. He got accepted despite his loss because of the fact that his father was the most famous Knight in all of Radiata. So he travels doing missions for the Knights of Radiata and he has been dying to fight an Orc ever since he joined. Not much is known about Ridley but all I can say is she really has a bad attitude towards Jack. Later in the game you will meet more people that can join your party. Talk to people around towns to see if they need any help. If they do, assist them because that could be a future party member you're talking to! There are more than 100 different characters that you can recruit in this game and that just makes Radiata Stories even better. The story gets a 10 outta 10.

So, Radiata Stories is a great game in general but lacks a lot in the controls department. Especially if you're a newbie to RPG's, this game's controls might confuse you at first but after and hour and days of work, you will get the hang of it. Radiata Stories is so great in many different ways but my favorite parts are being able to recruit over 100 different characters and of course, the kicking! Radiata Stories kicks it's way to get an 8 outta 10.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/02/07