"An ancient colossus in an ancient desert. None have seen it and lived."
— HP Lovecraft, Commonplace Book}'
The Lost Page is the first released game in the Chronicles of Chronicles series, first released in October 2021 exclusively for PC. The game was developed in about two weeks using the RPG Maker MV software for a game jam event held on rpgmaker.net.
The story follows Treck, a wandering adventurer who travels the barren wastes of a world he never knew, a once-prosperous civilization ravaged to oblivion by a calamity known as the crimson meteor, an event that destroyed much of the land and spread horrific monsters called terrors everywhere, who began to maim and slaughter anyone who survived the initial impact of the meteor. Treck along with his trusty companion, the dog Izzy, travels across the world helping anyone he needs and slaying terrors on the way. However, on his way to the desert settlement of the Last Bastion, he learns of a creature terrorizing the locals: a stone colossus named Karkal who’s gaze can turn any living being to stone. Treck decides to journey into the dangerous Selice Ruins in order to confront and slay the beast, and he will need as much help as he can get as the ruins are no joke with greater and more vicious horrors waiting in the darkness the deeper Treck journeys into the depths. Will Treck make it out alive, or will he become just another statue? What is the origin of Karakal? Where did it come from? What is the plan of the mysterious dragon known only as Kairos, who slumbers deep within the nearby caves? These questions and more will be answered, but only if you are willing to gaze into the abyss…
The game features a battle system inspired by Octopath Traveler and many horror elements, and is generally very difficult. There is also a host of optional side quests you can take part in, some of them being required for the best ending.
You can find the game here
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Chronicles: The Lost Page provides examples of:
- And I Must Scream: The fate of Treck and his allies in the bad ending, being turned to stone for eternity. Thank God Kairos undoes it with the power of time travel.
- An Ice Person: Treck can learn an ice elemental rune and Vivian can learn an ice elemental spell. (Rexfrost.)
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- The game tells you whenever you learn a new skill when leveling up.
- Upon getting the bad ending, the game clearly tells you what you are supposed to do (either equip the crystal ring or help the old lady)
- Also upon getting the bad ending, the game rewinds back to before you entered the final dungeon so you can try again.
- Upon repeatedly losing a battle, the game starts you with max HP, AP, and BP when you retry the fight.
- The game warns you when fighting the Rusted Jailer boss that you must defeat it in three turns, or it will use a super powerful attack.
- Badass Family: The Satori Family Line.
- Battle Theme Music
- The game has four boss themes. The standard boss theme, the optional boss theme, the Mundas phase 2 theme, and the final boss theme. All of them are rips, with the first two themes being fanmade music from YouTube, the Mundas phase 2 theme is a Music/Siivagunner rip, and the final boss theme is a music rip from Sonic Forces.
- The game only has one standard battle theme, being a rip from the obscure visual novel Sorcery Joker.
- Continuity Nod:
- Mundas is actually the retainer of Chili. Yes, the same Chili from Crypt Challenge DX+.
- Kairos appears here, nearly 1000 years before he plays a major role in Chronicles Meteorfall.
- Whenever there is money to be made, Anna can be found.
- Izzy is a major sidequest character in Chronicles Meteorfall, and her quest involves recovering Treck's burial goods.
- Critical Hit: You can land critical hits with physical attacks. Enemies on the other hand cannot land critical hits unless they are sentient.
- Damage Reduction: How defensive stats (DEF and RES) work in this series. Instead of reducing damage by a flat amount, defensive stats reduce damage based on a percentage that starts with heavy scaling but as the stat gets higher the reduction gets lower. Damage piercing skills pierce through this damage reduction.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The "shadow" weapons and armor are the strongest gear in the game, obtained by refining the "old" weapons and armor at the shrine of darkness. Along with that Vivian has access to a dark elemental spell, "Rexdark."
- Deus ex Machina: A classical example where Kairos, an angelic dragon deity, intervenes to give Treck the Crystal Ring so he can defeat Karakal, who was also placed by a deity in an inappropriate part of the timeline in order to kill off the satori family line.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Vivian can learn an earth-elemental spell and Treck can learn an earth elemental rune.
