RosenkreuzStilette - The disciples of Mega Man

HAZ CLIC AQUÍ PARA LEER ESTA ENTRADA EN ESPAÑOL.


Hello everyone! A few entries back I talked about an indie Japanese game called MegaMari, which not only resembled the classic Mega Man series in its title and looks, but followed step by step many of the gameplay points of Capcom´s legendary (and forgotten) classic, and in this new entry I bring you yet another game, or actually two, that also follow the steps of the famous Blue Bomber, I´m talking about RosenkreuzStilette and its recent sequel RosenkreuzStilette Freudenstachel. Let´s see what these two little jewels of the Japanese independent game scene have to offer.

RosenkreuzStilette

Developed by the indie team [erka:es] (it seems these guys have a taste for difficult names) and published in Japan in the famous Comiket 73 in 2007, RosenkreuzStilette is an 2D action and platform game that pays tribute to the Mega Man series, on top of drawing inspiration from other popular game series such as Castlevania or even mangas/animes, as you can see for example in these Game Over screens of the game. Like I always say, in these kind of games the story is not that important, actually many times is kinda more like just an excuse to start the adventure (and if not you can ask poor little Bunny), but I have to admit that the guys from [erka:es] have tried their very best to deliver a rather interesting story. The story of RosenkreuzStilette tells that thousands of years ago humans with the power of magic existed. These humans were known as Magi. However, the same powers that made them special also made society fear them and refuse them, for which the Empire and the Orthodox Church hunted them as witches or demons, forcing them to live in a constant exile. One day, tired of this continuous oppression, a powerful wizard called Rosenkreuz and his best eight disciples decided to make a stand against the Empire, which would give origin to a long and cruel Holy War that would end with the death of Rosenkreuz himself, although before dying he achieved his goal, for the Magi we finally accepted in the Empire, and the RKS (RosenkreuzStilette: the Blades of the Rose Cross) was born. But peace wouldn´t last for that long, since the Orthodox Church was incapable of fully accepting the Magi, which would eventually lead to the desertion of the RKS and a new which hunting era against the Magi in which the protagonist, Spiritia Rosenberg, will see herself drawn to and which will serve as the starting point for the adventure. As I said, the story is really not bad at all for a game of this type, at least for me it´s still better than that of many other “blockbusters”, and I´m not talking just about videogames...

As for the gameplay itself, one could say without fear of being wrong that RosenkreuzStilette is a complete clon of the classic Mega Man games (including their high level of difficulty), which neither the game or it´s developers seem to have tried to hide at any point, and which will surely be great news for all those fans of Capcom´s ignored mascot out there hungry for another adventure of this type. The graphics of the game, although maybe not as gorgeous as those of other indie games out there such as Fortune Summoners, are definitely good enough, reminiscent of the good old days of the Capcom´s classic character. As the clon of the Mega Man series that it is, in RosenkreuzStilette we will have to defeat eight bosses after completing their corresponding stage to be able to access to the last stages of the game, and just like in Mega Man too, the game will make use of a boss selection screen that will allow us to face the bosses in any order we desire, although it will be terribly difficult to beat some of the bosses if we don´t obtain first the necessary power to do so, powers that we will obtain every time we defeat one of the bosses of the game. As I said, a clone, including the presentation of the bosses when selected, but a VERY good clon. The eight main bosses will be:

Freudia Neuwahl [RKS002 Zwei]

 (Childhood friend of Spiritia and protagonist of the second game)

Weakness: Die geplante Zukunft (RosenkreuzStilette)

Power granted:

Freudenstache for Spiritia (RosenkreuzStilette)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Zorne Sepperin [RKS003 Drei]

Weakness: Zornesbombe, Lustatem (RosenkreuzStilette)
                   Schneekristal (RosenkreuzStilette Freudenstachel)

Power granted:

Zornesbombe for Spirita (RosenkreuzStilette)

Frostfackel for Freudia (RosenkreuzStilette Freudenstachel)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trauare Wrede [RKS004 Vier]

Weakness: Klageharnisch, Geisterwand (RosenkreuzStilette)
                   Eislanze (RosenkreuzStilette Freudenstachel)

Power granted:

Klageharnisch for Spiritia (RosenkreuzStilette)

Kopiekreisel for Fraudia (RosenkreuzStilette Freudenstachel)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luste Teuber [RKS005 Funf]

Weakness: Lustatem, Liebessturm (RosenkreuzStilette)
                   Eisschwert (RosenkreuzStilette Freudenstachel)

Power granted:

Lustatem for Spiritia (RosenkreuzStilette)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  

Grolla Seyfarth [RKS006 Sechs]

(Protagonist of the secondary mode RosenkreuzStilette Grollschwert)

Weakness: Klageharnisch (RosenkreuzStilette)
                   Weißteufel (RosenkreuzStilette Freudenstachel)

Power granted:

Grollschwert for Spiritia (RosenkreuzStilette)

(The less life you have left, the more powerful the technique will become.)

