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| Radiata Stories; 9/10 | |
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| Topic Started: Feb 8 2008, 10:07 PM (192 Views) | |
| Slick | Feb 8 2008, 10:07 PM Post #1 |
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==Gameplay== You play a warrior type character in battles. The battles are basically like Star Ocean 3's, only you don't have any magic or anything. The game is an action RPG, but there is no MP gauge for characters at all. You merely go around, whacking stuff, giving commands to teammates and utilizing skills and combo moves to defeat enemies. In the game, you're not really a tank, and can easily die in battle if you're reckless. The battle system is somewhat easy, however, and allows you to defeat most adversaries on your own with careful maneuvering and well-devised combos. You're allowed a certain amount of customization in-game. You can master 4 different weapons-The Axe, The Spear, The 2-Handed Sword and The One Handed Sword. Each have their own special moves, advantages and combos. The real customization is with teams. There are dozens of characters available for recruitment, possibly over 200. Although you don't control these characters, having them in your team significantly affects gameplay. In battles you can give these characters commands or link up with them in formations. Because each character has their own perk, different characters can be good or bad in different scenarios. Of course, there are some characters who are just godly and don't require strategy at all. All in all, although the characters are much more complex than this, there are three basic recruitable character types- 1.) Mages: They cast magic from afar. 2.) Healers: They can heal you. Some can also heal multiple party members, cure status effects or use magic. The non-human healers in particular like magic. 3.) Warriors: They attack from close up or afar, using anything from pipes, to dual swords, to bazookas, to their fists. 4.) Special: These characters have their own finishing volty moves, that you can order them to use with the command 'use volty.' This makes them more powerful than other characters, in most cases. Some are flat-out warriors, mages or healers, whilst others are more balanced. Kain, for example, is the leader of the human city's priest sect. However, he's not a flat-out healer like some of the other priests. He has a powerful palm attack that actually does decent damage. Others, like Anastasia, are weaker because they're less well-balanced. Overall, the gameplay is fun and allows you room to customize, albeit to a somewhat limited extent. If you get bored of fighting melee battles using the 4 weapons available to you...well, that's kind of tough. You never get any magic abilities or anything along that line. I'd give the gameplay a 9/10, but it kind of irked me that they didn't just let you control the team-mates you unlocked. So I'll give it a 8/10, which means the gameplay's still pretty great. ==Story== The overall plot of the game may sound kind of generic. You're a country boy, the son of a famous knight who's going to try to make a name for yourself by joining an elite knight squad. I guess you're just like any other RPG hero... The game gets more interesting as you get into it, however. First of all, the main character, Jack Russell (who's not a dog, by the way :P), as well as the two supporting main characters, Ganz Rothschild and Ridley Silverlake, are very silly. Well, Ganz and Jack are, anyways. Ridley's kind of an emo jerk most of the time, but I guess she does have her moments. The amusingness of the characters makes the game worth playing alone. Beyond that, the game also offers you two different story paths. At some point a war basically breaks out, and you can choose to either side with fellow humans or non-human "fairy" creatures. Each story is worth playing through, although in my opinion, the non-human path has a better plot. The human path, however, offers you better characters. Whichever path you choose is good and offers you a lot of options. A unique feature (as far as I know) in this game is that you can literally kick anything. People, bookcases, animals, garbage...you name it. Anything you want, you can kick. Kicking people or non-humans usually angers them and brings you into a duel with them. Kicking other things in the game can net you items. Kicking characters is a fun way to experience the game, because you can get into a lot of fights with characters you couldn't normally battle. There are even some secret bosses that you can only fight by kicking characters. One I can name off the top of my head is Lord Nogueira, an elf leader who only appears in the game for a short period of time. The gist of the overall story is that human beings, warlike, arrogant and prideful, pollute nature, wreak havoc upon their adversaries, and demonstrate excessive hubris. The natural order of the world, though, prevents humans from ever founding a successful empire, because if humans attain too much power, they use it to satiate their own greed and lust for power. Humans, more than any other race, try to advance themselves and make progress, but before they can ever accomplish anything, they are unfortunately shot down. Whether you agree that the humans in the game are jerks or that humans should be given a chance to spread their wings is up to you, as you can choose the non-human or human path in the game. The story is excellent no matter what path you play (even though I like the non-human storyline better). I'd give it a 10/10, all things considered. ==Longevity== There are a lot of characters to recruit, 2 paths, 4 weapons to master (although this can usually be done within one game), a new game+ option, tons of characters to fight, and a secret dungeon. Beyond that, once you've completed both storylines and the hidden dungeon, there's little reason to keep playing unless you really want to unlock ALL the characters for your "friends list." There are no real mini-games in Radiata Stories, and while there are plenty of unlockable goodies (including hidden armors, powerful weapons, etc.), the game may get stale after awhile. :/ Still, it's easy to rack up a lot of hours playing this game. So I'd have to give this game a 7 or 8 out of 10 for longevity. ==Overall== It's a great game, that's fun, and has a great story. It also has easter eggs and apparently some Star Ocean/Valkyrie Profile cameos. Buy it. 
Edited by Slick, Feb 8 2008, 10:16 PM.
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 Sun Ce's DW6 Ending | |
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| Fayt | Feb 9 2008, 07:12 AM Post #2 |
Easy wins have never been my style
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Nice review Slick, the kicking part sounds quite amusing, I'd be kicking everything I can see with a feature like that. I still hope I can play this someday, despite no PAL release... Although, from trailers etc I've watched it gives off a Dragon Quest kind of feel, you played any Dragon Quest games Slick, any similarities if you have? |
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| Slick | Feb 9 2008, 11:46 AM Post #3 |
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I own Dragon Quest VIII...but I quit playing at around the part where you fight Dhoulmagus second form, or something like that. That boss just murdered me every time. At my elementary school, Dragon Warriors Monsters for the Game Boy Color was bigger than Pokemon, so I played that too. I've also played some of the early Dragon Quest games for the gameboy and Rocket Slime, if the latter can even count as part of the series... The battle system in Dragon Quest VIII is not similar to the battle system in Radiata Stories, though. Radiata Stories' battle system is more similar to the one in Star Ocean 3: Till The End of Time, albeit without MP gauges. From what I remember, Dragon Quest VIII also had more cel-shading, graphically, though I can definitely see a similarity between character designs in both games. I can't really think of any other similarities between Dragon Quest and Radiata Stories off the top of my head, although it's possible that some of the equipment that characters have in the game might be similar. I'm not sure, though. Edited by Slick, Feb 9 2008, 11:49 AM.
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2:33 PM Nov 9
