Game: Radiata Stories

[Xollence]

IGN:
In Radiata Stories, enter a living, breathing world where every character lives their own life and the passage of time brings about significant change. Beginning in the kingdom of Radiata, protagonists Jack and Ridley must play out their fates as knights and choose which side they support when a race of humans goes to war with the magical fairy creatures. Along the way, players can explore fully interactive 3D environments, collect a variety of alternate costumes and weapons, and recruit more than 175 different individuals to help them in their quest. Additional features include multiple battle formations, customizable attack combos, and a constantly moving clock that shows the passage of time as it happens. Available exclusively for the PlayStation 2.

Screenshots: http://media.ps2.ign.com/media/701/701765/imgs_1.html
Official Site: http://na.square-enix.com/games/radiata/

Over a 175 characters, that's way more than Suikoden. Has anyone tried this game out yet? I planning on renting it this weekend and if it's good I'll probably buy it. The graphics and storyline looks pretty good so far.

[kooshi]

I played this game for a while (played it at a friend's house, got about 15 - 20 hours of game time), and I didn't like it a whole lot. You're only able to control one character and there are times when your allies do stupid things every now and then. Plus, I found myself just mashing the attack button all the time in battles and always coming victorious very easily without having to block.
Instead of getting this, you should probably get Star Ocean. I've only played Till The End Of Time and that game was so much better than Radiata Stories, even though the gameplay is similar. There's some minor differences in gameplay, but Star Ocean had more to offer, IMO.

[Deadfire]

This is a Review from OPM that gave it a 3.5/5

Too many role-playing games take themselves very seriously. There seems to be this need for games to be filled with gravitas, to be brimming with pathos and Logos and ethos. So it's refreshing to see an RPG embrace comedy, such as last year's Shadow Hearts: Covenant or this new game, Radiata Stories.

Sure, the story seems like standard fantasy fare, with knights, elves, dwarves, and orcs all over the place. But then you notice that Jack Russell (the main character--note: not a dog) is a real wiseass and that the NPCs in his party are more of a motley crew than an adventuring fellowship. The dwarves are constantly drinking. The orcs in this world wear sunglasses. Radiata Stories wraps its standard fantasy fare with lots of goofy humor, making it a lighter, more amusing adventure overall.

Radiata also tweaks gameplay conventions borrowed from other games. It has a Suikoden-esque "recruit over 100 people to fill your party" mechanic, whereby Jack makes friends and then selects up to three of them to fight alongside him. The real-time battle system is similar to Star Ocean 3's; you run around and attack enemies in real time while issuing commands to your party members, but you control only yourself (no hotswapping like in SO3). Time passes each day, and people have set schedules (i.e., shops are open in the day, while bars are open at night; some NPCs aren't free until they get off from their day jobs), much like in Shenmue or Dark Cloud 2. Between plot quests, you are free to perform optional side quests for extra cash and party members. Finally, a major story branch in the middle of the game changes the second half (depending on which side you pick) and thus, of course, the ending.

In general, Radiata is pretty solid but marred by a few flaws. As mentioned, the combat system is like SO3's, but it's a lot simpler and feels slightly dumbed down. Also, although SO3 has too much equipment creation and customization, Radiata errs on the side of being too limited in its equipment options. It can be disorienting to run around town and try to figure out how to befriend people, especially since you also need to know when to find someone and what to give them. The gameplay seems like an interesting experiment but one that falls a bit short, while the content is what makes Radiata stand out.

Then again, I'll take a well-meaning comedy with a few mishaps over standard RPG melodrama.

[Deadfire]

Double post due to lag