Ocean Drive Studio, the team behind the story-focused tactical RPG Lost Eidolons has concocted a spinoff of their popular franchise with a new combat-oriented take titled Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch. As someone who was unfamiliar with the series, I wasn’t quite sure what I was walking into, but once I sat down for my demo with Creative Director Jin Sang Kim, I realized that, even had I known what to expect, nothing would have prepared me for the challenges that await.
After waddling around the convention for several days, and testing numerous games on the PAX show floor, my demo of Ocean Drive Studio’s tactical roguelike Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch beckoned me. As I sat poised to try, what I assumed would be a simplistic demo that showcased the basics of the game, I came to find out I was going to be thrown into the deep end with a full playthrough. (Spoiler alert, I didn’t make it through to the end).
I started at a crossroads, where I had to select which path I wished to take. This is predominantly where the roguelike nature of the game comes from, as your decisions will determine whether you head into a battle, have the chance to pick up some helpful boons, or run into a series of other situations that you’ll have to face as you move forward. Veil of the Witch is certainly a departure from the previous game, Lost Eidolons. “Lost Eidolons is more of story-focused and story-based game. Compared to that Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch is more of a battle-focused game. In Lost Eidolons I forced you to watch all of the story, but this time I wanted to make it as short as possible so you can jump right into the battle.” Jin told me.
Commence the Battling!
Jin Sang wasn’t wrong when he said that we would be jumping right into a battle, because by my third crossroad, I was met with a band of ruffians aching to kill my party. Having Jin on my side to assist as my combat supervisor was helpful because there’s so many nuances to the combat. For example, your team members have magic skills, and multiple weapons that you’ll need to balance and swap depending on the situation. On top of that, the terrain can have bonus attack tiles. If enemies stand on those tiles, you can do extra damage to them if you’re using the right weapon. Depending on the skills you have available, elemental synergies play a big part in the flow of combat too. I also had to be aware of each character’s combat range and cooldowns, as some attacks were very short range, and it would be risky to use them in some circumstances.
The battle started off fairly easily, with my roster of long-range casters and short-range sword wielders dispatching each enemy. I felt like I was on top of the world, after all, I’m generally pretty good at tactical RPGs, and the roguelike genre is one of my favorites, it would have been ridiculous of me to fail my first battle. As I dropped the last enemy, something outrageous happened. There was an ambush! When the words flashed on the screen about the ambush and my characters explained our options, I began to realize how dire my situation became. I only had two real choices, I had to fight, or I could run. If I chose to fight, I would have to dispatch three times as many enemies as I was tasked with killing initially, and my characters, despite making quick work of the bandits we met at the start of the battle, I could tell we were going to be overrun.
Commence the Fleeing!
The choice was clear, I had to run. Unfortunately, this isn’t like running away in Pokémon. I can’t just say I want to run; I actually have to run. Each party member had to make it to a point on the map, which was guarded by some of the ambushers, meanwhile every corner of the map had a small group of enemies closing in on my band of heroes. I pushed forward with my group of five as I tried to position them all to the exit.
Another battle ensued between the defending bandits and my team, but we couldn’t defeat them all in time for a group of baddies to approach and attack from behind. I ended up losing three of my heroes, and with that, I was doomed. You see, in order for the party to escape, we needed a minimum of 3 heroes to reach the escape path. We didn’t make it. I lost my very first battle, and as roguelikes go, that meant that I would need to start all over, which wasn’t a terrible loss, because I had only just started, and that was my first battle.
I looked over at Jin Sang and asked him if he knew that the ambush was going to happen. He said he did, and we laughed about it. For the majority of the fight I thought I had the upper hand, but this was a great way to showcase that in roguelike games, you’re never quite sure what you’ll encounter, especially on your very first run. I think Jin and I both overestimated what we were capable of, but that was part of the fun. Veil of the Witch was absolutely the toughest game I played while at PAX and my catastrophic failure only bolstered my feelings of wanting to play again. Unfortunately my demo time was running out.
Jin Sang said they are shooting for a public demo for Veil of the Witch early next year. “You’ve seen the game,” he told me. “It’s really hard, so I don’t want people to feel like this is too much.” The next demo they put out will likely ease people into the combat a little more, and for the sake of tactical RPG players, that’s probably a good thing. Unlike Lost Eidolons that gave players roughly 40 hours of content, Veil of the Witch wants to shoot for about 10 – 12 hours to get players all the way through to the end. Because the game is a roguelike game, there are far more reasons to replay Veil of the Witch. While my battle took about 25 minutes or so, mostly because Jin and I spent much of the time chatting, the team wants to shoot for about 5 to 10 minutes for each battle, greatly speeding up the pace for players that wish to take the game in bite-sized pieces.
With 9 characters to choose from, more than 200 skills and the versatility of roguelike unpredictability, Veil of the Witch is certainly shaping up to be an amazing turn-based tactical strategy RPG. While there is no specific release date announced at this time, Veil of the Witch is available on Steam to add to your Wishlist.
