Lady Sia

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Lady Sia
Developer(s)	RFX Interactive
Publisher(s)	TDK Mediactive
Release date(s)	October 15, 2001 October 19, 2001
Genre(s)	platformer
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: Everyone OFLC: G 8+[1]
Platform(s)	Game Boy Advance
Media	32-megabit Cartridge
Input	Game Boy Advance

Lady Sia is a platform game with action-adventure elements for the Game Boy Advance made by RFX Interactive and published by TDK Mediactive. It was released in the USA in October 15, 2001 and in Europe in October 19 of the same year. Lady Sia is one of the few original games produced by RFX Interactive.

The game takes place in a fantasy world where the player assumes the role of the Xena-esque warrior princess, Lady Sia. It is her task to defeat the T'soas, a race of anthropomorphs created by the evil warlock Onimen, who have declared war to the other realms. Her quest leads her through four different realms, the last one being the home continent of the T'soas themselves.^[2]

A sequel was planned for the GBA in 2003 but was cancelled due to lack of interest and funding.^[3][4]

Contents 1 Synopsis 1.1 Storyline 1.2 Setting 2 Gameplay 2.1 Fighting 3 Reception 4 References

[edit] Synopsis

[edit] Storyline

Onimen, a powerful warlock, had found ancient magic in the continent of Callyge. He used the magic to create a race of half-human/half-beasts, known as the T'soas. Using huge turtles to transport his new army over the sea, he invaded the continent of Athorre, the human kingdom, and quickly took control. The remaining realms did not know how to react to this and their leaders forsook their alliances. The only one convinced of the need to act was the young queen of Myriade, Lady Sia.

The story starts with Sia having called the leaders of the remaining realms together in the meeting room of her castle. She tries to convince them of the danger of the situation, but she doesn't succeed.^[5] Sia is then informed by her advisor, Barthes, that a T'soa horde is near her castle. She quickly leaves the meeting room to check the situation. She, however, is ambushed and locked away in a cell of Athorre's castle. She is freed by a mysterious, cloaked man who gives her some advice and information before running off. Now alone, Sia soon finds a new ally in a chained bird (a griffin according to the standard description of Lady Sia^[6][7]) in another part of the castle. As a way of thanking her for freeing him, the bird offers to aid Sia in her quest by bringing her to wherever she wants to go.^[8] Sia first goes search for her jade sword and family ring, which are two powerful artifacts stolen from her by the T'soas.

Before going home to save her own kingdom, Sia decides to visit the leaders of the other realms to check on their current alliance status and if necessary, restore the old one. The other leaders; Poseidon of the Water Kingdom, Rafooza of the Fire Kingdom and the queen of the Air Kingdom, had gone home after Sia didn't return to the meeting room. Barthes had apparently told the leaders Sia was disgusted by them, that she withdrew from the alliance and that that was the reason she didn't return.^[9] Sia manages to convince each of them to join in the battle against the T'soas and Onimen.

Back in Myriade, Sia finds her kingdom completely taken over by the T'soas. Furious, she visits the important locations of her kingdom to get them out of the T'soas' hands and save what is left. Eventually, she comes face to face with one of Onimen's most powerful minions, known as the Fox Lady. The Fox Lady informs Sia that it wasn't Barthes who betrayed her, but Onimen in disguise and that he had killed Barthes.^[10] Sia defeats the Fox Lady and thereby frees her land from the T'soas.

Having restored her own land's army and having the armies of the other realms on her side, Sia goes on ahead to prepare a safe passage for the armies. She discovers the turtles the T'soas used to cross the sea and frees them so the armies of the alliance can use them to reach Callyge. After this, she infiltrates Callyge's fortifications on her own and ends up in a battle with Onimen. The battle ends undecided: Onimen transforms into a demonlike creature and flies away. That night, the kingdoms celebrate they've won the war. The leaders on the other hand, have a meeting to decide what to do with the T'soas now that their king and creator, Onimen, is gone. Sia proposes to make peace, as Onimen was the real enemy and not the T'soas.^[11] Before they can have a real discussion about the matter, the cloaked stranger that helped Sia escape from Athorre's castle appears. He offers to govern the T'soas for them. Sia is surprised to see him again, but is willing to accept the offer. After telling the others what the stranger did for her, they agree as well, content with the solution.^[12]

[edit] Setting

The game Lady Sia takes place in an unnamed fantasy world. The game only deals with part of it, namely the three continents involved in the war. They all are separated from each other by sea. Two of the continents as a whole also serve as kingdoms.

