Radiata Stories looked pretty cool when it came out. I really liked the artwork and the style of graphics in this game. So I picked it up a few weeks after it came out and sort of wish I hadn't. This game plays pretty much exactly like Star Ocean games, since the same developer made them. Where you have your normal RPG, but when you get into battles it becomes more like an action RPG. If done right this can be a fun combination and you get a sweet game. But recently it hasn't worked so well. Star Ocean 2 did it right, but Star Ocean 3 and Radiata Stories somehow get boring after a while. Mainly since the enemies can take a while to kill, battles can take way too long for how little experience you get. Besides that I should have been more cautious when the main character is name Jack Russel. (That's one word away from being a dog.) That just doesn't seem like and RPG name for a game in medieval times. It might work in a more modern game. The second warning should have come when some of the opening music sounded like something from "Indiana Jones", and didn't get much better from there. I will admit it did start to grow on me. The main thing that intrigued me about this game is that there are over 100 playable characters. But then I started to find out what you have to do to get them, it can be time consuming. I could see spending a lot of time playing this, and being disappointed at the end. I do think the story has potential and some aspects of the game are cool, but for now I giving it a rest. There are other games right now I know are better. But next time when there is a lull in good games, I'll be giving this one (and Star Ocean 3) another chance. They're SquareEnix after all. But for now I'm playing Burnout: Revenge and Castlevania for PS2!