The Sacred Tears TRUE Reviews

[h1]Overall[/h1] [b]Story rich with lovable personas that try to make a living in their world. Definitely worth its current sell-price I would say.[/b] [h1]Pros[/h1] - Interesting storyline that isn’t too predictable - Tells the story from a more humble perspective - Nice design and art - I like the ‘chapter selection’ chamber [h1]Cons[/h1] - Lots of battling – I say this as someone who usually has no problems grinding for hours - While I love the design and art, I do have a feeling the original game was designed for a smaller screen (gameboy? mobile?). For the game itself this isn't an issue, but for the cutscenes the artwork is noticeable ‘pixely’. - There are certain side-quests that have you run all over the place with little to no hint where to go. In particular ‘The Royal Friend’ quest, and the quest with the arsonist (after he ran away, I wasn’t able to find him at all. As a result I had to abandon that quest). - Game doesn’t allow to print-screen with F12

This is my second time playing an AlphaNuts game, the first being White Ties (a sample RPG Maker XP game, albeit in Japanese). Like that game, The Sacred Tears TRUE has a solid card-based battle system, but you need to be prepared for the randomness of the cards. Regarding the characters, Seil and Seana have this childhood friend dynamic going on, while also integrating other subplots that vary from the mundane (e.g. having to buy a gift for someone) to the political (power dynamics going on between the church and state). I wish those plots would be explained more. Overall, it's a solid RPG Maker 2000-made game. The other RPG Maker 2000-made game that has this distinction is Super Columbine Massacre RPG.

Quite the little gem here. The Sacred Tears TRUE is a game that focuses the tree rather than the forest which I feel really enhances the experience. The story is nothing ground breaking as it is fairly generic, it follows the day to day happenings of the MC and how the MC goes about achieving his goal(s). The world around the MC keeps progressing even when the MC is not directly involved. The cast of characters are fairly fleshed out, we are given enough information about them to understand that they have their goals and ambitions. They are also involved just enough in the story to help enhance and progress the story rather than becoming a hindrance to it as it is not their story, it's the MC's. The game was very easy as I literately beat 90%-95% of all the combat encounters using the first three cards while the rest of my cards were for boss fights only (barely even used them for the bosses). The card based combat system was quite enjoyable, I see other people say how the game's RNG based combat system is holding it back. I disagree with them on that. The combat system requires a bit of predicting on the player's part as being able to predict the opponent's card could be what saves you from a fatal hit or not, if you don't like predicting you can literately just face tank through all the attacks, but that will cost you a little bit of healing items. I did encounter a few bugs and things that I wish could be improved on, but seeing how the game came out on August 10th 2005 I'm not going to complain about it. All in all I'd recommend it, like I said quite the little gem. Apologies about the vagueness, I didn't want to spoil anything for anyone planning on trying the game.

I really like the characters and music. The artwork and story moments are cool. The main town is charming and has a lot of secrets and people to talk to. I think what broke this for me was the combat system, which is too dependent on random cards you may or may not get. It's not frustrating when I die, because I know I didn't do anything for it to happen, just had some bad luck. Still can't say I'm really having fun anymore with this one, although I did try to give it an honest chance.

I hate to do this, I wanted to enjoy the game. I can't recommend this because I have had input issues when starting the game. Can't move up or left, everytime I start the game, the cursor would freak out unless I hit right or down, after that, nothing works but those two. I tried restarting steam, restarting the PC, reinstalling the game, tried to search for the controller files to see if I could change the input, no avail. I am going to keep digging into it. I also searched the community about this and found only a very small handful of those with the same issue, six years ago, all stated what I have done. I cannot recommend this because of this bug. I hope this gets fixed or I may have to figure out how to get a refund.

Pretty solid RPG Maker based game. Story involves the event of a Thief Wannabe aiming to be the best thief in town. Game has a rater simply plot but it does a darn fine job at the character development. Though you will be reading a lot. Like any RPG Combat is a game of Rock-paper-scizors mixed with RPG elements and card fights. Takes a while to get used to it but once you do its a breeze. Downsides is that the game revolves entirely in the same town. Adding a new character here and there. This isn't something new on the JRPG world, but makes you wish the map was bigger. Pretty solid game, if you are not buying this full price, give it a chance on a sale. It's worth the time.

