@Gematsu Strategy RPGs Langrisser I & II are coming to PC in March 2020.

Langrisser I & II will launch for PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC via Steam on March 10, 2020 in North America, March 13 in Europe, and March 20 in Australia and New Zealand, publisher NIS America announced.

[...]

loading...

Yodha is a new RPG by indie developer Ogre Head Studios.

loading...

Yodha is an upcoming Indian role playing game in development at Ogre Head Studio. Watch out for more news about the game at

https://www.ogreheadstudio.com/yodha.

Ogre Head Studio is an indie video game company based in India.

TSA checked out the action RPG Yaga:

Yaga Review

Tough Luck

It’s safe to say that Ivan the Blacksmith is having a bad day. He’s just had his arm sliced off and eaten by a particularly cranky – and hungry – creature named the Likho, which would be bad enough if this skinny, black clad, one-eyed embodiment of pure evil also goes and curses Ivan with bad luck. Adding to Ivan’s woes is a particularly pernickety Tzar, who tasks the blacksmith with a series of impossible tasks, the reward for which is another impossible task, while the punishment for failure is a severe case of premature death. How’s Ivan to resolve these problems? By completing a series of quests in an action RPG of course!

[...]

Summary
There's a lot to like about Yaga; intriguing world building, superb characterisation, conversational tactics and a clear passion for Slavic mythology all tick my 'Yes' boxes. But the uninspired combat, slow movement, ineffective forging and annoying bad luck mechanic. It's an unsatisfying folktale then, the kind where the storyteller insists on coughing and saying 'erm' a lot, when all you want them to do it get on with it and get to the good bit. 

Score: 6/10

SKALD: Against the Black Priory is seeking additional funding on IndieGoGo.

SKALD: Against the Black Priory is a classic, turn-based RPG. It's set in a dark and gritty fantasy universe: full of tragic heroes, violent deaths and eldritch, Lovecraftian horror. 

With a dark, immersive plot and inspired by legendary titles such as Ultima and the "gold box series", this is my love-letter to classic roleplaying.  

The project was a huge success on Kickstarter in July 2019 where it was backed by 450 awesome RPG-fans. Now SKALD is coming to Indiegogo. 

This means that if you missed the Kickstarter, now is your chance to back the game and secure either a discounted digital copy or one of the exclusive physical editions for yourself!

The campaign will stay open until the end of 2019.

GamesIndustry reports that Raphael Colantonio and Julien Roby, formerly of Arkane Studios, are launching a small studio called WolfEye.

"I notice both as a developer and a gamer, I think it's been two or three generations of games now, I've been playing the same game," Colantonio says. "The only difference is that it's more beautiful, higher resolution, more shaders, but really the game is the same.

"I remember this funny moment where we were doing Dishonored, and I asked my lead programmer how many characters I could have in combat. And he answered something between five and six. I thought well, okay. It makes sense. The AI is what it is, and we had characters with 10,000 polys or whatever they were. Fast forward four or five years, we're doing Prey. It's a new engine, new technology, new hardware. I'm back with my lead programmer, same question. How many characters can we have? Maybe five or six. The only difference between one generation to the next was that the budget had doubled, and because the budget was doubled, it goes into more people, instead of taking three months to make a character it takes six months now, there's more optimization that is required, more of everything, every detail, making sure the eyes are perfect and the sun shines the right way.

[...]

For now, Colantonio and Roby are understandably tight-lipped on any information surrounding the studio's first game. What they will say is that while no one should expect a new Dishonored game from them, fans of Arkane games will probably like what they make in the same way a Quentin Tarantino fan will probably like whatever his next movie is regardless of particulars.

Divinity Original Sin the Board Game has been funded on Kickstarter:

That was quite a rush!

loading...

It took over a year to develop the first prototype and make it to this point, and thanks to you, only four hours to reach our funding goal. But this is just the beginning… well… the middle.

We can’t thank you enough for the adrenaline you’ve thrown our way today, and we’ve spent the day trying to keep up with the velocity of the campaign and what comes next. We have 29 days to cover, and we hear you loud and clear: you’re into it!

So are we. And so with that said, we’ve cooked up a few stretch goals. To tide us all over.

Beast and Lohse, two of Divinity: Original SIn 2’s characters make their way to the game, joining Ifan, Vali, Farzanah, and the infamous Red Prince. Along with these friends comes upgrades for the Summoners of you, featuring two high quality minis, the Incarnate and the Bone Widow.

The good thing about these Stretch goals is that if we reach them, everyone will benefit from them because all stretch goal content is automatically added to your boxes.