Eisschwert for Fraudia (RosenkreuzStilette Freudenstachel)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   

Sichte Meister [RKS007 Sieben]

Weakness: Grollschwert, Die geplante Zukunft (RosenkreuzStilette)
                   Freudenzwinger (RosenkreuzStilette Freudenstachel)

Power granted:

Die geplante Zukunft for Spiritia (RosenkreuzStilette)

Eisschwert for Fraudia (RosenkreuzStilette Freudenstachel)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  

Liebea Palesch [RKS008 Acht]

Weakness: Freudenstachel, Liebessturm (RosenkreuzStilette)
                   Frostklinge (RosenkreuzStilette Freudenstachel)

Power granted:

Liebessturm for Spiritia (RosenkreuzStilette)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Schwer-Muta Casasola Merkle [RKS009 Neun]

Weakness: Zornesbombe, Geisterwand (RosenkreuzStilette)
                   Kopiekreisel (RosenkreuzStilette Freudenstachel)

Power granted:

Geisterwand for Spiritia (RosenkreuzStilette)

Schneekristal for Fraudia (RosenkreuzStilette Freudenstachel)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Dolis Warmind [RKS013 Dreizehn]

(Appears only in RosenkreuzStilette Freudenstachel)

Weakness: Frostfackel (RosenkreuzStilette Freudenstachel)

Power granted: Frostklinge (RosenkreuzStilette Freudenstachel)

Boss selection screen

The game controls are, as you all can imagine, exactly the same ones as the Mega Man games ones, with a button to shot that we can hold to release a more powerful “charged shot”, another button to jump and another one to slide, and finally the direction buttons or pad to move around. In yet another tribute to the 8/16 bit era games, once we complete the game, we will obtain a code that we will be able to introduce in the game´s main screen to unlock a secondary mode (as difficult to pronounce as the previous one) called RosenkreuzStilette Grollschwert. In this mode we will take control of Grolla Seyfarth, a member of the RKS and one of the main bosses of the game. Although the story will be quite similar, the powers of Grolla are completely different from those of Spiritia. On top of this, Grolla won´t learn new techniques when defeating the bosses, instead of this she will have all her techniques available from the very beginning, so the way in which we will have to face the stages will change completely.

Secondary mode of RosenkreuzStilette with Grolla Seyfarth as the protagonist.

GAMEPLAY VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fre92Bw6LlI

EXTRA MODE GAMEPLAY VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsVKpwsz24E

RosenkreuzStilette Freudenstachel 

 

Plublished in 2012, RosenkreuzStilette Freudenstachel is the second (and so far last) entry in the RosenkreuzStilette series (be sincere, you had trouble to pronounce all that, didn´t you?). This entry follows exactly the same steps as the first one, with a new story and adding some new characters. In this occasion the story occurs several months after the events that took place in the first game. Spiritia Rosenberg, the protagonist of the first adventure, has been kidnapped by the Schwarzkreuz, a new unit made of Dark Magi and created by the Orthodox Church to start yet another witch hunting against the Magi, so the new protagonist and member of the RKS Freudia Neuwahl, a childhood friend of Spiritia and one of the bosses of the first game, will try to rescue her friend and stop this new threat. As I said, the game repeats the exact gameplay pattern of the first adventure, to the point where even the main eight bosses will be same ones with the exception of Dolis Warmind, who comes to take the place of the now protagonist Freudia. Once we defeat these eight bosses will have to face the 5 members of the Schwarzkreuz, which we will also be able to fight in any order we want. The members of the Schwarzkreuz are:

Pamela Arwig [SK001 Eins]

(Protagonist of the secondary mode RosenkreuzStilette Weißsilber) 

Weakness: Weißteufel

Eifer Skute [SK002 Zwei]

Weakness: Schneekristal

Schirach Fühler [SK003 Drei]

Weakness: Kopiekreisel (till version 1.03a), Freudenzwinger (from version 1.03a)

Lecht & Rink Refraktia [SK004 Vier]

Weakness: Eislanze

Freudia won´t learn new powers based on those of the bosses she defeats like Spiritia did, instead of this, she will learn completely new powers, all of them based on element of ice, which is Freudia´s specialty. As it also happened in the first game, once we complete the adventure we will receive a secret code that we will be able to input in the title screen to unlock the mode RosenkreuzStilette Weißsilber (just when you though it couldn´t get more difficult...). In this mode we will take control of Pamela Arwig, captain of the Schwarzkreuz and one of the bosses of the game, and the story will again have some minor differences. As it happened also with Grolla Seyfarth, the protagonist of the secondary mode of the first game, Pamela will have her own set of techniques, all available from the beginning, and won´t be able to learn new techniques when defeating the bosses, which will again change the way to face the whole adventure.

Secondary mode of RosenkreuzStilette Freudenstachel with Pamela Arwig as the protagonist.

GAMEPLAY VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEcfwKm5H8c

EXTRA MODE GAMEPLAY VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HtcuM5ELMs


Well, as you can see, both RosenkreuzStilette and its sequel and MegaMari prove that the legacy of Capcom´s Blue Bomber seems to be far from coming to an end, even though Capcom seems to be trying their very best to oppose the fans wishes by giving their famous blue robot just secondary roles in some of their recent games and cancelling several of the last entries in the Mega Man franchise such Mega Man Universe for Xbox 360 and PS3, a game that even had a demo at the Tokyo Game Show, and Mega Man Legends 3 for Nintendo 3DS, which were two of the main reasons (among some others) that lead Keiji Inafume to abandon Osaka´s game giant after more than two decades on the company and found his own studio, with which he´s developing the spiritual successor of Mega Man, Mighty No. 9, a game that was founded on the popular crowdfunding website Kickstarter in just a few hours. Anyway, if you feel like playing an good old school action game, then give a chance to RosenkreuzStilette, it might have a difficult to pronounce name, but it´s rock solid gameplay will surely please all those looking for an adventure in the vein of the good old adventures of poor little Mega Man. Oh, Capcom, Capcom, Capcom... what happened to you? You used to be cool (with Bart Simpson´s voice). Enjoy!