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Sacred Reviews: Sinfonia
thesacredlobo- 09/21/2023 03:14 AM
- 105 views
Intro
"Sinfonia" or "Backstage 3: Electric Boogaloo" is an adventure/horror game that was being developed by Max McGee using RPG Maker 2003 that was created for RMN's 4th Birthday 4-Hour the Cake is not a Lie! competition. Though considering this was meant to be a more serious entry and serve as the third entry in the Backstage series the developer was working on. I'm guessing this project was meant to be expanded upon at a later date. There are definitely comments from the developer to suggesting there was more content planned for this demo, but there wasn't enough time to add it all.
Though considering this project was later marked complete. I'm guessing those plans were eventually tossed when Max was going through his submissions and cancelling all of the incomplete ones. Though, I'm not exactly sure when that order came through. It does mean Max has a lot of demos for me to go over at some point in the future, but I'm getting off topic at this piont.
Story
You play Reginald Fontaine whose gone to see a psychiatrist in order to fulfill a requirement sent by his parents to keep getting financial support from them. As such, he really doesn't feel like opening up to the doctor, but when he does so the shit hits the fan with both the doctor and his receptionist being turned into bloody smears on the walls by monsters. Though, it does appear we can avoid them if were willing to consume drugs like Thorazine. A drug created back in 1951 that was used to treat certain mental conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Gameplay
There really isn't that much gameplay to be had in this game. The bulk of the game is a pretty lengthy cut scene involving a conversation between the player character and a soon to be deceased Doctor Benway. And before that all of your choices were rather meaningless such as wandering around and interacting with various objects of taking a seat when asked. And after the character goes on a philosophical ramble the only important decision you get to make is if you'll consume the Thorazine or not.
It's a consume drugs or be consumed kind of world.
Graphics
The game makes use of Theodore's chipsets. Which is apparently one of the few original chipsets created from RPG Maker 2000 and 20003. At least it was at the time according to Max McGee.
Though, I'll admit the lighting effects and going to grey scale when the player apparently enters what appears to be another world are nice touches.
Sound
As far as I'm aware the music doesn't come from the RTP for this one. Though if it's custom work from the first entry in the series or borrowed from elsewhere is a bit of mystery to me. After all, I haven't played the first game, but it does appear one of the songs was created by Reives if the game's summary page is anything to go by and the game also uses Pink Floyd's song "Comfortably Numb" as the background track for the title screen.
Conclusion
Oddly enough I'm not entirely sure what to feel about this project. Part of this is because it's a rather short demo that takes around 10 to 15 minutes to complete, but also because it has more adult tones behind it then a lot of the other entries in the contest it was a part of. As a result it kind of sticks out like a sore thumb in that respect. Add in the fact I'm not a big fan of horror games and I'm left floundering about when it comes to placing some sort of objective score on this project. Or I should say the parts of this project that do exist. After all, there is a content that was planned out that never got made.
On the plus side this project does have a lot of good things going for it in my opinion. So maybe I should just feel a bit saddened that this is yet another project that was ultimately left in a demo state. As such the main appeal this project has now a days is just to be another project to play through in a hurry and try to review in just as much as one.
"Sinfonia" or "Backstage 3: Electric Boogaloo" is an adventure/horror game that was being developed by Max McGee using RPG Maker 2003 that was created for RMN's 4th Birthday 4-Hour the Cake is not a Lie! competition. Though considering this was meant to be a more serious entry and serve as the third entry in the Backstage series the developer was working on. I'm guessing this project was meant to be expanded upon at a later date. There are definitely comments from the developer to suggesting there was more content planned for this demo, but there wasn't enough time to add it all.
Max McGee
I could have completely finished this game with another 6-8 hours of work.
Though considering this project was later marked complete. I'm guessing those plans were eventually tossed when Max was going through his submissions and cancelling all of the incomplete ones. Though, I'm not exactly sure when that order came through. It does mean Max has a lot of demos for me to go over at some point in the future, but I'm getting off topic at this piont.
Story
You play Reginald Fontaine whose gone to see a psychiatrist in order to fulfill a requirement sent by his parents to keep getting financial support from them. As such, he really doesn't feel like opening up to the doctor, but when he does so the shit hits the fan with both the doctor and his receptionist being turned into bloody smears on the walls by monsters. Though, it does appear we can avoid them if were willing to consume drugs like Thorazine. A drug created back in 1951 that was used to treat certain mental conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Gameplay
There really isn't that much gameplay to be had in this game. The bulk of the game is a pretty lengthy cut scene involving a conversation between the player character and a soon to be deceased Doctor Benway. And before that all of your choices were rather meaningless such as wandering around and interacting with various objects of taking a seat when asked. And after the character goes on a philosophical ramble the only important decision you get to make is if you'll consume the Thorazine or not.
It's a consume drugs or be consumed kind of world.
Graphics
The game makes use of Theodore's chipsets. Which is apparently one of the few original chipsets created from RPG Maker 2000 and 20003. At least it was at the time according to Max McGee.
Max McGee
These are Theodore's chipsets. One of the few original rm2k/3 chipset - sets. (Along with Mack & Blue/REFMAP/First Seed Material or whatever they want to be called these days)
Though, I'll admit the lighting effects and going to grey scale when the player apparently enters what appears to be another world are nice touches.
Sound
As far as I'm aware the music doesn't come from the RTP for this one. Though if it's custom work from the first entry in the series or borrowed from elsewhere is a bit of mystery to me. After all, I haven't played the first game, but it does appear one of the songs was created by Reives if the game's summary page is anything to go by and the game also uses Pink Floyd's song "Comfortably Numb" as the background track for the title screen.
Conclusion
Oddly enough I'm not entirely sure what to feel about this project. Part of this is because it's a rather short demo that takes around 10 to 15 minutes to complete, but also because it has more adult tones behind it then a lot of the other entries in the contest it was a part of. As a result it kind of sticks out like a sore thumb in that respect. Add in the fact I'm not a big fan of horror games and I'm left floundering about when it comes to placing some sort of objective score on this project. Or I should say the parts of this project that do exist. After all, there is a content that was planned out that never got made.
On the plus side this project does have a lot of good things going for it in my opinion. So maybe I should just feel a bit saddened that this is yet another project that was ultimately left in a demo state. As such the main appeal this project has now a days is just to be another project to play through in a hurry and try to review in just as much as one.
