A Balanced Man(a)?

20 hours into the game, Radiant Historia's major plot points are starting to come together. The game's princess has even joined my party! That's always a sure sign of progress. I had my suspicions though, since weapon shops were starting to carry dresses and guns.

As per the plot, the end of chapter two of the Standard History (Spec Ops) timeline, is pretty environmentally heavy. It's revealed that the world faces complete desertification in a decade at least, if the balance of mana is not restored.

And who are the only ones who can restore the balance?

The descendants of the ancient empire that toyed with the balance in the first place, who just so happen to be the royal family of Granorg. Princess Eruca being the last this line, she's now instrumental in Stocke's ultimate quest to use the White Chronicle to save the world.

Though, there's also some sort of ritual involved. Only Eruca can perform it, and Stocke has some sort of role in it, but that's been left a mystery. So too has why the people of Cornet Village recognize Stocke. Given that his past is entirely a mystery, maybe we're in for a Final Fantasy VII-esque main character here.

It'll be a little disappointing if that's the case, since Stocke's bucked his name's implications by not being a silent protagonist or one whose inured to always doing what's "right" or "just." He's complex, and reducing that to some sort of identity theft would be throwing his character away.

Changing Tactics?

Things have gotten interesting in Radiant Historia. Just when I thought I had the battles down to a science, a few curves have been thrown my way.

First, Raynie learned the "Rush" technique at level 25. This attacks the whole front row of the enemy (likely in one swoop of her spear). Then, at level 26 Marco learned "Trans-Turn," a spell which looks like it has the same effect as the "Change" command. But, since it's a spell, it probably does something ever so slightly different, or at the least allows for a variation on the "Change" tactic.

Add to these developments on my end the fact that enemy formations might actually be important for them. This is something noted when the blue Granorg defenders kept forming into a triangle, though this didn't make them do anything different. Perhaps it means that enemies will soon be able to attack all of my party at once, so long as they're in this formation.

Or, maybe it's just a pointless military trick.

Because the entirety of the soldier timeline has (surprise, surprise) so far taken place on the front lines, I keep expecting there to be some sort of RTS mini-game, or maybe a tower defense sort of thing, like in Final Fantasy VII. But, as I play on, it seems that the battles, though the they're in the classic turn-based RPG style, offer room for strategy enough.