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Beautiful Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 24
Date: September 09, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game has many different elements that make it a wonderful game. There are different kinds of music, at times when you're walking around classical music will play, and at times silly music makes everything seem cute and cozy. All the characters are great in their own way. Makes me feel happy when i think of some of them, and how all other things from this game come about to be. I definetley recommend this game to everyone, RPG fans will defintley love this one. New comers, welcome :)

Tri-Ace returns to originality

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 63 / 81
Date: September 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I am a fan of the Tri-Ace company. Their games have often combined good storylines with excellent music, but most importantly, they have always given the gamer a little bit more. With Star Ocean 2, and even more so, Valkyrie Profile, the gamer was (gasp!) not bored to fight battles, as strategy played a key role in success. Furthermore, SO2 and VP had extensive bonus dungeons and multiple endings (SO2 had 97, if I'm not mistaken), which added to replay value. I was a bit disappointed in SO: Till the End of Time. Although the after-game bonus dungeons were incredible, there seemed to be little originality present (including an item creation system that can only be described as baffling - where was the simplicity of SO2 and VP?). I liked the game, but was left wanting more...

In the case of originality, Radiata Stories (hereby dubbed "RS") delivers. A role playing game in which active recruitment is a driving force (much like Suikoden), you play as Jack Russell, the son of a famous knight Cairn, as he attempts to follow in his father's footsteps by joining the Knights of Radiata. Throughout the game, you will make friends and enemies (there are two separate paths that you can follow!), and in all, you can recruit 177 new members of your party (although I'm not sure that all of them may be called on in a single game).

The graphics of this game are beautiful (I wish that the Suikoden series would take a page out of this game's book!), and the recruiting is quite fun. However, as is often the case with these types of games, the story takes a back seat (it is very difficult to get interested in the events around you when your focus is making friends). Much like Suikoden and VERY much like Suikoden IV, there really isn't much going on here. Recruit people to fight a war that seems ill-conceived (and ill-defined - it is difficult to understand the motivation of the combatants) until you realize that some overarching entity is the true puppet master, in which you stop the entity. Moreover, the ending (or one of the endings - I haven't played through both paths yet) can only be described by "guh?". It is difficult to understand why you are doing anything at all, other than making friends.

But in that respect, the game delivers. It is difficult to recruit all 177 friends, but much of the fun involved is trying! Each person moves through the day according to some schedule, and at times might need your assistance. It is up to you to find those times, however. I found the recruiting to be a blast, in general. Of course, there is a secret character (maybe more, I haven't found everyone) that can only be recruited after defeating an after-game dungeon.

All in all, RS is a compelling title, and worthy of the legacy of Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile. I would however have liked more attention to be paid to the story...

Infantile

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 15
Date: October 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The game play is simplistic, the environments too restrictive (it's little more than a side-scroller) and the graphics sub par.

Entertaining Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 7
Date: October 05, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I found this to be an entertaining game. It is not an amazing or mind blowing game with all kinds of new widgets and such. It keeps to a basic rpg format and story line, but has a sense of humor that you will not find often enough in these sort of games. While the story line is not very original it keeps me interested. There are some neat graphics in it but most of the graphics don't stand out. Over all I think this game is worth the money and will even stay on my shelf after I finish the game.

Very Childish and Ultimately dull.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 19 / 24
Date: October 08, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Radiata stories is very much like a childs version of Star Ocean 3, it has hardly any mature moments and lots of unfunny goofy behaviour and jokes. I'll list whats bad and good.

What's Good...

+Good Graphics with Prog scan and Widescreen support this is very pleasing, the character models are nice as well.

+A lively atmosphere, people go about their daily business and it seems very "real", everyone isn't just standing around waiting for you to talk to them like most RPGs. Also armour that you buy actually appears on your character in-game.

+Combat with 3 other allies is decent if unspectacular, real time combat is always nice and gives you a feeling of being part of a team.

+ Optional boss Iseria Queen looks even more beautiful in this game than the others.

+A surprise character joins you in the post-game dungeon-very pleasing to see her again.

What's not so good..

-This is a very light hearted adventure that has you fighting rats, ants, animals and hardly any spectacular enemies at all. Boring.

-A very linear adventure, the sidequests are dull, and recruiting 150+ people can drag at times.

-The main character minces (Power walks) when you push the analogue stick moderately hard, it looks awfuly stupid.

-Dreadful ending, over in less than a minute or two - very dull.