[...]

Noobfeed reports on a Kotaku story that mentioned a new Mass Effect game maybe in development.

GamePressure reports on comments made by Phil Spencer, who said 'Microsoft will prioritise RPGs' at the recent XO19 event.

At the X019 event, where Microsoft shared its future plans, youtube's Xbox On channel team took Phil Spencer, the "face" of Xbox, to the table. According to him, RPGs are now a priority for the Redmond giant. Like he said:

GamePressure reports that the source code for Diablo 2 has been lost, leading to speculation around the future of a potential Diablo 2 Remaster.

Fans of the iconic Diablo II would like to see the remaster of the game on their screens. Some of them would probably prefer to return to the world of the Sanctuary in the refreshed Diablo II rather than in the recently announced fourth installment. However, the devs of the original version believe that the chances are low, because its source code has been damaged. However, not everything makes sense in the statements given to the editorial staff of GameSpot.

Max Schaefer, Erich Schaefer, and David Brevik, the fathers of Diablo, were guests at the ExileCon 2019. During one of the panels, they were asked about the most horrible moment in the developing of the second installment. It turns out that after 11 hours of work, developers irretrievably lost the code core and all resources. They didn't foresee such a problem, so they didn't make any backups.

[...]

The reveal trailer for Age of Empires IV.

loading...

The acclaimed RTS franchise returns with Age of Empires 4. Experience the epic, historical battles that shaped the modern world.

Thanks Farflame!

Wccftech interviewed Game Director Lennart Sas about Age of Wonders: Planetfall Revelations, which has been released today.

...

So the new hidden tech, in the trailer and in the game all have quite a magic feel to them still.

We created what we called a mythologic sci-fi, so it's more like Star Wars as opposed to hard sci-fi, and we did it not just for us but to make the transition easier for our fantasy fans. So the sort of almost magic sci-fi is intentional.

What do you think of the 4X genre at the minute?

It's an ancient genre, coming all the way from the early 90s. And I think it hit a golden age in the late 90s before recently having a resurgence. So I think there’s plenty of opportunities to have a look at the genre. Maybe not as a leader, or nation, or empire but maybe as a corporate overlord. There’s a lot of places the genre hasn’t touched yet that I think would work well.

Are you considering any of these with your IPs?

We are fully committed to keep on developing Planetfall. So there are more expansions down the line, more free events down the line. We liked the reception, and of course, success can be measured in many ways: there’s fan feedback, critical feedback, there’s sales, and play data.

We also really focused on the simultaneous shipping with consoles, which is something we’re really proud of. I don’t think there’s been another 4X game that has simultaneously shipped with all versions being equal across the platforms. We’ve got an entire pipeline running so that when there’s a new build we can spit it out on very console at once. And in the past the way you would do that is to release it on PC and somewhere down the line, once all the bugs were fixed, you get someone else in to do the port. And that’s been a big learning experience for us.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

@CGM An interview with Senior Narrative Designer Megan Starks about The Outer Worlds.

CG Magazine: You guys are known for having deep narrative experiences in your games. What have you done with Outer Worlds to innovate on that while also keeping things familiar for long-time fans of your games?

Megan Starks: I think we have built up a pretty good legacy of what players expect out of an Obsidian RPG and we are trying to provide on that promise, but at the same, with every game that we make, we’re learning new tips and tricks and expanding on it. I started three games ago with the company and each one we develop little twists on the systems and we get better at providing more player choices, more ways that you can go through the game. With Outer Worlds specifically we knew we wanted to provide options, whether you want to go through and area using stealth, direct combat, using dialogue skills, or if you want to do the leadership path where you focus primarily on your companions, you make them more effective in combat and they also bring skills to the table that help you progress through the game.

On the highest level, you have your overarching story, who do you want to side with? This scientist wakes you up after you mysteriously disappeared in space 70 years ago, and he wakes you up and has an agenda where he wants to save the system. Or, you can side with the Board and move up through the ranks and reinforce what they’ve already established, or you can kind of double-cross both and go your own route. Underneath that, you can go to a different world and see a different company town where there are regional storylines and factions that are competing there and you can choose how you want to affect that area or world. Underneath that, every time you talk to a character in the game or you’re doing a quest, we’re always trying to provide points in the dialogue or the content…what interests you, how are you roleplaying, what do you find fun, and we’re tracking that and trying to have the game react to that based on your decisions.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

TSA checked out the tactical game Narcos: Rise of the Cartels:

Narcos: Rise of the Cartels Review

To most people, Narcos is the popular Netflix series telling stories of the battle between the drug cartels and the combined law enforcement agencies of Colombia and the USA. It’s a series full of raids, shootouts and subterfuge. Lots of actions.

