Excessive

Radiata Stories

The question that's been going through my mind, is the Tri-Ace developed, Square-Enix published game Radiata Stories anygood? Well.. I own it, so it damn well better be! In all honesty, it's a bit too early to tell, and even though I've played it for more than three hours, I've yet to really get a feel for what they were going for. The battle system is a bit clunky and awkward, not smooth, fluid and pure asskickery like Tri-Ace's last game: Star Ocean 3, the graphics are amazingly beautiful, and yet they trap you on as single walkway, and you can't explore the scenary like you would in Dragon Quest 8, so it seems like a waste.

However, as I put more and more time into the game, something about it is growing on me. When I first started the game, I had to force myself to keep going, most likely because I had also started Kingdom Hearts 2 at the same time, and Radiata certainly doesn't shine as brightly when placed beside such a masterpiece, and now that KH2 is finished, I figured it was time to go back to Radiata and see what it really has to offer.

While the battle system does feel a bit clunky, I'm learning to take more advantage of the system, learning that defending is the key to winning without losing eighty percent of your life, and also the way you setup attacks and such is becoming more clear.

I think there are only two things that are really keeping me from just deciding it's a great game: For one, the fact that each town (especially the home castle) are so huge, repetitive, bland and every hall and room looks the same, that you can never ever, ever... ever find your way around. We're talking about a five floor castle, with probably twenty rooms on each floor connected by identical hallways... ugh.. it took me about a half hour to find my way to where I was supposed to go to trigger the next event. Secondly, monsters don't respawn; if anyone plays RPGs, you'd know what building up is, and to some extent you'd have to know the kind of satisfaction comes from being uber-powerful and just raping every single thing that comes near you. Since the monsters don't seem to respawn, I can't just sit down for a few hours or a night and build up a few levels, gaining money, skills and experience, because so far it seems there is a finite number of enemies to fight, and that bugs me more than anything. One of the biggest reasons I play and love RPGs so much is because I'm addicted to the idea of stat building, about being stronger than neccessary, way more advanced than I have to be.. I dunno what it is, but for some reason that's what I enjoy most in RPGs, and it seems this one might have taken that away from me.

I could be wrong though... I've only played for a bit less than four hours, and only travelled three or four places, so perhaps the monsters respawn after a set time (the game uses a day/night and clock system) or after I travel a certain distance, so it remains to be seen if they'll come back or not.. I really hope they do, because if I can build up, I can see myself really enjoying this game.

I can't really say right now how I feel about it, but I'll let you know as I get more into it.

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