If by looking at the images you are thinking that this is another random game made using RPGmaker and with a corny plot, well, I hope you will change idea because this is a really dark and original RPG with incredible writing. The best thing about the Pale City is definitively the world-building, which has an insane amount of lore. The gameplay is pretty standard but satisfying. Often you will fight alone against multiple opponents, and a good strategy and balance will be necessary to survive. 

This is truly the essence of a grim world, where babies are born crawling out of tunnels to then finish in an indifferent city hoping that somebody will adopt them. Of course, the few ones that can crawl out alive. Gods are dumb or insensitive beings far from humans, living isolated or eternally digging tunnels. Then, you have a huge variety of weird cults, totally insane characters, and every possible mischievous act. This is not a game for the faints of heart, because some moments could go really dark.

The Platform and the Dark Sea

The world is a sad and grim place, a land lacking any kind of hope or wishes. Only the Platform exists, a tall structure surrounded by a deadly black sea. Dumb gods and hideous creatures dig and crawl inside the Platform, creating tunnels and chambers in the entrails of this gigantic structure. On top of the platform, a giant town is the only place inhabited by living things. A crawling hive of chaos and criminality, always expanding on top of the Platform. But there is even a stronger binding between the Platform and humanity. In fact, the Platform is composed of living matter, precisely, the bodies of all the humans dying that are absorbed inside the structure, improving its growth. Moreover, if dead bodies composed the Platform, some theories claim that humanity’s blood created the dark sea beneath. And this is not all, because humans are also born inside the Platform. Hidden in the secluded depth of the Platform, a room called The Womb is where all humans are born as babies. The poor infants must dig their way out of the tunnels, avoiding starvation and other beasts. Only the babies that come out alive from the tunnels can join the society up in the city. Of course, only if they find somebody kind enough to adopt them. And in this world of violence and selfishness, this is not a trivial task.

The Three Gods

This grimdark world has three main gods, and all of them couldn’t mind less about humanity. Melchior is the most human god, a sort of old wizard who lives in a huge tower. The god went silent long ago, refusing to speak again to humanity, except for a few chosen ones, and living hidden in his tower. Wretched people surround the tower in the hope that the god will speak again. But their wait became a trap for their mind, and all the worshippers went insane. Or well, another possibility is that the god itself radiates a sort of madness, and this is why he decided to isolate himself. Moragar the Ravenous is a god that hides inside the Platform, a gigantic and dumb creature constantly digging tunnels. It doesn’t mind any living beings and shows no other value. The god only knows how to dig inside the Platform, expanding the colossal maze inside of it, as a gigantic mouth devouring millennia of dead bodies. The last god is more cryptic and mysterious, a sort of living darkness, Balthier the Dark, spreading inside the tunnels. Balthier’s core is a sentient being existing through darkness, while the monsters crawling beneath the ground are its immune system, killing everything inside. Once it rested enough, the darkness of its body spread inside the tunnels, never going out. The Pit is a huge opening where, from the surface, people can have a glimpse of the darkness beneath. This works as a lure for madmen and wretched humans, who worship its presence and suicide by jumping inside the darkness.

The Inhabitants

The City is inhabited mainly by humans, but other beings also exist. Demons live hidden in dark places, including an entire society inside a well. Magic exists, and so are humans powerful enough to rip people apart with a gesture, or living in symbiosis with a skin parasite. A race of powerful Reptilians once walked the land, and who knows if they are still there. There are also other beings existing in parallel realities, such as the Gatewalkers summoned by mages.

Cults, Factions, and Peculiar Places

The city is full of weird places and mischievous or bizarre associations. While some of them are described only in a few lines, probably just hidden in a room of the gigantic main tavern, others are instead very well described, providing several quests and moral choices. In the first category fall the Silent Speakers, a group of people always in silence but constantly speaking with their minds. The Ones Which Stand In The Dark are instead a mysterious group of people hiding in a room constantly engulfed in darkness. They believe that darkness creates equality in people, afterall, we are all the same in complete darkness.

The Cult of Life is probably the biggest and most characterized faction… and also the most disturbing. Their people dress in red and live together in a huge building, like a proper sect. But the most peculiar element is their unnatural health and life span. Some of them claim to be immortal or with eternal youth. How did they achieve that? By eating the bodies of the infants that were unable to crawl out of the tunnels. As cannibal scavengers, their members patrol the tunnels to retrieve the dead babies before they are absorbed by the Platform. Only then, they prepare their famous stew, stealing life from life itself. They are not intrinsically evil, claiming to do a necessary task without hurting anybody… or at least this is what they believe. The main character will also face this horrible dilemma at the end of the game. Will you join this grotesque cult to drastically improve health?

The Infirmary is a peculiar place without much content related. There are no quests or big events associated with it, but it offers very peculiar vibes. The Infirmary exists to monitor people who survived a spirit possession. Usually, the survivors are left barely human, almost as empty husks, existing only for sleeping or staring at the void. Be aware, that the Infirmary is not there for healing people, but only for observing and monitoring, trying to learn the most from the patients. Because the patients are observed for 500 days… and then sentient to death.

The Chain House is a very peculiar building associated with a long quest. The structure is a prison for just one person: a giant and muscular man. But the guard of the prison is also only one, so what is happening here? Long ago, the two had a feud over something… that both parties don’t remember. To punish the giant… for something, the other used all his money to build a magical prison. The colossus is now forced to live in chains, in his dirt, and eating rats. Why all this hate? The main character can decide the side in this feud, even by freeing the giant from his magic prison. Of course, the first action of the giant after regaining his freedom is to brutally kill the other man. Apparently, only death could solve this futile rivalry.