Prophecy : The Demon Kingdom

Introduction

Prophecy: The Demon Kingdom is one of the classic games of RPG Maker, a game of such quality that you would think that it was made years ago already and won numerous awards and praise. Mostly, this is because, either intentionally or otherwise, the game is very reminiscent of other RPG Maker games RMN veterans would remember from years gone by.
It is also a reviewer's nightmare, as the game really has very little faults and save for praising the game's many strengths, it is actually very hard to write an informative and lengthy article about it.

Storyline/Characters

The first and foremost accomplishment Sagitar has made with Prophecy is the game's wonderful, fantasy storyline. Starting off light-headed and slowly easing you into the game world and the life of the protagonists, it soon takes a turn for the worse and grows gradually darker as you begin to discover the immoral desires of a corrupt government and many people you love die around you. As the confused Juno, you'll find yourself left alone in a dark world of pursuit, upheaval, loss and triumph, with many twists, turns and mysteries around every corner.

The story is really something that makes the game stand out amongst the sea of RPG Maker games out there, as the game's world of Rhylore is very intricate, well thought out and realistic, and the story is unique and sufficiently darker than most games out there.

Meanwhile, the characters you meet and control throughout the game are memorable and develop well and realistically over the course of the story. Each party member has their own mood, past and purpose in the story, and even the recurring NPCs you meet such as Sawyer the mapmaker are well written and likeable.

Gameplay

The force driving Prophecy's wonderful story onwards is some wonderfully faithful traditional style RPG gameplay, which in this game is very solid, challenging and at the same time innovative. At it's core, there isn't anything particularly unfamiliar about the gameplay. You travel around the world, challenging dungeons, collecting items and equipment, fighting monsters, gaining levels and talking to NPCs in towns you stop by for information. However, it is how Prophecy is set out and executed that makes the gameplay a notch above the rest. The dungeons and environments are well made and fun to explore, each one holding a fun little gimmick/puzzle for you to get past, and the monsters, skills and equipments are very well balanced. The battles are never too easy, but are never so hard that you need to stop where you are and power level. Provided you aren't under-levelled when you encounter the game's hard bosses, you'll find that the fights are challenging and very taxing, but fun and certainly beatable if you use the right strategies.

Likewise, the skills and equipments you utilize are done well, each one having it's own specific use and each one suited to a different and effective strategy.
However, Prophecy also holds a few innovative surprises to spice up it's bread and butter RPG gameplay and give RPG veterans a new challenge. The first and foremost noticeable of these new additions is the game's "mixology" system, wherein you mix and combine different inventory items you can find throughout the game to create a range of new potions and medicines. There are tons of mixtures available and many different levels of mixing to go through. Some hard mixtures even require you to mix primary ingredients into secondary ones in order to get the mixture just right. This is a fun and rewarding system, but unfortunately you won't be able to mix all the mixtures the game has to offer, and there aren't any menus or memos for storing and recording the discovered mixologies so far. This means you're forced to write your mixtures down on a piece of paper, so perhaps in a later release, Sagitar would do well to include a menu to record mixology recipes.

The second big addition Prophecy adds to the standard RPG gameplay is the welcome implementation of a secondary battle system. That's right; the game has two battle systems! In addition to the standard turn based battles you'll use to fight most of the game's opponents, you'll also utilize at various points in the game a Final Fantasy Tactics style strategic system. In these large scale army battles, you'll command many different units and move them around open battlefields as you think up one strategy after another. Again, just like the main game, these parts of Prophecy are well made and well balanced, being very fun but also a challenge at the same time.

Graphics/Audio

Prophecy: The Demon Kingdom's graphics comprise of the RPG Maker VX RTP tiles and many custom characters and facesets. As a reviewer, I really can't complain about the graphics, as the RTP tiles are used very well, with some great mapping combined with atmospheric screen tints and overlays to give each area it's own unique and slightly customized look and feel.

The custom characters are well drawn and look great alongside the RTP style of the game and even fit with the occasional RTP character you'll encounter in the game. The fact that the characters are customized and unique to Prophecy make them all the more memorable to players. They even have their own custom faces backing them up, which are of an exceptionally high quality and include many different facial expressions, making each of the characters seem emotive and "alive" during cutscenes.
Another high point is the battle scene graphics. The battle-backs are actually comprised of real game maps, and the enemies are to scale with the map and the characters and are animated, making the battles really seem consistent with the rest of the game and also fun to watch, making them all the more exciting to experience.

Sagitar has also used his own custom soundtrack of music for Prophecy. The soundtrack is made up of some decidedly dark and moody MP3 tracks that both suit the game's atmosphere but also embellish and enhance it, and thanks to the high quality of the tracks, each area and scene in the game has it's own memorable and varied feel. There's nothing to really nitpick when it comes to the music, Prophecy's custom tracks really are good, but unfortunately they make the game's file size very large and this is bad as it may deter some from downloading and experiencing a game that is really quite excellent in all areas.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this reviewer found Prophecy: The Demon Kingdom to be a very enjoyable, very well made RPG, and any fan of traditional style console RPGs should download it immediately and find themselves waiting with baited breath, just like me, for the release of the next chapter.