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Sacred Reviews: Regeneratio Venae
thesacredlobo- 02/26/2023 11:57 PM
- 225 views
Intro
"Regeneratio Venae" was developed by TheSchilderich using RPG Maker XP for the Indie Game Making Contest: Rebirth that was held between June 30th, 2022, to August 4th, 2022. At any rate "Regeneratio Venae" is a short, turn-based RPG that contains some notable positives and a few minor issues that I'm really not sure how they could be addressed without changing the game on a fundamental level.
Story
Summary
You play as Rei, an upcoming mage and daughter of a high ranking official, whose undergoing the trial to become a Vena, a worthy vessel for the Gods. A trial that seems to mostly be about how good you are taking names and kicking butt.
Though apparently the Gods do require their vessels to have some basic puzzle solving skills, but they really don't need their vessels to be that smart since the puzzles are all pretty basic. If anything the real challenge is overcoming the game's final boss who will test Rei's strength of will. A task that is overcome by the power of cut scene magic for the most part. Though I suppose going from a self-conscious thicc girl to one with unwavering confidence could be considered a rebirth of one's self-image at least.
Strengths
If I had to pick the narrative's biggest strength it's that it contains some interesting background lore involving the Gods of this universe as well as their servants. Though, I suppose some would argue this isn't exactly the best strength to have since it means the best aspect of the narrative in my opinion is the world building and not the bits centering around Rei's growth as a character.
Weaknesses
In my opinion the narrative has two major issues. The first one is that the story's pacing feels a bit uneven. Admittedly some of that is my fault since I did take ten minutes or so to grind for skill and talent points in order to upgrade Rei's abilities and skills. On the other hand the pacing also struggles because the flashbacks we get upon clearing the various rooms come across as rather disjointed so it's not clear how they fit within the confines of the story.
The second major issue is that Rei's confidence issues don't get highlighted as well as they should in my opinion. As a result her rebirth as a girl overflowing with confidence feels a bit more empty than it should. Though, I'll admit I was playing this game while feeling pretty tired. So your experience might be drastically different than my own.
Gameplay
As previously mentioned this game is a bit of a mix of turn-based combat and puzzles. The former of which uses a combat system that feels like a mix of the conditional turn-based system from "Final Fantasy X" with the skill cost system found in games like "Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis". Obviously the first part of that equation places a heavy emphasis on speed since a fast character will get to take more actions over the course of a fight than a slower one. The second part of that formula means you'll have to wait longer between turns based on how powerful the skill you used is. So if you focus on only spamming hard hitting group attacks you'll find yourself getting a lot less turns than if you had focused on single target abilities especially those that buff or heal the player.
Though the game also introduces a slight twist on both of those games formulas by including two different upgrade systems. The first of these systems you'll probably come across is the skill point system which allows you to spend skill points you've earned by winning battles to improve your various skills. Though there are only a few skills that truly seem worth upgrading in my opinion since you'll use certain abilities way more often than others.
The other system is the talent system which allows you to gain the bonus of a piece of equipment you've mastered through winning battles. Though only the equipment used in the battle will gain points so if you want to activate certain bonuses while using other pieces of equipment during boss fights you'll probably want to focus on mastering specific talents. After all, this game is rather short so you won't have a lot of time for farming talents unless you go out of your way to farm certain touchable monsters for talent and skill points.
Though I wouldn't worry about it too much since the low to casual difficulty level of this game means you can basically ignore this system and probably won't find yourself suffering that much for doing so. Especially since only a handful of the bonuses you can unlock are truly worth going out of your way to have access to at all times. Especially when you factor in that you can only have so many active talents at the same time.
The puzzles on the other hand range from finding hidden words of power to kaming a group of symbols all display the water element at the same time.
A task that would probably be a lot harder if these puzzles involved more than four pieces to manipulate. Of course changing one piece also changes it's neighboring pieces as well, but this is so bog standard for puzzles like this it really doesn't up the challenge that much in my opinion.
Graphics
Graphically the game contains some absolutely stunning still images.
So much so that I think the above image largely speaks for itself. So the game definitely includes a few pieces of eye candy.
Sound
Sound wise the game is alright in my opinion. I really didn't pick up any pieces that stood out in a bad way like in "Eureka Seven Vol. 1: The New Wave". At the same time the music is so forgettable that none of it really gets stuck in your head for its own merits like "The Lonely Shepherd" from the movie "Kill Bill: Volume 1".
Conclusion
"Regeneratio Venae" is a solid game in my opinion for the most part, but the trial to become a Vena seems rather lacking in terms of actual challenge. So if your looking for a game that will test your combat or puzzle skills you'll need to look elsewhere, but if your looking for a rather casual game you can beat in about 30 minutes or so this isn't a bad way to spend that kind of time. Though I'm guessing the lack of challenge was at least partially inspired by the game needing to be under 60 minutes long in order to be properly judged in the Indie Game Making Contest: Rebirth.
