The Last Kaiser - Part 1/????

Note: Hey guys!  This was a random story idea I came up with a few days back, and I felt like giving it a spin!  Let me know what you think in the comments below!

The Last Kaiser - Part 1 - Time to Get a Watch

To begin, we must start at the beginning, not of our age but of theirs.  Far outside of the Milky Way, in a realm never explored by man before, there exists a galaxy known as "Xlonjr".   It is a much smaller galaxy than most, with only a single planets outside of a sun and moon.

Now, on the planet simply known as "Kaol", there existed a race of living beings, people like us.  I say "was" because that was indeed the truth of the statement at the time.  The planet was filled with vicious creatures, and the race did not survive for long.  It lasted for a total of 100 years in our time, before the entire race became extinct due to how superior the other inhabitants were.  It was truly a case of what we call "survival of the fittest".

With that in mind, you may be wondering about this out-of-universe tale I spoke of, or if I even have a tale to tell.  Well, at one time that would have been the case, but time itself is in fact the reason that I have a tale to tell.  For in another dimension there is another race known only as the "Mardoxx".

The Mardoxx are hard to describe, for even though I have learnt much about them I still know so very little.  They are like no race I could have ever dreamed of.   These unique being do not live in the dimension we know as "time", but somehow exist outside of it. 

These beings are deeply in-tune with some strange force that in our world we would call "magic", some strange mythical power through which they were great beings.

With the ability to remain outside of time and look at it from an outward perspective, they felt great pity for the people of Koal.  While the people showed intelligence and dexterity, they simply could not stand against the greater forces that their home contained.  The race didn't have the time it needed to develop, and great potential was lost.  And so the Mardoxx came up with a way to save them.

Using their mythical powers, they sent of the first of many saviors, Sariah. She was one of the strongest Mardoxx, and agreed to assist with the growth of the people.  Sent back to the beginning ages of the race, she came as their leader, and the people welcomed the leadership with open arms.  The race then existed for another 200 years, until the death of Sariah, whom now affected by the dimension of time aged unto death.  Then the race of people, still not fully developed, once again fell to destruction.

Pleased by the success of Sariah, the Mardoxx began sending more of their people, each one extending the planet's existence by about 200 years.  The people continually accepted their new leaders, and their saviors became known as Kaisers.  The Kaisers led the people with great courage and wisdom, and the people revered them for it.  

However, after over 5000 years of the race's existence, the Mardoxx began to grow impatient.  While the people grew in intelligence, so did other life on the planet.  Like a never-ending cycle, once the Kaisers stopped coming, the people disappeared in a mere few years.  Around 7500 years the other creatures actually began to develop faster than the people the Kaiser , they began to believe the race was truly hopeless.  After 10,000 years even the Kaisers could not save the people any longer.  They felt like the race had a good existence, and sent the last of the Kaisers, and left the race to it's demise, deciding to move onto other matters.

But even that isn't the end of the story.  I could tell you the history of the Kaisers, of the 10,000 years of the planet's existence, but there is a great tale to tell.  For when the Mardoxx though their connection with Kaol was over, they couldn't have been further from the truth.  The real tale I have to tell starts at the end, with the Last Kaiser, Shiron.

_________________________________________________________________________

Talia sighed as she opened the curtains, revealing once again the twilight in the sky.  How long had it been there?  Months?  Years?  She didn't know, they lost track of the days a while ago, and she didn't even know when.  The ruinous landscape hadn't changed much either, though there did appear to be a few more dead bodies lying around.  What had they done to deserve this?

She decided not to dwell on it and instead focus on the job at hand.  A maid's work was never done, after all.  She showered, combed her blue hair, then put on the traditional blue and black dress custom among servants of her rank.  After a bit of thought, she decided the first task of the day would be to find where the draft was coming from in the throne room. Talia sighed again as she began the incredibly interesting task of staring at walls for an hour trying to find out where the cold air was coming from.

"Talia, why on Kaol are you staring at that wall?"

Talia almost jumped.  Recognizing the voice, she immediately spun around and quickly curtsied, feeling rather embarrassed.

"K-Kaiser!  G-good morning, my lord, you're up unusually early!"

The young man sitting on the throne laughed.  

"Geez, I would've thought after knowing me for so long you wouldn't completely ignore me like that!  Honestly, you passed right in front of me about four times!"

"M-my apologies sire, I meant no disrespect."

