Name: Stories of Sheidh: The Ancestors

Developer: Cradth

Story: You are a Grimoire Hunter named Crad. Grimoires are apparently immortal beings that feed off of the life forces of mortals (actually, a pretty good description of succubi and incubi). How and when these creatures came to be is alluded to in NPC character discussions. There was either a nuclear war or a nuclear accident that irradiated a section of the space facility that everyone lives on and it was basically taken over by these new entities. It's not clear, though. Real nuclear energy can't create creatures like this but it's not outside of the realm of possibility that an alien creature that's been irradiated could evolve into something like the Grimoire. Now, beyond this, the story gets a little too complex to sum up in a paragraph. Now, the story revolves around a mythology about the first generation of humans, a few of whom live on this space facility. This mythology is what the title of the game alludes to. Overall, the story is attention grabbing and eerie and the characters are compelling people you want to know more about.



Writing: This mythology is told in narrator exposition, and it's a bit vague what it has to do with anything. The developer has admitted in an RMW thread that story telling is a weak point in his game, and that tends to be a common problem with complicated sci-fi stories. Storytellers need to remember that the world they are talking about doesn't exist, and that in order to present it fully formed, they need to tie the threads together. Another game series that suffered from this syndrome is Xenosaga. In a sprawling story, it's very easy to lose focus. Yet the story that is here is told well enough for the player to maintain interest and set aside the questions brought up by extraneous and often unnecessary exposition. Is this first generation human someone we are going to meet? Is it someone whose story was told long ago and explains what's going on now? We don't know these things. All we know is that we are apparently fighting a war with immortal monsters that are trying subdue us. What this mythology has to do with anything isn't clear, but it makes for an intriguing introduction.

Also, why are they called Grimoires? Grimoires are books. I'm not complaining. I'm just asking. It's something that made me go, "Huh?"

It isn't clear whether this is the past, an alternate reality, or the future, but it takes place on a space station; actually, that may not be the right term. This game's location employs the old sci-fi concept of building an entire nation in space; a feat of engineering that is probably impossible due to the nature of gravity in a weightless environment and the mass required to build such a structure (the closest I've seen sci-fi come to building something that massive in space that could actually be successfully built is Babylon 5). Nevertheless, it's fascinating to speculate about. Who knows what technology will allow us to do. The game is actually science fantasy, considering it blends sci-fi elements with the supernatural, but even the supernatural elements are speculative in this game, so an argument could be made that the game is fully sci-fi.



Gameplay: Excellent, but not without it's faults. The combat system is very well planned out. It is direct, on map combat. You have three standard attacks--regular, power attack, and deadly attack--then you have catalyst abilities, which are this game's version of magic. Restorative items and magic, in addition to all attacks can be called from the keyboard without needing to fumble with a menu, which is very convenient. You can also jump, which I'm not sure what use it is, since in areas you actually need to jump, you'll do it automatically, and anything you could jump over, you can just smash out of your way. You also have growth system similar to Final Fantasy X's sphere grid, which I thought was really cool.



Okay...there is one thing this game does that I absolutely HATE. I love exploration as much as the next person, but I do like to know what I have to do. A little direction please! The second you get off the first mission, Crad says something about finding his brother in the forest. And it's up to you the player to figure out where you're supposed to go, what you have to do, whether you should talk to a superior, anything! Urgh!!! I must have spent 15 minutes trying to figure out how to get to this forest! The Final Fantasy series does this a lot and I can't stand it. Still, at least this game gave you a location, even if it didn't explain how to get to that location. It could have been much worse. It could have been like Elder Scrolls: Arena where you're sent in a direction and can literally walk for hours before you find where you're supposed to go (thank whatever gods there are that VX Ace can't make maps that big).

Graphics: I see some Mack and Blu (one of my favorite sets they made, no less). I see some basic RTP, and I see a bunch of other stuff I can't pin an artist to. It's all used beautifully. The portraits and faces look custom or possibly from a graphics pack: it is, after all, drawn to match with RTP. Then we have these gorgeous alien skies, like the first screencap in this review. Suffice it to say this game is absolutely lovely.

Music: Some RTP, most not. Any non-RTP is ripped. I can't place it, but I recognize all of it. The piece that plays in the main area...I want to say "Phantasy Star" but I really can't be sure. I know I've heard every piece of music before.



Conclusion: The story has all of the elements of being epic. The gameplay is fantastic. The graphics are stunning. While there's a lot of room for improvement, this is already a game that, if it didn't use rips, would be well worth the price of a commercial game. This game really breaks free of VX Ace's limitations and shows that this engine is a vehicle suited just fine to professional development. Absolutely recommended. Seriously; why aren't you playing this game, if you haven't already?