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There's only one genre that we divide down strict geographical lines: the RPG. But western RPGs and Japanese RPGs have way more in common than you might first realise.

A trailer has appeared for action RPG Aluna Sentinel of the Shards which is set in the 16th Century New World.

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Following the comic book series “The World of Aluna”, co-written by the writers of the ASSASSINS CREED and BATMAN: ARKHAM ORIGINS games, You will play as our protagonist Aluna as we follow her quest set back in the 16th Century New World, as she tries to defend her powers from the evils that seek to destroy her.  This will be easier said then done as the fast paced action battles and challenges will dictate your every decision. Special thanks to Actress Paula Garces and Julio Macias for voicing the Video.

Bluesuit checked out the Early Access version of Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord:

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord (2020) - Early Access Review

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Good Day! Today we're review my favorite game of 2020 so far Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. It's not for everyone, but if you do end up picking up this grand conquest RPG, there's a ton of value and lots of things to do.

C4G checked out the beta version of Genshin Impact:

Genshin Impact - Preview (An Ambitious Open World RPG) | Hands On

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Genshin Impact is an ambitious action open world RPG. I recently received a beta code, and I got to play the game for a couple of hours. These are my first impressions.

A new update for Encased talks about Russian Fallout.

PCGamesN went hands-on with Assassin's Creed Valhalla.

Early into the demo I embark on a raid to defeat a rival Danish clan and liberate Oswald ahead of the wedding. Raids are an evolution of Odyssey’s Conquest Battles, large-scale brawls between two armies, but with siege-like stages that give the battle some much needed direction and urgency. Raids are pure cinema, as you scythe your way through what feels like an entire army, ballistas and archers raining fire down from above while a battering ram drums away in the background.

After freeing Oswald and attending his wedding I’m free to explore a sizable chunk of the East Anglia region, from ancient woodlands in deep Norfolk, to the coast around Great Yarmouth. Whether galloping down damp, muddy lanes on horseback or coursing through the rivers in your longship – the crew belting out skaldic songs as they go – East Anglia is a pleasure to explore.

Dense woodlands, thickets, and no shortage of fog lend the landscape an air of mystery. Thick oak trees are draped in moss and lichen, the forest floor is illuminated by wildflowers like the bright white wood anemone and the mauve hue of columbine. In a call back to Assassin’s Creed III, you can navigate portions of the forest through a network of gnarled branches. As the forest opens up into heathland, fern thickets create helpful pockets for stalking wildlife, while protruding alder and elm trees offer vantage points.

[...]

The J-RPG Aria Chronicle has been released today:

ARIA CHRONICLE

ARIA CHRONICLE World View
A princess of the Tamageria kingdom, Aria, made her pilgrimage with Paladin Tila and secretary Gerom to the edge of villege, Latebra,and she noticed Lord Tyler was missing when she gets there, and Aria and her companies found out that mysterious organization, Cult was involved in this case and fight with the denomination.
In the middle of this journey, you become realizing the identity of the elders in Latebra with the truth in the past and the power hidden in Aria. Let's explore this exciting story!

Unique Characters and Monsters
Unlike her innocent appearance, the heroine, Aria is a princess with a firm, righteous will. Aria's aide, Tila, a female paladin, has a tall, solid body equipped with a thick, strong armor.
and their companion, Gerom is a mischievous young clerk - there are unique, distinctive individuals in the game.
The monsters in Dungeon are also made up of unique designs. Sometimes they look weak but have their own lethal moves,
so the catch-up elements for players are distributed everywhere.

Deep Strategy System with Flexibility
The game offers flexibility, and it will be challenging for players to predict what lies ahead of them while playing.The basic structure of the game is that Aria parties with heroes, who have more than a dozen types of skills and roll the attacks to dungeons, but it has a highly free system, which allows herself to choose 14 distinct occupations and even make different skill trees to create her own heroes.

Dungeons are also created randomly, therefore, you have to explore the map anew every time you go through a mission.

In the combat, strategic thinking is needed to enable your colleagues to exercise their combat power properly,
such as the case of letting the hero alone being in a coma, followingly death, or the loss of his ability as degraded by his mission, or the departure of the battle as he pleases.
The natural fact, which humans get tired and be hurt as they continue to fight over and over, is well-reflected in this game so that
players can enjoy real battle!

