Radiant Historia – Paradoxes strike again!

So far, so good. About 19 hours into the game, so I’m probably more than halfway through, but I’ve been playing Radiant Historia really late at night when I’m super sleepy, so half of that time might consist of nodding off, haha.

I’ve learned even more field abilities now that help you to get all sorts of goodies on the field, not to mention you usually can’t pass some arbitrary roadblock in a certain part of the story unless you learn them. What are field abilities? Well in Radiant Historia, it’s stuff like the ability to pull those barrels in the picture over to the rocks on the left and then blow them up to create an opening. It can also be the ability to slash at vines in your way, or to see invisible treasure boxes and barrels.

That last ability was a real treat when I got it, ‘cos I went back to my old haunts and made out like a bandit. Unfortunately there’s a tiny number of locations in this game and a sickening amount of backtracking, so it’s not as exciting as it would normally be. There’s your city Alicetel, Lazvil Hill (dungeon), Alma Mountain(dungeon), Sand Fort, the roads to and from it (dungeon), Granorg, some pointless village whose name I can’t remember, and Celestia, village of the Saturos. Only that, in 19 hours of playing. And I thought Ar Tonelico 2 was bad. Well, at least Radiant Historia has the excuse that it’s on the DS.

Oh, I got some new party members too: Ath, some huge guy whose name I shockingly can’t remember (hold on while I check…ah, Gafka). And one other spoiler character whose name I won’t mention. Okay fine, it’s Elca. It’s not that big a spoiler, I guess. I’ve had them for a while, and the same thing happens to them as happens to Rainey and Marco – when they level up in one timeline, they automatically get stronger in the next one. This is because, as I said in my first RH post, what happens to them in one line directly affects them in the other one, if they die in one, they die in the other. This actually spoils part of the story in-game, when certain characters are missing, presumed dead in one line, but are just fine in the other, so you know they’re not really dead. All well and rational, right?

NOT! Those cheating writers, they’re giving favoritism to certain characters! XYZ just died in timeline A, why is XYZ still perfectly fine in timeline B? No fair! The only explanation I can think of is that you’d progressed a little further in A than in B, but in that case if you progress with B without fixing A, XYZ should drop dead pretty quickly. I’ll progress a little further tonight and what tell you happens when I get there (as if those nepotistic writers will let that happen).

Radiant Historia – Battle system

Ideally I would have liked to make a video to demonstrate the system, but that would take too long (i.e. I can’t do it), so I’ll just briefly describe what Radiant Historia‘s battle system is like.

Firstly, it’s really just a normal turn-based system. You can field up to three party members at a time, and apparently you can switch them out but I’ve never had to yet you can’t switch them out so be careful when choosing your party. If you’ve played FFX or Nostalgia, you know what it’s like to have the characters moving according to their speed, with little icons showing who goes first and who goes next. If you manage to chain your allies’ attacks in a row, you get more EXP and money at the end of the battle.

But what do you do if the enemies’ turns interrupt yours? Well, then you can use the Change command to switch places with an enemy. Again I haven’t experimented much with this, but my few experiments show that the gains are not that big in a regular battle, and since the Change command leaves your party member highly vulnerable to attacks for a while, it’s dangerous to try in a boss battle. I’m thinking of trying it again when my characters are a little stronger, right now they’re only level 20.

Now, do you see those dots on the picture above? The enemies are arranged on the battle map in a 3×3 grid, with most enemies taking up one spot and a few larger ones taking up several. I’ve seen up to 6 enemies appearing at once. On that grid, they can move forward, back, left, etc. The closer they are to your party, the more damage they do but the more damage they take as well, and vice-versa the further away they go. Magicians and projectile-users don’t have such a handicap.

So what do you do when an enemy’s right in your face killing ur doodz (easy game is easy, but let’s just assume)? In this game, you have attacks that can change the enemy’s place on the map. Just use your “push” attack to knock him back on the map! Or use the “pull grapple” attack to pull that pesky bowman closer so you can knock his block off!

