gather round and i shall tell you a tale~
Once upon a time, well... 2011 to be precise, there was a girl who received email notifications from ATLUS about new games.
She had loved games like disgaea (which is technically NIS but it was distributed by atlus) and Hexys force (which she had heard about thanks to these emails) as well as better known gems like the persona games.
this email contained information about a game where two timelines are played out and how you have to maneuver between them to get the true ending.
that sounded pretty damn cool.
one problem.
It was her second year of college.
she had just been forced to quit her job thanks to a battle with a re-occurring injury (that the job triggered in the first place but whatever...) and she had to pay for supplies and transportation.... these things were a little more important then games.
so the release date came and went... and she hoped beyond hope that perhaps since it's a title no one has heard of in a month or two when she starts her new job she'll be able to pick it up.
the fates were not so kind
in fact the fates are kinda assholes...
she went back a month after it released.
Sold out.
so she went to another store
and again... sold out.
she figured she'd get it at a convention...
yeah that never happened.
a few years passed
she had just come back from a smaller convention that had a lot of video game vendors (probably cause the game chasers were there but most places were really overpriced) and even in that sea of games... she hadn't been able to find the one game she was curious about.
then projared posted a picture of his look from the con and she let out a cry of despair because there it was... it had been there... she just missed it.
damn.
the game had been out of print for a few years now and she figured if she ever did get it... it would not be cheap.
then she caught a break.
A different email notification was sent her way.
one from a site called "Play-asai"
"Radiant historia - on sale - 15 dollars"
she hit the buy button so fast it's a surprise her mouse didn't break.
then it arrived.
and she played it.
and all was good~
well... mostly...
see this game made me realize how snarky i can be.
so basic premise - you are the wielder of the white chronicle, a book that allows you to travel through time and make different choices that will affect the world and stop it's destruction.
the two paths are based on a choice you make pretty much immediately.
Do you stay in your current position as special intelligence officer or do you join the army as a general?
so the 'gimmick' is anytime you get stuck in one timeline you can probably head to the other one (or back in the same timeline with new knowledge) and you'll get whatever you need.
as the stories go on the time lines affect each other more and more and your choices begin to have more destructive outcomes if you misuse them.
and.... i kinda misused all of them... for fun
other then the first choice, every single choice leads to a right (continue the story) path and a wrong (get a bad ending and get sent back before you made the choice) path.
the bad endings are wodnerful cause
a) they can get really over the top
b) they tell you immediately that you screwed up and then send you back in time after a short cutscene or dialogue block.
so there is little to no penalty to being a snarky little jerk like i apparently am....
on top of the choice bad endings there are also 10 quests, that all have to be done to get the true ending, that have opportunities to trigger a bad end.... these are a bit harder to be snarky with cause... there isn't always a warp point right before you do this.
but seriously the ending are so magical it's worth seeing all of them anyways.
my favorites (spoiler free i promise)
in one ending you are sent to retrieve something, when you get it you are given two options... one is like "big obviously horrible decision" and the other is obviously right... the outcome for the bad ending had me laughing so hard.
another one you do something that a character asked you not to and they build up this thrist for revenge... but they weren't too strong so seeing them murder everyone was just too funny.
another good one is you try and be nice and you get locked up in eternity... people do the oddest things.
i think it's pretty clear that it's pretty clear i thoroughly enjoyed this game.
like a lot
a lot a lot
so much.
yeah....
The good:
the music! so pretty... i'm going to be getting the soundtrack (by any means.... mwa hahaahahaha... or i'll borrow it from a friend... probably that if i can't buy it myself)
the characters, all of them have really great character arcs, they all have lovely designs and it's all just soo pretty... also the sprite art is pretty emotive even though they don't move much.
the story, i love time travel done well... and it can be tricky but this, with the skip button and the ease of getting to whatever point in either plotline and the splits are pretty well marked out other then a few optional sidequests which other then getting you some kickass moves don't bear too much on the plot.
the combat is a mix of grid base and turn based. after bumping into enemies you are sent to a battle screen with the enemies on a 3x3 grid. depending on square conditions, placement on the grid as well as hazards you can place battles have a nice bit of strategy to them.
the not so good:
some of the quests, specifically the 10 needed for true end, are a little cryptic so it makes it a little difficult to do them all without a guild... specifically one where you have to make 3 specific choices and then a seperate choice then talk to an unrelated character...
yeah i obviously had a guild for the 2 i hadn't found yet... cause i was getting true end the first time... cause i'm stubborn like that.
the bad:
it's a little predictable... in fact i thought one character was the antagonist because it would be too obvious if the guy they were hinting at was him... yeah it went with the obvious... also when two characters are near each other it's pretty clear that theres a connection there.
but you know what? i don't care... i had fun
lots and lots of fun.
the game isn't that hard to find, i just had bad luck, i think play asai still has some copies.
but seriously... if you enjoy jrpgs and are willing to risk on little known title you should get this.
and hexys force for psp... thats a really fun game too.
so yeah... i have like.... 15-20 things to uncover (side quests mostly) i may do that later (probably not... i'm lazy)
but seriously if you see this for a decent price get it... lots of fun
sorry this game just made me so happy.
even though the true end made me cry.... cause i'm a big baby and cry easy... but seriously ending was so sweet... *sobs*
ok onto finishing another show.
Edit: i forgot one thing.
when i first started playing this i was reminded of an old Atlus game "riviera: the promised lands"... as far as i can tell the two have nothing in common other then both being published by atlus, both sharing the same font and the reason why i though of the game at all they both share a lot of sound effects... granted i could be wrong... this could fit nicely into the dept. heavan series... considering the three games in that series are 3 different genres... and i'll probably never beat any of them. (cause i don't own knight in the nightmare, yggdra union is a card based system which i'm not found of and i can't beat a boss in riviera.... did i mention i suck at games?)
but yeah... just some random thougths for when i put in the game.
riviera is also a good game... (GBA) but not easy to find and hard (it is atlus after all)
ok random tangent over!
Edit 2:
when i was listening to the music some songs have a very kingdom heart feel to them...
cause it's composed by yoko shimomura... i almost NEVER can tell composer (cept jdk... rookiez is punked and obviously nobuo uematsu) just by sound alone...
so yeah... that was a fun little discovery that i was right... love when that happens.
hopefully no more edits.
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