Radiant Historia for Nintendo DS Reviews by Gamers

This game is another example of wasted potential, while not bad it could have been so much more. Time travel is a great idea for a game and an epic story, but sadly this idea is barely used and as the game goes on falls by the wayside. Many times through the game you will need to make a decision, but there is only one right answer and the wrong choice leads to an immediate game over. You will have no way of knowing which is the right choice so you have a 50/50 chance to guess it right, so what's the point in having them? It would have been nice if they had made the game continue on a different path depending on your choices instead of just giving the illusion of choice. There are only two timelines you can follow and you'll just follow along one until the game stops you and tells you to switch to the other one, and vice versa. The battle system has an interesting system where you can move enemies around a grid to damage multiple enemies with chain attacks but as the game wore on I used it less and less and it's almost never necessary to win.

Overall it's a decent game but you'll quickly realize it's just another linear jrpg. They could have done so much more with the premise and made a truly epic game!

Oh and for a fun drinking game take a shot every time a character uses ellipses :3

Radiant Historia has a number of unique features; unfortunately it is also a member of a far-too-large class of games that coulda shoulda been better.

The game can be praised for adding something original to the tried and true turn-based battle system. By switching turns not only with your party members but also with enemies, you can strategically form long chains of successive ally attacks, which will allow you to land more powerful attacks as well as earn bonuses. Battling effectively will also require you to make good use of moves that allow you to push enemies into one another so they can be attacked all at once. The system is well done though it still will become repetitive after a while...

Being able to jump between two timelines was a good idea, but it could have been done better. For one thing, it's only two. You have the one choice you make that splits the game into two, and that's it. You're presented other choices from time to time, but they're false - one will just give you a bad ending and the other continues the story. Sometimes even that choice won't let you continue until you go to the other timeline and accomplish something there. Which is fine, but the game makes this too easy, telling you when you need to switch over, and to what point in time you must go. The basics of a good idea are here, but it's too linear and simple to get the most out of the concept.

The storyline and decent gameplay keep things moving interestingly, but unimpressive production value prevents this game from being as good as it could be. In particular there are not enough enemy types, and I was really bothered by how there are so few songs in the game. So many outdoor areas play the same song, and some cutscenes have no music at all. This game had a solid framework and it's just too bad that not enough effort was put into it for it to be seen at its best.

RH still stands out as unique and does enough right to be worth a look if you're in to this genre.