Radiant Historia might look, sound and sometimes feel like the classic 16-bit role-playing games of old. But it’s a thoroughly modern game with some clever twists on questing tropes.

Released Tuesday for Nintendo DS, this RPG will be quite appealing to those who loved adventuring on the Super Nintendo. It plays like the love child of Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy Tactics . The entertaining combat system and heavily political story rival the best of the classics. But the clever, time-twisting gameplay is all new.

As the curtain opens on Radiant Historia , archetypal tough-guy mercenary Stocke makes a major life decision: Stick with the mentor who taught him everything or resign to join his best friend’s platoon. At this point, his life splits into two parallel timelines, each one following the outcomes of the two choices.

Stocke can then travel through history, bouncing through both timelines in order to keep everything running smoothly. Make a bad decision and accidentally kill everyone on the planet? No worries; just go back and try again.

You can only progress in each timeline to a certain extent before you have to switch to the other. For example, you might be trapped in a castle, surrounded by guards, with no perceivable way to escape. But in the other universe, you will learn how to get past them. The game will almost always guide you along the way, so you’ll rarely be stuck.

Since you’ll be hopping between at least two different story threads at once, the plot can get a little confusing. When you spend an hour or two in one timeline, it’s hard to remember exactly what’s going on in the other. The game offers short, descriptive blurbs to help you out, but they’re not always enough. It doesn’t help that both timelines feature the same locations or that characters might recognize Stocke in one history but not in the other.

Thanks to a great cast of characters, some betrayals and tons of melodramatic sacrifices, the story is really engaging. The dialog can sound a little stilted at times, but it’s usually charming. Even random non-player characters offer bits of humor and interesting side stories along the way.

Whenever you’re not hopping around time and exploring the world, you’ll be fighting. Every one of Radiant Historia ‘s battles is a challenge. You can’t get through just by hammering the A button without any strategy. You’ll have to think about exactly where to strike.

Enemies hang out on a 3×3 grid, and can place spells that boost the stats of any creature that happens to be standing on a specific square. To counter that, you can use your abilities to shift your opponents around the grid. You can also stack them on top of one another and hit them all at once with a single strike.

Coming up with ways to defeat different types of enemies is challenging and fun; even the most meaningless encounters can be rewarding.

While you’re doing all this, you’ll probably notice that Radiant Historia has an outstanding musical score. Composer Yoko Shimomura ( Super Mario RPG , Kingdom Hearts ) has done a tremendous job of aurally capturing the game’s wide range of moods and atmospheres. I’ve owned a DS for five years, and I’ve never once bothered to use headphones while playing a game until Radiant Historia .

All the time-shifting can get repetitive. You’ll have to sit through the same boss fights and scenes multiple times while correcting history. You can skip dialog at any time, although you’re taking the risk of missing new story wrinkles that your actions might have created.

Sometimes new RPGs try too hard to be novel. Sometimes they refuse to break with even the most outdated habits. But with Radiant Historia , Atlus has created the perfect blend of innovation and tradition.

WIRED Fantastic music, unique time-travel gimmick, constantly entertaining battles.

TIRED Slight loading times, some repetitive moments, parallel stories can be hard to follow.

$35, Atlus

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