Hello
as usual, if you followed my reviews (I'd be really impressed if anyone did!) I usually make one review once in a while about one of the old immortal rpgmaker classics. This time the game is Seraphic Blue, 2004 RPG made by Tempura, whose Director's Cut was released in 2006. This is a japanese game, but the Director's Cut has been translated in 2014 by eplipswich & kumada.

I wrongly believed that Seraphic Blue was a banal, classic fantasy jrpg adventure, but it's not entirely correct: while this game was influenced by the classic jrpgs of the '90s, it has some peculiarities: the story is long (44 chapters!) and complex, and features some dark and serious subjects like nihilism and suicide.

The game offers an extensive in-game glossary and the option to recap the events from the previous chapters, a really unusual feature for an rpgmaker game, but surely a useful one! There's also the option to see where to go and what to do, to let the player know their goal, especially if the come back to the game after a long period. Another nice feature!
Finally there's the setting that's definitely a dark techno-fantasy world (where a classic happy ending is totally impossible!), where the protagonists will find many persons to hate and oppose (it's interesting how every single important enemy is somehow connected to one of the party members!), not just the typical single demon lord. Also, due to the futuristic setting expect seeing a monk, a mercenary and a gun wielding priest fighting together against enemy robots and so on, but mind that magic and magicians are also present.


Hey, that system works just like Windows!

I mentioned the protagonists because there are two that will be the main focus of the game: Lake, the classic lonely sword wielding young boy, that was abandoned by the father and now hunts the Devils that plague the various towns. And he's very obsessed with slaying enemies, a really bloodthirsty warrior under the appearance of a frail boy. Unusual for a protagonist, isn't it?
Then there's Vene, a mysterious girl with a dark past (raised to be emotionless) that fights with a bow, but while she can cause a decent damage, she's an excellent healer, especially during the final parts of the game. She has blue hair, exactly like Lake, but this is not a surprise, as we're playing Seraphic BLUE!

Now, I wrote that the game is a Jrpg, but how does it play?
Well, expect a classic linear story with lots of dialogues and exchanges between characters, lots of events and then then dungeon-crawling and combat (both random encounters and mandatory boss fights, of course, this is an old game). Then? Repeat from the dialogues!
Ok, this is nothing new and nothing really good, because long dialogues, especially linear ones, may bore the audiences in some cases, but there is also another problem, because due to the long speeches of the bad guys, in particular the bosses (that are always immune to status effects so the best strategy is to block their best attacks)... this means re-watching the same long cutscene after every defeat. Pleeeeease, why? You made the awesome glossary and recap features and you cannot do a "skip dialogue" option? Sigh!
The good thing is that the story is very good, original and captivating, but how is combat, then?

Combat system and menus are all custom-designed by Tempura (and his team), this game does not use RPG Maker 2000's default systems. Battles are difficult, despite fighting enemies that look big and slow (large robots, huge mutants and so on), they will often strike first and hard, so the only way to win is this: using preparation and strategy. And this will be even more true in the case of bosses! Using an elemental ability changes the properties of the battleground, allowing the player or enemy to use higher level abilities. These elements are Fire/Water, Wind/Earth, Light/Dark, and the property can be removed by casting a spell with the opposite element or using higher level abilities that require that element. Then there ae two non-classical-element kinds, Sky and Break cannot be removed unless through using abilities that require them or magic and abilities that can dispel them.


I killed one opponent, but Foxey is down! Man this game is really challenging!

There is also the possibility to choose between two attacks, a faster one and a more damaging power attack that is also a slower one, and likewise the enemies possess this offensive choice.
Combat is challenging, but the learning curve is well planned, so I guess that's ok. It's true that in this game the spellcaster do not seem as powerful as the other characters, especially Yangtze that was a really deadly critical hits-machine, or maybe I cannot use them well. In any case the game has lots of interesting features, like the possibility to improve the basic healing items with the "Up Substance" that increase their effect or can make them target all the party members! Cool!

You will also have to buy Spheres, that are accessories that can enhance the characters with additional magic, various status boosts, and other effects. Clearly these add to the strategy, since if you know that an enemy has a particular weakness against one element, you will equip the spheres related to that element. The only problem is that, as I wrote before, in the case of bosses you have to pass a loooong speech and cutscene before being able to fight and realize which is their weakness!
Anyway I have ONE good thing to say: as long as you win every party member bets the experience points, and this means that the fallen heroes are included! Not a bad choice, this helped me!

Visually the game is apparently nothing special, as the maps features both sprites and chipsets you've seen before, and some custom ones. There are in fact lots of custom facesets, full figures of all party members, but also cutscenes of various kind that complements well the narrative, and being made all with the same graphic style, they give a nice personal style to the game, complementing the custom menus.
What about the enemies? The game features a classic first person combat with no battlers, anyway there are lots of different enemies, from supernatural creatures to robots, and these are not Rtps at all but rather done purpousely for this game. These are cool, especially for the creatures that Ende can summon.
Mapping is ok, even if towns look a bit bare, since this is still a classical old rpgmaker game, still while graphics aren't the best aspect of the game, they aren't the worst one either, I've seen real worse!
Sound is also pretty cool, with some musics that I've never heard before so I may guess that they are original, anyway not every single one is good, I found a couple I really dislike, but it's ok for the most part here too.


Ok, Im totally scared by her now! Let's go to read the...

Final Verdict
This is a really great story-driven game, but also the combat system is a good part of the game. Only problem, aside for some typos, is probably the lenght: I really lost the sense of time with it... how much it was? 60 hours? 60 and 30 minutes? Oh yeah, the game is really this long!
I know, it's not for everyone, has one of the longest introductive cutscenes and so many dialogues and combat encounters that may bore some players, and well I can understand them since I also prefer shorter games (well shorter than 60 hours!), especially if they have a more varied gameplay and are a bit easier, just to relax. But here the story was so good that I was compelled to see the ending, and I enjoyed it from the beginning to the last second. Yes, this did non disappoint me!
Overall, a great classic game, maybe too classic for new players, but a real cool story, setting and idea.