Welcome to the official discussion thread for Radiant Historia on the DS!
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Atlus Marketing said:
In the midst of an unending war for dominance between two super-powers, Special Intelligence Agent Stocke is assigned to a routine escort mission that goes horribly awry. However, wielding a mysterious book called the White Chronicle, Stocke discovers a way to travel to the intersection of time itself: Historia. With this power in his hands, he must travel back and forth through key events and an entirely alternate timeline to right the world's ill-fated course. The lives of his companions, the fate of nations, and the resolution of an impending disaster that now threatens the land all depend on Stocke's ability to discern the one "true" history.
Available February 22, 2011.
Sounds pretty good to me. The trailer makes the game look fantastic. And it comes with a music CD... DEFINITELY a nice bonus. Atlus really knows how to service their fans.
Hmm, I'm still a bit confused on what type of RPG this is. It sounds kind of traditional, kind of strategy.
Its entirely traditional, turn-based battle. The main difference is the grid the enemies show up on. No, its not a move-here-strike-strategically-from-behind-on-a-hill grid, its a knock-one-enemy-into-another-and-hit-them-BOTH-during-this-turn kind of a grid. The strategy, I guess, would involve clumping as many of them together for multiple hits as you possibly can.
The strategy, I suppose as well, would come between turns, when you have the option of shuffling the order around of who hits and when. If you plan carefully, you can clump as much as six straight hits against the enemy. The downside, of course, is that you will be letting your enemies get a great deal of hits in on you as well, and your characters will be in a state of baroque, which means they will take extra damage.
Strategy? Yes. Traditional strategy? HELL. NO. Fun? WHY ARE YOU STILL READING THIS???
If you plan carefully, you can clump as much as six straight hits against the enemy.
Six? I sometimes go for ten. And yes, it is all against one scrub enemy. And yes, it is total overkill beyond the third hit. And yes, I love doing it anyway.
@VofEscaflowne This along with Demon's Souls offically puts Atlus over the top on Squeenix (with the exception of the DQ titles) in the JRPG department. This game is just SOOOOO playable its not even funny! The battle system NEVER gets old! Hell, they might even have DQ beat, and it would all be due to the battle system. Why couldn't anybody else come up with such an engaging turn-based system?
I gotta agree. Square Enix has put out nothing worth remembering this generation so far... from what I've played (and heard) anyway. Final Fantasy used to be my go to RPG series but XIII, while fun, was just not memorable. Atlus really seems to have a lot going for its games and this game is just another one that is just so fun.
Okay well the only exception might be Dragon Quest IX to me... but Radiant Historia has it beat. I was actually in the process of playing through DQVI but something about it just annoys me. It's expected but it feels very basic. The story is not important after nearly 20 hours, the characters don't really have much of a personality, the battles are frequent and annoying and on top of that, they're not even fun. It feels like I'm just tapping the A button over and over with most battles. I'm glad I picked up Radiant Historia as it's given me hope that good JRPGs are still out there
If you plan carefully, you can clump as much as six straight hits against the enemy.
Six? I sometimes go for ten. And yes, it is all against one scrub enemy. And yes, it is total overkill beyond the third hit. And yes, I love doing it anyway.
Okay, yeah, as soon as I said six I was able to string together eight hits. Its not for nothing, either- doing the OVERKILL nets you more money and more items after you loot their bodies. So, overkill is encouraged. ;)
True, overkill does get you bonuses. I don't think they're THAT much, but I have noticed that I get a surprising EXP haul when I go back in time and dominate boss encounters with style.
Safe to say, I'm pretty addicted to this game right now. I've put in like 22 hours in the past three days. And I'm only stopping so I can sleep...this is already my favorite JRPG on the system, except for maybe TWEWY. Hell, it's already one of my favorite JRPGs ever.
I'm certain you were a touch further than I was, because I just got an ability that can REALLY string them together. Ten hits is certainly attainable quite easily at this point.
I have to say, for whatever reason, this title intrigues me probably more than any DS game I've seen in a while. If I ever get a 3DS, I'll have to keep a lookout for this on eBay when it costs $80 used.
Ugh. I've contacted Amazon.ca and they're shipping me another copy. I don't know what's with them lately but it seems there's always something. When it's not sending me an e-mail after a month telling me they cancelled my 999 order, or them billing me for shipping when I qualify for the Super Saver thing, it's shipments lost in transit.
I shouldn't complain, I've barely scratched the surface of DQ6 as it is, it's just... ugh.
I must say this looks very cool. I still have a huge DS backlog though, so I either need to pass on this game or go back on my solemn vow to complete everything I own before buying a 3DS...
Finally! I received my copy yesterday and managed to put about an hour into before bed.
It gets its hooks into you pretty quickly, doesn't it? All I have to say is, "Dragon Quest VI who?".
I mean, yeah, only an hour in. I haven't done anything mindblowing yet. It's still just explaining its concepts. But it's doing it in a way that I really like. There's just so much to like about this game already.
I like that the text boxes appear faster than I can read them (**** 999). I like that the protagonist isn't a complete moron who needs to be explained everything, and then repeat it (worst trend in Japanese games, **** you, Solid Snake!). I like that you run by default, hold down a button to walk. I like that the enemies are visible on the screen, and you can surprise them to get initiative. I've only pushed around enemies and hit them, but I like that there seems to be something to this combat system. I like that the story takes no time getting started at all.
Yeah, I can hardly nitpick. Well, that's not true, I'm a master at nitpicking, so I can say the loading times between areas/when bringing up menus is slightly longer than I like. But that's pretty much it.
I actually brought the DS to work, which I never do. Will I get a couple of minutes free to play it? Doubtful. But I still felt like bringing it to work.
That's exactly how I felt after playing it for a short bit while also playing Dragon Quest VI. I just instantly forgot about that game and all I could think of was Radiant Historia and how addicting everything was right from the very intro.
I just did a mission where I had to "gather firewood", definitely the weakest thing in the game so far. I hope there aren't too many of these arbitrary fetch quests.
And yeah, I'm playing the game whenever I find the time, but it still amounts to less than 10 hours. It really puts my buying habits into perspective, when I've got a dozen unplayed RPGs in my backlog, and even one I really like and really want to make time for comes about, it takes me months to go through it.
I should probably sell DQVI right away, when I think about it.
Yeah I think that part was pretty slow... I understand they want to show you how your new skill works but having it be limited to a single screen instead of spread out through most of the area you're in is a bit overkill.
I'm almost done with the game right now and have but a few battles left I think. Got my ass whooped yesterday in a battle so I'll have to switch a few characters around.
I agree about buying habits though. I think with so many games coming out lately, it just makes me reconsider my purchases a lot more now. There's a lot of games I passed on that I normally would have bought but with having RPGs to go through right now, it almost puts everything to a halt. But hey, that's a good thing at the same time too!
Just beat the game. Love it! Has there been any talks about a sequel to this? On the 3DS? *drools*
I love how the end has endings based on your actions throughout the game. I beat it with 173 of the nodes complete so there's quite a bit left to go back to! I was shocked at some of the events in the ending due to what I had done. It was a nice touch
I just did a mission where I had to "gather firewood", definitely the weakest thing in the game so far. I hope there aren't too many of these arbitrary fetch quests.
There's one immediately after that in the opposite timeline. That's the last time that the seeing power is necessary for the story. You'll need it to find some rare items for some sidequests...but you're going to want to look those up anyway, because you probably won't stumble upon all of them through luck alone.
I don't expect a sequel, but I sure would like one.
