Vae Turpis Eons

Intro

"Vae Turpis Eons" was developed by SquishyWizard using RPG Maker 2003 and is meant to serve as a prequel for a game that was never released. As for why that game died before it really got off the ground. I'm guessing it's because this game didn't generate enough feedback to make SquishyWizard think people would be interested in a longer game that actually helps explains what the bleep is going on in this one.

And I can understand why people would be hesitant to offer up feedback since this game makes use of an active battle system. On one hand these systems are difficult to implement and require some technical skill. So there inclusion is impressive to those that look more at the technical aspects of RPG Maker 2003. At the same time those kinds of systems are also highly frustrating since RPG Maker 2003 really isn't designed to handle such a system. As a result this project is rather frustrating to play.

The Name

If you couldn't guess the title of this game is actually in Latin and roughly translates to "Terrible Ugly Eons" according to google translate. And I'll admit that name really doesn't fit this game. While the game is about a war between Humans and Croixians. I seriously doubt the war has been going on for billions of years. After all, one of the playable characters in this game is the captain of a wooden merchant ship.




And the few clues we do get seems to imply that the Croixians are most likely to be aliens from a far away world in search of a new world to conquer. A world whose native inhabitants will be purged so they can make way for Croixian settlers. At least that appears to be what is going on. I suppose they could also just be on a quest to purge the universe of all life that isn't native to their own home world as well. I wish I could give a more definitive answer here but the game really doesn't explain why the two sides are fighting. Just that our actions will subtly influence the outcome of the war in the grand scheme of things.

Story

We play as a namable character whose default name is Seth. Seth is a truth seer who can take over the bodies of other creatures in order to subtly shape history in a way that will either lead to humans winning or losing a war with the Croixians. To create this influence Seth takes over people at important moments in time and manipulates their actions to ensure humanities victory while his master influences the Croixians in an attempt to wipe out humanity.

Of course, the biggest problem with this approach to story telling is that it's hard for the audience to get invested in any of the characters since we don't spend enough time with them to really form a bond and it isn't clear why some of them are important. The best exmaple of this is Navinel, the captain of a wooden merchant ship. Why is this woman important to saving humanity? What could she possibly do in the future that couldn't be done by someone else? About the only use I could see her having is her boat can act like a taxi at some point, but just about any random ship could be used for carrying a few people to an important location. So her importance seems to be artificially inflated if you ask me.

I suppose some would argue I'm just missing the big picture here and why Navinel is important would be more obvious if the main game to this prequel was actually made, but as it stands I'm just left scratching my head. And it's a really bad sign when your audience isn't invested in your characters in a story about the ultimate challenge of pitting minds and bodies against one another.

Gameplay

On the gameplay side of things "Vae Turpis Eons" is absolutely horrible. This is because all of the characters in this game use melee attacks which means your forced to sit and weight at choke points in order to land hits on enemy units and even if you do that you still might get sucker punched in the face by the AI due to the wonky nature of the hit detection in RPG Maker 2003 when it comes to this sort of combat system. It's why I generally advice giving characters ranged attacks in these sorts of combat systems. That way it's possible to avoid taking cheap damage as long as you stay on the move. And considering it was possible to create a ranged attack in RPG Maker 2000 for this type of system. I just find it odd that so many people that create these types of games prefer to ruin their game with horrible melee combat.

Outside of the wretched combat in this game the one shop we have access to sells goods at absolutely insane prices. This is because the stuff you'll want the most costs 180 gold coins, but the only enemies that drop money are bosses. And while you can farm bosses in this game by replaying through a mission all over again. The process of beating the same mission over and over and over again in order to get enough money for a MP potion or two is mind numbingly tedious. Jeez, in order to get enough money to buy two MP potions on the third level you need to defeat the boss from the second stage eight times. And even if you do that you still won't have enough money to buy the stat boosters on sale in that shop. In order to afford one of those you'll need to defeat the boss on the second stage ten times.

I suppose the prices would be more reasonable if regular enemies in this game dropped money, but they don't for reasons I can't begin to explain. You also don't get any experience for killing monsters in this game. So you can't even grind your way to victory in this game. Your simply forced to repeat the same mission over and over again in order to get enough money for the supplies you think you'll need for the third and fourth boss fights that just seem to drag on for an eternity.

Another weird aspect of this game is that the bless skill costs 12 magic points to cast in order to recover 50 hit points, but two of the characters with this skill can also cast heal which costs 20 magic points to cast in order to recover 200 hit points. As you can imagine it's way more efficient to cast heal in this game since it only costs an additional 8 magic points to cast, but grants the player access to a healing spell that is four times more powerful than the basic skill. Usually you'd expect a weaker skill in a game like this to be more cost efficient at the expense of needing more casts to achieve the same result, but "Vae Turpis Eons" flips the standard script on it's head. I can only imagine how broken offensive spells would be if the player had access to them. Since they would probably cost a few points, but be powerful enough to drop most enemies in a couple of hits.

Graphics and Sound

I'd say the graphics and sound aspects of the game are serviceable if not particularly memorable. Though, I suppose it doesn't help that I want to forget about this game as soon as possible since the combat left a really bad taste in my mouth.

Conclusion

"Vae Turpis Eons" isn't structured in a way to make the player really care about what is going on in the story. To make matters worse the combat in this game is absolutely wretched since the wonky hit detection often turns battles into battles of attrition. And if I wanted to let the AI get a bunch of free hits to my one I would go play "Jotun Colosseum" some more and refuse to get any more speed upgrades. That way I can eventually get slapped silly by the wee beasties for my inability to keep up with them. As you can imagine these factors really aren't conducive to a high score or a recommendation. My recommendation would be to forget about this game and go play something like "Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim". And if you want a recommendation that can actually be found on the site I'd suggest "Super Porygon 3D" since your character in that game gets a ranged attacks which makes the active battle system a lot less aggravating since you can actually avoid damage instead of spending the bulk of your time basically trading blows with your enemies in order to see who will drop first.