Alcarys Complex announced
The continent of Elcaea’s most notable feature – more notable than its beautiful mountains, rivers, and gulfs – is the corruption that stains every cobblestone, runs down every wall, and leaks from every faucet. This is thanks in no small part to national leaders who sweat bile at the thought of doing something venerable.
The citizens of Elcaea detest this corruption, and they’d sooner approach a cloaked, hooded figure wearing a necklace of bones than someone in a business suit. Six of these citizens try to make a difference in a world where the word citizen is a pejorative.
Unfortunately for them, there’s no turning point. There’s no magic spell that’ll make it all better. There isn’t even a villain to murder in the name of justice. These individuals came too late to save a world brought to a slow boil by the blunders of the privileged.
But they’re resourceful. They’ll make up for lost time.
Alcarys Complex features a Secret of Mana-like combat system, as well as a few unique features that help it stand out. Notably, killing enemies does not give characters experience points in this game; rather, characters advance by “speaking to NPCs and progressing in the story.”
Also interesting is this game’s twist on the old dialog tree conversation system. Rather than selecting particular responses in a conversation, you select which character in your party will speak. You won’t know ahead of time who will say what, meaning that you’re forced to make judgments in light of your party members’ respective personalities.
Alcarys Complex already has a beta demo available for you to try (Windows only). While that’s downloading, why not get a load of this tastefully scored trailer?
Alcarys Complex will be seeing a Windows release in July, with a Mac release to follow later this year. The game is set to retail for $20.
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I really like the idea of this game, although “experience through plot” has never really worked for me. Something about defeating -some- kind of serial challenge to slowly advance levels and skills… I guess I kind of just made a point against the beginning of this statement.
But I like the fatalistic tinge to the story, and am glad that I’m not the only one who wants to create an old-school console RPG, but with more modern literary sensibilities. (unless you count FF6, which was ahead of its time!)
I guess I have to praise the creator of this site, too, since he made an RPG much like what I’m describing as well. One day, I will also have created an RPG like it! :p
But it’s hard to make a game like this with a sense of gravitasse, because a lot of that came from superb music, custom animations for cutscenes, etc… the kind of stuff that not every indie developer can implement properly.
Anyway, a much longer (and more stoned) rant that I’d intended, but props to these guys and to Sinister!
[…] Jonathan Dixon writes in to let me know that Modest Arcade has released Alcarys Complex, the The Secret of Mana-style action jRPG that we last covered back in June. […]