He laughed again.  "What's with all the respectful words, Talia?  It's a bit unusual for you to be THIS much of a suck-up.   I mean, yeah I'm Kaiser, but you've been my best maid for what, nineteen er...actually, how many years has it been?"

"As long as you've been here, I believe."

"Yeah, good enough," he said, yawning and stretching out over his throne.  Talia couldn't help but giggle seeing the "Great and Powerful Shiron" sprawled out in such an undignified manner.  While it was true that he was still in his younger days as a Kaiser, having only been around for about 20 years, he was still a bit unusual.  Very stubborn, very cocky, and always ready to start a fight.  He looked the part too: long yet spiked white hair, royal yet stained purple, strange markings all over his body that looked more like tattoos than runic symbols, he was truly one-of a kind.

"So, what do we have for breakfast?" Shiron said, playing around with his massive sword.

Talia sighed.  "Unfortunately, we have very little right now, the suppliers haven't been able to give us anything for awhile due to the recent monster infestation outside the castle."

Shiron stood up. "Well then, why don't we go hunting?  Kill some of those freaks, clear out the front of the castle, and have a delicious feast with their meat afterwards!"

"I really would advise otherwise Kaiser...they've been increasingly resistant to the Kaisers for the last few centuries, I'm not sure even you could handle a whole army of them."

"Nonsense, I can take em' all on!  Other Kaisers may have had trouble, but I'm the greatest Kaiser ever!  Ain't nobody that can stop the 'Great and Poweful Shiron!"

Talia grew desperate.  "Please, don't go!  At least for my sake if for not your own..."

His excitement quickly turned to that of disappointment, and he sat down.  As Talia gave a sigh of relief, she noticed that once again something seemed off about Shiron.  Even though he was rather unusual, he'd been increasingly impatient lately, sometimes even depressed.  Perhaps now was the time to talk about it.

"You alright, sire?"  She said, walking over to him.

"Eh?  Yeah, I'm fine..." he said, now looking even more frustrated than before.

She put her hand on his and smiled.  "You can tell me what's on your mind, Kaiser, I'll do everything I can to hel-"

"STOP CALLING ME KAISER!!!!"  He said, banging his hands on the armrests, Talia pulling her hand out of the way just in time, and the whole castle shook.  

They both stared at the ground in silence for a what seemed like hours.  Then, much to her surprise, Shiron stood up with a very serious look on his face.

"...Shiron?" 

"I...am no Kaiser.  The Kaisers were great and powerful leader, respected and loved by all.  They had millions of admirers, massive kingdoms, and stood in the frontlines of many glorious battles.  Every single one of them is in the history books, filled with stories, legends, songs, some even receiving worship."

His fists began to tremble.

"And yet here I am, living in a crumbling castle, watching the world fall apart around me while I can do nothing but sit and watch.  There won't be stories about me, there won't be songs, there won't be legends; no one will be alive to write them.  I have no admirers, all of them are dead."

Through rage and to the great surprise of Talia, he tore the throne right out of the floor, and threw it through the closed window, shattering it and falling down the mountain.

"I DESERVED NO LESS THAN THEM!!!!  I AM SHIRON, THE GREAT AND POWERFUL KAISER!!!   WHY MUST I BE CURSED TO LIVE THIS PATHETIC EXISTENCE!!!  I AM JUST AS STRONG AS THE REST!!!  I DESERVE TO BE ADORED!!!  I DESERVE TO BE FEARED!!!  I DESERVE TO BE HONORED!!!  I DESERVE A REAL KINGDOM!!!  I DESERVE TO BE A REAL KAISER!!!"

Talia stood in absolute shock as she watched her friend in so much rage that his sweat was like drops of blood.  She'd never seen him like this before.  Depressed, sure, mad, sure, but never to this degree.  What should she say?  She tried, but no words would come.  All she could do was stare in sorrow.

"I...I'm sorry, Talia."  Shiron said, looking down.  "I didn't want to put this impossible burden on you."

Talia tried her best to give a smile, despite feeling everything but happy.  "I...I'm sorry you had to be sent to this cursed time, Shiron.  You're right, you didn't deserve this.  But there's nothing we can do about it.  All we can do is just keep moving on, and hope for the best..."

