Radiant Historia is a game that’s beautiful and well executed, with a new and different approach to gameplay. A jRPG from Atlus, while it contends with many of the classic problems the genre has always had, in execution it handles many of them with a grace and poise that few games manage. Combat is fast yet tactical, though perhaps not challenging enough. The story is a sort of visual novel style, where the player must decide upon different narrative arcs, most of which are retelling possible futures. The twist however is that the majority of these possible futures end in failure or loss. Early on, the player gains an item to traverse major points of divergence within the game’s story, critically useful both as a sort of leveling tool, but also as a sort of reminder to what actually makes a hero, which is human frailty.
Radiant Historia gives the player an infinite number of chances to rewrite the game’s history at various points for the purposes of averting a looming catastrophe. But what it really seems to grasp at is how unlikely it might be that a human could normally triumph over the innumerable odds they face and achieve a concept as big as “saving the world.” Because, if one were to wrestle with such a concept even momentarily, it seems incredibly unlikely that the process of saving the world would occur linearly. Rather what is more likely, and what Radiant Historia points out, is that the so-called hero would likely fail before they even attempted the journey. Effectively, the journey would kill them long before they could set events on a course to resolve in a “saving the world” scenario.
The game has a sense of humility that is striking, particularly for jRPGs, which are known for being particularly flamboyant. What is enthralling about it also is that every possible failure, every “journey’s end” also has a story behind it as well, which means that the player is enriched both by the triumphs and failures, and given that videogames are generally terrible at dealing with failure, this is really a rather refreshing change. There are criticisms weighed against the game because it’s “not as good” as past jRPGs, though to be honest, Radiant Historia need not really challenge the past, it is different enough to stand on its own merits. By its own rights, it is a great game that deserves a thorough playthrough and similarly thorough discussion.
Any game that challenges preconceived notions about what a jRPG is or does clearly deserves a mention in today’s market, particularly when jRPGs have been waning, due mostly to big name companies failing to produce any of note. The game is challenging and thought-provoking, and that’s more than can be said of most games today.
Recommended: Yes