Radiant Historia was released February 22, 2011. Developed and published by Atlus, Radiant Historia is modeled to give a nostalgic feel of a retro Role-Playing Game. The game also brings some new ideas to the table, and it has done just that with its time travel gimmick.
The story features many branching options, but unlike most games with a branching story line, you won’t have to replay the game to see all these options through. Radiant Historia’s big gimmick is the ability to travel back to key events and do them differently for a more desirable result. However, this will require players to go though previous events multiple times. This will frustrate most players, and I can’t really blame them either.
Radiant Historia is an interesting game, but is only for those who don’t mind trudging through the same text over and over. The game does not offer much in terms of exploration or customization. There’s not much that sets Radiant Historia apart from other games, with exception of the combat and time time travel gimmick. That said, the combat is rather fun.
The combat in Radiant Historia is much stronger than most turn-based games with its 3×3 battle grid. Players will move enemies to the same space on the grid with various skills in order to rack up a combo attack. But don’t expect the baddies to just sit on a single spot for you to attack them all: that’s why you must trade turns to save up one long series of actions for your side. Players are limited to only changing the character whose turn it currently is, but watch out, trading turns will lower the character’s defense until their next action.
Radiant Historia is a bit iffy on the “to buy or not to buy” list. While the game has some interesting features, these very features can be the source of much annoyance. If you’re looking for a RPG with a retro feel, then Radiant Historia is for you. Otherwise, I say save your cash for something else.
Loading ...