Seeker of Light

Seeker of Light
Genres	Action-adventure, adventure, role-playing
Developers	Mitsetair
Publishers	Mitsetair
Creators	Chire Segibit Amra Revali
First release	Seeker of Light June 21, 1988
Latest release	Seeker of Light: Horizon January 11, 2017

Seeker of Light (Lithian: Rigel Dian), sometimes abbreviated as Sol, is a media franchise centered on a series of high-fantasy action-adventure video games created by Lugid game designers Chire Segibit and Amra Revali. Primarily developed and published by Mitsetair, the series' gameplay incorporates elements of action, adventure and puzzle-solving, and in Genesis and Horizon, open world.

The series follows the chief protagonist and playable character Dinel, primarily taking place in the world named Ire, in a mission to save the world of Ire by defeating the principal antagonist Nardu and his accomplices such as King Sakhon of the original Seeker of Light. Other settings and antagonists have appeared in several titles. Often incorporated in the plot are a geometrically shaped divine object called a Hagit, sealed in the divine realm of The Shine due to its immense power until, in Genesis, acquired and abused by Nardu's accomplices for corrupting the world of Ire and thus beginning the plot of the series.

Since the original was released in 1988, Seeker of Light has expanded into seven main titles and several other spin-offs and ports. It is Mitsetair's most prominent franchise and a worldwide best-seller, with video game titles selling at a rough combined total of 100 million copies as of 2017, and its main character Dinel has become a prominent symbol of modern Lugid culture.

Overview

Seeker of Light main titles

1988	Seeker of Light
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993	Amidst
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998	Prophecy
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003	Starfarer
2004
2005
2006
2007	Shineset
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013	Genesis
2014
2015
2016
2017	Horizon

Gameplay

Seeker of Light titles feature a mix of puzzles, adventure, action, and exploration. These elements remain mostly constant throughout the series' history. Shineset introduced a non-linear open world, a gameplay element that remains not extensive in the series until the release of Genesis. One of the principal features of the series is the rewarding system, where the player is rewarded with particular items or abilities needed to either progress through the quest line or increase the player's abilities upon the completion of certain objectives, particularly upon defeating a group of enemies, a dungeon room, or a boss. These rewards are often presented in chests. The series emphasizes the hack and slash-style combat as opposed to the strategic, turn-based combat of some other games, particularly on the time of the original Seeker of Light's release.

All Seeker of Light games incorporate at least three different principal areas: the open overworld, the areas of interaction with other characters (mostly in the form of rooms and towns), and the dungeons, which often ends with either a boss battle or a puzzle. Before Horizon, indoor areas are placed in a separate load area – when the player enters a house from the overworld and vice versa, the player enters a loading screen until that area has been loaded. Dungeons in Seeker of Light are traditionally underground, but later titles, particularly since Shineset, show increased diversity in location of the dungeons, as it started to drift away from the underground setting of dungeons.

The games often pioneer features to eventually become industry standards. The original Seeker of Light is the first to have a save function, enabling players to stop playing and resume later.

Setting

Main titles of the Seeker of Light series almost always take place in the world known as Ire. A convention of the series rules that the games' time setting should always be in the medieval times or earlier; the original Seeker of Light takes place in an ancient Halaria-inspired fantasy land with recurring elements of magic, while Starfarer takes place in medieval Ire although it features certain anachronic objects such as steam-powered ships. This time setting convention was broken with Horizon, which primarily takes place in a post-apocalyptic Ire where it is populated by animal-shaped robots.

Inspiration

The series is initially inspired by Chire Segibit's love in mythology and fantasy, as well as his childhood experience when he visited Mount Lenthir, where he explored numerous caves, villages, and cultures. Initially, Chire wanted to create a Seeker of Light novel from his experience, but the Lugid economic boom in the 1970s followed by the successful release of Otí the Tiger in 1985 opted Chire to eventually enter the gaming industry and create the first game. He sees gaming as "a revolutionizing form of entertainment, a large and untouched arable land in the middle of the forests."

