Good evening, and welcome to what would be a Let's Play of Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology if I had the patience to do screenshots and the time/brain to do a proper LP. Which I do not! I'm in Rome right now, I have grad school, I have real writing on deadlines I need to do. So this is more of a livetweet of my playing. Except on DW.
As one does.
Responsibility for this game choice goes to![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mattbowyer, though I can't remember in what context it was suggested. Suffice to say, I like his LPs enough that it seemed like a good idea to try out a JRPG he'd enjoyed before.
I've put the cartridge in. I remember no info I've acquired about this game beyond "JRPG recommended by a friend" and "this is a remake for the 3DS" and "time travel, maybe?" so let's see how it goes!
* I wonder who I will be playing. Probably the guy standing in the front of the large group of people on the package. Blond kid in red with sword, probably sixteen years old, probably going to be shouted at and hit on by all the sexy women nearby. I mean. Just judging by how these things usually go.
* No long intro sequence, just straight to the title screen. No spoilers there. New Game it is!
* I can choose between 'perfect mode' which integrates new stuff into the story, or 'append mode' which lets you play the original, then add the new stuff. I would assume the former would be appropriate for everyone, but apparently it thinks if I haven't played the original, I should try 'append' and do it that way. Okay. I'll take their advice.
* My difficulty options are 'friendly', 'normal', and 'hard', and I should carefully--hahaha no of course I'm going to choose 'friendly', I'm not here to be /challenged/.
* Hello, spinny book with Japanese singing in the background! I guess this is the intro now! Gosh, a lot of running across pages and stairs and dramatic cuts to characters running around. I am gaining hope that the protagonist is not actually sixteen; he looks like an actual adult in these shots.
* There may be airships and elves. Oh good. I like those things.
* Oh no, my beloved peasant--wait, we're watching through a desert, dramatically reflecting on failure! That's different, at least.
* Two siblings elves reflect on the entire world disappearing into sand multiple times. That does suck. Can't get good gelato in all that sand.
* Ah, they're trying to rewrite history until the world doesn't end. Good luck, kids! We know how well that worked for Sarah Connor! I suggest picking a protag who's playing on Friendly instead of Hard, maybe you'll have better luck!
* Hey, an accurate use of 'desertification', though in this case it's emitting magically (I would assume) from some ancient fallen empire. And everyone else is fighting over the remaining resources. Plausible.
* Alistel is being attacked by the "war-hungry kingdom of Granorg", but honestly I don't think anyone needs an excuse to be at war under this kind of resource pressure.
* Aw, look, little chibi blondie is "the most able member of Alistel's Special Intelligence unit"! He's also "known for his signature red garb," which I guess means he's not the spy type of special intelligence.
* "His name... is Stocke." God, I hope he teams up with people named Locke and Barrel. (Barrel, of course, has a cigarette habit.)
* Stocke is meeting with his boss, Heiss, who has dramatic hair and a big nose. Chance of betrayal/secret evil: 50%.
* "As you know, it's been some time since we went to war with Granorg..." Yeah I would /hope/ your best intelligence dude would know that, Heiss.
* Someone with vital info on Granorgite armaments is stranded in Granorg! It is hilarious to type 'Granorg' every time!
* Anyway, we need to rescue said stranded agent.
* Stocke believes that rescue missions are army jobs. I guess he's used to people being 'rescued' in the same sense that a village was 'saved' in Vietnam. Anyway, he suspects... secrecy!!!!
* Gotta do this with secrecy because the army doesn't want Special Intelligence to exist, which suggests either the army isn't very bright, or Special Intelligence is really bad at its job. Let's find out which!
* Stocke doesn't want minions, because apparently it's awkward when you get them and then return from a mission without them. I am all for meat shields! ... I mean. Subordinates. Valued subordinates.
* Dramatic book get! It's called the White Chronicle. It is blank. Heiss is being dramatically mysterious.
* Oo, I can finally do something other than press X! I can walk out of the office, and enter another conversation to X through.
* Oh boy, minions! Raynie is wearing too little clothing for this job and has very dramatic hair, tied with a belt. She is likely to get sunburned. Marco is wearing too much clothing for this job, complete with furs, and has armor on top of that. He is likely to get heatstroke.
* Raynie: spears & spells. Marco: swords, but mostly healing. Bonus points right off the bat for making a male character our first healer.
* Raynie approves of Stocke because "A man should be reserved, not some chatterbox who can't keep his mouth shut." Go back home with your sexism, Raynie! And get some more clothes while you're there, or at least a lot of sunscreen!
