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| Liz Maas |
A gallery, lots of info and ... two trailers!
10.13.10 - 9:47 PM
Atlus' Radiant Historia is not too far off in Japan now, so we figured we might bring you the latest info and media from this charming-looking traditional RPG. This title follows Stock through some time-traveling adventures in which he attempts to change the past to create a better future. As the player progresses through the game and goes back and forth in time, alternate timelines will be created - but don't worry, the game will keep track of these timelines for you in map form. Stock can only travel to certain points in space and time with the mysterious book he's given, but it also lets him see into the future - these visions, however, are anything but pleasant.
Atlus also introduced a few new characters as well. The 'time twins,' Tio and Lipty are the first people Stock meets in Historia, where time and space are, well, warped. They are the ones who lend him their power so that he could travel through time, and aid him through the journey. Though they are young, they are quite mature, with Tio being a bit more crude, and Lipty more kind. A nine-year-old shaman named Ath (sporting some very interesting headgear) is from Celestia, a country of beast-men, innocent and slightly spoiled, but has special powers.
Radiant Historia's world itself, aside from the aforementioned Historia and Celestia, also consists of Alicetel, the protagonists' home, and the 'evil empire' (because every game and major sports league needs one), Gran org. The foresty Celestia, which was once cut off from humans, has several tribes, including the Bruto, who like to remain in isolation; and the more friendly Saturos. Celestia is protected by Mana though, so humans can't enter - so the Saturos are the ones who go to the human countries. Ath, her older sister Reeze, and Banossa, a 'traveling entertainer.' Finally, there is Gafka, formerly of the Bruto tribe, but was taken in by the Saturos after being ejected from Bruto for a war against humans - which is forbidden.
Since it is being developed by staffers from both the Shin Megami Tensei series and Square Enix's Radiata Stories, it should be not much of a surprise to see elements like being able to hit the visible enemy on the field to gain the battle's first strike. (Don't expect any demon fusion here, though.) Alternatively, you can avoid the enemy by having Stock cast a silence spell that renders himself invisible. In battle itself, enemies are on a 3x3 grid and you can even swap places with them to gain an advantage and/or execute a combo attack. You can also force an enemy into a certain space - so if you can force several into one area, you can then strike them all at once.
There also will be your usual side quests and often this means fetch quests such as finding anything from food and books to (hopefully) reuniting lovers.
Finally, we've added 81 screens, some art and the Japanese box art, linked below, and Atlus has a couple of trailers, which you can watch right here. Radiant Historia will be out for the Nintendo DS on November 3rd in Japan. The game (presumably first run) will include a five-track CD, which will be piano arrangements of some of composer Yoko Shimomura's scores from the game, whose sleeve has a character illustration from designer Hiroshi Konishi.
