The initial release of Radiant Historia was unfortunately largely overlooked in the U.S. thanks to the fact that it arrived at the tail-end of the original Nintendo DS’s lifecycle (plus, Japanese RPGs are still very much a niche thing here). But the game proved to be one of my favorite RPGs, especially for a handheld console. And now, with the release of Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology for the Nintendo 3DS, hopefully this great story will see a new audience, because it’s still absolutely worth a play.
Radiant Historia follows a spy, Stocke, who is entrusted with a mysterious book called the White Chronicle. Stocke works for the benefit of his home nation of Alistel, which is in the middle of a war against Granorg; both nations, however, are threatened by the onset of the “Sand Plague,” in which the life is seemingly sucked right out of the land, turning everything into a desert. Using the White Chronicle, Stocke is able to travel through time between different possible timelines, using knowledge gleaned from one possibility to bring a better outcome to the other. Perfect Chronology adds a third possible history not originally included in the game’s first release, which adds a great deal to the story in a way that doesn’t clutter the narrative.
One of the game’s biggest strengths beyond the story is the battle system, which puts a solid twist on typical turn-based combat. Enemies are spaced out on a three-by-three grid, and your party members have the ability to knock the enemies around on that grid into each other in order to rack up big-damage combo attacks. It’s enough of change from the usual to put somewhat of a tactical spin on things, and it’s definitely one of the highlights of Radiant Historia.
However, Perfect Chronology actually allows you to skip most of the combat with the addition of “Friendly” difficulty. This new mode allows you to defeat most enemies simply by hitting them with your sword pre-battle, which gives the same experience points as it would have had you chosen to fight them normally. It speeds the game up a lot and puts a greater emphasis on the story and puzzle-solving. While I do like how it eliminates the need to grind up a lot of experience, I did find that it’s made the game almost too easy; “Friendly” mode is indeed quite friendly insomuch that it removes most of the challenge. But it might be the best bet for people who aren’t interested in the typical JRPG grind and just want to enjoy the story. The biggest downside is that if you opt in to “Friendly” mode, you cannot change back to “Normal” or “Hard” difficulty later on the game, so you really need to think hard about if you want to skip that much of the combat before committing to it.
Everything that was great about the original release remains great for the updated edition, which makes Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology a must-play for anyone with a Nintendo 3DS or 2DS console. It manages to combine some of the best elements of the classic 32-bit era of RPGs with more modern approaches to gaming and remains a unique, standout experience when it comes to handheld gaming and roleplaying.
-Carrie Wood