Narcos: Rise of the Cartels is a little bit different. Developer Kuju have blended the TV action and intrigue together with a turn-based strategies like XCOM and chess in a rather entertaining package.

loading...

[...]

Summary
Narcos: Rise of the Cartels is a decently executed turn-based strategy title. Sure, sometimes it's a bit too easy, but when the enemy moves efficiently it become a dangerous game of cat and mouse. Just be warned that you'll grow attached to your squadmates, and hate if you lose them. This is for you, Ruiz! 

Score: 7/10

Shenmue 3 has been released on the Epic Games Store:

Thank You Message From Yu Suzuki

Hello Everyone,

November 19th is finally upon us! So today, our happy, game-creating uncle, Yu Suzuki, would like to give a special thank you message ^_^

loading...

For us it has been an incredibly short four years, for everyone waiting for the day it has been an incredibly long four year, but here we are!

We honestly cannot thank you enough for all the support you have given through thick and thin. We hope you will be there with us as the journey goes on!

From all of us at the Shenmue III project team

Here are part 2 and part 3 of Matt Barton's interview with George Ziets:

Matt Chat 432: George Ziets on ACS, Earth and Beyond, NWN2, and Strongholds

loading...

Matt Chat 433: George Ziets on Mask of the Betrayer

loading...

Gematsu reports that action RPG Gujian 3 is now available in English on Steam. The game was previously only available in Simplified and Traditional Chinese.

Publisher Wangyuan Shengtang and developer Aurogon Info & Tech Shanghai have released an update for the December 2018-released action RPG Gujian 3 that adds an English language option to the previously Chinese-only title. It is available via Steam for $29.99.

Gujian 3 is the first entry in the Gujian series to be released in English. Both the June 2010-released Gujian and August 2013-released Gujian 2 only support Simplified Chinese.

[...]

loading...

Thanks Farflame!

Wccftech reports that Citadel: Forged with Fire has been released on Steam.

Citadel: Forged with Fire, the fantasy-themed online sandbox RPG developed by Blue Isle Studios, has officially released out of early access and is now available on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One for a recommended price of $39.99.

Alex Tintor, founder and CEO at Blue Isle Studios, said:

There is so much to do in Citadel as players can craft their own spells and control the magic that is woven throughout the world of Ignus. We spent two extra years developing the game alongside the community and pouring in more content. Head in game to lead giant raids with friends, tame and fight fantastic creatures, craft custom spells, clash in epic PvP battles and build a massive kingdom to fortify and defend. Each time you log in, a new adventure awaits.

loading...

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

The Escapist interviewed the creator of Disco Elysium about the IP, their inspirations, and thoughts on the medium in general.

Disco Elysium released on Oct. 15, but Kurvitz isn’t resting yet. He’s currently working on porting the game to Xbox One and PlayStation 4 next year and translating it into Chinese and various European languages. He’s also focused on an English translation of Sacred and Terrible Air that will be released next year, and he has plans for an expansion and full sequel for Disco Elysium.

“We have an insanely ambitious list of projects we want to make in the Elysium setting,” he said. “The last one I want to make, when I’m 50 or 60, that I want to absolutely go crazy on and throw out all commercial considerations and get this as conceptual as possible, is the tabletop setting. The working title for the tabletop setting is You Are Vapor. It will be a really, really, crazy pen-and-paper game.”

Next year, the team also plans to release a manifesto sharing their cultural ethos. Kurvitz said ZA/UM is less a studio and more a cultural movement in the vein of Dadaism or Fluxus, and they’re just using video games as their medium rather than theater or painting. The group shares a passion for ambitious humanitarian culture and a hatred of elitism. They’re also self-identified nerds who draw as much inspiration from 19th century realist novels as they do from Baldur’s Gate II.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

DSOGaming reports on the new free content now available for Outward.

...

Here are the key features of this new free content patch for Outward:

• Hardcore Mode: With the new Permadeath option, defeat may bring only a temporarily setback, but there is also a chance characters actually die permanently (save game deleted).
• Hidden Endgame Boss Fights: We will say no more at this point, but they are waiting for you.
• Vastly Improved Legacy Chest System: We’ve added a surprising new functionality which is better experienced without us spoiling it.
• More End Game Items: A wealth of incredibly valuable and powerful items to further transform you into the ultimate warrior.
• Languages, Languages and More Languages: Added the following languages (text only): Polish, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Simplified), Portuguese (Brazil), and Turkish.
• Addition of an Unarmed Attack: Take a (figurative) page out of Monty Python black knight’s playbook – you don’t need arms to fight.
• Poutine: The Quebec super food.

loading...

