Game News Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire Released

[Infinitron]

Tags: Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire; Whale Hammer Games

Whale Hammer Games' Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire is the second of the two "Banner Saga clones" Kickstarted over the past few years, the first being last year's Skyshine's BEDLAM. If BEDLAM was all about taking the Banner Saga formula in a more systems-driven, roguelike direction, then Tahira seems to have taken the opposite route. It's a more narrative-centric experience, inspired by tactical JRPGs and centered around a single character, the titular Princess Tahira, heir to the throne of a small kingdom on a Middle Eastern-like abandoned colony world. Here's the game's launch trailer and description:

Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire is a tactical turn-based RPG, set on a world fallen into a medieval dark age after the collapse of a spacefaring civilization.

You must guide Tahira, the 20-year-old princess of Avestan, on the most challenging night of her life as she fights to save her people from the genocidal Astral Empire.

You’ll fight large-scale tactical turn-based battles using guerrilla warfare tactics, including ambushing enemies, taking cover and knocking foes off cliffs. You’ll also develop relationships with those traveling with you and uncover secrets of a time when man traversed the stars with impunity.

Main features:

• A World Fallen Into a Dark Age – Explore a planet still reeling from the collapse of a galaxy-spanning empire. Learn the history of a former frontier world, and the ancient spacefaring people who first explored it.
• Turn-based Guerrilla Warfare – Control up to 20 characters as you fight against the vast army of the Astral Empire in tactical turn-based battles. You must utilize the environment to even the odds by ambushing enemies, taking cover and knocking foes off cliffs and rooftops.
• Never Fight the Same Battle Twice – Tahira has no filler fights. Each encounter has been specifically designed to advance the story. Battles take place in large environments and feature multiple phases, ranging from the three-stage defence of a town to a desperate struggle to rescue trapped civilians.
• More Than Just Fighting – You don’t just advance from one battle to the next in Tahira, between skirmishes, you’ll find yourself exploring the environment, learning Tahira’s thoughts about the world and getting to know the people who are travelling with you.
• Near Real-time Experience – The majority of Tahira takes place over one night. The game is designed to give you a near real-time experience as you guide our heroine through the most challenging night of her life.
• A Rich Cast of Colourful Characters – Including Baruti, an Avestan General; Claw and Hammer, a mercenary power couple attempting to repay a 20-year-old debt to Avestan; and Iba, Tahira’s loyal horse.
• Tactics for Beginners & Experts - With four difficulty settings, Tahira caters to gamers just interested in the story, seasoned turn-based tactics veterans looking for a brutal challenge and everyone in between.

Tahira's beta was released to Kickstarter backers in June and apparently the game is decent enough, although it's gotten very little attention. If you're interested in checking it out, it's available now on Steam and GOG for $15, with a 10% launch discount until next week.

 

[Whisper]

Interested to hear opinions on this game.

 

[Turok]

She is hot? any art?

 

[Baron Dupek]

I must admit that characters looks better than most cartoonish garbage artstyle in last decade.
And it's turn based, that's something?
Review when?

She is hot? any art?

just give it time, they need to warm up tablet's pens first
then jump into abyss of tumblr

 

[Jaesun]

Personally I do find this title and setting rather interesting. Also the combat looks decent? Will wait for some thoughts on this...

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Bought it! Because why not?

 

[Fenix]

Personally I do find this title and setting rather interesting.

Yeah, good old Andre Norton feeling/association.

I would prefer to see this guy http://www.mezzaninestairs.net/worlds-end/ made this game...

 

[Zeriel]

It's Banner Saga: BLACKED Edition.

Fixed that for you.

 

[daveyd]

Bought it. I just completed the first major battle, playing on the second highest difficulty setting. Took me a a few restarts before getting the strategy down. So far so good. It's mainly a "Banner Saga" clone in the sense that it has similar art and animation style and it's a turn-based tactical game with dialogue and "moral choices". Does *not* have any of the TBS elements I disliked (like alternating turns regardless of how many units you have). There doesn't appear to be any currency / resource management; Units level up automatically. Placement of your units matters a lot. The 2nd non-tutorial battle introduces the "ambush" mechanic, which is unique AFAIK.

