Aria Magna [Demo Ver. 1.0]

[mahoshojo03]

Greetings, everyone! To start off, I would like to announce that this game is the very first time my partner, HClem, and I have ever created AND released a game for RPG Maker! With this project marking our very first game release, both of us are quite nervous, so please bear with us... ^__^;

Both HClem and I are big fans of what we call "anime horror games." These kinds of games include Corpse Party, Ib, Yume Nikki, Misao, Witch's House, Mad Father, and Paranoiac. However, our biggest influences for this project are undoubtedly Corpse Party and Ib. And so, having been inspired by all of the wonderful elements and characters we saw on all of those games, HClem and I decided to pay a tribute to all of those games that we love so much and made our own "anime horror game. And so, without further delays, we proudly present to you... Aria Magna, a tactical horror adventure made "by fans, for fans!"

- TITLE -

反抗剣アリアマグナ

Aria Magna (Demo Version 1.0)

- LOGO -



- DEMO DOWNLOAD LINK -

http://rapidshare.com/files/595112435/Aria%20Magna%20Demo%20V.%201.0.exe

WARNING! The demo file DOES NOT contain the RTP. RPG Maker VX Ace RTP is required to run this game!

- DISCLAIMER -

Rating: MATURE (Ages 17+)

WARNING!

This game contains scenes of intense violence, blood and gore, sexuality, intense language, terrifying images, and other subject matter that might be seen as disturbing.

Viewer discretion is advised.

All places, people, organizations, and events portrayed in this game are FICTIONAL. Any resemblance to actual locales, events, organizations, and individuals, living or deceased, is purely coincidental.

- STORY -

Is this world forever doomed to be ruled by the strong? Are the weak forever doomed to live a life of fear and humiliation? Or perhaps, could it be the pain of being oppressed and the shame of humiliation that triggers the weak to fight back?

Enter Yumi Shinohara, a 13-year-old girl in 7th grade living in the city of Minamigawa, Japan. Timid, soft-spoken, cowardly, and somewhat of a crybaby, Yumi is often bullied at her middle school. With no friends and family members to turn to for support, Yumi inevitably developed depression and anxiety.

However, Yumi wasn't always alone. Up until recently, she used to have a best friend named Setsuko Nagatsuka, a 13-year-old girl who is in the same class as her. Setsuko was like a loving big sister to Yumi; she was sympathetic, strong, and athletic, and she would always defend Yumi from her bullies and treat her out whenever she was feeling down. Unfortunately, due to tragic circumstances, Setsuko unexpectedly passed away recently.

Unable to cope with the loss of her only friend and no longer able to withstand her harsh and miserable school life, Yumi's depression worsened to the point where the only thing she could think of was suicide. One day, while walking back home from school, Yumi mindlessly wandered into Minamigawa Public Library while she was pondering about how she could end her life. Little did she know that she was about to get caught in a terrifying paranormal phenomenon that would open her eyes to what it means to stay alive...

- CHARACTERS -

(Character designs were drawn by HClem. All credits to him!)



信原　由美

(Yumi Shinohara)

Sex: F

Age: 13

Height: 152 cm

Weight: 45 kg

Yumi is the protagonist of Aria Magna. She is a timid and somewhat childish crybaby who has little confidence in herself. Her strongest subject is art and her weakest subjects are English and P.E. Her hobby is collecting and playing with Licca-chan dress-up dolls.



長塚 せつこ

(Setsuko Nagatsuka)

Sex: F

Age: 13

Height: 156 cm

Weight: 48 kg

Yumi's recently-deceased best friend. Setsuko was known to be headstrong, outgoing, friendly, and athletic. Her strongest subjects were P.E. and math, and her weakest subjects were art and home economics. Setsuko was also an active member of the school's track team.

