Radiata Stories

Radiata Stories (ラジアータ ストーリーズ) is a video game from developer tri-Ace. It is published by Square Enix in the United States and Japan. The game centers mainly around Jack Russell, son of a successful general and dragonslayer. Only Jack is directly controllable by the player, the other 176 characters can be controlled indirectly via commands from Russell and the use of the Link System (tactical formations). The game also features a Day/Night system, with characters acting in accordance with their own schedules.

Much of this article is based (with permission) on a FAQ by Bill Pringle. A text version of this FAQ is also available on GameFAQS. The original article was written in the first person, so the reader is encouraged to remove personal pronouns as they are encountered.

Leveling Up
Like many role playing games, leveling up can make the fights easier. One of the unique things about this game is the ability to duel characters. You don't have to go out into the world or a dungeon to find a fight. Just kick somebody. If you kick somebody twice, they should fight you one-on-one. Some characters won't duel, so if they keep saying the same thing, try somebody else. You can only duel someone once per day. Fortunately, they don't seem to remember that you kicked them, other than a brief comment immediately after the fight. If you lose a duel, don't worry, the game isn't over, but you will have an HP of 1, so don't forget to heal (or talk to Miranda) before you get into a real fight.

When fighting in dungeons and in the world, you will notice that if you see more than one monster, that after the first fight, some of the other monsters may not be there. If you leave the area and come back, they will re-appear. In general, stronger monsters will be less likely to disappear than weaker ones, but it isn't always that way.

If you do a lot of levelling up like I do, then you can pretty much ignore all the strategy hints you read about for the boss fights. Just plow in and start hacking, telling your healer to concentrate on you, and it will be over in no time.

If you don't level up, then links will be more important. Using a link allows all members of your party to share the combined skills off everyone in your party. I only tend to use links when I need to learn a new skill, but that's me; you might like to experiment with links. There's no "one right way" to play this game; if you're having fun, then you're doing it the right way.

If you are at a low level, then you should start off in the sewers below Theater Vancoor. That is a good place to kill a few minutes, and pick up some gold and experience at the same time. Once you are strong enough, you can do whatever you need to do during the day, and then clear out Septem Cave, and get home before daybreak to save your game.

I like the Septem Cave the best for leveling up before the split. In the very early stages of the game it might be a challenge, but as long as you have a good spear, you should be able to get through that area just fine, especially if you have the "Prevent Freeze" skill equipped. When you are in the second part of the cave, just before the exit, you will run into a large iceburg monster. Once in a while, after it is defeated, there will be another larva-like monster. This is the rare Killer Queen, who will give you a lot of experience, gold, and berries if you defeat it. Be careful, though, because she is tough. Don't be afraid to use your volty on it.

After the split, your best experience comes from battling members of the other group. If you pick the human path, use the Travel Pig to the Dark Elves location (Mikey won't fight you, but won't let you in, either.) Travel east, then southwest around the lake, and then head towards Fort Helencia. You can then use the pig to get to the Goblin village and wander around there. Towards the very end of the game, the Blood Orc homeland becomes available. You can get some great experience there.

What I often do during the non-human path is use the Travel Pig to Lupus Gate, and then walk from there to Earth Valley, taking all the side roads, including doubling back to the other gate at Radiata City. Be careful when you run into Godwin and Fernando (he is actually on the bridge); their volty blast can take out one of your characters. As long as it isn't Jack, that's not a problem, so if you see one of them flashing, just have Jack defend until he's beaten or has used his volty. When you get to Earth Valley, take the Travel Pig to the Tria Region and fight the troops around there. That should get you a lot of experience and money. I can usually level the entire party up a couple of levels each day.

Level Cap is 99.

Skills
One of the reasons you want to recruit characters is so that you can learn their skills. If you link with a character that has a skill that you don't currently have, then after some number of links you will learn that skill. Once you have learned the skill, you need to fight with it equipped some number of times in order to level up the skill. Leveling up doesn't require links, any fights will do. You can go down to the sewers under Theater Vancoor to get into a lot of easy fights. This is useful since the character you are trying to learn the skill from is probably a low level character. Since the monsters in that area stay fairly weak, the low level characters have a better chance to survive a fight. You can fill your party with characters having skills that you don't know yet, then equip yourself with Auto Cure and link your party together for each fight until you have learned the skills. Some skills are learned faster than others, so if you are in the sewers under Theater Vancoor, you can go to the first floor and swap out the skill you learned for another skill. You can keep this up until you learn all the available skills, or you run out of monsters in the basement. Remember that there are times when you don't want to go back to your house to sleep to force a new day.

The skills that I like the best are:


 * Auto Cure
 * You can learn this from Kain, Genius, or Stefan


 * When you start a new game (other than the first time), equip this skill and you will almost never get killed. You will be able to go into the dwarf caves on your own when a knight, and duel all the characters in Earth Valley.


 * When you set up your initial party, use links a lot with auto cure equipped so that each character keeps getting healed. This will let you level up your characters without having to spend a lot of time explicitly healing them.


