An Awesome Adventure
Radiata Stories has definitly bumped its way up into my favorite games, its got a great story, fantastic graphics, good sound, good humor, good characters, lots of material, and its just plain fun.
The gameplay is very similar to that of an Action RPG, but it definitly stands out on its own. For battles you can choose between 4 different weapons; swords, spears, sabers, or axes. Each has its own series of regular attacks, a volty attack, and a volty blast. Volty attacks are more powerful than regular attacks, but consume 10 points from you're volty gauge which you fill up by attacking enemies regularly. A volty blasts uses the entire gauge (100 points) but unleashes an insanely powerful attack that the enemy cannot stop at all.
The coolest thing about the battle system though is the way combos are dealt with. Instead of doing some sort of crazy combination, you actually learn new attacks by using weapons in battles. Then between battles you can go into your menu and link together different attacks. As you press the attack button in battle you will carry out attacks as they are listed on your menu. It really allows for a lot of experimentation with attacks and gives you something to work for when you get a new type of weapon. You'll want to try out all the different styles just to see what their attacks are like.
The story in the game is real good. There are times when it loads you with some lengthy cinematics, but there's also plenty of time when it leaves you to wander off your own, so it really balances out. The beginning and end are the real story heavy parts, but I found it to be really interesting. The games also leaves you a choice in the middle of which side of the story your going to take so there's some replay value in it to see both sides.
Not to mention the 177 recruitable characters. It is impossible to obtain them all in one play through, however, thanks to the new game + feature you can go through it a second time to complete that friends list. A second playthrough also presents to you a bonus dungeon with some more difficult enemies and a new character.
The graphics and sound are outstanding. The graphics always look beautiful which is nice with so much going on. It really makes the town feel alive and all the environments. The sound always fits with whats going on which is nice. None of it gets to repetitive or feels out of place because there's so much of it. The different parts of town have different music to fit with them to give you a better feel like your there.
The town of Radiata and all the regions around it always feel real lively with takes a lot of effort to do so I give Tri-Ace some major credit for this. Everyone is always moving and has somewhere to go and there are always things going on in the background you may or may not notice. It's really a fantastically put together game.
So, if you're an RPG fan (and whether or not you liked or didn't like Star Ocean: TTEOT) you should check out Radiata Stories. It will busy you for quite some time and I'm quite certain you won't be disappointed.