It gets even better, though. Attacks in this game don’t affect enemies per se, rather they attack the spot the enemy is standing on. What I mean is, if you use your push/pull/left/right attacks to get two or more enemies to stand on the same space, subsequent chain attacks by your allies will hit all two/three/four enemies. You can even knock enemy A into enemy B, then pull both of them together onto enemy C’s space before whacking all three with your best magic! Sweet!

It ain’t all sunshine and roses though. Let’s see, how do I describe this? Has anyone ever played Lufia and the Fortress of Doom? No, not the super-famous Lufia 2 that just got a DS remake, I’m talking about the first Lufia game. It’s one of the first RPGs I played on my own so I have very fond memories of it but damn, the battle system was stooopid. You entered all your commands at the beginning of a turn, then even if the enemy targeted was dead, the characters would still run up and slash at the empty space instead of picking another target!

Well, fine, Lufia 1 was released in 1993, 17 years ago. Radiant Historia was released just last week! Why the <bleep> do they do the same thing?! I’m talking about the chain attacks. If Stock attacks an enemy and kills it, why the <bleep> do Rainey and Marco follow up and hit it too? Sure it’ll break the chain, but shouldn’t any character with a lick of sense go for the next enemy?! You don’t get overkill bonuses in this game either and as I said the extra EXP isn’t worth it, so this is realllllly annoying! Argh! Stupid, stupid, stupid!

Still, as I said, the battles are really easy so far. Either your level is high enough and you walk all over the enemies, or your level isn’t high enough so you spend some time grinding or moving the other timeline’s story forward instead. I’m only 8 hours in because I’ve been playing TokiMemo Girl’s Side 3 (Aizawa route), but it’s still on rails. Fun rails though, I’m having a good time. Later!

Radiant Historia – First Impressions

I’m about 5 hours into Radiant Historia so far and it’s not bad at all. Of course, seeing as even short RPGs these days go for over 30 hours, 5 hours is pretty much nothing, but I’m liking it so far. I stayed up till 5am playing it last night. The thing about a game like this, though, is that no matter how good the music and battle system are, the story can ruin the whole game completely if it’s not done right. I’m thinking Chrono Cross and FF8 (ooh, but I love that game) for starters, but I can think of more examples.

So, the story. You live on a continent that is gradually turning into desert. Two countries, Alicetel and Granorg, are at war over the remaining fertile land and resources. You play the part of Stock, an Alicetel soldier who comes into possession of the White Chronicle, a book that lets you go back into the past and change events. Guided by two mysterious twins, you embark on a journey to restore history to the way it should be. Once you find out there’s an evil party using the Black Chronicle to mess up history, it’s up to you to go back and forth across time and dimensions and set right what went wrong.

Okay, so far so good. But what’s a time/dimension travel story without gigantic plotholes? It’s only been 5 hours and I’ve already spotted one. See, the very first time you use your powers is to go back in time and save your teammates Marco and Rainey from death, right? At that time you’re gravely injured, and the injury doesn’t go away even when you go back in time. The twins explain that this is because “your time” is different from “the world’s time“. If you get hurt or killed, it affects you, not “the world”, so it won’t go away. That’s why if you die, you’re dead and you can’t go back and change that. Cool, awesome, makes sense.

But! Once you use your powers to bring back your teammates and keep playing, you discover that they have “their time” as well. If their level goes up or their HP goes down in a particular dimension, when you travel to the other one, they still keep their new level/status/abilities. But if they do have “their time“, how come you were able to save them from the dead? And if they don’t have “their time“, then they count as part of “The World”, which means they shouldn’t be able to travel back and forth with you in their current states. When you go back to the old timeline, they should revert to their lower levels and states, right?

And isn’t it funny how they never remark on it? Like, “wait, weren’t we at point so-and-so 5 minutes ago? How did we get halfway across the world in a few seconds? And why do I suddenly have all these new abilities?” Unless it’s a different Rainey and Marco in the old timeline, in which case how do they have the same levels and equipment? Or maybe the process of crossing over affects their memories too so they think they always were like that? Phew, I’m giving myself a headache just thinking about it. Maybe it’ll be explained later on, I’ve still got a long way to go.

