The RPG Files

In our previous two developer blogs, we covered the five factions you’ll encounter throughout Ashes of Oahu. This week we’ll talk about one of the ways you can increase your standing with the four potential friendly factions, Hawaiians, T.R.I., Lava Dogs, and Islanders, destroying and rebuilding outposts. We will also scratch the surface of the enemy AI.

Lornsword Winter Chronicle is an RTS/ARPG hybrid from Tower Five that has only recently launched into Steam early access. I had an opportunity to check out a bit of the game. What I found is a mixed bag of impressions of a game that tries quite hard to blend two genres together, though struggles to do so. That said, however, all is not lost. There is a seed of something special inside Lornsword that, with a bit of time and work during early access, can turn it into a unique entry into the games space.

Vermintide has had a huge successful run among game fans. Both Warhammer and Left for Dead players love this title with its fast-paced action and brutal fight scenes. It harkens to the Warhammer of the Old World that many of us loved. New players continue to join the battle all the time and the team was happy to launch Winds of Magic. We spoke with Mats Andersson about the expansion and some of the plans for Vermintide in the future.

A ruined city, a strong female lead, rogue-like elements, and a crafting system – what more can one ask for? Vambrace: Cold Soul, developed and published by Devespresso Games and Headup, respectively, has all of this and more in this new release. Side-scrolling, rogue-like games have generally been welcome, if hit-or-miss, but does Vambrace: Cold Soul swing for the fences or strike out?

A Plague Tale: Innocence is an action-adventure title that launched last week for PC, PS4 & Xbox One and immediately won over fans and critics alike. The game features a heartwrenching journey of two young children in the world ripped apart by war and suffering from plague. Just before the release of the game we had an opportunity to interview Kevin Choteau, the Game Director on A Plague Tale: Innocence, and ask a couple of questions.

Red Thomas takes a look at Thea 2: The Shattering, a new 4X RPG from MuHa Games. You’ve never heard of 4X RPG? That’s okay, neither has Red. Discover what in the heck that is and if it’s any fun together with Red as he gives his thoughts about the game in today’s article.

Asobo Studio and Focus Home Interactive bring you the adventure that won’t leave you unmoved. A Plague Tale: Innocence tells the story of two children running for their lives in one of the worst periods of human history. Relentlessly pursued by the Inquisition, Amicia and Hugo will need to travel across the plagued planes of medieval France and avoid the swarms of rats while figuring out what their bond means for each other. This is our Plague Tale: Innocence PC review.

While PAX East was a decidedly “non-MMO” show, there were some truly great RPGs on display. But none caught my attention quite like WARSAW from Pixelated Milk. A turn-based reenactment of the Warsaw Uprising of WWII, WARSAW is one part XCOM and one part Darkest Dungeon, but also a good deal of Valiant Hearts too. It’s a game with heart, history, and loads of addictive “one-more-mission” features, and it’s quickly become one of my most wanted titles this year.

Operencia: The Stolen Sun by Zen Studios is a throwback first-person turn-based dungeon crawler that seeks to add some modern polish to an older, underutilized formula of trying to put the player into a dungeon themselves, rather than controlling a character in the third person. While retro-styled games are definitely a popular design choice, this one doesn’t see much in the way of use. Does it still hold up? Let’s find out in our review of Operencia: The Stolen Sun.

In May of 2018 Talerock successfully kickstarted their game Grimshade. It is a story driven RPG with tactical style battles. Grimshade released March 26, 2019, and we were happy to be able to get our hands on it and give it a go. Grimshade does some things that different that sets itself apart from traditional RPG's. Let’s hop into it! This is our Grimshade review.

Nine Dots Studio’s new release Outward is an open-world adventure RPG that throws the player into a brutal world as a nobody. The game is set up to have the player adventure through a dangerous world, while starting out as an absolute nobody. There isn’t any magical hero off to fulfill a prophecy here, just trying to go out into the world to find a home and make a few bucks on the side. But, will the game provide a worthwhile journey? This is our Outward review.

Operencia: The Stolen Sun is a first-person dungeon crawling RPG coming out of Zen Studios, developers of Castle Storm as well as a handful of pinball games. Entering into a niche genre with relatively few standouts (Legend of Grimrock being the only recent series that comes to mind), there is a lot of room for new entries to be done well.

From Software is best known for the Souls series of games which have caused more than one person to rage in a fury over how hard they can be. Its newest game starts fresh in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, set in feudal Japan featuring a lone Shinobi seeking to rescue his lost Lord. Will this new game be more of the same or something unique and worth the price of admission? This is our review of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. But really, it’s more like “you’ll die a thousand times”.

As the credit rolled onscreen, I sat in disbelief at the journey I was just on. Almost seventeen years of storytelling wrapped up in a 30-hour ride of joy, sadness, laughter and anger - and I couldn’t believe it was over. Yet, even at the end, Kingdom Hearts 3 left even more questions than answers, prodding me to immediately load up my save and start playing it again, desperate to capture any detail I might’ve missed previously.

I recently had the chance to go hands-on with a new RPG called Outward - another game that promises to immerse you in an open fantasy world where you create your own story. The interesting thing about the approach developer Nine Dots takes with Outward, however, is that you don’t get to be a Geralt or a Dragonborn or the Prince that was Promised. None of that nonsense. You start off as some poor schlep with not a bar of silver to their name, a load of debt, and the survival sense of a toddler.