Realms Beyond: Ashes of the Fallen – Interview with the lead writer

Realms Beyond: Ashes of the Fallen is one of the biggest cRPG disappointments in recent years. Not because it was bad, or anything like that. The reason it was a disaster is that it got put on ice permanently before it had a chance to wow anyone. It was a Kickstarter success, but unfortunately, the development petered out. It’s unclear as to why, but as game development goes, financial issues were probably one of the problems.

However, I got the opportunity to talk to the mysterious lead writer of the project, who wanted to remain anonymous. The person in question won’t be elaborating much on why Realms Beyond is currently dead in the water, seeing as the focus of the interview will be mainly on the writing.

So, welcome to an interview with the lead writer of Realms Beyond. It’s time to find out what this game was all about, and what kind of grand narrative we are sadly missing out on.

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SKALD: Against the Black Priory – Tentacle Island

Polish your sword, and stock up on the travel weed, because it’s time to explore the cursed islands of SKALD: Against the Black Priory. While I don’t have much of a personal nostalgia connected to the Commodore 64, the graphics still manage to warm me in its low-pixelated glory of the past. However, it’s not without issues, as the amount of detail can actually be a detriment on this somewhat humble scale. At times it’s hard to distinguish the environment, seeing where you can or can’t go. It means when playing with a keyboard, you will have to prepare yourself to slam into objects like a bumper car trapped inside a tiny arena with randomly placed walls all over. Outside of that, it’s a pretty fine party-based adventure in the style of classic Dungeons and Dragons fantasy.

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King Arthur: Legion IX – Pax Romana

It’s time to once again adventure in Avalon. However, this time around we are ditching the knights of the Round Table in favor of a long-lost Roman legion. Seeing as King Arthur: Legion IX is an expansion for King Arthur: Knight’s Tale made stand-alone, you will not be getting the same amount of game as the original. That is all fine and dandy considering it being a DLC with a lower price point, but what I didn’t expect going in, was the much more streamlined experience. Many of the cool “Xcom” aspects of King Arthur: Knight’s Tale have been cut, like for example tending to wounds, building up your colony, and maintaining a team in the form of picking and choosing whom to take on missions.

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Swordhaven: Iron Conspiracy is a go!

Oh yeah, baby! I’m a bit late to the party, but it seems the AtomTeam made it. Swordhaven is fully financed through Kickstarter with about 67 hours to go from the posting of this article. I noticed that they already managed to hit one stretch goal – a player base. Not sure how excited I am about that particular addition since most RPGs that have some kind of home usually feel a bit undercooked. However, I’m glad to see they are making a few more bucks on top of what they wanted. Now to see if they can reach the next stretch goal – Cursed City. Which I have to admit sounds much more enticing, maybe because I live in one in real life. Who knows? Anyway, I’m happy to see they made it. Now the eternal wait begins.

2024, the year of X-com-likes

The X-com genre hasn’t exactly been dead, so I can’t say 2024 is the year it will make a glorious comeback, but hot damn, there sure are a lot of games coming out in the genre making it somewhat of an event. For X-com aficionados the world over it’s going to be a very busy year with a lot of turn-based tactical combat and the building of bases. Now, I can’t say for certain that all these titles will come out this year, but the prognoses are looking good for many of the games. I will list the games under three categories. Games that are set for a 2024 release (according to Steam), games with a more unclear release, and then games that are out already. Here we go!

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