ARIA CHRONICLE makes you submerge in the storyline, with the full, rich expression of animated graphics and characters!
For those who want to enjoy turn-based RPGs properly, or experience all the entertainment elements including high quality stories, monomyths, action-packed battles, adventures, and suspense, please give yourself a try on ARIA CHRONICLE, the game that makes you feel excited just by hearing about it!

Try this turn-based strategic role-playing game!
Find yourself exploring a small village in the countryside, where you can experience the great story and the hidden truth it has!

Screenrant checked out the upcoming sequel to Beyond a Steel Sky:

Beyond a Steel Sky Review: Back to Union City

Beyond a Steel Sky is a serviceable sequel and evolution to the cult original, but bares the scars of its QA testing with various crashes and bugs.

Beyond a Steel Sky initially launched for the Apple Arcade, but has been recently ported onto the PC. Beyond a Steel Sky sees players venture back into the cyberpunk utopia known as Union City. The decrepit locals, goofy characters, and fully three-dimensional world sees this niche franchise both evolve and iterate on itself. While a lot of Beyond a Steel Sky's predecessor's quirks remain, the jump into three-dimensional gameplay and exploration was surprisingly smooth. Traversing the world is simple, and the puzzles that litter the atmosphere are placed in such a manner as to naturally lead the player to the next set of obstacles.

Some may be familiar of the origins of the Steel Sky series. Its humble roots began in a 1994 point-and-click adventure title Beneath a Steel Sky, which offers a comic-book adventure that allows players to explore cyberpunk locals. The sequel transitions the genre but not the setting, retaining the comic book aesthetic but evolving the narrative. Cyberpunk is very popular at the moment, and Beyond a Steel Sky is situated to capitalize on that popularity with a release on PC. 

[...]

Gamespot did an interview with Raphael Colantonio about Weird West.

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Weird West is an upcoming immersive sim and action-RPG set in the wild west that's being developed by WolfEye Studios, which is led by former Arkane president Raphael Colantonio. For GameSpot's Play For All, we spoke to Colantonio--who is best known for his work on Prey and the Dishonored series--about Weird West and how his history as an experienced game developer makes working on a new game feel like a New Game Plus mode.

In the video above, Colantonio talks about how Weird West is inspired by early immersive sim games like System Shock, the original Fallout, and Ultima VII. Though Weird West begins as a traditional western-style story, the narrative quickly descends into the supernatural. These supernatural themes tie into the immersive sim mechanics.

You'll play as five different people in Weird West, but not all at once. Instead, you'll go from one hero to the next--like the baton in a relay race. This means that if the hero you're playing as is still alive by the time the story transitions to the next playable protagonist, you can meet the character you were previously playing as. You can even recruit the heroes you've already played as to your party.

Weird West is set to release for PC in 2021 and may have a closed beta later this year.

Fairy Tail has a new trailer that shows off the characters and features.

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Highlighting some features from our #FairyTailGame - Character stories: Witness suprising scenes featuring a variety of characters - Strengthen connections with party members to unlock new skills

Make your dream team on 7/30 (Steam) & 7/31 (PS4/Switch)

CreamyClaws looks back at the action adventure Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain:

Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain Retrospective | A Vampire's Downfall

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Today I'll be covering a hidden gem in the criminally underrated Legacy of Kain series: the first game, Blood Omen. This is a 2D open world Zelda style action adventure RPG type thing that drops a lot of philosophical references and has a lot of mature themes and top-shelf voice acting.

J-RPGs should always be released on the PC-platform as well - Persona 4 Golden for example has already been picked up by 500,000 PC gamers.

A new Fig update for Wasteland 3 talks about beta improvements, like animal companions attacking in combat. Also Mac and Linux versions are confirmed to come later.

Wasteland 3 Beta Improvements + Mac & Linux Delay

Posted: 07/11/2020

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The devs of Othercide have put together a web series that looks into the lore and systems behind the game.

