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Rise of the Demon is the first chapter of a 'storyline' game series that spans 3 chapters titled: Valcarta. The Valcarta series will be built on a premise of heavy storytelling in a multi-path fashion. The Valcarta Series has its story told by two separate vantage points; one from Valak walking the Path of Darkness and one from Valak walking the Path of Light. Both vantage points take place along the exact same place in time and space, but naturally Valak encounters different allies, learns new abilities, encounters different enemies and overall has an entirely different experience. Valcarta: Rise of the Demon is essentially two RPGs with storyline, combat & character development wrapped into one package.

The Hero

Valak, a young man without family to speak of and a blurry past. He has spent most of his 'youth' in the central province of Drachell, working as the 'protector' of a small town. At the beginning of the game, Valak must make a choice that will change not just his fate but also the fate of Drachell and Valcarta. Drachell is in a rising state of turmoil that our hero, Valak, is unaware of due to where he lives within the province. When the time comes, he is thrust into a situation that forces him to choose a side, which sets him on a path for the rest of the game.

The World

The time for the Cleansing Ritual has come! The Elemental Lords Crystals shall be gathered and brought forth to the Ritual Caverns so that the Fay Shield that surrounds Drachell may be renewed! Perhaps it is time for change though as both the Sleemon Empire and the Brotherhood of Twilight, who are locked in a state of unrest, are stirring to contest each others movements towards these Crystals.

The Sleemon Empire has a strong foothold within the province of Drachell and is working vigorously to develop its military strength so that it may win the war that is waging on the fields of Illymader and Fayvale, two provinces to the West of Drachell. They care little for the non-human natives of Drachell, although not many people are aware of that and live peacefully within their small farming villages or within the Castle Town of Sleemonburg itself. Perhaps the Empire isn't as noble as it claims to be to all its citizens? Perhaps the Empire wants these Crystals for some other reason?

The Brotherhood of Twilight is the force that wishes to stop the Empire from continuing its mistreatment of the provinces inhabitants, or at least that's what they say. Small camps are popping up all over Drachell under the Brotherhoods flag. Their leader, Astrid, has never shown her true self, but claims she is a Guardian Spirit to the Elemental Lord of Darkness, Synkale. Perhaps this Astrid has more to her than she is letting on? Perhaps the Brotherhoods goals are a little... deeper than she claims?

Features


  • Split Path Storytelling: Experience the story and events of Rise of the Demon as they unfold from two different perspectives. Each path is between 15-20hrs of gameplay and each path involves new characters, new skills and abilities and two different styles of play. Basically, 2 RPGs wrapped into one!
  • Old School RPG Action: Front-view ATB battle system with an extra touch of Action for a unique twist, an immersive world and story, unique characters with their own personal history, quests and more.
  • Map Mechanics & Puzzles: Experience old-school RPG puzzles and mechanics that involve you within each and every map you move through. From pushing rocks to collapsing floors, from sliding on ice to maneuvering through haunted snowmen, Valcarta: Rise of the Demon brings a bit of action into the non-combat portions of the game.
  • ATB with a twist: The new version of the game implores a brand new battle system. Traditional Action Time Battle with a twist of additional action, keeping players on their toes as they will want to ensure that enemies are unable to land a successful blows against them.
  • Challenging: THREE (3) different combat difficulties: Easy, Normal, Hard along with 2 different ATB settings: Full, Wait. The mid-line basis for balancing is Normal - Full, but I personally extend a challenge to anyone who can beat both paths on Hard!
  • Life Filled World: Experience and explore Drachell, a small isolated province on Valcarta. Talk with NPCs, learn about your fellow companions, the races within Drachell and more.
  • Finely Crafted Time Line: Experience a true split path adventure. The choice you make alters the entire world around you. The events of Drachell will unfold, regardless of which path is being played however, but the events in which you take part in will defer on each path, providing an entirely unique story along the way. Join up with either the Sleemon Empire or the Brotherhood of Twilight to get the full story!
  • Character Side Story: Learning what you do from your allies through the game, seek out a end-game side-quest for each ally, that goes deeper into the their backstory. Adventurous players may even attempt to take the quest 1 step further and seek out the OPTIONAL MEGA BOSS, which expands their store a bit more and provides them with very powerful equipment.
  • Steam Achievements: Unlock all 22 Steam Achievement by playing through both paths of the game!
  • Steam Trading Cards: Valcarta: Rise of the Demon has 5 Steam Trading Cards, 5 emoticons and 5 Profiles Backgrounds! Learn more about this system here: Steamcommunity.com


