Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology

Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology is an expanded remake of a JRPG originally released on the Nintendo DS, this time enriched with a new story arc and reworked for the 3DS. Playing as the agent Stocke, the player wields the White Chronicle, an artifact that allows travel between two parallel timelines and lets him change history to prevent the world from drying up and facing impending ruin. Decisions made in one timeline are reflected in the other, so the player must constantly switch between the two branches of the story to unlock new paths forward.

Combat takes place on a grid, where the player tactically moves enemies between tiles to group them up for devastating area attacks, while also having to keep track of turn order shown as a timeline. This combination of turn-based strategy with manipulation of the timeline is what makes the battles unusually thoughtful compared to typical JRPGs. The visuals on 3DS stay faithful to the original with hand-drawn character portraits, but benefit from sharper resolution and bonus content, while Yoko Shimomura's music is among the most praised elements of the whole game and rounds out the melancholic atmosphere of a world drying up.

Perfect Chronology earned praise above all for its complex, branching story, which works elaborately with the theme of parallel worlds and the consequences of decisions, as well as for the new content that expands on the original ending. It was also praised for its careful attention to detail, where a small decision made in one timeline can significantly affect events in the other many hours later. Critics still rank Radiant Historia among the underrated gems of the genre that reached a wider audience thanks to the remake. The title is considered one of the best-written JRPGs on 3DS, even though it remained overshadowed by more popular series.