Monday, February 12, 2018

Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology Review (Nintendo 3DS)



Written By: Patrick Orquia

TITLE: Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology
DEVELOPER: Atlus
PUBLISHER: Atlus
GENRE: JRPG
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 1
RELEASE DATE: 29 June 2017 (JP)/13 February 2018 (NA)/16 February 2018 (EU)
PLATFORM: 3DS system
PRICE: $39.99






Radiant Historia originally came out on the Nintendo DS in November 2010 in Japan and January 2011 elsewhere. I have never played the original, but I have heard of high praises about the game, one of them saying that this game is one of the best JRPGs ever. Any game can be the best JRPG ever, sure, and it would take me a few more years after that to see for myself if such high praises are indeed true.

Fast forward to last year, a port of the game was announced for the 3DS, now titled Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology. I knew back then that it would be good, and the chance to finally play the game made me look forward to it.





Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology is not just a simple port on the 3DS. The game now has additional story contents, gameplay elements, and some minor graphical enhancements. There are not much changes in visuals and the game still retains the feel of the DS original. No stereoscopic 3D, much to my dismay, but I understand why that is the case. The game doesn’t need it, since this is not a 3D remake of the original, but still, since it’s on the 3DS, the added 3D effect would have improved it, if even ever so slightly. Visuals aside, the game really shines with its deep story and unique battle mechanics.


The game starts in the middle of a war in the continent of Vainqeur between rival kingdoms of Alistel and Granorg. The continent is desperately trying to get rid of a mysterious plague that turns the land into a big desert and the people to sand. Stocke, the main protagonist of the game, is a member of the Special Intelligence unit of Alistel, and he is tasked to lead a rendezvous mission along with new recruits Raynie and Marco. Before the mission started, he was given by the SI chief a magical book with blank pages called the White Chronicle. At the start, he doesn’t know what the book is for, other than for bringing good luck, as he is told. During the mission, Stocke’s team gets ambushed, with Raynie and Marco getting killed. When all hopes seem to be lost, Stocke gets transported to a place out of time called Historia, where he is greeted by two mysterious twins with magical abilities, Teo and Lippti, and they tell Stocke that the White Chronicles allows him to go travel back in forks in time where an important decision has to be be made, called nodes, to right the wrongs and re-write history, making new timelines in the process. With this new ability, Stocke now has the important mission to do whatever he has to do to get resolve the war and get rid of the continent of the deadly plague before it’s too late.


On the surface, Radiant Historia looks like a typical JRPG. The protagonist leads the team and they battle enemies, earn XP, level up, earn gold, buy new stuff, rinse, and repeat. What makes this stand out from games of the genre is its unique gameplay. You have the ability to not only travel in time (which has been seen before in games like Chrono Trigger) but also travel to entirely different timelines to rectify any wrong decisions in the past (which usually end up to the protagonists getting killed) and get new abilities or information that can then be used in the other timelines.



There are two main timelines in the game, the Standard History and the Alternate History. These two timelines run concurrently, and Stocke has the ability to travel to nodes on either timelines whenever he needs to. Fortunately, character levels, money, items, and learned abilities and information get carried over when he time travels, alleviating the possible headache that this gameplay mechanic might bring to the player. It is up to you to make sure that the decision that that you make is going to be the best one, meaning Stocke and friends continue progressing through the story and not ending up dead. If the contrary happens and the teams ends up getting annihilated (or other negative outcomes, such as the army forces of Alistel getting wiped out by Granorg or worse), you get transported to Historia and face the twins where they explain to you what happened and give you the chance to try the other decision or maybe even travel to a whole different node altogether to maybe learn new information or ability or prevent any bad scenarios to happen. The game’s narrative is actually linear, and you won’t be able to proceed further with the game if you don’t follow what you are told to do, but the time travel element gives the game a new twist as it encourages you to think ahead. 


