The war against magic is here. Grey and George are two brothers whose life turns upside down when their home gets destroyed by an organization called New Dawn. Caught in the middle of the war, as Rhodya is splitting in two (between those who have magic blood and those who don't), Grey and George will discover that they have a bigger role to play. They decide to embark on a journey to stop New Dawn and find out the truth about their heritage and why their home was destroyed.
Shadow's Penance is what I called a "modern jrpg": while it offers customization of the party members, minigames, puzzles, dungeons and adventures like the old classic Rpgmaker games, it also modernizes many aspects. For example there is no level-up system, no grinding required: characters are improved using crystals that are found around, and this encourages to explore and complete subquest rather than play lots of random battles. There is also a great story in which you have many choices, some may even make the protagonist to join the bad guys against the forces of good! The game also includes a more difficult optional mode.
Random Fact: Shadow's Penance is actually a remake of an older game by BluePhoenix, called simply Penance. See below for it.
Like other games I posted before, such as Onyx and Vanity, also Shadow Penance is the second release of an older game, called Penance. This was the prototype for Shadow's Penance, and features a simpler story,
less characters and content and the plot is more or less the same.
Except for the lack of portraits, some different maps and locations,
this game is just an inferior version of the complete one.
this game was well known for having a good and an evil path, that took
the game in two completely different directions, offering different
battles and challenges. This was a very clear choice that happened
during a particular event, and the remake made much more difficult
betraying the old friends for the protagonist, but it's still a possible
choice also in the new version.
EXTRA - Penance: it has been centuries since the war against the demons. Humanity was
victorious and managed to defeat them with the help of the "Shifters",
humans with all shorts of magical powers blessed with longevity. They
defeated the demons and helped humanity recover its lands. However, you
can't have eternal peace when you're dealing with the humans. There is a
civil war between the humans and the shifters that is about to break
unless somebody does something to stop it. An organization called New
Dawn has proclaimed war against humanity and their actions have split
the world in two.
Penance is basically a first version of Shadow Penance, a little more simpler, shorter, with less content and more humor. The story is more or less identical and the game uses the same system of upgrades without levels, but the story is more straight to the point and still enjoyable, although the reboot improves the original in every aspect, also introducing new interesting characters.
Final Verdict: Shadow Penance is everything I could have asked from an adventure game:
it have battles, puzzles, funny moments, and it's overall enjoyable. I
admit I also liked the old version, but many aspects I didn't like (some
maps, the lack of facesets) were finally corrected and the story was
also remade more interesting and fun. Characters are also more developed
and while it's not a perfect game it was more polished and does
everything just fine.
Concerning instead Penance, well that is an enjoyable game, still a little rough and unrefined in
some parts. The story is basically the same of the remake, so play it only if you are really curious. The one I recommend is in fact the newest edition, that does everything better.
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