Thanks Farflame!

The tactical RPG Wildermyth has been released as Early Access version:

Wildermyth is a character-driven, procedurally-generated tactical RPG for the PC. Start with a small band of farmers—full of personality, but lacking in experience—and turn them into unique, legendary heroes.

loading...

Your party will defend the Yondering Lands from various threats, alternating between turn-based combat and strategic decisions on the overland map. Over time, your heroes will uncover the secrets of the land through comic-strip-style events, presenting them with choices that can change their appearance, personalities, relationships, and abilities. And victory (or death, whichever comes first) isn’t the end. Heroes go into your “Legacy,” and can show up in future playthroughs. Over the course of several stories, your legacy heroes grow into larger-than-life myths.

Some new comparison screenshots for Wasteland Remastered have been posted on Twitter.

Sharing that new Wasteland Remastered keyart felt goooood. It's Friday, right? Let's keep the good times rolling. Here are a couple pre-alpha comparison shots. Honoring the original is critically important to us and our partner

@kromestudios

, while updating visuals, audio, etc.

Path of Exile 2 has been announced during ExileCon.

Path of Exile 2 is a new seven-act storyline that is available alongside the original Path of Exile 1 campaign. Both the old and new storyline lead to the same shared Atlas endgame. Path of Exile 2 retains all expansion content that has been created over the last six years and introduces a new skill system, ascendancy classes, engine improvements and more. 

loading...

loading...

20 Years Have Passed

Since the death of Kitava, society has been slowly rebuilding. Ambitious men rise to fill the void and their thirst for power is once again corrupting Wraeclast. 

[...]

The developers of Isles of Adalar, Peakway Software, have started a crowdfunding campaign on IndieGoGo.

loading...

Peakway Software LLC is a small independent game studio located in North Carolina. We love computer role playing games and playing with friends so we wanted to make a game that combined both of those. We also love games with modding support so we wanted to make games that are as easy as possible to mod.  The studio is run by Kevin Nelson, an industry veteran with credits on games such as Fallen Earth, Savage Skies, and Dinotopia.

        We've decided pursue crowdfunding  via Indiegogo in order to expand the team and give us more time to polish Isles of Adalar for an early access release in Summer 2020.  Feel free to try our STEAM DEMO to see our work for yourself.

[...]

Turn Based Lovers checked out Solasta: Crown of the Magister:

Solasta: Crown of the Magister - Turn-based Rpg - Gameplay

loading...

We played Solasta: Crown of the Magister. One of the most promising #turnbased #RPGs currently in development. Find out how it ended. :)

ABOUT THE GAME
Roll for initiative, take attacks of opportunity, manage player location and the verticality of the battle field in this upcoming Turn-Based Tactical RPG by Tactical Adventures. In Solasta, you make the choices, dice decide your destiny.

In Solasta, you take control of four heroes, each with unique skills that complement one another. Every hero expresses themselves in the adventure, making each action and dialog choice a dynamic part to the story. Players will create their heroes just as they would in a pen-and-paper game choosing their race, class, personality and rolling for their stats.​

You make the choices, dice decide your destiny.

The RPG Crawler has reviewed the tactical RPG Sword Legacy: Omen:

Indie Game Friday - Sword Legacy: Omen

loading...

Click4Gameplay checked out the indie open world RPG Gedonia:

Gedonia - Open World Classic RPG (Preview)

loading...

PC Gamer checked out the open world game Red Dead Redemption 2:

Red Dead Redemption 2 review

The old west feels brand new again. 

"Oh Jesus Christ, what have you done?" ThomasChen978 wants to know why a dozen bodies and a couple horse corpses are piled onto the train tracks bordering the early industrial town and New Orleans stand-in St. Denis. "You just murdered half the village."

"No," I reply, "That's us. This is us. These are our bodies."

We're on round two of growing the recursive corpse pile. My posse got the idea to jump in front of the train after a few rounds of Lasso Your Friends And Toss Them Into The Sea with a couple friendly strangers. Red Dead Redemption 2, like GTA 5, has its own bowling minigame, we explain to Chen in a roundabout way, his horror inverting into blissful awareness. Die in Red Dead Redemption 2's shared open world and you'll respawn fast enough to carry your own corpse around. 

