Theia: The Crimson Eclipse is a freely distributed, non-commercial JRPG developed by a JRPG fan for JRPG fans. Experience an epic tech-fantasy story about about the world of Ariathale, including 40+ hours of gameplay, 19 playable characters, sidequests and mini-games, multiple endings, and a classic ATB Battle System inspired by the Final Fantasy franchise.
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Hironobu Sakaguchi, one of the creative minds behind the Final Fantasy series, said in a [2016 interview with Creative Village](https://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/June_24,2016-_Creative_Village_Interview_with_Hironobu_Sakaguchi.html) that "[t]he goal I want to clear is important, but the most important thing in creating a game is to make the user happy.... The best thing is for people to enjoy playing the game."
The pièce de résistance of RPG Maker games modeled after Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger, Theia: The Crimson Eclipse is a high-quality remix of classic RPGs. While it reuses music and assets from several commercial games (Breath of Fire, Metal Slug,* Xenoblade, Final Fantasy itself, etc.), it also features charming hand-drawn art and a completely original story and cast of characters. The herculean effort it must have taken to produce the amount of content the game offers alone makes it notable, but I highly recommend Theia because I believe it is a success story; one about developing games that you want people to enjoy completely irrespective of things like profit motives.
Theia is an entirely free full-length RPG with comprehensive supporting lore; which alone is actually quite atypical of RPG Maker titles, as they are traditionally quite short to make up for lack of ideas or budget. This is in turn supplanted by hours of extra content; in addition to a robust set of side quests, there are multiple collect-a-thon mechanics artfully incorporated into the game. The game rewards progression through this content in a satisfying manner; and most importantly, exploration isn't punished as this game does not have a random encounter system.
Theia is set in a post-energy crisis world wherein the remaining world powers reverted to feudalism and banned technology for all but the upper echelons of government and nobility. The main character, Seth Sheridan, feels like a composite of several different 90's anime and JRPG protagonists, but he is supplanted by a strong cast of supporting characters. I grew to love the camraderie Seth develops with his party members, because things never felt one-dimensional. This is exemplified by the game's camping system, where you can have optional conversations with whoever is in your party and get some flavor lore (as well as specific rewards for doing so).
Seth is thrust into your typical story of political intrigue, betrayal, and a world-ending threat based on the presence of a potential new energy source. The story has some basic critiques of class society and the real-world energy crisis embedded within, but they're sadly kind of just incidental to the "save the world" plot. That wasn't really important to me though. What was important to me was things like Seth's old commanding officer, who feels inadequate because Seth returned out of nowhere to high regard and accolades. Or a spritely young soldier who is perceived as only getting her position through nepotism. Rudra, a wolf-man who lost his entire family and becomes a moral pillar for the conflicted Seth. There are a lot of compelling stories within Theia, and even the weaker-written characters have some satisfying lore. These character-driven moments help keep the player compelled as they go through the major story beats of the overarching plot. I don't want to harp too much on that central story; cause there are plenty of emotional moments there too, and its overall achieving what it sets out to do, even if there is a lot of tonal inconsistencies between chapters.
As for the gameplay itself, the lack of random encounters and variable difficulty settings really elevates this game from something that could be extremely repetitive and frustrating to something where you can invest just the level of commitment you want to a JRPG. As much as I have been enjoying Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, or Coromon, or any JRPG I've been playing lately; I have to give this one to the RPG Maker guys; their encounter system is vastly superior to what we often settle for in the genre.
The combat itself is worth discussing as it also feels similarly ambitious. It utilizes a Final Fantasy ATB system, but the game makes significant efforts to reward player expression through its gear upgrade systems, as well as additional combat mechanics such as the Mastery meter. The high degree of customizability helps you tailor the generic combat experience towards the win condition you desire. It is far more limited in its scope than a Final Fantasy X skill tree, but it is there and it was clearly a major focus for the developer. The game wants you to have fun with it, rather than just play by its rules and succeed the way it wants you to. The trade-off is there is a significant amount of undocumented complexity to the games system, and because this is a relatively unknown RPG Maker title you will have to basically figure out a lot of it by yourself.
I think Theia can sometimes the victim of its own over-ambition as it tries to do so many things at once. There are several scripted events that can only be likened to "mini-games" and they were by far the most frustrating aspect of the game for me. Again, it is likely a technical marvel that he got them to exist in the first place, but they ultimately serve to stop a lot of the momentum the game has built up to that point. Luckily, the game pivots right back on track after these sequences. I think for any bloat or overcomplication present in Theia's gameplay, I still prefer it to something that just blindly emulates the greats before it with no thought to creating any sort of unique identity. It is an ambitious game that is more than the sum of its parts.
