Jump to content
  • entries
    766
  • comments
    1836
  • views
    479018

Eushully's fantasy world


Clephas

2391 views

I love Eushully's unique fantasy world, Dir Lifyna.  Most of Eushully's games, save for a few oddball ones by the subsidiary Anastasia and Fortune Arterial, are based in this world, which began with the original Ikusa Megami (if this gets translated, somebody please smash the skull of anyone who translates the title, because they'll probably pick the worst permutation of it).  The first thing that anyone going into this setting should know, if only for giggles, is that this was never intended to be an expansive setting containing ten or more games.  Ikusa Megami was intended as a one-off game and was competing with Venus Blood, of all things. 

However, to the people who played the game, the setting was incredibly attractive, and they sold well enough to justify a sequel, which was even more well-received (if only because the dungeon-crawler elements were toned down to normal jrpg levels). 

The basic setting of the world is that, far in the past, a technologically-advanced human world created a gate/tunnel linking a world full of magic and demihumans, for reasons that pretty much boil down to boredom and stagnation as a species due to excessive technological development.  Unfortunately, this accidentally caused the two worlds to begin to merge, causing a conflict between their denizens and their gods.

An important common element to note between the two worlds is that gods existed in both worlds, but the gods of the human world had mostly ceased intervening in mortal affairs openly long before, causing the near death of faith.  Since faith/belief is the source of all deities' power, the humans found themselves at a surprising disadvantage in the war, because their belief in their deities was almost nonexistent.  Worse, magic was quite capable of countering most of the advantages of human tech based on pure physics.

A faction of humanity chose to pursue the amalgamation of magic and tech, creating wonders and horrors (including artificial demons and gods), but over time (the war apparently lasted for generations), more and more humans switched sides, devoting themselves to gods on the other side, even as humanity's old gods were destroyed, sealed, or enslaved one by one.  By the end of the war, humanity was just another race, perhaps more numerous than the others, in the service of the 'Living Gods', and the 'Old Gods' were relegated to dusty legend and actively considered evil by most, if they weren't in the service of a Living God.  Human technology was, for the most part, wiped from the face of the new, merged world, and the only remnants can be found in ruins filled with monsters and/or automatic guardians.

The dominant deity of the new world is Marsterria, a minor war god who enslaved and killed more Old Gods than any other.  Most of his worshipers are humans, their prolific breeding and generations of faith having given him immense power.  His followers are often at odds with the protagonist of the Ikusa Megami series and nonhuman races, because of their excessive zealotry and broad determination of what species are considered 'dark races'. 

Conflict between dark gods and their servants and the gods of light and theirs is a normal part of the world of Dir Lifyna, with neutral regions and nations often becoming the battlegrounds for said followers as a result.  This is a world with a massive number of intelligent species, and that, in the end, is what makes it so much fun to look forward to each game, even if the flop ratio is over 50%, lol. 

Damn, it was hard to do that without spoiling anything.

Edit: It should be noted that demons, angels, nagas, and a few other races were actually coexisting with humanity but hidden due to their more direct service to deities in the original human world.  The nagas still maintain faith with old gods for the most part, and as a result, they are marginalized to an immense degree.  Most angels 'fell' or serve one of the Living Gods now (or both), and demons are a plague, with more summoned on occasion since demon summoning was one of the few magics that remained to humanity when the worlds met. 

12 Comments


Recommended Comments

6 hours ago, Kirashi said:

What do you mean when you say gods were enslaved? Plaything? Or were they forced to change side?

One example is the Cerberus, which has been enslaved along with a god of the dead (I can't remember which off the top of my head) to oversee the paths to various afterlifes.  Others include Marsterria's wives, which were all once goddesses of various pantheons.  Most of the male deities that are still around have either been sealed away, forced into roles like the current god of the underworld, or have lost most of their power.  A key element of the setting is the 'divine core', or the essence of what it is to be a deity.  This grants continuity and immortality to deities, as well as allowing them to choose divine champions to save from the ravages of time.  Demons also have one, but they gain energy from negative emotions or from taking life or energy from others (Tantric magic and killing both being easy ways to do so).  They also cannot share their immortality with others the way a deity can, because they aren't sustained by the faith of worshipers. 

A lot of the constant characters of the series are 'Shinkakusha', divine champions who gain freedom from age and immense power by having their souls bonded with a fragment of their deity's essence.  A harmless example of this are Serika's Disciples, who, in exchange for granting him energy through sex and their devotion, no longer suffer the standard ravages of mortal existence.

