Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology Review
By: Nik S
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Publisher: Atlus
Developer: Atlus
Release Date: February 13, 2018
Radiant Historia is a 2010 JRPG (Japanese role-playing game) for the Nintendo DS slowly became a cult classic over the past 8 years, though it never got the publicity that many of its fans said it deserved. It certainly had a lot of things going for it, a compound narrative filled with interweaving stories, and an interesting combat system. It was rather surprising to most critics and fans of the game to see that a remake was slated for a 2018 release.
Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology certainly doesn't push the 3DS to its limits, but the graphics are still really easy on the eyes as compared to its predecessor. Most things seem to just have small updates to them visually; character's sprite and their portraits during dialogue, and battle icons have had a subtle overhaul.
At the start, Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology gives you a few options to select from. It allows you to pick if you want the new storyline, which just has a few new scenes and options to play or the original. You can also now pick between difficulty levels, introducing a Friendly setting which eases up on the fighting so you can focus on the story.
The story follows a Secret Intelligence agent, a former soldier, called Stocke who is bestowed a magical book that allows him to travel through time. Though there is a catch, he is only allowed to travel to certain points in his own timeline to choose which actions to take to alter the course of history. The story doesn't punish you for choosing a wrong option and allows you to try a variety of options to get to the "true" history. You can flip between two alternate histories, one where Stocke sticks with the Secret Intelligence, and the other where he rejoins the army with his best friend. You'll switch between the two alternate histories and what can be learned from one history can be used to solve a hindrance in the other.
The battle mechanics don't bring anything new to the genre, but they are able to refine it to make it work fluidly. It's your standard turn-based JRPG that a character is able to act more depending on their speed and other stat factors. The one thing that makes the battle tactics more unique is that you are able to change your turn with another character's, but not just your own teammate's. Changing turns with an enemy does allow them to attack you sooner, but you can use it to your advantage by grouping your team's attacks together and create a combo. The enemies are on a three-by-three (3x3) grid they can move freely across on their turn. Your party can gain certain skills or magic through leveling that they can use to push enemies around on the grid, pile them together, and create larger combos.
If you're a fan of visual novels then Radiant History: Perfect Chronology is going to be right up your alley. There is a ton of dialogue, but each major character has a voice actor even during small cutscenes. The English dub is actually well done and the voices seem to fit the characters, which is nice because a good portion of the game is the party talking to each other trying to move the story forward.
If you still happen to have your 3DS, and really enjoy visual novels or JRPGs, then I would highly recommend you pick this one up. It's a fun story from start to finish, and has enough content to make sure that you're never bored with several side quests and different story missions that expand throughout a multiverse of timelines.
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Publisher: Atlus
Developer: Atlus
Release Date: February 13, 2018
Radiant Historia is a 2010 JRPG (Japanese role-playing game) for the Nintendo DS slowly became a cult classic over the past 8 years, though it never got the publicity that many of its fans said it deserved. It certainly had a lot of things going for it, a compound narrative filled with interweaving stories, and an interesting combat system. It was rather surprising to most critics and fans of the game to see that a remake was slated for a 2018 release.
Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology certainly doesn't push the 3DS to its limits, but the graphics are still really easy on the eyes as compared to its predecessor. Most things seem to just have small updates to them visually; character's sprite and their portraits during dialogue, and battle icons have had a subtle overhaul.
At the start, Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology gives you a few options to select from. It allows you to pick if you want the new storyline, which just has a few new scenes and options to play or the original. You can also now pick between difficulty levels, introducing a Friendly setting which eases up on the fighting so you can focus on the story.
The story follows a Secret Intelligence agent, a former soldier, called Stocke who is bestowed a magical book that allows him to travel through time. Though there is a catch, he is only allowed to travel to certain points in his own timeline to choose which actions to take to alter the course of history. The story doesn't punish you for choosing a wrong option and allows you to try a variety of options to get to the "true" history. You can flip between two alternate histories, one where Stocke sticks with the Secret Intelligence, and the other where he rejoins the army with his best friend. You'll switch between the two alternate histories and what can be learned from one history can be used to solve a hindrance in the other.
The battle mechanics don't bring anything new to the genre, but they are able to refine it to make it work fluidly. It's your standard turn-based JRPG that a character is able to act more depending on their speed and other stat factors. The one thing that makes the battle tactics more unique is that you are able to change your turn with another character's, but not just your own teammate's. Changing turns with an enemy does allow them to attack you sooner, but you can use it to your advantage by grouping your team's attacks together and create a combo. The enemies are on a three-by-three (3x3) grid they can move freely across on their turn. Your party can gain certain skills or magic through leveling that they can use to push enemies around on the grid, pile them together, and create larger combos.
If you're a fan of visual novels then Radiant History: Perfect Chronology is going to be right up your alley. There is a ton of dialogue, but each major character has a voice actor even during small cutscenes. The English dub is actually well done and the voices seem to fit the characters, which is nice because a good portion of the game is the party talking to each other trying to move the story forward.
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