Elminage
Elminage is a series of Japanese fantasy role-playing video games published by Starfish SD since 2008. They are Dungeon Crawler RPGs in the tradition of the Wizardry series. It is one of the most well-regarded series in this genre.
Introduction
The Wizardry series had a deep influence on Japanese game Role-playing game design since its introduction. There are many Wizardry-clones made by Japanese game developers in this era. The Elminage series is known for its quality and especially game-balance. The original series consists of two games, Elminage: Yami no Miko to Kamigami no Yubiwa in 2008, and Elminage II: Sousei no Megami to Unmei no Daichi in 2010.The original release of Elminage and the subsequence release Elminage II on PlayStation Portable were well received by fans. After the development of these two games, Komiyama Daisuke, who was tasked with the series' main producing, scenario writing, monster design and game system design had been laid off the project and eventually forced to leave the company Star-fish SD. Before that he had organized a petition among the development team for the company to delay the release of the Elminage II game and provide the staff with more reasonable amount of resources for the game development.
The departure of series producer Komiyama had fans worried about the future releases, as Elminage III was already going through the last stage of development. It was eventually released on PlayStation Portable in 2011. The last release of the main series was Elminage Gothic in 2013 on Nintendo 3DS.
Reception
The original release of Elminage had scored an A rank among 19 user reviews on the Japanese peer-review Nintendo DS ranking site ndsmk2.net, making it one of the most well-regarded games in the Role-playing game genre on the site. The direct sequel Elminage II on PlayStation Portable had score a S rank among 34 user, averaging a score of 84 on the Japanese PSP peer-review site pspmk2.net, making it the most highly scored and ranked game in the Role-playing game genre on the site.Elminage III was released in 2011 on PlayStation Portable and the reception was mixed. Critics praised the game's keeping of the class freedom and atmosphere, but the game balance had suffered and there are various minor polishing issues. The last release of the main series, Elminage Gothic, was released in 2013 to mixed reception. Fans had the impression that the world-view of the series was denied somewhat in that the text writing had little to no reference anymore to the past releases.
Releases
The series consists of 4 games in the main series and one spin-off.''Main series''
Elminage (エルミナージュ 〜闇の巫女と神々の指輪〜)
Elminage: Yami no Miko to Kamigami no Yubiwa was developed by Opera House and released by Starfish SD in Japan in March 2008 for the PlayStation 2.Elminage DS Remix: Yami no Miko to Kamigami no Yubiwa was developed by Opera House and released by Starfish SD in Japan in November 2008 for the Nintendo DS.
Elminage Original was developed and released by Starfish SD in Japan in 2011 and by UFO Interactive Games in the United States in 2012 and in Europe in 2013 for the PlayStation Portable. It received mixed or average reviews in the West.
An enhanced HD port Elminage ORIGINAL - Priestess of Darkness and The Ring of the Gods was released onto PC via Steam on 29 November 2017 by publisher D3Publisher. It accumulated Very Positive reviews on the platform.
Elminage II (エルミナージュII 〜双生の女神と運命の大地〜)
Elminage II: Sousei no Megami to Unmei no Daichi was developed by Opera House and released by Starfish SD in Japan in 2009 for the PlayStation Portable.Elminage II DS Remix: Sousei no Megami to Unmei no Daichi was developed and released by Starfish SD in Japan in July 2010 for the Nintendo DS.
Elminage III (エルミナージュIII 〜暗黒の使徒と太陽の宮殿〜)
Elminage III: Ankoku no Shito to Taiyou no Kyuuden was developed by Opera House and released by Starfish SD in Japan in 2011 for the PlayStation Portable. It was later released on the 3DS in Japan in 2017.Elminage Gothic (エルミナージュ ゴシック 〜ウルム・ザキールと闇の儀式〜)
Elminage Gothic: Ulm Zakir to Yami no Gishiki was developed and released by Starfish SD in Japan in 2012 for the PlayStation Portable. A Windows port of this version was announced for Western release by Ghostlight in 2014 and released on September 18, 2014.Elminage Gothic 3DS Remix: Ulm Zakir to Yami no Gishiki was developed by Starfish SD and released in September 2013 for the Nintendo 3DS.