Radiata Stories/Walkthrough early game

=Before the Split=

This section deals with the initial part of the game. You will do the following tasks, regardless of which path you will be taking after the split.

At the very beginning of the game, it is mostly cut scenes, with some minimal ability to control Jack. Sit back and enjoy the movie; it will help set up the characters. The next time you play this game, you will recognize most of the characters in the selection tournament.

You can't win the fight with Ridley, so don't bother trying. If you put up enough of a fight, you will see her use her volty command. You will eventually get accepted by the Knights and placed in the Rose Crochon (French for Pink Pig) Squad with Ganz and Ridley.

Later in the game, Ganz and Ridley will at times be able to appear in your party (actually, be required to be in your party), but they won't be in the final battle, so don't bother spending a lot of time leveling either up, or get too attached to how they fight.

When you finally get control again, you will be in your room. Save your game. You don't want to go through all those cut scenes again if something goes wrong.

Your first task is to go to a meeting on the third floor. If you try to wander somewhere else, Jack will remind you. (This is typical throughout the game, when there is a specific task to be done.) Another good habit to get into is to press R1 to look at the map. It will show you where you are (sort of), where any save points might be, as well as a swirl to indicate your destination. If you are in a building or dungeon, you can use the up and down buttons on the directional pad to see the other floors. The map is very handy, but it seems to be a bit off. If you compare your location on the map with your location in the world, there seems to be some differences.

When you get to the meeting room, another set of cut scenes will take over. There is no way to cancel a cut scene, but if you click "X" during a dialog, it will cancel the rest of the dialog. So, if you keep mashing the "X" button, you will reduce the total time a bit.

When all the cut scenes are over, you will get some training from Ganz (if this is the first time you played the game.) Followed by some more cut scenes. (The number of cut scenes gets much less further into the game. Don't get too discouraged at this point.) Eventually you will be starting off on your first mission. You won't be able to explore the castle until you get back.

You will be given some missions to accomplish:


 * Escort a Dwarf
 * This mission will take you to the Dwarf Village in Earth Valley.


 * This is the first real chance you get to fight and level up. Take your time getting there, fighting everything you can. If you come across some people, you can kick them to duel them.


 * Once you get to Earth Valley, go to the large gold building, and then save your game. You can spend as much time as you want leveling up at this point, as long as you don't sleep. You should start out by dueling the shop owners. The blacksmiths and miners are much stronger. If you are brave (or already have the Auto Cure Skill), you can wander into the Dwarf Caves and gain some experience. After your first game, this is a great way to level up in the early parts of the game. By equiping the Auto Cure status, you can duel just about anyone. If your HP gets low, then just run around for a while avoiding getting hit until your HP is back up. If you got the Tri-Emblem skill, you probably want to keep that equipped most of the time, and switch to Auto Cure if your HP gets low. You can stretch this mission out indefinitely if you don't sleep or talk to Ridley and Ganz.


 * Visit the pub to get a solo mission and earn an item. Talk to the bartender, agree to help, visit the bar when it is closed, and go back and talk to the bartender. When asked, be honest. When you get back to the Castle, you can wander around kicking things. Make sure you get the Knight's Edge sword in the locker next to the training room, and the Strength Berry in the sub-basement "Path of the Spider". Sleep to progress the story.


 * Deliver a Letter
 * You will be asked to deliver a letter to the leader of the Light Elves. You will be told to meet with Genius, who is on the way there. Genius will be in your party, but you can't recruit him until much later on the human path.


 * Talk to Ganz when he is standing near the cellar in the Dark Elf village to get some money. Talk to Chatt, and answer "Rich", "No way!", "Master Chef", and "Veggie Soup".


 * Most of the elves are magic casters, so when dueling them, keep hitting them so they can't cast their spells. A few fight like monks, so be prepared for a good battle from them. You can't recruit anyone at this point in the game, so don't bother trying.


 * This is also the mission that causes you to get fired from the Knights and sets up the plot for the split later in the game.