The continent of Athorre is the kingdom of the humans. Humans in this game are standard medieval fantasy humans: they don't possess magic, but they have a good understanding of building houses and cities, and technology in general. Athorre was the first realm that got attacked by the T'soas. The kingdom, by the time Sia starts her quest, has been completely taken over, with the T'soas using Athorre's castle's jail to imprison Sia and using the village Algambiade and the city Merrion to hide Sia's sword and ring. There's also an airport on a floating island, but it is unclear whether it was built by the humans or the T'soas. It is not revealed what happened to the royal family of Athorre when the T'soas took over (provided there was one). It appears the prisoners Sia frees on her quest are mostly humans (if not all).

A little northeast of Athorre lies an unnamed continent that contains multiple kingdoms. The elemental kingdoms are located in the northern part of the continent. Present in the game are the Water Kingdom, the Fire Kingdom and the Air Kingdom. It is possible there are more, but they aren't part of the alliance or in the game. It also appears that an Earth Kingdom was planned,^[13] but eventually not implemented. Each kingdom is ruled by a monarch, who is capable of powerful magic. The elemental realms are separated from Myriade by the Snowy Mountain. Myriade is located in the southern part of the continent and is the kingdom of Sia. It's a realm whose inhabitants appear to have a high knowledge of magic, as evidenced by the locations Sia visits.^[14][15] It is unclear what kind of creatures all inhabit Myriade. Sia is the evidence the population consists of shapeshifters. However, the presence of the Elven Forest and the Gremlins Machine implies that Myriade's population at least also consists of elves and gremlins.

The continent of Callyge is located in the in the northeast of the map. It is where the T'soas originate from. Created by Onimen (who resides there as well), they use Callyge as their headquarters from which they attack the other realms. The seaports protect Callyge from attacks. Callyge seems to have been deserted for a long time before Onimen came, as he mentions he found the knowledge to his magic in the abandoned fortifications of Callyge.^[16] Also, the T'soas in Callyge don't live in houses but in tents.

[edit] Gameplay

Lady Sia is a traditional platformer with action-adventure elements. As such, the player will not only have to watch out for the numerous enemies, but also make sure not to fall off the platforms. Sia won't take damage from a big fall.^[17] The world she has to cross is separated in four areas, each divided in four levels, a main boss fight and a bonus level.^[17] At the start of each level (with the exception of the bonus level) Sia will remark why she is there. A level either focuses on fighting or acrobatics. Sia has a standard three lives per level, but the player can temporary acquire more by collecting gems. If the player loses a life, he/she has to restart at the beginning of the level or at the last checkpoint, which mostly is a golden whirlwindlike image that turns into an image of Sia when activated and can usually be found halfway through a level. If all lives are lost, Sia is "thrown in jail" and the player gets ten seconds to decide whether to continue or quit. Regardless, the checkpoint data is not saved and the level has to be done from the start again. Apart from the main quest of reaching the end of the level, the player can also try to get a perfect score for that level. A perfect score is 100 points: five points per health point, one point per magic point, one point per gem Sia can collect and five points per freed prisoner. This means one has to collect all 25 gems, free all five prisoners and end the level with a full health bar and magic bar.^[18] Getting a perfect score for each of one area's four levels grants access to the bonus level.^[19] A perfect score can be obtained there as well, but it won't have any effect. The first three levels of the second area also have a second part. Because Sia has to prove her worth to the other leaders, she has to battle two of them after completing their levels and race the third one. Sia's status after these boss battles has no effect on her score for that level. After completing four levels, the main boss of that area has to be defeated. Doing so grants access to the next area. All levels and boss battles can be redone as many times as the player wants.^[17]

