Trivia / Radiata Stories

• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: X-Play bashed this game and called it a Zelda rip-off, even though the former has nothing in common with the latter and is considerably darker.
• No Export for You: The two manga adaptations (Epic of JACK and Song of RIDLEY) were not released outside Japan.
• What Could Have Been: Years after the game came out, cutscenes found in the game's data reveal several planned plotlines/scenes that were cut. The videos in question can be found here.
  • Ganz had several scenes cut in both routes. In the Human Route, he was supposed to appear after war starts and give Jack information about their father's shared history together (which leads to Jack refusing to work with Ganz due to what his father may have done to Jack's father). Later on he was going to attempt to sneak into the castle to find out information about the Blood Orc attack earlier in the game, but would be caught, prompting Jack to go in and free him. This would have lead to him leaving Radiata like he does in the final game after learning the truth. It was ultimately removed though. For the non-Human Route, he was going to be recruited by Larks to retrieve Jack and Ridley, which likely is why he joined the non-Human route to begin with.
  • Human Route:
    • Dialogue with Ridley indicates Jack was supposed to develop a harsher stance towards Ridley leaving Radiata. It's implied this would have been part of why Jack would feel regret later in the game.
    • Similarly, Larks has a much colder stance towards Ridley, calling her a traitor to Radiata and asking Jack to bring her back "dead or alive", quite unlike anything Larks did in the final release.
    • Genius was supposed to have a larger role in the route as the person who tells Jack about much of the game's backstory and lore. He would appear a few more times doing so before he could be recruited for good. These scenes being cut caused a good number of major story points to be removed from the final product. His appearances may have caused issues with The Reveal of Lucian being Aphelion, as he would have questioned Jack about the information Jack had.
    • Jack's second run in with Parsec was going to go differently, ending not with a repeat of the funny money gag but with Parsec attempting to convince Jack to go find Ridley. But as they leave Radiata Castle, Cross appears and attacks Parsec, forcing him to transform into his dragon form, at which point Jack realizes exactly who he is and refuses to go with him.
    • Morgan, a very minor recruitable ally, was to have a larger role as a mole of sorts for the non-Humans. She was going to have more knowledge about Dragons and even have a cure for algandars. With the scene cut, her role was reduced to being only a very tiny character. One imagines her role was removed due to the fact that a cure for algandars would've removed a fair amount of the drama between the humans and the light elves.
    • The Gold Dragon was supposed to attack the castle in a boss fight. Jack would recognize it as Ridley, but Aphelion would show up and drive it off before it could cause further harm. This would have led to Lucian being revealed as Aphelion earlier than the player learns in the final product, but it was cut for unknown reasons.
    • The reason Jack never uses the Arbitrator in this route was going to be explained in a side quest in which Elwen tests Jack in a fight. Jack loses and fights again using said sword, only to lose again, at which point Elwen would have taken the sword for the time being, citing that Jack was "missing something" in order to wield it properly.
    • Cross was going to have more of an arc in the human path where it is shown that he did have some sort of feelings for Ridley, and thus was jealous of her and Jack's relationship, compounded by the fact that Larks asks Jack to find and bring back (or possibly kill) Ridley instead of him. It would culminate with Cross appearing to fight Jack in a duel on the way to the City of White Flowers around the place that Jack originally fought Gawain.
  • Non-Human Route:
    • The cutscene where Jack leaves with Ridley to meet the Light Elves was originally going to have Jack be onboard with going with no issues. Ridley would have been more upfront about the strange issues she was having. Also, she would have had more issues with the transpiritation done to her early in the route; when she arrives at the Light Elves, Zane would have recognized her as Hap unlike in the final game, leading Jack to try to take the nearby fort for more upfront reasons.
    • Zane was supposed to go with Jack and Ridley to the final dungeon, helping escort them to it.
  • According to the developers, Elwen was at one point going to be a dark elf, which would explain her connection to the fairy creatures. The game itself never delves too deep into her backstory aside from her relationship with the warrior Alfred and doesn't give a conclusive answer about her origins, simply listing her race as "Human?" Her Friends List portrait shows her as a blonde human woman.
  • One of the cut scenarios in the game involved a country far to the north where the characters Nyx and Sonata of the thieves' guild originated. They had an antagonistic relationship with Radiata and its people possessed mysterious powers that made them seem inhuman.
• Word of God: The official strategy guide released in Japan in 2005 contains an interview with the game's production team where they reveal many details only implied within the final product (an English translation can be viewed here):
  • Algandars is specifically a disturbance in the cosmic balance caused by the actions of humans and elves. The “disease” is just one manifestation of that disturbance.
  • Dragons are immortal, and the orbs that enable them to be defeated actually contain them for a time and put them back to sleep until the time is right and they come back to life someday.
  • Cairn Russell defeated the water dragon in order to protect humans. Cairn himself was a friend to Lord Zane and the fairies, but they parted ways over the issue of the water dragon menacing humankind.
  • Lucian Hewitt did exist as a person, and he was the one who had defeated Aphelion previously.
  • The person whose existence has created the greatest imbalance is the person who is chosen as the vessel when the silver and gold dragons switch places. The previous vessel was Lucian when he wounded the silver dragon, and Ridley becomes the current vessel because she underwent the forbidden ritual of transpiritation.
  • All nonhumans (dragons, fairies, et al.) originate from the minds and hearts of humans. The notion that the dragons are protectors of humankind is but an idea; it becomes reality only because there are those who need to believe in it.
  • If someone has a strong will that rejects the legend that the world will be destroyed, there is a chance the world will not be destroyed.