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Othercide: Developers Describe the Deep And Nightmarish Universe Of The Game in this Webseries First Episode

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Othercide: Dive deep on systems and combat in episode two of the webseries - Fighting Shadows

Gamespace checked out The Waylanders:

The Waylanders Hands-On Preview for PC

A promising RPG in the style of Dragon Age and Baldur’s Gate

I’ve been following the development of The Waylanders for at least a couple of years now and was eager to play it when it went into early access on Steam this week. There was reportedly a Celtic flavor that piqued my interest and I can tell you what I’ve played of the alpha build is quite promising. This is our initial impressions review of The Waylanders for PC.

There may be a slight bias here since Dragon Age is probably my favorite RPG series of all time and some Bioware staff has worked on this title. The art style is surprisingly fresh and slightly cartoonish, which puts it in contrast to games like The Witcher and Dragon Age for example. I didn’t feel lost at all during the opening character creation, thankfully; since this is the alpha build I hope more customization options will be present at launch. As is par for the course in RPGs like this, you have a robust amount of classes and races to pick from; I still can’t decide between werewolf and human for my playthrough. Trans and non-binary readers should happily note you can pick your pronouns and voice tone if you need to; I thought it was a nice, inclusive addition. All standard RPG classes (warrior, ranger, mage, rogue, healer) are also present and accounted for.

[...]

MrMattyPlays collected some info about the upcoming Spiders RPG - Steelrising:

The Action RPG NO ONE Is Talking About - Steel Rising

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Spiders is at it again announcing something dope and not garnering much media attention. Sword Art Online has taken the top spot and while we can't do much about that, let's highlight this newly announced RPG.

Hell Fire RPGs checked out The Legend of Heroes: Trails In The Sky SC:

Trails in the Sky SC - Review [PC] (An excellent addition to the Sky trilogy)

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The TurnBasedLovers take a look at the upcoming turn-based games:

• MONSTER LOGIC – 6th July
• RIFT WIZARD (E.A.) – 6th July
• SODA DUNGEON 2 – 9th July
• ARIA CHRONICLE – 12nd July
• DEAD AGE 2 – 16th July
• VAGRUS: THE RIVEN REALM – 22nd July
• THE FEUD – 22nd July
• OTHERCIDE – 28th July
• FAIRY TAIL – 30th July
• Imperiums: Greek Wars – 30th July
• MONSTER CROWN – 31st July
• GUILE & GLORY: FIRSTBORN (E.A.) – July
• AGAINST THE MOON – July

Thanks henriquejr!

Forgottenlor checked out Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus, which has some RPG elements, but is probably not considered a real RPG. Still we did feel that there would be sufficient interest for this game, amongst our readers.

There is something that connects Games Workshop computer games and tactics games. There are a lot of them on the market at the moment and most of them are forgettable. Unlike Wizards of the Coast, which hands the D&D licence out rarely, and then mostly for games like MMORPGs or action games that have little to do with their pen and paper games, it seems anyone can apply for the Warhammer licence, and make almost any game they like. Mechanicus isn't a game with a big budget, epic proportions, or revolutionary ideas. But it does make the most of its Warhammer 40k license. For those who like tactics games with some RPG elements and are who willing to play a game without cinematic cut scenes or state of the art animations, Mechanicus has quite a bit to offer.

RockPaperShotgun had some questions for Larian about Baldur's Gate 3.

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New Baldur’s Gate 3 gameplay? Go on then. And loads of new Baldur’s Gate 3 information as we quiz the game’s lead system designer about combat, stealth, classes and, er, how vampires work in Baldur’s Gate 3. Loads of juicy stuff here, and more to come!

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Our first Baldur’s Gate 3 gameplay breakdown explained stealth and combat, and now we look at Baldur’s Gate 3 spells, death, alcohol, reactions, halflings… all the words that get your video flagged. I hope you enjoy this Baldur’s Gate 3 features deep dive with Larian Studios' Nick Pechenin.

@DSOGaming Action RPG Hellpoint will release July 30th.

Cradle Games and publisher tinyBuild have announced that Hellpoint will release on July 30th. Hellpoint is a sci-fi Dark Souls-inspired action RPG, set in the aftermath of a massive quantum cataclysm called the Merge. 

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Thanks Farflame!

IGN has played Mortal Shell and shared their impressions.