[edit] Fighting

Sia is a very capable warrior and blessed with several magical abilities. The main way of combat is melee sword combat. During the first level, the player has to fight with an average sword, but already in the second level, the player can get Sia's jade sword back, which is more powerful. It also allows the player to use the three combo moves.^[20] It automatically replaces the weaker sword. Sia's magical abilities are mostly used for ranged combat. During the first level, her magical abilities are limited to shooting small balls of energy in one of eight directions. In the third level, Sia regains her family ring. This item allows the player to charge an energyball before releasing it, so that it becomes more powerful. Completing the first three levels of the second area adds three more spells to the repertory.^[20] The Water Spell is a defensive spell and makes Sia invulnerable for ten seconds. The Fire Spell creates an explosion that hits every enemy on the screen and damages them (and kills only the weakest enemies). The Air Spell does the opposite: it hits only the closest enemy, but is guaranteed to kill it in that one hit.^[18] Sia's final magical ability is shapeshifting. As a shapeshifter, she has the ability to turn into a "sasquatch". The game does not allow the player to do this at will. Sia's sasquatch form can only be used when she automatically shapeshifts during three of the four main boss battles.^[21] In that state, Sia cannot use magic (and therefore has to rely on melee combat again), but is a lot stronger than in her human form and has more melee combat abilities (ground pound, shield and dash).

[edit] Reception

Reviews

Publication	Score
Nintendo World Report	6 of 10[22]
IGN	8 of 10[23]
GameSpot	8.7 of 10[24]
GameSpy	74 of 100[25]
Gaming Target	8 of 10[26]
Electronic Gaming Monthly	13.5 of 30
Nintendo Power	4.5 of 5
Compilations of multiple reviews
Game Rankings	75 of 100 (based on 21 reviews)[27]
Metacritic	73 of 100 (based on 8 reviews)[28]
Game Ratio	73 of 100 (based on 13 reviews)[29]
GamePublic	78 of 100 (based on 20 reviews)[30]

Lady Sia was one of the earliest games released for the Game Boy Advance, making it without much competition (in terms of platformers for the GBA) when it was released. The game was received well by the press, getting grades in the "good-to-great" range. It was in particular praised for its beautiful, anime-inspired, hand-drawn graphics that often had a slightly cartoonic feel to them.(GameSpot said: " Every level is full of color and life, ranging from little nuances, such as leaves and swaying ropes, to more significant features, such as toppling buildings and rock slides. The inclusion of dark outlines and thought bubbles gives the game a cartoonlike feel, which is cemented further by the oodles of hyperexpressive motion tied to each character."^[24] and GameSpy remarked: "Graphically, the game is very beautiful"^[25]). However, the press also considered this one of Lady Sia's weaknesses, as it often was considered to be hard to see what was part of the background and what belonged to the interactive part of the game. Nintendo World Report wrote that "The backgrounds and interactive elements are all drawn in the same style, and it’s incredibly difficult to determine where platforms are, where you can walk, etc.".^[22] GameSpy's note was: "At times you'll encounter objects that seem touchable, only discover that they're merely decoration".^[25]

Another aspect Lady Sia got praised for was its solid gameplay that IGN described as "If you're familiar with the standard run-and-jump platformers and Final Fight-style brawler combat, you'll notice that this game offers a decent balance between the two."^[23]. Sia herself had a remarkable big number of abilities at her disposal. Although this prevented the battles from being too much Hack 'n' Slash, most reviewers felt Sia's abilities could have used a bit more fine-tuning. For example, some reviewers thought Sia's elemental spells were a little hard to cast, as performing them required a button combination on the control pad. Thus, the player needs some room to move, which due to the platform structure, isn't always an option. Some of her sword combo's had a similar effect. GameSpy wrote that "They often cause her to slide off platforms or into enemies".^[25] The reviewers also weren't too happy with the fact that if Sia hit a checkpoint, it saved her current magic and health status. This made the checkpoint practically worthless if activated when the player only has a bit of health left. GameSpot considered this and the combo's Lady Sia's only two weaknesses ("the only glaring problems with Lady Sia's design center around the use of slash combos and save points."^[24])

In the end, most reviews were quite positive about Lady Sia. IGN summarized it with the quote "Lady Sia's a good one."^[23] and GameSpot did so with "Thanks to its solid control, clever puzzles, and stellar production values, Lady Sia is easily worth a trip to the local game shop.".^[24] Gamespy concluded there were some better (platform) games on the market, but that Lady Sia still was a game worth getting.^[25]

[edit] References