Every now and then, a game will fall below the radar that deserves more attention than its destined to get, Radiant Historia is definitely that game. While not making any noticeable ripples in the RPG community, this game takes aspects of classic role-playing games from the Super Nintendo era and introduces a host of new ideas to keep the gaming feeling current and not tied to tradition.
The story centers around a theme of time traveling back and forth to influence certain outcomes and events to change history. Instead of allowing you to freely move between expansive environments in several different time periods like Chrono Trigger, this game offers two parallel time lines, with minor deviations, and a mostly linear progression. The entire world is not opened up to you during the chapters, so exploration is almost non-existent. There's also a fair bit of backtracking through certain areas and events when you go back to change history. Backtracking also means going through the same conversations and scenes again, but thankfully, all conversations and scenes are skippable until the moment where you need to make a decision. Its at these decision points where you choose how the future will unfold, and there is only one right answer, while the other answer leads you to a historical dead end; this removes much of the sense of influence one might feel during Fallout 3 or Oblivion.
Since you'll be moving around parallel time lines, the game sets up certain points during each timeline you can travel to called Nodes. These act as checkpoints along the timeline and usually indicate when its decision time. So if you're curious enough to see what happens when you choose another route, you can immediately go to the point and make it.
Battles are fought turn-based style. Enemies line up on a 3 x 3 grid and can be moved around the grid by either by your special abilities or their own accord, however, your characters stay outside the grid and remain stationary. Each character has a set of special abilities that can move enemies around or attack entire rows or columns. If you manage to push an enemy into another enemy, the next ally attack will hit both enemies, effectively adding more damage for your turn. Turns are displayed out for you Final Fantasy X-style on the top DS screen while the action plays out below. Each ally turn or group of ally turns are bundled together, so you have to pick the actions for each ally before the action is executed until an enemy turn comes up, and those actions will be enacted after the final ally action has been made. This means what you do and the order with which you do it carry the same amount of importance. In this regard, Radiant History becomes mostly a strategy game of getting the most out of each turn. Both bosses and enemies will give you a good challenge, but the game never seems impossible.
Radiant Historia boasts one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard in gaming. Not since Chrono Cross has a soundtrack created such a presence in a game. Almost every score beautifully compliments its accompanying scene. Looking into the composer: her name is Yoko Shimomura, and if you're as familiar with gaming as I am, here's a short list of other games she's worked on: Parasite Eve, Legend of Mana, Kingdom Hearts / II / Birth By Sleep / Re:Coded / 382/2 Days, Super Mario RPG, Tobal No. 1, Street Fighter II, Final Fight and Breath of Fire. And Radiant Historia is one of her best works to date.
Graphics are wonderful, areas are beautiful and the sprites animate very well. The presentation is very solid. Areas run the range of industrial city to sacred forest and pull them all off consistently well.
The game will run about 30 hours without indulging in too many side quests. Overall, this is definitely a game that lifts the Japanese role-playing genre out of the slump that it's been in for a few years. It's a shame that this game will probably be buried in the sands of gaming history.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Saturday, May 14, 2011
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
No, there isn't a video game based off this classic, Jules Verne novel (at least that I'm aware of); I've taken it upon myself to visit famous works of literature to see how well they hold up in today's modern world. And who would deny that 20,000 leagues does not match this description, but then, who would say that they've read the novel? I am by no means a writer or one to know how to judge a work of literary art beyond my own ability to be enthralled by its words or fall asleep to them. With that said: here's my view on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
I have to mention the cover of the book. I got the Bantam Classic edition which features a wood-block-like print of an underwater scene. If all the praise surrounding this book wasn't enough, this cover alone is fascinating and skillfully done. But what's more important is what's beyond the cover.
I can best remember hearing about this book as mentioned by Christopher Llyod in the movie Back to the Future Part III, where he stated that reading about the adventures of Captain Nemo made him feel like a kid again. Both 'Doc' Brown's scientific nature and sense of adventure made me realize why he held this book in high regard, it is for the scientific mind. The book starts out capturing the reading by presenting a mystery surrounding a monster traveling the seas at speeds faster than any ship (in the 1800s). Already we're presented with the classic setup of a story based around the sea, the fabled monster. For as long as humans have accounted for events by chronicling them in writing, myths around the vast oceans have swelled; so I think it is by no accident that Jules Verne wanted to start off the novel this way. We later find out that the monster is in fact the submarine 'Nautilus' which is captained by Nemo. His real name, origin and intentions remain unknown for much of the book, or are never revealed at all.
Nemo is a fascinating character because he is presented to us as the antagonist, but he's not easily hated as one might hate towards the 'bad guy'. It's rare today that a villain has the potential to draw real sympathy or understanding from the reader while still being ruthless. Without going on too much about him, because honestly I can't, so very little is revealed, I can definitely see characters that were inspired by him; the Phantom of the Opera was an immediate connection.
For the first quarter of the book, the novel is exciting and offers enough questions to keep your attention honed in on every page. It's around the middle that the book puts the plot in cruise control and loses some of its excitement. It was at this point I began thinking about the time that this was written, when electricity was the 'big thing'. Perhaps I felt bored during the middle because we've seen television shows and photos of underwater life and habitats, so much so they're not as exciting or full of all the mystery they were back in the nineteenth century. Verne goes out of his way to legitimize the experience by listing off animal species with their full scientific names, which can be hard to wade through (and pronounce) when you yourself are not a scientist. But with all the mundane travels at this point, I realized that this just proves what a great author Jules Verne was. If I'm being tired by the underwater excursions, its because I've seen it before; but someone from the nineteenth century wouldn't have these various means of seeing underwater mountains or vast underwater plains, they would have to use their imagination. So what Jules Verne has done is offer us a surprisingly accurate depiction of the oceans without having been there himself. The novel then more became about seeing how much truth was in his imagination, and the wonder was returned to me. It's amazing that he envisioned technology that later would become apart of reality.