Web Links:
Facebook: Facebook.com
Youtube: Youtube.com
Twitter: Twitter.com
Steam: Store.steampowered.com

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I'm very excited to final announce that Valcarta: Rise of the Demon will be released on Steam July 8th.

Its been a long time since its been greenlit, because I wasn't comfortable releasing the game I had made vs. the game I could make. I took the time, revamped it entirely. Those who played the original will see some resemblance of the old game within, but not too much.

Gameplay Changes to Valcarta:
Rise of the Demon are massive and went through several revisions. Original, it was basic turn-based combat where the characters have several skills to work from, but you could get away with just smashing your most powerful skills without much thinking. There were a boat load of random encounters and an overall grindy feel to the game. Not good. I'll outline some of the big changes in this post.

Combat System:
I have designed a Action Turn-Based System that was, originally, meant to emulate something akin to Legend of Zelda, where you want to BLOCK incoming attacks, because it would remove a good portion of your HP. As development progressed, I found that becoming a little too stale and repetitive as you moved through the game, so only the first 1/4 or so requires precision blocking, because at least one of your party members will learn how to mitigate damage for the team.

Careful planning of resources, resource regeneration, damage output, status effects and defenses will all take a part in how successful you are. Some encounter expect a loose x,y,z out of the players in order to meet the criteria for success or failure. Other encounters require more healing, or more damage or something different every time. Each scripted encounter (Boss Fight more so) is unique, not only to each path, but in terms of mechanics.The combat, overall, is a lot more fast-paced, which brings in its own set of difficulty for each individual user.

General Combat Presence:
Valcarta: Rise of the Demon, as originally states had a more grindy feel, where you would find yourself, on occasion, taking a couple of steps and running into a new random encounter. That wasn't fun for anyone and became increasingly annoying if you intended on playing for longer periods of time.
There has been a massive shift away from general combat and more of a shift to scripted encounters. While there are still random encounters in dungeon areas, they are vastly less of them by comparison.

Story Development:
One of the biggest bits of feedback I had from the original version of Valcarta: Rise of Demon was the writing. Users felt that I had left too much to the imagination and would have preferred if more things were more fleshed out or clearly defined overall. So, for the most part, I've done just that.
The Story, while remaining the same, has been vastly re-written. Goals and objectives are more clear from a story progression stand point, while keeping small points of mystery intact.

There are now 'cut-scenes', there you break from the action and watch as characters are present on-screen while they are talking. These occur at almost every story hub and point that multiple people have more than just 1-3 lines. I feel that this adds a lot to the game and gives the characters more personality overall.

Character Development:
Through the re-writing of the games storyline came alterations to the characters themselves. While their overlaying story is roughly the same, people who have played the Path of Light will notice a major difference in Carter. All characters (there is even a new character on the Path of Darkness) have had their stories improved, clarified and overall just more clear.