- SCREENSHOTS -

Searching for clues:



Autopsy:



Getting spotted AND chased by a malicious ghost:



Cutscene sample:



Another cutscene sample:



Battle against a ghost:



Human vs. Ghost combat footage:



Confrontation between human and ghost, in action:



- FEATURES -

As I've discussed earlier, this game was heavily inspired by Corpse Pary, Ib, and other horror adventure games. However, what HClem and I thought was lacking in those games was a full-fledged combat system. And so, you can expect Aria Magna to be a Corpse Party-like game with a turn-based combat system. However, stealth, puzzle-solving, exploration, and resource management are also VERY important parts of the game.

For example, you can avoid engaging ghosts in combat in this game by sneaking past them or by staying away from their field of vision. At the same time,  resources are extremely limited and EVERY SINGLE WEAPON in this game has a durability counter like in Fire Emblem, which means that if you waste too much of your resources by engaging in too many unnecessary battles, you WILL run out of weapons and you WILL get stuck. Be warned!

Observe the enemies' behaviors, move quickly and quietly, and only fight if you have to if you ever want to survive in the world of Aria Magna...

- CREDITS - (for now)

HClem and I would like to thank the following individuals and groups for providing us with various resources:

Enterbrain

SoundBible

Celiana

Lunarea

Thalzon

Archeia_Nessiah

qut

Senses Circuit

Presence of Music

甘茶の音楽工房

Yanfly

VLUE

Mithran

Fomar 0153

DoctorTodd

And we would also love to show our gratitude to Mako Takanashi (singer), Sasame (lyricist), and hitoshi (composer) from Senses Circuit for providing us with a wonderful theme song, 「木漏れ陽」。

Also, special thanks to Makoto Kedouin, Team GrisGris, Kikiyama, kouri, Sen, Fummy, and VGPerson for providing us with the wonderful games that served as our inspiration. Thank you very much!

- AUTHOR'S NOTE -

Next week, I will be moving to a different prefecture in Japan for work, meaning that I might not have reliable internet access for the next month or so. So please, do not worry if you guys do not hear from me. Even without internet access, HClem and I will still continue working on the full version of Aria Magna. We promise you that. Judging by our schedules, I'd estimate that the full version of Aria Magna should be completed around December 2013 to January 2014. It might get completed earlier or later, but we do not know that for now. Regardless, I will try my best to post updates into this thread whenever I find internet access. Thank you all very much for understanding my situation!

 

[Napdevil]

Just beat the demo. Pretty solid, kept me interested until the end.

I liked the survival horror elements, although it didn't really feel like horror. The notes left behind by other survivors were neat (the tentacle joke made me grin since it was the only source of comic relief in the game), and I liked how vivid and gruesome the descriptions of the dead bodies were. I'm a fan of modern paranormal stuff, so the setting was a definite plus.

Combat being optional is awesome, but I'm not sure if you intended it to be this simple; I think I fought, at most, three monsters the whole game since avoiding them was trivially easy. As it stands, combat feels sort of pointless since the monsters don't drop any loot (as far as I could see). I assume that's meant to make resources more scarce, but since I could skip the fighting entirely, I ended up stockpiling most of it anyway.

Some of the backtracking felt tedious, like the part where you put out the bonfires; I wandered around for a good while until I realized that the last bonfire was in a room several areas back. It's a minor nitpick, but worth mentioning.

This is strictly a personal thing, but I couldn't stand the protagonist. I know she's just a kid and probably has a reason why she acts the way she does (you kind of alluded to that), but she practically spends half the game sobbing her eyes out. I wanted someone to slap her across the face in-game, then grab her by the collar and yell "Pull yourself together, girl!" Maybe that was intended though.

Keep up the good work!

 

[hiromu656]

I was wondering how the combat system would play out. It sounds like a cool thing to put into a horror game (I've actually contemplated making a similar game). I haven't played the demo but I think it would great to work out the benefits to actually engaging in combat, otherwise it may come off as being tacked on.

 

[mahoshojo03]

Just beat the demo. Pretty solid, kept me interested until the end.

I liked the survival horror elements, although it didn't really feel like horror. The notes left behind by other survivors were neat (the tentacle joke made me grin since it was the only source of comic relief in the game), and I liked how vivid and gruesome the descriptions of the dead bodies were. I'm a fan of modern paranormal stuff, so the setting was a definite plus.

