Radiant Historia- Beat this yesterday. I am still not believing Headlock actually wrote this thing.
The gameplay ends up to be pretty linear despite what they call the branching plot, as you cannot advance further in one story line unless you met some requirements in another. So things still has to be done in order. Though, how the two worlds affect one another remains interesting, albeit plot holish.
The battle system is traditional turn based system with the typical SMT difficulty with grids. Later grunt fights are like mini boss fights, and how you must use buff or is stupidly SMT like. Manipulating enemies' position on the grids ends up to be very important, it becomes the source of MT damage and ways to reduce enemy damage by pushing them to back row. High damage ST damage and MT is almost none existent in this game, the game really makes you do grid combos if you want any of those. It is not a bad system and a good thing the game makes use it. But it does gets frustrating with the increasing difficulty (enemies hitting too hard thus you have no opening to arrange a combo), but level grinding is easy , so that remedied some of problems.
The plot and characters is too goo to be Headlock. It has been a long time to see a war fought because of power and greed instead of some brain dead RPG logic, and a sympathetic villain with a motive the payers can relate too. The side quests is also handled very well by letting them pay off in the endings (or should I say the world depends on it, the continent is doomed if the ecologist quest is not completed).
Now, my spoilerish rants on the characters:
Stock- He is so NOT 19 years old. Too mature and too intelligent to be one. A professional intelligence worker/assassin who does what he needs to do and does it well. A bit of anti-social but not an ass. Is a captain who knows how use his man an protects them. He is also free from the "people do not notice it despite it is totally transparent" rule. It is pretty refreshing to see he has things all figured out in his head despite the people around him all goes MYSTERY on him, and only have that "I thought so" expression when the last boss makes the big revelation. God, he is free of all the qualities I hate in conventional JRPG main, you serious Headlock wrote this guy!?
His relationship with Roche and Sonia is also well done. He fits in as the oil to let the couple interact well and knock sense in to Roche when he needs to without being awkward. How he reciprocates to Rainey's romantic by firmly states he don't think the same way she does is also out of my expectation when I thought Rainey is the who'll get force fed to us by being Stock's romantic interest. (though, he did told her he'll rethink of her offer when everything is over and completed his duties). It is amazing how he continues to stay a loner until the end and not even once degrades into an ass.
Rainey- Stock's side kick 1. It obvious from the start she is a character got thrown in because Stock needs someone around him when the party gets swap around. Herself didn't have much content, but her interaction with stock has prevent from her become total air and adds to Stock's quality being a captain. The part where she conflicts between her loyalty toward Heis and Stock is a nice touch, if resolved too quickly. But then, I'd like that sort of plot line resolved fast instead of drawn out.
Marco- Stock's side kick 2. Is around for the same reason as Rainey, just didn't have as much of a content. The only time he ever did something is during that spy event, where he really made me go O.o by turning into a vengeful idiot.
Roche- Stock's buddy and a stubborn soldier. Had his spotlight wen he entered the depression after his squadron got wiped out and gave us one hotblooded moment this game need, or this game might get too depressed. His relationship with Sonia also served as good fodder for Stock, in that Stock has to give them the push they need. Also, he looks too old to be 21.
Sonia- See above, works well with Stock and Roche in a set. Too bad she has to fell out of the plot when the plot moves away from Alicetel. Though, I still suspect that she is meant to be a PC originally but got deleted due to hardware restriction. They could have taken out Marco and let Sonia be the healer of the team.
Eruca- A not quite Mary Sue princess who is trying to overthrow her stupid step mother. Not really a Mary Sue as she often acts on her impulses, and the bad ends can show us what happen if she gets too far. It is kinda funny to see her heavy responsibility as a princess is what kept her in control. They could have dug her relationship between Stock a bit deeper though. It quite obvious that she has been fighting in herself to get Stock involved or not and resisting her urges to tell him the truth, and thus limited there interaction. They could really have let Stock just told her that he already remembered what was going on and dug deeper from there. Also, they need to let her insult Protea more often, she is good at doing it.
Protea- The evil step mother who is so stupid and horrible to the point of being funny. I really pity Serban and Dias that they don't have any other pawns to chose but her.
Serban & Dias- the two is really one character. Both fueled by their vengeance against the Gran Org's royalties due to the Victor's tyranny and ultimately want to take over the country for their own thinking they are the better ruler. Too bad they have no pawns in the royal family but Protea, and she totally fucked the country up. Yet, they have to let Protea to stay on the throne if they want the war to go on and they need this war to win their authority. I was expecting them to change sides when their plans are not working, but it turns out they are just too blinded by their own ambition and goes down the path of self destruction.
Ath- Probably got tossed in because the game needs a loli, and like most lolis, she is stupidly annoy. Enough with your MYSTERY or your ways of trying to prevent it got revealed. A completely spoiled brat who just goes MEMEMEMEMEME in front of Stock.
Gafka- Is a Blute, thus boring, next.
Tio & Lipty- They kinda annoy me by being the bystander who'll not do a thing but mumbles about it is against the rule this and against the rule that if they are ever asked to do a thing despite telling Stock to save the world. Though, my impression son them got salvaged by the ecologist side quest, where it actually shows that they want to save the world is not just all talk. Then in the final chapter, when they almost got deleted from the system by acting against the rule and giving Stock too much information, made me forgive them for being rules that and rules this.
Heis- Big bad of the game, pulling strings behind the war in order to brought forth total destruction of the continent... just so he can save his nephew. He was chosen as Victor's sacrifice, but thanks to Victor being a tyrant, Heis gave up on his duty and fled. Having his own brother as an ungrateful tyrant made him felt are dying meaningless death for a corrupted royal family. Plus the fact the offering isn't really curing the deficiency of mana, meaning the offering is a lost cause and the sacrifices had died in vein. Ultimately he reached the conclusion that this continent that was built on the death of the sacrifices can fuck off, especially after he found out his favorite nephew is chosen as the next sacrifice. So he kidnapped his nephew, swapped his memory so he won't remember a thing about the offering, and let him starts a new life as his own subordinate in Alicetel, and hopefully Stock will too find out this continent suck and joins him in destroying it. Too bad that despite Stock agrees that the offering is fucked up, he still finds this world is worth saving thanks to the experience in his new life that Heis gave to him. The scene where Heis finally breaks down when Stock chose to die and thanks him for everything he did is just so very touching.
I give this game a 8.5/10, a solid game all around, if they can make the grunts easier and remove the annoy walking sound effect.