Each Shell’s Got a Story to Tell

Then there are the Mortal Shells themselves, which essentially introduce class-based gameplay to the Souls-like genre in a way that hasn’t really been done before. The closest comparison is the blood code system in Code Vein. As you play, you’ll discover new Shells that each have their own unique stats and skills. In my demo, I only came across two: The starting shell, Harros the Vassal, which is a more tanky shell that has increased health, less stamina, and skills that affect his survivability; and Tiel the Acolyte, who has a massive stamina pool, less life, a more effective vanish as opposed to a quick dash as a dodge, and a variety of skills that allow him to occasionally take damage to stamina instead of damage to health, grant him extra damage on a successful riposte, and heal some of the damage taken by poison, which was a massive pain in the ass throughout the demo.

Shells can be swapped out at certain spots in the world, or an item can be used to swap them out on the fly, allowing you to make use of their unique characteristics as they become necessary.

As you’d imagine, when you defeat enemies you collect a currency that is used for both character progression and for buying items from the various shops. But unlike what you might imagine, character progression in Mortal Shell doesn’t take the form of traditional level ups. Instead, you use this currency, known as tar, to first learn the name of your equipped Shell, which then opens up their skill tree. Each skill costs both Tar and another currency called “Glimpses” to learn. Glimpses are gained by beating certain enemies or by finding itemized glimpses in the world, but unlike Tar, glimpses are only granted upon the first time you take them out. This I imagine, is how Cold Symmetry discourages players from farming easy enemies repeatedly in order to max out a character’s skill tree right away.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

Last month Black Book funded on Kickstarter.The games prologue is free to try on Steam if you want to check it out.

GeneMyLong recommends the unknown (at least in the west) Chinese RPG Gujian 3:

Gujian 3 On Sale Now!

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Steam Sale ends July 9th, 2020. If you've been thinking about buying/playing Gujian 3, the game is now on sale. We've enjoyed this game and we're sure anyone can appreciate the creative music, engaging game play, and beautiful artwork.

Henriquejr spotted an update about the monsters of Solasta: Crown of the Magister:

Dev Update #16 - Here Be Monsters!

Hey there folks,

Hope you're all doing well in this fine summer weather! We've been hard at work on implementing quite a few new features... that we'll keep secret for now! Now don't worry, we still have plenty to share regardless. Without further ado, here is our first Dev Update of July - with your weekly dose of friendly feline attached to it.

Here Be Monsters!
Enough talk about adventurers, where are the monsters at? Give those poor goblins a break and show us something new. Well well well, today's your lucky day - for we're about to reveal not one, not two... but four new monsters you can look forward to meet in Solasta!

[...]

@Gematsu Werewolf: The Apocalypse will release February 4th 2021. In addition a new gameplay trailer has been released.

Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via the Epic Games Store on February 4, 2021, publisher Nacon and developer Cyanide Studio.

[...]

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Thanks Farflame!

@Gematsu Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning will release on PC September 8th. Additionally an expansion called Fatesworn will follow in 2021.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning will launch for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via Steam on September 8, and an expansion titled “Fatesworn” will follow in 2021, publisher THQ Nordic and developer Kaiko announced. Details will be announced at a later date.

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Thanks Farflame!

Spiders Studio have announced their new action RPG Steelrising at Nacon Connect - the game takes place in an alternate version of the French Revolution:

Nacon Connect

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• Vampire: The Masquerade 3:55
• Rims Racing Summer 2021 8:44
• Rogue Lords 12:25
• Future of Nacon 17:02
• Steelrising 19:25
• Werewolf 24:36
• Test Drive Unlimited 25:44
• Roguebook 29:36
• Other Small Announcments 35:00

The Kickstarter campaign was a success - here's some more Knight of the Chalice II info:

Update #33: Emails Sent, Will Fix Bugs ASAP, Will Handle Complaints!

Hello everyone! :-)

Okay I feel I need to make a small update to answer all concerns.

First of all, if you're wondering why I haven't been very present replying to comments on Kickstarter, or on Discord, or on my forums, or on RPG Codex, or approving messages on my forum, or replying elsewhere.