Unlike many of the other negative reviews, I am not going to really knock the combat system. The amount of customization that went into this RPG Maker game is pretty impressive. From a technical standpoint, I'm not displeased. The character design and artistic direction also overall remains satisfactory. Where things fall apart actually is the writing. It falls flat more often than not. You'll start a mission or side story and just as things begin to seem interesting, or you're invested in a cause, it immediately ends. For example, one of the last story missions I did involved me learning more about a shady finance company in town. The two main characters get involved in the plot, and then I sneak inside the building. It is not much of a scenario, we're done in less than five minutes with hardly a hitch other than one guy who tries to beat me up as I leave. The conclusion of the situation isn't even brought up in the ending, I simply return to my home and then can continue to the next part of the story where then in the next scenario I learn the company closed down. But why, how, I'm left with questions and I wish they were addressed. There is no problem with the idea of playing town vigilantes or heroes or thieves, or whatever exactly I'm suppose to be. But the execution leaves a lot to be desired. The townspeople did not grow on me, nor did I connect with the main characters either. And that's a shame, cause this kind of idea really could work well if just a bit more effort was put into the writing quality.

Beautiful graphics... interesting storyline... numerous side missions... All held back, by the combat. The system works well on paper. The player receives a 'hand' of cards, and chooses three to play. The cards are compared to the choices of the enemy, and combat plays out depending on who has the better cards, and which cards were chosen. Block attacks, make regular attacks, make special attacks, or get an ally to cast a spell (or, in the instances were said ally is unavailable, use the spell cards to negate the enemy attacks). The goal is to bring the enemy's HP down to zero. However, the execution leaves more to be desired. After the first few chapters, the difficulty of the battles ramps up greatly. Even with the 'tells' of enemies helping out, I was forced to rely on working to get the levels of my cards up to 5/S for bosses. and cards are consumed after use. Why not level grind? I did; the enemies scale with the player (an early-game side-boss became a common mob after reaching late in the story). To make matters worse, the only way to really effectively use the main character after a point is to place everything into Health and Attack. And then, if you haven't planned ahead, you can still get screwed over by getting stuck with all low-powered cards. If you have patience, the story and visuals are great, and a few missions don't require combat at all. However, you will have to struggle with the combat system to advance; if you can't handle it, avoid. Disclaimer: I got this shortly after it arrived on Steam, and although I haven't played it in years, I remember enough of it that its mixed potential remains in my mind.

By now, its cute. Altho the "8 chapters" may be misleading at the start. Since every chapter is pretty short by itself, usually just one mission. Now, the actual reviewing starts. I havent played into it too much, I am just 3 chapters in, but that was already enough to see some core gameplay. lets start up with the battle system - The card based system may seem a bit complicated at the start, but in the end - its not. Cards have 5 Levels - 1,2,3,4 and S - and 5 actions - Attack, Special, Block, Dodge and Magic. you draw a hand of 8 and pick 3 of them. higher card does its action and when its a standoff there is a rock paper scissors system to determin who gets a hit in. Strategy comes in when you take enemy Prediction into account, meaning the color of their cards. but theres a guy right at the start explaining you all that. And even tho it seems ovrwhelming at the beginning, it flows from your hand after 2 or 3 fights. now to the art style - the FaceArt is pretty well made, the Intro and Chapter End Pictures all have a nice feel and good handdrawn style to them. the world is pretty colorful, altho sometimes a little overwhelming (more later). The character models themselves seem to bee pretty SD style, means they are more head than anything else. Music - from what I could experience, the usic is good. Battle music gets one pumped and the town has that nice quiet peaceful feeling. but I cand give all good things. some negative stuff that sprung to me. first of all, You are playing a thief whose dayjob is to be a Private Investigator... best part - he goes thieving without any different outfit. He is out there in the same gear he can be seen through the day. then in the 3rd chapter someone actually comes into your office, having a job fr your thief Alter Ego... I will take it that the Guards are really stupid, this is a THief training Town or Suspension of disbelief. then, the city is horribly cluttered. At least the starting one. Some paths cant be seen until you run into them, same with pickups. a lot of buildings you can only identify by waltzing right in. all in all, I like it. Its to be recommended. PS: if the dev reads this - could it be that this is a sidestory-ish of tears for Tiara ? since I get a vibe from some names (namely the namegiving "Goddess Tear" as well as an Item that summons Tiara in Battle.

It hurts me to write this review. It hurts me deep in my shrivelled black heart. This game does everything SO right in terms of the the major things you expect from an RPG. It has excellent characters, an interesting setting, nice storytelling with story missions and smaller more inane side missions just for character developmnent/fluff. Seriously its very well done, i have seen many MANY AAA publishers do far worse in this regard. Then the combat system comes and ruins what would otherwise be an indie gem. The combat system boils down to dicerolls plain and simple. Its card based so RNGesus had best be with you to draw high cards/your enemy draw low ones. Then to double dip on the randomness the game has a 20% chance of trolling you. Let me explain, when an enemy plays a card it tells you what category of card was played (defence, attack, magic etc) but 20% of the time it will LIE. So you play your cards according to what the game tells you then SURPRISE you are now dead because all 3 cards were lies and you played the wrong cards!. Fun right? You will be trolled and have to reload ALOT since there is no consistent strategy due to that 20% troll chance and just plain bad luck if you keep drawing low during a boss fight.