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I wish I could write that one succinct sentence telling you to either buy this or wait for the next big thing. The RPG genre is especially difficult to judge and a game such as Radiata Stories is perhaps one of the most challenging, because “fun” is there, it's just buried behind hours and hours of introduction, mixed signals, and filler.
To be precise, Radiata Stories is marred by its boldness, a blatant disregard for the hard-and-fast rules of RPG making. Too much freedom is as deadly a concept as too little and tri-Ace, of Star Ocean fame, just narrowly missed developing one of the best RPGs to hit the PS2 in, well, years.
Perhaps it is Square Enix's history of success that makes us expect so much out of each and every title, or just maybe it is the fact that Radiata seems so amazing on the surface that you feel like it has to fall among the ranks of the best.
Just take a stroll through the forest heading into the light elves lair as the leaves fall gently around you and the light plays across the fallen trees and scattered foliage. Or trek through the countryside on your way into battle--this game is gorgeous and it's all supplemented by a progressive scan, widescreen mode. Even beyond these over-arching elements, it is the little details, such as the way character visuals change when you equip different armor and weapons, a minor detail to be sure, but one that most RPGs don't bother to implement.
The intricate architecture ensures that your stay, be it brief or for the long haul, will be of your own volition. The crux here is whether you have the gusto to find your way among the myriad side quests, character recruitments, and other segways to the main storyline.
 But seriously all this is an aside to kicking anything and everything you feel like. Just as Atelier Iris let you run aimlessly for hours on end sucking the elements from various rocks, boxes, and the like, Radiata will have you kicking beds, crates, lockers, and people. Even the most harmless NPCs will get downright nasty when you kick them twice, such as the granny I decided to provoke until she called the national guard, who promptly whupped my butt. But sometimes, you can get rare items by kicking the right object--it pays to kick everything in sight!
A break from the seriousness of more heady RPGs such as Final Fantasy, Radiata's emboldened hero Jack is as ornery as they come. He's downright arrogant at times, flaunting his youth and inexperience as if they are assets. This leads to some hilarious moments, especially when coupled with the band of odd characters he meets along the way and it's especially fulfilling to watch him grow from a green enlistee in the Radiata Knights to a true hero.
The action plays second fiddle to the scope of the game here. Jack is fully customizable to play the aggressor or the protector, but none of his teammates are. Sure they level up but, well, consider this Tales of Symphonia on a diet, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but you get no choice in their customization--a shame considering how cool many of your friends are. Action RPGs don't have the luxury that turn-based ones do and when you have a battle system that is simply average, you are left saying, what am I doing all this for? Possibly for the more than 100 friends you can recruit and use throughout the game. Or maybe for the tons of sidequests that will have you scratching your head thinking, what was I supposed to be doing in the main game?
From the get go I was convinced that this was the RPG I'd been waiting. Well, the option is yours; do you wait for Romancing Saga or Shining Force Neo or the next Wild Arms to get your fix? I say give this a try, just know that you'll need a lot of time, patience, and if you have a prayer of completing everything, a really extensive guide, oh yeah and you'll have to play through the game twice, since there is a story branch that takes you on two decidedly different paths for the remainder of your play through. If you can handle not knowing whether talking to a person or letting enough time go by will advance the story and if you don't mind getting lost every once in a while, then by all means you're in for a visual treat and a story that is worth, as they say, seeing the forest for the trees.
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