I decided to give this one a look as it promised to be short and story-based. Exactly what I enjoy. Okay. I wouldn't recommend bothering to download if you insist on action and can't enjoy dialogue, if not a story. This is especially true as the download size is 120 MB. That's a bit much to ask for a twenty minute story demo. That might explain why this has so few downloads.

This portion of the game centers on the character Teign, and him talking with people. The dialogue is well written, though a bit overly melodramatic. Much better than a lot of games I've seen though, especially from a non-native speaker. The dialogue goes on for some time, but it was engrossing enough to keep going. If you're a TL;DR person, skip this game. But as for the characters themselves, most of them aren't very developed (expected with this sort of demo) and defined by a single trait. Teign himself is sort of irritatingly self-pitying, though this is probably a spillover from "drama." Passable. The story itself isn't anything original, but at the minimum it's engaging and well-written. It might just be constrained by the time or genre requirements. A lot of proper nouns fly around and without a coherent introduction to the terms it's sort of confusing.

Graphics and environment are well done.There are lots of NPCs fidgeting about, and it's a nice touch. Many of them are interactive and move around. Especially enjoyable was the interaction of Olivia and Erich. Graphically, there's weather and fog and lighting everywhere, and the overall effect is neat. The nature of the story seems to conflict with the idiotic VX RTP-style sprites though. Maybe I just hate VX RTP and it's humongous heads. Oh well. Face graphics are recolored Fire Emblem... Nothing unusual, not impressive. Still, it's evident there's been a lot into making this game look good, and it shows.

Music is okay. A few enjoyable orchestral pieces help the mood, but for some large portions of the game there is either no music or music so soft it was inaudible. Also, a couple Uematsus. I was expecting more from a game with 70mb of music. SFX are fine except for very annoying grunting sounds during combat.

Gameplay is a basic side-view system. Mash spacebar for melee attacks. Okay, fine. This isn't centered around gameplay anyway and there are maybe four battles total. Does not bother me.

Overall, I'd say this could probably be turned into a decent game. It's on the right path, but it most likely needs an overhaul of the plot. Unless the demo terminated right before things turned interesting, the story was fine but a little slow-moving to get to any original parts. The characters are okay as are, but show a lot more potential. For instance, the slave girl Howling seems to have a reputation building, but meeting her almost ruins the mystery. It's almost as if this game is well-executed and planned but lacks that hook that will keep people playing. I was ready for a break as the demo ended. I'd excuse the slow start if it was followed with an engaging Chapter 2 in the same style. I guess it's too early to judge.

3.5