- Downer Ending: You forgot to equip the Crystal Ring before fighting Karkal? Or you ignored the old lady to continue on the main quest? Well then TOO BAD, you got the bad ending. Now Treck is turned to stone and the timeline is forever ruined. Thank god you have Kairos to bail you out...
- Early Game Hell: Not right in the beginning, but specifically at the point right before you enter the game's main dungeon. If you decide to do the Chimera Den at that point, which is required for the true ending, you will in for a ringer with difficult enemies (for that point of the game) and the absolutely HELLISH fight with the Antlion Twins, the second hardest fight in the game after Mundas if not THE hardest. God forbid you run into the dreaded "Merrum," the strongest enemy in the entire game. The Forsaken Chasm is even harder, though thankfully you only have to do the first floor and there's no boss, only VERY strong enemies that you pretty much have to run away from unless you want to instantly die.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: You must have the crystal ring equipped when fighting the final boss in order to get the good ending. To get the best ending, it's even harder.
- Elemental Powers: Both Treck and Vivian have access to elemental skills, Treck with his elemental runes to empower his attacks with elemental follow ups and Vivian with her traditional elemental spells.
- Enemy Scan: You can use the Magnify Glass item to scan one enemy for all their weaknesses.
- Escape Rope: The teleport stones instantly bring you back to the Last Bastion if you're stuck somewhere.
- Eternal English: Characters speak the same language as they do 1,000 years in the future in Chronicles Meteorfall.
- Experience Booster: The Paragon Ring boosts EXP gained.
- Famed In-Story: Treck is known throughout the lands devastated by the crimson meteor as a legendary monster hunter who helps anyone struggling with the recent influx of never before seen vicious creatures known as terrors.
- Fetch Quest: The quest for the item hidden in the Forsaken Cavern in order to unlock Vivian as a party member.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Karakal, a monster that has been displaced in time to cause chaos to the time stream.
- Game Over: Happens when you die with a relatively simplistic screen, even allowing you to retry the fight when you fail. Losing to Karakal has no such luxury.
- Gender Bender: Kairos disguises himself as an old lady in order to test Treck.
- Golden Ending: The true ending, obtained by recruiting Vivian and defeating Mundus that was added in v1.4.
- Greater-Scope Villain: This time it is Nyako, an incarnation of primordial CHAOS who seeks to send the timeline out of wack due to the summoning of Karakal, a chaos monster from outside the flow of time.
- Guide Dang It!!: There is no indicator that the Shrine of Darkness exists besides a single crack in the wall that leads to a secret invisible platform leading there.
- Hell Is That Noise: An incredibly creepy theme plays in the lower floors of the Selice Ruins. It is actually a slowed down and distorted version of the final boss theme of Pac-Man World 2.
- Heroes Love Dogs: Treck loves his companion dog Izzy.
- Immune to Fate: Karakal's whole gimmick in the story is that since it is a creation outside of the bounds of reality, it is immune to the flow of destiny and thus has the ability to drastically alter the timeline. It also can't be destroyed by someone like Kairos, the seraphim of time who keeps watch over the timestream, which is why Kairos has to make a pact with Treck so that Treck can stop Karakal for him.
- Inexplicable Treasure Chests: Treasure chests can be found everywhere in the game's main dungeon and even in the overworld.
- Jump Scare: Karakal does one when you encounter him. It's also very possible the ghosts will give you a scare too since they move so fast, especially before 1.4 where they move so extremely fast and unpredictably making it a sheer chance if you encounter them or not.
- Kill It with Fire: One of the first runes Treck learns is a fire one, and one of Vivian's spells is fire elemental.
- Kill It with Water: Treck gets a water rune and Vivian gets a water spell (Rexwater) later in the game once they level up enough.
- Life Drain: Certain weapons have the ability to drain enemies HP, AP, or both when attacking them
- Limitbreak: Each character has one, called a "Divine Art."
- Treck's divine art is "Elemental Arcanum," dealing elemental damage to all foes 6 times, each time using a different element.
- Izzy has "Giga Impact,* dealing severe physical damage to one foes that pierces 30% of DEF.
