Seraphic Blue
released on May 15, 2004
Seraphic Blue is a 50+ hour epic RPG made by Tempura in RPG Maker 2000 v1.51, and is highly-received in the Japanese RPG Maker community, most notably for its story.
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Do you know how hard it is to cry?
Kid: "Hey mom,can you me buy Skies Of Arcadia for the Sega Dreamcast?"
Mom: "We already have Skies Of Arcadia in home son"
Skies Of Arcadia in home:
Mom: "We already have Skies Of Arcadia in home son"
Skies Of Arcadia in home:
EDIT.
Ready to finish my review now that I've finished watching a playthrough. I know that doesn't count as finishing the game, but for my own record-keeping purposes I'll mark it as complete.
+ Tackles uncomfortable, dark yet important topics that are not found in many other mediums nowadays, let alone games. Mostly about life, death, family, meaning, children, and any combination of those that you can imagine (being vague on purpose).
+ The worldbuilding in the first half of the game and the main reveals there were phenomenal. First time in my life I have actually been enthralled by pure worldbuilding
+ Many emotions are evoked from this piece in a genuine manner. A total lack of irony and postmodern garbage, only genuine expression.
+ Despite my complaint on the characters below, each of them definitely do have their own times to shine. And when they do shine, the writer addresses a theme/topic as well, but also manages to balance this with the actual character writing, humanity of the character, and emotional aspect. Definitely rewarding.
+ The themes, worldbuilding, story, and characters all tie together very cohesively. There is a bit of handwaving but as long as you aren't OCD about everything working perfectly like a math formula (it's a story, meant to convey ideas and experiences, not a formula sheet), you should come out very satisfied at how cohesive the experience is.
- 40% of the story gets a bit convoluted, dragged out, and filled with conveniences. However, this is only because I was quite harsh on the game -- seeing it from the lens of "is this a masterpiece?" (it is). If one were to analyze this as "is this an amazing video game story", this complaint largely recedes.
- As is typical of older JRPGs I believe (I don't know enough to say for sure though), most characters don't have much to say most of the time, and their personalities can get jumbled together. The point is I don't care too much about a bunch of the characters at times.
? If you enjoy the gameplay, you're good. But I stopped enjoying it. I usually get bored of gameplay loops easily so that's mostly a me problem. There's also an untranslated (?) altered version of the game (search Seraphic Blue Altered) that has improved gameplay apparently. Anyway, the gameplay is deep and interested, I'm just not a random encounter kind of guy. Hence why I watched the videos once I got 1/4 done the game.
--------
(Before finishing the game):
Amazing storytelling. Simply phenomenal. People will say "ow the edge" and whatever but they don't understand, the edge is not the point, the world that has been created is so mysterious and interesting, you can tell it was crafted with so much care and not infantile shock value like most modern games, just look at the glossary entires, timeline page, etc.
However, there are too many random encounters and I simply cannot continue past the first 10 or so hours, so I'm going to watch the story on YouTube (it's rather linear anyway).
Would be a 5/5 if it weren't for the gameplay - or rather, actually, the gameplay is pretty great. Much better than a typical good JRPG. It's more like I hate how there's no options to quickly skip battles, every time I fail to run away it's very annoying. Especially if I'm lost in a map and have to go back and forth, I'll go through dozens of encounters in one screen.
Ready to finish my review now that I've finished watching a playthrough. I know that doesn't count as finishing the game, but for my own record-keeping purposes I'll mark it as complete.
+ Tackles uncomfortable, dark yet important topics that are not found in many other mediums nowadays, let alone games. Mostly about life, death, family, meaning, children, and any combination of those that you can imagine (being vague on purpose).
+ The worldbuilding in the first half of the game and the main reveals there were phenomenal. First time in my life I have actually been enthralled by pure worldbuilding
+ Many emotions are evoked from this piece in a genuine manner. A total lack of irony and postmodern garbage, only genuine expression.
+ Despite my complaint on the characters below, each of them definitely do have their own times to shine. And when they do shine, the writer addresses a theme/topic as well, but also manages to balance this with the actual character writing, humanity of the character, and emotional aspect. Definitely rewarding.
+ The themes, worldbuilding, story, and characters all tie together very cohesively. There is a bit of handwaving but as long as you aren't OCD about everything working perfectly like a math formula (it's a story, meant to convey ideas and experiences, not a formula sheet), you should come out very satisfied at how cohesive the experience is.
- 40% of the story gets a bit convoluted, dragged out, and filled with conveniences. However, this is only because I was quite harsh on the game -- seeing it from the lens of "is this a masterpiece?" (it is). If one were to analyze this as "is this an amazing video game story", this complaint largely recedes.
- As is typical of older JRPGs I believe (I don't know enough to say for sure though), most characters don't have much to say most of the time, and their personalities can get jumbled together. The point is I don't care too much about a bunch of the characters at times.
? If you enjoy the gameplay, you're good. But I stopped enjoying it. I usually get bored of gameplay loops easily so that's mostly a me problem. There's also an untranslated (?) altered version of the game (search Seraphic Blue Altered) that has improved gameplay apparently. Anyway, the gameplay is deep and interested, I'm just not a random encounter kind of guy. Hence why I watched the videos once I got 1/4 done the game.
--------
(Before finishing the game):
Amazing storytelling. Simply phenomenal. People will say "ow the edge" and whatever but they don't understand, the edge is not the point, the world that has been created is so mysterious and interesting, you can tell it was crafted with so much care and not infantile shock value like most modern games, just look at the glossary entires, timeline page, etc.
However, there are too many random encounters and I simply cannot continue past the first 10 or so hours, so I'm going to watch the story on YouTube (it's rather linear anyway).
Would be a 5/5 if it weren't for the gameplay - or rather, actually, the gameplay is pretty great. Much better than a typical good JRPG. It's more like I hate how there's no options to quickly skip battles, every time I fail to run away it's very annoying. Especially if I'm lost in a map and have to go back and forth, I'll go through dozens of encounters in one screen.
A sprawling, long RPG Maker outing that hearkens to games like Tobira no Densetsu, and unique for its custom battle menus. Unfortunately, while I can admire the ambition, music, CGs, and kinda charming edgy 2000s anime writing, there are a number of things that really drag it down. There is entirely too much talking in this game for one, and the writing can be very repetitive. Boss fights are sometimes unfair, and grinding is pretty much a necessity (random encounters YAAAAAAAAAY). The lack of face sprites is odd, and takes a lot away from the experience, especially in a game with so much dialogue. While the CGs are cool, the actual game looks very "RPG Maker default" and the menus are fugly. And again, this game can take upwards of 100 hours to beat. I can't ever imagine finishing it.
This game is so immensely edgy and it feels like two or three RPGs in a trenchcoat, yet this is still somehow one of my favorite RPG Maker games. Something's wrong with me but I don't know what.