© 2020 Radiata Stories Ost Rarbg.
14
мар
Sep 06, 2005 For Radiata Stories on the PlayStation 2, GameFAQs has 26 FAQs (game guides and walkthroughs). May 12, 2013 Radiata Stories ost - The Incarnation of Devil (Radiata Version) by MeRuleDaWorld. Radiata Stories ost - Unknown and Unnamed Spot by MeRuleDaWorld.
I remember when the announcement came that, for the first time ever, Sakuraba was sitting out on a tri-Ace game. I could hardly believe it. And when I heard the man giving Sakuraba a break was none other than Lunar and Grandia composer Noriyuki Iwadare, I was thrilled. Surely, this game would have one of the greatest soundtracks ever made if it were done by Iwadare.
The soundtrack gets off to a good start: the first song reminds me of the sort of melodies heard in Final Fantasy IX: a hint of renaissance flair with plenty of flutes and a plucked string carrying the sweeping three-four / six-eight combination rhythm. Iwadare generally has a certain style in his compositions, but I hadn't heard anything like this from him before. Beautiful, I say.
The next song does even better: after the introductory chords (with booming brass), the bass takes over, the piano goes to town, and the song turns into a hog-wild theme that we all knew Iwadare could pull out. Legendary Sword is without a doubt one of Iwadare's great compositions. The breakdown is a little weird, I'll admit, but it's otherwise a stellar song.
And from here on out, things pretty much fall apart.
I haven't played the game yet, but I'm pretty sure 'Struggle' means 'battle music.' And uhh..this is some pretty bad battle music for Iwadare. The first theme is almost childish. The second one reminds me of a techno-remix of an old Janet Jackson song. The third, which is the most impressive, sounds like a song from Final Fantasy X-2: lots of crazy bebop-style jazz. Musically, this one is pretty good, but it still isn't what I wanted from Iwadare. And, frankly, that means I don't like it as much.
Only six tracks in, and we can make one sure statement: this isn't Lunar, and this isn't Grandia. This is Radiata Stories. We better just get used to it and see what we can enjoy.
As for me, I didn't enjoy very much of it. Much of the first disc sounded like boring filler music to me. Especially painful were the 'Partial Version' tracks. I usually beg and plead for more 'complete' OSTs, but having the same song gone softer and lacking some of the background sounds to make it fit another part of the game..I don't think anyone really wants that. I remember when this sort of thing was done on the Shenmue OST. I didn't like it there, and I don't like it here.
After a whole lot of super-happy jazz songs and a lot of music I would count as 'filler' tracks, I ran into one song I liked. Again, it was a jazzy song: but the jazz sounded good here. 'Men's Dirge' is the song, and you can hear the nice balance of guitar, upright bass, and piano. Iwadare has a pretty good grasp on some of the basics of jazz, and I really enjoyed this song because of it.
From here on out, disc one fares a little better off. I was pleased to hear a silly vocal track 'Paya-Paya' right in the middle of it all. This song is really fun and silly, and it actually reminds me of the kind of stuff found on the 'Lunar Songs' albums: not musically impressive, but peppy in the kind of way that makes me smile all over.
Before switching to disc two, might I point out 'Scarlet Wind', track 36. Again, the guitar work is superb, and this sort of Latin-pop-groove is the sort of thing that every game should have in at least one town or event sequence. You have to love it.
Disc two opens with a wonderful Engrish title, 'Go Straight With My Brave.' If anyone would like to take time out of their day and explain to me what that could possibly mean, I would appreciate it. Anyway, this song is a march. Generally, I don't like marches, but as far as marches go, this one is pretty good.
Two lame songs pass, and then we reach a boss battle theme. I sampled it to show that, yes, Iwadare still knows how to write his classic battle themes. Again, even this one doesn't escape the jazz saxophone, but otherwise we're hearing something we'd expect from Iwadare, and it is certainly marvelous. I still prefer some classic Lunar battle themes to this, but whatever, it's still good.
'Demise of Paradise' uses a melody that I swear is used in Princess Mononoke (the Kodama Forest theme music). I mentioned it earlier with FF IX..I think Iwadare definitely borrowed a lot of musical themes from other people in making this album. This song is further proof to me that Iwadare didn't quite make this game's soundtrack his own.
Track 12, 'Night Memories', is a peaceful ballad that showcases the violin synths used in the game very well. I am pleased with this sound: it definitely shows what sort of non-live-instrument music we can produce today on systems like PS2. The violin is joined by what I believe is an oboe or a clarinet, and this too sounds wonderful. Enjoy this sample.
The next three songs are all the same song remixed in different ways. The fastest of these three is 'To The Full.' In it, we find a snare drum, marimbas, cowbell, piano, and a nice backup of orchestrated brass and winds. This song is excellent. If only it weren't so short, and if only it were slightly more memorable, I would call it one of my favorites.
For the next few tracks, the happy-go-lucky silly fun-loving feel that characterized disc one disappears. I, for one, couldn't be more thrilled about this. Iwadare makes good light-hearted compositions, but they should really be few and far between. These next few songs are very likely the end dungeon and end boss music that always has a soundtrack go out with a bang. They are, of course, very good. Yet, they have something lacking: for one thing, they are short.
The section of awesome tense battle-like music ends with a new version of Legendary Sword. Oh man, this is such a good song, I was so glad they brought it back for a second look. Go Iwadare! At this point, I'm jumping around my room, excited about how cool Noriyuki Iwadare is.
