Radiata Stories

[lord geryon]

Some of you have no doubt played this game.

At 177 recruitable characters, each with a fairly defined personality and almost no history to speak of, this game offers much in the possibilities of fanfic.

And I have an idea.

What if(most ideas seem to start this way, huh) Jack had not faced Ridley in his first match?

The idea unfold slike so:

Jack faces Daniel in his first match instead, and defeats him. Ridley faces Star and obviously wins. Paul vs Giske, and Paul wins. And there's enough for a 4th match, but I don't remember right off hand who else was in the room.

Anyway, second round is Jack vs Paul, and Ridley vs the winner of the fourth 1st round match.

Jack wins again, as does Ridley.

Now, as the finalists, we have a Jack who realizes that Ridley is at least his equal, if not better.

And before the match begins, Jack has something to say.

"You're strong; I'm glad I get to fight you."

Then the match ends with a mutual knockout. I see it being Jack using a desperation move when Ridley uses Wild Pitch, and chucking his sword at her right before her axe knocks him out. Which, of course, flies true and cracks Ridley right in the forehead with the hilt. Mutual KO.

So, instead of Jack and Ridley having an antagonistic and bratty relationship, they have a more equal relationship.

This could lead to Jack and Ridley becoming close friends faster and probably deeper than canon , or it could be that without their constant antagonizing of the other, they fail to hit it off.

The Rose Cochon's first mission is the same... as is the second, with the same result of Jasne being stupid and forcing Larks to disband the Rose Cochon and discharge Jack and Ganz from the Knights.

After that, things would go differently. This Jack wouldn't be as idiotic as canon, but he wouldn't be a genius either... instead, his focus would have changed. Here, he'd be more about growing stronger instead of taking life as it comes along.

He'd not be on an uber recruitment drive, either. It works better if Jack gets to know people, but only manages to recruit a small number of people.

One major plot element to the game is obviously the choice to follow Ridley or go to the castle, which determines if you play the human side or the nonhuman side.

If Jack and Ridley are close friends, I could see Jack choosing to follow Ridley, which leads to the nonhuman side... which I don't like. I could also see Jack convincing Ridley that she's just had something of an upsetting shock and to give it some time for her to get her thoughts settled.

Which leads to Ridley NOT leaving, and the whole story going off on a completely new tangent.

Or, if Ridley and Jack aren't close, Jack doesn't follow Ridley(she probably never even comes to talk to him in the first place), and things go from there. You could have the story stick close to canon events, or veer it off in a completely new direction(the humans attack instead of waiting to get attacked, they choose to lay siege to the City of Flowers instead of killing the Wind Dragon, etc).

So, thoughts on this idea? Is it plausible?

 

[dapster]

Huh, I've seen only one or two good fan fics for Radiata Stories, and one of those is a more likely interpretation of events if Jack followed Ridley, but this actually sounds pretty cool.

Still, the idea you never suggested was that Ridley became close to Ganz and Jack, and following her independent streak, leaves the knights with them... Thats another one I've never seen before, that your ideas brought to mind.

 

[lord geryon]

Huh, I've seen only one or two good fan fics for Radiata Stories, and one of those is a more likely interpretation of events if Jack followed Ridley, but this actually sounds pretty cool.

Still, the idea you never suggested was that Ridley became close to Ganz and Jack, and following her independent streak, leaves the knights with them... Thats another one I've never seen before, that your ideas brought to mind.

That's actually something I had thought of, if the author chose to follow the 'Ridley does not leave' path.

Although, it'd be much more likely for her to leave the knights for Jack than Ganz.

 

[lord geryon]

You know, you could also make this into a sort of triangle once Jack gets booted out of the Knights.

He meets a girl, and manages to get off on the right foot with her. They talk when they meet, and at some point one or the other has a bad day and seeks out the other to vent or something. And it goes wonderfully, to the point that one or both start to think of the other 'like that.'

Maybe some awkward romantic moments, then Ridley appears at Jack's door(the other girl may or may not be around) and Jack goes out of his way to help Ridley... the other girl, if she's there or once she hears of it(probably from Jack), gets a little jealous.

