Lady Sia

Infobox VG
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title= Lady Sia


caption=
developer= RFX Interactive
publisher= TDK Mediactive
distributor=
designer=
engine=
released=
genre= platformer
modes= Single player
ratings= ESRB: Everyone
OFLC: G 8+ [cite web|url=http://www.oflc.gov.au/special.html?n=46&p=156&sTitle=lady+sia&sMediaFilm=1&sMediaPublications=1&sMediaGames=1&sDateFromM=1&sDateFromY=1970&sDateToM=2&sDateToY=2007&record=175979|title=Lady Sia OFLC Rating|publisher=Office of Film And Literature Classification|accessdate=2007-02-22]
platforms= Game Boy Advance
media= 32-megabit Cartridge
requirements=
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. [cite web|url=http://news.spong.com/game/11028730?cb=337|title="Lady Sia" at Spong|publisher=Spong|accessdate=2007-02-24]

A sequel was planned for the GBA in 2003 but was cancelled due to lack of interest and funding. [cite web|url=http://www.gamedaily.com/lady-sia/game-boy-advance/game-news/1689?articleID=30379|title="Lady Sia II" Details|publisher=Game Daily|accessdate=2007-02-13] [cite web|url=http://gc.advancedmn.com/game.php?gameid=741|title="Lady Sia II" already got a page reserved|publisher=Gc.advanced|accessdate=2007-02-20]

ynopsis

toryline

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.cite video game|title=Lady Sia|developer=RFX Interactive|publisher=TDK Mediactive|date=2007-02-24|language=English] 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. There she is locked in stocks and stripped of her boots, her feet are tickled mercilessly with feathers and as soon as she begins to think she will never get out, 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" [cite web|url=http://gba.gamespy.com/gameboy-advance/lady-sia/|title=Gamespy "Lady Sia" summary|publisher=GameSpy|accessdate=2007-02-18] [cite web|url=http://www.gamestats.com/objects/016/016224/|title=Gamestats "Lady Sia" summary|publisher=GameStats|accessdate=2007-02-18] ) 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. 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. Sia manages to convince each of them to join in the battle against the T'soas and Onimen.

and that he had killed Barthes. 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. 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.

etting

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,cite web|url=http://adventures.ngenres.com/interviews/ladysia_interview.html|title=NGenres "Lady Sia" interview|publisher=NGenres|accessdate=2007-02-16] 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. 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. Also, the T'soas in Callyge don't live in houses but in tents.

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.cite web|url=http://www.eagb.net/advance/gr15.html|title=EAGB.net "Lady Sia" review|publisher=EAGB.net|accessdate=2007-03-03] The world she has to cross is separated in four areas, each divided in four levels, a main boss fight and a bonus level. 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.cite web|url=http://www.nintendo-difference.com/index.php?mode=23&id_document=1532&sub_id=1|title=Nintendo-Difference "Lady Sia" review|publisher=Nintendo-Difference|accessdate=2007-03-15] Getting a perfect score for each of one area's four levels grants access to the bonus level. [cite web|url=http://gba.portablereview.com/review36.html|title=Portablereview "Lady Sia" review|publisher=Portable Review|accessdate=2007-02-28] 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.

Fighting

accessdate=2007-02-28] 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).

Reception

"Lady Sia" was one of the earliest games released for the Game Boy Advance, leaving 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 ranging from "good" to "great". In particular, it was praised for its beautiful, anime-inspired, hand-drawn graphics that often had a slightly cartoonic feel to them. 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.

Another aspect "Lady Sia" was praised for was its solid gameplay that IGN described as "a decent balance between" standard platformers and "Final Fight" clones. Sia herself has a remarkable number of abilities at her disposal. Although this prevented combat from being too repetitive, most reviewers felt Sia's abilities could have used a little 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 involving 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 combos had a similar shortcoming. GameSpy wrote: "They often cause her to slide off platforms or into enemies." The reviewers also criticized 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 little bit of health left. GameSpot considered this and the combos to be the game's only two weaknesses. In the end, most reviews were quite positive about "Lady Sia". IGN summarized it with the quote, "Lady Sia"'s a good one," 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." Gamespy concluded that there were some better platform games on the market, but that "Lady Sia" was still a worthwhile game.

References