But of course, the Radiata Stories OST can't end that way! There's still a bit of silliness left in the game (apparently) that needs to be expressed in musical form.
The ending vocal, Tekuteku Aruku (Plod Along), is sung by Yuka Imaizumi. This song reminds me of the sort of song you would hear on a contemporary Christian worship album..in Japan. If you've never heard anything like that, well, then just listen to this sample and you'll know. I make the reference because I am familiar with it, and I have to say that it makes me laugh. Truly 'happy ending' music, jazzed up to Iwadare's standards. My favorite parts of this song are the instrumental sections. It almost makes the Karaoke Version at the end worth it.
The next song, 'Calm Melody', is..well, I can't describe it. Just listen to the sample. I really like it. Weird atmospheric lounge jazz..? I don't know, I really can't explain it. I really like it. This reminds me of something I heard on the Grandia arranged album 'Vent.' Thank you, Iwadare, for showing your true colors in this song!
The next three tracks are all arrangements of Motoi Sakuraba's songs from Star Ocean games. If you read my reviews, you know I am regularly annoyed by Sakuraba. I have to say that I really like what Iwadare did to these songs. They have his personal touch, and that makes me happy. They are softer songs now, but they still retain the intensity that Sakuraba puts into many of his songs. These three tracks really are a great bonus for the OST.
Things slowly phase out from here with some other silly songs that I think should've gone before 'Plod Along' (but what do I know?). Among these final tracks, one did stand out: 'Diffuse World.' It uses some chords and rhythms that sound like Legendary Sword..but this is a three minute jam session with lots of instruments taking the stage.
I've said a lot about this album. Let me summarize..
The album is not what you'd expect. Iwadare is still a great composer, but I'd rank this album lower than nearly any Lunar or Grandia album.
Disc one is especially poor, featuring lots of silly tunes and filler tracks that you can't seem to 'get into' no matter how hard you try.
The diversion likewise highlights various returning characters, for example, Siegfried, Voldo, Ivy, Tira, Algol, Hilde, Kilik, Maxi, Mitsurugi, Raphael, Yoshimitsu, Cervantes, and Nightmare. 
The occasional awesome battle theme sticks out, and the vocal songs are great.
'Legendary Sword' is definitely a new 'classic composition' from our man Iwadare.
That sums it up. If you like the game, you really ought to do yourself a favor and pick up this OST (and the arranged album too!). Otherwise, Iwadare fans should be warned: you might not get what you wanted from this album. I certainly didn't. Enjoy it for what it is, and try not to be consumed by the sugar-coated tunes on disc one.
Reviewed by: Patrick Gann
| ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
| 09/06/05 John McCarroll |
tri-Ace is a well-known developer for the hardcore RPGFan. Having created the Star Ocean series as well as the vaunted PSOne classic Valkyrie Profile, tri-Ace has established a dynasty with their titles. Radiata Stories is coming straight on the heels of RPGFan's 2004 Game of the Year, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, and has some pretty big shoes to fill. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for some of you,) aside from having an action-based battle system, Radiata Stories shares little resemblance to Star Ocean 3. In short, Radiata is an entertaining, stylish, humorous, yet flawed title.
One thing is for certain, however: Radiata has a style unique to itself that hasn't been seen in a recent title. Radiata walks the line between a pure parody, like The Bard's Tale, and being a serious title, lending it an air all its own. Jack Russell's not your standard RPG protagonist. He's not suave. He's not smart. He doesn't have wacky hair. No, Jack's pretty dumb, and only got into the Radiata Knights because his dad was a famous knight. Jack joins the Rose Cochon Brigade in the Radiata Knights with Ridley Silverlake, a haughty noble, and Ganz Rothchild, the bumbling son of one of Jack's father's friends. Things go wrong for Ganz and Jack after a mission to the elf lands, and Jack finds himself out of the Knights and into Theater Vancoor, the warrior guild. A war breaks out between the fairy people and the human people, and Jack must choose sides to save the world.
The story is rote, although the dialogue is what makes it stand out. Jack's not the sharpest pencil in the drawer, but he is headstrong and honor-bound. His attempts to be the best knight he can be are quite funny and can be much more entertaining than a generic main character's story. The characters' story dialogue is voice acted, and much like the vibe in the game, is not the most serious voice acting out there. However, the voice acting completely fits the game and is not 'bad' voice acting like, say, the first Grandia game. Voices do sometimes get annoying during battle, as there are only basic sound effects attached to text messages. Also unique to Radiata Stories is the fact that it's a tri-Ace game with music done by someone other than Motoi Sakuraba. While Sakuraba did contribute a few tracks to the soundtrack, the majority of the game was scored by Lunar composer Noriyuki Iwadare. The soundtrack, much like the voice acting, fits in its prescribed role in the game, but doesn't sound particularly inspired as a stand-alone OST.
Radiata's world is one of the most living worlds in recent memory. tri-Ace has provided Radiata with a full time system and characters that follow a schedule. This particular mechanic, while interesting, can make things quite difficult, as you may need to follow NPCs around to catch them in a certain location or have difficulty remembering where Cosmo is supposed to be at 12 AM. Time cannot be controlled with any options - Jack can go take a nap at his house, but he can't decide to advance time two hours while he's waiting at the Theater Vancoor. The majority of these characters that you encounter during their day, however, can be recruited into your party. Yes, that's right, 177 characters are available for Jack to buddy up with, although only a few are focused on in the main story of the game.