Once you get back from your first mission, you can explore the castle kicking things to find items, but the most important ones are the Knight Edge in the locker near the training area, and the strength berry at the end of "The Path of the Spider" in the sub-basement of the castle. Don't forget to kick everyone in sight so you can level up by dueling people. Even characters you think won't be much of a challenge can be a surprise. If you kick one of the little kids in the castle, they will call some guards to fight you. (See if you can find the ghost.)

At some point after your second mission, when you leave your room you will run into Al, who is acting strange. Follow him west and down the stairs to the next door. (These are the same stairs that lead to the Path of the Spider). Go into the dungeon for a cut scene, you can then leave. Before you progress the game, visit the store room (item shop) to get another solo mission.

When you get strong or bored enough, sleep in your room to progress the game. This is a normal way to progress this game. If it doesn't work, try sleeping again. Some things take several days before they trigger.

The game will progress by Ganz visiting you in your room. Just watch a series of cut scenes and save if you ever see a small blue flag. (This is another good general rule to follow.) The first fight with Jarvis will be very easy (he only has a small percentage of his HP). The fight with Gerald you can't win, so don't worry.

After another series of cut scenes, you will end back at Theater Vancoor and get assigned to a squad led by (you guessed it?) Jarvis. You will have to fight Daniel I'm not sure what happens if you lose this fight, so you might want to make sure you have saved at some point before this. He isn't very strong, and his HP is only around 300, so you shouldn't have any trouble, assuming you did at least some levelling up.

Friends List Created
The beginning of the recruitment period starts when Clive shows up and writes his name on your Friends List. You can then recruit a number of humans in Radiata City, as well as farmers and some non-humans (e.g., dark elves). The complete list of characters you can recruit at this time are listed below. The earlier you recruit a character and put them in your party, the higher level they will be later in the game. For example, when you first recruit Aidan, he isn't very useful, but as he gains levels, he becomes a decent mage.

You can't start recruiting characters until Clive turns up and writes his name in your Friends List. Clive is recruited automatically, and signals the start of the recruitment process. Work on getting your starting party first. Once you are happy with your party, you can work on recruiting the other characters. Most of the characters in this group can be recruited at any time, even towards the end of the game, so it isn't imperative that you recruit them now, but it is best to get them out of the way before you forget about them.

Once Clive has joined, you can continue to recruit people for about a day and a half, at which time you will be automatically sucked into the Crocogator mission. However, once you start on that mission, you can still take some time to recruit people, and wander around and level up. You will only have Jack and Jarvis in your party, however.

You won't be able to use any of the people you recruit until you get some solo jobs, which will be after you return from the Crocogator mission.

You might want to start out by buying better armor and weapons, buy and read some books so you can give commands to your party, and probably some cure items. The Dead End Armory in the Void Community has the Wind Garb, which is the best armor. Buy that and the best weapon you can afford. I find the lance to be very good when fighting monsters, since you can use a wide sweep and hit multiple enemies with one swing. For boss fights, I tend to use the sword, but you might want to experiment with other weapons to see which ones best fit your fighting style.

When choosing weapons, don't concentrate strictly on the attack value, but look at the side effects as well. A weapon that causes some status affliction can, in the long run, do more damage that a weapon that has a higher attack value but no side effect. This is especially true for afflictions such as petrify, which takes the enemy completely out of the battle for a while as you continue to hit them, and poison, which will continue to drain HP from the enemy. In fact, once you have poisoned an enemy, you might want to go and attack a different one, and let that one die a slow death.

Another factor to weapons is the types of attacks that you use. Some attacks will affect all enemies within a certain area. This makes it easy to get rid of a bunch of enemies in short time. You can switch weapons and/or attacks several times in the middle of a battle, so if one approach isn't working, try either a different set of attacks, or a different weapon. For example, you can start with a lance and wide swing (like wild spin) at the beginning of a battle. Then, once you have a single strong enemy left, you can switch to more powerful attacks, or knockdown type attacks.

