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Bad Game.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: September 02, 2008
Author: Amazon User

this game i think could have been much better if it wasn't filled with non stop lame sounds. like the kind you hear on the radio sometimes. and if the charecters weren't really lame and child like i mean your main guy is suppose to be the son of the greatest knight and he acts like a little girl. this game is definately targeted for younger audiences which is wierd why they gave it a teen rating. Also the combat was really lame, it was one button and if you hit a guy enough times you could do a power hit... yeah super exciting, but it was really boring and the whole game looks really cartoonish, like kingdom hearts... another bad game if you ask me who thought it would be could to put final fantasy and disney together?

ok so far

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: April 26, 2008
Author: Amazon User

the game is ok so far, though i stopped playing after a couple of days to play a different game i bought at the same time. as i've enjoyed the other game so much, i'll get back to this one after. but...like i said, its ok so far. graphics are different, not bad though. voices aren't the best, but what they have to say is pretty bad indeed! gameplay is ok, fighting can be frustrating at times though.

so yea, its OK so far!

Almost like playing an anime...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 24, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game is pretty good and original on SQUARE-ENIX's part. Sure, the time system can get annoying, but check out all of the stuff to do. Over 100 characters to recruit, pretty good graphics, and more. It also has an extremely large amount of voices done, basically every NPC has a voice.

If you want a fun RPG, this would be a good one to get.

Really original and fantastic so please do a good action, buy it

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: March 06, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Yeah, that's right, this game is really great. It's the only rpg that i did a lot of time (except maybe shining force 2 a tactical rpg on the sega megadrive). It's simple, when you got beautiful graphics and musics, sharp controls, a pleasant story, a "living" world, and a great sense of humor, you can not really complain.
But nothing in this worls is perfect so maybe even if you can gather a lot of people in your friends list and have them in your party, you will always play the main charachter, Jack. Then, even if you can choose your side and finish the game twice, the main story itself is not very long. It took me about 80 hours to finish the game twice and recruit Lenneth Valkyrie, a hidden character, in the optionnal dungeon. And let me tell you that i'm no god of game. But it can be about 150 hours if you want to complete everything because you'll have to do the game over and over again to add everybody in your list, have the best items, and more. Plus, you do not loose your leveling when you restart the game.
But i speak too much. Still, i believe radiata stories is one of the best rpg games that the ps2 had. And when you know that it had been made by the ones who did the star ocean series and the valkyrie profile series, you just know what you have to do now...

Great RPG!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: March 01, 2008
Author: Amazon User

There's so many great qualities about Radiata Stories that drives me to play it over and over again savoring every moment! First of all, you have the option to recruit over 170 characters who each have a unique request you must fufill before they join you on your quest. I won't say much as to avoid spoiling anything but as you get further into the game you have to choose sides: the Human Side or the Non-Human Side. Whichever side you choose greatly affects what the ending will be like so choose wisely!

Standard RPG with a Few Unique Quirks

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 19, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This review is written by James Shea, my son.

A charming PS2 with a lot of unique touches, Radiata Stories is in many ways a standard RPG but distinguishes itself in many ways as well.

The story follows Jack Russell (as in, the terrier), an enthusiastic young knight, as he negotiates the treacherous path carved out by his profession. The early parts of the game follow his unit, the Rose Cochon (pink pig) brigade, as it takes missions to protect the humans' alliances with the other races of their world. The story doesn't really develop until later in the game, when Jack is forced to choose an alliance that will dictate the entire rest of the game. The game's main virtue, in terms of story, is the wide variety of characters that it has - 175 in all, similar in scale only to the Suikoden games. Depending on the path chosen, different characters can be gained.

The gameplay is a cross between standard RPGs (encounters lead to mini-arenas where enemies are fought, just like most other RPGs) and action RPGs like Kingdom Hearts (the action is real-time, and the player must attack and dodge with the controller. The player is always Jack, who has four options: attacking, defending, using a charge attack (that takes energy gained from regular attacks to do a more powerful one), and items. His companions tend to be more diverse and have a wider array of skills and weapons. Mages, clerics, and warriors - among others - are available.

One of the neatest things about the game is the fact that the NPCs live actual lives - depending on the time, they will be at a different place and can be observed moving back and forth. Stores will be closed at night; not unusual, but unlike some others which have an arbitrary locked door and a sign, this one actually shows the shop owners heading home. One early puzzle involves getting a chest guarded by a dwarf; at 5 o'clock game time, the dwarf will head for the pub, and you are free to get the chest's contents.

Despite some darker twists in the story, the graphics are bright, colorful, and cheerful, the music is bouncy and energetic, and the characters all have light-hearted moments. Graphically, the game resembles a cross between Final Fantasy IX and Dark Cloud 2. It's cartoony and the characters are misproportioned like FF9, and the colors more resemble DC2. The voice acting is done pretty well, but can be turned off if preferred (the options are text only, text and voice, or voice only).

As a whole, this game falls into the same categories as other RPGs, but also tends to stand out on its own merits. While a lot of the game is the same old stuff, it has a few quirks to make it unique.

Rating: 8/10.