The story and gameplay are where things start to diverge. You see, Jack's story has pacing that's more similar to Final Fantasy X-2 than Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. Between story missions, players have to take down ranked missions before they advance the story. Although a minimal amount of work is required to take down a mission to advance to the next story sequence, perfectionists will want to take down all the extra missions. Missions can be taken down with a team selected from Jack's friends list. Jack can bring three of his comrades through the fairy and human lands.
While Mr. Russell travels around the world, he has a tendency to, well, kick stuff. Jack kicks pretty much any object that's not part of the environment to try and get items. One of the issues in the control comes from the fact that Jack kicks things. Objects are kicked with the X button, but people are spoken to and menus are opened with with the O button. The problem with this is that X is used to confirm an action in a menu, not O. It was quite common for me to cancel a menu because I hit O twice. Because of this, Jack can often unintentionally start fights with some people. Oh, I neglected to mention: you can fight pretty much anyone by kicking them a couple of times. Don't pick on people that you can't befriend, though; chances are they'll beat you to a bloody pulp.
Radiata's battle system is not nearly as complex as those in previous tri-Ace games. Instead of using Star Ocean's special attack system, Radiata allows Jack to change the types of attacks and the order in which he can do them. While the attacks are different based on weapons and can be quite strategic outside of battle, it comes down to mashing buttons until the Volty Gauge has been filled up. The Volty Gauge fills by one point each time there is an attack, and can be used in two ways: a special attack that uses ten Volty points or the one-hundred point Volty Break that does a ton of damage.
The combat moves smoothly, as targets can be locked on to, but does move a little slowly compared to Star Ocean 3. Players can't control any characters directly other than Jack, but have two tools at their disposal. Jack can learn to give orders to his three other party members, telling them to go all out or to conserve their Volty points. He can learn commands for individuals or orders that affect the entire party. Formations can also be called where all four party members jump together and get a bonus to certain statistics based on the formation called. The system is entertaining, but can fall short when more than a few battles come one after another.
The animation in battle is quite impressive, and although the game is technically cel-shaded, it looks nothing like, say, Unlimited SaGa or Dark Cloud 2. The graphics are quite possibly the most impressive portion of the game.. except for the battle environments. These environments tend to be expanses of flat, tan dirt. While some environments in the actual game follow stride, many of the environments are extremely pleasing to the eyes. Characters are anime-styled and extremely gorgeous. Although nowhere close to photorealistic, the characters have the same peculiarity as the rest of Radiata. Part of its charm is the fact that based on the equipment they are wearing, characters' appearances change. Jack might look like a knight trainee at the beginning of the game, but he quickly changes his look to a samurai, or a ranger wearing leather armor. Because the models are done completely, you don't end up with any of the goofy-looking character models from Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, which had a similar system.
Radiata Stories is a unique game in the role playing genre, but it's not the best game out there. Much like the rest of tri-Ace's games, Radiata will certainly form a hardcore cult following, but it might not catch on in the mainstream. There are many unique touches to Radiata that the rest of the role playing genre, or even all games, could learn from, but not everything is executed perfectly. The collectable characters and extra sidequests make Radiata one of the longer RPGs out there.. if you like collecting everything. If you're a guy like me, though, Radiata clocks in at around twenty hours, and another few hours when you complete the other side's story. If you're out for a unique title or are a tri-Ace fan, Radiata Stories is right up your alley.
Popular Posts
Sep 06, 2005 For Radiata Stories on the PlayStation 2, GameFAQs has 26 FAQs (game guides and walkthroughs). May 12, 2013 Radiata Stories ost - The Incarnation of Devil (Radiata Version) by MeRuleDaWorld. Radiata Stories ost - Unknown and Unnamed Spot by MeRuleDaWorld.
I remember when the announcement came that, for the first time ever, Sakuraba was sitting out on a tri-Ace game. I could hardly believe it. And when I heard the man giving Sakuraba a break was none other than Lunar and Grandia composer Noriyuki Iwadare, I was thrilled. Surely, this game would have one of the greatest soundtracks ever made if it were done by Iwadare.
The soundtrack gets off to a good start: the first song reminds me of the sort of melodies heard in Final Fantasy IX: a hint of renaissance flair with plenty of flutes and a plucked string carrying the sweeping three-four / six-eight combination rhythm. Iwadare generally has a certain style in his compositions, but I hadn\'t heard anything like this from him before. Beautiful, I say.
The next song does even better: after the introductory chords (with booming brass), the bass takes over, the piano goes to town, and the song turns into a hog-wild theme that we all knew Iwadare could pull out. Legendary Sword is without a doubt one of Iwadare\'s great compositions. The breakdown is a little weird, I\'ll admit, but it\'s otherwise a stellar song.
And from here on out, things pretty much fall apart.
I haven\'t played the game yet, but I\'m pretty sure \'Struggle\' means \'battle music.\' And uhh..this is some pretty bad battle music for Iwadare. The first theme is almost childish. The second one reminds me of a techno-remix of an old Janet Jackson song. The third, which is the most impressive, sounds like a song from Final Fantasy X-2: lots of crazy bebop-style jazz. Musically, this one is pretty good, but it still isn\'t what I wanted from Iwadare. And, frankly, that means I don\'t like it as much.
Only six tracks in, and we can make one sure statement: this isn\'t Lunar, and this isn\'t Grandia. This is Radiata Stories. We better just get used to it and see what we can enjoy.
