onsdag 25 april 2018

Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology

Look, a Chrono Trigger and Zelda combiner!

Originally for the Nintendo DS (and lucky enough I didn't import this one before the remake hit the shelfs even though I saw the original all over amazon). This one I got digital from the get go so I didn't have to wait and such and I probably was able to play it a bit more that way as I always could boot it up. So what is this JRPG? It tells the tale of Stocke, a master spy in the service of Allistel, a state freed from the Granorg Empire by the prophet Noah and they are basically brainwashed cult members. Stocke works for Heiss, the spymaster that one day give him a book, the White Chronicle. Heiss doesn't say what it does, but send him of on a mission together with Marco and Raynie, mercenaries that works for Heiss in his SI-division. The mission goes awry as their contact is killed in the field and the Granorg army's finest knight kills Marco and Raynie. Stocke in despair throws himself into a river to escape the enemy and awakens the White Chronicle that transports him to Historia where the two guardians await him and tells him how he can save his friends and change history. And the rest of the game is jumping between two timelines that splits if Stocke decides to stay in the SI or if he joins his best friend Roach in the military under Roach command and then back and forth to avoid dead ends in history.

That is an interesting concept and like noted reminded me of Chrono Trigger, but Chrono Trigger is more grander in scale and the existential threat of desertification isn't that prevalent compared to Lavos. The desertification that is the cause of the war due to destroying resources and land started a long time ago by this empire that collapsed and I get it was kept under control by the Granorg royal family doing the sacrifice to keep the mana flow balanced. It's mentioned all the time, but you as the hero only indirectly fight off this problem. And it bothers me a bit. Cause in any other game it would go like this that in the end you had to go back to the source of the problem and fight it off, meaning going back in time to the very moment the desert appeared and stop it. Chrono Trigger taught me that. Here it's just a setting for the real villain. And obviously it was Heiss.

I mean, look at the guy.

He got a really interesting story though. He is the brother to the late king Viktor of Granorg (who was a tyrant) and the sacrifice to stabilise the mana. To avoid death he escaped and later killed Viktor and then took care of his nephew that was scheduled to be the next victim after speaking up against his father. Heiss growing tired of the world then sneaked into Allistel and got the position as head of intelligence and then gave his nephew a new name and identity as Stocke the main character and as wielders of the black and white chronicles he hoped Stocke would join him in destroying the world since it was beyond corrupt. Which I agree with. Most people at the top were corrupt (like Hugo, Protea, Selvan, Viktor and Dias) and the people got either brainwashed, lied to or just killed off. Rampant prejudice and racism and everyone focused on the war while the world was on its way to destruction due to resource waste. Meanwhile the hope they had was priming a sibling pair from the Granorg royal family to use one as a sacrifice by killing it and then inhabit the soul of the other that to uphold the mana got their soul back, killing the host for good. I can see why he wanted to kill off the world.

In the end Stocke goes through with the sacrifice since he cared for his comrades and the hope he felt still existed in the world. And it's enjoyable since he was a bit of a loner in the beginning. I actually enjoy all the characters... except maybe Aht. She rubs me the wrong way in her selfishness and keeping important information away from the group since she has a crush on Stocke and believes telling him his real destiny would make her lose him. And in one way it reminds me of Tidus in Final Fantasy 10, but it works better since he actually is able to find another way without sacrificing Yuna (we wont mention that he sacrifices himself instead), Aht never does anything in game to find another solution. And this might be why the desertification plot feels bad, since we don't solve it and therefore must sacrifice the main guy. I don't like that.

Now, being a remake I can say they at least changed the sprites for the still-pictures of the characters just by looking at the pictures on the web. I assume they recorded new voices since they added a new character you can talk to that give you missions to get artefacts and give you some backstory. Other than that, I have no idea since I've never played the original. All in all a good game, but I might not play it again for some time. Might do it on easier mode since there you can just strike enemies before entering combat and kill them instantly. This actually have some Zelda-esque gameplay moments like moving boxes and bombs, blowing rocks up, turning invisible and like that. Fun things.

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