Shouta
Member
I finally got my hands on the game on Monday after the shipment to the store I buy it from got delayed a day. I've been playing it non-stop for the last few days and I've been enthralled with it. I'm actually quite surprised with the game overall so far because I really wasn't sure what to expect from it (although I know I did want to play it). I'll do a quick rundown of my thoughts in all the usual areas.
Graphics:
The initial reaction to many of the screenshots of the game bothered me quite a bit because of the way the characters were designed and the enormous eyes found on a lot of the characters. Much to my surprise, the style works very well in the game. It's nothing great from a technical standpoint but artistically, it's a really great looking game. It could be better in some areas like larger enviroments and more expansive areas but in some ways, it would be detrimental to the game's overall design. If there's anything to fault, the game, there is an occasional bout of nasty slowdown while running through different areas and battles can be choppy from time to time. Character animations are quite funny and expressive in an anime-ish sort of way. One thing to note other than the normal graphical stuff is that the menu system is really nice looking. Very pleasing, easy to understand, and has some funny touchs to it like the little animatied running up and down the scroll bars while you're searching your inventory for things.
The thing I do like most about the graphics is that both weapons and armor have different models when equipped. So the Sharkskin looks different from the Iron Plate which looks different from the Demon Armor and etc. The change in armor actually carries over to the cutscenes which are done in real time so its kind of funny seeing Jack in the Demon Armor or in the Business Suit act out the story sequences.
The worst thing is Jack's "power walk" which looks absolutely horrendous -_-.
Sound:
I know I've gotten on SSX's case about Iwadare and I still don't like most of the guy's material (barring Grandia) but this soundtrack is surprisingly good. Very nice music overall and it really meshes well with the style of the game. A lot of it really does suit many of the situations that they're playing for. Whimiscal, mystical, triumphant, and etc when the time calls for it. My two favorite tracks so far are Fighter's Guild theme and Gantz's Theme. One cute thing about the game is that you can buy music records and play them in Jack's room. I ended up buying a few too many records (you can also find them) to listen to.
Gameplay:
This is the one area that really shines most. I've joked to some folks about the game being GTA + Suikoden which has illicited the "I'm imagining Suikoden characters killing people and stealing cars". Had a good laugh about that but in some regards GTA + Suikoden is a simple way of describing the game.
GTA games have always been about the free roaming ability to do anything you want and including progressing the story. This actually is quite apt for Radiata Stories' early part of the game. After a sequence of events that starts the game off, you're given free access to most of the world and you're allowed to do most anything you want for quite awhile. At this point, you can spend quite a bit of time trying to recruit characters and searching the world as far as you can to look for items and new areas. You're basically allowed to do anything you want (with a free areas being restricted) at this point. I spent a good 10-15 hours just running around trying to find characters and recruit them by doing their accompanying tasks or story bits.
This usually would be an easy task if it was like Suikoden but Radiata runs on a time system and characters will be doing different things during different parts of the day. So you're forced to explore everywhere to find characters or occasionally stalk a character so you know where they are during the day. It's an almost daunting task to get some characters because they go all over the place in the city and some characters require you to talk to different NPCs that probably won't be in the same place unless you catch them at the right time. At one point, I had about 3 notebook pages of notes about where characters were during specific times of the day and the route they took to get there. I eventually gave up because I knew I wasn't gonna get them all through this run of the game (There's 177 characters...). I think I spent just 10-15 hours in the last few days doing this. Trying to hunt down a guy that had a picture that was overdue 100 days from the library for a girl to use it in her research paper was helluva lot of running around. The game reminds me of a grander version of Ephemeral Fantasia except not quite as obtuse.
Anyway, this whole time system + characters doing their own thing, really makes the game feel alive and not a dead NPC town like in most RPGs. When I thought I saw everything in one area, I would accidently stroll into it again at a different time to find something I didn't think went on then. On top of that, each character has their own little story like I pointed out above so there's a ton of things to do and see in the game.
The game's combat system is like a Suikoden version of Star Ocean, it's really the bare essentials of combat rather than something elaborate. When the game starts, Jack only has minor profiency in each of the types of weapons present in the game which means he only has two types of attacks. As you fight with the weapon, Jack learns attacks for each of his weapons. After learning them, you can equip that type of attack to your weapon to make your own custom normal combo. However, each attack has a CP amount (1-4 points) and weapons have a maximum CP allotment. So you can only equip as much as the maximum CP allotment (say, 10 CP) and up to 5 hits overall. Combine this with 4 weapon types overall (1h Sword, Axe, 2H Sword, and Spear) and you got quite a bit of flexibility. This is for normal attacks using the Circle button. There's also Volty attacks that are weapon specific and can be used by hitting the Square Button however these cost points from your Volty meter.
The Volty Meter in the game acts as your the points you use for your Volty Breaks (costs max points which is 100), issuing commands to your team members, and using Link formations. You build meter by attacking enemies and each hit is one point in the meter. You and your teammates build meter for each hit you land. Volty Breaks are pretty looking and are high damage attacks (only specific characters have them though). Commands have to be bought (through buying books and reading them) and they give you a variety of commands from telling your teammates how to help to helping to boost the team's statistics or healing them in varying ways. The AI itself is really good surprisingly and can hold its own unlike Star Ocean or even the Tales series which was a big surprise for me.
Link Formations in the game provide special tactics you and your party can do to battle an enemy and provide special effects or bonuses that you wouldn't normally get in the free for all battle. It's quite a fun little system that you can switch on the fly depending on the situation. The real downside though is that there really hasn't been a major use for it so far as the game isn't very difficult.
