In a post-apocalyptic world survivors of mankind live in wasteland and
ruined cities. The only law in such a chaotic society is a military
group calling themselves as 'crusaders'. The organisation fight against
'demons' (that's how they call mutated radiation victims) and rebeling
'heretics'. The opposition is mercilessly burned by a special squad of
'executioners'. The primary goal of crusaders is to discover 'The
Burning Grail' which was lost long time ago, the ultimate weapon against
their foes.
The main hero Vick is one of the crusaders. He lives in the headquarters with his sister and is quite devoted to his duty. One day during the ordinary scout mission Vick discovers something shocking that forces him to quit crusaders and join the forces with his former enemies...
The Burning Grail was originally created for one short RPG contest so it
only has like 2–3 hours of gameplay. The game itself is very similar to
Riviera on GBA. A single click of directional button sends the hero to
the other map, comments on object, etc.
The game is mostly linear, but there are some optional areas, regarding combat it's based on resource use: you can use different firearms that consume different amounts of
ammunition based on how much damage they will cause. I didn't see that
some weapons are more effective against certain enemies than others, so
it doesn't really matter which one of them to use. You can also attack unarmed to spare ammo or use healing items, and so on. The graphics present classic Rpgmaker sprites, few rips and some edits, to create a post-apocalyptic world apparently inspired by the Fallout series.
Random Fact: aside
for the battles, the limited exploration and the linar story, the game
includes a single minigame based on car chases that happens a single
time during the second half of the game. This is a simple action
sequence where Vick has to shoot the pursuers, and it's the only
playable sequence that happens in real time and when we have full
control.
Final Verdict: The Burning Grail is an interesting experiment: while I am not too found
of linearity and lack of exploration and I missed the possibility to
explore every map looking for supplies and interactive items, at the
same time I appreciated a lot the idea of making something new and
different from the usual Jrpg.The game suffers somewhat from the lack of variety in the combat system.
However, the thrilling story and the good writing make up for a lot. It
kinda feels like an action movie.