As for me, I didn\'t enjoy very much of it. Much of the first disc sounded like boring filler music to me. Especially painful were the \'Partial Version\' tracks. I usually beg and plead for more \'complete\' OSTs, but having the same song gone softer and lacking some of the background sounds to make it fit another part of the game..I don\'t think anyone really wants that. I remember when this sort of thing was done on the Shenmue OST. I didn\'t like it there, and I don\'t like it here.
After a whole lot of super-happy jazz songs and a lot of music I would count as \'filler\' tracks, I ran into one song I liked. Again, it was a jazzy song: but the jazz sounded good here. \'Men\'s Dirge\' is the song, and you can hear the nice balance of guitar, upright bass, and piano. Iwadare has a pretty good grasp on some of the basics of jazz, and I really enjoyed this song because of it.
From here on out, disc one fares a little better off. I was pleased to hear a silly vocal track \'Paya-Paya\' right in the middle of it all. This song is really fun and silly, and it actually reminds me of the kind of stuff found on the \'Lunar Songs\' albums: not musically impressive, but peppy in the kind of way that makes me smile all over.
Before switching to disc two, might I point out \'Scarlet Wind\', track 36. Again, the guitar work is superb, and this sort of Latin-pop-groove is the sort of thing that every game should have in at least one town or event sequence. You have to love it.
Disc two opens with a wonderful Engrish title, \'Go Straight With My Brave.\' If anyone would like to take time out of their day and explain to me what that could possibly mean, I would appreciate it. Anyway, this song is a march. Generally, I don\'t like marches, but as far as marches go, this one is pretty good.
Two lame songs pass, and then we reach a boss battle theme. I sampled it to show that, yes, Iwadare still knows how to write his classic battle themes. Again, even this one doesn\'t escape the jazz saxophone, but otherwise we\'re hearing something we\'d expect from Iwadare, and it is certainly marvelous. I still prefer some classic Lunar battle themes to this, but whatever, it\'s still good.
\'Demise of Paradise\' uses a melody that I swear is used in Princess Mononoke (the Kodama Forest theme music). I mentioned it earlier with FF IX..I think Iwadare definitely borrowed a lot of musical themes from other people in making this album. This song is further proof to me that Iwadare didn\'t quite make this game\'s soundtrack his own.
Track 12, \'Night Memories\', is a peaceful ballad that showcases the violin synths used in the game very well. I am pleased with this sound: it definitely shows what sort of non-live-instrument music we can produce today on systems like PS2. The violin is joined by what I believe is an oboe or a clarinet, and this too sounds wonderful. Enjoy this sample.
The next three songs are all the same song remixed in different ways. The fastest of these three is \'To The Full.\' In it, we find a snare drum, marimbas, cowbell, piano, and a nice backup of orchestrated brass and winds. This song is excellent. If only it weren\'t so short, and if only it were slightly more memorable, I would call it one of my favorites.
For the next few tracks, the happy-go-lucky silly fun-loving feel that characterized disc one disappears. I, for one, couldn\'t be more thrilled about this. Iwadare makes good light-hearted compositions, but they should really be few and far between. These next few songs are very likely the end dungeon and end boss music that always has a soundtrack go out with a bang. They are, of course, very good. Yet, they have something lacking: for one thing, they are short.
The section of awesome tense battle-like music ends with a new version of Legendary Sword. Oh man, this is such a good song, I was so glad they brought it back for a second look. Go Iwadare! At this point, I\'m jumping around my room, excited about how cool Noriyuki Iwadare is.
But of course, the Radiata Stories OST can\'t end that way! There\'s still a bit of silliness left in the game (apparently) that needs to be expressed in musical form.
The ending vocal, Tekuteku Aruku (Plod Along), is sung by Yuka Imaizumi. This song reminds me of the sort of song you would hear on a contemporary Christian worship album..in Japan. If you\'ve never heard anything like that, well, then just listen to this sample and you\'ll know. I make the reference because I am familiar with it, and I have to say that it makes me laugh. Truly \'happy ending\' music, jazzed up to Iwadare\'s standards. My favorite parts of this song are the instrumental sections. It almost makes the Karaoke Version at the end worth it.
The next song, \'Calm Melody\', is..well, I can\'t describe it. Just listen to the sample. I really like it. Weird atmospheric lounge jazz..? I don\'t know, I really can\'t explain it. I really like it. This reminds me of something I heard on the Grandia arranged album \'Vent.\' Thank you, Iwadare, for showing your true colors in this song!
The next three tracks are all arrangements of Motoi Sakuraba\'s songs from Star Ocean games. If you read my reviews, you know I am regularly annoyed by Sakuraba. I have to say that I really like what Iwadare did to these songs. They have his personal touch, and that makes me happy. They are softer songs now, but they still retain the intensity that Sakuraba puts into many of his songs. These three tracks really are a great bonus for the OST.
Things slowly phase out from here with some other silly songs that I think should\'ve gone before \'Plod Along\' (but what do I know?). Among these final tracks, one did stand out: \'Diffuse World.\' It uses some chords and rhythms that sound like Legendary Sword..but this is a three minute jam session with lots of instruments taking the stage.
I\'ve said a lot about this album. Let me summarize..
The album is not what you\'d expect. Iwadare is still a great composer, but I\'d rank this album lower than nearly any Lunar or Grandia album.
Disc one is especially poor, featuring lots of silly tunes and filler tracks that you can\'t seem to \'get into\' no matter how hard you try.
The occasional awesome battle theme sticks out, and the vocal songs are great.
