![]() Depending on the circumstance, you may be asked to roll some dice to determine what happens next. As you enter a new room, you may be treated to bits of story, a clue to your next destination, or an enemy encounter. You can also meld new spells or skills into your gear to gain access to things that aren’t available naturally.ĭungeon navigation is done by an overhead map on the bottom touchscreen and simply tapping a room will move your party there. Mixing and matching different equipment as well as melding two identical pieces together, will let you build your characters as you see fit. Despite that, gear you pick up provides individual stats that can be boosted as well as skills that are only gained by wearing that equipment. The characters have no levels in Crimson Shroud, so the three you are given cannot be customized beyond their gear and as such, are pigeon-holed into specific roles. Despite how short the game is for an RPG (it can be cleared in 5-10 hours), the story is incredibly well paced and manages to reveal much about the game’s world in such a short time while not burdening the player with useless details. The amount of plot you take in is proportional to how much you decide to explore, as some information is only revealed by visiting (or re-visiting) particular rooms. As you explore the ruins, you are drip fed exposition that explores the backgrounds of each of the characters as well as reveals bits and pieces of the true purpose of your quest. Giauque and Frea are joined by Lippi on a quest to explore ancient ruins that are rumored to contain the Crimson Shroud, the mythical source of magic in the world. As the prologue concludes, you begin to experience Frea’s recounting of her path down misfortune, only told from the perspective of Giauque. Chasers are not something that follows an alcoholic beverage in the world of Crimson Shroud, as you might think, but rather operate similarly to mercenaries in that they get paid to perform a task, usually by some noble. The story opens with a man named Flint questioning an injured Qish woman, Frea, as to the whereabouts of a “Chaser”, Giauque. The game lasts four chapters, though within that span of time, a very solid narrative is woven in that effectively introduces various races and religions within the Crimson Shroud universe while simultaneously building tension within its own plot. At least the music is an aural delight, managing to be pleasant without delving into repetition the way that a lot of RPG tracks do. In that regard, it functions more like a visual novel or a Dungeon Master reading to you, but with the occasional turn-based battle breaking up the brisk story. In other words, while I personally enjoy the artistic direction and the character designs, understand that a lot of people may find the lack of fluid movement as a bit of a shock compared to what they are used to.įurther, unlike the previously released Liberation Maiden, Crimson Shroud does not contain any voicework and instead relies on a heaping helping of text in which to move the story along. The models themselves fit right in with their PS1 brethren, but the characters don’t move much save for the occasional bouncing and tipping as if invisible hands were guiding them into some pretend play fight. Even the aesthetic plays into this fact, as each character is represented as a still figurine, complete with a base attached to the bottom of their feet. Unlike traditional JRPG’s, Crimson Shroud functions much more like a tabletop RPG in the vein of D&D, which might be a bit off-putting for those purchasing it on the reputations of Matsuno and Level 5 alone. ![]() Even the character designs look as though they’d fit right into the universes of other titles he has worked on. Between that pedigree and the fact that it’s a turn based RPG was enough to hook my interest. The game is headed up by Yasumi Matsuno, best known for his work on Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, and the Ogre Battle franchise. Crimson Shroud is the third of these, behind Liberation Maiden and Aero Porter (as Rental Bukiya de Omasse is not announced for release at this time) and is probably the one I looked forward to the most. ![]() For the North American release, rather than bundle them together in the same package as originally intended, three of the four games are being unleashed separately as individual downloads on the Nintendo eShop. Crimson Shroud was originally released alongside three other games as apart of a compilation cartridge known as Guild01.
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