Radiant Historia is a curious marriage of two opposites. On the one hand it is an in-depth J-RPG of high calibre. On the other, it's compartmentalized in such a way that nicely suits the temporary handheld play style. In an ideal world, it would be both simultaneously, but the combination of these two things is more often at odds with itself than working in harmony.
The game's overall system of time travelling between nodes on a set story makes it perfect for on the go gaming, but, especially once you get into the thick of things, the distance between nodes is still made up of RPG content. In other words, getting to a certain point to change a timeline can be more time consuming than you may expect. Add to that the paucity of save spots in many RPGs, and you've got a recipe for play sessions that more often than not run a little long.
Though, that's not to say it's a bad game. I'm still working my way through it (of course), and it continues to be interesting. But its core time travel mechanic time and again is at odds with its two central systems: Its battle system (since any efficiency in battles takes turns to execute rather than single, sweeping attacks) and its save system .
If the game had a "Suspend Game" option, like the sort of thing you find in some RTS games, there would be no problem. Any session that looked like it was running long could be cut precisely and then picked up again. And, since the game's time travel involves a lot of back-and-forth-ing as it is, it would be quite difficult to lose your place in the story entirely.
Such a system would save a lot of frustration, frustration that builds because the game's great, but even more time consuming than a much more linear RPG.
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