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Arcturus: The Curse and Loss of Divinity

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Arcturus: The Curse and Loss of Divinity is a Korean RPG featuring gorgeous 2D spritework, a complex plot, and a very active battle system.

Arcturus was originally released in South Korea in December, 2000. It was later licensed and translated into Japanese by Falcom in 2003, and then rereleased in the 2004 Korean compilation Romance of Package which celebrated Sonnori's 10th anniversary.

Sub-Page#

Revisional Differences#

All versions of the game open with an "all persons fictitious" disclaimer. The original Korean CD-ROM release and the English demo present this screen in three languages (Korean, Japanese, English). The Chinese release in 2003 adds simplified Chinese; this four-language version was later used in the 2003 Japanese and 2004 Romance of Package versions.

Earlier releases

Later releases

Unused Video#

The 2004 rerelease includes an animated Falcom logo on-disc. This is probably left over from the 2003 Japanese release by Falcom; it probably indicates that its updated codebase was used as the basis of the Romance of Package build.

Watch on YouTube

Test Maps#

stress_test_model.rsw

stress_test_model.rsw is... what the name implies. It tests the stability of the game by having the developer cram in as many 3D models inside the map as they can before the game crashes. It contains nearly every house, buildings, objects and general 3D environments seen in a normal gameplay.

Watch on YouTube

̇stress_test.rsw

Another stress test map. This time, it's to test the stability of how many sprites a single map can handle. stress_test.rsw does not have audio, however, it does have sound effects, which is only played if you walk in the crowd of NPCs.

Watch on YouTube

test_battle.rsw

This area is a combat evaluator. The majority of the enemies including bosses and optional bosses can be seen here. Only a handful of enemies can be fought, as the rest of them crashes you upon contact. It is worth noting that Guilty Gear, an unused enemy, makes an appearance here as well.

Watch on YouTube

Sprites#

Early Portraits

Arcturus-unused-portrait-Sizz_s.png Arcturus-Unused-Portrait-Elluard_s.png Arcturus-Unused-Portrait-Celine_s.png

Small icons of Sizz, Elluard and Celine inside \data, where the character's body portraits are located. Sizz's icon is actually a cropped out version of the Setup Installer.

Dummy Sprites#

Boom-dumi

Arcturus-dummy-sprite-Boom-dumi.gif Arcturus-Dummy-Sprite-Boom-dumi2.gif

boom_dumi.spr/act is just a rough doodle to test .act files.

Dumi-ho

Most likely a placeholder. A more polished version of Dumi-ho do exist, and is used in the final game.

Dumy.bmp

A placeholder image of Peach, Carrot and Nagashi.

Movie_2.bmp

A draft of Sizz killing someone. As of whom is unclear. In the Prologue, he kills a Guard out of self defense. Near the end of Chapter 1, he kills Celine after Emperor Rammestein tricks Sizz into attacking him. Either way, a cutscene image for both was never shown.

Bloody_h.bmp

This is Sizz holding Celine's heart after stabbing her. Another image that was never completed beyond a sketch.

Unused Enemies#

To do:
There's a whooping 17 plagarized enemy designs from Yasushi Nirasawa. Find them allǃ

Guilty Gear

Standing Pose Arcturus_unusedGiltgear_base_standing.gif Arcturus_UnusedGiltgear_base_side.gif

Walking Arcturus_Giltgear_base_walking.gif Arcturus-unused-Giltgear_base_walking_behind.gif

Attacking Arcturus-unused-Giltgear_base_attack1.gif Arcturus-unusedGiltgear_base_attack2.gif

Evil Sage

Standing Pose Arcturus_Removed_Enemy_Evil_sage_base1.gif Arcturus_Removed_Enemy_Evil_sage_base2.gif

Walking Arcturus_Removed_Enemy_Evil_sage_base_atk1.gif Arcturus_Removed_Enemy_Evil_sage_base_atk2.gif

Attacking Arcturus_Removed_Enemy_Evil_sage_spsu2.gif Arcturus_Removed_Enemy_Evil_sage_spsu.gif

Hobee Lady

Standing Pose Arcturus_Removed_Enemy_Hobee_lady_base.gif Arcturus_Removed_Enemy_Hobee_lady_base2.gif

Using Skills Arcturus_Removed_Enemy_Hobee_lady_base_atk.gif Arcturus_Removed_Enemy_Hobee_lady_base_atk2.gif

Nightmare Illusion

Standing Pose Arcturus_Removed_Enemy_Nihtmareillusion_base.gif Arcturus_Removed_Enemy_Nihtmareillusion_base2.gif

Attacking Arcturus_Removed_Enemy_Nihtmareillusion_base_atk1.gif Arcturus_Removed_Enemy_Nihtmareillusion_base_atk2.gif

They were originally present in the first version of Arcturus, but was removed alongside the Limited Edition of Arcturusː The Curse and Loss of Divinity due to being plagiarized monster designs from the Japanese illustrator Yasushi Nirasawa.

The AI of all these monsters are still intact and can be fought if you modify the enemy encounter via \data\sprite\monstr\unwtbr\jutu. It is also worth noting that they each have functional rare counterparts, with Hobee Lady being an exception.