One of the most popular indie RPGs in China has now been translated into English! An indie RPG which makes extreme use of RPG maker to create a cold and dark world in free-hand style.
The adventure of a tragic bladesman, a dark drama in a deserted town, and a complex plot controlled by an invisible power.
Rainblood: Town of Death, a mini-RPG with a dramatic experience.
Rainblood:Town of Death is a unique indie RPG with free-hand style. The original Chinese version was released 3 years ago in China and received about half million downloads(officially). The English version is translated and revised by several dedicated professional English writers who thought the game has something special; new features were also added to the English version.
Pang, a small but once-popular town just within the borders of Central Land was seized by plague by the time a mysterious black-dressed man arrived.
As soon as he had come, he could feel the incessant footsteps of his enemies—those sent by the very man he wished to see, but dared not. Twisted murderers appeared in Pang, and old friends now sent as his assassins. Then came the little girl whose violent death took place before his eyes, and whose laughter haunts him still…
He has no choice but fight back. Even so, it seems that another clue remains hidden beneath these strange proceedings; what awaits him is a plot even more complex than he could have imagined.
May be too "story-telling" for an RPG, the game tells a short but complex plot and a dramatic love story with darkness, in a background of traditional Chinese Martial world but with many weird stuff such as a strange samurai without head and machine-like killers. The total time in story is just one day and space is in a deserted town, but with montages and disordered story lines, it wants to be nearer to an art piece.
The game has been a great challange to a non-native English speaker in translation, thank to my three native English speaking friends, Satus, WolfCrimson and Farfus, who have helped to modified about 75% of the dialogues, in order to keep as much as possible literature quality.
Background knowledge:
Central Land is where the game takes place. It is a fantasy world in ancient China style. Actually, “Central Land” is from “Central Empire”, which stands for China in the past. The Chinese for China is “中国”, if you translate it literally, it means “Empire in the center”. However the “Central Land” in the game refers to no real age or location of the history of China.
Martial World means the community of the people with martial art. It is like in Harry Potter people are divided as “Wizard” and “Muggle”. There are several background setting in the traditional or modern martial novels for this “Martial World”, such as “Shaolin” and “Wudang” clans, the game keeps some of these settings but the major part is something original.
PORTAITS OF CHARACTERS
BATTLES
A battle style in the influence of Gulong(one of the two most popular martial novelers in China)’s martial arts novels, which describe the core spirite of Chinese martial art – always solo, kill in one slash, and dodge rather than defence. The game also includes many other elements, such as dark gothic style, Japanese samurai, and even B-movie monsters.
Fighting is unique in this game, you can only control one character but the strategies required are even more than usual, for you have to select the right skill in right order, and sometimes have to calculate the rounds a status lasts. But anyhow the balance has been adjusted for years, now it is easy enough for main story but challanging in side quests.
PRODUCTION
Though using a 2d engine, the game made an extrem use of RPGmaker, and with a lot of original script making additional effects which help to use only paronomas as maps.
The game is made WITHOUT any of the default materials. In the game all the characters, paronomas, battlers and icons are created with HAND DRAWING, to control the style to what it should be, the expression is a cold, dark and free hand drawing style.
There were many discussions about “2D or 3D”? Normally, if a game wants to be real, it should be 3D, but if it want to be stylish, 2D with offer a more flexible expression. A simple engine such as RPGmaker is not weaker, but somehow offers more possibilities in terms of “How can you create your game”, because you don’t have to be annoyed by the technical details.
What Rainblood wants to achieve is a Playstation era quality of 2d graphic, while many people will think the “default” quality of Rpgmaker is merely SFC, and we’ll only expect a stereotyped style from it – that’s NOT TRUE.
SEQUEL
The sequel of Rainblood-Town of Death is Rainblood2-City of Flame, where the protagonist will continue his adventure. The game is underproduction and with more effects to make it an RPG with really amazing effect. The story is right after Town of Death, leading to a real truth of all the plots and tricks.