Roughly translated, ‘Re:Kuroi‘ means “Regarding:Black.” This is a game in early access by developer ‘ecoddr’ and are currently looking for a publisher to help them put out their game so the game is kind of in hiatus it seems as of now. Unfortunately for English speakers, it is currently only available in Japanese but it is free to play – this goes the same for the original ‘Hibikake no Kiseki.’ So even if you don’t understand it, you still might have some playing it.

This game is actually a continuation of the aforementioned “Hibikakeiro no Kiseki” which again is free to download on steam or as standalone software. I have not yet played the first one but judging by the screenshots and summary, it is a different set of characters that takes place in the original with similar gameplay and possibly different story. Regardless, allow me to roughly translate their steam page while adding some information as well

STORY:
“It is a story about magic users fighting ‘monsters’ that suddenly appear out of nowhere”

“The bullied young man, Kaito, meets various magic users of which they hold different jobs or status positions in life such as a part-time teacher, a waitress, an ex-veteran, and an informer of the unusual. A result of a mixture of their respective feelings and ways of life lie in wait ahead….”

Basically, you play as Kaito. A bullied young man who attends an ex-magic school where magic is not necessarily taught…except he knows how to use magic anyways. From there, you will first meet Mary, a part-time teacher who knows how to use magic too.

[We’re out of coffee. Who drank the last of it.] Meet Mary, the 20-year-old part-time teacher who loves coffee. She first discovers Kaito in the music room. She is the very cheery type of character and yet has strong side to her.

GAMEPLAY:

It is a dungeon crawler RPG. It is turn-based yet somewhat real-time because you can guard against attacks (as well as regular defending) if you time the button just right when the enemy attacks you similar yet different to like Paper Mario 64 or Super Mario RPG.

[From the beginning of an enemy’s attack until the attack animation, pressing ‘X’ will switch your character into defense mode] “Just Guard” will appear if you time the attack of the enemy right.

Magic pretty much is the basic command here of attacking the enemy. You can use a spell a turn like you normally would any other RPG. Magic levels up by way of ‘more you use, the stronger it becomes’ system. You are even able to learn new magic via mid-battle. You also level traditionally via experience points as noted below the column ‘Parameters’ which increases your stats.

Here are some of Kaito’s attacks. The first one being “Darkfall,” a regular dark magic single-target attack. The second attack as highlighted on the screen is called “Drain Energy.” A dark magic attack that should it succeed will heal all allies 10% of their max HP.

You keep moving forward or ‘progressing’ by moving the directional button up which will go up a certain percentage while dialogue and battles appear at certain intervals per stage until you reach 100% where you will face a boss, at least for the first stage. Defeating the boss here progresses you to the next chapter. Chapters, after they are completed, can be replayed if the player so chooses. So far in the early access demo, there are a total of five acts or stages to play.

The title of the first act is listed here in English. Winning conditions are “Defeat the boss” while the losing conditions are “Mary or Kaito being unable to battle (HP 0).” Be careful in the first act as sometimes enemy attacks can creep up on you and be one attack away from defeat if you don’t pay attention and heal. Luckily, if you fail, you can just replay the battle from where you left off.
Notice the upper left diagram. It displays the rock-paper-scissors system type of strengths and weaknesses for each type of magic. Water beats fire, fire beats lightning, lightning beats water. Moreover, light and dark are both strong and weak against each other respectively. In the first chapter, Mary is a user of light magic while Kaito is a user of dark magic.
[I just as thought…] Jumbled screen flashbacks like this one pop up occasionally to give more background to the story.
You are given a choice of whether you want some chocolate. [What should I do…. Thanks / I am not a fan of sweets] I am not sure to what extent an effect it has other than it changing the dialogue.
You can open up the menu to save, load, and check your status among other things listed here. All options as you see are displayed in English (descriptions are not, however) so that may help with the language barrier as well.
You are given free reign to walk around the town after the first chapter and are able to interact with other NPCs. Here Kaito asks “Do you like to study Patty?” Here the NPC and most other NPCs do not have a portrait.

An important part here for English speakers is that you can just skip the dialogue parts if you want to and go right to the battle parts although the option telling you that is in Japanese. However, ‘Skip’ is listed in English on the top when available.

Overall, this game seems like a neat dungeon crawler and probably more so if you are a fan of the anime-style of graphics. The characters are very well drawn and seem interesting. To reiterate once again, it is free to try via steam and the first one is completely free as well as a standalone or on steam as well. So you don’t have to gamble your money on it should you not like it. Hopefully getting more people to try this game out and like it will help land the creators of this game a publisher.

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