Combat being optional is awesome, but I'm not sure if you intended it to be this simple; I think I fought, at most, three monsters the whole game since avoiding them was trivially easy. As it stands, combat feels sort of pointless since the monsters don't drop any loot (as far as I could see). I assume that's meant to make resources more scarce, but since I could skip the fighting entirely, I ended up stockpiling most of it anyway.

Some of the backtracking felt tedious, like the part where you put out the bonfires; I wandered around for a good while until I realized that the last bonfire was in a room several areas back. It's a minor nitpick, but worth mentioning.

This is strictly a personal thing, but I couldn't stand the protagonist. I know she's just a kid and probably has a reason why she acts the way she does (you kind of alluded to that), but she practically spends half the game sobbing her eyes out. I wanted someone to slap her across the face in-game, then grab her by the collar and yell "Pull yourself together, girl!" Maybe that was intended though.

Keep up the good work!

Thank you all for the early feedback! HClem and I are really glad that you liked the setting. At first, we were both worried that we didn't try hard enough creating the setting and that no one would be impressed by it, but I guess we were being too pessimistic... ^__^;

But yeah, we must apologize if the game doesn't feel too much like horror. While we were indeed inspired by RPG Maker horror games, the vision we had in mind was actually more of a "tactical horror action" hybrid, given our excessive use of stealth, line of sight, weapon types, range, and damage levels, and various other "tactical" elements.

As for combat, yes, we did intentionally design it so that players who don't want to fight don't have to, and those that don't feel like running away have an option to fight back. We wanted to make Aria Magna different from, let's say, Corpse Party or Ao Oni, where in those games, if you get caught by your pursuer, it's pretty much an instant game over. In our case, we wanted to give players the option to fight back should that situation happen, and hence we added a combat system. Also, the combat system was indeed designed to put a greater emphasis on the resource managament aspect of the game, like in old Resident Evil and Silent Hill games.

However, we didn't anticipate that the stealth-combat system would become too easy that resources only end up stockpiling. What do you guys think we could do to perhaps fix the difficulty? Would cutting down the amount of available resources or making the enemies a lot more aggressive work in your opinion?

We also apologize for the excessive backtracking. Originally, HClem and I were planning to implement unlockable shortcuts into the demo, but since I'm personally pressed for time due to my upcoming move to a different prefecture, we had no other choice but to save that feature for the full game. Rest assured, we are planning to add unlockable shortcuts into the final version of the game that would cut down on the backtracking.

And with regards to Yumi's character... well, Aria Magna is supposed to be a game adaptation of a short story that HClem wrote a while back, and in that story, Yumi was indeed supposed to start off as a pitiful/despicable emotional wreck, but the hellish nightmares that she goes through would be the catalyst that will slowly change her character. Then again, perhaps we might have accidentally made Yumi too whiny and too emo on the demo, so we'll be sure to keep that in mind when revising the dialogue in the final version... ^__^;

I was wondering how the combat system would play out. It sounds like a cool thing to put into a horror game (I've actually contemplated making a similar game). I haven't played the demo but I think it would great to work out the benefits to actually engaging in combat, otherwise it may come off as being tacked on.

Good point. As I've discussed above, the combat is there to make resources tighter, but perhaps some form of reward should still be added to avert the feeling of futility. Since we are planning to add shops in the full version of the game, perhaps we might edit the monsters so that they would drop some monetary rewards upon their defeat. But then again, since enemies don't respawn when killed, the money you can get in the game will also be limited, just like any other resources.

 

[Dalph]

Pretty good stuff, I love (horror?) games with a combat (survival?) system implemented, the main character reminds me about Madoka (from Madoka Magica) in some way. The mapping and the atmosphere are nice and the storyline is fascinating, I particularly loved also some small details here and there, for example the well implemented sound effects of the traffic in the intro, it added a touch of realism to that map.

Overall, it's a good and solid game, I like it.