The reason is this: I'm just a human being, and since the end of the campaign, all my time was spent sending out emails and answering emails from people who haven't got their email, or who are late to the campaign but want to join, or who pledged but could not process their payment, or who have already tried the game but it's not working for them on their system.

On top of that I have a long-planned flight tonight and tomorrow which I had to prepare, too. So, with all of this taken into account, I just can't keep up with dozens of new Kickstarter comments / forum messages / Discord comments each day. Apologies for this! It doesn't mean I'm ignoring your concerns, quite the contrary.

I have sent emails with download details to nearly everyone. If you haven't got your email, please email me at enquiries@heroicfantasygames.com or through a Kickstarter private message and I will give you your details soon.

Now, on to the bugs. Obviously, by now I have been made very aware that the game has important bugs and stability issues, and a 64-bit Mac version for Mac Catalina OS needs to be made. I hear you guys and I apologise sincerely for the bugs. Yes, I will fix the bugs as soon as possible. And I will work on a 64-bit Mac version as soon as possible. This will be my priority from 8 July. I won't be working on any DLC or any extra content while there are important bugs in the game.

So please rest assured that the bugs will be fixed. I should be able to have a software update on or before 14 July. I've been working on this game for so long; obviously I want it to be bug-free. It's not a problem for me to remove bugs. In fact it is something I like to do. My process with KotC 1 was similar. There were about 36 updates for KotC 1. The game had many bugs in the beginning, now it's bug-free.

Now, on to expectations and accusations. Okay, I hear the complaint that I should have presented the current version of the game as a beta version, not as a finished version or as a full game. All right. I accept that and I apologise for it.

The reason why I have always presented it as a full game is because, for me at least, it was stable when I played through it and I did play through it from start to finish. So if it's stable for me, why should I present it as a beta version? Think about it, how could I even record all these combat videos if the game wasn't working for me or wasn't stable for me? Yes, you can say that I should have gone through a big testing phase prior to the campaign, and in hindsight yes I should have done that. I'm not perfect so I did not see this at the time.

What I mean to say is that it's never been my intention to deceive people. With that in mind, if you feel strongly that you have been lied to or that you were misled, and you don't trust me to fix the issues in a reasonable amount of time, please email me at enquiries@heroicfantasygames.com (or through the Kickstarter private messages) before 14 July and we will definitely find a solution.

I don't want anyone to feel bad about KotC 2 or have such strong negative feelings against me. Doing a Kickstarter is difficult enough with happy people but it's a hundred times harder with unhappy ones. So, please just contact me and everyone will be happy.

I hear a complaint that the game is too linear. I did mention here and there, most recently in the Q&A with Shane, that Augury of Chaos lacked the non-linear feeling of an open world and that you're mostly exploring underground levels, and that I wanted to create more of a non-linear feeling in upcoming adventures.

So, while I can totally accept criticism for the game having many bugs, I can't accept accusations of deception based on the game being linear. The adventure is what it is and I never claimed that it was a non-linear open-world adventure. All I said was that you have a number of ways to resolve situations, and that is true in many cases.

So, please be reasonable with your expectations and criticism of the game's content. I already feel enormous pressure to provide download links to the people who haven't got them already and to fix the game's major bugs ASAP, so please don't pile even more pressure on me for things like non-linearity. About the difficulty, we can adjust that later on.

Those are the main things I wanted to say today. The main points are: please be patient and I will fix the bugs ASAP and if you're really unhappy, please just contact me before 14 July. Please don't worry if you don't receive a reply before 8 July, I will definitely reply.

Thank you everyone and I hope that you will keep supporting the development of KotC 2! :-)

Matt Barton interviewed Brian Heins about Tyranny and The Outer Worlds:

Matt Chat 453: Brian Heins on Tyranny

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In this episode Brian and I finish up with The Outer Worlds before moving onto Tyranny and taking some questions sent in by some of the dirtiest rats I ever took an ax to.

Couchpotato spotted the announcement trailer for Revolution: The Spark:

Revolution: The Spark Announcement Trailer

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Introducing Revolution: The Spark, a story-driven, turn-based role-playing game about revolution of the masses in alternative Steampunk world. Coming out on Steam (Early Access) in Q3 2020!