She looked towards him fearing she had said the wrong thing.  Her fear turned to immediate shock.  His previously distressed face now had an incredibly large smile.  In fact, it almost looked like he was laughing.  Then she began to hear it.  The laughter grew and grew in volume, and suddenly the whole castle began to shake once again.  It became so loud that Talia closed her eyes and put as much pressure on her ears as possible to protect them from becoming damaged.  

As everything began to calm down, Talia looked up once again, and the man that was nearly crumbling apart in rage was now smiling with determination, looking brighter than she had ever remember him being before.

"Shiron...you okay?"

Shiron laughed.  "Okay!?  I have never been this happy in my whole life!!!  I've finally found it, the answer to both of our problems, I'VE THOUGHT OF A WAY WHERE WE CAN LIVE THE LIFE BOTH OF US HAVE BEEN DESTINED TO LIVE OUR WHOLE LIVES!!!!"

"What are you saying!?" Talia said, trying to comprehend exactly what he was talking about.

"Time!!!  Just as my people manipulated time to fulfill their desires, so shall we!!!  We will travel back in time and take what is rightfully ours!!!"

"Are you suggesting we go back to a happier time?"

"Not merely just returning to the glory days, we'll defeat one of the Kaisers and rule the time that we were destined to have!!!"

Talia's head was swirling with various emotions, both positive and negative.  "Are you suggesting we take out one of the previous Kaisers!?"

Shiron laughed.  "Exactly!!!  If I defeat one of the previous Kaisers, it will prove once and for all that I am the superior Kaiser and deserve to rule in their place!!!"

"You sure you can do this?  I mean, can you really travel back in time?"
"We Kaisers have had the power to do so for as long as I can remember, though none of them had the guts to use it."

Talia giggled.  It might be because messing with time is known to typically not be a good idea...and yet maybe it was.  She had to admit, as crazy as the idea sounded, it also felt so...right.  To live in a time where there was peace and prosperity, where there were other people she could talk to and have fun with, where everything was once right in the world...the idea had a lot of promise.  It's not like she could stop him anyways, he WAS Kaiser after all.

"If you truly think this is for the best, sire, then you have my full support." She said, giving a curtsy of respect.  

Shiron laughed once more as he lifted up his great sword in victory.  His future awaited within the past.

Rune Factory Series Review

Runefactory, one of the most unique "live a life" series out there.  It all began when they decided to take the original Harvest Moon series in a bit of a different direction, and what resulted were 4 games of complete awesomeness.  What was originally merely living the life of a farmer became an epic tale of legendary monsters, tons of colorful characters, and the constant search to prevent the seemingly unavoidable case of amnesia.  

To sum up Runefactory quickly so I can move on, essentially imagine the Harvest Moon series mixed with monsters, swords, magic, and adventure.  If for some reason you don't know what Harvest Moon is, then look up Runefactory on google or something, because it will take WAY too long to explain otherwise.

This is the first of my "series" reviews, in which I review an entire series of games, comparing them to one another and presenting their faults and weaknesses.  Now, I will mostly be covering MAIN games in the series, meaning unusual games or spinoffs will typically not be covered.  For example, I am not covering either of the Wii games of the series, as they work quite a bit differently and have almost nothing to do with the main plot of these 4 games.  What I am covering is each of the 4 Runefactory games, 3 on DS and 1 on 3DS.  Without further ado, here we go!

Terrable (RF1)



No, this game is NOT actually terrible, it's name of the first elder dragon just...gah, why do they have to make this difficult for me? T.T

Being the first game of the series and based off of Harvest Moon, this one is definitely the most similar to the original series.  Your main goals are to make money by farming, make friends with the townsfolk, and get married with the added goal of adventuring.  As such, this game has all the positives of the pre-3DS Harvest Moon games as well as most of the negatives.



The characters have more rural and traditional characters and appearances, which can be a positive or a negative, depending on how you look at it.  Raguna, the protagonist of RF1, like all the other RF protagonsits, have amnesia and have very similar personalities.  He doesn't exactly have any particularly interesting traits, but since he's you it kind of makes sense why that is.  There are a few weird characters here, but most of them are traditional Harvest Moon types.

This game suffers horribly compared to one major thing that every other game has: the request board.  The Request Board is essentially RF's version of quests, where you can do things for other characters, get rewards, learn more about them, and become better friends. It's an excellent tool for character development, which is why it hurts this game so bad compared to the others.  While they all have their own personalities, they don't change what they say that often and can be much more bland than in other games.   Also, the controls can be an issue occasionally, and the weapons are all over the place in terms of usability.

