Where to get it

1999 · Crave Entertainment · Action · Action-adventure

Shadow Madness

PlayStation console exclusive

Stinger returned home one morning after a night out of town to a horrible surprise. A mysterious force had destroyed his coastal hometown, leaving few survivors. Unable to even determine the remains of his own house, the young man was now an orphan. Upon meeting a mystic named Windleaf, the two decided to embark upon a journey to find out what happened.

Released: 30 April 1999
Platforms: PlayStation Windows
Genres: Action Action-adventure Adventure Role-playing
Developers: Crave Entertainment
Publishers: Crave Entertainment
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: Third person
Themes: Fantasy
Country: United States
Age ratings: USK 6 ACB MA 15+ESRB T
Languages: English
Time to beat: 32hmain story63hcompletionist

About

Shadow Madness is a role-playing video game developed by Craveyard Studios and published by Crave Entertainment for the PlayStation. Set in the world of Arkose, the player takes the role as Stinger, whose town has just been destroyed as a result of a mysterious plague that is spreading quickly across the land. Stinger meets many friends and foes on his way to finding out how the chaos started and how it can be stopped. In traditional RPG fashion, gameplay consists of exploring towns and dungeons, collecting equipment and items, and interacting with non-player characters in environments featuring 3D polygonal models set on 2D pre-rendered backgrounds. Random, turn-based battles take place in fully-3D environments, where the player can execute various attacks and spells against enemies, gain experience points, and increase characters' attributes.

Development of Shadow Madness began with ex-Square employees who remained in Redmond, Washington when its North American division moved to Los Angeles. The group, called Big Rain, was led by Ted Woolsey, a translator responsible for localizing Square's prominent Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) RPGs. After announcing Shadow Madness during the summer of 1997, publisher ASCII Entertainment quickly dropped the game. The rights were subsequently purchased by Seattle-based Crave, which absorbed Big Rain and renamed the team Craveyard Studios.

›Story

The fantastic world of Arkose is under siege. Chaos reigns as a mysterious plague, known as "Shadow Madness", ravages the land.

With no known cure, it strikes without warning, leaving behind vile creatures and piles of dust where its victims once stood. As the one hope to this doomed land, you must stop this scourge before it stops you.

Players say

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The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The player's party consists of three members, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. In battle, the player has a choice of using physical attacks, magic, items and escape. It plays the same on the field in terms of using inventory, moving about and talking to non-player characters.

Battles are random. When exploring, the growl of a monster is heard. Pressing L2 and R2 simultaneously will make Stinger "hide" on the ground and possibly avoid a battle altogether. Shadow Madness uses some elements of Square's Active Time Battle system.

Story

The storyline is centered on saving the world from a mysterious plague that is spreading quickly. The player takes the role as Stinger, whose town has just been destroyed. The player meets many friends and foes on their way to finding out how the chaos started and how it can be stopped.

Stinger — When the chaos wipes out his hometown, he vows to end the chaos.

Development

Conception of Shadow Madness began with Big Rain, a small group of employees of the North American branch of Japanese developer Square, located in Redmond, Washington. Prior to the English localization of its RPG Final Fantasy VII, Square moved its operations from Redmond to Los Angeles. Square's old offices were purchased by the group, which included Ted Woolsey, a translator for Square's popular SNES RPGs including Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy VI, and Chrono Trigger. Woolsey served as Vice President of Internal Development for Big Rain and acted as a designer, executive producer, and one of several script writers for Shadow Madness.

The Japanese company ASCII Entertainment signed on as the game's initial publisher while production began in earnest in mid-1997. ASCII formally announced Shadow Madness during the summer 1997 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) with a projected first quarter 1998 release. Development stalled when ASCII dropped the game shortly thereafter due to lack of funds. Big Rain eventually merged with the newly established Crave Entertainment, a Seattle-based company which bought the publishing rights to Shadow Madness from ASCII.

Reception

Shadow Madness received "mixed" reviews according to video game review aggregator GameRankings. Next Generation said in an early review that the game "emulates the genre well, but does little to enhance it." Other magazines gave the game average to favorable reviews months before it was released Stateside.

Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine gave the game the award for worst character design in its 1999 Editors' Awards. GameSpot summed it up by saying, "Whoever said 'Graphics don't matter' never played Shadow Madness." X-Play placed it at number 3 on their top 5 worst role-playing games video.