Rysen, that feller what done made Rysen Ranch and Phoenix Flame, has put out a new demo: [Amethyst]. This is a traditional turn-based RPG, a Final-Fantasy-alike really, and although the demo is short, it's fun and well-executed. The plot is nothing special -- there's these two nations, let's call them the Zooks and the Yooks, and the Yooks invade the Zooks for some reason and so a bunch of heroic rebels have to fight them, and there's probably a mad king who has been led astray by an evil advisor or something, I dunno. Anyway, it's cool, don't let me scare you off. Nothing particularly innovative is on display here, it's true, but what it does, it does very well.

I like the dialogue quite a bit. There's nothing particularly outstanding happening here, but the characters' interactions are interesting and feel real. Excepting a few small blips (like the goofy down-facing horses and the weird grey shadows under the trees), the graphics are uniformly excellent. Much of what you'll see here is ripped from this or that SNES game, but the original stuff is pretty good as well. In particular, the chrs and spell effects are very nice. The music is original and is very good -- Amethyst probably has the best original music I've heard in a VERGE demo. But then, from what I've been able to discern, most of the high-quality original music for VERGE games never actually gets released, so it's hard to say. Menus are pretty nice, and there are several nice touches, like a (admittedly very basic) help function and the ability to put the text box on either the top of bottom of the screen. There isn't a lot of detail in the system, but what's there is good, and battles are quick and entertaining.

It's not all roses. The game is a little too Final Fantasy-inspired; abilities and items are lifted directly from the series. There are enough spelling errors to stand out -- Rysen apparently forgot how to spell 'phoenix' since making Phoenix Flame, for instance. At least so far, there doesn't seem to be a lot of depth to combat, and defending heals you -- always a dangerous design decision, since it can lead to people defending over and over for five minutes to regain their HP. And of course, being a demo, the game's a bit rough around the edges -- there's some interface weirdness and the odd bug.

The good qualities definitely outweigh the bad. This is one of the most promising V3 demos I've seen, and it's very clean and fast, two qualities I put high value in. I very much hope to see more of Amethyst.