- Vivian has "Chainspell" which allows her magick to be used twice in a row instead of once.
- Lovecraft Lite: Despite being based on a prompt by Lovecraft in his commonplace book, the game has a happy ending and while spooky, is still hopeful unlike Lovecraft’s cosmic nihilism
- Magikarp Power: The “Rusted/Old” weapons, if brought into the final dungeon, can be upgraded into the strongest gear in the game.
- Making a Splash: Treck gets a water rune and Vivian gets a water spell (Rexwater) later in the game once they level up enough.
- Mecha-Mooks: Robotic enemies can be found deep in the final dungeon, and the boss Rusted Jailer is a robot as well.
- Money Multiplier: The Golden Ring doubles the amount of Bx (currency) you get from battles.
- Multiple Endings: Three of them.
- Good Ending: Karakal is defeated and peace is restored to the land. Requires fighting and defeating the final boss with the crystal ring equipped.
- True Ending: Treck and Vivian have many children, birthing a long line of legendary heroes. Unlocked by recruiting Vivian and defeating Mundas.
- Bad Ending: Attempt to fight Karakal without the crystal ring. Treck gets turned to stone and the timeline is doomed, forcing Kairos to rewind things.
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Nintendo Hard: The game definitely qualifies as this, especially the 1.0 release before more party members were added. Unless you plan out your strategy near perfectly, you WILL die against the boss and will continue to do so until you completely master the fight. - Really 700 Years Old: An NPC in the Last Bastion mentions how he's thousands of years old.
- Roaming Enemy: The four Pac-Man ghosts and Karakal all apply.
- Secret Character: To recruit Vivian as a party member you are required to complete a hidden side quest in the Forsaken Cavern bonus dungeon and then return the item you found there to a random shopkeeper, who reveals herself as Vivian.
- Single-Target Sexuality: Vivian is attracted to Treck, HARD.
- Shock and Awe: Treck can learn a thunder-elemental rune and Vivian can learn a thunder-elemental spell, Rexthunder.
- Shout-Out: Many of them, as per usual in a Krimson Katt game.
- Kairos as usual is a reference to the dragon of the same name from Dragonvale.
- Jim and Pim are references to Radiant Historia.
- The way Karakal is introduced is nearly identical to Uboa from Yume Nikki or WD Gaster from Undertale.
- Anna from the Fire Emblem series appears.
- The names of Vivan's spells is also a reference to Fire Emblem.
- The ghosts from Pac-Man appear as optional enemies.
- A Linkin Park song plays during the second phase of the Mundas fight. Mundas even references the song's lyrics during the battle's dialogue.
- The battle system is taken directly from Octopath Traveler.
- Treck's class is also based on a class from Octopath Traveler, the "Runeblade" class.
- Many of Izzy's skills are based on moves from Pokémon.
- The Man Behind the Man: Nyako, the incarnation of CHAOS, is the one behind the summoning of Karakal as revealed in the Bad Ending.
- Time Police: Kairos and his "children" act as this, only letting beings time travel under their approval. How Karakal got through their watch is a mystery, especially since Karakal has no origin point from which it came from.
- Time Rewind Mechanic: If you get the bad ending, Kairos rewinds you back to before you entered the final dungeon.
- Time Travel Taboo: Time travel is considered "forbidden magick" in the world of Chronicles, the highest and darkest form of magick that is so powerful that it can and will destroy the world when cast. Examples of other forbidden magick include "Vioflux", a spell that distorts another's form into an all-consuming unspeakable terror of tendrils and extremities that corrupts and assimilates all who come in contact with it and "Curse of Extinction", a spell that unravels and erases all of reality. That's how serious a time-travel spell like "Chronos Break" is, literally reality destroying.
Kairos: With the paradox beast defeated, its fell curse faded from the world, its mark forever removed. The goddess of chaos’ plan foiled, the world continues down its natural path, fated to destruction by His hand. While the essence of the world has been greatly injured by the calamities of the past, humanity will endure, living on for millenia to come. For as long as brave men fight against the growing darkness, there will always be a light to shine through, no matter how deep the darkness becomes. For this has been fated by the divine.\\
