RPGWatch - Legends of Eisenwald Preview

Aubrielle played the Beta version of Legends of Eisenwald, and added some information from Alexander Dergay, the head of Aterdux Studios in a new preview.

So lets give them both a big thank you.

Imagine an idealized Middle Ages - possibly not the one you learned about in History 203, but one that you can still easily recognize. This is the medieval world from the daydreams of your youth, where sunlight sparkled on the green leaves of summer forests and where you were serenaded on afternoon journeys to summer fairs by the enchanting music of harps. Somehow, with just the right combination of art, music, and charm, Eisenwald manages to capture the Middle Ages you used to imagine, long before you learned all the grisly truths.

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More information.

Thank you for the well informed preview Aubrielle. I look forward to reading any of your future articles, and thank you Alexander Dergay for providing the answers.

I'm glad I backed the game two years ago.

I'm awaiting or this game, but Early Access is not my cup of tea, especially with big backlog. I'm happy though it's in Early Access, because I know that upon release the game will be polished and more complex. Too bad that recently there are so many good TBS with RPG elements. I remember 5 years ago struggling to find any good game in that genre (apart from King's Bounty). Thanks for the preview - great interview!

Nice preview, I am glad I back it.

BTW what is current ETA for this game?

Great preview Aubrielle. I hope to see more of you.

For those who can't wait to try this out and share their views with us, I still have a couple of keys. Send me a PM if you think you are up to it (don't bother to register just for that though)

Looks like an interesting game - thank you for the preview Aubrielle & Alexander!

Good preview aubrielle.

This game has been a long time coming.

I played the first game a bit, but I found it quite rough around the edges.

It showed a lot of promise, but some scenarios needed to be run in one exact fashion or could hardly be completed, which just felt annoying having to restart over and over again to me.

Hopefully they allow for different playstyles this time around.

Thanks for the preview. I bought this on Early Access not to play it, but to support it (having missed the kickstarter.) As I am not a fan of beta testing I am anxiously awaiting the finished product. I am glad though that they have taken the time necessary to improve the game.

This game seems quite cool, reminded me just a tad of Ascension to the Throne (which had some nice ideas, but.. well. yeah). I'm so happy that Eastern European studios are producing stuff like this.

VPeric said:

This game seems quite cool, reminded me just a tad of Ascension to the Throne (which had some nice ideas, but.. well. yeah). I'm so happy that Eastern European studios are producing stuff like this.

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VPeric, weren't you one of the Shadows on the Dot ?

I have some vague memory of recognising your name...

Uh, nothing said about actual gameplay? I see a lot about visuals, etc. but not much about actually playing the game.

Thank you so much, everyone! Truly!

I didn't write a ton about the nuts-and-bolts of game mechanics because I felt like that had been done extensively - elsewhere - and I was worried people would be bored with me rehashing what could be found in other outlets. I wanted to give a nice overall preview of the game without bogging anyone down in details. If there's a lot of interest in the game, and there would be interest in seeing me take a closer look at the gameplay itself, I'd be happy to do a follow up article.

As everybody knows I love discussing game mechanics - follow up article, please

I'll ask Myrthos and see what he says, HiddenX. I doubt he'll object.

Pladio said:

VPeric, weren't you one of the Shadows on the Dot ?

I have some vague memory of recognising your name…

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Hey! Yeah, I was! (actually, a was literally taking care of my archives two weeks ago and saw a .txt about a "event" I organized and I was like, oh yeah.. I used to waste time that way as well!) I used to be quite active on the forums here, but life happens and everything, so now I just read the news every now and then.

I'm very happy that this community is still going strong after so many years, it's always been my favorite!

Can someone tell me what the Mystic can do? The baroness attacks with a crossbow and the knight fights with a sword, ok. What about the Mystic? Can he only heal, or cast fireballs and stuff?

Andhaira said:

Can someone tell me what the Mystic can do? The baroness attacks with a crossbow and the knight fights with a sword, ok. What about the Mystic? Can he only heal, or cast fireballs and stuff?

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The Mystic can do a number of different things. First and foremost, he seems to be a support character, giving allies powerful buffs, though he does start with a touch-only attack spell that can hit enemies within one hex. He can unlock other skills later on, I believe, though I haven't played the Mystic long enough into the game to tell you much about them in detail.

Nice preview / interview.

I played around with the Beta for a bit.

I haven't encountered any of the mentioned performance issues but I guess my system is pretty powerful or maybe MS Security Essentials doesn't causes conflicts some other antivirus progs do. The visuals are definitely the game's strong suit. Only thing I think needs improvement visually is the combat animations, which still seem off somehow. And the music suits the atmosphere.

My concern is the combat system, which I find too simplistic in its current state. You just don't have a lot of choices.. Melee characters are required to attack opponents nearest to them; so if you have an enemy 3 spaces (hexes) to your left and another 2 spaces to your right, you must attack the enemy 2 spaces away. This will often prevent you from doing the age old sure-fire tactic of ganging up on one enemy to dispatch them as quickly as possible. This makes combat a little different than many other Turn-based strategy games and perhaps even more realistic, but the downside is your tactical options often seem very limited.

Besides attacking, the only other option (non-support) characters have is to "defend" and I'm not sure yet when / if ever this is a wise tactical option… The only scenario I can think of this being useful is if one of your characters is almost out of HP.. defending may help them survive until the end of the fight. But even then, this would only be the best choice if the rest of your party is able to finish off the remaining enemies pretty quickly.

Of course I haven't played very far at all, and Aterdux is still planning to add many features, so I can't say as to whether there will eventually be more tactical options (like limited use special attacks). I hope there will be as it's just too simple in the current state. Still, I think the game has a lot of potential and I hope they are earning enough funds to add all of the features they want. Castle sieges could be a lot of fun.

Your article got me as well Aubrielle. This is a game they I love the potential of especially since the modding capability and the workshop are built right in. Downloaded but haven't jumped in yet, when I get home depending on real life.
Does anyone know if there are character mods available on the Workshop yet or for that matter any mods?

daveyd said:

Nice preview / interview.
My concern is the combat system, which I find too simplistic in its current state. You just don't have a lot of choices.. Melee characters are required to attack opponents nearest to them; so if you have an enemy 3 spaces (hexes) to your left and another 2 spaces to your right, you must attack the enemy 2 spaces away. This will often prevent you from doing the age old sure-fire tactic of ganging up on one enemy to dispatch them as quickly as possible. This makes combat a little different than many other Turn-based strategy games and perhaps even more realistic, but the downside is your tactical options often seem very limited.

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I agree, Daveyd. I was snooping around some old posts on the Steam forums where people had brought up this concern about a year ago. The designers seemed a bit defensive at the time; they seem attached to their vision for tactical combat, and based on the way it sounded, I don't think they're gonna budge. The dev that was responding said something like "You want it this way, but another person will want it another way. We thought this out quite extensively. We don't want it to be another HOMM clone." I guess I can see that, but fights do feel a little straitjacketed (still exciting, but straitjacketed), and a broader range of tactical options would definitely not go amiss.

redman5427 said:

Your article got me as well Aubrielle. This is a game they I love the potential of especially since the modding capability and the workshop are built right in. Downloaded but haven't jumped in yet, when I get home depending on real life.
Does anyone know if there are character mods available on the Workshop yet or for that matter any mods?

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It doesn't look like there's any published mods on there yet, I'm afraid. Possibly people are waiting for the game's official release? I wish there were a few mods to play around with too. ^.^