Much of the later inspirations come during the development times of Seeker of Light, when Chire explores mythologies and cultures from all over the world. One of his primary sources of inspiration is Ancient Halaria, whose Chire sees as "rich in mythology and feels advanced, yet ancient."

Plot

Genesis

The story begins with the creation story of Ire. It is created by two equally polar but inter-balancing gods: Elene and Nardu, using the eight cosmic elements later to be manifested into a sacred object known as the Hagit. Then, Elene creates mankind, seen by Nardu as a corruption of Ire. This brought Nardu to ultimately plot the corruption of Ire. Later, Elene departed from Ire and left the Hagit, accessible only by going to the Temple of Elene and entering another realm called The Shine. The Shine itself is only accessible by ones "deemed worthy and capable" of handling the powers of the Hagit, which does not have its own will, enabling it to be abused by someone.

Nardu's corruption plan came into fruition as King Sakhon managed to enter The Shine, and then abused the Hagit to serve Nardu and eventually corrupt both The Shine and Ire. This caused the Hagit to break into four pieces, with Sakhon possessing one. Sakhon later enslaved almost all of the Irean Kingdom into serving Nardu, preventing mankind from flourishing and spite Elene. In an effort to stop Nardu and the continuation of the corruption while not directly confronting Nardu into a divine war, Elene brought select Ireans into the floating archipelago known as The Eden. There, the first Dinel as well as Merethe was born. Elene and Merethe then trains Dinel through a number of trials before Dinel can set foot to Ire to fight over corrupted beings and look for the key to Elene's Sword, needed to defeat Sakhon and ultimately Nardu.

On one day, however, Dinel is "kidnapped" to Ire by a mysterious group of people, thought to be Nardu's minions. Later, Dinel realized that the group is actually the high priests of the Temple of Elene, who narrowly escaped corruption as the village near the Temple where they live is one of Elene's "refuges". They desperately want Dinel's powers to be used against Sakhon, as the priests themselves lack the skills of that of a swordsmanship nor "the worth to possess Elene's Sword". This thus begins Dinel's quest for the sword and against Sakhon.

The adventure ends with Sakhon's eventual defeat to Dinel. This made Nardu lose its direct power in Ire. The fall of Sakhon allows the people and the world of Ire to be able to be cleansed of Nardu's corruption. From this point, Dinel ventures into a new adventure, as the now-cleansed Ire brought in a multitude of new quests for Dinel.

Characters

Dinel

Dinel is the name of the chief protagonist of the Seeker of Light series, who characteristically wear a blue tunic. In most titles, Dinel bears various hidden powers gifted by Elene to help Dinel defeat the corrupted forces of Ire. Later throughout the adventure, Dinel learns about his hidden powers and the way of using it against enemy forces and ultimately against the chief antagonist, with the initial help of a person such as Princess Merethe. In almost all titles, the player can give Dinel a name at the beginning of the adventure, and non-player characters in that game will then refer Dinel with that given name, or in certain times with his titles, such as the "Child of Elene". To the player's perspective, Dinel is a silent protagonist, as he does not speak, other than producing grunts, yells, or similar sounds. This is under the purpose of letting the audience to have a liberty on their own thoughts on the way Dinel speaks and answers.

Nardu

Nardu is one of the two gods who created the world of Ire, the other being Elene. It is the main antagonist of most Seeker of Light titles. Nardu objected the creation of mankind by Elene, and from that point Nardu's evil grows. However, as with Elene, it doesn't want a direct confrontation with each other as such would cause devastation to Ire. As a result, Elene and Nardu waged a proxy war between each other, with Ire as the main stage—as Elene flourished the mankind ans Nardu corrupted the Ire in protest of mankind's existence. While Nardu is initially formless, Nardu appears as a corrupted angel in the original Seeker of Light. However, Nardu does not directly reveal itself in Ire. Nardu often either possess someone, such as King Sakhon, to later be given with the powers of Nardu and become its "puppet".