Withered Reason - Demo 2

Good morning!
Welcome to a special review in two parts, because it is not just about one game, but TWO games! Yes, because "Withered Reason" is an... experience developed by Mr_H using RPG Tsukuru 2003, and the same developer wrote "To play Withered Reason in its most complete form, play Demo 2, and then Demo 1".
And guess what? That's exactly what I did to see what this game has to offer. First demo was released in 2013-2014 instead the Demo 2 was made in 2016, and that's also the default download. Anyway let's start with:

Whithered Reason: Demo 2
Withered Reason Demo 2 starts with a young boy being threatened by some bandits: he founds something they want, a Shard, and one of these outlaws, Camden, is interrogating him. Camden is doing all of this because his boss Heiles has some plan in mind, anyway they are interrupted by Aryn, a young martial artist with aqua colored hair that is beating the bandits with his combat staff.
Why is he here? Well, he's a friend of the boy kidnapped by the bandits and he came to the rescue, but we, playing as Camden, will defeat him.


Well this is probably and ATM machine, and Aryn is too young for owning an ATM card, I guess!

After getting what they wanted from their prisoner, the bandits set him free, and the boy finds his friend as he recovers from Camden's beating. But the young warrior is so foolish that he wants revenge and then he falls into a gap as the ground shatters, probably due to something the bandits did with the mysterious shard. And Aryn, now our playable protagonist, finds himself inside an undergrund structure with laboratories, robots, scientists, bounty hunters, murderous androids and teleporting hi-tech soldiers!

This is time for a dungeon that includes wandering enemies that can be avoided ad boss fights, plus some exploration that includes optional loot. The game also throws us some puzzles, from the barrier one in which we have to use different switches to enable and disable some barriers to reach the last room, to a classic boulder pushing to unlock new passages, and in some parts we also have to jump some gaps to reach other areas. Little gimmicks but nice ones, like the clock that indicates our playtime or the items used to improve Aryn's weapon.


Camden and Aryn working together? And who is that mysterious girl? Please play and see by yourself!

Now, combat is classic: we have three to four abilities (more are learned levelling up) for each playable character that cost M (magic?) points. These are gained attacking so you do not need consumables to recover them (even if they do exist). Aryn, for example, has a self-healing skill, a bubble special attack (!) and one ability that costs 0 points (but you still have to waste a turn) that can improve his attacks. As said before the game includes enemies that can be avoided (except when the passageways are too narrow!) and save points: blue one that will heal the party, and red ones that will just let you save. This is good since items that let you resurrect party members... wait, are these even present? Luckily some harmful effects like poisoning are immediately cured after the battle ends.

Concerning the rest of the game I found the difficulty to be ok, even if a certain boss will be rather hard to dispatch, story is a bit confusing, but being this an incomplete demo it's not that I can rate it, even if I found the motivations of the characters a bit strange but that's probably me.
Graphically... well there are some awful underground maps and some decent outdoor ones, even if not the best I've seen. The problem of the laboratory is probably of the tileset used that create some barren generic tunnels with some weird transition points and the elevator in which the charset disappear! Ok, bad maps but at least enemies and battlers are nice (facesets and charsets are ok too, they also match), it's a pity the there are some mapping errors, because for the rest it was pretty good!


Demo 2 ends "in media res" but not before introducing some new characters and locations!

Whithered Reason: Demo 1
The game starts with Aryn that is travelling through the forest with a friend. But NO, this isn't the kidnapped boy of the Demo 2, this is a girl named Neis, and she looks like one of the playable characters from the Demo 2, so in the beginning I believed it was a continuation of the story. NO! (again) Because these two friends have no battle skills and are just travelling home (unlike the Aryn of Demo 2 that wanted to fight an entire band of outlaws!). Aryn also seems to be a more calm and less combat skilled/trained compared to the character from the other demo, while the appearance is identical, he is the dame Aryn!

During their travels they are surprised by a tempest, so they decide to seek shelter inside a nearby villa, where they are attacked by Kuran (first boss fight, after the avoidable enemies in the forest), the aggressive bodyguard of the scarred Zelan, the owner of the villa that has some problems with thieves (and we learn immediately that Neis is involved). Anyway the two young wanderers are hosted for the night, and we get control of Zelan and Kuran, learning that they are involved in some affairs. After an adventurous night we resume control of the two main heroes, and the story continues.


I agree! Food is always amazing when you do not have to pay for it!

Ok, here despite the presence of few common elements, like the Aryn protagonist and a female rogue companion, the story seems totally different, and set in a more classic jrpg fantasy setting than the sci-fi of Demo 2, but again, being this a demo, nothing is sure. What's instead clear is that here we have the presence of magical accessories (first is earned defeating Kuran) that lets the characters cast elemental magic, not unlike the Materia from FFVII: each of these adds two abilities to the character that equips them, and depending on the element (fire, wind, lightning, water, and so on) these can harm a single enemy or all enemies, they may empower a character or increase the defense of the party and so on... and clearly you can switch them, changing sets every time.

The game also uses the same save points and wandering enemies of the Demo 2, even if here some battlers look a bit out of place and there is a sort of clashing of visual styles (human enemies of Demo 2 are edited charsets, here the human bandits are ripped from other games and there is also some visual dissonance among them).
Mapping... heh is bad, this time the assets are perfect, but they are used badly, there are many passability errors in the forest and other outdoor areas, the coast is unrealistically squared like it was made with Minecraft. The interiors is a bit better, but there is no guidance about where you are supposed to go, and also the signs in the wilderness do not give any help about the direction you have to follow because they are blank (in demo 2 the outdoor areas have a linear layout that let you immediately understand where you are supposed to go)! It's a pity because for the rest I liked a lot both the music selection and a better choice of background for the dialogues. Combat animations and battlers (ok are the same from demo 2, but ok) are also very pretty and well made!


Zelan & Kuran are the party members that will be controlled during the first serious battles!

Final Verdict
Ok, did you read everything? Cool! I want to say that... I liked both demos for different reasons: Demo 2 has a more interesting combat system, enemies, and it's more fun, Demo 1 has instead a more interesting story (the first goes immediately throwing too much sci-fi elements, even if there are some nice cutscene like the one about Camden's past) and characters, in any case both have not so great mapping and a good difficulty balance, thanks to the presence of healing points and non-respawning enemies. And you can also run from them, even after combat started, on the other hand bosses can be tough.
Apparently these two demos are part of the same story, or saga, despite their differences. But I liked them, I like the old classic Rpgmaker2003 jrpg adventure games (like Cyber Factor or Heaven and Hell episode 3, two others incomplete but enjoyable games), and if you are someone that like me is fond of them. If not... well play something else, these aren't games for everyone, they aren't perfect (hence there is no 4/5) and sometimes they aren't complete (so they are flawed but promisig demos). But are they fun? The answer is YES!