Notes on Radiant Historia's ending

Wow. What an ending that was. No doubt, it helped that every node was finished and so I was treated to the "true ending."

In said ending, everything works out all hunky dory, and everyone is left living in a world that is on track for entirely avoiding destruction by desertification. Every loose end is wrapped up, and every character's arc comes to a fine end. Plus, as nothing but the best imaginable icing on top of a game that's already a fine cake, what's best described as a mildly upbeat anime-style end them is sung over the closing credits. Incredible!

However. Anything this great stirs some feeling of the opposite sort to. Turn back now if you don't want some of the game's end spoiled.

First, as you may expect, it's hinted that Stocke is still alive somewhere somehow when Kiel and the Rosch brigade show up as Rosch wraps up erecting graves. According to Kiel a man who was accustomed to living off the land helped them - a man dressed in red. After this scene we're shown what happened when Stocke's soul was sacrificed. Long story short, it wasn't.

Heiss, using the last of his strength, peers into the future that Stocke had envisioned and finds that the world isn't as doomed as he had thought. This causes a change of heart, which is enough for Heiss to have the awakening required to make him a proper sacrifice. The awakening being a desire to give one's own life for the sake of another. Heiss, having given up his soul, freed Stocke to return to the world, and this is the final thing that you see before the pitch perfect credits roll.

Within the world of the game this is a great ending, everything is, as mentioned above, hunky dory in the end. Plus, from a storytelling perspective, though it easily could've, the game refrains from going wholly Hollywood with its ending since we don't see any of Stocke's reunions with those who fought for him and alongside whom he fought. This is especially a good move in the case of Raynie's arc, since it's much more powerful to leave it with her waiting for his return so they can begin their life together. No scene of their reunion could match what each player imagines, and so not showing it is the better move.

Breaking up this chronology, though, let's go back to the final boss fight.

After defeating four powered up enemies from earlier in the game, you go on to fight the Black Chronicle itself and then the three layered The World Ends With You/Final Fantasy VI-style Apocrypha.

The first fight of the final set (the one with the Black Chronicle) is perfect.

Just as with Skyward Sword's final battle against Demise, it uses the game's battle mechanic in a way that's practically perfect. In this fight the only way to actually damage the Chronicle is to push another enemy into it/it into another enemy, and then attack that other enemy. Plus - the Black Chronicle can outright disable any of your characters' commands. Being between levels 61 and 64, though, made this battle short and so the book didn't have much chance to wreak havoc with my commands.

The second phase of the final boss battle, as was the case with Skyward Sword's Demise, takes a step back from the genius use of its game's characteristic battle mechanic. Anything to do with the game's featured battlefield grid is done away with as each layer of the Apocrypha fills the entire enemy side of the screen.

Instead, Apocrypha's one claim to challenge is its barrage of status effect causing attacks. Curiously, though, despite its having a group attack that causes "sleep" and another that causes "curse," it had only a single character attack that caused "stone." Needless to say, Apocrypha took some whittling, but Marco, Raynie and Stocke eventually brought it down.

It my have just been character's stats, but there did seem to be some fluctuation in Apocrypha's magic resistance/weakness, but there was no way to tell when this changed, or if G-Frost/Fire/Thunder did extra damage simply because somewhere a digital d20 was coming up with 20s instead of 15s, so to speak.

Overall, Radiant Historia's ending is a truly satisfying way for the game to come to a close. The series of boss battles leading up to the final scenes might not make you feel like you've achieved much, but as a whole experience, the game well deserves the accolades it's been given as a great game and a stellar RPG. 50 hours can't lie.