Crimson Shroud (Nintendo 3DS) Review

An RPG wouldn't be one without a story. From the outset, Crimson Shroud appears to be heavy in text, giving a lot of details about characters, environments and events, using an unusually rich vocabulary and stylish writing style that feels quite out of place in a Japanese developed game. The unaware player might even think that the introduction of this game goes on forever. However, the whole experience quickly turns out to base its narrative more on textual descriptions rather than detailed cut-scenes with the characters moving on the screen, as would normally be expected from a console role playing experience. Actually, there are very little animations or camera movements at all, which does feel unsettling at first and might sound like a complete joke to some. Sticking with it, though, reveals that the narrative turns out all the more involving as a result, since the 3D environments and inanimate characters present on-screen force the player to complete the experience with imagination, as a heroic-fantasy book would do.

The excellent and unusually detailed writing then makes all the sense in the world when following the story of a trio of Chasers named Giauque, Lippi and Frea as they venture into a place called the Ruins of Rahab, in search of a magical artefact called the Crimson Shroud, which is said to be the source of magic in the World. The story is initially presented from the perspective of a gravely injured Frea being interrogated by an enemy leader after being captured. This means in advance it is known that the exploration can't have gone all too well, or so it can be imagined. However, there is no idea how it went wrong, and as the game progresses and the atmosphere grows more and more tense it leaves the player wondering what will happen next, or when fate will roll its dice, bringing an excellent dose of suspense to the plot that is quite unusual for an RPG.

There's a justification behind the uncanny design: the game is presented like an interactive, digital table-top Role Playing Game. For characters and enemies, the game uses what looks like miniature figures from the aforementioned real-life experiences such as Dungeons & Dragons. Characters move between rooms in the Ruins of Rahab by selecting them on a map displayed on the bottom touch screen. Occasionally, they are given decisions to make, whether it is to avoid battle with enemies that haven't noticed your presence yet, open a chest or not, or pull a lever. For some of these choices, dice need to be rolled to decide whether there will be success or not in the attempt, altering the subsequent plot ever so slightly. This heavy text-based experience, with little presentation and choices to make reminds heavily of Radical Dreamers for the Super Famicom Broadcast Satellaview download service, which people might know as the first sequel released to Chrono Trigger, which also relied on a sometimes downright oppressive atmosphere and a mostly text-based system, although here there's actually more to see with the characters' stats being visible, and there are obviously more RPG elements.

Indeed, there is the chance to interact in turn-based battles against local opponents. The main characters are then still represented as miniature figures, and so are the enemies, as their rigid models move just a little, attached to their pedestals like tiny soldiers being flung around by an invisible hand. The battle system feels fresh enough, putting a lot of emphasis on status and statistical alterations and giving plenty of ways to alter personal ones, as well as the enemy's. A lot of actions require the use of dice to determine either the amount HP or MP restored, or the success of certain actions. In addition to this, dice can be won by performing combos in chaining actions involving different elements (like fire, water, light, shadow, lightning, and so on). These dice can then be wagered by adding them to the total expected damage count for an attack, or even its accuracy.

Then there is the chance to throw these obtained dice to determine the damage or accuracy bonus that will be added to the action set to be performed. Dice may also be obtained from regular throws if they are tossed too hard, making one exit the lower touch screen and hitting an enemy on the head with it on the upper 3D screen.

Most important still is the total absence of an experience and level system in this RPG! Instead, characters grow stronger from getting better equipment. This in turn is done by opening the chests in the game, or gathering as much loot as possible from slain enemies. After each battle, players are rewarded with barter points, the amount of which is based on their performance in battle. Each piece of enemy loot costs a set amount of barter points, meaning that to pick up all the loot after the battle, one has to finish it as fast as possible, while avoiding getting hit too much. Remaining barter points aren't carried over between battles. However, aforementioned bonus dice are carried over and can be exchanged for bonus barter points.

Crimson Shroud also lets the party meld equipment. They can meld two pieces of the same gear together to get a better one, as well as imbue one piece of kit with a magic spell, so that it can be used in battle. Indeed, in this game, magic isn't tied to a character, but to the equipment, meaning that exchanging an older piece of armour for a better new one will in turn mean changing the magic that this character can use in battle.

In addition to magic, characters can also use other special techniques in battle, called "skills," which also consume MP. Some of these skills are also tied to the equipment, most often weapons, while most of them are effectively learned by the characters themselves as they keep fighting enemies.

Progressing through the game involves some light puzzle solving as well, where the party has to look for certain items or keys in order to open new areas or treasure containing chests. Most of this shows the characters thinking things over between themselves, sometimes bringing up old memories of their past adventures that players may choose to reminisce on or not. The solution to these puzzles is usually somewhere nearby, so it doesn't provide any huge challenge. However, there was one occurrence in the game when the solution to advance the story was particularly cryptic, since it involved repeatedly fighting a certain group of enemies in a certain way, in order for the group to spawn a certain type of enemy, which in turn may or may not randomly drop the needed item. This can be hard to overcome without previous knowledge or using the help of other people on message boards online. Once the solution is known, you realise what one of the characters said previously might have been a hint, which we can only imagine, is how the solution was meant to be found, but this particular riddle is strangely harder than all the rest of the game.

Visually, Crimson Shroud isn't a very pretty game. The graphics are very basic, with low resolution textures and no camera movements at all. Obviously it's not where the interest of the game lies, making this shortcoming a bit more acceptable, but the 3DS being capable of far prettier games than this, complaints can at least be made that the character models aren't done better. Thankfully, the aural experience is a totally different affair. It's quite the opposite of graphics, with the fully orchestrated soundtrack by Hitoshi Sakimoto (think the Ivalice Alliance Final Fantasy games and Vagrant Story) being one of the most epic and dark at the same time in recent memory. That it should be found in such a small project is all the more impressive. The music, coupled with the brilliant writing, are what make the experience of Crimson Shroud truly gripping.