"Regeneratio Venae" was developed by TheSchilderich using RPG Maker XP for the Indie Game Making Contest: Rebirth that was held between June 30th, 2022, to August 4th, 2022. At any rate "Regeneratio Venae" is a short, turn-based RPG that contains some notable positives and a few minor issues that I'm really not sure how they could be addressed without changing the game on a fundamental level.
Story
Summary
You play as Rei, an upcoming mage and daughter of a high ranking official, whose undergoing the trial to become a Vena, a worthy vessel for the Gods. A trial that seems to mostly be about how good you are taking names and kicking butt.
Though apparently the Gods do require their vessels to have some basic puzzle solving skills, but they really don't need their vessels to be that smart since the puzzles are all pretty basic. If anything the real challenge is overcoming the game's final boss who will test Rei's strength of will. A task that is overcome by the power of cut scene magic for the most part. Though I suppose going from a self-conscious thicc girl to one with unwavering confidence could be considered a rebirth of one's self-image at least.
Strengths
If I had to pick the narrative's biggest strength it's that it contains some interesting background lore involving the Gods of this universe as well as their servants. Though, I suppose some would argue this isn't exactly the best strength to have since it means the best aspect of the narrative in my opinion is the world building and not the bits centering around Rei's growth as a character.
Weaknesses
In my opinion the narrative has two major issues. The first one is that the story's pacing feels a bit uneven. Admittedly some of that is my fault since I did take ten minutes or so to grind for skill and talent points in order to upgrade Rei's abilities and skills. On the other hand the pacing also struggles because the flashbacks we get upon clearing the various rooms come across as rather disjointed so it's not clear how they fit within the confines of the story.
The second major issue is that Rei's confidence issues don't get highlighted as well as they should in my opinion. As a result her rebirth as a girl overflowing with confidence feels a bit more empty than it should. Though, I'll admit I was playing this game while feeling pretty tired. So your experience might be drastically different than my own.
Gameplay
As previously mentioned this game is a bit of a mix of turn-based combat and puzzles. The former of which uses a combat system that feels like a mix of the conditional turn-based system from "Final Fantasy X" with the skill cost system found in games like "Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis". Obviously the first part of that equation places a heavy emphasis on speed since a fast character will get to take more actions over the course of a fight than a slower one. The second part of that formula means you'll have to wait longer between turns based on how powerful the skill you used is. So if you focus on only spamming hard hitting group attacks you'll find yourself getting a lot less turns than if you had focused on single target abilities especially those that buff or heal the player.
Though the game also introduces a slight twist on both of those games formulas by including two different upgrade systems. The first of these systems you'll probably come across is the skill point system which allows you to spend skill points you've earned by winning battles to improve your various skills. Though there are only a few skills that truly seem worth upgrading in my opinion since you'll use certain abilities way more often than others.
The other system is the talent system which allows you to gain the bonus of a piece of equipment you've mastered through winning battles. Though only the equipment used in the battle will gain points so if you want to activate certain bonuses while using other pieces of equipment during boss fights you'll probably want to focus on mastering specific talents. After all, this game is rather short so you won't have a lot of time for farming talents unless you go out of your way to farm certain touchable monsters for talent and skill points.
Though I wouldn't worry about it too much since the low to casual difficulty level of this game means you can basically ignore this system and probably won't find yourself suffering that much for doing so. Especially since only a handful of the bonuses you can unlock are truly worth going out of your way to have access to at all times. Especially when you factor in that you can only have so many active talents at the same time.
The puzzles on the other hand range from finding hidden words of power to kaming a group of symbols all display the water element at the same time.
A task that would probably be a lot harder if these puzzles involved more than four pieces to manipulate. Of course changing one piece also changes it's neighboring pieces as well, but this is so bog standard for puzzles like this it really doesn't up the challenge that much in my opinion.
Graphics
Graphically the game contains some absolutely stunning still images.
So much so that I think the above image largely speaks for itself. So the game definitely includes a few pieces of eye candy.
Sound
Sound wise the game is alright in my opinion. I really didn't pick up any pieces that stood out in a bad way like in "Eureka Seven Vol. 1: The New Wave". At the same time the music is so forgettable that none of it really gets stuck in your head for its own merits like "The Lonely Shepherd" from the movie "Kill Bill: Volume 1".
Conclusion
"Regeneratio Venae" is a solid game in my opinion for the most part, but the trial to become a Vena seems rather lacking in terms of actual challenge. So if your looking for a game that will test your combat or puzzle skills you'll need to look elsewhere, but if your looking for a rather casual game you can beat in about 30 minutes or so this isn't a bad way to spend that kind of time. Though I'm guessing the lack of challenge was at least partially inspired by the game needing to be under 60 minutes long in order to be properly judged in the Indie Game Making Contest: Rebirth.
