PixlBit

Hidden gems are more often hidden for a reason. As I stated yesterday when talking about Klonoa for the Wonderswan, there are many terrific games that didn't see a western release. So yet again, I am going to discuss another game that wasn't released outside of Japan. This title is is Radia Senki: Reimeihen (AKA: Chronicle of the Radia War) for the Nintendo Famicom.

Developed by Tecmo, Chronicle of the Radia is an action RPG. You've got your typical rpg progression. As you gain levels your HP/MP raises, you've got your usual anime tropes where you play as the hero with amnesia who has to save a kingdom from an evil ruler with a ragtag group of anime stereotypes. Along the way you'll come across baddies and NPC's alike who serve as plot devices in one way or another.

If you've played The Legend of Zelda (and who hasn't?) the combat is very much similar with the exception that as you cross certain tiles the monsters appear to fight you or in some cases move around a whole bunch as you go after them and repeatedly stab them with your weapon of choice. You can go in 4 cardinal directions in the field of both combat and adventure. If I had one complaint about this it's the lack of diagonal movement, a game like Crystalis managed to do and do well in terms of an action rpg.

Battles tend to be a fairly mixed bag. On one hand of love the action element of it. On another, I often find myself wondering if my computer A.I. allies are deliberately trying to anger me by getting in front of me when I'm trying to dispatch of an enemy. You can alleviate this to an extent with action and wait commands, but even then I found myself doing most of the heavy lifting. They may be joining me on my adventure, but are fairly useles in battle.

Using magic in battles can be odd too. In terms of magic usage each character has a set spells they can perform, some have the ability to heal the party, others have the ability to wipe out the monsters in the field of battle. To get spells you have to acquire scrolls found in chests in order to learn them. Even with all things considered, there are more scrolls in the game then spells to be learned. I found myself with about 3 or 4 extra and being unable to teach any of my party members anything else, so I sold them. Another odd thing about magic is that you aren't allowed to perform offensive spells (healing spells are a-okay however) against bosses. A fairly strange mechanic if I ever saw one.

Another oddity is the bag system. Each party member can carry a set number of items. I believe it's 30 each. So in all you can theoretically carry 150 unique items so long as you have a 5 person party (which isn't necessarily the case). While you can carry say 99 monster bones with one party member, if you gather any more you start accumulating more bones so you could theoretically have 2 sets of 99 bones each. Also to note monster bones and meat serve as exchanges for in game currency. If you are having trouble trying to figure out why monsters aren't dropping gold and the lack of money in chests, it's the meat and monster bones that'll net you that sweet dough, a mechanic the game doesn't really explain and you have to figure out on your own.

Still the adventuring is fun. Exploring the caves, towns, and various other locales are quite enjoyable. There are a few simple rpg style puzzle dungeon labyrinths, but they are fairly simple and aren't too much trouble. And if you ever find yourself stuck, you can usually ask a party member who will steer you in the right direction to the next town or hint.

Even though it is an action rpg, the element of random battles remains. It is a fairly annoying mechanic as random battles have never been my cup of tea. Again if we were to take Crystalis for example as a way to showcase how to do an action based rpg with monsters roaming the field of play. The music is also really nice too. You'll find yourself humming the 8-bit tunes, though the overall field 1 music (at :47 seconds in below!)  can get repetitive early on in game (da na da na da na da!)

All in while not a perfect game with some odd quirks, I had a lot of fun with this game. The good news is that there is an english rom emulator that you can play and experience yourself if you should wish! It's definitely a worthwhile RPG and one that I hed a heck of a fun time playing.

Overall Determination: Play it!