As a lifelong gamer, one thing that’s interesting to me is how my own gaming tastes change through the years. I used to love racers and fighting games. Over time, my fondness for going in circles in a car diminished as did my desire to jump around and kick people in the head. But my love for one genre that’s never diminished, and if anything has grown stronger over time, goes to JRPGs. There’s just something about them that keeps me coming back for more.

I’ve often pondered what it is about JRPGs that speaks to my soul. Could it be the outlandish outfits? I’ve been known to don a wacky costume myself on more than one occasion. Could it be the fantasy elements? I was raised in a strict fantasy novel household (not too proud of how many Xanth novels I read in my youth). Or is it the epic, sweeping nature of the stories themselves? These are usually big stories with lots of characters and much at stake. Might just be the jaunty town music, I don’t know.

In any case, I love them and one of the better ones I’ve played in years is Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology.

This is an enhanced port of the DS version that came out right at the end of the handheld’s lifecycle. The original game was critically lauded but didn’t sell that well, thus this version for the 3DS. This new version adds new side quests, bonus dungeons for grinding, tons of voice acting and the ability to change the difficulty level. It’s a nice attempt to woo players who’ve played it before. Almost like an alternative game...from a different timeline or something!

And if you haven’t played it, well, here’s why it’s special—it's the wonderful fusion of a JRPG and a Choose Your Own Adventure book. In this time traveling, multiple future possibilities tale, you’ll come to narrative forks in the road and be given two choices. Choose wisely, and the game and story will keep going. Choose poorly, and you’re dead! But much like the old CYOA books, you can go back to the page where you had to choose and make a different choice, although, in those books, I think that was considered cheating.

But in this game, it’s not!

It’s totally fine because you’re armed with a time-traveling book called a “Historia.” If you chose wrong, that timeline will end and you’ll find yourself in a heavenly staircase with two angelic guides that’ll tell you that you muffed up and put you back on the right path. There’s really no punishment for choosing wrong, but it’s fun to try and figure out the right choice anyway.

The Historia-based multiple timelines is the gimmick of the game and it’s a good one. It’s a blast to go back and forth in time to the same locations and see what’s changed and what you can do now that you couldn’t before. Aside from progressing the story, it's fun to use the abilities to get in the future to back into areas you were unable to because you didn’t have a specific tool or power yet. And luckily, you can skip cut scenes if you go back to an area you’ve been to before, so you don’t have to watch it twice.

And it’s not time traveling just for fun, it’s for a good reason! The world’s slowly being turned to sand and engulfed in destructive wars. It’s up to you as the hero Stocke and your merry band of travelers to find out why. The game has a big story with lots o’ text boxes to read, which is never a problem for a JRPG fan and luckily the writing is pretty solid throughout. The world is fairly straightforward fantasy fare with light steampunk elements, but there are lots of humorous and interesting characters to keep things fun.

And like I always say (literally, I think I write this in every JRPG review), a JRPG is only as good as it’s combat system. I’m happy to report Radiant Historia has simple, but entertaining fighting mechanics. It’s turn-based and on the bottom screen, shows you the order of the turns coming up. The bad guys are on a grid with the ones in front doing and taking the most damage. But here’s where the fun part comes in, many of your characters have the ability to hit them and move them around the grid.

That doesn't sound that amazing, but when you time everything right, you can knock foe into foe and double up your damage especially when all three of your characters attack in a row. Stocke can even move them left or right, so you can combo and get three together for maximum efficiency. Add support attacks from non-playable team members and the fights start to heat up. The game also comes with the usual fantasy JRPG accoutrements like magic attacks, elemental weaknesses, stat buffs, enemy debuffs, etc.

The one downside of the battle system is once you set up your moves, there’s no stopping them! Even if the enemy your fighting is out of health, they’ll keep wailing on them, instead of auto attacking a fresh foe. So you have to estimate how much it takes to kill things so you don’t end up wasting attacks. It’s a simple, but engaging battle system that’s entertaining enough so you won’t get bored of it during the numerous fights in the game.

As a JRPG goes, this game succeeds in just about every way. Great, memorable characters. A sprawling, epic story with lots of intrigue and drama. An engaging fantasy world with lots of fun monsters and cool character designs. Beautiful music and wonderfully retro-looking graphics. And it’s wrapped up in a neat time traveling mechanic that’ll keep you glued to your 3DS for many hours.

Hint: Of course, you need to pay attention to the character’s dialogue in games, but in this one especially so! And all the time! Otherwise, you’ll get lost in time and have no idea what to do! 

by Urian Brown