Radiant characters, dull combat.
| Platform | Presentation | Controls | Variety | Audio | Depth | Value & Fun | OVERALL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PlayStation 2 | 9.50 | 7.00 | 8.00 | 10.00 | 4.00 | 6.00 | 7.02 |
| Gameplay Description |
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Radiata Stories is a cel-shaded Japanese RPG developed by tri-Ace and published by SquareEnix.  The battle system is real-time, and the player controls the main character Jack, who is well-intentioned, but brazen and a bit slow.  You can learn skills that can be set as an attack order, as well as learn powerful \"Volty Attacks\" that use up points from your Volty meter that builds up as you hit your opponent with normal attacks.  You move in real-time and in 3D, and you can have AI teammates as help.  There are also techniques called \"Links\" that are formations for your group and have added benefits such as attack boosts or healing. |
| Dedication Meter | 25.00 |
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Radiata Stories is fairly light as an RPG both in length and in complication.  It can be a bit encompassing to get new friends to help you in battle, but it\'s a relaxed pace.  It will be easy to let sit and still be able to pick up and jump right back in when you\'re ready.  Difficulty is fair. |
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| Presentation | 9.50 |
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The presentation of the story and characters in Radiata Stories is so far beyond anything I\'ve seen before in a game that it deserves recognition as a landmark in design regardless of the execution of other areas.  Visual and audio cues with stellar animation and script that result is a genuinely funny and incredibly entertaining package that manage to avoid feeling like following a cutscene and more like watching a cartoon. The story itself is standard RPG fare with elves, dwarves and how everyone hates the humans.  It avoids some clichés while sticking strongly to others.  The dimwit nice guy technique is in full-swing with the main character Jack, who Namco may like to sue for copywrite infringement for his remarkable likeness in character to Lloyd of Tales of Symphonia, right down to the \"You\'re still you\" line.  Regardless, the staple works. The world of Radiata Stories takes on a distinctly Harvest Moon feel in terms of how the town flows.  Characters have their own routines that have them all around town in different places doing different things depending on the time of day and progression of the story.  While this can be a great thing in keeping things natural and organic, it can be frustrating to be held up on a sidequest because you have no idea who or where Aldo is. The game also suffers from a rather frustrating map that requires frequent referencing to have a chance of following correctly, and even then the chances are up in the air.  The inventory system could have also used a bit more organization. Overall, it\'s a shame that there are a few minor issues just out of how remarkable the story\'s presentation is executed.  It would be a feat unto itself to make the gameplay not a tool of progressing the story. |
|
| Controls | 7.00 |
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There isn\'t a whole lot to the controls, and yet they\'re a bit complicated.  You attack with O, parry with X, and a Special (Volty) attack with [].  Camera is controlled by L2 and R2 (L3 to reset) and R1 to lock-on.  Items can be flipped to from L1 or through the pause menu.  The camera is the main problem as you\'re in a team, but it\'s very difficult to keep track of your teammates.  They\'re constantly off-screen and rotating the camera isn\'t a solution. You also have the option of setting links that you\'ve learned to the D-pad.  Links are team formations that allow your team to attack together.  It\'s a unique concept with limited use. |
|
| Variety | 8.00 |
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Radiata Stories aside from the typical RPG-esque cave-trudging and boss battling, there are a lot of elements reminiscient of adventure games with regard to recruiting characters.  In collecting items or performing tasks for certain characters, or just catching them at the right time, you add friends which you can then add to your party for when you go on missions. The missions themselves vary well enough, and only certain ones progress the story.  You accept missions from wherever you\'re employed at the time, and even after you\'ve done so, you\'re aren\'t on the clock to complete it.  The task to complete differs nicely, such as defeating x number of a certain enemy, or escorting a caravan, or simply being a liaison. The variety in combat, however, is limited.  Enemies tend to use the same few attack types, and what your character can do isn\'t really diverse. |
|
| Audio | 10.00 |
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The audio in Radiata Stories is a big step in the progression of the use of sound in videogames.  Aside from the solid voice-acting and terrific soundtrack, simply the sound-effects as comedic and dramatic additions to the narrative is startling and refreshing to see in a game.  It\'s nice to see that sound can be used for more than menus and gunfire. |
|
| Depth | 4.00 |
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Ultimately, the cliché achilles heel of Radiata Stories is the depth in combat.  There\'s very little substance with regard to battles, and this persists right up to the end of the game.  Essentially, there are two possibilities you\'ll run into in a battle: one is that your attacks are strong enough to stagger the enemy; in this case you can simply keep slashing them and they\'ll be relatively helpless.  The second is that the enemy will be unaffected (aside from a bit of damage) by your attacks and be able to immediately counter-attack.  Because all your progressive abilities rely on directly attacking, this is ineffective against an opponent that does not get staggered.  This creates by far the best tactic, which is to do a quick attack or two, then avoid the counter by circling.  Chop-circle-chop-repeat.  This is slow and tedious, but by far the most effective against strong opponents.  This works perfectly against the final boss as well. |
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| Value & Fun | 6.00 |
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While the presentation is thoroughly enjoyable, ultimately this is a videogame, and the gameplay falls flat.  It\'s not at all bad, but it\'s without substance, and leaves little to the player to feel a sense of accomplishment.  There\'s little to add beyond reiterating that Radiata Stories is a landmark achievement in both visual and audio presentation in the package of a simplistic RPG. I\'d be remissed not to mention, however, the single worst dungeon ever conceived.  The final dungeon is in the City of White Nights, and the only explanation for it is that they deliberately sought out to infuriate every single player. The dungeon is comprised of climbing up long random ladders that may or may not crumble and make you fall down several stories. There are many dead-ends for no reason, and sand that falls from the sky and knocks you down several stories. In order to avoid the sands, you have to walk. That’s right, if you move at more than a walking speed, you have no reaction time. I’m just surprised they didn’t throw in a time limit and respawning enemies to complete the collection of suck.  This isn\'t helped by a seemingly rushed narrative ending with one rather confusing detail I won\'t mention. I completed the game in approximately 25 hours.  This was at a leisurely pace. |
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| Overall | 7.02 |
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Radiata Stories is a simple recommendation, really: If you want an RPG with great light-hearted presentation, give it a go.  If you\'re looking for anything deep or satisfying in terms of gameplay, look elsewhere. |
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Posted by Ellyoda Sat, 21 Jun 2008 02:47:05
Sat, 21 Jun 2008 04:08:31
Was looking into this. I always thought that it would contain a little more "meat".
Sat, 21 Jun 2008 04:40:42
You can keep yourself occupied befriending people, and the last third of the game is completely different depending on something you do, so there's enough content in that regard. There just isn't nearly enough depth to the combat.
Sat, 21 Jun 2008 11:41:25
Another RPG I'm all set with.
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