Character stories, while not always prevalent during the main story, can be fleshed out by users by seeking out their end-game side-quests. These go into a bit more details about your traveling companions and provide a nice new set of equipment for them. If you are feeling really adventurous and up to a challenge, you can attempt to further this line of development by finding their secret MEGA BOSS encounters. These are the most deadly monsters in the game, designed to challenge each group of characters to the extreme.
Remember, Normal - Full is the baseline for the games balance. Hard - Full may, in fact, be unbeatable (I haven't tried it yet). I deemed it more important to provide a more general level of difficulty to a wider user base with the option to challenge yourself rather than fine tune each individual game mode. If you are curious what changes, you can ask in the General Discussion section of the community hub :)

Map Remakes:
Valcarta: Rise of the Demon had almost all of its map entirely remade and several new areas made. There are currently almost 300 maps within the game, including towns, dungeons, houses, tents, etc. Within some of these dungeon maps you will find mechanics. Perhaps its breathing underwater, or running from a swarm of spiders, or burning/choping plants before they eat you. In others, you will find puzzles, which are set up to impede your progress or test you in some way (those pesky Shaman Clans don't like people who can't do puzzles apparently ;)). Moving rocks to make a path, sliding across ice, creating bridges with ice shards, dodge rolling snowballs, and much more!
I hope the addition of these elements engage and interest users while providing a bit of action outside of combat.

I hope there are some out there who have remained curious about the game after its greenlit status had been hit. I know there were plenty of original versions acquired from sales on sites like Shiny Loot, etc. I hope that we can transition that interest generated from the older version to the newer, improved version of the game.

Valcarta I: Rise of the Demon Released on Desura

Valcarta I: Rise of the Demon Released on Desura

News

Rise of the Demon is the first chapter of a 'storyline' game series that spans 5 chapters titled: Valcarta.

Feb Update!

Feb Update!

News

Valcarta was released on 1-15-13, you can pick it up on www.blackswordgames.com

Post comment Comments  (0 - 10 of 12)
BlackswordGamesTalon Creator
BlackswordGamesTalon

Price dropped! Enjoy!

Reply Good karma0 votes
BlackswordGamesTalon Creator
BlackswordGamesTalon

launching a 24hr sale starting midnight! Look forward to it!

Reply Good karma+1 vote
BlackswordGamesTalon Creator
BlackswordGamesTalon

extended to 48 hours!

Reply Good karma+1 vote
Sylnashura
Sylnashura

I don't know that it's overpriced. It's an RPG Maker game, sure, but I don't think that much matters. I figure it's priced pretty well to be honest. I would try it, but I don't have the $15 to shell out for it (sad, I know). I don't really have much in the way of suggestions, 'cause if you could put it out for a lower price comfortably, I'd like to think you would. My only real thought is that you could come up with a demo of some sort, perhaps. Or maybe put it out for free for a couple days, or even just one day. That way, you could get some real reviews in, as long as it's good. I'm sure that would help convince people to spend that little bit of extra money that makes them uncomfortable with trying it.

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monkeynohito
monkeynohito

Eh, it really is about the right price when compared to other examples of these indie RPGs, cheaper even. Compared to a more traditional CRPG like Avernum, these JRPG-style titles are a niche of the indie gaming niche itself and the price reflects that the same way handmade Too Much Coffee Man minicomics used to cost as much or more than a copy of Batman. I personnally think a lower cost could draw more people, ut that's a gamble the author may not be able to afford and it's his call either way.

Real geeks will shell out a bit extra for what they love, provide a little extra support while mewling babies throw tantrums in the aisle of the store when they don't get their way.

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Orpheusftw
Orpheusftw

Looks pretty decent. I hate to see a game (overpriced or not) get buried by low reviews from people that do not own it. Desura should only allow those who have purchased a game to rate it.

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_Lōw_
_Lōw_

This game is not worth the price. $15 too much.

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trunks10k
trunks10k

animation seems pretty good for an RPG maker game but like everyone is saying 15$ for 20 hrs is ridiculous. If you nastaglia you can get a ps1 emulator or buy PS1 HD remakes on PS3 for 15$ which will give u easy 50+hrs like any of the FF series and then u got the other JRPGs.. BSGtalon if this is ur first game u need to listen to the community dude

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BlackswordGamesTalon Creator
BlackswordGamesTalon

@trunks10k
40hours of gameplay...

Reply Good karma+2 votes
lugum
lugum

yeah it is a bit expensive, too many games of this type come out therefor it has to be something really special to justify a price like that.

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