is a role-playing video game developed by Atlus and Headlock and published by Atlus for the Nintendo DS. It was released in Japan in 2010 and in North America in 2011. An expanded remake for the Nintendo 3DS, titled Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology, was released in Japan in 2017 and in North America and Europe the following year, with the European version being published by Deep Silver.
The game is set on Vainqueur, a continent divided between the warring nations of Alistel and Granorg. Alistel soldier Stocke is chosen to wield the White Chronicle, a tome capable of navigating multiple timelines, so he may prevent Vainqueur's desertification. Stocke and his party explore Vainqueur, fighting enemies on a grid-based battlefield using a turn-based system. Travelling between alternate timelines is a key part of both the storyline and the gameplay, with the number of potential timelines unlocked influencing the ending.
Radiant Historia was developed by a team with staff drawn from both Atlus' Megami Tensei series and the tri-Ace title Radiata Stories. First proposed by Satoshi Takayashiki in 2007, the base concept underwent several changes due to suggestions from Atlus staff. The remake included redrawn artwork, voice acting, an additional story path, and an animated opening produced by A-1 Pictures. The music for both versions was composed by Yoko Shimomura, with theme songs performed by Haruka Shimotsuki.
Reception and sales for both versions have been positive, with both reaching high sales chart positions in Japan and the West. The original received praise for its gameplay and time travel mechanics, though opinions were mixed on its graphics and linear structure. Several critics compared it favourably to role-playing games from the 16-bit gaming era. The remake saw a generally positive response, with many praising the added story and gameplay content.
Gameplay Radiant Historia is a role-playing video game (RPG) set in a fantasy world and following a group of characters traveling across the war-torn continent of Vainqueur. The game's environments are explored from a top-down perspective, with different zones opening up during the course of the narrative. These self-contained environments are accessed using a world map, and can then be freely explored. Within these environments following the game's opening mission, the main character Stocke can manipulate boxes to clear paths and solve puzzles, in addition to other elements such as destructible objects and treasure chests containing consumables or items such as armor and weapons.
Time travel
A key part of Radiant Historia is navigating a series of branching stories spread across alternate timelines using a book called the White Chronicle. Given to main protagonist Stocke during the game's opening, it is used to travel between different timelines during the course of the story. After its first use, the White Chronicle can be used to time travel at special points scattered through the game world. Following a key choice within the story, there are two main timelines and numerous smaller branches from those timelines. Several events within one timeline can only be completed using information or items gathered from the alternate timeline. Events in both timelines are recorded in a journal that can be accessed through the party menu.
Aside from points where the story dictates the player's action, navigating the timelines is a non-linear process. Story segments within each timeline, called "nodes", are color-coded depending on its content; brown nodes are chapters of the main story, blue boxes are events in which the player can make a choice which creates new paths in the timeline and can be revisited to take a different path, and dark boxes indicate a node with a bad ending or no way to continue the narrative. Experience points and currency earned in battles are carried over between timelines. Events across each timeline are tied to side quests the player can complete. While there are multiple endings depending on the path taken by the player, there are only two canon endings; the standard version, and an extended version unlocked by completing all side quests.
Battle system
Enemies, represented by sprites, are visible while exploring environments. Running into them will trigger a battle, but Stocke can stun them with his sword and either avoid battle or trigger a preemptive attack. A cloaking ability unlocked later in the game enables the party to slip by enemies unseen. Battles take place in a separate arena, with the battle itself and turn order information being displayed respectively on the bottom and top screen. There is an auto-battle function, where the party will automatically perform basic attacks. Successfully defeating the enemy party rewards the player party with money and experience points which level up the party members, giving them higher statistics such as raised health and more powerful attacks.
The arena is divided between Stocke's three-person party and the enemy group. The battlefield itself is laid out on a 3x3 grid, with enemy units being positioned in different squares of the grid, with some enemy types taking up multiple squares. The player party's position is fixed, but enemy units can use their turn to change position on the grid. The battle system itself is turn-based, with each unit on either side being given a chance to perform an action. Rather than each unit acting once an action is decided, each action is queued once selected, and when all actions are selected the two sides perform their actions. The type of actions an enemy unit can perform depends upon their position on the grid; enemies positioned further back have weaker attack power and strong defence, while those at the front will receive more damage while having a higher attack power.
The player party can use specific actions to knock enemy units onto different squares of the grid, which can send enemies into prepared traps, or group enemies into a single square. When the latter happens, attacking the unit within that square using either standard or combination attacks will damage all units. Once the player turn ends, enemy units return to their original positions on the grid. Chaining attacks together increases their effectiveness, which in turn grants a greater reward at the end of a battle. Players can use the "Change" mechanic to shift a unit's place in the action queue to another point in the queue, allowing them to take more actions than might otherwise be possible. This may be either a party member or an enemy. Using the Change command causes a unit to take more damage until their action is completed.