 * Absorb HP
 * You can learn this skill from Donkey and Valkyrie.


 * This skill heals you a percentage of the damage you do to the enemy. If you keep hitting fast enough and hard enough, you won't need healing very often.


 * Full Power
 * You can learn this from Gruel, Fernando, Galvados,or Sebastian


 * Equip this skill just before you use your volty attack. It increases the damage. For stronger bosses, you might want to use Save Volty instead.


 * Save Volty
 * You can learn this from Curtis or Gobrey


 * Your volty attack won't use up all of your volty meter. Equip this skill just before you use your volty attack on a very powerful boss that will require multiple volty attacks. That way, you will be able to launch your next volty attack in less time than normal. You probably only want to use this for weaker bosses, if you have another boss fight coming up soon.


 * Fierce Defense
 * You can learn this from Edgar, Interlude, Leban, Leona, or Wal.


 * This skill will reduce the damage you take when you are blocking. If your enemy is about to use their volty attack, quickly use an herb to get to full HP, equip this skill, and hold down the "X" button. You should be able to survive the attack.


 * I use this skill to beat strong characters with fierce volty attacks like Gerald, Elwen, etc.


 * Status Cure
 * You can learn this from Ardoph, Flora, Morfinn, or Rika


 * This reduces the amount of time that you are inflicted with any status ailment. You might want to use "Stop Afflictions" to reduce the chances of getting afflicted, but if that doesn't work, you may not be able to switch to "Status Cure", which is why I tend to use this rather than the other.


 * 100t Body
 * You can learn this from David, Gabe, Jill, or Walter


 * This reduces the chances of you being knocked down. It will allow you to continue to attack rather than keep getting back up and attacking again. You probably want to instruct your healer to concentrate on you if you do this.


 * King of Day / Night
 * You can learn King of the Day from Elwen, and King of the Night from Nyx or Gawain


 * These skills increases your stats during the specified time period. If you don't have Tri-Element, then these are the ones you want to use. Just remember to switch to the other skill when the time changes.


 * If you need to attack a character that has one of these skills, it is a good idea to time it so that you fight them when their skill isn't in effect. (Fight Elwen at night, and Nyx during the day.)

There are lots of other skills, and you might prefer some others, depending on your fighting style.

Weapons
Like many RPGs, you have a selection of weapons you can use. You can also learn various attacks for each weapon. Once you have learned an attack, you always have it across all the games you play. You learn the various attacks by using a training dummy. Kick the dummy while you are holding the weapon you want to work on and you will be given a challenge (e.g., defeat enemy). If you succeed, you can learn a new attack.

Note: If the challenge is "Receive no damage", all you have to do is run around avoiding the enemies so that you don't take any damage. (You don't have to defeat the enemies without taking damage, just avoid getting hit.)

There are two training dummies in the training room of the castle, two in Theater Vancoor, and one just outside Fort Helencia. If you haven't built up skills by the time you first get to Fort Helencia (the Crocogator mission), take some time there, since you have a healing spot and a save flag available.

Each weapon has a CP value, and each type of attack also has a CP value. You can select a series of up to 5 (combo) attacks as long as the total CP value is less than the value of the weapon. Each time you press the circle button the next attack is performed. Unlike similar games, button mashing can cause problems. If you queue up four hits on an enemy, and kill it after two hits, Jack will still perform the remaining hits, swinging at thin air. In the meantime, another enemy can be attacking you.

You can change the weapon as well as the attacks at any time during the battle. At the beginning of a battle with a number of enemies, you can select a spear and wide circle attacks that will hit a number of enemies at once. When there is only one enemy left, you can change the attacks, or you can switch to a sword or axe, and use strong attacks. Available weapons are swords, two-handed swords, axes, and spears.

At a minimum, you should use the training dummies through enough levels so that you can release your volty attack. You only have to do this once. Your weapon attacks are carried over from one game to the next.

Radiata Knights Overview
Most of this document deals with the game after you have been fired from the knights and join Theater Vancoor, when you are able to start recruiting characters. The beginning of the game pretty much leads you through whatever you need to do. There are some things you can do once you have arrived at some location for a mission, as well as some things you can do in the castle.

The important thing to remember is that whenever you have a chance, you want to level up your character as much as possible. This can be done by kicking characters to get them into a duel, as well as defeating various monsters in the field (or basement of the castle). Since the monsters regenerate at midnight, you can clear out an area, then wait until midnight, and clear it again. Most missions have a time limit, but it only kicks in once you have arrived and reported to whoever you were to visit. If you delay that meeting, you can prolong the time you have to level up. The higher your level, the better you will do when you start your own missions, and the easier it will be to recruit certain characters.

Kicking isn't limited to people. You can find items by kicking objects. Get in the habit of kicking everything and everyone in sight.