As far as chronicling underwater adventure goes, Verne does a good job visiting all the possibilities. We're taken through historical wrecks and myth, both seeming to have the same amount of plausibility; there is no wanting more with this novel, Verne gives you everything you could want in an undersea novel.
The book's plot kicks up the excitement again around the last quarter of the novel and it matches the excitement and thrill of the first quarter. Real danger and suspense show up in perfect form, encouraging you to anticipate the resolutions on the next page.
The ending, I won't say much, but it's easy to criticize, but also easy to appreciate. One thing I will say is, this probably would never translate well as a movie. The middle is very drawn out and boring in lieu of today's technology and understanding of the ocean. But if it were to inspire something on the silver screen, I would have to hand it over to Hayao Miyazaki. The man vs. nature theme, the strong environmental message, the treatment of the antagonist, all can be paralleled closely with works of Miyazaki. I would trust Miyazaki to handle all the fantastic environments and colorful characters while also appealing to today's audience. One can dream. So if you're the analytical type and would be one to watch TV series like 'Life' or 'Planet Earth', you'll probably be equally fascinated by this novel. If not, you'll probably jump ship on the novel halfway through in order to find something more exciting (like Ninja Warrior).
I have to mention the cover of the book. I got the Bantam Classic edition which features a wood-block-like print of an underwater scene. If all the praise surrounding this book wasn't enough, this cover alone is fascinating and skillfully done. But what's more important is what's beyond the cover.
I can best remember hearing about this book as mentioned by Christopher Llyod in the movie Back to the Future Part III, where he stated that reading about the adventures of Captain Nemo made him feel like a kid again. Both 'Doc' Brown's scientific nature and sense of adventure made me realize why he held this book in high regard, it is for the scientific mind. The book starts out capturing the reading by presenting a mystery surrounding a monster traveling the seas at speeds faster than any ship (in the 1800s). Already we're presented with the classic setup of a story based around the sea, the fabled monster. For as long as humans have accounted for events by chronicling them in writing, myths around the vast oceans have swelled; so I think it is by no accident that Jules Verne wanted to start off the novel this way. We later find out that the monster is in fact the submarine 'Nautilus' which is captained by Nemo. His real name, origin and intentions remain unknown for much of the book, or are never revealed at all.
Nemo is a fascinating character because he is presented to us as the antagonist, but he's not easily hated as one might hate towards the 'bad guy'. It's rare today that a villain has the potential to draw real sympathy or understanding from the reader while still being ruthless. Without going on too much about him, because honestly I can't, so very little is revealed, I can definitely see characters that were inspired by him; the Phantom of the Opera was an immediate connection.
For the first quarter of the book, the novel is exciting and offers enough questions to keep your attention honed in on every page. It's around the middle that the book puts the plot in cruise control and loses some of its excitement. It was at this point I began thinking about the time that this was written, when electricity was the 'big thing'. Perhaps I felt bored during the middle because we've seen television shows and photos of underwater life and habitats, so much so they're not as exciting or full of all the mystery they were back in the nineteenth century. Verne goes out of his way to legitimize the experience by listing off animal species with their full scientific names, which can be hard to wade through (and pronounce) when you yourself are not a scientist. But with all the mundane travels at this point, I realized that this just proves what a great author Jules Verne was. If I'm being tired by the underwater excursions, its because I've seen it before; but someone from the nineteenth century wouldn't have these various means of seeing underwater mountains or vast underwater plains, they would have to use their imagination. So what Jules Verne has done is offer us a surprisingly accurate depiction of the oceans without having been there himself. The novel then more became about seeing how much truth was in his imagination, and the wonder was returned to me. It's amazing that he envisioned technology that later would become apart of reality.
As far as chronicling underwater adventure goes, Verne does a good job visiting all the possibilities. We're taken through historical wrecks and myth, both seeming to have the same amount of plausibility; there is no wanting more with this novel, Verne gives you everything you could want in an undersea novel.
The book's plot kicks up the excitement again around the last quarter of the novel and it matches the excitement and thrill of the first quarter. Real danger and suspense show up in perfect form, encouraging you to anticipate the resolutions on the next page.
The ending, I won't say much, but it's easy to criticize, but also easy to appreciate. One thing I will say is, this probably would never translate well as a movie. The middle is very drawn out and boring in lieu of today's technology and understanding of the ocean. But if it were to inspire something on the silver screen, I would have to hand it over to Hayao Miyazaki. The man vs. nature theme, the strong environmental message, the treatment of the antagonist, all can be paralleled closely with works of Miyazaki. I would trust Miyazaki to handle all the fantastic environments and colorful characters while also appealing to today's audience. One can dream. So if you're the analytical type and would be one to watch TV series like 'Life' or 'Planet Earth', you'll probably be equally fascinated by this novel. If not, you'll probably jump ship on the novel halfway through in order to find something more exciting (like Ninja Warrior).
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