Dragon Quest VI and Radiant Historia

So I beat Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation a few days ago. The main story was pretty good, although your typical Dragon Quest fare. The vignettes (which I hear more and more are the main point of the series) seemed more interesting than in Dragon Quest IV, at least.

The Party Speak function was by far my favorite aspect of the game, though. The party characters had something to say for just about every NPC and situation in the game. I thought maybe that as the game went on, they would say less and less, but that never happened. Without Party Speak, my characters would have been very bland and boring. For example, I never put Ashlynn in my party after I got Nevan, so she was never very well characterized for me. Same thing with Amos, Terry, and Goowain, too.

The job system didn't get much more complicated as the game went on, either, which was nice. I really enjoyed grinding jobs a little, and giving my guys moves and things they probably wouldn't have been given by Enix if there were no job system. Nevan Hustle Danced his ass off after he got it, which I doubt they would have given the serious priest otherwise.

Other than that I don't have much to say about the game. It was good and worth playing!

I also picked up Radiant Historia last week, too. This game reminds me of a mix of Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, and Mega Man: Battle Network, of all things. Because of that first influence, I have a certain friend who would fall madly in love with this game if he would just give it a chance. But anyway, this is the quintessential time-traveling RPG. Your character, Stocke, is given choices throughout the game, and each choice branches off into a separate storyline. The thing is, he can time travel from any save point to any one of these choices. This allows him to explore other timelines, as well as make progress in all of them. For example, you routinely have to explore alternate timelines to learn skills or get items to use in the regular timeline, which I think is pretty cool. The game telegraphs fairly well about where you need to go to find the next thing you need to move the plot forward.

The text and story are incredibly solid, as well. Coming off Dragon Quest VI, it's incredibly refreshing to see such a deep, engrossing story. The characters are great, and their ultimate motivations remain unclear to me (I'm seven hours in at this point). I'm still not even sure if my kingdom or the current enemy kingdom is even evil!

I do wish the game had a Party Speak option, though, like in Dragon Quest. It is probably too much to ask, however, because of all the branching storylines and whatnot. I just find myself pressing B a lot after dialogue ends to see what my party will say.

As for how the battle system is like Battle Network, well... First of all, it's turn based. So already it's quite different. It is definitely location based, though, which is to say the enemy position is crucial to pretty much every battle. You will attempt to knock enemies around their grid to maximize damage. For example, there's a move that will allow you to knock enemies back, or right, or left, or even pull them forward. As long as you keep a combo going (basically, this means before the next enemy turn) any enemy can occupy the same space, and your characters will do equal damage to everyone in that space. Come the enemy's turn, they will all spread out a bit again. What makes this like Battle Network is that your attack skills are usually more effective when the enemy is in certain formations. Unlike Battle Network, though, you always have access to all your skills and don't have to rely on the luck of the draw to get an attack you want.

The graphics and sound are like if Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger had an awesome baby. The environments are 3D, but definitely evoke FFVI, and the music is just as good as Chrono Trigger's, I think (and I'm of the opinion that the best thing about Chrono Trigger is its soundtrack). In short, I'm really enjoying Radiant Historia and it's worth playing.

Needs a minimap, though.