It gestures at the kind of "big serious fantasy" of past games but ultimately lacks the thematic consistency of a Final Fantasy Tactics or Tactics Ogre.

It's "just" a solid fantasy story, but it's, if anything, elevated by some really strong character writing (Stocke is an incredibly likable protagonist) and the extremely compelling time travel conceit (There's something very satisfying, both mechanically and narratively, in the loop of "witness bad thing that could be avoided" > "continue the story while being on alert for the means to avoid it" > "acquire such means" > "go back to fix the thing").

All and all this is really good. Could have been like, 40% shorter tho.

Radiant Historia is a game that feels like a classic RPG, yet still manages to present cool innovative mechanics that make it feel like a fresh experience. Even though it has some flaws, this game is completely worth playing.

The story is about a continent that is turning into sand, devastating everything, both flora and fauna, and this has resulted in a war between two nations fighting for the land that is still fertile. Our protagonist's mission is to not only end the war, but to find out why everything is turning to sand and find out if there is a way to fix it.

There are three things that I really liked about this game: its main mechanic of time travel, the combat system and its protagonist.

The White Chronicle
The story unfolds with a too-cool mechanic of doing time travel. Making use of the white chronicle, we will make time travel to the key events that we have lived after having received this gift. The first decision we make in the game is the one that creates two timelines, and to advance in the story we will need to travel between these two timelines to get in one what would not exist in the other. All other decisions do not create more ramifications, but a bad decision shows us a sudden end that would end the whole story. Me being a big fan of the concept of traveling between parallel worlds, this fascinates me, and more considering that this game has some adventure game mechanics, such as unlocking areas or getting mobility options as we get skills in the main story, for example, there is a skill that allows us to become invisible and serves us to avoid combat. It helps a lot that the story is good and interesting in both timelines, and it's also great that the side quests involve using the White Chronicle, which speaking of side quests, there are some that are hidden or it's not very clear how they are solved, so eventually you will have to resort to a guide to do some of them. The game is fine in terms of content and duration, perhaps the story progresses somewhat slowly, but I consider that rather than being a flaw is something good to my taste and is used to better build the story and make the story more impactful. It is a serious story, but still has very natural moments and interactions between characters that serve to reduce the tension that generates everything. Although I have to admit that the game could have had a couple of additional towns and dungeons, especially the dungeons, I would have loved that as it would have given it more variety. Hmm... things I would have liked about the game is if there was more freedom as well, but I guess that was a sacrifice that had to be made in order to stick with the time travel mechanic, so its linearity is pretty well justified. Also the top screen of the DS could have been used to display a map.

Classic turn-based combat
Talking about the combat system, it is good and quite original despite keeping the simplicity of a classic game of this style, it is still turn-based (similar to FFX), but with an additional layer of depth, since the enemies are located in a 3x3 grid where their position matters. We learn moves and abilities to be able to move enemies from their position and thus take advantage of this mechanic, as we can gather several enemies in a cell and attack them all at the same time, thus chaining combos to cause greater damage. It's great to experiment a bit here and try out different combinations of characters, since each one has abilities that distinguish them from the rest. One good thing is that there are many consumable items, some of which serve to either improve our stats or worsen the enemy's, which I liked, since we don't necessarily have to have the support character on our team all the time. In general, I like the battles in this mode, as they are quite satisfying, and it prevents combats from being reduced to just selecting "Attack" and that's it. Most of the time it's an easy game if you know what you're doing, though by the end it can get difficult if you get overconfident. I won't deny that the difficulty and some characters could have been better balanced, since sometimes it's quite easy (as I mentioned before) or some characters are weak at certain points, which makes it difficult. Something I would have liked would have been to have had the option to switch between characters or change equipment during a battle. Despite what I said before and as contradictory as it may sound, I consider that this game could even be ideal for RPG newbies, so if you are not an expert in this genre don't hesitate to try it.

Stocke
Stocke, the protagonist, is something I also loved about this game. He is someone cunning and aloof, a protagonist who is actually capable and takes his responsibility and role in the game seriously, who develops very well in this story while still being who he is. Without him and his companions, I don't think this game would have been the same, and I personally identify with this type of protagonist, so that adds up to points for me. To make a quick comparison, he's similar to Cloud, only (debatably) better, although don't get me wrong, I love Cloud as a character and he's also and will remain one of my favorites. I guess it depends on taste, but I'm sure you'll at least like most of the characters in this game. It's great that they aren't flat characters in terms of personality and motivations, and the time travel helps to see what their reaction would be like if x or y event happened. The antagonist was also a great character, but I won't talk about that anymore.

Conclusion
As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, Radiant Historia is an exceptional game in its genre, it's not perfect, but it makes up for it by being a very memorable and unique game, and somehow it also feels very traditional in a good way. With a story worth seeing for yourself without any spoilers.

It's a shame that this game is over, as I really liked it a lot, I'd like to see another game with all these mechanics someday, maybe a spiritual sequel or something. Although well, in some future I plan to play the 3DS version, so I have that for consolation.