While I'm sure from the outside looking in this would appear to be a generic JRPG using sprites from famous games, I implore people to give it a shot and try it for themselves. Even if you find it be trapped squarely within the limitations of that which it is trying to emulate, try and think of the cultural significance of a game of this scale being made entirely for free and for the love of the craft. We don't need to be beholden to boardroom execs to have good, fun games. Theia is testament to the unlimited potential of game development as its made accessible, and as such is a triumph of both RPG Maker development and as part of a corpus of freeware (Daniel Remar's Iji, Studio Pixel's Cave Story, Kikiyama's Yume Nikki, etc.) that posit that we can make games for fun and enjoyment, rather than just to sell as a product.
The pièce de résistance of RPG Maker games modeled after Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger, Theia: The Crimson Eclipse is a high-quality remix of classic RPGs. While it reuses music and assets from several commercial games (Breath of Fire, Metal Slug,* Xenoblade, Final Fantasy itself, etc.), it also features charming hand-drawn art and a completely original story and cast of characters. The herculean effort it must have taken to produce the amount of content the game offers alone makes it notable, but I highly recommend Theia because I believe it is a success story; one about developing games that you want people to enjoy completely irrespective of things like profit motives.
Theia is an entirely free full-length RPG with comprehensive supporting lore; which alone is actually quite atypical of RPG Maker titles, as they are traditionally quite short to make up for lack of ideas or budget. This is in turn supplanted by hours of extra content; in addition to a robust set of side quests, there are multiple collect-a-thon mechanics artfully incorporated into the game. The game rewards progression through this content in a satisfying manner; and most importantly, exploration isn't punished as this game does not have a random encounter system.
Theia is set in a post-energy crisis world wherein the remaining world powers reverted to feudalism and banned technology for all but the upper echelons of government and nobility. The main character, Seth Sheridan, feels like a composite of several different 90's anime and JRPG protagonists, but he is supplanted by a strong cast of supporting characters. I grew to love the camraderie Seth develops with his party members, because things never felt one-dimensional. This is exemplified by the game's camping system, where you can have optional conversations with whoever is in your party and get some flavor lore (as well as specific rewards for doing so).
Seth is thrust into your typical story of political intrigue, betrayal, and a world-ending threat based on the presence of a potential new energy source. The story has some basic critiques of class society and the real-world energy crisis embedded within, but they're sadly kind of just incidental to the "save the world" plot. That wasn't really important to me though. What was important to me was things like Seth's old commanding officer, who feels inadequate because Seth returned out of nowhere to high regard and accolades. Or a spritely young soldier who is perceived as only getting her position through nepotism. Rudra, a wolf-man who lost his entire family and becomes a moral pillar for the conflicted Seth. There are a lot of compelling stories within Theia, and even the weaker-written characters have some satisfying lore. These character-driven moments help keep the player compelled as they go through the major story beats of the overarching plot. I don't want to harp too much on that central story; cause there are plenty of emotional moments there too, and its overall achieving what it sets out to do, even if there is a lot of tonal inconsistencies between chapters.
As for the gameplay itself, the lack of random encounters and variable difficulty settings really elevates this game from something that could be extremely repetitive and frustrating to something where you can invest just the level of commitment you want to a JRPG. As much as I have been enjoying Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, or Coromon, or any JRPG I've been playing lately; I have to give this one to the RPG Maker guys; their encounter system is vastly superior to what we often settle for in the genre.
The combat itself is worth discussing as it also feels similarly ambitious. It utilizes a Final Fantasy ATB system, but the game makes significant efforts to reward player expression through its gear upgrade systems, as well as additional combat mechanics such as the Mastery meter. The high degree of customizability helps you tailor the generic combat experience towards the win condition you desire. It is far more limited in its scope than a Final Fantasy X skill tree, but it is there and it was clearly a major focus for the developer. The game wants you to have fun with it, rather than just play by its rules and succeed the way it wants you to. The trade-off is there is a significant amount of undocumented complexity to the games system, and because this is a relatively unknown RPG Maker title you will have to basically figure out a lot of it by yourself.
I think Theia can sometimes the victim of its own over-ambition as it tries to do so many things at once. There are several scripted events that can only be likened to "mini-games" and they were by far the most frustrating aspect of the game for me. Again, it is likely a technical marvel that he got them to exist in the first place, but they ultimately serve to stop a lot of the momentum the game has built up to that point. Luckily, the game pivots right back on track after these sequences. I think for any bloat or overcomplication present in Theia's gameplay, I still prefer it to something that just blindly emulates the greats before it with no thought to creating any sort of unique identity. It is an ambitious game that is more than the sum of its parts.
While I'm sure from the outside looking in this would appear to be a generic JRPG using sprites from famous games, I implore people to give it a shot and try it for themselves. Even if you find it be trapped squarely within the limitations of that which it is trying to emulate, try and think of the cultural significance of a game of this scale being made entirely for free and for the love of the craft. We don't need to be beholden to boardroom execs to have good, fun games. Theia is testament to the unlimited potential of game development as its made accessible, and as such is a triumph of both RPG Maker development and as part of a corpus of freeware (Daniel Remar's Iji, Studio Pixel's Cave Story, Kikiyama's Yume Nikki, etc.) that posit that we can make games for fun and enjoyment, rather than just to sell as a product.