That being said, this game isn't bad.  In fact, it possesses some unique traits compared to other games, possibly due to it's old roots.  For one, this is the only game where every girl requires different paths to marry, some of them requiring items that will prevent you from marrying other females.  Even though it might seem like more of a hassle, it feels more realistic, and is one of the ways in which character development IS shown within this game.

Another positive this game has compared to others is length and difficulty level.  This is the second hardest RF game and has the most dungeons.  One particular similarity to Harvest Moon that helps is that this is the simplest RF to play, and the easiest to pick up and put down at any time.  

Is it the best RF?  Heck no, it might be the worst, but it's actually a pretty good game.  It mainly looks bad comparing it to later titles, but for what it is, it still holds up as a fun game.  

Fiersome (RF2)



Runefactory 2, the strange game of the series.  In the middle of a transition from Harvest Moon to becoming something completely new, RF2 is a game that makes a lot of changes, most of which never make it onto future games but are still pretty neat changes.  But first, onto the characters.



One thing to mention immediately that sets this game apart from every other game is that this game goes through 2 generations: Kyle, the main protagonist, and his son or daughter, making this also the first game where you can choose the gender of a character.  The characters are certainly more interesting this time around, especially with the addition of the Request Board.  The characters aren't quite the level of interest as 3, but certainly a step up from 1.  

What is possibly the biggest and weirdest change to the series is how you play through the game.  The entire first generation plays almost IDENTICALLY to Harvest Moon.  No plot, no major enemy or goal, just living the life of a adventuring farmer.  However, once you get married and have a child, the entire game changes.  Not only does crafting of weapons and armor return from the first game during the second generation, but this is also where plot actually starts happening and you have to figure out where your father disappeared to and what the Sech Empire has to do with all of this.  This change work surprisingly well, as it allows you to just relax and have fun for the first half of the game, and then dive into the story during the second half.  

The change in combat is also welcome.  The only difference between the combat of this game and others is that this is only game to feature a "dodge" move, but it still has quite a few combat improvements compared to RF1.   

This game is certainly a step up from RF1, and even though the next two are amazing games, RF2 has a charm to it and I can easily see it being someone's favorite.  


Aquaticus (RF3)



Runefactory 3, what might be in my opinion and the opinion of my friends the BEST Runefactory there is.  RF3 was the game where the developers finally figured out what the series was supposed to be, and created what is in my opinion one of the best rpgs of all time PERIOD.




What make this game so awesome is completely due to the characters.  This picture might get that across to you immediately, and that's just the marriage options of the game.  Every character is unique and interesting: a mermaid with a hatred for squid and childish personality, a witch who loves being a doctor so much that she'll give people disaeses just so she can cure them, a brother and sister that love each other so much that it's almost a legitimate ship, a family in which opposite day is EVERY day, it just doesn't end!   Every character has a place and purpose, is developed well through conversation and requests, and truly makes this game awesome.

The plot formula returns to normal where it goes throughout the whole game, and they also hit the mark on combat, finally making every weapon different yet balanced, making combat enjoyable and challenging.  This game also had awesome mutliplayer, which RF2 had as well, but was polished in RF3 along with everything else I could rave about this game for awhile if I had the time to do so.

The only thing I can say would be even close to a flaw would be that this is probably the easiest game of the franchise, especially with the way multiplayer works.  However, this a very minor gripe, and might not even be worth calling a flaw.  

This game is awesome, and if you see it in the gamestop used section, I HIGHLY recommend purchasing it if you have the means.  

Ventuswill (RF4)



Rune Factory 4, what is possibly the last game of the series isn't too different from the previous game, but why should it be?  Beyond having a change of characters, plot, and location, the game plays near identically to RF3, which isn't only reasonable but makes this game just as awesome if not moreso than RF3.  

There are only two big differences between RF4 and RF3 gameplay-wise.  For an unknown reason, multiplayer was completely removed, which is hard to avoid calling a flaw even if done to keep it from being easy.  It's just like Phantasy Star Universe not having character creation: it's such a bad change from the previous games that it feels like a major flaw.

However, this game makes up for such a big flaw with a massive gain as well.  This is not only the longest Rune Factory game with the most plot, but also the most difficult of the series.  It's the only game where you almost need party members to beat it, and the challenge is certainly welcome.



So yeah, this series is awesome, you should totally play it.  I will end this review by posting some random RF comics I found.