The Radiants Reviews

At this stage, we're still waiting for the 2.0 update from the devs. I will likely update this review later when that update has dropped. Consider this a more neutral review. The Radiants is a fantasy stat raiser with a small romantic element. Much in the vein of Stray Gods, The Radiants is about a normal human receiving the powers of a special being when they die in proximity to the main character. In this case, the MC (default name) Emmalyn Ash is teleported to a fantasy world and forced to attend an academy for 12 weeks, raising stats to be able to overcome challenges and succeed at school and reach the ideal ending - the assumed canon is that they become the oracle for the Council (the governing body of the fantasy world). The game features 4 love interests (Kai, Grey, Arien and Rheala) and some secret romantic options, as well as 12 stats that you can raise through weekly class schedules and weekend activities. At this stage I've only finished one route and I did have some thoughts about the game overall. They have different artists for the sprites and for the CGs. Sprites move in a set animation each time they say a line, much like B-Project Ryusei, and I do find it a little creepy but it's easy to ignore. The CG art is absolutely gorgeous and very anime-styled, much like that of Code Realize, however with the serious / mature style of the sprites, it contrasts strangely. And then one of the characters has an animal sprite which looks even more cartoonish. Furthermore, Kai's character artwork in the CG is lighter-skinned than his sprite. The game is not voiced, which is totally fine, but does have some background music, which I enjoy enough to keep playing. The story goes down a direction that I really enjoyed and I had a lot of fun following the mystery. There are many random events that can occur after classes and on weekends where your stats come into play. There's so much potential in the world but we barely get a glimpse of it in the time that the MC is there. I saw that there are maybe 12 different endings that can be achieved. Also mentioning that close to the end of the game, you can unlock "abilities" from having your stats reach a certain value. I have absolutely no idea what these are for as there is no menu that they show up in and there's no section that you use them in at all. I should mention the characters as well; there is some interesting potential especially in the backstory of them but the twelve weeks feel like they go at warp speed, which is not helped by the events after class being totally random. After finishing Kai (and Grey's route), I felt like I could understand their character and see where their motivations would lie, but that the romantic development just wasn't there. I can't buy that the characters are falling head over heels for each other, there's just not enough interaction between them to really give that feeling. Maybe it's more of a case that trauma can draw people closer together? I also found that the game lacked the major draw point of even playing a dating sim: a CG gallery. (?!) Why can't I go back and see the artworks that I unlocked through my routes??? There are no achievements, which I found a bit disappointing and no ending gallery either, so I can't keep track of the beautiful tarot card I get for my received ending. There's also no visual feedback for choices that you selected already - only the ability to skip dialogue you've already read (except for classes, for some reason?). That's a feature often utilised as there are so many bugs in this game. Sprites halfway up the screen, text boxes coming out of the wrong area, cut off text and characters where they don't belong. Sometimes the game completely breaks, sometimes my stats don't match what I think their value should be? I was overall quite confused playing this game even when following a guide. I think this game can be great, I think it has a lot of potential. But fans from the start have waited 1.5 years for an update, so I can't recommend it right now. I'm really looking forward to the DLC drops that allow you to romance your classmate Dex and the professor(?!), but until then I hope that the 2.0 update drops this year.