The remake of the famous role-playing game has been available on the Nintendo e-shop for a few weeks Radiant Story of Atlus for Nintendo 3ds, originally released in 2010 for Nintendo ds. This new updated version enriched with new content has taken the name of Radiant Historia Perfect Chronology.
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In the game we find ourselves in the shoes of Stocke, a young soldier who finds himself against all his predictions to wear the shoes of the savior of the world, discovering himself the bearer of a strange power that allows him to travel in time, the White Chronicle. The Vainqueur continent is afflicted by a terrible desertification that slowly transforming it into an arid expanse of sand, causing the outbreak of a terrible war in an attempt to take over the few remaining fertile lands. The typical role-playing story is enriched by the temporal element that manages to make the plot, in itself very simple, more intriguing and full of details: we can travel on the various timelines in an attempt to repair terrible damage that could affect destiny of the world.
Combat system
The peculiarity of the combat in Radiant Story makes it different from most turn-based RPGs: there is in fact a 3 × 3 grid that allows our opponents to move to different positions, while the position of our party will always remain the same. This particular mechanism has been developed to give us the possibility to create different combos between the characters to hit the opponents: we have the way to literally push the opponents in the directions of the grid on which they are, bringing them closer together, thus allowing our characters to hit. at the same time several enemies present on the playing field, in this way we will not have to hit each opponent individually as usually happens. A really interesting system that makes combat much more unpredictable and rich in strategy.
During the turn we also have the possibility to change places to the characters of our party, in this way, according to the need, we can unleash powerful attacks to defeat weakened enemies, or, vice versa, choose a cautious tactic using the powers of healing or defense available.
Graphics and Music
Radiant Historia Perfect Chronology features attractive and well-finished graphics, which are absolutely unaffected by the game's apparently dated design. Furthermore, in this new version the characters have been redesigned and the movies are graphically pleasing and characterized by a pastel color that gives an extremely nostalgic aspect to the characters and settings. The sound sector is also absolutely flawless, keeping the soundtrack curated by the composer Yoko Shimomura, very suggestive and perfect for the mood of the game.
What do the news consist of?
From the beginning Radiant Historia Perfect Chronology we are faced with a difficult choice: to play the game in its original version as in 2010 (Append mode) and then play the additional contents or play the new updated version which integrates all the new contents into the plot (Perfect mode).
This choice is purely subjective, personally for a better use of the game I decided to choose the second option and enjoy the new contents integrated in the old version of the game.
We can, of course, also choose the difficulty level which consists of how many times we will have the possibility to use the power of the relic White Chronicle (In the Easy mode we can always resort to his help, in the Normal one every now and then, in the Hard one never. We are immediately advised to play in normal mode to have the best gaming experience). The title was then enriched, as previously mentioned, by an updated caracter design, a new dubbing, new movies as well as news in the story and in the gameplay.
The most important is the addition of a third timeline, absent in the previous version, and the new character Nemesia, who will not only teach Stocke many things about the world, but will also unlock many new hypothetical paths to take to create many different reactions to chain on fate. This great novelty makes the game absolutely new and replayable even for all the people who have had the opportunity to play the previous version for Nintendo DS.
Conclusions
Radiant Historia Perfect Chronology it absolutely deserves to be played by all fans of role-playing games and not only: its having several possible endings within the plot makes the game interesting, replayable and surprisingly addicting. Thanks to the power of the White Chronicle you will want to scour the various timelines several times to discover all the possible endings and all the events that will arise from our choices, moreover, its great longevity makes it a perfect game for all j-rpg lovers who are looking for a title that does not end after a few hours of play or that has a too simple and linear plot.