Triangle!

Now... which girl?

I'm particularly fond of three: Elena, Lily, and Flau.

Elena is a lot like Ridley... a bit snobby at first impression, but with a soft side and strong morals. Jack becoming friends with Nalshay is crucial here, but once Nalshay starts to feel better just cause Jack takes the time out of his day to talk to the boy... Elena would be appreciative, at the very least. One thing about using Elena is that you could make this a square instead of a triangle... her twin could get attatched to Jack to, but Adina is a bit ruder than Elena, so it'd be a tricky thing to pull off.

Lily is... I don't know how to say it. But once she's interested in Jack like that, I could see Jack waking up at one point or another and Lily is in his house watching him sleep. She's not creepy stalker, though... just different.

Flau... Flau is kinda iffy. She's the first person Jack sees everyday, if you go by the game setup, and it'd be easy to get them talking to begin the triangle. But, you'd have to overcome her standoff-y attitude first.

Now... how would Ridley take the fact she has competition for Jack? It'd be a useful device for focusing her attention on Jack instead of getting wishy-washy over the nonhumans.

 

[dapster]

Despite the fact that its been forever since I played Radiata, I know all the girls your talking about. Still, even if you can't write them, there are dozens of girls you can choose from in the city. Can't remember the names of any of the ones that I'm thinking of though. Mostly I noticed that Frau was the only one you got from the void, and there are quite a few there to think about.

 

[lord geryon]

Despite the fact that its been forever since I played Radiata, I know all the girls your talking about. Still, even if you can't write them, there are dozens of girls you can choose from in the city. Can't remember the names of any of the ones that I'm thinking of though. Mostly I noticed that Frau was the only one you got from the void, and there are quite a few there to think about.

Uh...

From Void, the females you get are Lily, Flau, Rynka, Iris, and Herz.

You musta not done the full recruiting thing. But, you can get just about 90% of the people in Radiata in your party. And about 90% of the farmers and outlying humans too.

 

[dapster]

Yeah, my only full playthrough was nonhuman....

And yeah, I know almost everyone is recruitable, heh.

Replaying now, and some names that I don't see that I like are Miranda(yes, a bit cliche... at least in the few stories I've seen) and... damn, I forget Genius' sister's name... but girls with glasses can be cute


t: Kinda sad that the endings to this game are bad enough that we are the only ones posting here, eh?

 

[lord geryon]

Yeah, my only full playthrough was nonhuman....

And yeah, I know almost everyone is recruitable, heh.

Replaying now, and some names that I don't see that I like are Miranda(yes, a bit cliche... at least in the few stories I've seen) and... damn, I forget Genius' sister's name... but girls with glasses can be cute?


t: Kinda sad that the endings to this game are bad enough that we are the only ones posting here, eh?

Leona is Genius' sister... and if you talk to her, she's actually rather brusque.

A good number of the girls are interesting to me. but a number of them aren't and Miranda is one of em. She's too... Hinata-like for my tastes.

Vitas, though, she's pretty cool. I've always like tomboys.

Elena and Adina, though, are still my favorites.

A few side notes... if you've never played the human side before, you will miss people to recruit unless you're very careful about advancing the plot.

If you miss anyone in Theater Vancoor(and I do mean anyone... you can recruit the entire guild - Gerald and Thanos are the most easily missed), you will not be able to recruit Elwen. Which means you can't recruit Nyx.

And, if you miss anyone in Void, Olacion, or Vareth, you will also miss Nyx, the leader of Void.

And you really want Elwen and Nyx. They are the two strongest fighters in the game, with the exception of Valkyrie from the bonus dungeon(and Elwen is arguably stronger anyway).

Also, the Fireworks Festival IS very easily missable. It happens two days after Ganz's letter, so if you want to see it, save your game ASAP after you get Ganz's letter, preferably in another save slot.

EDIT: One thing that I found amusing... you can have a group that consists of Jack and three children. And, if you level them up high, you can beat the game with them. Even the bonus dungeon, but it's hard to defeat the Ethereal Queen(even with a group of Elwen, Nyx, and Valkyrie it's not easy).