Blah, I can't think of anything else to write about right now. I'll just post this and see if you guys have any questions while I think about what else to talk about because I want to go back to playing the game now ;p
Graphics:
The initial reaction to many of the screenshots of the game bothered me quite a bit because of the way the characters were designed and the enormous eyes found on a lot of the characters. Much to my surprise, the style works very well in the game. It's nothing great from a technical standpoint but artistically, it's a really great looking game. It could be better in some areas like larger enviroments and more expansive areas but in some ways, it would be detrimental to the game's overall design. If there's anything to fault, the game, there is an occasional bout of nasty slowdown while running through different areas and battles can be choppy from time to time. Character animations are quite funny and expressive in an anime-ish sort of way. One thing to note other than the normal graphical stuff is that the menu system is really nice looking. Very pleasing, easy to understand, and has some funny touchs to it like the little animatied running up and down the scroll bars while you're searching your inventory for things.
The thing I do like most about the graphics is that both weapons and armor have different models when equipped. So the Sharkskin looks different from the Iron Plate which looks different from the Demon Armor and etc. The change in armor actually carries over to the cutscenes which are done in real time so its kind of funny seeing Jack in the Demon Armor or in the Business Suit act out the story sequences.
The worst thing is Jack's "power walk" which looks absolutely horrendous -_-.
Sound:
I know I've gotten on SSX's case about Iwadare and I still don't like most of the guy's material (barring Grandia) but this soundtrack is surprisingly good. Very nice music overall and it really meshes well with the style of the game. A lot of it really does suit many of the situations that they're playing for. Whimiscal, mystical, triumphant, and etc when the time calls for it. My two favorite tracks so far are Fighter's Guild theme and Gantz's Theme. One cute thing about the game is that you can buy music records and play them in Jack's room. I ended up buying a few too many records (you can also find them) to listen to.
Gameplay:
This is the one area that really shines most. I've joked to some folks about the game being GTA + Suikoden which has illicited the "I'm imagining Suikoden characters killing people and stealing cars". Had a good laugh about that but in some regards GTA + Suikoden is a simple way of describing the game.
GTA games have always been about the free roaming ability to do anything you want and including progressing the story. This actually is quite apt for Radiata Stories' early part of the game. After a sequence of events that starts the game off, you're given free access to most of the world and you're allowed to do most anything you want for quite awhile. At this point, you can spend quite a bit of time trying to recruit characters and searching the world as far as you can to look for items and new areas. You're basically allowed to do anything you want (with a free areas being restricted) at this point. I spent a good 10-15 hours just running around trying to find characters and recruit them by doing their accompanying tasks or story bits.
This usually would be an easy task if it was like Suikoden but Radiata runs on a time system and characters will be doing different things during different parts of the day. So you're forced to explore everywhere to find characters or occasionally stalk a character so you know where they are during the day. It's an almost daunting task to get some characters because they go all over the place in the city and some characters require you to talk to different NPCs that probably won't be in the same place unless you catch them at the right time. At one point, I had about 3 notebook pages of notes about where characters were during specific times of the day and the route they took to get there. I eventually gave up because I knew I wasn't gonna get them all through this run of the game (There's 177 characters...). I think I spent just 10-15 hours in the last few days doing this. Trying to hunt down a guy that had a picture that was overdue 100 days from the library for a girl to use it in her research paper was helluva lot of running around. The game reminds me of a grander version of Ephemeral Fantasia except not quite as obtuse.
Anyway, this whole time system + characters doing their own thing, really makes the game feel alive and not a dead NPC town like in most RPGs. When I thought I saw everything in one area, I would accidently stroll into it again at a different time to find something I didn't think went on then. On top of that, each character has their own little story like I pointed out above so there's a ton of things to do and see in the game.
The game's combat system is like a Suikoden version of Star Ocean, it's really the bare essentials of combat rather than something elaborate. When the game starts, Jack only has minor profiency in each of the types of weapons present in the game which means he only has two types of attacks. As you fight with the weapon, Jack learns attacks for each of his weapons. After learning them, you can equip that type of attack to your weapon to make your own custom normal combo. However, each attack has a CP amount (1-4 points) and weapons have a maximum CP allotment. So you can only equip as much as the maximum CP allotment (say, 10 CP) and up to 5 hits overall. Combine this with 4 weapon types overall (1h Sword, Axe, 2H Sword, and Spear) and you got quite a bit of flexibility. This is for normal attacks using the Circle button. There's also Volty attacks that are weapon specific and can be used by hitting the Square Button however these cost points from your Volty meter.
The Volty Meter in the game acts as your the points you use for your Volty Breaks (costs max points which is 100), issuing commands to your team members, and using Link formations. You build meter by attacking enemies and each hit is one point in the meter. You and your teammates build meter for each hit you land. Volty Breaks are pretty looking and are high damage attacks (only specific characters have them though). Commands have to be bought (through buying books and reading them) and they give you a variety of commands from telling your teammates how to help to helping to boost the team's statistics or healing them in varying ways. The AI itself is really good surprisingly and can hold its own unlike Star Ocean or even the Tales series which was a big surprise for me.
Link Formations in the game provide special tactics you and your party can do to battle an enemy and provide special effects or bonuses that you wouldn't normally get in the free for all battle. It's quite a fun little system that you can switch on the fly depending on the situation. The real downside though is that there really hasn't been a major use for it so far as the game isn't very difficult.
Blah, I can't think of anything else to write about right now. I'll just post this and see if you guys have any questions while I think about what else to talk about because I want to go back to playing the game now ;p
, ass off when she witnessed the speed-walk for the first time! :lol
I'm lvl.33 right now with about 600hp.