Radiant Historia - That sure is an ending bro. Spoilerriffic rant folllows.
Game's rough around the edges in some places. Stunning enemies on the field could be handled better, as could character interaction, and the difficulty could be more consistant and more challenging, for all that I'm not sure if I was actually overleveled much. I don't think I engaged in that much grinding, but at the same time I was fairly fight happy so who knows. Still, it's a fun system. Largely linear despite the premise but hey.
Plot's fairly coherent, and leaders fighting for land and power amidst the backdrop of a desertifying continent is a nice change of pace.
And now characters. Here thar be SPOILARS, so the more squemish of you may want to avert your eyes or something.
Eyes averted yet? Good.
Stocke: Stocke's pretty refreshing, gotta say. Intelligent, mature, anti-social but not so much that he comes across as a jerkass, works with the rest of the PC cast fairly well, knows what he's got to do and doesn't spend time bitching about it even if it means becoming a sacrifice to save the continent from turning into one massive desert and doesn't act shocked by the game's pretty transparent reveals. I guess one can argue that he veers a little too much into Gary Stu territory? Not sure how they expect anyone to buy the fact that the guy's 19 other than JRPG logic, though. Anyways, Stocke's a fairly good allrounder, which is nice since he's forced and everything.
Raynie: Largely there. She has her moments and her (brief) romantic subplot with Stocke could've been handled worse than it was but largely just exists as Stocke's subordinate #1. Has attack magic and POIZN (which actually works on most bosses! And isn't great) but the MP is pretty epic and the attack magic doesn't really take off until you get a good magic-boosting spear.
Marco: Largely just exists as Stocke's subordinate #2, more so than Raynie. The two have some okay interaction but eeeeeh. Is the healer, sorta. Once he gets his hidden skills he's good at getting randoms into position for someone else to apply MASSIVE damage and he's got a couple useful buffs, but healing spells are simply not that great in this game outside of Super Heal.
Rosch: Is Stocke's best bud, and is pretty good. He's loyal to his country but not aggressively stupid about it, gets on a fairly believeable angst train fueled by guilt and shock that he gets over in a reasonable amount of time and suitable application of friendly beatings, and is overall sympathetic, for all that he could've benefitted from more cast interactions. Is tank, but has pretty poor availability. More's the pity.
Aht: SHUT UP FOREVER YOU STUPID LOLIGOAT. *ahem* Aht is pretty bad as a character, not doing much but be annoying, whiny, and clingy towards Stocke. To make matters worse, she occasionally does this while being transparently cryptic and MYSTERIOUS LOL. To add insult to injury she's fairly decent as far as PCs go. Durability sucks but traps are pretty great for damage, for all that they're no good against immovable enemies, and she's a better healer than Marco, for all that that says little, and she is only a bit behind Marco and Raynie in terms of availability.
Eruca: Not very interesting, but not bad. Princess who wants to do the right thing but as some of the Bad Ends show she can be a bit overzealous about it. Is also partly responsible for the transparent MYSTERY babble but to her credit she actually tries to tell Stocke that he's actually her brother and the sacrifice needed to stop the desertification of the continent but nooooo Aht has to come in and whine and make the point be belabored even further the stupid loligoat grumble grumble. *ahem* Anyways, needs to insult her mother more. Also needs to insult Dias and Selvan more. Is (largely non-elemental) attack mage, but gets some other stuff, but the skillset needs some time to take off and the physical durability is epic. Godlike MDef but the game doesn't make you care about it.
Gafka: Is a Gutral, therefore boring. He even manages to be a pretty boring PC. Whoo.
NPCs! More spoilers!
Protea: Is a hilariously cartoonish bitch only out for her own power and wealth and gets *owned* by her "trusted" advisors in the Alternate History. Fun enough, and blatant powerlust is fine as far as motives go for a villaness of her level of importance.
Raul: Works as a reasonable authority figure in Alistel. He knows something rotten is afoot and who might be behind it, and is proven right in fairly short order, and does his best to put things right. Too bad we never learned the name of his secretary, though.
Hugo: Like Protea, Hugo is out for power and nothing but. The difference is that he's vastly more effective about it, whipping the people of Alistel into a religious frenzy in the Alternate History and very nearly conquering the continent. Of course the heroes being as awesome as they are reverse this trend and send the guy spiraling into a pretty epic breakdown.
Dias and Selvan: Can't really be judged seperately. Felt sorta poorly fleshed out? They're the power behind Protea and, of course, wind up betraying her out of some grudge against the Granorg royal family, but they never really explain what that grudge was. That you never got to fight Dias was also hella lame IMO. Still, their betrayal of Protea was pretty great.
Viola: Viola kinda follows a trope I hate. Fighting for the Alistelians who fought and died for Hugo's lust for power is fine. Fighting the guys who were trying to put a stop it it? Granted she was dying of an unspecified disease and wanted to go out by suicide by cop, as it were, but really, Viola, really?
Garland: Alright, but mostly there.
Teo and Lippti: Clearly want to help Stocke but are bound by DA RULES. Granted we do see actual reprecussions when they do break DA RULES so at least it's not terrible.
Heiss: Hoo boy. Heiss is the one behind everything, the war between Alistel and Granorg *and* the increasing desertification, as he killed the man (his brother, no less) who was supposed to perform it the last time around. His motivation? He wants to save Stocke from being the sacrifice. He thinks that the method used to stabilize the continent is incredibly fucked up (and the heroes agree) and that humans are too bastardly to be worth saving. The game doesn't try to portray him as anything other than a bastard drunk on despair who wanted to save his nephew from being sacrificed regardless of the cost, which is made clear in the true ending. Always nice to see such well-intentioned motives in a villain, for all that his actions are extreme (though again, the game doesn't try to pretend that he wasn't a bastard).
Game rates around an 8. Game's a little rough in places, like I said, but otherwise it's pretty great and people should play it.