\'Legendary Sword\' is definitely a new \'classic composition\' from our man Iwadare.
That sums it up. If you like the game, you really ought to do yourself a favor and pick up this OST (and the arranged album too!). Otherwise, Iwadare fans should be warned: you might not get what you wanted from this album. I certainly didn\'t. Enjoy it for what it is, and try not to be consumed by the sugar-coated tunes on disc one.
Reviewed by: Patrick Gann
Graphics: 91% Sound: 83% Gameplay: 84% Control: 78% Story: 82% Overall: 83% Some of Radiata\'s beautiful characters. Yay for Meteor Strikes! Someone\'s screwed. Yar! I\'m a pirate! Maybe! 09/06/05
John McCarrolltri-Ace is a well-known developer for the hardcore RPGFan. Having created the Star Ocean series as well as the vaunted PSOne classic Valkyrie Profile, tri-Ace has established a dynasty with their titles. Radiata Stories is coming straight on the heels of RPGFan\'s 2004 Game of the Year, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, and has some pretty big shoes to fill. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for some of you,) aside from having an action-based battle system, Radiata Stories shares little resemblance to Star Ocean 3. In short, Radiata is an entertaining, stylish, humorous, yet flawed title.
One thing is for certain, however: Radiata has a style unique to itself that hasn\'t been seen in a recent title. Radiata walks the line between a pure parody, like The Bard\'s Tale, and being a serious title, lending it an air all its own. Jack Russell\'s not your standard RPG protagonist. He\'s not suave. He\'s not smart. He doesn\'t have wacky hair. No, Jack\'s pretty dumb, and only got into the Radiata Knights because his dad was a famous knight. Jack joins the Rose Cochon Brigade in the Radiata Knights with Ridley Silverlake, a haughty noble, and Ganz Rothchild, the bumbling son of one of Jack\'s father\'s friends. Things go wrong for Ganz and Jack after a mission to the elf lands, and Jack finds himself out of the Knights and into Theater Vancoor, the warrior guild. A war breaks out between the fairy people and the human people, and Jack must choose sides to save the world.
The story is rote, although the dialogue is what makes it stand out. Jack\'s not the sharpest pencil in the drawer, but he is headstrong and honor-bound. His attempts to be the best knight he can be are quite funny and can be much more entertaining than a generic main character\'s story. The characters\' story dialogue is voice acted, and much like the vibe in the game, is not the most serious voice acting out there. However, the voice acting completely fits the game and is not \'bad\' voice acting like, say, the first Grandia game. Voices do sometimes get annoying during battle, as there are only basic sound effects attached to text messages. Also unique to Radiata Stories is the fact that it\'s a tri-Ace game with music done by someone other than Motoi Sakuraba. While Sakuraba did contribute a few tracks to the soundtrack, the majority of the game was scored by Lunar composer Noriyuki Iwadare. The soundtrack, much like the voice acting, fits in its prescribed role in the game, but doesn\'t sound particularly inspired as a stand-alone OST.
Radiata\'s world is one of the most living worlds in recent memory. tri-Ace has provided Radiata with a full time system and characters that follow a schedule. This particular mechanic, while interesting, can make things quite difficult, as you may need to follow NPCs around to catch them in a certain location or have difficulty remembering where Cosmo is supposed to be at 12 AM. Time cannot be controlled with any options - Jack can go take a nap at his house, but he can\'t decide to advance time two hours while he\'s waiting at the Theater Vancoor. The majority of these characters that you encounter during their day, however, can be recruited into your party. Yes, that\'s right, 177 characters are available for Jack to buddy up with, although only a few are focused on in the main story of the game.
The story and gameplay are where things start to diverge. You see, Jack\'s story has pacing that\'s more similar to Final Fantasy X-2 than Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. Between story missions, players have to take down ranked missions before they advance the story. Although a minimal amount of work is required to take down a mission to advance to the next story sequence, perfectionists will want to take down all the extra missions. Missions can be taken down with a team selected from Jack\'s friends list. Jack can bring three of his comrades through the fairy and human lands.
While Mr. Russell travels around the world, he has a tendency to, well, kick stuff. Jack kicks pretty much any object that\'s not part of the environment to try and get items. One of the issues in the control comes from the fact that Jack kicks things. Objects are kicked with the X button, but people are spoken to and menus are opened with with the O button. The problem with this is that X is used to confirm an action in a menu, not O. It was quite common for me to cancel a menu because I hit O twice. Because of this, Jack can often unintentionally start fights with some people. Oh, I neglected to mention: you can fight pretty much anyone by kicking them a couple of times. Don\'t pick on people that you can\'t befriend, though; chances are they\'ll beat you to a bloody pulp.
Radiata\'s battle system is not nearly as complex as those in previous tri-Ace games. Instead of using Star Ocean\'s special attack system, Radiata allows Jack to change the types of attacks and the order in which he can do them. While the attacks are different based on weapons and can be quite strategic outside of battle, it comes down to mashing buttons until the Volty Gauge has been filled up. The Volty Gauge fills by one point each time there is an attack, and can be used in two ways: a special attack that uses ten Volty points or the one-hundred point Volty Break that does a ton of damage.
The combat moves smoothly, as targets can be locked on to, but does move a little slowly compared to Star Ocean 3. Players can\'t control any characters directly other than Jack, but have two tools at their disposal. Jack can learn to give orders to his three other party members, telling them to go all out or to conserve their Volty points. He can learn commands for individuals or orders that affect the entire party. Formations can also be called where all four party members jump together and get a bonus to certain statistics based on the formation called. The system is entertaining, but can fall short when more than a few battles come one after another.