Most of the religions of the world are structured similarly to this 'Paladin/warrior priest<=Priest<High Priest<Shinkakusha<=Inhuman divine servants<deity.  The more powerful religions have more complex hierarchies, and local hierarchies sometimes trump the overall hierarchy.  However, that is generally the standard. 

Sorcery and magic are two differing types of powers.  Magic includes all power drawn from deities in exchange for faith, and it is generally easier to master than sorcery, while being less versatile.  It is not necessarily more powerful, though.  Sorcery is more of a science than an art, with sorcerers using rituals, contracts with demons, and various sources of power to fuel their spellcraft, which is not determined by alignment or affiliation.  To be more specific, a priest or paladin of the God of Travelers and Storms might be able to wield lightning, healing, and physical enhancement spells, but a sorcerer might be able to do that and just about anything else you can imagine, based on his studies and knowledge. 

Sorcery is also subject to side-effects and unpredictable consequences, since, unlike deities, sorcerers don't necessarily know everything about the forces they are using.  For example: A sorcerer uses a natural wellspring of power to fuel his experimentation with opening gates to other worlds, as a result, animals and people in the area are warped slowly or quickly over time into monsters. 

 

 

Link to comment
5 hours ago, mitchhamilton said:

i only know of kamidori and man do i want more of these to be tled. :vinty:

The problem is, that if you were to take away the gameplay entirely in IMZ (the best Eushully game so far), you'd still have something about on the same scale as Grisaia or Clannad in terms of text.  Not all of Eushully's games are like that, but the alternate paths and endings in some of them add up to a similar level. 

If you want to beg or start a project of your own, the ones that are worth playing/tling are IM Zero, IM Verita, Madou Koukaku, Meishoku no Reiki (yes, I did enjoy it, so screw me), and the Genrin series story-only version (Eien no Ikusa Hime, I think it was) released for free right before Verita's release.  The originals are horribly dated, and I don't recommend playing Tenbin until they get around to remaking II (as Tenbin was the first game's remake).  Kami no Rhapsody and possibly the newest one are the only ones made without any involvement from the central characters of the original series I honestly consider worth playing.  For some reason, the second Eushully starts experimenting with gameplay systems (going beyond basic srpg or rpg stuff) their talents wash out, and they go for weird gimmicks.  SofthouseChara has a similar problem... not only that, but for some reason, Eushully only hangs onto the worst of their writing staff, letting the good ones move on, hahaha.

Link to comment

IMZ>Genrin games or Eien no Ikusa Hime (free download)>Verita>Madou Koukaku (in retrospect, it is more fun to play this after playing Verita because of the Easter Eggs in both, even though the events actually occur right around the same time as the chronological midpoint of Zero and don't have direct impact on the IM story) or Tenbin> IM 2.

Link to comment
On 12/3/2018 at 1:37 AM, Clephas said:

Ikusa Megami was intended as a one-off game and was competing with Venus Blood, of all things.

But the first Ikusa Megami was released in 1999, while the first Venus Blood came out in 2007.

Link to comment

I'm very intrigued by Eushully's fantasy world. I've almost finished Kamidori, and am so far loving it. Not necessarily the story, but the gameplay and the world built around the story. I was wondering if its worth playing Ikusa Megami Zero with the current translation patch that is out? I haven't heard too many good things about it but reading how you've described the world really makes me want to read it regardless. Any suggestions?

Link to comment
1 hour ago, 00Roxas00 said:

I'm very intrigued by Eushully's fantasy world. I've almost finished Kamidori, and am so far loving it. Not necessarily the story, but the gameplay and the world built around the story. I was wondering if its worth playing Ikusa Megami Zero with the current translation patch that is out? I haven't heard too many good things about it but reading how you've described the world really makes me want to read it regardless. Any suggestions?

Unfortunately, it is a machine translation, so it isn't good at all.

Link to comment
15 minutes ago, Clephas said:

Unfortunately, it is a machine translation, so it isn't good at all.

That's a shame. Is there anyone else currently working on a TL patch?

Link to comment
On 2019. 02. 02. at 9:21 AM, 00Roxas00 said:

That's a shame. Is there anyone else currently working on a TL patch?

Well there is an edited version of the machine TL so it's readable at least. I enjoyed reading it, but I'm also the type that reads through grammatical or other type of errors :P Some people also say that the editor took some liberties in the translation, but it's not like there are any alternatives sadly.
Personally I think you are better of learning japanese and reading them yourself, then waiting for a TL. At least that is what I'm trying to do since I got bored of waiting -.-'

Link to comment
Guest
Add a comment...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...