Another thing about this time/dimension traveling stuff. It’s way too limited. I mean, yeah, they couldn’t just let you hop back and forth whenever you want. That would be too much for any programmer to handle. As it is right now, however, the story is largely on rails. You take 10 steps forward in Path A and realize you’re supposed to meet Character A but he’s dead in this timeline. So you go to Path B, prevent Character A’s death, and when you go back to Path A, he’s alive again and the story can go on. Because somehow the Character A in both worlds is one and the same person and yet somehow they’re not, so if A dies in one world he also dies in another. Unless he’s on your team, then he’s perfectly fine. The game’s quirky like that.

I’m liking the art, the character designs and the music so far and trying to keep an open mind about the story. I was going to post about the battle system as well, but I did stay up till 5am so I’m tired. Maybe tomorrow, we’ll see.

Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side 3rd Story – Taira GET!

Ta-daa! Secret character No.1, Taira Kenta! Taira is a rather shy, awkward boy in your class whose confession you can only get by following a very specific series of events. Miss one and it’s good-bye to love.

Fortunately enough the steps are easy enough to follow and several of them are automatic so you know you’re on the right track. I got my info from GameFAQs, but GF threads are known to disappear, so I’ll just reproduce the steps here so you can get him if you want. Remember, you can’t get him on your first playthrough, only subsequent ones.

1st Year

April 4th (04/04) – First Day of School
Before you meet Mr Oosako, the teacher, you need to touch him in class once. He’s the one with the “x” on his back on the far right hand side of the touch screen. See picture on the right.  After you meet Mr Oosako, you need to touch him again. He’ll then introduce himself…and get teased by his friends (if you miss this, start over. You’re screwed).

June 13th (06/13), Sports Day
During the folk dance, after you’re done dancing with all 3 or so of the main characters, he is the guy in the background dancing with the other girl. Touch him.

December 7th (12/07), Exams
Automatic Event.

December 12th (12/12)
Automatic Event, follow up from Dec 7th.

February 13th (02/13), Valentine’s Day
As you’re leaving school, you will hear Taira being teased by his friends about Valentine’s Day. He’s the guy in front of the shoe box near the center of the touchscreen. Touch him.

2nd Year

April 5th (04/05), First Day of School
Automatic event.

June 12th (06/12), Sports Day
Just like in the first year, you need to touch him after you’re done dancing with all the main characters.
September 13th, School Trip to Hokkaido
The bus scene, on the very first day. You need to touch the guy in front of the bus near the center of the touch screen.

October 1st
December 1st
January 8th
On the first two dates above, he will ask you to walk home with him after school. Say yes. On the third date, you can choose to ask him to walk home with you. You have to choose to, otherwise you’ll miss him.

February
Automatic event. You may need Rose Queen parameters (130 or more in everything) to trigger this, not sure.

3rd Year

April 4th (04/04), First Day of School
Automatic event.

June 11th (06/11), Sports Day
Touch him after you’re done dancing with the main characters.

October 30th (10/30), Preparation for Culture Festival
You need to have Rose Queen parameters going INTO this period to trigger Taira’s Culture festival event. Prepare with him for the play. Choose the Culture Festival event every single day, then enjoy the cute CG! Btw, you have to get chosen as Rose Queen to get his ending, so stay on top of your stats and make sure no guys detest you.

December 1st
After Mr Oosako’s little speech, you will see the same background as you did first year Valentine’s Day (in front of shoe boxes, leaving school). He’s the same guy in front of the shoe box. Touch him and there is a conversation event.

If you complete all of the above, you should get Taira’s save icon, and you should be in the clear.

The jury’s still out on whether getting any of the main guys to Tokimeki mode will override Taira’s ending, but just to be on the safe side, try to avoid going on too many dates with the other guys. It might be a bit hard because once your stats start to rise, the other guys start to like you even without you doing anything. To worsen matters, I was aiming for Rose Queen so I decided to be nice to everyone – buying them birthday presents, walking them home after school, etc.

