Hello!
Welcome to a review of a game that is not complete but is worth playing anyway! Raciela!

Raciela is a game about pirates (and that's a weird rarity considering that there are many Rm2k3 pirate charsets, like the RTP heroes Gomez and his female counterpart), but not only!
The beauty of this game (who is name after a ship that appears in the game, Lady Raciela) is that it's a series of stories interwined that involve not just pirates (or a particular piratess, to be precise), but also the daughter of a innkeeper, a couple of natives, a spy of the navy, an inventor, a noble pugilist and many others. This is not ther story of a single great lone hero, but the adventures of various characters in a realistic and setting.


The dialogue means that this is a boss fight! And just the first one, to be precise! (see the green life bars over each opponent? We need to deplete those!)

Raciela is a Rm2k3 game that uses a lot of custom assets and systems. Let's start with the graphics: the charsets are custom and slightly taller than the usual, and so are the battlers. The nice little animations add to the realism that is also evident by the beautiful realistic facesets of the main cast. Mapping is extremely good, places are colorful, detailed and not too big or spacious, so if you are lost, sooner or later you will find your way (this is the only problem you can have when wandering the cities of the game, luckily there are often some blinking sparks that indicate the next destination), because yes, the game world feels rather big, there are many places that you do not need to visit, but often exploration is encouraged due to the presence of chests of loot in many place (including the private homes of the citizens).

So visually the game is pretty good, and also music is appropriate to the pirate theme, but then how is the gameplay? Expect exploration, combat and (I was sure, being it a pirate game) naval battles, the good thing is that there is a lot that is custom (I am speaking about menu, interface, but also the weapon upgrading system) and it's pretty well done, the only problem is that it may look intimidating (and overcomplicated) since there is a menu before the usual rm2k3 party menu, a "guest characters" (those who are not full party members but they contribuite to the story and also gives some bonus like reduced encounter rate or discounts in shops) page, a page with details about the characters already met and so on. All well done even if it may seem less immediate (and fast, considering that the beautiful animation of the scroll takes a couple of seconds everytime, but hey, it's pretty and it's ok!).


A naval battle! Well, you expected this in a pirates game, didn't you?

Combat is the usual ATB with battlers and monsters (that have the same size and it's also the same during the exploration). Every character has his own skills and special attacks that requires TP (rentegrated using pellets) and gunpowder that is needed to attack with guns (that are very powerful compared to hitting the enemy with a musket or sabre!). You can also defend (restoring also some life points) and use consumbles. There are shops where it's possible to buy particular gear and armors, but weapons cannot be changed but they may be improved (spending money, just like in Exit Fate) since these are linked directly to the special attacks (natives use bows, for example).
Difficulty is medium but still quite challenging, you can often escape from secondary encounters anyway be prepared for bossfights, managing the resources is essential to survive.
There aren't exactly random encounters, but (only when in dangerous areas) there is an indicator on the screen that fills as the character walks. Changing place (like entering a cave) resets the counter, anyway when it's full the shape of a ship will elegantly change the screen to initiate the combat encounter.

Oh and game can be saved anytime you find a ship in a bottle (the save points in Raciela!) or on the main map, that isn't a tipical jrpg map where you can walk freely, but a more typical map with fixed destinations.


Well, more or less since we practically fought almost every kidnapper!

The captain's verdict!
Raciela is a great game. It's not completed, true, but it will still provide hours of fun. I had no issues except for a couple of typos, few map errors (you can walk over some desks), an empty window that appeared covered the view of the battle during one of the last bossfights, and also the game freezed once during the sea battle, but these issues happened just one time, and then everything went smoothly.

The story is very interesting, varied and well written (I liked the flashbacks and cinematic feel of some parts), and there is a lot too see and explore. There is a large cast of many different actors and playable characters, and the whole adventure is mature and articulated (and clearly inspired from popular movies and books, as you can see both for what regards the pirate and natives storylines).

Many parts of the game are classical (combat and equipment managing) and not so different from the usual jrpgs, others are quite innovative for this kind of game, and the truth is that everything works perfectly.
In the end this is a good demo, and it's still an excellent experience even if not complete and a bit rough in some parts! 4/5


The end (of Chapter 2 and this demo) is near, prepare for a twist that will end the game with an unexpected cliffhanger!