The animation in battle is quite impressive, and although the game is technically cel-shaded, it looks nothing like, say, Unlimited SaGa or Dark Cloud 2. The graphics are quite possibly the most impressive portion of the game.. except for the battle environments. These environments tend to be expanses of flat, tan dirt. While some environments in the actual game follow stride, many of the environments are extremely pleasing to the eyes. Characters are anime-styled and extremely gorgeous. Although nowhere close to photorealistic, the characters have the same peculiarity as the rest of Radiata. Part of its charm is the fact that based on the equipment they are wearing, characters\' appearances change. Jack might look like a knight trainee at the beginning of the game, but he quickly changes his look to a samurai, or a ranger wearing leather armor. Because the models are done completely, you don\'t end up with any of the goofy-looking character models from Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, which had a similar system.
Radiata Stories is a unique game in the role playing genre, but it\'s not the best game out there. Much like the rest of tri-Ace\'s games, Radiata will certainly form a hardcore cult following, but it might not catch on in the mainstream. There are many unique touches to Radiata that the rest of the role playing genre, or even all games, could learn from, but not everything is executed perfectly. The collectable characters and extra sidequests make Radiata one of the longer RPGs out there.. if you like collecting everything. If you\'re a guy like me, though, Radiata clocks in at around twenty hours, and another few hours when you complete the other side\'s story. If you\'re out for a unique title or are a tri-Ace fan, Radiata Stories is right up your alley.
...'>Radiata Stories Ost Rarbg(14.03.2020)Sep 06, 2005 For Radiata Stories on the PlayStation 2, GameFAQs has 26 FAQs (game guides and walkthroughs). May 12, 2013 Radiata Stories ost - The Incarnation of Devil (Radiata Version) by MeRuleDaWorld. Radiata Stories ost - Unknown and Unnamed Spot by MeRuleDaWorld.
I remember when the announcement came that, for the first time ever, Sakuraba was sitting out on a tri-Ace game. I could hardly believe it. And when I heard the man giving Sakuraba a break was none other than Lunar and Grandia composer Noriyuki Iwadare, I was thrilled. Surely, this game would have one of the greatest soundtracks ever made if it were done by Iwadare.
The soundtrack gets off to a good start: the first song reminds me of the sort of melodies heard in Final Fantasy IX: a hint of renaissance flair with plenty of flutes and a plucked string carrying the sweeping three-four / six-eight combination rhythm. Iwadare generally has a certain style in his compositions, but I hadn\'t heard anything like this from him before. Beautiful, I say.
The next song does even better: after the introductory chords (with booming brass), the bass takes over, the piano goes to town, and the song turns into a hog-wild theme that we all knew Iwadare could pull out. Legendary Sword is without a doubt one of Iwadare\'s great compositions. The breakdown is a little weird, I\'ll admit, but it\'s otherwise a stellar song.
And from here on out, things pretty much fall apart.
I haven\'t played the game yet, but I\'m pretty sure \'Struggle\' means \'battle music.\' And uhh..this is some pretty bad battle music for Iwadare. The first theme is almost childish. The second one reminds me of a techno-remix of an old Janet Jackson song. The third, which is the most impressive, sounds like a song from Final Fantasy X-2: lots of crazy bebop-style jazz. Musically, this one is pretty good, but it still isn\'t what I wanted from Iwadare. And, frankly, that means I don\'t like it as much.
Only six tracks in, and we can make one sure statement: this isn\'t Lunar, and this isn\'t Grandia. This is Radiata Stories. We better just get used to it and see what we can enjoy.
As for me, I didn\'t enjoy very much of it. Much of the first disc sounded like boring filler music to me. Especially painful were the \'Partial Version\' tracks. I usually beg and plead for more \'complete\' OSTs, but having the same song gone softer and lacking some of the background sounds to make it fit another part of the game..I don\'t think anyone really wants that. I remember when this sort of thing was done on the Shenmue OST. I didn\'t like it there, and I don\'t like it here.
After a whole lot of super-happy jazz songs and a lot of music I would count as \'filler\' tracks, I ran into one song I liked. Again, it was a jazzy song: but the jazz sounded good here. \'Men\'s Dirge\' is the song, and you can hear the nice balance of guitar, upright bass, and piano. Iwadare has a pretty good grasp on some of the basics of jazz, and I really enjoyed this song because of it.
From here on out, disc one fares a little better off. I was pleased to hear a silly vocal track \'Paya-Paya\' right in the middle of it all. This song is really fun and silly, and it actually reminds me of the kind of stuff found on the \'Lunar Songs\' albums: not musically impressive, but peppy in the kind of way that makes me smile all over.
Before switching to disc two, might I point out \'Scarlet Wind\', track 36. Again, the guitar work is superb, and this sort of Latin-pop-groove is the sort of thing that every game should have in at least one town or event sequence. You have to love it.
Disc two opens with a wonderful Engrish title, \'Go Straight With My Brave.\' If anyone would like to take time out of their day and explain to me what that could possibly mean, I would appreciate it. Anyway, this song is a march. Generally, I don\'t like marches, but as far as marches go, this one is pretty good.
