[Rm2k3] Pariah's Creed (DEMO)

A game I've been working on for some time: RTP, yes, but I'm focusing on polishing the gameplay and story. So sue me.


STORY

Pariah's Creed is, long story short, a story about mistakes. Not seeing the answers because you were afraid, angry, or you didn't care. It's about personal accountability and how people need to be held responsible for what they do. It's about a series of losses made all the more tragic because they could have been prevented.

Longer version...

Lohste Geldon, age 17, wasn't born with supernatural powers. He's not particularly strong, fast, or even attractive.

The extraordinary thing about him is he's a Pariah- a scapegoat, ritualistically damned to bear the burden of the accumulated sins of Pahne, his home village, so that when he dies he will drag the sins to the hells with him, sparing the other villagers. Pariahs are chosen at a young age, and mistreated, beaten and hated so as to show that the village rejects their sin. Such is life for worshipers of Vindis, the God of Punishment and Judgement.

Things weren't always this way, of course... there were multiple gods and goddesses worshiped- of the harvest, of healing, of love, even of money... but one day their divine influence faded from Pahne, and in their absence came disaster after disaster. Healing magics failed. Babies were stillborn. The crops withered. Monsters of fiendish quality prowled outside the village. Dreams were plagued with visions of unspeakable torment, driving stronger minds to the edge and weaker minds to mewling insanity.

Then, when all seemed lost, a priest arrived, bearing a holy symbol none had heard of or seen before. The fiends cowed in his wake. He spoke prayers that healed. His words brought sanity to the mad.

His words were harsh and grim- the gods of old had indeed abandoned Pahne! Bored with the mortals there, they had simply up and left, caring not iota for the damage their absence caused. Worse yet, the continued absence of a divine presence meant worse things- stronger fiends and worse plagues- would surely follow. But there was an alternative to accepting doom.

Vindis, the priest named Oremas spoke, would take over as their deity, driving off fiends, restoring crops, breathing life into new babes, and purging nightmares. Better still, a way would be provided to absolve one's self of sin, and thus avoid damnation in the afterlife!

All they had to do was offer up a single child to serve as a sort of trashcan for all the sin... a Pariah.

The villagers were quite happy with the deal and the resulting end to misery.

Lohste, Pahne's first Pariah, was understandably less pleased.

It has been 13 years of misery for Lohste. Now the elder calls him into his personal chamber, and offers the unthinkable- freedom from Pariahhood! The task is by no means simple or safe- Lohste must retrieve a book- simply deemed "The Grimoire"- that contains the workings of magic laid bare. If he can accomplish this task- a feat nigh-synonymous with suicide- he will also find the Spring of Redemption, a water source that when drunk from slays the imbiber stone dead... but only for a few moments. In this way, Lohste can send the sins heaped on him to the hells without going there himself.

The alternative, of course, would be Lohste enduring more and more beatings, eventually dying and going to the hells anyway.

Setting out on his quest, Lohste is all but certain the promise of redemption is false- success or failure regardless, he anticipates betrayal from Oremas.

But certain powers have taken a keen interest in Lohste's plight...


SCREENSHOTS


Lohste's skill menu, complete with six flavors of elemental death dealing. Inquiry of trainers and tomes will grant him additional skills to train in- destroy enemy resistances, spreading his elemental damage spells, even boosting the power of his attack magics to phenomenal levels.


Recall Kefka's quote? "Run! Run! Or you'll be well done!" Here, it's no exaggeration. Get out of the heat or fry.


FEATURES:
*Alchemy system: Find ingredients and recipes to brew potions that are not only cheaper than buying store-brand, but with practice, become far more effective than the stock quality you'd find on any shelf.
*Weapon and Armor upgrading: The sad fact is that nearly all the legendary weapons of the world don't lie in forgotten temples or chests, they lie on display in museums or in royal treasuries. Find the materials and the blacksmiths to forge your own weapon of destruction.
*Lufia 2 style dungeon enemies: You can see them. They can see you. Get too close and there's going to be a fight.
*Action-based Tech system: Your command inputs in battle build momentum, which with enough skill with a weapon allows you to unleash physical and magical assaults and wonders that range from being merely efficient to utterly devastating. No two people have the same techs- a mage and a thief who both wield knives will unleash the latent magic of the world in very different ways!


On the demo: As it is, I have removed as many bugs as I could find, and polished what I have to as best I can without exterior views.
The demo features three dungeons, two towns (other than the beginning town), and several optional bosses to provide a good taste of what the full game will provide.

IMPORTANT: You'll need one of the two versions- rtp or non-rtp- AND the patch below. Install the game, then use the patch on the directory you put it in to make it workable.

Without RTP: https://rapidshare.com/files/2825975645/PariahsCreedGame.7z

With RTP: https://rapidshare.com/files/24821072/PariahsCreedGameRTP.7z

Patch: https://rapidshare.com/files/1076446/pariah_s_creed_updater.exe

Feedback will be appreciated. Lamblasting me about rtp will be barely tolerated. Genuine direction to chipsets relevant to the game will gain my sincere gratitude.

EDIT: Someone told me 4shared wanted registry to dl files. I have therefore switched to rapidshare.