Radiant Historia - Nintendo DS

Radiant Historia is a role-playing game for the Nintendo DS developed by Atlus and Headlock, released in North America on February 22, 2011. The continent of Vainqueur is slowly being consumed by a spreading desertification known as the Sand Plague, while the rival kingdoms of Alistel and Granorg fight a war neither can afford. Stocke is a quiet, highly capable intelligence agent for Alistel who receives a mysterious tome called the White Chronicle, a book that grants him the ability to travel between parallel timelines. What begins as a military assignment becomes something larger as Stocke discovers that certain choices branch history into alternate paths, and that finding the right sequence of events across those timelines may be the only way to stop the world from dying.

The time travel system is the heart of the game. After a pivotal early choice, the story splits into two main timelines, each with its own branching nodes and dead ends. Stocke can revisit past decision points to gather information or items from one timeline and bring their effects into another, and a chronicle tracks events across both paths. Experience and money carry over regardless of which timeline you're in, so there's no penalty for exploring wrong turns. Some story nodes are only reachable by combining knowledge from both timelines, and the full ending requires working through all of them.

Combat takes place on a 3x3 grid where enemy positioning matters. Enemies grouped together take area damage, and specific tile positions change how attacks land. The Change command lets you reorder the turn queue at the cost of increased incoming damage, enabling chains of attacks that build toward higher rewards. The system rewards planning turns several moves ahead rather than reacting to each round individually.

Music is composed by Yoko Shimomura, whose work spans Street Fighter II, Kingdom Hearts, and Mario & Luigi. The game draws frequent comparisons to 16-bit-era RPGs in its structure and pacing.

Nintendo DS cartridges are region-free and will play on any DS, DS Lite, DSi, or 3DS system. 

Japanese Title: ラジアントヒストリア (Radiant Historia)
Language: English
Rating: T (Teen)
Platform: Nintendo DS
Genre: RPG
Players: 1
Developer: Atlus / Headlock
Publisher: Atlus USA
Release Year: 2011

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