Bizzgeburt
Level: 17


POSTS: 32/82
POST EXP: 9050
LVL EXP: 22828
CP: 1137.0
VIZ: 13724

Holla everyone!

What I have to say first is, that I'm a huge fan of the older final fantasy titles and retro-rpg's in general. So I'm always looking for games with depth, a good storyline, well-composed ingame music and unique battle-systems. I can proudly tell you that I found exactly what I was looking for ... in this game.

So let me tell you some more about it:
This Review deals about the game "Chronicle of the Radia War". I discovered it by searching good nes-rpg's here on vizzed. I never owned this game as a cartridge, but I would have definitely bought this one, if it had ever been released in Europe. I'm actually not sure, if it was released in the US, but the fact is, that we can play an English translation here on vizzed! Thanks for that, by the way ...

What we have here is a TOP-role playing game developed and published by TECMO in 1991. In some ways it must have been bound breaking for this time. Those who thought, that the Final Fantasy titles on the Nintendo Entertainment System had the best written plots for rpg's on this console, is kindly invited to play this game and change his/her mind.
"Chronicle of the Radia War" offers a battle-system that even makes the battle-systems in final fantasy titles out of this period look lame and stiff. Most of the fights appear randomly, but once a battle starts, the screen stands still, letting you walk around freely and attack enemies in real time or give orders to your team mates (game pauses when you do this).
This is really something special, not only for a nes-game!


Graphics:
Graphics do look nice. I'd lie, if I'd say, that I saw no game with a better optic on this system. But it's recognizable, that there was put much effort in the graphics, especially when you take a look at the pictures used in story-sequences. That might be the right for people with an affinity for anime's
The towns, dungeons and out world-maps look OK, nothing special. Another thing to mention, when it comes to graphics, are the battle-animations, which are in my opinion good standard. Though I can't think of a comparable title from 1991 to make 100 % fair rating, I rate this point with a 7.

Sound:
I as a lil musician myself have to say: not bad! The game's soundtrack is really melodic and underlines the atmosphere of the environment very well. Battle sounds and similar are also OK, so let's give this point a well deserved 8.

Addictiveness:
The grade of addictiveness in this role playing game is only influenced by the good storyline. Leveling up the characters in random-encountered battles may not be very flashing for trained rpg-players, though there's a plus on fun in comparance to fully round based battle-systems as the fights are kind of "semi-real time". The passages and dungeons, in where you encounter just a short numbered group of different enemies are quite short most of the time, so the settings don't get too boring. The game kept me playing it, and didn't make me beg for a speedup-function in the emulator to level up efficiently enough to beat the game in under 100 hours of constantly leveling up, as many other rpgs did. I give a 7.

Story:
The storyline of "Chronicle Of The Radia War" offers pretty everything you can expect of a game of this age and maybe more. I don't want to spoil the surprising effect of the story for people who maybe play this game after reading this review by telling details now. You play a man found in the woods, suffering under a amnesia - that's a quite usual intro for a role playing game. But it's really cool, how the plot, that firstly seems so typical, suddenly switches into a nicely told Storyline with good guys, bad guys, guys in between, wars, love and all the stuff that makes a good ... star-wars-movie for example ^^
Don't wet your pants at this point folks, cause it get's a shiny and glorious 10.

Depth:
That game is very long. That's half because of the story and half because of the fact, that you are sent from one castle to another and back to villages to go back there to go back forth to another dungeon and so on ... this get's annoying some times. Every character can learn an use different types of magic, what keeps you from getting bored in the battles. 7 is okay,  I think.

Difficulty:
I'd definitely say, that I've played harder rpg's. Some single passages are extremely hard to get through if you're not experienced enough. But all in all it's worth a harmless 6 on the scale of difficulty.

Overall:
8,4


I'm really glad that I found this title and enjoyed playing it.
I refer it to everyone who searches for a pretty unknown but very good rpg.
Especially when you're tired of the standard-turn-based battle-systems, "Chronicle of the Radia War" might be just the right choice!

PeeZe

Bizz

Scum
proud owner of a RooR
Affected by 'Laziness'

Position: Member
Since: 10-22-10
From: Gründau, Germany
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