* Oh no. Raynie is cheery and jumps to conclusions. Maybe Stocke /has/ been assigned expendables for his mission.
* Gasp! The book is glowing! Sudden jump to a cut-scene wherein Raynie and Marco are totes dead! In the rain, which is sort of ironic! Stocke is confused! Back to the present time!
* Stocke decides not to tell anyone about his sudden new premonitions about their deaths, which seems like a fair choice.
* Oo, cash. Apparently we can go buy gear now.
* Ah, movement control! Time to wander into random offices and loot people's stuff.
* Save points, the joy of all games that don't have autosave.
* The first floor of this castle appears to have places that will lead to interesting things later, like sidequests and thaumatech, but. Not yet! Fair.
* Wandering around the town, talking to all the NPCs... Somehow, I suspect we're going to meet a bandit with a heart of gold at those hills where we're supposed to pick up the spy.
* Alistel was founded by the Prophet Noah, "the only saintly being in the world." Maybe he's the ancestor of all of us! Twist!
* (Probably not.)
* Ah, now I'm hearing about the Beastkind, who don't think thaumatech power is good. Well, I'm sure that'll never come up again.
* Raynie's pep is kinda annoying, but she'll probably grow on me. Marco is adorbs, but I really worry that he's going to pass out, heading into the dessert under, like, six layers of fur and heavy armor.
* A man wearing armor about three times his own size has come to see us off. Rosch, stay in the city. You're gonna get heatstroke /and/ sunburn at this rate.
* Rosch, whose portrait has a frown and a distant stare, accuses Locke of being "cold". Okay then.
* "I can't tell you how many of my compatriots I've seen draw their last breath over the years." Rosch, bringing the cheer to every party.
* Rosch is also having premonitions of Death so maybe there's a reason he looks so glum.
* Rosch also has a replacement metal arm, so maybe this whole giant suit of armor is just counterweight and power for the Gauntlet.
* I actually rather like the Stocke/Rosch (not like that! (but maybe like that)) relationship so far. Mutual respect for each other's decisions and all that.
* The world map's cute, if not super interactive. Choose the next zone to Enter.
* Lazvil Hills! This will end well! Everyone's in a hurry because the Granorg army is on its way.
* Raynie has a shortcut! This will definitely end well!
* Oh boy! It's time for the Grid Tutorial!
* Enemies appear on a 3x3 grid, do more damage when they're at the front, you can use skills to push them back. Okay! We have killed a flaming chicken. Go us.
* "We might not be up to your level, but we're no slouches either," Raynie says. Raynie, we're all level 1. It's okay.
* It's raining, just like in Stocke's premonition. Uh-oh.
* We have swapped to... a dramatic long-haired blond with a ???? name! Chances of evil: 80%.
* High Colonel Dias has a snobby British accent, and is about to attack Alistel, so let's call it 98%, with a 2% chance of joining the party late in the game to fight the real enemy.
* Dude hangs out with another dude called Palomides the Executioner, who laughs a very jolly laugh about maybe getting to crush the enemy, so. 99%?
* Back with Team Protag, Raynie is having emotions because apparently her homes keep being destroyed. Maybe this is a sign we shouldn't have her on our team... But in any case, Marco is willing to fill us in on her tragic backstory.
* Their mercenary band was decimated! But the kind of 'decimated' that means 'only these two survived'. And then Heiss took them in very kindly. And has since sent them off with Stocke with instructions to our protag that he can think of them as tools to expend to get the job done, so maybe 'kind' is not to be trusted, there, kids.
* (Oh god, you probably are all kids. But until it establishes otherwise I'm going to believe you're all at least old enough to drink.)
* Also, Heiss sounds like a creepy predestination type, between his magic book and ominous statements.
* It's our spy! With soldiers in pursuit! Time to save him!!! The music is very excited about this!
* More tutorial. Oo, if I push enemies into the same square, I can attack that square and hit multiple dudes at once. Niiice.
* Yay, we saved the dude! Now we just need to escort him home safely.
* And that seems like a good place to save and quit for the night.
As one does.
Responsibility for this game choice goes to
mattbowyer, though I can't remember in what context it was suggested. Suffice to say, I like his LPs enough that it seemed like a good idea to try out a JRPG he'd enjoyed before.I've put the cartridge in. I remember no info I've acquired about this game beyond "JRPG recommended by a friend" and "this is a remake for the 3DS" and "time travel, maybe?" so let's see how it goes!
