Hands-On: Black Sigil – Blade of the Exiled

It’s no big secret that I have a soft spot for 16-bit RPGs; Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger are in my top 5 games of all time.  While that era may be over, there are still a few teams making the good stuff.  Enter The Black Sigil.  Developed by Canadian Studio Archcraft, The Black Sigil: Blade of the Exiled for the Nintendo DS is almost a parallel existence to Demon’s Souls; while Demon’s Souls is a Western-esque RPG developed by a Japanese studio, The Black Sigil is a very Japanese RPG developed by a Western studio.  Taking cues from classic RPGs such as Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana, Black Sigil is the story of Kairu, the young adopted son of the Duke of Bal Lenora.  Despite his skill with the sword, Kairu has been cursed since birth to be incapable of using magic, a skill all Bal Lenorans are naturally talented with.  His inability to use magic draws parallels to a villain named Lord Vai, who was similarly incapable of using magic and previously rebelled against Bal Lenora, only to be defeated.  This tie to Vai has resulted in Kairu being somewhat ostracized by his peers, and greatly worries his adopted father.  I think you know where this is going.

Originally slated for release much, much earlier this year as an online retailer-only title, The Black Sigil received numerous delays over the past few months, as publisher Graffiti Entertainment worked to get the game on shelves at brick and mortar retail as well.  This is an admirable course of action, until you realize that this title has been in development since the Game Boy Advance days, having originally begun development as a GBA game before being shifted to the DS.  In any case, it’s now on shelves, and I’ve managed to score a copy to play for you all.

From the get-go, it’s clear to see that this game started life as a Game Boy Advance title; it doesn’t make the most innovative use of the DS’ unique features.  All of the action is conducted on the bottom screen, including dungeon and down exploration, menus, and of course battles.  The touch screen is usable, though frankly, I’ve found myself defaulting to buttons at all times.  The top screen isn’t used particularly much.  In battles, it lists your characters and the enemy lineup, as well as a tooltip for the menus; outside of battle, it shows a world map with your present position marked thereon, the present status of your current party members, your current money reserves, and that’s about it.  However, owing to the game’s status as a nostalgia-infused gift to gamers from the 16-bit era, it stands to reason this was a deliberate decision made to prevent gimmicks from diluting the play experience.

Of course, no preview of an RPG would be complete without talking about the two most important parts of the genre; the characters and the battle system.  As mentioned before, the storyline in The Black Sigil is very much based on the RPGs of the SNES and PS1 eras; most specifically, RPGs that predate Final Fantasy VII.  The characters, however, are a slightly different story.

Kairu is an interesting protagonist; he’s not a mute antihero, nor is he an insipid child with no knowledge of the world.  Instead, he’s a budding swordsman with a surprising awareness of his world as well as an eagerness to overcome his weaknesses and please his father.  When his inevitable exile comes a few short hours into the game, Kairu accepts it with a minimum of angst, driven to prove himself worthy to return home.  Things are, of course, complicated a bit more as more characters join the party.  First up is Aurora, the biological daughter of the Duke of Bel Lenora.  Despite being a noblewoman, Aurora is a talented, yet extremely impulsive fire mage with a mischievous streak and a mean whip arm.  Also joining the party relatively early on is Nephi, a womanizing prettyboy thief with a penchant for showing up (and leaving) at exactly the right time, a suspicious interest in Kairu’s father’s sword, dark magic, throwing knives and a hairstyle that screams “I’m going to betray you later in the game”.  Last of the early characters is Isa, a dual-scimitar-wielding “witch” who comes to the party’s rescue after Aurora’s showboating gets them in trouble with the law.  The characters are all well-fleshed-out with unique, distinct personalities and surprisingly well-written dialogue, and their interactions are actually considerably intriguing and entertaining even for a hardened, heartless cynic like myself.  Even the NPCs have a bit of personality to them; there is no “times are tough” guy that I’ve seen so far.

Like the rest of the game, the battle system is suitably 16-bit as well, functioning as a strange hybrid between Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger.  Battles are random, much like in Final Fantasy; surprisingly, though, there is no “battle start!” sound effect or transition when combat begins, the game simply cuts to black and the battle loads.  This is rather disorienting the first few times, though with the game’s somewhat higher-than-average encounter rate you’ll soon be used to it.  Once in battle, the game plays out almost identically to Chrono Trigger, with a few minor caveats.  Like Chrono, battles are based on location; characters must be within range of enemies to attack them, and each attack has its own unique range and properties.  However, unlike Chrono, if you choose to attack an enemy physically (or with a melee-focused special attack), your character has to get to them first.  Your character will run to the targeted enemy, though if the target is too far the character will have to take an extra (considerably shortened) ATB charge in order to continue running.  Magic is, of course, immune to this limitation, and can be used from anywhere on the field.  Also new to The Black Sigil is the ability to manually move a character around the battlefield by holding L, in order to position them better for a follow-up attack.  This, however, consumes their turn as well.  Also like Chrono Trigger, the game includes a Double Tech system, where party members who fight alongside each other will unlock the ability to combine their attacks into devastating super moves.

As I’ve stated probably more times than I’d like to count previously in this article, The Black Sigil is a nostalgia trip for 16-bit RPG fans.   For someone like myself who’s grown tired of JRPGs that try to function as “an anime series, but playable”, as well as Western RPGs that tout choice and exploration at the expense of characterization and narrative, the game functions well as a perfect early birthday present, bringing the player back to an era before Sephiroth skewered Aeris, before the world was introduced to minature giant space hamsters, and before every single Japanese RPG under the sun felt a need to shove a 6-year-old girl in a short skirt into a serious storyline.  I haven’t played enough of the game to give a final judgment at this point in time, but from what I’ve played so far, The Black Sigil is turning out to be something special, even despite its low budget and likely (extremely) limited print run.  If you can find it on shelves or online, grab it…fast.