I wound up taking this preview, not realizing that the game I'm previewing is Mature-rated. I generally avoid M-rated games for various reasons. But hey, all that means is that this preview will be/is/was interesting to tackle.

Yusuke isn't an active member at this time, but getting ahold of him was easy enough. At least once we were able to be on AIM at the same time.

Draygone (DR): Let's start with the basics. What is your inspiration/motivation behind Shadow Souls?

Yusuke (UK): Well, I think anyone who has grown up playing RPGs as I have has at least thought about making their own game. My main motivation would have to be that I just want to tell the story I've created in my head.

DR: How long have you been working on it, and how far along would you say you are?

UK: That's the tough part. As far as actual work put into it goes, probably about a month or so. I really have a hard time going through all the tedious things. I've only completed the start of the game. I haven't worked on it since the demo was released, really.

DR: Will there be any way to freely switch party members, like at a party camp or something?

UK: Yes. If I ever get around to finishing the game, that will definatly be an option as I have 8 or so party members that are permanent.

DR: I couldn't help but notice a lack of equipment shops during the demo. Will there be any equipment shops later on, or equipment obtainable by other methods?

UK: Yes, there will be equipment shops. I intended to put them in the demo, but I really pushed hard to get the demo done, and just decided to hold off on them until the finished product. I'm sure there will also be special items obatained through other means as well, though.

DR: You say in your game description that you gain levels through special battles. Care to elaborate?<br><br>

UK: Basically, because I tossed out random battles all together, I needed a way to have the characters level up. So I decided that in most cases, after boss battles, the characters would level up. It really makes things easier stat-wise on someone who doesn't have a lot of time to work on an RPG Maker, like me.

DR: How will one obtain gold in your game?

UK: Just through the normal battles, chests, ect..

DR: I was wondering, as no battles gave any gold when I played.

UK: Yes, I didn't put that in because there were no shops, and I didn't want to call attention to the fact that there were no shops by giving gold. Even though I believe I did start the party with some gold. I can't really remember.

DR: The country I was able to explore was fairly large. I'm sure there's a lot more to explore, though. How big will the world in your game be?

UK: Right now I have the two countries, Brivek and Filgar, and another hidden one for sidequests. My main focus is the story, so I limited my world to those 3 maps for maximum use of NPCs and such.<br><br>

DR: Any worries about memory consumption, yet?

UK: No, not really. When I first started out, it worried me, but now I know it will be fine. I wanted to create a long game originally, but it's just too much work and I don't have time for it. So the end result may only be a 6-10 hour game, but as long as everything I want in it storywise is there, I'll be happy.

DR: Okay, that ends this interview. Thank you for your time.

UK: Ok, thank you.

I got to the first story battle, and attacked the enemy for 5 damage. He attacked back, and I was inflicted with insta-death. Game Over.

The good news is, I was only inflicted with it once. The bad news is, I still had trouble causing sufficient enough damage to beat them, and I couldn't heal enough HP. So it took a few tries before I got past it. Luckily, the rest of the battles in the game weren't as hard. Instead, they just took a while. The demo's boss got inflicted with Stop, so I couldn't tell you what it was like. As the game's description says, there are no random battles. Instead, as you travel through dungeons, you have to fight battle events that are in the way. Best I can tell, they don't repeat, though I didn't see if they repeat if I left the floor or dungeon. RPGM3's battles are time-consuming by default, so it's a definate plus that they're not random in this game.

Surprisingly, everything else was pretty decent. Certainly not great, but good enough that I wanted to keep going. The story involves Will, former prince of Brivek. Former, because he was framed as the murderer of his father, the king, and quickly banished. He returns to kill the one who framed him, only to find out that there's something bigger going on: a powerful corruption of people and monsters. But this all comes after the short intro involving a lizard man in the middle of his village-destroying. Yes, I'm quite interested in learning what just happened there. Actually, I'm quite interested in the story in general. The storytellers aren't perfect, what with some poor execution timings, message box goofs, and the occasional typo. But the story is interestingly told, and definately seems like some thought was put into the dialogue.

The environments were decent enough. The world map is very large, and kinda empty in a few spots, partly because most of the locations line the edge of the map. Again, it's a good thing battles aren't random. Towns have neatly arranged buildings, mostly sitting at the walls to prevent slowdown, and have random townsfolk standing around. The castle is mostly empty, aside from one room with a couple tables and a statue. The one dungeon I visited is rather bland and straightforward, with only one dead-end, but the paths weren't one-tile narrow, so you didn't get a clostraphobic feeling.

Overall, the demo wasn't that bad an experience. If only the battles were better balanced, it would've been pretty decent. That's not to say that nothing else could undergo some improvement, but at least there wasn't anything distracting to deal with, and it's a game I'm hoping gets finished. Oh, and as far as the mature rating goes, the worst I found were a couple swears and the use of a red flash when someone was being hurt or killed during a storyteller.