Darkness of Hope - Save The Heart of Painful

"Darkness of Hope - Save the Heart of the Painful" is a short linear RPG made for the IGMC 2014. It's a 30 minutes+ long prequel for the game "Darkness of Hope" which takes place five years later and is not available yet.

While the first introduction and the gorgeous cutscene might indicate a story-focused short RPG, it is not. It focuses on a few battles and a puzzle maze, the story falls very short. However, it does try to convey a sweet message about tolerance, even if there is no impact to be had.


The premise is very interesting - the first and only cutscene in this game makes you hungry for more. It describes why a whole clan fell into disgrace by the hands of a single prince. Cheesy, yes, but a great start nevertheless.


It's not always a happy fairytale ..

But this fairytale-like start wears quickly off when you are thrown into a grammatical, everhappy mess in a completely different setting. It's a rather modern home. Although your main character, our little girl nicknamed "Lia", seems to have trouble making friends.

This uberhappy atmosphere is then broken by invading bad guys, killing your parents and forcing you to escape with your sister (and now guardian) Eris, while battling your other sister Lisa (she is part of the dark side .. of .. well, she's one of the bad guys). Your clan uses magic and is a possible threat, that at least makes sense.
You might expect some running to be done, but you won't encounter any. You'll find yourself in a maze and have all the time in the world to escape and be attacked again then. Alright.

Now, the visuals are quite nice. They won't compare to the cutscene, but they aren't supposed to. The portraits are nicely drawn and the maps quite alright.
Musically, it's nothing special, standard tunes you will not remember. They do what they're supposed to do, though.

The puzzles are not too bad. There is one thing you might miss, but it's otherwise fairly coherent and not too predictable, either. Chasing around rats and freeing a ghost is not a bad change of pace.
The tag-team was used well, it was also a nice touch to get information (not just levers) for Eris with Lia.
It's a let-down that you cannot save at all during this maze. If you miss something, taking a break and going back to it will often help to find the missing part, but you can't do that without a save file. Still, it's short enough to be done again. You can at least save before fights.

The battles themselves are completely random. As such, there is no real strategy to be formed.
You can strike using up your "break gauge", attack normally dealing probably the same amount of damage in multiple weak attacks, defend (recharging an additional part of your break gauge) and counter weak attacks.
If your break gauge is filled, you can use a special attack instead of a strike which cannot be avoided (thank god! it feels like 70% of all strikes are dodged).
Your enemy has the same setup, pushing the HP down to your side.

It has some interesting ideas such as the shared HP, but it doesn't really challenge you aside from your luck muscles (you can be killed very easily at the start of the second battle, if your opponent so chooses)



What spoiled the fun for me were mainly two things - the writing and the general game composition.


Never mind orthography, there were lots and lots of grammatical errors everywhere. I realize English is not the creator's native language, so I just keep up with it. But additionally, the "~" was quite overused.
It indicates cuteness, sure, but to use it (especially in the beginning) for 80-90% of all sentences is not emphazising anything. The need to use it after getting any and all items is lost on me as well.
"I got an item~ yay! Let's hope I won't be killed in the next 5 minutes~, teehee!"
It's also used to make some characters appear creepier, although there was no need for that.

Which already leads to the second major problem. The atmosphere is not consistent at all.
Is this supposed to be a cutesy story?
Dead parents, attempted abduction and discrimation surely don't go into that direction. Most of the dialogue still does. Chasing around talking rats and saving friendly ghosts does, dying and cannibalistic people not so much (although they weren't frightening at all).

Just as the calm puzzler part didn't fit into being chased escapees, the cutesy dialogue touch does not fit into the dark themes that are mentioned. It rips any possible atmosphere apart and leaves you hanging in an "just go along with it.."-loop.

The characters are very flat, their actions are not explained at all. Yes, your sister Lisa is evil. Because, well, she fights for the wrong side! Duh.


That explains everything, thanks.

You being a little girl means you are easily scared, but curious and generally friendly. Eris being the guardian type means she worries about her little sister and does her best to protect her from any harm.
Lisa is evil chasing them around while "offering" Eris to change sides. Whatever the other side may be.
That is all.

There could be a focus on the development of the clan's relations to other people, there could be a focus on how magic affects the daily life (as only your clan can use it). Including yours! They say you are discriminated against, but it's nowhere shown. You are never seen outside in town, just inside your home and then in a sewer.
"Don't tell, show" is what works best, after all.

You won't know any more about the characters than you did at the beginning of the game. And that is very unfortunate - I'm sure there are many ideas that could've been implemented here, there is much more background to be uncovered.

Instead, you get a wishy-washy escape without any real chase. A few puzzles, a few battles and a frame for what could be a story. Nothing more. I didn't care for the characters, nor for what happened to them. The rat we chased out was the most memorable "character" for me, ironically.

The ending gives the message of "acceptance is possible after all!", which is a very positive ending, but it does not make any sense at all in the context.
It doesn't clear up any "why"s. Nor "how"s.



There are many plotholes to behold, so the ending leaves you rather unsatisfied.

This game has some excellent ideas. It has a background to build upon, but it doesn't use its potential and instead creates a puzzle maze that doesn't fit into this context at all. It could work as a puzzler on its own or as a story-driven RPG, but it lost impact on both ends by mixing them together.