The game has a world map, divided into separate areas like in Super Mario Bros. 3, and each area is composed of sections connected by different paths that you can take to reach the exit to reach the next area or maybe even to go back to previously visited ones (some areas cannot be accessed, depending on which node or timeline that you are in, maybe to prevent you from wandering off unnecessarily). On any given area, enemies are visible on the field, and you have the option to slash them to stun them and then either ignore them completely or engage them in battle. If you decide to engage them, the game switches to a turn-based battle screen. This is where another unique gameplay element is shown: the enemies are arranged in a 3x3 grid, with enemies in front having stronger attacks and those at the back having weaker ones, and your party’s attack power against enemies is also proportional to the position of the enemy. Stocke and friends can unleash assault attacks to push enemies to different directions to put them in another position, and attacks can be chained together to create combos. You can push multiple enemies into one position, then attack them all at once. The longer the combo, the stronger the attack, and the bigger the post-battle rewards are. In addition to these push/left/right/air assault attacks, your characters can also learn other skills, such as elemental (fire/frost/lightning) attacks, healing spells, and other buff/debuff spells. The enemies can also unleash some attacks some devastating attacks of their own if you don’t plan ahead. The order of turns for every character and enemy is shown during battles, and with that info, you can plan you next combo attacks. You can even exchange turns of your party members to maximize the available skills that each one has to give you the best advantage. In addition to these skills, your characters will also be able to perform Mana Blast skills. Each one has a different Mana Blast Skills, such as Stocke being able to hit all enemies multiple times at once or Raynie being able to unleash powerful fire attacks. A Mana Blast bar is filled gradually after each move, and when the bar is full, that is the time to unleash them.


New to this version of Radiant Historia are the Support Attacks. They are performed by party members who are currently not part of the active lineup (only 3 characters are active in the party at any given time and those who are sidelined only get a fraction of the XP points gained in battle) against enemies. These Support Attacks are triggered at random, and characters learn new Support Attacks as they level up.

If you want to take a break from the main story, you may go to back to Historia and jump into the Vault of Time, an extra dungeon added to the 3DS version. Here, you can explore many floors of interconnected areas that are filled with enemies. The higher you go, the more powerful the enemies are. While you are in the Vault of Time, you will not be able to use any items in your inventory, so you can only last in this area for as long as your currently available health or MP can allow you. You also don’t earn any monetary rewards, but you will earn Mementos after defeating enemeis, which you can use to trade for items, weapons, armor, and accessories. Some of these can only be found in the Vault of Time, so you will need tackle this extra dungeon if you are a completionist. Of course, you still earn XP and also get some rare items dropped by defeated monsters, so if you want to grind without having to run into story elements, this is a good place to do it.


Another addition to this game is the character Nemesia, with her airship, the Dunamis. She provides a third parallel timeline called the Possible Histories. These are side quests that Stocke can tackle alongside the two main timelines. These Possible Histories act as alternate scenarios and will require you to have a thorough knowledge of the different nodes that you have encountered so far in the game, as you will be required to collect different items, information, or abilities to resolve them. Resolving a PH side quest grants you monetary rewards as well as Artifacts that Nemesia can use to stop the desertification of the continent. This additional content can either be activated at the start of the game (perfect mode) or after you beat the game (append mode). Also, a new Hard difficulty is provided to those who seek a more challenging way to play the game, ideally for those who have played the original.

To fully complement the visuals and gameplay, the game’s excellent soundtrack really does the job well. Composed by Yoko Shimomura (who also composed the music for Super Mario RPG and its spiritual successors of Mario & Luigi games, among many others), the music is really top-notch all throughout and doesn’t need any overhaul. In addition to this, voice acting is now included in the game, enhancing most cut scenes that include dialogues between characters. Main characters’ lines are fully voiced, while less significant NPCs only provide a few voiced lines or even grunts, similar to Fire Emblem: Awakening. Cut scenes can either be set to auto, meaning you don’t have to press A after a character is done talking and just watch the conversations unfold. You can also fast forward them if you don’t want to listen to the characters at all or again (if you are replaying a scenario).


The 3DS maybe already in its twilight, but Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology comes just in time to still provide a superb gaming experience like many other 3DS games have done in the past. For the likes of me who have not played the original game, this a perfect opportunity to do so, as this game is indeed one of the best to have been released for the DS, and now, also for the 3DS. If you still haven’t fully Switch’d, bring out your 3DS again and play this game and be part of a radiant history.


REPLAY VALUE: high


PROS:
  •  Excellent narrative style that involve time travel to different nodes and timelines
  • Unique gameplay during battles, with enemies arranged on a 3x3 grid and can be manipulated for the protagonist to unleash combos
  • Retains the look and feel of the original DS game and is only enhanced slightly for the 3DS
  • Very good voice acting
  • Awesome soundtrack
  • Likeable characters with very good character design
  • Party members can be customized with weapons, armors, and accessories to improve their attack, defense, and other stats
  • The new game contents are a welcome addition to the original game, making this game the definitive version of Radiant Historia

CONS:
  • Not in stereoscopic 3D. It’s not game breaking at all and the game still looks really good without it, but since the game is on the 3DS, I think the 3D effect would have enhanced the visuals much more


RATING: 5/5 Stocke and exploding barrels



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