Wraith by Neok

 

During a 3-day workshop in Australia, a girl named Kana discovers a dark secret hidden beneath the manor she is staying at. Now she must work against time to save her friends from a fate worse than death. There are two objectives: Solve the mystery behind the existence of the wraith, and live to see the morning sun. Dawn is only a few hours away...

 

Wraith is an adventure with horror elements, the game is about exploration, and includes visiting various locations from laboratories to a lighthouse and a hedge maze, besides the mansion, of course, but there are also puzzles and various combat encounters against some mutant creatures! This is a sort of Silent-hill-esque rpgmaker game! But here we aren't alone since the protagonist will be sometimes assisted by some npcs. Regarding combat the game uses a sort of custom system that gives us different battle options from attacking with a gun (that is only found after the first half of the game) to run away, push enemies back or use items like a flashlight or a lightstone. Another interesting aspects are music, sounds and the custom CG scenes and portraits drawn by Neok, really well done.

 

The game has a good and a bad ending, depending on what happens and if the Wraith is defeated before or after daybreak. Anyway a walnkthrough can be found HERE.

 

Download Link

Rpgmaker.net

Rmarchiv.de

Internet Archive 

 

TvTropes 

 

Random Fact: Wraith was the first Rpgmaker 2003 game by Neok, and was going to be the first part of a trilogy. Unfortunately only a sequel, Sainth, was made and focuses on Lily, Kana's best friend. The third game was titled Candice, and it seems it was first planned, but later cancelled. 

 

 

Final Verdict: Wraith is an ok game! I liked the story, the setting, the graphics... BUT I was not really fond of the combat system or the puzzles, I enjoyed some aspects of the game (aestetic and story), while I found others pretty much frustrating (the gameplay, and I must admit that while I often enjoyed flawed game with not-so-good mechanics, I could not really enjoy this one!). This does not make Wraith a bad game (but yes, it shows being one of Neok's first games, and also it's not my favourite considered other masterpieces we got from this author such as Alter Aila or Red Syndrome), but probably one that can really be appreciated by some players. So, if you like survival horror games I suggest you to give a try and see.