Mapping 3.5/5
I believe the strong point of Glacia is definately the mapping, The author combined RTP and Mack's tile sets very well. He didn't make the common mistakes that you see from poor mappers in VX. The maps were basically well designed and helped give each area a certain "mood" Many of them are very pretty to look at (the forest and temple ones were especially impressive, and I also really liked Gavin's Airship) The mapping is not perfect though, the world map is very large, this is likely meant to give it a sense of scale and balance out the rarity of random encounters on it, however having so many dead ends and very large areas can frusterate the player. Editing the map to reduce the chances of dead ends might help the game. Also, although indoor and forest maps (and the others I gave shouts outs to) are very impressive, the city maps can use a bit of work, it ust bugged me that every house seemed to have the exact same proportions. The castle in Big Flame I thought was very nice, however. I've seen better mapping in VX before, but I've also seemed far worse, alot of the maps in this game genuinely look pretty, and that is what counts

Story 2.5/5
I couldn't help but feel that the story from what I saw from the demo was a bit basic, and essentially nothing we haven't seen from most every RPG before. I have this feeling that things pick up after the demo, or rather they darn well better. I do sincerly want to know what is up with Rain's wife, so the story is good enough to get you a wee bit hooked. I can't help but feel though that there are elements in the plot that was sorta glossed over and could've been looked into more (Rain having to fight his own subjects for example) but this has alot to do with charecterization, which I'll cover later

Dialogue 1.5/5
Definately one of this game's weak points. NPCs have very little of any interest to say and they thus seem pretty lifeless (some don't even talk at all, yet the common clock or bush gets a reaction)The dialougue in general is very basic, to the point, and loaded with spelling errors. It basically seems to me like that found in a game where charecterization and dialougue are supposed to take a backseat to plot and gameplay. Mostly I think it can be spiced up a bit in places, especially for the NPCs. I saw sparks of very good dialougue in certain places, but overall, it can use improvement

Charecterization 2.5/5
I have to say that I found the charecters to be a bit basic, and I never really felt that they are as deep as they could be. I already mentioned issues with Rain, and I sorta get Blaze, but I can't help but feel that since thier is a husband and wife in the party for a bit, that there should be more interaction between them, maybe have them joke around or argue for a bit from time to time. Little things like this will make the charecters seem more deep, and lively, and it will help the player actually care when Ingram kidnaps Blaze's wife and he chases after her. Before I forget, the fact that Rain's wife seems to have gone off the deep end should be somthing he thinks about a bit more. Did he fall in love with her, were they happy before the game started? He just seems to be strangely unaffected by it all. Basically I see alot of potential in this game for very good charecterization for the main charecters but I just get the sense that its being wasted. The exception of course is Spider, who I can't really think of any point of him even being around, unless there is somthing later on in the story that can make him more than just a guy who tags along I'd think about whether or not he is really neccessary.

Of course anyone reading this review should keep in mind that this is just a demo, and that all the things I mentioned in regards to charecterization may be set to develop later in the game. Blaze and Rebecca however, need to interact more before Ingram takes her hostage

Gameplay 2/5
Battles seem to be random on the world map, strangely several charecters begin the game at level 99. I don't know if this is somthing to help the author playtest or to allow the player to easily explore as much of the game as possible in the demo, but it obviously makes the game unrealistically easy so I'm hoping its a demo only thing. A side view battle system is implemented, which is not my cup of tea because either the enemies look too giant, or in the case of this game, everyone looks too small (the temple guardian boss didn't seem like much of a boss to me because of his punyness) this is just me preffering frontal though, if you like side view then more power to you. There are also some interesting gameplay features used, the mini map, the jobs, and the beastiary come to mind

Music 2.5/5
the music included some music I recognized from the RTP which just bugs me since I've already heard it so many times before, but the songs I didn't recognize from the RTP were very, very good, so it kind of evens out

Overall thoughts:
this demo basically seems pretty complete in the first few maps but the later maps seem very bare and basic (I'm mostly talking about towns) I'm really hoping that this is only to extend the number of areas the player can see in the demo and to get a demo out quickly, instead of say, having NPCs walking around that don't talk and town's with just a shopkeeper, and innkeeper. I'd say this demo is worth a look, if only to admire the impressive maps. Overall, this is an ok demo, that I did have a bit of fun with, its not the best thing I've ever seen and it doesn't make me eagerly await the complketed game, though maybe it should because it'd mean that the later towns will seem as complete as the game's earliest maps (again, I hope)
I have no major complaints with this though so I think a modest score of 2.5 is appropriate. This demo shows potential like I said, I'm looking forward to seeing what imporvements are made and what the later areas hold