[...]

Red Dead Redemption 2's stark, slow depiction of America's fading frontier is a monumental work straining against stubborn mission design and stability problems.

Score: 88/100

Thanks henriquejr!

Starpoint Gemini 3, which is currently in Early Access, will receive an update, named Gears 'n' Cogs, which is the second update on their roadmap.

No more easy pickings dear space captains. Your ship is loaded with missiles? Fine, your adversaries have plenty of decoys, and they are not afraid to use them! You're proficient with cut engines maneuvers? Won't help you – enemies will have tricks of their own with new AI and behaviour routines.

But you're not helpless – to give you a fighting chance, newly introduced crafting system enables you to be creative and engineer a plethora of items and equipment to enhance your survivability.

Focus points of Roadmap update No.2 are:

    Newly added crafting and blueprints system

    Newly added radiation effects system for nebulas

    Heavily upgraded enemy AI and ship behaviour

    Visual treats regarding impact hull damage on all ships

    New range of upgradeable ship modules

    Campaign storyline missions received first rework

The full list of changes and additions can be found here.

Terminator: Resistance is a shooter RPG set during the future war scenario of Terminator 1 and 2. The game is now available on Steam.

loading...

Purple plasma! John Connor! Post-apocalyptic romance! After examining every video, trailer, screenshot & press release, here's EVERY bit of info you should know about Terminator: Resistance, the upcoming game set during the Future War. This isn't my usual sort of content, but it seems like I'm the only person on the internet to have noticed half of this stuff, so I thought it was worth getting the word out!

About this Game

There is no fate but what you make.

Experience the events leading up to the decisive final battle for the fate of mankind in the war against the machines. Terminator: Resistance, is a first-person shooter set during the 'Future War' scenario that was only glimpsed at in the iconic films, 'THE TERMINATOR' and 'T2: JUDGMENT DAY'. The machines are destined to lose, but at what cost?

• Run and gun or sneak and hack through Skynet’s defences!
• Level up your skills and explore a post-apocalyptic world for scraps to trade and craft!
• Interact with a motley group of survivors and change their fates!

The latest trailer for Wasteland 3 titled 1987.

loading...

Wasteland 3 launches May 19!

Debuted at X019 in London, the new "1987" trailer introduces players to more of the post-apocalyptic Colorado setting, and the lives at stake in the deeply reactive and highly tactical roleplaying game.

Gamasutra reports that the publisher for Rune 2 was caught in the dark about Human Head Studios closure.

...

"[Rune II] developer Human Head Studios announced that they closed their doors and will be starting a new studio. This is shocking news to us, as there are several entities working on Rune II -- we found out about this news when you did," wrote the publisher in a statement. 

"Human Head had a longstanding agreement with Rune's publisher, Ragnarok Game, LLC, to provide ongoing support for the game. We are working quickly to resolve any current technical issues while we build the team that will execute the exciting planned future of Rune II's post-launch content strategy."

[...]

@Gamasutra Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky talk about what they learned from making The Outer Worlds.

Making RPGs in 2019

When Cain and Boyarsky first began working on The Outer Worlds, it occurred to them that the world of game design had dramatically changed since they last worked together on the Vampire: The Masquerade series at Troika Entertainment. 

Boyarsky noted that while the RPG genre has gotten more financially viable, it's also twisted and morphed into other genres as well. "There’s always the people who loved RPGs but the mainstream of games seemed to move away from that."

"I thought what they did with Mass Effect was really cool, I think The Witcher is really cool, but we just felt there was a lack of games where you have a blank slate character that was really generated by scratch from the player." 

Cain jumped in to point out that when he and Boyarsky first got started in the genre, most RPG designers were working off systems inspired by tabletop design, for taletop players. "I think too is that RPGs used to be heavily influenced by tabletop, and I think computer RPGs are finally becoming their own thing. You don’t have to be a D&D RPG to get a lot of people interested in your game."

With that in mind, Cain said that one of the goals for The Outer Worlds was to design it to be more accessible than some of Obsidian's previous titles. "One of our early pillars that we decided on was that we wanted this game to be easy to get into," he explained. "A lot of RPGs—and a lot of our RPGs had this. The very first thing you were hit with were a ton of numbers, a ton of stuff you had to read in order to get into the game, and for this one said ‘let’s try to move as much character creation out of character creation.’" 

"Let them spend skill points later. Let perks come later, let the flaws and stuff come later. Just do some quick character creation."

[...]

loading...