HDK 77 † The downfall of Sondalis
In a fantastic and primitive land, the kingdom of men is falling. Other, more evolved races control the destinies of the world. The realm of Dalis is the last bastion of humanity, located at the edge of the world on the shores of the Endless Ocean. Weak and divided, men have become prey to powerful neighboring kingdoms. Their greed led them to betray each others. Furrowed by centuries of wars and injustices, the territories of the once prosperous kingdom of men have been largely conquered.
The future of Sondalis, the capital of Dalis, hangs in the balance: there are those who are still struggling to organize a counterattack, those who seek alliances, those who betray and flatter the enemy to survive. There are those who instigate, those who despair, those who resign themselves and carry on everyday life as if nothing had happened. Who invokes the clemency of the gods of the apocalypse. Who awaits the end. And there are those who finally still try to build a new and unexpected future for their fellowmen, repenting on the ruins of a past of cruel domination. All this happens in Sondalis.
And you, whose side will you on?
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Two years ago we flew to Tokyo, Japan, to meet Ryosuke Mochida (the author of "Kowloon Neon city" series for HDK), composer with long experience in the field of videogames, anime and tv-movies. Ryosuke is not a famous composer, but a music-employee like many others in the huge Japanese entertainment market.
Enjoying a tofu and fermented soybeans based snack, we asked to Ryosuke if he had anything for HDK and he said: はい! (which in Japanese, fortunately, means: yes). From a dusty hard-disk he hauled an unreleased gem of epic-fantasy music: the soundtrack of "Downfall of Sondalis", a computer RPG that was never actually made.
At the time, Ryosuke composed a handful of songs which, however, were never bought by the production house because the project was wrecked. Today these magnificent tracks of synthetic-orchestral music in sweet OAV-style finally see the light thanks to (modestly) HDK.
However, we are not satisfied only with the music, but we have also recovered the original "Downfall of Sondalis" scripts and drawings, reconstructing the plot and setting of this non-existent CRPG (thanks to the artist Stefano Artibani who created the artwork for this cassette from the original drafts). So, attached to the "Downfall of Sondalis" cassette, you will find outlined a real fictional universe with lots of maps and characters that can inspire your fantasy RPG campaigns. Hurray!