Part of the replay value of Radiata Stories is that the game has such a rich world with a diverse collection of characters. By selecting different characters in your party, the fights will take on different flavors. There is a lot of detail throughout the game, and a lot of fun things you can do in addition to the basic game. Look at the section on Easter Eggs and Silly Things

Theater Vancoor Overview
The basic flow of the game is that you have some missions with your squad that you must take (there are only a few of these at the start of the game), and you can take a number of solo missions. In general, once you receive orders for a mission, you are expected to travel to some location, complete the mission task, and then report back to Theater Vancoor and speak to Thanos. If the client is known, then you would usually speak to them before and after the mission task. Once this is done, you can speak to Thanos to see if there are any more missions you can take on at this time. Usually you want to perform the missions in the order they are listed, although you can accept them in any order if you prefer. If there are no more missions, then you probably have to sleep to progress the game.

If you want to recruit Thanos (which is needed if you want to recruit Elwen and/or Nyx), then you must accept all missions and report back to Thanos at the completion of the mission. To prevent missing any missions, avoid going into your house during the day, and only save when you get there; don't sleep. Wait until 9pm before you go in and save. If Flau isn't sitting on the wall, don't go in. If you were waiting for her, wait a few minutes after she gets there before you go in, since she gets there a few minutes before 9pm. Don't sleep unless you want to progress the game. Once Thanos tells you there aren't any more jobs, then you probably need to sleep to make the game progress. You can do that right away, or you can take time to go out and level up your party, recruit more people, earn some more money, etc.

If you recruit every possible character (which takes at least two times through the game), you will be able to view a picture of the main characters. If you will be taking the human path, you probably want to recruit the guild leaders, which means you want to recruit all the members of the different guilds. The only reasons to recruit any of the farmers are to be complete, or possibly for a specific skill.

Easter Eggs and Silly Things
In the programming world, the term "Easter Egg" is used for silly little things that can happen unexpectedly under certain conditions. In the very early games, and even some other electronic devices (like Palm Pilot), programmers added little cute things that you could cause to happen if you did certain things.

As a programmer myself, I am very impressed with the programming staff for this game. I'm a long time Final Fantasy fan, so I wasn't surprised with the quality of the game, but I was with very pleased with the attention to detail. (Of course, many of the games by Square have similar things, but I think this game has far more than any other.)

In addition to "Easter Eggs", there are a number of silly things you can do while in the game if you start to get bored. For one thing, you can try to follow a character around and see what they do throughout the day. I am amazed at the complexity of this world, and all the little things that are there. I keep finding new things, and expect to find more. You will probably find a few surprises, and have some fun at the same time. Here are some of the things I have found:


 * People Watching
 * Spend some time to closely watch the characters in the game. Follow a couple of characters around for a while and see what all they are doing. There is a great deal of attention to detail, especially considering how many characters there are. Watch their mannerisms, and the detail in the outfits. I keep noticing new things, every time I take the time to look.


 * Right after I finished this game for the first time, I started Dragon Quest VIII. Although I liked the game, I was disappointed by the lack of variety of the NPCs. Each town had the same dozen or so characters. There was a crowd scene at one point, and you could see the same identical character many times throughout the crowd. Quite a shock after this game with all the wide variety of characters.


 * Flau and Godwin
 * Two characters you can't follow around all day are Flau and Godwin.


 * This is because they can do things you can't. But, if you are in the right place at the right time, you can see what they do.


 * Godwin transports himself into the castle every morning around 9am, and back to the city at around 11. He transports himself to Morfin's clinic around noon, and then to the Olacion Order area around 2pm. (Perhaps that is why Miranda is always running around trying to find Godwin.)


 * Flau is even more interesting. She will be walking along, and suddenly jump over a fence, bridge, or wall and out of sight. If you are lucky, you might also see her jumping over a fence or something onto a path. If you get bored, and are waiting for some later time to recruit somebody, walk along side her and watch her.


 * Picture Taken
 * If you go through the Goblin City towards the bridge to Fire Mountain, you will find one of those plywood figures with a cut-out where people can stand behind and get their picture taken. You can get your picture taken here, too.


 * Try all the doors and stairs
 * Some doors will never open. Others will only open at certain times.


 * And still others will sometimes have the occupant talk to you in the doorway. Sometimes you will find treasures behind a door or up a set of stairs.


 * Signs and Posters
 * Read the posters that are placed on the various walls of the city. Some will change.


 * For example, near Lupus Gate is a poster for the Olacion Order. When you start recruiting Lulu's cat, the poster will say that her cat is missing. If you look after you have returned it, the poster has changed.


 * If you read a sign just behind where Lily hangs out near the entrance to the Beast Pit, you will see some entrance exam math scores.


 * Bathroom Humor
 * Following people into the bathroom can yield some interesting (and funny) results. You won't see anything X-rated, but you will encounter some "bathroom humor".


 * BTW - Some men wash their hands after going, while others don't. When you are in the castle, try going into the women's bathroom in the castle. It's near the south entrance.

Detailed Walkthroughs

 * /Walkthrough early game/ (up until the split)
 * /Human Walkthrough/ (recommended for first time through the game)
 * /Fairy Walkthrough/ (recommended for second time through the game)
 * /Post Game/ (bonus dungeon)
 * /Character Recruitment/ (the above sections refer to this section)