While much of the system looks familiar - it’s turn-based, and your party of three can attack, defend, use skills or items - enemies are laid out on a 3x3 grid, which is used to wonderfully creative effect. When you do decide to engage an enemy, you’ll discover the second way in which Radiant Historia breaks from genre conventions: its enthralling, position-based combat.
Stocke’s companions are just as personable, and as the cast grows along the journey through Vanqueur’s several kingdoms, each new recruit is a welcome addition to the group.įoes walk around on-field, and you can slash them with a tap of the ‘Y’ button to stun them, either for a chance at a preemptive strike or to avoid them entirely. Stocke in particular is a refreshingly self-sufficient protagonist rather than guiding a naïve adolescent through their awakening on their way to save the world, you’re steering an already-competent character through the twists and turns of time, and that makes a big difference. Strong writing and a likable cast also go a long way towards making Radiant Historia’s ride so enjoyable. It’s an excellent trick, and in fact, it’s perhaps more appropriate to think of the time-travel as a gameplay mechanic first and a story mechanic second like switching colours in Ikaruga or worlds in A Link To The Past, timeline-hopping in Radiant Historia is a novel way to uncover new areas, events, and abilities. This choose-your-own-adventure format helps keep Radiant Historia’s narrative compelling throughout, and while it’s still a largely linear experience - there are usually right and wrong choices at each Node, with wrong decisions quickly leading to a bad end before sending you back to try again - the time-travel makes you feel like an active part of shaping the story. By travelling to the Velvet Room-esque realm of Historia at a save point, you can hop back to any previous ‘Node’ in the story - junctures where significant decisions will impact the timelines - and, if something goes wrong or isn’t working out in the present, try to fix it by turning to the past. Luckily for Stocke, that tragic outcome doesn’t have to be the end a magical tome called the White Chronicle grants him the ability to travel through time, jumping between two parallel timelines to right wrongs and bring about the ‘true history’ that will set the continent back on track and save humanity. Things go south rather quickly, however, and before long Stocke is watching helplessly as his comrades fall in an ambush, before finally being captured himself. You play as Stocke, a member of Alistel’s Special Intelligence force, and start out by leading him on a rendezvous mission alongside two eager new recruits, Raynie and Marco. Desertification has attacked the continent of Vainqueur, and with arable land shrinking by the day, the kingdoms of Alistel and Granorg are locked in conflict over the remaining patches of green dotted in among the endless sand. Radiant Historia kicks off in situ, in the middle of a war between rival states.
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