After a while Ruka suddenly decided he was in love with me and started asking me out on dates. Geez, Ruka, haven’t you had enough? If it was Konno or Kou asking me out I’d have been in real trouble, but Ruka was easy enough to turn down. Oh, but I finally figured out why his grades are so skewed. It turns out he read all the textbooks from cover to cover because he was bored in class. That makes exams easy for him. Math, he’s just good at math, but reading the textbook doesn’t help him in Japanese, which is why he always gets terrible grades in that. Well, that’s better than Hazuki randomly falling asleep, I guess.

I spent all of yesterday working on the Taira ending instead of playing more Radiant Historia. I don’t know about that game…wait, mustn’t make another of my snap judgments. Anyway, since I wasn’t dating and rarely went shopping on the Taira route, I had many more days to work on my stats, so they were ridiculously high by the end. Over 200 for everything! Naturally I decided to go to a 1st-class university at the end, only to find out that Taira only got into a 2nd-class uni. Oh no, poor Taira. With him in another school and me and Konno together in one place…tut tut, it’s all over for you, dear boy. >:-D

I also took the chance and started the route for another secret character, the novelist Aizawa Shougo. But this time I’m really going to play Radiant Historia, so the report on cranky old Aizawa will have to wait till later. See ya!

Tokimeki Memorial Girls’ Side 3 – Ruka GET!

Finally! I’ve gone through all the standard guys in the game and gotten their ending! I’m feeling very satisfied now, I’m not sure why.

Well well, Sakurai Ruka huh? I believe I’ve referred to him as a slimebag and a borderline criminal in the past, but I take those words back now. He’s not such a bad guy at all. The Sakurai brothers just act tough to begin with but when you get to know them they’re really very sweet.

Ruka’s route was far less boring than, say Arashi’s or Shitara’s, but the boy himself didn’t move me. As befitting the main character, though, all his CGs were great. I only wish I’d gotten more of them, but what’s why these kinds of games have so much replay value. You get some fun events on his route too, like the school trip where you and Ruka and Kou sneak out to eat crabs and get caught by Himurocchi, and so on.

Ruka himself…well, he’s a decent kid. He starts out friendly to begin with, but it’s a friendly flirtatiousness designed to prevent anyone from coming too close. Once you get under his skin and he falls in love with you, he’s much more honest and forthcoming and I like that Ruka much better. I’ll put him third behind Kou and Konno because while I like him, in general those sensitive “boo hoo, I’m afraid to love because I’ve already lost so much boo hoo” guys always piss me off. Give me Konno or Kou any day.

And you know, the game did give me Kou! For no reason at all! I don’t know what I did but by third year Kou was in love with me and asking me out on dates and stuff! Okay, okay, maybe I did give him handmade chocolate that one time, and I did give him birthday presents twice, but that was it! Honest!

He’s a bad brother, seriously. How dare you fall in love with your little brother’s girlfriend! And how dare she accept your dates and go out with— *gulp* So! Anyway! Thanks to that, I got a three-way relationship by accident! You’ve heard of those, right? If you raise Ruka-Kou/Konno-Shitara/Arashi-Junpei’s affection to similar levels, you start being able to hang out with them together! Go on dates together, walk home together, and there are plenty of joint CGs you can’t get unless you do the triangle relationship. Because I was doing a three-way at the time, I got a joint CG for the school play, which was Romeo and Juliet with a twist and sooooo funny! I’m grinning just remembering it :D.

Eventually I felt a little guilty, so I turned Kou down a few times and before I knew it the three-way option was gone. After that I just had to work on my stats for the next few months and then get the Ruka ending! Yay! I’d like to go back and do another three-way sometime, but there’s still a couple of character endings to get, starting with Oosako’s…I really don’t want to do him. Starting with Taira then, but not just yet.

Up next, Radiant Historia is out! It sounds like a cross between Chrono Trigger/Cross (travel to the past to change the present) with hints of Stella Deus (world being swallowed up) and people say it looks like Radiata Stories, which I’ve never played.

I’m a sucker for lovely dreamy cover art like that, so I’ve been waiting a long time for this to come out! Plus I watched the trailers and the battle system looks like it’s turn-based (I hate Action RPGs), but not a bland “just mash X” kind of system, so it’ll keep me on my toes. Not to mention the promise of multiple endings means there’ll be lots of replay value,I hope! Time to play!