Two lame songs pass, and then we reach a boss battle theme. I sampled it to show that, yes, Iwadare still knows how to write his classic battle themes. Again, even this one doesn\'t escape the jazz saxophone, but otherwise we\'re hearing something we\'d expect from Iwadare, and it is certainly marvelous. I still prefer some classic Lunar battle themes to this, but whatever, it\'s still good.
\'Demise of Paradise\' uses a melody that I swear is used in Princess Mononoke (the Kodama Forest theme music). I mentioned it earlier with FF IX..I think Iwadare definitely borrowed a lot of musical themes from other people in making this album. This song is further proof to me that Iwadare didn\'t quite make this game\'s soundtrack his own.
Track 12, \'Night Memories\', is a peaceful ballad that showcases the violin synths used in the game very well. I am pleased with this sound: it definitely shows what sort of non-live-instrument music we can produce today on systems like PS2. The violin is joined by what I believe is an oboe or a clarinet, and this too sounds wonderful. Enjoy this sample.
The next three songs are all the same song remixed in different ways. The fastest of these three is \'To The Full.\' In it, we find a snare drum, marimbas, cowbell, piano, and a nice backup of orchestrated brass and winds. This song is excellent. If only it weren\'t so short, and if only it were slightly more memorable, I would call it one of my favorites.
For the next few tracks, the happy-go-lucky silly fun-loving feel that characterized disc one disappears. I, for one, couldn\'t be more thrilled about this. Iwadare makes good light-hearted compositions, but they should really be few and far between. These next few songs are very likely the end dungeon and end boss music that always has a soundtrack go out with a bang. They are, of course, very good. Yet, they have something lacking: for one thing, they are short.
The section of awesome tense battle-like music ends with a new version of Legendary Sword. Oh man, this is such a good song, I was so glad they brought it back for a second look. Go Iwadare! At this point, I\'m jumping around my room, excited about how cool Noriyuki Iwadare is.
But of course, the Radiata Stories OST can\'t end that way! There\'s still a bit of silliness left in the game (apparently) that needs to be expressed in musical form.
The ending vocal, Tekuteku Aruku (Plod Along), is sung by Yuka Imaizumi. This song reminds me of the sort of song you would hear on a contemporary Christian worship album..in Japan. If you\'ve never heard anything like that, well, then just listen to this sample and you\'ll know. I make the reference because I am familiar with it, and I have to say that it makes me laugh. Truly \'happy ending\' music, jazzed up to Iwadare\'s standards. My favorite parts of this song are the instrumental sections. It almost makes the Karaoke Version at the end worth it.
The next song, \'Calm Melody\', is..well, I can\'t describe it. Just listen to the sample. I really like it. Weird atmospheric lounge jazz..? I don\'t know, I really can\'t explain it. I really like it. This reminds me of something I heard on the Grandia arranged album \'Vent.\' Thank you, Iwadare, for showing your true colors in this song!
The next three tracks are all arrangements of Motoi Sakuraba\'s songs from Star Ocean games. If you read my reviews, you know I am regularly annoyed by Sakuraba. I have to say that I really like what Iwadare did to these songs. They have his personal touch, and that makes me happy. They are softer songs now, but they still retain the intensity that Sakuraba puts into many of his songs. These three tracks really are a great bonus for the OST.
Things slowly phase out from here with some other silly songs that I think should\'ve gone before \'Plod Along\' (but what do I know?). Among these final tracks, one did stand out: \'Diffuse World.\' It uses some chords and rhythms that sound like Legendary Sword..but this is a three minute jam session with lots of instruments taking the stage.
I\'ve said a lot about this album. Let me summarize..
The album is not what you\'d expect. Iwadare is still a great composer, but I\'d rank this album lower than nearly any Lunar or Grandia album.
Disc one is especially poor, featuring lots of silly tunes and filler tracks that you can\'t seem to \'get into\' no matter how hard you try.
The occasional awesome battle theme sticks out, and the vocal songs are great.
\'Legendary Sword\' is definitely a new \'classic composition\' from our man Iwadare.
That sums it up. If you like the game, you really ought to do yourself a favor and pick up this OST (and the arranged album too!). Otherwise, Iwadare fans should be warned: you might not get what you wanted from this album. I certainly didn\'t. Enjoy it for what it is, and try not to be consumed by the sugar-coated tunes on disc one.
Reviewed by: Patrick Gann
Graphics: 91% Sound: 83% Gameplay: 84% Control: 78% Story: 82% Overall: 83% Some of Radiata\'s beautiful characters. Yay for Meteor Strikes! Someone\'s screwed. Yar! I\'m a pirate! Maybe! 09/06/05
John McCarrolltri-Ace is a well-known developer for the hardcore RPGFan. Having created the Star Ocean series as well as the vaunted PSOne classic Valkyrie Profile, tri-Ace has established a dynasty with their titles. Radiata Stories is coming straight on the heels of RPGFan\'s 2004 Game of the Year, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, and has some pretty big shoes to fill. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for some of you,) aside from having an action-based battle system, Radiata Stories shares little resemblance to Star Ocean 3. In short, Radiata is an entertaining, stylish, humorous, yet flawed title.
One thing is for certain, however: Radiata has a style unique to itself that hasn\'t been seen in a recent title. Radiata walks the line between a pure parody, like The Bard\'s Tale, and being a serious title, lending it an air all its own. Jack Russell\'s not your standard RPG protagonist. He\'s not suave. He\'s not smart. He doesn\'t have wacky hair. No, Jack\'s pretty dumb, and only got into the Radiata Knights because his dad was a famous knight. Jack joins the Rose Cochon Brigade in the Radiata Knights with Ridley Silverlake, a haughty noble, and Ganz Rothchild, the bumbling son of one of Jack\'s father\'s friends. Things go wrong for Ganz and Jack after a mission to the elf lands, and Jack finds himself out of the Knights and into Theater Vancoor, the warrior guild. A war breaks out between the fairy people and the human people, and Jack must choose sides to save the world.