-Only one extra dungeon that's very short and pretty easy.

-I strugled to get past the 30 hour mark, it becomes very predictable and you forget it as soon as you stop playing.

-Allies can never be equipped or have any stat changed, this is a single hero game.

-Very few weapons and armour to collect.

-Rigged fights that you cannot win, even if you are very powerful. You actually have to stand there and get beaten...

-Far too easy, where's the difficulty settings like SO3.

Not worth the full price, maybe pick it up when it goes cheap.

Boring and very poorly made.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 12 / 15
Date: October 09, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Tri-ace used to make great games like Valkyrie profile and Star Ocean, then they made this. I agree completely with the reviewer "Helel" in that it's childish and dull. There is hardly any story and the main character is uncharismatic and very juvenile. Some good parts like Ethereal Queen and Valkyrie show how superior those games truly are.

Star Ocean 3 is much, much better than this third rate game which fails to deliver on so many levels. The goofy behaviour is just awful and makes you think this is aimed at those 12 and under. There are almost no interesting fights, and some very dull enemies.

A real disgrace to the name of Valkyrie Profile and Star Ocean.

Good Game if you think of it in the right way

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 14
Date: October 11, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Look all these other reviewers seem to think that this is a VERY SERIOUS RPG EPIC!!!! and in reality its not, its just a cool game with great features, and its meant to be humorous, I personally found it quite entertaining! also half way through the story splits in half and you get to choose which one tickles your fancy, This game is pretty good, not the best, but pretty good, it doesnt deserve the kind of reviews its getting!

Radiata Stories

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 14
Date: October 14, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is amazing. The main character just makes this game. Jack Russel is hilarious. Other then taht there is alot of side quests and a great story. ALso there is a ton of characters. You can only use 4 at a time and most people u get suck. U find some ok people within do time. Overall graet game 5 stars.

A Tri-Ace game that doesn't completely suck!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 16
Date: October 14, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Let me start off by saying that I have not finished the game; rather I am probably at or beyond the halfway point of it clocking in around 19-20 hours. So, I can't really comment on the ultimate progression of the plot, or "lame ending" as others have written, but I can speak of Radiata's other qualities.

-Plot. So far, mildly interesting, but nothing that keeps me dangling on the edge of my sofa or makes me miss two nights of sleep. The concept of following a young knight as he progresses through life is engaging, but again it's not the best plot idea out there.

-Dialogue. Probably what makes this game shine. Or at least what kept me from giving it 3 stars overall. The humor in this game is refreshing, to say the least, with each character constantly teasing and chiding the others around him/her throughout the game. The main character, Jack, is pretty funny, especially at times when he gets "really excited" or really peeved at his squadmates. You're reminded that Jack is an immature and sometimes annoying brat just about every time he opens his mouth. Probably sounds like it can a little old, but it's more funny than obnoxious. At least, I tend to think so.

-150 characters. Ho hum. Collecting characters fell out of favor with me after Suikoden. If this kinda thing is your bag, baby, then go for it. Stalking these fruitcakes throughout the city at all hours of the day and night trying to get a hold of them so they can ultimately tell you "Hey buddy, F you I'm busy" got REALLY OLD. I spoke with this one guy on the street, in the tavern, in the bar, and in the church and he kept saying the same stupid thing over and over. Why didn't he join my party, then? Oh, it's because I have to talk to him at the NIGHTCLUB to get him to join, and not the other places. Yeah, let me spend hours tracking this twig down to get him to join my party. He's probably armed with a banana and a half-spent roll of toilet paper, and dies in two hits anyway, so who cares? I also regret the developers' decision to make some characters agree to join you only after you spoken with them every day for a certain number of days. Nothing quite like artificially running up the length of the game by making players carpetbomb the city every day with hellos. The city is enormous, by the way. Just.... never mind, I'm going to change the subject.

-Music. Sorry, this is one of the aspects of Radiata that I really really really didn't like. While there might be a song or two that's cool, most are of the irritating twangy jazz/almost bluegrass kinda crap that just plain grate. The battle music is ok, but the boss music is plain unforgivable. I was never sure if a fight was about to break out, or if a circus troupe was about to perform. How about at least a little serious battle music?

-Battles. Pretty enjoyable. You basically control your main character while the CPU controls your teammates. However, you can "influence" your other characters through battle commands like "attack that enemy" or "be my meat shield", but these are kinda stupid anyway, seeing as how the best way to be successful in battles is to simply forego the commands and just bring along teammates who have high Strength levels. These Attack Machines will often mow down most of the enemy number before you can lift your weapon.

