WARNING - if you are going to play this game remember TO SKIP the tutorial since it will make the game crash. The system is quite easy and you do not need it anyway.

Hello!
Recently I played an old incomplete game named Raciela that was really good despite being made of just two chapters out of three. This Story of Innocence is another unfinished game made by the same author.

The game starts with a choice that unfortunately isn't a choice since the game is incomplete: there are two protagonists but only Layanna's side is playable. Then the game begins with an old storyteller telling the prologue before the real game begins.
Layanna is a young girl that after some misadventures is sold in slavery, she tries to escape but she is recaptured and her friend is killed. Then a big fat ugly rich man arrives and tries to buy her but... this time she's lucky since a one-eyed warrior steps in and buys her freedom at a higher price.
Why and what happens next? Well play the game and see for yourself...


"Be a carriage driver, it's a relaxing, quiet job!"

Despite the game being centered on Layanna, for a lot of time we will play as Joseon, the mysterious one-eyed man and other companions that will join and leave our party. Speaking of characters, they are well characterized and interesting, there is the use of some cliches (like the typical fat rich evil guy) but there are also some events and situations that really surprised me (like the possession in the ghost ship, that leads to a hilarious cutscene!).

Graphically the game makes an excellent use of Rm2k3 assets with many edits and custom animations that look very pretty, but from the author of Raciela I could not expect less! Oh this game uses the traditional charsets, non the tall ones of Raciela, anyway battlers and enemies look very well done and animated.
Mapping is very good: the size of the maps is adequate and they are rich of details, there is a good use of lightning and fog effects, and it's all coherent and extremely well done. The only problem I had is recognizing some corridoors in the ghost ship since they are blocked by the perspective and it looks like there is a wall... while there is not!
Music and sounds are pretty good too, appropriate and well selected, not the usual tunes you hear in every game. Also there are many very well made cutscenes placed strategically before and after the various "chapters" (there aren't separated chapters, but the game can be divided into various episodes: "freeing Layanna", "the ghost ship", "going home" and so on).

Combat: nothing new here except for a couple of features. The first is that only human opponents leave gold, while animals and monsters leave body parts that can be sold for money. The second thing is that characters have a "limit break" reminiscent of Final Fantasy, this means that some can unleash a special signature move (that's not always an attack, Layanna for example heals the entire party). Characters have also more typical special moves that cost energy points (and these cost quite a bit so you cannot spam them repeatedly) and are learned after some level ups together with skill points, another new feature: basically you earn these points that can be spent on HP, MP, ATK, VIT and INT (each level costing more that the previous) at the save points (that are used primarily in dungeons, usually in towns you can save anytime), and you can clearly notice the effects of your choices. Finally, characters besides new armor and weapons can also equip some special items that provide temporary bonus to their characteristics AND some new abilities (like healing or elemental attacks) that use the character mana pool, and this is another weapon against enemy encounters!


Joseon mercilessly throws his sword to kill a scantily clad woman!

The difficulty of combat encounters is challenging (especially due to some nasty side effects caused by some opponents, it's a good idea killing them before the others) but not that hard since you will level up quite quickly in the beginning, and only the bosses are really hard and require to have a good quantity of consumables at hand. But loot is reasonably generous, and if you are prepared there won't be problems. Also not only every opponent is visible and avoidable (unlike Raciela, and this is a big improvement, I think!), but also some enemies are static and will only attack if you run into them.

Besides combat encounters, some time after the beginning of the game there is also a stealth section, but you can easily fight every guard without worrying too much because killing them will net you some experience points AND reset the witness count, and considering that there is a resting place inside the palace... there is no need to sneak at all!

Other activities are finding items and performing various quests, and I liked a lot the variety of situations, enviroments and turns of the story. It's an ispired adventure and it's a shame it is not complete because I liked it even more than Raciela. There are just some typos that anyway don't ruin a well written adventure and a captivating setting.


Do not bite off more than you can chew, my big and horny friend!

Verdict
As you can probably imagine, this is another good demo that can provide hours of fun. It plays like a typical jrpg game but the narrative is excellent, mapping is amazing and the gameplay is classical old school rpg with some neat features.
In the end there are really few things I can complain about this game (I was not a big fan of the ghost ship part for a couple of reasons, including some questionable mapping choices, but maybe it's me, the overall quality is still high). This gets a 4/5, but probably if it was completed it would get more since it's the kind of memorable rm2k3 game from a talented maker that rarely happens.
Try it yourself, I'm sure you won't be disappointed...

PS: I don't know why, maybe it's me but Darius reminds to me a lot Gaius from the Way series by Lun Calsari: they both are magically inclined mysterious warriors with blue hair (nearly identical hairstyle) and clothing, and also the name is quite similar. But yeah, this may be just a coincidence.