Reliquia (The Prototype)

Note: as we speak the game is being fixed and many bugs are being removed. This review takes both in account this and the fact that this was made for a contest in a really short time.

Reliquia is a relic of the past, and it's funny it is called "Prototype" since it's the prototype of a prototype! The first Reliquia was a rm2k3 demo (made in 2011) about three different characters looking for a miracle inside an abandoned temple populated by monsters and ghosts or the past. Each one had some abilities that helped progressing some areas, anyway they were not the same heroes of this Reliquia even if the plot is basically the same (but the characters were a bit less generic and had actual names).

So who are our protagonists? Well do not expect a boring warrior, a healer and a classic rogue, because they are:

The Vagrant - a nomad swordsman that is balanced and regenerates Mp each round, but he can morph into a half-fire demon bladedancer with powerful attacks but areduced defense. He will also lose Mp and revert to his human form when at zero.

The Hunter - a gunslinger that is the toughest of the three heroes and able to multiattack fanning the hammer of his revolver. It's the favourite of most players.

The Sorceress - a magic user with two forms: sun form is the classic healer, moon form is the combat wizard. Changing form will recover all MP and heal the party or damage all enemies (depending which form will be the next one).


Our heroes meet for the first time!

These three find themselves searching in an abandoned temple and will have to face both undead creatures and four great entities to reach their goal, so they decide to team up, even if this will be a short term alliance.

Clearly there will be hostile creatures in the temple, but here's some good news: the enemies are all visible and there are no random encounters, and the party is also healed after each combat.
Oh and there are no levels: heroes obtain memories (instead of money) for killing opponents, and these are used to buy new skills at the save points. There are also fragments that have to be collected to forge relics (also at the save points) that give permanent bonuses to the characters (each time you can select between three options). Finally there are items and weapons called "memories" (ike the famous sword Broken Heart from Theia the Crimson Eclipse and Fifth Era or the lethal Lich Staff that was extremely useful during last encounters) that can be equipped by our characters.

Killing any the four entities lets our character learn exploration abilities like moving boulders or jumping between arcane symbols, that unlocks the access to zones of the maps previously inaccessible (giving also access to new treasures).

What else? Graphics is all RTP but I liked how the characters change shape depending on the use of their abilities. Maps are ok and the floating temple is a suggestive setting. There are various passages that sometimes connect, so sometimes there are different paths to reach the same areas.


The dreaded Soul Collector! Get ready to fight him a lot of times... if you don't get good!

The story is ok. Interesting, with some simple and short cutscenes that tells the past of the characters and what led them to visit the temple. There are some choices that will make necessary to play the game more than once to uncover all the backstories (or make a tactical save before the bossfights and following choices).

But the real treat here is the gameplay: combat is dynamic, strategic, fast and furious. While for the most part difficulty goes from low to medium challenge, there are some difficulty spikes (like the fight with the hated Soul Collector! His blast attack can destroy the entire party with one single move if you are not careful, I had less trouble with the fjnal bosse). Since there are no level UPS you have to carefully select the relics you think you need (skills and equipment are not an issue, since you can work hard to get them all!). The bad thing is that you can save only at save points (that are also teleports, shops and upgrading stations), the good thing is that there is no gameover and if you die you just lose half memories et voilà, you are revived.
Finally there are some puzzles and even additional hidden bosses for the completionists! Really unexpected for such a short game.

Verdict
This is a game that may not perfect but it's still a good entry. The adventure is compact but well though out, I found the characters all interesting and fun to use. There are some small issues (some enemies are really easy, others very difficult to beat...if you do not know what you are supposed to do) but many of these issues are being worked on, and at the actual state it is still a very enjoyable short adventure (considering also the short time in which it was made).

For now my rating is 4/5. It was a 3.5 game when I started it, but some changes made me reconsider that rating!

Oh and if you are curious to see the first 2k3 Reliquia, the prototype of this prototype, here's a pic of the original meeting of the three heroes in the abandoned temple!


This was made in 2011, and sadly never completed but now we have not one ending, but three in Reliquia - the Prototype!