Fun, but a little shallow

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: November 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Radiata Stories is one of those typical RPGs portraying an epic struggle between the forces of good and evil, where the fate of the world hangs in the balance, and a young nobody becomes the deciding factor in this ultimate struggle. The difference this time [Slight Spoiler] is that you get to decide which side to fight for. In short, Radiata Stories is no Final Fantasy, but for around $19.99 it has enough gameplay and charm to keep you occupied and entertained for a good 40-50 hours.

The main thing you will notice when starting Radiata Stories is the odd sense of humor throughout. Though the game gets plenty serious by the time things are building to a climax, the story and dialogue are constantly interrupted by bizarre gags and ridiculous characters. I found this to be very refreshing, especially since the voice acting for the main characters is nicely done. Another great aspect of the game is the gorgeous graphics-- both characters and world come alive in an anime-style cel-shading that rivals just about anything else I've seen on the PS2. The only downside to the graphics is that cutscenes are few and far between, and most of the time, they don't vary much from the in-game graphics. Don't expect any breathtaking Final Fantasy style cinematic movies.

The battle system is also a little different. Instead of random encounters, you can see enemies on the map and avoid them if you choose (similar to Chrono Cross on the PS1, or perhaps Final Fantasy XII). Also, once you initiate combat, you're thrown into a real-time brawl where you have total control of the main character, and (eventually) limited ability to command your three allies. This combat system is quite fun at first, but becomes repetitive once you play deeper into the game. The main issue I had, was that once you level up sufficiently and learn the best approach to fighting the enemies, battles become far too easy. You can essentially do the exact same maneuver for every fight you get into, up to and including the final boss.

Another downside to the gameplay, is that there is not a whole lot of customization involved. You can switch to different weapons with the main character, choose which special ability everyone has, and select a list of combos to perform in battle. Other than that, you have little control over what's going on with your party.

The main area of depth in the game is your recruitment of allies throughout the game world. Essentially, every single character you talk to can be recruited into your party. And if you bother to fight alongside them enough, even the lowliest peasant boy can turn into a god on the battlefield. A lot of characters can only be recruited under a specific set of conditions, and finding out how when and where to satisfy these requirements is a lot of the fun. Being able to run around from one side of the world to the other (from a decently early point in the game) in search of party members and key items is thrilling as well, and it prevents the game from feeling linear. Since you also have a continual list of missions to perform in the order you choose, the game gives you a truly satisfying amount of freedom.

So all in all, there are some pretty major high points and some frustrating lows for Radiata Stories. If you are a hardcore RPG player, you might find this game too simplistic. If you are a fan of a good story, surprising wit, and a large world to freely explore, however, you'll probably get a lot of satisfaction out of it.

Good Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is a very cool game. The art is gorgeous. The game play is really awsome after you really get in to the game. My only problem with it is the lack of save points, but thats just a challenge. Just play it.

I dont know what all the rave is about this game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: August 07, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game is definately aimed at a younger generation and not only that the game is very repetitive. you always are completing jobs and missions, but then you have to go back to the same place over and over and over again. I played this game for about 10 hours then I couldnt take it anymore. the game might have been fun if you could have ventured out more and the fighting system was a little better. I really didnt understand the game to be quite frank as I think they were trying to make it a funny role playing game, but it came across to me as dull and unamusing. this game might be fun for younger kids, or people who like boring rpg's, but other then those select few I suggest renting this game or borrowing it from someone before spending your money on it.

Get it cheap and be mildly happy...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: May 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game is pretty standard issue story wise. You play hero X, get involved with a grand malevolent scheme, thwart evil plans... blah blah blah. The story takes a huge back seat in this game, moving on.

The combat is the highlight of this game I believe, as should be expected of the makers of the Star Ocean series. You have your choice from a few different weapons each having unique attacks that you earn through use. You can combine up to 5 of these standard attacks to form your combo any way you see fit. You eventually learn one power attack (Volty Attack) for each weapon. I pretty much hack and slashed my way through every battle even though you can block and counter. I found that after you had attacks that could break the enemies guard you had basically won the fight. You can also call on your partners to use their various attacks once you get to a point in the story. Finally you can change formations on the fly which allow you to surround enemies and pound them or do flanking formations and other such things. The only thing that sucks about all of this is that you gradually open these features with the story so you're forced to wait quite a while before combat gets even remotely interesting.

Combat aside, this game is basically one big distraction of collecting friends Suikoden style. The crappy part is you don't get a castle/stronghold like in Suikoden, you simply collect 100+ equally worthless allies (Because your main character is all that really matters) while you wait for something to happen in the story. This drove me completely bonkers. I was so bored sometimes in this game I would repeatedly have to sleep or leave my game running just to get the story to advance because quite frankly I didn't care to collect every character after a while. In Suikoden you felt compelled to collect everybody because every now and again they acutally did something additional for you like sell you stuff or teleport you, not the case in Radiata Stories.

In summary, this is a collection game. The story is superficial and cliche, the combat is fun but one dimensional, and everything takes a side note to making friends. It's really a shame because the game looks and sounds good but it's can be a terrible bore to play at times.

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