They have an alpha demo you can DL on Indiedb, although things are a bit more polished in the actual game.

 

[Roqua]

Bought it. I just completed the first major battle, playing on the second highest difficulty setting. Took me a a few restarts before getting the strategy down. So far so good. It's mainly a "Banner Saga" clone in the sense that it has similar art and animation style and it's a turn-based tactical game with dialogue and "moral choices". Does *not* have any of the TBS elements I disliked (like alternating turns regardless of how many units you have). There doesn't appear to be any currency / resource management; Units level up automatically. Placement of your units matters a lot. The 2nd non-tutorial battle introduces the "ambush" mechanic, which is unique AFAIK.

They have an alpha demo you can DL on Indiedb, although things are a bit more polished in the actual game.

Damn, this was on my wish list too. I thought it was a real rpg, not a non-rpg with rpg-lite elements like Banner Saga. I'm sure people like whatever genre this is but it just isn't for me.

 

[veevoir]

Reddit AMA from the devs: https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/50hbs5/weve_just_released_tahira_a_tactics_game_about_a/

 

[Dedicated_Dark]

Bought it. I just completed the first major battle, playing on the second highest difficulty setting. Took me a a few restarts before getting the strategy down. So far so good. It's mainly a "Banner Saga" clone in the sense that it has similar art and animation style and it's a turn-based tactical game with dialogue and "moral choices". Does *not* have any of the TBS elements I disliked (like alternating turns regardless of how many units you have). There doesn't appear to be any currency / resource management; Units level up automatically. Placement of your units matters a lot. The 2nd non-tutorial battle introduces the "ambush" mechanic, which is unique AFAIK.

They have an alpha demo you can DL on Indiedb, although things are a bit more polished in the actual game.

Does it also forcefully kill of characters like Banner Saga? Then I'm out.

 

[daveyd]

Bought it. I just completed the first major battle, playing on the second highest difficulty setting. Took me a a few restarts before getting the strategy down. So far so good. It's mainly a "Banner Saga" clone in the sense that it has similar art and animation style and it's a turn-based tactical game with dialogue and "moral choices". Does *not* have any of the TBS elements I disliked (like alternating turns regardless of how many units you have). There doesn't appear to be any currency / resource management; Units level up automatically. Placement of your units matters a lot. The 2nd non-tutorial battle introduces the "ambush" mechanic, which is unique AFAIK.

They have an alpha demo you can DL on Indiedb, although things are a bit more polished in the actual game.

Does it also forcefully kill of characters like Banner Saga? Then I'm out.

No. Pretty sure I read something by the developers saying they're not doing that sort of thing. The choices you make may influence how battle scenarios play out in interesting ways but not by killing off major characters.

Also, I haven't played far but so far one of the win conditions for the battles has been Tahira and other "heroes", (stronger warriors) like the leader of the knights must survive or it's game over. The rest of the units are nameless expendable soldiers. However, if they do well enough to gain a promotion you'll carry them on to the next battle with you... So that's the main incentive to keep them alive.

 

[Cynicus]

Here's an LP without verbal diarrhea if anyone's interested:



I like the tasteful 2D art style and rotoscoped animation. It looks like the devs put a lot of TLC into it.

 

[Whisper]

Great activity in this topic. Anyone tried it?

 

[oscar]

Visually reminds me of:

Will buy and give it a go

 

[oscar]

Dialogue and characterisation is pretty bad but the first battle on second hardest difficulty was about just right and the fights are quite nicely large and juicy. As heroes cannot level up also seems to have a little bit of Fire Emblem syndrome of you trying to save the killing blow for your units who actually can gain experience.

Two hours in and tl;dr somewhat better overall combat than Banner Saga but with a more juvenile story (it weirdly jumps between cutesy PG jrpg-esque banter then dips into subjects like genocide and rape) and very boring protagonist. Will see how this goes.