* I wonder who I will be playing. Probably the guy standing in the front of the large group of people on the package. Blond kid in red with sword, probably sixteen years old, probably going to be shouted at and hit on by all the sexy women nearby. I mean. Just judging by how these things usually go.
* No long intro sequence, just straight to the title screen. No spoilers there. New Game it is!
* I can choose between 'perfect mode' which integrates new stuff into the story, or 'append mode' which lets you play the original, then add the new stuff. I would assume the former would be appropriate for everyone, but apparently it thinks if I haven't played the original, I should try 'append' and do it that way. Okay. I'll take their advice.
* My difficulty options are 'friendly', 'normal', and 'hard', and I should carefully--hahaha no of course I'm going to choose 'friendly', I'm not here to be /challenged/.
* Hello, spinny book with Japanese singing in the background! I guess this is the intro now! Gosh, a lot of running across pages and stairs and dramatic cuts to characters running around. I am gaining hope that the protagonist is not actually sixteen; he looks like an actual adult in these shots.
* There may be airships and elves. Oh good. I like those things.
* Oh no, my beloved peasant--wait, we're watching through a desert, dramatically reflecting on failure! That's different, at least.
* Two siblings elves reflect on the entire world disappearing into sand multiple times. That does suck. Can't get good gelato in all that sand.
* Ah, they're trying to rewrite history until the world doesn't end. Good luck, kids! We know how well that worked for Sarah Connor! I suggest picking a protag who's playing on Friendly instead of Hard, maybe you'll have better luck!
* Hey, an accurate use of 'desertification', though in this case it's emitting magically (I would assume) from some ancient fallen empire. And everyone else is fighting over the remaining resources. Plausible.
* Alistel is being attacked by the "war-hungry kingdom of Granorg", but honestly I don't think anyone needs an excuse to be at war under this kind of resource pressure.
* Aw, look, little chibi blondie is "the most able member of Alistel's Special Intelligence unit"! He's also "known for his signature red garb," which I guess means he's not the spy type of special intelligence.
* "His name... is Stocke." God, I hope he teams up with people named Locke and Barrel. (Barrel, of course, has a cigarette habit.)
* Stocke is meeting with his boss, Heiss, who has dramatic hair and a big nose. Chance of betrayal/secret evil: 50%.
* "As you know, it's been some time since we went to war with Granorg..." Yeah I would /hope/ your best intelligence dude would know that, Heiss.
* Someone with vital info on Granorgite armaments is stranded in Granorg! It is hilarious to type 'Granorg' every time!
* Anyway, we need to rescue said stranded agent.
* Stocke believes that rescue missions are army jobs. I guess he's used to people being 'rescued' in the same sense that a village was 'saved' in Vietnam. Anyway, he suspects... secrecy!!!!
* Gotta do this with secrecy because the army doesn't want Special Intelligence to exist, which suggests either the army isn't very bright, or Special Intelligence is really bad at its job. Let's find out which!
* Stocke doesn't want minions, because apparently it's awkward when you get them and then return from a mission without them. I am all for meat shields! ... I mean. Subordinates. Valued subordinates.
* Dramatic book get! It's called the White Chronicle. It is blank. Heiss is being dramatically mysterious.
* Oo, I can finally do something other than press X! I can walk out of the office, and enter another conversation to X through.
* Oh boy, minions! Raynie is wearing too little clothing for this job and has very dramatic hair, tied with a belt. She is likely to get sunburned. Marco is wearing too much clothing for this job, complete with furs, and has armor on top of that. He is likely to get heatstroke.
* Raynie: spears & spells. Marco: swords, but mostly healing. Bonus points right off the bat for making a male character our first healer.
* Raynie approves of Stocke because "A man should be reserved, not some chatterbox who can't keep his mouth shut." Go back home with your sexism, Raynie! And get some more clothes while you're there, or at least a lot of sunscreen!
* Oh no. Raynie is cheery and jumps to conclusions. Maybe Stocke /has/ been assigned expendables for his mission.
* Gasp! The book is glowing! Sudden jump to a cut-scene wherein Raynie and Marco are totes dead! In the rain, which is sort of ironic! Stocke is confused! Back to the present time!
* Stocke decides not to tell anyone about his sudden new premonitions about their deaths, which seems like a fair choice.
* Oo, cash. Apparently we can go buy gear now.
* Ah, movement control! Time to wander into random offices and loot people's stuff.
* Save points, the joy of all games that don't have autosave.
