The story opens with four mercenaries sent by the Red Wolf Corporation to check a radio antenna. The squad is attacked by a dragon, and only the swordsman Redian survives. He later learns that monster are returning since the Fourth Era is ending, and the one that collects the pieces of the Holy Stone will become the God of the Fifth Era. Both the ruthless Red Wolf Corporation and the dark sect called Sabbat are looking for the pieces, but Redian decides to antagonize them with the help of a ragtag team of rebels…
Fifth Era is the first complete italian rpgmaker game I played, a love letter to Final Fantasy, especially FVII and FVIII, since it takes inspiration manly from those two (but not only! Anyway there is a location identical to Costa del Sol, e party member that looks like Rinoa, etc...). The game is pretty easy, except for a couple of optional quests that flesh out the lore of the setting and explores the past of some characters.
Speaking about characters, there are 12 party members (3 of these unlockables), an unlockable stealth minigame, hidden artworks and cutscenes. The game uses many edited sprites, like the colorful Fire Emblem portraits and battlers. The developer later created even better games (such as Theia the Crimson Eclipse), but this was a pretty stylish, enjoyable and fun game too!
Random Fact: the game originally included a special dungeon that was removed from the game, called The Mad Place. Here the characters had to face opponents from their past (like their parents, their mentor or their younger self) in boss battles. The facesets, charsets and enemy sprites are still in the game, and the author covered this cancelled part in a Youtube video. However other mysteries remain, for example the unused battle of an archer named Seth that doesn't appear in game.
A remake, or better, a reboot of this game is in the works. It's going to be a very different game, I mean some party members will become npcs, some npcs will be playable characters, some characters are gender-swapped, the setting is somehow different and the plot was changed… so if you can do not refrain to play both games. The new Fifth Era demo can be found on Itch.io and on Steam.
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