The story is rote, although the dialogue is what makes it stand out. Jack\'s not the sharpest pencil in the drawer, but he is headstrong and honor-bound. His attempts to be the best knight he can be are quite funny and can be much more entertaining than a generic main character\'s story. The characters\' story dialogue is voice acted, and much like the vibe in the game, is not the most serious voice acting out there. However, the voice acting completely fits the game and is not \'bad\' voice acting like, say, the first Grandia game. Voices do sometimes get annoying during battle, as there are only basic sound effects attached to text messages. Also unique to Radiata Stories is the fact that it\'s a tri-Ace game with music done by someone other than Motoi Sakuraba. While Sakuraba did contribute a few tracks to the soundtrack, the majority of the game was scored by Lunar composer Noriyuki Iwadare. The soundtrack, much like the voice acting, fits in its prescribed role in the game, but doesn\'t sound particularly inspired as a stand-alone OST.
Radiata\'s world is one of the most living worlds in recent memory. tri-Ace has provided Radiata with a full time system and characters that follow a schedule. This particular mechanic, while interesting, can make things quite difficult, as you may need to follow NPCs around to catch them in a certain location or have difficulty remembering where Cosmo is supposed to be at 12 AM. Time cannot be controlled with any options - Jack can go take a nap at his house, but he can\'t decide to advance time two hours while he\'s waiting at the Theater Vancoor. The majority of these characters that you encounter during their day, however, can be recruited into your party. Yes, that\'s right, 177 characters are available for Jack to buddy up with, although only a few are focused on in the main story of the game.
The story and gameplay are where things start to diverge. You see, Jack\'s story has pacing that\'s more similar to Final Fantasy X-2 than Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. Between story missions, players have to take down ranked missions before they advance the story. Although a minimal amount of work is required to take down a mission to advance to the next story sequence, perfectionists will want to take down all the extra missions. Missions can be taken down with a team selected from Jack\'s friends list. Jack can bring three of his comrades through the fairy and human lands.
While Mr. Russell travels around the world, he has a tendency to, well, kick stuff. Jack kicks pretty much any object that\'s not part of the environment to try and get items. One of the issues in the control comes from the fact that Jack kicks things. Objects are kicked with the X button, but people are spoken to and menus are opened with with the O button. The problem with this is that X is used to confirm an action in a menu, not O. It was quite common for me to cancel a menu because I hit O twice. Because of this, Jack can often unintentionally start fights with some people. Oh, I neglected to mention: you can fight pretty much anyone by kicking them a couple of times. Don\'t pick on people that you can\'t befriend, though; chances are they\'ll beat you to a bloody pulp.
Radiata\'s battle system is not nearly as complex as those in previous tri-Ace games. Instead of using Star Ocean\'s special attack system, Radiata allows Jack to change the types of attacks and the order in which he can do them. While the attacks are different based on weapons and can be quite strategic outside of battle, it comes down to mashing buttons until the Volty Gauge has been filled up. The Volty Gauge fills by one point each time there is an attack, and can be used in two ways: a special attack that uses ten Volty points or the one-hundred point Volty Break that does a ton of damage.
The combat moves smoothly, as targets can be locked on to, but does move a little slowly compared to Star Ocean 3. Players can\'t control any characters directly other than Jack, but have two tools at their disposal. Jack can learn to give orders to his three other party members, telling them to go all out or to conserve their Volty points. He can learn commands for individuals or orders that affect the entire party. Formations can also be called where all four party members jump together and get a bonus to certain statistics based on the formation called. The system is entertaining, but can fall short when more than a few battles come one after another.
The animation in battle is quite impressive, and although the game is technically cel-shaded, it looks nothing like, say, Unlimited SaGa or Dark Cloud 2. The graphics are quite possibly the most impressive portion of the game.. except for the battle environments. These environments tend to be expanses of flat, tan dirt. While some environments in the actual game follow stride, many of the environments are extremely pleasing to the eyes. Characters are anime-styled and extremely gorgeous. Although nowhere close to photorealistic, the characters have the same peculiarity as the rest of Radiata. Part of its charm is the fact that based on the equipment they are wearing, characters\' appearances change. Jack might look like a knight trainee at the beginning of the game, but he quickly changes his look to a samurai, or a ranger wearing leather armor. Because the models are done completely, you don\'t end up with any of the goofy-looking character models from Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, which had a similar system.
Radiata Stories is a unique game in the role playing genre, but it\'s not the best game out there. Much like the rest of tri-Ace\'s games, Radiata will certainly form a hardcore cult following, but it might not catch on in the mainstream. There are many unique touches to Radiata that the rest of the role playing genre, or even all games, could learn from, but not everything is executed perfectly. The collectable characters and extra sidequests make Radiata one of the longer RPGs out there.. if you like collecting everything. If you\'re a guy like me, though, Radiata clocks in at around twenty hours, and another few hours when you complete the other side\'s story. If you\'re out for a unique title or are a tri-Ace fan, Radiata Stories is right up your alley.
...'>Radiata Stories Ost Rarbg(14.03.2020)