* The first floor of this castle appears to have places that will lead to interesting things later, like sidequests and thaumatech, but. Not yet! Fair.
* Wandering around the town, talking to all the NPCs... Somehow, I suspect we're going to meet a bandit with a heart of gold at those hills where we're supposed to pick up the spy.
* Alistel was founded by the Prophet Noah, "the only saintly being in the world." Maybe he's the ancestor of all of us! Twist!
* (Probably not.)
* Ah, now I'm hearing about the Beastkind, who don't think thaumatech power is good. Well, I'm sure that'll never come up again.
* Raynie's pep is kinda annoying, but she'll probably grow on me. Marco is adorbs, but I really worry that he's going to pass out, heading into the dessert under, like, six layers of fur and heavy armor.
* A man wearing armor about three times his own size has come to see us off. Rosch, stay in the city. You're gonna get heatstroke /and/ sunburn at this rate.
* Rosch, whose portrait has a frown and a distant stare, accuses Locke of being "cold". Okay then.
* "I can't tell you how many of my compatriots I've seen draw their last breath over the years." Rosch, bringing the cheer to every party.
* Rosch is also having premonitions of Death so maybe there's a reason he looks so glum.
* Rosch also has a replacement metal arm, so maybe this whole giant suit of armor is just counterweight and power for the Gauntlet.
* I actually rather like the Stocke/Rosch (not like that! (but maybe like that)) relationship so far. Mutual respect for each other's decisions and all that.
* The world map's cute, if not super interactive. Choose the next zone to Enter.
* Lazvil Hills! This will end well! Everyone's in a hurry because the Granorg army is on its way.
* Raynie has a shortcut! This will definitely end well!
* Oh boy! It's time for the Grid Tutorial!
* Enemies appear on a 3x3 grid, do more damage when they're at the front, you can use skills to push them back. Okay! We have killed a flaming chicken. Go us.
* "We might not be up to your level, but we're no slouches either," Raynie says. Raynie, we're all level 1. It's okay.
* It's raining, just like in Stocke's premonition. Uh-oh.
* We have swapped to... a dramatic long-haired blond with a ???? name! Chances of evil: 80%.
* High Colonel Dias has a snobby British accent, and is about to attack Alistel, so let's call it 98%, with a 2% chance of joining the party late in the game to fight the real enemy.
* Dude hangs out with another dude called Palomides the Executioner, who laughs a very jolly laugh about maybe getting to crush the enemy, so. 99%?
* Back with Team Protag, Raynie is having emotions because apparently her homes keep being destroyed. Maybe this is a sign we shouldn't have her on our team... But in any case, Marco is willing to fill us in on her tragic backstory.
* Their mercenary band was decimated! But the kind of 'decimated' that means 'only these two survived'. And then Heiss took them in very kindly. And has since sent them off with Stocke with instructions to our protag that he can think of them as tools to expend to get the job done, so maybe 'kind' is not to be trusted, there, kids.
* (Oh god, you probably are all kids. But until it establishes otherwise I'm going to believe you're all at least old enough to drink.)
* Also, Heiss sounds like a creepy predestination type, between his magic book and ominous statements.
* It's our spy! With soldiers in pursuit! Time to save him!!! The music is very excited about this!
* More tutorial. Oo, if I push enemies into the same square, I can attack that square and hit multiple dudes at once. Niiice.
* Yay, we saved the dude! Now we just need to escort him home safely.
* And that seems like a good place to save and quit for the night.
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I like the "push multiple enemies onto a square and attack them all at once" idea. That sounds fun.
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This is a game I purchased for two reasons. One, the aforementioned mysterious 'hook,' and two, the soundtrack. Yoko Shimomura uses her piano-and-strings style heard in Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy XV (the non-twangy bits) to incredible effect in Radiant Historia, and it remains a soundtrack I'll just put on in the background.
It's been a bit since I played and did not finish this, so I remember Stocke, Raynie, Marco, and Rasch quite well, but Blonde Dude rings zero bells.
Hmmm. I may need to play this alongside your LP... folks did that with some stuff I was playing before, and it was always fun to hear their takes on things too.
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I do quite like the soundtrack so far, though it hasn't stood out enough for me to notice it as such; it just seems appropriately atmospheric whenever it's used. I may need to track down the soundtrack on its own (assuming the track titles aren't all spoilers) to listen to on its own.
If you replay along my LP, I'd enjoy that quite a lot. I always like hearing other people's takes on a thing I'm enjoying.