Tales Of The World: Radiant Mythology
The world of Terresia is being devoured by a foreign and powerful force known as the Devourer. The Devourer intends to suck the energy and life out of Terresia's World Tree, which is the source of everything. This undesired fate is known to the essence of the World Tree and in an effort to avoid utter destruction, the tree creates a new being known as the Descender. The Descender is the playable character, of which you can customize in regards to appearance, gender, clothing, name, etc. Joining the newfound hero is Mormo, a creature (also a Descender) from the world of Yaoon, who's World Tree has almost been completely devoured. Mormo is a non-playable character (NPC) that plays a role in the story and does not provide any combat support.
The hero and Mormo join forces to find out what is happening in Terresia. Along the way they save some innocent people and make several friends. They end up joining Ad Libitum, a group that functions as a guild of hired hands. The organization takes on little jobs, but their real intent is to protect the public from bad guys. When the hero and Mormo join the organization, they end up leading the charge against the Devourer.
Like previous games in the franchise, "Radiant Mythology" uses the Namco linear motion battle system. This system allows the player to freely control the selected character in the party (a party can have up to four characters) to move around the battle field, use magic/special skills (a.k.a. artes), target enemies, use mundane attacks, and so on. Players also have the option to set limited or full AI control.
In general, the game play of "Radiant Mythology" is addictive and fun dungeon crawler. The game progresses by taking on new missions from the guild in one of three cities. The mission involves very simplistic tasks from item retrievals/deliveries to search and rescue to monster elimination. Basically, you go to a dungeon (there are a small number of them, each with a few floors, and not much square footage in the map) and kill the monster or find an item. And you do it over and over again; it gets very repetitive. There are certain missions that are side quests and unlock new crafts and classes.
The good news is that "Radiant Mythology" encompasses a lot more than the simple missions. The game itself is highly customizable and features enough diversity in its character development and item creation that the repetitive missions are worth it. In the beginning of the game when you create your character, you have to select a class (warrior, thief, mage, or cleric). At first you are locked into that role, but as you progress you can change your class anytime you aren't actively engaged in a mission. As you change from class to class, levels and skill growth are independent of each other. In other words, as you level up as a cleric, it does not affect your status to any other class. As you play through the game and complete subquests, you can unlock other classes like ninja, magic knight, bishop, fighter, hunter, and swordsman.
Crafting, as found in previous games in the franchise, is a big part of the game. It is another part of the game's customization. At first you have limited crafting abilities. As you play, more options (in the form of books) are acquired to increase options for cooking (create items to restore HP/TP), forge (refine materials to enhance weapons/armor stats), attire (polish stones to enhance clothing stats), and tools (use basic materials to create pharmacy items, healing gels, tools, and enhance select weapons). The player's crafting capability increases each time you use it and the more adept you are, the more advance crafting is at your disposal.
Another major aspect that ties into everything is fame. When you complete a mission, you get a small number of fame points. These points are important because they determine how NPCs view you. The higher your fame, the more likely they are to join you on a mission. Your fame decreases if you fall in battle or are unable to successfully complete a mission. Fame points are also necessary to unlock missions that further the story (granted you completed the last one).
On that note, the hero can lead a party of up to four. At the end of a mission, the party will disband. I found this to be a plus and minus. The good is that it allows for a diverse fighting experience. You can build a party with different characters and different classes. You will find some classes work better in some dungeons. The negative is that your party automatically disbands. Sometimes you want to keep the same people in your group for the next mission, but you will need to re-ask them to join you. And just because you had them in your party the last time, it doesn't guarantee they will join you again, as well as it takes time to build your party (especially when you are inviting characters from multiple cities).
In terms of technical aspects, "Radiant Mythology" is a visually appealing game. It makes good use of the PSP's 3D processing capabilities. The character models are rendered with a good level of detail that is in line with its counterparts. The dungeon/town environments are less detailed and tend to be rather simple. The game's audio includes a soothing soundtrack and voiceovers that give the characters personality. The game's controls are easy to use and work. This is an important aspect as some game that port a control-style from console counterparts fail at this level. Another technical aspect worth addressing is load times. For the most part, you won't notice any delays in load times.
Overall, Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology is an enjoyable RPG. The story driving the game isn't anything to get worked up about, but the high customization of character development, crafting, party setup, etc. offers hours of game play, as well it is somewhat nostalgic to get to interact and fight alongside with familiar faces from other Tales of ... games. In the end, "Radiant Mythology" is highly recommended. It is a solid PSP game for on-the-go-gaming.