Plot Radiant Historia is set on the continent of Vainqueur, a land populated by humans and Beastribes. Once ruled by an ancient empire, it is now divided between the warring kingdoms of Alistel and Granorg; the root of the war stems from Alistel's belief that Granorg is responsible for the spread of the Sand Plague, a magical illness which drains living beings of their Mana energy and turns them to sand—the desertification of the continent is spreading, further inflaming the conflict. Stocke, an espionage agent for Alistel, is sent by his superior Heiss on a mission with mercenaries Raynie and Marco to escort a spy back to Alistel's capital; before leaving, Stocke is given a book called the "White Chronicle" by Heiss. The group are ambushed by Granorg troops, with only a severely wounded Stocke escaping. He is drawn into Historia, a realm divorced from time, and told by its overseers Teo and Lippti that he can use the White Chronicle to alter events. Stocke makes the mission a success, saving Raynie and Marco along the way.
Over the course of his adventure, Stocke follows two different timelines; one where he remains under Heiss, and one where he becomes part of a military unit led by his friend Rosch. He uses skills acquired in each timeline to proceed further in each role, while also interacting with the Beastmen tribes, particularly the young shaman Aht and the sympathetic warrior Gafka. During his travels, someone wielding the Black Chronicle—a twin to the White Chronicle—is trying to interfere with his efforts. In both timelines he aids and is aided by Granorg's princess Eruca, who is capable of performing a ritual to stop the Sand Plague consuming Vainqueur with a sacrificed human soul. He also learns that Hugo, a prominent religious leader of Alistel, has formed a pact with Granorg to depose its ruling queen Protea and is manipulating the war for his own ends; and that Heiss is acting for his own agenda, playing both sides against each other, and has intimate knowledge of the White Chronicle.
In both timelines, Stocke successfully overthrows Protea and defeats Hugo. Heiss then reveals that the ritual's sacrifices are Granorg royalty who are resurrected using part of another person's soul, then killed again to reunite the soul and stabilize Vainqueur's mana, slowing the Sand Plague. Stocke is revealed to be the intended sacrifice, Eruca's brother resurrected and given a part of Eruca's soul. Heiss, Stocke's uncle, believing the ritual and the sacrifice's suffering to be pointless, intends to let the Sand Plague consume Vainqueur; he abducted Stocke, gave him his present identity, and has been using the Black Chronicle to try and show Stocke the futility of the sacrifice's mission. From Heiss and Teo and Lippti, Stocke learns that the Sand Plague was caused by a runaway spell intended to stabilize the world's mana and ensure the prosperity of the ancient empire. The empire's surviving royalty created the Black and White Chronicle to facilitate the ritual, allowing the Sacrifice to see hope in the future while the Caster meditated on the past; Teo and Lippti are the remnants of the sorcerer who created the Chronicles. Heiss was the intended Sacrifice, but escaped with the Black Chronicle, which ingrained his fatalistic views.
After thwarting Heiss' attempts to change history in his favor, Heiss transports the party to Historia, fusing with the souls of past sacrifices to become the monster Apocrypha; Stocke and his party defeat Heiss while destroying Apocrypha. In the normal ending, Stocke willingly becomes the sacrifice, allowing the ritual's completion and delaying the Sand Plague's advance. In the true ending—unlocked by completing all events across the game—Heiss willingly becomes the sacrifice in Stocke's place upon seeing Stocke's unshaken faith in the future, allowing Stocke to return to the world and live a full life. The other characters work to help Vainqueur rebuild, including beginning research into ways of stabilizing mana which will negate the ritual and the need for sacrifices.
The expanded storyline of Perfect Chronology has Stocke interacting with a woman named Nemesia aboard a ship existing outside time; collecting artifacts, Stocke helps Nemesia bring together a third magical book dubbed the Red Chronicle with the aim of stopping the desertification. Once all the artifacts are retrieved, Stocke persuades Heiss to lend the power of the Black Chronicle, then reunites with the group and Nemesia. Nemesia reveals that the desertification is caused by a Mana-consuming entity dubbed the Singularity, created by the Empire's experiments on Nemesia's secret lover Rhodan when creating the Chronicles. Using the three Chronicles' combined powers, the party destroy the Singularity, negating the need for the sacrifice. Nemesia chooses to stay with the comatose Rhodan outside time. In their own world, the characters settle down to normal lives, with Stocke and Heiss parting as friends. Nemesia and Rhodan—who is beginning to recover from his coma—are brought into the real world by Stocke using a newly generated artifact from the Red Chronicle.
Development