Crimson Sky

Mitsuhide's Crimson Sky may have been canceled last year, but it still provides a decent 2-hour ride. It may not feature the best story, gameplay, or presentation, but it offers a solid balance of all three. Having talked to Mitsuhide about the game, I am somewhat optimistic that this game -- or at the very least certain aspects of it -- will live on. If completed and polished, Crimson Sky could very well become one of the top RPG Maker 2003 games out there.




Crimson Sky follows Haos, a steadfast lieutenant who finds himself entangled in a messy situation at an enemy camp. Soon after, he is fighting for his life, and is forced into a long journey. Because of the relatively short nature of the demo, I cannot get into specifics about the storyline. The dialogue itself IS well written and polished, but the story did not have enough time to gain traction and, consequently, burn itself into my memory.

On the whole, Crimson Sky seems to be a political and military RPG, like my own Carlsev Saga. However,
it does seem driven more by the characters than the story, at least in the first few areas. Haos and his comrade, Wilton, each have distinctive personalities and are able to maintain flowing dialogue, a must in any RPG. That is one of the things I appreciated about the story: the dialogue was believable, succinct,
and fast-paced. The typewriter introduction, in particular, was penned well. Overall, I give the story a 3 out of 5; there is clear potential here, yet plenty of room for improvement.




In Crimson Sky, Mitsuhide breathes life into the RPG Maker 2003 Default Battle System by implementing scan, steal, and elemental skills. One of my major pet peeves with a good portion of indie games is that the gameplay is bland and repetitive. In Crimson Sky, however, monsters have significant weaknesses that require effort to exploit. Moreover, the scan command is extremely comprehensive, and I can bet Mitsuhide could have implemented it creatively in the later portions of the game. More work on the elemental systems would have been nice; for instance, higher damaging skills would have been a plus. Also, some of the battles toward the end of the demo are not balanced well; they are overly difficult and required downsizing in the maker.

The dungeons are jam packed with puzzles, treasure, and minigames. Most of the puzzles are straightforward booby traps or switch relays, but the minigames are challenging and even innovative. For instance, one minigame requires Haos to dodge a barrage of rocks while free falling; it is quite tough, and I was unable to obtain the bonus item from it. Other minigames are fairly easy but still impressive, such as the rope throwing challenge. Dungeon battles themselves are randomized, which makes for some annoying sequences when one is trying to solve a puzzle or backtrack. Fixed encounters would have been perfect in this demo.

Character development is basically traditional, with a few exceptions. First, characters learn new skills in a variety of ways. One character can learn new abilities only by extracting training points from orbs and spending them at a skill shop. Haos, for his part, learns skills through scrolls and similar items. These systems are fairly limited in the short demo, but I bet they were to be expanded as the game progressed.

Despite these positives, the game does touch on one of my biggest pet peeves: consistently slow walking speed. Rectifying this alone would boost the gameplay score by half a star, most likely. Overall, though, the decent battle system and enjoyable dungeons earn this section a 3.5 out of 5.




Most of the music selections in Crimson Sky are effective and relevant to the area or cutscene at hand. The battle theme does not necessarily fit the game, though; it sounds like a MIDI remix of a mainstream rock song. It is a decent MIDI, but it just doesn't really fit the fights. On the other hand, Mitsuhide did a commendable job selecting music for his dungeons and cutscenes.

The mapping, for the most part, is above average; areas have enough detail to please the eye. Mitsuhide was even clever enough to use screenshots of certain maps as his battle backgrounds, which is always
a nice touch in RPG Maker 2003 games. Some of the areas are overly blocky and straight, but this is probably because the dungeons are heavily influenced by Zelda.

The animations and sprites are relevant and of decent quality. I enjoyed all of the monster and character sprites, and especially enjoyed the customized battle animations. Mitsuhide also included image-based tutorials, which were far easier on the eyes than a clunky dialogue box-based system. I'm guilty of that!

There are some minor issues with presentation, mainly in the form of typos. I actually noted several typos in the description boxes for items and skills. Also, despite the clever tutorials, there is never a description on how to use some of the key items, leaving me to believe that I had encountered a gamebreaker at one point. Overall, though, the solid presentation in Crimson Sky earns a 3.5 out of 5.




The bottom line is that Crimson Sky shows the seeds of what could be one of the better RPG Maker 2003 games. Because it has its flaws and is nowhere near complete, I cannot give the game a particularly high score. Nevertheless, I have seen enough to confidently award the game 3 stars out of 5.