Chronicle of the Radia War is one of those NES RPGs that somehow slipped under the radar back in the day, but it's got this weird charm to it. You start off picking between three classes—warrior, mage, or rogue—and I remember waffling for way too long because the sprites all looked equally janky in that classic 8-bit way.

The combat's turn-based but with a weird grid system that makes positioning matter more than you'd expect. First time I played, I got wrecked by some goblins because I just charged in like an idiot. Turns out, mages are glass cannons early on, but if you can keep them alive, they melt bosses later.

What really hooked me was the story—it's got that classic "ancient war coming back to life" vibe, but with some surprisingly dark twists for an NES game. There's a town where everyone's hiding this massacre that happened years ago, and the music just nails that eerie feeling. The translation's a bit rough in spots (thanks, 90s localization), but it adds to the charm.

If you're into obscure retro RPGs with clunky-but-satisfying combat, this one's worth digging up.