 

[KingDoofus]

I can give a little bit of feedback for the game. I didn't get too far because they are currently addressing some bugs that are slightly ruinous at the moment (all upgraded units might drop back to their base stats after saving the game), so even for people who really want this I'd suggest waiting a few weeks for patches.


As Oscar mentioned, the characters are pretty disappointing. The dialogue feels a little juvenile any time they're addressing anything serious and the worst is when the writers are trying to be funny (they are not). It's hard to get attached to the people or the world and from what I've read from those who have finished the game, it never gets much better. Valiant effort. Need a better writer. Don't expect too much.

I found the gameplay engaging. There's a few Hero units who have to survive and your army is otherwise made up of generic units from a few classes that have unique skills. After enough kills, the generics can level up and start to resemble the Heroes more. It's similar to the Banner Saga in that characters have both an armor and health stat but damage is not dictated by health and you can move your whole army on your turn. Armor can sometimes be replenished but health can't. Each class has a set amount of damage they can do that will slightly vary based on a few things (if your units are flanking the enemy, if the enemy is backed by their own units, if your armor is totally gone, one unit can get a temporary buff, etc.). There's no losing your Heroes, though if your upgraded generics die then they're gone. The maps are huge and the armies are huge.

Your units are almost always better than the enemy units. On easier difficulties this generally leads to steamrolling opposing armies. But if you want a challenge, they've given you the option. I started the game on the hardest difficulty (because I like when games kick my teeth in), and man, they are not fucking around. I started the very first real battle with about 8 units going up against the enemy's 30. With a timed objective. Then the enemy got reinforcements (but by then I'd picked up a whole 4 extra reinforcements). And from then on it just got harder, with multi-stage levels and no chance to heal (I loved it. My teeth are fucking gone). Since your units are still usually stronger and the maps are huge, the way to deal with armies that are sometimes 5 times bigger than yours is to ambush, set up chokepoints, flank like crazy, keep the enemy from flanking, rotate units in and out, and make smart use of your Hero skills (which are pretty incredible), to name a few strategies. There's a lot of options. I did a little on the second hardest and it feels like a good challenge too, it isn't until Easy and Normal that it really becomes a pushover.

So yeah. Basically, story isn't great, though it is imaginative. Gameplay is solid. Once they patch it up I'm gonna head back into it.

 

[Whisper]

Ok, whole back-story "ancient space civilization" and etc. is not explored at all. There are 0 signs of any ancient technology unless we count Tahira magic.

Also, almost nothing is explained at all.

 

[oscar]

That seemed to be the one interesting part of the plot too. Instead we get boring and unfunny dialogues with your horse.

 

[almondblight]

That's too bad. I really like Dying Earth-type settings.

 

[oscar]

Seems an odd case of cool setting but trash writing.

 

[Fenix]

Seems an odd case of cool setting but trash writing.

http://www.mezzaninestairs.net/worlds-end/
How about this?

 

[Infinitron]

Ok, whole back-story "ancient space civilization" and etc. is not explored at all. There are 0 signs of any ancient technology unless we count Tahira magic.

Also, almost nothing is explained at all.

They might be saving that stuff for a sequel. Remember that this was Kickstarted as an episodic game.

 

[KingDoofus]

They might be saving that stuff for a sequel. Remember that this was Kickstarted as an episodic game.

That may be the case and I hope you're right. But I do think episodic games need some kind of story hook to make a player look forward to the next release. The player can't be looking forward to finding out "what the hell was all that?"

As much as we admire and encourage independent developers, they probably face a unique challenge. At some point, someone needs the courage to say to the other handful of people in the room, "Hey... we need to hire a writer. We don't have experience as storytellers and we don't know how to tell the story we want."

But good writers aren't free. This may be a problem for Kickstarted games. Potential backers might be scared off by a sales pitch that includes "some of your money will be going to hire professional writers. Because we're coders - we don't know how to relay a story well!" So even when we see games with great gameplay, the presentation of the story feels like something your neighbor could have done. I don't mean to say all independent games are like this, and hey some coders have a talent for storytelling, but I'm seeing a trend in the direction of crude storytelling from smaller games.

Not that it really matters that much. I'm an unsophisticated barbarian.