At some point in the game, you will have to decide on the human or non-human path. Once this choice is made, no characters in the other group can be recruited, and none of the other type that you previously recruited will be available. Remember this before you spend a lot of time to build up a character that you will later lose.

Once the game is over, there is a bonus dungeon where you can recruit an additional character. She will only be available during post-game events, but you can learn a great skill by recruiting her.

Even though a character may become unavailable later in the game, there are still times when you might want to recruit them. This is especially true the first time you play the game and are trying to learn skills. For example, Donkey is the only character available at the start of the game that has the "Absorb HP" skill. This is a very useful skill to have, so you should think about recruiting him and using him long enough to learn that skill.

While you are recruiting people, you will be required to go on a few missions with your squad. Normally, you will have some time between missions when you can recruit characters, but you can often do some recruting while you are on the mission as well. For example, during the Crocogator Mission, you will be able to travel anywhere and recruit characters before you encounter a Crocogator. If you get into any fights, you will only have yourself and Jarvis in your party, so if you didn't level up Jack earlier in the game, you might want to put off any of the more difficult areas.

Here are the squad missions you will take part in:


 * Crocogator Mission
 * This is the first mission, and will start automatically at some point. No matter where you are and what you are doing, Jack will say something about checking out Theater Vancoor and you be taken back to there.


 * You will only have yourself and Jarvis for this mission. Daniel refuses to go.


 * Like most missions, you will be told where to go and what to do. You can usually talk to Thanos and get some hints as well. If you are inside the city and use the map, it will show you which gate you want to use. Once in the world, use the map to see the actual destination.


 * Just go where the map tells you and do what Jarvis says, and you should do fine. How much you get is supposed to be random, but I have always gotten the low pay.


 * Once you have completed this mission, you should go to Morfin's Clinic and talk to the sick kid. Keep this up if you want to recruit everyone from the Olacion Order.


 * Once you are done with this mission, you can work on solo missions with your party. Check with Thanos each time to see what is available. Just remember to not sleep at Jack's house until there are no more missions available, or you might miss some.


 * Even if you are going to take the non-human path, these missions are a good way to get experience and money. You can have all non-humans in your party, which means you can be building up your party before the split.

Recruitment: Initial Friends List
Once your friends list has been created, you can start recruiting characters. For more information on what characters to recruit and how to recruit them, see /Character Recruitment

First Missions
Once you get back from the Crocogator mission, you will have some free time on your hands. At various points during these missions, you will see some cut scenes about Ganz. During this time, Flau and Rynka may not be keeping their normal schedule, since they are part of the cut scenes.

You can take any (or all) of three missions:

Pick Up Weapons from Earth Valley This is very simple and straight forward. Just talk to the owner of the weapons shop just across from the front door of Vancoor Theater.

Talk to Gregory before you leave, and you can work on recruiting him at the same time. Collect Smilodon Fang Go to the Ocho Region, follow the path until you see a bone arch.

Take that path and fight the tiger-like monster.

Jack talks about coming back to make money. Don't bother, you can't sell them. (Actually, you won't get them.)

This region is fairly tough, so if you haven't leveled up much, consider going to Septem Cave a couple of times first. Monsters at the Bridge You will battle a king snake and some trees. Take out the trees first, and then the snake. You must accept this mission to recruit Elef, Hip, and Ryan, who are non-guild humans.

You probably want to do them in the above order, since the first doesn't involve any fighting, and the third is probably harder than the second. Avoid going to your house during the day to prevent the game from progressing before you are ready. Enter your house after 9pm and leave before 8am to save your game. Remember not to sleep until you are ready.

If you go to the top floor of the Morfin Clinic, you will see a sick kid on a bed. Talk to him, and he asks you to come back again and tell him stories. The stories he wants to hear are the Crocogator mission, the Smilodon Fang mission, and the Rats in the Vareth Institute mission (which won't happen for a bit.) These stories are a critical part of recruiting his sisters Adina and Elena, who are from the Olacion Order.

Having gone on your own mission opens up a few more recruits, or at least you can start recruiting them.