Seraphic Blue

Seraphic Blue (セラフィック・ブルー) is a freeware, console-style RPG made by a Japanese amateur game designer Tempura (天ぷら), also known as Sakaki (榊). The game was released over the Internet on 15 May 2004, and it has since become a popular (yet controversial) Japanese RPG-Maker game.

Seraphic Blue appears to be under heavy influence of 90s mainstream JRPGs (like so many RM games) but not without its own twist. Players follow the linear story told through cutscences with occasional breaks wherein feature dungeon-crawling and combat. Cutscenes are usually long, so much so that some of them can last more than an hour. Sidequests are few and far between in this game. Estimated time from start to completion is 50–55 hours.

The story is long and complex, and touches on dark and serious subjects like nihilism, suicide, and war. The game offers an extensive in-game glossary which updates frequently as the story progresses. In addition to a Glossary, there is a recap function which allows you to recall events from earlier chapters and a destination option which will show the player where to go next or what to do if they come back from a long time away from the game and are lost. Abundant use of kanji is one of the characteristics of Tempura's writing, which some find to be pretentious and hard to read.