What if you knew then what you know now? What if you could go back and do it all over again? How would changes in the past affect your present? These questions might just seem like an exercise in futility to you or me, as time waits for no man. But for the characters in Radiant Historia, Atlus' new role-playing game for the Nintendo DS, these questions aren't just philosophical musings, they're also the key to saving the world. In Radiant Historia making history isn't nearly as important as rewriting it.

Everything isn't exactly coming up roses in the world of Vainqueur. Two of the land's greatest nations, Alistel and Granorg, have been locked in a heated war for decades. Making matters worse, Alistel is slowly being turned into a desert and its people turned to sand, due to a mysterious "Sand Plague". As the game opens up, players are introduced to Stocke, an agent in the Alistel Special Intelligence. During a mission to rescue another agent captured behind enemy lines, Stocke is ambushed by Granog forces, wounded, and left for dead. Rescued by a mysterious pair of twin children, Stocke is told that the fate of the world lies with him. To help him fulfill his destiny, he's gifted with the White Chronicle, an artifact that allows its user to travel through time and change events in the past to help correct the faults in the present.

Radiant Historia takes the idea of time travel and cranks things up to eleven. The White Chronicle acts like some sort of cosmic Choose Your Own Adventure book, giving players the chance to turn back a few pages and change things around if they don't like the way things are unfolding. Find yourself in a tight situation without a particular skill that would see you through the day? Take a trip to the past and make sure someone in your group learns what you'll need to know later. Make no mistake about it, though, there are always consequences for your actions. Sometimes you might lose those closest to you as they meet a tragic fate due to some unforeseen result of your tinkering with time. You might need to go back to a particular point in time more than once to discover the best possible choice. It's a long, hard road to set the course of history back on its proper track.

This time travel, trial and error aspect of Radiant Historia's gameplay is a double edged sword. One the one hand, it's interesting to see how a change here and there ripples through time to affect the game "present", and it opens up a slew of different possibilities. Unfortunately, having to correct your mistakes over and over again can feel like a major grind after a while. It's like the scene in the movie Groundhog Day when Bill Murray's character is simply going through the motions of the day because he's already lived it so many times before. And just like the time the clock finally flips over to Feb. 3 for Murray, you can't help but get a little elated when you finally leave a particular crisis point in history far behind and move to the next.

One place Radiant Historia really shines is its combat. The game takes the normal turn-based convention RPG fans are used to and sort of turns it on its side. It's not just about where a character is placed on the board (those in the front lines take and deal more damage, while those in the rear benefit from higher defense). It's also about when you decide to make your move. In battle, you can swap out your turn with anyone else, including opposing forces. While this seems odd on paper, it can actually make for some deep strategy since you get bonuses for consecutive attacks with your allies. It forces you to think about whether or not it's in your best interest to have one of your lead guys "take one for the team" and take out the most immediate threat.

RPG fans longing for the days of classic adventures with interesting parties and plots with more twists than a pretzel factory should find plenty to love about Radiant Historia. The game's retro look and feel brings back the love for those 8- and 16-bit days of classics like Chrono Trigger and the original Final Fantasy games. Toss in the giant Do-Over button that the White Chronicle represents, and you've end up with a game that transcends time to feel both new and nostalgic at the same time.

Final Score: B