This demo was the Official RMR Project of the Season for Winter 2011.
This RPG Maker VX demo starts with a beautifully animated title screen. A High Council is formed to try and prevent deaths from creatures called Hellborn that are killing a lot of people. One particular kingdom had many fewer deaths as they had access to the Sarian Knights. The High Council chose to take the fight to the Hellborn, to defeat them for good, however, they knew the Sarian Knights would be the only ones capable of this. King Sarian agreed to allow the knights to do this. The Knights spend two years chasing down all of the Hellborn, and finally face the main Hellborn, Ruin. Ruin nearly kills the party but Lord Kilis puts on an amulet that his wife said he should do, if things become desperate. He unleashes a huge attack that kills Ruin. A year later, King Sarian dies and his son, Prince Edward takes the throne and signs over the Sarian Knights to the High Council, as he has no need for them in a time of peace. Later on, two kingdoms, Lythia and Garmaida, have fallen out and are on the brink of war. The Sarian Knights were dispatched to uphold the peace treaty that was in place. Lord Killis seems to be having nightmares since wearing the amulet, he kills a bunch of people, so Lord Karn has to kill him. Killis tells Karn to find Athos, the wizard who gave his wife the amulet.
“I wonder if this is foreshadowing…”
The music seems to be ripped or default, I’m not too sure. There are a few spelling and grammatical errors. The music chosen is fitting though. The mapping is outstanding. You control a party of three, ten years later, Zack, Mya and Diago attempting to steal food to take to a refuge. The party work their way through the forest to prepare an ambush on some supplies going to King Edward. All monsters are on the map, it looks good and works well. The ATB battles are interesting, the ranger has a heal-over-time skill which also cures poison, and two of the characters have different damage-over-time skills which stack with one another. Skills drain stamina, instead of mana. You can restore stamina by guarding.
“Many of the chests you find around Alardria need to be lockpicked.”
The perspective then switches to Krias and two soldiers, who are attacking some hellborn. Next, an unknown masked man defeats Krias in battle. The story is that Krias and Zack are sons of Lord Killis (who of course is dead, along with his wife), they both have half of the amulet that lead to their parents death. Krias fights the unknown man again, this time unleashing The End, which kills the man. Krias then says that he has to find Zack.
Back with Zack and Mya, the refuge is burning down. The hellborn seem to have returned. The party seek refuge in a nearby city, the guards recognise them from the stealing earlier that day, they get thrown in jail. The scene changes to an assassin killing guards, she is surrounded and unmasked as a girl. The assassin is put in the same cell as Mya, I’m not sure why as there are plenty of empty cells. She helps the party escape from their cells, and they run through the sewers to leave the city. A weakened knight and his guards battle them, but the party comes out on top. The boss battle is great, you have to balance damaging the boss whilst focusing his damage on only one party member and then healing that party member. With the rise of the Hellborn, the king needs strong knights and a commander. The search for Lord Karn begins.
Separate to the story is an demo of the card game, Alardria Chronicals. I’ve not played a card game like it, a quick explanation is that the highest rated card wins, rating is affected by a random round bonus (such as +200 to bite attacks), type advantage/disadvantage (which is called a match-up bonus) and a defender bonus (for the player that has to pick and show his card first).
This demo was the perfect length, it sets up the story really well. I’m eagerly anticipating the release of this game. The story is told in a really great way, the cut-scenes are really cool to watch, the introduction may have been a little long (although it is skippable) but it was interesting, the battles are fast and enjoyable and there’s a unique card game. Hopefully the full game isn’t too far in the distance, because I’m growing impatient already. ****¼
“There’s even a ranking system which will be a factor in joining tournaments.”