-Kicking. That's right, kicking. You can kick just about everything in the game. It's how you "find things". You can kick stones, pebbles, trees, insects, crates, lightposts, old ladies, treasure chests, whatever. It's the only way you can really obtain items aside from winning them in battle or wasting money on them. The kicking thing is funny at first (when it's novel), but I soon became tired of the sport, mainly after seeing how large some of these areas are. Oh, and especially after I kicked that one flower-planting lady in the tush twice, only to have her sic guards on me, who kept regenerating endlessly throughout the battle, forcing me to run using one of my items. That was frustrating. And that did it.

-Saving. More irritating than it needs to be. Rather than give you the option of saving ad libitum in the "overworld" or, hell, wherever you want, you can only save at certain locations, AT certain times. Yes, that's right, a save point in one spot will often DISAPPEAR once you advance the story. You can also only recover health by sleeping in your own bed, which coincidentally is usually found at the CENTER of the game's map. So you get to save your game, travel out on a quest fighting enemies, kicking nature, and collecting items for a few hours, fight a particularly nasty group of enemies which happen to kick your arse, and guess what? RESTART from the last save point. That happened to me twice early on in the game. Nothing like having to redo a few hours of work. Granted, this hasn't happened since the beginning of the game (actually, save points sometimes occur TOO often where I am in the game!) but at least I can say, you've been warned.

-Story Progression/Time. Almost didn't mention this point. The game runs on a day/night time system. Whether you're traipsing across the meadowlands, chasing down townspeople, or standing completely still getting a sunburn, time is moving. Every time the clock hits 12 a new day begins. Often after the main plot takes a break, you're allowed to run around and do whatever you want. The thing is you only have a few days to talk to people, buy junk to equip yourself with, or work through some sidequests. If you spend too much time and those days all pass, the main story automatically moves on. This can get a little annoying sometimes. On the other hand if you're the kind of person to says "screw it" to sidequests and spending money, you can just sleep in your bed 2-4 times until the main story progresses. Remember, the whole game seems to be on a day system, like a calendar.

That's about all I can say at this point in the game. I was interested in collecting characters at first, but then I found out that there were ~150 of them, and that it took way too much trial and error "talk to everyone you meet everyday with different people in your party" crud in order to convince many of them to join. So now I'm just moving myself through the main game, only stopping to complete the occasional sidequest, and I figure I'll finish the game in another 10 hours or so. The game is nothing truly outstanding, but it's enjoyable for what it is. (And don't buy this game if it's priced over $40)

Will I play through it again after that? Nope, no reason to-- even if there's an alternate storyline/ending. This game has enough charm for a good single play-thru and then it's exchangin' time.

Parts of fate being played

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 11 / 13
Date: October 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

is all part of destiny.
Pros:
-nice polished graphics
-nice voiceoveres
-addictive gameplay
-decent story
-175 friends to get, man those who love this kinda stuff, is gonna have a ball.
-Days that go by like grand theft auto
-2 diffrent paths along the way which makes playing a second time a near must
-This is a nice game by tri ace
Cons:
-If Jack dies, it's game over(It doesn't matter if the rest of your crew is 100% healthy, if you lose, game's over)
-You can only control Jack(Say like if I needed to be healed and my healer wouldn't do it until my HP was blinking red, it wouldn't be much help if I got struck before I was healed.)
-Too short(Even with collecting friends as a hobby, I completed the game in 31 hours. Really says much about the lenght of the game's story.)
-Too much is given away before events(Too much dromatic irony does get repetitive)
-Cutting ouy Nami Tamaki's opening song and Yuka Imaizumi's lyrics for the end making it a instrumental ain't cool.(I'm the kinda person who loves hearing a nice ending theme after beating the game. And I love Nami Tamaki, so taking her out sux)
Nutral:
-Jack is the only one you have to buy for(In a way it saves money, but yet if everyone else had a weapon to upgrade by buying, that be cool.)
-If you remember suikoden for all the good or bad reasons, collecting friends might be exciting or boring.
-Man I wish you could get Jack to get with any of all the other chicks than ridley(Like maybe Flau, Miranda, Iris, Lily, Natale, Alicia, and Rachel)

Radiata stories is a decent game, altho it's definitly similar to suikoden, but more addctive gameplay, but too short for me. For those who like RPGs or suikoden, should give this a try.

peace

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