Video Game / Remnants of Isolation

Remnants of Isolation is a Eastern RPG, made by a team consisting of Vermillion Nova, Unity RPG, and Sooz.

It's about a girl and a boy, Celesta and Melchior, respectively, who, as mages, drain the mana from the world around them, killing the world.

So, they're imprisoned in a castle, that is itself in another dimension, making that a Prison Dimension.

Celesta, was initially nameless, and she was imprisoned first, and Never Learned to Read. When she's inadvertently freed by Melchior, he names her after a celesta, due to her ability to summon a piano-like magical construct, and they team up to explore the castle together.

This game is available on RPGMaker.net for free, with a Updated Re-release available for a cost, on Steam.

This game provides examples of:

• Ancestral Weapon: In Steam version's Flavor Text of the imprisoned Melchior's Starter Equipment, the Trusty Axe labels it as one for him:
  A well-kept family heirloom. Looks like it won't be passed down to any future generations now.
• Blob Monster: The first enemies that can be encountered, are implied as they're called "Possessed Bloblets".
• Confused Question Mark: Multiple times from the Girl who would be named Celesta:
  • In the opening cutscene, she has a Pictorial Speech-Bubble of a question mark, after the door to her cell disappears.
  • When leaving her cage, she says a Pictorial Speech-Bubble when looking back to where the barrier was, presumably confused about its disappearance.
• Flavor Text: For basically every item, and some of them change between the Freeware Deluxe version, and the Steam Updated Re-release:
  • Trusty Axe:
    • Deluxe version:
      This was given to Melchior when he was a child. It is well kept, and polished to look like new.
    • Steam version:
      A well-kept family heirloom. Looks like it won't be passed down to any future generations now.
  • Steel Pipe:
    • Deluxe version:
      A small pipe. Not very effective, but at least it's something.
    • Steam version:
      Whatever this used to carry has left rust and stains. It's rough and brittle in your hands.
  • Leather Top, same between versions:
    Made with the best leather.
  • Worn-out Dress, same between versions:
    Provides minimal protection.
• Force Field: Invisible barriers keep Celesta and Melchior away from areas:
  • The first one kept Celesta in her cell.
  • The second barrier that is possible to encounter and beyond, are discussed with Celesta's thoughts being narrated, comparing them as similar to the ones that kept her in her cell. They're deactivated using switches scattered around the area.
• Heart of the Matter: There's something called the Heart of the Castle, that allows the castle that the game takes place in, to keep running. It's Celesta. It generates magic. Something though impossible, for a living being to do.
• Hit Points: Contracted to HP, and referenced in multiple menus:
  • The free version says that Healing Liquids restore 40% of it, directly in its item description.
  • All versions state consumables' effects while on the shop screen, showing the percentage of HP healed by such healing items.
• Life Drain: Celesta's Arcane Pulse does this. Healing exactly the amount of health the enemy lost. If the damage done is more than the enemy's remaining health, Celesta will heal by the amount of damage it took to bring the enemy to 0 Hit Points.
• Magic Music: Celesta's starting spell is creating a keyboard out of magic, then there's the final spells, "Dutiful Melody" and "Loyal Melody", with "Dutiful Melody" being described:
  Power flows into the melody through your fingers
• Mana: As said in the game's description:
  Magic is a curse. A plague upon the world and those that live in it. Those that are born with this curse unwittingly sap the mana from the earth they stand in. [... Mana is] the world's lifeblood
• Never Learned to Read: The girl who would be named Celesta, as said when examining the bookshelves in her cell:
  A huge library of books.
  But you were never taught how to read.
• Non-Damaging Status Infliction Attack: The Elemental Break type of Combination Attack, applies a weakness to the element used to combine into the attack instead of involving the elemental attack itself.
• Painting the Medium: When the Girl who would be named Celesta leaves her cage, the narration has a pause after the ellipsis in this narration, presumably to show surprise:
  The barrier that kept you here... It's gone!
• Percent-Based Values: In the Deluxe version, Healing Liquids are described as:
  Recovers 40% HP to a single character.
• Pictorial Speech-Bubble: Usually from Celesta, before her naming:
  • From the Girl who would be named Celesta:
    • In the opening cutscene, she has a one, of a Confused Question Mark, after the door to her cell disappears.
    • When she takes her first step out of her cage, she says an exclamation mark, presumably from surprise that the Force Field is gone and she can leave. Preceding that was narration that ended on a question mark:
      The barrier that kept you here... It's gone!
    • When leaving her cage, she says a Confused Question Mark when looking back to where the barrier was, presumably confused about its disappearance.
    • If she re-enters her cage after she leaves it, she says an exclamation mark, and then narration with an exclamation mark pops up:
      Suddenly, you feel a familiar pressure push down onto your chest. You are losing magic at an alarming rate!
      You have lost all your MP!
  • Melchior: He says a Sweat Drop after fighting a battle on the spur of land that houses the second lever of Sky Garden. Then, with his head down, he says:
    I... Oh man. Fighting on my own is rough!
    I need to get back to Celesta as soon as possible.
• Point of No Return: Celesta cannot return to her cell with Melchior once they team up, she does eventually re-enter the cell's room, but not the cell itself. So the books inside her cell can never be read.
• The Power of Love: Referenced in one of the final spells, Melchior's, "Loyal Melody":
  Love can reach across any distance, any world, and any dimension.
• Prison Dimension: As said in the game's description, the setting of the game is "a castle in an isolated dimension", and it's meant to imprison mages.
• Signature Instrument: Celesta's starting spell is creating a keyboard out of magic.
• Status Infliction Attack: The Elemental Break type of Combination Attack makes the targeted enemy weak to the element used as a component of the combination.
• Supernatural Sealing: Celesta's final spell, "Dutiful Melody" to do this to the castle, as its description says: "Permanently seal away the castle." where most of the story takes place, so it can't harm anyone else, and explained more in the cutscene after casting:
  Power flows into the melody through your fingers, wrapping the Castle of the Forsaken in an impenetrable solitude.
• Tile-Flipping Puzzle: In the Prison Of Flesh, Melchior must manipulate a series of about 10 switches, that control the positions of neighboring switches, and a corresponding bridge's sections' existence or non-existence.
• Updated Re Release: The Steam version has custom monster graphics, instead of using standard RPG Maker monster assets, some different map tilings, and new Flavor Text for some items, instead of purely functional text.
• The X of Y: Remnants of Isolation

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