Motrya

Motrya is a game that exist as a two chapters demo. The game is a story driven rpg it's about the story our young predestined hero: a boy that studies at a magic school together with his two best friends, a strange guy and a studious girl. Everything goes well until the magic school is suddenly attacked by an unknown enemy.
What?
No the protagonist isn't Harry Potter! He is a redhead student named Murlor, that graduating from Yormus Academy, where he practices the art of Forlae (or magic). But Murlor is different from the other students because has a secret (I won't tell, it's a secret, now play the game to learn it!) that will put him in danger and force him to travel a fantasy/steampunk world (magic exists, but also tanks and firearms) that is rather original, even if not too weird or bizarre.

As you can probably guess, the party will be composed by our three mages, Murlor, Dayang (the floating good natured best friend) and Icebird (the studious love interest), even if the party is of four characters, and later they are joined by a thief. This means that our party members can cast different spells, that includes different elemental attacks, healing and mana drain (called "Lyte" in this game, but it is just a different name for mana). Anyway that's not all! Mage characters can also equip scrolls that works exactly like weapons (even if weapons like daggers and blades can still be found and equipped) and lets the characters attack with a weaker spell that do not cost lyte/mana (but there are also healing scrolls).


What a nice town! Mrs. Cruck advice is extremely useful!

The characters can (as usual) also equip different armors, clothes and accessories (some items can be equipped by everyone, others only by some characters), and collect consumables that can be be used in combat to recover life, lytes or remove a bad condition. The particularity is that in the first city you enter you have to barter to obtain the items, not just spend the money earned fighting feral creatures (a bizarre feature of almost every classic jrpg!).

Since I mentioned combat, let's see how it works: this game is extremely linear so most fights are obligatory. There are some parts (like the desert) in which monsters can be avoided, even if this means losing precious xp and loot. There is no downside in fighting avoidable nemies because after each combat the party heals and recovers all lytes (except for a particular section in which you have to use medikits to heal outside of combat, but it's an exception to the rule).
For this reason every fight is quite challenging, while bossfights are very challenging, and the best way to win is to exploit enemy's weaknesses (a useful Scan ability exists for this reason).


These bandits threaten me with a flamethrower, nothing compared to my HOLY FIRE!!!

But what if you do not have the most useful scrolls for the encounter equipped? Well this is not a problem since if you die you can retry the combat encounter after reviewing and/or changing the character's equipment AND recieving a useful hint about the strategy involved (for example which is the most dangerous opponent of the enemy team!). You can also save the game everytime and everywhere, so that's quite helpful(no save points needed!).
My only complain is that there are only four save slots, and being this a game about resource management (consumables are extremely valuables, especially if you play at high difficulty setting, there are three of them, as usual I chose the medium option) I'd have liked to have some more also to replay some encounters and areas.

Besides combat there are some little (and easy) puzzles, a quiz, but not real side activities except for the "Lyte Snap", a card game that reminds to me the Triple Triad of FFVIII. It's totally optional, but it's an interesting additional feature to the game!

Graphically Motrya looks really good with its distinct and custom graphics. There are some cutscenes and drawings of some important moments, but for the most part the game looks like a classic Snes jrpg. I liked especially battlers and monsters, there is a good variety of opponents, from soldiers to golems, undeads and even a tank!
Mapping is pretty good too, even if some locations and dungeons looks barren and monotonous, while others (like the town above) stand out for details and layout. Music is simple but appropriate and nice, writing is in my opinion well done even if the story isn't really very original, but the truth is that we can experience only a part of it.


This does not sound good. AT ALL!

Verdict
Motrya is the 50% of the whole game, but still delivers hours of fun. Combat is simple but still challenging (and really hard at higher difficulty), the story is pleasant as we follow the adventures of three likeable characters (really well written and fleshed out), adventures that shift from serious/tragic tone to some humorous situations, but it's all really coherent and well assembled. The linearity ensures that you are forced to use determinated characters and you also cannot revisit the old locations, but I do not mind too much. The problem with this demo is that the second half of the second Chapter becomes really really hard due to some difficult encounters when the party members are separated: this unfortunately makes nearly impossible to win without using some consumables and/or if you avoided some fights in the desert (and no great strategy is viable when you can use just one character).

Despite this minor issue, Motrya is an entertaining jrpg that looks like a classic, but plays a little different, and if I can say, in my opinion has a more modern and less clunky gameplay (no need for save points or inns, equipment and inventory management are really simple and practical). The best quality of the game is the writing and story, because it looks very professional and well-finished from this point of view.

I suggest this game if you want a good story, solid challenging combat and a pretty cool card game as an extra. This time the score is 4/5. A good game, no doubts!