Remnants of Isolation

Game: Remnants of Isolation

Developers: Red_Nova, Unity, and Sooz

Story: In world where magic is considered a disease, the cure is to put magic users in a monster infested dungeon and leave them to their certain demise. You begin the game as a young girl who has spent her life trapped in a cell. Like the player at this point, she has no idea of anything. She doesn't know how to read and is unable to speak, though she seems to understand speech. She is playing an ethereal celesta--this game spells it celeste, a corruption of the word commonly found on sample names in digital pianos and keyboards--when her cell door mysteriously opens. Upon leaving, she meets Melchoir.

Writing: The story is very well written and develop. Throughout the dungeon, propagandist signs are posted with such lovely text informing you that as a magical person, you are a cancer upon the earth and other nice, uplifting things. Great care has been put into setting the tone and atmosphere of the game. Likewise, one almost doesn't expect this much thought put into video game characters. By making Celeste apparently mute, the developers assure we'll spend the game knowing absolutely nothing about her. Her experience, and by proxy the player's experience is defined exclusively by Melchoir, a talkative fellow who must interpret Celeste's myriad facial expressions. In this way, we learn about Melchoir entirely from Celeste's point of view. Likely, Celeste is intended as an avatar for the player, much like Link was in the Legend of Zelda, but in this case, the writing takes it a step further, making a Celeste a subtle enigma that isn't easily quantified. The indication is that she has powerful magic, and given that she is the only character in the game to have special accommodations in the dungeon, one might suspect that the powers that be attach a certain quality of fear to her existence. Indeed the first boss you encounter flees the battle for fear of facing her. The writing is excellent and far above what I've come to expect from even the better RMN games. With a few exceptions, one often doesn't come across a story you have to think about in order appreciate.



Graphics: The maps are standard RTP, with a couple of custom chipsets, including a flesh dungeon reminiscent of the more ghastly horror games available and some rather creepy and nicely done decorations. Very well designed maps with an eye for surrealism. In many of the elements, the classic trope of rooms and platforms floating in open space is used to great effect and help set the otherworldly atmosphere of this dungeon where magical rejects are sent by the people of society. Touch encounters are found throughout, and a standard monster charset and custom one are used to represent the creatures, specifically the wraith and a non-RTP demon. Celeste's and Melchoir's charsets are custom, and like their facechips, beautifully rendered. This game goes the extra mile to make good use of Sooz' beautiful artwork. I love the almost pastel appearance that Celeste has to her coloring.



Gameplay: As stated earlier, encounters are touch. While there isn't a big variety of sprites, there's plenty of different battlers. Battles are anything but button mashers. Simply hitting your enemies isn't going to work in any but the very first two or three battles. The combat system may seem difficult at first, but once you get the hang of it, you find it's extremely well balanced. At any given time, you absolutely only have what little MP you need and the magic of both of your characters compliment each other. Enemies may be tough, but you'll find they always have a weakness to one of the elements. In case of the ice dungeon, this is pretty obvious. Magic is acquired through cards that must be equipped. Altogether, it's a very innovative combat system that works very well. When you get the heal card, you're able to overpower enemies for awhile, but don't expect that to last; the challenge quickly amps up in the next dungeon. Money and stores are in the form of "souls" and "fabrication" points. The more souls you've acquired in battle, the more you can fabricate. Of course, these are little more than item shops, but this artistic approach to them really adds to the theme of the game. The game focuses on the hub, a point that leads to all areas and includes an inn and an item fabrication point. Beware of going into other areas before you're ready. You teleport straight in and can't return to the hub until you've completed the area, boss and all. My only real issue here is the lack of encounters. Often there is only one per room or none at all. I'm not complaining, but it's something some people will complain about, largely because it's hard to level up and bosses are quite hard.



A note on musical instruments: This is not a complaint, merely an effort to make certain the player knows the difference. In the story, the musical instrument, the celesta, plays a central role in manner and name of the main character, and Melchoir identifies it as celesta, or rather a celeste (celesta is proper, but both names are used). The instrument Celeste plays is not a celesta. It bears a certain resemblance to a xylophone or a marimba, some form of vibraphone, but not a celesta. A celesta is similar to a piano and uses metal bars instead of strings. Granted, it is a vibraphone, but one encased in a cabinet and operated with a keyboard instead of handheld mallets. To be fair, this is clearly a keyboard, but there's no way Melchoir could mistake it for a celesta.



Again, not a complaint and it will affect the rating in no way, but being an expert in musical instruments, I have this thing about information on them being correct.

Conclusion: I highly recommend this game to anyone and everyone. I don't know if everyone will enjoy it, but I'm sure most people will.